November 29, 2003 - 10:03 pm

on thanksgiving i woke up and drove out to a church to meet my kids and a coworker. there, we proceeded to feed those less fortunate.

one thing i have to mention about my students' recent death is that it's really had an effect on some of my kids. they're really starting to see that every day counts and that there really is a reason to not put anything off for tomorrow.

so some decided to volunteer and come help out the homeless on thanksgiving. although i dont think the experience had as much of an impact as it could have on them -i have to remember that they're only 14 and that the process to get them to be conscientious good citizens dedicated to improving their communities is a very long, very hard road.

so afterwards i went to eli's house to celebrate thanksgiving with his family.

this is where the story gets really good.

let's backtrack a little first though and talk a little about my college days.

nicknamed "el puke-o" at age 21 i realized that i not only had a drinking reputation to live up to, but also a social one. see, it wasn't just my duty to consume ridiculous amounts of alcohol for someone 5'6"/115lbs, but also the fact that my conversation and behavior was just much more exciting when i was drunk. in reality, i owed it to my juice providing company to enlighten them with the scintillating conversation and daredevil (yet always in good taste) antics provided by the social butterfly you see before you today.

yet, no matter how innovative the antics or how novel the ideas expressed by yours truly, one thing was always the same.

i always puked at the end of the night.

and i guess you could say that even through my puking, i was still reinventing my image. one night i was doing it in the kitchen sink, the next on my boyfriends jeans and the next (and my personal favorite) in my roommates hair.

the fact is however, i calmed down after college and the puking was knocked down to about twice a year (instead of twice a month).

so with all this in mind people, come on, i was due.

i just wish eli's entire family didn't have to be there.

and honestly, why couldn't they leave? who made up the idea that whoever hosts the party has to stick around for the whole damn thing anyway? it wasn't that way in college, that's for sure.

i was chatting. i was laughing. tossing my head back and giggling like a schoolgirl at all the jokes which i unfortunately can't recall now.

but if i was tossing my head back while i was laughing, you can imagine how funny they were.

after about 7-26 glasses of wine though, i wasn't tossing my head back. no, i found better things to be tossed.

cookies. or, thanksgiving dinner if you want to be literal.

all i know is i was sitting there making these amazing points about how noble it would be if a presidential candidate just said "you know what, as a man, i really don't think i can make any call on abortion" and the next minute, eli was holding my hair back at his parents toilet.

el puke-o, had returned and was in full effect.

and if i may be so candid, what better time for your college alter ego to return than at your boyfriends parents thanksgiving dinner.

all that fancy wine though, down the drain, literally.

i told eli he had to go upstairs and tell them how sorry and embarrassed i was and that we had to leave through the garage downstairs so that i wouldn't have to face anyone with my vomity face.

we left and i woke up the next morning feeling excellent. no hangover at all.

i still have to call his parents and apologize though, it wasn't very nice of me.

but maybe they needed that. fact is, they thought i was perfect before this. i guess it's good they found out the truth.

that their son is marrying a lush.

no, just kidding.

Friday Bingo - Pigeons in the Park