A very technology Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is here and gone already.   But whoosh, there it went, and now comes a slog of a couple of weeks filled with work days that are too long and evenings that are too short for all of the Christmas revelry that presents itself. 

But before we skip to the eggnog and laments about the difficulties of attending Christmas parties alone, let's recap the last week or so.  Since the National Arts Marketing Project, I've enjoyed blasting back in time to the 80's via the kick ass rock musical Rock of Ages.  Sadly, there were many folks who decided, for whatever reason, not to see this show, and to them, all I can say is you missed out.  Hearing "Don't Stop Believing" performed live by some pretty talented singers was way, way better than Glee.  Also, during this time, my love affair with Twitter has only increased, aided by a new experience, a Twitter party, with the Arkansas Women Bloggers network.  This was something else.  It turns out that there are dozens of "chat" programs you can use to aggregate tweets on twitter, and follow certain hashtags (like #nampc and #arwb, for example).  While this may be old news to many, it was new to me, and pretty cool.  I've got a bunch of new followers and followees, so here's my official plug, ladies of the Mid-South: head on over to Arkansas Women Bloggers (using the convenient linked image at right) and register.  It's free and it seems like a good bunch of gals to have on your side, especially if you like to cook and have kids (neither of which applies to me, but hey, every party needs an odd one out, right?)

Anyway, I got to enjoy this online community on Monday, while also watching the Pats on Monday Night Football, which sums up the dichotomy that is me pretty handily.  Then came a shortened week of way too many meetings and deadlines for the few days before Thanksgiving, accompanied by some seriously frantic cleaning that included me scrubbing the floors by hand, mowing the lawn in the fading twilight, and vacuuming twice.  Twice.  I must have lost my mind.

Then, my parents arrived.

My folks are, in a word, awesome.  They worked their butts off their entire lives and retired just this past spring, selling the family business and setting themselves up for a life of leisure from here on.  So instead of flying to see me, they spare my mom from dealing with motion sickness and road trip it, stopping off for a little gambling in Mississippi along the way.  How cool is that? 

So they arrived on Weds and we went to Hugo's for dinner, followed by a stroll around the Fayetteville Square for Lights of the Ozarks, then went shopping.  Some slight changes in plans meant that we had Thanksgiving at my place instead of a friend's, so we slapped the card table next to my dining room table and made a feast of it. There was some football thrown in there, a few trips to the dog park and a visit to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.  And I regret that I don't have any photos of either of my parents sprawled out on the floor "wrassling" with my dog, but it did happen, and is just another example of their awesomeness.

But really, the weekend was about technology; specifically, the indignity that I suffered when my mom got to show off their fancy new IPhone 4.  I still have a, harumph, 3G.  This seems rather unfair considering that my parents have never sent a text in their lives before now, but life isn't fair, as our parents loved to tell us growing up.  :) Thus I found myself playing the role of tech support, trying to explain the difference between a text message and an email, how the IPhone automatically (and sometimes randomly) put aps into folders and how to set up voicemail.

Now, to be fair, my mom picked it up pretty quick, and was soon sending pictures and texts like a pro.  But it really became hysterical when we went to the museum, and we got separated.  I had the idle thought that, if I was with my friends, I'd text them to find out where they were, but I was enjoying the paintings and didn't really think of it (plus the service in the museum is pretty spotty).  So when my dad and I emerged into the light again, we found my mom waiting for us.  She promptly turned to me and said "Jodi, I texted you three times!  Where were you?" 

OMG.  LOL.  As I checked the phone, it got better: she even used texting parlance:  "where r u?"

We headed off to dinner at a pretty amazing restaurant called Tavola Trattoria in Bentonville, as as we were waiting for our table to be ready, mom was busy emailing photos to her friend.  Then, as we sat down at the table, she pulled out the phone again, saying "I don't want to be rude but I want to make sure I did this right!"  This struck me (and my brother, via text) as hysterical, more so when our food arrived and my dad tasted it and said "Wow.  This is really good.  Do I need to text someone about it?"

Anyway, this is probably only funny to me, but it was just such a great reminder that one should never underestimate one's parents. 

So, 2011 is almost over.  The next weeks will be a whirlwind, I'm sure, so for now, I'm glad I had a weekend of leisure with my folks, followed by probably the laziest Sunday I've spent in a while (my DVR queue is pretty empty thanks to today).  My tree is up, my shopping has begun (sort of), and Cookiefest is next weekend.  Bring it on, St. Nick.  I'm ready for some holiday cheer (a little mistletoe wouldn't go amiss, either).