A timeline of Nick Bryant's very boring Thanksgiving Break for Karl Gude's Jrn 203 class at MSU.
Created by Nick_the_journalist on Dec 8, 2010
Last updated: 12/11/10 at 06:13 PM
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Around 4 I embarked on the 97 mile journey back to East Lansing, thus ending my Thanksgiving Break.
Okay. It's 10 in the morning. I'm heading back to East Lansing around 4. I still have to pack and finish any homework I still have. What do I do? Play Resident Evil until 2 in the afternoon, then start packing.
After pumping iron and working up a sweat and finally feeling like I accomplished something... I decided to go back to playing Resident Evil 5. I beat it, and started again. didn't stop until about 4 Sunday morning.
I told myself I was going to work out every day during break. You can see just how well that went. My brother, Jacob, will be starting his freshman year of high school in the fall, and wants to try out for the football team. He wants me to train him for that. So I decided to start on Saturday. Before we do, my friend Kameron, who may as well be my brother, calls me up to see if I want to work out. So the three of us met in my basement for two hours of treadmill, free weights, and ab exercises. While the equipment was a lot worse than Kam and I were used to, it was a great experience. It had been a few months since I had worked out with anyone, and training someone else is a reward in itself.
Yup. I did my shopping the day after Black Friday. Mostly because I wasn't looking for anything big and elaborate, so the lines weren't worth dealing with. I was looking for the simple dorm room supplies. Paper towel, chips, water bottles. The basics.
After feeling completely lame for playing video games all day I decided to call up some people to hang out for a bit. The first (and only) person to respond was my old friend Lisa. We did what we do best, eat pizza, drink slurpees, and watch T.V.. 4 hours of NCIS.
My 7.5 hour gaming spree left me a wee bit exhausted, resulting in me waking up just after noon. I didn't object to that in the least. I'd rather sleep in then get trampled or shot in 3 hour lines in the mall. So I got up, microwaved myself some mashed potatoes and turkey, and went back to Resident Evil 5.
That entire day consisted of me playing Resident Evil and burning CD's to my computer. Occasionally I would help unload the Black Friday treasures from my parents vehicles, and they'd go right back out, and I'd go right back to Resident Evil 5.
In my dorm room I have a television and a Xbox 360, but both of them are my roommates, and I rarely touch them. I'm not a huge fan of his games. Back home, however, I have enough games to last me months. And it just so happened my brother had bought Resident Evil 5 (a relatively older game) a few weeks before. After waking from my turkey-induced coma I decided I'd start on that. This was just about 9 at night. The next time I checked my phone it was 4:30 in the morning. Night well spent. If you haven't played it, it's not bad, the trailer doesn't do it justice.
Thanksgiving seems to flow the same way every year. My mum freaks out and we clean the house for an entire 36 hours before people are expected to arrive. Relatives show up one by one and bring some sort of dish to add to the feast. And the little cousins decide it's fun to make a mess and try to knock me down. So I spend most family holidays playing babysitter for 7+ younger cousins. That's always fun. I left that day with a couple bruises, cuts all up and down my arms and my right cheek, and a sore back from hours of piggyback rides. It was good to see the family. The turkey-induced coma that followed the family gathering wasn't bad either.
I swear, sometimes I do the most interesting things while I'm home. Cleaning before the relatives arrive. Cleaning while the relatives are there. Cleaning up after the relatives. At least I got to steal some of the cookies before relatives arrived.
If you went to get technical, there were 21 people and 3 dogs. Broken down further into: Myself My 3 siblings My parents My Dad's dad My mom's parents 2 aunts 2 uncles 7 little cousins A great uncle My great uncle's 3 dogs. There was football watching, card playing, and face stuffing, as could be expected.
While hanging out with Mr. Clean and Windex was fun and all, I felt the need to see some living friends of mine, so I went out to hang with my friend Andy. There's something you should know about Andy. He's a gamer. A big gamer. Like a "I'm content with living in my parents basement and playing games for the rest of my life" gamer. So, guess what we did for 5 hours? Now I have no problem with video games. I was a big gamer myself once. But I haven't watched TV all semester. Much less spent hours focused on little moving characters on the screen. So by the wee hours of the morning my eyes were about to pop out of my head.
I did not partake in any of the shopping for or making of Thanksgiving food. However, I was around when my folks came back from grocery shopping. It seemed we weren't making very much this year, because everything was microwavable. Mashed potatoes, corn mush, stuffing, green beans, you name it. And pie. Not a pie. Not a couple pies. 6 pies. 2 pumpkin, an apple, a blueberry, a french silk and a pecan. There wasn't enough room in the kitchen fridge, so the excess groceries were taken to the second fridge. In the basement. 20 feet from my bed. Pies and booze. Nothing but pies and booze.
And by "la Familia" I mean my younger brother. Between loads of laundry would be the ideal time to chill with the family, but everyone was conveniently busy with their own final preparations for Thanksgiving, which would once again be held at the Bryant household. So I spent a few hours with my brother between loads of laundry. And we did what we always do when I come back, our own odd form of mixed martial arts. It's odd in the sense that he's 14, and can't hurt me, but I don't want to bloody him up too much, so I just counter and throw him , and the cycle repeats. Oh, and we fought off the invading horde of zombies. Nothing brings brothers together like some good old-fashioned zombie killing.
Not very exciting, I know, but it's what I spent a good portion of my day doing, so I thought it was worth mentioning. As a college student I am a number of things, two of them being lazy and cheap. So instead of taking the time to find a place to break my bills into quarters and then drag all my clothes to the basement of my dorm to do laundry, I stuff all my dirty clothes in a big, black garbage bag and bring them home with me. There I can do my laundry for free, and at my leisure (the washing machine is 20 feet from my bed.) For this method to be effective, you either have to wear the same clothes over and over for a while, or have enough clothes to last a few months. Luckily for everyone around me, I go with the later option. Last I counted I had 77 t shirts and over a dozen pairs of jeans. As you can imagine, this lead to a lot of laundry over the break. I also caught up with some old friends of mine on Wednesday, namely Mr. Clean and Windex. We spent hours cleaning the bathrooms and scrubbing the basement. Those are the memories that stick with you, I'm tellin ya.
My night was spent doing homework (the only productive night of the break.)
After approximately 97 miles we pull into my driveway. Home bitter home.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=42.70666,-83.707581&spn=1.011143,2.469177&z=9&msid=102571687511981869606.000496f4095e775fac122
Picked up by the father (yes, you read right. I did not bring my van to MSU) and the ride went like this: First half of the trip home= my sister talks about theater related things, my dad doesn't care. Stop at a T.G.I. Fridays in Novi for some dinner. Second half of the trip home= I talk about some journalism stuff, my dad still doesn't care.
Skipped Karl's class so I could pack everything up for my trip home (Sorry Karl.) I was almost going wait to pack because I could have missed something like this.
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