The day for it

So here I am, thankful for Robert and Lou and Bam and Ken and Ben and Nita and Jim and . . . cousins and friends and laughmates and strangers with kindness, and for my Mom's health and BJ's making sure she keeps it, and for Mom's friends and . . .

We find ourselves at Alice's. Not the restaurant she's had for the last few years on Duval, but at La Te Da, just about across the street, where she made her stand on the island. She's back, and so are we, and so is Christine, the server who knows us all too well.

And I have a dirty martini, but not filthy; and Robert has a filthy martini, but not dirty (it's all in the blue cheese in the olives). And because it's Thanksgiving I have turkey with dressing instead of lacquered duck, which Robert has. I thought a nice pinot noir would do well with both, and it did.

It's our first real night out for dinner in maybe two months, money being what it is. And we're thankful that we have what we do, and raise a glass to survival.