Thanksgiving normally are days off that people spend with family, friends, watching Macy’s parades and having way too much food. This year is quite different, due to system incident, I’m discussing with engineers then communicating with cross-functional team. The whole morning went quickly. I was planning to have lunch with some friends but by the time I’m wrapping up, they’re almost done. I missed it. I made myself a soup of shrimp and vegetables which I enjoyed then took a walk afterwards. Streets are unusually quiet, almost all stores are closed, except Starbucks, 7-11, and cvs. The friend who I originally planned to catch-up/ have lunch just got covid shot so she was feeling a bit weak and texted me that she would take it easy tonight. Oh well, I guess a quiet day; I was thinking what I shall do for dinner. Normally for holiday, I’d be either traveling or aunt usually would throw a party at her house but she is under the weather so it’s a quiet thanksgiving for her as well.
A few hours later, I received a text from a friend suggesting if I’d like, welcome to her apartment for dinner. She is not far from me and it’s not a cold night, so I decided to walk over.
The Main Street is usually buzzed with traffic and people in restaurants on the side. Tonight is very quiete. Every restaurant and store is closed, except one Indian restaurant which i saw a family inside. The friend lives with her son. He invited a friend so 4 of us, a cozy group with roasted chicken, layered pasta with veggie and meat, ravioli, butternut squash purée and chowder, plus apple cider. The special treat is pistacho cream that she brought from Italy. It tasted like liquor but it’s sweeter with pistacho flavor and color, interesting. We had a non-traditional thanksgiving, stuffed with delicious food and friendship.
It turned out a good day in the end…thanks to people’s generosity, in sharing and giving their (CTO, my manager, and cross-functional team) time and efforts to resolve the issue asap!