Missing You on Thanksgiving

It's the first year in a while that I haven't been home to see my family for Thanksgiving, and a few brief phone calls are no substitute for being in the same house. I miss my family, who are usually smart, funny, caring, and kind.

The last Thanksgiving I wasn't at home in Houston was freshman year at college, living in Donner Dungeon. It was me, the international students, and Chewie hanging out for the weekend, buying what junk food we could at the cornerstore, and wiling away the minutes, hours, nights, and weekend with computer games and other laudably innocent pursuits.

I miss Chewie, Jason from my street, my buddies Matt and David, Dain, Bowen, Krepsik, Turian, and all the other people of my childhood and college. Though they have been scattered to the wind, they can never leave my heart and mind.

I miss the girls who I have known and loved and lived with, who taught me a lot about myself and hopefully felt they got something from me as well. A pretty remarkable group if I do say so myself.

I miss my Pittsburgh friends, Eric and Brad and Becca and Sean and the rest, who I'm glad I still have the chance to see, people who I've had enough beers with that they pretty much know who I am, and like me just the same.

Some of these people I'll see again once or twice. Some I'll never see again. But if there's nothing else to be thankful for on this greatest of American holidays, it's the people I've known and the people I know today.