A New Yorker's Thanksgiving

I have always been really lucky growing up. I have gone 20 years without every having to miss a Thanksgiving. I went to college two hours away from home, so to miss out on deep fried turkey, football, and free laundry would just be silly. As you know, I am a little more than 2 hours away, more like 24, so I had to miss the Odom family Thanksgiving this year. I spent my Thanksgiving in the Big Apple.

My week started off pretty rough. I got sick Monday after class. I knew something was wrong when I passed up the free Thanksgiving meal in the Residence Hall I live in. I don't remember much about Tuesday and Wednesday. It involved a lot of sleeping, medicine, and Grey's Anatomy. After not leaving my room for almost 3 days, I started to get a little crazy. I also couldn't help but pout about the fact that I was not in Missouri with my fiance and family.

I was determined to leave my room on Thursday. I would not spend my Thanksgiving in solitary confinement! I set my alarm for 5:45 AM and I met my crew on 6th Ave. for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I watched it every Thanksgiving since... forever so I felt obligated to see it in person on my first Thanksgiving in the city. We were standing in a space by 7 am, just in time to... wait. Finally at about 9:47 the Macy's balloons passed. I felt like I was in Disneyland for the next couple hours. We saw everything from Kanye West to the US Pizza team to ICarly. In true holiday spirit, moments after Santa's sleigh glided past, it started to snow. Now we haven't had snow at all this season, and it wasn't in the forecast to snow. I am convinced Macy's paid for the 5 minutes of snow, but I have to say, it was magical.

After the parade, a girlfriend invited us out to her home in New Jersey to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family. I had never been to New Jersey, but off to New Jersey we went. We went through Penn Station, where half of America happened to be traveling (in case we had not seen enough people on 6th Ave). Once we made it through the mayhem, we were on a train to Jersey. They lived in a cute little home, with a cute dog, and best of all: IT WAS QUIET.  We had the traditional Thanksgiving meal. I even was able to see a little but of the Dallas Cowboys game (although this would have been the year to miss that tradition).

I did learn a few things in Jersey, like the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. I have never even heard of yams until I was in the north. They taste like sweet potatoes, look like sweet potatoes, they must be sweet potatoes. I figured the people up here just call it something funny. Not the case. They are actually an entirely different vegetable, that just happens to taste just like sweet potatoes. Go figure. I also learned that it was common for many New Yorkers to cater their Thanksgiving meals, because their kitchens are so flippin small, they cannot cook in them. If there is no space to cook Thanksgiving dinner, then you know there is no space to deep fry a turkey. New York, let me tell you, you are missing out.

Overall, I survived my first Thanksgiving. I was so thankful to have a home to visit (even if it wasn't mine) and an chance to get out of the busy city, but I could help but miss the old Thanksgiving. 20 years of my family Thanksgiving, I can't just give it up, cold turkey!  he he he

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody