Fatsquad Christmas

For the last few years, Rich, Josh, Hilton and I (the roadtrip crew) have had our own little Christmas where we get each other a solid amount of stuff. This year, since I live with Rich and Josh, we got each other more stuff than ever, which was all under the tree for several days, which meant lots of anticipation. I headed back home 2 days after Christmas, we got buffaques, watched some wrestling, and commenced with the giving and receiving. It was pretty awesome. Here are some highlights. 

I got 2 sweet ducks:

Josh gave me Turtle Beach headphones. These are headphones for video games. Yup, I now have GAMER HEADPHONES. I made fun of them for having them back before I played, but you know what? They're pretty damn awesome. 

I also now have a print and probably soon to be t-shirt of a sweet art print Josh made for our GAMER CLAN, The Grim North. It's terrifying and extremely bad ass:

I tried to do art for them, but I spent a long time on one and couldn't get it right, and ran out of time for the other, which looked terrible immediately. I guess this wasn't the year for me doing art. Maybe next year. 

I got Weasel some snacks. It was weird going into a pet store to buy presents for my dog roommate. He was pretty psyched about some of them. Doggy potato chips!

whaaaat? Those are for meeeee???

Rich got him a totally bitchin' American flag hoodie. How cool does he look?! Sadly, his tiny legs just got stuck in the sleeves (which was hilarious), but man does he look cool.

Josh got Rich a wicked sweet portable coleman grill. Even if no camping out every happens, we are absolutely gonna be psyched he has this for next year's full day at fernal. 

Since moving in, I've become an avid wrestling fan. As dumb as most of it is, I love it. It's so entertaining. Rich talked a lot about how much he loved The Rock's new shirt, so even though he thought he was getting a shirt of a guy he hated (because I told him he was for weeks), he got exactly what he wanted.

I think my favorite moment was giving Rich a case of Shipyard Applehead beer.

Rich's favorite beer is Pumpkinhead, and has been freaking out since the moment he heard they were going to make a beer like it, but with apples instead of pumpkins. It was available only in Mass at first, and he was super mad he couldn't get it. I obviously wanted to surprise him with some on our Christmas, but it didn't look like it was going to happen. Before leaving Maine, I called Shipyard to ask if they had any. They said no, they probably wouldn't for a few weeks, but I could get it in a sampler pack, and even though I couldn't get a pumpkinhead pint glass, I could get an applehead one. Good enough. I had to do a lot very fast to leave my house in time to get there before 5, when I assumed they were closing. I was flying there, panicked and checking my phone every few minutes to see how much closer I was. Portland traffic screwed me over, and I was screaming in my car at 5:04, a quarter mile from the brewery. Turns out they actually closed at 6, so the open flag made my day. And then I opened the door to see an entire display of Applehead, making me even more psyched. I made sure to give him the glass first, and as he was being excited about it, said "you can't drink it yet, but at least you have the glass" or something. So even when I gave him the present and it was clearly beer, he had no idea. "WHERE DID YOU GET THIS!?!? HOW!?" It was fantastic. A Christmas beer-acle. 

After that, I gave Josh a present that had been either under my desk under a curtain, or buried in my closet behind shirts for the last month and a half: A super awesome mounted deer head.

look at how much Irwin loves it!

We had seen it at an antique store for a pretty reasonable price, and he was pissed he didn't have enough money to get it. I went out the next day and bought it, putting it in my trunk and making up some lie about how "my trunk was so full of crap that I wasn't even gonna try" when I went grocery shopping with him later that day. I had to sneak it in while Josh was sleeping. A few days before Christmas, I went back to that antique store with Josh, and he was super bummed out that the deer was gone. "You gotta strike while the irons hot man" is all I said. I love when that happens, but I thought for sure that he assumed he would be getting it. But his response of "FUCK YOU" when we gave it to him (Rich paid for half) showed me that he really was shocked. And psyched. 

I did well- I got candy, some gift cards, a cardboard guitar, some DVDs, Josh Gates' book I forgot he was even writing, and a ton of comics I've already started reading. I also got something pretty weird, which ought to be quite awesome and make my life much more interesting:

I doubt anyone reading this other than Joe knows what Alpha Brain is, but it's basically a vitamin supplement that is supposed to improve focus, mental drive, determination, etc. We heard about it from Joe Rogan's podcast and tweets, and what excited us about it is that it's supposed to give you extremely vivid, detailed, and eventually/hopefully lucid dreams. It's a tad sketchy because it's fairly unknown and you can only buy it online, but it sounds pretty legit. My mom was terrified at the idea, but I'm ready to have some epic dreams. Rich told me he was thinking of getting it for Josh, and I said "get it for all of us!" This led to me assuming I'd get it, and then somehow forgetting entirely about that very interaction. So getting this was genuinely surprising and exciting. They've already started it, but I haven't. I'll be starting it in a few days, and I'll be tracking my progress here. This blog is gonna get interesting.

Definitely a solid post-Christmas Christmas with the roommates. 

Christ-mess