A 21st Century Thanksgiving DInner

Jan, Jake, and Paul came up to Chicago Wednesday evening, staying over for Thanksgiving. Jake flew in from Philadelphia. As noted earlier, Jake got off the plane with a runny nose and a cough, putting him on the corridor's Do Not Enter list. But we made the best of it.

Staff from food service, who stop by for a quality check at least once a day and sometimes three times a day, had highly recommended the dining service's macaroni and cheese and the sweet potato pie, special for Thanksgiving. I was skeptical about the macaroni and cheese, since I had ordered it before, but she assured me that they made it the real way for Thanksgiving. So, I ordered the mac and cheese (take that, Pat Robertson) and the sweet potato pie, to supplement what my family was bringing from Boston Market. The dining hall had the mac and cheese, but they were out of pie.

Jake in exile in the Au Bon Pain five floors below.

Video chatting with Jake over lean pickings from Boston Market.

Paul and Jan show off their Yellow-Bellied Sneetches costumes.

The dining hall mac and cheese arrived shortly before Jan with the Boston Market bag. I couldn't tell the difference between the special Thanksgiving version and the usual awful stuff. Then again, not much tastes very good to me these days, so I'm not the best judge.

By 4:00, when Jan got to Boston Market, most of the sides we wanted were gone. The remainders were OK, but I really missed the cranberry-walnut relish we had seen on the menu.

We had our meal, chatted with Jake in exile, and later in the evening they all headed down to Champaign for the weekend. Jan is coming back up on Sunday for the day, after taking Jake to the airport.

A little later, my night nurse came in with good news — the nurses had a few extra pieces of sweet potato pie and were offering them to patients. Sure, I'd love one.

It was awful.

But the Thanksgiving dinner was basically as good as it could be, under the circumstances.