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. 4: Return to Vegas

That, my friends, is a urinal. Don't ask me why I had a camera in my pocket, but seeing as I did and no one else was in the the bathroom, I took a picture. And why shouldn't I have? This thing is bizarre. The only reason I even knew it was a urinal was from the small homemade sign next to it that said, "Urinal." Apparently this gas station wants its customers to piss in style.

There really isn't much else to report for the ride home. I was tired, we all were, yet I still stayed awake for the sake of my brother-in-law. (And for those of you rather tired of this trip report, don't worry, I'll finish up on Friday. More Gibberish tomorrow.)

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.

Ready...Set...

As of today, my life is officially ridiculously busy. Officially. I have yet to start on my final packet for school--a packet that is due on this upcoming Saturday. Also, there are meetings here at work that will last through the rest of the week and basically make my life all hullabaloo. This will not be a fun five days.

In other news though, my friend and I had a good visit. We played through Gears of War 2, which was fun enough but much much easier than the first. We also watched quite the selection of movies and shows, including Forgetting Sarah Marshall (which was much much funnier than I expected), Quantum of Solace (which was better than other Bond films but not as good as Casino Royale), Pushing Daisies (which is one of the first shows in a long time that I'm quite into), and Kung Fu Panda (which I consider to be the best of the animated films this year--yes, even against WALL-E). We also ate at a number of tasty restaurants around the Lincoln area... and that's about it. Nothing too eventful but fun nevertheless.

And that about sums everything up for the last few days. More Gibberish tomorrow.

I'm Home?

Have you ever gotten home and realized that you didn't want to be there anymore, that it didn't even feel like home, and you hated the dull carpet smell, the pasty walls, and the humming air conditioner?

So many people say that you need a vacation to recover from your vacation, but this time, I just felt like the thing should never end, that where I was visiting is where I needed to be, closer to my brothers, my parents, my cousin, my in-laws, closer to the things that matter: family. Normally, I try not to be a sap for this kind of thing, but after two years away from any of them, I finally, really and truly, miss them. (Sorry for all the adverbs. Apparently writing sappy family things calls for many of the cursed parts of speech.)

We pulled up in between the yellow lines of the cracked parking lot, and I felt like I didn't belong, that I didn't even want to try and belong, that I just wanted to get away from the heady spring flowers, the muggy air and make like the gingerbread man and just run, run, run. I don't think I'd even mind being eaten in the end...

What's worse is that I don't even know what to do with this feeling, shoving it into a ball and trying to bury it somewhere between my kidney and gallbladder doesn't seem to be working. Trying to ignore it only makes me chew on my nails. And the unease it's causing makes me want to quit my job, give up my writer dreams, and hobo it up in a box in my brother's back yard.

Anyway, this has been more than enough ranting for one blog, and now that I've got this off my chest, I'll fill you in on the details of my vacation, time away, including: food service fun, the Lady of Supreese, shooting guns, reading good things, watching random flicks, and other such amazing facts. Hope you enjoyed my fable. I'll try to hook up such things when I'm on vacation, or if I just feel lazy, which is ironic since they take more work than these ramblings. Oh well. Such is the life of a wannabe many things.

p.s. my review for Prince Caspian is finally up. I think...

Surprise!

Rather annoyed that I didn't see Indiana today, but it's all good. Whooped my family at Scrabble in two games. I hope for a third.

Anyway, don't want to bore you all with the trivialities of family vacations, so I'll just tell you that starting Monday is my BIG SURPRISE.

I've put together a small illustrated story for you that will update beginning Monday and run THROUGH THE FOLLOWING SUNDAY. Yes, you will get not one but two extra blog updates from yours truly. Anyway, the story is called "Shattered Suns and Broken Hearts." I realize this sounds like the titular track of some crappy emo band, but I assure you that the story is rather good. It was fun to write and illustrate. Plus, it gave me a reason to use the tablet a bit more. Anywho, enjoy, and I'll be alive and kicking once the story runs its course.

The Joy of Family

It's amazing how things just sort of pick up where you leave off, even if you haven't seen your family for months or years. The way you can just talk about whatever: dying grandparents, going crazy, leche de hombre, space docking, and any other embarassing thing you can think of, so your mother shakes her head and wonders what kinds of crazy beasties she brought into the world. It makes me rather frightened to think what it will be like when I have little miniature versions of myself and my wife. If it's true that you get paid back in kind for the terror you were as a child... man... I'm screwed.

Otherwise, I'd forgotten how nice it is to be away from the city, far from all the traffic noise and street lights and sirens. Just the cool howl of the wind, the star-filled sky, and the distant burble of a river. It's a good feeling, good peace, calm.

Don't think I'm going to be able to hit up Indiana Jones today. It saddens me, but I might be able to fire a gun and fly a plane. I'll probably get knocked out on my ass. And my brothers probably won't let me live it out, but when I'm half their size... whatever.

I Like Vacation

Got up, had some breakfast (craptastic, undercooked French toast), went for some swimming. Good times. Work is stupid. Though I will say that I tend to get more accomplished at work, since I'm stuck there and have to do something to make the time go by.



Like the rest of the nation, I've got plans to see Indiana Jones (I'm tired of linking this, just go to one of my other blogs) tomorrow. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it's hard not to. Its rare that you get the same team on a sequel 19 years after the last film. Hopefully it all works out, though I suppose even if it sucks, Cate Blanchett should still be hot.



And for those of you that need something to do while you kill time before the flick, I've got a new comic up. Another week in a row. I'm rather proud of myself, especially since I'm on vacation and all. We'll see if I can keep this up.



I'll try and rant more about the travelings and the family tomorrow. Plus, on Friday, I'll reveal my big surprise.