The Sunday Rundown

Thanksgiving 2009 just happened. 'Twas a very relaxing break, but I didn't do anything anywhere closely related to school. Blerg. Now the next two weeks of school are going to be filled with projects and finals preparation. I emailed my teachers to see if I can take finals early so I can go home a little early and see Lisa as soon as she arrives. I have been semi-successful thus far. 2 yeses and a no. Unfortunately the no means I will have to stick around most of Wednesday (the day Lisa returns). But I am still going to do my best to pull some charm out of my pockets and see about leaving earlier still.

Thanksgiving break, as I said earlier, was pretty bodacious. Hung out with old friends, new friends, family, friends families, etc. I think my favorite part was seeing my grandparents and playing ping-pong with them. They are late 60s and early 70s, but they can still whoop me in ping-pong. That may be that I am bad at the game, but I think I can usually hold my own but Grammy always finds a way to beat me. It's become a tradition since they got the table to have everyone play each other. It is tons of fun.

The food situation this year was ballin' as well. I believe we brined the turkey this year? I'm not entirely sure of what that entails, but it was scrumptious. Then of course we had rolls, casserole, stuffing and all that other good stuff. My Aunt from Oklahoma came in town too. Always good to see her!

We saw The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and that one country singer. It was pretty good. Definitely a Thanksgiving hit for the ol' box office. I have yet to see Fantastic Mr. Fox or The Road, but I am anxiously awaiting a day where I get to see them both. They look wonderful.

In other news, my great grandpa turned 92 today. Crazy. I can't imagine being alive for 72 more years.

I listened to Death Cab For Cutie's "The Photo Album" probably 7 times through on the drive back today. I freaking love that band. I will see them in the next year. That is a goal that will be met.

Okay, I can't write anymore of this because all I can think about is school and how I have so much to do. Next blog will be better. Promise.

Back2TheBlogosphere

After a long almost semester of hibernation from the blogging world I have decided to crawl out of my underground hideout/beaver dam/nest thing. (I have been in no such hideout, literally that is. Figuratively, I may have been in hiding. That is beside the point.)

I'm not* going to update you on what has happened since I have been gone, but I will however give a normal update just like I have in the past. Hopefully Sunday I will give a "Sunday Rundown".

This past weekend I went hiking/camping with my good friend Aaron Robinson. I hadn't done either activity in quite some time. This time it was on public property and we had no run-ins with local law enforcement. If you remember my blog about my last camping experience, you know it didn't go so well.

Aaron and I embarked on this journey Friday afternoon/evening and arrived in Compton Arkansas around 8P.M. We set up camp at the trailhead to Hemmed-In Hollow trail. Not too adventurous, but it was dark so we didn't have much of a choice. We slept alright, but did wake up around 2 and talked 'til probably 4. This is mainly attributed to the truck that pulled into the parking lot around 1:30 and shined their headlights in our tent. That's what we get for camping at the trailhead though.

Anyway, the next morning we woke up and made some breakfast and got on the trail. The hike was pretty relaxing and very downhill the whole way. About 3/4 of the way down I realized we would have to hike back up, which was less than exciting for me. But, we got to the bottom and saw the largest waterfall between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. So that was a pretty incredible sight. Except there hadn't been much rain in a while, so it was a little more of a "watertrickle" than it was a waterfall, but very cool nonetheless.

Hiking back up provoked both Aaron and I to start eating healthy and perhaps start a "getting in shape" regimen.** So far I have stuck to it and even went grocery shopping at Mama Jean's natural market. And it has been 3 days since I drank soda. So far so good... We will see how long this lasts though.

Day 2 got off to a bit of a slow start. Everywhere we went either looked like Disney World in that there were tons of people there or the road to the trailhead was a little too extreme for Aaron's '98 Civic to navigate. We ended up just doing a short hike that went along some bluffs for most of the way.

Since it was so short, we decided climbing around on the bluffs would be fun. After an hour or so of climbing and joking around, the inevitable happened... I, Cameron Wiley, a very accident prone person fell. Smacked my head, but not until after most of the rest of my body hit the rock below me. So we headed back early and once we got home and I had taken a shower around 5:30 or 6, the wound on the back of my skull was still bleeding. So, reluctantly, I went to the ER and got some staples in my head. 2 to be exact. Surprisingly, the process of getting chunks of metal in my head was not nearly as traumatic as one would expect. The anesthesia however was pretty painful. Needles do not belong in my head.

So, I am alive still and sick of typing now. 29 days until Lisa comes home. Thanksgiving break is going to be so relaxing. Finals are not going to be nearly as relaxing.

*The crisp air and looming possibility of snow made me type "nog" instead of "not" when I first typed this. I could definitely go for some egg nog sometime soon.

**I really hope I used this word correctly. If I am wrong, please let me know.