06 Dec Times Like These

Times Like These

Foo Fighters

(2002)

I’m finally writing a happy blog post!

Thanksgiving is a weird holiday. I realise I’m a little late with this entry but life’s been a bit hectic recently. I was lucky enough that a classmate and her family opened up their home to me for the holiday. So I spent the best part of a week down in Santa Cruz, escaping the bad air in San Francisco caused by the wildfires. I did a lot, I saw a lot, and drank a fair amount too. Monterey Bay Aquarium was a particular favourite, mainly because they have both sea otters and penguins which are some of the cutest animals on the planet.

The best part of it though was that I was in a home, in a family environment. Being away from home you start to realise that, even though they seem tedious and humdrum when you’re there, the everyday workings of family life make up so much of the soul. I didn’t even realise that I was missing it that much until I encountered it so strongly at my friend’s house. Small, seemingly insignificant things. A pot of coffee brewed ready for when you wake up. Access to a dishwasher. Eating dinner while watching Jeopardy.

From what I can tell from the week, Thanksgiving is essentially like Christmas without presents (which is sort of nice) but it takes place in the middle of term time, and no one really mentions the genocide of this country’s indigenous population. It also requires eating a ridiculous number of carbs. That and pumpkin. I swear by the end of the week I was 98% pumpkin- it was in the muffins, in the souffle, in the pie, we even had pumpkin flavoured coffee. I’m incredibly glad that I like the taste of pumpkin because clearly, it is an essential element of the holiday.

The holiday is also (unsurprisingly) about being thankful for the things in your life. I will be eternally grateful to that family, who in a moment of uncommon kindness, opened up their home to a relative stranger so that they could share this most American of holidays with an uninitiated Brit. That, and trying pumpkin pie for the first time.

EMP

It’s times like these you learn to live again

It’s times like these you give and give again

It’s times like these you learn to love again

It’s times like these time and time again