Thanksgiving in Evansville

 This was my weekend! 

Perfect Food - I should mention that I made this beautiful Apple pie and it was delicious.

There was food.  Tons and tons of food.  I ate all the time.  I went to Evansville with Ems and Z to visit Ems parents for Thanksgiving weekend.  Her mom fed us all of the time.  She was always in the kitchen cooking and making breakfast or lunch or dinner or a snack.  Then she would be doing the dishes from some scrumptious meal.  I was happy.

I have never spent Thanksgiving with anyone other than immediate family.  This felt the same.  Except....better.  Everyone got along and co-existed well.  It was like we were always on the same page.  We knew when it was time to talk, when it was time to be quiet, when it was time to walk the dog and when it was time to play a game.  My family holidays were never this serene.  There was always some tension in the room or some bad feeling.  I don't remember ever having such a relaxed and stress free holiday weekend (sorry Lou).

We played Rock Band sometimes and Mexican Train Domino's sometimes and watched Football sometimes.  The weekend was all about relaxation and doing as we wished.  We went to see the newest Harry Potter movie and also went to see the special holiday light display.  There was talk about visiting the circus but what idea was quickly and quietly veto'ed.

I had a suitcase.  A L-A-R-G-E suitcase.  I like to have lots of options when I travel.  I realized something important about myself on this trip.  I don't like to decide what I am going to wear in advance.  What if I don't feel like wearing that t-shirt on Saturday.  What if I am cold or hot or want to dress up.  So I pack options.  Plus I don't like to wear clothes more than once.  If I wore a pair of pants all day Friday I don't want to wear them again on Saturday.  They are dirty!  So I had a large suitcase and it was filled.  Um....it was the size of both of my companions suitcases put together.  So I have a quirk.  Ok...this is one of many quirks but still...love me for my quirk.

Ems father has a big wooden block in his back yard for hatchet throwing, BB Gun and Crossbow shooting.  I was immediately intrigued.  The first time I visited I mentioned about four times how much I would like to throw the hatchets but no one ever really got the hint.  I made sure they understood my desire to play with these toys on this trip.  Ems dad thought I should start with the BB gun.  Whoop!!!!

 Look at me holding the gun all serous.  I was trying to aim at this tiny little target about fifteen feet away.

 He taught me how to put the safety on the gun as well as load it with a round of six pellets.  It took about two times but I understood the concept.  I aimed and fired.  And fired and fired.  Bam...I felt a pellet hit me in the stomach...then in the leg...then I heard them fall behind me into the leaves.

 I figured out that the pellets were ricocheting off the wood and back towards my body.  I decided if they were hitting me then I was hitting the target fairly square.  Do you notice the addition of safety glasses to my outfit.  Apparently someone was worried that I would "shoot my eye out".  W.  I kept shooting the rounds and I kept getting better and better.  I noticed that most of the dents in the wood were directly above the target so I made one final correction and I was on track.  I hit the paper target with with every pellet from my final round of ammo.  AWESOME!  I should mention that this was the first time that I have every shot any sort of gun or even held one.  Woot!

The second to last round of ammo got stuck in the chamber so Ems dad had to come back and get it unstuck for me.  Oops.  I think it was just a bad round and not a user error;)

When I was done with the six rounds of ammo he brought out the best toy ever.  The crossbow.  I have never held anything like it before.  It was awesome.  The rear sight was broke off the bow but I still had great aim.  I guess I have natural long distance eyesight because I got most of my arrows in the target and not just in the wood.  I really enjoyed this activity.  It felt good to learn something new.  I should mention that Ems dad wouldn't let me load the crossbow.  Apparently, he was afraid that I would somehow shoot a bow in my hand and require a trip to the hospital.  I was just happy that he was patient and stood there while I played with his toy.

Look at that!  This was on my third round of arrows.  It is so close to the blue triangle.  So close.  Perhaps next time I will make it in the center.

After being around my two good friends four days in a row if felt lonely when I came home.  My house was so empty and there was no one to talk to.  That feeling cements the fact that it was a super awesome weekend with super awesome people.  I love having friends that understand me and I understand them and we can all get along so well.  I couldn't think of a better way to spend four days.  Ok...one little thing was missing.  But she will come out again in the spring.