Ahaha, erin, I am totally sharing that with my sister.

Dinner was... awesome. D and I went to his brother's/brother's fiancee's place. When I took my casserole out of the tote bag, the fiancee (M) asked in hushed, excited tones - "Is that Swiss. Vegetable. Medley?" Turns out her grandma made the same casserole and she's been craving it (she's pregnant). M's dad, M's sister, and M's sister's boyfriend rounded out the dinner party. It was just nice and chill and good people.

(but no pie. i may need to visit my favorite local bbq place soon for their bourbon pecan pie.)

The Lortab finally caught up with D's pain this afternoon, so he was able to relax and enjoy. It's funny - he's always ready with a quip but doesn't seem to be great with the sincere stuff, so his go to phrase is "thanks, you are being super awesome." Which he said a lot tonight. It's really nice to be able to relax, bit by bit, into a relationship and learn how to deal with each other's vagaries and such. He apparently admitted my existence to his mother today - that plus Thanksgiving with his family feels like nice little milestones.

Gah, I wish I didn't need to work tomorrow. But I do, since I missed today. So it's bed time, for me.

Ate later than usual for Thanksgiving (after 7). So exhausted. Turkey was success, as was the gravy. (Those were our main things.)

We bet on when the first domestic distrubance involving an airborne turkey will come in.

I have so little faith in humanity and yet that is on the funny side of sad.

Oh. My other lack of faith came when the freeway suddenly went from 70 to 40 way out in nowhere. I thought, at first, that people were going to the casino and that seemed a little tacky on Thanksgiving. Nope. Outlet mall. 7:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Outlet. Mall. I judged every single person.

"thanks, you are being super awesome."

I want to borrow this phrase. It just amuses me. Glad you are feeling more comfy in the relationship, smonster. Oh! I wanted to tell you things about recycling on the Marine Base here. I toured it and was thinking of you. They are scary efficient. It made my eco heart swell a little. But it's a lot of used ordnance so maybe not on the day we're supposed to be Thankful.

Ugh - family moment. So my soonish-to-be brother-in-law mentioned the spectator details on my niece's boots. And I was impressed. Until he mentioned how much he likes feet. I had repressed that bit where he talked about his foot fetish previously.

This is not information that I need. Ever really. I'm going to try and repress it again.

So my sister is engaged and I probably just ensured that everyone else will only ever remember he like likes feet. Which? As long as I can forget, I am fine with.

This seemingly permanent foreigner is wondering what the evil of shopping is? This is the biggest holiday, is that it? And everyone should have the opportunity to have it at home?

My ish is that people are complaining bitterly that WalMart was open today depriving the employees of their opportunity to eat Thanksgiving dinner with their families but obviously lots of businesses are open and that's because people patronize them. It's disingenuous.

I mean enough people want to outlet shop that a freeway I've never seen slow had a quarter mile backup on the off ramp at 7:30 on a Thursday. And places like movie theatres have always been open. Obviously Thanksgiving is a little less sacred than people claim.

My stepmom both commented on how awful it was that Walmart employees couldn't be home today and she went there earlier because she knew they'd be open. Cause and effect...

Mostly it's the hypocrisy that annoys me. Stores would not be open if customers didn't shop there.

Okay and the fact that the freeway suddenly being a sea of brake lights and swerving cars startled me. There were a lot of dumb drivers on the roads tonight and I was already cranky.

OK, but feet is the cutest of the run-of-the-mill fetishes, don't you think? And the most useful... so long as she's getting all her other goodies, its only a bonus -- nice shoes, pedicures, foot rubs. It's really win/win.

I wouldn't judge his fetish on its own but I'm side-eyeing him thinking it's a nifty family conversation in a pretty conservative group.

I don't want to think about why my sister is posting her pedicures on Facebook.

The evil of the massive shopping on Black Friday is largely the hypocracy of it in immediate proximity to Thanksgiving. Here's all the things we are so so thankful for...now we're gonna crush strangers in throngs of crazed consumerism. Plus, on the emergency services end of things...it's incredibly annoying to know that responders can barely fight through the crowds to get to the woman seizing in the floor near the electronics dept....upsetting.

I worked retail for years - there are a bunch of lies associated with it. First , it is not the biggest shopping day of the year. that day is about 1 week before christmas. Second, about 98 % of the sales - started on the Wednesday before . There are limited bargins for some stores - but that is just to get you in.

What I truely dislike is the encouragement of feeding frenzy behavior. While I get that being a part of something big is exciting, in the end it is still shoping.

and - as a btw, I like the crowds and the excitement in the air . Even working wasn't the worst. At least I wasn't bored.