The (Late) Thanksgiving Post

In the theme of Thanksgiving (I know it's late, but come on it was only last week), I've tried to remember some of the memorable potlucks that I've been to. For the maybe three of you who don't know, a potluck is a party where instead of the host providing all the food and drinks, everyone is required to bring something instead. It's a pretty good way to spread out the costs as well as find out what kind of strange foods your friends eat. Luckily enough (for me and for you too) I haven't attended a lot of parties where I've been required to bring food so this should be a short post and then you can all go back to enjoying your leftovers (ours are already gone). Also, if you were wondering (which you probably aren't so you can skip my excuses), I did manage to finish both Splinter Cell as well as newest Call of Duty game. I wish I could say I was reading more... but I haven't. Oh, and I've been catching up on all those TV shows.

So, in no particular order but as they come to me:

Nes's House Gatherings
Sure I'm pushing this one, but here we go. Whenever we gather at Nes's house, typically everyone just chips in for pizza (one of them guaranteed to have sardines) while we sit around and drink. Usually, everyone brings beer or alcohol in some form or another. I remember for a while there we were always stocked with Coronas and some form of whiskey (at least that's what I remember drinking). I know that shouldn't really count as a potluck, but we've done it so many times that it was the first thing I thought of. Now that I think about it, I do bring chips every once in a while. Oh, and that time when my brother and I brought chicken katsu. Yeah, I think that happened. Anyways, we've definitely done the pizza thing a lot. And the drinking. But those are stories for another time, when I've properly chronicled all of those.


The Elementary School Reunion
A while back, someone set up a group on Facebook for our elementary school class and with that we were able to hold a reunion. Unfortunately, we got together on a Friday when most people either had class or work. Luckily, I was unemployed and poor so I had some free time. Besides, meeting people I hadn't seen for a decade or so sounded like a great idea. At the very least they wouldn't know how much of an asshole I'd become. Or at least hopefully would've forgotten how much of an asshole I was. Just kidding, I don't remember what I was like back then. Anyways, I grabbed Angelo and Bryce and drove off to Ala Moana Beach Park (at least that's where I think it was at). And for this one I brought Fried Noodles from Leeward Drive Inn. Stupidly, I had forgotten to bring plates and forks but someone else did, I don't remember who.

photo credits to... someone

By the way, you know the anticipation you feel before you're high school reunions? Actually, I don't either but I've watched Grosse Pointe Blank about a hundred times so I assume I know what it's like. (John Cusack. Contract Killer. High school reunion. Watch it!). You start wondering how much everyone has changed and how much they've stayed the same. You wonder if they'll still remember that math class you had together? It's the same for elementary school reunions... you know but slightly different. Obviously most of them are going to get taller. But will they be taller than you? (they weren't). Will they remember that time we got caught eating all that glue? (that's a lie, I never shared my glue). And I gotta say, I was kinda disappointed. Everyone seemed exactly the same as how I remembered them. Maybe we don't really change in just ten years? or maybe I just couldn't see the changes? Whatever it was, it was fun to see all those people again.


Marie's Get-Together
Have you also been noticing the lack of dates attached to any of these events? Yeah I've noticed them too. I'm pretty bad at remember dates. But moving on... I remember bringing Cold Ginger Chicken from One Plus One Drive Inn that night. The funny part is I'm pretty sure I had just started eating cold ginger chicken just recently so it was still a pretty new food for me to enjoy as well. I wasn't even sure if anyone else ate it. And here I was bringing it anyways. I'm not sure of the reason we all gathered on the roof of Marie's apartment building. I do remember that one of the rules of the common rooftop area was that no alcohol was allowed. Not a big deal for present day Alan ... Okay, that's a lie, but it's less of a big deal for present day Alan than the Alan of just a couple years ago (I'm sure you remember him). I remember it feeling awkward being at a party without some form of alcohol in my system. The strangest part, as sober as I know I was, I can't quite seem to remember a whole lot about the party.


The International Pot-Luck Dinner
Strange that I remembered this one last, even though it was the only one that I actually cooked the dish I brought. Back when I was studying abroad, the dorm decided to have an International Potluck dinner. Thus we were all tasked with bringing something from our home country. Sure I could've just run down to the store to buy some Coke or a bag of chips, but I had gotten slightly less worse at cooking recently (at least I wasn't getting food poisoning from my meals). Fortunately, one of the other Hawaii people made spam musubis so I didn't have to spend all that time cooking and shaping rice into rectangles and messing with the nori. Instead, I just made the simple Spam Fried Rice complete with spam, shoyu, eggs, onions, and that instant rice I'd been buying from the One Hundred Yen store. The funniest part, I can still see a couple of you picking out the spam as you scooped it from the bowl.