Oh. Thanksgiving Week.
First of all, let me just start off by saying that I don’t need a holiday to remind me how lucky I am. Good family, good job, my sheer brilliance and extraordinary good looks, my humility, great tolerance for the ole sauce, ya know (blah blah blah).
I DO, however, need a federal holiday to get the day off, so I’ll take it.
As usual, though, the week before Thanksgiving, the shakes start to set in.
Not the “yay-I-can’t-wait-to-see-my-family-eat-a-lot-of-turkey-and-have-a-great-time” shakes or the “man-i-was-out-late-last-night-and-need-a-bloody-mary” shakes, but the “Jesus-H-Christ-Thanksgiving-is-already-here-I-haven’t-had-a-chance-to-get-a-therapist-up-to-date-of-the-bag-of-crazy-my-family-is” shakes.
Aside from the Gates of Hell opening and Lucifer‘s dog snapping at my heels, another tell tale sign the holidays are approaching is the litttttttle extra touch of neurosis in the conversations I have with my dear Mother, and the littttttttttttle extra grin on my friends face’s when they ask me what I’m doing for the holiday.
Please, don’t get me wrong – I love my family. And I love spending time with them, but there’s a limit. There’s only so long I can smile at my extended family before it starts to crack. In the recent years, there has been some tension between a few family members. You’d almost think my family was Protestant the way they avoid conflict, so its simply been festering.
This year, is different though. I’m mandated to go to Second Thanksgiving (yes, I’m being forced, against my will, to eat a second meal, and nope, we’re not Greek, just annoying), but I got the green light from Poppa Bear to behave as I see fit. I quote:
As far as expressing ourselves and saying what we feel, I see no reason not to espouse your feelings when given the opportunity.
and
So if you feel the need to tell them, please do, whether you filter it or not is up to you. I personally believe it would not be a bad thing to do, especially if you feel it would “clear some things up”
And if I don’t follow this advice, he told me to:
lighten up a little – Or Not, Soak a Tampon in Vodka, Insert and Enjoy
(honest to God, this is an excerpt from an actual email my pops sent me this morning. including that last bit)
The way I’m interpreting that is “say whatever you want, you’ll put on a show for us”
Let the games begin! Perhaps this holiday season will be fun after all. I mean, I wasn’t planning on boozing this week, but I kind of feel like it is in order. If anyone would like to volunteer to DD for me, so I can REALLY put it out there, HMU.
By the way, this was my response to my dad:
If the opportunity arises, you can rest assure I’ll be able to convey my feelings towards them and the situation they’ve created as coherently and intelligently as possible, and I’ll try not to use the 25 cent words so they can all follow along as best they can.
Told you I was brilliant.
joeyagogo 