The Past

I apologize for the delay, there have been some things I wanted to get done when I got home, cleaning up a semester's worth of collected papers and computer-related things (how did I get five keyboards?) and generally trying to get my stuff all organized for the next semester. Hopefully I can remember enough of the past few days to have a bit of material to post!
Let me first fulfill an old promise by filling in the gap that occurred during Thanksgiving.

The drive down to my parents house was just about as uneventful as usual. I left Thursday morning (the previous night being a Psalm Singing time at Pastor's house) and thankfully there wasn't much traffic at all, which I enjoyed. It makes me jittery driving through "The City" (as everyone refers to it) because it seems like every driver is out to get me or something. I still don't understand the obsession with nearly every driver to go AT LEAST 10 miles above the speed limit and apparently they dislike anyone who doesn't do the same, considering them to be a hindrance to traffic.

It was good to see my family again, since it had been a while since my last visit but it was pretty much say "hi" and unload a few things from my car (computer being a necessity) and then getting ready for company that was arriving for the Thanksgiving afternoon.

There were two families that came over, from a fellowship of believers nearby, they are very nice families but I honestly don't know too much about there beliefs. I visited their church twice on Wednesday nights and the teaching seemed solid, at least as much as I heard of it but there was some things that seemed a bit strange or out of the ordinary in their beliefs, I shouldn't say too much because I couldn't say that absolutely for certain. But our families get along fine. They have one older boy who is about between myself and my next brother (no, my brother is not taller than me) in age. It's hard to find things to talk about because he is NOT interested in any kind of electronics, I don't even know if he touches the family computer at all. He apparently doesn't like to read, his favourite pasttime is riding his motorcycle and "souping it up."

When we visited his house last, he showed the boys and myself his motorcycle, he had modified the muffler so it would be really loud (can't have a quiet MUFFLER now can we?). His friend came over with his new quad and they took out the baffle inside the muffler to make that one really loud too. It made me think of old Mr. Boyd, the gentleman I used to do yardwork for. I always loved his small Toyota he drove, you could hardly tell that it was running becuase it was so quiet. That's the sort of car I like, I don't really want the entire neighbourhood to know when I am driving past, I'm more the "sneaky" or "spy" type I suppose. Creeping along as silently as a Shadow.....

Back to the point, there really wasn't a whole lot in common I suppose. One of the families had brought their deep fryer and the fathers worked on cooking the turkey outside in that. It was actually very good, extremely moist and the flavour stayed in very nicely. Not quite like a traditional turkey but certainly a pleasure to eat! Of course there were the usual mashed potatoes but there were no scalloped potatoes! And (even worse) no sweet potatoes! How can you have a Thanksgiving dinner without sweet potatoes? If you haven't guessed already, I think it's safe to say that I like to eat potatoes.......

After stuffing ourselves as full as a christmas goose, we sat around and chatted for a bit. There were some girls about my age there but I'm not really the type to go up and start chatting with them, I stuck around the boys (even though the conversation was extremely lacking) and eventually the men headed outside to go shoot some clay pigeons with the shotguns (something of a Thanksgiving tradition for some reason). I was doing very poorly for some reason, I only hit about four out of ten, but I was having fun. Some of the older men were good at shooting. One of the dads (his name was Bernie) wanted to shoot, he plays the drums at their church, has glasses, looks like a computer guy or something. Well he gets all settled and ready and suddenly fires the gun, before anything was in the air, he was just as surprised as the rest of us! THANKFULLY he had it pointed in direction of the woods but I was (understandably so) rather uneasy after that whenever he had a gun in his hands. He said he was surprised, this gun didn't have as hard a trigger as his at home did. That's kind of a poor excuse though because he shouldn't have been "testing" the trigger out before he was ready to shoot!

So after about a half hour, the group dispersed and some of the boys went riding on the motorcycles. I stayed in the room and cleaned up a few things and got my stuff organized. I do feel rather badly because I am sharing a room with my brother and when I come home, I often bring in a bit of stuff that I don't really have a place for so it stays on the floor by my dresser until I can organize it and put some things away. I wasn't trying to seem like a recluse, I just had some things I needed to get done and well.... the boys were all out riding and the girls seem to do fine without me, and besides, girls I don't know are very scary.

After the boys got back, we settled down to a couple of games (just the boys). There was Jesse (the motorcycle guy) and another named Joseph who tends to be closer to my own likes and dislikes. He works for a computer company but is also handy with physical labour. So Joseph and myself were on one team and my brother and Jesse were on another and we played Outburst. Joseph and I actually didn't do too badly at all but I felt sorry for the other team. I love trivia games and like my friend has told me, I do have a lot of useless knowledge so I love games like this but Jesse wasn't interested and I don't think even said anything the entire game, just sat there but my brother was doing pretty good by himself anyway. After that I was feeling a bit tired after having been up late the previous night (playing some silly, outdoors game called "football" where they apparently have a million rules to take ALL the fun out it and I broke every single one) and having gotten up early that morning so I was yawning. My brother and Joseph played a game of chess. I enjoy chess but didn't feel like thinking too hard at the moment.

I believe my brother won, but the game was horrible, both people were not thinking properly and so many goofy mistakes were made it was funny. Jesse's dad came by and asked me if I played checkers, I said that I did but I hadn't played for a long time (probably about three years). He said to play against Jesse because Jesse was pretty good. Apparently it's about the only board game he likes. So we broke out the board and the pieces and set up. He did have a couple of strategies for the start but generally he seemed to take each move as it came whereas I tend to (at least try) to look multiple moves ahead and imagine what the move would be countered with, carefully weighing the costs of each move so when he made a move I would expect it and immediately counter with my move (which would usually put him into a tight spot). He was the first to get a king, actually he made two kings but I had already made a tight attacking force and was able to protect my flank (with a "rear guard" of course) and the tables very quickly turned. I could tell it was a disappointment to Jesse and I felt badly because I know he had expected to win. Afterward my brother played with him and also beat him, rather soundly I must admit. After him being bored through the entire Outburst game, and then being beaten not only once, but twice at his favourite board game, I was feeling kind of bad and definitely not a good host.

The evening soon wound down and the guests left and I was able to go to bed. The next day was pretty ordinary, I worked on getting my project done (the projectile) for my Engineering class and organized a few things on Friday, then I left to go back to my "home" on Saturday.



The Present Past

Now to go back to this last Saturday, in the month of December, where I last left off posting. The morning was spent organizing the camper (seems like I"m always having to organize something since I get so messy) and getting ready for my family to arrive. I always get excited about them coming up to visit me but once they arrive and there is suitcases and bags littering the floor everywhere, my table is made into a bed so there is no place for my laptop and I get "deposed" to the floor instead of my ordinary queen-size bed.... one starts to contemplate not inviting the relatives back..... I'm just kidding of course. I enjoyed it and they did take me out to dinner (at the Chinese buffet) that night. Afterwards I took my oldest sister and two brothers to the Game Night that was at the Y's house. We had arrived late and I had promised to bring burritos too! I did bring them but apparently everyone had eaten so it was rather pointless. I set up my Nintendo GameCube by the TV so the boys could play (I had told Pastor's boys that I would introduce them to my brother's playing). My brother really enjoys Smash Brothers and he's quite good at it and I wanted Boromir to see how it was to play against someone who was actually good at the game, quite unlike myself! The boys took turns with the controllers and I think it worked out pretty well.

Meanwhile, there was a group composed mainly of girls playing Taboo in the same room and it became hard to hear oneself think after a time. I think people just like getting into the game and don't realize it but to an observer (sitting on the stairs with a munchkin who is chowing down on chips) it seemed very loud indeed! I periodically checked back upstairs to see how my sister was doing with all of the "new" people (new to her at least) and my youngest brother, who was going back and forth between the games up there and the games down where I was at. I joined the next round of Taboo but I have to say I wasn't much of an asset to the team. I tried and normally I'm decent at word games but like I said, it was hard to even hear oneself think in that room! Yup, that's my excuse.... er.... F.B. did well at the game... come to think of it, most of the girls did very well at the game, though they used some descriptions that really never would have made any sense to me, but they could understand eachother perfectly. Kind of like a personal language I suppose.

When Mr. Y had his turn though, I was able to understand what he was trying to get across! We were much closer in thought patterns. I was reflecting too how it is nice to have family members that are on the same team as yourself (which I didn't have) because there are a lot of things you share with them. My brother and I think very much alike and can each almost read the other's thoughts at times. I think part of my problem with that game is making myself understood (when it's my turn) and I really don't like to guess wildly at what the other person is trying to say, I like to get enough information so I can make a rather close guess, which often takes longer.

It was rather amusing listening to the descriptions other people thought up. There were some very creative ones! I felt like a silent observer much ofthe time, I can still remember F.B. "dozing" on the couch, Violin sprawled comfortably in her chair, head thrown back against the head rest, Dark Warrior bouncing up and down on the big ball, Daniel going back and forth from TV to Taboo and joining in whenever he felt like it (which was all the time) and Raychel walking around happily chowing on potato chips. When I was sitting on the stairs at the beginning, she came over and sat right next to me. When I moved up a step, she moved up too and sat next to me still. She didn't offer me any chips at first but after a while she gave me the whole bag, but it turns out she was just getting in a more comfortable position and once she had done so, wanted it back.

F.B. already described how Raychel enjoyed grinding away on her head with the toy egg beater. I found that quite amusing myself. Everyone was having fun and I truly did enjoy myself but by the time 2130 came around I was ready to go, it was late, I was a bit tired and didn't want to let that interfere with my Sabbath. There have been times where I've been tired Sunday morning and had trouble keeping my eyes focused and I always regretted it, my concentration wasn't at its best as it should have been. I remember an old pastor speaking of how he would tell his children to never let their Saturday night interfere with their Sunday and it has really stuck with me.

It really felt good to get outside and into the cool night air. I don't think I'm a recluse but I do enjoy some quiet time, quite a bit of quiet time actually! I must admit I do like where I am living and the general peacefulness that is around. The most noise I hear is what I make while singing to myself or listening to music while reading or doing some homework. I'm not a "lights and sirens" type of person, I don't know, I enjoy quiet family settings.

That night I slept on the floor, at least what little I did sleep. I had a very restless night for some reason, different "family" noises and a lot to think about I assume. My neck was sore for two days after...

You know, I am realizing that I'm simply writing about me, trying to make me sound interesting. I guess that is somewhat self-centered after all! Sorry about that.....

More later. I'm tired right now, as I'm sure you are.