December 1, 2003 Who Are These People?

Thanksgiving Day -- Jesus! We survived. That night I lay in bed watching Home for the Holidays, the best Thanksgiving movie of all time, or best holiday movie of all time for that matter. I've seen it a million times, but I was so excited because I'd never listened to Jodie Foster's commentary before, and I was in awe of her brilliance five minutes into it. She uses words like "infantilized." I love her, and I love this movie. However, Jodie seems to think that if you are under 23, you will neither appreciate nor get this movie. But I saw it for the first time when I was 20, and I loved it just as much then as I do now. It is hilarious and heartbreaking and genius. I honestly do not grasp why some people do not like it. I honestly think it's perfect. Dylan McDermott admittedly bugs me. Otherwise? Perfect. As for Thanksgiving, well, let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. My sister is mad at my brother. My brother is mad at my sister. I am mad at my brother because I am taking my sister's side. My aunt went crazy and read Memere's will that no one knew she even had, she left to me (and my sister) things like photographs and books and notes, and before all of this happened I grabbed a photograph of my great-grandfather and hid it in my coat that she ended up leaving to me anyway, and my other aunt flipped out, screaming about silverware, and stormed outside, and her son yelled at her that she was acting just like my grandmother, and it was all surreal and bizarre and ridiculous and I'd wager that we all felt a bit infantilized by the whole thing. We deconstructed it deliriously on the way home, and my dad pointed out that my grandmother had the last laugh by still managing to ruin Thanksgiving from the grave or if not ruin it then at least fuck it up a little. My mother had to change my great-aunt's diaper twice, and my cousin told us filthy jokes, and I just kept eating and eating and eating and eating, and my sister was sobbing by the end of the night, and my dad had to read something called "the true meaning of the cornucopia" and got through all of the vegetables before bursting out laughing on the plum -- "because life is just PLUM wonderful!" He could not hold it in for another moment, and certainly neither could we. The next day, Shelley and I went shopping, and she looked at me in bewilderment as I cheered while listening to the game on the radio, and all I could do was shrug helplessly, and that night we went out with some friends who were in town and ordered cheese fries at not one but two restaurants. Later we watched Days of Our Lives and really were quite beside ourselves when Sami chopped off Kate's head as it sat taunting her from atop a turkey's body and when Cassie fell dead and bloody out of the giant turkey piñata. Happy Thanksgiving! On Saturday, I went shopping for my Secret Santa and found out that S. is married. But that will have to wait for another entry. ::: About this time in ... 2002: 12/01: "I was a Brownie. I really hated it." 2001: 12/01: "The first time I saw Life as a House, I was with my sister. She first burst into tears when they started making home movies of their first days building the house." 11/30: "But he showed up at my house on his way home from work last night with not one, not two, not three, but four poinsettias." 2000: 11/28: "The doctor said some women even get little third nipples there, making me giggle and think about Chanandler Bong." 11/25: "Will it be fucking awkward until we have a few drinks in us?" 11/23: "Like all families, whether they want to admit it or not, our family is crazy." 1999: 11/29: "It was knowing that there really is such thing as a tesseract." get notified. journal archives © Copyright 2003 elb

"Nobody means what they say on Thanksgiving, Mom. You know that. That's what the day's supposed to be all about, right? Torture." Home for the Holidays