Being unemployed has afforded me the opportunity to ponder. Well, it isn’t like I never pondered on the job, I just don’t feel guilty about it now. I also get to listen to tv all day long. Being alone all day can get mighty lonely when you’re a talker like me. Don’t misunderstand me, some of my best conversations have been with myself, but somehow, the fact that I already know what I’m gonna say, takes some of the fun out of it. Anywho, I’m getting off track here. So, I get to listen to a lot of tv. I say listen to tv, because I don’t usually sit and watch it. I keep it on for something to listend to while I do other things. Like laundry, or cooking. This time of year brings with it some of the best commercials. Companies really pull out all the stops during the holidays. Like the coffee commercial where the big brother comes home from college and starts the coffee to wake his family up. Or the Coca Cola polar bear commercials…or my favorites…the Publix commercials with the little pilgrim salt and pepper shakers….too cute. (I tried to find it on youtube to no avail.) So, doing my thing, listening to tv when yet another company jumps on the bandwagon of toying with our emotions in order to get us to buy more stuff. A woman starts talking about how this time of year means that she’ll get to see her kids, grandkids…who knows she said three names but since I wasn’t watching who knows what the relationship was. Then she goes on to say how since she doesn’t get to see them very often, the meal is the most important thing….Wait. What? Did she just say that the “meal” was the most important thing? Is somebody kidding me? Okay, now here’s the thing, not having been born in this country and having parents who weren’t born here either, makes Thanksgiving an adopted holiday for them and me. So growing up, our Thanksgiving dinners were anything but traditional. We had turkey but everything else that was served came straight out of my grandmother’s Salvadorian recipes. I’ve mentioned in another blog that my first taste of a “traditional American” Thanksgiving, didn’t occur until I visited my in-laws about 14 years ago. With that said, while turkey and all the trimmings are something I always look forward to, they aren’t “the most important thing”. Seriously. I thought that “the most important thing” was sharing the meal with friends and family? No? So it really just irked me that this Wal-Mart commercial was implying that if my mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams, canned jellied cranberries (eeww) and soggy brea…sorry, stuffing or dressing as my MIL would call it, weren’t perfect, Thanksgiving would be a wash! Not to mention that I think that even without that sentiment, there is way too much emphasis put on the food anyway. I mean people get up at CRAZY hours to start cooking a bird that is usually 5 times bigger than what is needed to feed the family. More food than could ever be eaten in one sitting is piled onto plates, then scraped into trash cans or garbage disposals because it absolutely WAS way more food than a person could eat in one sitting. Then we pack it up into Tupperware or if you’re frugal like me, ziploc bags, and rubbermaid containers, and eat leftover turkey and all the trimmings for the next freakin’ week until your family boycotts meals until you COOK SOMETHING ELSE! A few nights ago, we had a family game night at my house. We ate sandwiches and chips and played The Game of Life. Aside from the fact that I really hate losing and so kept trying to intimidate my daughter’s boyfriend into not collecting the $50,000 dollars everytime the spinner got stuck or went off the track, I’d say we all had a really good time and that was one of the best meals I’d had in a long time. So to all of those commercial makers out there, while I know you are all just doing your jobs in trying to get me to buy more stuff…This year, I’m not buying it. It is not about the food or the gift, it IS all about something way more important and unfortunately for you, you can’t put a price on it. That’s all for now.

Ciao! Hasta la pasta baby.