Breaking fall, and cars.

My roommate is gone and it's terribly quiet in here. Too quiet. She'll be back in a little bit, with everybody else....but this is weird. I'm almost expecting a ninja to pop out of ceiling any moment, just as another one of her cruel tricks to make me scream. She was gone all last night, which was awfully creepy, because this is a big room with a lot of shadows and noises. I tried sleeping with a night light on, but it was red and I felt like I was lying in hell. Then I turned it off and pulled the covers over my head to protect myself from the goblins in my room that only come out when I'm alone in the dark. YIKES. Needless to say, if I ever have an apartment on my own, I am adopting four cats and three dogs so I'm not by myself....

Word of the week: Fall Break. Or lack thereof, as it is actually OVER.

I'm going to back up a night before fall break.

Every once in a while, my roommate and I have these really crazy, but not drug-induced nights (unless someone slipped something into my cereal...) Anyhow, it all started with an evening of the second Harry Potter movie. This turned into a game of figuring out how to rearrange everyone's names into something epic, like Tom Marvolo Riddle does with "I am Lord Voldemort". We came up with stuff like, "I am lil' Leech Sna'ell" and "I am Loony Trek" and "I am Blue Gray Carrot". Mine was "Larve, u so real." [which is funny because Larve is what Lisa and Alyssa call me] ANYWAY, around midnight, everyone left and Lisa and I went wacko, beginning with Lisa's idea to go into Kait and Amy's room: "Ok, I'll be the t-rex and you be the pterodactyl" leading to "I'm a rap artist!" to "I MOLTED." to "I can speak BLIND language!" to "I'm an origami lotus flower, I blossom, and I die" to "There's a koala in the couch!" to "What if everybody walked around like a zombie---like this..." to going to bed around 2 am. It's like being freshmen all over again, but with a more tired feeling when you wake up in the morning.

The next day, I took Emma St. John home for fall break. We had a splendid time. We went to Rainforest Adventures, where she almost peed her pants holding a snake. We went to {gorgeous} Cades Cove and decided where our house, church, and barn were, who our future husbands would be, and what we would do with our lives (eat turkey, ride bears, wear bonnets, birth babies, etc.) I took her to Gatlinburg, where we had {delectable} donuts and someone parked behind our car, meaning that we couldn't get out for a good thirty minutes and had to listen to a {LOUD} bluegrass concert. We ate some food at the Tin Roof cafe with {hilarious} Jordan Mitchell and got 0 studying done, regardless of our high goals. We also watched The Princess Diaries, Babies, Driving Miss Daisy, Jonas LA, and a lot of Justin Bieber youtube videos.

Beulah was at the car hospital three out of five of those days. They changed her oil, gave her new wheel bearings, and put on new brake pads (which was an accident--so I got those for free!). But, when I drove out of the parking lot,  I tried to go straight and ended up turning right--YIKES steering wheel misalignment. So I had to take her back...and then they had to drive her somewhere else to get fixed....and we didn't leave for another two hours....and Beulah was very, very upset.

Our room finally has a rug, thanks to TJ Maxx. But I still need to go shopping this weekend, because green chacos don't match very well with purple toes.

Fall doesn't actually appeal to me very much because I don't enjoy being cold or having to wear clothes. In fact, I would love to live in a world where I had to do neither of those things.

My roommate isn't back yet. I may need to go out and buy a kitten soon.

Song of the day: Jesse's Girl

Total Creeper

My mood changes with the wind. I have come up with a list of factors that affect my mood:
-background music. Sometimes guitar music makes me weep for NO REASON.
-amount of sleep the previous night. Less than 6 hours and you don't know what will happen next.
-the dreams I had during that sleep. Beautiful boyfriend? Good day. Dead sister? Bad day.
-food--partly dependent on the time of day it's eaten, who it's eaten with, and how much is eaten. Wilted salad at lunchtime, bad. Fifty-six pumpkin muffies with hallmates at 10 pm....sickeningly good.
-coffee and the time of day I drink it. Morning--perfect pick-up. Test time-AaAaAhHhH!.!.!.! mY pEnCiL wOn'T dO wHaT i WaNt WhAt'S wRoNg WiTh Me?!?!
-weather. Fog for more than six hours is like God telling me it's a day to weep.
-how many people I interact with. Just my roommate? I'm a tragic social outcast. Someone different every ten minutes? Dude, I'm so popular.
-then there are actual events that take place, those things that are supposed to affect your mood. Those are actually the least important, unless someone is dying.

Word of the day: Friday. It's. About. Time.

I had five tests over five consecutive days, as well as two papers and half a project. Basically, I'm reaching a state of scholastic apathy. A? B? D? Whatever. I just want to be done.

My mom is so cute. Over our last few phone conversations, she's given detailed war stories of her encounters with skunks, my dog Missy, skunks + Missy, and how bad the garage smells now.

The new Fritz is beginning to absorb its freshmen--finally. On Day of Prayer last week, eight Fritzers went to Rock City and had a breakfast picnic in the woods. It was fabulous.

Told you. The freshmen are AWESOME. Oh wait, one of those is me...

Speaking of freshmen and possible future freshmen, preview weekend was last weekend. The Fritz is very welcoming of its previewers. 

Actually, all of those were written by me. Someone else erased them. I'm not sure why.

Sometimes I accidentally refer to The Fritz like it's a cult. 

The Phantom of the Opera is a lot creepier movie than I remember it being. Sorry Christine, but a stalker man in a dank undergound lair with your mannequin in a wedding dress is NOT attractive, even if he is Gerard Butler. 

This Sunday at church, I sat next to a couple I knew and held their baby as the mom went up to sing. When it was meet-and-greet time, I turned to shake hands with a lady behind me and found that she was really interested in MY baby. Uhhh....

I said "thank you" to a Korean War veteran wearing spiffy red-white-and-blue suspenders in Walmart the other day and he lit up. It was great.

Principles in Sociology is by far my most interesting class this semester. Yesterday, I did a stalking project with a partner for class. It was called a "symbolic interaction" assignment, but, let's be honest, it was flat-out stalking. We tried to creep on some folks in Chik-fil-a, but that's actually harder than it sounds, so we went to the mall and followed a mom and three girls into Aeropostle--or maybe it was Abercrombie. Anyway, these girls were 6-8 years old, and the smallest one was a total whiner who ballet danced all the way to the store. The oldest one was a stick-in-the-mud and the middle girl was the youngest girl's friend, so she wasn't terribly interesting. The mom dressed like a sixteen-year-old and was about ready to sleep on the next available mall bench. The project says we have to figure out the hopes and dreams of these people. My educated guesses:

The mom is terribly depressed about not making it as America's next top model, but wants to make sure that her daughters do. She also wants a really long vacation. She entertains thoughts of leaving her youngest behind in a mall dressing room and running away to Hollywood to be an actress. 

The youngest wants to be a ballet dancer/actress/model and entertains thoughts of leaving her mother behind in a dressing room to run away to Hollywood. 

The best friend wants to do the exact same thing. 

The oldest girl feels that her dreams are being suppressed, and one day she is going to wake up and realize that she has enormous talent in the field of singing and songwriting. She, of the four, will make it stardom on the wings of her musical abilities and her sad guitar songs will one day make me weep my eyes out on a foggy day when I have three girls of my own and have just eaten fifteen pumpkin muffies for dinner.

I began tutoring a kindergartner this week, and it's going to be more challenging than I expected. He needs to learn his letters---but they won't stick for anything. Basically, if I can help this kid out, I can do anything when I'm a teacher. 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the funniest book I've ever read. 

I saw a founders boy in white shorts and fuzzy Ugg boots. I was a little creeped out.

God's teaching me about forgiveness this week. It's kind of a hard lesson to learn, because it's not one of those instantaneous lessons (who am I kidding? How many of God's lessons are instantaneous?). Forgiveness is a heart change--not just a feeling. It's weird, needing to learn to forgive someone I thought I was close to, who I love. I just pray that, rather than being angry over getting shut out of her life, I remember that I love her. And I pray that she realizes it too. 

Song of the day: 

One Upon a December from Anastasia.