The day before Black Friday

Thanksgiving looms and Americans are today mentally if not physically preparing for The Meal. And if Wal-Mart is to be believed, some people are even buying special plates and spoons to be used for this one meal only. Like a good New Yorker I will be paying someone else to make my T-Day dinner, mentally and physically. (I blame this on the city, but I'd be doing this wherever I lived. I'm giving someone a job. Yes, you're right to feel shamed, turkey cookers.)

The college is offering a full Thanksgiving buffet for $20, which includes wine. I don't even like turkey, but sleep well knowing that I will eat at least half the ticket price's worth of mashed potatoes and, if all goes well, drink more than the ticket's worth of wine. Judge not; this is my tribute to frugality, and I'd expect you to do no less. In addition, if you haven't noticed, Christmas is the next holiday after Thanksgiving. Christmas is the Dark Ages of the year, a period of cultural decline and the death of all things enlightening and Good, so if I need to drink my way through Advent I think it best you let me. Happy birthday Jesus. Sorry we suck so much.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We've invited our parents down to the big city to spend the food-focused day with us Thursday. Rumor has it a local department store organizes a parade, so we'll be heading downtown Thanksgiving morning to see if this is true. The family is coming in tomorrow night, so we'll be going to watch the balloon inflators do their thing, which will likely be awesome and likely render us less obligated to wake up early on parade morning to get a viewing spot. Fingers crossed, our parade-watching manner will lean more toward lackadaisical than enthusiastic. The weather forecast for Thursday is 56 and cloudy, and for this I am thankful. Then it's back to the hometown for a few days to visit friends and family and rock to Bad Hair Day and watch a friend get married.

So if I don't say it later, have a happy Thanksgiving.