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Here's the deal... I have no one to spend Thanksgiving with and i'm totally fine with that so I decided to look up where one can have a traditional thanksgiving meal for free in the city and came up with some spots. After rent and bills are paid I have hardly any money left from each paycheck. I would volunteer but it seems like everywhere is booked up with volunteers, which is expected. But i'd like a free meal and maybe to sit down with random people and share meal and just talk. I don't remember the last time i've sat at a dinner table with other people (my entire family has passed away except for one half sibling who is much younger and has no interest in hanging out with someone like me).
Would say donating like 5 bux make up for the fact that i'm taking up a spot and eating things that were meant for the truly destitute? Has anyone ever eaten in a soup kitchen on thanksgiving before? What is it like? Do you think it would be too overwhelmingly depressing or do you think it might make one more humble about their own blessings? Am a totally disgusting person for even wanting to do this?
I'm feeling like a social leper this year and everyone at work asking everyone else what they are doing for the holidays kinda got me down even though I said I was spending it with dogs instead of humans, which I am, but part of me feels like I want to get out of the house for a few hours and sit down with other people and eat like a normal person even if it's with homeless people and other lost souls.
Don't worry; chances are, there'll be so much leftover food that the organizers would be happy for anyone who showed up...probably would let you have more to take with you, even, depending on the place.
Just so you know: there are beggars who go around begging with what looks like gold chains, rings, etc. I actually challenged the dude on that once after seeing him too many times at the same place with the same plea and he had no answer. (Didn't seem like a "bad hombre" but I guess all that jewelry is just who he is and probably fake but he couldn't say that it was fake now could he -- would destroy his self-image!!)
Anyway, WTH do you feel so lonely, though?? I mean I know it's our nature as social creatures but you're a bit too old to be all "emo" like some adolescent goth!
But anyway, just go; I'd bet you some spare change that you'll like it.
Me, I'm working. Uh, I'd explain why but I don't want some snowflakes crying to the moderator again about me dissin' "members of the tribe" by simply noting certain behavioral patterns I've observed....
LOL, no, really I don't feel all lonely at all. If I felt lonely all the time I'd probably change my lifestyle a bit to make up for that. I basically just want to eat thanksgiving-ish food at a table with other people. It's healthy to reach out and interact with others socially, i'm a bit of a recluse and social hermit and i've had thanksgivings and holidays in the past that were some nice memories for me, but since being so alone I can no longer recall what I did for the holidays a year or two or three or four or five years back... well because I didn't do anything that created new memories or sparked my neural networks. I already feel like I am just biding my time til death and not taking advantage of anything social, I figure why not at least have a few days a year where when i'm 80 I can think back about what I did on that day. As it is right now I cannot recall any memories of hardly any holidays this decade. That seems sad to me a little bit and something i'd like to change. Maybe this isn't the best way to go about it, but sometimes great things happen when you go about things in a roundabout way!?
Here's the deal... I have no one to spend Thanksgiving with and i'm totally fine with that so I decided to look up where one can have a traditional thanksgiving meal for free in the city and came up with some spots. After rent and bills are paid I have hardly any money left from each paycheck. I would volunteer but it seems like everywhere is booked up with volunteers, which is expected. But i'd like a free meal and maybe to sit down with random people and share meal and just talk. I don't remember the last time i've sat at a dinner table with other people (my entire family has passed away except for one half sibling who is much younger and has no interest in hanging out with someone like me).
Would say donating like 5 bux make up for the fact that i'm taking up a spot and eating things that were meant for the truly destitute? Has anyone ever eaten in a soup kitchen on thanksgiving before? What is it like? Do you think it would be too overwhelmingly depressing or do you think it might make one more humble about their own blessings? Am a totally disgusting person for even wanting to do this?
I'm feeling like a social leper this year and everyone at work asking everyone else what they are doing for the holidays kinda got me down even though I said I was spending it with dogs instead of humans, which I am, but part of me feels like I want to get out of the house for a few hours and sit down with other people and eat like a normal person even if it's with homeless people and other lost souls.
It's a little late now, but you could have started a meetup and probably attracted a lot of people who would otherwise spend the holiday alone. I bet a $5 donation would make a hell of a home cooked meal if someone had the home and the rest of you had the $5. You could check if there's anything like it going on. Others have already posted about not celebrating Thanksgiving, so even if you waited too long this year, I'm sure you can work something out next year. Or find a dining group somewhere in between now and then.
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chances are, there'll be so much leftover food that the organizers would be happy for anyone who showed up...
Confused by what you are saying here. Do you think people don't show up to thanksgiving meals at soup kitchens? Thousands do. Maybe it's better to be part of something than nothing, and often I feel like I specifically try my hardest, against my best interest, to be part of nothing. Even when I was a kid I used to eat my thanksgiving dinner in my room alone, but that's irrelevant at this point. I did have many great thanksgivings and holidays at friends'/ex's places when I was in my 20's and early 30's, but now I feel like i've drifted out of everyones' view.
I have a sneaking suspicion that if I was half of a couple i'd get invites to various places, but people seem allergic to single people who are past their 20's. They feel uncomfortable around us, I wish that wasn't the case.
YMMV, of course, but generally it's banal conversation -- I mean the kind you get with strangers since you don't want to upset anyone but even more banal since most of the homeless that winds up in a soup kitchen ain't even halfway decent conversationalists since they're, well, cognitively disadvantaged to one degree or another, shall we say (and if you think I have a tendency to ramble on, well, let's just say these folks make the worst TV show writers sound like Poet Laureates).
Lots of laughs and smiles, though, so you'll probably find balm for your soul if you're into sentimental stuff. Generally, anyway -- sometimes the folks are "too far gone," as it were, for chit-chat but then there's almost certain to be music blasting -- something hispanic or black or "totally Christian" -- which will surely get folks talking about that if nothing else.
Seriously, go; you're sure to enjoy yourself. Let us know what you think!
I don't think anyone will mind. If you feel a bit guilty, or just want to help offer to help clear after, or let the cook line staff know that you're there if they run short of help.
Otherwise, sit down and enjoy your dinner, make some conversation, laugh and relax.
There is actually so much to be thankful for in our lives.
One last thing: the food's very, very meh. Usually, the sugary crap (sweet potato pie, for instance) is what's "good" or close to it. Turkeys tend to be dry and plain. Be sure to bring along hot sauce (indispensable survival gear for the homeless!) if you want to swallow your food....
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It's a little late now, but you could have started a meetup and probably attracted a lot of people who would otherwise spend the holiday alone. I bet a $5 donation would make a hell of a home cooked meal if someone had the home and the rest of you had the $5. You could check if there's anything like it going on. Others have already posted about not celebrating Thanksgiving, so even if you waited too long this year, I'm sure you can work something out next year. Or find a dining group somewhere in between now and then.
That is great advice, thank you. I figured people like that would probably be a little more monied than I so group dining would be like spending 100-200 dollars or something that I don't have.
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attend a church?
many put on holiday dinners because not everyone has a family to spend it with, and they consider church a family so they get together
I have no ill-will toward religious people and find that is amazingly kind of them. My grandmother before she died attended big church gatherings on Thanksgiving and Xmas of meals (with her in-laws) even though she wasn't religious, but she complained non stop how she couldn't stand those people lol. But desperate is as desperate does I guess. She told me to come down one year and enjoy it with her and I refused because for a long time I wore my hermititude like a badge of honor and now it's coming to bite me in the ass.
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