This is Clearly Not Homework

I will be the first to admit that this post is likely me procrastinating from doing my last assignments for the semester or even getting an early start on studying for finals.  My excuse is that I haven't blogged for about a month and I owe it to myself to take a minute to look back on the month that was, the semester passed and even my entire life at large.  The only question now is to figure out what exactly it is that I'm going to blabber on about for an arbitrary word count and time of your busy schedule.  Lets start out with something that I have been meaning to write about for a long time now (and won't if I don't take this time to say it.)

It has been nearly a year since I graduated college, and after a few months of struggling to enjoy myself (see all posts from early 2012) I spent a month back in my apartment at the school I had formerly attended before partaking in the commencement ceremony with my friends and peers.  I am simply amazed that I have barely mentioned this month on this blog, perhaps only mentioning it in passing and how I really wanted to write about it in depth one day.  The reason I am amazed about this is that it is for all intents and purposes the best month of my life to date, and perhaps the greatest month I will ever live.  I had been planning to visit my friends and crash at the apartment I was still paying for for the months since my graduation and had only done so in February for the Job Fair, (a week I wrote about on Valentine's day of all days) so I thought that since I had no prior engagements or any other reason to be at home for another month that I would waste my month away having fun for one of the last times I could ever be truly carefree.  I'll tell you this, I can barely imagine a world that could be more perfect.  Every morning I woke up whenever my circadian rhythm would tell me to, and did exactly as I wanted to do (read: anything within reason) every day without fail.  It was great and I feel that in that month I was able to not only catch up with people whom I had really wanted to catch up with, but I also strengthened multiple friendships to the point where I am quite sure they will last forever.  But to prevent myself from getting too sentimental, lets tell some stories!

Gather round kiddies!

Lets start with night number one, a night that I will always have proof of happening, or maybe it was night two... Either way it was one of the first nights of my return.  Since I had nothing better to be doing, I was drinking on a Tuesday night along with two of my good friends who also had apparently nothing better to be doing.  So we were playing a card game known as "Kings," if you are familiar with this game you will realize that it will not end extremely well when you play with only three people, as well as the fact that one specific card requires a female to be present, which we did not happen to have on hand at the moment.  We remedied the first situation by sucking it up and being men, we remedied the second situation by ruling that when that card came up the person on your right was given free reign to ask any question and get a truthful answer, this second rule is responsible for the aforementioned strengthening of friendships.  The first rule led to something that will be relevant later.  Anyways the game itself was uninteresting except for one rule which resulted in one of my friends knocking on our housemate's door while he was having a private conversation with a ladyfriend, he was also ruled to have to ask that friend whether or not sodomy was legal in the particular state we were in, this is something I still find to be hilarious despite it being a little bit of a "dick move."  Anyways, after this game we played another game in which we were tasked with putting ping pong balls into cups that were much further than an arm's length away (not a practical thing to do) in which case I was in a state that hindered my coordination to a point that I was unable to perform this task with any success.  As is typical of this situation, I had to run around in the backyard for a short time.  Whilst running around outside like a moron (which I am), I forgot that there was a knee-high stone wall in the path of my running.  Looking back, I probably should have gone to get stitches, but it managed to heal without getting infected although I do have a scar in place of my regular skin to remind me of that night.  

If only I had this...

The rest of that month was full of similar nights that did not include myself hurting myself, but many other fun times that I may slowly refer to as this blog goes on, there was also a lot of friendly softball and video games, a month I surely will never forget.  Back to this month that was, I have spoken before about how much I love Thanksgiving since becoming a college student, and this year reinforced this love even more than I could have hoped.  Not only did I once again have excuses for drawing hand turkeys, but I also got into the festive mood more than ever before.  Because my Halloween plans sadly failed to come into being, I had part of a self-fashioned Pilgrim costume remaining in my closet and proceeded to wear my makeshift hat for the duration of both Thanksgiving festivities I had partaken in!  Also, for those more observant readers of mine I did in fact say both meaning that I had an extra Thanksgiving dinner this year!  The weekend before Thanksgiving I had a celebration with my friends from school, which I think went much better than expected. Then I had a great time being back home and seeing all of my friends there that I don't see as often as I would typically like to, as well as my Thanksgiving day in which I had a great time with my family then had a few friends over to watch a certain classic Thanksgiving film!  I then spent the following weekend back with the friends from school in the nearby major city to celebrate a special birthday for one of us!  All in all it was a fantastic time, the kind of time I needed to have at a time like this when work gets tough.  

It's hard not to!

I think this was a good catch up and procrastination!  Stay tuned as I will hopefully be writing much more in the coming weeks as classes are starting to die down.  Also, for those dedicated readers who are still awaiting the answer to my question posed at the end of the post I did a short time ago, I guess my best descriptor at the moment would be the link.  As always, best wishes anyone and I will be waiting for your return.

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Another year is passing by once again, and as all the major holidays are either passing by or coming up I would like to take some time to note how my opinion of Thanksgiving has changed over the years.

That is exactly what it was like.

There was a time when I was younger when all Thanksgiving was was just a whole bunch of Pilgrims and Indians (Native Americans for those who care for such things) eating turkey and living peacefully.  Thanksgiving was just another day of the year where I would have to be a little kid and not be able to play with my favorite toys or video games for the day because my whole family was coming over.  I used to hate those days because I never liked to talk to grown ups, I just wanted to play and eat and sleep and just be a little kid.  Those days eventually ended and then a new dawn came.  I then got to the ages where I was in and around High School.  These Thanksgivings were different because I could no longer care less about Pilgrims or Indians or any of the savageries done by one to the other after the famous day of the turkey.  During these Thanksgiving days I would watch football, both the local high school game live, and then later whatever games the NFL would allow us to see.  These games usually involved me not caring as the Lions lost and rooting against the Cowboys as they inevitably won.  These days also became one of the few days my parents wouldn't care and allow me to sit with the family and enjoy a couple beers throughout the day.  But no matter what, during these time periods, I never looked forward to Thanksgiving much, and it was really just another reason to get a few days off of school.

<3 Hand Turkeys <3

But since my years of college have started, Thanksgiving has become something completely different to me and has slowly been working it's way up the list of my favorite holidays.  So since this is where I currently am in life, this is how I currently feel about Thanksgiving.  It is now not only a day off of school but something I completely look forward to as the calendar flips over into November.  The extended break from school (although it is still less than a week) is a much needed breather in the crowded life of a college student, and not only gives a few days reprieve from the seemingly never-ending workload that begins to become your life as you grow older, but it also allows a reason to get a monstrous home-cooked meal when you are used to mediocre dining hall food.  Since I enjoy food as much as the next guy, and I enjoy rest as much as the next guy, Thanksgiving is starting to become a true mix of the things in this world that I truly love.  Since these are probably common thoughts about Thanksgiving I will note that no matter how old I get I find that the allure of a Hand Turkey grows even larger than the days when I was a child and somehow believed that that is what turkeys actually looked like.  Let me leave you with some ideas for songs to help you enjoy and appreciate the spirit of thanksgiving.  Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden definitely captures the spirit quite well in my opinion, but if songs that recollect the way our American forefathers settled this great land in a masterpiece of heavy metal, then maybe this song will be much more suited to your fancy.  Ladies and Gentlemen please allow me to introduce you to the Tommy Seebach Band and their breathtaking video for the song Apache!