MMR: A Ranking of the Holidays

Holidays are amazing. I mean, you don't have to work but still get paid! Also, you can have parties or see family or travel cool places. I mean, its awesome! And, as always, some holidays are better than others. Uh oh, I feel a list coming on. Yes! But this will be an annotated list (like an annotated bibliography, but way more fun and interesting), so I can share my thoughts on why certain holidays ended up where they did. Also, feel free to chime in with your own lists. Tell me where I'm right and where I'm woefully ignorant!

THE INFALLIBLE LIST OF HOLIDAYS!

1. 4th of July - This holiday is my absolute favorite. One time I missed it because I almost died and was in the hospital and it sucked. I was more pissed about being locked up in the hospital than I was about almost dying. Independence Day is the ultimate American holiday. Summer sun, BBQ, pool parties, parades, and then, of course, fireworks, and then blowing shit up in the evenings! I mean, there is nothing bad about this. From when I wake up until when I go to sleep, this holiday is everything I love. There's no way anyone can make a case to me that there is a better holiday than this one, although you are welcome to try.

2. New Years Eve - New Years has held a special place in my heart over the last few years, as I have been travelling around to experience the changing of the year in different places. Last year I spent New Years Eve in Jackson Square, New Orleans. That was incredible, and still one of the best trips I've ever taken. The two years prior to that I spent New Years in Las Vegas, which is a party all unto itself. I mean, New Years is the ultimate party holiday, consisting of booze and fireworks. An awesome combination. Huge parties are everywhere, and it is a worldwide holiday. Good times. I still want to catch a New Years in Sydney and in Rio de Janeiro. That's gonna cost some coin, though, so it will have to wait. I'll lump New Years Day in here as well, as I do enjoy watching college football once I wake up.

3. Thanksgiving - Thanksgiving is the holiday of the three f's: football, family, and food. How can you go wrong with that? We always spend our Thanksgivings down in Lancaster with my dad's side of the family, which I don't get to see very often. So its always nice to go down and see my cousins and aunts and uncles and such. Plus, there's football to be watched and played, and amazing food. The whole weekend has just become a really fun tradition for me and my family. One I look forward to every year.

4. Christmas - Christmas is a fun holiday. You usually get (or take) some good time off work in there. There's cookies and lights and trees! All good things. There's presents, which I can take or leave. Its just a fun holiday. A lot of people would rank Christmas as their number 1 holiday, so I should probably talk here about why its way down at number 4 for me. First, Christmas is a very religious holiday, and since I'm not religious, that part doesn't really speak to me. But even just as a commercial entity, its still a #1 for many people. I guess I just don't like the added pressure Christmas seems to lay on people. Its very commercial. There's always this rush to buy things for people, hoping in turn they buy things for you. Which is retarded. The commercials for Christmas start earlier and earlier every year. I dunno, I guess I'm just a little tired of a lot of that stuff. I still love the decorating, and the sprirt of the holiday, and the family time. Its just fallen below the other holidays listed above. I'm a low stress kind of guy, and Christmas can definately be a high stress holiday.

5. Halloween - I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, but I still think its cool. The decorations for this holiday can be very entertaining and fun to put up. And when I get a chance to scare people, that's always the best. I'm not really into carving pumpkins, though. And I usually don't really care to dress up in costume. That's a creative bone I don't seem to have in my body. However, the parties are usually fun. So, its a good time, especially when it falls on a weekend, but its not among the upper escalon of holidays for me.

6. St. Me Day - I'm a fan of any holiday named after me. And green looks good on me! But I'm not a fan of beer, or getting completely shithoused (most of the time), so this holiday ends up being a fringe holiday for me.

That's it. No more holidays make my list. Any other holidays are awesome if I get to skip work while being paid, but I really have nothing to say about them.

Anyways, holiday #5 was fun this weekend. Just went to a house party with a buncha couples, which ended up being more ok than I feared it would be. I even (sorta) dressed up in a costume (kinda). So that was rather festive of me.

This weekend also ruled because both the Sharks and the Texas Longhorns won...but the Niners lost, so that was a bummer. At least they kept it close in a game they were supposed to be destroyed in.

Now, one lazy week before my epic week of epicness!