The little survey Fluff sent me...

So you're supposed to put a little 'X' beside the ones you've done. Here we go!

( ) Been to Europe

( ) Been on a cruise

( ) Gone on a blind date

(X) Skipped school - Only so I could eat an Easter dinner with my family...

( ) Watched someone die

( ) Been to Canada

( ) Been to Mexico

( ) Been to Florida

(X) Been on a Plane - starting when I was 8 weeks old!

(X) Been lost - profoundly

(X) Been on the opposite side of the country - opposite both ways: to both Minnesota and California. Ha.

( ) Gone to Washington , DC- I wish

( ) Been to Vegas

( ) Climbed a lighthouse - Maybe? I don't know...

(X) Swam in the ocean - I'm pretty sure I did in North Carolina.

(X) Cried yourself to sleep

( ) Seen the Cherry Blossoms in Washington , D.C.

(X) Played cops and robbers -I think?

( ) Owned a boat -My grandparents did. Does that count?

( ) Watched grandchildren grow - I'd have to have kids first, wouldn't I?

( ) Recently colored with crayons--. -The fact that this isn't 'x'd is sad.

( ) Been to the Kentucky Derby

( ) Been to Key West

(X) Been to a rodeo--

(X) Sang Karaoke – .

(X) Paid for a meal with coins only? -Does Sonic happy hour count?

(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? -Again, who hasn't?

(X) Made prank phone calls - Unsuccessfully, but yes.

(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose -Diet Coke or carbonated beverages hurt coming out of your nose.

(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue

(X) Danced in the rain -I've also marched in the rain.

(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus

( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe

(X) Watched the sunrise with someone -Try 400 other someones. Oh marching band.

( ) Seen the green flash at sunset (This seriously exists? It's not just on POTC?)

(X) Blown bubbles - Oh blowing bubbles on the bus. Good times.

(X) Gone ice-skating - I failed miserably.

(X) Gone to the movies -Er, yeah.

( ) Owned a convertible

1. Any nickname? Ray Ray and Rewind

2. Mother's name? Elizabeth. We're facebook friends. ;)

3. Favorite Beverage? Diet Coke, sometimes Vanilla Coke Zero

4. Body Piercing? Just the hole in each ear.

5. How much do you love your job? How much? We'll go with 60-80% depending on the day, who I'm working with, and if I have homework.

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7. Hawaii? What about it?

8. Ever been to Africa? Nope

9. Ever eaten just cookies for dinner? Potentially, although I can't really recall if I have or not.

10. Ever been on TV? If you count being in the Rose Parade

11.. Ever steal any traffic sign? Nope- I lack the nefarious mind to think to do that sort of stuff.

12. Ever been in a car accident? Not a real one: just a couple parking lot altercations

13. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? Mildred's got 4 doors.

15. Favorite number? Haven't got one

16. Favorite movie? I can't really say- I don't know if I really have one.

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18. Favorite dessert? Er... well, something sweet is always nice. I like ice cream a lot, especially when it has M&Ms mixed in and it's put in a waffle cone. Mmm.

19. Favorite food? Mexican and Italian. Not together- it's just a tie. ;)

20. Favorite day of the week? Er, Friday?

23. Favorite smell? Vanilla

24. How do you relax? A lot of different ways. Watch tv. Hang with friends. Read. Write. Play Sims 2. It's all good.

25. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Teaching. I'd love to be married by then, but some guy will have to get off his posterior and ask me out before that could happen.

26. Furthest place you will send this message? I'm not *sending* it anywhere, but given that it's going out to the web at large... I don't know. Someone let me know how far this travels, k?

27. Who will respond to this the fastest? Nobody will respond since I'm not emailing it.

28. What was the job you liked best? Working at the front desk at the vet clinic.

29. What is the weirdest animal you have ridden? Ooh! I think a camel at the zoo. Or maybe an elephant. They're pretty traditional riding animals, but I think they're about as 'strange' as I've gotten.

Since I'm bored...

I'll update my blog! We'll just make this a productive time after all! :)

Anyway, not much of note happened this week, except for starting classes. I went and bought my books on Tuesday, and subsequently parted with $390- a lot more than last semester. It seems that all my classes this semester required at least one book, and that even getting them used didn't seem to help: the bookstores still slapped me in the face with prices. Guh.

I'm only taking 16 hours this semester, and I can already tell that I'll be bored a great deal of the time. MWF only has 2 classes: Structures of English at 9, and band at noon. Tuesday/Thursday, on the other hand, is craziness on a stick: I go almost non-stop from 8am til 2pm. Can you say eew? I do have a half hour that I can eat lunch (although not in the cafeteria), so I packed myself a peanut butter sandwich and some tortilla chips to eat, but stupidly forgot a drink, so I ended up getting a strawberry banana smoothie in the student center. The smoothie, I must say, was the best part, although for almost $4.50, I was a little disappointed with how very icy it was. Memo to smoothie people: less ice, more fruit/yogurt combo. The lady who made my smoothie (who I think transferred down there from Starbucks) had to spoon it out of the blender, so I guess I knew I was in for a pretty thick beverage. Oh, and there were a bunch of munchkins, probably about 5th grade, who were visiting campus for some event or another (I can't keep track of how many times I see children wandering about the student center in nice clothing and nametags...), and so this little boy who was waiting for some ice cream at the same place I was getting my smoothie at decided to strike up a conversation with me about just how nasty the sushi he tried (presumably at the neighboring place) was. I just kinda smiled and nodded, and tried to be a good person by acknowledging him and even engaging a bit in a conversation. I was a little surprised that he would talk to me, but whatever floats his boat, I guess!

Friday was uneventful for the most part. I only had the 2 classes again, and in English I was one of only a handful who were able to successfully diagram a sentence on a diagnostic quiz that we took. My 8th grade grammar teachers would be proud that I managed to dig all that nonsense up. Frankly, I didn't see what the huge deal was: I mostly figured the little sentence diagram (which was fill in the blank) out by looking at the different marks. Lines to separate nouns from verbs from direct objects, little tails to put adjectives and adverbs on. Yet there were people who had no idea what was going on. Oh well- guess that's why you take the class, eh? My friends and I went to go see HSM3 that night at the student theater that night, and I realized how much I missed the dollar movies. I frankly don't know what I'll do after college, since I always put off seeing movies until they come here so I don't have to spend the $7.50 for a movie in the regular theater.

Other than that, I was up half the night on Friday for various reasons, but I'm trying to move beyond that so I won't go in to detail. Saturday morning I woke up, called my mom, and then one of my friends called asking if I wouldn't come help them move. Facility transfers were moved up to Friday, and so both of my friends transferred into the same complex as me. We spent most all of yesterday just loading up cars (since their old rooms had to be completely empty before they could check out- eew), then subsequently unloading the cars into their new rooms. It took awhile, but overall I think we made good time: we got 2 people moved out and in in about 4-5 hours, which is not bad at all, considering it took the better part of days to move another one of my friends out last semester. In gratitude for our help, Liliana took Meghan and I to Zest-e-Burger. Zest-e is this little hole in the wall burger stand kinda on the outskirts of town, and our band director will never shut up about it. So, since neither Meghan or I had ever gone, we decided to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out that Campo knew what he was talking about, since they were actually really good burgers. Everything was wrapped in wax paper, which was such a refreshing change from the normal paper that you get at most fast food places. The burgers were pretty juicy, too, and their meals were like $3.50 for a burger, fries, and drink. Can't beat that!

I worked last night for the finals of the Schmitbaur (sp?) Competition. It was, according to one of my co-workers who sat in on it, really good: the performers were the finalists of the junior division and from what I heard from the lobby, could really perform their pieces. It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid people can be when it comes to recital etiquette: I must've had 3 people ask me, after they arrived late, if we would seat between movements. Even if it wasn't common sense, there was this huge (and I mean prominent) sign that detailed the etiquette expected of all concert-goers, which clearly stated that you could only enter/exit when a performer was done. *shakes head* Then came the catering thing. Apparently the Friends of Music (or somebody) hired catering to come and do a little reception afterwards. The music secretary, Missy, had been selling tickets and left after the first performer was done playing their two pieces. I totally could understand her logic: no point in her sticking around when there wasn't a whole lot of call for tickets 20 minutes into the concert. Anyway, she tells me on her way out that if catering asks, tell them to set up in the main lobby of the concert hall, not in the lobby in the main music building. Alrighty- sounds simple. So when catering showed up, trundling in with their carts, they looked at me and my co-worker and asked where to set up, which I was able to answer. They then looked around and then wanted to know where the tables were. Tables? What tables?! I honestly told them I had no idea, I was simply told that they were to set up in that lobby area. The girl kinda rolled her eyes at it all (you could tell she was not pleased to be doing this on a Saturday night) and dragged her fellow workers to find them. About 10 minutes in, this other older guy comes and kinda guides them in the task at hand. Meanwhile, they're making a tremendous ruckus and my co-worker and I are exchanging these looks like "Er, hello-there's kinda a concert going on inside, and these walls are far from soundproof. Maybe it's not that cool to be talking loudly and setting up/knocking down tables in here." Then, this frazzled older lady comes out, mumbles something about flowers as she walks past me and out to the lobby, and there's another exchange of looks. The lady returns with this, no joke, HUGE flower arrangement and looks helplessly at the yet-to-be set up tables and decides to put the arrangement on the bench, instructing me that the flowers should go in the center of the table. Er, alright: so now I'm an events director? *raised eyebrow* So, after overseeing that the table is put together (which mostly meant that I stood around and watched as the catering people did their thing), the catering folks cleared off, and I was left eyeing the sheet cake that they had put out. It looked so yummy, and I could've used the sugar, given that I only had what amounted to a couple handfuls of popcorn for dinner. But just as I was eyeing the other little sweets they had put out, out comes one of the other recital crew people asking if I had seen "Kevin". I don't know who Kevin is, why he'd be important, and certainly don't know why this girl would need to find him so desperately. I reply in the negative, and this poor girl goes running off to find Kevin, who is apparently one of the performers and actually won the competition. Smooth. Add person finder to the long list of things that we do that aren't in our job description. Anyway, she ended up finding him and the concert ended at about 9, which was nice. I hopped into my car and came home, stopping by a friend's room for a little while before crashing in my quiet bed.

I think that about wraps the week. I have work today at 2:30 (which means I need to be there at 1:45), and after that I'm free to peruse my English book and hang out with my friends.

Until next week,
~r

I'm on a roll!

This looked interesting, so I'll fill it out and let you read it!

Name: Rachel!
Eye Color: Not sure: my driver's license says hazel if that helps, but a lot of times they look more blue/green nowadays.
Shoe size: Either a ten or eleven, depending on the brand- for example, the Nine West pumps I bought yesterday were 10.
Height: I'd say 5'8" on a good day. Don't ask me what it could be on a bad day.
What brands are you wearing right now? Brands? Like clothing? I'm wearing my Allen Animal Shelter shirt and some Access 9 capri pj bottoms from kohls. I also have a Dell laptop sitting on my lap, if that counts.
Favorite Number: See last post- I don't have one!
Favorite drink: Diet Coke or Diet Citrus Green Tea
Favorite Month: November (but not for Thanksgiving- just because it's a cool month)
Favorite Breakfast: Toast, with butter. And a Diet Coke. Or, occasionally, Starbucks. Mmm.
***********Have You Ever*****************
Love/Liked someone so much it made you cry? Negative.
Been in a police car: Not in my memory.
Came close to dying: Yes! That car swinging out of the Chick-fil-a parking lot onto North Street into my lane... *shudder* But I came close to dying with a carload of friends, so it's all good.
Been in a hot tub: I think I have, actually.
Fallen asleep in school: Yes: back in the day, we called it nap time.
Broken someone's heart: If I have, it's news to me.
Cried when someone died: Are you kidding? I cry when a fictional character dies...
Fell off your chair: *twitches* Yes... although "fell" really should be changed to "fallen"
Saved e-mails: Gmail saves all of me emails. HA!
Ever been cheated on?: For that to happen, I would need a significant other...
***********What is-****************
Your room like: Which one? The one at home? Or the one at school? How about we describe both! Home- bright green, a bit messy, with blue and white curtains. Quite empty given my absence at school, but currently full of things I need to put in the car. School- clean, cold, tastefully decorated, and homey.
Last thing you ate? Dinner last night was amazing hamburgers my dad grilled, on onion rolls and with sharp cheddar cheese. Waffle fries with it.
--------------------------Ever Had- -------------------------------
Chicken pox: Yup, second grade. All I can remember is being itchy and oatmeal baths.
Sore throat: Uhm, yeah, I think everybody has: mine always came from yelling too much at the football games.
Stitches: Nope.
-------------------------Do You------------------------------------
Believe in love at first sight? *shrug* It sounds nice...
Like picnics? Not particularly- something about eating outside on the ground seems a little... *shudder*
Like school? I can't give you an objective answer on that... I have conflicts of interest.
-----------------------Questions-----------------------------------
Who was the last person you danced with? Uhm- probably my friends at college.
Who makes you smile? My family and my friends.
------------------Who---------------------------------
Did you last yell at? LOL- my brother
Do you wear contact lenses or glasses? Both, though I've been wearing my glasses a lot more than I used to.
Do you like yourself? Eh, most days I do.
---------------------Final Questions---------------------------
Favorite song? It changes too much.
What did you do today? Er... got up. Oh, and I checked my email and forums. It's 7:50- what do you expect?!
----------------------RANDOM--------------------------------
Hate someone in your family? I supremely dislike, sometimes, but probably not hate.By the by, this quiz lies- the last section said final questions.
Good singer? Am I a good singer? Ha! Suffice to say there was a reason I opted for band over choir.
Diamond or pearl? Diamond's my birthstone, pearls are less ostentatious.
Are you oldest? Of my siblings? Yes. Of other things, no.
Indoors or outdoors? In, most days.
----------------------------Today did you------------------------------
Talk to someone you like? I talked to my mommy.
Get sick? I hope not... that's the last thing I want. I'm attributing a icky stomach to the fact that I don't like leaving to go back to school, even though I always like it when I get there.
Sing? Not yet- although given that I'll be driving for 3 and a half hours, I imagine that I'll sing at least once.
Talked to an ex: Don't have any except for ex-roommates, two of which I'm not really on speaking terms with.
Miss someone: I imagine I'll miss my family when I get to Nac.
Tell someone you loved them? Yup- my daddy before he left for work.
----------------------------Last person who---------------------------
You talked to on the phone? Uh... good question. Not a lot of phone communication going on.
Drove in the car with you? My mom.
Went to the movies with you? My family. We saw Yes Man.
----------------------------HAVE YOU-------------------------------------------
Been to Mexico: N'ole.
Been to Canada: Negative, eh?
Been to Africa: Er, no. Although I know someone who has and I've seen the pictures.
----------------Random-----------------------
Do you have a crush on someone: Fictional characters if anyone.
What books are you reading right now? Well, I just finished my mom's class book "A Paradise Called Texas", and I've been re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia.
Best feeling in the world: I imagine it depends on the person.
Future kids names? No idea: kids won't be coming for a long while.
Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Of course!
What's under your bed? Bed at home? Lots of crap, dust, and perhaps a cat sleeping.
Who do you really hate? Hate? I don't think I hate anybody.
Do you have a job: Yup! I babysit music students and reinforce how they're supposed to act in a concert. It's technically called recital crew, but I think it's a bit of teacher training, too.
Ever liked someone you didn't have a chance with? Fictional characters are so hard to pin down... ;)
Are you lonely right now: Not really- I've got animals and an obnoxious little bro to keep me company.

Yes, another list

So, since I seem to be incapable of writing paragraph statements of what occurs in my life, I shall resort to this old standby of a list sort of setting. Today's list is entitled "Things I've noticed about myself." Enjoy.

1. Spelling comes as a hit or a miss for me. Seeing as how I'm looking to teach language arts, this is somewhat worrying to me.
2. I worry incessantly about things that really shouldn't matter. Memo to me: stop doing that.
3. As much as I love the friends I've made in college, I'm still giddy about the fact that I'm almost to the halfway point in my college sentence. Yay!
4. I seem to be the golden child of the family.
5. No matter how hard I try, I will most times cry when a fictional character dies: even if it's been building up for most of the book.
6. I'm a critical person, most of all on myself.
7. Decision making does not come easily to me, especially when it comes to spending money.
8. If I had been born in any past century, I would've been quite the norm of a woman with the skill set I seem to be acquiring. As it stands, I'm just looked at as the crazy girl who probably will end up with a million cats and unmarried when I'm 50.
9. My eyes are more blue/green now than they were five years ago.
10. Although I'm 19, I've gotten into the habit of introducing myself as 'almost 20', as though to emphasize the fact that I'm getting increasingly old.
11. I write lots of lists, particularly of things that I need to remember to pack. Said lists could easily take up a notebook on their own, had they not been so scattered.
12. I write a lot at night for some reason. Strange, eh?
13. My right foot is slightly larger than my left.
14. I don't have any particular favorite number.
15. It amuses me that I'll be done with both high school and college before my little brother even graduates high school.
16. I play by the book: this is especially true in recipes. That tablespoon had better be a *level* tablespoon, bucko!

Anyway, that's it for now. Since this is not the official start to the semester (which, by the way, starts for me on Wednesday), I don't find my promise fulfilled, so I shall have to post again once I get back to Nac and manage to haul all my stuff it.

Ciao for now!

Happy 2009!

Given that it's a new year, I figure it's about time that I updated this blog. I could throw a thousand excuses out there for why I don't update it more often, but in the end it comes down to the fact that by the time I think about writing, I'm much more inclined to do some creative writing than write about the mundane things that are happening to me in day to day life.

So here we are: semester in review. Here's what I managed to get accomplished:
-took 17 hours of credit
-kept my spot on the President's List (4.0)
-joined Kappa Delta Pi, an education honor society
-got accepted into teacher education
-started music classes for my minor
-finally figured out how to sing in a minor key
-had a not so great roommate and let the police into my room where they found drug paraphernalia
-got into a better living situation
-had my doubts but learned to overcome them
-survived a hurricane
-had my last ever performance on a marching field.

Overall, not a bad semester, all told. The holiday season went pretty well, too. Thanksgiving was rather frustrating, mostly for the conflicts in scheduling that kept popping up. I only got home a couple times this semester, which was kinda weird, but given how it flew by, I didn't seem to mind it as much as I thought I would. Maybe I'm finally growing up- strange thought.

The one thing I didn't accomplish was coming to terms with the fact that I'm turning twenty this year. I know it doesn't seem huge, but to me, putting that '2' in the tens place kinda is freaky. I mean, I have plenty of friends who've survived twenty, but I just can't believe that I'll be twenty years old come April! I guess it makes sense: I'm living away from home for the majority of the year, have what amounts to an on-campus apartment, have a job at school and worked two jobs this past summer... in that sense, I'm an adult. Legally I've been one for two years now. But it's still kinda crazy to think about, especially when it doesn't seem so long ago that I was in high school.

Oh well: in the end, it's just one of those things that ends up happening. The good news is that every year that passes means I'm just that much closer to becoming a teacher. I'm still clinging to the idea that I can be a really good teacher one day: I'm making 'A's in all the classes, and I seem to take the ones related to my subject more seriously than most people do. I know that being smart is only one part of the job, but I can't help but hope that genuinely knowing what I'm talking about will make a difference. I have all these ideas and dreams about these lessons I could be doing with my class, and I can't wait to implement them in a classroom of my own, but I'm always having to remind myself it won't be all rainbows and unicorns: more like anemic stormclouds and dirty white horses. *shrug* I suppose it will come soon enough, but I'm still excited that by the end of this semester, I'll be officially halfway through college. Yay!

What else... Oh, I didn't bother to call the kennel where I worked this summer to see if I could pick up some hours this week and next, so I'm spending the rest of my long winter break just lounging around the house. Yesterday I didn't even bother to do anything: I spent all day in sweats, watching a new series I found on Hulu called Legend of the Seeker. It's fantasy (and so yes, rather nerdy), but I enjoyed it. It'll no doubt be added to the already lengthy list of television shows I insist upon keeping up with, although without Pushing Daisies on Wednesdays, those are beginning to look just about as dismal as Mondays.

Today I sewed more of my Renaissance dress. I shocked even myself with how well it seems to have come out. It actually looks like a real dress now, rather than yards of folded material. I have to admit, I'm rather proud of the domestic diva that I've become. Not only can I decorate a sugar cookie like Martha Stewart, I can bake any variety of items, cook reasonably well, dress myself in a way that gets compliments, clean an apartment top to bottom (with some much-needed breaks for television, of course), and now sew actual items! I know- it's only a pity that I was born in this century. Any other and I would be looked upon as a very eligible young lady. Nowadays, not so much.

Anyway, on that happy note, I'll wrap this entry up. I'd say that I'll be trying to make an effort to post on a more consistent basis, but until the semester begins in force, I can't make any promises. My goal will be at least one post during the semester: sound good? I thought so too. ;)

Happy 2009!
~r

End of Ze World

So... I've really got to stop watching so much history channel. For real- all I keep happening on is all this stuff about how the world is going to end within our lifetime. The Mayans put a date on it- 2012, and there's been other prophets who have said the same. So, I'll just say it: the fact that the world may end in my lifetime is scaring the crap out of me. No joke. I know the Bible says that the rapture will occur and that Jesus will return to take all the faithful to heaven, but that just opens up another can of worms. Would I be good enough to go to heaven? Have I done enough good in my life? Would the fact that I rarely go to church on Sundays be an issue, or as long as I'm praying to God on a regular basis, would it be alright? It's just something totally creepy to think about. I don't want to see our race be destroyed, and it's sad in a way to think that people have made predictions that I won't be living to see the age of 30.

I know that God says to put faith in Him, and to trust Him in all things, yet I find it hard to let go of the fear that something will happen and place it in His hands. It's kinda neurotic, I know, but this whole idea is freaking me out. If this post has made you freak too, I apologize, but I had to get it out.

~r

October Already??

So, I sat down the other day, took a gander at the calendar, and realized that this week, it turned to October. I was astounded- where did September go? Or August, for that matter? The days really seemed to go by fast September, which was both a blessing and a curse all at once: less time til the end of another semester, and it's closer to Christmas, but you also have all these little deadlines coming to bite you in the posterier. Granted, there's considerably fewer deadlines for me this semester, but there is the pressure of it all the same. Just having the deadlines hanging over your head of projects and quizes and tests too numerous to count... ugh. It's a mess.

So, I think I'm officially through the first round of tests- I've had a test in every class (except reading, which I've had a quiz in), and managed to figure out what those are like. Overall, I was pretty impressed with myself. I got a 97 on the Sight Singing test: I basically blurted out to the teacher that I don't know how I do that, since I certainly don't think I'm any great shakes at sight singing, to which she laughed and said I must be since she didn't see anything wrong with it, nor did the AP Theory graders. *shrug* I was disapointed about my chem/phys test- I got like a 83 on it, which is entirely UNacceptable. What threw me off is the inconsistancies in the professor's teaching: in class, they'll tell us to round until the cows come home, but on their freaking tests, they want all the digits there. So, yeah, I got screwed on that one: hopefully I'll be able to turn that grade around to the A it should be. :P

What else. I suppose the collasal news around Nac is winning this week's football game. I know: a Lumberjack victory? Is that even possible? Apparently so, folks. 48-45; like the week before, most all of the good plays were in the 4th quarter. No wonder I was nearly falling asleep out of exhaustion and hunger after halftime! I do have to admit, I'm still not quite used to the fact that we're able to get up and get food/beverage from the concession stand at will. Coming from high school where even certain candies were forbidden in the stands, much less a plate full of nachos, it still is a bit shocking to me to watch a color guard member come down the steps with a big old boat of chili cheese nachos, or watch a trumpet player eat sausage on a stick between playing shorties. Funny stuff. I get the impression the football team was beyond pleased. Coming off of last week's game, where we lost to South Dakota by a mere 2 points in the last 2.6 seconds (no joke) of the game, I don't blame them. Had I been a bit more invested in the football team's success, no doubt I would've been a great deal more excited. As it is, though, I secretly harbour the hope that they won't do well enough to warrent playoff games. Seeing as how our university thinks it's perfectly acceptable to be sending the band galivaning off to away games as a kind of pick-me-up for the football team, I have this feeling that were we to get into the playoffs, that would be the time when they *certainly* wouldn't let us off the hook in terms of traveling. On the surface, I wouldn't have a problem with traveling- I mean, heck, it's free food, free fun, free lodgings- good times, right? But it's also a Saturday on the road, on a bumpy charter bus that's near impossible to get anything accomplished homework-wise on, lunch at shady fast food joints on the road, all of which are over-run by your fellow band members, and then exhausting games and an equally un-productive bus ride home. You have no weekend whatsoever, and basically it's a big hassel. I don't like it well at all. When I was talking to my mom earlier this week, she mentioned coming up to visit me some weekend, to which I was all for: to date, my mom still hasn't even seen my dorm room, which kinda makes me sad. It just kinda seems like the thing a mom should see- her daughter's first pseudo-apartment and all that jazz. I would like nothing better than to spend a frenzied day of cleaning so I could proudly show my parents about and prove I'm capable of living independently. But anyway- Mom was asking if I had any weekend when I wouldn't be busy, to which I just laughed and said I had a game every weekend. My mom just kinda did a little 'psh' and so I began explaining what having a game means. Game days mean Saturday morning practice for 2 hours, a hurried brunch in the crapateria, followed by an awkward span of time where you make the decision to either shower or just go stinky to the game (because you're kinda nasty from practice), and then don the uniform and go over to the colleseum by 4:30 for a 6:00 kick off. Yes- it makes so much sense, doesn't it? Of course, my mom was complaining that if the family comes over here, they wouldn't really want to be spending time watching me rehearse, but rather spend time with me. I agree: it makes no sense for them to stay and watch me do what I'd do any weekend, right? But at the same time, I had no other option for her. That's the crap that they were subjecting me to when they convinced me that marching band for another year wouldn't be "that bad". Now, I guess, we all get to reap the wonderful consequences of that decision. Not cool indeed.

Anyway... moving on from that little whine-fest. This weekend was so nice and relaxing. Started off really nice on Friday by going off to Lufkin- yay! That's the first time I've been to Lufkin this semester, which is almost sad in a way. I've been here almost 6 weeks and hadn't left Nac but to go home. Wow. Anyway, we went to the usual places: Target (yay), the Lufkin Mall, Old Navy, Rue 21, Best Buy. Rounding out the day we went to Olive Garden. Mmm- I got their "Never-Ending Pasta Bowl", which was amazing. Being the devious little person I am, though, I polished off the first bowl (how, I don't know, since it was a really big bowl. Guess I was just hungry.) and then ask for another, which I manage one bite of and promptly stuff in a to-go container. Ha. Take *that* corporate America. Only problem with my plan is that they twarted me by bringing out a considerably smaller portion the second time. I guess it makes sense- you probably wouldn't want to eat as much the second round, but still, it kinda miffed me. I should've, in my mind, been able to have as much as I wanted for my $8.99, but oh well. It made for some yummy dinner on Sunday night. :) Back to my linear progression of time: Saturday I relaxed in my room for a good chunk of the day. My roommate went home, so I had the place to myself, enabling me to go out to the living room with my big wonderful comforter and hunker down with my laptop and the tv. It was great- I didn't move much until about noon, when I met up with Meghan to go to the East College caf, all the way across campus. So not cool. So, we drive over, barely catch the end of "brunch", and I ended up having the worst hamburger I've ever had. It was kinda crispy and burnt on the edges, the tomatoes were terrible, and the cheese was a mess. Not good times at all. At least the french fries were for the most part palatble, otherwise I wouldn't have been very happy at all. As it was, the cookies were off, too, so not even a good desert made it better! So, I went back, watched Once Upon a Matteress with Shannon and Meghan, then moseyed up to my room to get ready. I left about 10 minutes before my carpool was supposed to leave, got three quarters of the way there, and realized I had forgotten my hat and gloves. Lovely. So I had to turn a to the rear and kinda jog back to my dorm, up the stairs, and grab the hat in frustration, along with the gloves, and run back down, hoping I wouldn't make my friends late. Turns out it was not a problem, since other people waylayed us much more than I did, but whatever. We had the game (see above), and afterwards Meghan and I went off to Bueno for some post-game food. It was amazing- I love Bueno. Most every week there's a $4.52 charge on my bank account from them (MexiDips and Chips with a Medium Diet Coke), and that's the only way I'd have it. After that, it was like 11 or something, so after a few minutes of the history channel, I just gave up and crawled into bed.

Sunday was a royal lazy-fest. The laptop was already situated in the living room, so I only added my big fluffy comforter and a pillow to it. TV, goldfish, and diet pepsi rounded out the equation. Yeah- I plugged in the sims, turned on the history channel, and promptly went about wasting my day. I didn't end up leaving the room until 6:30 that night, when I went to go wee Wall-E at the student theater with my friends. Wall-e, by the way, was amazing: you really got attached to the little robot, and I thought it was really cute, though somewhat disturbing that humans could ever turn in to that mess of blobs that we were. The end credits, though, were wonderful- I don't know what kind of animation it is, but they did some method that looks like it's a painting moving, and I really liked it a lot. Showing how people survived- ahh! Anyway. It was cute, and if you haven't seen it, you should. The end. After Wall-E it was time for some Amazing Race, then bed. Yes, sleep! As it was, the alarm went off entirely too early this morning. Gah.

Anyway, that's all for now. Aural Skills is in 20 minutes, and I have to get goin for that. :) Until later,
~r