This year I over did it with the turkey. The night before Thanksgiving my mother made a turkey dinner. We were going somewhere the next day so why not? My family was spending Thanksgiving at the Suffolk County home of this couple we are close to. We were there for Easter, too.
I love eating the neck of the turkey, so Mom saved it for me when I got home from work on Wednesday. And then the next day, it was part of the gravy recipe. At the Suffolk dinner, there was so much food. First we had trays of hor d'ouerves and a clam dip I always look forward to when we go over there. Turkey, of course, and stuffing, the usual. And then she made this acorn squash with butter and brown sugar that I could eat all day and these mashed potatoes from scratch. They prepared virtually all of this food under the direction of the Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving cookbook that I want to pick up.
I've always wanted to entertain my family for the holidays at my place. I love to cook. I've made delicious meals from my cooking for one collection. I don't think the tiny oven I have at my bachelorette pad provides for a big turkey dinner with trimmings though. I'd need the stove for about five different dishes. And forget about making the many courses I got for Thanksgiving this year. I would have to take the whole week off to cook.
Usually when I cook on a regular weekday I have leftovers for the next two days, lunch to bring to work and then dinner. I should be cooking for a family, but what can you do. My assignment this year was just to bake chocolate chip cookies for dessert. That was easy enough. My family thinks mine are the best.
On an unrelated note, the bridge of my nose is still sore because in her playful state, my dog jumped up on the couch while I was trying to relax and pounced happily on my face before licking me as I cried in agony. She has been contained outside of my living room at last. The electric fence is operating again.
As I came in from walking the canine princess of the pad, I saw a notice posted on the entrance of the apartment building from the co-op board. Earlier in the week someone called the police to report a suspicious person wandering around the complex. The board warned us that with the holiday season among us it's time to watch out for our deliveries. Last year several packages were reported stolen from the lobbies of the buildings.
Those thefts included gifts I purchased for the children in my life. Not only did it make me cry on Christmas morning last year, but it meant a $500 loss in a failing economy where the lucky few of us who kept our jobs did not receive holiday bonuses and the masses became unemployed. I spent a few months saving money to replace the gifts that I didn't have to give to the children right away.
I hope that the crook at least sold the American dolls cheap to a needy child who wouldn't otherwise get one. That being said though I would rather they come from charities as opposed to illegal activity.
This brings me to Kathleen Rice, the Nassau County District Attorney. Petty crime has been an ongoing problem in my neighborhood. I live in Garden City. It's a nice area, but my complex is located not far from the worst part of Hempstead for violent crime, drugs and prostitution - Terrace Avenue.
Rice won re-election this year in a close race against Joy Watson, Clerk for the Honorable Karen Murphy. The District Attorney is a native of Garden City as am I. So, I would hope that these criminal activities that concern myself and my neighbors will catch her eye. A few years ago, just before I purchased my co-op, a woman returning home from grocery shopping was assaulted in the parking lot by three assailants. A law enforcement agent, she carried a gun. As a result of the requisite training she had, the victim provided authorities proper identifications which resulted in the arrest and prosecution of all three.
Nevertheless, crime continues to plague the vicinity. One night when I was walking from the parking lot, I spotted the occasional used condom we residents haven't quite gotten used to finding. The johns drive the prostitutes over to the parking lot there for sex. I've spotted them in broad daylight on a Sunday morning and after work on a Thursday night. The johns almost always drive cars with out of state plates. I guess they rent them thinking they won't be caught that way if someone took down the number.
One Sunday I spotted a frizzy-haired hooker with too much hairspray embracing her clean-cut looking john in his car. I hoped he wasn't a Hofstra student. He wore a baseball cap and didn't look a day over 21. Although recommended to reduce the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, condoms are not 100% effective, son. They were completely oblivious to the possibility of being caught.
But most are aware that they are being watched. When I was driving home one night, a couple I spotted kissing in the parking lot became alarmed upon my arrival. They stopped their sexual rendezvous and watched me get out of my car and walk toward the complex until I disappeared from sight. When they couldn't see me anymore, I called the police.
They are endangering the residents of the complex and the surrounding houses as well as the children who play on the swings by depositing their medical waste where we head out to our cars. It's especially egregious when it's not so difficult for them to drop their rubbers in the trash receptacles. They're already doing something illegal by shooting up and having sex for pay; they can at least not add reckless endangerment to the list that includes theft.
I grew up several blocks northwest of where I live now. Sometimes I would spot suspicious people rounding tons of bikes across the railroad tracks. Nowadays, I find the thieves closer to the final destination of their delivery routes.
My neighborhood itself is generally safe. It would be perfect if the riff-raff that trolls for prostitutes on Terrace Avenue were to stay away from our parking lot.
DA Rice, you've made history by refusing to plea bargain with drunk drivers. Make it one more time by cleaning up this part of your hometown.
This Black Friday I will remain safely at my keyboard. I refuse to brave the crowds like the one that killed that poor man at the Valley Stream WalMart last year. But like my dating life where there is a always a catch when I meet a new guy who seems so perfect until he disappears on me without a trace, I have to brave the package thieves. Mom agreed to serve as custodian of my gift packages this year.
One of Mom's co-workers says she's heading to the mall at 3 in the morning. She will sleep against the wall of the Macy's building as if it were 8 in the morning at Times Square on New Year's Eve.
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