This is the Thanksgiving edition! Find out what we are doing this year on Thanksgiving. Read about the change of seasons and about a fashion freak who is now on a cleanliness drive. We round off the week with how communication devices are actually murdering your interpersonal relationships. Join in…

This Thanksgiving we are planning to have a potluck for dinner. I heard from Kate that she had to face a lot of difficulty a couple of years ago arranging a potluck dinner. “I took too many things upon myself,” Kate told me, “and then I had to stay up late into the night making things!” Learning from her experience we have decided to split things up evenly, so that none of us have to bear additional weight. The Thanksgiving dinner is more about being together rather than the quality of the dishes.

I love celebrating Thanksgiving dinner this way. It felt very odd when I started having Thanksgiving away from my parents. Though the food was good on occasions, it just couldn’t match up to the food made by mom. Then the feeling slowly faded away with music playing and the wine flowing. The good part was, there was no one to take note of the alcohol level! This year almost none of us have the dough to go home for Thanksgiving. We are all banking heavily on this potluck. You guys have a great Thanksgiving!

The best time of year is about to greet us! Adrian was telling me the other day how seasons have an effect on our mood. Cathy is the one who informed him, of course! He was enlightening me how with the coming of Fall we feel a new energy in us. “We feel like being floated around by the wind, like a dry leaf, you know,” Adrian almost sounded poetic there. I wanted to point out to him that things are not that fine anymore. Long working hours, canceled holidays and pink slips have taken away much of the season’s charms.

While Adrian talks about the season’s changes, Rachael is bugging her mom to get her a fresh set of clothes! The Fall collection, as all those fashion folks call this. Rachael has suddenly become very conscious about how she looks. Rachael’s thinking of getting a new haircut to suit the trends of the season. With Liz strictly against anything fancy, season or not, Rachael plans to go for something simple. Charlie, her boyfriend, reportedly told her that it was not necessary, but Rachael would hear none of it. Season of love, I guess!

The fashionista is now on a germ freak! Irina has come across this book which outlines with dedication the areas where germs breed and we have no clue! This book had a big influence on her. Irina is now on an awareness drive, shrieking at everyone who is not conscious about what they are touching. Irina frightened Rick with a big monologue on how germs make a good breeding ground out of his car’s dashboard! He was told that the sun heats up the dashboard and triggers the process.

Megan was horrified when Irina told her office desk was more dirty than an average toilet seat! Irina didn’t stop at that. The kitchen, the microwave, bathtub, wooden floors, even the ATM keypad, all came under her scathing criticism. When we were hanging out, Irina kept doubting the quality of food and the drinks. Irina made us mad that day, with everyone wanting to dunk in a tub of germs. We are all waiting for this phase to pass off. Just hope it’s soon or we’ll go crazy.

Staying in touch with your friends and folks is a great thing to do. You know how I always encourage that. But recently I have been observing a rather unhealthy trend. With the coming of blackberries and i-phones, not to mention emails and internet, we are losing touch on the human connection. How often do we go over to a friend’s place? We generally make a call and meet up somewhere or just get it done over on the digital medium itself. Our dependence on the media of communication is such that we feel challenged without them.

I’m sure you forgot your cell phone to work on a couple of occasions. Did you note how restless you feel through the day? It’s as if you never lived without one! Talking on the phone on your way to work, texting while on the move, how many of us actually note what’s around us? What happened to those walks in the park? Where is that time to daydream on your way to office and back? We are constantly making a connection. Sometimes I wonder, do we connect to live or live to connect?

This week’s Zen quote had to be one on Thanksgiving. Here what John Fitzgerald Kennedy has to say: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”