jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

Vacation time is flying by. The day before Thanksgiving was my last day in the office

That night Damon’s brother and his girlfriend drove in. They stayed until Sunday and on Monday my dad arrived. He’s been a lovely guest. As a matter of fact, he’s sitting one couch over from me watching a Woody Allen special. He’s also repeatedly looking over here, as I think my typing is distracting to him.

So, more maybe later.

I’m home alone. So nice.

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. And that’s saying something, as the odds were against me. I worked until about 7 on Wednesday, with the intention of coming home and doing kitchen prep work until Damon’s little brother and his girlfriend showed up. That was the plan until I got home and got the message that Fresh Direct had a scheduling software malfunction and the groceries that were supposed to arrive between 3 and 6 were still hours away. I do not envy them the evening they must have had, but I was still screwed on the schedule.

The food finally came around 10, followed a few minutes later by the guests. I tried to do a little socializing and chore doing at the same time. I didn’t get as far as I would have liked, but I did:
— parboil a zillion pearl onions
— wash potatoes
— peel, wash and score brussels sprouts
— assemble a standard green bean casserole and stick it in the oven. (It made Ashley laugh that this was the only thing on the menu that I didn’t actually know how to make. She talked me through it. “Dump the can into the baking dish. Dump the other can into the baking dish. Etc. Etc.)
By then I was pretty sleepy, so I retired to the couch and shortly after to the bedroom.

Because I am a bad hostess I was hellbent on going to the Macy’s parade this year. So even when Jeremy and Ashley said they were too tired to wake up at 7, I dragged Damon out the door and down to my office. It was a nice bit of luck that our office windows look out onto the parade route. So Damon and I sat comfortably over the fray, working the coffee/tea machine liberally. I got a sick pleasure of seeing all the people on the street huddling under the umbrellas, shivering. My karma came back to bite me, though. As the parade wrapped I suddenly remembered that David Blaine was doing a stunt at Times Square. So we headed over there and, since we got a great place to watch, stood around for about two hours watching him hang 50 feet above the ground in a gyroscope. He finally wiggled out of his shackles and leapt to the ground. It was marginally exciting, and his escape was our cue to get home and get dinner done.

It was about 2pm when we got back and I hit the kitchen, finally producing:

— creamed pearl onions
— mustard-glazed brussels sprouts
— corn stuffing
— horseradish mashed potatoes
— green salad (my homemade vinaigrette is the best you’ve ever had)
— traditional cranberry sauce
— green bean casserole
— custard sweet potato pie (I confess that this was from the bakery. I don’t bake.)
I feel like there was one other dish, but I can’t recall.

Everyone seemed happy and plenty of seconds were had, so I think the turkey was not missed. We were seriously dedicated to eating. The best illustration of that I can provide is that we were so tired from eating that we accidentally left the half-eaten pie sitting out all night. I felt it was unwise to try to keep it, and we threw it away. Then Damon and I walked down to the bakery and bought a new pie, so we could start over and do it right.

For the rest of the visit we did a lot of standard tourist stuff, as Ashley had never been to NY. Most of the time we are smart enough to allow our visitors to go see Times Square without us, but Jeremy gets special treatment so we got dragged along. It was fine. We also took them to do some stuff we like a lot, mostly going to our favorite restaurants. We sent them to the New Leaf Cafe for a date, and then all four of us went to Popover Cafe and Pana II.

Oh, and let me not forget the video games. We got a Wii a while ago and it sat in the box awaiting Jeremy, who is a video game nut and knew exactly how to set it up. After that there was a lot of monster truck racing and elvin (elvish?) sword fighting. I am quite handy on the drift. Who knew?

In 24 hours, my dad will be here. I’m sure it will be wonderful. But pray for me anyway.

the fact that my incoming guests are so low-maitenance that when Damon said, “Um, Jillian doesn’t want to cook any meat for Thanksgiving” my brother-in-law said, “I don’t care if we order pizza.”

I am at the beginning of 11 days off work.

no one I love is sick or struggling to the extent that I am terribly worried.

that someone somewhere is pregnant with our kid (I think).

that Chris Rock is so freaking funny, because his show is cracking us up as I type.

And it wouldn’t be a post from me without: I am definitely NOT thankful for…

Fresh Direct, who was supposed to deliver our Thanksgiving dinner groceries between 3-6 and they’re still not here. Not so handy in getting my prep work done. I’ve had bad luck with them being ultra-late and sending me sub-par produce and it’s my own stupid fault for giving them another chance.

What embarrassing neurotic habits do you have? Can’t answer the telephone until the third ring, because otherwise the call will be bad news? Always sing “Leaving on a Jet Plane” during takeoff to keep the plane from crashing? Share your neurotic habit in the comments and your rationalization for it.

Repost in your own journal so others can see they are not alone in their strange habits.

My Neurotic Habit: When I fly, I have to have a tomato juice (or bloody mary mix), with lemon if possible. Or the plane will crash.

My Rationalization for My Neurotic Behavior: I fly a lot, and the plane hasn’t crashed yet. It’s got to be connected.

I know that’s repetitive to the example, but it’s true.

At this moment in time, we seem to be going from a big nothing for the Thanksgiving holiday to visitors plenty. Damon’s brother Jeremy says he and his girlfriend are coming for Thanksgiving, regardless of what the rest of the family does. My father says he is coming to New York the following week for a visit. You’ll notice, I’m sure, that I use “says” instead of “is” because I will believe it when I see it.

With dad at least I can get some idea, because he’ll have to buy a plane ticket soon. With Jeremy, I think we won’t know until he’s knocking on our door. I wonder how he’ll feel about a turkey-free Thanksgiving. Earlier I said there could be a turkey, but I wasn’t cooking it. But now I’m torn. I’m doing some thinking lately about being a vegetarian, why I do it, and how to be true to what I believe. And I’m starting to wander closer to “no meat in the house.” I’m still not going to try to tell Damon he can’t eat meat. But I feel pretty sure he’d respect it if I didn’t want it here. He was the one, after all, who insisted our wedding be vegetarian. He felt it wasn’t appropriate for meat to be served at my wedding, even if I was willing to be flexible. Which I thought was really cool. Now, that’s not quite the same as abandoning the Thanksgiving bird. I don’t know, I have to think about it more.

Along the same lines, I can’t wait to get my hooks into my dad. He has never tasted tofu in any form. And once he’s trapped in my apartment I’m going to sneak it in and convert him. He’ll be a tough sell, but I’m confident.