Thanksgiving Cancelled

On Friday, after meeting Joe at school, I had an appointment with my doctor. I had been coughing and quite honestly, I could not walk across the street without becoming winded and having to sit down for 15 minutes to rest up from the exertion. He took a chest x-ray and informed me that I have pneumonia. I told him I was glad that I was in on Friday so that I could get the antibiotics so that I could be ready to do the Thanksgiving thing this week. He blew a gasket and told me that this was serious, that it wasn't like strep, and there was now way I was going to be well enough to be cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

So how does a healthy gal get pneumonia? I blame myself. I had been doing my famous Feast or Famine diet and it was a famine day. I went to bed kind of hungry and woke up about an hour later really hungry. I had a tin of cashews by my bed and grabbed a handful then went right back to sleep. I woke up two hours later choking on acid reflux. I must have aspirated the acid which started the downhill spiral. The lesson to be learned from this is either don't go to bed hungry, don't eat a snack while sleeping, or if you wake up hungry just go back to sleep. At least I am not contagious.

I've been taking the medicine since Friday and today is the first day that I am starting to feel better. I still have to rest up a lot and I am trying not to exert myself. And there is now only one day left until the big day.

I guess we will go to Luby's or something. Jeff volunteered to do all of the work, but I let him know that you have to shop for about two days and cook for about three days to get the entire meal done by yourself. He had a hard time believing this. All of that work for a thirty minute meal and 4 days of leftovers.

Okay, I am the type of person who makes my own cornbread several days in advance because I can't imagine buying those prefab seasoned bread crumbs. If you read my last post you also know that I am the type of person who grows my own herbs. It is this way with everything I make for the meal. It is all fresh, and made from scratch, not a store bought pie in the place. And I really enjoy the process.

Fortunately, I get to have a vicarious Thanksgiving experience this year through my daughter. She is going to cook a turkey! I've already given her thawing advice. I tried to convince her to go fresh but she refused. I'm not going to give her brining lessons or anything complicated. The goal is to get the turkey perfectly roasted in Michigan while I am on the phone in Texas. What a cooking challenge!

You can imagine that after the doctor specifically told me not to cook Thanksgiving dinner I did not broach the subject of Black Friday. I figure if he did not specifically forbid the activity then maybe I could use my own judgement to see if I am feeling up to the task. I have been checking out the ads online but I haven't crafted the battle plan yet. I will probably make two sets of plans. One that includes me if I am feeling okay and one that instructs Bob and Jeff down to the last minute detail about my expectations.

Yes, you read it right. Bob has been converted to Black Friday shopping and has been a devotee for several years. So in a year when I have to cancel Thanksgiving I still have something for which I can be grateful.