You've gotta give a little

Thanksgiving was great. (As those of you who know me already know, it's my second favorite holiday after Halloween!) The travelling wasn't as hectic as it could have been, it was nice to see my family, and I was a totaly sloth. What's not to like? Plus, since my mother is still recouperating from surgery, my sister, my aunt, and I cooked the whole meal and I'm pleased to say, it was still delicious. (The best dish was my sweet potatoes!) I also took occasional breaks from sitting on my fat ass in front of my parent's ENORMOUS TV and eating my face off to do a little shopping (though I successfully avoided the mall and, hence, the crowds). So, all in all, a good trip.

I also learned some valueable lessons:

1) If you were ever obsessed with a play and they make that play into a movie, you will inevitably be torn by the results. "Rent"--which I went to see the first day I was home--wasn't good, by any stretch of the imaginiation, but I'm already making plans to go see it again (perhaps dragging my roommate) because it was still exciting to see to hear those songs in surround sound and to see those characters that I was so in love with once. I'm convinced that, even if they had done a good job (perhaps if another director--one who DIDN'T make "Home Alone"--was hired), I wouldn't have been satisfied. Firstly, because we are more accepting of certain unrealistic conventions in a theater (as opposed to on screen, where we expect everything to be natural). And secondly, because no movie could capture the palpable yet ethereal magic of my MEMORY of the play. (Though the part where Adam Pascal is singing "What You Own" on top of a mountain in Santa Fe like the Britney Spears "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet A Woman" video was cringeworthy and embarassing by any standard.)

2) I'm not sure what the mathmatical equation is, but sometime before you turn 30 you will go home to your parent's house one day and it will magically no longer feel like your home. This happened to me for the first time in my life over this holiday. That's not to say that I didn't feel welcome there or that it wasn't comfortable but, after 6 years of living in NYC, I finally felt (as I lugged my heavy suitcase up five flights of stairs yesterday) that I was coming home instead of leaving it. And when I slept in the bed in my parent's house, I had nightmares every night--like you do when you sleep somewhere unfamiliar. Last night back in my shitty bed in New York, I slept like a baby! I suppose that is a good thing, a marker of growing up. But it is a little sad.

3) Global warming is real, people. It is disturbing to me that today's low is 56! It is almost December! I woke up in my flannel sheets with the heat blasting (I can't control it), sweating. That is unnatural.

4) The amount of time you have off from work is directly proportional to how much you don't want to go back when your vacation is over. I've been off (being a lazy lazy person) for five days, so that makes this Monday morning five times harder than usual.

5) Though the Christmas season seems to start earlier every year, there is something exciting about the days following Thanksgiving when everyone can drop all pretenses and just embrace the season. Retailers seem kind of desperate about it--like they've been holding off, trying to appear tasteful, but now with December in reach, they can finally let it all hang out and greedily trumpet the Christmas season. And companies are starting to hold their holiday parties. It's like everyone has an excuse to be drunk everyday from now til the new year.

And, in pursuit of some of that holiday merriment, you'll definitely find me at the Loose Record holiday celebration this Friday. The bands are good, the bar is ACROSS THE STREET from my apartment, and Loose Record is run by a friend of Lacey's. Hope to see you all there!