jive turkey

(Side note: I can't keep this to myself. The janitor at my office has "Sexual Healing" as the ringtone on his cell phone. And he never, ever seems to turn the ringer off. I was in a meeting this morning, and he walked past the conference room - and his phone went off - "Baaaaaby...I can't fight it much longer...." Anyway.)

I'm easily distracted today. This is my last day of work before Thanksgiving vacation. Images of turkey, pies, and an uncomfortably bloated belly are dancing in my head. Holy moses, do I love Thanksgiving.

This year, however, will be the first time I've not spent the holiday with my family. I am driving to Tampa tomorrow morning to spend Thanksgiving with my boyfriend's dad and stepmother. And I have to admit that while I'm looking forward to meeting his dad, I am going to miss my family.

And their food.

Like many families, our extended family is somewhat of a cast of characters - people who, were they not members of the same family, would likely never cross paths. Among them is the ultra-conservative Baptist delegation of my family that reigns somewhat supreme over family functions, this includes my mom and her two younger sisters...there is the "black sheep" Red Lobster waitress cousin whose whereabouts are often unclear...there's the 30-something police officer bachelor cousin (the waitress's brother) who might or might not be an alcoholic and is usually dating a woman no less than 50 years of age....there's the uncle who makes endless fart jokes regardless of the company he's in. And then there's my sister and I, caught somewhere in the middle. We like to pride ourselves in being the normal ones, though I'm sure everyone I just mentioned would probably say the same thing about themselves. All of this to say that, while I certainly have affection for all of them, on the surface we have absolutely nothing in common outside of being related by blood....and by an obsession with food. If my family can talk about nothing else, they sure can talk about food.

I was raised with incredible quantities of food at any family gathering. More food than could ever be considered reasonable. A lot of food, and a lot of conversation about the food. And as we've all gotten older, and find conversation topics harder and harder to come by, the focus inevitably turns to what's on the table.....who made it, how it was made, when it was made, what kind of difficulties might have been experienced in the preparation, where the recipe came from, how it might have been done differently, and on and on and on. And while my sister and I get pretty annoyed by the seemingly endless talk about food with our family, and the fact that food is the #1 focus of our gatherings, I think we both know that deep down we would find a Thanksgiving or Christmas without it oddly incomplete.

I have a feeling that this Thanksgiving may feature more normal quanitites of food. And maybe it's safe to assume that their family not being southern, perhaps they don't cook vegetables with a ham bone in the pot. I can, however, take comfort in the fact that while I won't be enjoying my family's feast this year, I will no doubt hear about it later on, in vivid detail.

Happy Thanksgiving.