As it turned out, I didn’t make it to Thanksgiving this year due to insomnia. Neither did my friend Brenda, because she got a cold. All the same, two Wednesday mornings ago – the day before Thanksgiving – we were taking a little walk and she asked me what I was bringing to our Thanksgiving gathering and I said I was planning to bring an artisan dish I’d made up: tofu salad! That is, tofu mushed up with vegan mayonnaise and chopped garlic and sprouted organic pumpkin seeds and a little soy sauce. 

“It’s delicious!” I proclaimed proudly.

“Yechh,” said Brenda. “No one but you will eat it. Why don’t you bring a nice green salad instead?”

“I can’t, I don’t have salad greens,” I replied. “I’d have to go to the store and buy some today.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what people do for Thanksgiving. They go to the store and buy food.”

“Besides,” I said, “I can’t even buy loose salad greens right now except in plastic clamshell containers.”

“Yes you can. Buy a head or two of lettuce and wash it.”

“But that’s laborious,” I objected.

Brenda scowled. “You know, that kinda pisses me off. This is for Thanksgiving. Sometimes in life –” 

Just then her cell phone beeped and she had to check it. When she looked up from her phone, she muttered, “I forgot what I was going to say.”

“Oh that’s too bad,” I said. “I think I was about to receive channeled wisdom. You started saying, ‘Sometimes in life …’”

Brenda burst out laughing. “Good, I’ll spare both of us then,” she said, smiling warmly, eyes bright with amusement.