Letter to Dr. Clendinning | 12/24/03
In my family, Christmas Eve Day is the day we go to my Grandparents' farm house in Coal City and act like brats for a full day. The day was more quiet than it usually has been in the past for a couple reasons. First, there were no fights. Secondly, Chompy was the only dog there. My parents dog, Ginger, died a little after Christmas last year and my cousin Julie's dog, Barney, stinks too bad (due to chronic ear infections allegedly) to bring anymore. All the families were there as well as my cousin Julie's new husband, Kevin and Julie's brother's (Ryan's) girlfriend, Ellen. I really like my cousin Ryan and I know he and Ellen have been together a long time, but she is way too good for him. They're both freakin' weird, though. They're both into that fantasy type stuff (like Jamie, Chris and Marty) and Ryan made some sort of fantasy-themed character. I wish I could remember what he titled it , but I can't. Something freakin' weird. He did a nice job with the photography, though, and I guess I could look for it and give the link, so you could see how freakin' weird it is for yourself...Well, Chompy is asleep on the top stair so I'm not going to wake her up to go find it. It's got pictures of his friends dressed up as elves and giants and other weird things. I respect the amount of work and time he put into it; it's really done professionally, but I don't know of anyone that will pay $12 for a calendar (regardless of how glossy the paper) of people dressed up as things that weird. Maybe if they were, like, nude elves or something. Well, whatever. If I didn't know any better, I would have said Ellen was making eyes at me. Steve and I both had a good laugh at that. Not that we're shallow, but..well, you know. We went to mass tonight at around 5:30 and they let us out after only 40 minutes. Chris tmas score! Afterwards, we went back and opened our presents. All of my presents were somehow related to the kitchen. A new blender...a cookbook....some new utensils....a very, very nice new knife set....a huge pan to fry more than two strips of bacon...things of that nature. The gifts were very thoughtful but I hope this kitchen stuff does not continue for the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting new things and I like to cook but if next Christmas is like this Christmas, I'm going to have about forty sets of measuring cups. Oh well, it's better than coal. Steve got a TON of DVD's. I can't help but wonder if someone was sellilng them en masse out of a trunk somewhere. Tomorrow, my immediate family will exchange gifts, which is my favorite part because I actually have purchased gifts for all of them. Later in the day, my dad's side of the family come over and we all eat ham and other delicious treats prepared by my mom. The only part of the day I don't like is that Chompy has to stay in her crate the whole time in the laundry room. The last time we were there she killed a bird by jumping up and grabbing it mid-air. That's my Chompy. I can't wait for school to start and have things to do so that I only write a couple lines. I feel like I'm writing sections of my thesis. Hmm...little sections of my thesis....
Dr. Clendinning,
I was thinking instead of doing that translation for my thesis, you could just read my journal. Dr. Mathes said it was fine if it was okay with you. So, just let me know.
Your friend and student with the best hair,
Mike C.
Finally, I don't know if Chris, Jamie and Marty like fantasy but I rationalize is by picturing them all playing Dungeons and Dragons and wearing, like, vampire capes and stuff and arguing over which Misfit's song is the best. Oh and I picture them all with those weird Elfin ears like in LoTR. Man, they've got some big ears.
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