A Thanksgiving Retrospective
Dec. 6th, 2003 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geminigirlSince I neglected to post anything about my most recent trip home...here goes...
Wednesday: Leave later than planned because I have a cold and it's making everything miserable. Basically trying to do anything makes me tired, so I'd do a little, and rest, and do some more and rest and so on. So I don't get out of here until later than I'd planned. Pick up check at office. Because I'm going by the office to pick up my check, I have to go to 295 the less convenient way. Sit in msierable traffic on 395 heading into the city, but while I'm sitting there, notice that my temperature gauge has spiked all the way into the red zone. Panic. Pull off at next exit, find a side street downtown that's still allowing parking. Let car cool a bit, add coolant and head through city on surface streets rather than highway. This might turn out to be a good thing, since I make it to New York Ave and 295 rather quickly. Head up 295, and as with most holiday weekends, decide that Harbor Tunnel is a better way to go. Get through the tunnel, and back on 95. Stop at first rest stop for a nap. Mom calls while we're napping to ask where you are. Ask her to make sure to get dimetap since somehow it got left home. Drive to New Jersey, stop at last rest stop before the turnpike exit for bathroom/coolant/gas. Call Mom. Arrive at parents house around 11:30. Eat soup, hang out with Mom, find out that there is company coming for Thanksgiving and complain that it means we're actually not going to have Thanksgiving in our pajamas, and fall asleep.
Thursday: Wake up, drink juice, talk to Dad, organize cooking for the day. Mom arrives downstairs. Make stuffing. Make sweet potatoes. Stuff turkey. Do more cooking. Listen to family fight. Shower. Listen to family fight some more. Entertain. Listen to uncomfortable conversations about oral sex at dinner table. [1] Clean up. Hang out with Mom. Sleep.
Friday: Wake up, eat leftover stuffing, cold. Mmmm...happy. Read newspaper. Mom is sick. Work on lecture. Pick at leftovers. Work on lecture some more. Spend large part of day checking on Mom. Eat leftovers for dinner. Hang out with Mom. Sleep.
Saturday: Wake up, Mom is feeling better. Go shop for baby gift for my best friend's baby. Listen to Mom nag about lack of serious boyfriend in my life. Listen to Mom complain about prices at the store she picked (Mom hates shopping, doubly so during the holiday season, so we were at a little boutique around the corner from the house.) Listen to Mom complain about lack of grandchildren. Go home. Mom goes to Jared's house to do his books. Spend a couple of hours catching up on lj/e-mail. Work on lecture. Eat dinner. Read a bit. Sleep.
Sunday: Go to BJ's with Mom. End up with a bunch of stuff, courtesy of Mom. Go to Mom's office to use her computer to get articles and stuff for lecture on Monday. Spend far more time at the office than planned. Finish lecture and photocopies. Go to grocery store with Mom. Get more stuff. [2] Go home, eat dinner with family. Do laundry. Panic because it's late and must get up at o-dark-thirty the next day. Drop off car at mechanic. Go to bed.
Monday: Wake up at o-dark-thirty, drop Dad at train. Go home, shower, dress and return to train station to catch a train into the city. Fall asleep on train and nearly miss stop where I have to change trains. Get on second train and find it absolutely packed from Jamaica all the way to Penn Station. Arrive at Penn Station, go to get metrocard and discover that vending machine takes no cash, only cards. Grumble and decide not to wait in line at token booth. [3] Take train to Dad's school, get coffee at Kosher bagel place around the corner. Find Dad's office. Meet with his boss (assistant principal) who seems unconcerned about the content of my presentations...unsurprisingly, NYC schools are more liberal about sexual content than in NoVa. Talk to a couple of classes. Go to lunch with Dad and one of his colleagues. Talk some more. Go get coffee for Dad, myself and some colleagues. Get hamentaschen at Kosher bagel place. Drink coffee. Leave for Brooklyn to meet up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melebeth. Take forever on 5 train to Brooklyn. Realize I'm not out of practice at the very NYC looking but never making eye contact. Follow melebeth's directions, including the part about not going into the "big mental hospital looking building," and meet up with her. Feed her hamentaschen. Retrieve books and files I lent her a year or so ago. Go to her class. Make lecture difficult because she's apparently watching me listen to her lecture, and I apparently know what she's not saying. Give presentation. End up pleased with how it turns out. Rest of class happens, melebeth drops me off at the train which turns out not the be at Atlantic avenue and fourth, but at Flatbush and fourth, which I didn't realize. And you can't see it from the corner where I was standing. Barely make it onto train, and realize that I have to change trains not once but twice! Change trains once, and get onto incredibly crowded train. Find seat and try to sleep. Not happening. Change trains again. Arrive home. Make sandwich, talk to Mom, find out that car is not ready. Grumble. Sleep.
Tuesday: Wake up. Retrieve car. Go out to breakfast with Mom. Have civil conversation with Mom about my finances. (This is unusual if you aren't already aware of it.) Go home. Fold laundry. Finish packing. Strip beds. Shower. Load car. Stop at health food store and pick up conditioner because it's almost out. Pick up a quart of wontons from favorite chinese place. Cash in stack of lottery tickets that Mom's given me. Get on the road and head back to Virginia. Stop in New Jersey for gas. Get stopped by Maryland State Police because tag light is out on my car. Get a warning, instead of a ticket. Arrive home. Empty a few things from the car. Make lunch, cuddle cats, go to bed.
And that's my visit home in a nutshell.
[1] Conversations about oral sex should not involve my parents. It's just one of those too uncomfortable buttons. My parents weren't ever very good at talking about sex with me, and I feel similarly about discussing it with them. It's a boundary I have.
[2] Since I usually don't get back from my parents until evening or slightly later, Mom usually takes me to the grocery store and buys a few things so I can get through the week without having to shop. I really appreciate it.
[3] Despite the fact that MTA doesn't use tokens at all anymore, I still call it a token booth. Do others?
Wednesday: Leave later than planned because I have a cold and it's making everything miserable. Basically trying to do anything makes me tired, so I'd do a little, and rest, and do some more and rest and so on. So I don't get out of here until later than I'd planned. Pick up check at office. Because I'm going by the office to pick up my check, I have to go to 295 the less convenient way. Sit in msierable traffic on 395 heading into the city, but while I'm sitting there, notice that my temperature gauge has spiked all the way into the red zone. Panic. Pull off at next exit, find a side street downtown that's still allowing parking. Let car cool a bit, add coolant and head through city on surface streets rather than highway. This might turn out to be a good thing, since I make it to New York Ave and 295 rather quickly. Head up 295, and as with most holiday weekends, decide that Harbor Tunnel is a better way to go. Get through the tunnel, and back on 95. Stop at first rest stop for a nap. Mom calls while we're napping to ask where you are. Ask her to make sure to get dimetap since somehow it got left home. Drive to New Jersey, stop at last rest stop before the turnpike exit for bathroom/coolant/gas. Call Mom. Arrive at parents house around 11:30. Eat soup, hang out with Mom, find out that there is company coming for Thanksgiving and complain that it means we're actually not going to have Thanksgiving in our pajamas, and fall asleep.
Thursday: Wake up, drink juice, talk to Dad, organize cooking for the day. Mom arrives downstairs. Make stuffing. Make sweet potatoes. Stuff turkey. Do more cooking. Listen to family fight. Shower. Listen to family fight some more. Entertain. Listen to uncomfortable conversations about oral sex at dinner table. [1] Clean up. Hang out with Mom. Sleep.
Friday: Wake up, eat leftover stuffing, cold. Mmmm...happy. Read newspaper. Mom is sick. Work on lecture. Pick at leftovers. Work on lecture some more. Spend large part of day checking on Mom. Eat leftovers for dinner. Hang out with Mom. Sleep.
Saturday: Wake up, Mom is feeling better. Go shop for baby gift for my best friend's baby. Listen to Mom nag about lack of serious boyfriend in my life. Listen to Mom complain about prices at the store she picked (Mom hates shopping, doubly so during the holiday season, so we were at a little boutique around the corner from the house.) Listen to Mom complain about lack of grandchildren. Go home. Mom goes to Jared's house to do his books. Spend a couple of hours catching up on lj/e-mail. Work on lecture. Eat dinner. Read a bit. Sleep.
Sunday: Go to BJ's with Mom. End up with a bunch of stuff, courtesy of Mom. Go to Mom's office to use her computer to get articles and stuff for lecture on Monday. Spend far more time at the office than planned. Finish lecture and photocopies. Go to grocery store with Mom. Get more stuff. [2] Go home, eat dinner with family. Do laundry. Panic because it's late and must get up at o-dark-thirty the next day. Drop off car at mechanic. Go to bed.
Monday: Wake up at o-dark-thirty, drop Dad at train. Go home, shower, dress and return to train station to catch a train into the city. Fall asleep on train and nearly miss stop where I have to change trains. Get on second train and find it absolutely packed from Jamaica all the way to Penn Station. Arrive at Penn Station, go to get metrocard and discover that vending machine takes no cash, only cards. Grumble and decide not to wait in line at token booth. [3] Take train to Dad's school, get coffee at Kosher bagel place around the corner. Find Dad's office. Meet with his boss (assistant principal) who seems unconcerned about the content of my presentations...unsurprisingly, NYC schools are more liberal about sexual content than in NoVa. Talk to a couple of classes. Go to lunch with Dad and one of his colleagues. Talk some more. Go get coffee for Dad, myself and some colleagues. Get hamentaschen at Kosher bagel place. Drink coffee. Leave for Brooklyn to meet up with
melebeth. Take forever on 5 train to Brooklyn. Realize I'm not out of practice at the very NYC looking but never making eye contact. Follow melebeth's directions, including the part about not going into the "big mental hospital looking building," and meet up with her. Feed her hamentaschen. Retrieve books and files I lent her a year or so ago. Go to her class. Make lecture difficult because she's apparently watching me listen to her lecture, and I apparently know what she's not saying. Give presentation. End up pleased with how it turns out. Rest of class happens, melebeth drops me off at the train which turns out not the be at Atlantic avenue and fourth, but at Flatbush and fourth, which I didn't realize. And you can't see it from the corner where I was standing. Barely make it onto train, and realize that I have to change trains not once but twice! Change trains once, and get onto incredibly crowded train. Find seat and try to sleep. Not happening. Change trains again. Arrive home. Make sandwich, talk to Mom, find out that car is not ready. Grumble. Sleep.Tuesday: Wake up. Retrieve car. Go out to breakfast with Mom. Have civil conversation with Mom about my finances. (This is unusual if you aren't already aware of it.) Go home. Fold laundry. Finish packing. Strip beds. Shower. Load car. Stop at health food store and pick up conditioner because it's almost out. Pick up a quart of wontons from favorite chinese place. Cash in stack of lottery tickets that Mom's given me. Get on the road and head back to Virginia. Stop in New Jersey for gas. Get stopped by Maryland State Police because tag light is out on my car. Get a warning, instead of a ticket. Arrive home. Empty a few things from the car. Make lunch, cuddle cats, go to bed.
And that's my visit home in a nutshell.
[1] Conversations about oral sex should not involve my parents. It's just one of those too uncomfortable buttons. My parents weren't ever very good at talking about sex with me, and I feel similarly about discussing it with them. It's a boundary I have.
[2] Since I usually don't get back from my parents until evening or slightly later, Mom usually takes me to the grocery store and buys a few things so I can get through the week without having to shop. I really appreciate it.
[3] Despite the fact that MTA doesn't use tokens at all anymore, I still call it a token booth. Do others?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 05:52 pm (UTC)That having been said...
Why were you discussing oral sex at the dinner table? That's not appropriate dinner table conversation even with people who AREN'T your parents :)
As for the oral sex...
Date: 2003-12-06 06:21 pm (UTC)As for the oral sex...
Charlie, the boyfriend/husband/fiance/male companion of indeterminate relationship to Dianne, one of the grad students brought it up...I've done the best I can to block out that conversation. All I remember is that Charlie, who was sitting directly to my right was talking loudly about oral sex. And my parents were at the table. It was the kind of thing that happens in nightmares.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 07:21 pm (UTC)As long as you're still willing to help me with math.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 08:18 pm (UTC)Are you coming North to game Night on the 13th? Should we work together sometime that weekend? (And is the e-mail address I have for you still the right one? It's a???????@s??-r???.com.)
no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 08:22 pm (UTC)And yes, you have the correct e-mail. I saw your e-mail, kept leaving myself notes to reply to it, and then kept forgetting to do it.
What book do you want me to get?
no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-06 09:57 pm (UTC)