A day of thanks.

Today is Thanksgiving. While I have spent Thanksgiving away from my family before, I have always spent the day with a family - if not my own then with another's whom I am close to. This Thanksgiving, however, was not usual in that sense. Today I spent with friends, and with friends of friends, trying to communicate across languages that no one spoke very well and coming up with/explaining strange English idioms. Today I needed to phone two numbers to speak with my parents, one of which I had never dialed before. Today I woke to an empty house, and watched the Macy's parade alone with my eggs and my tea. It was not a bad day. I had a lovely time, and shared many laughs, and only now have lost my voice. (I have been quite sick over the past couple of days.) I do not regret the day, nor the circumstances that have brought me here - quite the opposite. But there were several points along the way in which the strangeness struck me. I've never woken alone before. There was always someone waiting to greet me to say hello and "happy day!" There was always someone else in the car on the way to wherever we were going. I never had to call twice. It is a poignant reminder of my choices, and the situation in which I have placed myself. And in the end, I'm glad of it. I had a wonderful day, I don't mean to say that I haven't, really. I'm happy with where I am in my life, and proud of the decisions I've made. But when you have a big, loud, at times overly-affectionate family, spending the holidays in a certain amount of solitude strikes a chord that is at once both a pleasant change of pace, strikingly unfamiliar, and just strange. You are both glad to get a break but confused at the scenery change, and almost more confused by how much you miss them. An interesting paradox.

Also, I got Rick-rolled this morning by the Foster's Imaginary Friends float at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. How blissfully uncool.

Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna turn around and desert you...