Jane Eyre...really?

So today I had to leave my darling Lily Pup to go to a Jane Eyre rehearsal that was two and a half hours too long. From what I got out of the two and a half hour rehearsal the story is quite depressing and rather morbid. Chamber Singers was volunteered to help with this event with the high school choir and the community, and while I'm sure it will be a good musical production, it has not come at a good time. I will be missing a great deal of the election coverage, so that's really upsetting. Plus, the high school singers are horribly chatty, so that doesn't help my tolerance level. I definitely would have been more excited about this whole thing if it had come at a different time.

Puppy time!

Lily is my mom's new puppy, and I must say that she is quite the sweetheart. I've only been able to spend a day and a half with her, but she's just too cute. She was pretty subdued the first day we had her, but after she recovered from being sick she perked up quite a bit. It's nice to have a puppy in the house again, but I know that it'll be much nicer and less stressful once she's house trained. She's definitely bringing lots of love and energy to the house, and it will be nice to spend some more time with her this weekend when I'm home for Fall Break. It's been a stressful semester so far, and while it'll be nice to be past midterms, I'm just ready for everything to just slow down. I'm definitely ready to have an extended break from classes to have time with my family, including little Miss Lily.

Roller coasters

Lately I've been on a few roller coasters. I'm not sure exactly what is prompting it, but something is causing me to feel like I'm on a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I've been more weepy than normal and don't have a poignant reason for this fairly sudden change. I've been very happy and content for the most part, but I start doubting my plans for the future and then all sorts of other stressors come into play.

I've also been on a work load roller coaster. Luckily, I am in a downswing right now, but I can see that the climb is not far off, and the next drop is unclear at the moment. The last week was a constant climb, so this lull in my workload is greatly appreciated right now. I'm just hoping to survive this ride without throwing up all over myself.

Culture shock, coming right up!

I haven't experienced an insane amount of culture shock yet, but I have definitely noticed a large amount of differences. Plus, I miss my housemates like crazy! There's a lot of academic differences from England, and while it's nice to have more structure now it seems like I have ridiculous amounts of homework.

Blogger's Block

I have stuff going on in my life, for sure, but I've just not been able to sit down and collect my thoughts enough to add a significant entry. I'm sorry about that.

You're my sunshine

Friendship has become one of the most important parts of my life.

I was reminded of this when I checked my cell phone this evening after class and discovered that I had missed a call and I had a new voice mail message. As I listened to the message I was comforted by the concern and love that was easily expressed by a dear friend of mine. We haven't seen each other since before I left to go to England, and my friend spent all of last year in Mexico, so we haven't really been able to spend a lot of quality time together. It seems unreal, but somehow I still felt extremely close to my friend even when we were an ocean apart. We were able to stay connected through the shared experience of studying abroad, although our experiences were far different.
What prompted the phone call this evening is why friendship means so much to me. Merely the gesture that my friend took the time to call me and make sure that I was doing alright meant so much to me tonight. I love you, Nicolas.

Nick is just one example of how friends of mine impact my life. I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life.

How I spent my summer vacation...

Anyone that heard about what I went through this week would not imagine that so many things could happen in one week.

I got locked out of the house I was dogsitting at 4:30am and thus slept in my car for five hours before having my youth pastor's husband help me break into the house; there was a fire in my house; someone charged over $700 from my banking account, so I had to spend a lot of time at the bank and filed my first police report; my room has not cleaned itself nor has the book I'm supposed to be reading read itself; I haven't really slept a whole lot; my tan isn't what I want it to be; I haven't heard from many of my friends in far too long, and time is running out on my summer.

I am ready for a semi-relaxing week now. This week is the last week of my history class, so I really need to bear down and do well on my paper and on the final this Thursday. I know a lot of these things aren't really that stressful, but it just seems that everything piles on and sneaks up on me and then I'm totally overwhelmed. I'm just praying for patience and understanding this week.