thanksgiving in memphis

I got up this morning at 4:30 a.m. to catch my 6 o'clock flight out of Memphis. With only 3 hours of sleep, I spent the flight sleepin off four days of family time with my mom, dad, sister and brother-in-law. Here is a brief recap of what my trip to memphis consisted of...

Wednesday
Memphis is known for two things. Music and Barbeque. Our first afternoon, we ate lunch at a barbeque rib joint called Corkey's. We had to get our ribs dry ("memphis style") which at first I wasn't too excited about but they turned out to be really, really good. After lunch we went and bought all the essentials to a perfect thanksgiving meal and spent the night just hanging out at my sister's new house, watching movies and talking.

Thursday
We got up really early to go run in our first ever "Turkey Trot." The "Turkey Trot" is a charity event where all participants run 4 miles in an effort to raise money for a charity. to be honest, I forgot who we were raising money for (woops). My sister and brother-in-law and I ran it together, while my parents took it easy and walked it. We ended up taking it pretty easy ourselves but marked about 5 people in the crowd that we had to beat (and we did). We crossed the finish line after about 46 minutes. At the time I felt pretty good but little did I know, my legs would be killing me the next two days. After my parents crossed the finish line at one hour and 6 minutes, we went home to rest up for the big dinner. My mom and sister spent pretty much the rest of the day preparing the food, while my dad, brother-in-law, and I watched football. At about 6, the meal was finally ready and we had a feast. Everything was good, from the Turkey to the pumpkin pie. My personal favorite part of the thanksgiving meal is the stuffing. After we ate and did the dishes, we were all really tired,so we watched a movie and fell asleep at around 9:45 p.m.

Black Friday
After not being able to sleep-in in a couple days, I was very happy to sleep right through all the early morning shopping that my mom and sister would be joining in in. They left at about 7:30 (apparently late for black friday) and us guys slept the morning away and got up around 10. My sister and mom still wanted to shop for a few more hours, so we decided to go visit the STAX Museum near downtown memphis. STAX used to be a world famous recording studio until the 70's when it went out of business. STAX is known for producing some of the greatest soul songs and artists of all time. My dad, being somewhat of a music buff, really enjoyed the museum and could have practically given us a tour of the museum himself.

After the museum we met back up with the rest of the family and spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out at the house. That night we finally had enough energy to go out, so we headed down to Beale St. to listen to some authentic memphis live music. My sister brought us to her favorite restaurant/bar called the Rum Boogie where James Govan plays live music every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. He apparently has played there every weekend for the past 15 years. The music was awesome and it was an atmosphere very different than anything you see up here in Wisconsin or Minnesota. The real, live music was so much more enjoyable than what you hear in bars in Madison, which is normally just some rap song blaring as loud as possible.

Saturday
My mom woke up in one of her "work modes" so there was no sleeping in that day. I was drug out of bed and sent out to the lawn to rake and bag leaves all morning. I wasn't too thrilled about doing chores at my SISTER's house but I put up with it and we were done in just a couple hours. That afternoon we drove down to Tunica, Mississippi to do a little gamblin'. My dad and I are really into casinos and table games and my sister and mom aren't ones to shy away from the slots either. My dad and I did the winning for the family after a great craps run and a good stint at blackjack. Unfortunately, my mom and sister lost their money at the slots so we decided to head back home after just a couple hours of gaming. We met back up with my sister's husband and went to another staple of Memphis that night for dinner. The Rendezvous. Another rib place. These ribs I thought were even better than the ones at Corkey's. Being that we were already downtown, we headed over to BB King's to listen to some more live music and to have a couple drinks. The BB King All-stars were playing that night and I thought were almost as good as the James Govan band. They played strictly covers (per request) so the set list was of course filled with classics. After a couple hours of music, we headed back home to rest up for an early flight in the morning. The trip to Memphis was a blast and it was great seeing and spending time with the fam again. The week made me that much more excited for winter break and my long break from the books.

lazy sunday

Disappointment of the weekend was obviously the badgers less than stellar performance against Northwestern. so much for being partial owners of a big ten title. oh well. Today however, made up for it when the vikings dominated Seattle and pretty much locked up the NFC North. Unfortunately the packers were playing at the same time and stole the TV coverage so us Minnesotans were not able to witness the vikings victory live. thats probably the worst part about going to school in wisconsin. the other worst part about being in wisconsin is having to be surround by packer fans everyday.

For instance, last night I was at Monday's with a few friends when I struck up a conversation with a nice girl from Green Bay. When I told her I was from Minnesota, she immediately started ranting about brett favre. she also kept hassling me for once hating brett favre, but now suddenly being a fan because he's on my team. I tried to tell her that she flip flopped just as big because she once loved brett but now despises him for joining the superior vikings. she wasn't able to see the parallel of course (she is a packer fan after all) and continued to question my fanhood for the vikings...typical cheesehead

anyway, I'm still trying to figure out what blogging is all about. I've looked at some other ones and see that they're all pretty random. with that, enjoy the creepiest commercial of all time that I saw today...

the test

So last night was the second of three Finance 300 exams. I was nervous because the first exam went less than poorly for me. This one however was not quite as bad. I studied better for this one and was much more prepared. When it was over, I had that same feeling you get when you finish your last final of the semester. Like a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders and you don't have a care in the world. I then celebrated appropriately and has thus left me feeling a little "drowsy" today. Now I'm just gonna enjoy the weekend without any tests hanging over my head and can't wait for my trip to Memphis. I'm a little bummed that I don't get to go home and visit all my friends from Edina, but at the same time am looking forward to spending a few days with my sister and family, who I see also fairly sparingly.

Funny story from last night - Brett and I were walking to Asian Kitchen for a late night feast when we decided to throw m&m's at innocent bystanders walking past us on the sidewalk. One must have got away from Brett, because it connected with an oncoming car who's driver then stopped, got out, and yelled "THROWING ROCKS AT CARS HUH?!?"..."It was an M&M sir!"I yelled back. and then Brett and I took off down the block and hid behind a house until things cooled off

thanksgiving "break"

So for me thanksgiving break is not really a break from school worth getting too excited about. Since I don't have class on wednesdays and I've been to my one friday class (a discussion) only one time this whole semester, I'm really essentially only getting Thursday off. This however is quite rewarding in itself considering I have four power lectures on Thursdays (brutal). Because next week is so abbreviated, this week is really my final week before break. The major task of the week is my Finance 300 exam tomorrow (Thursday) night. For anyone who has taken this course, you know how hard these tests are. They make Accounting 100 exams look like times tables. i.e. the class average on the first exam was 65%... So now I have yet another one to battle this coming Thursday. The good news is that after that test, I am basically finished with major school stuff before break (except for of course working day and night on my English 201 blog and revisions).

Albeit a brief break, I can't wait for Thanksgiving. My sister and her husband just recently moved to Memphis, Tennessee where my family will be celebrating Turkey Day this year. I haven't visited Memphis since Katie and Collin (sister and husband) got their new house so I am really excited for the trip. They live just a couple miles from the famous Beale St and for anyone who loves live music, you can't get much better than what plays on Beale. The last time I visited Memphis I got to go to Graceland and took a tour of Sun Studios. We spent each night listening to live music (mainly jazz/blues) at least until the bars kicked me out at 9 for not being 21. This year however, I am of age and am looking forward to spending more time on beale street at the bars and music clubs.

This year, my family will also be participating in some sort of walk-a-thon on Thanksgiving Day (called the Turkey Trot), which involves walking 4 miles in an effort raise money for something (a group or organization or school, I don't even know). This idea came from my Mom, being that she has been going through a major exercise phase...and hey, why not do something nice while we're at it.

Obviously the other great part about Thanksgiving, is the food. My dad and I always talk about how we would be perfectly content with having the classic Thanksgiving meal (turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing etc.) for every dinner for the rest of our lives. and don't forget the pumpkin pie. The perfect combination of turkey with some stuffing and mashed potatoes, topped with gravy, is the goal for every bite.

Just thinking about it right now is making my mouth water.

this blog...

After going through my first few posts, I noticed that until I actually go on my trip to Europe, this blog seems a little pointless. Last night I was trying to think of a good post and obviously didn't come up with anything too great (i.e. no more television woes...). However for this assignment I have in English, I need to continue to post. The guidelines are that I must have a specific audience and purpose for my blog. Eventually my audience will be my friends and family and the purpose will be to keep people up to date on my travels and experiences overseas. As for now, my audience is my classmates and instructor in my English 201 class (and anyone who randomly comes across it). So with this audience, I will say that the purpose of the blog will be to inform them on how school is going over these next couple weeks and my thoughts and reactions to current events. So expect one of those two things to be the topic in posts to come

no more television woes

I've noticed that in the past couple years most major network sitcoms and dramas have gone very down hill. Shows like The Office, Family Guy, and 24 just aren't what they used to be. Luckily cable and premium cable is still delivering fantastic TV. My two favorite networks are HBO and FX. They produce shows like The Sopranos, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and FX's recent addition "The League." As someone who's favorite sitcoms are Seinfeld, Curb, Sunny and Entourage, I am loving "The League" so far. Its about a group of middle aged men who stay connected through a fantasy football league. Similar to Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "The League" doesn't have any big stars. But the characters in the show make up for its lack of recognizability. The series is only three episodes in and I am already hooked. The show is very crude and surprisingly shocking at times. Being that its on FX it can get away with a lot more than shows on NBC or FOX. Also for any Seinfeld fan that for some reason hasn't been watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, this season would be the best possible time to start. Seven seasons in, Curb has truly hit its stride. This season, in my opinion, has been the funniest season of any show I've ever watched. So for those of you who feel that TV has been tanking, start watching The League, and jump into Curb or Sunny and you won't be disappointed. 

Parents Weekend!

So since we have to discuss our "first draft" of this assignment tomorrow, I figured I should try to get at least a few posts up so that my group can discuss my "draft" for more than 30 seconds...

From what I've seen, a lot of blogs are simply just a recap of a persons day or week etc. Following this formula, I'll discuss this past weekend. My parents came to visit me because it was "parents weekend" in my fraternity. They arrived on Friday at around 4 in the afternoon. Whenever my parents come to visit me at school I am always faced with the same dilemma. How do you entertain two fifty plus adults in Madison? During the day its fine because we just kind of walk around campus, go to state street, have lunch and so on. But then at night, what do we do? I don't really want to bring them out with my friends to some bar for obvious reasons and other than that, the night life is fairly limiting with ma and pa on your side. So Friday, we went to an early movie. We saw The Men Who Stare at Goats, which turned out to be very average. After the movie, I thought I'd show them a staple of Madison. The Great Dane Microbrewery and Restaurant. Crowded as usual we had a long wait for a table. We enjoyed a couple German microbrews at the bar as we waited until we finally got a table about 45 minutes later. The dinner was delicious and by the time we were finished it was already almost ten o'clock. Being that anything past 9:30 is considered the middle of the night for my parents, I had to bring them back to their hotel for bed.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get tickets for the Michigan game this weekend, so I took my well rested parents to State Street Brats to watch the game. We met up with a couple other families and were somehow able to get a couple tables for all of us. After watching the Badgers beat up on Michigan, we took a little stroll around State St. My mom wanted to go shopping but my Dad's and my attention span only lasted through about 20 minutes of aimless "sport" shopping as we like to call it. That night we were in the mood for Italian, so we opted to go to Gino's on State. Once again we had a great meal and we even got to meet Gino himself. After dinner, we met my cousin over at the Blue Velvet for a drink. Tony (cousin) is a part time bartender there so all our drinks were on the house. awesome. It was getting pretty late (9:15 p.m.) so I drove my mom and dad back to their hotel. Their old person ways must have rubbed off on me because after I dropped them off I was exhausted. I went back to my house and fell asleep within minutes of hitting the bed.

The next morning, we had breakfast at Perkins and then it was time to send them off. After a couple of big hugs they hopped in the car and headed back to Minneapolis. Parents weekend actually turned out to be a great time and I look forward to the next time they come visit.

What made the weekend nearly perfect though was watching the Vikings add yet another "W" onto their record...sorry Green Bay
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my first blog ever

For English 201, I have an assignment that lets me choose any type writing genre for the final paper. I thought I would take this opportunity to start a blog. We have talked some in class about how big blogs are becoming so I thought I would see what it was all about. One of my friends at school just started one, his is titled "Bemo State of Mind" so I thought I'd pay tribute to his blog as it also sparked my interest in blogging (hence my blog title). I also thought a blog would be a good thing to start for when I go to Italy this spring. It will be tough to communicate with all my friends and family back home so I'm thinking I'll keep this blog up to date with what I'm doing and where I'm going during my 5 months in Europe. I should credit this idea to one of my friends from high school who just spent a semester on the "semester at sea" program. So thank you Hannah P for your inspiring blog. I hope mine can be as entertaining as yours was. Anyway, those are the reasons that I started this blog and I hope my followers (all 3 of em) enjoy...
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