Welcome, 2010

To say hello to 2010, I must say goodbye to 2009. How did I do it? I went to Rhode Island of course.

I'm back in Florida after my yearly winter trip back to he State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and the crowded home of my parents. My sisters and their significant others packed into our modest house for Christmas while Jelly ran around biting me. I didn't get many presents. I just wanted to money so I could fulfill my lifelong dream of buying a nice, new HD television. My mom said I should wait for Super Bowl sales, but I don't want to. Ever since I was a little boy running in the cornfields, I've wanted one. I don't think I can wait. What's your take?

Anyway, I saw my New England friends. I drank too much (for me). I flipped through my old schoolbook records to find out my mom saved almost every report card I ever received. I found a Rae Carruth rookie card. I went to Applebees but not Dunkin Donuts. I attended a Winter Classic cookout on New Year's Day. I saw Avatar and loved it. I played Doctor Mario on the Wii and sucked at it. I watched 24: Season 7 on DVD. I made up with Jelly.

And now I'm back in Florida. I have to say, it was the first time during a vacation that I wanted to go back about halfway through. It's not that I don't miss the people, but there's just nothing there for me anymore. That fact just hit me like a ton of bricks. I'll hang out with people I won't see for another 12 months, if that. And most of those people are moving on in life, getting engaged, getting married, having kids. I just drop in for a minute, catch up, tell people where I work and how I like Florida, then I'm back on a plane.

More and more, this area is feeling like home. Not that I love Florida or hate it, but it's where I'm most comfortable. It's where I have my bed, my car and my nocturnal job.

Enough with the introspection. Let's get to a few random things from the past week or so.

• I just finished watching Paranormal Activity and I wasn't impressed. Creepy, no doubt. My heart quickened a few times. But I wasn't scared. The Ring freaked me out much more than this movie. Also, I know this makes me a bad person, but I would have run for the hills after Night 5 or so if I was seeing that girl. Admit it, you would have, too.
• I take the blame for the Wes Welker injury. I just had to take out the Drew Bledsoe jersey. Damn you, Steve! The Pats are now a longshot. Welker makes that offense go. Randy Moss provides the big plays, but Welker moved the sticks. A team that can't run the ball, can't hold leads, can't make comebacks, can't score in the second half, can't stop the pass and can't rush the passer probably won't make it to the Super Bowl.
• Quentin Tarrentino falls in love with his diaologue to his detriment sometimes. Inglourious Basterds was a good movie, but some of those scene could have been cut in half. We didn't need five minuted ordering and eating strudels. It's like he thinks, "Damn, I can write great dialouge! So let's keep going ... and going ... and going." Pulp Fiction would have been perfect if he cut all that useless crap with Bruce Willis' girlfriend. Same thing applies to this movie.
• I dislike Bernard Pollard. Really dislike him.
• Watch your knee if you're a Boston athlete. Tom Brady. Kevin Garnett. Paul Pierce. Wes Welker. I want Josh Beckett to put his knee in a titanium brace.
• Avatar is the best special effects movie I've ever seen.
• I heard Passion Pit for the first time and I'm hooked. "The Reeling" is an awesome song. I heard that band at least five times on the radio in Rhode Island. They wouldn't get within 500 miles of mainstream rock airwaves in South Florida. Wouldn't want to infringe on Nickleback hour.
• Was Bernard Pollard on the grassy knoll, too?
• My mom has a book that marks my evolution through school, from first grade to 12th. I don't have as much hair as I used to. I did better than I remember in elementary school and rocked the crap out of Bain, though it wasn't enough to earn Honors recommendations from my teachers. I was reminded I attended a special arts class back near the fifth grade. And I suck at art. My words of wisdom in my sixth grade yearbook: "Act maturely and you'll do fun things." Yeah, I was cool.
• It served as a "This Is Your Life" moment. From when I wanted to be a carpenter, to when I wanted to be a lawyer or doctor until I finally discovered my prodigious writing talents.
• I immensely enjoyed watching one NFL Sunday in peace.
• Art Lake is missed in Rhode Island.
• I'm the only person in Cranston under 30 without an iPhone.
• Everyone in Cranston works for GTech
• Everyone in Cranston hates working for GTech.
• It snowed again on New Year's Eve. And I shoveled.
• New Year's Eve is much more fun if you're willing to get wasted. I'm not, so I just watch others get wasted.
• I saw drunken men grinding on other men. I saw a man moon people at a bar. I heard "Livin' on a Prayer" on karoke. I lived Rhode Island for a week-and-a-half. That was more than enough.