November 26-30, 2013

Time to think about what went on last Thanksgiving time!

Tuesday, November 26.  My corpus linguistics class was cancelled, but when I went to my Old English class (I entered the building via a different door, since I didn't have class before it), there were only three of us there. Our professor told us that she would note that we were there that day and give us more points than the rest of the class, but she dismissed us. I might have gone to get pumpkin soup for lunch and get some Bookstore pumpkin fudge. Maybe I got the fudge after my writing class; I don't remember. Then I drove home. That night, I asked my mom if she wanted to watch Garfield's  Thansksgiving, but she didn't. That night before I went to bed, I made a Facebook post saying, "If you start your Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving, you can't be my friend anymore." I had had my smartphone for just over a week at that point, so I didn't have all the settings set how I wanted, so after I had gone to bed, my phone vibrated because someone had commented on the post. I think that was what made me figure out how to turn off the vibrating from Facebook, since I didn't want to keep being awakened at night.

Wednesday, November 27. My mom and I went to Costco in the morning, where we bought pumpkin and pecan pies. Then we drove out to West Valley because I wanted to go to Port of Subs so I could get a Pilgrim Griller, a sandwich with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. My mom liked hers, but they were expensive. Then we went to the Distribution Center, where I wanted to get a Pearl of Great Price manual and a MoTab CD, Sing Choirs of Angels, because I needed a recording of "Away in a Manger" for my hymns playlist. I was going to pay for them, but my mom did. Then we drove to Winegar's to grab a few more things. I wanted to listen to the Mamas and the Papas CD that was in the car, so I skipped to the album's later songs. As "Somebody Groovy" was playing, we saw a girl in another car dancing very energetically, and it seemed to match up with what we were listening to. Then we went home, and my mom took a nap while I updated my hymns playlist. Then I realized that I had two versions of "God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand"--one with an extra verse, and one with the verses out of order. That afternoon, I went running, and when I was going past the Bountiful golf course, I saw a bunch of wild turkeys. That made me so happy, and I decided that I would cross the street when I turned around so that I could see the turkeys better, but when I went back past them, the turkeys were all gone, even though they were close to my turning-around point. That night I turned on my Thanksgiving playlist while I helped clean. Allie and I helped peel apples for my mom to make apple pie. Eventually, she said we had peeled enough, so we could eat the apple that was peeled but not used. I was surprised when Allie immediately took the apple and took a bite out of it. I was going to cut it up to share.

Thursday, November 28. In the morning, my family had turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. One of the performers was Lady Antebellum, and they were singing songs from their Christmas album. Allie said, "Do you like her?" Later we had to go to my grandparents' house to pick up chairs. The 99.5 radio station seemed to only play commercials. I switched to 98.7, which was just talk, and the guy was talking about children's bodily functions. My mom told me I had struck out twice. Then I switched to 97.9, and Lady Gaga's "Applause" came on; my mom asked me who it was. A repairman came to take out our old, obsolete swamp cooler. While he was here, he agreed to do something else--maybe patch up the hole? I think he had been late. After he left, my dad asked me to help him turn the light fixture in the bathroom upside down, because it was too dark in the bathroom with the present configuration. He dropped one of the screws, and it landed in the sink, but fortunately I grabbed it before it went down the drain. My dad said he was glad I was there. Then I went running, and when I was near the Bountiful golf course, a kid, probably about 10, said, "Happy Thanksgiving!" I was a little disappointed not to see more turkeys, as it was Thanksgiving Day, but when I got home I made a Facebook post about seeing them the previous day. In the late afternoon, relatives started coming. When 2-year-old "Wallace"/Nathan came in, he called the Pilgrims on our front step "Grandma and Grandpa." Peter said, "Those are Pilgrims, not Grandma and Grandpa." They told me that Wallace knew the "This Is Halloween" song, so at one point he was lying on the floor, playing on an iPad, singing the song. I lay down on the floor to hear him, and as soon as I did, he got up and left, which Peter found funny. I think at one point he was "playing" the piano and singing "This Is Halloween." Peter was telling me that he had the Duck Dynasty Christmas album, and he told me I should listen to it to see if I thought it was so bad it was entertaining, or whether it was just bad, because he knew it was bad. Jesse and Lisa came, and Jesse told me how dismayed they were that his in-laws had their Christmas tree up and the kids there were watching a Christmas movie. The turkeys weren't quite done when we were ready to start, so we starting eating without turkey. Wallace ate my last candy corn sucker, and at one point he put his sucker down on Quin's shoulder--Quin was simultaneously amused and annoyed. (Later that evening, he asked where I had gotten the suckers, and when I told him Macey's, he said he wanted to go there.) After dinner, I was telling Susanne how much I liked the Buzzfeed article she had shared with all the GIFs. Susanne was showing them to my dad, and he was really laughing, even though he hardly ever laughs. Renee was looking and laughing as well. At one point I showed Susanne my roast turkey socks, and April was trying to get her attention and said something about "talking to your brother." After people had left, my mom and Susanne were saying that Renee was high on something. I turned on my Thanksgiving music while I did dishes, and my mom sat in the living room and sometimes sang along. She felt bad for not helping, but she had done a lot of work that day, and I was fine washing them. Then I went to bed.

Friday, November 29. I think that in the morning I started playing some of my new Christmas CDs. I loved the songs on the Lower Lights' latest album. That afternoon, we went to meet my aunt Sue and some of her family to go see Tangled, which was new in the theaters. When we got in the car, I put in the new Kelly Clarkson Christmas album. We were on the freeway when "Run Run Rudolph" came on, and my mom said it wasn't very Christmassy. Nan said she liked it, then asked who it was. When we were at the theater, waiting to go in, Wallace was identifying the animals on the display for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. We got in the theater early, as the previous showing was ending. I was looking at things on my phone, and my dad told me I needed to watch the credits so that I wouldn't watch them after the movie. We got to see the giant snow monster put Elsa's crown on after the credits. I was looking at pictures on Awkward Family Photos, and I was amused by another ugly Easter bunny picture. Throughout the movie, other viewers were laughing and overly enthusiastic; they clapped at the end. After the movie I went to the restroom, and Wallace asked where I had gone. Sue was telling my mom that one of the voices in the movie was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Nicole corrected her. Then we drove to my grandparents' for some reason. On our way there, we were having a conversation about American Idol winners--Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have been the most successful, but sometimes you hear about Daughtry, and Phillip Phillips has had decent success. I was confused with Kelly's singing "Just one cigarette more" in "Baby It's Cold Outside," since I thought she was strongly anti-smoking. I wanted to go to Target because one of the ads the previous day advertised walrus lounge pants, which of course I had to have. On our way to Target, we went to Home Depot. While my parents were looking at boring things, Susanne and Allie and I looked in the Christmas stuff. I found a blue-dyed poinsettia, which I thought was awesome, so I got it. When we got to Target, I was talking about what I should do with my poinsettia once Christmas was over. My mom said I should throw it away, as it's hard to get them to bloom again; I said I could give it to the office where I worked. We looked for the walrus pants and couldn't find them, but Nan found walrus socks. My mom was going to ask at the clothes help desk, and she discovered there was a cart near the desk with some walrus pants in it, but there was no tag. They told us we could buy them. We looked through the Christmas stuff and got some teal and pink ornaments for my new pink tree. I also got some Christmas-shaped Goldfish and Wheat Thins, and I might have got some Christmas Tic-Tacs. My mom got mint chocolate and peppermint white chocolate M&Ms. At some point on our outings that night, a car was driving down the road with their headlights off. I said, "I hope they crash into a pole." My mom and Susanne said, "You would say that just for not turning on their headlights?" and I said, "That's why I just said a pole." (I now agree that was too harsh.) I think that night I watched the Addams Family Christmas episode, and I think I also watched a Beverly Hillbillies episode. My mom watched with me (and encouraged me to watch more), as she was working on something in the room.

Saturday, November 30. At our house, Susanne said we should hide the M&Ms so Allie wouldn't eat more. She was dismayed and said she wouldn't eat more. I asked her why, then, she would be unhappy with them being hidden, if she wasn't going to have any more. I helped put lights on our tree. Then I drove back to Provo. I showed my roommate Scott my blue poinsettia, and I said if we had red and white poinsettias, it would make Fourth of July poinsettias. He said you couldn't mix holidays like that. I started some laundry, and Scott asked me why I didn't do my laundry when I was at home. I think I told him that I had done some of it. He went out and got a live Christmas tree and set it up with a friend while listening to Christmas music, including Debra Fotheringham's "With Wondering Awe." I think he popped popcorn and had a friend string it. I had things I had to do--maybe homework. I listened to samples of the Duck Dynasty Christmas album and texted Peter to tell him I thought it was entertainingly bad. He asked if I was going to add it to my playlist; I said no because I didn't watch Duck Dynasty. I think I was listening to my own Christmas music. This was back when Scott was still a decent person and would talk to us.