Blogging from my e-mail

Here H.n.B. I'm not doing this begrudingly. I actually have been wanting to try this since I asked you how to do it months ago and totally ignored the e-mail with the instructions until it mysteriously disappeared on me. Since I'm in my e-mail, I'm copy+pasting something from an e-mail Easel sent me since she's the only one that really does forwards anymore and I seem to enjoy getting the ones like this. So here's the part about November Babies:

NOVEMBER BABY

Trustworthy and loyal. Very passionate and

dangerous. Wild at times. Knows how to have fun.

Sexy and mysterious. Everyone is drawn towards

your inner and outer beauty and independent

personality. Playful, but secretive. Very emotional

and temperamental sometimes. Meets new people

easily and very social in a group. Fearless and

independent. Can hold their own. Stands out in a

crowd. Essentially very smart. Usually, the

greatest men are born in this month. If you ever

begin a relationship with someone from this month,

hold on to them because their one of a kind. repost

in 5 mins & you will excel in a major event coming

up sometime this month.

Mindless TV

I'm forever getting on to Poly about his mindless TV, whether it's Deal or No Deal or Parental Control (but that one's pretty good, I must admit. I'm a sucker for MTV reality). This time, I've found my junk reality TV. It's called Beauty and the Geek. I slightly remember when they first started advertising this show on the WB and thinking it was a bunch of crap. I think most reality shows are a bunch of crap. A few weeks ago, Mehsha was down sick and missed the Sunday meeting. When we came home, she was veging watching Beauty and the Geek. I got sucked in. That quickly. All of five minutes had passed since I walked into the house and I was hooked on the show.

The concept is pretty basic. Eight "beauties" are paired off with eight "geeks" and they are supposed to benefit from the experience. Most of them say they do. I don't know how sincere the first couple that gets eliminated can say that, but I know the last two couples have definitely learned something. Each episode, there are two challenges. One for the guys to learn more about etiquette and dating, girls in general. The girls' challenge is supposed to help them learn more over all. The winner of the girls' challenge protects herself and her partner from the elimination round and the winner of the guys' challenge does the same. Each group gets to pick who they want to go to the elimination round. In the elimination round, the girls are tested on the things that they were supposed to learn and study for their challenge and the guys are tested on things that they did for their challenge. Overall, it sounds fairly boring with me just explaining it, but when you put the ditziest and prettiest girls in with the brainiest and dorkiest guys, it makes for quite the entertaining show. There are tons of funny quirks that accompany a reality TV show, like the fact that after the guys walk out and present themselves to the girls, a girl must pick the guy and then they have to pick a bedroom. The weird thing about the bedrooms is, some of them have two twin beds and some of them have a queen bed. That makes for some interesting points in the show. (Not like that. Shame, shame...) Of course, there's the unavoidable reality show drama, etc. Typically, you have to shoot me in the head, tie me to the chair, and sit me right up at the TV to get me to watch reality shows, but this one is so much fun and I really like to watch it.

At this point, MTV is playing reruns of the show daily. They play two episodes at 5 PM and 6 PM. Now, the CW (UPN and the WB meshed together) is embarking on the third season Wednesday, January 3rd at 8 PM. I've finally found some Wednesday night TV, and it's quite hilarious. Check it out.

The first supper

I'm still quite excited about this, so I'm going to give a quick shout about it on the blog. I cooked dinner for the first time from scratch last night! It's pretty miraculous considering I cooked, it was edible, and it didn't involve rice. I made spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli. It was tasty. I was in EarthFare yesterday and I looked in the frozen foods case and saw ravioli. I asked mom and she said that we could have them for dinner. So I started pulling them all out and looking at the ingredients. Well, everyone of them said "may contain nuts." I can't stand that. So I was bummed for a moment and then mom said that we can make our own and she would teach me. You guys wouldn't believe how easy it is to make pasta from scratch! Though we had a mishap where the egg mixture broke through the flour dam and went all over the counter, we fixed it and I did it by myself. Mom supervised and helped with the filling since there was no recipe for it. It was absolutely cool to cook my own dinner, and it not be beans and rice. It kinda gave me the idea that if I had the resources, I'd like to make my own food completely nut free and like market it places. There are tons of people with peanut and nut allergies and I'm sure they get just as frustrated as I do, and my mom for that matter. She told me I had to start learning how to cook my own stuff or I won't ever get to eat anything but rice when I move out on my own.

I'm no longer opposed to learning how to cook. It's actually fun.

P.S.- I'm babysitting until 11 PM tonight. Just had to share that too.

Can't wait til April

So I've been planning on this since I had my phone for a year on July 4th (yeah, national holiday. We thought it would be a good day to renew our service). Shortly after I got my phone, maybe six months, I was steeped in txting. It's probably a hobby of mine by now. Definetly a habit if not a hobby. I would say habit because it costs me money- a lot of money usually, but it's too much fun to quit. When I started I knew that I would need something with more of a key board than just my 12 button number pad. So I started looking at the different multimedia phones with the full or extended key pad. Well, I'm all for cute, and none of the ones Cingular had were cute enough for me. Blackberry. Cute (and yummy) name. Not to cute phone. A few weeks ago, I stopped in the Cingular store to just look and see if they were cuter in person or something wasn't on the web. There's no getting me to leave Cingular. We've been with them since "Bellsouth Wireless." Whatever the motivation, I wanted to look and see about new phones. I'm slightly lost and the guy behind the counter can see that but he was really nice to me and asked me what I was looking for. I explained that I was looking to get a new phone (duh. Why else would I be standing in front of a display of phones?). I gave him some details of what I wanted, and that my biggest requirement was that it have a key pad with all the letters on it and I didn't have to press multiple times to get the letter I wanted. He showed me the few that they had and I said I wasn't too keen on Blackberry because they just weren't quite me. ( I didn't tell the clerk they weren't cute enough. I wanted him to take me a little more seriously than that.) He then tried to win me over to the Blackberry side. I am easily swayed. He showed me his and was bragging about sending paragraph long txts. I said I did than anyway, it just took so long. He knew what I was talking about. He let me test his out and try some different features. It was so WAY cooler than my little flip piece of junk that has begun to look like a piece of junk. Although the Blackberry was very alluring, I told him it just didn't seem to be what I was looking for. He must have been able to tell that I was looking for one cuter and told me that Blackberry was coming out with a new phone. The Blackberry Pearl. He showed me that website on the Internet (on his phone) and I was quite taken. This phone is so for me. It doesn't have seprate keys for each of the letters of the alphabet, but it meets every other criteria so the fact that some letters share keys doesn't matter to me. Its smaller than the other Blackberry products and that's a big thing for me. I didn't want something so bulky, even though I carry around bags big enough to put a file cabinet in. Plus, it would be perfect since I don't have Internet at my house, I can use it on the phone with a usage plan. It's just exactally what I want. It's just going to take some saving on my end, but I'll be there by April.

It's it loverly?

Out of his element

Well, I'm doing the whole blog at the library thing right now. Can't seem to get in touch with mom for some reason, so stopping here didn't seem like a big deal, though I'm starved and mentally exhausted from going on Eliza Jones' studies with her this afternoon.

Severly disappointed I'm missing Easel's first recital in a very long time tonight. Severly. It's all around free and any concert she's ever done has always sounded wonderful. Totally severly disappointed.

Now for a quickish blog:
Today we worked some territory in Athens, since that's where we meet on Wednesdays. Once again, Andy and I were put together. It's been some time since we were put together two days in a row, so it doesn't bug me that much, but it's either making Deborah Clasky mad as heck or it just tickles her because she always brings it up. Anyway, he has territory in the elite part of town. It's the equivalent of Buckhead to Atlanta. So we're back there working and we go to this one house. It was a fairly nice old lady, but she didn't want us to come back- ever, so we told her we'd make a note of it. Turns out, it's already on the back of the card. Andy had already made a mental note of it, he told me as we walked away from the house, and that he had forgotten in the whole 60 seconds it took him to get up to the door. Bless his heart. So for the next few doors we talked about ailments and he's so an old man when it comes to aches and pains. It cracks me up since lately, I've had the immune system of a horse. (Watch me get pneumonia this winter...) Well, we round the corner and the prez of the homeowners association asks us to leave and says that they consider the work of the lord to be soliciting as well. We finished that street and moved on to one further back on a boundary. Again, someone mentioned that we were considered soliciting in their neighborhood, (which you can't really call it a neighborhood. They just put a sign out front and want to keep us out but it's still all city owned back in there.) So then a cop comes down the street and asks us if we were soliciting anything and that he had gotten a few calls. Andy very diplomatically says that we aren't selling anything and we aren't asking for money, just sharing a scripture. The cop says fine and goes along. He really didn't care anyway. We finish up the street and leave, just to keep the peace for those old windbags back there. Andy who was head of the group despite having two elders with us, decides it's time for a break. We're awfully close to just about everything back in that area, so he suggests Race Trac. Dimwitt excitedly asks if we can break at Earth Fare. Andy looks a little worried, but we give him directions and we all get out for a snack. Everyone else is inside, and Andy and I are walking in and he stops me and says, "You gotta help me. I didn't want to tell Dimwitt, but I've never been here." FINALLY! MY ELEMENT! We're in downtown Athens at the health food store, where we shop weekly. It's like being in some parts of Atlanta and if I close my eyes I can imagine I'm in Five Points or the Virginia Highlands and I'm not so homesick anymore. So like a little puppy dog, I take him around the store and show him where the drinks are and snacky type stuff and tell him that I'll be at the coffee counter getting a latte. He wanders around for a while and calls me on my cell saying he's kinda lost. So I go get him and he pays while I finish waiting on my drink. When I'm done, I find Dimwitt has walked out the door and so I follow to see Andy in the van. I asked him how his experince was. His exact words were, "I felt like Joe Dirt when he messed something up and all he could say was 'I'm new here! I'm new here! I don't know what to do!" We busted up laughing and I told him that now he knows what I felt like in Race Trac. It was quite funny, but I guess you had to be there.

Still two more things to blog about, but I guess those will have to wait.

All we could think of was...

Well, I have a few things to cover before I get to that.

I swore that I would never cook dinner for Contessa's dad, who shall now be Mountain Man- at least until I can think of something better, but microwaving some mac-n-cheese and steaming some veggies and picking up a rotisserie chicken isn't dinner. And even if you want to call it cooking dinner, I'm doing it for Contessa. Since her father has started seriously seeing a sister, she and I have really bonded. I got back from Atlanta and didn't get to pick her up until 4:30 from Deborah Clasky's house. Deborah babysits on Thursdays and was happy to pick her up for me and I was very grateful, since I was having a good time spending the rest of last month's pay check with peeps from Baltimore at the AmericasMart. When I picked her up, of course I walked right in and scared the beejesus out of Andy and she ran and jumped into my arms. Three months ago, that would have never happened. She and I are pretty good friends now, and I am so happy for that.

Oh a big "what up home fries" from the Mehsha corner. She misses you all in our dwindling blog land and if she had access to a compy, she would be blogging. There's plenty for her to say. And so much that I want to blog about, but just don't have the access to. Definetly like the new phone that I want to get and the mindless TV that I have finally indulged in and totally love. It's depressing, but so lets get one thing I wanted to blog about out of the way:
This Thanksgiving weekend, we drove to see my Grandmama T. She had her gallbladder taken out two weeks ago and we went to visit her and help her out. She went out for the first time today to go to the chiropractor. She feels great. It was an emergency surgery because she developed pancreatitis and that's pretty serious. People die from that. So we went to help her out this weekend and it was an OK trip. I knew it wasn't going to be a top ten, if anything a bottom ten trip. (I did find a spiffy brown corduroy blazer on sale that's perfect and there was no tax in SC. Don't know about here...) Overall, the best part about the trip was the ride we take now going and coming. We take I-20 to Columbia and then 521 I think is the number, but we do some bypassing now and go thru cities like Manning and Andrews that we didn't go by before. Manning is a cute city. We haven't stopped there yet, but it doesn't look as podunk as some of the other cities we drive thru (i.e.- Rembert and Salters). On the other side of Manning, there is this farm with goats. As we were going thru there on Thursday, there was this brown blob running across the road. It looked almost big enough to be a small horse, but we knew it wasn't. Man was it running fast. We got closer to see it was a fairly large goat and watched it hop the fence. Then there was a white and brown splotched one that hopped over after it that was even bigger. The brown one ran into the little shack there and all of the other goats (about 15) were just staring at the only brown one that had just run across four lanes of "traffic" and a wide median. Those of us in the car (mom, Mehsha, and me) were just dumb-founded at this event. All we could decide was that they were bored since nothing was open and it was Thanksgiving. The other splotched goats dared the smaller brown one to run across the road to the field across the street and eat some grass and then run back. The other goat that had hopped the fence but was still on the right side of the road was over the fence so that he could see and time the brown one because he had to do all of this in 30 seconds or less. That was the most logical explanation. When we came back through on Sunday, they were all laying down asleep, obviously still exhausted from the dare on Thursday.

Goats are not very cute farm animals and I couldn't ever move to South Carolina.

I miss this thing

I could literally write a novel now. Right now. All here. I feel indebted to my blog and the fact that it's been horribly neglected lately for my pen and paper ( which somehow always seems to win over keyboard and fingers). I've been saving this link up for quite a while and I'm just hoping that H'n'B hasn't posted it before, but I'm sure most of you all ready know these because you're cool like that.:
http://www.neatorama.com/2006/07/24/the-25-most-important-questions-in-the-history-of-the-universe/
Have fun. This one is good too.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/
There's too much going on right now to try and tell y'all about it.

A bad feeling

I'm not sure if I just never came out of the depression that I went into on Friday or what, but this is pretty serious. I just got in the car and drove today. Well over 60 miles from Oconee to Barrow to Jackson then back home again. (Don't ask me how I got to Jackson. I'm not quite sure myself.) I just have this horrible bad feeling. It's not from Grandmama T. either because I actually talked to her while I was driving. She was winded, but sounded like herself, which was absolutely awesome. It was good to hear her voice. I was about to cry I was so happy, but that didn't last. The feeling. I don't know what it is and that's the worst part, but I know it's making me feel bad about everything I'm doing, have done, will do, want to do, need to do. There's a confusion along with it if you can't tell. I know you all must love me for being so boring lately.

Well, here's the negative one. Give it a whirl. Be brutal. I can take it. You know how much self-confidence I have (or don't have):
http://kevan.org/nohari.cgi

e-i-g-h-t-e-e-n and the kids table

I probably won't have time before Thursday to blog, so I'll go ahead and blog about being 18, even though I'm not quite there yet. It feels like it though. It always seems to be such a big deal to turn 5 or 13 or 16, but I didn't feel different until I turned 17. There was a day too. Probably the 12th of 13th of November of last year. This time, it was early, not late. About a month ago I started feeling different. And suprise, suprise! Dad remembered it was the 2nd and he came in and told me last Thursday that I only had a week left. I said that couldn't be right, but checked my calendar and it was. Now, I've only got two days. That's a big thing for dad, seeing as how he always thinks it is the 3rd or 4th. It's exciting, yet unsettling all at the same time.

I was talking to an elder and his wife in our hall and he asked me how pioneering was going. I said it was wonderful and I was really enjoying what I was doing. He said that they were very impressed with what I was accomplishing and that they had really seen me grow up. I asked him what he meant, since they have only known me a year. He explained that I have really matured and seemed much more secure with myself, like I had grown up not in a physical way, but mentally. That made my day because all I could think about in this past month that I "felt" older was that I was even less prepared for what was to come and that my 17th year was a total bust as far as preparing me for the next one. Part of me not feeling "ready" probably has something to do with the fact that I'm tired of growing up and being so self-concious. A few weekends ago, I was in Alpharetta. We ate at Pure. Guess where I sat. The kids table. The biggest thing about it was that I wanted to sit there. I didn't want to sit with the adults and hear them talk about stuff that is interesting, but not as much fun. So I sat with I Dunno, Mehsha, and He who tells jokes (at least I think that's his nickname). It was the most fun I had had in a very long time and I didn't care what people thought when Jokester put the chips basket on his face and picked up his pencil and pretended to fence. Or when Mehsha and I would bust out in various rap songs like "MoneyMaker" or some Lil' Jon song, and "Holla Back Girl". Normally, when Mehsha yells out in a resturant, I'm sushing her all over the place, but I didn't care. I felt happy sitting there. Pretty much care free. Sure I want to grow up and all, but I want to be able to feel secure and to go wild everyonce in a while. Like at the Raconteurs concert. It felt SO good just to yell and scream, especially in people's ears that you wanted to move out of your way. When I sat with the kids, it felt good to know that I didn't care I was sitting with the kids and I was pretty proud when one of them would act up. I'm sure that I Dunno hit the people sitting at the table behind us when he threw a napkin holder, and all I did was wave when they turned around to look at us and give us dirty looks. Mehsha just told me, "See what you've been missing!?" And I did. I realized that I can act 12 or 13 some of the time and it doesn't hurt me, but I feel better. One of my biggest peeves is that I don't think I was really 12 when I was 12 or 13 when I was 13, and now I want to go back. Well, that's impossible so the next best thing is to be secure with yourself enough to act like 12 or 13 sometimes, and I hope I'm getting close to mature enough to act that way.

I have made a few decisions as far as my future is concerned. I met my new C.O. on Saturday and I love him. I really do. Not like that, but I could get attached. He and his wife are very warm, fuzzy, happy, huggy people, and probably to most of y'all's suprise, I love huggy people. No matter how I'm feeling, I'm always up for a hug. They got up on the stage to give their experince and it made me want to pioneer with them so bad, so I'm going to take a year off of school and pioneer with them because I really want to go to pioneer school with them. He sounds exactally like Bill Clinton, which makes sense because they are both from Arkansas. The C.O. and his wife visit in January. I can't wait.

Still haven't made any decisions about some other things that have been floating around in my head... but I did do this today and I'd be much obliged to you all if you would just follow the directions on this page: http://kevan.org/johari?name=AffableOlive.

See you when I'm 18!

Just a simple little update

So... I cut off from service after four hours today. Deborah Clasky finally realized when I fell over at about 2:30 that I needed to go in. I barely made it here, but I have some school work that I needed to send, so I drove here. I'm hoping that I can make it home. Yesterday, I went out for four hours while it was raining, so I don't feel too great today and I hit my head getting into the van again and that still hurts. I'm hoping that will go away tomorrow, or sooner.

Speaking of driving... I may have to get a real job. I finally babysat again this Monday. Contessa's dad (who still doesn't have a nickname) had given me off four work days in a row and now I'm working again. But it seems that the truck is having trouble starting. Thing is with the truck, it's 18 years old. That's quite a while for a car, even if it doesn't have 100,000 miles on it yet (it's only up to about 70k). But if it quits working, that means dad has to drive the Jeep everyday to work and it's not like I can just adopt the Trail Blazer from mom. That's her car. Dad's vehicle for as long as I can remember has been free range for users. Nobody really touches mom's car but her, unless I'm washing cars. That leaves me, the continuous auxilary pioneer, without a car. I don't expect mom and dad to just buy me one either. They really can't right now, especially since we just moved and don't know the money situation yet. It also takes a lot of saving to buy a car. I don't have enough to do that now. So... I'm hoping and praying that the truck can hold out until I finish high school and can get a real job. If not, I don't even want to think about that.

The DSL situations is looking very bright at this point. Cable is not avaliable in our area. We are too far in the boonies. A brother in the congregation actually works for Bellsouth and is THE DSL guy for the O.C. Isn't it glorious? Bellsouth told us that all the ports were "full." Well, this brother said he has to check, but he always leaves a few open for businesses and he considers us a business. Mom needs it for work and I need it for school. It's a necessity. So he's calling tomorrow to tell us for sure if he has a port. If not, we'll be without for another two months.

As far as the situation with Andy Clasky goes, I'm going to answer P. June's questions:
3. “Personal/Meaningful” = Intimate/Private? For instance, do you discuss things with him that you wouldn’t normally talk about with anyone else just because of convenience and proximity? Or that you would ONLY (previously) talk about with Easel? Would maybe all the conversations of the infamous “month” fall into the personal/meaningful category?
Andy and I have done well this week so far. Yesterday, I met in the afternoon and was sandwiched in the middle seat of his truck with him driving and another sister on the other side of me with Billy Ray Cyrus on softly in the background, and that was a little awkward, but it only lasted an hour and then he went in and I stayed with Deborah. We were only together today for about 2 hours, and even then I wasn't going to doors with him since we are doing this tract work, which is going suprisingly well. I've placed almost my whole 50. I have about 15 left. In two days. But the answer to all of those questions is "yes," so I do realize that some things have to change. We haven't been together so much lately so conversation has not been "personal/meaningful" at all. Some simple conversations about what we have been doing (drinking a lot of hot chocolate and visiting race trac and a few blurbs about Billy Ray Cyrus and Jammies), and about what we are encountering in the territory. Light and fluffy stuff. I'll just have to see if it happens to ease itself back into old ways, but of course, one thing has changed since this first became a situation. Most everyone that reads probably knows what has changed again too.

Jules sent me some things to think about as far as schooling and hopefully we'll have DSL next week and I can hunker down with those e-mails.

Here's a little something special. I know everyone has seen this, but it's been years since I have taken it. Probably about five, and that does not encompass the last nine months that I have been out here. It's all over. This was my score: 76% Dixie. Your neck must be a little pink! Last time I took it, I was 45% Dixie. Andy says that there's not much left keeping me from saying "yee-haw" instead of my "that sounds like fun." Mom says that the Claskys are becoming bad association because my grammar is going and my southern accent, which used to be light, is getting to be just as thick as molasses. The other day, our P.O. was saying that we need to get all of this territory done. Andy looks back at me in the rear view mirror and asks me to say it. He likes to hear me say it because I sound SO very redneck when I do and I'm always sticking it to him and his mother about their grammar, when I'm getting just as bad. It's really starting to get scary y'all.

Situations

Situation #1: Well, I'm at the library. You know, the only one in the other O.C. that doesn't have any books. We can't seem to get DSL or dial up at our house. Thing is, DSL is limited and there's not an avaliable port at the moment. Dial up doesn't work with either of the two computers that we have right now. One is missing the component needed since it was part of a network before and the lappy has so many restrictions on access now that it's close to impossible to do anything but tax returns on it. I'm not babysitting either, so I can't charge my Zen or check my e-mail. I had to come to the library, end of story.

I ate a lady bug today. Not sure if I just spit it out or if I did actually swallow it. Either way Deborah, Andy, and Tori Amos were all throughly cracked up at my reaction. It's been years since I swallowed a bug. It didn't taste good at all.

It's my first fall out here. It's prettier than the spring. All of the morning glories in the fields are blooming gorgeous colors. They have started to defoliate the cotton and that stark white up against the brown is just...there aren't words for it when you come up over a hill and all you see is this sea of white. The sorgum is turning that deep maroon color and it's just... you have to see it to believe it. It's got to be the prettiest it's been out here all year. There's a cotton field right by the Clasky's house and I'm trying to convince Mehsha that we need to take black and white pictures. She can do it with her camera and she's got quite the eye. Also, we found out that you can get to the county line from our property and there is a river there. Y'all, it's just absolutely gorgeous. We drove home from the outlet mall that ate Dawsonville yesterday straight down 53. It was just so peaceful and calming and... y'all all need to get your butts out here this week or next and just see it. Just look at it. It's so purdy.

On to Situation #2. Well, I've been seriously thinking about college these past few weeks. There has been pressure from older forces to decide. It's really bothering me that I can't make a decision. I want to know what to do and what I want to do, just doesn't seem practical. For the past five years, all I have wanted to do is go into the field of journalism. These past two years I haven't given anything in that department any thought. I have just been focusing on school and service. I just need some idea and it's not coming to me. I had a suggestion to just pioneer after I finish school for a year and take that time to decide. That really doesn't suit me at all. I would feel like I was just spinning my wheels, though I love service and being able to devote ALL my time to that would be kinda nice... oh that sounds more appealing as I think about it. Thing is, I don't want to bum off my parents for forever and I don't want to feel like I have to get married to support myself. It's a thing with me, I know. But I'm taking suggestions for occupations. I'm also going to talk to Eliza who used to work for UGA in the Journalism school and she may be able to help me find some division of journalism that won't be so competitive and might pay a little better, but $30-40,000 sounds like enough to sustain me, and just me. Added to another pay like a room mate, it may be more than enough. It's puzzling me.

Situation #3: OK, I'm going to try not to use names, but y'all will know who it is. Who else do I spend 50 hours a month with in service that's a guy with a serious girl friend? Thing is, he has started to do things that I wouldn't expect a guy WITH a serious girl friend to do, like make me a sandwich or pay for my breakfast or share tons of inside jokes, etc. So I'm not too worried about him leaving his girl friend. I don't expect him to and there's no reason. I don't like him that way and we are just good friends. Thing is though, I had someone tell me not to talk about personal/meaningful stuff. I totally know where that person is coming from and it's good advice that I'm taking to heart. I'd just like to have y'all's opinions/definitions on "personal/meaningful" conversation. We sit in the car for 50 hours a month, so it's not like we can sit there in complete silence, I'd just like to know what everyone cosiders fall under that category so that I can make sure and avoid things of the sort. So I'm taking suggestions here too. From everyone preferably.

Thanks and I hope to blog again soon.

Life is a highway and I may get the keys taken away

There's not much going on here, except a critique of my driving, which was needed. All this getting talked to has my driving on the forefront of my mind and I'm trying to work on it. Contessa was scared when we took the turn today, but I took it at 15 MPH instead of 45 MPH, so we definetly stayed on our side of the road and out of the grass. The completely wacked thing was that Contessa's father (who really needs a nickname) didn't give a flying flip about how fast I was driving and that I hopped the curb. He said he wanted to ride with me sometime. When I finally pulled in the drive way last Monday, I just about threw up. If anyone got hurt in the car with me, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself and would have definetly thrown up. Even Andy Clasky was puzzled when Contessa's father begged him to take Contessa for a ride on his 4-wheeler. Poly's father, Big A, talked to me Sunday, so I knew this was serious, and my dad talked to me on the way home. I drive so great at night, so I just need to apply the same rules to the day light. I have gotten so relaxed with my driving and that's the biggest problem. I'm having touble balancing focusing on the road, checking my mirrors every 3 seconds, and keeping an eye on my dash like mom says too. I look up to the road and lose my bearings of speed. In my opinion, today I did really well. Much better. It also depends on my music. "Zac and Sara" seems to be a dangerous song. It was on when I hopped the curb and when I sped in Poly's neighborhood yesterday, so I didn't drive to that CD today. Just have to make some changes. I want parents to feel confident that their kids can ride with me and be safe, not just kinda safe and they reluctantly let them go.

I turn 18 in 32 days. I'm not looking forward to it.

Completed my first month of auxilary pioneering and made my time. I was excited.

In other news, tried some Turkland coffee this weekend from an old person's toe. I enjoyed the grounds. DSL gets hooked up on Wednesday. I feel so out of the blogging community since we don't have it at my house. We're switching to Gain detergent. It smells so good. Maybe I'll have something more interesting to write about.

Our house, in the middle of our street

I just illegally downloaded that song! Yay! Anyway... so I almost wrecked on my way taking Contessa back to her house about an hour ago (that's where I am now). I took the turn into her neighborhood waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too fast. I was in the opposite lane and jumped the curb and was driving in the grass. I did a total no-no and jerked it back onto the street. You don't jerk Jeepie around. Gosh, I was so scared when I jumped the curb on the other side of the street. We made it safely back to the house. It takes something like that to keep you from being careless. So... if you ride with me in the next month (my six are up) be prepared for the safest ride of your life.

On to the house. It's absolutly glorious. Mom is in love with it, which is all any of us need. The stinky thing about it is that I have to walk to the middle of the cul-de-sac to talk on my cell phone, which I use for almost all my calls and right now, it's necessary because we won't have a home phone until this Thursday, nor will we have DSL until then. Don't know when we will get cable, or shall I say dish. That feels like a dirty word to me, but cable doesn't run out where we are. Y'all, we have rural delivery. Someone in a car delievers our mail. Forget a mail truck. Now we aren't Mayberry Rural Free Delivery, but we are rural. I love having my own bathroom. Right now, it's missing it's fixtures like a t.p. holder and towel rods, but mom is going to go ahead and get the piant for it and such and I can knock it out all by myself in an hour or two. All I've been taking is baths since I don't have a shower curtain yet either. Most all of the boxes are in the garage right now because we had a bad roach problem at the other house and roaches love cardboard and mom doesn't want all those boxes in the house, so unpacking is taking a little longer. The kitchen is basically done. I did that for all of Sunday. I never realized how big the house was until we got all of our stuff in it, and our stuff doesn't fill it up. It's a great house though. I want everyone to come visit.

That's all I have time for right now.

Moving on up...

To a bigger house. Mom keeps complaining that we have too much stuff. Well, we're going to have to buy stuff to fill this house. We gave away a lot of furniture that dad wishes we still had. Mom doesn't. She wants to buy new stuff. I've been packing, racking, and stacking (oh... no one gets that here...) since 9 AM. I told Brother Piano Teacher not to come this week. It's an absolute mad house here. There are packing peanuts and boxes, full and empty, everywhere. I've got a stack five boxes high in my room. I was desprately trying to compress my shoes into one box. I've bought 4 pairs since we moved here and they didn't even fit in one box the first time, so I don't know what I was thinking. It seems a bit over kill to have just moved 8 months ago and now we're doing it again. After this time (my fourth house), we won't be going anywhere for a long time. (YAY!!!!) This house is great y'all. Everyone has to come out, spend the night, and come out in service as well. A sister that comes out on Tuesdays has the totally awesome Farmington territory. Yesssssss! I can't wait. It's so boonies out there. Dirt roads and all. It touches Greene county. But so, a few notes to myself as far as things to remember when I move out, and some pointers for others:

• Keep books dusted weekly and you won't have an asthma attack when taking them off the shelves.
• Don't try and put 24 pairs of shoes in one box. Just don't.
• Never give up the boxes that have your name on them. Stupid sheets and towels. We have a lot of SHEETS.
• Don't start dancing around to "Zac and Sara." You're bound to fall over some boxes.
• Don't put all your yearbooks in one box. And if you do, don't try and pick it up.
• Make sure nothing odd is written on your boxes. No funky little drawings or once cool sayings. They don't look right 8 months later.
• Don't let your sister write on your boxes either, or people will think you smell like poo.
• Sharipes must keep their caps on when not in use. Those fumes are strong enough to make you fall over boxes, especaily if you start dancing to "Zac and Sara." And they make marks... everywhere...

So! Tomorrow is the big day! I'm doing out in service and someone has to take care of my stuffs. ALL my stuffs. Well, I have to go finish packing now... gack. My room is almost done. The laundry pantry is done and so is Mehsha's and my bathroom. I can't wait!

THE Concert!

It's my 50th post! WOOT WOOT! Mehsha got a digital camera today, so she has constantly been taking pictures since she and mom arrived home shortly after I got home as well. We went out to the house again today. They have finished repairing all of the holes in the walls, some big and some little. I don't know if I've updated the housing situation since we got the door handles and closet systems, but those were installed late last week I believe. Today, a lot of progress had been made as far as getting the HV/AC working correctly, etc. and the kitchen cabinets have door knobs and drawer pulls. It looks great. So does the golf course. We're getting VERY excited. We start moving Friday and will be occupied with that ALL WEEKEND LONG. We have a moving company doing the big stuff and the majority of the boxes, so we're good there. I've picked out colors for my new room. No tan. Same navy blue (love it), a kinda limey green, and a very Strong Sad grey. Again, it will be the perfect little boy's room. (No joke, when we were selling our last house, I had navy blue and tan. Every family that came in there said, "Oh! This will make a great room for my son!" It could be a good girl's room too!! Beats me why I never went for the really girly stuff.) The closing date is this Friday. YAY! I'll be in service half the day. YAY! I may not have to baby sit either. YAY! YAY! YAY! And Contessa's dad pays ahead of time, so he doesn't dock pay or anything for the next month. It's glorious.

Now, on to the concert that I have that post-show funk washed off me. I'm skipping all the way to when we entered the Tabernacle (wish I could have found a better link). Sure it was an odd day, but I'm not going there here. Mom and dad did let me drive all by myself in the Jeep, to my Greenparents and then back again today. It was my first trip all on my own that far. 130 miles in two days. No big, but it was my first time. Very exciting. Papa didn't expect me to show up by myself. So fast forward to the concert again. That was also my first time at the former gospel church turned concert venue. It was so cool. The acoustics were great. After all, it was a former black church. Like speaking in tounges black church. You could tell that it had been a church, not just because of the name or the left over pews scattered about but the HUGE organ pipes! All I could see was the tops of them when I entered the floor area since they had a large back drop up for both the opener and the Raconteurs. Afterwards, when they were taking the set down, I got a nice look at them. They were so tall. I wonder if they keep them clean... anyway, so first we walked down into the basement, which is smoking only, so we promptly left and went to the ground floor. We were there at 8 PM and the opener, Dr. Dog, went on. Jules and I stood for about two songs and I wasn't too impressed. Neither was she. They were just OK. No recommendations whatsoever. So we started touring the place. They hadn't done much as far as changing the layout of the former church, but they sure did add a whole lot of paint. The ceilings, stairs, air ducts... everything was covered in flowers and stars and other assorted designs. Very cool atmosphere. Plenty of bars. I was very surprised that the place didn't smell more like booze than it did. It was a lot cleaner than I thought, but I did refrain from drinking anything so that I didn't have to inspect the restrooms, where ever they were. You go up stairs to get to the basement level from the street, then again to get to the floor level, and then there are two more levels, but we only went up one more. That was where the BIG bar was. Jules didn't get any alcoholic beverages all night, but of course, if you were craving a beer, it was only Bud and it was $6, which was just as much as a mixed drink. Though she didn't drink anything except Coke, we were poised to do a lot more damage than that. First, while the other band finished and the tech's tuned up for the Raconteurs, we sat and chatted on the long pew on the second floor, right next to the bar. It was in the same room as a whole bunch of nice looking couches. They looked GREAT considering all the drunks that passed thru there all night long. Shortly before the Raconteurs went on, Jules and I went ahead and bought our proof that we went to the show. Both of us got the brown t-shirt and I got Mehsha the black one (neither of which could I find a piccy of). We debated about getting the special venue only poster that was totally cool, but we didn't and when we went back after the show, they were sold out. Oh well. But so, we hung around til the other sister showed up. We secretly passed her her ticket and she got in. We positioned ourselves perfectly. There was just enough room in front of the bar on the right hand side of the ground floor to fit two rows of people. That was the perfect spot to stand. We had about 3 feet of fire lane walking space in front of us, so there weren't people pressing on us, nor was it impossible to see. I got some pretty good pics with my cellie. MUCH better than the ones I got at the Weezer/Foo Fighters show last October. For good reason too. Not only were we right on the level (hehe...my baby's on the level) with the guys, I had 3 feet with no heads in front of me and we were only about 15 or 20 feet from the stage. GOOD position. We had people that were trying to edge us out, but there were three of us, and two were seasoned show go-ers and I went to Music Midtown last year. I KNOW how to stand my ground. Boo-Yah. Plus, the group of four beside us were about Jules' age and were pretty good about not getting edged out. One of the women though, was totally hammered before they even took the stage and maybe four songs into the show, her husband had to take her home. It was a shame. She was real entertaining. When the other sister got there, she realized that the brother that was supposed to be with us wasn't there. Turns out, he was too sick to come, so she called another sister in her congregation who left from the meeting to come to about half the Raconteur's show. The other sister left at the song after she was a householder for a talk. It was all quite hilarious, and I still find it funny. So at about 9:15 or 9:30, the boys took the stage. Oh did they work the crowd. They worked so well together. And the tour ends two months from now and started back in March. They mesh really well. Jack threw guitar pics out the whole concert. Partick threws his drum sticks out after the show. After we tried to get the set list and I was vying for either of the Jacks' water bottles, and the other twosisters that were with us got their proof and I got a 7" live single of "Hands" only because it looks totally awesome and was only $10. The t-shirts were only $20. The prices at this show were so reasonable. Afterwards, we celebrated with the usual Krispy Kreme dozen assorted, half glazed and half choclate glazed. I also got a hot chocolate. Race Trac's hot chocolate is good, but Krispy Kreme's is the best. It was so good, and it was already getting chilly. We arrived home at 12 AM. All in all, it was the best show I've ever been to. Small venue, great band, awesome atompshere. So more than satisfied.

The Raconteurs

THE SHOW WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bought cool stuff that wasn't as overpriced as I thought it would be. The guys played great together. Jack and Brendan were hot (and I hope they haven't lost their looks two hours later). Will post about details tomor... later today, when I can hear and speak again. Gosh, it was a great concert!

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Some day this week, I said I was going to post about piano. Before I have to do school, well, I should be doing school, but let's do this first. It's more fun.

In my books for the past two lessons (counting today's as one), we have been working with the key of D Minor. Turns out, most folk songs are "written" in that key. Everyone knows about folk songs. They aren't really written down. Same way with folk stories and oral traditions. Yada, yada, yada...so, today we did one that my book just calls "Introduction and Dance," but in 1968 (I looked up the specific date) Mary Hopkins released "Those Were the Days." (Not the theme song from "All in the Family.") It's the exact same song, and she didn't have to pay copyright overlords because it's a folk song.

For last week, in the key of D minor, I was assigned to practice "Scarborough Fair." What immediately comes to your mind when you hear that song? After you think of the city in England (or hamsters [?]), don't you think of Simon & Garfunkle's version of "Scarborough Fair?" Personally, I'm not an Paul & Art fan, and it had been years since I had heard the song. Also, I'm not one to have this desire to learn to play popular songs from 1940 to about 1979. (Don't touch the 80's. That's my favorite decade.) Don't get me wrong. I'd love love love to learn how to play a lot of the songs off "Good Bye Yellow Brick Road," and maybe even a little Elvis Presley or Rolling Stones ("Dandelion")Thing is, I fell in love with playing that song! No joke, I sat down Monday morning at 9:30 AM and didn't get up from the piano til I heard my tummy rumble at 11:30 AM to go eat. The whole time I played that song. It's beautiful. There's something about it that makes me want to play it. Typically, I'm not one to get up in the morning either and immediately sit down at the piano. For the past two days before I left for service (after dad left. I couldn't possibly think of concentrating with him belting out the lyrics.), I was sitting down and playing that song. Monday afternoon, I got a little curious about what Simon & Garfunkel's version sounded like, since it had been years since I pulled "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme" out and put it on the good 'ol turn table. (Which I'm going to get fixed when we move in. The Best Buy out here repairs turn tables.) My favorite clip of the song is linked above, but I also found this website that explains the whole history behind the song. After all, doesn't every folk song have a past? That webbie has an explanation of the lyrics, the full song lyrics (it's actually a lot longer than Simon & Garfunkle's version), and why the herbs parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. The explanation is interesting to me about his lover's sudden disappearance and I learned what a "Scarborough warning" was. I would go into all of this if I though you would be interested, but really it's three small paragraphs on that webpage for those of you that feast on useless information like I do. What I would like to go into is the use of those particular four herbs. To some extent, I knew that herbs symbolized virtues, similar to the way flowers commonly do today (i.e.- roses and love). Each herb is explained on that website. Parsley is still used to soothe "bitterness" or trouble with digestion. Sage signifies strength. Rosemary signifies faithfulness and love, while thyme represents courage. All in all, This makes it clear what the disappointed lover means to say by mentioning these herbs. He wishes his true love mildness to soothe the bitterness which is between them, strength to stand firm in the time of their being apart from each other, faithfulness to stay with him during this period of loneliness and paradoxically courage to fulfill her impossible tasks and to come back to him by the time she can. (I took that straight from the webbie.) Still don't know why I love to play the song so much though. It's still intrigues me.

Otherwise, I've been traipsing all over the Internet today and I found this German (full) version of "99 Red Balloons." (Or "99 Luft Balloons" in this case.) I love it in the one of the verses where Captain Kirk is mentioned and it's surrounded by all this German. How come German pop music kicks butt and always has?

There's this really neat place called Race Trac...

OK, so...where is everyone? Have I been that boring lately? That's pretty depressing that I'm so busy I'm boring. Does that mean I have to be lazy to come up with things? Honestly, I was thinking when I was out in service today that I need to start carrying around a little notebook with me NOT for return visits, but for doodles, sonnets, letters, notes, and novelettes. Just to write down the crazy things that happen because these first few weeks have been quite the experience and I'm still in love with service. Friday we're doing VFW and Farmington. There's a place I want to stop in Farmington and a notebook without lines would be a welcome addition to my service bag.
We were at one door long enough for me to write a full blown novel, but it was OK since it was POURING out here, like I assume it was in Atlanta. I was all the way in the back of the van, ya know, the place that I pay rent on. The seat in the back right on the third row. The rain was coming down and the householder had a semi-garden. There were still black-eyed susans growing in the patch right outside my window. Really, they were more taking over the once was veggie patch. With the rain coming down on the flowers, and the drops on the window and I would focus back and forth on the plant and then on the window and the conversation seemed so distant. For about five minutes, I could have probably written down a few verses before the feeling left. That's why I want a notebook.

Also we went to this neat place today. It sells ALL sorts of things! They have cookies and ice cream and hot dogs and chips and...almost anything you could ever want. It's called Race Trac. It's not like I've never been in a convenience store before, but usually just to go to the restroom and then I promptly exit the premises. Today was chilly and wet, so I wanted something warm. Nobody let out a peep about the new Starbucks or Jittery Joes...not even Panera. We (7 of us) all went in and there was this wall of soft drinks, slushies, and coffee varieties. I don't know if the others were actually coffee, but I wanted some hot chocolate. There wasn't a barista to place my order with and the place to pay wasn't any where near the coffee wall. It was odd. Andy Clasky had to basically walk me through the whole process. First, you get a cup from below the coffee wall. Then you put the cup under which ever coffee or hot drink variety you think you might want. This was kinda familiar. I've been to the World of Coke and they have a self-serve type room. After that, I was completely lost. I found the hot chocolate button. You have to press this button and the hot chocolate comes out of a soda fountain type machine! And it tasted really GOOD! Then I had to find my own lid and all that. The cashier did give me 2 cents extra for change. He told me to keep it. It was very different, but cheap! I only paid $1.15 for a 16 oz. hot coca. Eliza said that pioneers can't do Starbucks four days out of the week and that I'll learn truly what it's like when I start paying for myself. I guess I will. Andy said there's this place in the O.C. that cooks their own breakfast, like biscuits and sausage and eggs and grits. That sounded really good. He said we'd have to make it out there one Friday. I hope soon. I didn't know gas station stores could be so much fun!

America Foils Again

My aunt Jules sent this to me and I realized that everyone that I would want to send this to that would understand why I think it's so funny, reads my blog. Instead of just clicking 'forward,' I clicked copy, paste and here's the joke:

New terrorist organisation

A public school teacher was arrested today at John F.Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement.He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of maths instruction. "Al-gebra is a problem for us," Ashcroft said. "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'There are 3 sides to every triangle'."

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of Maths instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."

White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the President.

Some visits from the homeland

Wow, the eighth visit to my blog today was from Israel. I would check and see how they found my blog, but my compy is on the fritz. It probably has to do with looking for a shmear distributor, or looking for relatives. Who knows? It could get a little scary though. Scary in a cool "hey I have had 5 site visits from Israel" kinda way. Will blog about pianos later. You see some cool ones in serivce. You can also find out that a good friend of yours has a Yamaha grand and has invited you to come play it. Sweet.

8. 12 September 14:24 Bezeq International, Israel

Naming Names + Housing update

I totally stole this from P. June's yahoo blog, but I haven't done this sort of thing in SO long and this one was one that I liked way back when.

My 10 Names

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name): Jock Hill Creek (uh, if we had stopped at "hill" it might have had some potential)

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy): Thyra Truffles (I had to leave this one because not only do we have the same grandmother, evidently, we have the same favorite candy.)

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your middle name): Mcar (that's not fly at all)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Purple Panda (Oh, that one cracks me up)

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Caroline Decatur (Gosh, we were born in he same city too! We could appear in a sitcom later like Hope and Faith.)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of mom's maiden name and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in.): Gremehysne (OK, is that even pronounceable?)

7. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, favorite drink): The Purple Mojito (This one cracks me up too.)

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first name of both your grandfathers): Charles Leroy (Really, this doesn't work if you're stealing it from someone you're related to...)

9. FUTURISTIC NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne and the name of your favorite shoes): Ralph Nine West (Again, really can't take this from someone you're a lot alike either...and that doesn't even sound futuristic!)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother/father's middle name and the next name you hear on the tv/radio/talk): Laurie Mehsha (I actually heard her real name, but we can't put that here can we? It does sound like a pretty cool name though.)

Housing Update! Let's all gather round. We close on the new house on September 22nd. Yeah, 2 weeks away. That just means that by October, we can be getting settled in and having people out and over. I'm getting excited! We did calls back in that neighborhood this afternoon and Eliza was in our car group and asked which house it was. So we drove back there and back the totally cool drive way to the awesome house. So there are about six people that know where we will be living already. Don't tell mom and dad. Where we will be living is supposed to be on the down low. It's a very nice neighborhood (good grief, it has a golf course) and dad doesn't want people to start thinking things. Anyway, so mom went out there to set up closet options and then to pick out door knobs and door handles for drawers and such. There is a wood swatch on the floor in the kitchen here, and I suppose that's for me. My room is the only part of the house that needs to be hard wood before we move it, but it will probably end up being done shortly after we move in, but mom says it needs to be done ASAP. The carpet is a shag type stuff and would give me bad allergy problems. But otherwise, the rest of the house, besides the four bedrooms upstairs, is already hard woods and mom was really sold on that. We have to get a frige, but everything else is already there, and is stainless steel. The old washer and dryer are coming and will be what I will still be using for the time being. All I told mom was that they still (kinda) work, and there's no sense in getting new ones yet. I'll keep you all updated, but that's about all I can think of right now.

Country Club Chic

Well, hasn't it just been the busy past four days? Maybe not for y'all, but for me it has been. So lets do a brief recap:

Friday: Service. After all, it was my first day of CONTINUOUS AUXILIARY PIONEERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited!!!!! Can you tell? I'm already behind though, but not by but an hour or so. I couldn't have stood any more of Friday morning service though. There was a odd number out, but a lot of people showed up at O.C. field service, so I'm not going to complain about the odd number. What I am going to gripe about here for a minute is being sandwiched in the third row of the van. The worst part was I was back there with the love birds. Feather was up from West Palm for the weekend. Don't get me wrong. I love love love Feather. What I don't like is being in the back seat with Feather and Jammies. From Deborah Clasky's I was supposed to jet off to the library to take the rest of my French exam. At 12:30, mom called and said that my proctor said that the tape still hasn't come. My French teacher needs to get her act together. The exam and final grade for the course was supposed to be turned in by this Thursday. So much for that. It's not my fault either. I was ready to take the exam a whole month before this date and things could have been turned in on time if I had not been sent the tape for year 2 of French. I took the new found hour to nap before chasing Contessa around the neighborhood. I talked to her dad about it this time because she left the garage without asking and then I gained another girl from across the street. She was not part of the deal, but their neighborhood is SO the epitome of suburban. All the kids get home from school by 3:30 and they all play at each other's houses until about 6:00. Then it's time for dinner. It's weird. The moms don't give a flying flip where their kids are because they know that they will end up at home sometime before dinner.

Saturday: UGA GAME!!!! More excitement, but once again, in the car with Jammies and Feather. I'm skipping the majority of the details here because they all concern Andy Clasky and I talking about...stuff. We won. Of course. Screamed my lungs out. I had to pick them up off the peanut and whiskey covered stands. Almost had an allergic reaction. I did pretty good. It was against Western Kentucky University. They have the funniest looking mascot. Then we had Ricky Bobby and his son calling them the warts. Caleb Bobby was cute though. His dad kept saying that he was going to play for UGA one day. You keep thinking that Ricky. The only way Caleb is going to play is if he's really smart and can get in or he's super good at football and gets in. It's getting harder to get into my farming college out here. We ate dinner with Jammies and Feather. It made me a little heart sick. That night, I half way rooted for Tech. It looked like they might beat Notre Dame there for a minute. Oh well.

Sunday: GREAT talk that morning. Too tired to get my required weekend 2 hrs. That's why I'm behind. Chilled at home. Pay-per-viewed She's the Man. I laughed SO hard. Cat napped all day.

Monday: So I had plans with Biscuit, Andy, and Sweet as Sugar. There's no other way to describe Andy's girlfriend. She's been through so much and still manages to see nothing but the absolute best in the crummiest person. Andy and Biscuit didn't get back from dove hunting until noon and by that time, mom had already said that I was coming with she and Mehsha to the mall. I didn't want to shop for what I was being made to shop for. I'd rather just not wear one at all. So then I missed Sugar's visit. She called me today and said she was disappointed. We were all supposed to go to the Elder covered bridge and swim in the swimming hole. They got to. I was at the mall and for once, I didn't want to be there. SHOCKER! No really. It is. Mehsha wants to start running, so I took her to the park and while she jogged, I walked behind exploring the contents of my MP3 player, looking for something upbeat. She jogged around for 45 minutes. It was about 2 miles. I don't mind taking her. Dad wants me to start walking again anyway, especially since I didn't get to swim this summer and already have quite the sinus infection. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, it's my responsibility to get Mehsha to the park. Crashed Lappy. I did it, well, actually, my creative zen did it. I got the scariest blue screen yet. It was one that I had never seen before on any computer. It told me that it was dumping the memory. I just about screamed. Mom did. So Lappy is going for a check up tomorrow. We booted it back up and NOTHING was there. It wanted us to load on all the software, which belongs to my mom's work, so we don't have it. Mom and I are pretty sure that it was the Creative Zen software that messed up the laptop's system. This old Dell gives us the blue screen all the time. It's it's "I give up" screen. Honestly, this poor Dell doesn't have the components that it takes to run some of the stuff that we make it run. It was formatted to be part of a network and it isn't any more. Me crashing the laptop for the second time in a year sent mom the message that Mehsha and I probably need our own computer to run all of our stuff on instead of the one that her work provides. I may help pay for it, since I would like for it to be mine. With all my online classes, it only seems logical for me to have my own compy, as well as the music that I started keeping on the lappy now that I have my MP3 player. Dang...I didn't get to put my videos on it...and those are gone. Oh well.

Today was my first FULL day of service. Squished in the third row again, but we did a lot of musical chairs and then Andy let me get in the front seat for the afternoon since the group of 15 suddenly shrunk to 4 including one that had to go to a study and I always take the House to House records. So it was three of us out for most of the time. It was almost just Andy and me, but that's not right. Came home, napped, played piano and got some good news as far as problem #2- or the housing one, which ever number it got. So half of the problem is solved, we're putting a contract on a house bigger than our last one in THE AWESOMEST neighborhood I've ever lived in. Y'all are the first to know, so keep it on the down low for a bit. A week or so ago, we decided that no matter what, we were going to be in Lane Creek Plantation. Holy cow y'all. We put an offer on this house on a beautiful lot. The house is "eh," but it's FAR bigger and better than the one we are in. Mehsha and I have already decided where we are setting up the air hockey table so that I can kick her butt at it all over again. It hasn't been played since January. Andy and Biscuit have already asked when they can come over and play it. That's probably the thing that has me the most excited, besides that I get my own bathroom. FINALLY! I had one at the Tucker house, but it didn't matter then. I didn't have to share anything then. The best thing about this neighborhood is that although we are probably going into debt to get this house, it will go up in value. Most likely significantly too. IT'S GOT A GOLF COURSE!!!! If you click on the link, it tells you when it reopens. Dad knows the pro that has redone the course, and dad says that there is no way that this course isn't going to be great to play. Best of all, it's in our neighborhood. How much more convenient can you get?! When we first started looking out there, the course looked awful. It looks better every time we drive by now. Mom says it's going to be the country club of the O.C. People at school already think that Mehsha is "rich." When she tells them that she lives in Lane Creek, she'll never hear the end of it. A lot of really nice $550,000 and up homes are being built back there and there are others like the one that we have a contract on that fit our budget better. Although the parents have said it's not our problem to worry about, us kids are well aware of the changes that will have to be made for us to comfortably afford this house. Dad doesn't seem worried, but mom is a little anxious, as always though. So, who's coming to visit? Now, we have five bedrooms and a basement so we could stuff people everywhere! I can finally have that big group out for service that I have been wanting to have for eight months now. We'll have a designated office separate from the guest room and all that jazz. Tentative closing date I think is September 29th and we have to be out of the rental by the 30th. Believe me. We will.

Johnna Doe

I've only got a few to do this, but I would like to say that I've found my true love, at least for now. It's small, black, fits in my pocket, and has all my music on it. Well, almost all of it. I spent probably 8 or 9 hours ripping music on Tuesday, so I'm burned out on putting the remaining 20 or so on the computer to sync it. Those are the ones that I have to t-y-p-e in all the info for so they don't come up "unknown" on the player. This is not only the most expensive item I own (the Jeep is not in my possession today), but it's the coolest item I own. I decided to go ahead and spend every last penny I had on it (and it's warranty plan) on Monday because Best Buy has it on sale. Really, I would have rather had the white. It looks cleaner and you wouldn't be able to see my greasy thumb prints all over the key pad, but I couldn't find it for the same price anywhere out here in the boonies. Nobody had the white one out here, so I tried online and I couldn't find the white one for the same price online anywhere either. Price was what mattered since I already knew this one was what I wanted. Don't speak to me about iPods. For the past few days, "Johnna Doe" has been taking up my time. That's Mehsha's temporary name for it. Personally, I'm not one for naming objects, unless you call adding -ie to the end of anything naming it (i.e.- cellie, jeepie, etc.), but Mehsha wants to name it. Right now, it's genderless so she's just calling it "Johnna Doe"- a cross between John and Jane...to her anyway. If she doesn't come up with something better soon, it won't get named at all. There is this weird thought in my mind to call it yrollam, just because it looks the same and that became synonymous with MP3 players of this type a few months ago. That would be wrong, creepy, gross, etc., but it was just a weird feeling. It won't look like that one for long. I still have these cool fuzzy stickers and I'm debating on if I want to cover it with the cool stickers. That'll probably be a NO in the end since mom wants to make covers for it, and I know how bad stickers stick when they get hot. We're going to the fabric store to pick out what I want sometime next week. Maybe Monday. I'd rather make my own than pay for the ONLY one that they carry for it at Best Buy that's all black anyway and it's $30 or $40 bucks. It came with a little sack to keep it in, and that's doing the protecting job for now. I'm thinking light pink leather for the case...or RED leather. That decision will be made when I get there. Leopard print fabric would look totally awesome if mom did the whole front in plastic/vellum type stuff like she wants to. It's definitely worth the money. I don't care about all the specs or the rest of it, but I would like to say thank you to two readers who know who they are that helped me figure out MP3 players, and why this one fits what I wanted better than others.

So far, I'm still figuring out what all is on there, but one song did come up that I've been listening to only once a day that I had thrown in the trash. I can't find quite the suitable audio, so here come the lyrics:

"Unsent"

By Alanis Morissette

Dear Matthew: I like you a lot I realize you're in a relationship with someone right now and I respect that I would like you to know that if you're ever single in the future and you want to come visit me in California I would be open to spending time with you and finding out how old you were when you wrote your first song

Dear Jonathan: I liked you too much I used to be attracted to boys who would lie to me and think solely about themselves and you were plenty self-destructive for my taste at the time I used to say the more tragic the better the truth is whenever I think of the early 90's your face comes up with a vengeance like it was yesterday

Dear Terrance: I love you muchly you've been nothing but open hearted and emotionally available and supportive and nurturing and consummately there for me I kept drawing you in and pushing you away I remember how beautiful it was to fall asleep on your couch and cry in front of you for the first time you were the best platform from which to jump beyond myself what was wrong with me

Dear Marcus: You rocked my world you had a charismatic way about you with the women and you got me seriously thinking about spirituality and you wouldn't let me get away with kicking my own ass but I could never really feel relaxed and looked out for around you though and that stopped us from going any furter than we did and it's kinda too bad because we could've had much more fun

Dear Lou: We learned so much I realise we won't be able to talk for sometime and I understand that as I do you the long distance thing was the hardest and we did as well as we could we were together during a very tumultuous time in our lives I will always have your back and be curious about you about your career your whereabouts

I LOVE THAT SONG!

Internet revives the radio star

About two years ago, I discovered that Yahoo! had started something called LAUNCHcast. It was their online radio. You have to have an account with them for it to work, but on my old account, I had build up quite a collection of rated songs. Thursday, I got a link for Pandora, as most of you guys probably did too. I started playing with this yesterday and started finding some similarities and differences, lending me to prefer Pandora over LAUNCHcast.

The LAUNCHcast concept is similar to that of Pandora: creating specially formatted radio stations for you to listen to. With Yahoo's thing though, you create only one radio station especially formatted for you. First, you have to go though each main category of music like jazz, hip hop, rock, alternative, etc. If you click on a certain category, then it drops down and you get to chose from about 12 mainstream artists most closely associated with that genera. You can click them all or just one. It then creates your own station, so you have, like with mine, (Disclaimer: right now it doesn't really reflect my music tastes, but what I recently rated last time I listened) the genres listed are reggae, electronic/dance, and country. Not sure where those three came from. Usually it says something more like "adult alternative," rock, and jazz/ R & B. It plays songs from the major musicians that I picked and then it recommends songs from all the decades. Some obscure and others mainstream. Now let's break it down that you have the basics for Yahoo's radio.

First, lets go for the most annoying aspect of both of these online radio stations: advertisements. With Yahoo, it's overbearing. On your own personal radio station, you have unlimited skips until you get to 500 songs in a month, but about every 5 songs, you get a commercial, mostly advertising for you to upgrade and get a subscription. Sometimes it's for concerts in your area, or who ever is currently sponsoring the commercial free radio stations because there are two or three of those daily that have limited skips but no commercials. Right now it's Pepsi and Crest toothpaste. On the other radio stations, you get commercials about every 3 songs. (There are about 30 different stations that are open for listening to if you don't subscribe, but then it jumps up to about 70, or something close to that, if you subscribe.) So far, I've been listening to Pandora for about 3 or 4 hours and all I've gotten was one visual advertisement for Rock Star: Supernova. That sight was a little disturbing (Hello?! Who isn't creeped out by Tommy Lee?), but I have it minimized most of the time, so I don't see the visual ones. No audio advertisements at all. That was the biggest thing that won me over.

The rating system. Here, I have to say I favor Yahoo's way of doing things. They let you rate the artist, album, and song all differently. I find that very useful because for instance, with the White Stripes album White Blood Cells, that album isn't my ABSOLUTE favorite of theirs (Elephant!! Woot Woot!!), so I have 4 different levels of how I can rate all three different aspects of the song. I would give the band the fourth/highest level, the album the third/next highest level, and if the radio station was playing Aluminum, I would give it the lowest/first level because that song STILL gives me the jibblies after 7 years. Since I've rated all these things separately, I know that I'll still hear tons of the White Stripes, more of White Blood Cells, but I'll never have to fear hearing Aluminum and getting the jibblies again! Yay! The perfect situation. With Pandora, I've already had them play a song that I love love love by an artist that I'm not crazy about, so I had no choice but to click the thumbs up button for the song, but I have to wait for them to individually play each song from that artists and rate it when it comes along on the station that I created. That's one thing that I can do with Yahoo also. I can search for songs, albums, artists and rate them without ever having to hear them play. So I can completely avoid ever having Enrique Iglesias even though I rated Ricky Martin highly. Just kidding...maybe... If Pandora has that option, I just haven't found it yet in my site exploration. I know I can add artists to a station that I have already created, which I did. When I created my White Stripes station, I immediately added the Raconteurs and Led Zeppelin, just because they go together like peanut butter and jelly (just not around me).

As far as the music goes, on my personalized station, I was introduced to the New P's, The Jam, Blue Merle (one of my favorite "sounds like Coldplay" bands), etc., but it's not much of a let's look for underground artists kinda thing. So far, with Pandora, I've found at least 3 artists (one from each of the stations that I've created) that I've never heard of but have the major possibility of falling in love with. There are far more obscure artists on Pandora versus Yahoo, though Yahoo has a larger music database. This was the winning feature of Pandora. We all know I favor anything no one else has heard of. After all, doesn't it sound insanely cool when you get to say that the latest band you're into is either a local or a total unknown? Then you give the person a copy and spread the word and hope that they keep that indie spirit in their music. So far, the station that I favor is my White Stripes station, though I've heard of most of the artists that they are playing, maybe not the songs though. I also created one for Tori Amos, which we might as well rename "Women that play piano, kinda sing (but Tori can sing), and write angsty music" station, which is going to be nice when I'm in that kind of a mood. Yahoo offers a feature like this where you create different stations for different moods, but you have to pay $3 a month for that.

Over all, Pandora fits me better. More unknowns and less commercials. Their rating system could be better, but I'm not complaining for fear they might up the commercial playing. With my stations, I'm being very selective with what I add because I don't want to just throw all my stuff into one bin, and that's my solution for keeping things that I don't want played, not played. I'm trying to stay within the genera. I want my ducks scattered in this game.

Someone did something wrong and it wasn't ME!

French Exam right? I took care of problem #6 so that I could focus on this thing today. I was geared up for ace-ing this test, and I could have...had I had the right listening tape. There are five sections to a French exam. I decided I would get the culture, reading, writing, and grammar done before I did the listening part since it is usually the easiest for me. I finished all but the writing and went to do the ecoute (to listen) part and it was the wrong tape. The exam I was taking was French 11F. My teacher sent me the tape for French 12F exam, the second semester of my class. My proctor and I decided that she should call and we would reschedule. Now, I am brimming with self confidence. Not only do I now have more time to study, I know exactly what to study. There was one cultural question about Quebec and it was asking what would you want to visit if you went. Well, there was one place that I wasn't sure of the spelling of so now I can REALLY kick this exam's butt. Can anyone say "I'm getting an A on this test?" I can. I mentioned this to my proctor and she was like, "This is their problem and it's not like they are going to make up a different test for you just because you've seen this one, not unless that's what they usually do. It's their fault. I think they should wave your grade." AMEN!!! Then I'd have an A on the course anyway. Another burden lifted and some time for more studying. Oh yeah...

After being thoroughly happified first by seeing how easy the test was and then realizing that I now have more time to study, I decided to take a little joy ride down the county line. It only took about 30 minutes to get home instead of 5, but it was one of the most beautiful rides I've taken down some of those roads. While I was taking my exam, or the part that I could finish, it rained a medium summer rain. I decided to put in The New P's Electric Version, one of the few that I kept out when I put away my CDs. Instead of just taking 53 on back home, I went 441 to 186 to Cole Springs. Something dawned on me too driving down 186, it was: "Hey, I have a call there I need to make, and they're home NOW!!" I was completely out in the boonies and that was the first thought that came to mind. It tickled me, but then I thought, "YES!!! Pioneer spirit!!!" If I had not been in my very relaxed clothes (ie- Weezer shirt and oversized gauchos), I so would have stopped. I had the magazines ready and everything. The countryside had a slight misty feel about it. Things had cooled off, so I turned the air conditioning down low and put down the windows. The outside smelled good, and that's a rarity considering how many cows and horses are out here when it's hot. Going down Cole Springs, there is a stretch of land that has a few barns and a large pond. It almost had close to a fog over it and it looked so peaceful with the cows laying out there. Wish I had a camera then. I've never seen that road look more serene. I slowed way down since no one was behind me and I turned the music down for the effect. It was one of the most satisfying joy rides I've had since I got my license. As I flew (literally- the tires weren't on the ground) down my favorite curvy road with the windows down and the music up as far as it goes, I got a few honks and smiles and it rocked just as much as The New P's do. The only thing that kinda disappointed me was that last Friday I blew the dash speaker in Jeepie so the windshield didn't vibrate like it usually does. All in all, I was very satisfied.

Then something wrong again, but this time, it's not really wrong, but it is me. I went to pick up Mehsha because I needed to talk to her and help her to understand what's going on. She's still mad at me as high heaven and started crying when she got in the car with me. No talking happened. I hope she will eventually understand, but I can't worry about her because what she's worried about doesn't matter since she has the wrong idea. That's Mehsha for you though. In picking her up from school, I found out why she wants an L.L. Bean backpack and started wearing ribbons in her hair. There's no variety in the girls at that school. Even less with the guys. The monotony was depressing. Please keep Mehsha in mind. I never thought it would be this hard on her.