"My Friday Night Enfant"

Christmas back home wasn't too bad last weekend. The trip was whirlwind, as I knew it would be, but everyone got along, there were no outbursts or tantrums or anything of that nature, no moments that were truly awkward. Present-wise, I got some nifty stuff: three new pair of jeans (both grandmothers decided that my request for a single new pair of jeans was simply not enough), a couple of giftcards (to Target and to Best Buy), Toy Story and Episode III on DVD, the 30th Anniversary Edition of Born to Run, and a few videogames. And cash. Quite a bit of cash. Of course, last but certainly not least, there's the guitar, my pride and joy, but we already knew I had that and I've gushed over it enough. Suffice to say it still captivates me and holds my attention like something shiny would a football player.

Travelling to and from Oklahoma posed fewer problems than I'd imagined it would from too many viewings of Die Hard 2 (y'know, the one where they hijack the airport and the planes can't land and all that). Our only problem was a one-hour delay going to Oklahoma Friday evening, but we ended up only being about 40 minutes later than we'd anticipated in our arrival, and my parents had only just arrived at the airport themselves to pick us up, so that worked out well. Returning, the only trouble we had was with a manicure kit Wendy had in her bag. It contained some sort of tool thing that apparently had some sort of blade, and they made her check her baggage with the thing (even though she'd already been through two different airports with it by this time: this was on our connecting flight from Kansas City to Baltimore on the way back to the East Coast). This was apparently the third time in as many trips that she's tried to bring the manicure kit along with her, and each time they've flagged it. Personally, I'd have stopped bothering with the damn thing after the first time, but I wasn't about to say anything to her about it.

Anyway, it's been nice not having to work this week. I'm not quite to the point where I'll say that I'm ready to jump back into work, and I'd really prefer to have another week or two off like I did in college, but I think I'll be ready to get back to it when the time comes.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: David Gray, "Nos da Cariad"