Thanksgiving 2006

Wow, now I know why I have such great potential to be a party-animal. It runs in my blood. The past few days at my house was really fun, actually, despite the fact that "quiet and calm" became extinct, abstract myths. For a short few days, I had a taste of what it feels like to live in a large extended family. For one thing, you don’t ever really feel lonely. There are too many people jabbering away at any given time that loneliness doesn’t stand a chance. For that matter, neither does sleep. Every night, we were up til 2 or 3 AM. Saturday night, I basically pulled an all-nighter and didn’t hit the sacks til 6. And I wasn’t alone either. My mom, who usually is a walking zombie when the clock hits 10 PM, was still up chatting happily away at 2:30 AM in the morning. I don’t know what was in that tea she had, but it’s powerful.

Then there was the food. Oh say can we eat, by the dawn’s early morning early noon early afternoon late night late late night. Eating, smacking our lips together, chomping, we were constantly feasting. Every meal was scrumptious, I felt the full burden of the Haves this weekend.

Of course this weekend was not without its toll. I raked leaves on Friday in preparation of our guests til my two arms quaked in protest. Later that evening, they burned with hell’s mighty fury, boy did they sting. I had to down some Tsingdao beer to dull the pain. Again, my biceps fail me.

I also learned (sort of) how to play Go. It’s pretty high level stuff. While I watched these two men play Go, one of them began psychological warfare 101. He said stuff like, “We don’t need to continue playing out this region. You’re a goner anyway, you’re not gonna outrun me here, I’ve got you completely surrounded, there’s no point in going on.” Etc etc. it’s funny. It’s even funnier the way he said it. He said it in a very smiley, affable manner, but he was also quite serious. So you know he wasn’t just trying to bully you into submission, he truly already believes the battle’s been won. The guy that played him lost all three matches, even when given an advantage at the beginning.

Hm…yeah, I had a good Thanksgiving break. Did you?