Good week... Good friends... :)

It has been a long week and I flipped my sleep schedule completely around but I got to see my friends a lot so it made for a good week.

Monday night I had people over to watch movies. Sandra, Meghan, Matt and Ben came and we watched "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Fantastic Four." Ben came when we were most of the way through the first and Matt left before we started the second. It was a good group of people and we had fun.

Tuesday night Sandra, Matt and I went to Elisa's house (Ben's sister) and watched the Flames Game with Kirsten, Ben and Josh. Afterwards we went and found food (KFC, then DQ to find out it was closed, then A&W) and went back to Ben's and watched "Four Brothers." It was kind of frustrating because Kirsten had a modnight curfew and Matt offered to drive her home but Ben ended up driving her. Matt left like 5 minutes after they did and by the time Ben got back, the movie was over and Sandra and I were leaving. I would have hung out for a bit but... I'm not going to sit around waiting to see if he's going to come back... Afterwards I stopped at home and picked some stuff up and Sandra picked up her car (which was at my house) and I went to Victory with her. We had a sleepover and it was cool to meet some of the people she goes to school with the next day during lunch.

Wednesday I went to Pizza and Prayer at Trevor's new place. It is cool to see him living on his own and in the North! :) The people that were there were: Laurel, Ken, Christine, Ian, Trevor, Sandra, Amanda, Matt and I. It was a good night. Afterwards, I went to see "The Family Stone" with Shannon and Stephanie and then I went out to my cousin's house in Cochrane.

Thursday I ran some errands and then Matt, Meghan and Ben came to my cousin's to spend the night. We watched a bunch of movies ("Into the Blue," "Rebound," "American Pie presents Band Camp," "Man of the House" and "Hitch," not in that order...) and Matt fell asleep during the second to last movie and I went to bed just as the last movie was starting. I needed to get some sleep. :)

Today, we got up and I made "breakfast" (Eggo's and orange juice) and then everyone left around 1pm. I went into Calgary for Physio and then came back out to Cochrane and put "Cinderella Man" in and almost immediately fell asleep. :) I woke up around 10:30 and then decided to watch a couple episodes of "What Not to Wear." Bedtime soon... :)

Merry Christmas?

Ok, the day started out ok... I got to sleep in a bit and then my mom and my brother came over and we opened packages. I opened my packages from my friends when I first got up and I never seem to realize how loved I am but they made it very clear that they care and that was awesome!

After we opened most of our packages, John had yet to open some of his. He had a hissy fit about the dress shirt and ties my mom and I had gotten him and because he got a few pieces of clothes, he freaked bout us "hating" his taste in clothes... I think he has good taste but I did pick and choose the stuff for him for a reason... :( He didn't end up opening the rest of his gifts until later in the day... "Crown Prince" much???

Anyway, my dad didn't come (which wasn't a big surprise, he had apparently gotten upset with my mom earlier in the day which wasn't fair as far as we were all concerned) and my grandma joined us later in the afternoon. My grandpa went and got her and brought her home... She was "doing laps" (as Will referred to it once which was kind of hurtful at the time but that was what she was doing) and then she laid down for a bit... She kept asking to be taken back "home" and only opened like four of her gifts. It hurt that she didn't open most of her packages... But there wasn't anything we could really do. The day took a turn for the worst when my grandma disappeared during dinner... She did something I can't even write about... And my mom threw up after it and then was really upset in general because she was picturing herself in 30 years and was sad... I didn't know what to tell her other than to not worry about it...

After dinner, my mom and grandpa took my grandma home and then John took mom home and went to Amanda's and I went to see "Rumor has it" with Sandra. It was good ending to the day...

Open House, etc...

Last night was interesting...

I am not going to go into a run through of my last few days as a play by play is a good way of me winding down sometimes but in retrospect of a couple of days, maybe not so much. So I will touch on the highlights...

Tuesday we got back into town and I spent some time at my mom's school. Afterwards, John went to the CAVE and mom and I drove out to Cochrane to see Laura, Jason, Anders, Jack and Emma. We gave them their Christmas gifts and Anders and Jack their birthday gifts as well and I hung out for a bit and chatted with Laura after my mom left to go pick up John.

Ben called around 10 and I made plans to meet him at my house around 11 so we could go rent a movie (it was too late to go to a theatre) and I left Cochrane around 10:30.

Ben and I met up and unloaded my car and then went to Blockbuster and Wendy's. We went back to my place and watched "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and then sat and talked. He left around 4:30am.

The next day I hung out at the house and spent some time with my grandpa, went to my J.C. appointment and then to see my physiotherapist. Turns out I'm not nuts, I did screw up a tendon in my knee and he worked on it (ultrasound, electric stimulation,etc.) and did acupuncture. I felt better but sore after and went to meet my mom and brother (anyone ever notice you take out one letter and it becomes "bother" I wonder if there is a reason for that...???) at North Hill. John greeted me with "Luke's getting married!" and I was surprised but happy for Luke. (He is a friend of John's who has been around for years and I know his older sister's.) We did some Christmas shopping, organized food and beverages for the Open House the next day and then went in our separate directions. I ended up at Shaun's house with Ben and Shaun and we watched "Must Love Dogs" and they both rolled their eyes and such but it was cute in a sappy kind of way... :) I dropped Ben off at home and then came home and crashed.

Wednesday was our Christmas Open House... I spent the day running around and picking up food, decorating the house and generally, trying not to panic. Our first guests arrived at 4:45 (or so) and we hung out for a while before anyone else came. It was a good night though. The final list of who came was fairly short and mainly my friends but it was fun. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves at least. The people who came were: John, Mom, Papa, Britney, Taryn, Laurel, Kurtis, Jackie, Ben, Matt, Korrina, Katrina, Jan, Shannon and I. Six of us crashed in the living room for the night... It was an interesting evening. I don't know what else to say about it... I had a good time overall and my friends seemed to as well. Some people did or said stuff they may regret later but that is typical of a gathering where there are many people.

We went for a walk to find a park and tried the elementary school by my house first. Turns out, there is a park there, it is further back in the field than we walked and we went to this other park that has skating rink by my place instead. We split into girls and guys and talked and such and then walked back to the house. A few people added layers of clothes and then we went and laid in the field across the street and looked at the stars. Matt and I had found Orion while we were walking but we were looking for the dippers. We found the big dipper just before we went in but we were having issues finding the little dipper... Could be that we were slightly intoxicated at the time... :) When we got back, we put on "Raise Your Voice" and Brit, Matt and Taryn fell asleep almost immediately. I sat in the kitchen and talked to Jan until a little past 3. We talked about a lot of random stuff. It was a good conversation.

In the morning, we cleaned up a bit and then at noon(ish) Ben and Britney left with Brit's dad and then the rest of the people who had stayed helped me clean up the rest of the dishes, the furniture, the food, etc. I vacuumed the living room, hallway and dining room and around 1 Matt drove Taryn home and Jan to a train station.

I then went to get my hair cut and then back home to meet up with my mom to finish off Christmas shopping. My dad was here when I got home tonight so I am going to bed early. I am going to get as much sleep as I can!

Last Exam!!!! Lunch and a movie... :D

Last night I watched most of "Roll Bounce" and from what I have seen so far I really like it. It is different from most of the other movies I have watched lately and is a nice change of pace. I watched it until I was feeling pretty sleepy and then went to bed. Not majorly early, but earlier than normal.

This morning my mom called at 6:45 to wake us up to make sure we got up for our exams. Ash called around 8 to say she was leaving for school and she would see me there. John and I left here around 8:45 and he dropped me off. (I don't know exactly what he did after that until he picked me up...) I told him I would call him when I was done and needed him to come get me as he had an exam this morning from 10-12 and I had until 1:30 to write my exam if I needed it.

I wrote my exam in the prof's office and honestly, it was less distracting than writing it in the classroom would have been... He kept walking in and out of the room which was distracting but I tried to ignore him. He didn't get the school laptop for me which was fine, better even, as I prefer my laptop. But I could have pointed out that with the fact that I was using my laptop, and most of my notes for that class are on the laptop... *eyes-rolling* I guess he didn't think of it and I wouldn't cheat but it is weird that it didn't even cross his mind because he's the prof who is SO worried about cheating due to the fact that he is the chair of the department... It's the same as plaigerism as far as I'm concerned, it could get me expelled and that would suck. I knew someone last year who used to bring crib sheets into exams and I was surprised she never got caught. She has since transferred elsewhere but it always seemes stupid because she always failed the exams even when she cheated... No comment on that one... But on this exam, I guessed on a few definitions... I know what they are but they are processes rather than definable terms so I also showed how they are done and the ones I guessed on I was talking to Ash about after and she said she thinks on a couple we were way off from what the other said but we will have to wait until we get the exams back to see. I asked her about something I wasn't clear on and from what she told me, it sounds as though I may have been way off on one of the concepts we went over in the past couple of weeks... We'll see.

In the middle of my exam my phone rang... It was a surprise for many reasons. Firstly, because I thought it was on silent. Secondly, because it was my brother. (Apparently, the whole "I'll call YOU didn't register...) Thirdly, I couldn't find it and that wasn't so good. The good thing was the prof was out of the office at the time...

I only hit one question that I wasn't sure of... The rest of the exam was ok. But it's over and that's the best part!!! I am done for the semester... Now, I wait for marks! *gag*

I got upset with John this afternoon over a list of things but I'm not going to go into that.... I will leave it at I am frustrated and can't do anything to fix it.

I went for lunch with Ash and we made tentative plans that turned into solidified plans later this aft to go see "Just Friends" tonight. We went to Moxie's for lunch (I had a gift certificate that Geoff had given me last Christmas... I go to Moxie's a lot and had used one but not the other, it's weird that way...) and then we had to go get John to his exam. Just as we got home, Holly was leaving to go to work. Ash and I dropped John off for his exam and then I dropped her off at home. We sat in her car and talked for almost an hour... It was a good cnversation. :)

I stopped at Shopper's and picked up a few things I have been meaning to get but keep forgetting and then went and sat outside the college to wait for John to be done. When he was finished, we came home, I ran through the shower and threw in a load of clothes and then went to meet Ash for the movie.

It was a cute movie! It is something that has parts that could feasibly happen in real life and it made it hard to watch at the beginning and then made it more endearing as it went on... There was one part where he is singing "I Swear" in the mirror and it's freaking hilarious! That song came out my grade 7 year and it's their grade 12 grad... Oh boy... :D

Now I'm home, I'm going to go grab something to eat and finish "Roll Bounce" and then finish packing and sleep... I have to get up early tomorrow to get John to his last exam and we need to have the car loaded and ready to go before we leave...

***I don't know how often I will be online in the next couple of weeks... If anyone needs me, please call my cell... Love you all!!! :)***

Mini road trip...

So last night Shaun and I talked until just after 3 and then I finished watching a DVD. I watched "Deuce Bigelow European Gigolo" and then fell asleep around 5am. I slept until 11:30am or so and then got up and packed some stuff into my car and John and I drove to Claresholm and met mom around 1:30. We hung out and visited with her for a bit and then come back to Lethbridge.

We went to the mall and picked John up a phone at Rogers so he now has a Lethbridge cell phone. The guy we dealt with at Rogers was really nice and said he'd give us a deal on accessories so we should go see him again sometime. We said we would. :) We grabbed something to eat at the mall and wandered until they closed. John picked up a ring and I got a couple of sets of earrings and we each got a piece of jewellery that can be worn around the neck. We hit Michael's and bought a Santa wine box for our grandpa and some ornaments for our cousins.

We got home and Holly came over and she and I played LIFE and John studied while I made dinner. Vicki stopped by to drop off a Christmas gift to me and wish me a Merry Christmas and it was great to see her. John and I had pasta (Holly had already eaten) and then she and John started to watch Coyote Ugly and I am going to go watch a DVD in my room.

Ashleigh is supposed to call me later in regards to our test tomorrow and I am going to bed early as the exam is at 9am tomorrow. Prayer please! I am so tired I need sleep... *yawn* I still haven't talked to Ben and I am worried because that is abnormal but... I can't do much of anything. I haven't talked to Matt today either but I'm sure I'll talk to both of them at some point tomorrow online. (I hope.)

Gone to watch that DVD and go to bed early!!!

News, tired, a missed exam and the second Christmas party of the season...

So, last night I blogged and then figured I'd read for a bit and head for bed. So I chatted for a bit longer on MSN to Meghan and such and then waited to see if Ben would show up online and when he didn't, I headed for my room... But around 1:40am the phone rang. John and I both answered it and it was my dad wanting to talk to John. He and I both stayed on the phone and he and dad "talked." It was more like dad talked and John listened. John asked dad why he has been acting so out of control and he told him he has been scaring people and dad said that he hasn't been doing anything wrong. The call progressed, he said a ton of untrue things that were degrading to my character and integrity and finally started yelling and swearing at John and hung up on us. We took the phone off the hook at that point...

I needed air. I needed space to breathe. I needed to go out. So I went for a drive. I drove around the Westside for a bit and then stopped at Mac's to get a Froster and talk to Will for a few and then I figured I'd head home. A few turned into over an hour. I left home around 2:30, got to Mac's around 3 and got home just after 4.

I went online when I got home for a few minutes before heading for bed and the bestfriend of one of my oldest guy friends was online. He had recently told me that he and his common-law wife are expecting a baby. So tonight he told me that the friend that we have in common is getting married in July and that he and his "wife" are getting married shortly after that. I said congrats to him and asked him to pass my congrats on to our friend as I haven't seen or heard from him since he moved in with the fiancee. I didn't say the last part, it is a known fact to this person. He spazzed out about something to do with "I better be invited to your wedding when you get married" and then he "wasn't getting in the middle" and then went offline. I am puzzled and perplexed as I don't really know what prompted the first and why the second as I wouldn't put him in the middle. He has tried to be the middle man and I won't let him. I also talked to my friend Shaun as he was up studying for an exam he had to write at 8am today.

I went to bed around 5 or so and then got up around 11. I got into the shower at noon(ish) and John rapped on the bathroom door about 10 minutes later. I was in the process of rinsing my hair for the final time so I yelled for him to wait and then turned off the water. All I could hear was something about an exam so I got out and quickly dried off and opened the door enough that I could hear him. It turns out that the exam he thought was today from 4-6 was this morning from 10-12 and he had missed it. He found out by one of the people in his class coming online and saying "Dude, why weren't you there this morning? It's not like you to miss an exam." Full blown panic attack!!!! Due to the stress and anxiety he and I have both been dealing with all week, I was surprised neither of us was in tears last night over dad's stupidity.... Hell, I almost cried for him over the missed exam... I threw my contacts in and grabbed clothes and we booked it over to the College to try and find his professor. We found her, explained what has been happening and the mix up of the times written down and he can write the exam on Tuesday. *HUGE sigh of relief*

I made it to the mall where I was supposed to have my hair done at 1 by 1:20 (my friend Laura was supposed to do it originally but had to cancel as she got called in to work more hours) and I was glad I had washed my hair already because she just needed to finish blowdrying it and then flat iron it. It is gorgeous straight and I felt much better once it was done. We stopped at Music World on the way out and I bought the Il Divo Christmas CD... It is amazing... They are amazing...Anyway, John and I hiked out to my car (it was parked outside Jysk at the far end of the mall facing the highway) and then went home.

When I got home I began to peel potatoes (I was supposed to bring mashed potatoes to dinner tonight) and realized we don't have a potato masher. I had done about 4 out of the 12 that needed doing so John took over while I ran to Safeway and bought one. By the time I got back (about 20 minutes later), the potatoes were peeled, chopped and ready to be cooked. We turned them on and I went to work on other things.

I talked to Sandra online and then on the phone, Laurel on the phone, wrote my Christmas Cards for the Rover Crew, talked to Matt on MSN and made the mashed potatoes, got dressed and did my make-up, all between 3 and 6. By 6:15 I was on my way to the Rover's Christmas party.

I got to wear my "No Place Like Home" shoes again. :) We had a traditional turkey dinner and I had sparkling apple juice, punch, eggnog and water to drink... I seriously felt like I could float... We opened presents and I drew the number 7 so by the time we got to me, I chose a fairly small gift (on purpose) and got a set of coasters and shot glasses with the suits of the deck of cards on them. They are pretty cool. :) Joyce got the gift I brought and she seemed to really like it. Joyce and Rick gave us all little snowmen and we had dessert and then helped clean up and left to come home. I drove Cory home.

On my way, I stopped at Safeway, Blockbuster and Liquor World. I picked up Cherries, a couple of DVD's and a bottle of Yellow Tail Chardonnay. I figured I would have a glass of wine when I got home (no drinking and driving for me!). When I was in the liquor store, I was talking to Shaun on the phone and the guy behind the counter was giving me kind of strange looks and then kind of laughing at my side of the conversation. I should probably point out that I am all dressed up, talking about kinds of white wines and the fact that Liquor Depot owns Liquor World or something and about some guy who bought 12 bottles of Arbour Mist wine and a bottle of scotch... I'm sure my conversation was weird sounding. But the guy in the store... He was kind of cute... I may have to go back sometime. :D

I got home, the bottle of wine went into the fridge (where it still is and will probably stay for a bit) and then I hung out and talked to Matt online and then Laurel on the phone. I just made chocolate chip/chunk cookies and I reheated some mashed potatoes and I am going to go watch a DVD with a glass of milk and some cherries. Meal #2 of the day at 1:30am. :)

I am going to bed once I am either a) done eating or b) the DVD finishes. We have unplugged the phones in our rooms tonight and our mom is going to call us in the morning on one of our cell phones to figure out what time we are meeting her in Claresholm tomorrow. Off to watch a movie!!!

Ignoring him, exam and wrapping...

This morning the phone rang. I rolled over and answered it, figuring it was my mom calling to wake my brother up because he had an exam first thing and not looking at the clock. Not so much. Turns out it was my dad and it was 4:30am. All I got back on the other end was a long line of swearing and such so I hung up. The phone rang again. I didn't answer it this time. He left a message and among the swearing was names calling and accusations that were completely not valid. When he called the third time, I didn't answer, he left a message and I took the phone off the hook. I then spent an hour and a half on the phone trying to fix some of the damage he had done in the phone calls he had previously made (based on what I understood around the demeaning names and profanity) and then tried to get a little more sleep.

Will called around 7:30 because I had called him to ask if he had a tape recorder and couldn't reach him (that was around 6:15, I knew he'd be at work but didn't know if he would have his cell with him or not...) and I told him I would call him later, I didn't feel much like talking. I fell back asleep until around 9:00 and the got up and dressed and ready to go to my exam which was at 10.

I am feeling pretty shaky now, even as I write this and during the exam, I wasn't feeling much better. I wrote as much as I could for the three essay-type questions and tried not to repeat myself of put in unnecessary information. I finished in a little under 2 hours, handed in my final paper as well and then John picked me up.

I was talking to my grandpa when he picked me up and I found out my dad has been going through and opening some of my mail and such at their house (which is technically MY house) so I may need to make some phone calls to change my mailing address on things again, this time to Lethbridge... My grandpa said he is trying to pull mail for me before my dad can see it and he is hiding it and I am expecing a couple of packages in the next couple of weeks so he said he will make sure those go somewhere safe as well. I also talked to my mom and she is trying to get a hold of dad's doctor's and has had no luck so far... :(

We came home and I had a nap until it was time to go to my dr's appointment at 3:00. John had an exam this afternoon as well so he dropped me off, I went to my appointment and then I walked home. I have to say, it was colder than I had anticipated...

John got home and he and I wrapped presents for a bit and then he ran out to get pizza for dinner and potatoes because I need them for tomorrow (I am taking mashed potatoes to the potluck I am going to) and then Holly came over. (Holly is a friend of John's.) They helped me wrap presents and now they are all done with only a few exceptions that I am not sure if I am supposed to wrap because I have to check with my mom. At one point John and Holly ran out to Wal-Mart to get Will a present from John (kind of an inside joke) and I can't wait to see the reaction tomorrow!

I am currently waiting to hear that my mom got home from her staff Christmas party okay and I just checked my messages on my pager and I have 2 new ones from my dad, left around 5:30am today... So, that means he left me a total of 5 messages on various answering machines... *sigh* I wish he would just leave me alone.

Just as an FYI for anyone who wants to know, I am probably staying at my cousins house in Cochrane while I am home if things with my dad don't settle down. They are going to be out of town and I have the place to myself. I will, however, welcome company!

I'm going to go wait for my mom to call and read a book or something... Night...

Phone calls, packages, exam and a paper...

Ok, this morning I got up and had a migraine. I downed a couple of advil and some water and decided I wasn't going to let it kill me. I woke up a couple of hours before I needed to be anywhere (around 7:30) and hung out...

John drove me to my exam and I wrote it and I figure I did ok. I don't think I got an A on it or anything but I at least passed it. I got a couple of assignments back and I got a 95% on my Film Music project and a 90% on my Analysis #3 so I am pretty happy. Also, I either just barely passed or just barely failed the ear training quiz I was freaking out over but whatever...
John picked me up and then he and I ran some errands downtown and then came home so he could lay down for a bit and I could tighten up my references/footnotes in my essay and fit in my musical examples. He told me there was a package for me from DHL and it turns out it was a package I had given to someone that they sent back to me. I wasn't very happy about it but what can I do. All I can say right now is he will have to grow up sooner or later...

I ended up spending almost an hour on the phone with Rogers to get a new phone on my Lethbridge number (I haven't had a phone on it and have been paying through the nose since July) and to try and get a phone added for John. The long and the short of it ended up being that they will send me one phone and the other one I can go pick up in store on Sunday so John and I are going to go do that and mine should be in Calgary on Monday or Tuesday. (It's pink!!!)

So I drove John to curling and came back to use his printer and his computer was passworded and the password I thought should work, didn't. I couldn't get a hold of him to get the password so I sat and read my textbook for my final tomorrow until he needed to be picked up. We stopped at the College so he could check when his exams are and then came home. I printed off my paper and I am a genius!!! All of the paces I left for my examples are perfect and I don't have to reprint it at all! YAY! So it is done, hole punched and in a duotang to hand in first thing tomorrow!

I have one exam tomorrow and another on Monday... I am more freaked about the one tomorrow than the one on Monday. The one on Monday is theory and I'm pretty confident in my skills in that class. History is another story... I need all the prayer I can get on that one. Anyway, I'm going to bed. I need some sleep before my exam at 10am tomorrow. Night!

Not doing well....

Today I woke up in tears. This is quite abnormal for me. I have had it happen in the past when I have had nightmares or whatever and in grade 12 there were some mornings I woke up like that but not in a very long time. I wasn't sure why I was like that but I knew I wasn't doing so hot.

I called the head of disability services, the counsellor I deal with at school and my professor to see what I could do about my exam. I was in tears, shaky and dizzy, the combination of which was making me kind of sea sick... I finally got a hold of my prof and he told me I could write the exam on Friday... After thanking him profusely, I collapsed back into bed and slept for about 4 hours.

When I got up, I felt a bit better, I guess the emotional stress of the last few days had taken it's toll on me more heavily than I had realized. I put the finishing touches on my paper and organized my musical examples to take to Staples later to photocopy them and went to have a shower. I had some Lemon Meringue yogurt (it's Source brand and it's pretty good) and some raspberries and read for a bit.

John asked if he could take the car to go meet a friend and I let him and then I went back in and watched T.V. and studied for my Film Music test. When John got back he made Chicken Noodle Soup with crackers for dinner and then I drove him to curling and I went to Staples to photocopy the musical examples and then to the University to return some library books. I came home for long enough to do a bit of reading and talk to Matt and Brit online for a few and then I went back to get John. He and I came home and I read and watched T.V. for a bit before bed...

I'm pretty tired so I am going to be fairly early (1am instead of 3am) but I will see if I can actually fall asleep...

Phones, Travel and Studying.

When I woke up at 6am *groan* and tried to call my mom to see if I could take the later bus, my cell redirected me to Rogers. I was not impressed. So I called mom from a land line, called Rogers and fixed things, called Ben and told him I was going to take the later bus and went back to sleep.

I got up at 11 or so and then studied for a bit and talked to my mom on the phone. She told me that my dad had called and found out the balance on my home phone bill was over $400 (which is definitely not normal!) and I needed to call and put a payment on it. I called Telus as I had already put several payments on it and couldn't figure out why John would have called me from Lethbridge and then mom to sy that they were going to cut off our phone service at the house... As it turns out, they had changed our account ID# without informing me of the new one and had been letting me put the payments through on the old ID# and the payments were basically just sitting there. The agent transferred the payments to the new ID# and we are ok. I also had her put a password on the account as what my dad had done was called and said "who he was" but he'd said he was "John the roommate" not "John the father of the roommate." So, two John's same last name, no one questioned it and they gave him information that was none of his business. So he now doesn't have access to that information as he shouldn't have had access and they shouldn't have given him the information to begin with. I was pretty much livid when she told me, "your roommate John called early this morning for a balance check on the account" when my roommate John would have been ASLEEP at the time of the call.... Grrr.... It's fixed now.

Anyway, I called Ben around noon and asked him if he could still give me a ride to the bus to be there by 1. He said no problem... He picked me up around 12:45 and made small talk with my grandpa and we drove to the bus station. I felt weird having so many bags.. One small one with clothes, a rolling suitcase with Christmas presents in it, one full of textbooks and my laptop case with my laptop and textbooks in it. I could take two on the bus and two off. Ben thought it was kind of funny that my smallest bag was my bag of clothes. And that the bag also had a pair of winter boots in it... :)

I bought my ticket and Ben sat with me and we chatted and such until they made the boarding call for my bus and then Ben left. I lined up to board...

I got a seat by myself for the entire trip. I did some reading (romance novel, school books, etc.), some work on my essay and napped for a little while. I also ate the snack/lunch I had brought (leftover Lipshevnik, yougurt smoothie, lemonade, applesauce, granola bar) and watched the scenery go by. It wasn't as bad a trip as others I have taken. The bus only stopped in South Calgary, High River, Nanton, Claresholm and Fort MacLeod before Lethbridge instead of every little town. I got back to Lethbridge and the bus station was literally crawling with police officers. John met me and helped me carry my bags. Turns out, they were looking for this mom and little girl I had been talking to as I had waited to board in Calgary... The little girl had told me she was 5 today. She had just gotten her Cabbage Patch Doll at her birthday party yesterday and they were going to visit family. They are from Drumheller. She was really proud of her Winnie-the-Pooh suitcase with the wheels and handle that she could pull like her moms. It seemed sad that the police were looking for them... Abduction or something was what John figured. Weird.

We stopped and picked up groceries because we were majorly low on milk and I picked up some cherries and raspberries and we needed cheese and bread... We also got pop because it was on sale...

I came home and went straight to work on my essay. I checked my e-mail and had a ton of new ones that I disregarded if they weren't important and the only one I read was one from my dad that really upset me. It upset me enough that I am now emotionally exhausted again... I was feeling kind of tired to begin with and fairly emotionally raw from my weekend at home, especially the past 48 hours. I am finished my essay, all except getting it printed and fitting the musical examples in. I will do that in the morning... For now, sleep is good.

Long day... I am emotionally exhausted. :'(

Last night I said I was going to do some work and go to bed early. So I was working and talking to Ben online and he didn't realize I was still in Calgary. He asked if I wanted to go for coffee or whatever and I said yes but I didn't have a car and he offered to come pick me up. Around 11pm, I heard the back door being unlocked. Now, considering my grandma doesn't have her keys, my brother is in Lethbridge, my grandpa was asleep and I was under the impression that both of my parents were at home asleep, this kind of freaked me out. Turns out, it was my dad. He was dropping off/picking up some stuff. So I helped him move some stuff into the house and when Ben got here he got drafted into moving stuff too. We excused ourselves and left finally and went to Boston Pizza. We had BBQ Chicken pizza and I had a Bellini and Ben had a couple of Peach smoothies and then we drove around and talked. Actually, we drove all the way out to Cochrane and back and then sat in my living room and talked. Ben left just before 4am and then I did a few things towards my paper and went to bed. He and I had an amazing conversation and I feel like we are closer than ever...

This morning, I intended to get up early. But after going to bed at almost 6 (by the time I got there) it didn't really happen.

I got up to my mom calling to say that my dad was up and about and hadn’t come home last night until late… She woke up around 4:30 and he still wasn’t home. I told her that I was still up at 4:30 and I knew he hadn’t been at my house so I was no help. She went on to tell me that when she got up around 6:30 or so, he had apparently turned off the power in the house for some reason so she had gotten ready for work in the dark. I’m not sure what is going on there but he is back to acting weird.

I went upstairs to have a shower and get ready for the rest of the day after hanging out and reading a book and doing some other stuff for a while and sat and talked to my grandpa and the phone rang. It was my dad calling to say he was about to leave, he would be over in about half an hour. I ran back downstairs and got my clothes, ran through the shower without washing my hair, got dressed and flat-ironed my hair (and burned my left pointer finger on the flat-iron), threw some stuff into my laptop case and grabbed my boots and a sweatshirt and ran out to back door as my dad walked in the front door. I put my boots on outside on the back deck and then walked down the alley. I called a cab (my bag was A LOT heavier than I had anticipated) and me it on the cross street, after avoiding my dad as he drove my grandpa’s car down the alley and around the block and then got into the cab and met my mom at North Hill. She and I ran some errands, including picking up a Silent Auction donation from Calgary Jewellery and going to Carlton Cards (for Rick and Joyce’s present) and Bentley at Market Mall. I got a new purse (my older one is white with a flower print and while it’s fun, it’s not exactly appropriate for everyday winter usage) and bought my mom a Christmas gift. We also stopped at Staples and photocopied the McCrimmon Christmas letter onto appropriate paper so it could go into their Christmas cards so those can be mailed.

We got back to my house and mom and I went to work making Lipshevnik so I could take it to Britney’s. It was done in pretty much record time but as we were about to pull it out of the oven, Dad and Papa showed back up. Dad was giving me a hard time about a bunch of different things (where I was going, what I was taking, why was I taking a present, etc.) and I finally just ignored him and left... Sometimes, it’s easier to ignore him because then he can’t take however I react and work with it. Mom and I argued on the way across town because of it though and that was no fun. I hate that he still has that much power over our lives. :(

Mom dropped me off at Brit’s around 7. She agreed to come back around 9:30 whether I needed a ride home at that point or not so we could figure out a bus ticket. I knew I would have a ride home with one of my friends if I needed it so it wasn’t really an issue. It was cool to see who was at Brit’s… Her mom greeted me like a long lost daughter which was interesting because I kind of thought she hated me when we were younger… But Korrina, Meghan, Tammy, John and Matt were already there, plus some people Brit knows through school. Ben came a bit later and Courtney and Lindsay joined us when they got home as well. I was surprised Taryn didn’t come though. We all had fun hanging out, eating and talking… I've decided that Matt and I spend too much time together... I moved my purse from one room to another and he commented on it being new, which it is. On one hand, I am VERY impressed that he noticed, on the other hand, I think we may see each other too much. :D We played some board games, such as “Bibleopoly” (which we killed pretty quick - we decided if we are going to play it, it might have to be the weekend people come down for the Cab or some weekend when we are drinking and then we will make up "interesting" rules), Settlers of Catan, Rummykub, Uno, Table Hockey and Chess. As the evening dwindled, Brit brought out her guitar and sang for us, we sang a couple of songs and then we broke into smaller groups and sat around and talked. I ran out with my mom and organized finances for the bus tomorrow and then came back. It started out as all of us in the living room having two or three different conversations and then ended up as Ben, Courtney and Meghan in the living room in one conversation and Brit, Lori, Jan (I’m guessing on the spelling, his name is said “Yan”) and I in the family room having another. It was an interesting conversation to say the least…

We finally left Brit’s around 1am and then Ben drove me home. I was too tired to do much more then come in and go to bed but sometimes, life doesn’t always work out the way you had intended…

I had most of my stuff packed and when I went to finish packing (including food for the bus) I found that the cherries I had bought (that I had to negotiate with my mom to buy) weren’t in the fridge. Not only were they not where I had put them though, they weren’t anywhere in the fridge, either upstairs or down. I realized that I hadn’t seen them earlier in the day either… I called my parents house (yes, I am aware it was 1:30am) and got my dad. I asked about them and got back, “oops. Well, I wanted a snack and they were there so I ate them. Why, were they yours?” When I said, “they were my breakfast for the bus tomorrow!” he replied with, “what time did you need them for?” to which I said, “before 7am!” I told him that he was inconsiderate and that I couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t even think to check or leave a note or something!!! I couldn’t believe how selfish and thoughtless he had been! I know it seems like a stupid thing to be upset about but I was raised in a household where if you weren’t sure about something in the fridge (like, whose it was) you didn’t eat it! And the chances of my grandpa having cherries in December, let alone having cherries at all, would be none to nada to zilch! The other thing is, there is tons of other things in the house he could have snacked on and he didn’t, I had shared other things with him earlier that evening that he had later complained about because they weren’t cold enough (they were cold when I gave them to him but when you let them sit for 4 hours, they tend to warm up) and they were apparently “gross” when they were warm… Somehow, I’m not seeing how that is MY fault. (Added later.) I finally went to bed around 3… He tried calling here after that and I told him not to call the house again or he would wake up my grandpa which isn’t fair to him. I then hung up and tried to get some sleep…

Uneventful.

Today began quite uneventfully… After going to bed so late (this time, not so much on purpose…) I got up fairly late and putzed around the house for a bit (reading and studying and such) and talked to my grandpa as he got ready to go out and then had a shower. My mom and brother showed up about 15 minutes after my grandpa left and I got my stuff out of my car so my brother could leave for Lethbridge. (I gave him my car to get back and I will be taking the bus back Tuesday morning.)

My mom and I worked on our Christmas cards and my grandparent’s Christmas cards for a couple of hours and all we have to do is put the Christmas letters in them and seal them and send them. After, we went to the mall to visit Sandra at Carlton so I could get some Christmas cards and such. It was nice to see her… She looked absolutely wiped… Mom and I hung out at the mall and had a cinnamon bun and then drove to pick something up for dad for dinner and dropped it off at their house and then went to the Winter Club for a swim and something for dinner. We ended up eating first and it was interesting… We both ordered an actual “drink” with dinner and when the waiter came to ask about refills we ordered a pop each. He looked kind of surprised but got them for us. So my mom didn’t want to finish hers and asked if I wanted it and I said “yes” so she poured it into mine (we were drinking the same thing) and the waiter came back and saw her empty glass, picked up our other two empties and came back with a refill of her pop! I would like to point out that neither of us had touched the food we were sharing for about 10 minutes at that point and she switched me glasses and then I walked over and politely asked for our bill. Then went down to the pool and sat in the hot tub for a bit but neither of us really felt like swimming so we got out after about 20 minutes and rinsed off. We stopped at Safeway for a few things to make the dish for the potluck I am going to tomorrow night at Brit’s and a couple of things my grandpa needed and we drove past the lights at Confederation Park because I didn’t get to see them last year and then my mom dropped me off.

Now, I am writing this and then I am going to go put groceries away and try to go to bed early tonight. I am also going to try to figure out how to mend things with Ben (I don't like people being mad at me or whatever...) and get some peaceful rest…

:) :) :) to :S :( :) :S to :'( :'( :'(

Today was interesting. I got to sleep in MAJORLY which rocked! I got up at like 1pm. Going to bed at 4am and still being awake at 4:30 wasn’t so great though.

I got up, got ready to go out, talked to my Mom for a bit (she was over) and then went to my normal Saturday J.C. appointment at Crowfoot. It was a good appointment and I stopped at Booster Juice for me (as a treat for such a good appointment!) and Wendy’s for John on my way back to Safeway to meet Mom and John. As I was driving, Matt called to say that he was going to pick up Dana and then me and then James (on the opposite side of the freaking city) and then we would go to the church so I said I would probably figure something else out. At Safeway, I picked up a few things (food and such) that I needed and then came home for a few. Mom agreed to either drive me to the church or come pick up my car from the church so I called Matt and told him he didn’t need to come get me.

I watched some completely mindless T.V. for about an hour and then headed for the church. My bro came in to drop some stuff off and tell me he was taking the car.

Just after 6, we started our meeting. It went ok. I wish people would have talked more… the problem was that the people who have been more involved or who tend to be more vocal were the people who weren’t there tonight and that was frustrating. And one of the people who was there basically bailed on us right after one of the pizza sales, then recently said she still wants to help out and told the executive she didn’t even know why she was there, it made it sound like I had forced her to be there or something… I found that hard… I kind of felt like I came off as an incompetent leader and like we (as the committee) aren’t doing anything and that sucked.

THING went really well. Shannon was talking about Shepherds. She spoke about them in reference to the Christmas story and then in reference to daily life as it speaks to them in the bible. She talked about various biblical figures who were considered to be shepherds. The questions she gave us were personal enough to make us think, which made for good discussion. Our group was pretty small tonight… there were 6 of us and we got pretty in-depth and personal about people who have been Shepherds in our lives and being Shepherds to others. We went a little overtime but the discussion was awesome!

I went up to Laurel after small groups and gave her a hug. She asked why I was giving her a hug and I said for making such a difference in my life. I honestly don’t know if I would be the same person I am today if it wasn’t for her friendship. I have a lot of people in my life like that and I don’t give them enough credit… I had asked her to pray with me earlier in the evening and I felt a lot better after it. I’m glad I have her and people like her in my life. (I got a Christmas present from her and one from Ken tonight but I won’t open them yet… Ken’s jingles!) Ken and I are going to try and go for lunch for both of our birthday's (as we have yet to go for mine and his is in January) while I am home over Christmas.

As we were leaving the church Adam showed up and it was good to see him, it has been a while… I tried to convince Trev to come with us (I am REALLY sick of Tim's) and he and I have made plans to go out for dinner sometime while I am home over Christmas. Apparently he has a week off so we will see what happens! We went to Moxie’s after THING and I got a ride with Sandra as Ben and Nathan had yet to show up. When we got to Moxie’s, Meghan was there with her brother, Nick. We invited them to join us and they came over and sat with us after they finished their food. LJ and Amanda were also there, sitting at a different table. Kevin ended up sitting with them… Ben called me to find out where we were and I told him and he and Nathan came to meet us. Our table was Adam, Elsje, Alexis, James, Kirsten, Graham, Sandra, Matt, Nick, Meghan, Ben, Nathan and I. It was fun talking to and hanging out with this group, they were quite a bit older and more varied interest-wise from last week. I was kind of bothered by the fact that Ben and Nathan had completely missed THING but Nathan told me that last night after they had walked into the house, Ben had said, “if we go,” right after he told me they would see me at THING. It hurt that he would basically lie to my face… Ben came back and asked if I needed a ride home and I told him Sandra was giving me a ride and he said, “Santa? Santa is giving you a ride? But there isn’t enough snow!” and the people at that end of the table laughed… I didn’t think it was nearly as funny. I took a walk to get some air (I was feeling pretty claustrophobic, it was a long night, a lot of people and it was starting to feel like an enclosed space…) and Meghan came out after me to make sure I was okay. We talked and I said that I was fine, just feeling a little penned in. She asked if I was mad or frustrated or anything and I said no. I wasn’t. I was feeling… numb. I wasn’t angry, frustrated, sad or any other emotion I could define. I was just numb… We walked outside for a few (it was beautiful out) and then went back in. Towards the end of the night, after most people had left, Amanda, LJ and Kevin came and sat with Meghan, Nick, Sandra and I for a few. It was cool to see LJ, I haven’t seen her in what seems like forever. We were both drinking so we tried each other’s drinks. I liked the martini she was drinking and I think I may have to try one of my own sometime.

Sandra drove me home and we talked about random things… Guys, friends, school, exams, etc. It was nice to hang out with her, I don’t get to see her very often. We are going to try to hang out over Christmas vacation.

I came in to write this and I got a message from Ben asking if I was still mad at him… I’m not mad but I don’t think he gets it… I don’t know how to explain it to him either. I tried to say that and I tried to explain it based on how I am feeling but he got angry and went offline… I feel kind of hurt I guess is the best way for me to explain my feelings… I trust him more than most people. I have a hard time trusting guys to begin with and I think that this hurts more because it is him than if it were anyone else because it’s never really happened before. He is one of my best friends and one of the people I turn to for guidance, friendship, support and other such things and normally it’s a mutual thing… I don’t know how to explain what/how much our friendship means to me. I was going to go to Grace in the morning to hear his choir sing but now I think I will either stay closer to home or sleep in and attend an evening service somewhere. I know when I am not welcome and I will not overstep boundaries. I e-mailed him to try to explain but who knows. :( :’( :( :’(

I’ve been talking to my friend Liam (who I don’t get to see very often) and he tried to cheer me up but it’s not working. I just hope I didn’t destroy one of my best friendships… I’m going to go get some sleep. I don’t like going to be upset but it looks like I have no choice tonight. :(

First Christmas Banquet/Party of the Season!

Bed at 3:00, still awake at 4:30, John came to wake me up to get a ride at 8:10, I told him to take the car and I would take a cab, I called Laura and she said she would give me a ride to AND from school… I went back to sleep. All before 9am.

At 9:45 I get up and figuring Laura won’t be there before 10:30 (she said she worked until around then) and grab the clothes I will be wearing and lay them on my bed. I go into the bathroom to do the shower thing and around 10am, just after I have turned on the water and stepped into the shower, someone knocks on the bathroom door. At this point, I determined that John must not have locked the front door when he left this morning…

I yell, “Hello!” to Laura over the water and she yells, “Morning! Can I have some orange juice?” and I yell back something that sounded affirmative and started to get wet. She knocked again and yelled to me that she wanted to blow dry my hair (because she was going to be doing it later for the Christmas banquet I went to tonight) and I asked if I could wash it first. She yelled something affirmative and I got back to the shower thing. By the time I finished, she had finished her orange juice and I ran across the hall and got dressed and then we started the fight over my hair… She put gel in it!!! *gag* I NEVER put gel in my hair because it makes it gross and sticky and such! But whatever… So it apparently wasn’t drying fast enough and after she tried to comb off my ear, earring, necklace and side of my neck, I confiscated the comb and blow dryer and dried it myself. It was dry enough that I could go to school and she could do something with it later.

She dropped me off, I went to class and wrote the last ear training quiz of the semester which I think I bombed… you know it’s bad when you are hearing a minor second sounding like a consonant interval. I also handed in the analysis part of my third project as my printer isn’t working. So I explained to the prof that I would e-mail the written part of the project and the quiz to him as soon as I had wireless internet.

After class Ash and I went down to meet Laura on 4, after dropping off my exam accommodation forms at the office they needed to go to. Laura pulled in and stopped about two to three car lengths behind the row of cars parked in the handicapped parking spots and Ash and I walked over to get in. Laura waved Ash around to the other side to get into the back seat as there was stuff on the other seat. We had just gotten into the car and were in the process of putting our seatbelts on when this older guy (older than my parents but not as old as my grandparents I would guess) comes out of the University and gets into his car. He starts it and puts it into reverse and proceeds to back up… directly into the side of Laura’s car!!! He never even looked!!! I noticed him come out but didn’t think anything of it and Ash noticed that his reverse lights were on but he had more than enough room to back out a bit, pull it tight and then pull forward and maybe do it again without us ever being in the way. But he didn’t even shoulder check. And our car had been sitting there long enough that we were pretty obvious… Laura moved her car a bit, after he moved forward again… The guy got out of his car and yelled at Laura, at which point, Ash yelled at him and then he got back into his car. Ash apparently swore at him as he was getting into his car but we don’t think he heard her and as she doesn’t normally swear, I was shocked! :O I wrote down his licence plate number and the general description of his car but there wasn’t enough damage for Laura to want to report it. It was a hit and run though and I think she should have reported it… Either way, it’s her choice.

So we got back to my place, I gave both of the girls chocolate (de-stressor) and then Laura worked on my hair while I worked on my laptop and Ash watched “Raise Your Voice.” It was funny because every time Laura sprayed hairspray, I called Ash to come get the laptop and she had to pause the movie. It was definitely a process. :D My hair looked awesome though and once I was done on my laptop I put Ash to work making pasta for the three of us and John for lunch. It turned out really well. We had radiatore which kind of looks like the old radiators used to. They left before John got home and I packed to go to Calgary after they left.

John got home and we loaded the car and we were on the road!

We got back into the city and stopped to pick up something he needed and then we went to Tim Horton’s and I got changed in the bathroom (black pants, black halter top with silver beading, pink sweater) and then had tea and a doughnut with Mom. We hit Shell for gas because it was close and my car was running on fumes… I used the bathroom there to start my make-up and finished the rest in my car. They left and I dropped off Jason’s Christmas gift to DHL and then drove in the direction of Ben’s.

I visited with Ben’s mom and bro for a while during which time he got ready to go out. (Shower, shave…) I enjoy his family. :) He decided he would drive and we left to go to the camp banquet. I knew Brit was already on her way there and that Matt was just ahead of us as well, as he had called me to double check where he was allowed to park on the camp property. I had forgotten to tell him to park wherever.

We got to camp just as dinner was starting and our table was: Matt, Britney, Sharla, Brityn, Ben and I. I walked in and got hugged by a few people as I was taking off my coat and changing my shoes (from my black “hooker boots” to my “there’s no place like home” shoes) and Brit said our table was first to eat so we had to get going. It was awesome walking in and seeing everyone… From my teens camp cabin, there were 5 of 7 girls there, some of whom were also CLTD’s… Dayna, Brityn, Sharla, Lauren and Ashley. Some of the teen/CLTD guys were also there… Sheldon, Mike and Andrew for example. It was awesome to see them! Some of the people I was really glad to see were Meghan, Hilde, Phil, Mikey, etc. Jeana and I laughed over the fact that both “her Matt” and “my Matt” were there and she commented about “her husband’s butt” (my brother, it’s still weird…) and it was cool to see her. Some of the people I expected to see weren’t there and it made me sad that they weren’t there… (Carisa, Ashley, Matt, Shelby, etc.) The night began with dinner and there were gifts and such based on numbers on the bottom of some of the chairs and there were little contests for other presents. I would have gone up for the “sing a verse of White Christmas” but Mikey wouldn’t let me until no one else knew it and I was okay with that. :) After dinner and dessert, there was carolling down by the campfire and gingerbread houses being made in the gym. We headed for the fire to sing and Mikey and Phil asked me to help out. We sang some carol’s, some camp songs, a couple of action-type songs to get people moving (one was apparently because my jacket looked like a polar bear so we HAD to do "40 Years on an Iceberg") and people drifted in and out. We lost Matt at one point but figured he had gone off with James. We said we would bug him later, just to see how he would react. He did react but not the way I expected and I’m not going to go there. I told Phil as we were walking back to the lodge that he has a good voice and he shouldn’t be so shy about singing… I didn’t want to embarrass him by telling him in front of the whole group but he does have a very good voice! We went back into the lodge for the dance and we had a blast! We did stuff like the Macarena, Slap Leather, slow danced once, jived and just generally had fun! At one point Meghan and I disappeared for a while to go talk about stuff but otherwise I was out there dancing. I won a book of “Garfield’s Treasury” because I was standing talking to some people and Mikey came over and said, “the first person out on the floor dancing will get a prize,” and I went and danced. A few minutes after that, Brityn gave me her school picture and I put it in the book for safekeeping until I can get it back to Lethbridge. She looks gorgeous!

When Ben and I went to leave, I gave hugs to people and said my goodbyes and it turned out we were driving another person home. Her name is Alicia. I had met her (not by name, more like she was there…) earlier in the evening. She lives down the street from Ben and may have a slight crush on him... Earlier in the evening she had asked James to ask Ben if there was another slow dance if he would dance with her. The last song of the night was “We Are the Champions” by Queen. I, personally, don’t see that as a “slow song.” I also saw the whole “middle man” thing as very junior high. Anyway, the three of us and Matt (who I text messaged) ended up back at Ben’s and then we took Ben’s dad’s car down to pick his friend Nathan up from the bus station. We went to BP’s for food and it was... interesting. John came for a while and it turns out he knows Alicia’s younger sister. The stories and the language usage that went along with the stories was shocking (to say the least) and I was much more comfortable once John left and then after we dropped Alicia off at home.

During the car ride we were pretty squished in the back seat and I ended up sitting with my elbow kind of resting on Matt’s shoulder. I didn’t want to elbow him in the side or anything and it didn’t seem to annoy him too badly to have my arm there. I had poked him earlier in the evening and I guess at one point Alicia was trying to tickle him as well and it wasn’t working. So I asked if he was ticklish in a couple of spots and tried them and the reaction I got was interesting. Weird, kind of what I expected (to be honest), but interesting.

However, we got back to Ben’s and I said about that conversation making me uncomfortable and Ben mentioned that he thinks Alicia may like him. Apparently, I had said something that had been misconstrued earlier so I clarified that they weren’t my original words, they were Ben’s and Nathan and Matt both seemed to get it but also think I was an idiot. Ben said about having to have conversations with girls about not being interested in them and something about having had one with me. When I said we had never had that talk, he seemed surprised. I guess the reason he was surprised is that when I liked him, I didn't tell him at the time, I told him a couple of years after the fact. So, him giving me the, "you're a great person, we should just be friends," talk never actually happened with us. I made a comment about being "the good friend" and "one of the guys" and neither Ben or Matt really corrected me. I am destined to be that to every guy, forever... It was nice of them to affirm it. :(

I asked the guys (Ben and Matt) if somehow between them I could get a ride to and from THING tomorrow night and they said sure. I said I would see them tomorrow and Matt and I got in our cars to leave.

I called Shaun on my way home to explain to him why I hadn’t made the concert he had invited me to and he told me they were at Denny’s on 16th (Motel Village) and I should stop by. I had just turned onto the road that takes me to Crowchild that runs between Motel Village and the Banff Trail LRT station so I made a quick left and stopped in to see him. He was with two friends and I ended up hanging out with them for a bit.

I got home around 3 so it’s going to be another 4am to bed night/morning…

Breakfast was delivered!?!?!?!?

So, bed was late last night... 4am or so... So I set my alarm for 8:30 and prepared to get very little sleep. Around 8:50 my phone rang (I was lying in bed reading my textbook) and Laura asks, "you up?" I responded with, "I'm awake but not up... what's going on?" She replied, "I'm bringing you breakfast. Coffee or hot chocolate? Bagel or Muffin?" I told her I don't drink coffee and specified what kind of bagel I would eat and got up to be prepared to answer the door when she got here.

She brought me yogurt, a bagel with cream cheese and a tea as they were out of hot chocolate. That is two Tim Horton's in the past 24 hours in town that are out of hot chocolate! I stopped last night on my way home and they didn't have any on the other side of town either! I digress... So, after we debated the colour of my hair (it is NOT black, it is "deepest plum") and talked about the plan for tomorrow (we are meeting here after I am done class) and other such stuff and she ate her stuff, I finished my yogurt and she had to go back to work and I went back to my homework. I didn't finish the bagel at that point (I put half in the fridge and ate it later) and added sugar to the tea and drank that. I tried on my outfit for the Christmas gatherings I am going to in the next couple of weeks and found out the pants are too big and may need to be exchanged (they may fit with a belt or something...) and I then realized how late it was getting, got dressed and ran a brush through my hair and ran to meet Ashleigh at the University.

I got there and she was already done her sightsinging exam so I ran to talk to the prof I wanted to see. He made my week! I was having issues with my analysis... After my laptop ate it last week, I have been trying to find a separate piano and clarinet score as I am only analyzing the clarinet part. So I went to talk to him because at this point, I am going to go photocopy the clarinet part and make my own score. He said that is actually a pretty good idea and gave me tips for the future and told me to get the paper in by Wednesday!!! I almost hugged him I was so happy! I gave him his Christmas present, thanked him profusely and said I would see him Wednesday!

Ash and I stole a classroom for a few minutes and went over some of the trichords and tetrachords for tomorrows exam and the only two I was having major problems with were 0246 and 014 and it was weird that it was just those two. I love 035, it makes me smile!

Anyway, we went down to CJ's and grabbed a hot chocolate (they had some!) and worked on the Theory assignment. I had to go sell tickets for the cab at noon and Ash and I only got about half a page of three done so I was freaking out pretty badly. I went to the table to sell tickets and Phil (from theory, not orchestra) showed up and asked if we could work together. I got him caught up to where I was and between the two of us, we spent the next two hours finishing the analysis! I was SO happy that part of it was done! Now all I had left to do was the questions associated with the analysis and that was easy by comparison!!!

I got home after a couple of mishaps (one I won't write about) but the other was I got out to my car and had... not ONE, but TWO parking tickets! One, because my meter expired and the other because I was overparked at an expired meter... *sigh* Whatever. I got home and fixed the first mishap, told my mom about the second and she said she would pay them! Yay! They are only $6 each as long as they are paid within the first week but still... I am feeling quite broke right now...

I was at home checking ym e-mail and such things when a window pops up from Laurel... It says:

"hi. could you please send me the participant list from TEC 41? I really need it. thanks!"

So, being the amazingly awesome person I can be (on occasion) I go through my file box and look for the 4th day package from that TEC. Well, I have to say, I am getting very frustrated... I have TEC 42, I have TEC 40, but no TEC 41 and I seem to have 2 or 3 from TEC 38 which is weird... So I pull them out to go through them as a pile, rather than a file... Turns out, the covers for 38 and 41 are THE SAME COLOUR!!!! No wonder I couldn't find it! It was there all along, it was just mixed in! So, I scan it, edit it to make it larger with no white space all around it and send it to her over MSN. I also tell her if she can't read it I will type it out or photocopy it and get it to her this weekend or fax it to her later today. She is shocked and impressed by how quickly I came up with it and says I'm a machine. I'm really not but she was in luck... I was sitting here, it was here, I had the time and I wasn't freaking out over schoolwork at the time. :) The file sent, opened, printed and was legible so we're all good! :D

I went out tonight and ran some errands. I got some money reimbursed that I had been waiting for so I could finally finish some of my Christmas shopping and I bought myself a sweater (not a Christmas gift but a "because I love me and I deserve it with the way my week has been" gift) and a set of shoes for the Christmas parties I need to go to. I tried to exchange the pants and decided a belt is easier than a different set of pants because I like the set I have and they don't have them in a different size. I also picked up stuff for my mom and dad, stuff for a couple of my friends, my cousins and so on. It was productive! I also went to BP's for dinner and worked on my Theory as I had been going kind of nuts constantly working at home so the change of scenery was nice and with John gone, the place gets pretty quiet.

So I have to pick John up in a little while. Before that I am going to do a bit more work, wrap a few presents, or at least sort some and organize the package that has to be sent to my aunt in Grand Forks and talk to a few people on MSN. Then, once he is home, I am going to get some sleep... It is going to be nice to get some rest for once...

Sleep… what’s that??? And I HATE my printer!!!

I didn’t end up going to bed last night until around 4:30. I was working on the timing of the music cues in Casablanca and I was finally getting them to work and I didn’t want to stop while I was on a roll. But I got to the point that I was physically tired, even thought I was mentally still alert so I went to bed.

My class was cancelled this morning (our prof is the chair of the dept. so he was in meetings all day) so I “slept in.” I let John take the car to class. I use the term “slept in” loosely because I basically got up at the same time I would if I had class but I didn’t have to get up to drive him to school. I just figured that driving on less than 4 hours sleep probably wasn’t my best choice.

I worked for most of the day on my film project and my history paper. I did talk to Kristyn and Ben for a couple of minutes online and my mom and Ash on the phone. Otherwise, I checked my e-mail and found out that my prof of tomorrow’s class has cancelled the lecture but is having office hours in the morning instead of class and that tonight we were going to be watching “Lord of the Rings.” Considering I hadn’t seen it yet and I needed to go to hand in my project, I figured I should probably go to class.

I took John to the Greyhound depot around 1:30 so he could pick up his ticket and made sure he was good to go before I left. I came straight back home to keep working. He’s going home to see Kurtis in Chicago at their High School which plays tonight and he will be back for his afternoon class tomorrow as far as I have been told. It’s funny how many of his friends I have talked to today with him leaving overnight… I know I am at least 2 if not 3 and they don’t normally call the house, they call his cell.

Around 4:15 I decided I would print off my project. I sent it from my laptop to my PC over MSN and printed the title page. No problem. I printed my written work… I… printed… Ok. It wasn’t printing. Alright, I will reword that. It printed the first two and half pages and then stopped, telling me that the black print cartridge was the wrong one for the printer. So I took it out, put it back in (it was the right one, no worries there… I had been using it for the past couple of weeks and no issues yet…) and turned off and back on my printer and tried again. This time, I got one and half pages and then the same message, only this time it was the coloured cartridge. I did the same thing. Third try. It prints. (I’m not having to hit print because it is still cued to print by the way…) This time it prints the first page and the first three lines on the second page and then stops. It says the printer is disconnected. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Ok, by this time, I have tried everything I can think of, short of restarting my computer. So I do. It begins to print once the computer starts. This time, it only gets part way through the first page and stops. So, I have a title page, multiple copies of the first page, one copy of the second page and no hope (currently) of pages three through twenty. I am having a meltdown. I sent a frantic “Are you there???” message to Tara around 5:00 and explain the situation. She helps me calm down enough to e-mail the written work to her and she prints it and says she will meet me just before my class with the written work and a stapler so I can attach the title page… *phew* Yay for Tara!!!! Heart attack is over, still having a minor panic attack but… *shrug* That will go away eventually! Did I mention in all of this, I have a 3-hole punch, can’t find a duotang and my stapler is missing??? Ya, not having a great time.

I get to class and hand the project in. I don’t think the prof gets how much of my blood, sweat and (literally) tears went into this project! We watched “Lord of the Rings.” It was ok… Not my favourite movie but I didn’t hate it. I’m not big into fantasy and I don’t much like violence or dead people (especially touching dead people… *gag*) but some of the guys (when you lose the long hair) are good looking and the story is interesting and pretty easy for me to follow as I read the books when I was younger. Also, the music is good which was the purpose for watching it in class…

I was exhausted by the time I got to class but as I don’t have to watch my hands to type, I got a lot accomplished while watching the movie. I worked a bit on my opinion of Mozart’s clarinet concerto and wrote some things I needed to… I also got some of this written. :)

I am now home from class and my plan for the evening is a little R&R mixed in with some schoolwork. I think “One Tree Hill” might have been new tonight and if it was, I taped it so I may watch it. I also have to try on my new Christmas outfit (I bought it a few weeks ago and it was slightly too big and right now everything is fitting slightly too big but if it’s any bigger than it was, I need to do something about it before Friday) and call Laura about doing something with my hair on Friday. My plan is to try and get some sleep tonight and in the morning I am going to try and figure out what is wrong with my printer (if I have to call Canon, I will) and meet with Ash to go over intervals and hand in my paper to my professor. *crossing fingers that my musical analysis will be completely finished by then* I can’t stay up until 4:30 again…

Or, that was my plan as I originally started to write. Then I get messages from various people:

“Don’t forget to get notes from me tomorrow”

“You have a dr’s appt tomorrow”

“We’re selling tickets for the cab tomorrow from 12-1”

“Hey, about that theory homework… what do you mean you haven’t done that part? Don’t leave it to the last minute, it’s a lot harder than it looks!”

Now, I am having a panic attack. Full out, crying, unable to breathe. I have too much to do, too little time to do it and I don’t know how I am going to get it all done…. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Remove head from Sphincter, then listen!

Ok, so today started with Ash calling me to tell me how much I owe her from shopping at Michael's (on her discount :D) last week. And then John called on his way home to see if I wanted a Booster Juice (heck ya!) and I decided I should get moving. So I got up and dressed and such and realized I'm still not feeling so hot... But I got up and checked my e-mail and packed my back for school.

John dropped me off and I went to History. There is this girl in that class who drives me BANANAS!!!! (Bananas! Hey! Hey! Bananas! Hey! Hey! B-a-n-a-n-a-s! Bananas!) Anyway, the prof says we are going to listen to a certian piece at the end of class if we have time, it is a string quartet, it is one of Beethoven's later works and it may have to wait until next day. He then goes into his lecture about Beethoven. (Shocking, considering the last couple of classes have been ALL about Beethoven!) He then says we are going to listen to Symphony #1, Opus 21. Moron at the back of class pipes up halfway through the piece and says, "this doesn't sound like a string quartet!" AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I have nothing against her, in fact, I barely know her. I know she is at least a year behind me in every other class and is either a string or keys player (I have seen her carrying a guitar case so it would be pretty safe to say she plays guitar) but most people who act as stupid as she does don't make it through first year, let alone into second!!! I thought she was an idiot before when she yelled at the prof of this class over something he couldn't control but today she was... Unbelievable!

Anyway, between taking notes and listening to example upon example of Beethoven's works, I read the entire script of Casablanca and marked all of the musical cues that appear in the script, the famous lines, when the French National Anthem appears and so on. It was a productive class and yay for multi-tasking!

When I got home, I read a friend's blog and realized that what he wrote about and something I had saved earlier and had yet to post were of similar topics so I finished it and published it.

This afternoon I ran through the shower and did my hair (I went to class this morning in my glasses and sweats... :D you could tell that I wasn't feeling well by looking at me...) and then went to orchestra. I had every intention of working on stuff before orchestra but I ran into Richelle and we ended up sitting and talking. She doesn't talk very much so it was interesting.

During orchestra we sight-read a few pieces, one of which we would get to sing in. The only problem is the piece has something like 450 bars and somewhere in the middle, I rest for 97 bars straight. But it's not like "97 bars rest" it's broken down into something like, "3, 3, 3, 14, 6, 12, 12, 12, 18, 14..." AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! And, yet again, putz boy who sits next to me was too busy polishing his clarinet to know where we were so he was completely lost and had no idea what was going on. Thank goodness Ryan was sitting in his old seat today or I seriously would have hit him. Ever seen the bumper sticker that reads, "I've got PMS and a gun..." Ya, that was pretty much me in his general direction today. He walked in and said, "look, I got a neckstrap! But they had to put a new thumbrest on my clarinet..." I pointed out that he could have just bought a neckstrap that hooked onto his old thumbrest and he said, "they make those???" I showed him mine (which does that!) LAST WEEK. I said to him, "You don't listen to anything I say, do you? I'm done. Never mind. Just don't talk to me today, ok? It will be safer for you in the long run." At that point, I faced the front and didn't acknowledge him for the rest of rehearsal (with two exceptions.... once when he held a note three bars too long and another time when he came in a bar early on the wrong note).

When John picked me up, I dropped him off at home and ran to put gas in the car and picked up McD's for dinner and then had a nap for an hour because I didn't feel so hot. Since then, I have been watching Casablanca over and over, timing and retiming the music to make sure my previous timings were correct. So far, I have one I'm still not 100% on... Before bed I am going to finish those and then I plan to get enough sleep to function tomorrow so I can finish this and do the analysis of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major.

I. Hate. Snow.

This morning I woke up with a headache.
Not a teeny, tiny, little one.
A HUGE, MAJOR, MIGRAINE sized one.
I took a couple of Tylenol and went back to sleep with the hope it would go away. I woke up the hour later and the dizzyness had subsided but the headache wasn't completely gone and I decided it was time to get packed and get going.

I left my grandparent's house around 10:15. I got onto the highway and it was slow going but I figured I'd just go with it. I was following the yellow line and I was cruising at pretty much the speed limit until just past Nanton. The visibility kind of sucked up until then, with blowing snow and fog but after that, it got even worse. I went from driving in the left lane to being almost in the ditch on the right hand side due to it snowing so hard, with fog and blowing snow that I couldn't see more than a foot in front of my windshield. I was doing 40 with my 4-ways on most of the way from Stavely to Claresholm and I don't think I have ever been that scared...

I pulled off in Claresholm and got a Strawberry Milk at 7-11 and sat in my car and read in the parking lot for a while. I couldn't go any further, I was shaking too hard and my hands hurt from gripping the steering wheel so hard. :'(

I got back on the Highway and my mom had told me when I talked to her that the E-W highway should be better than the N-S so I should be fine once I hit either the 519 or 520. I decided to take the 519 as it would have more traffic and set out again. The visibility was such that I did 70 with ym 4-ways on until the 519 and then once I hit the 519 it took me a few minutes to turn left onto it because of the lack of visibility... I was SO afraid that a semi was going to come along and t-bone me... :(

I got onto the 519 and the visibility was better for a while and then it got worse again. I got stuck behind a semi but he was doing between 70 and 90 depending on the visibility and roads so I kept my 4-ways on and stuck behind him. When I got to the 23, he let me go around him and the visibility got better and I could do the speed limit all the way into Lethbridge. Total trip time, including the stop in Claresholm: 4 hours. I have NEVER taken 4 hours (even the time Lauren and I got turned around the first time driving back to Calgary when I first moved down to Lethbridge) to go either way...

One of the nice things was my mom and Laura kept in touch with me pretty much all of the way to make sure I was okay and not dead and such. But watching people sliding into the ditch or seeing the cars in the ditch was making me very nervous...

Once I got back here and unloaded my car (and stopped shaking) I did some research and some work on the projects that are due this week and then went to get John from school.

We got back and I went back to work, trying to get a bunch of stuff done before my Crew meeting tonight. I got a call at 6:15 saying that the 7:00 meeting was cancelled so I took a break and made "Baba's Macaroni" and garlic crescents for dinner and then curled up under a blanket for a little while.

Since then, I have worked on my film project and then Emily called and I spent some time on the phone with her and now, I'm writing on here. I do need to go do some more work and then go get some sleep. It's been a long day and the concentration (with a headache) that today required took a lot out of me.

Blah.

Today I wasn't feeling so hot...

I got up this morning at went to the Winter Club for a massage. My knee has been killing me and my hamstrings are majorly tight so I was hoping they they are somehow related and my massage therapist could help me out... After the massage, my back, neck, legs, etc. all felt much looser which was awesome but I still felt like crap overall. I went home and had about 2L of water and decided to have a nap. I figured that maybe I was just overtired and needed the sleep.

I slept all day.

I fell asleep around 12:30. I woke up when my mom showed up at my grandparent's around 7:30pm.

I had already decided to drive back in the morning because I didn't want to drive in the dark but I didn't plan on sleeping all afternoon.

Once my mom got there, she and I went for groceries (incidentally, my knee hurt worse than before so I iced it as soon as I got home) and then I came back and spent the next couple of hours finishing Sky High and working on the Theory project that is due Friday.

I still have to finish the musical analysis for my History Paper and re-time my musical cues for Casablanca but that stuff is partially in my car and partially in Lethbridge.

So, for now, I am going to bed. I am tired and I don't know why. I will get up in the morning and drive back to Lethbridge. *Sigh*

One week of class left and then exams. Praise God it's almost over!!!

Thank Heaven for Little Girls...

Today was long... Not quite as long as yesterday time-wise, but it was a lot of emotional and physical energy.

I got up at 8 and my mom and I packed both of our cars and did some running around in Lethbridge. I helped her pick up some clothes for a bunch of Christmas related events she needs to go to in the next few weeks and then I got the chance to wander the store a bit. I got a scarf that has an "E" on it (it's black and it's gorgeous!) and another one that is white with iridescent sequins (for the cabaret) and something else I can't mention right now because I think I may be getting it for Christmas. :) After that store, my mom left for Coleman (to watch John curl) and I went and ran a couple of other errands and then left for Calgary.

When I got back to Calgary, I stopped and got a Booster Juice and did some window shopping and then flat ironed my hair.

I met Ben for dinner at Red Lobster and we had a good time chatting and hanging out and it was a nice break from the rushing around I have been doing for the past few days. It was great to see him and I bugged him about some pretty minor stuff but it was fun to make him blush! :) I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach because I ended up with crab legs leftover to bring home... I asked my mom how to crack them and her recommendation was pliers. :D

After that, I stopped to get gas and fixed my make-up in the bathroom (the light was too dark in the car...) and then went to Kristyn's baby shower.

It wasn't too hard to find the place, even though the directions told me to turn right at a 7-11 that was on my left but I found it anyway... I was kind of afraid that it was either going to be a mini high school reunion or some people were going to make it a "I have this and this and this going on, and you're JUST a student" competition but it wasn't and that was good. It was nice to see Kristyn, her mom, Ryan's mom and some of the other people I have known through Kristyn and her dancing and such. Julie was there and she brought Gavin. He's very cute, I hadn't seen him before, other than in pictures on Gwendy's website but he was very happy and sociable and it was cool to see. The only thing that was kind of annoying was some things Kristyn opened, there was one person who would say, "WE have one of those," or "my daughter LOVES her one of those" or something similar... But that happens... *shrug* I stayed until almost everyone had left, talked to Ryan for a few when he got there and then left... Heather sent me home with a plate of snacks to munch on while I work on my papers in the next couple of days.

I went to Christine's parents house for a few on my way home. It was cool to see how much some of the kids I knew at Grace have grown up over time. I got the chance to see Christine, which was awesome because I haven't seen her in a while! Ben and Brit were there and I sat and talked with the two of them and Rachel for a while. When I got there they were "watching" March of the Penguins and we couldn't really see it from where we were sitting. I didn't stay very long because I was pretty tired and I still had to drive across the city.

On my way home I was going to stop and say hi to Shaun at work but I got there at 12:02am and they close at 12 so I was too late... :(

So now, I am home, I am going to watch part of Sky High before bed and then crash. Night!

7am to 3am... Oh boy!

So last night, after I posted my blog, my mom and I were watching a movie and she fell asleep. So I tried to wake her up so she could move onto a bed (she was on the floor) and nothing was working. I tried poking, shaking, calling "mom, wake up!" and nada. So I tried the petting her hair thing she used to do to me when I was little in combination with the "mom, wake up!" and she started to wake up... looked up towards me... and screamed her head off! It's 1am and she's screaming bloody blue murder! I'm like, "mom, it's me! Calm down!" and she stopped, but I was surprised the neighbours didn't call the cops!

Ok, I'm not sure what is up with people calling my house so early lately, specifically people in my family but my dad called this morning at 6:09am. I answered the phone similarly to the way I answered it yesterday and he asked if my mom was there. When I said she was still asleep he responded with, "well, she reset the friggin alarm clock to beep instead of radio and it sounded like a friggin firm alarm was going off in the house so I assume she needed to be up at this time for some reason." I told him we still had almost an hour until we were planning to get up and I was going back to sleep. At that point, I hung up and went back to sleep.

I dropped my car off to have the tires rotated, oil changed, brakes checked and replaced if needed, windshield wipers replaced, etc. My mom dropped me back off at home and I called a cab to get me to school as I had an appt. on campus at 10 before my class at 11. The cab was about 15 minutes late and I made it to my appt. with about 30 sec. to spare. The appt. went ok, it had to do with the class I am withdrawing from with cause. But there were certain aspects of the appt. that upset me and I just wanted it to be over. The best part about the appt. was when I got a phone call from the autobody saying my car was finished. It ended up being done way sooner than I had expected and for way less than I had expected as well!

I gave Dee her birthday gift before class and she laughed but seemed to enjoy it! :D Steve sang Dee, Ash and I the "I want a Hippo" Telus commercial and it made us smile. I kind of want to see if I can find him a hippo for a gift for Christmas. :)

Class was pretty scattered today, the prof was all over the place for much of it and a lot of us were pretty bored. Most of us had no idea what he was talking about! We decided that our last ear training exam should be all made up of 0123, 0246, 0378, 035, 037 and 047 because we are able to hear those and no 0156 or 0167 because it's hard to tell the difference right now...

After class Laura picked Ash and I up and they dropped me off to pick up my car. I ended up doing some Christmas shopping. I got some stuff for my friends and family, for the Rover Christmas party, and for a few of ths kids at my mom's school whose families cannot afford to buy toys and such. My mom had given me a list and I got the stuff on the list so it was all good. :)

I went to the mall and got my hair done (my bangs trimmed, she washed my hair and I mentioned that I have natural curl and she played with it a bit) and I came out with... A bit of an 80's thing going on. It is awesome though!!!!

I ran a couple of other errands and then, as I was leaving the mall, I saw something that made me really upset. The roads and sidewalks were covered in snow and there was this guy in a wheelchair crossing the street... The guy is trying to carry a box that doesn't fit on his lap and it keeps sliding off and his wheels keep getting stuck in the snow. And people keep walking past him and ignoring him! The one person that I thought was going to stop (at least he looked at him) was this Hutterite or Mennonite guy who was walking past... If I hadn't been blocking traffic to do so (and there were about 10 cars behind me at the light) I would have gotten out to help. As it was, he put the corner of the bag in his mouth and kept going. When he got to the other side and was having trouble getting up onto the sidewalk, someone waiting to cross the other way (E to W instead of S to N) helped him by holding the box for him. It just made me mad that like 8 people walked past him while he was struggling and didn't help!

Anyway, I went home and had an hour long nap (I had a headache and it helped) and then got ready for the concert. My mom and I took one car and I told her to sit in the center balcony for the best sound and so she could see me. The concert went really well. The guy who sits next to me managed to break one of the keys on his clarinet like 10 minutes before we went on stage. And then he asked after one piece if we could move our stand down.... The conductor is conducting above his head and I had the stand fairly low and that proves he's not watching the conductor!!!! He's lucky that I can't stand him already because I just did the, "oh well, whatever" thing in his general direction. He says he likes being in the choir better than being in orchestra and I kind of hopes he decides not to do orchestra next semester!

After the concert, my mom and I went for dinner at Moxies. We talked about the concert and she said the only thing that kind of bothered her was that a lot of the choir stuff was very Catholic in nature and it was all slow. At least our pieces vary in tempo and such so they aren't as boring. The other thing she commented about was that she was lonely sitting by herself. I need to make sure that next time I have a concert there is someone for her (that she knows preferably) to sit with.

Afterwards, we went home and wrapped gifts and such and then went to bed... I know I'm going to sleep tonight because I have been up since 7am and it's almost 3am now...

Things are looking up...

So, the phone rang at 6:54am and I rolled over and answered it with something resembling, "'lo'?" It was my mom calling to talk to my brother about what is going on this weekend. I asked her a question, got the answer, rolled over and went back to sleep. I should probably point out that I went to bed around 4:30... So, I woke up "early" (8:30ish) and went back to work on my paper. Around 10am I decided I should probably have a shower and check my e-mail to see if my prof ever got back to me and he hadn't so I called his office. He told me that he didn't care when I got the paper in, I shouldn't stress, be in his class that day and hand it in when I got it finished. I am trying to get it done no later than Monday but he said that due to the special circumstances that I have going on right now, he understands if I need a couple of extra days. On one had, I hate my laptop for crashing yesterday, on the other hand, I love it... So I had a shower, got dressed and John dropped me off.

After class I hung out with Ashleigh for a few and then went and sold Cabaret tickets for an hour. I was supposed to be selling them with Carrie but she never showed up. I sat in the Atrium for the hour and chatted with people as they went by on their way to class. Just before I was done, Tanya came to sit with me and mentioned that the contact for the Roughnecks had called her and she was going to call him back. I had faxed him our letter earlier this week and I will go pick up whatever the donation is next weekend! At 2pm, I ran into Dee on her way out of her practice session which apparently had gone well! She turns "old" today and I forgot her birthday present at home so I have to remember to take it tomorrow! Just as I stopped to talk to Dee, John walked up the stairs and he stopped to talk to her as well. She had to run so he and I walked down to my car just as the security guys drove up (he had parked in the handicap stalls on 4) and we went and picked Ash up and came home.

I dyed Ash's hair a light blonde colour (overtop of her natural colour it goes a coppery colour... it's SO pretty!) and we darkened my roots so when I go "deepest plum" again my roots dont go PURPLE! I like the colour purple but not that much!

As soon as we were done we ran over to the mall so John could meet with his curling team and Ash and I went to Michael's and picked up a few things. We picked John back up and he dropped Ash and I off at the Church that I had orchestra at and Laura picked Ash up from there. John went home to pack to leave tonight.

Orchestra was ok. We were SUPER cramped and squished. We kept elbowing each other and sptepping on each other but I think we have it figured out for tomorrow. Megan gave me a ride home and now I am blogging!

The only things that have happened in the past little while (30 minutes since I got home) are: I have been asked an interesting question that I am contemplating, I had to send a slightly snotty message to someone (it had to be done), I made a couple of phone calls, I received a couple of phone calls and I decided on what I am getting Kristyn for a baby gift. So I am now going shopping!

(11:30pm) Update: I bought the baby gift, only to get home and realize part of what I thought I bought isn't here! Oh well... I will go back tomorrow! I also picked up some of the stuff I needed for people for Christmas while I was out. My mom is here now and we are going to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith (I just got it!) and we ordered in pizza for dinner. I have decided that the "coming to E for advice" thing is going to stop for a while. I've had enough... And I am nervous about the concert tomorrow but excited as well! I have to take my car in for servicing so prayer that it doesn't have to be in all day would be great!

*sigh* :'(

Alright, this week has got to get better soon or I will have to go jump off something really high... Even if it a diving board until the pressure of the water gives me a headache (which for some reason, always makes me feel better...).

Today I got up pretty early and went to work on my essay. I got a paragraph set and weeded out some stuff I didn't need from my notes and then got ready to go to school. I got to theory and we got our homework back (I got an A which was good, I think it was the best part of my day...) and then we talked about more 12-tone theory. *gag* After theory I stopped to talk to the prof about the assignment for that class and the paper for his other class.

I got home and John still wasn't up so grabbed lunch and I went back to work on my paper. I had a bit of a nap (about 30 minutes) midafternoon and then went back to work. I worked for about 4.5 hours straight, 3 of those hours on musical analysis and the other 1.5 on the body of the essay. At the point that I realized I needed to leave in about an hour, my laptop froze. So I shut down what I could and it still wasn't responding so I pressed, "CTRL ALT DELETE" and restarted my laptop. I lost 3/4 of what I had done... It was at that point that I restrained myself from throwing my laptop against the wall or out the window and sat and cried. I went back to work and as it hadn't auto-recovered, I was basically screwed.

I went to my night class and we watched two documentaries, one on the original King Kong (1933) and the other on Film Music and the importance that music plays in films. It was interesting and the film clips/music was good but I was very distracted. My prof (same as this morning) told me during the break that we were going to be watching excerpts from Fantasia, Looney Tunes and Spirited Away during the second half of class and as I have seen all of them, I asked if I could go home and go back to work. He said that was fine and asked what my topic was and I explained it to him. I left and am now at home.

I got home and told John he could have the car. He told me he had called a cab and I told him to call and cancel it. He apparently didn't know you could do that. So he did. I realized that I have a ton of work left to do this week, which includes that paper, which is technically due by 4pm tomorrow and with the work I did today down the drain, I'm basically screwed. I also need to figure out what to get my friend for her baby shower gift as the baby shower is on Saturday and between school, homework, the concert I'm playing in on Friday, rehearsals and my car needing to be serviced, I am basically out of time. When I realized all I have to do in the next little while, I wept. I didn't cry, I wept. I had tears rolling down my face and sobs shaking my body... I think I scared John... Hell, I scared myself... I just wanted to curl up in the fetal position and stay like that...

I calmed down once John left and I e-mailed my prof. At this point I will have to pull an all-nighter (which I don't have the energy for) and work all day tomorrow, skipping everything I'm supposed to be at in order to get this done by 4pm. I don't know what else to do and I need to sleep sometime... *sigh* I'm waiting for a response from the professor and I hope he gets back to me soon...

For now, I am blogging incredibly early and then going back to work. Prayer is greatly appreciated. Hugs would be good from anyone I see in the next few days. This next week and a bit are going to be brutal and I may not be around a lot and I hope my friends understand I'm not being anti-social, I'm trying not to flunk out!

*sigh* Back to my stupid essay!