In case you actually care, I'm back home in Pensacola for the weekend. One of the benefits of having financially secure parents who love to spoil you and make you happy is that you get a gift for almost any time of the year. Remember that list of cds I aimed to have in my collection by the end of summer? My parents gave me all of them as a reward for my triumphant spring semester.

(For the record, I am very grateful and try to stay humble in the face of all my parents give me. <'Sweet Violin Music'>) )

My car was coughing like a congested chain smoker by the time I pulled into the driveway this evening. My mom came out to the car and snuck me into the house. I wasn't supposed to arrive until Friday, and when I called my mom with my change of plans, she decided to keep this news silent from my dad. Have you ever been going through your daily routine when someone special to you comes out of nowhere? That's what she wanted to do for my dad.

After the surprise and a good laugh, my mom gave me a gift. This one was just an in general, thinking of you present. She went through the extra effort of wrapping it, though based on the small, thin rectangular package it was obvious I had a new DVD in my collection. Undressing my package confirmed this suspicion, and I was especially excited to receive this movie

I don't normally make a thorough, concentrated effort to go see a movie, but last February I proclaimed my loudest desires to go see the movie Old School. The combo of Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson, and Vince Vaughn seemed to gut-busting to resist. I even had arranged the day I would see it on. That night, I did hang out with my friend, but instead of sitting in a movie theatre, he sat in the emergency room lobby while I tried to figure out whether I was passing a kidney stone or my stomach had exploded and caught on fire.

So I never saw Old School in the theatres. My friends all told me how hilarious it was. I knew it had to be incredibly funny. Smaller budget movies that do so well that a sequel is immediately put in the works are usually of good quality. And through the months I was constantly reminded about how I was the outsider, the dude that hasn't seen Old School. People would quote the movie, I'd give a confused face, remind that I didn't see the movie, and then I'd get that look like I had said I had never seen a cell phone before. But now I had the movie in my hands--- the unrated version at that--- and I'd finally see what the fuss was about.

And I have to say... you guys suck! This movie was hyped to me so vastly, I ended up hugely disappointed. The storyline was terrible, the outcomes predictable and hackneyed, and there was way too much dead time between funny moments. Of course, there were some pretty awesome parts--- that F-bomb coming out of nowhere in the wedding song was the most hilarious (and original) side-step comedy I've seen in a movie in a while--- but for the most part it was laugh out loud, then yawn for five minutes, then laugh out loud, then yawn for five minutes.

Now that I own it, I guess I'll be watching the wedding and poolside-mouth-to-mouth scenes over and over. I just can't get over how much you guys suck for getting me so up for this movie!