December 01, 2003 - 12:07 AM

Thanksgiving with Relatives Doesn't Have to Be a Disaster

7 hours to Vegas. 5 hours back. And not one cent spent on gambling. You probably think that I'm a wet blanket. Well, I am. But I still had fun, despite what you think.

I stayed with my mom's second oldest brother's family (the Kim's), and had the good fortune to be chaperoned/chauffeured by Carol and Roz, my two cousins from that branch of the family tree. Carol had been the primary instigator behind my visit to Las Vegas for thanksgiving, and she did a great job making sure my stay was five-by-five. Unfortunately, Carol decided to be crazy, working the late shift at her airline job on Tuesday, then flying to New Jersey immediately after her shift ended, meeting Roz at the airport and hopping on the next flight back to Las Vegas. They spent the day doing sister stuff, then I rolled into town around 10 PM and we ended up hanging with our other relatives, the Kangs (my mom's oldest sister's family) of whom Sharon of "Matt and Sharon" fame in these diary pages is the oldest progeny. The other Kang cousins are Sylvia (Sylvie, who brought her boyfriend Sean from San Francisco for the holidays) and Sandra (Sandy, who is a golf fiend and can whoop any of the men in the family's ass on the greens). After nearly two days of not sleeping, Carol finally zonked out around 12:30 AM, and Roz drove us home. Even though she slept for more than 12 hours, Carol never really caught up on her rest, so the hospitality torch was mostly passed on to Roz for the rest of my visit. Roz handled her duties proficiently, making sure that her mom didn't try to wake me up before I was ready to get up (thank you thank you thank you Roz); driving me to some new outlet stores and allowing me to purchase new Nikes; and taking me to the Strip to check out the Belagio's watershow while eating Gelato. Kibitzing with Carol and Roz was such a whizbang affair, they managed to supplant Tony as my favorite cousin(s).

Thanksgiving itself was traditional American, with no trace of Korean cuisine. Various wines were brought out, including a German white that was a bit like Riesling, called Blue Nun, whose origin and namesake were a mystery to us; also profferred by the fathers in attendance were Coke-and-Rums and Drambuie. I didn't know that people even drank Drambuie anymore; it seems like an old tyme drink that might pop up in some Monty Python sketch or something. Anywho, after dinner, the parents went into the kitchen to do their thing (talk about anything VERY LOUDLY) while we young 'uns played Taboo and Time's Up. After my team triumphed in spectacular fashion both times, we moved to the living room for the Karaoke portion of the evening. I think there's a law that says every Korean household has to have a Karaoke machine, and that it must be used whenever there is a gathering of more than one family. That night, something groundbreaking ocurred. For the first time in the history of Korean culture, one of the parents actually told us kids to keep our singing to a manageable level. What can I say, we lived it up, throwing caution to the wind, baring our souls for cheap entertainment. It was good, and oh so bad. We wrapped it up before 1, since there was a hike planned for the next morning, and rumors were floating around that Sylvie was hoping to make it a 16 mile excursion.

Friday morning found Roz the first to wake up again, with me and Carol stumbling downstairs around 8:30. Some haphazard packing of supplies and applying of layers of clothes later, we hastened over to the Kang's for a hearty breakfast and some last minute hiking prep. Now, all of the Kang's are super-outdoorsy athletic women who could put a seasoned Grizzly Adams to shame, and they were all prepared with their Camelbak water packs, their snazzy hi-tech thermal wicking waterproof wear, GPS units, and whatnot. Me, I was wearing my sweatpants which I usually use as my pajamas, over my thermal underwear, a longsleeve shirt, a light sweater, my all-weather jacket, and my new Nikes. In my falling-apart backpack which I've had since sophomore year of high school, I had a couple bottles of water, some Clif Bars, and some oranges. I was rarin' to go.

Luckily, someone had talked Sylvie down from her 16 miles to a more reasonable 6-8 miles. Sandy led the way on a path she had done before, which consisted of a two mile hike up one trail to a semi-dead end among boulders in a ravine, a clambering over said boulders, and another hike of unknown quantity and quality on a barely-existant trail that was supposed to meet up with another official trail that would lead us back to our starting point. Several things left a few of us less than encouraged about this expedition, one being that Sandy had not been able to complete the unofficial trail on her previous attempt when she lost the already difficult to follow path and found it necessary to turn back; and two being that there was a good deal of snow on the ground, covering that hidden path to the point where we were guessing where it might lie and often trailblazing our own way alongside a dried-out river bed. About 2.5 hours into it, we stopped for lunch, and a decision was reached that we should head back the way we came so that we wouldn't be out there when darkness fell. Even though we were unable to complete the hike as planned, and there was some tension and worrying about whether we should keep going on or turn back, the whole thing turned out to be wicked good and a helluva lot of fun. When I took the chance to stop and look around and listen, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of nature surrounding me. And really, the company was good.

We returned to the Kang home for dinner, this time an all Korean smorgasboard. If you've ever eaten with Korean mothers, you know what that's like, with the constant nagging to eat more in a tone that says "if you don't continue to eat, I will forcibly shove all the food on the table, which incidentally could feed an entire division of army troops with enough left over for a fleet of navy battleships, into your mouth whether you want it or not, so you might as well feed yourself and take it like a man".

We all wanted to take showers, so the Kims left, agreeing to meet up with the Kangs to see a movie later that night. That movie turned out to be Elf, which some of us liked, and some of us were disappointed by. And to those other people, I say "you suck." We were all moving like geriatrics walking out of the theater from the fatigue and soreness, but a last hurrah was decided upon. Ice cream. The strange theater of Coldstones was the staging area for this final battle against sleep. Coldstones is a specialty ice cream emporium where you choose your ice cream flavors and toppings, and the servers take the scoops of ice cream, put them on a slab of cold stone, then mash and mix in your toppings (like brownies, or various candybars, or fruit) until the whole thing is a gloopy mess on the stone. This colloidal suspension of sorts is then placed in a cone or a cup for your enjoyment. Pretty tasty, but dangerously sweet if you choose poorly.

One final night of sleeping in Roz's bed (she was kind enough to bunk with her sister, leaving her room all to me), a breakfast buffet at one of the local casinos away from the strip with Roz and her mom, and then I was off on the road back to L.A.

Tonight (sunday), I went out bowling with Tony, Margaret, and a bunch of people they know (coworkers, friends, family). I bowl very infrequently (like, maybe a half a dozen times in my life), so I was quite bad. Not as bad as Margaret's cousin Joan, but not much better. I lack consistency which I guess would come from practice and getting the feel for the proper form and the correct release point. I hope my thumb and wrist don't hurt tomorrow, since I have to do a big setup for a session in the afternoon.

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You know what commercials I hate? Those new McDonalds' ones with the musical slogan "I'm lovin' it!". The MickeyD ads inspire such displeasure because they reek of unironic/unintentional amateurism (unlike, say, the M&M "your favorite commericals" ads), from the piece of crap jingle to the montage editing, to the cinematography. Ergh. It's like they cobbled the thing together at some hasty pitch meeting, never bothering to refine it before they put it on the air the next day. Any time I hear the song, I have to change the channel or turn off the TV. That is definitely not the way to entice customers, Ronald.

Now Listening To : Frente!- Marvin the Album
Random Thought : Kyler is playing at the Hotel Cafe this Wednesday at 9 PM. Come on down, faithful readers.

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