Thank-you Break

I set out for the Thanksgiving holiday on at a bright and early 6:40 am on Thursday morning, accompanied by two very wonderful people, Jun Han Tan and Emmy Heatherington. After checking out the website, I planned to take the Metrolink commuter train from Union Station to Oceanside, just north of the San Diego area and home to my grandparents. When we got to the train station - after being driven by a very generous Juan Carlos - we bought our tickets, only to be told by a security guard that the commuter trains weren't running on the Thanksgiving holiday. I felt like the biggest idiot...people don't work on Thanksgiving...why would a commuter train be running?? Anyway, because the Metrolink information booth was closed, Jun Han and I are still trying to figure out how to get our money back.

Refund or not, we needed to get to grandma's house, so we waited in line for an 8:30 Amtrak train, despite the $22 one-way fare. I didn't have any problems buying from the kiosk, but when it was Emmy's turn to get a ticket, the machine froze. I waited in the line for the other machine for her and Jun Han while the guy worked to fix the machine. It was at this point when the other machine too went down due to a lack of of paper. Needless to say, I was glad that I was so anal about leaving earlier than necessary. Either way, it was all about bonding. And if things had gone perfectly, you probably wouldn't be reading about this, but I digress. After tickets were in hand, we walked around while searching for the elusive 'Gate E' before we boarded the train and were on our way.

After giving Emmy the grand tour (Jun Han went to my grandparent's house for Thanksgiving our freshman year), we waited for my Uncle John and his Porsche 912 to arrive before enjoying a delicious and well-prepared dinner. Thank-you grandma, for that. In addition to my smiling face, I contributed a bottle of wine, which turned out to be my grandma's favorite, as we shared old stories and new laughs around my grandfather's dining room table. Then, after dinner, my grandfather gave me one of his hats. I don't know exactly why, but I wasn't about to turn it down. It's a Pendleton and some history behind it. First a sweet hunting jacket and now my first brimmed hat, thanks to my grandpa, I've got the style!

After allowing dinner to digest a bit, the three of us went on a walk through the neighborhood, for a better view of the city and the sunset. The walk ended up turning into this fantastic hike through the the dense jungle brush of Oceanside as we made our way up the extremely steep drainage ditches. After reaching the top of the hill, we all sat and had a heart-to-heart. The view was so serene and quite god-like. I'd post a picture of it right, about, here, but SOMEONE forgot to bring their camera.

The rest of the night was pretty laid back, as we enjoyed pecan and pumpkin - separately, not mashed together, yuk - pie over National Lampoon's Vacation. I love that movie. For those of you who haven't seen it, watch it after depriving yourself of sleep for a night in order to experience the full effect. Finals are coming up, so the opportunity should present itself.

Friday came at an early 9:00 am after sleeping 11 hours. Yeah, that's right, I, Dan McConnell, went to sleep at ten o'clock. Sorry you missed such a rare event. Anyway, we sat around over coffee and bear claws discussing the election and other such events. After getting cleaned up, we headed out to the Oceanside Pier - longest pier on the west coast - and then to Jolly Roger for a delicious lunch. Located right on at the harbor, the restaurant is a favorite of my grandparents. Although a staple of visits past, we didn't go by the Top Gun house, located right there on the beach. No worries though, it'll still be there the next time I visit.

We then did a little browsing in a store my grandma likes, called Steinmart. It was a discount store that had some really interesting things, like fuzzy neon rainbow-colored sweaters and boxers with a jagnormous, red-nosed reindeer on the front. I really wanted to go to a hobby store to pick up a model or something, as I had this urge to do something productive with my hands. I used to really love putting together models or working on my Erector set and Friday afternoon those feelings all came flooding back. But alas, I wasn't able to locate anything to work on, or so I thought...

My uncle came over later that night to say goodbye to everyone, and mentioned to us that he had some work to do before he went to sleep. He had to put together some parts for the company he works for. Nothing difficult, just time-consuming. So, I told him how I really wanted to work with my hands, and how he had three strong your college kids who were willing to help him out if he wanted, so he brought the parts over and we kicked them all out in twenty minutes flat. It would've taken him an hour, so he was quite happy.

Jun Han and my grandma went to sleep pretty early, and left me and Emmy to ourselves. We watched a little SportsCenter and then popped in Independence Day. We ended up talking through the entire thing, but most of the story is conveyed visually, so it didn't really matter. We were up way past our bed times, just chatting and getting to know each other, until my grandma came and laid the smack down. Ha Ha. She was pretty surprised that we were up so late and suggested that we go to sleep, so, being good little children, we did as we were told. It was 4:00 am.

Saturday came too quickly, which was fine because we just hung around and got packed before Chris came over and picked the three of us up to go back to 'SC. We had a good time in the car, conversing about everything from man-eating spiders to Nissan Pathfinders. Chris really enjoyed the musical selection that Emmy provided, so I think I might make him a copy for his birthday. Although when compared to HIS mix-tape idea, it'd probably be a waste of time. He dropped Emmy and Jun Han off at their respective domains and then it was off to the game.

I met up with my boss from work, who hadn't been to a game all year, and a small group of us walked over to the Coliseum in the rain. It wasn't rain, really, more of a drizzle. A mist, even. Anyway, I enjoyed watching us kick Notre Dame ass (the Irish is nice folk, don't beat us) with some of my closest Markshallians and then partied the rest of the night over dinner at Madam Wu's....I mean...Wood Ranch and a late-night screening of Jurassic Park at Stanford Theater.

Overall, it was quite a relaxing holiday break shared with loving family and amazing friends, including moments I won't soon forget. On this day, I'm thankful that I have so much to be thankful for. I love you all.