Thanksgiving

First and foremost, I’m thankful I had the day off from work!

The job has been less than enjoyable the past two weeks with the Broadway strike happening. First there was no work to do, which was unexpectedly more tedious than when there is work to do. You don’t realize how mentally exhausting sitting at your desk with little to nothing to do all day is until you’re faced with that scenario. And after a week of it, I was about to go insane. During week two, they’ve been finding some busy work for us to do, which is a pain in the butt and annoying as hell, but when it comes down to it, it’s a much better alternative to staring into space and losing my mind.

So yes, I am quite thankful to have the day off and get paid for it. I do have to work tomorrow, but I get the holiday pay which is lovely, and I’m still financially rebuilding after the vacation spending and have all of that holiday shopping coming up to get ready for, so the extra cash from working tomorrow will be a nice perk.

I started my Thanksgiving by sleeping in until ten. Ooh, decadent. I got up, showered, put on some underwear, and went to work on cooking.

I wasn’t going over to anyone’s place for Thanksgiving even though a few people invited me. As a Vegan, I just had no desire to sit down at a dinner table containing dead bodies and ingredients made from dead bodies and watch people feast upon them in the name of gratitude. And, due to the fact that I wasn’t going to be roasting a dead animal in my oven, nobody was interested in coming over to my place to celebrate the holiday.

I almost had a guest. Garrett had basically asked me to invite him over, so I did. I went about planning a larger meal than I originally had since I was going to have a guest. However, he later decided that he would rather eat turkey, so he opted out of coming over, instead choosing to go all the way to New Jersey. I’m not going to lie, my feelings were a little hurt, mostly because he basically asked if he could come over, so I opened up my apartment to him and spent more money on a menu to include more food for him, and then he just flaked out. But in hindsight, I’m glad he didn’t come. If he wasn’t going to be happy with what I served, then it’s better he not come at all and put a damper on the day.

Yet now, he’s telling me he wants to come over for the Thanksgiving leftovers. I find that rude.

But anyway, I spent today alone with Miss Jackson, but cooked a feast large enough to serve a small family. I think I dirtied, cleaned, and re-dirtied every dish in my apartment during the entire cooking process today. I’m sure there was an easier way to do everything, but since I rarely cook, I haven’t figured out those little shortcuts yet.

And I don’t know how other people do it, but I think it’s virtually impossible to prepare so many dishes at the same time and have them all finish at the same time so that everything is fresh out of the oven and piping hot and ready to go. I even tried to make it easier for myself by baking my pumpkin pies last night so that I wouldn’t have to worry about them today, but I was still doing a juggling act in the oven and on the stove trying to make sure everything was happening at just the right time so that it would all be finished cooking at the same time.

Talk about Mission Impossible.

But, when all was said and done, I had a huge feast that was a delicious reward for my efforts.

My Thanksgiving Menu

• Tofurky Roast with Wild Rice Stuffing
• Cranberry-Apple Potato Dumplings
• Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy
• Thanksgiving Stuffing
• Green Bean Casserole
• Sweet Potatoes
• Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream

All Vegan and cruelty-free. And even better, all delicious.

Yummy!

I ate enough for three people. Before I go back for even more, I’m taking a break to let some digestion happen. I’m sitting here on the couch in my underwear (yes, I’ve been in just my underwear all day. It’s my day off; don’t judge me), watching some television, and trying to figure out just how I fit so much food into my stomach.

I’m trying to decide if I should put my Christmas Tree up tonight still or save that for tomorrow night. All I want to do is put on my Christmas playlist, watch something holiday related (even though it would be difficult to listen to music and watch something on television at the same time) and finish designing my Christmas cards.

Yeah, I’m designing personalized Christmas cards this year. No, not some ridiculously trite picture of Miss Jackson and me in front of a Christmas tree or fireplace. I’m using my own photography (Christmas related, of course) as the image on the front and writing my own text for the inside. It’s just much more personal than something store bought. I’m even tossing around the idea of designing my own postage stamps for them, but that seems to be about twice as expensive as buying regular stamps, so it will depend on how the funds are holding up. Plus, the list of people I have to send cards to this year seems to have doubled. How the hell did that happen?!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving today. And I hope that this was the last Thanksgiving where your dinner table was also a morgue.

Put an end to the Turkey Holocaust.