Owl Days

Tuesday after school I went to Rice for Owl Days, an event at Rice for students who have been accepted. I got there around 8 p.m., went to see a one-act, then hung out in the Jones 3rd-south lobby till about 1 a.m. which was fun.

Wednesday I checked in to Owl Days then followed Alex to his Thermodynamics class. The professor was cool, but I understood almost nothing he talked about. As I followed him and his friends to their Mechanical Engineering class, I mentioned that I'd kinda like to go to a class that I might understand. They then started saying that I should go to Gao's class because he's awesome. As they started explaining how to get there, someone pointed at a middle-aged Asian man carrying a box and said, "That's Gao, just follow him." which I did against my better judgment. I understood absolutely nothing he said because it was multivariable calculus. I guess that showed me not to trust Alex. Ever.

After lunch I went and heard about their engineering program and got a tour of all the engineering buidings. Then I did an official campus tour and heard about Study Abroad and Pre-Professional programs.

Then I went to Martel, ate dinner, and hung out with my host, Max, who was also the campus tour guide I was with. Then I went to see the Philharmonics(Phils for short) who are a really awesome a capella group. They did arrangements of all sorts of songs, including Aretha Franklin. At the end, they said they were going to do "Africa" by Toto as their big finale, and then proceeded to Rick-Roll us. It was awesome! Then, they actually sang "Africa."

After the Phils, I went to see Spontaneous Combustion (SpoCo), an improv comedy group. They basically do the same things as on "Whose Line is it Anyway," and they were hilarious. At 11 p.m. I went down to the Martel quad and played dodgeball until midnight. Then I went back to Max's room, played Halo 3 and watched Dr. Who, and went to sleep.

Thursday morning I went with Max's roommate Chris to a philosophy class, which was pretty interesting(and I actually understood what the prof was saying!). Then it was back to the room for more Halo 3. Then, I packed my stuff, took the metro rail to the Greyhound station, and took a bus home.

December Happenings

I am now unemployed because Ninja Pirate went out of business. I'm kinda indifferent about it. The money was nice but I'll be enjoying the return of my Friday and Saturday nights. I definitely won't miss my boss.

When I applied to Rice, the application said I would be notified on Monday, December 15th about whether I was accepted. Naturally, I was anxiously counting down to that day. On the 14th, happened to check my email, which I don't do most Sundays before mass, and was surprised to discover an email from Rice. I had to read the first sentence 3 or 4 times before I was sure that it really said that I was accepted. Woohoo!!! :D

The following Saturday we loaded the car and started the drive to Cincinnati, Ohio to spend Christmas with my dad's family. The ride wasn't too bad since we had over 20 hours of Harry Potter 6 on CD's to listen to. I was amused when I saw a billboard in Arkansas that said "Hell is REAL!" right across the highway from an "Adult Superstore." When we arrived at my uncle's house on Sunday at about 7 in the evening, it was 9 degrees outside with a wind chill down to -11! We unpacked and got inside as quickly as possible. I probably played about 1000 points worth of ping pong games in the basement throughout the week. For Christmas, I got a laptop, a few DVD's, a Rice hoodie, a Stevie Wonder CD(which I am currently listening to) and a few other random things. Definitely more than I get on an average Christmas. Victoria got a Wii, which I will get to play a lot.

All in all, not a bad Christmas season. :)


Every so often, I'm hit by the realization that I'll be graduating in just a few months. College no longer seems like that distant dream that it used to be. Especially now that I know where I'll be going, it's so real and so close. I'm unbelievably excited, especially about joining the MOB, but honestly, I'm kinda scared. I've been in the same house for almost 15 years and at the same school for 8 1/2. It's just going to be so completely different. It'll be really hard to say goodbye to so many good friends. And, frankly, I'm kinda scared about the classes; I won't just be able to just coast through them anymore. It will be strange, and hopefully humbling, to be constantly surrounded by people who are smarter than me.

The most epic week ever (Part 2)

On Tuesday, I went to first period, then left to finally get my hand checked out. I got some pretty interesting X-rays(go look at my Facebook pictures if you want to see). It turns out that I had actually gone 6 days with somewhat severely broken hand. Though I was at my normal doctor's office, I met with his new Physician's Assistant, Dr. Dean Harvey. When I mentioned that I had waited so long because I was staffing a youth group retreat, the ensuing conversation went something like this:

"Oh, was that the one out at Camp Travis"?
"Yeah."
"Do you know John Hill"? (He's an adult leader in my youth group.)
"Yeah, why"?
"He's my brother-in-law! Our wives are sisters."
"Seriously?!?! That's crazy!"

To add to the coincidence, he looks a lot like my uncle, who is also a doctor, so I had "It's a Small World" stuck in my head for the rest of the day. After some more talk about that, and him calling me "tough" about 15 times in 10 minutes, I was sent to Texas Orthopedics, where I got a splint put on my hand(again, see my Facebook for pictures). The doctors were really surprised that I didn't want stronger pain medicine than the normal Ibuprofen I'd been taking. I'm not sure why, but my hand just doesn't hurt very much. (I saw Dr. Harvey again at Mass on Sunday, where he expressed amazement at the fact that I had been lifting cinderblocks on the retreat (I guess he had talked to John Hill about it). He called me tough a few more times.)

On Wednesday, I woke up after everyone else in my family, packed my bags, and loaded them into the car to leave for Houston. About an hour-and-a-half later, Victoria finished packing and we left. :P

I got there, met up with Alex, and went to the MOB practice next to Minute Maid stadium. Since my hand is broken and I couldn't play baritone, I played kazoo (along with 4 other people). We practiced the routine a few times and went back to Alex's dorm. Then we went to someone else's room (I'm not sure whose) and watched an episode of Your Mom(How I Met Your Mother) and an episode of House, which was fun. Then we went back to Alex's dorm to go to sleep early because we had to be downtown for the parade at 7.

The MOB did the official opening of the parade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63BQVS4e0QQ

The rest of the parade went well, except for the fact that some genius had decided to put horses at the front of the parade, so even though we were 4th or 5th, we were smelling, and occasionally walking in, horse crap the whole way. We basically alternated between Louie Louie and drum cadences. Chuck Throckmorton (the MOB's director) told us to make sure not to walk in-step. The MOB does NOT march! Skipping and jumping through the parade are perfectly fine though, as long as they're not in-time. After the parade, we had lunch at a pretty good Mexican restaurant with Alex's friend Reagan and his parents. The TVs were set to a soccer game on a Spanish channel, so 2 or 3 times during the meal, we heard the announcer yell, "GOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!"
which made me laugh. Later, we drove to our cousins' house for a great Thanksgiving dinner, which was preceded by Home Alone I and followed by The Incredibles. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving dinner away from home meant no leftovers for us.

Friday was uneventful except for lunch at a burger place called Prince's and dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. At about midnight, I got to taste some of Reagan's legendary homemade salsa with habanero peppers. It was fully deserving of such legends, though a little too spicy for me even though he said it was milder than usual. :P

Saturday began with a MOB rehearsal, which I was a Show Assistant for. Then we went to Mission Burrito for lunch. Mission Burrito is like Freebirds and Chipotle but better, especially because of the Saturday $5 burrito-and-drink special. Then came the Rice vs. UH game, which we dominated 56-42. Playing with the MOB was great even though I was only playing kazoo. I didn't really know what the whole halftime show was about because I was too busy paying attention to my job. When the MOB formed into 10 circles in bowling pin formation, three other MOBsters and I pushed a 7-8 foot tall beach ball through them, and they stopped playing and fell over when they were hit. It was pretty awesome. Then I had to say godbye to Rice and go home. *sniff* :'(


As closing thought, I'm kinda disappointed in this program's spell-check. It doesn't know how to spell "retreatants", "Throckmorton", "habanero", "Freebirds", or "Chipotle". It also doesn't recognize the word "goal" when spelled with a Spanish soccer announcer accent. It does, however, accept "kinda" as a real word.