Thanksgiving Notes to Self

And just like that, Thanksgiving's over for another year.

Rather than tell you about my family's gathering outside of Washington D.C. in any detail, I thought I'd instead share the notes I was making to myself over the weekend.

Item: Convince my friends to take Thursday and Monday flights too.


I recognize that as a graduate student I probably have more flexibility in my schedule than 95% of the working population. But if you have the flexibility, why not travel some 12 to 24 hours later than the rest of humanity? While my friends scurried to the airport this year, I was relaxing -- chillaxing, even -- in my apartment. The downside? A quiet night at home on what should have been one of the big party nights of the year. Darn it.

Item: "Free-range" is not the same as "better tasting".

My parents and I stayed with my older brother who lives in the Maryland countryside. He's currently on an organic / buy-local kick, and we arrived around 4 pm to find an uncooked free-range turkey. Into the oven it went, and four hours later, I was having my first taste of a turkey whose life my brother described as "happy". Funny, it didn't taste any different from all of the other turkeys I'd ever had. But then again, maybe I just like the taste of hormones and antibiotics.

Item: Plan activities for Friday and Saturday.

As enjoyable as it was catching up with folks and frater Thursday night, by Friday we were all just sitting around doing our own things. You can make an argument that families bond over Quantity Time and not Quality Time like Al Franken does. But having traveled a total of 3000 miles just to see each other, we should have done more over the weekend.

At one point, I ended up taking out my camera and taking pictures around my brother's house. Like this one:


I call it "Little Trash Can Crosses the Road".

And this one:


I call it "Big Tree Reaches for the Moon".

Item: Backup DVDs.

But all was not lost. I'd brought a couple of DVDs with me, having long ago assumed the role of Hunter-Gatherer of Movies My Parents Would Like. Over the years I've kept a keen eye on the types of movies my parents like, and so far my list includes Westerns, Jane Fonda, Mr. Bean, and Korean soap-operas.

The night before I left, I'd bought previously rented versions of The Alamo and The Aviator. The Alamo was the safer bet, but the disc turned out to be too scratched to play. The Aviator went over well with my dad, but the parts where Leonardo/Howard locks himself in a room for days at a time somehow reminded me of graduate school. Hmmm.

Item: More gratitude next year.

In the end, what was it all about, Thanksgiving? Snapshots in time that line the avenues of the mind. I wish I could remember more of these days.