Christmas and Stuff

Well, I had one fantastic Christmas. On the one hand it was sort of sad because since all of us have grown up we don't do all the traditions that used to make Christmas so wonderful; but on the other hand it was great to be home and hang out with the family for a day. We actually opened up gifts last night so that we could sleep in this morning (one of our long-lasting traditions is to get up at 6:00 am to open gifts, apparently opening them on Christmas afternoon is out of the question). We started the day out with a wonderful brunch, the highlight of which was oyster stew. I love that stuff and am determined that we should have it more than just Christmas morning. We then proceeded to do what Miller's do best: play games. First we learned how to play cribbage. Then we moved onto Risk and ended with two games of Ticket to Ride, a very fun game that we just got this year, I would describe it as a mix between Risk and Monopoly, but more fun than either. We also spent a good part of the past two days playing games, including: Trivial Pursuit (which I won, thank you very much), Scategories, Quoridors, more Ticket to Ride and others that I can't remember. Much fun was had by all. In all it was one of the better Christmas's that I have experienced in the recent past. It was especially good to be with my family after spending last year in Spain (not that that wasn't wonderful, ha).

Moving on...
I am getting restless. This restlessness could be attributed to the following factors: 1) I have been home for a month with nothing to do and it's getting old, 2) I only have 6 days until I leave for Turkey and I am quite excited about it, 3) I tend to get restless easily and am always wanting to move onto the next thing. However, I think that the reason is deeper than any of the mentioned things. I feel a very deep restlessness, if that makes sense, like I'm not satisfied with something, like I should be living life differently. I feel like I should be further along in life than I currently am. It's hard for me to see my friends who went into college right out of high school, to see that they only have 3 semesters until they graduate, to know that I could be 3 semesters away from graduation instead of...I don't even know how many. It's hard for me not to wonder how my life could have been different if I would have chosen different paths. If I wouldn't have gone to RBC, if I wouldn't have gone into REACH, if I wouldn't have accepted the staff position with SEND. I'm not saying I'm not happy or even that I've made the wrong choices. In fact, I feel deep down in my gut that I made the right choices, that I should be very content with where I am because this is exactly where I am supposed to be. I'm simply saying that now and then I get to thinking about the alternatives. I realize that if I had gone right into a four-year college, not only would I be a different person, have totally different friends, and probably have different goals and views on life, but I would also probably be no closer to graduating than I am now, given my record for changing my mind about these things. In the long run it doesn't really matter. I've made the choices that I've made and there's no turning back; I really don't think that I would turn back if I could.

In other news, I shall be working for the next few days. I shall be taking inventory at the hardware store that my dad works at. It's not a particularly wonderful job, it mostly consists of counting for 8 hours a day. But it's a few days out of the house and it's a nice way to make money without a whole lot of effort. How nice.