Editor’s note: This is the second installment in Joe Giovannetti’s weeklong diary about his Thanksgiving trip.
Day two: Wednesday
10:28 a.m. I’m driving with my mom and sister, Rachel, to pick up my grandpa for breakfast when they have their first fight of the day.
Mom: “Why are you driving in fourth gear?”
Rachel: “That’s the gear I drive in.”
Mom: “Joe, will you tell her to drive in third gear.”
Me: (Banging my head against the window hoping a concussion will get me out of this.)
12:35 p.m. After the longest breakfast of my life, Rach and I hung out with Editorial Adviser Jon Gold, who is visiting his mom for the weekend.
Jon’s mom lives in San Francisco’s Fillmore district, which is a cornucopia of different cultures mixed in one neighborhood. Very few other places in the city are housing projects across the street from new condominium-style apartments. The surroundings will later cause Rach to remark, “I hope no one steals our hubcaps,” when we park the car.
12:45 We’ve been standing outside Jon’s mom’s apartment building for five minutes because Jon doesn’t know how to buzz us up and he can’t leave the apartment because he’s babysitting Hadley, his sister’s golden retriever. If he has trouble figuring out how to work the answering machine, I can officially start calling him grandma.
12:53 Two disasters: 1) Hadley has taken a liking to me and, well, I’m not a dog person. 2) Jon has decided to break the news to me that our trip to Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve is cancelled.
1:01 So not only am I still dealing with the fact that my first Vegas trip has been cancelled, but I’m also dealing with Hadley wanting to be all up in my business. I look like Lance Bass trying to avoid a lap dance from Paris Hilton.
2:27 Just a brutal 90 minutes. I’m increasingly bitter about Vegas, mostly because I passed up two chances to go in the last month alone. I promise this is the last time I’ll mention it.
2:45 In the car with Rach on the way home.
Me: “Could I be angrier about this Vegas thing?”
Rach: “Yeah, you’re almost as angry as I was when I came home last night and realized Mom hadn’t bought chocolate milk.”
6:30 My buddy Fields just called to figure out our plans. You have to love a guy like Fields, especially when he says stuff like, “Whatever you do tonight, I’m doing two times.”
Other fun facts about Fields: My mom didn’t know Fields wasn’t his first name for the first five years she knew him. His extensive collection of Andre Nickatina CDs was recently stolen. Most of what he’ll say will not make it into the diary, or The Daily Aztec would get shut down.
7:11 Fields and I are getting ready to go meet Jon when my mom notices I’m not wearing a coat. She proceeded to lecture me for 10 minutes on the importance of bringing a coat.
That’s my mom for you. Tomorrow, I could hatch a turkey egg, kill the turkey and make a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings, but the most amazing
part of the weekend to her would be that I didn’t wear a coat on Wednesday night.
7:42 We get over to Jon’s place and start with a round of blue gingers. Fields seems hesitant. He’s worried that if he drinks anything but a Budweiser, it will lead to more effeminate drinks. Blue gingers today could mean appletini’s and a “Sex and the City” marathon tomorrow.
8:11 We start talking about people from high school we might run into tonight.
Fields: “(Omit name of girl for libel lawsuit reasons) might be there.”
Me: “Good, we better put condoms on before we go in the bar, just to make sure we don’t catch anything.”
-For past editions of the diary, visit www.thedailyaztec.com
