turkeys, anniversaries, and other stuff...

i had really lofty goals of getting a ton of work done over this thanksgiving break. unfortunately, that didn't exactly happen.

nonetheless, it's been a lovely few days. thanksgiving itself was fantastic -- i think it's made it into my top five thanksgivings of all time. this year = excellent company, awesome food, good times. and my friends can cook! like, really cook! i'm pretty damn impressed. not surprised, necessarily; but definitely impressed. the only real downer to thanksgiving day was that i lost a hybrid game of regular trivial pursuit/star wars trivial pursuit (sorry, paul!). i blame the alcohol and bad luck...

friday was mom's 10th anniversary. it kinda baffles me how a day on some arbitrary calendar can result in a feeling or a memory or a mood. i woke up feeling fine, but then i kinda got knocked over by this wave of sadness. i called daniel and dad that afternoon while i was in target. they were both at the cemetery visiting mom. there was something about their voices, something about the distance, something about the occasion for the phone call. and leave it to my dad to find the words to say that bring tears to my eyes...in the detergent aisle in target. my original plan was to spend the day by myself. i had thought i needed the quiet and the solitude, but things didn't happen that way and i'm really glad of that. in hindsight i think being by myself, especially knowing that my dad and brother and sister were together, would have ended up leaving me feeling really lonely.

i think i may have figured out a way to get myself home for xmas. it all depends on how my step-sister's end-of-the-semester schedule works out for coming home from school. i'm really hoping it will work, because i like my step-sis a lot and never have any time to just hang out with her. 8 hours in a car should give us plenty of time to catch up. now i just have to figure out how to get back to pittsburgh...

the clouds in the sky this evening were absolutely incredible. they looked all grey and ripply, as if the surface of the ocean had been frozen and turned upside down, and i was looking at it from underneath.

cats are sleeping in a furry pile right beside me, all tangled up. i think it's time i went to sleep, too.

(p.s. pr is the hero of my thanksgiving break. he's a good friend and he doesn't annoy me and he seems to have an amazingly high threshold for my company in extended dosages. and he can make bread and really good cranberry sauce.)

(p.p.s. fugazi's "the argument" album is so brilliant it hurts my eyes.)