Thankful

Since I don't have a family of my own, my holiday traditions/routines still revolve around my parents and family up in Elkhart.  Nothing wrong w/ that, I enjoy the Holidays up in northern Indiana.  However, I do have a Thanksgiving tradition in Indy that i've been lucky enough to be a part of for at least 7 years or so now.  Every year around this time, my Ritter crew group of friends all get together and do a dinner theme at someone's house.   I believe the first time we did this was either the 1st or 2nd year at "The Plex" (1st or 2nd year after college) and we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the house.  Since then it's evolved into a different food theme each year.   This year the theme was Italian/Pizza.  The dinner was tonight at Dave & Mo's house and was attended by the usual crew (Scott/Sara, Andy & his friend Elizabeth, Gigi/Matt, Matt/Abby, The Bucks, and then the oddball - me).  Now as we are getting a bit older, there are some young children involved as well.  As always, it was a good time as we ate, drank beer/wine, and rehashed numerous stories that we've told for years that date back to either their Ritter high school days, or our college & post college days.  I've heard their Ritter high school stories so many times I feel like I was there. 

Driving home tonight after our dinner, I got to thinking about many of the things in my life that I'm thankful for, so I thought I'd list a few.  

- I'm thankful for my group of Ritter HS / U of I college friends.  Dave, Scott, Andy, and Matt had a strong bond between them from their Ritter HS days and I've been blessed to have been infused into the group.  So much so that I was part of Scott's wedding and will also be in a groomsman in Dave/Mo & Matt/Abby's weddings in 2010. 

- The countless memories that i have w/ those 4 guys mentioned above, including all the debacles that have taken place over the past 10 years.  After all, who can forget these classics (in no particular order:)

• Matt getting knocked out (and possibly concussed) by a tequila bottle at my apartment either junior or senior year of college.  Or Matt concussing himself in a downtown Indy parking garage after a night out at the Ratheskellar.
• The cruises that both Dave and Matt have gone on w/ me
• Multiple trips to Windsor (Canada) and Vegas
• Ritter alumni basketball league.  Ritter alumni golf outings
• My 21st b-day.  Andy's 21st b-day. 
• At least 8 or 9 of the past 10 New Years Eves
• Various weddings of friends of ours that we've gone too
• The night before our college graduation - not sure if Scott remembers this....
• Trips up to Lafayette to visit Gaddis
• Concerts/music festivals
• Halloween awesomeness

- I'm thankful for many of my other non-Ritter friends as well, including my high-school buddies and many other friends that I met at U of I

- I'm thankful for my relationship w/ Marko - a kid who grew up in a different part of the world (Croatia) and taught me a lot about understanding other cultures/traditions

- I'm thankful for my family

- I'm thankful for my job/career/coworkers.  It has really helped shape me over the past 7 years - as well as provided some financial means to help produce many of the memories above. 

That's enough reflection for the night.  On other notes, the Pacers took their talents to South Beach tonight and pouneded LeBron and the Heat.  That was fairly shocking!  NFL bets are approaching historical proportions...well historic for me...73%!!  I still have 5 more weeks and the Playoffs for the laws of gambling to catch up to me, but i can't complain!

Vegas trip w/ Marko and Andy in less than 2 weeks.  We will be there Dec 3-6 - should be a blast as usual!  We are staying at Bally's...I hope I don't get the H1N1 flu this year like I did last year.  I won't have Dr. Scott w/ me this time to call in prescriptions of Tamiflu for me. 

No funny video link tonight.  Enjoy Thanksgiving!