FEAST OR FAMINE

I never used to like Thanksgiving dinners much. It was basically, my least favorite holiday. The turkey was no great sell. The cranberry molds were fair. Even the sweet potatoes never held any particular interest for me. Granted... the pecan and pumpkin pies caught my attention with a big bang, but regardless, I would never have considered Thanksgiving my favorite meal.

Well, not until 1986, that is. THAT Thanksgiving, I was lying in a hospital room, having had... get this... TWO hysterectomies. Don't ask. It was crazy. I had entered the hospital while Halloween decorations were being put up. By the time I left, confetti, the New Year's baby and Father Time were covering the walls.

My family was pretty upset about the whole ordeal thus they pretended to have as much fun as they could, while gathered at Claudia's, downing the traditional Thanksgiving meal. My OWN particular feast that year was basically that of being fed two separate antibiotics, dripping intravenously 24/7 into my body, which just happened to also have tubes stuck in every available orifice of my body. I was like a woman entwined in every flexible plastic known to man. I was also sporting about 20 staples encrusted across my entire abdomen. And, I might add... was in HOLY BA-HOLY PAIN!

Thus, for the first time EVER, while pain killers and medicine were my only foodstuffs that year, ALL OF A SUDDEN, OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY, it struck me that I was DYING! Not from being so sick, mind you. Dying from the mammoth, first in a life time, absolutely MAjor craving for A THANKSGIVING MEAL! I couldn't believe it! BOOM! I was going out of my mind, WISHing I could have stuffing, cranberry mold, sweet potatoes with marshmallows and even white turkey breast! OH MY GOD. This was an incredible, completely unexpected phenomenon. There I was... unable to even imagine my making it through the night and BINGO! In the flash of a second, Thanksgiving became my all time favorite feast of choice. WHO KNEW?? Talk about not wanting what you've got until you can't get it at all!

Which is why, THIS year, over 20 years from that startling Thanksgiving night in room 302 in South Miami Hospital, I can't WAIT for dinner tomorrow night! I'm going to love every F-ing MORSEL of the foods I eat, and trust me... I'll eat PLENTY. I'll be a regular Pilgrim AND Squanto by the time the night is over. I NEED SOME MORE APPLE CIDER, PLEASE. PASS THE SQUASH. HEY! WHERE'S THE VENISON??

Not only will I be savoring all the foods of the holiday but I'll also be thankful for all the many blessings in my life. God has been good to me, indeed, and I can only hope you TOO will be able to count as many blessings as I. I also that you'll be as thankful as I for how wonderful life has become. Therefore... Enjoy your family. Enjoy your friends. Most of all, enjoy the Feast! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!