No rest for the Weary

greetings and salutations! i hope that life finds you well. as you can tell from the date of my last blog, i've had all the time in the world to write and write and write. that little thing known as dental school has occupied some of my time. it's going well though, thanks for asking! i've met lots of cooL and hiLarious peopLe. but anyways, this blog won't be about the vicious cycle known as dental school, so let's move on, shall we?

so, Christmas just passed (belated Merry Christmas to you and yours) and what's Christmas without a little gift-giving? this year was a little different however since we all went shopping as a family and bought everyone's gifts for each other in front of the respective recipient. that's right, there were no hidden doors or smoke and mirrors at this Christmas. what you saw is what you got... literally. and what you got was in fact, what you got a couple days later when we formally had to open presents on Christmas day. let's recap the day of december 23, 2010:

7:07 AM: i get awakened by the bright light of my ceiling fan. my dad turns it on as he tells me that my brother is on his way to the house. after going to bed probably 6 hours earlier, i willfully shut my eyes again in hopes that they could somehow filter out the brightness. i was wrong.

7:15 AM: i hit the shower. lights are all off and i'm depending on the light coming in through the window. at this time of the day, i'm not sure if it's because of the moon or the sun. i'm still in sort of a sleepy daze when i realized i was using the body wash as shampoo and the shampoo as body wash. today will be a great day.

7:26 AM: darryll has arrived and we are eating breakfast. my dad made ham/egg/cheese mcmuffins. i reach into my pocket and find a lactose pill. this day is definitely looking up.

7:45 AM: we leave for the san marcos shopping outlet. i tell myself that i will be a good navigator and help darryll get there. my eyes and body do not follow my instructions and i end up falling asleep.

9:23 AM: i wake up and put my headphones on to start my day off right... with some music. i figure that the past two hours have just been some sort of dream and that NOW my day has actually started... in the passenger seat of my own car... in the middle of nowhere.

10:50 AM: we arrive at the outlet and the first store we go to is the Nike store. apparently, i need new shoes as everyone is telling me. i look at my reliable, gray Nikes and realize one of my toes has a little sunroof because of a hole in the shoe. i blink hard and realize i'm just seeing things. maybe i DO need new shoes.

11:00 AM: nothing. no shoe in there caught my eye. disappointed? sure, but i think my gray Nikes were a little happy. they get to live another day.

11:10-12:40 PM: we go to the armani outlet followed by the polo outlet stores. i think my wallet started to cry when we walked into the armani store. i looked at my credit card and it started to laugh at me. now when we went into the polo store, i felt right at home. it's as if i was goldilocks and picked the right porridge, chair, and bed all on the first try. it just felt right being in there.

12:50 PM: lunch time. i get the stereotypical chinese food... fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, and mixed vegetables. i wash it all down with some sprite. who obeys his thirst? this guy does.

1:07-6:00 PM: go to a wide range of stores. apparently, one of the store owners said that if you were to spend just 5 minutes in all of the stores at the outlet, you would be here for 3 days. i try to do the math in my head and realize that that's a ridiculous amount of stores. i end up getting some sunglasses for my brother... in the middle of winter. i realize that i may not have the best timing. i counteract this by telling myself i will buy him a scarf at the beginning of summer.

6:46 PM-1:14 AM: we leave san marcos and decide to drive to lauberge to do some gambling (hopefully to get some money back from what we had just spent on Christmas gifts). naturally, we take about 2 or 3 wrong turns and end up in San Antonio. so, what was supposed to be about a 4 drive turns into a 6 hour drive. nevertheless, my parents are excited to go to lauberge. i wonder if i'm the only tired one in the group. i wrestle with this thought as i take another nap. i figure that i would probably be the worst 18-wheeler driver in the history of 18-wheelers.

1:21 AM-4:44 AM: flashing lights, the sound of slot machines, and the smell of smoke surround me. a second wind surges within me and the blood gets pumping. my brother and i spend the first hour or so helping my parents try to understand the slot machines and that penny slots are in fact 50 cent or dollar slots depending on how much you want to gamble. i was getting tired again and realized i needed a pick-me-up. in the words of forrest gump, "i must've drank me fifteen dr. peppers." my bladder would not be so happy with me later.

4:49 AM-7:00 AM: i am awake throughout the entire ride home. i was able to catch the sun rising on the ride home and wonder why vampires are so afraid of such an awesome sight of nature. their loss is my gain.

7:07 AM: i finally get back into my bed and realized i hadn't been in it for an entire day. i try to reflect on the entire day when once again, my eyes shut and i fall asleep. i fell AUHSLEEP after staying up for 18 hours, DAY and NIGHT! for you tv-challenged people, that was an allusion to a friends episode.

so there you go. a day in the life with my family. ridiculous, right? i have to say so myself, but all in all, i love them and thank them for all that they've given me: laughter and love.

thanks for reading.

-jdv