So I think my last post was on Kermit. It's been a little while, but I've got some stuff to say for once, so strap yourselves in for a long post. Well, maybe nothing too profound, but that's what you get when this comes at you from 36,000 feet. I'm actually typing this in the sky, and when I get home and have some internet access I'll post it up. I've got plans baby. Big plans for this flight.
My Dad was in town to see how his eldest lives. And see his whole family. The Fitz family Christmas Party was nice. I'm not really sure how well Steph and I fit into these things. The problem is that my parents, my brother and I grew up 2500 miles away from the closest Fitz relation. So I've only met everyone a few times in my entire life. All the cousins seem to know each other fairly well, and I'm still struggling to learn all their names. The net result is that Steph and I are fairly quiet at these things. I talk to everyone, tell them school is going fine and that Steph's happy with her job. But these people, other than looking like me, don't feel like family. It's hard to explain. Steph always wondered why I looked forward to seeing my friends more than my family when we visit people. But now she seems to realize that my friends are closer to me than my family (parents and brother excepted, obviously). For her, she grew up with family and cousins her age all around her, so she's much closer to her family. I think she's knows my cousin's names better than I do. Another reason I'm a little self-consious at these events is that I can't make any dirty jokes. My uncles are cool and all, but there's only so many penis and 'your mom' jokes you can do around them before some social taboo is crossed. And I love the penis jokes. I mean, penises are funny.
Our in flight movie was Little Miss Sunshine. That was pretty funny. Every movie is made better by some Rick James.
And this week Stormy came to visit. Apparently I'm one of the last holdovers to call him Stormy. What's with you people, that has to be among the greatest nicknames/epitets of all time and you're letting it slip away. Some of my favorites:
1) Rosy-fingered Dawn
2) Africanus (or really just being named after a region you conquered)
3)
4) Stormy
5) the Great (whenever this gets added to your first name, you know you're doing alright)
But with him in town, not a whole lot got done around the office or house. They'll be plenty of work to do this January. But we did walk the Freedom Trail, saw some famous dead people's graves, Bunker/Breeds Hill and the USS Constitution. Of course, it being the middle of December, there wasn't much open, but had a good time anyway. And we discovered that we didn't remember as much American History and we thought. Could only name a few battles of the Revolutionary War. Well, it was a good refresher to walk around and try and remember all that stuff...
I saw Monica Lewinsky graduated from the London School of Economics. Good to see that my brother is getting a degree from such a prestigious place.
We flew the day Denver was shut down. Actually we didn't get it too bad. Logan-O'Hare-PDX. We were only delayed by about 5 hours in Chicago and that was about it. Otherwise smooth. Of course, it's always stressful when you're flying standby and there are hundreds of other people stuck in the same situation. But we got through with what I would describe as a minimal amount of fuss. And our luggage made it as well.
It's funny, I've always had rather good flying experiences. I've never lost my luggage, and the longest I've ever been stranded in an airport is about 6 or 7 hours. So nothing too bad. Steph on the other hand has had terrible experiences, in fact her whole family has had to deal with lost luggage, missed flights and day-plus waits. All my worst flight experiences have been with my little lady by my side. So my good flight karma somehow balances her bad karma and we only get a little screwed up. But it always works out, no worries.
But once we arrived we had tickets for the Nutcracker with my parents. Landed at 5:45, made it to the show downtown by 7:15. I've got to say I was a little disappointed. The little girl, Clara I think, was actually played by a little girl, which means for most of the second half with the Sugarplum Fairy and King and such she didn't dance. I mean, ballet is always impressive, and something I could never do. Maybe I just demand perfection from the arts. But this wasn't an issue of execution, it was the directing, casting and choreography. Well, I won't bother with a point-by-point analysis of what I didn't like, but it was only OK.
And lastly, the Ducks game... Well, that really deserves it's own post. I think everyone is a little disappointed with the team right now. It's an issue of consistency. This is now twice in 4 years where the team has ended on a rather lengthy losing streak, bowl game included. In fact, were it not for last year's very special season, I might even think about calling for some changes at the head coaching position. But I don't think it's Bellotti, I think it's who he's surrounding himself with. I never liked the Crowton hire, and I still think Aliotti's only an average defensive coordinator. The quarterbacks haven't really progressed this season. Everyone knows the talent in there, but it's making sure the right players are there and in position to make good plays is all about coaching, and that wasn't true in the second half of the season. Even in the first half of the season there were a lot of mistakes being made, but talent and homefield managed to overcome those issues. But the chickens came home to the proverbial roost. Well, there's always next year.
