Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things About My Thanksgiving

1) I spent this Thanksgiving with my mom and two brothers, and overall really enjoyed my time with all of them.

2) I missed my sister, Bean, who spent the holiday with her husband in Utah. I think it was the first Thanksgiving that all four kids in my family weren't together. But, we all talked on the phone, so we stayed connected.

3) On Thanksgiving morning, my brothers and I went for a 3-mile run outside. I had to stop a bunch of times, but Bacchus cheered me on which was very cool. At the end, I was really happy that I had gone running with them, and I resolved to get back into running regularly once I get back to New York.

4) My mom's sweet potatoes were awesome, as usual. She mixes sweet potatoes and granny smith apples in an orange juice and grand marnier sauce and then tops them with marshmallows.

5) My two desserts were a hit, especially the apple crisp, which is all gone. We still have about 1/2 of the pumpkin pie left (so I guess that wasn't quite as big of a hit).

6) The four of us played 3 intense games of Taboo. (We're a little competitive.) We switched teams each time, but every time I was on the winning team. Coincidence? I think not.

7) At one point, my mother, who's word was "sausage," ended up saying that my brother Bacchus always says he has a huge one, and when that didn't work, saying that you could have it with syrup. My brother Frey yelled out, in exasperation, "cock and balls," and all of us were like, what the hell does that have to do with syrup? It was a little dirty, but hilarious.

8) At another point, my brother Frey had a word and got me to say "Borat," by saying that he has a new movie out now that we are all going to see. He then said that I needed to change some letters at the end, for which he was ultimately disqualified. He wanted me to say "Bor-ay." None of us could figure out what the word "bor-et" could be, until we looked at his card and realized the word was "bore" (without the gratuitous French accent). That lead to a lot of laughing as well.

9) I now have half of a scarf knitted and I'm fairly proud of myself, although I'm not sure how I feel about plain old knit-stitch as a pattern.

10) We all watched Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth. The situation is indeed dire. I always think about what a waste it is that all the buildings in New York keep so many of their lights on throughout the night.

11) Speaking of dire, I've been reading "Under the Banner of Heaven," about the fundamentalist Mormon church and their practice of polygamy. The idea of 14 year old girls being forced to marry men double their age and becoming their third or fourth wife is repulsive and extremely disturbing. The book, so far, is great.

12) I'm very thankful because I received very good news on my pro bono asylum case. I don't want to jinx it, but I'll share it later.

13) The weather has been gorgeous. Eventhough the Christmas tree in the square looks strange in 70 degree weather, after this week in the sunshine, sitting outside on my mom's porch swing, I'm starting to see the appeal of the winter holidays in summer weather.




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