The useless days in between Christmas and My Birthday
December 26th: Ken Day!
Ken came over around noonish, so that we could spend the whole day (pretty much) together. We started watching the Lions/Bears game. We only watched the first half, but the Bears looked terrible. The Bears ARE terrible. Watching the first half, I figured there was no way the Lions could lose. But, apparently, the Lions will always find a way to almost lose. It sounds like the refs gave them the win. Thank you, refs... the Bears don't deserve to win. They're terrible.
The reason that Ken and I didn't get to see the second half of the game was that he and I were playing Halo 2! Finally! I've been waiting for months to play through that stupid game... and we finally were able to play it. And let me tell you this... the cliff-hanger in this plot is SO egregious that it seems like they had to stop the game before it was finished. There is NO closure to the game's plot. It's irritating! I waited all this time to play that game, and now I'm just itching to play the next one (which will take Bungie another two or three years to complete, I'm sure). The good news is that there is a great sense of size to this game. There is a real sense, while you're playing it, that you're just a part of a massive and epic war effort. It's an incredible sense... but you also don't have many small hallways of bad guys like the last one; and the small hallways are always fun. But Ken and I played from about 3 PM to 1 AM (with a break for dinner).

December 27th: Welcome back to high school! But only in the "these are the people you still like" kind of way!
Around 5, Ken and Jason came over and played Halo 2 with me. We were able to play the version of Halo 2 that we REALLY love to play. We call it "Kill Ken." All players have active camo (are invisible), and rockets are the only weapon used. For some reason, we just love the shit out of this version of the multiplayer game. So we played it for a while... then played a little Halo 1, for nostalgia's sake. That was also fun.
From my house, we all headed to the China Fair restaurant. China Fair is, perhaps, the world's only Chinese Irish Sports Bar. It used to be a place called Casey McNabb's... which is why the building was built, so the whole building has a very Celtic feel to its architecture. And now it's a Chinese place (and not a very good one, at that). But it's always fun to go there and have crappy, way too expensive Chinese food. Really clears out the system, if you know what I mean. But, more importantly, it was the first time everyone (except for Jason and I) saw Ken. He wanted it to be a surprise, because he's gratuitously dramatic like that. But, screw Ken, it was awesome to see Nate and Allison again after a long time. And Rhea and Jean were there (looking nice). Speaking of looking nice, I saw Katie again. Aww... Katie. What could have been. Anyway, we had our dinner and talked and Rhea and Jean talked across the whole table so that everyone else had to sit there and listen. What bitches. I'm kidding, but I'm not. Bitches. Heehee. Anyway... I similarly hit on Katie across the whole table, so it wasn't just them. I am also a bitch. It was a nice dinner together.
After dinner, we went out to the newly renovated Burtch's house. Nate's parents have been renovating the crap out of their house. They've got a new kitchen, complete with a center island and a double oven. It honestly looks a lot like what I imagine my kitchen will be when/if I ever build my own house. And they have this vacuum system throughout the house where you just have to sweep toward the vent and then it vacuums it into the garage. How cool is that? The house is seriously huge now.
After the tour, Ken put his picture CD in a laptop and had a little slide-show of the pictures he took overseas. It was interesting to see what Ken had to put up with for a couple of months. It's also interesting to see what kinds of things they have are very modern and what kinds of things are very primitive. Interesting stuff.
After the three house slideshow (kidding), we then decided to get up and do something somewhat active. Nate set up a dart board in one of the still unfinished/unfurnished hallways. I had only played darts... um... once? before, but it was SO MUCH FUN! Ken and I played on the same team and we were awesome. So awesome, in fact, that we didn't win. We came close, though.
After darts, we sat down to watch a cheesy horror film... just like old times! This one was VERY different, though. It was a movie called Killer Condom, and it was entirely in German! There were subtitles, and a homosexual male lead... and it was VERY German. It was a riot, though. The whole movie... the plot... the dialog... everything was hilarious. It was so much fun!
I was very happy to see Rhea and Jean again... and everyone else, of course, but I was perhaps being overly affectionate with Rhea and Jean in particular. So Jean very matter-of-factly said "You must be lonely"! What tact! And, since she mentioned it... I guess I am. While I'm in Chicago, I have too much to do to feel lonely. But in BR--just hanging out with people I miss--it must've hit me again. Most of the times I've been with all those people together, I was dating someone. So maybe that has something to do with it. But, honestly, I can't wait to go back to Chicago just so I don't have to worry about it anymore. *sigh*
Once the movie was finished, we started talking. I miss the late night talking sessions that we had on occasion. It's weird that I've known Nate for most of my life, but I still find him totally fascinating. The whole conversation was interesting. But I think that near the end of the talk I was getting tired and just wanted people to see my point... so I may have raised my voice a time or two. Sorry everybody!