This is a long one folks, grab the coffee and an extra donut

Thanksgiving. I will get to the snarky stuff first since that seems to be the highlight of most peoples day. We had to go to the SIL from hell house and I was in charge of making a couple of dishes (they were requested because she won't eat them, therefore she won't make them, but everyone else wants them so it is up to me. They turned out superbly once again. ) It was a very odd mix of people this year because other SIL and BIL were out of town, of the 5 big cousins only 1 was there and I discovered she is becoming an exact replica of her horrid mother. She is 26, has her masters degree and is pursuing her medical degree and is the most whiny, surly snot I have been around in quite some time. When S3 was kindly asking me some questions about her when we got home, he asked why she seemed so "rude". Good pickup on the vibe kid but the only way I could explain it to him was the theory about the kinds of people whose glass is 1/2 empty vs 1/2 full and I told him her glass was 1/2 empty AND it had a booger in the bottom. He understood completely. My good SIL is usually handy to have around to break up the conversation from the bad SIL monopolizing the entire evening ranting on and on about how her glass is 1/2 empty with a booger to boot. It really doesn't matter what the subject is, she always manages to find the 5% negative in anything and make it a 95% negative. It is absolutely exhausting trying to keep up. By the time we leave there I am ready to drive into a pond and sink to the bottom. Honestly, I was in bed within 5 minutes of being home---we got home at 9. I couldn't even watch Gray's Anatomy-thank God for Tiv*. I even good naturedly told her they are doing wonderful things these days with pharmaceuticals (insert any number of antidepressants here) and she promptly told me they were all poison. She is very big into homeopathy which is great, I believe in holistic medicine any time it is an option but it is obviously not working very well for her. On a much brighter note earlier in the day we were all still scuzzy-not showered or even really out of our sweats, the doorbell rang. At first I thought who in the hell shows up unannounced on Thanksgiving morning?! I saw the car pull in and I went and hid in the bedroom making S2 answer the door. After hearing snippets of the conversation between him and the guy at the door I realized it was one of BigD's old buddies. He was cruising through our city to get to his turkey day destination and decided to pop over to say hi. It was the highlight of my entire month. No joke, it really was. This guy is amazing. He has written a few books, has a few CD's out and has spoken all over the country to many groups from Heads of State to 3rd graders. He labels himself as a story teller and that he is. Most of what he writes is written from personal events, having had a very interesting life. He does weave some fabric in some of them but it is effortless so unless you know him you aren't sure which are all fact and which have bits of creativity woven in. He signed a copy of one of his new books for us but he made me promise to read the very last story in the book as soon as he left. He said if I didn't cry, he would pray for me because it would mean that something in me was broken. I did read it, and I did cry. He has a wonderful way with words and most of his stories in his most recent book are set in poetry style. Before you go 'yuk poetry sucks', let me tell you even S2 (who is a waaayyy too cool 17 year old and S3 who is a 13 year old puke this week) loved the book. S2 even sat at the kitchen table READING TO ME which in my best recollection has never happened before. I told this gentleman all about ETSY because he doesn't want to do Amazon (he loses too much control as they get 70-80% of each book sale and since he writes from his heart and soul, he said it is too painful for him to see them take that much of him. If he decides to give ETSY a shot, I will definitely give you a shout out...they would be wonderful housewarming gifts or hostess gifts or any number of kinds of gifts. Right now he just sells them after his "talks" to whatever audience hires him. He is cheap too...he only gets $500 for his time (some corporate folks pay thousands for speakers) because he really loves what he does. He is amazing. I couldn't help think that if I were to give one of his books to the SIL from hell, she would undoubtedly find something wrong with it.....I think I may give her one for Christmas and see what happens....stay tuned :)