Maybe it is just middle-aged malaise but today is just another day off of work to me. Oscar the Grouch and I were trying to remember when we last hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at our house. When we had just the twins and one dog, we always had a big get-together at our house. We would try a different "turkey-to-go" package from a hotel or restaurant and have a household of friends over for dinner. The tradition always included a huge tupperware container of stained glass jello from my friend IY, at least 4 different handmade desserts by my other friend AN and cupcakes fabulousely decorated by another friend TJ. There were always kids barreling around and lots of wine-a-flowing. It was always a very diverse group of people with an international buffet of food. I remember thinking that there was probably no where in the world where such a rainbow of people was gathered.
Once Mad Cow came along, it seemed that there was no free time to plan a Thanksgiving get-together, to do our annual pre-Turkey day week of cleaning, or even just to call people or e=mail invitations. When TJ and her family moved to New York and AN passed away, it felt like the heart of the celebration was gone. Even when we'd have small gatherings, you felt the void of their absences. To me, it was just too much to bear. It's strange but it was comforting for me to spend time with just the immediate family (plus Mom, Dad and Jun) on Thanksgiving instead of floating in a sea of missing loved ones.
When we added Tiger to the family, that kind of put the nail in the Thanksgiving party coffin since lots of the kids (and even the moms) are pit-bully phobic. When we added rats in the basement, that poured cement over the nailed coffin.
So, tonight it will just be us at my parents' house, sans dogs but possibly with jello since IY lives across the street from my Mom and Dad. No turkey-to-go since my Dad is into seeing how big a free turkey he can get every year. My only assignment was to bring dessert.
Oscar and I are always last minute people so we set off today to pick up pies. The request was for pumpkin and apple. Knowing my penchant for being abnormal, I came up with the brilliant idea to pick up dessert from and have breakfast at the Cheesecake Factory at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The kids were at my parents' so we asked them if they wanted to go but they said no.
The first thing we noticed as we headed into Waikiki was how dead the streets were. No traffic at all and very few tourists. It was really depressing.
We parked and walked over to the Cheesecake Factory (after Oscar had a road rage moment with a Roberts' Hawaii tour bus). It was about 10:30 am. A news crew with Denby Fawcett was out in front looking to interview people with shopping bags. They were having a difficult time finding people since everyone was empty handed. The restaurant didn't open until 11 am so we made tourist and walked around to kill time.
I wanted to go to the Chip and Cookie store to buy cookies. If you don't know, that is where you can buy cookies by the artist formerly known as Famous Amos. This is a nostalgic smell to me since I used to drive to the Famous Amos store on Keeaumoku when I first got my license. That was back when Mr. Amos was still Famous and was the one actually making the cookies. I would buy a bag of the butterscotch chips and a coke and sit in my car and feed the teenage emotional monster that lived deep in the pit of my stomach. Yes, I know, eat your feelings, girl!
Unfortunately, we were behind a customer who bought everything in pink in the shop and was being helped by a salesperson who did not know how to ring up anything that was not made of flour. Again, after waiting about 10 minutes, we decided to leave. At least I did see the real Mr. Amos on the first floor where he was hawking cookies like the old days.
Of course, we went to the Apple Store even though I swore to Oscar that I could resist it. The Apple Store to me is like a crack den to a crack 'ho. I have to get a fix even though I have no money to buy anything. Everything was so nice and shiny! The place was full of people - mostly LOCALS which kind of threw us off. I began to contemplate whether we should pay the $23,000 tuition bill next month and give the kids socks or buy them a nice present and inform them they have to be home-schooled come January. Then Oscar started to mutter about how the salesperson was full-of-s**t saying that you could buy something today and if it went on sale on Black Friday, they would honor that price. I knew that meant he was hungry.
I am still enraptured with the new I-Phone and the fancy docking stations that are so tiny. Right now, I use a $9 Hannah Montana one that I got on clearance at Best Buy. It is stashed in my kitchen behind my rice pot, my hidden shame. The sound is good though and on those rare occasions when I do cook dinner, it does keep me entertained and bopping around.
We went back to the Cheesecake Factory at about 10:50 and waited for it to open. We talked story with some tourists about how awful parents are these days (Oscar was wearing a shirt I got for him from Vegas that said, "Volunteer Parent, I'll slap your kid since you won't") and kept waiting, waiting, waiting. A line of over 50 people formed. What amazed us was how many tourists just ignored the line of people and went to the front door trying to open it. I mean, there is a long line of folks obviously waiting to go in and you just go to the front and try to open the doors! Luckily, it was heavily Japanese tourist so people were not hostile. Can you imagine if someone tried that tonight at the Toys R Us line? Dead meat.
At 11:20, nobody had emerged from Cheesecake Factory and it did not look like they were going to open. There were no signs saying they were closed nor did anyone come out to explain why they were closed. We decided to leave and find somewhere else to eat. Being local folks (well, 1-1/2 local anyway), we had no idea where to go so we walked back towards the
Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville place was right across the street so we walked across Kalakaua to see the menu. It took us a while to figure out how to enter the place since all you see is the retail shop. It turned out you have to enter to the left of the store and take an escalator to the next floor. The menu consisted of things heavily fried and tex-mexy. Not exactly what we wanted. Plus, the ambiance was pool-side beach chair un-chic.
We left and noticed that the line was gone from Cheesecake Factory but they were definitely closed. So, we thought we would eat at Panya, get the parking validation and leave. We didn't even go in since Oscar saw that the sandwiches were $13! He said it would be cheaper to pay for the parking.
Since we didn't know where to eat, we decided we would go to Borders Express to buy a paper or to ABC Drugs for a soda to get the parking validation. We went upstairs to the 2nd floor and discovered that they have a new food court there. Another local family behind us said loudly as we went up the elevator, "Hooray, Panda Express!" Clearly, they too had been wandering in search of food. It was a very impressive food court with Paradise Cafe, Maui Tacos, Ezogiku, Kenny's Hawaiian BBQ (yes, the Kam Shopping Center Kenny's), something called Monkey's and some burger place. If we couldn't find a place to sit down and be served, we would return and have ramen at Ezogiku.
We were looking for the Okonomiyaki place when we saw people standing in front of a menu. It was for W Steakhouse. We were going to go there earlier to see if we could find amenu for the Professor since we figured it would be closed. But it was OPEN and the sandwiches were only $4 more than Panya.
I'll write about my lunch in another post. I was bummed that my phone was dead at home but happy that we could at least find a good place to eat after wandering around Waikiki for an hour.
Oh, by the way, the parking was FREE from 10 to 3 so we didn't have to wander around looking for a validation.
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