Home Again

I'm back from the California coast, where I spent the majority of my time within a hotel. Nice as it was, I wish I could've gotten out to the beach more. The bit that I did was fun enough, but I would have liked to stay longer.

Sights seen while there: A skateboarder looking like Sugar Ray (the 90's rock guy) and trying to pick up chicks by doing large figure eights in the parking lot, a Lamborghini with its engine overheating and smoking, Balboa island, a beach side wedding, the most dedicated Del Taco employee ever (he was CHASING down a car to give them a forgotten article of food), the gloriousness of CA traffic, and lots of people that were wearing an outfit as costly as my entire wardrobe.

It's good to be home, though now I will have to play catch up--bleh. Wish me luck.

Fog

It's weird getting back into the real world, where things like jobs and duties matter. If it wasn't for the pile of work waiting on my desk, I'd never have thought I'd left--like I'd just stepped into some parallel universe that allowed me to fire a gun my father brought back from Vietnam, watched my family crumble into broken sobs through my own tears, and drive and drive and drive.

I realize though, that once I get back on track and set into my old routine, things will feel a bit more normal and a bit less numb.

Here's to a good weekend.

I'm Home

There are things I want to say.

They will be said at a later time. Possibly Friday.

No promises.

Trip Pt. 5: Christmas and the Rest

(Sorry there is no pictures. I forgot to download them onto my computer.)

Anyway, Christmas was quite fun--even with the fact that we were basically crashing another family's holiday. They were more than gracious and adopted us into their family. We even got stockings. Gifts aside though, it was a great day of games, Little People, and awesome food.

As for the rest of the trip, there's not much to report. We ate a heap-ton of Tutti Bella's and Del Taco. I FINALLY got to play Little Big Planet (holy crap, do I need a PS3 just for that game). And I still battled with my sickness.

Luckily, the flight home was completely uneventful--as long as you exclude the screaming child on the flight from Vegas to Minneapolis. On the way back, I even had the oddest coincidence of not only riding on the same plane as someone I knew from my MFA program, but also she sat beside me. We had a nice chat on the short flight, then parted ways as another of my friends tried to smother me with her dogs on the ride home. Not really, actually she was nice enough to make and bring tea for a sickie like me.

After that, it was off to residency, which I will give a brief synopsis of on Monday, then finally be caught back up and can give you all the day to day grind and thoughts that spill from this one odd boy's noggin. Toodles, and have an amazing--and hopefully extra long--weekend.

Trip Pt. 3: Disneyland

I figured that the best way to talk about Disneyland was to show Disneyland. Even with the rain the second day, it was awesome, eating turkey legs, seeing the Haunted Mansion all decked out with Nightmare Before Christmas stuff, and laughing at the bizarre portraits of Captain Barbosa painted on Pirates of the Caribbean. Despite being sick, it was a blast and makes me wish I lived, at least a little, closer to it.

(As a quick aside, I witnessed a freak out like no other. You know how when you were a kid, two of your relatives or older friends or whoever would stand on either side of you, take a hand, and start swinging you? Well, such a thing was being done to a small child. He swung and giggled and screeched, and everyone was having a wonderful time, at least, until the boy's hands slipped free and flying through the air like a long-jumper, landing on his bum-bum, and hitting his head on the pavement. Luckily, he was wearing a hood, though it still probably hurt like the dickens--which was noted by his shrill cry. However, he was not the loudest, as his father, behind the swinging boy and pushing a stroller, FLIPS OUT, screaming "OH MY GOD. OH MY SWEET JESUS. OH GOD," then proceeds to coddle his child, while simultaneously pushing the swingers away and cursing at them. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about a father protecting his child, but when a father demands that the swingers--most likely family or close friends (who else do you let swing your child?)--apologize to the child and him and then stands around talking in funeral tones for over 30 minutes, doesn't this seem like overkill? Maybe it's just me, but it was truly an odd thing to witness. Sorry, I guess that wasn't so quick.)

Trip Pt. 2: From Vegas To the Magic Kingdom

Once we arrived in Vegas, we were stuck at THAT airport for an additional two hours, as we didn't have a ride to our final destination and didn't want to spend the money for a cab. (We killed the time by eating a killer hot pastrami sandwich and filling ourselves with more Dr. Pepper and Mtn. Dew.) The rest of the day was spent trying to get some sleep, on this horrible hide-away bed, then a mad rush to finish up a chunk of my Nutcracker comics--those things were so much more work and took so much more time than I ever thought they would; you better have enjoyed them.

We didn't actually leave Vegas until 10:30 p.m., which was after midnight my time. This wouldn't have been so bad, as I could've slept on the drive--that is IF my wife and sister-in-law would've helped keep the driver, my brother-in-law, awake. Instead, that task was up to me, and we didn't roll into our hotel, which was across the street from the big MK, until 2 am-ish, California time. The trip wouldn't have been quite so long if a cop hadn't shut down the freeway and forced us to take another route (I still wonder what happened that night.).To make matters worse, we were given a room that seemed to have someone already staying in it or, at the very least, was forgotten when the turndown service came around, the sheets tousled, pillows strewn across the floor, and a brand new box of Disney's assorted chocolates sitting on the dresser.

If the stint in the Omaha airport didn't make me sick, this extra lack of sleep didn't help any, considering we were then up at 7 am to get ready for one of our two big days.

And with that suspenseful note, I'll leave you to your weekend. Have a good one, and I'll see you back on Monday.

The Trip Pt. 1

Because of that bizarre snowstorm a few weeks back, this is me stuck at the airport. It is still early in our 36 hour stint at Omaha's Eppley Airfield, and let me tell you, of all the places to get stuck, this is one of the WORST AIRPORTS EVER. There are about five different meal options, all the stores close by 7, and their little announcements run every 6 minutes. I was told to keep my bag with me at all times more than 100 times. My wife and I were about to go crazy. Crazy.

Luckily, a pair of our friends were also stuck with us for the first 12 hours or so, and we whittled away the time by playing spades, watching Scrubs, and obsessing over Topple on my friend's recently won, iPod touch. (By the by, Topple is the nangle.) After they left us behind, my wife and I tried to sleep in shifts--which amounted to me getting a total of 5 hours of sleep out of 48. I blame this on why I ended up sick for this trip.

I don't think I've ever been so happy to see, board, and squeeze onto a plane. I wanted to cry. Instead, I rocked out to my Zune--as it was working at the time, but more on that later.

About to Vacate the Premises

So, pretty much after today, it's nothing but Gibberish for a week straight.

Tomorrow night, I'm leaving for Colorado and won't be in the mood--or possibly even have the chance--to blog about my ventures. Instead of the letting the site die down though, I've got a half dozen new comics that will run from tomorrow to next Tuesday--excluding Saturday and Sunday. Should be some good times. Possibly. Probably. Read my comic.

Command aside, this weekend was rather unproductive. I did see two of the six or seven films out right now that I've wanted to check out, and I can't recommend either of them. Igor and Eagle Eye are really not worth your time or money. The latter starts out rather interesting but soon turns into propaganda poo. The former just can't decide if it wants to be a kids movie or not, pretty much ruining the whole thing. Whatever though, it's behind me, and the weekend was saved by viewing CJ7 and playing through the entirety of an old SNES game called ActRaiser. Yup, I was pretty much a worthless individual this weekend, but hey, everyone needs some down time.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy the Gibberish, and I'll see you next week.