Working Thanksgiving

I really miss Thanksgiving. Today Lorne asked me how I do it. You know, be away from family all the time, especially over the holidays. Really, really if you just don’t go on facebook it’s sort of easy to forget. Sort of*. But I don’t really want to forget. I would rather just enrich my current situation/location/relationships with the greatness that is Thanksgiving. Instead, I just use this day to be consciously thankful for everything. (Like the Met line to Uxbridge being on time, though I was not – re: making of the cornbread as described below.) Including being in London. Even if that really means I am not with my family when I want to be.

Whilst I am thankful that I am employed, I was not so grateful that I had to go to work today. So I organised an international Thanksgiving lunch at work where everyone brought in a dish from their homeland (our office comprises people from: England, America, India, Portugal, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Czech Republic, Hong Kong. We are only an office of 17). This meant that when I should be in bed. At home. In America. I was actually waking up even earlier to make cornbread dressing for my colleagues. It was tedious, but it felt good. I felt glad to be awake, enjoying the morning sun, acting on a promise to my colleagues to bring food and my tradition to the office. I felt thankful that I had that extra hour to drink an entire [large] cafetiere of coffee in my bed and pray and be thankful while I waited for the food to cook. I felt thankful that I am 27 and growing up and learning how to make my own tradition…even if it’s not what I really wanted. I was thankful to be thankful.

So here I am, with a full Thanksgiving belly. At work. Trying not to fall asleep at my desk and very thankful that I’m not wearing pants. Because they would be totally unbuttoned right now.

*Until your family calls you and reminds you that you are far away and missing out. And then you succumb to temptation and go on facebook and gobble up everyone else’s holiday and leave bloated with jealously and homesickness**

**Thankfully, this has not happened yet. I am 27 and mature, people. I’m better than that. Also, it’s not even 2pm. And not many people are awake in America so there isn’t much to gobble.