68; Post-Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has passed. Any warm sentiments and inspirational words of kindness have been avoided. If you are looking for such a column I reccomend checking out Jon Carroll's. But, for me, Thanksgiving this year wasn't too bad.

I got home late at night and was greeted by two kittens. I'd not met these kittens before, but they start purring when you come within a few feet of them. A lot of my time would be spent lazing around on the couch with them reading anthologies of the Boondocks, Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine.

Sleeping in was a big part of my break. As were movies. I gave another crack at Singing in the Rain, and decided I still prefer An American in Paris. Also to fulfill my Cary Grant quota for this year I saw Charade and The Awful Truth. Both were fine movies, neither was great. What was great was watching part of the original Connections with James Burke. This miniseries is what got me interested in History, and I'd only seen one episode. Later he did two more seasons for the Science or Discoverey channel, which are good, but the first is the best. Its really really good. Watch it.

Part of the reason I didn't get too into the holiday spirit, however, was that I slept through the holiday. I stayed up late Wednesday night, and wasn't woken by anyone Thursday morning. So I rolled out of bed around 2:30, far too late to begin cooking. The only option was to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday.

Which we did. That is, we cooked everything that needed cooking. Mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, turkey, sweet potato soup, decadent brussell sprouts, exquisite cranberry sauce, sublime pumpkin pie. Even halving the recipe there was too much to be eaten. This is likely due to the fact that there were only two consumers. 1/4 of the family is in California and 1/4 is in New Zealand, where they don't even celebrate the holiday.

The holiday didn't feel right. I sat down gave thanks for friends, family, and Bennignton. But since the day was wrong the sentiment felt off. Does it matter which day the holiday is celebrated on? Thanksgiving and Easter change every year. Yet it feels odd to not celebrate it on the same day as everyone else, even if that day is an arbitrary third of the month.

What about fixed holidays? Christmas, New Years? I suppose Thanksgiving is particularly family-oriented, so its not as noticeable if celebrated a day off. Besides the parade in NY there isn't much spectcle to accompany Thanksgiving. The community spirit is set aside for a familial gathering. You don't drive around the neighborhood to see decorations, the traditions are based on personal recipes. The reason for the list of foods above is to share my family's story. I doubt if anyone else had the exact same combination. And even so, what kind of stuffing do you make? How do you prepare turkey?

If we chose to celebrate something like New Years or Halloween on a different day, however, it would be ruined. Asking door to door for candy a day late? Setting of fireworks early? The same goes for most holidays. You don't want to open your presents a day early, now, do you?

Perhaps that's why I felt perturbed eating potatoes and stuffing a day late. For while Thanksgiving remains free of the trappings it still is a holiday like the others. Should I care? Probably not. The food and company were nice. I suppose that's what's important.

With that in mind I announce that if all goes to plan my friend Rebecca and I shall be doing a fashion show next Spring. I can really only claim credit for the idea, Rebecca is the one with talent and skill without whom the project could not happen. But hopefully it will air and be awesome. The name of the show is 'Vagabondage: Where the hobo and S+M lifestyle meet". Only at Bennington could such a show exist, and could I find someone cool enough to be willing to lend thier time and expertise to putting together a show on such a premise. Now isn't that something to be thankful for?