The Big Three and a little pig

Religiously atheist, culturally Jewish, spiritually Buddhist, and madly in love with Christmas carols. What can I say, there's nothing like Ella's Let it Snow on a cold night to warm the cockles. Thankfully, this year, I can bask in the holiday music spectacular with three concerts and at least two caroling sessions!

I was hoping I could head to San Diego to see my activist Grandpa and my recently married (and more recently bitch-slapped by Prop 8) Californian aunts for some pescetarian Thanksgiving fare. Unfortunately, thanks partially to the holiday plane fare monopoly (thanks, airlines, for capitalizing on a holiday about family by charging exorbitant amounts so it becomes prohibitively expensive to see that family) and thanks partially to the recent 4 G's I had to spend on my car, my cat, my eyes and a plane ticket for the X-mas season I will be spending Thanksgiving in Seattle.

The fare at my cousin's house promises to be appropriately pre-winter stuff-your-selves extravagant with the first course of Sushi, followed by Greek fare then sweet potatoes and pies. Notably splendidly meat-free. There will be nearly a dozen cousins of mine at this unique feast (maybe more) and a few others, I'm sure. The morning after, in my wasabi and soy sauce bloat, I'll wobble downtown and play some carols for the shoppers with the Renegayde band.

Tangent: everyone knows I stopped eating meat, right? I provided a link to "pescetarian" up there for those confused. Initially it happened with a loss of the taste of chewy sinewy flesh. But now, after my more recent Peta video adventures I realize deep down inside, I can't justify eating slaughtered animals. Fish I can rationalize, they don't show affection, but pigs? Seriously, these animals are smarter than dogs. Would you eat a fried puppy strip? Of course, I do not hold any judgement against anyone who eats meat. I honestly don't mind watching my friends take a bite out of a juicy home-grilled burger or munch on a crispy strip of greasy bacon. Really. I just don't want any, thanks for asking.

I went on a lactoovovegetarian stint after my summer of autopsies in 1998 (holy moly, was that really 10 years ago?) But it didn't last long as I grew tired of falafel and fried eggs and for some inexplicable reason missed hard salami sandwiches more than anything else. Maybe this won't last either, but for now, for today, I'm perfectly happy with green beans, garlic and tilapia dressed in Johnny's seasoning.

Where was I? Ah yes, Thanksgiving, Christmas Carols... Holiday shmear. This time of year is also the time of extravagant spending. I am not anti-consumerism. I would love more than anything to have the income to buy everyone I loved what they needed and wanted for every special occasion. But, this economic crisis thing is a bit of a buzz-kill, isn't it? Thankfully I haven't made enough money to tuck away in some conservative retirement fund that tanked with the market. But, still, I worry about the non-profits, the programs that depend on donors and big hearts to stay afloat. Because people are tightening their proverbial purse strings and non-prof's are paying for it.

I'm also a little worried about the Big Three. It's easy to write off Big Corporations as evil and carbon energy-sucking, however, the Big Three are the foundation of the economy of an entire state in the US. One single city closed its plants and the result was so damaging an award winning documentary was made about how sad the outcome was. Imagine that in the whole state! Of course, I am not an economics guru. Hardly. But I am a worrier, and that's all I need to keep my eye on the news. I think I'm going to make an effort to shop Michigan this year for the holidays (yes, hard to do 2000 miles away, but I can sure try).