a photo journal of thanksgiving dinner



 


Chowing on apps after a long morning prepping

   

Nadine working on the mashed potatoes

 

Lena and me, trying to keep everything warm

 

Everything but the cranberries:  turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and creamed corn.  Gravy and rolls were on the table!


 

Omar helping Joey carve the turkey

 

From left to right: Ahmed, Nadine, Brian, Joey, Omar and Lena

Letting dinner sit with a game of Apples to Apples.





Time for pie!  Pecan pie, pumpkin pie and caramel cream pie - YUM.

 

Aren't we cute?

 





online reviews are ruining my life

I'm serious. They have completely debilitated my shopping prowess. I can't buy anything anymore without reading every. single. review.  And even if almost all of the reviews are positive, that one bad review will completely cloud my judgement and render me unable to purchase the item.

Take, for example, sheets. Average review of 3 1/2 stars on Amazon.com:

"These are the nicest sheets ever! A great deal!" say reviewers 1-42.

"These sheets SUCK. They are scratchy and absolutely NOT 1200 thread count," says reviewer #43.

"Very happy with these sheets," according to reviewers 44-84.

"The sheets are great - for six months. Then I woke up with my foot next to the mattress because there was giant hole!" contributes reviewer 85.

Then reviewer 86 gave then a one-star review because the color in person didn't match the color on the computer monitor. Very helpful.

So don't read the reviews, right? No way. In fact, if an item hasn't been reviewed yet, I am even less likely to buy it. How do I know from that grainy little picture and clever online marketing if the product is worth it? Someone has to tell me what to think! And if an item has only been reviewed by one person, even if that person positively glows about the product, that's not enough statistical probability for me. Then those 1200 thread-count, Egyptian-cotton sheets that only cost $30 will actually be burlap (or maybe I've lived here so long I think everything is a scam).

I mean, what if I pay $100 for a set of sheets, wait 3 weeks to get them, wash them and they're scratchy? Good luck trying to return already-washed sheets through the mail (I totally would return those in the store, though. I'd look that manager straight in the eye and tell him his sheets are sheet.) Or what if I pay $100 and I wake up one morning with my foot in a hole? Or like the pair of sheets I'm attempting to replace, what if this pair pills and itches after ten washes?

This is what happens when you have lived in Africa for a year. Twelve months of no shopping, after growing up in the suburbs and having nothing else to do but shop, results in a shop-obsessed- I-suddenly-must-buy-an-ice-bucket crazy person. I am going through shopping withdrawal. What I wouldn't give right now to sit in my car, listening to NPR and fighting holiday traffic to rush through the frigid winter air into the warm, fluorescent wonderland that is Target. To lean on a shopping cart and sip my tall, Starbucks, one-pump-pumpkin-spice, non-fat, no-whip latte as I wander aimlessly through the brightly lit aisles of Bed, Bath and Beyond and listen to cheesy, over-played holiday tunes. To pick up a box, turn it around, read the label, look at the packaging, feel the quality between my fingers and come to my own judgement about whether or not I should buy it. But instead I am relegated to the product of my Google searches and Amazon sorting mechanisms. Then what should be a simple solution to a simple problem (I need new sheets: buy a new set), turns into marathon internet shopping session in which I read 5000 reviews and buy nothing.

By the way, I decided my blog needed an update. Just wanted to give credit where it's due: Lizz, I used your template. I hope you don't mind.

And I'm definitely interested in your reviews.

presents

Joey turned 28 last month, which we celebrated with our friends Lena and Omar and Nadine and Brian. Lena and Omar have a brick oven on their compound, which we used to make homemade pizzas with the Graziano's Italian sausage I brought from home.  Chocolate peanut butter bars rounded out the evening (as well as my backside).





My present for Joey didn't arrive in time, but thankfully he still had a gift to open, complements of M.  She got him the shirt he's wearing in the photos. 

My Christmas present for Joey has already arrived: I ordered it as soon as I realized Joey's birthday present would be late.  Unfortunately, Joey intercepted the box at the Embassy and opened it.  He came home with the mail and said, "Somebody got us something really cool, but I don't know who it's from."  At least he liked it...

Joey's Christmas present: a coaster for each place of significance.

So now I have no presents to put under the tree for my husband.  But I do have a pretty tree.  Add Home Alone on TV yesterday (at which I only shed a few tears), homemade eggnog courtesy of Joey (which tasted just like AE Dairy's), and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Inside... 

two's company

Well, I made it through about one minute of my first Christmas song this season before the tears set in.  The plan was to set up the tree this weekend; maybe I'll feel less weepy after all the endorphins set in from my ten-mile run tomorrow morning.  In the meantime, Joey poured me a glass of red wine.

On a lighter note, I thought I'd share a funny story from a few weeks ago.  We celebrated Thanksgiving early, the Sunday before, since we'd be in Cape Town on the actual holiday.  Between the three couples, we had most of the necessary components of a Thanksgiving dinner, but we still had to do a little shopping. 

Grocery shopping in Abuja is kind of like a scavenger hunt; you never know what you're going to find or where you might find it.  All five grocery stores might have bean sprouts one week, but the following week when you want to make Pad Thai, bean sprouts are nowhere to be found.  So the day before our dinner, Joey, Lena and I made our way through four of the grocery stores in town in search of the various ingredients.  We were almost successful; we couldn't find cranberries, but we did manage to find a version of everything else.

Our last stop was the fruit and vegetable market we frequent, where we stopped to pay way too much for apples and buy some fresh herbs for the turkey.  We always visit the same stand; the little guy there calls us his customers and usually doesn't screw us too much on the prices.  Actually, the little guy, let's call him Abdul, is probably at least 30, but if it weren't for his teeth, you'd think he was about 12.

We parked the car by our regular stand, and Joey got out first.  Lena and I followed.  Abdul looked at Joey, then he looked at me, and then he looked at Lena.  He looked back at Joey, back at me, and then to Lena one more time.  Then Abdul's eyes grew as big as saucers and in his high-pitched voice he exclaimed:

"You have TWO wives?!"

Oh God.

We laughed hysterically, joked that yes, Joey has two wives, and then tried to explain that actually, no, Lena was not Joey's second wife.

Abdul was not to be persuaded.  He looked at me and said, "You are the Abuja wife."  Then he looked at Lena and said, "And you are from London!"  (London seems to be the only place that most people know outside of Nigeria - sufficiently far away I guess for his mind to reconcile why he'd never seen her before.)

Abdul was so excited we could hardly convince him to sell us produce.  He kept high-fiving and fist-bumping Joey and saying, "I want two wives!"

So Lena and I decided we are now sister wives.  I am the bush wife and she is the city wife.  Sounds like Joey's got a pretty good arrangement.   

t minus 365

I can't believe today is December 1. Which means exactly one year from today, Joey, George, Max, Moe and I will be boarding a plane for the good old U.S. of A. on a one-way ticket. So while technically our one year anniversary here is not until December 29, that crazy, post-Christmas all-night drive from Des Moines to DC was totally worth every sleepless minute. Because had we waited for Delta to get its shit together and arrived in Nigeria even 2 days later, my one year countdown wouldn't start for another month. Ah. may. zing.

But now the crazy part?

I actually don't think I'd mind an extra month. I might even be able to deal with a few extra months.

Ever since I got back from Des Moines in September, things here have gotten so much better (for me, not Nigeria). I started a new job as a contractor, which I find challenging, interesting and rewarding. Instead of juggling two menial part-time jobs, I'm able to work full-time in my field. And I'm no longer at the Embassy, and I really enjoy the extra bit of space afforded to me by not working in the same building as my husband and the rest of the entire American community every. single. day. I'm horrible at small talk and now I don't have to subject myself to painful, awkward silences at least once an hour. The best part is that I was able to negotiate a telecommute agreement, so while I work most of my days in the office, I get to work a few hours each day from home. It's fantastic.

We also have made some incredible friends in the last few months. Everyone at post has been very kind and accomodating, but we just didn't meet anybody with whom we just "clicked." Almost all the young people here are single, and the ones who are married all have children, and Joey and I just fell into an uncomfortable middle ground. But we finally met two other young couples like us and we've been having a blast. We have weekly dinner parties, spent a great weekend away and are planning another trip together this spring. It's amazing what a difference good friends make; I guess I had taken for granted how important our friendships at home and in DC had been to me. I finally found two women with whom I feel like I can have open, honest, face-to-face conversations about fashion, travel, marriage, kids, money - life! It's taken a ton of pressure off our marriage now that I have other people with whom I can commiserate. And for all those things that, try as he might, Joey just doesn't understand, my girlfriends do.

We've also planned some fabulous travels. We get to spend ten days in Italy with my parents and one of my sisters this winter drinking wine and eating pasta. We're training to run a marathon around Mt. Kilimanjaro and afterward we get to go on safari in the Serengheti. As difficult as living in Nigeria has been, it has afforded us incredible opportunities to see places we never even could have dreamed of.

I don't know - I guess when I finally stopped fighting the fact that I live in Nigeria and just started living instead - when I stopped focusing on how much it sucked, it stopped sucking so much. And now that we're down to a year, I'm already a little sad that it's going to be over so soon. I guess that's one of the drawbacks of this life - as soon as you get settled and start enjoying the journey, it's almost time to look ahead to the next move, the next job, the next post. But in the meantime we're here for 365 more days, and we're going to make the most of it.

Oh, and I didn't buy the boots.  I bought leopard-print oxfords instead.  When in Rome...

things that make you go hmm

Our internet plan ran out today.  This happens about once a month, unless we download more than 5 GB of data.  But considering I'm trying download Picasa on our new laptop and the estimated time to download 76 MB is over one day (read: extremely.  painfully.  slow.), it's pretty hard to go through that much data.  Anyway, renewing the internet plan consists of counting out a little over $50 in little over $1 bills (the largest bill available the last time we got cash was 200 naira, which is about $1.25), walking down the dirt road to the shack built into the concrete wall, requesting "five - one five" cards and "one - five hundred" recharge card (because if you ask for 8000 they will tell you they don't have it), walking back down the dirt road and then scratching off each card (they look just like scratch-off lotto tickets) and entering each card's sixteen-digit code into the computer.  All for super-fast speed.  Or not...So that was my fun activity today.

Joey and I were invited to a wedding back in late August.  True to tradition here, we bought the fabric from the bride and contacted a tailor to make our outfits.  I ended up going home and missing the wedding, so the tailor only finished Joey's outfit.  We told her we'd pay her once my outfit was finished.  In October, when we still hadn't heard from the tailor, I called her and said I'd like to pay her for her work.  She told me she'd have everything finished within a week.  Today, the tailor called Joey.  She apologized for taking so long and told him that the government had seized my fabric.  She was too embarrassed to tell me before, but she'd gone to court and gotten it back, and assured him would have my outfit done by next week.  Um, ok?

On a different note, part of the reason I haven't been blogging is because I've been totally consumed by two major investment purchases.  First problem: a camera. Ever since Canon G11 v. African rain forest, I've needed a replacement.  (Lucky for me, my friend N. was generous and trusting enough to allow me to borrow her G11 for our trip to Cape Town.  I took good care of it.)  I figure now is as good an opportunity as any to upgrade to a D-SLR, but I cannot decide for the life of me what to buy.  Canon?  Nikon?  One of those new, slim, interchangeable lens cameras like a Pentax or Panasonic?  Do I buy the entry-level or shell out an extra $100 for the better entry-level model?  Or do I invest a little more so that in two years I don't need to replace this model?  Ugh.

Then there's the extra battery, the camera case, the memory card and the requisite waterproof camera for use when the humidity is above 10% because I'm a clumsy mess.  That's a good chunk of money.  My warranty should cover the rain-dominated G11, which I'm hoping is damaged beyond repair and will thus result in a new G12 that I can try to sell on Amazon or eBay and recoup some of the cost, but it's still a lot of money and so I want to make sure I'm making the right decision!  I have spent hours researching online and I'm pretty sure I'm even more confused than when I started.

Then lies the question of when I buy the camera(s).  Do I buy now during the post-Thanksgiving sales?  Or do I wait until after Christmas and risk the prices going up or the cameras going out of stock?  Dilemmas!

Problem number two: shoes.  We're planning a trip to Italy late January, and I don't have any good winter walking shoes and I can't decide what to buy.  Do I invest in a pair of leather riding boots?  I found a pair that  I love (Frye Melissa Button Boot - of course it doesn't hurt that the shoes have a great name - it's like a sign), but the soles are leather too and I'm worried about slipping and ending up on my butt (like Joey did yesterday when he fell in a manhole).  I'm also worried about wet weather ruining the leather, but the average precipitation is fairly low for January, and I'm sure I could buy a weather-proofing conditioner. Still, I don't want to invest in gorgeous leather boots only to have them ruined the first week.  

Then there's the issue of comfort - they're flat and have some measure of support, but they're not soft by any means.  And I'll be traipsing around cobblestone streets all day.

The worst part is that if I buy the boots, I have to break down and finally buy skinny jeans.  Ever since my charming husband helpfully told me in the dressing room of Banana Republic that, "those skinny jeans really emphasize your pear shape," I've had a hard time plunking down $100 bucks to emphasize my hips. Plus then I'd have to buy at least two pairs to justify the cost of the boots, and I've already tried ordering two different versions of the Levi's curvy skinny jeans.  This resulted in paying return shipping and being in an exceptionally bad mood all day.

So now I'm trying to decide if I should just buy the cute gray Converse wool sneakers and hope they'll be warm and supportive enough.  I mean, isn't it time for skinny jeans to go out of style already?   It's really quite the conundrum.

ordinary update

We just got back from an incredible four days in Cape Town.  I can't even begin to explain how much we loved it there, so I won't.  Yet.  My sister pointed out what I've been thinking for awhile - my blog has become more of a travel blog than about my every day life.  I'm not complaining about the travels; I'm certainly not going to stop blogging about them either, but I am going to try to give more frequent updates.  There's always a little funny story or quote I think, "I should blog about that," and then get side-tracked.  So that's the goal anyway...

Speaking of funny little quotes, once a week, M. makes us tuna salad for lunch (there are some perks to living in Nigeria).  Actually it's every Tuesday; I have a little spreadsheet with what she makes each day (yes, I love Excel and I know I am a nerd and I don't know why I felt the need to share that but then that gets into why I feel the need to share any of this shit and I don't feel like getting into that today.  I digress...).  Recently we ran out of the Costco tuna from our shipment, and that Monday as M. prepared to make our lunch, she asked Joey what she should use.  He pointed to the other brand of tuna on the shelf.

"But I thought that was chicken?"  M. asked.

Yes, M. is apparently channeling Jessica Simpson.  Either that or Chicken of the Sea needs to consider re-branding.