Thanks(for)giving Us Wine

So I'm back in Oregon. Back from the ol' Cali-forn-i-a. Have a lot of stories to tell, but you guys probably don't want to hear all of them. So I'll keep it somewhat short-er.

Thanksgiving was really good. I got home early in the day and the rest of the family showed up around noon. What a comical day, that's all I have to say. The grandparents arrived old and grumpy, as usual. It was basically the same-old, same-old of grandma yelling at my pop and him pretending he's deaf. Can't blame the old guy. I'd do the same thing if I were him. We were finally able to entertain the old people by playing an old-fashioned game of chinese marbles. It was me and my pop on one team against my grandma and my brother. Everybody else missed out on the fun. My mom was busy spilling coffee everywhere. My sister slept through all of Thanksgiving on the couch. And my dad was in the living room on hour 2 of the 25-day "Bond-athon", which is James Bond movie marathons lasting from Thanksgiving to Christmas. But,oh, man how the marbles were fun! It was 2 hours of sheer insanity. Its difficult to put into words all that happened so I'll just say this--playing chinese marbles with old people is a bad idea. Let me tell you, once they get marbles in their possession, all hell breaks loose. Old people--especially my grandparents--have lost all their marbles, so once they get a hold on them, they go crazy. My grandma would take like 5 turns in a row until we finally yelled at her that her turn was over. Next thing we know there were marbles and dice rolling off the table, onto the ground, into the living room, up the stairs, and down the hall. Weird. Don't know much else to say about my Thanksgiving. Let's just say that, at the end of the day, 8 bottles of wine lay empty. You can fill it in from there.

Needless to say, I greatly enjoyed seeing and spending time with my family. It is good to be back, though. Its my last week of clinicals this week and my last day tomorrow. Its been good but difficult. My first day back and twenty minutes through the door we had a guy pass away. I was part of the crew that bathed the body and wrapped him up in a shroud. The weirdest part was tying the toe tag on. Nothing will ever feel more dark than placing a tag on a lifeless body. You live this whole life and soon you're reduced to a name on a tag tied onto a toe. The life you lived (whether vibrant or lacking) is incorporated into one small "dash" between two dates. Its sad to think about. But it definitely makes you appreciate a lot of things...especially life.

By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, I highly suggest going and watching "Chicken Little." Great movie. Very funny, especially the pig.