Thanksgiving with PJ Friends

I’m back to blogging, did you miss me? There was a series of titles I was going to use but have no forgotten them all. I’ll just attempt a brief recap of this year’s Thanksgiving which like all Thanksgivings with the Van Mercs, was the best Thanksgiving ever. Last you heard from me I was on the bus to Boston; it was not pleasant, my knees were jammed into the seat in front of mine and there was no Wi-Fi and it was running late. I left my home at 2pm and didn’t get to Van Merc Hill until 10PM. Emily picked me up at the Bus Station and took me home. Maggie was the only one of the fabulous Van Merc sisters home, the younger three were with Joe. I got an enthusiastic greeting at the door from Acorn, their new dog. He’s just under a year old and finds a new person with new smells the most exciting thing. There is nothing better for your self-esteem than a dog.

I spent the night on the couch which was fine even though I woke up in the night with a cat on the couch with me staring at me. The household is one Mom, Emily, four daughters Maggie, Cate, Elie, and Genevieve. I remember the names because of their association with British Royalty or British acting Royalty. It’s Princess Margaret/Maggie Smith, Catherine of Aragon/Kate Hepburn who portrayed Elinor of Aquitaine, Elie is Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Genevieve Bujold who played Anne Boleyn in Anne of a Thousand Days. I need the mnemonics. There’s the dog Acorn and the cats Freddie, Riley, and Athena. This was my first time meeting the latter. She did not think I was the most exciting thing ever. Dogs>Cats

On Wednesday Joe brought the other kids back and lent me his car and let me stay at his house. He was going away for the weekend, and I stayed at his place, nine-minutes away. I have not driven since my nephew’s wedding during Falcon Ridge, I don’t know how many years ago. I’d say it was just like riding a bike, but I can’t ride a bike.  I was totally comfortable driving and getting directions from Google Maps. Joe drove to the airport shuttle bus, and I drove from there to Van Merc Hill.

In the evening we got a visit from singer/author/photographer Genevieve, not daughter Genevieve or Genevieve Bujold who is very stuck up and never visited on Thanksgiving. We had pre-Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat, Acorn treated Gen’s arrival as the most exciting thing ever, I was yesterday’s news.  Genevieve aka Little G agreed with Acorn that Gen aka Middle G was the most exciting thing ever. I am Big G. I haven’t seen any of these people or animals since the plague came so this was all the most exciting thing ever.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. One member of our once-a-year family Mel wasn’t there. She has car problems. Then we realized that I had Joe’s car so I road tripped to Connecticut to pick up Mel. Its less than an hour away, a shorter trip than any commute I make to see friends in New York City. We then road tripped back on Southborough Massachusetts. This was my old life; I was the one with a car that drove friends everywhere. I love driving and I love helping friends. Once again Google Maps did all the navigating. Then we realized that Mel could also crash at Joe’s so at the end of the evening we drove back.

I just remembered how I spent Wednesday afternoon, Emily and I put together her brand new smoker! I love doing things like that. It was not easy and at one point we needed the help of Cate to get it off its side. It’s very heavy and any attempt at living ended up causing it to roll away from us. We could live it, but we needed someone to keep the wheels in place. Why did I just remember this? Because I was about to talk about the food. I do not like Turkey. I have never enjoyed Turkey, it’s dry and not tasty. Smoked is moist and very tasty. I couldn’t believe how good it was. Part of it was the heirloom turkey; far superior to the usual turkeys that were bred to have enormous breasts but not much else of value. We were joined by Laura and her kids. I know Laura from Falcon Ridge. I should know the names of her kids, I spent time with the two older ones, Zach and Cally. Now I’m worried that I’m confusing them with the Friday night guests the Kilroys. It’s their last name I remember. There was a lot of food and a lot of socializing and not as much sleeping, so my memory is getting ragged. In addition to the Turkey there was blue mashed potatoes and potatoes au gratin, For dessert there was chocolate pie and cheesecake! You can’t really expect me to remember anything else.

Friday was the annual appearance of my friend Kathy who came from Marblehead. Even though that’s also roughly the Boston area it’s further than Mel’s house in Connecticut. She came with her daughter … daughter … I always know her daughter’s name and now I’m blanking. This summer she cycled the path of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Pretty damn cool. Kathy was her car support for much of the trip. I learned a lot of L&C facts. By using averted vision, I immediately remembered her name including spelling, Meghan. Remembering that there are alternate spellings is part of my memory process. It’s how I learned Kathy’s name, its not Cathy. Kathy is a music friend that I’ve known for about 15 years. We had some shop talk. The highlight of dinner was our annual tradition Bacon Tart. It’s bacon, cheese, and potatoes, and plenty of each.

Friday and Saturday were PJ days. Mel and I never got dressed, we just drove over in our jammies. That’s how I usually spend my time there. You should only spend Thanksgiving with friends with whom you feel comfortable in my jammies.

What night was Emi there? It’s all blending together. Emi lived there for a while and is now in college. We bonded over comic book based TV shows and movies. Speaking of which Saturday was movie night. After I drove Mel home, they set the living room up as a movie theater. How? They have two identical couches, they remove the legs from one and put it in front of the other. I was in an easy chair off to the side. We watched some Disney shorts, and the Antman after Little G went to bed and Maggie died Cate’s hair blue. I should have taken pictures. In addition to the movie, we had popcorn, pizza, and ice cream. A dream night for a kid or me.

This morning I cleared my things out of Joe’s and drove back to Emily’s. We had a visit from Jim and Carolyn. Carolyn entered the picture as Emily’s 8-year-old art student. Moved on to being a real-life version of Dar’s Baby Sitter minus the boy drama. She is a Falcon Ridge regular so became my friend too. Jim is her father. He became a FRFF regular too and also my friend. These are definitely easy people. At some point in all this, I think this afternoon we watched the end of Frozen. I have never seen it.

Now I’m on the bus back home. I got there early and was smart and grabbled one of the seats that around a table. That means plenty of leg room and room for my bag and jacket on the floor. I have my computer on the table. The only issue is that the Wi-Fi and reading light don’t work. I also have someone sitting next to me. I guess I won’t get any reading done. I think I’m going to attempt to take a nap after posting this. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, so I probably won’t write again until Tuesday. I also have a radio show to write and record. I have the music sequenced. I’ll try and get it written on the ride home. In the mean time you should listen to the Thanksgiving edition of Gord’s Gold