Christmas in Good Ol’ Cranbrook

My mother, brother and sister.

Well, since leaving Taiwan things have gone pretty much as planned. Since arriving home in good ol’ Cranbrook I’ve:

Shoveled the driveway like nine times

Been subjected to more country music than any living creature should ever be exposed to

Purchased travel insurance and been vaccinated

Helped my friend catch her dog when it ran away

Eaten steak almost day

Seen all of my friends’ children for the first time (and they all have children)

Started reading O’Henry, who is fucking badass, you should totally check him out!
http://www.literaturepage.com/read/thefourmillion.html

Jumped on some redneck who started swinging at my buddy for no reason in the bar and held ’em till the bouncers came

Subsequently went for a drive to smoke a joint in our other buddie’s new $60,000 Ford truck, which, while doing giant fishtails in the snow, he accidentally drove down a steep embankment and through a fence made out of 6′ by 6′ beams. We then spent an hour and a half in the sub zero night getting him unstuck and back up the embankment

Got up after three hours sleep to go snowboarding on a perfect powder day. Was shakey at first, but stuck both front and backside 360’s on the last run

Explained the difference between Taiwan and Thailand like ten million times

Not been asked about Chinese culture once, but was told volumes “’bout them Asians” by scores of people who have never traveled farther than the dump

Watched the new Hunter S. documentary

Drank Jack Daniels with my father, who is having heart surgery again in two weeks

Drank Budweiser and watched hockey with my buddy who lives with his twenty year old girlfriend, and her child, and their child, in a trailer behind the gravel pits

You know, basically everything that you’d expect to do in Cranbrook.