Friendsgiving

Friday evening I headed out to Johnson Branch of Lake Ray Roberts to meet up with friends. They had reserved (the best) spot, right on the lake, and had been camping since Thursday. Those of us not wanting to camp showed up on Friday to relax, eat baked potatoes and turkey legs, roast s'mores, and enjoy each other's company while enjoying nature.

It was lovely.

Thanksgiving 2016

I don't generally travel for Thanksgiving since I fly home for Christmas (last year's trip to Kansas was an exception, and also an easy drive). Two years ago, while in Topeka, I decided to volunteer at the local community Thanksgiving. I loved it and have wanted to make it a tradition.

So a couple weeks ago I started looking around for volunteer opportunities in Denton. I found the Village Church of Denton's annual Community Thanksgiving Banquet. I signed up, and when I showed up on Thanksgiving (after participating in the second annual Downtown Denton Turkey Trot!), and offered to deliver meals to those who signed up for home delivery.

I did three deliveries total, with each taking about thirty minutes. It was extremely humbling to deliver these meals to people. They were all so kind and thankful and truly appreciative of the meal. The first lady I delivered to said she was so hungry she had been eating mayo and mustard. My heart nearly broke.

When all the dishes were done and the floors cleaned for the Community Banquet, I headed out to a friends' home in McKinney. It was filled with lovely friends (and food) who made me happy.

I truly have much to be thankful for - my home, my family, my friends; Biscuit; I also have food in my fridge and in my belly; I have a job and supportive co-workers; I am healthy; I want for nothing.

Piesgiving

One of the best things about being a homeowner is being able to have friends over for get togethers. My loft in Topeka was pretty spacious, so entertaining there wasn't really an issue. My place in Denton, though, was quite small, meaning get-togethers would have to be limited to one or two people.

Yesterday I invited friends over for Piesgiving. Everyone had to bring a pie to the event, then we'd all just eat pie together. It was fantastic! Everyone brought a pie! Most were the traditional dessert pies, but there was also a chicken pot pie as well as two pizza pies.

My living room isn't terribly large. I didn't quite have enough seats for everyone, so some were standing. But everyone was talking and laughing and having a good time. It made me so happy to have my home full of so many fantastic people. They help make Denton home.

Also, Biscuit was quite the hit. It's no an exaggeration when I say everyone loved her.

Arrival

The previews for Arrival didn't immediately catch my attention as a movie I had to see. I actually thought I wouldn't see it. But today came and I was feeling like going to a movie, and when I checked Fandango it was playing at my theater in thirty minutes.

It was pretty slow moving for the first three-fourths of the film, and I was unsure if it was going to go anywhere. However, it then picked up some steam and I was decently enthralled. I enjoyed the importance language played in the film. That there is distinction in language about the meaning of words. Louise (Amy Adams) gets that and takes her time creating a base of understanding with the aliens to avoid war. Words, and their meanings and intent, matter.

The movie is not the normal sci-fi/alien movie. Independence Day it is not. As I was watching, I kept thinking of the Jodie Foster film Contact. In that, Foster plays a scientist who discovers that aliens are communicating with Earth. There's some controversy if she should be the one to meet them with the contraption they build - she's an atheist and the "people in charge" believe a person "of faith" should be the one to meet the aliens. It made for a cerebral rather than action-packed sci-fi film, and Arrival is like that, too.

Denton Stream Clean

Denton is serious about cleaning trash. Every March the City participates in the Great American Cleanup, an event where volunteers cleanup the roadways all across the city. In November, there is Stream Clean, where volunteers go out to the city's creeks and stream beds and clean up all the trash (and other items) that accumulate there.

My friend Suzi put together a group of friends to participate in Stream Clean this year (as a City employee, I was also wrangled into being a Site Captain). Along with a group of middle schoolers and UNT students, we cleaned up the stream bed of Pecan Creek. It had rained earlier in the week, so there was a lot of trash for us to pick up. We found multiple traffic cones, several sleeping bags/blankets, lots of plastic bottles and aluminum cans, tires, a bike, and even part of a shopping cart. 

It felt quite rewarding to see the area at the end of the cleanup, with all the trash and crap that was once in the stream now piled up into a truck. 

Pants with a barcode.....an escaped convict now living it up in Mexico with Andy and Red?

All the volunteers!

Some kid lost their bike. 

Half a shopping cart...

Carrying the trash back to the truck. 

The cleanup group at Pecan Creek and Woodrow.