So of course I start worrying about it well in advance.
By last Tuesday, when the Cheez and I had actually started on our road trip to San Francisco, where we have spent every Thanksgiving since 1992, I was in full on panic.
Carol is coming this year I pointed out to Cheez, meaning our friend Katie's mother. This is shocking because though she is invited every year, she always declines. Something about not wanting to see her adult offspring in lingerie.
Oh, yes, I guess I should mention that in addition to spending every Thanksgiving since 1992 in San Francisco, we have spent every Thanksgiving since 1995 in lingerie.
Trust me, it cuts down on the unwanted relatives at the dinner table.
At least it did until this year.
This is just like when the AAA magazine ran the article on Burning Man I moaned, my complaint shrilling out like an RV tailpipe dragging along the hipster-encrusted desert. It means it's all over.
Then, as we were holed in the Motel 6 in Redding, we realized Cheez had forgotten to pack his Farrah Fawcett wig. How can you have Thanksgiving in your regular hair? I wailed. You might as well be sitting home with a Tofurkey sandwich.
But by the next morning, things dawned brighter. Or so it seemed when I discovered that the gas station across the street from the Motel 6 sold souvenir spoons. $6.99 later, I knew I was really on vacation.
By Wednesday night, we were firmly ensconced in Little Orphan Annie's flat in the Lower Haight, with all eight of our Tgiving pies baked.
What the hell are we going to do with ourselves tomorrow morning? Little Orphan Annie wondered.
She panics about Thanksgiving even more than I do.
I reassured her that we could use the time to pay fitting tribute to the Native Americans to whom we Haole Americans owe our earliest Thanksgiving. AKA the ones from whom we stole this great land.
Which we did by riding down to the bison paddock in Golden Gate Park.
Herd of bison in the park.
Herd of bicycles in the park.
Things were definitely looking up. Little Orphan Annie lent the Cheez a replacement wig that not only clashed admirably with his made-by-Victoria's Secret-but-actually-purchased-at-Goodwill holiday outfit . . .
. . . it also made him bear a striking resemblance to everyone's favorite Greek singing sensation.
Now our only worry was how to get us, eight pies, a guitar, an accordion, a salad, half a case of wine, and enough cheese to stink up the entire state of North Dakota from Little Orphan Annie's flat in the Lower Haight to Katie's house in Bernal Heights.
The trunk of the Prius being suPIESingly roomy, everything seemed on the level as we left the Haight.
But I was INCLINED to believe things might be compromised, or really compropiesed, when we popped the trunk after parking the car up on the Heights.
Or at least, half the car was parked up on the Heights. The other half was rather far down.
We were greeted by our co-hostess with the mostest, who seemed oddly ready to play some Live Action Role Playing game.
Very oddly. Ever since the breeders among us have started reproducing, I've been keeping close tabs on the queers to kids ratio for Thanksgiving. But according to Katie, this year it was going to be a shut out.
I couldn't quite imagine a what a No HoMo Lingerie Thanksgiving might mean.
But of course, I'd forgotten that drag queens and five year-old girls are virtually interchangeable.
Here is Katie's daughter, unwittingly proving that preK can also be pretty queer.
Speaking of odd couplings, Thanksgiving is the day when I most realize that in addition to being an interfaith couple and an international couple, the Cheez and I are also an inter-animal print couple.
Of course, as John Lennon so beautifully sang, You may say I'm a leopard going out with a bovine, but I'm not the only one . . .
Okay, maybe his panties are a little more equine than bovine, but it's a holiday, people, don't be so uptight. Or rather, up tights.
After all, the holiday is about joy and thankfulness and gathering with your loved ones.
Indeed, this pink-crowned and red boa-ed guest is the exemplum of family values, surrounded as he is by his daughter, son, niece, and two nephews.I guess I don't know why I was so worried that things were changing.
After all, Thanksgiving will always be my favorite holiday. My pies will always be delicious. Faux leopard will always be the outfit of choice. My team will always lose the post-prandial football game.
But we will always have the better team photo.
And Carol did do a great job of keeping her five grandchildren occupied, while we in the middle generation had the Accordion-Christmas Carol-and-Endless Eighties-Singalong that are a long-documented Thanksgiving tradition.
Farrah may be dead, but Nana lives on.
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