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Thanksgiving blues...

Several days leading to Thanksgiving Day Adrian and i weren't sure who was hosting dinner. Wednesday evening my mom said it was Uncle Bu in San Diego (which meant i wasn't going.. more on this later). Last year Thanksgiving dinner was spent at the Las Vegas house (which we're renting out) . We drove out early in the morning to beat the traffic but by the time we got there i was sick as a dog and spent the the rest of the day in bed. In the evening after some medicine and a jar of orange juice i felt okay enough and decided to head out to the Vegas strip to play some poker (played for 4 hours drank more orange juice and lost $100.00... not bad). I already felt a fever coming down the night before so i should've stayed home because by the end of the night (after the casino) i had a full blown fever and i couldn't drive back .

Coincidentally this year's Thanksgiving was much the same. I came down with a cold & flu on Wednesday (thanks to Dayquil i made it through work) . This time i wasn't going to take any chances... i was staying home no matter what came up..... After work Kris called (i expected this because there was no work the next day... and if Kris called on a week night it only meant one thing.... Casino!). I explained that i was too sick to do anything.. Liar, he exclaimed. No i really am, i replied sheepishly. Okaaay so what if their were 2 feet of fresh snow that came down tonight would you be too sick NOT to go Snowboarding tomorrow?.. (this guy... yes come to think of it i was too sick, even for that... ) Yes, i said. This quelled his curiosity. What a barometer!

My friend Cathey then called and said she wanted to come over with her sister Anabell (i explained i was sick but she said she just came off the flu so it was fine). She considers me her bestfriend & she had just recently gotten engaged to be married so i'm pretty sure she wants to spend time yapping about that... (she considers me her bestfriend... mostly because i'm the only friend of hers of the opposite sex that hadn't tried to sleep with her...lol.. so dubious... note to friends: Don't get a woman for a best friend) I would much rather have spent the night on the couch staring at the television but if had disagreed with Cathey coming over i would've never heard the end of it.... she is a chatty one. So she came over and we ordered some Thai food... (i tried as much as possible not to stare at her sisters well endowed chest while eating... she might've caught me glancing once or twice... so).

On Thanksgiving day i felt even worse. So bad in fact that i slept through the whole Detroit Atlanta game (that's 3 hours... after sleeping for 1o hrs the night before). In the 4th quarter of the Dallas Denver game my sister showed up with 5 loads of laundry (she called me the night before and said she was coming over... i asked her to bring the charger for my DVDCAM which she borrowed for her European trip 4 months ago... which she forgot to bring for the 4th consecutive trip to my house). After the game i switched channels to TNT for the Cleveland Indiana game. Sometime during the game i dozed off again... then i woke up to my sister singing Blue Bayou on the Magic Mike, i tried to go back to sleep but my body had accumulated a total of 15 hours of sleep and would no longer budge.

Right before the Laker game at 7:30 PM my friend Jhay called (they were having drinks+dinner+poker at his brother new house in Canoga Park). I once again explained (this is the 3rd person now) that i was too sick to go anywhere... By halftime i dozed off once again (lol.. i guess the Dayquil was wearing off) but i woke up right in time for the 3rd quarter.. Kobe had outscored the Seattle Supersonics 29-26 in the first 14 minute of play... WOW i'm glad i woke up to see that... After the game i went to sleep then woke up at 2 am (to go pee) and found the lights in the living room, dining room, laundry room and den were still lit and was the TV... my sister just bailed without turning anything off.... but i was too groggy to get mad so i just turned everything off and went right back to bed.

Well that was my Thanksgiving day.. a bit uneventful but nonetheless meaningful. Despite spending the whole day on the couch in my Pajamas in front of the TV hoping the whole world would leave me be it was heartwarming to hear friends call, eventhough they didn't extend any apathy for my current state (lol... i don't either when friends are sick) the calls made me feel good. Seeing Cathey sent a pang of nostalgia through me (we used to hang out a LOT), i missed her tremendously (and oh she lost some weight... first thing she said to me). My sister eventhough a disturbance was good to see.. she even took some bigas (rice) and Spam (buy your own SPAM man!)

She is so ghetto (my sister). She had sardines and rice instead of the Turkey LOL.. Its Thanksgiving for crying out loud... have some Turkey. Last year at Adrian's birthday at this Fancy Gourmet Restaurant she ordered Salmon... and if you ever eat gourmet they're small portions and never need any condiments, anyway she ordered Salmon and asked the waiter for some tar tar sauce after one bite... haha

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Friday, November 25, 2005