initiate holiday season, now...

Here I am. In Shepherdstown for the next few days while the rest of the world is on Thanksgiving break. I'll be working Monday-Wednesday 9-5. (I think I might be a professional intern..) I have the apartment to myself.

Here, I have everything I need. Complete access to the living room so I can move my lap top to the couch. Enough coffee and hot cocoa to feed a small nation, knitting, my great orange hoodie. I also have "This is Spinal Tap" and a Wes Anderson movie marathon. Yes...this girl is in love. The lack of people on campus is completely lame...and when we lose internet Monday-Tuesday in the dorms, I may actually maintain some sort of post-work productivity. I get to go home Wednesday night and bake a pie. It'll be great. It'd be even better if it wasn't so cold in my apartment right now.

I made a Christmas tree out of wrapping paper that almost spans floor to ceiling on my wall. If they gave me anough time on this campus, I might wrap the entire thing.

All things are as they should be. We had the big family dinner in Maple...a good bunch of us. They pulled the coffee tables from some peoples rooms and made a long table in the hallway. There was turkey and potatoes...enough food so everyone could eat until they felt like they were going to vomit. And dessert...so much dessert. It was fun. We bought the thanksgiving dinners for the two families we are sponsoring through the fraternity and then Katie and I spent the rest of Friday drinking apple cider and rum while watching 'RENT.' To top off the perfect weekend, we went to Frederick for Chipotle and Starbucks. The holiday season was kicked off with the first venti Gingerbread Latte. Best friend got engaged. Life as normal.

Oh, wait, what? Engagement?

Yes. Engagement. It made me feel old. I mean, sure, Heather is married, but she's been married for a while. Michelle and I are a bit closer...and she's engaged. Honestly. Mom says this stuff is going to start happening quite frequently. I don't want it to. Life was simpler when I was 10. It's just difficult to wrap my brain around the engagement and potential marriage of friends when I can hang out with several boys on a regular basis but not get a date.

With a life expectancy somewhere between 78 and 80...21 is a blip on the radar, and forever is a really long time. I like Chuck Klosterman's theory on the lack of monogamy in this country...one of his reasons (along with the other REAL sociological reasons why people don't stay married) is that...forever is distcintly longer than it was in 1920. So he's a rock/pop culture critic and not a sociologist...but it makes sense. I'M STILL A LITTLE KID, DAMNIT.

This is why I'm watching Wes Anderson movies this weekend. His detachment from his subjects is hilarious and something I strive for more of...that...and the hilarity of it all.

*sigh*

I'm going to hide under my quilt and build a time machine back to 1997...