Catching You Up

So it’s been a little while until you’ve heard about what I’ve been doing, but don’t worry, I have been doing a lot, so just sit back, kick up your feet, and get ready to read……

Last week on Wednesday my brother Randy came up to visit for a couple of days since he was on his spring break from ISU. For most of Thursday, while he was up, we just sort of hung out at my place, playing some video games, watching a movie or two, and relaxing. It was good for both of us. Later we went into St. Cloud since my brother had never had Cold Stone ice cream before. I don’t think anyone should be allowed to go through their entire life without ever having Cold Stone ice cream or Krispy Kreme donuts, but we’ll get to the donuts later. I was surprised by Randy’s reaction to Cold Stone’s ice cream in that he didn’t think it was a frickin’ delicious as I did. I could honestly live on Cold Stone ice cream if given the chance. In fact, Jeff has commented many times to me that I’m going to get fat from eating so much ice cream. He might be right, so I might have to try and refrain myself in the future……and by future, I mean any time after today because I’m going to be going a little bit later.

Friday morning I had work and classes so my brother just slept around at my place. After I got back, we got his stuff packed up and ready to go so he could leave and go to his girlfriend’s place in Bird Island, which was only about an hour and a half away from St. Cloud. I saw him out on his way and then I had to head down to the cities to pick up the other brother, Ryan, so he could stay with me for the weekend. Next weekend is little siblings weekend, but I have a basketball tourney all day and possibly a concert on Saturday, so I wouldn’t be around to spend a whole lot of time with him, so instead of that scenario, I just had him come up to visit a weekend early. Getting Ryan was a chore as there must have been an accident or something on 494 in the cities because I was stuck in traffic for almost an hour, making only about 5 miles progress. Fortunately, my dad and brother hadn’t been waiting for me too long.

I grabbed Ryan and we headed back to school, hoping that the traffic would be much better, and it was. We stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way to school because he had never had their donuts before, and as I said earlier, you can’t say you’ve truly lived until you’ve had Krispy Kreme. I think if St. Cloud would get a Krispy Kreme to complement the Cold Stone we already have I would die within a couple of years from the sheer amount of donuts and ice cream I would eat. I honestly have no self control whatsoever when it comes to the products of those two food chains. God forbid I ever have to work at or near one!

After we got back Friday night, we didn’t have a lot planned for the night (or the weekend for that matter), so we just sat down and played Xbox for a while and watched The Iron Giant. It was a nice calm night, which I am definitely in need of every now and again up here. I find it weird how I still haven’t grown out of my video game phase. In fact, this year was somewhat of a reawakening of my video game appreciation. After rarely playing video games last year and part of first semester, I go out and buy an Xbox and the addiction is back. At least it isn’t as predominant a part of my life as it was when I was in elementary and middle school.

Saturday we slept in nice and late (also something I like to do every now and then, assuming my body cooperates with me and doesn’t automatically wake me up before 9 am). When we got up Kristin and I went down to watch the SJU girl’s rugby game since one of her friends from GAC was up playing for their team. It was such a beautiful day out that I was a little disappointed the Ryan didn’t want to come with us, but that was his choice and I’m not going to force him to do anything (and he had tons of serious Xbox playing to get done). Ryan actually played so many video games over the weekend that he beat one of my games and completed over half of another. Wow, I give you mad gaming props, kiddo!

After the rugby game, I took Ryan and Kristin to go see Tears of the Sun, the war flick with Bruce Willis. I was expecting it to be a lot better than it was, but both Ryan and Kristin really enjoyed it. I think I’m a little more jaded when it comes to watching war movies because I don’t allow for any cheese in a war movie. Black Hawk Down and Platoon are two of my favorite war flicks, so every war movie I see I tend to compare to those two films. After the movie, Kristin took us both out to supper at McGlynn’s. The rest of the night was spent hanging out at my place playing cribbage and watching tv. I actually went to bed by about 1 am while Kristin and Ryan stayed up until 3 am or later playing cards.

Sunday my family came up to visit and get Ryan. To my surprise my grandma Meyer also made the trip. We all went out to eat at Fazzolli’s for dinner and then spent some time at the mall. When we were done tooling around the mall, we went back to my place to just sit and talk for a while since I don’t get to see my family all that often being here at college (and I do miss them, even if they like to tease me about not coming home). My grandma brought along my b-day present with her, which was super cool—a fiber optic bonsai tree. It was really funny because I put it up in the spot that I used to have the fiber optic Christmas tree and when Burns came home he asked me if I had gotten a new tree or if I had just trimmed down the Christmas tree.

A little while later my family had to head out for home. It was good seeing them, though. Now it is back to the old grind for a little over a month. Crap, where did my senior year go? It’ll probably go by pretty quickly too as I have a lot to get done these last few weeks. Mainly I have my big research paper to finish. My first complete draft is due on Tuesday and I have probably another 10 pages to write (I have about 20 or so done). Well, I’ll probably get working on that now. While I’m doing that, please spread the word that my site has been moved so I can get everyone reoriented to my new address—www.rickgebhardt.net.