Louisiana: Thanksgiving

In 2010, I spent Thanksgiving in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where I was taking a CELTA course. A beautiful day, with a visit from my mother and Brother3, the jazz festival, a big ol’ orange moon.

In 2011, I was at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, on my way home for a visit to family and friends from Caucasus Georgia. I felt part of the ancient Silk Road there, doing what we humans have been doing in that area for centuries, crossing from here to there or back again for the good and ill reasons we do such things.

In 2012, it looks like I was listening to great music in New Mexico.  

This year, I’m in a new place, now in Louisiana. Still building my nest, so there’s that as-yet unsettled feeling, but in the main, as I walk down one of my new streets, I have to stop sometimes and look around and wonder at the pleasure of it. Not just being here in Louisiana, but the experience of New Mexico, of Caucasus Georgia, of Ethiopia, of Playa. 

There is wonder, too, at the deep benefits of technology that allow family and friends to connect on important days of the year, despite the physical miles that are between them.

A simple day today.

At home, ate some roast chicken, sweet potatoes, and pumpernickel toast. Drank pumpkin spice coffee. Listened to some trance-inducing, bone-reverberating music from Tinarawen. (Thanks to Phil inthe Blank for alerting his readers to this group.) 

In the evening, sipped a Louisiana beer while using the wifi at a local tavern, surrounded by the happy noise of some 60s-70s classic R&B and cheerful talk of other patrons.