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jackshoegazerThis has been a long, strange Thanksgiving weekend.
Ethan was here from Thursday through Sunday. That was great actually. He's been doing a lot better lately. He's got his heart set on being a chef. He's taking two culinary classes this semester and is looking at culinary school when he finished high school.
On Black Friday, we didn't spend a penny. We tried to go to the zoo but it was closed. So we went for a long walk along the lake and through the arboretum. We talked, we laughed. After the fiasco that was last year and all of the problems Ethan had, it was really nice.
Jacquelyn was telling Eric about how sophomore means "wise fool" and Ethan chimed in, "Like how I was last year." Which is incredibly self-aware compared to last year's typical Ethan behavior.
We had two Thanksgivings. One was a misfit dinner at our place. Our roommate Eric's father is visiting for a week, so he was here. Some people from Jacquelyn's lab, post-docs away from their families. At the last minute the Chinese girl changed her plans, but if she hadn't, we would have had more non-USA people than USA people. So we were definitely in the frame of mind to discuss all the good and bad about Thanksgiving.
The other Thanksgiving was on Saturday at my sister's house. Which was nice, but filled with all of the things that make visits to my family cringe-worthy. Poor parenting techniques, political quips, social awkwardness, my sister's amazing ability to make every sentence inappropriate either directly and antagonistically or in a back-handed compliment sort-of-way. I love them dearly, but I feel like...like I don't understand how I grew up in that family. There's this anthropological gulf between us, like we're not of the same culture, or even, at times, the same species.
Ethan was here from Thursday through Sunday. That was great actually. He's been doing a lot better lately. He's got his heart set on being a chef. He's taking two culinary classes this semester and is looking at culinary school when he finished high school.
On Black Friday, we didn't spend a penny. We tried to go to the zoo but it was closed. So we went for a long walk along the lake and through the arboretum. We talked, we laughed. After the fiasco that was last year and all of the problems Ethan had, it was really nice.
Jacquelyn was telling Eric about how sophomore means "wise fool" and Ethan chimed in, "Like how I was last year." Which is incredibly self-aware compared to last year's typical Ethan behavior.
We had two Thanksgivings. One was a misfit dinner at our place. Our roommate Eric's father is visiting for a week, so he was here. Some people from Jacquelyn's lab, post-docs away from their families. At the last minute the Chinese girl changed her plans, but if she hadn't, we would have had more non-USA people than USA people. So we were definitely in the frame of mind to discuss all the good and bad about Thanksgiving.
The other Thanksgiving was on Saturday at my sister's house. Which was nice, but filled with all of the things that make visits to my family cringe-worthy. Poor parenting techniques, political quips, social awkwardness, my sister's amazing ability to make every sentence inappropriate either directly and antagonistically or in a back-handed compliment sort-of-way. I love them dearly, but I feel like...like I don't understand how I grew up in that family. There's this anthropological gulf between us, like we're not of the same culture, or even, at times, the same species.
