Just a Small Town Girl, Livin' in a Lonely World...

My funky "I'm feeling useless" mood has somewhat returned. But we can discuss that later.

Fall break arrived in the nick of time. I spent my Friday evening at home (weird, I know) watching one of my personal favorite movies of all time, "Some Like It Hot." It was a movie long overdue watching in honor of Tony Curtis, who passed away this past month. The first time I saw that movie was shortly after Jack Lemmon died, back in 2001. I fell in love with the film the minute I finished watching it. Even all these years later I still marvel at how incredibly amazing this movie is, from the excellent dialogue to the way the film was shot, nothing was wasted in this movie. If you haven't seen "Some Like It Hot" yet, I highly recommend you do. I haven't even yet mentioned that Marilyn Monroe is a star in it as well. Three Hollywood legends, one outstanding film, what could be better?

The following Saturday my sister and I celebrated my 20th birthday (almost two months late) and went and saw a movie together, "Easy A." It was a very enjoyable film, especially those of us who are/were recently in high school and have seen at least one classic 80s teen movie. Think John Hughes (director of such films as "The Breakfast Club" "Sixteen Candles") meets Nathaniel Hawthorne (infamous author of "The Scarlet Letter") and that's the movie: a modernized retelling of social ostracism set in high school, the headquarters of rumor-spreading and stereotyping. Good movie, overall.

Saturday evening I rekindled my love with two of my favorite things: playing in the athletic band, and watching hockey while doing so. For a while I was the only saxophone present, so I played as best I could until the only other saxophone arrived. Hopefully I made my fellow saxes proud. After watching the Falcons lose to the Wolverines 4-2, a group of us decided to head to B-Dubbs and have a few drinks together... or more like the "big kids" shared a few drinks and the "little kids" drank water from a straw. After dropping off Eddie's souvenir which he had left at the restaurant, I made a mad dash to Henry County where I crashed at Kayla's place for the night, just in time for the annual Applebutter Festival.

I rode into town with Kayla's family very early in the morning, around 7:45, long before the masses of attendees arrived. Kayla had a 4-hour physics class in the afternoon, so the morning was her only choice in getting a chance to go to the festival this year. We walked around quite a bit, making small purchases every now and then until we met up with Erica and her fiancé Josh. The four of us continued to walk around town, looking at knick-knacks and buying food. At some point Kayla left and the three of us journeyed back to Erica's grandmother's house, a small condo on the outskirts of town. It was getting ridiculously hot and we wanted to rest up before going back to town. Just as we were all falling asleep, Tony and his girlfriend (at the time) walked into the house, carrying food with them. The five of us headed back into town together, where we commenced with walking and buying food. Eventually I went and stood in the ATM line for a half hour, then stood in the applebutter line for over an hour and a half. The wait was worth it. I powerwalked back to base camp where Tony took me back to Kayla's so I could drive home. Home took forty minutes to get to after driving around Grand Rapids and being stuck in Waterville traffic. After relaxing at home and making toast and applebutter for my mother, I headed back to Bowling Green to deliver the other pint of applebutter to my Big Brother, who seemed to like it, maybe. After being in BG for a brief time I went back to GR to pick up my dad and brothers, and by 9 o'clock at night, the whole family was back at home.

Monday, I wrote (and finished!) my second short story for my workshop class. I was in a funky mood when I wrote it, but hopefully it won't be ripped apart too much come this Wednesday.

Tuesday I picked up a shift at work to make up for the lack of money I didn't earn over fall break. It was slow but manageable, a happy change from the usual chaos that stampedes through the Nest on a normal school day. After work was done I was about to head home when I saw the Greek store was open. I immediately went inside and made a special paddle for Tony. Is he my Big? No, but he is a great friend and has always been a great friend to me, ever since I met him, which was an unbelievably long time ago. He was one of my seniors in high school, and I was one of his freshman, a bond similar to that of a Big and Little. I gave Tony his paddle as an early birthday present before our chapter meeting Wednesday night. He couldn't have been happier.

School reconvened, much to my displeasure, and now I'm back into the swing of the fall semester. My days are filled with stress and fun, my nights are filled with stress and fun. Finding the balance between work and play has been a challenge on and off, but I think I've finally found my happy medium. If I continue getting my homework done in the day and keep my nights free for fun activities, then I should survive this semester no problem. Only drawback: procrastination. I've had a lifelong battle with procrastinating, but this semester it hasn't really been too bad. Maybe having stupid Sunday night shifts has helped me stay ahead a little bit... maybe. If I can avoid Sunday night shifts next semester, that'd be a blessing you can't even imagine.

I was going to write more, but I realized I've already ranted quite a lot, and even though nobody reads this, I'll save your weary eyes from staring at your computer screen a second longer and call it a post. I'll probably write a new one later this week, just so I can get some things off my chest.

That is all.

Thank you and good day.