Thanksgiving Break

My Thanksgiving break was pretty much great. It was just what I needed after a long bout of school. I was getting awfully tired of everything and just needed to get away for a little bit. And get away is what I did.

Wednesday was sort of a relax day and then the Thanksgiving was on. My dad picked me and my sister up on Thursday morning and together we drove to my cousins’ house in Louisville. When we arrived, I immediately began playing basketball in the freezing drizzle that was the weather that day. After about an hour and a half of that, I came inside and, with my family, said grace and began eating a seemingly small Thanksgiving dinner (not small as in small, but small for our usual dinner). Don’t get me wrong. It was grrrrreat! But I just wasn’t really that hungry, which was sort of a downer for both me and my aunt, haha.

About two hours after dinner, my whole family decided to go see “The Blind Side.” We arrived at one movie theater, walked up to the ticket booth, and found out their next showing was sold out and the earliest one was almost two hours later. Needless to say, we drove to another theater. This one also entailed a wait, but not as bad – only about an hour. In their theaters there are bars and grills and restaurants! Is this not crazy? Anyway, I played a few arcade games with my cousin and sister and then went and found my seat in the movie. This movie was amazing. I won’t ruin it for those who haven’t seen it, but a definite recommended watch. After the movie, I stayed up till about two in the morning shooting some pool and the bull.

That Friday we said goodbye to our gracious hosts and I drove my sister and my dad back home. From then until Sunday, I pretty much just got some well deserved rest, and watched the ‘Cats get their hearts ripped out in Commonwealth by Tennessee.

Sunday, my mom came early to pick up my sister and I because my dad had to drive to Michigan for work that night. I came home, and went straight to Hannah’s house to film my Spanish project with her and Nick. That was pretty cool I guess. Then I came home, and realized I had homework, and the school cycle began again.

Dakota

Pet Peeves of Christmas (I Love Christmas, Just Not These Parts of It)

I love the holidays. I’ll be the first to say that Christmastime is, along with Thanksgiving and Easter, the best time of the year. Everyone is so merry and you get to be with your family and all is good. But there are some things about the preparation for Christmas that I don’t understand, and quite frankly, tend to annoy me.

One of these things is putting up a Christmas tree in your house before Thanksgiving. This seems a bit excessive to me. I mean, I could understand if it were putting up your Christmas lights and you wanted to get it done before it got cold out, but seriously, the tree? You’re the only one who sees it, and you haven’t even celebrated Turkey Day yet. You can lay off for a little bit, I’m sure.

Another thing that tends to annoy me is when my mother insists that I go with her to see the Christmas lights around town and at Panther Creek Park. Mommy, the lights were pretty the first ten times I saw them. I know you enjoy looking at the same lights every Christmas, but it’s just not for me. And the Christmas parade – seriously? I’ve seen it every year of my life, and watching 200 floats move by at 5 mph just gets so monotonous for a child like me. I hope you can understand.

Also, why do some people call this time of the year the holiday season? If you don’t think that it should be called Christmastime or you don’t celebrate Christmas, then what holiday are you talking about? I suppose this is the Christian in me – I swear I don’t mean to offend anyone, I’m just curious to know.

Dakota

NFL Season Half Way Over

This blog is pretty much going to be one of the most random blogs I’ve written (or typed). Basically, the NFL season is over half way over and I felt that I needed to tell all of those people who don’t know or care about football the highlights of the pro football season thus far.

First, let’s start with individual accomplishments. Peyton Manning of the Colts is, as he is annually, in the running for MVP. Drew Brees has reached the pinnacle of his career and is also very much in that race. The unsung, most unthinkable man who is in contention for this award, however, was playing pro football before some of the players that wear that same Viking purple were even born. Mr. Old Man himself, Brett Favre has compiled a 9-1 record with the Vike’s and has thrown 24 touchdowns to only 3 interceptions. This is unheard of for a man of 40 years. Heck, anyone who isn’t a kicker that’s still playing in the NFL at age 40 is pretty unheard of.

Team wise, there are some good teams with good records but only two that have yet to have been blemished by a loss. These teams are the Saints and my beloved Colts! The Saints are 10-0 and play this weekend against the crazy-good Patriots, and the Colts just beat the Texans in a comeback win to move to 11-0. Honestly, I don’t think the Colts are as good as their record shows though. Their running game is almost nonexistent and with very young wide receivers and a rookie coach, they have everything to lose and everything working against them. But that number 18 who lines up behind the center, he just turns away all doubts. Mr. Manning, where would the Colts be without you?

Fantasy Update: I’m first in my division and tied for first in the league. I’m going to lose this week to fall into a tie for first in my division however… Can I make the tournament? I sure hope so!

Finally, shout out the Bobby Bowden. The coach of Florida State’s football team for 34 seasons, Bowden is stepping down at age 80. You will never be forgotten.

Intramural Sports

So I’ve been participating in about every intramural activity we’ve had here at Apollo this year outside of bowling. Let’s get a rundown via your favorite narrator of all time, Dakota!

I first played intramural dodge ball. The first night, there weren’t so many people but I still didn’t figure my team stood much of a chance against the competition. I was, in part, wrong. We lost almost every preliminary game we played, but come tournament time, we were beast. We won every single tournament game to win the first night. Unfortunately, we weren’t awarded anything for winning, which wouldn’t have been a problem, but you’ll see why I was a little peeved.

The second night there was a ton of people there. This night we didn’t do so hot. We won about half of our preliminary games but were immediately knocked out of the tournament. I stayed to watch the final game and found out that the winning team won T-shirts…

The second intramural activity was volleyball. Basically, my friend Jeff assembled a very hodgepodge group of people to play on our team, and we played. Badly. We only won one game, and we obviously didn’t make tournament, but it was sooooo fun. I had a blast that night.

Intramural basketball is coming up soon, and I’m definitely doing that. I hope it will be even more fun than volleyball!

Dakota

Phone

I have been told numerous times from numerous people that I am not among the best of cell phone users when it comes to actually using said phone. I tend to not have much attention to the battery in the phone, and if it by chance runs down and my phone dies, well it’ll be okay to be dead for a week or so, no sweating it on my part. I also often neglect to call people when I tell them that I will and neglect to call people back when they call me. I suppose this makes me a pretty irresponsible/unfriendly person, but I just don’t enjoy talking on the phone at all.

I find that when I am talking on the phone, I tend to run out of things to say very quickly as opposed to if I am IMing or emailing or the like. Also, if I can talk to many more people in private conversations on the computer than on the phone, why shouldn’t I do so?

But some people just don’t seem to understand this. They ask me, “Why is your phone never on?”, “Why didn’t you call me back?”, and things like that. They tell me they have important things to say to me, but if they know I don’t often use my phone, why do they continue to try to contact me in that manner? Just send me an email, message me on Facebook, something other than calling me, because chances are, I’m not going to ever get your memo.

Dakota