Unfriendly and I haven't been to his folks for Thanksgiving since 1998. We are driving down today and staying with them in sunny Melbourne, FL until Sunday. The only thing I'm dreading is driving through freaking Atlanta traffic. It's hell, I tell you.

Here is last years Turkey Day Retrospectacle for your reading enjoyment
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My parents are from Central America. They came to the States in the mid-sixties and never really caught on to the American tradition of Thanksgiving. We never had a big huge turkey with all the trimmings, though I think my dad bought some frozen Louis Rich turkey product with gravy one year. I think you just stuck the whole deal into the oven - a turkey loaf of sorts. We weren't really a family to have meals around the dinner table so it's no surprise to me that I'm drawing a huge mental blank over home memories related to Thanksgiving.

The first actual Thanksgiving-like dinner I sort of remember took place when I was eleven-ish. I had befriended the kids who lived across the street - four sisters ages 2, 4, 6 and 8. Their mother was from Lansing, MI. Dad was from Karachi, Pakistan. Dinner was a mix of both cultures but I can't really remember it. What I do remember is that later in the evening after their guests had left, their father fried up the leftover turkey with a mix of different spices and lemon juice.

At the time, their dad was trying to make a profit at a local flea market on weekends and holidays. Since we were kids, there was nothing more exciting than heading there with a couple of dollars so that we could find treasure. This meant leaving from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale at the crack of dawn.

After a hard morning of treasure hunting mixed with huddling inside of their dad's Astrovan for warmth, the three older gals and I looked forward to lunch - Pakistanized leftover turkey on white bread. Tasty and definitely better than any deli turkey sandwich I'd had at that point. I remember the hot spices on my tastebuds and the cool November air. It was enough to energize us for the best part of flea market day.

Most folks would pack up and start to leave by around 2 or 3 pm. Usually, there were boxes of unsellable junk left behind. We were such little Templeton like scavengers. I think one of my best finds was a coin bracelet.
When I was around twenty, I had been friends with Magic Munchkin Manager for more than a year. I had met his folks by then (please call me Mom and this is Guy) . When his mom realized that I had never actually had a true American Thanksgiving dinner, it became of grave importance that I be a guest at their house that year. So, MMM picked me up and told me that Mom had invited Pilar, a friend of hers that I think worked in fashion design and costumes for some playhouse or something and her live-in boyfriend, Alan.

Apparently Pilar and Alan were going through some issues because they were late. Pilar eventually called and let Mom know that they had just had a snit and were on their way. I vaguely remember that the turkey was taking longer than expected, so their lateness wasn't really a big deal. They were a bit of a mismatched pair. Pilar was probably in her forties but attractive and a bit more golden shaded than me. Alan was bald on top and reminded me of an accountant. (No disrespect to any hottie male accountants out there)

Dinner was set up on a table outside on the covered patio. MMM sat next to me, Mom and Guy were at opposite ends of the table, Alan was across from me and Pilar was across from MMM. The spread was just lovely. I recognized the cranberry, stuffing and veggies but did not recognize the orangey stuff with the marshmallow on top.

Dinner was fine except for one annoyance; throughout all of dinner Alan did not stop staring at me. It was so noticeable that MMM had to hide his amusement and made sure to hold my hand after dinner and play up the boyfriend act. To add to Alan's creepiness, he didn't even care that it seemed that I was taken. It didn't matter that he was there with Pilar. He leered. I ate...and was eventually distracted by the mysterious orange food. That was the first I ever tried sweet potatoes. Heaven. Talk about perfection. Mom got such a kick out of my reaction and I momentarily forgot about the stare marks bored into my forehead.

The disfunctional couple left soon after dinner. Mom and MMM started laughing about the awkwardness of the situation. Mom had tried her best to direct conversation to him in order to distract him from the divine glory of Visage de la Glitzy which I appreciated. What was even more odd was that Pilar didn't really notice any of this.

MMM and I topped that evening off by seeing Bullets Over Broadway.
My first Thanksgiving at Unfriendly's was daunting due to the amount of food served. There was ham and turkey and several side dishes. Though dinner with Mom, Guy and and MMM was traditional, I don't think I felt the true stuffed nature of feast of Turkey Day until this particular Thanksgiving. I don't even remember what we did after dinner. I do remember that there was lots of pie. Pumpkin. Apple. There was probably cake in the mix too. I probably just passed out.

Now that Unfriendly and I are away from Florida, we've never really gone back just for Thanksgiving dinner with his family. We'd rather spend our two weeks off during the Christmas holidays. Luckily, UF is not one stuck in Thanksgiving day tradition. We've had dinner at the few local restaurants that open for dinner, but it's never quite as tasty as the feast his mom prepares. It also doesn't make sense to whip up a turkey for just us two. So, last year, I decided that I wanted to do something completely different dinner-wise, so we went to Ashoka in Canton, MI.

Indian food. Yummy, yummy Indian food. I'm thinking this year we will go back and reclaim our title of The Only Non Indian Folks in Ashoka on Thanksgiving.

It's nice to be able to do our own thing. We don't have any of that driving stress to appease two sets of family members. And most importantly, I won't have to do any dishes!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Labels: Turkey Day, Vacation

So here I am catching up on some blogs and updating my mp3 tags when I visit Evan's blog and learn of a site that will match you to the celebreties you most look like

So, I tried a couple of different pictures and here's what they came up with. 8 matches come up but I only chose 4 from each.

http://www.myheritage.com

http://www.myheritage.com

Talk about HUGE differences. Nikki Six and Vivien Leigh? The first one also had Glen Close with the same percentage as Laura Linney.

Labels: About Glitzy, InternetLand WTF

I think I'm going to remember the latter half of this year as 'Sick in GA 2006'. I've actually been sick enough to need antibiotics three times in the past 6 months.

Crazy.

I was out of work for most of last week. (Hooray! I hate that place.) The downside was I felt so crappy I couldn't enjoy being off of work. I had a pretty bad sinus infection

Medical offices in GA do things differently than what I thought was the norm. You pay your copay upfront as opposed to paying after the doctor has seen you. I find that a little odd.

I still can't get over the local Urgent Care only being open from 9 am to 9 pm. I saw a different doctor this time and he put me on Avelox (antibiotic) and Maxiphen (decongestant). The last time I was there I was put on Biaxin. What happened to good old Amoxicillin?

Ok..enough about my maladies....
Here's a pictoral update on what's been going on in my life.

• The friend I've known forever and ever (forever and ever = 22 years), Sameena, had her first kid in late September. I knitted some baby stuff for her little girl.
• Unfriendly and I finally finished the fireplace fountain. We tried our hand at arranging silk flowers. Pumpkin now uses this area as her 'jungle'. The sparkly thing on the right is her crinkle ball toy. It usually ends up in the fireplace or in an arrangement. The picture was cross stitched by UFs younger sister.
  
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• Side note...Hobby Lobby is AWESOME. Beats Michael's hands down.
• I got a Samsung YPZ5 4GB mp3 player. I love it

...and this is my current background.

• FormerBlondie™ and hubby came to visit. One of our stops was the new GeorgiaAquarium. My favorite was the jellyfish. Didn't get good jellyfish pics though, but this big huge tank was neat. Way too many folks visit the aquarium on that weekend including Ted Turner and his grand kids I think. Also a chick that looked a bit like Jane Fonda but wasn't her. Interesting.

• Went to a Halloween party thrown by one of UFs work buddies. Those pics are on his jump drive which is conveniently at work right now. He was a Bone Lord from a game called Morrowind The Elder Scrolls. The theme was Something Wicked This Way Comes / carnival / clown related. I was a ring master and the Bone Lord was my 'Act'. Behold Pooky by the Bone Lord top piece. He has no fear. Also, a bad self taken photo of my face. My eyes look jaundiced. And of course, lashes, lashes, lashes.

• I won the Halloween contest at my job. (All of $25 friends and neighbors) I was a Halloween Mad Hatter. Behold more lashes....And my 2x (not my size!) shirt. I made the polka dots black with fabric glitter. They were originally seafoam green.
• I got the kitties a spur of the moment DVD. It's Pet Sitter volume two or something and Pumpkin loves it. She's addicted to birdies. When this plays, she'll check behind the tv set to locate the birds. (poor thing) As a consequence, she will now just sit and watch tv with us and wait for birdies to appear. Look at how huge the bird is compared to her. If it were real, it would probably eat her!
  

• I saw Common Rotation at Eddies Attic in Decatur. Neat little venue. Apparently they opened for the Indigo Girls at some point. Blonde Indigo Girl (sorry..have no idea of their names) showed up at the show with a bunch of friends. We were sitting near her too. Pretty cool. Those pics are also not available :( . Samantha Crain opened for them. She's out of Oklahoma and her voice completely blew me away. I'm kicking myself for not getting her EP. The guy who followed her, Joey Lemon, was nowhere near as powerful as she was vocally but he talked to the audience more. They were sitting near each other peddling their EPs and felt kinda bad about getting hers and not his so I figured "I'll just buy it online". Can't get it online. Dammit!
  

Labels: Crafty Projects, Gir, Halloween, Knitty Glitzy, MP3 Player, Music, Photos, Unhealthy Glitzy, Work GA, Work Sucketh