Happy Turkey Day
Happy thanksgiving! It is Thanksgiving and my whole family is here from Colorado and Texas. Haven't seen my younger brother and his girlfriend yet, but they'll be coming soon. We're going to my cousin's house in Purchase. Normally, I host the dinner at our house. In spite of not having to cook this year, I went ahead and prepared the entire traditional feast. We'll have a second Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. My mother and I cook this meal together every year and I love doing it with her. Normally I'm not much of a cook, but I make a delicious Thanksgiving meal (with mom's guidance, of course). How could I give up the tradition of cooking with mom? I couldn't! I also wanted leftovers this weekend, plus, my house must smell like Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day. It must! And now it does. All this led to my cooking the redundant meal and my whole family thinks I'm nuts, but whatever.
We have to drive nine people up to Purchase so Mark rented a giant van that he's planning to drive. I hope he can handle such a big car. We don't own a car because you really don't need one in Manhattan.
Once we owned a car. I was in Florida on a business trip, on my way to the airport to return home. In my rental car, I drove past a beautiful 1963 red Cadillac Ed Dorado on the side of the road that was for sale. The woman who worked for me, Alex, suggested we stop and take a look. It was just so fabu looking. Anyway, the owner took it for a test drive with us in the car (neither of our feet could reach the pedals). I hear this voice from the backseat saying, "Karen, if you don't buy this car, I will." So, of course, I bought it. Alex and I went to the bank and got $4,000 on our credit cards and paid cash for the damn thing. We checked back into a hotel that night, intending to drive from Ft. Lauderdale to NYC the next day. Then we realized that all we had to wear was business clothes. So we went to the mall andbought sexy little shoulderless outfits to wear on the drive to NY. The car was a convertible, so we had to look really cute on the road. And we did. Lots of truckers honked at us once we got on the road. After stealing about six pillows from the hotel (three to put under us and three to put behind us so we could reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel), Alex and I had this amazing three day journey up the cost from Florida. The car broke down right outside of NY, the first of many breakdowns to come, and we spent about three hours at a gas station getting it fixed. Then we drove it into Manhattan where I surprised Mark with it - gave it to him for his birthday. He couldn't believe it (in a bad way, not in a good way). My advice is never to give someone a car for a birthday present unless it's exchangeable. It turned out that NY State taxes cars by the pound, and this particular El Dorado was the largest (i.e. heaviest) car ever made. It was so big that we had to pay for two spaces in the $300/mo. garage we parked it in. And then it broke down constantly, and I mean every single week something went wrong. We finally sold it to a couple in the Hamptons and it broke down as they drove away from our rental house with their new purchase. Big relief! Their problem, not ours. After that, Mark and I never bought another car here. I've even forgotten how to drive. Don't know why I got into that story other than to explain why we had to rent a van to get up to my cousin's house.
Hope you have a wonderful holiday.
If you can open the link below, it's pretty funny (and Thanksgiving related).
http://www.msn.americangreetings.com/view.pd?i=382219626&m=1652&rr=y&so
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
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posted by Karen Quinn : 4:23 PM
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