Thanksgiving weekend 2016

So, I promised you the saga of my most recent Thanksgiving adventures, and herein I pay my due thusly:

Last year I spent Thanksgiving working in a liquor store. Which, I mean face it, that's a pretty awful way to spend a holiday. Thanksgiving, of all the holidays, feels like the one that most of all needs to be spent with your closest loved ones. I guess this year that gave me one more thing to be thankful for.

I started a new job in August, which, at the time, meant I would have a four day holiday weekend. The idea of spending thanksgiving with my family in Washington for the first time since I moved set in very quickly and I was pretty excited. But when October arrived... a company-wide email was sent out telling us that the day after thanksgiving we'd be open. And that everyone was expected to work it unless they drew time off. I tried to take it off, but as a new hire I didn't have the necessary accumulated vacation time. And I wasn't going to claim I was sick. So I hatched a plan. A foolhardy plan. The kind of plan that only a hell-bent hooligan half mad and drunk on nonsense can dream up in his wild head.

My plan was to leave work the night before Thanksgiving, driving north and arriving at my family's doorstep later that night. We'd party the night away. Rise the next morning, move the festivities to our friends' home to enjoy a shared feast with a large throng of party goers, and then when all parted to go their merrier ways... I'd head back south again in time to go to sleep so that I could get up the next morning to work. Then... after I'd worked a day's worth of toil, it'd be back in the car with me and back up to Washington to spend the weekend with my family. Then I'd drive back to Portland Sunday night. That was my harebrained plan. And that's exactly what I did. Both drives north were fine. Relatively quick and painless. But both drives south were... harrowing. The drive home after Thanksgiving dinner was the worst of the two. It was a torrential downpour the entire way. At times the water on the road was so deep I could feel it beat against the floorboards of my car as the wheels struggled to grip the sopping pavement.

But I made it back. Twice. And I'm really glad I did it. It was fantastic to spend Thanksgiving just like I remember it. With the same people I've spent it with for years. I'd missed it. This Thanksgiving was infinitely better than last year's. And it was equally lovely to have a weekend dedicated to catching up with my family. I've missed them all so much. And it was good to see what they're all up to these days. I was able to spend some coveted time with my girlfriend too. For both of us, snagging just a couple moments together can really help ease the difficulty of distance. I miss her. But a few hours respite from our time apart tends to be pretty encouraging.

Anyway - that's it. For a saga it isn't, like, the craziest thing you've ever heard I'm sure. But it was a pretty adventurous weekend for me.