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Monday, November 29, 2010

A Redneck Thanksgiving

Sorry for the lapse in posts over the Thanksgiving holiday. I went back to my hometown to spend the first holiday with my mother and a couple of my brothers. I haven't been to a holiday in at least a decade for, it turns out, good reason. I have made it a policy to avoid those drunken affairs especially when my father was alive. I made my visits on non-holiday occasions. But this year, we moved my mother out of the family home (which we sold) and into a nice little condo that she loves; somehow I thought this would make us free from all the past bullshit and bad feelings. A fresh place, a fresh start. I thought maybe her first Thanksgiving in the new place would be kind of nice. Oh, futile optimism! Let's just say that one of my drunky brothers made a huge unpleasant scary scene that pretty much ruined the whole dinner. Luckily, it was after the turkey. (Though before the pie.) I'm talking some kind of hostile crazy screaming in the street, peeps. An insane scene. Well, the stuff of memoirs, really, though I can imagine if he were a character in a book you may have a hard time believing anyone would act that way.  Reality more bizarre than the written word.  Alas.  Hope your Thanksgiving was better than mine.  In other news, I am happily working on the new draft with the restructure of the novel.  Writing saves me.  It always has.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh! it's good to her from you still alive.
What would we do without another rejected to help collected rejection red slips lol.

Scooter Carlyle said...

My good friend always says, "Friends are the family you can choose." As for drunks, remember that everything that comes out of their mouths is just noise. Easy to say, harder to practice, I know. Hang in there.

poet not employed as such said...

My family doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving. They just chillax the whole weekend and eat pizza. Not out of protest or anything, they're just too lazy to celebrate holidays because both my parents are only-children and my older brother lives in France. I'm always jealous of people who have grand family reunions and awkward family drama at Thanksgiving, Xmas, July 4. I hope I marry into a larger, more interesting family...

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you have the makings of a new book already.

Do you know the 90s film The Celebration? If not, you should rent it - it features about as awkward a family gathering (and unraveling) as could be imagined!

Writer, Rejected said...

Damn...that film ripped me apart. A very powerful piece of work. Close to home, too.

Anonymous said...

every family is awkward, that's why nobody claims them (and are not willing to be caught dead with them )lol

Jennifer Perry said...

Though I don't like hearing that someone else has an unbelievably bizarre family that they also avoid at holidays (Hubby and I plan strategies for hiding while others plan mode of travel to the family gatherings)it still gives some comfort to know we are not alone.
We get the looks and head-shaking from people who fortunately seem to enjoy their gatherings. Even my hairdresser, who confesses to a Jerry Springer type family, had difficulty accepting that neither hubby nor I intended to be in the same state as our (alledged) families.
Love to all of you everywhere who give thanks for finding a good comfy hidey hole with the ones with whom you can really share good feelings.

Anonymous said...

may I , post a link here to my accepted and published poem ?

http://mirrordancefantasy.blogspot.com/search/label/Radek%20Ozog