Is It Thanksgiving Yet?

November 29, 2014 – Is it Thanksgiving Yet?

Oops!  This was supposed to be my pre-Thanksgiving post, but I’m obviously running a little behind schedule.  No need to stress out, however.  There’s just more to tell you.  It’s no surprise that I so busy getting ready for the holiday that I didn’t have time to sit down at the computer.  It seems as if my Thanksgiving preparations started earlier than usual this year.  As soon as the stores started featuring the traditional Thanksgiving foods (which was right after Halloween), I began my grocery shopping in earnest.  Over the past few weeks, I made daily trips to Trader Joe’s, Wegman’s, or one of the other supermarkets in the area.  Sometimes I even went to Trader Joe’s twice in a single day. 

In addition to getting ready for some major cooking, I also had to put the guest rooms back in order.  We had taken out all the downstairs furniture before we had the new floor installed.  And then the painters came last week, so the downstairs guestroom was looking pretty bare, with just a chest of drawers.  If we hauled in the bed from the garage, at least Elisa and Christian would have a place to sleep when they arrived on Tuesday, but I wanted the guestroom to look more inviting.  Thank goodness for IKEA.  Elliott and I dashed down there Monday morning.  It didn’t take long to fill up a shopping cart with assorted furnishings (new bed linens, lamps, curtains, rugs, etc.).  We even had plenty of time left over for Elliott to fill up his tummy with a lunch of Swedish meatballs and lingonberries. 

Wednesday started with a final grocery run for pies and New England cod.  Elisa’s helped by setting the dining room table.  And with her encouragement, I also got rid of a lot of unnecessary items that had accumulated in the upstairs guestroom where my brother and sister-in-law would be staying.  It had become the unofficial Room Where Miscellaneous Stuff Gets Dumped (and then forgotten).  For example, I found boxes full of old videocassette tapes that had already been digitized.  With less clutter, the room certainly looked a lot better. 

Elliott getting a few extra calories at Whole Foods two days before Thanksgiving

Cooking began in earnest on Wednesday evening and continued for several hours on Thursday.  While all of this activity was going on at home, Elliott helped by staying out our way.  I squeezed in a trip to Greenspring to pick up my mother around mid-day on Thursday.  My brother and sister-in-law, who drove down from New York, arrived early in the afternoon.  Matt came over and took charge of seasoning the sweet potato oven fries (good job!).  Our friend Judy, accompanied by our favorite canine, also joined us for the Thanksgiving feast.  Of course, everyone ate a lot.  We also ate a lot of leftovers on Friday.  So how is it possible that half a chocolate cream pie and nearly three quarters of an apple pie are still sitting in my refrigerator?  

Ready to sit down for Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but I felt a little differently about it this year, thanks to what I’ve learned in my Native American and Indigenous Studies class at GMU.   

Like most Americans my age, I associate the Thanksgiving holiday with soberly dressed Pilgrims in tall buckled hats and Indians with feathers made out of construction paper.  As far back as elementary school, we learned about the Pilgrims’ search for religious freedom, their voyage on the Mayflower and landing at Plymouth Rock, the beginnings of democracy in the Americas (the Mayflower Compact), and those helpful Indians who showed the Pilgrims how to plant corn and later shared their harvest meal.  Thanks to the Indians, the Pilgrims survived and more European settlers arrived in the Americas.  Our history classes taught us how the colonies gained their independence, how the U.S. grew bigger and stronger, fought wars (including against those pesky Indians), and sent a man to the moon.  But the long-term impact of European settlement on the Native American population wasn’t part of the story in our textbooks.

Now, of course, I’ve had an opportunity to learn about the cultures of indigenous peoples before the arrival of Europeans and to understand the devastating consequences of European settlement in the Americas.  No wonder that for Native Americans, our Thanksgiving Day is a day of mourning rather than a day of celebration.  It signals the beginning of the end of their way of life.  First the explorers and then the settlers brought diseases that nearly eradicated the native population.  From the very beginning, Native Americans were faced with prejudice, condescension, and broken promises on the part of Europeans.   Government leaders who proclaimed freedom and equality instituted policies that led to mass removal of Indians from their homelands, and destruction of their families, languages and culture.  These actions resulted in a shameful legacy of poverty, unemployment, disease, and substance abuse.  There’s no question that my previous education didn’t expose me to these troubling aspects of American history.  

By the turn of the 20^th century, the Indian presence had become invisible as far as many Americans were concerned.  Right here in Virginia, many residents would be amazed to learn that there are actually Indians living in our state today.  Lately, however, I’ve noticed a number of newspaper and magazine article calling attention to the shameful living conditions on many Indian reservations and the myriad problems that continue to plague Native American communities today.

So this year, Thanksgiving gave me a lot to think about. Although Turkey Day has come and gone, I hope the spirit of gratitude will continue throughout the year so that very single day becomes a day of thankfulness.  One of the many things I’m thankful for is my safe and comfortable home with its newly renovated kitchen, bathrooms and lower level.  Although we seem to be running a squirrel and mouse hotel in our attic, I’m grateful that the raccoons have not moved in.  On a more serious note, I’m thankful with all my heart for my wonderful family and the love we share.  We are so fortunate that we were able to be together to celebrate two recent special occasions:  Elisa and Christian’s first anniversary, and Elisa’s 30^th birthday.  

Salted caramel crunch cake at Choices by Shawn in Fairfax - and Elisa and Christian

Elliott and Matt at Elisa's 30th birthday dinner

I’m grateful that my mother, whose mind continues to deteriorate, still finds pleasure in seeing her children and grandchildren.  I’m very, very thankful for Elliott’s love and companionship.  In spite of frequent nerve pain in his legs and chronic back pain, he has been out taking short walks and even blowing leaves on occasion.  Considering everything, I feel like the luckiest woman in the world.   

Looks Can Be Deceiving

November 15, 2014 – Looks Can Be Deceiving

Everyone wants to know how Elliott is doing.  I wish he felt as good as he looks.  If you judge from a photo taken a couple of mornings ago, you’d assume he’s doing fine.  However, that dapper façade is hiding the reality of his present condition.  His back pain is more intense, more frequent, and less responsive to pain killers.  Facing the pain everyday is slowly wearing down his spirit as well as his body.  It is terrible to see someone you love suffer.  As I’ve said before, he doesn’t ask for sympathy.  Instead, he distracts himself whenever possible with work around the house.  For example, today while I was out selling my fused glass at the Mantua arts and crafts sale (more about that in a moment), he stayed home and watched the paint dry – literally.  You see, we’ve just had the downstairs painted, and Elliott wants to make sure that nothing has been neglected.  It looks pretty good to me – clean and white, just like its name, “Powdery Snow.”  Of course, it makes the rest of the house scream out for a fresh coat of paint, too. 

As for the Mantua Made Market, our neighborhood arts and crafts fair, Matt and I introduced our joint venture, Thompson Family Glassworks.  We’re such neophytes to the world of commerce that we didn’t even have a price list ready.  Since this was our first attempt to sell our fused glass, we didn’t want to get our hopes up too high.  Of course, we would have been disappointed if we hadn’t sold anything.  Matt and I agreed that we’d be satisfied if we sold a single piece.   

So, thank you, Pam, our first customer, for letting us reach our goal.  And thanks to Kate and Dave, our best customers of the day.  By the time the fair ended, we had sold a total of seven pieces, far exceeding our expectations. Matt and I are feeling elated and we can’t wait to get back to work in the glass studio tomorrow. 

A Dance Weekend

November 10, 2014 – A Dance Weekend

My weekend was filled with dance, but Elliott didn’t feel much like dancing this weekend.  The problem wasn’t shingles, but back pain, a very intense pain that has been plaguing him more than it usually does.  Even his strong painkillers don’t seem to provide relief.  Elliott doesn’t complain very often, but I can see his grimaces and hear his groans.  This prolonged pain is wearing down his spirit and keeping him less active, which, in turn, makes him weaker.  However, it didn’t prevent him from working on the downstairs renovation project.  Now that the floor is finished, we're ready to paint.  So he directed the boxing up of the contents of the closets.  In the process, we came across some real treasures, such as Elliott’s old painting box, purchased from Sennelier, the art supply store in Paris, when he was living there in the 1950s.   

Elliott offered his old paint box to Marshall.

In addition, Elliott managed to measure every wall and ceiling on the lower level – twice – in order to calculate how many gallons of paint we’ll need.  And his pain didn’t keep him from making at least two paint-related trips to Home Depot in the past few days.  Now that we’ve selected the shade of white, we just need to find someone to do the actual work. 

For me, this weekend revolved around dance.  I had invited Elisa, a former dancer (9 years of ballet and 4 years on the high school precision dance team), to join me for two very special performances.  The first was a Friday evening performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company at GMU.  Of course Martha Graham’s name is well-known, but until I took Dance Appreciation this past summer, I didn’t know anything at all about her signature style – angular, emotionally intense – and I had little appreciation for how she revolutionized modern dance and influenced a whole generation of choreographers.  I was hoping to be transported, but while the performance was interesting, it didn’t affect me strongly. 

However, the second performance of the weekend exceeded all of my expectations.  This was Little Dancer, a new musical making its world premiere at the Kennedy Center.  The show was inspired by the story of the young ballet dancer who posed for Degas’ famous sculpture in the late 1800s.  The original wax cast of the statue is in the collection of the National Gallery Art.  From beginning to end, Little Dancer was a thrilling, riveting, dynamic piece of theatrical art.  It was beautifully conceived, staged (down to the very last detail) and performed.  Directed by Tony Award winner Susan Stroman, the show featured an immensely talented cast, including top Broadway singers and actors, and one of the principal dancers from the New York City Ballet in the title role.  After the final curtain went down, Elisa and I left the Kennedy Center with a feeling of elation that lasted for hours afterwards.

On the Kennedy Center terrace after the show

Mmmm, pizza rustica at Campono - it's worth all the calories

Of course, there’s more to life than dance.  On the food front, we dined out (that fabulous Rustica pizza at Campono before the Kennedy Center show) and cooked together (garlic shrimp, broccoli rabe, roasted beets with goat cheese and pistachios, pumpkin muffins).  We also planned the menu for the first of the season’s annual carb fests, i.e. Thanksgiving.  So far, the menu includes roasted turkey breast (for the carnivores), New England cod (for the pescatarians), Elliott’s favorite mashed potatoes with herbed goat cheese, Matt’s preferred sweet potato oven-fries, everyone’s favorite casserole of cornbread-veggie stuffing, Elisa’s favorite green beans with miso-mustard sauce, my favorite raw cranberry-apple-orange relish, and at least two kinds of pie – I’m sure the Pilgrims enjoyed chocolate cream pie back in 1621 in Plymouth. 

A Challenging Week

November 3, 2014 – A Challenging Week

This has been a challenging week for Elliott.  On Tuesday evening, while we were entertaining dinner guests (Tony and Marshall), Elliott complained of back pain so excruciating that he couldn’t bear to have anyone touch the affected area.  Halfway through dinner, he abandoned his plate of partially eaten kofta and Swiss chard with tahini-yogurt sauce and got into bed.  When I looked at his back a couple of hours later, I noticed a cluster of three raised red spots on one side of his lower back.  I had seen enough commercials on TV to make a diagnosis of shingles.  Even he’d gotten a shingles vaccine, was certain that he had shingles.  The following morning, our family doctor confirmed the diagnosis.  Fortunately, we had gotten a shingles vaccine within the past couple of years, and we were able to start treatment immediately, before any of the red spots had started to blister.  Elliott began a regimen of anti-viral medication and prednisone, which helped prevent the shingles rash from spreading to other areas of his body.  The intense pain subsided within a couple of days, but he’s had to deal with the unpleasant side effects of the prednisone.  He took his last pill this morning, and he’s looking and feeling much better now.  

Even shingles can't keep Elliott down for long.

Not all the medical news was bad, however.  The doctor’s scale revealed that Elliott has gained a couple of pounds.  It must be attributable to the increased calories in his diet.  In fact, right this minute, I’m being summoned back to the kitchen to prepare his turkey bacon and fried egg. 

(Back from brief interruption)  Elliott’s breakfast is a prolonged affair.  First of all, it’s a multi-course production.  But more importantly, he reads the newspaper while he eats, which means that his consumes on average one bite per minute.  But a leisurely breakfast is one of the pleasures of retirement.

Despite the physical and mental distress of the past week, Elliott has been able to stay active.  In fact, as soon as he finishes eating, he’ll be back to his supervision of the downstairs cleanup crew (that would be me).  He monitors my dusting and vacuuming to ensure that they meet his exacting standards.  I have to monitor him as well.  Yesterday I found him standing on a stepladder, taking down the mini-blinds from one of the windows.  At least he didn’t argue when I told him that I’d take over that particular job.  After we finish the cleanup, the next job will be painting, a job that Elliott will not attempt himself. 

Halloween was uneventful.  Unlike our children, we didn’t dress up in costumes, but we had plenty of trick-or-treaters.  Still, there was leftover candy, which is now safely stored in the specially designated Cabinet of Forbidden Foods, i.e. Elliott’s cabinet. 

While Elliott was homebound, I found that the Workhouse Arts glass studio was a great escape for me.  In addition to spending time on my own new pieces, I pitched in with the Workhouse glass artists and students who are slumping wine bottles as a fundraiser for the glass program.  We’re washing hundreds of wine bottles, scraping off the labels, slumping them in the kiln, and then preparing them for sale in the Glass House.  I was great at label scraping, but my raffia tying skills were abysmal.  

Bottles in the kiln - to be "slumped"

I just couldn't get that raffia tied right!

Even with all the hours at Workhouse, I managed to find time to try a new recipe (an adaptation of Thai chicken salad, for which I used squid), and to get out for dinner (Thai again) and a concert (Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Allen Toussaint) here in Fairfax.  

Love those Thai flavors - lemongrass, mint, Thai basil, cilantro, lime

Thai dinner at Sisters Living Room Café

That extra hour over the weekend was most welcome.  In fact, I think everyday should have an extra hour.  Let’s start a campaign for the 25-Hour Day. 

Although I don’t post to my blog on a daily basis, I write everyday.  All around the house I have scraps of paper with my notes.  However, someone needs to invent a device (perhaps a waterproof keyboard?) that will allow me to write while showering.  That’s where I get all of my best thoughts.  As soon as I turn off the water, I jump out shivering and dripping, grab a pencil, and start scribbling on a soggy piece of paper.  And I’m always afraid that I’ll lose the words before I can get them down. 

Well, Elliott has finished his coffee, so it’s time to get back to work downstairs.  Until later.