The Day After

A belated Thanksgiving to all.  John and I continue to observe (not necessarily "celebrate") Thanksgiving with his family (mother, brother and sister-in-law).  My mother passed away in 1999 at 75 years old.  I am grateful for some wonderful Thanksgiving memories and Black Fridays spent with Mom.  Mom always cooked Thanksgiving dinner, whether it was just her and us or my brother, his family and my sister.  My sister passed away in 2002 of Cancer at 36 years old.  I no longer celebrate Thanksgiving, we observe it.


Liz (MIL) cooked Thanksgiving dinner until two years ago.  She is about to turn 80 and just doesn't have the energy to do it anymore, and I don't blame her.  Our house is very small, neither of John nor I have any interest in hosting Thanksgiving dinner.  We'd prefer to just stay home and be by ourselves (yes selfish but enjoyable).  It was all we could do to pull off the two bar-b-ques at our house as hosts this past summer.  It was too hot to sit outside for one of the two events in May.  We were crammed into our tiny kitchen.  Mark is John's brother, his wife is Joan.  They live a townhouse, they also have a very small kitchen.  They hosted Thanksgiving one year and it was their last, it was a disaster.


Last two years six of us, including Linda, Joan's sister, who has MS confined to a wheelchair and lives in an assisted living facility went to a dinner theater, enjoyed a play, and ate Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings buffet style with about 100 other people.  John communicated he was not interested in doing it again this year.  John been putting in long days at work.  He's tired (and cranky), he wants four days to do what he pleases.  His mother wasn't happy about his request.  The decision was made (not by us) to go to a seafood restaurant for Thanksgiving.  Linda (Joan's sister) had been released from the hospital last week, she would not be joining us.  Mark and Joan will visit Linda after our Thanksgiving seafood restaurant dinner.  Our reservation was 1:30pm at McCormick & Schmick's.  Their Thanksgiving menu is shown on the link.  Notice the fish above their sign below.

We were seated at the table closest to the kitchen directly under the air conditioning vent - perfect to start the festivities.  The room appeared to be a conference room off the main dining room, which had a projector and a rolled up screen in front of a fireplace.  Liz immediately notified the hostess of the air conditioning vent directly over and it was cold.  We were each handed a paper menu.  We sat and waiting, it got colder.  I switched seats with Liz, whose chair backed to the kitchen.  I was sitting by the non-lit fireplace, the outdoor temperature was about 55 degrees.  It was colder inside than outside.

I tried to be discrete with my picture taking.  There wasn't anyone in the restaurant taking pictures.  I didn't want to be questioned "what are you doing?"  John's family is not aware of my blogging, we all have our secrets.


The waiter arrived and introduced himself.  He was informed of the air conditioning vent directly over our table and the chill.  As time passed Liz became more irritated by the cold air conditioning.  I understand that squeezing about 100 people into a small conference room for extra seating required additional air circulation.  What they should not have done was what they did - place a table directly under the vent for the sake of one more paying table for dinner.  The waiter said he would inform the manager to get the air conditioning problem taken care of.  He took drink and food orders.  The men ordered steak, the ladies ordered their traditional Thanksgiving special (in case you missed the earlier link :)

Did I mention we were seated at 1:20 pm (earlier than our reservation) and our order was taken quickly after being seated, probably about 1:25.  We talked and we waited.  The waiter brought bread to the table - twice.  We waited more.  Finally at 2:20, the food arrived.  We were so starved, I didn't remember to take a picture of it.  I'm sure it would have only drawn attention anyway.  It was just as described, there were about 4 slices of pink Turkey (I mentioned mine was pink to the other two who ordered the same), no one acknowledged me.  The two men had their steaks reversed and realized it upon  cutting into them and switched plates.  Apple-butternut squash was next to the turkey between the dressing with cranberry sauce dribbled over it and the turkey as well.  There were two inch long green beans and mashed potatoes soaked in gravy.  I ate most of my turkey and about half of the mashed potatoes and all of the green beans.  The rest I gave to Liz's leftover box she requested at the end of dinner.  She received a contribution from Joan's plate as well.  The men ate their dinner, not missing a bite, both plates cleaned.  Notice the leftovers boxed up.

Liz and I ordered apple pie and Joan ordered pumpkin pie for dessert when our orders were taken earlier.  All three of us requested our pies boxed to go.  It was too cold to sit there any longer.  Just before the check was dropped, the manager visited our table to ask about the meal.  We informed him that it was too cold to enjoy because of the air conditioning.  He stated that he just received our complaint and turned off the air conditioning.  Well, they were busy, packed in fact.  John picked up the check as a birthday gift to his mother and brother, who share the same birthday, December 1st.  About 3:45, the ladies headed to the restroom before leaving, the men went to get the cars.  All agreed, we would not return next year.  I hoped to take "family pictures" once outside, everyone wanted to leave, especially Liz and John for different reasons.


As far as I know, no one has caught cold (yet).  Hope your Thanksgiving was (better than mine) full of the blessings of the day and shared with family and/or friends.