Thanksgiving 2004

For the past two years I traveled from Siloam Springs, Arkansas back home to Colorado for Thanksgiving, so I’m glad that I didn’t have to travel this year. Last year I made the trip with my friend Mike Glass. It took us about 13 hours, but we had a good time . . . well, maybe not a “good” time, but a memorable time, at least. We took turns driving, and while I was driving during one terribly boring stretch somewhere near Wichita, Kansas (I can’t be sure of our exact location because every part of Kansas is identical to every other part), he started pulling out his nose hairs with a pair of pliers. It was clearly painful, because he screamed like a little girl and his eyes couldn’t stop watering. I repeatedly told him to stop, but he didn’t listen. I think he might have been protesting the OAR CD we were listening to (we have different tastes in music). Strange that that should be the first thing that comes to mind when I think of last year’s Thanksgiving. Oh well, good times.

This year's Thanksgiving was out of the ordinary, because for the first time in a few years we had guests. When we lived in Guatemala, we spent our Thanksgivings with our pals the Wheelers at their house, but since returning to the U.S. we’ve been Thanksgiving hermits.

Three people joined us this year, all friends of my Dad’s from church:

Hannah: a half-Japanese / half-Korean woman in her early 40’s. She was very nice, but difficult to understand due to the fact that she spoke extremely fast and with a strong accent. She told us that she works on the Air Force Academy base and cuts cadet’s hair. She averages about 40 haircuts per day, but she said that she gave 100 haircuts one day right before July 4th. She promised to make sushi for us sometime.

JJ: mid 20’s, from New Mexico. He’s part of an unsigned band and has played shows all over the world. He was very outgoing and charismatic. After we ate, Joe and I showed him around downstairs, and he noticed all of Joe’s guitars and the drum set in his room. Joe played the guitar for him for awhile, and he was impressed and even offered to let Joe practice with his band sometime.

Russell: early 20’s, from Nebraska, currently JJ's roommate. Interestingly, he was blind and had a thick, black beard. From what I’ve heard from various people, he’s an exceptional pianist. He had a great sense of humor and kept the conversation going for most of the meal. As we were all finishing our pie, he said that he felt like he was a part of our family and wanted to come back for Christmas dinner.

The next few days we’ll have leftover turkey and pie for every meal (I had a big slice of apple pie for breakfast this morning). Ahhh, Thanksgiving is great.