for thanksgiving day i drove to sac from the bay area. i figured it would take a little longer than the usual 1.5 hours, but i did not realize just how bad it would really be.
i’d misremembered the email and thought dinner was going to be earlier than what it was actually scheduled for. and i’m sure we’re all familiar with how being hungry can add to the difficulties of traffic. we were creeping slowly along when i decided i needed some something if i was going to make it to my cousins’ house in one piece. i pulled off at an exit which advertised several fast food places and treated myself to a nostalgic cheeseburger and fries from a drive through. since everyone was driving to dinner and apparently afraid to ruin their appetite, it was the fastest drive through experience of my life.
still, i had to wait for the light twice, and paused to unwrap my straw. you can imagine my surprise and frustration when i got back on to the highway and noticed i was still surrounded by the same people! no kidding! there was the suv with the two bikes on the back, one a little girl’s strawberry shortcake bike with a big strawberry in the middle of the spokes. and there was the same prius with the same personalized license plate. i was really glad i’d gotten something to eat.
i arrived late at my cousins’ house to the normal noise and confusion. the turkey wasn’t cooking fast enough for the starving masses so they’d carved it up and finished the bits in the microwave. not what jo would have liked, but she also wasn’t interested in the revolt that was stirring. eight screaming children under 5 years old and their hungry parents just don’t care if it’s microwaved.
between the two brothers s and j there are 17 grandkids. this holiday saw eight of the 16 under seven years old and the one young teen girl, who is stuck in between the major age groupings of under 7 or over 30. but this year she had a little company in the in between. one of the cousins was divorced earlier in the year and brought his new girl around to meet the family. what a boisterous introduction, i felt a little badly for her. aside from this being the first time she’d met the vast majority of them, she’s also in her mid 20s — much younger than he is. i know, i know, sometimes that works but there was something about her that really said Young, with a capital Y. she seemed really sweet, though, so maybe it was just being overwhelmed by this loud family. and by loud i mean sometimes i couldn’t hear the person i was talking to.
jo and s asked my to stay over instead of trying to drive home with all the potential traffic and drunk drivers and accidents. on the way in, one of the families had seen an accident featuring a man standing out beside the cars with his hands behind his back and officers with their weapons drawn. it seemed safer to have me stay over to sleep off the tryptophan and drive home when there were less people on the road.
the whole experience was a celebration of bounty — of traffic, of family, of food, of children, of love, of conversation, of noise, of energy, of concern, of happiness.