These past two days were amazing and exactly what I needed right now. Brittny called me Monday night to see if she could come see me in Cupertino to spend a little more time together before I leave for Scotland. We decided that it would work out best for both of us if she spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights here. Then on Tuesday morning I got a call from Catherine, who was moving her stuff back home to Danville. She had realized midway that she really didn't want to be back in her house just yet, and I told her that she was absolutely welcome to stay with me, especially because Brittny would be here and it would give us all more time to hang out. So Catherine got here a little before Brittny did and I had her go answer the door when Brittny arrived. The look on Dizzle's face was LOLarious. Hahaha...

After the excitement died down, we had lunch at Johnny Rocket's and it was delicious. Yummmm!!! Then I just couldn't wait to show them the Awesome Department DVD, so we came home and watched it. They seemed to like it, which made me feel really good. I love watching all that stuff over and over because I love the people in the videos. :) I also remembered while watching it how the name "Awesome Department" came to be! When Brittny and I were preparing for the talent show at the beginning of our first year, we had to alter some Saturday Night Live dialogue to fit our situation. Instead of saying that we headed up the music department at Alta Dena Middle School, we decided to be random and say we headed up the AWESOME department at San Miguel Hall! Thank God we had video from that talent show or else the origins of the best group name ever might have been forgotten forever!

Next on the agenda was two episodes of FotC, because Brittny hadn't seen this week's, and I had been slightly tipsy during the second to last one. Will Forte is so amazing. I also think I have a really big crush on Dave now, which is weird... But true. I'd pick Bret or Jemaine over him any day, but he's still pretty cute.

After FotC, we ate some yummy appetizers with my parents and hung out with them in the [extremely hot] kitchen. My dad made us dinner and it was pretty fascinating to watch him cut steak with his electric knife thingie. When dinner was ready, we ate it out in the backyard. It was really tasty and fun. We finished just in time to get settled in for Power of 10, which is officially the DUMBEST game show ever. And we were really disappointed that there was no Daniele/Nick reunion and that stupid Amber got a thousand bucks out of it (even though she looked really dumb, especially when she yelled "YAAAAYYYY" every two seconds and did what Brittny termed her "God Claw" clap). It also made me feel really sad about Drew Carey & his career, especially because so much of his identity relies on his ugly, outdated glasses. I don't think he would be hired for anything without them. With the fug-o glasses, he is stuck hosting the most pointless game show in the world, but without them he would be out of a job altogether. So sad.

Big Brother itself was much more entertaining, especially because we played an excellent drinking game with my parents and some Vodka Collins. Take a sip if...

- Amber cries.
- Amber or Jameka mention anything having to do with God & his plans for the BB house.
- Daniele says: "It's so frustratinnngg," "It's not fairrr," or "It sucks."
- Eric mentions anything about being 5'7", Jewish, or from New York (one sip for each).

Needless to say there's was lots of sipping.

After I threw up all over the world over Eric & Jess, the show had come to a close so we sat in the living room and heard my dad's college stories. HAHAHAHA It was so ridiculous. He gets so excited when people enjoy his stories, and he also had a lot of wine so he was especially animated. My favorite story was about a man named Jeff Asher who really didn't like my dad very much, so one time Jeff just grabbed my dad's foot and "started ga-narring on it!" I am assuming "ga-narr" is some weirdo form of the word "gnaw," because that's what he meant. We were laughing so hard because it made no sense -- if you don't like someone, why would you want to put their foot in your mouth!? Why would you want to put anyone's foot in your mouth!?!?! WHAT!? Jeff Asher is obviously not a good person.

Eventually we all went upstairs and set up the air mattresses in my room. We talked for a little bit and laughed about my dad's stories. Then we went to sleep.

The next morning we all woke up and did stuff on our computers and eventually showered and got ready for the day. We didn't really have a plan for what to do, so there was no rush. By 1, we had all showered and stuff and we decided that we'd go see Death at a Funeral at 3. Brittny wanted to look for a digital camera, so we drove to Circuit City and found her a good Canon one. I think she'll really have fun with it and I'm excited! The guy at the store was a douchebag because he asked her "Do you want a bag for this?" while he was ringing her up. She said that she did, and he pointed at an aisle and said "They're over there." We were really confused. When Brittny got over there, she saw camera cases and carrying bags. The guy finally realized that she was confused and said to me and Catherine in an irritated tone, "They fall for that all the time." WHAT AN ASS. Was he trying to make her look bad on purpose, or did he really think that there is no fault in the way he asked the question??? SIR, MOST RETAIL STORES ASK YOU IF YOU WANT A BAG WHILE YOU ARE RINGING THEM UP, AND EVERY OTHER TIME THEY ARE REFERRING TO PLASTIC BAGS FOR TAKING THEIR MERCHANDISE BACK HOME. You idiot. I hate salesmen who are awkward and don't know how to speak to their customers. It drives me batty.

Aaaanyway, we drove to Santana Row, where the movie was playing, and bought our tickets. We still had an hour to kill, so we walked across the street to Pasta Pomodoro and had lunch. The waiter was really cool and it seemed like he thought we were cool, so we loved him. Catherine had post-it notes for paying with multiple credit cards, and this made him think we were really smart and awesome. We want him to be our best friend. He had a cool belt buckle. My pasta was delicious. The company was even tastier. All-in-all, it was a very enjoyable meal.

We walked into the movie theatre just as the previews were starting, which makes us super slick... Slick as goose shit, as the very popular saying goes. Death at a Funeral was an amazing movie and we all agreed that it was a giggler. Everyone should go see it. Hahahaha... Phillip...

After the movie, we drove to Vallco, the worst mall ever, so I could buy some pajama bottoms and underwear at Victoria's Secret. We also made a stop at Macy's and enjoyed their really hip, unique music. The next stop was Old Navy. On our way there, we were passed by a few speeding Fire Department vehicles, including a large truck... We turned onto the same street that they did and saw a huuuge amount of smoke rising out of what seemed to be an apartment complex. The side street was all blocked off and there were police and lots of people were standing on the sidewalk watching. I think it must have just started because the first fire truck was arriving just as we drove past. We kept driving down the street but we could see behind us that the cloud of smoke getting bigger and bigger. It was really scary and smelly... We couldn't breathe for a while after we drove through it.

We had a very successful time in Old Navy, each of us making some good purchases. The only bad thing about it was that my LEAST FAVORITE employee was working and I had to look at her stupid face, even though I didn't end up at her register. THANK G! We saw the saddest little mullets on some very beautiful young blonde boys. Their hair was really pretty, except for the cut of course. The tiniest one even had some delicate blonde curls. These were seriously young boys, yet their mullets were already like a foot long. It was so sad because they seemed like such a nice family, but their hair... Oh no...

At this point, we were hungry for dinner and decided to eat at BJs. We tried to drive back the way we came, but the entire road was shut down when we got close to the giant cloud of smoke. I had no idea how else to get to the street that BJs is on. So we experimented and I finally got there. [By the way, I read in the paper this morning that the apartment complex fire left four families homeless, but the only person injured was one of the SEVENTY firefighters, who only suffered minor injuries. At least no lives were lost... God, it was so scary!]

We had to wait a little to get a table and I had a sad-o moment when a door LITERALLY hit me on the ass... But we finally got inside and had a delicious meal. I had an amazing personal pizza -- alfredo sauce (instead of tomato), parmesan, garlic, and chicken. They gave us all so much food, but we saved room for some warm melty Pizookie! BJs makes the best desserts -- they bake cookie dough in little pizza pans and put ice cream on top. Yum yum yum!

Then we came home and had a little scare when Brittny couldn't find her car keys anywhere... The AAA guy came and opened the car and they were NOT in the trunk as we expected, but Catherine eventually suggested looking UNDER Britty's suitcase and there they were!!! Then we all laughed and let out a sigh of relief because it would have really sucked if Brittny lost her keys!

We had been planning on taking pictures using the Photo Booth program on my computer all day, so that was what we did next. We took a TON and they are all amazing, but we put the best ones up on Facebook. You can see pictures here and here if you'd like. :)

Then we got ready for bed and went to sleep.

This morning Brittny had to leave really early to get back to SB for work, and Catherine left a couple hours later. I am soooooo so so so so glad they came. We had so much fun just being together one last time. Now I am all alone again and I will not see any Awesome Department members for months and months. I have to say I am pretty damn heartbroken... I really miss Mitzi, Val, and Starr and wish I had more time before I leave so I could see them too. I leave in 5 days and everything is starting to feel very real and really scary. No matter how lonely I feel over there, though, I will always know that I have amazing friends back home (or wherever they may be) who love me and are a part of the woman I have become over the past few years. I can't believe that fate was nice enough to bring us all together and keep us united under one roof for three beautiful years. I really am the luckiest.

By the way, Mitzi, Val, and Starr, I sent your DVDs to Santa Barbara with Brittny so make sure you get them from her. There are lots of videos and you can watch them in whatever order you want, but if you can remember, I think you should watch the one called "The Luckiest" at the very end. It was the last one I made, so I feel like it should be the last one you watch. I dunno.

I love you guys.

Hello. I am sitting/studying in the living room with Brittny and Catherine having hardcore San Miguel 1st Floor Lounge flashbacks. Tonight is my last night of studying [revising] at UCSB, so it seems very appropriate to bring it back around to where it all started.

While composing that last sentence, I decided I'm going to start doing something new to prepare for my upcoming move! Whenever I write a word and am aware of a British equivalent, I will italicize that word between brackets. I may do the same for alternate spellings. I also may forget that I ever decided this and never do it again.

Watch this video:



Tonight Christopher Meloni was on Celebrity Jeopardy. It was really amazing and he totally won. Detective Elliot Stabler rocks my socks. He is cool beans and the bee's knees.

Finally, this is what I look like when you're high:

I can't believe what happened tonight. We currently have (well, had up until a few hours ago) six people with cars living in our house and only four to five real parking spots. There is technically room in the driveway to park behind each other, but it's a hassle so we try to avoid it. Anyway, we were expecting several guests with cars tonight for our BBQ, so Catherine, Val, Brittny, and I all moved our cars to the street. We live in a house that's a little bit off the main road (Hollister) and a driveway takes you up to a cluster of houses that includes ours. The parking that's available on the Hollister is across the street in front of some weird woodsy area. It's legal to park there, but it's also rare to see cars parked there because most of the housing in the area has plenty of spots in driveways/garages.

So we were all in our living room, enjoying each other's company and watching people play Wii, when there was a knock at the door. It was one of our neighbors telling us that there was a car accident involving a parked car across the street and asking if it was ours. From the description, Val says that she immediately knew it was hers, so she ran out there. The rest of us followed and I quickly saw that it was, indeed, Val's brand-new five-week-old car that had been involved.

From what we understand, here is the story: An old wispy-haired hippie lady was minding her own business, driving down the street, preparing to turn left but stopping for a red light. Much to her surprise, the old wispy-haired hippie man (no relation, apparently) in the car in front of her did not stop for the red light and proceeded to run it. She decided not to turn left, but to follow him to make sure everything was okay. As she followed him down Hollister, the dude started to drift off to the right at a VERY high speed, foolishly slamming into Val's parked car. Startled, he must have swerved to the left very quickly, causing him to overcorrect and speed into a deep ditch on the left side of the road, narrowly missing trees, mailboxes, and a power pole. Val's car, meanwhile, slammed several yards forward into Brittny's car and was forced up onto the curb, twisting the undercarriage so that the doors were no longer capable of being opened. The back was smashed into crazy oblivion from the hippie man's car, and the front didn't look much better. The back of Brittny's car was dented a little bit, but fortunately looks much better than Val's and is still driveable. And Catherine's and my cars were far enough in front of Brittny's that they remained uninvolved.

All of our neighbors were out observing the scene from our side of the street, but the 9 of us who had been hanging out all crossed over to survey the damage. It was brutal. The fuzz came and took everybody's information. Two tow-trucks came and Val's dude jovially told her to say goodbye to her car because, from what he could tell, there was an 85% chance it would never be driven again. As the tow-truck man pulled it up onto his truck, Aharon named it Ruth, because that's what it felt like to him. He also named the crazy dude's car Alfred. When the other truck pulled the Alfred out from the ditch, it was MANGLED. The front right tire was shredded to bits and the wheel looked like it was about ready to fall off completely. He was really lucky that he didn't hit any trees, mailboxes, or power poles, though. He was certainly very close to all of those things. The man had a big cut on his arm, but that was the only injury that came out of this incident. There was another near accident when the police were blocking the street and some lady didn't see cars stopped in front of her. The screeching sound was terrifying for us, an already jumpy audience.

We still don't know what the hippie's story was. Why did he run the red light? Where was he going? Where was he coming from? What did he cut his arm on? Apparently he WASN'T drunk, which is what we all assumed at first. Alex, one of the BBQ guests, asked the police, "Is it alright if I ask if he was drunk?" And the officer looked taken aback, like the guy's sobriety had not even been questioned. "Oh! No, I don't think so..." he said. And we're assuming they didn't find any reason to arrest him, because a taxi was called to take him home. The man seemed very quiet and withdrawn; he spent a lot of time standing back, his hands clasped in front of himself, just eerily staring at everything. He didn't really look over at our side of the street, though. He was pretty much just staring at his own car. I wish I could have heard his explanation. Brittny says that the police told her that she could get a copy of the police report for $15. We are all so curious that we're all going to chip in.

We've decided to try to piece the story together while we wait. Here's what we've got so far: Catherine has theorized that his name is Ernie Gill, because that's what he looks like. We also think that maybe he was running away from the scene of a crime, and the "cut" on his arm was actually someone else's blood. I'm also suspicious of the hippie lady witness, because she looked way too much like someone that he would associate with. Perhaps she was chasing him down for some reason? I don't know.

So now Val's brand new car is gone. Nobody can believe it. The rest of us moved our cars back to the driveway as soon as we could. Brittny's seems to be running okay, but it seems like it had been hit sorta hard since her CDs were strewn about when she looked inside afterward. Apparently, she had originally parked it between Brittny's car and Catherine's and my cars, which were pretty close together. Then she left to go buy strawberries, and parked it a considerable distance behind Brittny's when she got back. If she had left it where it was, the guy probably would have hit Brittny's car, which would have hit Val's car, which would have hit my car, which would have hit Catherine's car. They would have been really close together and they'd probably all be really screwed up. Although it's really awful that Val's car is gone, the rest of us are really lucky that she parked where she did -- even Brittny because the considerable distance between their cars really reduced her car's damage, I'm guessing.

Crazy crazy crazy.

Omigod. I just read the chapter titles for Deathly Hallows and I can't breathe. They weren't exactly spoilery or anything, they're just really good and dramatic sounding. Oh shit.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Half-Blood Prince. I will definitely be ready for Friday night. I even wasted several hours on it today when I should have been writing my paper.

Oh yeah, the paper... Hmm...

Catherine made the most delicious pineapple upside-down cake tonight. My mouth died from the pleasure.

BB was excellent tonight. Jen needs to go ASAP.

Grrrr. Dumb summer school.

Hooooray! I downloaded the HBP audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry. I haven't listened to it yet but I already know it's gotta be better than the Jim Dale one because a) it's divided up between discs rather than the single continuous file of the version that I have and b) I'm pretty sure Stephen Fry's Hermione wont = Stewie Griffin.

Yesterday I went to see a movie with Catherine and Brittny called La Vie En Rose. It was really good, even though I was mighty confused at times. Then we came home and watched Reefer Madness with Val. It was so so so so soooo hilarious! I'm currently downloading the 2005 musical version that Ana Gasteyer and others are in. It's supposed to be really good and I think it has all the same characters and stuff. LOL Kristin Bell is Mary Lane. This is gonna be good.

I decided to see how big my room next year will be compared to the one I'm in now. I looked at the measurements from the website, converted them into feet, and then measured my room. It's almost EXACTLY the same, just a couple inches off. And that is awesome because I never thought I'd have such a big room to myself ever again in my whole life. I'm so excited.

Now it's time to take a shower and listen to my new audiobook. Weeee!

EDIT: I downloaded the Hairspray soundtrack because I wanted to see if dumbass Amanda Bynes did her own singing and the answer is, unfortunately, YES. Gross. I was listening to "Without Love," which features her character and three others. She was the last of all of them to start singing and before I got to her I was like "Hey, all these people are pretty good... Maybe I won't hate it after all..." But then she started singing and she sounded so dumb. GOD I HATE HER.

Yesterday was one of those magical days that lasted 100 hours and will be remembered forever.

I slept in because the gym was closed. When I woke up, I baked my snickerdoodles and then watched Will & Grace and enjoyed some Leave it to Beaver with Catherine. Then I showered and got ready for our barbecue! I helped Catherine set up stuff in the kitchen and then we listened to the Spice Girls and watched Val make things in the kitchen. Before long, we were joined by the lovely Brittny. And then Ali, Aharon, and Abdellah came and started grilling. Soon after that other guests arrived and everybody ate and talked and enjoyed each other's company. It seems like the actual barbecue part of the day went by pretty fast. Lots of people had other things to do after enjoying the delicious food and magnificent company at our house. However, even if this part of the day was short, all the hard work was worth it because it was really fun!

As everyone was clearing out, Val brought her bouncy ball outside and everybody started kicking it around the small patch of patio we have in our backyard. For those who haven't been to my house, we have a HUGE yard, but most of it is just dirt -- no grass or anything -- with random trees and plants scattered around. We have a creepy gardener who suddenly shows up when you're least expecting him (like YESTERDAY during our Fourth of July barbecue!) and there are all sorts of creepy ladders and gardening implements and upturned garbage cans lurking in odd corners of the yard. It's a scary place and we rarely venture outside of the brick patio area, unless we need to pick a lemon or something. So we decided to explore the yard, and the remaining seven of us (me, Catherine, Brittny, Val, Ali, Aharon, and Abdellah) took a clockwise journey through the mysterious terrain. I think that's as close as I'll ever get to being Bear Grylls. We discovered lots of strange holes everywhere and wondered what kind of creature lives in them. Then we got to the infamous scary upside-down garbage can and decided the time had finally come to find out what kind of horror was buried underneath. We discovered another trash can underneath, but under that was only a mound of weird looking dirt. Val dug through it with the shovel she found, and there were no dead bodies or anything. But then the boys found a black widow in the trash can and we all freaked out a little bit until Ali brutally murdered it with a long stick.

We all decided that we were going to see License to Wed at 7:15 and then drive downtown to watch the fireworks. Catherine, Brittny, and I started to tidy up things in the kitchen and cover food with plastic wrap. Meanwhile, Val decided to start kicking at the tall ugly flowers that line our patio... And it was only a small amout of time before she brought down her sword and started hacking at all the plants like she was that Link dude from the Legend of Zelda. I think all of the flowers are gone now. The gardener is going to have a heart attack. I went back in the house, and came out again to find the boys chucking lemons at Val, and she was slicing them in half mid-air. HAHAHA. And the best part of this is that the whole time she was wearing this 50s housewife dress that actually almost looks like its inspired by something out of the old prairie days. And bare feet. It was certainly an image that will stay in my mind forever.

After Val washed off her feet, we all went to the movie theatre and saw Licence to Wed. I had a good time and the movie was decent... But really only because of John Krasinski. I can't stand Robin Williams or Mandy Moore, and I never would have seen this movie had he not been in it. But our group of seven was really giggly and silly, so it was a fun outing.

Then we got into our two seperate cars (Brittny and me in Catherine's car and the boys in Val's car) and drove downtown. The fireworks started while we were still on the freeway, and it was REALLY crowded downtown. So we watched about 3/4 of the show from the car while finding a place to park it. The streets and parking lots were all just PACKED. But finally we found a red zone just long enough for Catherine's car facing the fireworks. So we stopped there and watched the big grand finale. Catherine switched the radio station and that awful country version of "God Bless the U.S.A." was playing. So we rolled down the windows and blasted the song and sang along at the top of our lungs for all the people who were standing nearby or walking past the car. It was a really hilarious moment, especially since we're all really fed up with our country right now. The irony was beautiful. It was also really awesome because fireworks are cool, no matter what the occassion.

Then we came home and Val and Ali played with the ball in the kitchen, and then everybody played some crazy card game called Bonjour Madame that Catherine taught them, and then we all played Spoons. Ali's friend was about to leave, and he asked if she could come to our house so he wouldn't have to leave to say goodbye to her. So she joined us and we all watched the first episode of Flight of the Conchords, which everybody totally loves now. Ali's friend (I cannot for the life of me remember her name, but I know it started with an S) brought sparklers, so we took them out back and had some fun. Somehow the bouncy ball ended up in the backyard again, and the eight of us reverted back to the game from earlier in the day. I think it was around 11:30 at this point.

We played our game for about an hour. It was AMAZING. The goal was to keep it in the air for as many hits as possible, but it was more intense than that. Three sides of our playing space were surrounded by the dark, myserious forest of our backyard. So that added to the danger and fun of the game. We were all getting really into it and we started counting the hits out loud and getting really excited. At one point the ball got caught on Starr's balcony and Val had to find one of the ladders to retrieve it. Our record for the night was 40. We named our team the Clever Giant Buffalo Beavers.

The game pretty much died down after we reached 40 and we decided to call it a night. Just as we opened the back door to go back in the house, the doorbell rang. It was the FUZZ! Lol lol lol one of the neighbors called the cops on us! Brittny went to the door and talked to him and he told her he could hear us all the way down Hollister or some crap. So we all had to come inside and be quiet, but we were about to do that anyway. I feel sort of bad that we were being so loud late at night, but I get woken up EVERY SINGLE MORNING by those stupid demon brats next door. I just think it's so funny that we got the police called on us for playing a game with a bouncy ball in the backyard. No one was drinking or anything. It was all good clean fun... just at an inappropriate time of night.

We recovered from our game/brush with the law by sitting around the kitchen eating popsicles and ice cream sandwiches. Eventually the non-residents of our house decided it was time to leave and we all said goodbye.

Man, what a day. :D

I'm really gonna miss these people...

When you're alone and life is making you lonely you can always go...

( DOWNTOWN. )

Can you think of anything better than a bed all made up with fresh, clean sheets? I sure can't... Not right now, anyway. And this is why I am about to crawl into said comfy bed with good intentions of studying for my Erickson quiz in the morning. Seriously, the sheets are still miraculously warm from being in the dryer. Are you going to try to deny me my right to enjoy this extreme comfort? Well good luck, because I plan on being out like a log within the next 20 minutes. [See icon for a visual example of how I will look, minus the cigarette.] The weight of my eyelids is much greater than the amount of stress my sleep-deprived self is allowing me to feel for this quiz. Sorry, Brice.

I think my favorite part of today was talking with Catherine in the living room for an unknown period of time. I haven't been seeing enough of Catherine lately, and she's the first person I'll have to say goodbye to at the end of this quarter. It was an amazing conversation because Catherine is a lovely person. :)

Goodnight everybody.

Ahhhh today. I woke up at 7 to pack and such and then Catherine arrived shortly before 10... Which was good because at that point I was just sitting around playing Big Brain Academy anyway. We had a really fun and fast (four hour!) drive down to Santa Barbara. Catherine is the best driving buddy ever. Seriously, the time flew by... At least for me.

When we got back, I was pleased to see Starr and Brittny and the fantastically clean house for which they were responsible. It was a glorious thing to come home too. I love them. Catherine and I sort of settled for a bit, and then made up grocery lists and we were off to Ralphs! As soon as I got back and put my many groceries away, I got into the third motor vehicle of the day -- Starr's car -- and went with Starr and Brittny to Albertsons. There are some things (like Three Cheese Prego, Wild Strawberry Crystal Light, and Tangerine Lime Clear Excellence) that you can only buy at Albertsons, and I happen to really enjoy those things. I also enjoy the company of Brittny and Starr.

After this excursion, I came home and immediately made some of the ALFREDO EASY MAC that I found at Albertsons (so so so so good) and then the four of us (Starr, Brittny, Catherine, and I) watched the shitty Josh Holloway thriller that I ordered during finals week -- Cold Heart. It was so worth the $7.08. First of all, there was some nudity and I am about 75% sure that he DIDN'T have a body double... But I have to do more research because they never actually panned all the way up from rear to head. If it was another dude, however, they did an excellent job pairing up lower back dimples. Because they were pretty much identical. And even if the bum wasn't his, the parts with his face were even sexier. Sooo... It was good. Also, as opposed to the deceitful Mi Amigo, Josh actually had a huuuge role in this movie. I would like to say that he was the main character just because I sided with him (even though he was EVIL) over the lady he was stalking. She was dumb. The entire plot was dumb, but the movie was quite enjoyable. For a shit movie, Josh's acting was very good! And I had fun making fun of the stupid stuff with my fellow viewers.

The infidelity theme of the movie then prompted us to watch Cheaters, which was all good until Val came in with her brother and his friend right at the most inopportune time. When they say "The Best of Cheaters Uncensored," they mean uncensored. Yikes. Sorry, Val. :-o

After that we watched an episode of Black Books and then Family Guy and then had some Law and Order playing in the background while we finally got productive. I went through my EAP papers for the first time all break (stupid idiot me) and learned that I must go to Student Health tomorrow to set up an appointment for my health check. The sheet says that I'll have to go on a specific date, but doesn't tell me what date it is. Thank you very much for the information. It would be nice to know before I go in there. Whatever. I also read that I will be hearing about my host school between now and August. AUGUST!? WHAT? I think I'll need to make travel arrangements before then. Gaaah!

I'm stressed because classes start tomorrow and I am very unprepared... I don't have any of my books or fresh notebooks or anything. I'm going to have to brave the the bookstore tomorrow and it's going to be so crowded and scary. Damn it. Plus I have three classes in a row in the morning starting at 8:30... At least my 10:00 and 11:00 classes are in the same room! It's fun to be lazy sometimes.

I must leave now because I have to get up at 6. YUCK YUCK YUCK. Tomorrow will be a busy day. Josh Holloway is pretty. Goodbye!

LAURA: Mitzi, does Catherine's note on your board mean 'You are a modern gangster?'
MITZI: No, it says 'I am a modern gangster.'
LAURA: Oh... Is that like an inside joke between you guys or something?
MITZI: No...
LAURA: So she just randomly wrote it?
MITZI: Yeah. I was like, 'Okay... I'm not gonna argue with you... You might laser my ass if you're that modern!'

MITZI: Hey guys, you wanna smoke a candle?

I love this home.

How is it that I have been wandering around the internet all day, yet I haven't managed to write a single update in here about my exciting new life??? I've decided that it's now time for me to write a little in here before I watch a bunch of LOST special features and then hit they hay for the night.

So after I updated about everything yesterday, Catherine and I put our computers in the car and then walked to the Rec Cen to work out but that sonofabitch was CLOSED for yearly maintenance until September 10th. We decided instead to go back to the house and do sit-ups to Oldies. Catherine and I are Oldies buddies. We came back and did that in my nearly-empty room and Catherine totally beat my butt at sit-ups. Plus I am way more sore today, so she is clearly in much better shape than I am. We were nice and hungry after our workout, so we went downstairs and made lunch. Since we don't have any furniture yet, we decided to sit on the ground next to the fireplace to eat. Then we took showers and got ready to go on our shopping excursion!

First we stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond, where I bought a lot of cool things like a shower curtain rod, shower curtain, bath mat, bathrobe, muffin pan, straw holder, and two Snapware food containers to replace the ones that became nastified somewhere in the moving process. Snapware is the ultimate! Our next stop was K-Mart, because we figured that Linens 'N' Things might be really similar to Bed Bath & Beyond. We found some useful items there, but not the black trash can we were looking for. (We are still without a trash can for the kitchen.) Since that was the only thing we were still looking for by the time we were done with K-Mart, we decided to look at Costco. We didn't find one there either, and we didn't even end up buying anything, but this was probably the best stop because they had the BEST SAMPLES IN THE WORLD. We had pumpkin pie (2 samples for me and 3 for Catherine), pepperoni pizza (2 each), yogurt, goat cheese, sorbet, Catherine tried some pasta... Jesus, it was delicious. We were burnt out after that, so we drove back home.

Starr's parents were leaving as we put our new purchases away, and then she took a shower. When Starr was ready, we all went to the Goleta Coffee Shop to get dinner/use the internet. We stayed until they closed (which was at 7) and had a really awesome time. I got the best phone call ever from Mitzi. I almost peed my pants at least three individual times. But especially at the beginning. "This is Michael Jackson! Do you want to come to Wonderland? This is Mike Tyson!" The coffee shop was the cutest place I've ever seen in my life. It's really big and there is a large comfy area in the back with booths and couches and a fireplace and the smoothies were delicious and aaahhhh I LOVED IT! While we were there, I ordered a bookshelf and dresser to complete my room. The shipping was WAY TOO MUCH and I am really pissed about that, but they are the perfect size and they're really cute. I hope they're not too hard to put together. :/

Then we came home and attempted to put Catherine's desk together. It did not go well as IKEA forgot to include instructions in her box. So we gave up and had a little lay down on Catherine's floor for a while, just talking. It was nice to talk! Then Mary came to visit Starr (and bring me shower curtain hooks!!!) and Catherine and I talked in my room for a while. Starr went out with Mary and Dave, and Catherine and I decided to watch some Ali G downstairs. It was amazing, of course. Starr came home and watched some with us, and then we decided to go to bed, I believe. I can't think of anything I missed.

I slept in my room for the first time. It was very nice. I love it. Right now, I am on an air mattress with a little desk light propped up on an upside-down trash bin. I used this light to read some of my Anthony Rapp book before I went to sleep last night. Then I went to sleep and slept very soundly!

I woke up to the sound of my alarm at 7:30am because the cable guy was supposed to show up between 8 and 10. I pressed snooze twice, and then went downstairs to eat some CINNAMON KRUNCHERS, BITCHES! Ugh, I'm so glad I finally found some! I thought they'd stopped making them! Anyhoo, we all ate a little breakfast and then stood around waiting for Mr. Cable Man. I think he arrived at around 8:45, and he didn't seem to have any problems getting us all set up. He even made it possible for me to watch TV in my room, which is going to be fantastic. When he left, we began the process of setting up our wireless router to the internet modem. This took a long time. The router came with a CD that could only be used on PCs, so Starr had to use her laptop. Once she finally got it set up, Catherine and I were unable to log on to the network using our Macs. We were very frustrated, and Starr eventually called the tech support people and was able to figure it out. The phone call lasted a long time, but in the end all he really told us was that the password has to have a $ in front of it for Macs. Oh well. We figured it out and we were really excited!!!

The next part of our day consisted of laying on the living room floor for hours visiting every website in the world, and doing a lot of silly things on Facebook. Teeheehee. It was marvelous to be connected to the outside world again.

At noon, we took a 30 minute walk around the neighboorhood and scoped things down further down the street. We found an international grocery store that Catherine's going to check out. There were also a couple restaurants and things that we may want to look into. The walk was very pleasant! I certainly enjoyed myself.

After that, I ate lunch and sat around on the internet some more. Finally I decided to shower, but I didn't even dry my hair. I am so lazy!!! And my beautiful LOST DVDs came. Hooray!!! Then Catherine and I went to go see Idlewild at 5. It was SO GOOD! Everyone needs to see it. Yaaayyyy!

Then we made dinner and Starr & I watched Big Brother (BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then I called my family to talk about the Big Brotherness. After I got off the phone, I went downstairs and found Catherine sitting in the living room on her computer. Soon Starr joined us and we looked into a possible Awesome Department Disneyland trip in the month of September. This inspired us to play the Cinderella version of Pretty Pretty Princess that Catherine brought. It was delightful. Then we did nothing for a while on the floor of the living room. Catherine was on her computer, but Starr and I were pretty much daydreaming/moping about boys. We were in our own little worlds.

And then I came upstairs, got ready for bed, and now I'm here.

Tomorrow at noon, Brittny will be here! And hopefully Mitzi will come tomorrow too! And then Val & my family will be here on Saturday. Unfortunately, Starr is leaving for the weekend early tomorrow morning... But we will all finally be reunited on Sunday! YAY! I can't wait for the sextet to be complete!

Okay it's LOST time, people. EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goodnight.

I'M HERE I'M HERE I'M HERE!

I am currently updating from the UCSB library as our Cox Cable people did NOT show up yesterday to do our installations. Do not worry, though, because they'll be coming tomorrow between 8-10. Supposubly. Supposubly? Supposubly... :)

There is someone talking really loudly on his cell phone and a lot of loud construction happening... Is this still a library? Am I missing something?

Anyway, the house is PERFECT. And I mean PERFECT. You guys, it is huge. GINORMOUS. The kitchen is beautiful, with tons of counter space and cupboard room. I mean, I may change my views when there are actually six of us trying to live there, but I still think we are going to have more than enough space. Almost everything is really clean and new-looking, and everything seems to work so far... The biggest problem that we've seen is that there is no washing machine!!! We're trying to figure out how to get our hands on one...

Catherine and I arrived at around 3 yesterday, and Starr was already in there setting things up with her parents. She has a lot of furniture that requires a lot of assembly, so I think they are STILL working on it. But everything looks fantastic. Catherine was somehow able to fit everything (except for furniture and stuff) in her car, so she has been unpacking all of that and getting organized in her & Brittny's room. I did not manage to bring all or even most of my belongings, so my unpacking didn't take very long. All my clothes are hung up in the closet (which is huge, by the way), and my bathroom is all set up (minus a shower curtain or even a ROD from which to hang one)... I didn't really bring much else. At about 7, Catherine and I went to dinner at a little diner right down the street and then we found Wells Fargo so she could deposit Starr's rent check. We stopped back at the house and I made a quick grocery list, and then we went to Vons and spent all our life savings on food. Seriously. Shopping took us a while, but it was way fun. Then we came back home and organized all of our food and tried to figure out how we might want to store things in cupboards etc. Hopefully everyone will like the ideas we came up with. So far, we each have one little food shelf for everyone to put their personal food items on, and one dish shelf for the same thing. We also made a cup shelf, a bowl shelf, a cereal cupboard, and all kinds of things. We got so excited that we unpacked all our kitchen stuff as well, so we tried to find space for that too. And there are still a bunch of empty cabinets, so that's good. After we got too exhausted to do that anymore, we got ready for bed. I slept in Catherine's room because I thought it would be too creepy to spend my first night in a new house alone in an empty room. We read magazines for a while, talked, and then went to sleep.

This morning we got up and I ate some raisin bran, then we got dressed for working out and came to campus. We haven't worked out yet because we wanted to use the internet here, but that's our next stop. Three cheers for the Rec Cen!!! After we get all sweaty, we'll go home and take showers. Then we'll probably want some lunch... And then we are going shopping again, but this time for non-food items. It's going to be hardcore. We found a Bed Bath & Beyond last night, so we'll definitely go there... Probably also Linens 'N' Things, K-Mart, and wherever else we can think of. Hopefully we'll find everything we need.

I am too excited about all of this... I feel SO grown up right now and it is freaking me out. I can't wait to get all the rest of my crap/furniture over the weekend. My room is so empty! I need to find a dresser, and I think I have the perfect place for one. I must remember to measure it.

I don't really have much more to say right now... I'm going to try to take some pictures today to document this amazing milestone of moving into my own house. So hopefully I'll be able to upload them tomorrow when the internet arrives. And I probably won't be checking it again until then, so I'll talk to you all tomorrow!!!

Be well, sweet princes.

P.S. The house is positively empty without the rest of our housemates. PLEASE LET THE NEXT FEW DAYS PASS QUICKLY BECAUSE I NEED YOU ALL HERE NOW!

Today Brittny and I are driving to Catherine's house in Danville, and then taking BART to San Francisco. There, we will meet up with Stu and have the most glorious day of our lives.

:D