The R.A.N III Experience

Surprise Thanksgiving

As everyone knew (except for my parents) I decided to come home this year for Thanksgiving, my first Thanksgiving in 2 years! I decided to surprise the parentals although just about every single other person in a 4 mile vicinity (except aunt Katie) knew I was coming home. My plane landed about 10 to 9 in the evening at DTW and my sisters and cousin, Adrianne, came to pick me up. When we got back to the house we had Laura go in first to find out where everyone was, she texted me and told me to come in. My mom was cleaning the bathroom so I came in and turned the corner and there was the face of shock. It was seriously an amazing look. So amazing, I videotaped the whole entrance, you can watch it here: Shock of shocks (she is going to hate that I put this online). After she stopped screaming I went upstairs to see the dad who, of course, was already getting ready for bed at 10 pm. He was equally excited, but I’m glad he didn’t jump up and down and scream like a girl like his wife.

After that excitement ended it was time for Thanksgiving Eve, AKA biggest bar night of the year. The sisters, Adrianne, and I went to Camp Ti to see the first Abrasive Method show in Troy, MI. The place was pretty packed, there most likely over a hundo I’m sure. The show was great, even my mom came to check out the A.M. boys! After the show a few of us headed over to the GP, because really, what is TG-Eve without the GP? Right! That was one hot mess. Mark and I did some shots of whiskey. Laura and I did a Johnny Vegas, it was good times.

Thanksgiving – The entire dad side of the family was coming over (not to mention we had Aunt Martha, Uncle Dan, and their kids, Ava and Jacob staying with us). It was pretty much the biggest Thanksgiving we’ve ever had, 17 people at the table. I waited until my grandma and aunts came over before I came downstairs and surprised all of them. Tears were shed, it was ridic. Aunt Katie brought 2 pans of greenbean bundles, the greatest food on earth. The stuffing was great, turkey and potatoes, mmm, I mean I don’t really need to remind you all what food is eaten on Thanksgiving, but again, it was my first one in 2 years! I loved it.

The rest of the week was pretty much the same old. A few bar trips and of course hitting up B-Dubs, the greatest wings ever which Utah fails to have (amongst a ton of other things). The Saturday Adrianne decided to throw some sort of beer-fest. Basically, it ended up being a bunch of people (including my parents and other adult neighbors) coming over and playing flip cup. My mom has never played flip cup and she decided it would be ideal for her to play using wine instead of beer…. yeahhhh! She was ridic. Hey, in fact, I got another video of this too! Wine Flippy Cup.

I actually had a legit reason to come home (other than the obvious), I was called in for a job interview, I’m not going to get into specifics about it but I certainly hope I get picked so I can head back to the great Mitten. I’ll keep you all informed fo sho. In the mean time check out the photo album of my trip right here! Oh yeah, and guess what else? I’ll be home in like 2 weeks for Christmas (Dec 24-Jan 4) get ready for that shit!

Whatever BT Says, BT Gets

Recently, I have been hearing from Billy that my posts are not “chipper” enough, actually it was “not chipper enough, asshole”. So, Billy, former roomate of mine, this chipper post is for you.

Last weekend was a straight party weekend. T and I went to Cheers on Saturday night to meet up with Chandra and Scott. We took Trax there full-well knowing drunkeness would ensue, look at us being responsible! We had a pretty good night, although Chandra and T disappeared outside for a minute but that was okay as it allowed for male bonding between Scott and I. By male bonding I probably mean more nerd bonding because all we talk about is computers and video games (Secret of Mana > Chrono Trigger). Ha! That’s ok with me though, he knows a lot about upcoming projects in the tech world and always hooks me up with the newest intel of whats going on which I enjoy. Essentially, T and I missed the southbound Trax so we ended up taking a cab back, definitely the more expensive option. Oh well, better than a DUI right?

On Wednesday, I went to T’s friend’s wedding. Her name is Ana and his name is…I have no clue. Right now you’re asking, “who the hell has a wedding on a Wednesday?” Mormons, duh. This was my first and hopefully last Mormon wedding experience. Someone needs to make these people watch a few DVD’s, like “Old School” or “Animal House”, hell even “Wedding Crashers” so that they can learn how to throw a real party. Luckily, I was prepared for this and brought myself a bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey. Obviously, I couldn’t just roll in with a bottle of booze so the discrete car drinking was in full effect. Mormon weddings and receptions generally happen at the same location, this event was no different. I missed the wedding but arrived promptly at 6 PM when the “reception” started. According to my LDS friends (that’s Ladder Day Saints for you non-Utahans), most of the time, unless the families are loaded, receptions consist of drinks and cake. By drinks I mean punch. We should have spiked it. There was at max 40 people when I arrived at this spot and as 7 PM approached people emptied quickly. Probably the highlight of the night (you’ll laugh that this statement is really going to be the highlight of the whole night) was when the bride went to toss her bouquet. She turned and launched her bouquet and what happened? It flew right into these draping ceiling curtains and got stuck. All the woman looking to catch it looked devastated. Eventually, they brought a ladder out and her groom climbed to the top step and used some wooden stick thing to get the bouquet down, which was promptly re-thrown. Of course T wanted to catch this more than anyone and was in cahoots with the bride so it was essentially thrown right at her and she clawed through everyone and got it. At 8 PM the reception was officially over and their was maybe 10 people. I’m sure 75% of the people at the reception this night wondered who the hell I was but frankly, I don’t care I had a good time. I have a few iPhone taken photos of this evening… I assure you, there isn’t too much exciting stuff in the album but if you wanna see how Mormon’s “do it up” by all means go here.

This weekend looks to be low-key for the most part. Although, I may be going to Chandra and Scott’s house tomorrow to see their new French Bulldog puppy, this thing is cute as hell. As long as he doesn’t pee on my leg or something anyway. I did get a few new movies to watch, G.I. Joe, Transformers 2, Star Trek, and I am in the midst of watching Mad Men season 1. This is an AMC TV show and so far it’s stellar. Dad if you are reading this, you would probably like it a lot.

Anyway, this chipper post is done, I hope it was good enough for you Billy and if it wasn’t then suck it!

Surgery Is Fun!

Ever since middle school I’ve had a small dime-sized cyst on my chest, barely noticable unless of course your grabbing my chest, then you could feel it under the skin. Last week I noticed this small cyst was not so small anymore, in fact, it was growing daily. So I talked to the doc and he told me it looked infected so he gave me some antibiotics. Saturday, it looked like there was a golf ball under the skin of my chest, lovely eh? The antibiotics were not working. Monday, the doc told me to come in the next day to get it removed. Tuesday, I went in and had this thing excised. I asked the doctor if it was going to ooze puss, he told me, “The goal is to not cut it, that almost never happens. If I do cut it, it won’t ooze puss, it’ll spray puss.” A lovely thought going into this little procedure. Anyway, after a few minutes he had this massive thing out of my chest (I’ll spare you the details on what it looked like because he showed me and I’ll say it was one of the nastiest things I’ve ever seen). Unfortunately, he then tells me that he can’t stitch me up. Since this thing was so large and infected if he stitches me it will turn into an abscess and get infected again. I now spend the first 30-40 minutes of my day changing the dressing on this thing. That involves shoving packing guaze (1/2 inch thick strips of gauze) soaked in a iodine-type liquid (he calls the stuff a “nuclear bomb for bacteria) into this cavity in my chest. I know, I know, you’re jealous. I then repeat this process in the evening. Hopefully in a few weeks enough healing happens inside the hole that I can get some stitches to start getting the overall wound healed up because I’m pretty sure this thing isn’t going to help me with the ladies. Wanna come back to my apartment and check out the quarter-sized open wound on my chest? HOT! If you want to see what it looks like I did put some pictures in the gallery, I’m warning you, it’s graphic, I mean it IS a hole in my chest.

I’ll Follow The Sun

Thank you Laura

The Beatles – “I’ll Follow The Sun”

One day you’ll look to see I’ve gone
For tomorrow may rain,
so I’ll follow the sun

Some day you’ll know I was the one
But tomorrow may rain,
so I’ll follow the sun

And now the time has come
and, my love, I must go
And though I lose a friend
In the end you will know, oh

One day you’ll find that I have gone
But tomorrow may rain,
so I’ll follow the sun
But tomorrow may rain,
so I’ll follow the sun

And now the time has come
and, my love, I must go
And though I lose a friend
In the end you will know, oh

One day you’ll find that I have gone
But tomorrow may rain,
so I’ll follow the sun

Camping, Aquarium, & Moochies

My birthday was last week on Wednesday. I’d like to thank everyone who called, texted, sent me a card, and wrote on my Facebook wall to wish me a happy birthday. I had a pretty bland day at work but afterwards Ray took me out to Ridizio Grill. It’s a Brazilian restaurant in which you get as much as you can eat salad bar. At the same time waiters walk around with big spits with meat on them, each waiter with a different kind of protein on the spit. At your table there is a hourglass-shaped wood piece where one side is green and the opposite red. If the green end is up they come to your table and ask you if you want whatever meat they happen to have. They had 12 meats that night, I can’t remember them all but I had some great elk and buffalo sausage along with some steaks and sweet and spicy chicken, oh yeah, and mahi mahi. After we ate more than our share we basically had to roll ourselves outta there!

The past two weekends I have been camping up near Heber in the Unita National Forest which I thoroughly enjoy, unfortunately I have missed every Saturday college football game thus far as well which blows. Two weeks ago I went up with Matt, Bobbi, and their friend Brooke and his son. It was Labor Day weekend and my work gives us Friday off as an observance day so I spent all day Friday and Saturday up there. It was a good time, the usual shenanigans were going on, drinking beer and eating good food. Bobbi made a really great taco salad on Saturday with a sauce mix that utilized French salad dressing, not what you would expect in a taco salad but it was very good.