Thanksgiving 2005

Hope all who celebrate the big-T had a good one.

Here's a snippet of a conversation I had with the mommy that might shed a bit of insight into my Thanksgiving 2005. The phone convo took place sometime last week.

Mom: Guess what?
Me: What?
Mom: We're having Thanksgiving at your place!
Me: My place?
Mom: Yup!
Me: Ummm...okay. Thanks for the one week warning.
Mom: You're welcome.

Yes, I had the whole Lee clan over for some turkey and crudite. Actually, it was much more elaborate than that. After about 4 hours of cooking my sisters, mom and I created the following:

Lemon roasted chicken (my family doesn't like turkey much)
Carmalized onion mac & cheese
Cornbread-mushroom stuffing
Kale with garlic & pepper
Sweet corn
Good-ole green bean casserole
The famous Lee family mashed potato with leeks
Jap Chae (korean noodles with veggies)
Wild mushrooms with onions korean style
Sauted morning blossoms korean style
Homemade gravy
White rice (we are korean afterall)
Grilled salted salry (it's a type of fish)

It was the perfect celebration of Neo-Korean-American tradition. I'm just amazed that 4 grown women were able to cook a full Thanksgiving meal in my tiny NY sized kitchen. Take note that all the food prepared was eaten by a total of 5 people. Yeah, we over did it just a bit...but we do that every year.

In other Thanksgiving news, I finally saw the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I live about 4 blocks from the proceedings so it was just a quick 10 minute walk to the route. Those floats are huge! The parade is much more impressive when seen with your own eyes. TV just doesn't do it justice.

All in all it was a lovely day filled with family and laughter.

This year I'm thanksful for all the things I'm always thankful for...you...yeah, that's right...YOU! Love you!

I don't feel a thing

This article from the NY Times about people in there 20s and 30s self-medicating on psychiatric medication caught my eye:

Young, Assured, and Playing Pharmacist to Friends

Okay, besides the obvious, that being that I can't believe there are people out there who so wantonly and callously abuse perscription drugs...Hello people!!! You're screwing around with your brain chemicals!!!...when did it become the goal of people to be perpetually happy and content?

So you feel a little sad and depressed or maybe you can't sleep for a few days. We're not wired to be happy all the time. Experiencing sadness, even depression, anxiety, and fear are all components of being a human. Of course, if you have a chronic debilitating level of any of these, by all means seek professional help and get the drugs you need (I say this because I don't want you to confuse my comments with Tom Cruise)...but I highly suspect that none of the people mentioned in the article really need the drugs. Come on, if you're lying to you doctor and exaggerating your symptoms in order to get a perscription you probably don't need the drugs.

Feeling a range of emotions is a good things...sloshing through a day and throwing yourself the occassional pity party is a'ok. Gosh, I'd be pretty damn afraid of anyone who didn't.

Non-sequitor: Sorry for the low volume of blogs in the last month. I'm kinda distracted right now...it's all good...just a little distracted. 30 is turning out to be pretty damn exciting.

Distracted attention

It's amazing how life can sometimes move forward and fall into a certain space without you realizing it. You wake up one day, look around and realize you're 30, have a lovely home, a nice job, two new white hairs, a new boy who puts up shelves and cooks you an occassional dinner, and a cranky right hip. Doesn't it always seem that it's when your attention is distracted and focused on silly little things that life somehow figures itself out for you?