Reflections on Thanksgivings Past

So yesterday was my first Thanksgiving without turkey! Yesterday felt so “random” that it got me thinking about the ragtag collection of thanksgivings I’ve had the past few years—none of them quite the same.

So Thanksgiving Day 2009 I spent volunteering with some co-workers (http://www.celebratethanksgiving.org/History.html) which really just consisted of driving a bunch of cooked food to Compton. I spent the afternoon spent on a public trans adventure getting to know one of my new roommates, Jessie, on our way to a fairly new friend’s house out in Diamond Bar where we had a wonderful Japanese meal with tempura shrimp and a whole lot of other dishes whose names I can’t recall.

T-day 2008 was spent in Inglewood—making and then eating dinner with fellow EUIP interns, paid for by a gracious parent. I made green bean casserole. The only food we had in the house was for dinner and so mid-day a few of us got hungry and went on a search for an open fast food place---all we could find was Boston Market where we ended up with a pre-dinner turkey lunch that we ate on our rooftop (dinner table and kitchen tables were occupied with dinner preparation activities). We all thought this was pretty ridiculous.

T-day 2006 and 2007 were spent in Azusa. The morning was volunteering at Foothill Community Church’s meal and the evening eating at neighbors’s apartments. 2007 was especially memorable because somehow had two thanksgiving dinner meals one right after the other. I had been invited by two brothers to eat with their families. Since they were brothers, I assumed they were inviting me to the same meal. So I arrived at one brother’s house with my contribution of candied yams. Both brothers’ families were there and so I stuffed myself to the brim. Then, I was informed, we were to all go to the other brother’s house and, lo and behold, another entire T-day meal was awaiting us! I don’t know exactly what happened—a miscommunication on their part? I’m not sure. I ended the night exercising to some Zumba DVDs with 6 year old Nyzeth trying to work off some calories.

T-day 2005 was spent with the Higson family in Ojai. A few things were memorable about this trip: witnessing a slightly tipsy Mr. Higson get out of a ticket after getting pulled over by a cop, helping Nancy buy tons of toys for Cerritos kidz at a local toy store and then stressing with her about how she was gonna pay for all of them, meeting all of Nancy’s unique and wonderful friends and family.

T-day 2004 was with the Fleming family in San Diego. On Black Friday I made the rounds to SD’s finest malls with my friend, Laura, the self-professed shop-a-holic. We took a midnight stroll on a la jolla beach with her friends. We made Christmas cookies and beaded pens for Christmas gifts. I looked through all her family scrap books and heard all the latest family joys and dramas.

I think these different thanksgiving day experiences are representative of my life over the past five years—moving around, joining in others' communities every year, not staying in one place long enough to have my own. Lately when people ask me “where are you from?” I have a hard time answering it. I was especially thrown off when I went to Philadelphia and in the context of that conference, I was from LA—that’s where I work and that’s what I was presenting on. I have so many people and places that are a part of me, I’m getting to the point that I feel like I am from nowhere and everywhere all at once!