I’ve actually gone six days without feeling stressed. It’s been the most wonderful feeling. I’ve not felt dizzy or exhausted. Just … like me.

Well, yeah. Then I’m supposed to cook Thanksgiving Dinner for six Australians, and I get a wee bit stressed. I was making what is my family’s “traditional” dinner, and many of my dishes were earning me scrunched-up “yuck” faces at the sound of them. Turkey was easy - they’ve all had it. Then my lime jello salad was met with the absolute scrunchiest of faces. Hashbrown casserole wasn’t a favorite by sound only, and pumpkin pie was a huge loser on the “oh that sounds gross” scale.

Whatever. I pressed on.

The first stress was the jello salad. We only had the jello, which caused me great pain due to the length of time it needed to set up. Jen and I took off and went through her favorite bookstore, Readings, which I would have enjoyed much more had I not been so stressed. Then a speedy trip to the grocery store, and a stop for some hot chocolate at Mario’s.

There were not-so-subtle gagging noises coming from Chris as I created the decadence known as my favorite holiday dish. I told her she just had to wait and try it for herself. More gagging noises ensued.

The next trip was to Chadstone, a big ol’ mall where Jen works. The highlight of this trip was coming across Lush. Why oh why won’t Lush open a store in the States? Oh. My. Gosh. I was like a kid in candy store. Soaps, bath bombs, bubble baths. Hold me back! Well, luckily Jen didn’t hold me back, and I bought out the store. Hey, I have to either go to Britain, Canada, Croatia or back to Aus to visit the store - think I’m gonna pass up this opportunity? Bah.

The rest of Chaddys was cool but expensive. I found a sweater set marked down on clearance for $140, and thought I’d stumbled on a tremendous deal!

The most interesting thing about Chaddys is there’s a grocery store and a couple butchers and bakeries in it. Huh. The grocery store was our main goal today, as time ticked away before my dinner was to be served and I was still playing around with clothes.

Jen and I speed-shopped, with me fretting constantly about metric measurements and the like. Such as, cheddar cheese is not orange in Aus. It’s the same color as mozzarella. There are no little folded up pie crusts ready to be baked, so I had to buy flan crust in a really shallow dish. And my 2lb turkey breast cost $17! Ack!

Cooking was treacherous. Metric this, metric that, and you have one stressed-out American cook. By the grace of God and some creative rounding, dinner was ready by 6:30p.

The looks on Jen’s friends’ faces was classic. Nearly everyone had to take a big breath before diving into their food. I just sat at the head of the table and enjoyed it. I’d found a silly turkey centerpiece where the turkey’s feathers are big fluffy crepe paper, and Jen thought that was the shit. I’d given her little pumpkin candles as a gift, and she’d set them to floating in glasses. It was really beautiful, actually.

The final score on dinner went as follows: Jen’s roommate Chris, who’d made the funniest scrunchy faces, enjoyed it the most I think. She was still dubious over the lime jello, but I’ll forgive her, because she loved everything else. Nearly everyone liked the pumpkin pie, with the biggest compliment being that it “doesn’t taste like pumpkin.”   ?   The hashbrown casserole was determined to be artery-clogging but excellent. I was very happy with the whole thing. I finally met Steve, Jen’s friend who helps me out occasionally with computer-related frustrations. Lucy came over later, and I got to meet Emma as well. Chris livened the place up when she got home from work, and we all sat around (in shorts, with the windows letting in a nice breeze) drinking pink champagne and talking and laughing.

It was truly lovely.

And, in usual form, my Thanksgiving list:

(In no particular order) I am thankful for:

• 
  Jesus Christ
  


• 
  Justin
  


• 
  my family
  


• 
  Jen, Carol and Kristi
  


• 
  wanting to live to see tomorrow
  


• 
  having the resources to visit Australia
  


• 
  Javier, David, Julie, and the rest of JMB giving me a place in the music industry
  


• 
  driving on the right side of the road
  


• 
  cheap food
  


• 
  being relatively young at heart
  


• 
  my stupid fun stressful job
  


• 
  the fact that I got to see Creed in concert four times before they broke up
  


• 
  spending time with wonderful people in Aus
  


• 
  many, many more things than I have been thankful for in many years