Reunions & Friends

A couple of days ago, I was messaged by a couple of friends for camp - While most of the staff members in the Burlington area were in town for their school breaks, they decided to get together and have a sort of Abnaki thanksgiving celebration. I headed up and met up with Rachel, who invited me over for a while, and we decided to go out and stay for a while, after we walked down to Church street to get some air. We've both been having our own various headaches, and it was good to talk about them with a sympathetic ear. We walked around church street for a while, ran into my friend Blackwell, which was a big surprise, and he was even more surprised to see me, and I think caught off guard, because he was with a girl - I think the one that he was almost arrested over (Long story) - and we didn't chat long. We also ran into my friend Lucy, who's apparently gotten a new job on Church street. From there, we sought out Billy and Jesse's apartment.I was extremely surprised to see that they had cooked an entire two turkeys and everything else with a turkey dinner - stuffing, mashed potatos, cranberry sause. A lot of people were there too - Billy, Tidd, Mike Wells, Pat, Alex, Lindsay, Dan Schwartz, Sam Hagen, Shane, Kevin, and a couple other random people. I think Rachel felt a little out of place, but it was like none of us had been parted for more than a couple of days - lots of reminising about events at camp, some video games, talking, drinking, eating, smoking and everything else that college guys do when they're on their own. It was good to see a lot of friends again. I ended up leaving early, and walked back to Rachel's apartment to get my car (She left early). Went back up and we talked for something like two hours before we realized what time it was and I left for home, getting back at around eleven. Fun evening. Kyle left this morning, back at school, and I'll be back at class tomorrow. Where did the time go? I still have two reports to finish up. Gah. Started working out my budget for London, watched the first episodes of Season 4 of Farscape, typed up a couple random things and going to do some reading later. Anyone ever listen to the 1812 Overture? Fun piece of music. I got a file of it earlier this year, and while watching Farscape, I found it highly amusing that the main character, John Crichton, was singing it to himself and got a small robot to hum the tune. Very catchy - especially when you're going insane.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, hopefully everyone will have a relaxed day with some good food sometime. It's interesting this year, because we're not actually having our dinner until tomorrow - mainly because of the foot or so of snow that we've gotten over the past two days, which is delaying my grandmother's trip from Burlington to come and eat with us, something that we do every year. It's also interesting, because my entire family is here - my brother came up the other day from school, and I've seen him for the first time in a couple of months, which is odd again.
My friend Kyle is also spending the week with us, because he lives in Washington, which is a little too far to go for a week. We've been hanging out, watching South Park, Family Guy or Farscape, inbetween minor work projects that have been handed to us from the parents. Like the tree that we had to clean up. But it's good to have everyone together. My grandmother is coming for dinner, and I think my brother's girlfriend as well, so it'll be crowded.
On Saturday, I've been ordered to go to one of my friend's apartments, because the Abnaki staff is getting together while we're all here for a celebration of our own. I imagine that it'll be fun - and it'll be good to see people again. I'll probably visit Rachel while I'm up - she's been having some random troubles, and I haven't seen her in a while. Hopefully I'll get to visit a couple more times before I go off to London.
My vacation thus far: fairly boring with lots of TV and headaches. On the plus side, my toes are no longer hurting and are healing, which is a huge plus. Now, if only I can get more Homework done.

Surgery

Finally, a problem that's been plaguing me for almost a year and a half now is over with, for now. I've had ingrown toenails for that time, due to a number of reasons, from cutting them improperly and my hike down the Grand Canyon, which made things worse. It's painful and problematic, especially after it became infected. So before I head off to London, I finally got it checked out by a doctor in Burlington. I thought that I was going in for a consulting thing, but after thirty minutes, I was limping out of there with the problem somewhat fixed. Some local anestetics, some clipping of the overgrown parts of the nail and some bandaging, and problem solved. Hopefully it will last for a while.
After that, while I couldn't feel my toes, I stopped by my dad's office to help them move. Ever since KAS started, they were in an office building with a couple of other companies. Now they're in their own office a couple miles down the road. From there, I went and visited my grandmother, talked with her for a little while. She's had a bit of a rough week, because one of her neighbors died the other day, and while I was there, she recieved word that a close friend had been killed in a car accident. After that, I visited my friend Sarah, then went back home. Almost ran out of gas on the way back, then went and picked up my friend Kyle, who's spending the week with us while on break.
Yay for vacation!

Over There, back here.

My friend Kyle got back today from Washington. I went to the airport to pick him up this morning. It was good to see him again, after a couple weeks. We spent most of the ride back catching up on various things that happened over the summer. He apparently didn't do much, worked around a little, but relaxed most of the time. He was pretty tired today, but we got him moved into his new apartment for the year.
While we were in Burlington, I picked up the pilot episode for a new FX show called Over There. It's the first show that I know about the war in Iraq. It's only 40 or so minutes, not too long. Thus far, it's kinda impressive, and has a lot of potential. The camera work and coloring is very well done, although I think that they overdo the handheld camera work a little, but with this type of show, it works really well. Storywise, it's a little cliqued, but as far as I know, right on the books for combat procedures, equipment and other things like that. Has a decent soundtrack as well.
I did a little bit of poking around about the show, with a couple of articles here and here. It looks like the show's not too popular with the soldiers who've seen the show and who have been in Iraq and in combat. The common complaints are basic things, like combat procedures. For example, a couple land mines are marked with flags, whereas in reality, they're hidden in something. Or as one truck driver said, they don't pull the trucks over on the side of the road. They park them in the middle, for the very reasons of what happens in the pilot. Things like dialogue and other things stuck out as well. It's all detail stuff, but it's really the details that matter. I think that the main problem is that it's a little too dramatic, and ordinary things, or things that happen out there just wouldn't cross over to the American public. So, with anything in Hollywood, dumb it down a bit, and you get a slightly more inaccurate version. I really don't know, not having been out there.
I think that the show will be a fairly big success, but I really hope that it doesn't become too political. Too right or left, that probably wouldn't help things at all. I'll definently try and track down more episodes here and there to follow up on it a bit. I'm pretty sure that this will be popular here at Norwich though.

The Cast of Over There

And finally, cool song that's pretty descriptive:

Aqueous Transmission
Incubus

I'm floating down a river
Oars freed from their holes long ago
Lying face up on the floor
Of my vessel
I marvel at the stars
And feel my heart overflow

Further down the river

Two weeks without my lover
I'm in this boat alone
Floating down a river named emotion
Will I make it back to shore?
Or drift into the unknown?

Further down the river

I'm building an antenna
Transmissions will be sent
When I am through
Maybe we can meet again
Further down the river
And share what we both discovered
Then revel in the view

Further down the river

I'm floating down a river