With all of my family living in Washington, when the holidays started to come around, I just scheduled myself to work on Thanksgiving. Why not? I'd otherwise have nothing to do and no place to go. Why not let someone else with a family have the day off?
However, when the schedule was released, there I was working Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What? Where was Thursday, the 23rd? I was off? No way. While I was thrilled with the prospect of being off on a holiday (How did that happen?), with my work schedule surrounding the holiday, there was no way I could go anywhere to celebrate it. I was doomed to be having dinner for one---or so I thought.
I had talked to Erich at some point and told him I was off. Erich usually has several invitations---and, indeed, he did this year as well. However, he decided to come down and have Thanksgiving with me. How super groovy. My friend Nedra was soon to visit me (the weekend before Thanksgiving) and I was getting ready for that in between working. Erich and I had decided to buy a meal (instead of just making one for the two of us), so I put him in charge of picking a place to order from and told him I'd buy it. No problem.
We talked about Marie Callender's, Boston Market, Save Mart, and Vons/Safeway. Erich was going on about a smoked turkey and/or Cajun-style turkey he had heard about someplace, but he couldn't remember where. He was thinking it was from Kentucky Fried Chicken. I stopped one day to check it out. While they may have done Thanksgiving dinners in the Bay Area, the one locally I visited did not know what I was talking about. They were closed for Thanksgiving--no turkey, just chicken. I tried a chicken meal of some kind for lunch and GROSS. I'm glad they did not have Thanksgiving dinner there and I now remember why I never eat there. It was NOT good. Blah!
Erich never did figure out where he heard about a smoked turkey, but I think the Cajun one might have been through Popeye's? They do Cajun. It doesn't really matter anyway, as I decided to just go into Vons and order the Thanksgiving meal there; turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. And only $50. Sold!
Erich came down the Sunday before Thanksgiving. He and Nedra and I spent some time together (which you can read about HERE). After Nedra left, we caught a movie ("My Friend Dahmer") and generally relaxed for two days until I had to return to work, Wednesday. Erich had invited his friend Mary Helen to join us for Thanksgiving. I hadn't thought of that, assuming she'd spend the holiday with her son, who she is forever talking about.
Thanksgiving morning happened. It was my one day off sandwiched between four days on. I'd have liked to have slept in, but I needed to get to Von's to pick up our dinner by 10.
I had forgotten my receipt, but I gave them my name and they gave me a bag. A quick peek in side made me wonder if this had been a bad idea. The turkey was in a bag and the sides were boxed? Hmm. Not the "home cooked" meal I had envisioned.
Surprisingly, the store was not very crowded. I had already paid for dinner, but we purchased other things (green beans, ice cream, pie stuff, whipped cream, etc.) to make or use that day.
Afterwards, we stopped at Starbucks for breakfast. When we walked in, there was no line at all---even though the drive thru was crazy congested.
After picking up a newspaper at Walgreens, we headed home. I was curious to unpack the bag and see just what we had gotten.
The turkey was still in the bag. WHAT!?! It was supposed to be cooked already. Looking at the label closely, I saw that it was supposedly already cooked, but would require an additional 2-3 hours in the oven to heat it up. That would be okay. Mary Helen had texted Erich, accepting his invitation, but couldn't come until 5 pm.
The box of sides was also perplexing. Being in a box like this looked so processed and manufactured, how could it be good?
Inside I was kind of startled to see those same pre-packed sides you can buy every day at Vons / Safeway. But I guess it all made sense to have those. They turned out to not be bad at all, but at the moment they were such a disappointment.
As the afternoon inched along, we ran off to Save Mart (which is close to my house, much closer than Vons) to get some more last-minute items.
Almost as soon as we walked in, I ran into Tom, one of my bosses at work. He was also doing some last-minute Thanksgiving shopping with his oldest son, Rylin (sp?)
Since we had time to kill before Mary Helen arrived and the weather was so nice out (it was actually hot...75 degrees in late November. Crazy!), Erich and I took a walk.
The trees were still covered with their fall foliage (for the most part). How splendidly Thanksgiving-y.
Because I have me feet/leg problems, I only went part of the way with Erich...but I did manage two miles. Amazingly. As we walked, I got to thinking about Mary Helen and wondered if anyone else I knew was without a place to go for Thanksgiving. So I quickly sent this text to every co-worker I had a phone number for:
I know this is late notice and I’m fairly certain everyone has/had a place to go for Thanksgiving, but if not, we will be eating about 5 pm. It’s just me, my friend Erich and his friend Mary Helen. We just have a boxed dinner from Vons and a few extras we’ve added ourselves. Nothing fancy. But, if you need a place to celebrate, I’d love to have you. Cheers!
There were no takers to my invitation. That was just as well. My house isn't all that fancy and Mary Helen tends to dominate the conversation. She goes on and on and on and it usually seems to be about her (or her son). Don't get me wrong. She is a very nice lady, but she doesn't really ever stop talking for long.
Erich had set a very nice, yet simple, table. I had set out Beth and Steve's recently published game, INJURY OR ILLNESS, on the buffet (left side) in the hopes we'd have time to play. (Check out their website HERE or their Facebook page HERE for information about their game!)
We got the turkey ready.
Some pre-dinner snacks were prepared.
Cocktails were made (and consumed).
Everything was ready...
Promptly at 5 o'clock, Mary Helen was NOT there. She sent a text at 5:18 saying she was on her way. She arrived at 5:48 pm. Dinner was ready. Thank goodness. I was HUNGRY! Ha!
Mary Helen brought an orange poinsettia with glitter on it. I've never seen an orange poinsettia before. I had hoped Erich would take it home with him because the poor thing is doomed to death otherwise. Oh my.
But Mary Helen had arrived. We chatted for a bit and then we ate.
I know it sounds like a lame day or that Mary Helen ruined it all. On the contrary. It was a nice day and nice Thanksgiving. As I said, Mary Helen is a very nice lady. She is a retired officer from the Sheriff's Department and, in her early 70s. she is going back to school to become a paralegal. (She was going to be a lawyer, but decided to just go the paralegal route). Bravo lady. And, of course, having Erich there for Thanksgiving was very special. It was truly a nice time.
The cocktails helped. 😉 CHEERS!
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