Okay, let's talk Thanksgiving photo stats. You know you want to!

On Thanksgiving Day itself this year, I took a whopping ten photos. That's the least I've taken on the day itself since 2001, when I took all of seven on Thanksgiving Day; although two other years have come close: 11 shots in 2009 (when Shobhit, Barbara, Sachin and I all went out to eat at an Indian restaurant); 15 shots in 2011. It's been a while since the day itself yielded so few photos.

But! Thanks to other things I took photos of the prior two days, this year's full Thanksgiving photo album yielded another 15 shots (4 on Tuesday and 11 on Wednesday), to make a total of 25. Granted, one of those is a gif that recycles two other shots, but I'm still counting it. And at 25 shots, that's only the smallest Thanksgiving photo set since 2016 (which was also 25). So, Thanksgiving Day was less photogenic this year than usual, but Thanksgiving Week was more so—for two reasons: first, the two shifts I worked at PCC Columbia City on Tuesday and Wednesday, where I took a total of seven photos; second, visiting Gabriel Wednesday evening, where I took another five photos (plus the gif). This kind of thing may become a trend in the next few years, if I keep volunteering to work at a store Thanksgiving week (and next year, hopefully, that will be at the then-brand-new Rainier Square store downtown).

I've gotten so OCD about organizing these photos, in fact, that just this morning I created six new Thanksgiving photo album collections; you can scroll down on this page: I have had Thanksgiving in so many different places over the years, I have also organized them that way: Thanksgiving with Dad and Sherri (Olympia, 4 albums); with Gina and Beth (also Olympia; 2 albums—those were just the past two years, 2017 and 2018); with Mom and Christopher (Spokane and Idaho, 6 albums); with Danielle (3 albums); with Faith (4 albums, 2012-2015); and in Seattle (7 albums: 2005-2009; 2016; 2019; Sachin has also been with us for all of these).

So, anyway. Getting back to the day itself. It was relatively busy for me, even though I spent more of it by myself than probably ever before, because Shobhit worked at Total Wine from 10 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. In the morning, finally having time for it, I wrote my review of Knives Out, which I had gone to see with Evan the previous night, but only had time to write my regular journal post afterward before bed. Also, while Shobhit was gone, I did some vacuuming and clearing off tables in the living room. I also fried paneer for one of Shobhit's several dishes, at his request. I did also watch about an hour of the new Mike Birbiglia comedy special on Netflix while I made and ate my lunch and also while I fried the paneer.

Then, I walked down to the Egyptian Theater to see Waves at 2:45. It's a pretty long movie, so it was after 5:00 by the time I got home. I made rice, again at Shobhit's request but I had the wherewithal to add peas and coconut flakes without him having to request it, while I wrote the review. Soon enough, Shobhit was home from work, and I was helping him with deep frying the puris and pulling off cilantro leaves for all the dishes.

Sachin, our only Thanksgiving guest this year—making this our smallest Thanksgiving crowd since it was just Shobhit and Faith and me in Palm Springs in 2015—arrived at the appointed time of 7:00. He brought us chocolate wine, which we never got around to opening. Tonight, maybe. And before long the food, which Shobhit made enough of to feed three times as many of us, was set out for serving. It included four main dishes: eggplant; beans and lentil; potato; and a fried vegetable dish to which the paneer was added. There was also, of course, the rice and the puris.

Shobhit had suggested we play Yahtzee but we never did get around to playing any games this year, as we have most years of Thanksgiving at home in the past. We all just sat eating and then visiting in the living room, while I played my Thanksgiving playlist on the stereo. When I got bored with conversation I caught up on Twitter. The cats also hung out with us. I also packed all the leftovers into lunches and then washed all the dishes and pans, which took quite a while, before I was off to bed. I don't even know what time it was when Sachin left to go home, although I don't think it was that much later. I was in bed at a quarter after ten, and now I'm back to work in a mostly empty office. Noah's here for me to talk to, at least.

[posted 12:21 pm]