thanksgiving update etc.

I have two posts not finished: the last of the American series, and one about last weekend (Thanksgiving). I started both, but didn't finish them. And tonight, I thought I should try to post the day's events, and then backtrack in another post, because I am having a BIG glass of well-deserved, fattening wine from America, and I have 30 dollars in i-tunes cards in my hands, and I just realized that I was pretty much ready to download the entire Melissa Manchester catalogue, and thus I needed to stop myself, lest the wine and my tiredness made me wake up in the morning with a Manchester headache. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely LOVE about 5 of her songs, but if I wasted 30 dollars? Hell no!

So let me start by finally exclaiming this: I have a confession to make: for the past 21 years, I have been sleeping with...... QUINCY. Yes, I admit it here first. I have done Quincy in almost every possible way imaginable. To quote Dr. Seuss, we've done it on a boat, we've done it on a float, we've done it in the air, we've done it everywhere, we've done it on top of green eggs and ham, we've done with in front of Sam-I-Am. And all this time, I didn't even realize it!

You see, I thought my lady was named "Rachel." That is, until tonight. Tonight, I realized that I was indeed closer to Bret Somers than I ever did realize.

Oh, I kid. I kid because I love (I cannot for the life of me remember where that saying came from, but let's roll with it). Oh, let me give you the Cliff Notes version of everything.

Let's go back one week, to Thanksgiving. I'll go more into detail another time, but suffice to say, it was Thanksgiving weekend in this beautiful land of ours, and as usual since my mom died, I've tried to avoid the whole thing. The year she died? I arranged a trip to Edmonton, where we spent approximately 3000 dollars shopping the pain away (and where I was convinced Rachel was pregnant with JT baby #5, even though baby # 4 was like 12 weeks old - I even made her pee on sticks that weekend, and was disappointed when the line showed up - but thank sweet Jesus it did!). The next year? I discovered that my oldest sister invited my Alzhiemer's-ish Dad and my widow sister for a turkey dinner in her admittedly little 4-plex, and DIDN'T invite my family OR our other sister's family. So, in my passive-aggressive way, I invited the whole fam-damily, along with every in-law ever invented, over to our house, for a meal. The next year? Pretty much the same thing.

This year? Nobody mentioned fuck all about Thanksgiving, and I thought to myself, "if 'Lois' is cooking a turkey in her little 4-plex, and invites sister #2, well, so be it." You see, kid #1 kept saying "can we have supper for your family?!" and I didn't want to deal with it so I said we would see. Anyway, I chose to avoid the usual. HOWEVER. Oh, however.....

You see, I haven't been in REAL touch with my family since the summer. And it's all of my own doing. As I said before, it was a traumatic summer. After we went on holidays, and after we witnessed that accident with the dead people all over the place, I felt all wigged-out. So, as I said, in August, I went on the antidepressants. This was either the best thing or the worst thing I have ever done, depending on the day.

You see, the original drug I went on, after seeing a dr. different than my family physician, was full of weird side effects. It didn't do really anything for me other than give me a really dry mouth, and give me violent runs each morning, and, well, stopped me from enjoying certain things to completion. So then my own Dr. gave me another drug - one without most side effects, and one that has made me feel more.... optimistic, I guess you would say... than anything else, but damned if this thing didn't make me feel muted below the 49th parallel. ANYWAY.

Yesterday, I went home from work at about 11 AM. I have had a sinus infection for 16 days, and FINALLY clued in that I was sick. So I went home in the morning, to lay on the couch and whine like the pussiest pussy since George Michael was in WHAM!

Anyway.

I went back to work this AM. I had to arrange something, so I didn't actually get into my office until 10:00 am, after making coffee. And when I got there, I realized that sister #1 left me a msg yesterday saying our dad was in the hospital....in the PSYCH ward, because he "hit" a worker in his home. So,instead of being immediately concerned for him, I am all worked up about whatever transpired.

And this is the place to leave you - a sort-of level headed intro to the psych ward. However, I WILL say something about having an Alzheimer-ish dad: Alzheimer's is s bitch. And there is no way of determining who will fall prey. So, think twice before ignoring someone. As a guy who has changed his dad's diaper tonight, I can say alot And tomorrow, maybe I will. But for tonight? Let's just pray for rest.

I'll finish the rest tomorrow. Until then? Peace out, buddies.... And I will fill you in on Thanksgiving" and "Quincy" tomorrow. As Bette Davis said, hold on, you are in for a bumpy ride....

Peace out.....