Welcome Home

Being back in Minnesota was a nice change of pace, but I'm really glad to be back. Well, except for the fact that I'm all alone.

I arrived back in Minnesota on Tuesday night, right on schedule. I made my way through the airport, debated picking up Caribou in the airport, decided against it, went to the car. From there, I greeted Akshatha and my father, and then got Caribou in Apple Valley. We dropped Akshatha at her house briefly so I could get all my stuff out of the car and settle in at home a bit, then made our way to Perkins for a get-together with a few friends. In total, there were eight of us and, well, I tried. I tried to help everyone get along. I tried to make it a fun night for all involved. Inevitably, though, there was some awkwardness, because the people there represented four different groups I hang out with.

After dinner, April drove me home and we hung out in the driveway for a while, just chatting. I filled her in on the goings-on at OU, the experiences I've had, the friends I've made, the groups I've joined. She filled me in on everything that she is still up to. It was really nice; we connected just like the old days. We had kind of stopped hanging out in the later years of high school, mostly because she went to SES and simply wasn't around as much. Still, we seemed to pick up almost exactly where we left off.

Wednesday I visited the high school with Akshatha. We got to see a lot of our old teachers, although I can think of at least two that we missed, and that made me quite sad. After that, I had a dentist appointment, was warned to floss more (and I have since then, but we'll see how long it lasts).

Thursday we cooked food and ate food and enjoyed food and each other's company as a family: my mother and father, my sister and her husband, and me. Things went mostly smoothly, I think. Around 6 p.m. I fell asleep for about an hour on the loveseat. When I woke up, I decided to just go to bed--Big shopping plans for the morning. Unfortunately, I was unable to get myself back to sleep. I finished the book I was reading (very good), took a shower, and dinked around on the computer until about 2 a.m. By 3:40 I was up, dressed, in the car, and in the Kohl's parking lot, gawking at the length of the line. It was my first Black Friday shopping experience (and you never forget your first time).

We made it out of Kohl's by 5:30. At least half the time spent in that store was spent standing in line to check out. After that, Akshatha and I went to the Mall of America. It was shockingly slow there at that hour. I suppose there were a ton of people, but we were all so spread out that it didn't seem very busy at all. I took a bunch of pictures and acted like a tourist so that all my friends back in Oklahoma would get to see what the mall is like. I hope they are pleased. I also hope everyone is pleased by their amazing Christmas presents! I'm almost halfway done with that part of shopping now, and I have probably increased my own wardrobe by 50%. Not that that takes much, given how small my wardrobe is. Furthermore, I know Akshatha is pleased, because I introduced her to her new favorite store, Charlotte Russe. We both picked up applications in hopes of working there this summer or winter or something. After a full day of exhausting, painful shopping, we left the mall at about 2:00.

Saturday was a family gathering. There was a lot of prep involved, but we got it done, and that's all that really matters. I also got my Raspberry Mountain Dew from Kwik Trip, so it can't have been a total failure of a day.

At 1 on Sunday morning, I got together with Nyssa and David. Nyssa transferred me a bunch of music as well as D&D books, which makes me very happy. What does not make me happy is the fact that NONE of the Kate Nash music worked... :( It may not be a complete dead end. Perhaps it just needs to be converted or something. Then we went to Denny's, laughed a bunch, ran to Walmart and picked up a $6 swimsuit with the intentions of hitting the hot tub. That plan fell apart when Nyssa and I realized that we were dead tired and it was 4 a.m.

10 a.m. brunch with the direct family plus my aunt and uncle. 1 p.m. departure from the MSP airport to OKC. The plane coming back was nicer than the first one, and I got a window seat. Yay. A friend gave me a ride back to campus, because he was driving back from his house after break and the airport was basically on the way. It turns out that he and I are closer friends than I would have originally thought, and that's nice. I spent the rest of this evening napping instead of going to the concert I was supposed to go to. This leaves me a two options: 1. see if Shannon or Eddie or Thom has an extra program around from Eddie's concert and look the songs up on YouTube, or 2. Go to the concert tomorrow night at 8 p.m., which would mean biking straight from General Council to Catlett in quite a hurry and missing the RSA meeting. I don't know. The meeting might be important, since there's an event Tuesday night and we still need to make/hang publicity.

One last fun tidbit about the weekend: one friend specifically mentioned to me that she liked how "passionate" I am about everything, while another informed me that someone had referred to me as a "sheep," just a follower of the crowd. I don't particularly agree with either, though there may be truths to both, but I find the contrast very interesting. We see people how we want to see them.