Thanksgiving

So hopefully all 4 of my readers had a Happy Thanksgiving. I sure did.

Usually when I head into Riverside I tend to gorge myself on the food I find there, which tends to lack in the microwavable/frozen variety I eat at home, much to my delight. Thanksgiving, then, the one day of the year officially sponsered by gluttony, was an even nicer change of pace for my stomach. I spent Thanksgiving with family of course, this year mostly extended family on my dad's side instead of the usual group I visit in Riverside. It was nice to spend some time with them. After much eating was complete, I retreated back to Ben and Deb's place to hang out with them and others who were escaping the post-turkey carnage (by which I mean sitting around on the couch patting our full bellies and trying not to lose consciousness while taking part / eavesdropping on various conversations floating around the room). We ended up going out to see the 4th Harry Potter movie (2nd time for me) which I enjoyed... again.

Then as the weekend wore on, Tania and I went up to the mountains to join a different group of relatives for a post-Thanksgiving day of, you guessed it, cooking a Turkey and eating it... again. It was amazing how chilly it was, considering this is southern california. I just assumed that nowhere down here could ever actually get cold, but Big Bear was pretty chilly, as it went below freezing after the sun went down, causing us to take a trip to the hot tub that was nearby at the timeshare place we were staying at. The hot tub was VERY hot. It was absolutely wonderful.

Of course no retelling of this weekend would be complete without mention of how I am becoming a pathetic old geezer. At some point Ashlee took a few of us on a hike, and I decided a good way to keep my blood flowing in the cold air was to do my best to follow her without walking on anything but rocks, which wasn't all the difficult considering the trail we were on. At least, it wasn't that difficult until I landed gracefully on a rock just like any other, and felt my back go ZAP! Apparently I pulled a ... something. Or maybe I sprained... something. In any case, there is a very annoying something in my back that has been making me cringe every so often for the past few days any time I bend a certain way or try to tie my shoelaces or what have you. Apparently I'm no longer a kid anymore that I can hop around from rock to rock and not have my body get mad at my frivolity. *ouch* There we go again. Just when I thought it finally went away. Stupid back.

Speaking of things that go away, apparently my cousin's daughter, Elise, who until now has always been afraid of me for some reason, to the point that if I enter a room she will pretty much stop speaking / playing / moving a muscle altogether, has apparently gotten over that fear. This weekend when she saw me up in the mountians she actually spoke to me (I believe she was informing me at the time how the plastic playground she and Ashlee were playing on was now her home). Even more shocking was later when she sat near me and began showing me some of her toys and talking about them. I was so shocked I didn't even know how to react. Something wasn't computing. Not only was she was speaking NEAR me, she was actually talking TO me. Maybe I've been in Riverside often enough that she feels comfortable around me. Or perhaps she's just old enough that I'm no longer scary (I'm not to sure about that one, after all I'm such a bone-chilling guy, what child could find me un-scary.)


Fun side-note: for some reason, early on in the weekend I decided to borrow a phrase from the movie Serenity, and ended up using it 4-5 times that weekend. People kept asking me what my plans for the weekend were.
"Are you going to stay here?"
"Are you going to go stay in Riverside?"
"Are you going to go home?"
"What are you planning on for tomorrow?"
"Will you be staying in the mountains overnight?"
etc.

"I am a leaf in the wind."

And I was, floating on the winds of whim, following the flow and basically making no plans for myself that went farther than a few hours into the future. It was very relaxing. I'll have to be a leaf in the wind more often.

Life Imitates Art

One of the webcomics I read every day / every few days features a character that, for no apparant reason, has a cat on his head all the time. I always thought this was a kinda fun and cute everpresent aspect to that webcomic world.

Today while on campus walking to class I saw the strangest thing. From the front it looked like maybe this guy was wearing a fur sash/scarf around his neck. But once he passed us and Eric and I looked back, we found that it was, in fact, a kitty cat standing on his shoulders. Possibly it had been in the hood to the guy's sweatshirt, but at the moment it was just standing across his neck, on his shoulders. It was the cutest thing.

Eric: That's so weird... why does he have a cat with him?
Me: If I had a cat that would sit on my shoulder all day I would do that too.

Halloween

Went to a costume party with Tania for halloween. I went as, you guessed it, Phantom of the Opera. But did you guess that I went specifically as the phantom as he dresses up to appear at the masquerade ball? I bet you didn't. Well, unless you looked at the picture below before you read this text. CHEATER!



It was fun. Although, in all those clothes, and that cool deluxe cape (which I couldn't help but buy, it was just so cool) and the mask and everything I got very hot. Especially with all the dancing. Hope you all (all 3 of you that read this) had an equally fun Halloween!