Thanksgiving Break

There is one word that describes my Thanksgiving break, "lazy." I did absolutely nothing for 10 days, and it was amazing. I was supposed to write a paper during the break, but I got an email from my professor saying that he was setting back the date a week, so I happily went along with my break. The drive down wasn't so bad because I didn't do it alone this time around. We left just a little after 6 in the evening and arrived home just before 2 in the morning. Passing through Las Vegas at night was pretty cool, I've never seen so many lights in such a concentrated area, and I now understand how you can see them from space.

At around 6 I had to wake up, meaning I only got 4 hours of sleep, because I had an event that I needed to attend. One of my brother's friends got married so that night I went to his reception. After that I went with my best friend to go to a surprise birthday party. It was a pretty chill time. I always enjoy partying it up. I spent a good deal of time at my best friend's house, and for the most part we just played DotA. During the week I went to another birthday party for another friend. This one happened to take place at Chuck E. Cheese's. Even though everyone was older that 18 we all still managed to have a fun time. Just goes to show that you don't have to be 4 years old to act 4 years old.

Other activities included spending time with my brothers. It has been awhile since all four of us have gotten together and done something. Thanksgiving morning we went and played in the turkey bowl. Unfortunately not many people showed up this time so we only had a 4 on 4 with two little kids. It turned out to be pretty fun, but if there had been more people like there have been in years past I think that it would have been better.

Thanksgiving dinner was fun. We got together with my mom's side of the family and ate at my uncle's house. It was good to see my relatives again seeing as I don't have much opportunity to see them much. I also got to see one of my cousins whom I haven't seen in over a decade. It was a good dinner too. The turkey was deep fried, and the beans had bacon. I got my fill of food, plus I got the honor of eating one of the drumsticks. It was huge. My mom got a picture of it, but she hasn't sent it to me yet. So that is what Thanksgiving is all about. Being with the family and eating a good meal. If you take one thing from this blog, that should be it.

The rest of the week went well. Saturday is always a good day in the fall because of college football. My brothers and I got our fill of football that day, especially the Auburn vs Alabama game. Auburn won which was good. Later that night we chilled in our spa and watched a movie. Then on sunday we made our triumphant march up to school again. I hated leaving SoCal behind because it is such a wonderful place. The whole week had been going well until we got about 30 miles outside of Las Vegas heading towards Mesquite. All of a sudden I heard a noise and the car started to swerve out of control. I quickly got control and for a split second I was in denial that I had a blown tire, but I put that aside and decided that it was a blown tire. I pulled over to the side of the road and we proceeded to change the tire. This was the first time that I ever had to change a tire, but it really isn't that hard. The bad thing was that it made our trip a whole lot longer because we had to drive over 300 miles on the donut spare going 55 mph. It was really hard for me to drive that slow. It was just the ending I needed to a perfectly wonderful week. But that's the way things go sometimes. Now I am back at school having to do school related stuff, plus work. I'm just glad no one got hurt and we made it safely back. That is what really counts.

My Dream Car

Ever since I have been a little kid, my dream car has been a Lamborghini Diablo. I have always been fascinated by this car because it is fast, and it has a unique design. When I was younger I bought this Hot Wheels Lamborghini Diablo, and it was one of my prized possessions. I love the scene in Dumb and Dumber when Harry and Lloyd pull up to the hotel driving a Diablo. I love how the car doors go up, and not out.

Of course the chances of me ever owning such a car is pretty slim. I don't see myself making enough money to support me getting this expensive luxury car. Even though I am a pretty good saver I am sure that other expenses would supersede the funding that I would have to put in in order to purchase a car of such magnitude. If money were not an issue though, I would buy one in a heart beat.

I know that it isn't a practical car to own, but it would be a pretty safe car to drive in terms of it having a small chance of being stolen. I heard a story of how in England there are only 2 in the whole country, a black one and a red one. This meant that if one ever got stolen it wouldn't be too hard to find it. I have told my best friend that when we are old farts that I would buy one and we would cruise around in it just for fun. What a wonderful dream it is. I'm sure that by the time I reach "old fart" status they won't make Diablos anymore, and I would have to buy one on Ebay or something. I have already looked at some on Ebay already just in case you wanted to know.

I love to drive fast, and this car would definitely satisfy my need for speed. I would have to learn how to drive a stick, but if I had this car I would expend all the energy I had to become the master of manual driving. It would have to have a spoiler because Diablos without one look crappy. I am fond of the purple paint job with yellow racing stripes. Either red or black would suffice as well. So there may be a day that I get to sit in the driver seat of this awesome beast and rev that v-12 engine sitting at my back. What a thrill that would be.

Christmas is Starting Earlier Each Year

I have noticed over the years that as soon as Halloween is over you start to hear advertisements for Christmas and radio stations start to play Christmas songs. It has always puzzled me because you haven't even hit Thanksgiving (which is practically a full month away) and there is already pushes for people to spend money on the Christmas season, which is still two months away. Commercialism has really taken the holiday season and condensed it down. For me I wish that they would spearate the two seasons again because they both have their unique aspects, and of course they are both times to sit back and relax for a bit. I am a huge fan of the holiday season, and like most people, it is my favorite time of year. It isn't because of the gifts that I receive or anything like that. No, during this time of year I see a general shift in the personality of people going towards the good side. People are more kind and giving this time of year. I don't know exactly what it is, but it always causes me to smile inside when I see acts of charity being done. I wish that people would be like that the whole year round, but that's not the way it is.

The Christmas season has always been an anticipated thing in my family, but we have usually abstained from doing anything Christmas-like until after Thanksgiving. We enjoyed both holidays to their fullest. On Thanksgiving we would go over to our grandparents house and have Thanksgiving dinner. That was always fun to have the family together. I never really had opportunity to see my extended family much, and this was a time that I could. The day after Thanksgiving is when the Christmas season started in my family. That is when my dad would break out the christmas tree that we had (it was fake because my mom was allergic to the real thing, and it was more economical) and my brothers and I would participate in decorating the tree. After the Christmas decorations were set up around the house is when you would start to hear Christmas music playing throughout the house. Within a few weeks of this my dad would put up the Christmas lights around the house.

Growing up this way I felt a greater appreciation for the holiday season. It is a great time of year, and I think that commercialism has rushed this feeling for most people. They don't get to enjoy the full aspects of Thanksgiving, and they are rushed into thinking about what they are going to get their friends and family for Christmas before everything is sold out. To me, that is not what the holiday season is about. Of course I didn't always feel this way. I was a little kid once, and I couldn't wait for Christmas, but now being older, I see the bigger picture. I still anticipate the holiday season, but I have a greater patience now for it. If we as a nation would just sit back and let it come then I think that it would help us all to appreciate better what this time of year really means.