The Thanksgiving Holiday

Thanksgiving is here again, and I was lucky enough to see my family and friends after traveling home for the first time in months for a much needed break. To get home, I flew out from the Rochester airport to LaGuardia and from there took a shuttle home. The flight was delayed for four hours, and a little turbulent, especially when landing, but it was great to be home. Flying above NYC is an amazing experience, seeing the sheer size of the city and how complex it must have been to build is not a sight that I hope to ever take for granted. It is truly a testament to human ability. Seeing random lights from cars or houses in the darkness is always welcome and gives me a sort of vicarious experience as I try to place myself in the position of whomever I am observing from way above, and wonder what it must be like to be where they are. I would comment on the shuttle ride too, but traffic isn't quite as appealing. Still, I made it home, and I was glad to be there. 

Now, over the break my parents gave me a curfew (which in my mind was absolutely ridiculous, and embarrassing I might add), and thinking economically, I decided to counter with the argument that they were only incentivizing me to drive faster, and that if I really wanted to stay out I would anyway. Of course, this argument was entirely bogus, but I thought it would be funny to make. Well, as you would expect, it got a chuckle but no sympathy. Their argument for a curfew was that if I stayed out late,  I tended to sleep in during the day. Aha! To this, I can make a much better economic argument. So I did. I explained how I valued staying out late more than I valued waking up early, since my evening hours are often more productive than my morning hours. At night, I can stay up late hanging out with friends, and on Thanksgiving I even stayed up late to do work. How responsible! On the flip side, in the mornings I am usually at a loss for what to do: my friends are asleep, plans always occur in the afternoon, and I usually do not have the drive to work. So of course I want to sleep in! I get more sleep and get to use the time I value more in the evening. Who are they to tell me what time to get home? 

Well, unfortunately, it didn't take long for them to counter that too. I wake them up when I come home late, and typically my dog starts barking, which potentially wakes up the whole house. And they also worry more when I am out late, finding it difficult to sleep if they know that I am not home. Oh well, it appears that they have a point. Still, I thought my argument was good.