I arrived in Tulsa on the 21st after a lovely delay in Chicago as the cropduster I took needed maintenance (probably put a new rubber band on the props). Upon arrival, my first question was "Where the hell is Winter?" It was like 65 degrees and sunny. More like early fall than winter. I was greeted by my mother and nieces and we stopped to eat followed by the lovely 2.5 hour drive home. Upon arrival at my dad's house (the folks are separate now) I could only shake my head as I looked at the mess the house had become. My dad lives in a form of squalor (sp.?) that would make a homeless man living in an alley say "Dude, you're nasty." At least the room I was sleeping in was realtively untouched. Needless to say, I spent the next day cleaning the house up and getting groceries and such put together for Christmas dinner. The next couple of days were sort of a blur of just spending time with my dad and trying to visit my mom as well. My little sister had also arrived on Tuesday with my nephew and we spent some time together as I bonded with my nephew and played with my sister's dog.
Christmas Day was fairly uneventful. I cooked turkey and the usual sides. My mom brought a ham and dressing. My sisters, brother-in-laws, mom, dad, nieces and nephew, and grandmother all attended and we had the usual family dinner. Half of the family watched TV and ate while the rest of us sat at the table and chatted. It was good to be together with everyone, but at the same time it was depressing to see my grandmother. She currently resides in a nursing home and and is fully in the grip of Alzheimers. Of all my grandparents, she was the strongest. But I guess time finds a way to break even the strongest person down.
Shortly after Christmas I ventured to Durant to my little sister's place to spend time with her and bond more with my nephew. I had a nice relaxing time there. Even with helping out on baby duty it seemed more relaxing than the time with my parents. That kid is the coolest. I got to see my friend Stacy again and we took my sister out for a nice dinner while leaving her husband on baby patrol for the night. My sister let me take her truck and cell phone for the next leg of my trip.
Then it was off to the OKC to stay with my girl Dawn and bring in the New Year. She has an awesome new house, but unfortunately it also happened to be full. So I had to sleep on a matress on the floor of the den, but that was no big deal. Dawn also had to work both days before we left for Dallas so I just wandered my old stomping grounds, finished the new Halo book and started reading Battletech again, and chilling out. The first night I was there however we did go out to the best chinese restaurant in OKC and ate a lot of of food (plus I drank alot). All of this was courtesy of a little Laotian dude we call Sugar Daddy. You see, Dawn's cousin is a famous singer back in Laos and has had some sucess in the states in the 90's (she at one time even dated Eddie Griffin...that's brisk, baby). She was also staying at Dawn's and would be performing at the New Year's party we were going to in Dallas. Sugar Daddy was trying to get with her so he threw some money around by treating us all to dinner. Dawn and I worked it as I ordered alot of margaritas and ate roast duck and numerous other dishes. One thing I need to mention about Dawn's family is her older brother. He's a really cool guy with an even cooler ride: a 1998 BMW M3. It's slightly lowered with nice rims, front and rear spoilers, and nice brakes. I didn't get a chance to fully check out the car, but I will next time I go back there. Dawn's cousin is also very cool and has many of the eccentricities that come with being an artist. She talked to me a bit about her time on the east coast and her music as well as her family. She's definitely a free spirit that always seemed to have a glass of wine in her hand.
So for New Year's Eve Dawn, her ex-husband, and a group of their friends as well as me loaded up that morning and headed to Dallas for the BLiP (Big Laotian Party). We checked into our hotel and I had a room with a king size bed all to myself because...well...I am the MechKing. Around 3 we headed out to eat and then stopped of at the nearby liquor store to pick up supplies for that night. We weren't going to the party until around 9 so we had some time to nap and I went ahead and started boozing a bit while chilling in my king-size bed. The BLiP was not exactly what we expected. The host was a lawyer and apparently invited alot of his clients and families and such. It was a pretty older crowd with very few young ladies in attendance. A couple of the guys in our group were pretty bored with the whole thing and just sat around and drank. I just kicked back and enjoyed Dawn's cousin as she sang and had everyone up and dancing. At one point she came out into the audience and grabbed me and danced with me. I think Dawn put her up to it. She also sang some of the music Naho likes to sing and that got me to thinking about her and a got me a little depressed. After the show we eventually ended up at the hotel where I finally drank myself to sleepiness around 4 and then crashed in my big bed. Thank God checkout was at 1 p.m.
New Year's Day we packed up and stopped for some Pho on the way out. I suprised everyone there when they learned I had eaten Pho before. In fact Dawn was suprised I was able to eat alot of the things she prepared as well as my adept use of chopsticks (Naho was also suprised at how well I can use chopsticks). What Dawn didn't realize about me is that two of my friends are Vietnamese, two are Korean, one Mad Mongolian, a Japanese ex-girlfriend/best friend, a giant scary black man, and one of my friend's girlfriend is Chinese. I also spent a week in Japan eating authentic Japanese food...including Mr. Donut. I've got most asian cuisine covered. Also when it comes to food I can eat almost anything. The only thing I can't really do these days is the super-hot stuff. I have acid reflux problems so that stuff would literally hurt me.
So the day after Jan. 1 I headed back to my sister's to return her truck and phone then my mom came and picked me up Sunday to take me back to Tulsa and my reurn flight. Here's a little holiday traveling tip: during the holiday season, avoid any flight that connects to or goes through Chicago. I guarantee that at least one day during that time they will have enough snow to knock out some flights...like mine. When I got the airport I stood in line for 30 min. to then find out my flight was cancelled. United then shuffled me over to American to an earlier flight that goes to DC through Dallas. Problem was I had to go wait in their line to check in again. So with 30 min. before my flight leaves I get checked in. Now...time for security. Since I'm going to DC I get the old Orange card (Level Orange) and they sit me down and go through my bags. Needless to say I got to my gate about 5 min. before take-off. Once in Dallas I had to do a one mile hike to get from where I arrived to my connecting flight (different concourses). And after the jog I arrive to learn the flight is now undergoing maintenance (that's twice in one vacation for me...kinda creepy). I finally arrived in DC on Sunday around 2:15 only to find out there's no winter here as well...65 and sunny (I even rolled down the windows on my car as I drove home). Of course winter is back now and things are slowly returning to normal. I'm back in the salt mines working for an employer that hates me as much as I hate them, I need to do some work on my ride before the old state inspection and tagging process this month, and I need to find a new damn job. On my list of New Year's resolutions:
Lose some freaking weight...again!
Find a new job
Flip off a box of kittens
Visit Seattle (probably move there if I can get a job there)
Continue writing my Steel Battalion short story
Read more books (preferably Battletech)
Play less games (ties in to saving $$$)
Have more "old school" S&A gatherings
Learn some Japanese - this ties into my biggest goal of:
Spend the 2004 holiday season in Japan
Well, that's about it. Also forgot to mention that Kricket finally got high-speed internet and Xbox Live. He tought I was all rusty with Project Gotham 2. Silly rabbit. I then proceeded to convince everyone we played with to hit him at least once...which they did. If you want a piece of us, you can usually find me playing either Mechassault or Project Gotham 2. My Gamertag is Darkspikedpunch (duh). Kricket's gamertag is TOTFC. Put us on your friends list and send us an invite. Later.