After a day filled with delicious food, delightful movies and music, and deep (and sometimes ridiculous) conversations with one of my favorite people in the world, I woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover.
Maybe it was the weed. Maybe it was the wine. Or maybe—and this feels far more likely—I simply enjoyed myself so much that my body is still processing the joy. A happiness hangover, if you will. The kind that leaves you a little groggy but grinning like a Cheshire cat anyway.
Yesterday wasn’t extravagant or eventful in the traditional, Hallmark-movie sense. No parade floats. No relatives fighting over casseroles. No kitchen disasters. Instead, it was chill, cozy, and wonderfully low-stakes—a reminder that some holidays don’t need spectacle to feel special. Sometimes it’s enough to be in good company, eating good food, making each other laugh until your ribs hurt, and letting the world roll on without you for a minute.
The thing about getting older—at least for me—is that the moments that hit the hardest aren’t the big, flashy ones. It’s the quiet magical ones that hit me right between the eyes.
The shared glances during a movie line or song lyric you both know by heart. The way a joke that isn’t even that funny becomes hysterical because you’re with someone who speaks your same emotional language. (BUGONIA!!!) The comfort of not needing to perform, impress, or explain yourself. Just being. That’s the real feast.
I’ve spent many holidays trying to survive the performance of tradition—forced smiles, scripted rituals, and the annual parade of emotional landmines masquerading as family gatherings. This one? This one was different. It felt like slipping into a warm bath. A holiday with training wheels. No expectations. No emotional gymnastics. Just me, my best friend, and enough carbs to feed a small nation.
And now here I am, the morning after, savoring the sweet. My head is a little foggy, my heart is a little full, and my soul feels like it got exactly what it needed: permission to enjoy myself. To exhale. To exist in the present moment without narrating my worth or measuring my productivity.
If Thanksgiving is about gratitude, then maybe the real holiday happens the day after, when the leftovers taste better than the main meal, the house is quiet, and the joy has settled enough for reflection. When you wake up and realize that happiness isn’t a fluke or accident. It’s something you can taste, recognize, and say yes to again.
So yes, I may be slightly hungover. But if this is what joy does to me, pour another glass and give me another edible. Let’s defy some gravity, y’all!
Keep calm and show love…
Clint 🌈✌️
P.S. Big thanks to Drewski for being a friend…and bringing so much to the table. Yesterday and every day.
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ON THIS DAY = NOVEMBER 28
BIRTHDAYS
1632 = Jean-Baptiste Lully = Italian-born French composer 🌈
1757 = William Blake = English poet and painter
1920 = Luchita Hurtado = Venezuelan-American artist and activist 🌈
1929 = Berry Gordy = American songwriter, producer, and Motown founder
1932 = Midge Costanza = American presidential advisor and activist 🌈
1943 = Randy Newman = American singer-songwriter, composer, and pianist
1944 = Rita Mae Brown = American writer and activist 🌈
1946 = Joe Dante = American filmmaker
1949 = Paul Shaffer = Canadian-American singer and bandleader
1950 = Ed Harris = American actor and producer
1952 = S. Epatha Merkerson = American actor
1959 = Judd Nelson = American actor and screenwriter
1961 = Alfonso Cuarón = Mexican filmmaker
1962 = Jon Stewart = American comedian, actor, and tv host
1966 = Garcelle Beauvais = Haitian-American actor
1966 = Sam Seder = American actor and political commentator
1967 = Anna Nicole Smith = American model, actor, and tv personality
1970 = Julie Mehretu = Ethiopian-American artist 🌈
1976 = Ryan Kwanten = Australian actor
EVENTS
1582 = In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 (equivalent to £14,557 in 2023) bond in lieu of posting wedding banns, which enables them to marry immediately.
1811 = Beethoven‘s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, premieres at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
1814 = The Times of London becomes the first newspaper to be produced on a steam-powered printing press, making newspapers available to a mass audience.
1925 = The Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance.
1944 = Meet Me In St. Louis premieres in NYC.
1975 = As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, air their last live episodes
HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES
PORTRAIT + QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.”
William Blake
Because I knew you…I have been changed for good. 😘
"holidays trying to survive the performance of tradition—forced smiles, scripted rituals, and the annual parade of emotional landmines masquerading as family gatherings." Clint, You hit it on the head for me and I will probably use it as a prompt for a piece. That is why I have enjoyed "pulling my life in" when it comes to most things. At eighty years old, I either no longer have the energy or have earned the right to do so. The way I say it is, "I no longer want to be the ENTERTAINMENT nor the SOCIAL WORKER!" Fondly, Michael