Kyle on Xmas break

X is for Christ baby.

Part 1: Louisville. Dee and I went down to Louisville to spend Christmas with her family. I got some goody presents, some goody relaxing and some goody reading done. It snowed 9 inches and the whole city shut down for a week because they're really prepared for snowfall. Err, not really. Prepared I mean. Meanwhile in Ann Arbor, Jen lost her wallet which contained our house key so the cat's were left without a caretaker. We sent our second (and last) key to her overnight via UPS , only to find out the next day that UPS was grounded in Louisville due to the 9 inches of snow that day and didn't work the following two days. We were overjoyed, especially considering that UPS took our overnight order well after the 9 inches had fallen! Lesson learned: make more house keys and don't trust the stupid lady at the UPS desk.

Part 2: Return. Cats were fine. Key arrived at Jen's right before we arrived ourselves. We felt bad for putting Jen through the turmoil. Two days of relaxing.

Part 3: Chicago. Dee and I drove to Chicago for a NYE event with my buddies Tom, Lasse, Alexis, Joe, Brad and Maggie. The hotel---Hyatt Regency--was PACKED with Greeked out young people, kind of like a NYE spring break. Consequently, the hotel had everyone wear arm bands that had checked out a room so no outsiders could come in and debauchery could be kept to a minimum. This turn of events spelled trouble for us, since we had planned on sleeping 7 to a room that night. We suited up for the evening (I was a hollywood producer named Matty Silverspoon) and got some yummy-ass Chicago pizza nearby. There we drank. Quite a bit. We disturbed the other guests a bit with our talk of smashing pint glasses on our foreheads (Joe), talk of repeatedly giving Lasse the Clap (me), attempts to fit one's lips around a pint glass rim (Joe), hollars regarding a two-picture deal with Jeff Goldblum and a crime-solving elephant (me), and generally being noisy and rude (all of us except Maggie and Dee). We later rang in the new year at a hipster house party uptown and drank some free beer. Our lack of hotel arm bands didn't prove much of a problem. New Years day was spent watching the Rose Bowl with Steve and Becca, then being belligerant in the hotel bar. We purchased 48oz margeritas, hollared at people passing by, wrestled a bit, leg wrestled a bit, Alexis stomped my glasses, etc.

I'm back in Ann Arbor now, and have just awoken from a lovely 14 hour sleep. Things I've learned this trip:
1. Don't let Alexis near my glasses
2. The undergraduates at UM that harass me over email about getting "just 1 more point" because they're on some sort of cusp for their final grade are quite irritating.
3. Especially the ones that email me at 9pm on Christmas eve and want to sift through all of their assignments in the hopes of finding a grading mistake
4. I like Chicago
5. I make a good Hollywood producer