Happy Thanksgiving

It�s that time of year again in the True North Strong and Free where we give thanks (I�m not all that clear to whom and for what), but what it amounts to is LONG WEEKEND!!!!! And what do we do on long weekends, Joey? Why, we hop in the car and drive for seven hours straight (eight if we stop for lunch) to the land of my forebears, Torontario, so we can visit the ancestral home and the last remaining ancestor. Then we drive another hour the next day with said ancestor to my husband�s ancestral home in Guelpho to visit his ancestors and participate in a giant pigout, otherwise known as Thanksgiving Dinner which, I have been assured, is going to be vegetarian in our honour. Unfortunately, vegetarian usually means �salmon�, and while salmon is the one perfect food that is best left unadulterated, it has usually been tampered with in all sorts of horrible ways when it finally gets to us. For example, why take a perfect food unto itself, smother it in a cream sauce and wrap it in puff pastry, and then give it a fancy name like �Salmon Wellington� when just plain barbecued or broiled would do?

Then, the place will be overrun with people who, while genetically unrelated to me, are still considered family and must be tolerated. So strange that my brothers-in-law and their wives are not my kin whatsoever, but their children share genetic material with my children, which makes us related, right? I have never been good with crowds, and I recall my first several family gatherings with the in-laws spent barricaded in the bathroom to escape the general melee. Also, there were small children running around then, and I've never really liked kids, especially small ones, which gave me a rather unsavoury reputation as a mean aunt. It wasn�t until I had bambini of my own whom I had to watch like a hawk that I actually got out of the bathroom and became �sociable�. (sigh�)

Added to that the fact that my in-laws and I have very little in common, except for their son/brother/uncle (pick one), and conversations are lean on what interests me. Imagine trying to talk to my sister-in-law about art or music. They know plenty about expensive vacation spots in the sun, but they spend all their time on the beach, in bars and restaurants, scuba diving, etc., and do not venture within the doors of art galleries or museums. Boooooooooring!

And they never seem to be interested in what I�m interested in, nor do they know the right questions to ask. Whenever I come out with something new and different, they are always so surprised. Oh, we didn�t know you did that! Well, just ask, ladies and gentlemen. You�d be surprised at what you don�t know about me, even though I�ve been married to your son/brother/uncle (pick one) for 21 years!

To top it off, I won�t be able to get away from my own ancestor at all. Ever since my father died, my in-laws, bless them, have invited my mother to all their family gatherings. They would have had both of them before, but my poor father was in such bad shape towards the end that he wasn�t going anywhere. They even had my mother and us stay over when we went to that wedding in Hamilton last summer, which was very decent of them. They are salt-of-the-earth folks, there�s no question about that. But, to get back on topic here, while I love my mother very much, I can only take her in small nibbles, and these quick weekend visits verge on the intensely insane.

So, what it comes down to, for the discerning reader, is that I have a problem. These people with whom I am forced to spend several hours this weekend coming up are wonderful, warm, loving, good human beings, and I am the one who doesn�t fit in. I am the one who doesn�t appreciate them. I�m bad, I admit it!

It also means that I will be parted from my precious computer for three whole days! Boo hoo! No Literati on Yahoo, no Diaryland, no MSN. I�ve been deprived before, I can take it! Just watch! When I return, late Monday evening, I will be full to bursting with stuff to write about, just wait and see. But the question is, who besides myself would even be remotely interested in reading it?

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