thanksgiving - the most unholiday holiday

i hate this time of year. if i had a dollar for every time i bitched in a blog about how the holidays suck, i'd have an extra five spot. but thanksgiving, though it starts off the holiday season, is the least holiday holiday.

and by that, i mean the most tolerable.

new year's is annoying for too many reasons to list in this post, valentine's day is a holiday ever-hated by me, and xmas is the worst. i hate ornaments, xmas songs, christmasy smells - my hell is walking through a craft store in december.

i think much of it is because i had a roommate who fancied herself martha stewart, back when martha barely had a magazine out. my roommate would start all these ultra crafty christmas ideas and then never finish them or clean them up until about april. it was like a xmas big lots puked in our living room.

i disliked christmas before then, but i can't recall when it began or why. at this point, the commercialism surrounding that holiday is wretched, and i get freaked out going out in public during the end of the year.

mostly, i just hate how grouchy people are. the most mean-spirited bastards come out near christmas, and they spew their hate all over everything. and these are the people who hang lights and claim to love christmas!

if all christmas was had me and a bunch of family or friends sitting around enjoying ourselves, i would be in - hook, line, sinker.

which is i guess why i like thanksgiving. it is a xmas dress-rehearsal, with food and family, and doesn't involve trees, or shopping, or garland.

my mom bought me a ticket home this year, and i wish i could say that i was vacationing free spirited. going anywhere since the layoff sort of stresses me out, like i should be home looking harder for work. so i hate to admit that i won't be as free mentally to celebrate as i could. but by jesus, i am going to try.

the departure time is creeping ever-closer, and i could tell if only by the frequency of my mom's phone calls. i've talked to her probably three times today. once was to find out what i would like to eat for dinner wednesday night, the second was to let me know she washed all my sheets, and both dogs, and found a few toys from my childhood that i should take home. i don't even remember why the third call happened, but i doubt that's the last one. oh, and during one of the calls, she told me that she picked me up a box of lo carb rockstar - yay mom!

if nothing else, i will come home fat. between her turkey and stuffing, my wednesday night crab leg dinner, cocktails and desserts at the neighbors, and the night out for sushi that my dad will insist on, i'm storing up for hibernation. oh, and the best thing about xmas dinner? the one thing my sister and i fight over (or used to, at least) there not being enough of? rice and gravy.

and yes, those go together. nobody i ever knew had gravy with their rice. it's usually mashed potatoes, from what i hear. i think it's a southern thing. but rice and gravy is so effing good, i can hardly wait. and, just for the record, if you make mashies right, no gravy needed.

i have some social events in the works as well, which reminds me of how few friends i have in san diego. between the extra weight and the social interaction, i'm going into mental overload. and yes, rita, i am up for whatever you want to do. just as long as we don't go to the starlight again. and if we DO, i am much older and wiser and won't get that drunk ever again. promise.

i'm sure a mid-holiday blog will be in order, as my family finally upgraded recently from dialup, to cable DSL, to wireless (which stupefies me - my mom just barely upgraded her cell from from a motorola startac.) so my computer will go with me, and send out some turkey day greetings. and, sadly, some resumes as well.