Thanksgiving 2017

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, which makes you wonder why I moved to Hong Kong. This is not a pumpkin pie kind of place. My roommates are Canadian, so their Thanksgiving is in October, but we always do it in November, as it should be.

Thanksgiving, proper American Thanksgiving, is about family and food. My roommates are my family, so they are always invited, whether we like it or not. I have not seen my biological family in years. They would say that is my fault. I say it is their fault. I'm in regular contact with a few people in Minnesota and they know about the recent bump on my head. So I can assume that my family knows as well. None of them have made any attempt to contact me. I would be genuinely surprised if they did.

Hong Kong has plenty of food. Maybe not traditional Thanksgiving food, but if you plan enough in advance, it can almost come close. This year, I can't taste anything. I can't tell the difference between a Birchwood caramel apple streusel pie and 湯圓. I could have had Thanksgiving dinner at McDonald's for all I knew. But we did not. We are not masochists. A quiet dinner at home was much better.

My boyfriend and I decided to take a break. Our second date was on Thanksgiving last year, so I suppose the timing was not too bad. Our problems have nothing to do with Thanksgiving, however. It was more selfishness than anything else, on both of our parts. But I'm going to go ahead and blame him.

And Thanksgiving was the day after my birthday this year. I have had better birthdays.

With no family, no boyfriend and flavorless food, I suppose I could sink deep into depression, but I have a lot to be thankful for. Not the least of which is that I live in a country where no one would point out that you are not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. Paul said it's getting better all the time. John said it couldn't get much worse. I agree with Paul. It could always be worse. In my case, it could be a million times worse. John was clearly a pessimist.