Nick - Highlights From My Journy To The Land Of Springfield

Let me begin by saying it was good to see everybody. Really really good. Sorry Conor Eliot and Brian for bailing on your FFFF session twice; I fell asleep.

The most surreal parts of the experience of coming home for a week were the coming and going. Walking into my room, it was pretty clear nobody had been in there since I had left, which is kind of a strange feeling. Everything was exactly where I left it, with the exception of a few plants and fish that were considerably more dead. (Rest in peace, Lola the plant and Giovanni the Arrow Crab.)

Also weird was how happy my family was to see me. I came home to a really nice dinner at the fancier dining room table, and my brother Ben immediately dragged me down to the basement to show me some games.

After walking in the door, I did the following things in the following order:
Hugged everybody
Ate dinner
Unwillingly saw Ben's Fallout: New Vegas
Epic drum solo
Watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with Teddy, Ben, and Sofia.
Playing Yu-Gi-Oh cards with Ben

It was nice to sit down at the drum set, which I think about every day, but the greatest part of coming home was that Teddy and Sofia are old enough now to appreciate the things I liked as a kid. The first thing they wanted to do was watch Avatar with me and Ben, which was exactly what Ben and I used to do when we were Teddy and Sofia's age. (8 and 5)

Also apparently not living at home most of the time has the effect of making people appreciate my presence, because Ben was way nicer and more eager to spend time with me than he had ever been before. Also he somehow got really good at guitar.

Even the people at Jeffrey Alans were happy to see me. They were, admittedly, a little over-zealous in scheduling me (51 hours) but this was easily resolved by putting on my best sick voice and calling in. They're pretty lax about stuff like that. I actually kind of enjoyed working with Lucas and Ashley again. We sold a ton of Christmas trees.

I feel like the whole trip culminated in the form of You're Welcome, a party which contained probably half of the people I know in Springfield. It was awesome to see everybody, and if I had room here to name everyone I was happy to see I would. Seeing Trotsky and Band Practice play was incredible and made me extremely nostalgic for this summer. Basically it was the perfect way to wrap up the week.

And then it was over all at once. As I said before, the strangest parts of being in Springfield were the coming and the going. And out of nowhere it was time for going again. Being home had been so easy and nice, but going back didn't come naturally at all. My dorm room feels really strange and empty. I think I'm stuck in break mode now; I like college, and I was super happy today to see my friends here again, but I'd like to spend some time at my real home.

It's my first night back and it feels like I've been back for a week. I'm still really excited about the Titanic show coming up (and I start performing next semester!) and I always look forward to our practices. But I have a feeling I'm going to spend the next couple weeks counting down the days until finals are finally over.

-Nick.
P.S.: If you read this post and are not from Springfield, I am so sorry.