Eggnog

Yes, right now I am enjoying Pike Place roast with genuine Braum's eggnog in it. It is nothing short of heaven. How could I achieve such a glorious brew? Through the miracle of deep freezes. Now my one solace in the winter months is comforting me in this warm weather.
It sounds dumb, but eggnog is one of those things that always brings back memories for me, my nostalgia if you will. So, speaking of being nostalgic, we're packing and getting ready to move, and it's weird to look at everything around us and know that it'll be out of our lives in a few weeks. A full quarter of my life has been spent living in this city, wrapped in this Nazarene bubble. Laura and I haven't known each other while living anywhere else, and now we're leaving this all behind to go someplace new.
I can't wait.

On mute

Now that I'm back from the Crawfish Boil and Pickle has left town, I have to come back to reality. I feel like that scene in Fight Club, where they've really started up the club and Ed Norton has to go back to work. He says that it sounds like someone has just turned the volume down on life around him. That's where I'm at right now.

In other news, Laura and I are for sure buying a house. They're doing repairs right now, and we close on the 30th. It is at once the most exciting and terrifying thing we've done since getting married.

What really matters

Here I am, nine o'clock the night before an exam that is definitely going to rock my world. I've already been beaten down by two other tests this week, and yet I can't make myself study for tomorrow. I should be scared. I should be stressed. But I'm not. You know why?

Crawfish Boil

Yesterday we had inspections on what may be our future home. There were some pretty ridiculous things wrong, and they probably won't fix them, which means we'll have to start this process over yet again. I should be sad. I should be disheartened. But I'm not. You know why?

Crawfish Boil

Our secret is out!

Friends, and by friends I mean a group of Nazarene white people (Yes Joe Ibanez, you count too), we have been found out. My wife, in all of her melanin-lacking glory found a blog called Stuff White People Like. Thinking it was just a joke, I checked it out, only to find every detail of my albinic life displayed in convenient blog format. You must check it out and be confronted with your own self-made stereotypes.
To save you some time, I want to highlight two of the posts:
For the Oregonians out there:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/87-outdoor-performance-clothes/
And for the OKC1st folk out there:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/82-hating-corporations/

It just blew your freaking mind, didn't it?

A day of letdowns and giving in to peer pressure

Yesterday Laura and I went on a gift-returning spree. My extended family gives some pretty ridiculous gifts, and so most holidays are Laura and I faking a smile and then looking for the gift receipts. First on our list was Mardel's. I know, I threw up in my mouth just thinking about that store too. Anyway, we return a ton of crap and get the new Shane Claiborne book and Jon Foreman's CD's, which brings me to letdown #1: Foreman's Fall EP sucks. The lyrics are amazing, but the guy just drones on and on. It's like he dosed up on tranquilizers before he started recording. Right, well, next on our list was Bath and Body Works. Why? Because this year my aunt got us two fancy bags that are exactly like the bags she got us last Christmas. Anyway, these had price tags for $65 bucks each, and Laura and I thought we'd have candles to last a lifetime with this exchange, which brings me to letdown #2: we could only return the bags for 90% off. That's right, these two designer bags got us 13 bucks. Apparently these bags are from two Christmases ago. Awesome.

So, on to me giving in to peer pressure. It seems the thing to do today is to rant about Wal-Mart and how it is actually run by the Anti-Christ himself. While I think Wal-Mart can't hold this position as long as anything Apple is being sold, I still hate the place. It's not because of a company staying within its rights and recouping losses in a lawsuit, it's because of my dear Broken Arrow. Down the street from my parents' house, there was a Wal-Mart. It was convenient and beautiful. However, they decide to build a Super Center two miles down the road, and so they close down my beloved store. That happened when I was in eighth grade. Last weekend Laura and I drove past the still vacant store. It's been a decade since they closed that store, and they still won't rent it out because they don't like Target. Also, if you ever drive through Guymon, you'll see where they built a Super Center right across the street from the old Wal-Mart. Seriously, right across the street. It's like watching Starbucks come to town.

Why I hate lawyers

Besides Zach Herbert's existence, malpractice suits, and three year degree programs, I hate lawyers because of ethics. We have to take this ethics class at school, and today's topic was end of life care. Of course, Oregon and its Christ-like allowance for doctor-assisted suicide came up. Now instead of allowing us to have a meaningful discussion, this lawyer/preceptor decides to talk about her stupid dog. She talks for fifteen minutes about how she loves her dog as much as her grandchildren, but the dog has a huge tumor on its bladder. After droning on and on about spending thousands of dollars on its treatment, she ends with this quote-
"It was a great relief just knowing that euthanasia was always an option for my dog. Isn't it weird that euthanasia is an option for treatment in dogs, but it's not an option for humans?"

You've got to be kidding me.

Remembering my childhood

The other day Keith and I were having our usual Seinfeld-esque conversation on the way home from school, and we landed on the topic of childhood toys. Come to find out, we both had some of the coolest toys ever made: Starcom. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you've already failed at life. I still have all my Starcom toys securely stored in my parents' attic, so if someday you feel like filling that dark hole in your heart, I'll let you play with them. Maybe.
Anyway, I found this article today that perfectly articulates every feeling I ever had about Starcom, and it may be able to explain their majesty to you:

http://www.digitalmonkeybox.com/starcom.htm