So happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the US (this means you, Terrence – I’m not sure who else in the US reads this). And happy Thursday to everyone else. It’s largely been a boring day, the most exciting parts being that I just scored a copy of Monday on eBay (thank you Yuka for the helpful information) and that there’s a James Bond marathon on TV. By far the worst part of the day was the big meal itself. Why? Well, for starters, we ate at the Zanesville Holiday Inn. That, my friend, definitely puts a kitchy slant on the entire day.
If I had to pick one word to describe having Thanksgiving dinner at the Holiday Inn, I would probably use the word ‘depressing.’ I mean, if you happen to be away from home or for some unforseen reason actually can’t have Thanksgiving dinner at home, I can understand having it somewhere else. But if you have the choice, I see no reason, nay excuse for doing it this way. We get to the Holiday Inn, the first thing I notice is the delightful smell of the swimming pool. I have to tell you – nothing says “Happy Thanksgiving” and “let’s get to the food” to me like the heavenly aroma of chlorine. Ha. Anyway, we check in, we’re told where our table is, and we go hang our coats up. Following this, we circumnavigate the swimming pool, we go into the oh-so-high class (sounding) Cascade Room, and find our table – nicely marked as reserved with a folded index card and a Sharpie. One cup of bad coffee later we hit the buffet. Yes, that’s right, the buffet. Picture a number of long folding tables decked out with plastic table cloths and about two-dozen chafing dishes (does that make anyone else think of the first Hot Shots movie?), having a very unrespectable array of first-class dishes like macaroni and cheese, ham that didn’t look like it should be trusted, and some sort of pasta dish I’m still trying to figure out.
I filled up my plate, having every intention of getting some turkey the second time around (as Thanksgiving dinner always dictates at least three rounds), and returned to the anti-posh dining room, where I choked down the food, three more cups of coffee, and two glasses of water. The proliferation of beverages can be attributed to the fact that the food was, by and large, dry and tasteless. I might as well have been back at school eating another sub-par meal at ye olde Nelson Dining Hall. I’m not kidding in the least bit when I say that this food was truly on the level of shitty dorm food. I never made that second trip and in fact never even had turkey on this Thanksgiving Day. Disappointing? Yes. A travesty to not have a little r-tryptophan in my veins? You bet your ass.
But it wasn’t just a disappointment because the food sucked. That certainly added to it, but I guess the main disappointment came as a result of the fact that this had to be about the single most lame (or is it lamest? neither sounds quite right) family holiday I’ve had in my life. I mean, I can understand that my grandmother is getting old and that she really doesn’t want to commit to everything that comes along with cooking Thanksgiving dinner, but it’s not like my mother and I couldn’t have done it for her. Thanksgiving is all about being with family, as I see it, and there’s something about spending the most important part of the day in a smelly, oveheated dining room at an ugly hotel crowded with fat midwestern strangers, eating bad food that you have to walk halfway across the building to spoon out of ancient chafing dishes that takes something away from the experience. Call me crazy, but this isn’t the way Thanksgiving is supposed to be. Maybe I’m just being an ass about it, and maybe I’m spending too much time thinking about how good it’s been all the previous years, but I still say that this is no way to spend the most important bird-eating day of the year.
Moving on.
I realized once again today that, as much as I really like the idea of going to grad school in Japan, I still really really really need to work on figuring out the logistics of it all a little better. You know, stuff like how to find a place to live, find a part time job (assuming somebody would hire a crazy-looking gaijin), handle visas and IDs, and other things related to not letting Japan eat me alive. Or rather, anything related to not compelling Japan to eating me alive.
And now I’m going to stop typing here and get to working on writing some emails – I’ve been unable to write for the better part of a week now and I’d like to try to get a message or two out before I leave here again tomorrow morning. I’ll be out of the loop again from tomorrow morning through Sunday night, when I should be back online and back in the great (or at least pretty good) state of Missouri.
P.S. If the post times on these messages look a little funny, don’t blame me.
