Simple Gifts-An American In London Thanksgiving Edition

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. 

-Elder Joseph 

I am thankful for so many things this year.  First and foremost I am so happy and thankful to still be in the United States for Thanksgiving.  One of the first things I thought about when J mentioned November 1 as a move date was that I would miss Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  Growing up it was the holiday during which my Grandparents Howe would come to town.  Since my parents had moved to the east coast while the majority of our extended family was in the mid-west, I was always excited for any occasion that warranted a visit.  But here we were moving to a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving.  Heck, they don't even have turkey readily available.  And I am sorry, but Thanksgiving celebrated with a chicken is just not the same.  I hear it is possible to find restaurants that serve 'Thanksgiving Dinner' to American tourists and ex-pats but they charge you an arm and a leg for less than an arm and a leg! As it turned out, my move date was pushed back to December 1 and here I am, out on Long Island, celebrating Thanksgiving. 

I am thankful for suitcases with wheels as it made my Manhattan Magical Mystery Tour manageable and saved me from a hernia at age 31.
I am thankful to the programmers at HGTV who are honestly, a little lazy I think; but whose laziness ensures that House Hunters is on whenever nothing else on my 800 channels of television looks good.  Also, thank you for upping the ante with House Hunters Renovation.
I am thankful for Daniel Day Lewis.  Period.
I am thankful for this year's Penn State Football team led by coach Bill O'Brien.  Their performance under pressure, on and off the field has been admirable.  Michael Mauti, I would give you my knees, but I don't think you'll want them in the condition they are in.
I am thankful for the conductors on the LIRR who have only intermittently checked for tickets over the past 3 weeks.  My 10 ride fare has lasted me twice that.
I am thankful that my dad and I got one of the last trains out of Penn Station last night before the MTA suspended service and all hell broke loose.  Seriously MTA and ConEd??  On the busiest travel night of the year for LIRR/NJ Transit/Amtrak?  Seriously??
I am thankful for all of the hardworking linesmen who have been on the job non-stop since Sandy hit.
I am thankful for all of the first responders, many of whom came home to greater destruction than they had left.
I am thankful to the National Guard and the Army Corp. of Engineers for making right what Sandy put wrong.  I am sure sitting at a stop light monitoring the generator that is keeping it powered was never what the young person who signed up for the National Guard thought he'd be doing to maintain national security, but it's appreciated.
I am thankful to all my baby-having friends.  I am thankful for all of the baby faces that fill my Facebook News Feed everyday.  NYC can be a pretty cynical place, but the moment I see a little baby face it is hard to be a cynic.  Video is even better.
I am thankful for all of the opportunities that lie ahead and all that I am leaving behind.  I have lived in NYC for 9 years and that time has not been wasted.  No matter the experience, good or bad, I am happy to have had it as it has led me to where I am now.  I am thankful for the friends and acquaintances that I have made along the way.  People come and go from our lives, but the impact of their time with us is forever.

I am thankful for my family's support during this time of change for J and I.  When I talked to a stranger 3.5 years ago, I would never have thought that this is where that interaction would lead me-but here I am and I am so grateful I stopped and said, ever so eloquently, "What?"/ stink face.

I am thankful that I live in a country that celebrates Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for what it is intended to be and for the spirit behind it.  

See Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863

I know that wherever I may live I will always keep the tradition of this day.  And I will always, even if it means FedEx-ing poultry or going on the turkey black market, have turkey.  Thanksgiving goose??  That's downright un-American.

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

-President Abraham Lincoln

I Am Definitely Meeting Hugh Grant...

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends..." -Love Actually (2003)

I said that I would be diligent with this blog and write every week-and here we are not even 2 months of installments in, and I have skipped a week. Quelle horror!  I could blame it on my continued Manhattan Magical Mystery Tour which dropped me at my cousin's doorstep on Election Night... so I will!  
Big shout out to my cousin Matthew and his girlfriend Micha for hosting me, bag lady extraordinaire, on my final night of the MMMT.  It was so fun spending the night Karl Rove had a complete meltdown on national television with you guys.  My major disappointment on Election Night, by the way, had nothing to do with the outcome and everything to do with the fact that my polling place had run out of 'I VOTED' stickers.  I mean, really.  If I have to go through polling place hell, I should at least get a sticker.  And why is it that there are always WAY more people in the A-M line than N-Z?  Going to vote tends to be more painful than going to the doctor.  They should not only give out stickers, but lollipops too.  It's impossible to be annoyed when you get a lollipop for your trouble.  I am also fascinated by the people who make the projections as to who wins a state.  Sometimes I think that I would have paid more attention to math if I had realized how advanced skills were applied in the real world.  But let's be honest, probably not.  Math was never my forte.  But Social Studies was- and so I love Election Night.  Actually, I mostly love the Tuesday after the first Monday in November because it signals the end of the long national nightmare known as election season.  
I am very interested in learning about the British electoral process.  Maybe it is less dysfunctional than our own.  What little I know about British government I have learned from Hugh Grant as Prime Minister in 'Love Actually'.  I probably should do some more research.  I am pretty sure that 'Elizabeth' is no longer accurate.  Which brings me to the topic of today's post; my immersion in British culture via Hollywood.
I have decided that a most excellent way to prepare myself for my impending relocation is to think back on the many movies that I have seen that take place primarily in London.  Among these are-Cartoons: The Great Mouse Detective, 101 Dalmations; Musicals: Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, Oliver, Sweeny Todd, A Hard Day's Night, Help!; Black and White Movies with Predatory Males: Gaslight, Witness for the Prosecution, Suspicion, Dial M for Murder; Movies with Tennis: Match Point, Wimbledon; Post-Apocolyptic Movies: 28 Days Later; a genre I will call simply 'Hugh Grant': Four Weddings and A Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, About A Boy, Love Actually, & Bridget Jones-The Edge of Reason; and (in a category by itself): To Sir With Love.  How else should one prepare oneself for a new culture?  This is full immersion, right here!  
From the above I can conclude that much of London's lower class sings its days away to escape their sorrows.  The men are predatory and like to keep their women subservient by making them feel like they are going crazy, or they are framing them for murder.  In the case where the woman is wealthier than her husband, the man does this to get his wife's money.  Tennis will be an integral part of my life.  I may turn into a zombie.  I will meet Hugh Grant, he is everywhere.  And finally, unless Sidney Poitier is my child's teacher, said child is screwed.
I now feel fully prepared for whatever London may throw at me.  And if I'm not, James Bond will be just around the corner to save me... 

 I mean... YOWZA!

Manhattan Magical Mystery Tour

So Sandy stayed the course and hit the tri-state area.  And not in an anti-climactic, 'they totally got us all psyched out for nothing', 'weathermen are SO dramatic', 'if I were as inaccurate at my job as weathermen are I would have been fired years ago' kind of way.  Sandy hit in such a way that when I turned on the television last night they were having a hurricane relief benefit concert FOR MY AREA.  Talk about surreal.  The only solace that I have is that Brad Pitt didn't show up.  If he had walked onto the screen then I would have known that we were in real trouble.  But the very honest truth is, that for many of us living in Manhattan, we barely felt more than a slight inconvenience.  In a sense, there are two very different cities at the moment.  As illustrated by the lovely graphic above-below 39st St. on the East Side and below 31st St. on the West Side lost power.  Some parts of the Upper East Side, where I used to live, also lost power due to flooding.  But for much of Manhattan, things were fairly normal by Wednesday.  I am also happy to report that as of today, most of the rest of the island has had power restored as well.  People were inconvenienced but very few were harmed or lost anything of real value.  The same cannot be said for the outer boroughs of New York City and the Jersey Shore.  Things aren't great on Long Island either, my parents are still without power, although the Long Island Power Authority is predicting restoration by Nov. 7th at the latest.  From the news reports, it appears that those along the shoreline in Brooklyn and Staten Island are in great distress.
If any of you reading would like to do something to help, I direct you to the American Red Cross.  A donation to the ARC will benefit not only those in need now, but those in need any time a disaster hits.  American Red Cross Donation Page
Of course, amid all of the Sandy-chaos, J and I still had a move to take care of.  Our furniture delivery was postponed, quickly followed by our actual move.  Unable to reach our management company, we figured this would not pose much of an issue-if we weren't able to move, we doubted the new tenant would be able to move either!  We were able to quickly reschedule our move for Thursday and found that the storage company (keeping our things until we find permanent residence in London) receives deliveries!  This was excellent news.  Tuesday night J's sister came to stay with us as she lives in what quickly became referred to as Manhattan's hottest new neighborhood 'SoPo' (South of Power).  This was especially nice as it gave us all some extra time to spend with one another before J left for London on Friday.  We spent the next evening figuring out what needed to be put in long term storage, what needed to be shipped to corporate housing, and what needed to stay with us.  For me, that meant a month's worth of clothing, shoes, etcetera.  I thought it would be one suitcase.  But- no.  I've been traipsing about Manhattan ever since with one rolling suitcase, 2 Vera Bradley bags, my purse, and a bag for laundry.  (On the laundry-the money card machine for the laundry in our building stopped working during the hurricane-we did not know this until basically the night before the move at 9 PM.  That was a really great moment, let me tell you.)
I am officially a hobo.
Which brings me to the Manhattan Magical Mystery Tour that I embarked upon Thursday after work.  J's company had gotten us a hotel room for the night before and of his departure.  This was really fabulous.  The original plan was for me to head out to LI to live with my parents for the month of November, but as they are currently sans power, we decided it might be a better idea for me to stay in the city.  Also because, until yesterday, there would have been no way for me to get there and back as the Long Island Railroad was not running.  So first stop on the MMMT: Palace Hotel (so Gossip Girl).  Next stop: my awesome friend Ray's apt.  Ray was heading to Vegas and saw that I was possibly a little bit homeless.  So he offered up his apt.  In a nutshell: Ray ROCKS!  Where I go from here?  Who knows!  Hopefully power will be back on Long Island soon.  But if not, and you see a girl walking the streets of Hell's Kitchen with one rolling suitcase, 2 Vera Bradley bags, a purse, and some laundry-offer her your couch.  She will repay you with copious amounts of wine and excellent company.  She may even rearrange your closets for you...