An Elephant in a Mirror Factory

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all. As you may or may not be aware, for the last two years, I have been responsible for hosting my family’s Thanskgiving festivities. It’s always a mixed bag – on the one hand, I enjoy cooking and I love my family. On the other, I don’t have a lot of free time or a dishwasher.

Anyway, dinner turned out fine this year, though I’m still adjusting to this new oven which apparently does not run as hot as the old one. And I have totally learned my lesson about not taking short cuts with the pie crust – I solemnly swear I will not cheat and use frozen pie crust again. The results were disastrous. Also disastrous? My sister and brother-in-law’s disciplinary skills when it comes to my nephew.

As for the title, well, the little Buddhist in me is always pondering such mysteries as karma. And now that I have gotten to know my co-worker, D, better, I think about such things even more because D is an actual Buddhist. Anyway, Thursday, though fun in certain respects, was really quite stressful and busy. If you can possibly find a friend or family member to mooch off of instead of hosting the holiday yourself, I highly recommend it. Following dinner, I drove my parents over to the hotel where they were staying. On my drive home, about three blocks from my house, a woman ran a red light as I was driving through an intersection and hit my car. Poor car. Poor me.

As I sat in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot waiting for the cop to take my statement, I thought about the good I had done all day and wondered what on earth I could have done to deserve such karmic retribution. I couldn’t think of anything. I must have done something really shitty in a past life. I must have been an elephant in a mirror factory.

Long story short, I went home later and cried at the end of Finding Nemo because I always cry over substitute stuff instead of the stuff I’m really upset about. Then I had to wash all the dishes. As I told Chuck the next day, it’s going to be hard to top this Thanksgiving as the worst Thanksgiving ever.

The good news is, no one was hurt in the accident, and the car is just a thing which can be fixed. Of course, I then caught a cold this weekend. I’m really on a karmic roll. You might want to stay away from me. On the other hand, I’ve been blessed with great parking spots lately, so I’ve got that going for me.