Turkey... and a Turkey

Otherwise known as Having It All...

Today began with eggs, bacon, and copious amounts of coffee.  There are few things that I enjoy more than a lazy morning drinking coffee and talking over issues of the day.  After breakfast, I showered, put on my cute new curve-hugging dress, and took off on a drive to find a stretch of at least four miles that was relatively flat for tomorrow's eight mile training run.

My quest, in a word, failed.  Kind of.

I drove around my aunt and uncle's town, and the sidewalk kept ending.  Not good.  The speed limits are too high to comfortably run without sidewalks for fear of becoming road kill.  I took off down the highway to my grandmother's town, whose roads I know very well.  I found a circular path that was exactly 2.8 miles long that started at my grandmother's house.  I could run the path twice, then run another mile farther, turn around, and end back where my journey will start.  The path is decidedly not flat, but it will do.  I told my parents, Anyway, I need a challenge.

Like running eight miles isn't a challenge enough.

After planning tomorrow's run, I returned back to my aunt and uncle's house, hung out for a few minutes while everyone finished getting ready, and then we took off for my cousin Marie's house, who was hosting Thanksgiving this year.  When we arrived, most of the guests were already there.  Marie got married earlier this year, and a few members of her husband's family were there as well. 

I chit-chatted for a bit with my cousins and their spouses, and looked around for my father, who had seemingly disappeared.  I found him outside, sitting on the deck talking with Marie's new family members, largely about southern Georgia.  One of them had brought corn bread and collard greens.  I had never seen those items at a Mom's Side of the Family function.  They talked outhouses, and farm life, and even a bit about Miami, where Dad grew up.  For me, it was the best of both worlds, reminiscing about my great-great grandmother's life on the farm in Extraordinarily Small Town Southern Georgia, and eating some down home southern food, spending time with my aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It was really, really nice.

The food was plentiful and delicious; the conversation lively, as usual.  I ate my fill, and then later picked at some more turkey.  My cousin's wife Dawn made a gorgeous chocolate trifle that was sooooo good.  After dinner, Marie's husband started a blaze in their fire pit, and Marie's kids enjoyed taking paper plates out of the trash and throwing them into the fire.  I couldn't watch anymore, and went inside to take in the Dolphins-Cowboys game.  It was very close, and being Miami-born, I of course wanted Miami to win. 

I was denied... but I didn't have much emotional investment in the game anyway.  You win some, you lose some.  And sometimes you just don't care all that much.  As we were getting ready to leave, one of Marie's husbands friends sauntered up to me. 

We haven't met yet... I'm Unnamed Cousin's Husband's Friend (UCHF).  I had seen UCHF coming into the kitchen to get a refill on his mixed drink all evening. I wasn't all that keen to meet UCFH... but now, I had no choice.  He was right in front of me.  The guy from The Date That Launched a Blog flashed before my eyes.  UCHF was looking me up and down, and I could tell he liked what he saw.

He made my skin crawl.  I'm Jen.  He put out his hand, I shook it, and looked around the room.  Everyone was doing their own thing... no one to come to my rescue.

Great.

What do you do?

I'm a school counselor.

Ohhhhh!  You're all educated and I'm... not.  Can you counsel me?  He looked me up and down again.  Ewwwww.

No-- you're outside my age range.  Not even a trace of humor in my voice. 

I'll spare you the rest of the conversation, but basically, he tried his best to make some kind of positive impression on me, and he failed.  I'll admit... I was a bit witchy, but you know, I was tired, ready to go home, and he was sooooo not my type.  And even if he was, the excellent date that I had on Monday precluded any possibilities of being interested in a drunk, middle-aged scruffy dude trying to impress me with the fact that he was about to move to Alabama.   (No disrespect to my friends in Alabama, but come on!)

My family and I left immediately following the exchange, and as I got into my aunt and uncle's car, I moaned, Nobody rescued me.  That guy was icky... and nobody rescued me.

Dad replied, Jen, I was aware of the situation, and were handling yourself just fine.

He was right... I was.  Still, it would have been nice for someone to have run a bit of interference. 

So for Thanksgiving, I both ate turkey... and met a turkey.  You might say I had it all.

I hope you all had a blessed, bountiful Thanksgiving.  I know I did.