Thanksgiving: The Fowlest of Holidays

So Thanksgiving has once again come and gone. I never really do much traveling for the holidays because most of my family lives in a radius of about 100 miles of St. Louis. Wednesday night I went out to O'Fallon Illinois for a guys night. Everyone was back in town from school and some of us had not seen each other for quite awhile. I am rather new to this group of guys, having only known most of them since early this past summer, but it's great how I have been welcomed in so quickly and how I have become a semi-member of the crew. We spent the night playing Guitar Hero 2 and MVP Baseball 2006 (or was it 2005, I don't really remember). I steared clear of MVP because the last time I played I lost to Pat with a score of like 32-0. If you haven't tried Guitar Hero you should cause it is actually a lot of fun, and kinda challenging. For those of you who are in the dark, Guitar Hero is DDR with a guitar. You have to hit the notes when they pop up on the screen. We ordered pizza using coupons; for those of you who have ever tried to make multiple orders for pizza delivery using coupons know how challenging this can be. We had to have one of the pizza's delivered to our Youth pastors house to make sure we could use the coupon, and Lance almost didn't leave in time to get them. As the night went on we got a little rebellious. All I have to say is that fireworks and bare skin were involved (I promise no one was hurt). We stayed up pretty late and then got up and played football early the next morning for the church in the annual Turkey Bowl; the youth versus us college students and adults. We pretty much dominated the youth. I look forward to adding this to my Thanksgiving traditions right after the consumption of Turkey and pumpkin pie. Oh and for those of you think I abandoned my family, I didn't. I headed home after the football game and enjoyed a great meal with my family and some close family friends and stayed there all evening visiting with my family. I guess I should get started on my Christmas shopping now...

Habitat For Humanity

On Saturday, a group of us from school went downtown and helped with a Habitat for Humanity project. The house we helped with is part of a set of 20 houses that are set to be completed on December 16th. The homebuyers, Lamont and Wendy were there with their kids helping us the entire time. It was truly a blessing to see the look of excitement on their faces as they saw their home coming together. Granted, the house was mostly complete when we got their; our primary job was to add the baseboards and some touch up painting, but it was a joy to be there working along side them. We had a crazy group from Mobap which made the day that much more interesting. I got a chance to get to know some of the freshman that I haven't talked to much this year. Hopefully I will get another chance to help out with Habitat; it was definitely worthwhile.

Why Soar with Eagles When You Can Trot with Turkeys?

So Saturday was the city of O'Fallon Illinois' annual Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot is a three mile race fund raiser to raise money for the Special Olympics. I had went to bed the night before with every intention of running the next day with Pat, his brother Josh, and some friends of ours Lance and Bryan. However, I found out that Lance and Bryan had decided not to run because they had other things planned for that morning. I knew there was no chance of keeping up with Pat or Josh seeing as they both run fifty to ninety miles a week, and with Lance and Bryan out, I didn't want to run with a group of people that I didn't know, so in the end I backed out. I definitely regret that now, but it's in the past now and all I can do is start preparing for next year. Well, in the end, Pat wound up winning the race and Josh took 4th over all and 1st in his age group. The grand prize for the event was a 10 pound turkey which Pat still has to go pick up. I think his parents are going to use it for their Thanksgiving meal. Oh, and a piece of advice for anyone planning on watching a friend run; if you are going to watch a race, make sure you know the race path and where the finish line is. I missed Pat finishing because one of the race "officials gave me bad information. Oh well, Pat will get over in time.

After the Turkey Trot, we got ourselves involved in a pick-up game of football in a local neighborhood with some of Pat and Josh's friends from back home. Very little blood was shed, and all of it that was came from the same person so I think we did well overall. Pat accidentally a guy in the face with his shoe as he was going down causing some blood to flow from his nose. It soon stopped, however, and we were all back to roughing each other up. It was bitter cold but we played on anyway. I think our team lost, but not by much, and it was probably mostly due to my inexperience...sorry guys.

Perk Up!

So, the 11th anniversary of the Perk has come and gone and I would have to say that it is was quite a success. The talent really stepped up to the plate this year and delivered some great performances. I had the honor of emceeing with Pat so we spent most of the evening (and early morning) back stage, but we were able to hear everything and even watch the videos, though we had to view them as mirror reflections from backstage. Getting the opportunity to relive some of the past Perk videos was exciting. We had all of the best from the last few years or so: "MBU Promo" with Ben Settle swimming in his bath tub, "Bad to the Bone" starring Officer Todd ticketing everyone and everything in sight, "Security" starring Officer Walt stalking an unsuspecting student, and who could forget the "Wazzz Up!!" video starring our very own President Lacey with Pastor Fred and Mr. Killebrew. These videos really show off the professional sides of our fine faculty and staff, or something like that. I was slightly offended that none of the amazing duct tape videos from the Fall of 2004 Perk were showcased; I starred in a number of those and would have really liked to reminisce those memories from my Freshman year. Oh, well, there's always next year. Until then, I will have to brush up on my jokes so that I will have a little more material the next time I am given the opportunity to "host" an event.

Random Observation

So, I was merging onto southbound 270 tonight from hwy 40 after leaving school and I noticed that Modot had apparently taken the time to repaint the lines on the entrance ramp. I was quite excited to see that this had finally been done. I had noticed recently, from many trips on this stretch of highway, that the lines had been very confusing. Three lanes somehow became two right before merging onto 270, and I always thought it was kind of dangerous. Tonight, however, I noticed that the lanes had been repainted to make it very clear that there is only one lane coming from hwy 40 now. So, while I might be the only person in St. Louis that cares, I thought I would share this random observation with you all.