1999, Freshman year of college. My car decided to break down on December 23rd around 1130 PM. Luckily for me, I was about 6 miles away from a po-dunk little town. I had to walk, in the snow, not up hill both ways, but it was fucking cold. Granted, 1999 was long before I had a cell phone, and reception is so bad in Wyoming anyways, there was no point. However, I eventually got to a payphone, called my dad, who came and got me and we towed that fucking car home and ended up home around 330 in the morning. My dad kicks ass.
2000, Sophomore year of college. A mere few days before I'm ready to go home for xmas, some asshole decides to be a show off on icy roads and rear-ends my car, totals it, and I'm almost stranded for Xmas. Luckily for me, college was only 2 hours away, so once again, my dad rescued me and picked me up. Not SO much drama, but still enough to piss you off.
2001, Junior year of college. I had just transferred to Buffalo for school and didn't really understand the whole finals thing that my department didn't really recognize, so I had everything done almost 3 full weeks before my plane was to depart Buffalo. My ticket was purchased and everything, but who was to sit around for 3 weeks with nothing to do? Not me, so I bought a bus ticket and spent two and a half full days on the bus. The highlight of that trip was getting mugged in Chicago's glorious bus station for 50 cents and a bottle of water. Nice. And top off the trip, my sister and I had the worst fight in the history of our family and I almost flew back to Buffalo on xmas eve. I stayed and we worked it all out.
2002, Senior year of college. I think this may have been the only drama free year. Yup, it was. How boring of me.
2003, My final semester of school. I was so sick right before I left from rehearsals, after having missed several, then could only get off for two days, so I flew home and flew back. I'm sure my flight was pretty expensive. Not the most dramatic, but definitely shitty because I could only spend a few days with the fam.
2004, Living in the big city for the first time. Also, the first year I rented a car on my own. My bags were lost somewhere in the world, and I spent most of my trip crying because I thought all the gifts I'd bought were lost somewhere and no one would get anything from me. I fought on the phone with my parents on the way up. I later found out that I made my mother cry. Not the best thing to do.
2005, Still living in NYC. I pissed my mom off royally when I buzzed all of my curly hair off because I just needed a change. It worked out for the better for me. Meanwhile I got something in my eye and found out later I had a piece of dirt that lightly scratched my eyeball, thank God I had insurance. So, if you look closely at the pictures from this holiday, my right eye is all fucked up.
2006, Once again living in NYC. This Christmas was mostly drama free. I had booked a show so I was able to quit my job just before leaving to go home and had a week free with nothing to do between xmas and leaving on Jan 2 for Illinois. A perfect year. :)
2007, I was home for 6 weeks. Granted it was with my family, but it sucked because I had been on tour and got injured. So I had 6 weeks with a HUGE ugly boot on my foot, my sister calling me "boy," and driving back and forth to the doctor every week in a town that I wasn't even staying in. Overall, the time I spent with my fam was great, it was cool that I was getting unemployment, but really shitty that I had to leave my job behind. OH yeah, and it was the first year we were minus someone in our family. My florida sister didn't come home last year.
2008, back in the city. This year sucked. I overslept and missed my flight on Tuesday morning, and thankfully, the previous week had been such shitty weather that every flight was oversold and had too many people waiting from earlier cancelled flights trying to get on. So, I spent Christmas this year in NYC, mostly alone. I do have wonderful friends who all offered to have me come home with their families. However, I know that it seems dumb, but I'd rather be alone missing my family than with a family that is awesome because I'd just miss my family even more and I don't want to be the emotional guy that everyone has to feel sorry for. I did have an awesome dinner on Christmas eve with Nick and Tasha! Then yesterday was a fun filled day of the movies, dinner and a friend's bar. So, it worked out as best as it could.
I've since decided that I'm not longer doing Christmas in December. I seem to have to go through so much bullshit just to get home and I'm done. I love my family very much, but I'm now going to go home in August when there is no school, so my sisters can't argue they have to get back for something haha. And overall, there isn't much weather to contend with. So, I'll be doing that. They can jump on board or not, but that's how it's going to be from now on.
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