Luke Melia

personal

November 23, 2001

11/23/2001, 2:00 am

A nice Thanksgiving. Hope you had one. I had one.

We went to my cousins’ place. They live on the same block as I do on the east side of the city. And yet, we basically see them once a year. And we really enjoy it. It’s a little odd, I suppose, but that’s what it is.

My cousin Anthony (who now lives in San Fran) and I speak more frequently than that and see each other in his city or mine a few times a year. I had touched base with him last week to check in and all was well. Between then and today, though, he was laid off from his job at a big video game company. Bummer. But, as he noted, it’s becoming something of a rite of passage for our generation.

This Thanksgiving, he brought his girlfriend Sasha home with him. I wasn’t sure what to expect of a woman Anthony would bring home, but now I know: a very cool girl. She grew up in Hawaii and it turns out that she knows our family friend Craig Couglar’s son Gulliver. I asked her because I dimly remember Gully from my visit to the big island in third grade, and figured that big island kids around the same age have probably met. Max’s girlfriend seems great, too. She’s pitching a show to MTV and seems pretty optimistic about her chances of getting it produced.

Several people have asked recently what a vegetarian like me eats on Thanksgiving, so I’ll try to recount this evening’s bounteous plate: sweet potato, broccoli rabe, vegan stuffing, portobello mushroom, cranberry sauce and seitan with peppers and onions. Dessert was (this is all made without refined sugar or dairy) two pieces of pumpkin pie, a piece of chocolate tofu creme pie, a bit of chocolate walnut pie, and a jelly drop cookie. Wow, I feel full again just writing that.

Before Thanksgiving, we visited my mom’s dad on the upper east side, who we don’t have a very close relationship with. We don’t see him much. so Mom makes it a point to pay a visit every Thanksgiving while everyone’s together. While there, we talked a bunch about our experiences on September 11th. People are going to be thinking and talking about that for years to come. I think WhereWereYou.org is a cool idea.

Closed out the night on Long Island playing some guitar with Willie and Monica singing along to Tangled Up In Blue, Mom doing vocals on Long Black Veil and Isabella and Jessie making up new words to Billy Bragg/Woody Guthrie’s Against The Law. Good motivation to learn some more tunes.

Now it’s time to rest up for a big brunch tomorrow. The music is stacked high and the food plays on…

Leave a Reply

LukeMelia.com created 1999. ··· Luke Melia created 1976. ··· Live With Passion!