I'm alive.

Barely. Without getting gruesome on you, let's just say my insides still feel ravaged after this past week.

The UC Marching Band had it's own version of the Black Plague sweep through picking us off one by one. By Tuesday night's rehearsal, 9 people had called in sick with the same thing: flu. Fever, Chills, Aches, Stomache issues of various kinds, Headaches, Congestion, Coughing...etc and so forth. A few others came to band anyways...those little troopers. Unfortunatly, those little troopers spread their joyness around and Wednesday dawned with me being fluish as well. I only stayed in bed 1 day but the 1-2 days afterwards, I had to bargain myself into doing anything productive like going to work and class. I feel pretty decent now, but most of us are still slightly under the weather. So there you have it. Flu season is upon us.

I spent the weekend in true band fashion. Saturday morning, bright and early, 5 of us piled in the Chevy and drove up to Indianapolis for the North Central District Leadership Conference for the sorority and the fraternity. It was actually quite fun seeing an old TBS friend from Ohio State and meeting some new ones. The day was long and cold, however, so we were glad to get back late Saturday night. I crashed from the exhaustion. Today, we had a joint relations event at the Cincinnati Museumn of Natural History. I've only been to the Dino Exhibit section for a class I once took, but this time I got to explore the whole shebang including the super-sweet cave system. They built a cave inside of the museum that actually replicates a fairly large cave system. You can take the advanced route or the easy route...the advanced sends you near underground waterfalls, on the edge of small pools and through extremely tight, dark crevices. Even some bats are afoot. It was really neat, you forgot you were inside at all. I love museums and institutions of learning where you can touch things. I'm a touchy-feely kind of person. :-) Afterwards, I was invited to my "little brother's" house to meet his family and have supper. Delicious. His mom has the kitchen I dream of owning some day along with all the fun gadgets.

The night was rounded out by watching the Packers lose to the Giants down at Big Red and now I'm ready for sleeps. Here, here for 3-day weekends!

UC Owns My Soul

Edit: So some new people are checking out my blog...and I apologize. I don't keep up with flickr that much, the design is pretty simple, I frankly am not the best at this whole business. Hopefully the content keeps you coming back and not my scary set-up. :-) But thanks for stopping by!!


Whew! What a frickin' week!

School started again Monday so I got to spend 400 dollars on books which always makes me smile...or not...
I'm taking 5 classes:
Interpersonal Communication
Algebra II
Western Traditions in Literature
American Lit Survey
Concert Band

Eh. They're all ok. It's my fourth year of english classes and as much as I enjoy the subject, it really is all the same. You get assigned 4-5 works from "the canon" and read a large chunk of pages every two days then go back into class where you and your classmates grope for metaphorical and symbolic meaning and hope the teacher doesn't look at you like an idiot. Sprinkle in a few lengthy papers. Rinse, repeat. But, I've gotten pretty good at it, with moderate effort I am able to spit out A and B worthy work without breaking too much of a sweat. I'll just be glad to start my education classes in the spring for a bit of diversity.

Band is still band only in a concert setting. Rather than running around on the field honking on my saxophone in 30 degree weather, we all break out the concert instruments (flute for me!) and try to sit still for 2 hours while we struggle through the 1812 overture.

Can you tell that I'm getting a bit tired of the usual schedule? It's about that time for me to graduate I think.

Speaking of...graduate school packets started coming in the mail for NYU, North Carolina-Greensboro and a few others I haven't checked yet. I feel like a Junior in HS all over again.

Thanks to Brillig, I'm using cre8buzz.com which might generate more visits to my sight. I love all 3 of you, but wouldn't mind some extra company! :-) We will see how this pans out.

As far as anything else...the sorority process has started once more and we have 10 lovely candidates coming into our ranks. This process consumes a majority of my Winter Quarter time and now that I'm El Presidente, I have already been running around in a spastic daze trying to manhandle every crisis that comes at me. This may get very exhausting. But, I embrace a good challenge, so off to the races we go. I have a little brother from the fraternity, and this will mark my 5 little to date and I'm already doting upon him like a child. Oh the wonders a fraternal bond can bring.

Ok, I swear I'm here.

Life gets a little crazy so I sort of forget to post as often as I want. There are days things will happen, and I'll think to myself 'remember to blog about that'...but then the day gets away from me. So as of late:

*Jimmie won the championship. Thrilled...or not. NASCAR needs to start shaking things up or they're going to lose my undying love and loyalty. Time to re-coop and wait for Daytona again. Now, I'll just sit and twiddle my thumbs.

*Speaking of sports, we lost our last home game to WVU. Only by 5 points so it could have been worse but on your senior night of marching band...you hope for the big win. And it was senior night, so I played my final notes in Nippert Stadium and they even said my name right. I didn't cry though. I got a little teary-eyed during dismissal:

But I got over it rather quickly. I've always embraced change more than I've mourned it. I didn't cry my senior night of high school band and I certainly didn't cry at graduation. I more than likely rub my hands together and say, "Bring on the next big thing." We have our concert on Tuesday night and some type of bowl game to contend with over Christmas Break and our Spring football game come April...so it's never really over for me. But the usual Saturday game day shenanigans are done. I am very ok with this. My heart knows it's time to gear up for the next stage in my life: adulthood. I have a year of education classes and student teaching left. I will be moving out of the UC neighborhood next year. I'll probably get something that resembles a real job. So, this is just one more step.

*My Mom and Mike were down this weekend for Senior Night. On a top 10 list of my favorite people, they easily are at the top. Everyone always comments on how my Mooze and I are exactly alike and I couldn't take a higher compliment. My mom is beautiful, so funny, strong...if anyone sees her traits in me, I can only be flattered. They spent the weekend hanging out with my friends, making me laugh, and spending money on me. What more could I ask for? Even the dog came down and had a good time.

*I have 7 papers due in the next 3 weeks. Then, exams. Kill me now. Please. Curse my english major existence. I'm having a really difficult time concentrating this quarter (this has been an on-going problem for awhile and the doctor thought it had to do with my lack of sleep but nothing has been really done about this. Another thought it was ADHD. I don't think so, I can FORCE myself to concentrate but it's very difficult to do. I'm just not as motivated as I used to be.

*There's this guy...makes me smile. I don't know how much to put on here, I haven't been comfortable talking about my personal personal life as of late...so I'll just leave you with this.

So here I am with lots of crap to talk about

So much to say. What a crazy series of events for sure. It will probably be a lot of details about parties, beer, and band so please bare with me.

Thursday night was the opening festivities for Halloween weekend. The roommates gathered all the ingredients (which happened to include 2 handles of Everclear which is illegal in Ohio so I had to drive to Kentucky to buy it) and I managed to almost cut my finger off. Now, I take full responsibility for this because I was being a little bit childish and playing with knives. I'm 21, you'd think I'd know that only bad things happen when you screw around with sharp objects, but I clearly had not learned my lesson as a child. I've always wanted to stab a melon. I have no idea why, perhaps its the sado-masochistic side of me, but I've always wanted to plunge a sharp knife dagger-style into a melon. Well, we had a melon, we had a sharp knife, how could I resist? So I did and was damn proud of it. I hoisted the melon on a knife above my head with a loud war cry and marched around like it was a head on a stick. About this point, I realized that perhaps running around with a knife plunged into a melon might not be the safest idea, particularly since the knife was long enough to be sticking out the other side. I decided to stop fooling around and turned the knife upside down with my hand underneathe it to catch the melon. The melon did not budge, instead, the weight of it pulled the knife tip INTO MY EFFING FINGERTIP. I didn't scream at first, I just sort of looked at it in horror because you know, I could feel it scraping my bone. I pulled it out and just sort of stared at the gaping wound that a few seconds later was bleeding heavily. That's when I started screaming and cursing whilst hopping around my kitchen. (The best part is, Robbie and Matt were in the other room playing Guitar Hero 3 but instead of coming to see why I'm screaming bloody murder, they had to finish that song!) I wasted a lot of words on the fact that I cut my finger, so I'll get to the point. I was too stubborn for stitches so I've been butterfly-bandaging it and there will most definitely be a scar. The bleeding stopped on Saturday thank goodness.

ANYWAYS.

Friday was spent skipping class (sheepish grin) to clean up the apartment and get it ready for the party. There was furniture to move, CDs to burn, Hairy Buffalo to taste (multiple times to make sure it's just right) and costumes to put on. Pictures to come. The party was incredibly collegiate with lots of drunken slutty costumes, people throwing up off the balcony, and tightly packed dancing people in my living room. It was quite entertaining, and I loved running around being a part of the chaos. Thankfully, our apartment was not damaged and clean-up was relatively easy despite the fact we served red punch with pieces of fruit in it.

A majority of Saturday was spent sleeping in and watching the Bearcats beat USF in a game we were NOT supposed to win. Somehow, when the game that's on TV effects you personally, you get antsy and irate. Of course the marching band is concerned with what bowl game we get to go to during Christmas Break. Bowl game possibilities for the Big East Conference are:

International(MAC No. 3 vs. Big East No. 4)- This bowl game is in Toronto, Canada and we happened to go last year versus Western Michigan and had an AMAZING time but something about going back doesn't sit right. If I get to travel for free, I want to spend time somewhere new. I wouldn't be utterly sad to go back, however. Toronto is a sweet city.

Meineke Car Care(Big East No. 3/Navy vs. ACC No. 5/6/7) - This is in Charlotte, NC. I was there back in May for the Coca-Cola 600 (not really Charlotte, but close enough) and wouldn't mind heading back into the heart of NASCAR country but again, how about someplace I've never been? As it stands this week, we are third in the Big East conference so this is our predicted slate for the time being.

Brut Sun(Pac-10 No. 3 vs. Big 12/Notre Dame/Big East) - This one takes us to El Paso, TX which 1. Would mean flying instead of driving in buses and 2. Warm weather. Ironically enough, we were in Texas 4 years ago for the Fort Worth bowl and the temperature dropped to 13 degrees at the bowl game and since it was Texas, NONE OF US packed appropriately. Wouldn't want a repeat, but could be a cool trip.

Papajohns.com(C-USA vs. Big East No. 5) -Birmingham, Alabama. Potentially another warm(er) bowl game than anything north of Kentucky and a state I haven't frequented very often. Probably driving however, and after the 12 hour trip to Toronto, I'd rather fly.

So that's it for boring football you don't care about. :-)

We started basketball season a few days ago so I played at the game last night and then our house went to P&P. I dressed like a little girl, I was feeling young with little pigtails on top of my head. Lots of cheap beer and a restless night of sleep later...here I am. I have to go to work today for a few hours, write some papers and do some Theta stuff.

This post is happy, I've been tormented about what to do with my life and I'm nervous about making the wrong decision, but that is a post for another time.

There's a 5 AM?

I was up at 5 AM because I am a slave to band. Ugh.

Trip to Miami of Oxford for football game.

Home Again

Dude. I'm back.

Two weeks of balls hot band camp in Indiana and I'm just exhausted. There were some good times, but at one point, I was so frusterated playing marching band kid and staff member at the same time that I broke down like a baby. It's difficult being so many things to so many people, especially when all you want to do is enjoy your last year having a good time. I didn't go to work Friday or Monday because I'm just so overwhelmed with life right now. I forget how much time I don't have for myself to do laundry or eat a decent meal or spend time with my friends. Last night I went over to where my friends now live across the street. We had walkie talkies and just ran around the neighborhood acting like complete idiots. It was such a throw-back to my childhood. All important houses now have Code Names (mine, Purple Thunder; their's, Big Red, etc) and all our code names correlate to movie titles. (I'm Talladega Nights...go figure.) Regardless, it was silly but I need to have times like those to keep me going during the rest of my sort-of grown up life. I can escape the busy schedules, the debt, the stressful job, the city pollution and heat, the burdens of adult-hood.

I watched the Chevy Rock and Roll race Saturday night...heartbroken for Jr. He raced so hard til the very end and had a fighting chance UNTIL HIS EFFING ENGINE BLEW. He just looked so defeated in his post race interview. No Chase for Jr...poor guy.

A little peeved at Gordon and Stewart, I realize they had their own butts to cover but come on. Jr is your future teammate/FRIEND. You could have given him a little reprive. Racing bastards...:-/

I have my second interview for a bartending job at the new BDubs on campus this afternoon. Crossing my fingers.

I'm back in black

What's up whole two or three people who read this blog? I'm back.

Band camp this year reminded me that I'm finally reaching my prime with this activity and need to retire. This will be the last year no matter what drum major tries to convince me otherwise.

I did get a nice tan however. And met a lot of really cool rookies who will be good friends, I can tell. The downside is how overworked I feel. Today, I dressed up a bit just because it felt so good to not look like a sweating band kid. It was BALLS HOT the entire week and I'm surprised I didn't shrivel up from loss of fluids.

We had our first football game last night against South Eastern Missouri and royally kicked their ass, 59-3. The weather was also very football-like getting me excited for my favorite season. I love the sports, the leaves, the holidays, the parties, the college fall atmosphere. Even though spring claims "new beginnings", I think for a college kid, its all about autumn. It's a new chance at school, a new chance for the football team to have a winning season, a new chance to make more friends, a new chance to find as many different themes for parties as humanly possible. We haven't seen each other all summer, so we're not tired of each other yet, we haven't had a remotely intelligent thought so MAYBE we'll go to class after all.

I'm also ready for my last year in band and Theta. I know I'll appreciate it more since I'll be gone next year.

Let the games begin!

After a difficult and stressful week, I'm off to band camp this morning...will be there until further notice. Unfortunately, blogging has taken a back seat to band since I can't seem to get up the strength to write a really good post.

Carl Edwards win at Bristol: good.
My two favorite drivers finishing Top 5: even better.
The dream I had about Tony Stewart last night: best. ;-)

Tired.

I have spent the 24 of the last 48 hours in the band office getting ready for band camp. I am beyond exhausted and smell kinda of funny. It will be touch and go for a few weeks because I'll be at band camp on and off.

Marching Band season, here we come.

Cedar Point Vaca

I can honestly say I had an absolutely wonderful time this weekend. A handful of my pledge brothers and candidate sisters from the band sorority and fraternity took a trip up north to Cedar Point. It was just a great time spending time with all of them and laughing so hard I probably almost peed once or twice! William and I even showed them Fremont in all its glory which consisted of getting a beer at the Depot and eating cheese fries at Denny's. :-) The weather was perfect, even a bit on the chilly side. Quote of the weekend goes to Steph: "If I were to give a blow job on a roller coaster, it would be the Millenium Force because it's sooo smooth!" Good times...:-)

Hell weeks begin this week. Work will essentially be as chaotic as humanly possible as we gear up for band camp. Percussion camp starts Wednesday night through Sunday and Monday we leave for Camp Higher Ground. The frat and sorority are also working parking at Oktoberfest all weekend long. I also need to find time to go shopping before I pack, finish all my work stuff, do laundry, and just generally get ready to leave. I get anxious this time of year and try to take it all one day at a time. I'm a creature of habit and need my schedule.

Though sometimes I just want to stand on the edge of the world and look down...go wherever adventure takes me. But until then...band. ;-)

Reruns of "The Wonder Years" makes me all nostalgic inside...

We had Dr. Tim do a clinic today here at UC...even though I've seen him 6 times, I still enjoy him every time. He makes me feel like I could touch the sky "if I wanted to". I'm pissed at myself for not writing more life-changing and cataclysmic-ly deep posts like Brooke. Maybe nothing life-changing has happened lately and those lack of experiences has numbed my writing a bit...not that I'm not thankful for the calm and simple things in life. I spent the better part of my first half of college (I'm half-way WHAA?) in total and complete chaos and there seems to be nothing wrong with a little calm seas now and again. I did simple things and enjoyed them this weekend...so that's ok. I spent Friday night inside still feeling sick. I drank tea and caught up on TV. I even watched a movie which I NEVER get to do. Saturday morning, I went to uniform inventory over in the band room (simple yet oh so complex) and worked for a bit. Anna and I went to Myra's for lunch (BEST vegetarian restaurant EVER) and I enjoyed some Spiced Apple Rum juice. Took a nap. Got ready for my KKPsi little brother's wedding. I looked pretty and enjoyed my time with my brothers and sisters in the pews causing a ruckus. I watched my darling little brother marry his darling girl and drank many drinks at the reception...resulting in my drunken dancing on the floor with a tie around my head.
Wore Red's hat backwards, sunglasses at night, and my bare feet out the window singing rap songs down I471 at the top of our lungs. I also hung out of the sunroof. Went to the Sigma Sigma Carnival than Euclid Manor to spend more time with friends I never seem to have time to hang out with anymore. They make me laugh until my tummy aches. Got 4 hours of sleep, but that's ok...went to more uniform inventory this morning. Went to a leadership clinic. We had to place ourselves into four leadership groups: Amiable, Analytical, Expressive, and Directing. Phil, Crunch and I were three of the very few in "Expressive" and it made me appreciate them more than I have in a long time. (We ARE Two Guys, a Girl, and a Romanian Restaurant.) Went to Eden Park for the SAX picnic where I tossed a ball around, chased some ducks and ate a hot dog. In between all of those things, I thought about the Rockstar and smiled a bit because that's how it works. This whole weekend was very beautiful. Good times. Good thoughts. Good people.Life is good.

It doesn't matter how amazing the rest of my life is going...band as the whole entity just gives me a migraine.
But, some new things have come up in my life that give me great joy, so I look forward to them immensely.
Truckin through the last two weeks...doing my best. My grades might not be fantastic, but I can live with that. Going to BG on the 17th, F-town 18-20th, Cincy the rest of the week and of course, looking forward to my 21st birthday!

It's now Monday morning and I'm still studying for my exams that I started studying for Saturday afternoon. It was a pretty decent weekend. Friday night was the KKPsi/TBS annual Christmas party which was a lot of fun. I was partying like a rockstar with Guitar Hero which could be a possible addiction. I enjoy jumping around Axl Rose-style. Saturday I slept in til 12:30 which I had not intended and the cat allergy from the night before got to me...I was not feeling well and started studying as soon as I got the chance...watched UCLA beat USC and WV beat Rutgers in triple over-time...SWEET games. BECAUSE:
OSU is playing Florida for the National Championship NOT MICHIGAN thank goodness.
Because of Rutger's loss? WE'RE GOING BOWLING IN CANADA BITCHES!!! We are going to the International Bowl in Toronto, Canada on Jan 6th and it looks like we're leaving a few days early which gives us a few free nights to run around Toronto. This was the bowl of my choice so I'm glad we're going where I hoped. That trip will be EPIC. Something to look forward to in January.
Jon came to stay with us which was fun and we went to the December Birthday Bash but we didn't stay long because we didn't go until midnight. Ended up at Steak n' Shake until 4 am. Today, I spent most of the time studying. Still going at it...I have back to back exams in my hardest classes tomorrow morning at 8 frickin AM. Did go see the Feast of Carols because my roommate Amanda and several friends sang in the choirs that performed. I am starting to get into the Christmas mood.
Tired...going to crash soon. Peace out.
Oh yeah. Did I mention we're going to Canada? I'm excited.

Football Glory

Yesterday was a day of football history for both of my favorite teams. I was so bitter that I couldn't watch the OSU/Mich game but it turns out that we got a break from the pre-game band stuff from 5:00-6:25...and lucky for me the game was being broadcast on the jumbotron in the baseball stadium right across from the band room. So a few of us changed, bundled up and watched 2 and 3 quarter from the stadium. I snuck my cell with me and before pre-game started, I checked it in the bathroom...and my Bucks didn't let me down. 42-39 OSU final. I thought I couldn't be happier until OUR game.
Rutgers was the only undefeated team in the Big East and had been doing AMAZING as a top 10 team in the BCS. Ranked at 7, we were pretty sure we were in for a rough night where we were going to get slaughtered. I am proud to say, that I was able to witness the BIGGEST WIN IN UC'S FOOTBALL HISTORY. We all screamed our asses off and jumped around and stared in awe as we racked up ridiculous amounts of points. And we slaughtered them. 30-11. We had the biggest crowd of the season, 27,800 and the student section was packed for the first time ever. At 41 seconds, the players doused Coach Dantonio with gaterade...at 35 seconds? The crowd RUSHED THE FIELD. I have seen such things on TV but NEVER have I seen it happen to us. And the crowning touch...we pulled down the goal posts. It was the most epic feeling I have ever seen, we played the fight song and then rushed the field with everyone else. Rutgers was the highest ranked team we have EVER beaten. It was incredible and a moment that reminded me WHY I am in the Bearcat Bands. For moments like this. Though few and far between, they make everything worth it.
We knew it was a night for celebration, so after throwing around the idea of burning a couch in the middle of Euclid, we decided to just settle for a little drinkage and our own DVR HD version of the game...we went to the C-Paw house to re-cap on Kevin's plasma which was AMAZING. Saw shots of the band and yours truly was on national television. Watched the best plays and watched Sports Center and just sat in awe of the night. Just...epic.
On a crappier note, I had joked around for a few weeks about coming down with "Scarlett fever" yesterday so I could watch the OSU game. And then last night being in the cold and SCREAMING for 4 hours...I woke up with a sore throat and nasal congestion that feels like its going to kill me. HATE being sick. There's irony for ya.
I can't even remember what I did Friday night because yesterday sort of overshadowed it.

Shitfest and such

It's still Saturday night but TECHNICALLY it's Sunday so I'm posting early because it has already been a weekend of epic proportions.

Post secret is NOT letting me steal their photos anymore...soooo who knows what will happen with that.

So it was a weekend of band events that are probably going to end up killing me. Friday night was DAAPture the flag which is capture the flag played in the DAAP art building. Upperclassmen vs. Lowerclassmen. We got started about 10:00 and got done around 12:30. It was just insane. It was fun until people were out for blood. You would see your teammate getting dragged by 5 of the enemy into their turf out of the stairwell and all you could do was shed a tear for them and run for your life. My team found the flag and ended up having to charge it with as many teammates as possible but what was supposed to be a win turned into an all-out brawl in the stairwell between 4 and 5. People were getting punched and bit and started to bleed as about 10 of us piled on top of the flag and YANKED as hard as we could. I was sweaty and bruised and exhausted and it was SO MUCH FUN. I love crazy games like that just because they become indescribable to those who weren't there. It was awesome.
Today was Shitfest '06 which is our annual eating competition. It consists of four eating establishments, four weight classes and a whole lot of...well...shit. Each restaurant was its own competition within your weight class...we had lightweight (0-150), welter weight (151-200) which was my weight class, heavyweight (201-250) and superheavyweight (251+). We hit Waffle House first where the first disaster of the day struck. In my weight class it came down to me, Kyle, and Munch and it was getting pretty ugly. I ate two eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, a plate-sized waffle, 4 pieces of toast, hashbrowns and was working on my bowl of grits when I had to tap out at 3rd place. Kyle and Munch kept pace with each other so the tie-breaker was a milk-chugging contest which was our first mistake. Kyle won with a photo finish (my roommate Mike made a Mocumentary of today so we had to review the footage) but wasn't looking to good. So Kyle gets this weird look on his face and hurls his breakfast up BACK into the cup and all over the counter. I knew if I didn't get out of there, I was going to hurl, so I went outside to get some fresh air and rejoice in the fact that I was now 2nd since Kyle threw-up. Then, I looked to my right and there was Munch, throwing up in the trash can and that was all it took. I was in 1st for about 1.5 seconds and then I ran to the side of the building and tossed my entire breakfast all over the parking lot, my shoes and my pants. It was ridiculously gruesome. So stupid Crunch and Josh came in 4th because they won by default. I sat out the White Castle competition where Raven won by eating 12 sliders. Taco Bell was the afternoon competition and I kept score as Nate brought home the win with 9 tacos. Last but not least was my forte, the wing competition at Bdubs. Last year, I came in second overall with 30 wings to Steve's 34. This year, I beasted my weight class with 26 wings and came in 3rd to Fisher's 30 and Steve's 36. Now my stomach hurst and I'm delusional but its a small price to pay for fame. Rock.
And that is all for now.

Bowl Game? Perhaps.

So the exhaustion hit me like a wave after the game (which was not bad by the way since we won and maybe maybe MAYBE BOWL GAME IN FLORIDA OR TORONTO? Please?) and I just was SO overwhelmed with EVERYTHING that I laid down and cried for about 20 minutes and fell asleep. People are sick and crazy and exhausted and it rubs off on me. I know the world is not my burden to bear, but sometimes it just all happens to fall on my back. I felt much better after talking to the 'rents and getting schooled in Mario Kart and 007. Had Chipotle with Amanda and Nate which always helps a bit too. People came over tonight to just unwind from the long weekend and the CRAZY night we had last night. Oh un-named non-band-related activities, how I love thee. Looking forward to all the Halloween festivities this next week. I was informed that this weekend is technically Halloween weekend but I was never one to go with the mainstream flow anyways. I'd much rather party in November. This time around, its not only me I'm taking care of but doing the makeup/wigs of several friends which satisfies my creative makeup side for a bit. I can't WAIT for the parties next weekend, I think I'm all set for Hallo-buff and P&P. Spending the week cleaning, buying stuff and preparing the Hairy Buff with the roommates...hopefully 100 people will fit in our apartment. We'll make it work. My mom, Mike and our new dog Toby are coming down Sunday to spend some time which always makes my mood jump a few notches. I'm glad Toby is a car dog because he's going to come down with Mike everytime he comes to get me and take me back up north. Will make the long car rides more fun. I learn stuff every day. Today? "Out of sight, out of mind".