Thanksgiving Evening

Hey.

Good news! It's not the last Centerfield Thanksgiving! Hooray! And I hope that everyone is good and uncomfortably full. I was dying and then I recovered and now I'm stuffing up again.

Here's the damage:
Two heaping platefuls, two huge rolls, much water, and three enormous pieces of pie piled high with whipped creme. And that was just for the main dinner. I just finished two more pieces of pie and soon I'll go for two more pieces. Okay I just got more pie. Yum. And chances are I'll help myself to some more stuffing and vegetables in a little while anyway.

That was the meal.

Now for the recovery process. Shooting!!! I shot a gun for the first time today. I also realize that this is turning into somewhat of a journal entry, so I'll try to tie in something interesting and thought provoking. I shot four different guns, firing a total of seven times. I have two cartridges from a big gun whose name I don't know (it was the biggest gun in my uncles collection), two cartridges from a .22, one cartridge from a pistol (so intense--I felt like Jack Bauer), and two cartridges from a shotgun. I learned a few things about myself. First, it's really fun to shoot a gun (rhyme and rhythm intended). Second, I'd make a horrible soldier. I wasn't aiming for anything in particular for five of my seven shots, but I did aim for a clay pigeon when I shot the shotgun. I missed horribly. I haven't the skill to aim well. Part of this could be attributed to my preshoot expectation of failure, but mostly I lack talent when it comes to hitting a target with a firearm. Thankfully that's not an especially necessary skill, and chances are if it really counted, a survival-oriented corner of my brain would take over and I'd be able to aim better. Anyway, hopefully there won't ever be a draft, because if there were and I were drafted, I'd willingly go, but I would not be an asset to the army. Third, I get really bored watching other people shoot. There's a reason why I've never watched Skeet shooting on the Olympics. I haven't a speck of interest as to how accurately a marksman can hit a disc of soft clay that crumbles as it's slung just as often as it holds together. I spent most of the shooting expedition in my dad's truck listening to showtunes. Also interesting is Jack's participation in this adventure. Jack is my nephew and he's five. He shot a gun today. that's twelve years younger than I was when I first shot a gun. I'm wondering how this excursion (with ended with him tired and crying) will shape his psychological perception of guns. Chances are, it won't have any effect. But let's hope he won't become a criminal. Okay that wasn't very good philosophising. Let's try again. Jack likes guns. He's a starwars fan, for one thing, and a couple years ago, if he got mad at someone he would yell "FIRE." That's not to say that he had impulses to shoot people, but it does indicate a connection between the expression of anger and a word with many violent connotations. Mind you, he's not meanspirited at all and he's not going to become a psychopath. The question is, after actually shooting a gun and experiencing the reality of it, not the hollywood ideal of it, with all the loud noise and the kick and the waiting in line and the frustration of missing the target, will his opinion of guns shift from "guns are so cool!" to "guns are kind of boring?" Would such a shift be good? I kind of think so and hope so, but then he might be robbed of the pleasure of action movies in the future and (let me rant for a second: there's a noise going on in the background that sounds exactly like my ringtone. It's driving me crazy) or...I don't know. Okay this philosophising didn't work out. Whatever. My mind isn't working perfectly because I ate so much and it's a little overloaded with signals from the nerves in my tummy. By the way, I ate more stuffing and vegetables and am now working on a major bowl of turkey. I'll probably have more pie, too. Good thing I'm getting back in the habit of running.

Do I have anything else to say? I don't know. I found a funny quote in The Canterbury Tales the other day, but it's a little vulgar, so I'm not sure I'll post it here.

A movie is starting now, so I'll be done.

But first, another video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o03XWoXG1rM

This is Andrew Keenan-Bolger singing a song from the Frog and Toad musical. We were talking about those particular children's books earlier, that's why I posted it :-)

Uncomfortably full,
Christian Jacob Frandsen