I'll be out of town for Thanksgiving.

I'm sort of bummed about it. Over the years, I've really come to love Thanksgiving - not necessarily for the eating, but for the cooking. This year, since I'll be at D's family's place in Florida, I'll be a guest, and thus my cooking contributions will be minimal. Very sad. I was hoping to try this killer apple butter pumpkin pie recipe. I guess I can make it when I get back.

I'm hoping that our trip there goes better than D's mom and aunt's visit here last year. The trip seemed ok when it was happnening, but the more I thought about it afterward, the more I realized that it actually kind of sucked.

Did I tell you that D's mom called me fat? Not outright, but practically. When she first arrived at the house, she looked me over and said (in a very cheerful voice, which threw me off), "Wow, S, you haven't lost any weight since the last time I saw you!"

I have no idea why she thought that would be an appropriate thing to say to anyone. She must have realized how it sounded after she said it, because she immediately followed up with "Or gained any! What I mean to say is, maintenance is good... maintaining weight is good."

Um, right, lady. I get your drift. You think I could lose some weight. You can think that - that's cool, whatever - but don't think you can play off what you said as a compliment, because that's doubly insulting. I ain't no fool.

I could have chosen to be angry about it, I suppose, or offended or whatever, but I chose instead to take a very Elizabeth Bennett approach to it - I chose to laugh about it. I've told this story many times since then, and it gets funnier every time. That doesn't change the fact that I will now be on my guard this Thanksgiving weekend, waiting for another such comment to be made.

****

D. and I went hiking in Arrowhead this past weekend. It was gorgeous. Have a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend.