Thoughts on a Thanksgiving Eve

Weird. For the first time in four years, I wasn't on a Bolt Bus or Amtrak train from Villanova headed back to New York for Thanksgiving.

Instead, I was already here. For the past six months, I've been sweating it out and scraping by in the real world since that pesky little thing called graduation. (Wait, has it really been six months? Shit.)

Having graduated, something's definitely missing this year. The annual journey home for the holiday had a certain warmth to it, and I'm not talking about the grossly overheated Amtrak cars. Eager dreams of food, family and time off from class while in transit have become a ritual-turned-memory left over from the magic of college. (Insert a lengthy, collective sigh from the Class of 2009 here.)

Then again, this first ever post-grad Thanksgiving is like a return to normalcy more than anything-- it isn't too different from most other Turkey Days in my life. Aside from those four golden years on the Main Line, PA, I never had to do much traveling to get to the feast. Thanksgiving was always a Brooklyn thing-- not a huge change from our daily Brooklyn life.

Thus, college Thanksgivings were special, such that they turned my idea of home into a sought-after place of relaxation and comfort. Whereas these days, being at home is constant and familiar. I'm not saying that the holiday fuzziness has totally evaporated (obviously I love my family very much). Rather, it's just assumed a different form. Or I'm just getting older.

Given the situation, I told myself I would make an effort to try something different this year to spice things up a bit. After much thought, the best I came up with was to contribute to the Thanksgiving meal itself. My decision: bake a cheesecake.

Actually, there was no baking involved whatsoever. Thanks to the wonders of pre-constructed crust, Cool Whip, cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and a refrigerator, I was able to concoct a delicious and oven-less dish. The recipe was no stranger to me, having recently cooked up (but not literally!) the no-bake dessert with my other half just a few weeks ago. But who knew that the process would be slightly more difficult the second time around? Thanks to my top-notch lack of coordination, some sugar cascaded in a snowy-white avalanche onto the table, and later the entire Cool Whip/cream cheese mixture almost flew out of the bowl, narrowly missing the floor. And so I learned the hard way that the duo is a powerful tool in the kitchen, and should be utilized whenever possible.

Nevertheless, my hungry relatives will be blown away by the taste and sass of my sugary-sweet creation. Who needs to know that I stole the recipe from a Weight Watchers-ish web site? A BB original it shall be. And besides, I deviated from the original by adding a secret ingredient: mini chocolate chips (gasp!). And alright, maybe that's not so secret, but they're pretty well-immersed within the gooey cheesy center if I do say so myself.

Tomorrow's agenda is not unlike that of previous Thanksgiving mornings in my house, and you know what? That's totally fine, and I didn't need a cheesecake to tell me that (although it sure doesn't hurt). The plan falls along these lines: wake up. Watch the Macy's parade. Watch the National Dog Show. Realize that it's 2 PM and I'm still in my pajamas and "dinner" is in an hour. Throw on some clothes, head over on the bus to whichever family is hosting dinner. Eat. Pass out. Get up, eat some more. Repeat as much as needed. Perfection.

Happy Thanksgiving, residents of the blogosphere.