While I Was Out...

Well, posting has been sparse recently, and there's a good reason for that: I've been on vacation.

My vacation started on August 19 when I went to a friend's wedding up in Oregon. I was there for the weekend, and it was a good time with lots of food, old friends, and, of course, the wedding. The ceremony was very simple yet elegant, and was followed by a massive reception (apparently the bride's family has a reputation of being very hungry, but not all of them were able to make it, so there ended up being a surplus of food). I helped some in the kitchen and with clean-up, but was mainly there to attend.

Non-ceremony highlights included creating a whirlpool and playing with slot cars. These happened after the wedding when it was just a bunch of guys hanging out. First we went to a small community pool and, wondering if we could actually make a whirlpool, all started running in a circle in the 4-ft. water. There were about 20 of us, and we were able to get a noticeable depression in the middle of the pool. At this point, we attempted to suddenly reverse direction, resulting in mass floundering and hilarity. We managed to repeat this three more times and were all very tired after doing so. Later that night, the father of the bride brought out an old slot car set, and Synk, Hopps, and I had far too much fun seeing just how crazy of a track we could make, with an ever-growing loop-the-loop and a vertical portion of track. Part of our excitement was dulled when we discovered that the cars were magnetic and would stay on the track just about no matter what, but it was still pretty cool.

Right after I got back from Oregon, I drove down to Texas to spend the week at my old dorm, 41, during the floor's "Expended Orientation" for the freshmen. A lot of people immediately think of this as some sort of hazing, but that implies that we're harming the freshmen or lording our seniority over them, when it really consists more of playing late-night games of Capture the Flag and traversing campus en masse to sing "500 Miles" to all the girls dorms. Rather than being some sort of price to join the floor, I found it was the most fun I had my freshman year. And it creates the kind of bond that has people like me using up my vacation days to visit the floor over a year after I graduated.

While the whole EO week was very fun, one thing that was very weird to me was that, except for two days when other alumni showed up, I was the oldest 41er present. There were even some guys who returned as alumni that I had seen come onto the floor as freshmen, making me feel kind of old. Aside from general aging, though, I think much of my disconcertion was caused by the fact that my older brother also stayed on 41. For a long time, I was "Fjord's younger brother," but now there isn't anyone left on the floor who has met Fjord, and I suddenly ended up in the position of being Grey, the eldest.

Weird.



At this point, some of the more astute of you may have realized from the dates given that my vacation ended over a week ago, yet I'm just now getting around to a post about it. This is because after I got back, I lost just about all motivation and my life became very much like this comic. Fortunately, with the long weekend, I'm starting to become bored with being bored, and my motivation cores are coming back online. This means that, with any luck, the Facebook-promised post detailing the construction and workings of my Archimedes Death Ray (oh, yes!) should be coming sometime this week.

Until then, have some steak. I know I will.