Saturday, December 29, 2007

Where was I?

Do you know what day of the week it is right now? I sure don't. I know the date, but I honestly don't know what day it is anymore. I could look it up, but who cares, really? It's sort of nice not to have to know for a while.

I just got back tonight from my family's whirlwind trip to California. On the plane ride home, I realized that not only am I going to have been in eight states in a two-week period by the time I get home (if you count the states I drive through on my way to New Jersey and back), I'm also going to spend significant time in every time zone in the continental U.S. within ten days. That's kind of ridiculous. But hey, I'm having fun!

My Christmas was great. I hope yours was, too, if you celebrate Christmas. It sort of went by really quickly again, but it was good. After watching A Muppet Christmas Carol every year with my dad (some years the rest of the family joins us, but for sure Dad and I always watch it at least once every year in the days leading up to Christmas) I finally read A Christmas Carol on Christmas night this year. It was enjoyable, actually, but I couldn't stop laughing at myself when I realized that although A Muppet Christmas Carol features the Marley brothers, Jacob and Robert Marley, in the actual story there's only a Jacob Marley. Now I feel like an idiot for never realizing that Robert Marley is a total joke (Robert Marley, aka "Bob" Marley...over ten years of watching the movie annually and somehow the entire family missed that?!)
So yeah, other than that my Christmas was exactly the same as it is every year, which was actually a good thing. I had fun with my family, and I got way too many gifts and ate way too much food. Most of my gifts were clothes, and the last thing I really need is even more clothes, but it's cute stuff and I'm happy to have it. My mom is good at picking out clothes. Oh, and I almost forgot this until right now, but this was my favorite conversation concerning a Christmas gift:
Grandpa: If Grandma and I got tickets to the Ring Cycle in 2009, would you be interested?
Me: Of course I would! You know that. But you need to take [my sister], she's the huge opera girl.
Grandpa: You would both go.
Me: Well, in that case, yeah! I'd love to go. I studied a lot of Wagner, remember? It'd be really cool to see the staging. Plus I've never been to Seattle. Why, are you thinking of getting tickets?
Grandpa: You're going. We made a donation and have four seats guaranteed. August 2009.
Me: Wow! That's great! Really?
Grandpa: Yes. [Talks for a while about the event, which he and Grandma have already been to several times] You might have babies by then, though.
Me: Nope. There is absolutely no way a baby is coming out of my body before August of 2009.
Grandpa: [very matter-of-fact] There's also a chance I'll be dead by then, but your grandma will go.
Me: There's a chance any of us could be dead by then. Please stop predicting your own death.
Grandpa: I could have lung cancer.
Mom: The doctors said you DON'T have lung cancer.
[P.S.-Grandpa has been predicting his death ever since he had to have hip surgery 10 years ago. Other things that were predicted to cause his death: the surgery to replace the other hip, two minor heart procedures, his diabetes diagnosis, this recent lung scare...the guy isn't in the best shape ever, that's true, but we have no real reason to believe he's about to shuffle off his mortal coil. Yet he's constantly reminding us, "I could be dead soon!"]
Grandpa: So are you happy?
Me: Yes, that sounds amazing.
Grandpa: Good. That's your Christmas present for NEXT year.

So I already know my Christmas present for next year. Ha. And I have to try to keep August of 2009 open, which is pretty insane when you think about it. Other than weddings, what gets planned more than a year and a half in advance?! And frankly, I don't even know that I believe weddings should be planned a year and a half in advance. But yeah. Ring of the Nibelungen in Seattle in August 2009! If I don't die or get knocked up first, of course.

And now from opera to football. The trip to California to watch my siblings' school play in the bowl game was so much fun. I mostly just went because I wanted to go to California (and also because I wasn't actually given a choice in the matter, although I probably would have chosen to go anyway). Surprisingly, the football game was actually very, very fun. See, I only enjoy watching football when it's a high scoring game. I know pretty much nothing about actual football rules. Well, I know enough to more or less follow what's going on. You don't grow up in my family without learning something about football just by sheer osmosis. But I don't know all the rules. Every single time there's a flag on the play I have to ask my brother or father, "What was that for?" because I just don't pay that much attention. All the strategy and defensive junk means absolutely nothing to me. So basically, I like it when there is a lot of scoring because when the team scores there are usually cannon shots and fireworks and everyone sings the fight song if it's a college game, and if all that excitement happens every half hour or so, I'm having fun. Especially when the team I'm rooting for is winning. And especially when I'm sort of drunk. So between three margaritas and the fact that we trounced the other team, I had a great time at the game last night!
The rest of the trip was fun, too, especially the night before the game when fans of both teams were wandering around downtown barhopping and talking trash to each other. Mom and I couldn't stop laughing at all the dumb things guys were saying to each other. My dad was getting into it in a joking way, since talking a big game the night before is all part of the fun, apparently, and at one point he was surrounded by a group of fans for the other team, and a few minutes later he returned to our side of the bar and he announced, beaming, "In just five minutes I had convinced them that not only are they going to lose tomorrow, but that their entire state is not nearly as good as ours! They didn't even try to fight with me! I would say something and they'd say, 'Yeah, you're right about that, actually.' I need to find someone who really wants to argue with me!"
I was going to try to explain why it was so funny, but it's probably only funny to my mother and me because we just don't really get the whole football thing. So, for instance, when we walked by a whole bar full of the "enemy" and they all just sort of roared at us when they noticed our school colors, Mom and I almost fell into the street we were laughing so hard. Which was probably not the intended reaction. It really was fun, though. I'm glad I got to go.

Now I'm back home for a couple of nights, but then I'm driving across the state to hang out with Maddi and other friends for New Year's Eve. I'll try to do my end-of-the-year wrap up before I go. On that note, I'm posting this as-is because I'm suddenly way too tired to even re-read it. Sorry if it's full of typos.

No comments: