In-Law Invasion: Thanksgiving Edition

We have been preparing for Leslie's family for months now. This wasn't one of those situations where the event snuck up on us, oh no. We have been carefully planning each day with cleaning and shopping. For Thanksgiving we would be joined by Leslie's mother, Leslie's step-father (who I call her father because he's closer then a step), Leslie's grandmother (who's street name is Grannie) and their incontinent bichon Dodger. When the expected day of arrival was upon us we were ready.

Or so we thought.

The original plan was that the fam would arrive sometime the day before Thanksgiving. However we received a call from Leslie's mother that threw us for a loop. Rather then leave Wednesday morning, my father in-law decided they would leave at midnight, late on Tuesday night, to arrive early Wednesday. Fine, we lose a few hours of preparation on Wednesday, but we'd get more time with them. All that we requested was that they call when they hit Atlanta, however early that might be.

I wake up at 5:30 every morning for work (I know, my life's a hell). So I was showered and in the process of doing my hair when I hear the storm door open. "No. They wouldn't," I thought to myself. Then I hear a knock at the door. I run out of the bathroom, hands gooey with gel, the dog barking like crazy, the cats fleeing for cover, and open the front door. There on my front porch are my four in-laws (yes, I'm counting the dog as an in-law) waving at me. At 6:30 in the morning.

That was yesterday. Today is obviously Thankgiving. Leslie and her mother are in the kitchen swearing at the turkey and I'm in the living room with the rest of the family watching the Macy's parade over the lap top as I write this.

I think the animals are a bit upset with all of the stuff going on. So far Dodger has pissed on a kitchen rug, Friday vomited on her bed at 6 AM, and Zam has puked in the hall way and on the living room carpet. And I know the feeling. It's weird constantly having to remind yourself there are new people in the house. I still have trouble remembering to close the bathroom door.

Leslie says the turkey will be ready around 4, I'll be surprised if we eat before 6.

And I don't mean to make it sound like I'm upset my in-laws are here. I'm actually really excited for have them here. For me it really is something for me to be thankful for. It's not easy to be away from your family for such a big holiday.

Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving!

United States of Whatever

I've been working on an Obama victory blog off and on for the past week or so, but at this point it's a bit stale and pointless. And the last thing we need is more 'Rah rah' blogs patting ourselves on the back for a job well done, especially when the election wasn't a total victory. Sure we got our boy in the White House, but there are still a handful of states that don't think gay people should have the right to marry or adopt. And here in the state of Georgia we're having a runoff vote for Senator. So yeah, while I feel like I can join the rest of the country in a collective sigh of relief, we've still got a ways to go.

And will Sarah Palin go back to shooting innocent animals in Alaska and just shut the fuck up? Who the hell cares what she has to say about anything? If I was a member of the GOP I would seriously put a hit on her. She starts every statement or interview about how she won't respond to the negative attacks and then she'll proceed to respond to them in great detail. She's old news. She really thinks she's setting herself up as the new face of the Republican Party. You get this feeling like they can't stand her either, but since she's got the attention of all the 'Joe Six-packs' in the nation everyone is afraid to come right out and call her an idiot. The GOP needs to put a cork in her and spend the next four years regrouping.

Hopefully some good will actually come out of the GOP summit in Miami this week. Don't misunderstand me, I have no problem watching the Republican party crash and burn. I'm not suggesting that I would ever vote for Republican, but it should be in the interest of every American to have both parties operating to their full potential and in the best interest of the nation.

Not that I know anything about anything. I'm a comic nerd who watches CNN for 10 minutes a day at breakfast. And even though I said I wouldn't go on about it, I still wanted to share this:

The Hold Steady in Atlanta

Last night we were running late for the Hold Steady show. To make matters worse there was a Georgia Tech game which held us up in traffic. We pull up to the club and what do you know, there's no opener. I could hear Craig wailing as we parked the car. The show was at the Tabernacle here in Atlanta. It used to be a House of Blues, to give you a bit of perspective on the size. The only two bands at the show were, of course, The Hold Steady, and the Drive-By Truckers, in what is being called the Rock and Roll Means Well Tour.

We got in the doors a little bit later then we had hoped for and we missed a few songs, but what we saw was amazing. I asked some random guy how much we missed and he said they had been on for maybe 20 minutes. The crowd was into it, and unlike when we saw The Hold Steady in Athens a few months back, this audience was devoid of all frat boys and jocks (who no doubt decided to get drunk at the Georgia Tech game instead). And while there was a good number of people there, the crowd wasn't packed too tightly, so Leslie and I managed to sneak our way into the center for a pretty awesome view.

They played a few favorites, such as Chips Ahoy! and Stuck Between Stations, as well as a handful of the songs from the new album. They still didn't play a couple songs I've been dying to hear them play live like Cattle and the Creeping Things. I'm trying to find a set list on-line to see what songs we missed, but I'm guessing we missed Constructive Summer which is a shame. It felt like the set was a bit short, no doubt because we missed a chunk at the beginning. It sucks that they were the opening act for this portion of the tour, but I guess Drive-By Truckers is the bigger of the two bands in the South. One of the members of Drive-By came out to sing a song with The Hold Steady, and it was hilarious because he barely knew any of the words. Because of the abbreviated set Craig Finn didn't do his hackneyed closing statement about how much the band loves playing on stage and how important the fans are, so that was refreshing.

Overall it was a great night. We got to see what was arguably a more enjoyable performance then the Athens show, even if it was significantly shorter. I picked up an new Hold Steady shirt, we left before Drive-By even came on, and home in time for a couple rounds of Guitar Hero World Tour and before bed.