The Catch Up

Now, where were we...I'll start where I left off....Friday

I finally went and picked Mike up VERY early Friday morning. I think it was sometime around 5:00 am. We were both dog tired, and I only had two classes the next day- so, since I have hardly missed any school at all this semester I decided to "take a mental health day." We slept well until noon that day. Mike woke up first and cooked us lunch while I did some minor straightening up around the house. We spent the rest of the day catching up on two weeks worth of recorded tv. I know it must sound so lame, but after he works two weeks straight and I have two weeks full of non-stop homework we both want nothing more than to lay in the bed and watch television.

We were planning on having some friends come over on Saturday, so we went to Wal-mart to get the must needed groceries. Mike decided it would be smart to also visit his truck at the Pilot at exit 86 to drop off some of his things and then we'd hit up the Oak Grove Wal-mart there- especially since Kentucky doesn't charge tax on groceries. As soon as we got into the store Mike got really excited and wanted to see all the Christmas stuff. I am just as bad as him so we dedicated a pretty long time to exploring all the fun ornaments, platters, mangers, and more.

Mike's sister called to see if we had eaten dinner yet, and we met them at Captain D's for a quick bite. We didn't bother getting any of the food we needed for Saturday since we wouldn't have time to take it home first. Instead we just went in town after dinner.

When we finally got home I challenged Mike to a game of scrabble and made some coffee with the new Pumpkin Spice creamer I bought. We only played one game, but I guess it took a long time, because before I knew it Jackson called me and it was around midnight. Jackson came over for a few minutes to decided what to make for our Halloween gathering the next night. I had some cook books for him to browse through. Once he left, Mike and I were extremely tired AGAIN, but managed to stay awake for a new episode of Stargate Atlantis before drifting off to sleep.

The next day we had to drive to Nashville for my soon-to-be sister-in-law's baby show. Mike wouldn't be attending the party, but he would get to see some family that drove great distances to be there, and spend some time with the boys. I always think baby showers are kinda awkward and I already felt slightly out of my element because there were so many people there I don't know. But, I made a onesie...so this made it better:


I am pretty sure Mike's family thought it was kinda weird...but...it's totally me.

As the shower was winding down, I got a call from Mike asking me to come pick him up from downtown. The guys he was with were still planning on staying down there a little longer and we had to get back for our friends and it was getting pretty late. I hate driving in Nashville when I don't know where I am going. The shower was at Mike's brother's house which is off of West End. I know that part fairly well and I knew I needed to get to 2nd Ave. This would have been hunky-dory if almost all of West End hadn't been closed down. So, I had to get off West End into some back roads and I just followed the people in front of me. But, they went back onto West End, we drove for another block, and then the road was closed down again. So, I wanted to try to get near Cafe Coco because I knew I could get around everything. I had to do some really weird navigating around the park....West End Ave...and other stuff but I finally got there. The whole while Mike and I are yelling at each other on the phone because we don't handle these situations very well together. Once I got to the area I wanted to be in Mike's directions didn't make any sense to me and I got onto the interstate when he wanted me to go somewhere else. But, I eventually got on track and got to him.

It was about 6:30 when we met back up and neither of us had eat yet. I assumed there was going to be food at the shower, and I figured Mike would be going out to eat. The shower just had cookies and stuff. So we grabbed some Rally's and booked it back home to finish getting the house ready for company.

Jackson, Charlsie, and Steven came over and we went to the Biker's Who Scare haunted house. I have been to it every year that they've been open. I absolutely loved going to it and have told everyone I know that they put on the best haunted house. Mike had tried to convince me to go to a different one this year, but I managed to convince him to go to this one- for tradition sake.

We got there and the line was pretty long. I was already expecting that. But this line was longer than normal. We clocked it and ended up being in line for almost two hours. I wore the wrong kind of shoes and my feet were so sore when we left. We FINALLY get inside and start. It took prolly 15 minutes and we were done.

Stood in line for two hours to tour a haunted house for 15 minutes.

It was so lame. Every year before the rooms were really scary. This year wasn't at all. At a haunted house you are supposed to go into rooms and see something happen. You see what's happening when you get in there and then something unexpected is supposed to happen. You are supposed to be waiting for that shock. But we were just floating from room to room seeing something already in progress that isn't scary. It isn't scary to come in and see people I know are fake pretending to cut each other's legs off. It's scary to come inside to a room where some guy is just chillin and THEN bam his legs fall off. As a kid I remember going into each room with fear wondering what was going to pop out at me next. There was none of this feeling at all.

The only part where I got scared at all was a dark maze at the end. And I was only scared because I saw someone working at the haunted house who hates me, and I got scared she would try to kill me in the dark.

They also don't understand the gag with the chainsaw. Chainsaws are scary- yes. But they are not scary when you have one in every room. And not only is there one in every room- but there are like 2 or 3 people in a room with one.

But the funniest part of the whole thing happened when we were walking down a hallway with people pretending to stab us and this kid working it yelled "KNIFE!"

When we got done we headed to Wal-mart to pick out pumpkins to carve. Got a couple forgotten items and headed back to the house.

We put together our Halloween feast:


Bubbling Cauldron Dip with Bat Wings


Brains, Bones, and Werewolf testicles

After eating we got started carving pumpkins. I had planned on also watching a scary movie that night and playing a healthy game of Clue, but between the 2 hour haunted house wait and carving pumpkins we didn't have the time. I had no clue the pumpkins would take so long, but I had a really good time doing it. I know I did it as a kid, but I don't have any memory doing so. Once, as an adult, I tried to carve one, but thought it was too hard and ended up stopping and throwing it away.

But, Steven had done this before and with his help and using the really cool kits you can buy it was really easy.

I was super-duper proud of myself for completing it.

From L to R: Mine, Mike's, Charlsie's, Steven's and Jackson's



This made night three of going to be extremely tired. Because everything took so long, we didn't get to bed into late. Mike and I were planning on going to church, but it was not happening. Instead, we got up around noon again and ate lunch before getting ready to take him back to work.

So, back to the grind again. Yesterday and today I have been trying to get all of my homework for the entire week done, because I would really just like to relax. I have a bunch of movies to watch and I still haven't read the 4th Twilight book- even though everyone else in the world has.
Oh, Mike really liked his Halloween care package. I got disappointed though because the cd I made him didn't work :( Oh well.

The Promise

I have much to comment and update on....but I am so exhausted...one more month and it will all be over!!!

I promise a full update- IN COLOR- tomorrow

and by color I clearly mean photo opportunity...

Here's something to keep you on the edge of your seat: there is a strong possibility that I either have lock jaw or I ate too many pumpkin seeds....

Tomorrow....I swear...

the day of the cleanings

I am exhausted!!! I cleaned three houses today...I haven't done anything else except watch one tv show.

Unfortunately I have to wait for Mike to get home so I can go pick him up. It's 2:40 and he is sill quite awhile from being home. And I have class tomorrow.

Fortunately, I only two classes tomorrow because my Expository professor canceled class for some conference or something another she has to go to.

Sorry this isn't so exciting, but I have had a very not exciting day.

Good news however. I have been working over my Christmas list. Yeah, I am twenty-four and I still make Christmas lists. Oh yeah, and there are still two months until Christmas to boot. Anyway, I have been looking around online for certain things I want. One of those items is a wallet. I have an ok wallet....got it at Walmart...nothing special. I wanted something a little nicer. I went to my parent's house for their weekly cleaning (throw back to paragraph one- see how cohesive this is) and on the kitchen table was my usual used People magazine (mom gets them weekly and gives them to me when she's done), my usual Sunday coupons (I like the savings), my usual check (cause I like the monies for services) and a package (there were some other things but they aren't usual and do not pertain to this story). I opened the package and lo and behold there was a VERY nice wallet inside. My parents just got back from Rome. I thought it was an awesome souvenir! My mom didn't know I wanted a wallet; it was just a pleasant surprise.

I need to take some ibuprofen...my back is killing me.

the nerdy and the cuties...

Mike comes home tomorrow...err...today I guess...technically today...but very very late. He's been gone for nearly two weeks. Because he was home for practically like....three months? It's been weird being away from him for so long....and yet it feels like everything went back to normal. I asked him if he felt nice being back into a routine and he was so sweet and polite by prefacing himself with "well, of course I would rather be home with you........but yeah." I don't blame him. I loved him being home and getting to see him every day, but when he wasn't working our home felt so unproductive. It was hard for me to feel motivated when Mike was constantly doing nothing. I found myself doing the minimum I could afford to get away with in school to spend time with him. I'm not some great overachiever, but I do like to get a head start on certain things.

I didn't finish reading Confederacy of Dunces....but I got lucky. My professor's child got sick at school and she had to leave to pick them up and class got canceled. It is a Monday/Wednesday class so I have several days to finish that puppy...and if I don't I will be SO MAD at myself. I've been trying to do as much as my homework as possible for Friday and Monday so I can do as little as possible this weekend. I have just been reading all day long. I read some stuff written by Darwin on Evolution for Brit Lit for Friday and almost half of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Monday's Brit Lit...a short story for Southern Lit which was really good called Testimony of Pilot and you can read it here: http://www.mpbonline.org/television/series/writers/110-Rights/media/Testimony%20of%20Pilot.pdf

I am so addicted to reality television- the competition type. I don't care what they are trying to win chances are I am going to watch. Ok, this is slightly exaggerated. I couldn't possibly watch every reality show out there. There are several I don't follow. But Along with America's Next Top Model, Top Design, The Pick Up Artist, Survivor (and I just finished Project Runway) I added a new show into the mix. It started tonight and it was FAB-U-LOUS. On the WB at 8:00 I caught the series premier of Stylistas, or 11 people competing for a job with Elle Magazine. It has gays, it has fashion, it already had drama.....what more could I ask for?

This has just been a jam packed year for television for me. I am happy that I can say that I have counterbalanced that with a ridiculous amount of reading so that I don't come off as a TOTAL loser. I won't bore you with the extensive list of shows that I follow- but my new project along with my regularly scheduled programs and of course Stargate will be Lost and The Office. Apparently I missed a huge boat with those two gems. I haven't started them yet, this is just what I hear.

I don't know what has gotten into her but the Mable-baby has become very affectionate since I got back home from house sitting for my parents. Usually, she wonders off for about 4 to 5 hours a day. I assume she is sleeping somewhere, tucked away...or in my wildest fantasies having tea parties with the neighboring felines- but now she is always around me and she wants to constantly touch me...which GOSH this has been the dream but she wants to sit between me and the book I am trying to read or on top of the keyboard...it's getting to be really inappropriate...

by the way....check out all the cuties from the week i was over there:

Isn't it funny that my animals are both black....and my mom's are both gray...


I e-made up with a friend from my past today. I am really happy to have her back.

Getting read for Halloween

I am getting so tired of reading...I guess since we are finally a little over halfway done with the semester that this should be expected. I am reading As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner this week for American Lit II.


I have never completed a Faulkner novel before, so this will be my first. So far, I guess it's not that bad. It has been an easy read, although my professor warned us about reading stream of consciousness....but I think my brain works in that way that- for me -it is easy to follow. We read another one of his novels in Modern Southern Fiction, but I never finished it. We have to do author presentations for that class and the kid who did Faulkner used the above picture which has turned into an inside joke. For Modern Southern Fiction I have to read all of A Confederacy Of Dunces by tomorrow. I have had all week- so this is entirely my fault.

I made a Halloween playlist today. I wish I had started sooner so I could enjoy it longer, but two weeks isn't that bad. This weekend I am getting together with some friends to go to the Bikes Who Scare haunted house. Then we'll come back to my house for pumpkin carving, Halloween food, and maybe a scary movie or two. It looks like I will spend Halloween night alone. Mike is going to be on the road and Jackson doesn't get off work that night until midnight. My plan then is to go rent this movie:
Note Tim Curry in the background there. On a side note I absolutely love him. I wanted him to be in one of the Harry Potter movies....he would have been perfect...but he hasn't and I don't think there are any new characters introduced in the movies that haven't been made. Alright, side note ended. This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I think it's pretty funny to look at the foreshadowing here with Faruza Balk...she went on to do The Craft.

So, I will watch this movie...and I am going to get a Jack-o-lantern shaped pepperoni pizza from Papa Murphy's and pass out the candies to the trick-or-treaters. I hope I get some. I have never gotten to pass out candy since I moved out of my parent's house. I see kids being dropped off by school buses and such, I'd think they kids would be out and about then. Maybe Jackson will come over when he gets done at work and we can watch something frightful.

Since Mike won't be home on Halloween, I am going to surprise him with a Halloween care package. So far I am going to include a copy of the Halloween playlist, another random mix cd, some candy, and a Halloween card. I would like to think of a couple other small things to include- any help would be appreciated!!!! :)

I finally got some cleaning done. The living room and dining room are finished except for the floors. The belt on my vacuum cleaner broke and I am having a hard time finding the appropriate one to fix it. In just a minute I am going to dust my bedroom and then move on to the bathroom. I always leave the kitchen for last. It really sucks not having a dishwasher.

I am filling out an application to be a substitute teacher for the school system. I am really nervous and I don't want to do it. But, everyone keeps telling me I should, so I guess maybe I am missing something. Mike thinks it would be nice to get some extra money for Christmas presents. My parents think I should get the experience. I just have a problem being authoritative, which I know I need to be in order to run my own classroom someday...I just don't want to learn until I have to.

the saddest goodbye

Well, I guess I haven't done such a great job with writing every day...how bad is that...to miss a day right after your first entry...

I have had a very unproductive weekend. I had envisioned getting my house completely cleaned and doing a ton of homework. I basically did the least amount of homework I could get away with (but believe me I still did A LOT) and the only cleaning I did was in my bedroom.

I went to my cousin's wedding this weekend, and had a good time. It really pumped me up for my own wedding, and made me change my mind on a couple of things- for one, I changed my mind about not making my brothers (the ushers) wear tuxes...they did for this wedding and they both looked mighty sharp.

After the wedding I came home and wanted to settle down to some tv and unwind. I decided to make a pot of coffee. As I was cleaning the coffee pot I got a phone call from Kashmir. I spoke casually to her like I always do and realized she wasn't. She sounded serious. Bad serious. She told me Jackie was trying to get a hold of me. I was really confused- Jackie I haven't really spoken in years....why would she need to speak to me. And then Kashmir just straight out told me- my friend Mark had committed suicide. My first reaction was "Mark? Mark who?" And Kashmir told me Nik's exboyfriend Mark....and my heart sank. I told Kashmir I had to go, but she told me to wait, that she wanted to give me Meagan Kelshimer's phone number, because she was the one who started the search party for me and that she could give me all the details. I was nervous to call her, because again, I haven't talked to her in ages, either. I also don't know how you talk to someone about a friend who is dead. So, we talked briefly and agreed we should see each other over some coffee when we can talk about happier things. Then, I knew I had to call Nik.

And I didn't want to. I knew how I was feeling and I never dated the guy. I just didn't know how I was going to tell her. So, I just did. I just said it...like Kashmir had done for me. And we stayed on the phone for a long time in awkward silence....neither of us knowing what to say.

It doesn't help matters much that Nik and I haven't talked to each other since the fourth of July. It was just awkward...all the way around.

I don't know why people feel like they don't have a way to escape their pain. I wish Mark had said something....something to someone...because it didn't have to go down like this. I know he had so many friends who would have done anything for him...he just had to be in the worst pain- pain unimaginable to think this was the only way out.

Mark gave me my first pair of converse Chuck Taylor's. He gave them to me at the cafe in December of 2002 when I was home for Christmas break from college. They are blue and I still have them...they are just too beat up to actually wear. He knew I had been wanting a pair and they had belonged to him in high school. We wore the same shoe size. They were already broken in and came pre-written on.

I went to church today for the first time in forever. I asked God to help him on the other side. I know in my religion, suicide isn't an unforgivable sin anymore, but I know it isn't the best way to get yourself into heaven, either. I asked God to help him, because I know he was a good man at heart and he deserves a nice place where he can finally find peace.

I have always been too attached to other people's emotions. When someone else is sad...it weighs me down. When someone else cries...I am going to cry. Laughter is infectious around me. I know this will sound too over the top that it will wind up losing meaning...but I hate knowing how sad other people are out there. It breaks my heart. I don't want anyone to ever feel like nobody cares about them or that the quality and existence of their life isn't valued.

The Beginning

I thought it was time for a real home- some place where blogging was not only expected but accepted .

So fall is finally here!

this is a view from my driveway in front of the house. The screen on the my digital camera is busted, and I really thought I was capturing just the yellow tree- but I guess I like the juxtaposition. The yellow tree bares persimmons. I hear they are an excellent fruit for baking pies or jams- but the thought of using fruit that grew naturally and not fruit that you purposely planted for harvest is really gross to me. A friend of Mike's (the fiancee) swears he saw a bus driver have a kid get out of the bus in front of my house and pick some persimmons and then get back on. I have a hard time believing a bus driver would do that, and I have hard time believing this friend of Mike's- however, I really don't know why he would make such a story up. But, anyway. The main point is that fall is finally here. and I love it.

I have been doing my best to be a good fall participant. I hold pretty high expectations every year, but somehow end up falling short. But, I think I am doing pretty good so far. I have made chili:


along with drinking lots of warm coffee (but really, I don't need fall to do this). I bought apple crystal lite yesterday- which granted is NOT apple cider- but it's a calorie free replacement. I also got apple cinnamon rice cakes which are realllly good. I swear fall is not just all about the food for me. I have gotten all of my sweaters and warm weather clothing out of their summer boxes, and I have decorated my entire house in my fall decor. This weekend I also plan on making a Halloween playlist, as well as a fall playlist.

Yesterday I listened to Blink182 while driving home from my parent's house. I realized that they sort of remind me of the fall mostly due to two occasions, both involving Jessica "Hot Pants" Baird. For the first, during our junior year of high school we were both doing the play Arsenic and Old Lace- I was in it and she was the stage manager. Jessica not only drove that year but she had her own car. I am four months older than Jess, but I really didn't start driving until the summer after junior year which was also when I got my first car- but regardless- because I did not have acceptable transportation Jessica drove me home everyday after play rehearsal. This was - of course- during the fall months. To thank Jessica for constantly taking me home, my mother wrote her a check for the gas money she had spent. Jessica used that money to buy the new Blink182 CD- the live one...we listened to it every day. A lot happened in my life junior year. But, thankfully the one thing I will think of first is being on stage and Blink182.

The second time was the fall of my first year at college. Jessica and I had both gone to the University of Memphis. For some reason, and I really can not remember why I ended up riding with Jessica when we went home for Thanksgiving. I don't know if there was something wrong with my car, or if I didn't have gas money to get home, or if it just made sense to us to car pool- whatever the reason Jessica drove us both. I was having a very difficult semester and I was feel very down that day, but I tried my best not to show it. But, for old time's sake Jess whipped out some Blink182- and I am pretty sure that it all we listened to for the entire 3 hour trip home.

There is still so much more I need to do before this fall leaves me. I have to make something pumpkin-y. I need to have several more pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks. I need to go to a corn maze and haunted houses. I need to catch Halloween Town on the Disney channel. And I need to create a new tradition.

School is going really great. I have this professor- Dr. Ryan. This is the third semester that I have had him. He's tough- you'll have to do some work- a lot of it. But, I take him because he really knows his stuff. He gives 5 major grades in his class a quiz grade (he gives 22 quizzes in a semester and averages them for your final quiz grade), 2 essays, and 2 in-class essays. I have never gotten anything better than a B on one of his in-class essays and I have never gotten anything better than a C on the out of class essays. We took our first in-class a couple weeks ago. I was feeling ok about it going into the class.....you see he gives you a sheet with like 18 possible essay questions. You go home and write thesis statements to prepare for writing about them....then you come into class and he picks 4 of those and you write on 3 of them. But, when I got to class the 4 he chose were the 4 I felt the least confident about. I struggled writing them- in fact I was still writing the third one as class was wrapping up and I thought I wouldn't finish. So, when I was evaluating how I did afterward I thought- maybe I'll get another B. We finally got the tests back last Friday..............and I got my first A. I was ecstatic. I even put it on the fridge. I'm doing pretty dang good in every other class, too. I think this will be a productive semester.

My goal is to write here every day. I don't know if this will be successful....but I am willing to try.