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November 22, 2006
Thanksgiving Break, At Last
[On location in Cumberland, Wisconsin]
Even though it was tiring, this past weekend was pretty fun. Carl came up from Baltimore for a visit this weekend, and so he was able to experience a true-blue (and white) State College weekend, what with there being a home football game and whatnot. We didn't get tickets to go to the game, but we did go up to the tailgate by mid-morning with Jacob & Andrew, making the 40-minute walk through downtown and campus to where it was all set up. 
(And the "Welcome Hunters" tailgate right behind us was the definition of "hey buddy," with their blaring country music, sawhorse-n-plywood tables, Dale Earnhardt Jr. #8 solo cups, and the American, Confederate and Texas flags. Why does anyone, especially up north, still display a confederate flag? It's infuriating, but I guess if they wanna be dumb then they can go right ahead and proudly display it to everyone.) 
It may have been only 40 or 45 degrees and cloudy out, but it was still just about the nicest weather we'd had for a tailgate this fall since it was neither wet nor windy. We've really had terrible luck with the weather on game days this fall, but oh well. Anyway, after the power hour everyone else left for the game, and Jacob left to go play with his band live on the radio, Carl, Andrew & I made our way back to my place, catching the 3rd quarter of Penn State's thoroughly unimpressive 17-13 victory over Michigan State in their regular season finale, before leaving for Champs.
We decided to watch the Michigan-Ohio State game up at Champs to get a bit more atmosphere, and we got up there just in time, as people who arrived just after us weren't able to get a table for a really long time. Eventually Luna, Levy, Shannon and her parents joined us too. It was a great game to watch, with the Buckeyes coming out on top 42-39. I was even leading the occasional cheer of "O-H! I-O!" much to Andrew's delight and Shannon's dismay (a couple elbows to the side couldn't stop me, haha). I think a Michigan fan got to the projector though, because the only colours coming through were yellow (very brightly, I might add), and blue (though to a lesser extent). The reds of the OSU uniforms and the green of the field all faded into various shades of grey, it was strange. Anyway, the game, as good and entertaining as it was (whatever happened to those two supposedly stout defenses???), wasn't as close as the score indicates, because Michigan never had the ball in the 4th quarter when they were within one score. I'm just glad that the Wolverines lost, I really can't stand them. Now all sorts of people are clamoring for a rematch, but I really think that'd be a terrible idea. Michigan already had their chance; now it's time for another team, like USC or Arkansas, to get a shot. I might consider boycotting college football if Notre Dame gets into the title game (slurp slurp), or if they get put into the Rose Bowl to play Michigan for a second time this year I might skip watching the Rose Bowl for the first time in 15+ years. I really don't need to watch a game between my two most despised teams that's a rematch of a slaughter that already happened earlier this year.
Word to the wise: a block of breaded and deep-fried cheese, even if slathered in marinara sauce, does not make a very good supper by itself.
After the game a bunch of us went out to the Phyrst to celebrate Kerrie's birthday. It was fun, but the Phyrst was horribly crowded since it was a home football weekend. So alas, there weren't any table wars happening, and we weren't able to hear the Phyrst Phamly band, though that did enable us to be able to talk to each other a bit. After standing in pretty much one place for about three hours though, I was getting pretty tired, especially after all the standing and miles of walking I'd done already that day.
After I got back from church on Sunday it was time to make some fruit compote and help Carl make a couple of pies for the meteo grad Thanksgiving celebration up at Houserville. Their 18-lb turkey was a bit tardy in getting done, but I think the waiting made everything taste all the better. There was so much food, I was a fan of everything that was brought, it was all so good! 
Two plates of normal food plus a full plate sampling every dessert was more than plenty to fill me up. I guess it'll just be practice for the family Thanksgiving meal this week. :-) We should totally do meals like that more often! Carl left for Baltimore right after the meal, and I made it back to my apartment just in time (literally, I beat Kristin & Caleb there by a few seconds) to host Bible study. After that it was definitely time to crash.
It was so hard to focus on Monday, I think my brain was already on vacation. About all I managed to accomplish was gathering together the stuff I needed to take home with me for break.
Yesterday I made the 3-hr drive from State College to the Pittsburgh airport with Andrew & Jacob, with Jacob on my same flight to Minneapolis, and Andrew on a flight home to Chicago a half hour later. Fortunately the long lines moved fairly quickly, and fortunately the security folks were nice enough to let me keep my Nalgene after they dumped out the water that was in it, oops. The flight was uneventful, and my parents arrived to pick me up an hour after I landed. Now I'm home at last and just relaxing. Maybe I'll consider doing some reading for classes/research, we'll see... 
If anything's gonna be accomplished it's gonna have to be today probably, since tomorrow's Thanksgiving, Friday will likely be filled with something, and Saturday my brothers and I are taking my Mom & Dad somewhere for my Mom's 60th birthday, which was last Sunday. Since we still haven't told her where we're taking her and since she reads my blog at least occasionally, I'm keeping it a secret from all of you too for the time being. :-)
[update at 5:35pm CST:] Check out the beautiful sunset that happened here an hour ago, reflecting in the icy skin atop the lake!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!
Posted by Jared at November 22, 2006 03:46 PM