It was an interesting weekend to be sure. I went to visit my brother and his wife (and his pet rabbit) in Michigan for a few days. It sucked getting up for a flight at 0600 but it was much cheaper than later in the day. We didn't do a whole lot, spent alot of time sitting around and stuff, which was nice because I needed a rest and it seemed like they did too. My brother showed me all of his toys: dart board, bb gun, automatic nerf gun, and his snow blower even though there was only about 0.25 in of snow on the ground. The thing has a 4 stroke gas engine, it's crazy. He was anxious to show me the local IKEA store which he loves so we went there and they got a new table, which I helped him put together. That gave him an opportunity to show me some of his power tools... We went to visit my grandma and [great] aunt too in their new place (they recently moved into a retirement home) and my cousin and uncle visited at the same time so we saw them too.

The really interesting and almost scary part though is that I flew into Detroit the day right before an attempted terrorist attack happened there. As yall have probably heard on the news by now, some guy was flying from Nigeria to Amsterdam to Detroit and tried to ignite some explosive on approach into Detroit right on Christmas. Fortunately he only succeeded in lighting himself on fire before a couple passengers tackled him and the plane made an emergency landing after smoke was detected in the cabin (according to the news article I read on it). My brother and I were talking about resumes (he works in human resources) and he had opened his email to get one he wanted to show me when we saw the news article about an attack in Detroit, which of course immediately stole our attention. I still almost can't believe how close I came to being in the middle of such a thing. When I got dropped off Sunday to fly back there were a bunch of news vans and police vehicles in front of the departure terminal which I later learned was because of another suspicious passenger on another flight in from Amsterdam but that one turned out to be a false alarm.

I love it when it's cool, cloudy and rainy. Snowy too, though it doesn't really do that in Florida and it only did the lightest dusting while I was in Michigan the past couple days. Nothing beats dark and snowy outside, a nice fire (in a fireplace obviously heh), a cup of hot cocoa and a good book either to read or the one I happen to be trying to write at the time.

Merry Christmas everyone!

And if you don't celebrate Christmas, go have fun celebrating something else!

Now off to my extremely early flight to visit my brother for the holiday.

A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation are great. So are Charlie Brown's Christmas and Frosty the Snowman. It's A Wonderful Life is great too though I haven't seen that one on TV anywhere this year.

and my wasted heart will love you.




Christmas doesn't feel the same if I don't watch Love Actually for the nth time.
but this year, I'm feeling for Edward Scissorhands.

Frosty the Snowman: "The only place I'd never melt is the North Pole."

Let's hope that's still true in the future...

And yes I'm actually watching Frosty on TV right now.

I'm officially on vacation as of right now!

Two weeks of no school and no work. It'll be greatness. True greatness!

-Alex

It would depend on the world, but if it was an enlightened, technical and environmentally friendly society then not much.

Dr. Crumble: How do you feel right now?
Susanna: I.. I don't know. I don't know what I'm feeling.

Thank you to aiko273! I found the quote!

" Dressing up. People just don't do it anymore. We have to change that. " John Galliano

Today is bitter sweet.

I got a very nice Christmas bonus. My job is amazing and it was more than I was expecting. They always are so good to me. I don't deserve a job this great.

I also am going to see my friend Tim who I have not seen in 2 years (wow...it's been far too long).

However this morning I also was informed that Matt Chandler's brain tumor is malignant. This hit me a lot harder than I expected it to.

Matt Chandler is the head pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, Texas. I listen to his podcast religiously (yeah, that's a pun) and I've met him a few times; he's good people. He's been twittering since his surgery and sounded like he was doing better. Maybe that's why it hit me so hard. I've also had a very difficult few weeks (err...well few months) and that could also have something to do with it.

Either way, I am excited to see my friend and I will trust in God even when the tumor is malignant.

I love you, my friends,
-Alex