On my Activities During These Past Few Weeks

At this point, at least a minimal update as to what I've been doing over the last two weeks is probably in order. I arrived back in TX three days after Christmas with two fifty-pound bags, a violin, an overstuffed carry-on, and a computer bag that should have had a couple more books stuffed in it except for the fact that arriving at the airport on time seemed a tad more important. The flights were packed but uneventful, though I stick by my claim and still refuse to take a plane anywhere that isn't overseas, or at least less safely drivable than the USA and Canada. May I be forevermore spared the experience of camping out at the beginning of an airport boarding line to ensure halfway decent seating - the floors may be carpeted, but they aren't comfortable.

I met up with some of my family and my other family back in TX (translation: aside from my adopted family in Austin, my brother and his girlfriend flew down to visit me - and it was ever so much fun meeting up with people in MI on the 27th, telling them about my 5am drive to take said brother and girlfriend to the airport, and then explain that they were currently visiting me in TX.. my own flight was on the 28th.) and began a week of general busy-ness. Having my own guests I missed out on a portion of the parties, but still made it to a couple, and also made it to San Antonio, a state park, and an impossibly hard to find laser tag establishment (reviews to follow). Of special note, our dance on New Years Eve went very well in spite of my own (miniscule) involvement (and the rest of the band was brilliant as usual - a very few pictures are available over at Matthew's blog (haha, my turn to steal!), and a few more with me actually in them might be given up for public viewing once I have copies from the girlfriend's camera). My brother and his girlfriend claimed to have an entertaining and enjoyable time in Texas, and with luck will be back to visit again before too much time has passed.

My time in MI before coming back home (you know, when I was at home) also went fairly well, with multiple - but less energetic - parties, a number of old friends to schedule time to see in the little bit of free time I had (but I succeeded in seeing everyone for at least a little while, even if some of that time was last minute on the day before I left - some things are more important than sleep), two trees to decorate, and the strange endevour of fitting time for presents at my mom's house, my dad's house, and a Christmas dinner into less than a full day for the first time ever but definitely not the last.

Among the number of books and science fiction movies, assortments of candies, necessary clothes and the like, I think one of my favorite gifts was a blanket from ThinkGeek, proving that, despite all odds, my family does sometimes know when to take me seriously... It's black and green, with the word "blanket" repeating across it. In binary. I've also got a least favorite, thanks to my former favorite state of MI, who refused to give me snow for my return and has sumarily been dropped from my list. (I don't think I can be called officially Texan yet, after barely five months.. even if I did have a particularly incriminating conversation with my brother about a possible Texas revolution during the week after Christmas in which we decided everyone from other states would probably be shot down as the enemy and I, without any thought whatsoever, announced that I at least was from Texas and would be safe.)

One of the more interesting experiences would probably be my taking my grandmother to her first Christmas Eve Mass as the extremely charismatic Christ the King in Ann Arbor, where I am still officially registered and really ought to fix that soon. The Mass itself actually provided very little (not none, but little) for me to object to, included quite a bit in Latin, and was overall very beautiful. That wasn't the interesting part. The interesting part was spending a half hour afterwards explaining to my grandmother which parts were real charismatic worship and which parts were simply strange, including about ten minutes alone on whether applause was ever acceptable during Mass as, being a charismatic church, I can think of three or four seperate reasons for clapping during the evening and there were mutliple demonstrations of most of them. It's clear I've been out of the charismatic circles for a while - I had trouble putting an explanation for most of the worship into words, though I know I've heard it discussed many times before.

Hopefully this is sufficient to prove that I did not drop off the face of the earth for the last couple weeks (I'd like to do that sometime, preferably in the direction of Mars, but probably not over Christmas); pictures and so on to follow later, if and as available.