Miscellaneous post-Thanksgiving thoughts

So here I sit in my apartment, 8:00 am the day after Thanksgiving, surrounded by filled (and some still empty) boxes, eating a bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch. This would be after I was wildly craving a bowl of cereal the other day and realized that all of the bowls and spoons had already been packed. Doh! My craving got the best of me, however, so boxes were opened until I found the necessary eating utensils. Hey, gotta get rid of that gallon of milk (the store was out of half gallons last time I shopped) somehow.

While I still think I have quite a long way to go before becoming a morning person, I do think my body is now quite used to the "early to bed, early to rise" phenomenon. I still abhor getting out of my nice warm bed no matter what the hour, but I've felt pretty awake since about 6:30 or so. Does this mean I'm getting old, considering that I now start yawning around 9:30 at night?

I actually got up about 5:30 this morning to brave the "Black Friday" holiday shopping rush. Crazy, yes, I know. But it was probably the best way to take care of some of my Christmas shopping for my family. I know that there's no way in hell that either of my parents will read this, so I believe it's pretty safe to tell on here what my gift-giving ideas for them consist of. You see, my parents live in the stone age and have yet to own a DVD player. So... I took advantage of some of the Black Friday deals to buy not just one DVD player, but two--one for each of them. I've started getting frustrated because I see some of these seasons of TV shows that come out on DVD - like old shows that I know they used to love. And I'd like to get them, but there's that lack of a DVD player problem. This Christmas I'm taking care of that. (Also making future birthdays and holidays easier to buy gifts for. See, it's an investment.) So I braved the crazy shopping rush to find some good deals on them. Two things I learned about the lines on Black Friday - 1) pay attention. You never know when someone is going to open another checkout line. I saved a ton of time at H.H. Gregg because no one else heard this lady say, "I can help you over here." And 2) NEVER get in a line that has a male checkout person. The time I saved at H.H. Gregg was made up for at Menards while I waited in the slowest possible line (with a guy checker) while people in the other two lines on either side of me (with female checkers) got through rather quickly. Sounds sexist, but hey - it's true.

I have about a gazillion things to do today. I'm moving tomorrow, and not quite everything is packed yet. So that, of course, is one of the priorities. I also need to do something with the clean laundry that's still sitting folded in my bedroom from Wednesday. There's also various other little things that need to be taken care of before the big MOVING DAY tomorrow.

I'd like to take this space here to give a shout-out to all of you wonderful people that are helping me move tomorrow. Thank you Sally, Lauren, gRegor, Ian, and anyone else who shows up. I SO appreciate your help. And thank you Lauren and Jenn for helping me pack! It would've taken me forever without you. And an extra-big shout-out to Charly for getting me a box truck, eliminating the million trips that would have been made back and forth to Fishers. You rock.

I think I'm actually looking forward to the holidays this year. I'm looking forward to... well, a lot of things. Having a roommate to share the holiday time with it, being able to get fun gifts for my family, GRADUATING, hopefully getting a good job, doing fun holiday things, and last but not least - getting to spend fun holiday time with friends, "family", and family. Oh yeah, and did I mention GRADUATING?? Sorry - I've been in school a long time now. You can't expect me to not say anything. If you're not already sick of hearing about it - oh, you will be soon.

Ok, well, now that I've ranted long enough about boring random things that probably no one else but me really cares about - I should probably go get my butt in gear and get a few of those gazillion things done. Hope everyone had a happy Turkey Day and ate a lot of pumpkin pie!