A Very Driven Thanksgiving

Howdy. Not indicated in the title is that I'm Jonathan, son of Sue. As is indicated by the title, my thanksgiving was spent in a car.

That's not completely true. There were several hours where I ate delicious turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, and whatever else people usually eat when they drive all over southern California eating Thanksgiving meals.

My simple plan was as such: I would drive south of my home in LA, stopping everywhere I could for a meal (3 places). My sister Emily and I ate a wonderful turkey dinner in Pico Rivera in the afternoon. In the evening, I hoped to meet my mom for some kind of Thanksgiving dinner (these dinners have ranged from non-traditional (the time we ate at a Carl's Jr. near the hospital) to very, very non-traditional (the time I forgot my mom went to Utah, so I just ate some turkey at her house without her)). In keeping with the past, meeting my mom for Thanksgiving proved more difficult than expected.

My mom, being a hard working lady, was at the hospital for Thanksgiving. I, being a hungry person, visited her hospital in the evening after her shift had ended. This is where difficulties began to mount. My phone, having been lost for days, ran out of batteries and was of no use. Worse, my phone has rendered my brain useless when it comes to phone numbers (it remembers them 100% accurately, whereas I remember phone numbers only by accident). So when I needed to call my mom to arrange a meeting place, I had no phone and no number.

After using my wits to get the right number, all I needed was a phone.

No problem, I'll just drive to a nearby payphone where... Oh, that's right, there are 4 payphones left in the continental United States, and none of them are in California. Maybe I'll just use the phone at the information desk... which I've been informed is for local calls only. Moving on.

If my situation isn't rosy enough for you, at this point I've figured out that I've completely lost my car.

Let me say that I have never had a problem finding my car. I do not need an antenna ball or fireworks or smoke signals to find my car in a parking structure (my guess is that having been filled with turkey, yams and various other buttery treats, my brain went into "buttery comfort thinking" which basically just means I was thinkng about more turkey and yams instead of which level I left my car on).

I wandered this lot for a good half-hour, at first poking my head around corners to check if I could see my car, since I was pretty sure it was on 2 or 3 or 4... one of the numbered levels to be sure. This was followed by what we all know to be utter defeat while searching for a car: I went to the top and just walked all the way around the structure. It was on level two, obstructed by two very, very large silver SUVs, which I assume were plated with lead because they blocked my Whoop Whoop (keyless entry remote) every time I used it on level two, holding the button hoping to hear at least a faint "whoop whoop".

Anyway, I went to Orange County and ate some pie with friends, then finally caught up with my mom at 11pm in Corona. We arranged a future date, when somewhere, at some time in that bright, shiny thing we call 'the future', we will eat a meal and pretend it isn't February.

Hooray for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving at Work

Each year as a full-time nurse working in a hospital, I have to commit to work Holidays. Last year I worked Christmas. This year I worked today, Thanksgiving, and I will work Christmas Eve. The good news is that I get overtime. The bad news is that I miss out on the family things.

However, today's turkey dinner was very enjoyable!

We had a whole turkey, yams, potatoes, gravy, and a divine butternut soup. Of course we had the staple of every hospital potluck---potato chips and soda. That's because there are plenty of workers like me who may not know how to cook, but know how to run through the Quickie-Mart.

Hey don't worry, we all took care of our patients in between eating.

I don't recommend Thanksgiving in a hospital, especially if you don't work there, but I will say that it isn't a bad way for a nurse to spend a holiday.

However, I would have rather spent it together with you all. Sue

Happy Thanksgiving!

Come on back here and show and tell how Thanksgiving went!