9:11 AM
"Let me explain. No, take too long--let me sum up."--The Princess Bride
"I apologize for not writing less, but I didn't have time."--Oscar Wilde

After the last post below, I went to bed, hoping to catch a couple hours before hitting the road for my folks place in the Twin Cities.

The ringing of my cel phone wakes me up, and I sit up in the darkness wondering "Who the hell is calling me in the middle of the night?" But it's my cel phone, a number I only give to friends and family, so I figure it must be important. I stumble out to the kitchen, glancing at the microwave--5:15. I pick up the phone and answer; it's my dad, asking, "So, are you coming up tonight?"

Maybe you're ahead of where I was at the time. But I stood there in the dark kitchen for a moment, in a barely-awake stupor, and ask the question: "Um, is it 5:15 A.M., or P.M.?"

That's the kind of question you only ask when you think you know the answer and your subconcious is hard at work preparing a stupid-and-ignorant defense. Yes, it was indeed P.M., and the sun had zapped across the sky while I lay comatose. So I got to make the drive to the Twin Cities in the dark.

(I enjoy driving at night with family and friends--I've had many good discussions late at night. But I hate driving long distances by myself at night. Though I get to play whatever music I want, as loud as I want, and sing along, I find that being alone allows me to fixate on how much I hate how bright headlights have gotten in This Modern Age, and I begin plotting hood mounts for a sniper rifle so I could shoot out each and every Xenon bulb that crests a distant rise. But I digress.)

Eventually I arrived in the Twin Cities, and after the prerequisite crap about irregular hours from my folks, they went to bed. I waited up for a while until my sister got home from work, and we chatted for a while until she crashed. Then, though I contemplated just riding out the night with my parents' cable and my own PS2 (brought along for this very potentiality), I went up and tried to catch a few hours of sleep.

A few was all I got--I woke up at 5:30, completely rested, and all I could do was go downstairs and quietly wait for the world to wake up. It was a strange reversal of the way my world normally works.

But now the family has awoken, fast has been broken, and I am showing my sister the Blogger ropes. Later today, it's over to my mom's side of the family for the Thanksgiving feast. I'm already looking forward to trying to explain what I do at work. I'm tempted to lie--it would shut them up faster to just say I'm a programmer or something they expect might be involved with game creation--but I like what I do too much not to try and explain it. Sigh. I suppose I could be trying to explain the finer points of plumbing, or something, or just bitching about a crappy job. So maybe I'll wish you all a happy holiday and shut the hell up until later.

Happy holiday--eat up.

Until later--