You would think that the anxieties of a holiday would fade with childhood. I found this to not be true as I sat at work on Wednesday afternoon. My boss was gone making it that much harder to stay focused on work tasks. It didn't help any that my co-worker Dena was more so distracted than myself. She'd come to work unshowered and decided to run home at lunch to shower and semi-pack for her trip back home to Oklahoma. Having to help her make the choice to shower or pack on her lunch break was a distraction. We girls are so bad at making choices on our own when we have another girl to bounce the idea off on. I doubt I had much to do with her final choice as is just s simple choice. I think it was an excuse for a distraction. I worked through my lunch trying to stay focused. I had already packed everything up in the Jeep the night before and was ready to leave straight from work. Again, in typical female fashion I over packed. I just never know what to expect when going to mom and dad's for long weekend. We could be going out on the town or heading out into the desert to explore, so I have good reason to overpack. I am also very good at justification. Upon Dena's return from lunch, she was clean and her hair was done, but still in no mood to sit and work. She tried to find out when the 'acting' boss was planning on leaving. As it turns out, Ivan is a guy who plays by the book and will not close shop early. This year, though, for whatever reason, he was leaving early. This sparked Dena's hopes. However nobody else had said anything about closing early. Word like that spreads very fast through our little shop. So we settled in to get a little work done. By 4:45 I had reached my limit and figured there was no harm in departing a little early. I started packing up my things and Dena was quick to join me. We even were able to leave without much hassle from the back production workers. (they get quit bitter when the designers come and go as they please, so I try to not break the rules very often) I hopped in the Jeep and joined the long line of cars heading out across the desert to spend the holiday weekend with family.
It takes 2.5 to 3 hours to get from Phoenix to Pima. There was a long steady flow of cars heading in the same direction as myself. The old highway takes you out through Apache Junction, Superior, Globe and then the Apache Indian reservation. I've heard stories of how bad it can be to get pulled over on the reservation. So I try to behave myself on that stretch. I really don't like the drive because I'm generally driving it at night after a long day of work and it's dark. The other cars on the road are either speeding or going 15 miles below the speed limit. The highway is just a dangerous two lane highway, making passing the slow drivers a dangerous game of chicken with the on coming traffic. This weekend's line of cars was miles long and nose to nose, so it was very dangerous passing. I was growing impatient with the vehicle in front of me at one point, as he's slow to a crawl then speed up. I couldn't stand it and wanted to get around him, as there was nobody in front of him for miles. I saw a stretch and gunned the gas, passing him as on coming traffic came into view. The idiot gunned his engine too, taking me longer to pass him than it should have. I'm certain that the fellow in the oncoming traffic had to swerve to miss a head on with me and I was able to get over before the next car came by, however my blood was boiling that the guy I was passing was such a blasted idiot. Strangely, I'd had a close call with death and all I felt was a great deal of anger. As I cooled off and put some distance between us, I began to realize how stupid I'd been to risk the lives of others as well as my own. We live in a fast paced world, but it need not be that way at the expense of others suffering.
I arrived safely at mom and dad's in a record breaking time. I probably could have been zapped for speeding. Thankfully, my parents aren't the type to clock my time every trip. Perhaps someday I'll mature and follow rules more obediently. Dad was out at his new smoke pit. My dad loves fire. He finds it very gratifying to start big contained fires. Mom and I worry that the thrill of big flame will overcome him and he'll find himself in an uncontained fire! He's actually pretty responsible an he had the hose strung out to the pit in case a stray coal should float into the nearby desert landscape. I must admit the fire was very impressive. The heat coming off of it was insane. I could only lean over for a few seconds to peak into the bottom of the pit. Dad was enjoying the moment. I left him to it and joined mom indoors where she was preparing the turkey. Memories of one Thanksgiving when my Grandma McReynolds had come for the holiday. I remember her tugging at the frozen insides, trying to get them out. Grandma was not a large woman and so it was quite a battle. I think of her every time I see someone pulling the frozen insides out of the turkeys, I don't know why. With "Tom" all prepared in his metal pan, the struggle was knowing when to put it into the pit. This was our first time cooking a turkey in a pit. Mom made a quick call to their neighbor who had been doing their turkey for years in a pit. We were put on hold to wait for the coals to quiet down. I think we put it in around 10:30 pm. I helped dad cover the pit and we left "Tom" to do his thing overnight.
Thanksgiving morning, I rolled out of bed after mom and dad had been up for hours. Being raised on a Kansas farm, my parents just are not the type to sleep in past 7 am. By 9:30 am dad was anxious to open the pit and see how the turkey had done. Mom grabbed the cameras and recorded the event as dad and I shoveled off all the dirt then removed the steel cover. The warmth inside felt really good. The turkey sure smelled good. It was probably a good thing it was well covered, as there would have been quite a few critters that stroll across mom and dad's yard that would have loved a turkey dinner as well. Our first deep pit turkey was pretty good, though we agreed to let the coals cool a bit more next time. We timed to see how long mom's dog, Echo would take to wake from a deep slumber to come begging for her favorite treat, turkey. The smell reached deep into her slumbering mind and she was awake in five minutes begging for a taste of the turkey. We like to call it "Echo's coffee". She's almost 14 years old and had a hard time getting around like she used to. The smell of turkey seem to turn her into a young pup again and she dances and begs as she did when she was younger. She always gets slipped some turkey, as it's hard to resist her cries. As in years past, it was just mom, dad and I for the holiday feasting, but we pack it away as best we can. Mom and dad treated me to an afternoon movie, Enchanted, a cute Disney movie.
The holiday weekend has been pleasant and relaxing. Mom and I did our traditional trip down to the Reindeer Connection, a craft fair held down at the Safford fairgrounds. Mom likes to look for little items that she can buy for gifts for folks she has on her list for the Christmas season. I think she purchased some scented candles and spice packs for making dips. She also couldn't resist buying a Santa hat for Echo, as I was helping her design a calendar for Echo's babysitter. Mom wanted to do a picture of Echo for each month, so the Santa hat would obviously be perfect for the month of December. Mom and dad worked on finishing off some concrete projects around the house while I puttered around researching things for the calendar and other gifts I've got cooked up for dad and mom for Christmas. I had brought out my Meerkat Manor DVD's and so mom enjoyed several episodes of the dramatic life of a meerkat on the Kalahari. Saturday was all work. I started designing mom's calendar at 8:30 am and we didn't wrap it up until 3-4 pm. Echo was dressed in all sorts of outfits, which she enjoyed the attention, but it disrupted her usual long morning nap. Her babysitter will appreciate her hard work as a model when mom presents her with the gift. I was glad we were able to get the project done in one day! I rewarded myself by spending the evening with dad watching the Missouri vs University of Kansas college football game. Deep rivalry stands between those schools. Dad, being the Kansas boy, was anxious to see the #2 Kansas play #3 Missouri fight it out. I enjoy a football game now and then. We hung out at dad's office where he has cable and watched the game unfold. Kansas was undefeated until last night. Missouri's quarterback is nominated for the Heismen Trophy, and it showed. He was nailing his passes and making some excellent plays, placing Missouri on the score board with two touchdowns before Kansas even could score, shaking their mental game. Kansas got fired up, but too late to save the game and lost. Rock-chalk-jayhawks, KU walked away losers. If only their kicker would have made the two kicks, the game would have been tied and they could have had a chance. Oh well. It was fun to spend the evening with dad. Mom stayed behind to catch up on housework that she'd put off to help design the calender during the day.
So the weekend is about to wrap up. I'll attend mom and dad's ward, then head out across the desert on that dangerous and boring highway to face the mundane life I lead in Phoenix. I'll have a Relief Society Christmas design project to tackle, dentist and orthodontist appointments and the all exciting work projects. We are on top of the holiday season and our company yet has a design for our Christmas card. I just don't think anyone has the time to come up with something. I don't want to do it because I don't think the bosses will think my design is 'trick" enough and so I don't volunteer to touch that task. Perhaps if I was a little more motivated I would take a stab at it. Past experience with the company has told me to leave the company image stuff up to the bosses. I prefer not to get mixed up in the politics of it all.
Well, those are my adventures. Happy Thanksgiving all and Happy Holidays!
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