Five days in brief

What a wish-wash of things to talk to you about! This is a long one. I think you can make it through though ... it is (biased, yes) entertaining.

First and foremost, I hope everyone had an excellent Veteran's Day. Let us never forget the amazing men and women who fight for the freedom we enjoy every day. Pour mes amis francais, Veteran's Day = Journee d'Armistice.

Thursday I had an incredibly busy day, starting with an early start down at the National Air and Space Museum. I watched the new planetarium show Cosmic Collisions and interviewed other audience members and museum staff. This was all for a feature story I'm writing for homework. In the end, I needed to talk to some other staff people because the story I went there to write was not the most interesting one. As soon as I'm finished with it, I'll post it here so you can see it.

I ran home to have lunch and scoot out the door in time for Strategic (class). After class I had an audition for the Vagina Monologues. I found out today I didn't get cast, but I've done it twice before and there were 76 women interested - so I'll help out backstage or something. If you haven't seen the show, then I encourage you to come out in February to see it - it is truly an amazing thing.

Then I drove home, packed a bag, watched the news, cleaned the apartment, had dinner, left my room in ruins, and got on the road to drive to NC. It went surprisingly quickly considering the traffic on 495 and in the HOV. My parents welcomed me home after midnight, I talked to Mom for a bit and slept. (Oh yes, and I got to see my gargantuan puppy Shadow. Here he is in the backyard with a chew toy!)

Up early for breakfast and a car trip to Florida. 7.5 hours later we arrived in Gainesville, site of the Gamecock - Gator faceoff. I got to spend time with my brother and some family friends for the weekend. A short interlude on Friday night ...

I stayed with Travis in his apartment. What a joy. I love my brother, but Friday was an insomniacs enemy. We got back to his place a little before 1am to find all sorts of drunk people loitering outside his apartment (which is more like a townhouse, really). There was a "4-kegger" next door and not a parking spot to be found. I cleared the road of drunk people so Katie could park her car (roommate's girlfriend) and then went with Trav to park his about 8 buildings away. I called the police when we got back because there were people walking around in Trav's backyard and trying to hear yourself think in the living room was closer to impossible than one enjoys that late at night.

Well one of Trav's roommates was hammered and came back and got in a fistfight with him in the living room (there was some beer throwing and eye punching) because they were underage and the police were out front and they wanted to come in the back door .... long story short, she and her little 18 year old brother stayed in for the rest of the night.

The place quieted down a bit after that. Then around 2, the party next door got rowdy and there were people on the porch outside the sliding glass door ... it was a college party scene. Unfortunately, it was three feet from where I was trying to sleep and precariously close to tipping over the grill my dinner was supposed to be cooked on the next night. So we called the "party patrol" again (this is a special unit of police officers who specialize in quieting down loud parties in Gainesville). I should mention they took all my information.

Which is why at 3:30am when they called and woke me up to get it, I was unhappy. Especially since they had just recently got the party quiet enough that I could TRY to sleep. Luckily, the loser host got a noise fine. This, with T's girlfriend drama and the brother of the drunk roommate saying that his "getting through high school" makes him legal to drink (slap-slap in imaginary land) made for a sleepless and interesting evening.

Up early again, Mom and Dad came and got me to help set up for the tailgating. We hung out for a bit and I did homework (which is lame, but necessary). I had my first strawberry daquiri ever and thought it was quite good.

The game was exciting and fun. We sat in good seats, and I was the only Gamecock fan for like two sections. I know I am not supposed to be satisfied with "moral victories," but there is nothing like watching 90,000 people get all excited about beating an unranked team in the last 8 seconds of the game. It makes me hopeful for the future - which is a much stronger and positive feeling than a Gamecock fan usually gets to partake in. If you are interested in other things that happened during the game, please don't make me relive it - just read ESPN.com.

Saturday night, Travis and Kevin (the other roommate) played for everyone in the RV lot, which was good. (Guitars and singing) We cooked out, played a little toss football, and enjoyed the company of others. I slept at the hotel with my parents to avoid another sleepless night.

Sunday was early again, and we said our goodbyes and got on the road. Back in Fayetteville, we lounged while I sent out the homework I wrote in the car. We had some yummy scallops for dinner, watched football and Brothers & Sisters and went to bed. (That is the sunset reflecting off the porch windows.)

Morning came all too early and I was on the road again (this is 25+ hours in the car for the weekend). I got great gas mileage and made it back in time for study group. But before that, I drove past a house that had free wood. I drove out to get some after I emptied my trunk.

So yeah, they were a little big for me to pick up by myself. I found the two smallest "logs" and managed to heave them in my trunk. Upon my arrival back home, I realized that I could not dead-lift these things out of my trunk into the wheelbarrow. In fact, I couldn't roll, hoist, finagle, or drag them out either. So Bill, who is coming over later, will probably have to help me extricate the wood from my car. Otherwise, I estimate my gas mileage will be rather crappy for the rest of the week.

Caroline and I studied for research and Dana is making her super special stir fry, and I am looking forward to an evening of work, laundry, homework, and perhaps a little mindless entertainment.

Thanks for sticking with me. See you next time. Love always, ~Heather