Giving Thanks

Well, I totally failed at NaBloPoMo, but I did post significantly more often this month than I have in recent months. So that is a success.

This year was my fourth Thanksgiving in England. In the previous three years, I had gone to the College's Thanksgiving dinner. They were fun, but I was ready for a change. So this year, when I realized that (a) I wasn't close with many Americans in my College any more, (b) the ones I'm friends with had other plans that night, and (c) we weren't allowed to bring guests (which made some of the previous years so much fun), I decided to take matters into my own hands and make alternate arrangements.

I managed to convince Elizabeth that we should have our own Thanksgiving this year. She was gracious enough to host it at her house (a plus because she has an oven and space to actually have people over), and we encouraged enough of our non-American friends to help us ring in one of our more important holidays.

We were all very nervous about how it would turn out. Elizabeth and Andy made the turkey, something none of us had ever done before. We didn't own many of the cooking utensils required for such a large scale meal: I bought mixers and measuring spoons, Elizabeth bought a meat thermometer and a baster, we both bought all matter of roasting pans. It also took a bit of effort to find everything we needed. Elizabeth had to special-order a turkey from the butcher because they don't normally do them this early. Her mom sent her corn bread mix and canned pumpkin, which we put to good use. I also had to hunt through several stores to find sweet potatoes and had to search the Internet for a pumpkin cheesecake, as ready-made pie crusts are impossible to find and I don't have the resources/space to make my own.

But in the end, the result was impressive. The turkey was delicious, and all the sides came out great: Andy and Andrew made two kinds of mashed potatoes (one had cheddar cheese on top), Corwin brought peas, Elizabeth made stuffing and cranberry sauce, I made sweet potatoes and corn bread. Mark kept us well stocked with wine and Elizabeth made Christmas Glug, a Finnish mulled wine-type of drink (she used to live in Helsinki). Eleanor joined us later on just as we were finished stuffing ourselves, and then we all had pumpkin cheesecake (made by me) for dessert.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's hard to mess it up. The most recent ones have been a little strange because I haven't been with family, but I like the idea of sharing American traditions with my non-American friends and spending time with them.

Check out the photos on the Flickr.

Betty's dress code

I was watching Ugly Betty yesterday when I had this realization. If you watch the show, have you ever noticed how Betty has a thing for scarves and bowties and tying weird things around her neck in general? Observe:
The bottom one is from the most recent episode, and it made me think of a few things:

• I know some of the clothing combinations she wears are hideous, but part of me thinks that if she'd lose the thing around her neck, the outfit wouldn't look quite so ridiculous.
• What 24-year-old ties scarves around her neck in that way? I do wear/own scarves, but I don't tie them around my neck like I'm a secretary from 1983. I know some people march to the beat of their own drummer, but Betty feels so eager to fit in that it surprises me that she doesn't try to dress more like people around her.
• This is the big thing: don't big deal companies have a dress code? I know the standard is more business casual these days, but even business casual companies have guidelines of what is acceptable. I would think this would especially be the case in a fashion magazine, not unlike the way they were in The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda was around. Not that I have any fashion magazine experience, but I feel like Christina and anyone else in wardrobe would be dropping dresses and Jimmy Choo heels at Betty's desk and telling her to wear them the next day.

I know this is supposed to be all played up for laughs, but the more I looked at Betty's ridiculous outfits last night the more I thought, "This would never happen in real life." Don't get me wrong - I l o v e the show, and if Betty started dressing normally, there wouldn't be a show. I just never realized how much of it is played up for laughs/dramatic effect.

Little black dress

I'm in the market for a dress. I don't really need one, but I like shopping for dresses. In particular, I'm looking for a dress for my friend's wedding in June (and since I'm going to weddings in July and August, I'll probably wear it then as well). So I've been surfing the websites of some of my favorite shops for ideas.

I've noticed that if you click on "dresses" on these websites, it brings you to a lot of subcategories, including "black dresses."

Have a look at this page of "black dresses." Does it seem like there's one that doesn't really belong?I know it's got black on the bottom, but would you really call that a "black dress"? Just wondering.

Whoops.

I guess I missed posting yesterday, and I didn't even remember until it was far too late to backdate something. Oh well. It was a weird day, with meetings, not feeling so hot, and unbloggable stuff (nothing bad, just the nature of what we do). I don't know how I feel about this writing every day thing - I guess it's good practice, but when I don't have anything to say, it sure feels like a chore.

Tonight is another Entz night. So I'm gonna be busy. Fingers crossed that it's a quiet night.....

Random Bullets of Waiting for the Laundry to Be Done

• Lately I've been having a lot of activities - meetings, etc. - that take place in the middle of the day. I feel like it's hard to get work done around them - I'd be a lot more focused if I could get something done and have a big chunk of time to do other stuff.
• Of course, it would also help if I were a morning person. When I absolutely have to get up, I can do it. My last three trips home involved ridiculously early flights, including one where I had to wake up at 2 am. And I did it every time.
• Today I had my first lecture on Rhetoric and Golden Age Literature. It's not absolutely necessary, but it's a good review. I love the lecturer, because he actually lectures in Spanish. That's very rare here. But I love it because it forces me to focus and it keeps my Spanish up.
• The mysterious illness has been a semi-stomach bug (everything I eat bothers my stomach, not much appetite) and a cough. Thank God I am well-stocked with Robitussin.
• The college just got ten new washers and ten new dryers this summer (August). Three months later, five of the dryers are broken. I know it's ridiculously unproductive, but they should shut off five of the washers as well so the washing doesn't get backed up while people try to cram their stuff into half the number of dryers.
• I also think the dryers are much smaller than the ones in the past. And we're getting charged the same amount. Ripoff!
• I discovered today that the notebook where I keep all my Cervantes-related notes is almost full. (Last year, after realizing I had notes in three different notebooks, I transcribed everything into one.) I actually like the feeling of finishing a notebook and starting a new one. Unfortunately, I'm addicted to buying stationery, so I have lots of unused notebooks waiting to be filled up!
• The theme of the College's undergraduate party this weekend is "American High School." I'm very curious to see what they'll do for it - I'm guessing lots of jocks, cheerleaders, girls in school uniforms. I almost thought about having my parents ship my high school letter jacket so I could wear it. (Yes, I have a letter jacket. I lettered in softball and volleyball, but only because they gave letters to the managers!)
  
• It was very cute to see what they did for their 1990s party, as many of them were born in 1989-1990 and probably don't remember the decade all that well. A lot of them showed up in neon, sporting the Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan kind of look. Umm, no, sorry. The 1990s was the grunge era - we wore flannel.
  
• I can't believe how fast these months are flying by. Christmas is any day now.
• And I'm thinking Christmas is a good time to ask for one of these.