Welcome home for Thanksgiving! Where the lines at the bar are ridiculous, the drinks can’t come fast enough, and while you think it’s deja vu you’ve got going on – you actually ARE having the same 3-minute conversation with blasts from your not-so-distant past over and over and over.

And over.

It’s a funny concept this “home for Thanksgiving bar night” we’ve got going. It’s the biggest bar night of the year, but every year brings about the same conversation that leaves me wanting to bang my head into a wall. But even though I don’t, I somehow wake up feeling like I did.

It goes a little something like this:

Your 7th grade frenemy: “Hi! (looks you up and down here) Oh-my-god you look great! What are you doing now? Where do you live? Are you single? Omg so great to see you… Ah! Look who just walked in! Pom-pon Captain Susie! She got fat! Better go say hi!!! We should totally get together for drinks or something! Facebook me! So great to see you! Read More »

Wait...you do WHAT for a living?

Thanksgiving gets increasingly more stressful for me every single year. If I’m not having nightmares about the stuffing running out before it gets passed to me, then I’m biting my nails over the fact that I’ll have to explain my career to my family sixteen times. And let’s not even get started on the fact that I’ve misplaced my expandable waistband jeans and turkey-print mumu. There’s no way I’m sitting down at that table wearing anything else. The last thing I can afford is a busted pair of pants with no buttons and a broken zipper.

I’m pretty sure my own parents can’t figure out exactly how blogging works or how I’m making money — so I have no idea how to even explain it to my grandmother. For years I thought she was computer literate, but it sadly turns out she was convinced that the Windows Paint program was actually the Internet. It certainly explains why she was adamant that my e-mails were never getting to her, but it will also make explaining blogging to her quite the challenge. Perhaps my best bet is to just replace her entire World Book 1965 collection with book covers that say “by Jenni” and tell her that I’ve been writing outdated encyclopedias since graduation.

Even worse than having to explain blogging to a 176-year-old (give or take a few decades) is having to beat around the bush when my younger relatives actually ask to see the blogs. While I’m writing for six different blogs, there is not one that’s appropriate for family members to see. If I’m not writing about one-night stands or pee pranks, then I’m giving advice to elderly men on how to date financially desperate women. And I’ve just ruled out showing this one because I know someone will tattle on me to my grandmother, which means a month from now when my siblings are opening up Chanukah envelopes with crisp 10 dollar bills, I’ll be opening a package marked hazardous that’s filled with my grandmother’s old dentures.

My anxiety ulcers aren’t just coming from having to explain my blogging career, but also from having to spend time with my extended family. When I was little, cramming 12 cousins into 2 beds seemed like a fun challenge. But now that everyone’s grown up (and gained weight) it’s more like every man for himself — if you don’t get a bed or a couch, make yourself cozy under the kitchen table. And beds are nothing compared to the fight over the remote. So help me god if anyone thinks they’re watching anything besides 30 Rock on Thursday night.

For a second I thought that maybe I was overdoing the stress and exaggerating the whole situation. But then my mom just called and gave me the annual lecture about not going out of my way to make my sister cry this year and I realized that I might be better off spending the holiday in my apt — TV remote and bed to myself.

Welcome home for Thanksgiving! Where the lines at the bar are ridiculous, the drinks can’t come fast enough, and while you think it’s dejavu you’ve got going on – you actually ARE having the same 3 minute conversation with blasts from your not-so-distant past over and over and over.

And over.

It’s a funny concept this “home for Thanksgiving bar night” we’ve got going. It’s the biggest bar night of the year, but every year brings about the same conversation that leaves me wanting to bang my head into a wall. But even though I don’t, I somehow wake up feeling like I did.

It goes a little something like this: Read More »

Thanksgiving is almost here, so it’s time to eat lots of really delicious stuffing and pumpkin pie and buy things on sale look around and say thanks for everything that we have. We are all very lucky people who have so much to be grateful for; like our education, our families and CollegeCandy.com.

With the holidays just around the bend, it is nice to stop focusing on what we want in life and focus instead on everything that we already have. We at CollegeCandy are so grateful to have a job that lets us laugh every single day…and the ability to work from home in our sweatpants.

This week we asked our writers to weigh in and tell us what they are thankful for this year:

Elise – UCLA: I’m thankful for Pumpkin Pie Frozen Yogurt….so thankful, in fact, that I plan to buy twenty quarts right before Thanksgiving’s over…that should last two weeks, right?

Jill – University of Wisconsin: The usual (my job, family and friends, etc) BBQ Soy Crisps, the ability to blink (seriously, the dentist pinched a nerve once and I couldn’t smile or blink on the left side of my face for 12 straight hours; you would be thankful too). Oh and of course, The Rachel Zoe Project.

Ali – Syracuse University: I am thankful that gas prices have gone down, making my drive home a little less painful.

Suzanne – Tulane: My education (if, of course, it actually gets me a job after graduation).

Amber – Old Dominion: I’m thankful to have made it through my sophomore semester at home without going (completely) insane. Read More »