Thanksgiving: Family, Football, and Turkey

So, yesterday for Thanksgiving, my family went over to Orange County, NY to have Thanksgiving dinner with my uncle, aunt, and her side of their family. It was the first time I had seen them since the summer, so needless to say it was a long overdue trip. And, it really was a lot of fun!

Of course - my aunt's sister's husband happens to be a beer collector (and drinker) so the alcohol was abundant. And, of course, my family chose every single occasion to poke at the fact that I'm not 21 yet, which, yeah, after the first couple of times is funny...but it gets old fast.

What is cool, however, is how much my little cousins look up to me. I'm their proverbial "older figure who is in college and therefore knows everything." So, we sat in the hot tub (YES - there was a hot tub!) for a while chatting about everything from the nature of the solar system to global warming to an algebraic proof that 2=1. It was cool.

I was also taken aback by the fact that everyone is getting so damn old! And I don't mean the adults, I mean the kids. I distinctly remember visiting each one of my cousins at the hospital when they were born, and now one of them is thinking about career choices and possible colleges. In fact, during my graduate year, he will be doing the whole visiting colleges thing. WHAT?!?

Anyway, now that the random babbling is done: Happy Black Friday, everyone! For the first time peraps ever, I could possibly be out shopping on Black Friday. There's something wrong here.

Randomocity

This entry is going to be one of those "random thoughts floating around in my head that should be put to paper" posts, so stop reading if not interested.

1. Happy Thanksgiving, and to my fellow classmates and Royals, HAPPY BREAK!!!! We all deserve it, and we have all been through a lot of work, stress, and family situations lately that leave us exhausted.

2. I'm getting a little anxious about my Gifted Reading manuscript, mostly because I want it to be done with, but know it's not nearly of a publishable quality yet.

3. My final mathematics course ever wraps itself up next week. I need to change that. (and by that I mean find more room to take math courses in the future)

4. The University Christmas concert is soon upcoming, which makes me realize how far from ready I am for this semester to end... I mean, part of me still feels like we just got back from summer break a short time ago.

5. At the same time, the University Christmas concert is soon upcoming, so I better get done with my work soon, because dress rehearsals will consume my life.

6. Speaking of work, I have a lot of it: Calculus, Differential Equations, Reading paper revisions, an E-Portfolio, and a 5-page paper on ADHD Classroom Interventions, to be exact.

7. I certainly hope my newest attempt to court a flautist doesn't blow up in my face nearly as hard as the last one did.

8. I wonder why that Calculus girl has been so oblivious?

9. Oh wait... I know why... it's me. That's why.

10. The Byzantine Divine Liturgy is cool.

Enjoy, and again: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Cartoons and Kids

As a special event in my Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities class today, my professor brought in three students with special needs, and I had rather kickass moments involving both children.

First was a fourteen year old kid with what at first glance seemed to be Down's Syndrome. He had a really hard time stringing words together to make a thought, but was talking about recent movies he had seen on television. I'll save the details, but we became fast friends by discussing rather in-depth plot details of the Nickelodeon show iCarly.

Next was a four year old child with Autism who, as most of those children do, scripts movies. Scripting is when you can recite, at will, lines and scenes from movies or television shows. He was going on and on about a mouse getting stuck inside of a saxophone and nobody could figure out what that was from. Then, it hit me. Thank God I have had my seven year old sister to watch kids shows with, because from doing stuff with her I realized that he was scripting the Wonder Pets. Needless to say, it resulted in fantastic looks of amazement from the child, and odd looks of "how do you know that exactly?" from the class. FANTASTIC!