Thanksgiving, Part I

The two hour drive to Lafayette was pretty peaceful and extremely low stress since everyone was mostly at their destinations. We didn't even have to fight any traffic in Baton Rouge.

Rachel's mom arranged for us to stay at the church since I couldn't get into her house. She had checked with someone about building a ramp -- not just any ramp, but an ADA compliant ramp. Amazing to me considering the woman has met me once. Understandably, there was no cause to build a thirty foot ramp for someone who was only staying two nights, so the church it was. R and I were quite comfortable there. Lots of space, a cozy seating area, a fully equipped kitchen with a fridge stocked for us by Mama Becky, and a soda machine and water cooler if we felt the need for a cool, refreshing beverage. There were cots for us to sleep on, but I opted for the couch with its comfy cushions. We thought this idea was out when R discovered (after I suggested she try it) that the lift legs wouldn't fit under the couch frame. R's totally unorthodox (by Christian standards) solution? Prop up the couch on four matching Bibles she found on top of the piano. I even believe there was a crack made about the word of God lifting me up. Rachel is a nut.

After we got into town, we ate immediately since Becky had everything there and ready. Rachel's dad had come in from Alexandria, so we had a nice little meal of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, tilapia etouffe, baked tilapia, green beans, salad, and biscuits. My favorite was Dr. Jackson's etouffe even though, as he said, it had a touch too much lemon. Becky, we all noticed, didn't eat much. She claimed she was just tired, and after we ate she went home to lie down. We found out later that she was in fact pretty sick, and it had just hit her literally right before we got there. She spent the rest of the day in bed or on the toilet with truly bad things coming out both ends.

That evening, Dr. Jackson brought his kitten Jazz over to the church to stay with Rachel, Reba, and me since Becky's cat was extremely offended that she was in HER house. After he was reassured that Reba wasn't going to hurt her, we drove to Walgreens so I could buy a camera (since I forgot my digital at home) for our next day's excursion. We then walked around a park and stopped by the house to check on Becky. We were killing time and staying out of the church for a while because there was an AA meeting that evening. Rachel collected the newspaper and some games, and we headed back to the church. The AA meeting was still in full swing, so R and I removed ourselves to the classroom building while Dr. Jackson sat in on the meeting. Yes, there's a story there. R and I combed through the paper to see if there were any exciting music or art happenings the next night, then we had a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit while munching on mint dark chocolate truffle Hershey's Nuggets and dark chocolate macadamia nut Hershey's Kisses we'd found at Walgreens. After Dr. J went back to Becky's house, we hit some leftovers and went to bed.