Catching Up

Well. Things have been interesting since I last blogged, way back in October or something. Boyfriend's mom became a reader, insisting to know why I referred to him as my "fiancee" the last time I wrote, which kind of startled me a little, and put me off the blogging trail. I've also been very, very busy.

But busy is an excuse no more!

So, let's catch up a little:

Since my last blog, things have gone as follows, by month-
October: I had the opportunity to see Demonologist John Zaffis speak at school, which was a bit of a high because I'm kind of a nerd for that paranormal stuff. What made it even better is that about a month later, the Ghost Adventures (a show I never miss) guys featured him in an episode (for further information on Ghost Adventures or John Zaffis, visit http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Ghost_Adventures or http://www.johnzaffis.com/). His performance wasn't exactly the terrifying thing I'd been hoping for, but it was interesting if nothing else.
I took out my first official personal loan (student loans don't count) and bought my first car from a dealership. It's a 2000 Dodge Neon, a 5-speed, which I also had to learn to drive. After much frustration and a little crying, I can honestly say that now, three months later, I can drive it very successfully. It's a lot more reliable than my past cars, at least.
I also traveled to Erie to visit with my family and trick-or-treat with my cousins, which may have been my last year for such Halloween merriment; one of my cousins betrayed my young countenance by telling every person who answered a door, "Know how old she is? She's 18!!" The photos can be found on my facebook, if you're a friend of mine.

November: Nothing of particular interest that I can recall took place in November, except that we had a comparatively quiet thanksgiving at a relative's house. The weather proceeded to become excruciatingly cold, and I'm learning the value of heavy coats and not-so-glamorous-but-very-warm boots. I also began reading Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned for the hundredth time. For readers, Anne Rice never fails to thrill. I highly recommend her books.

December: As the semester drew to an end, I found myself working hard and studying harder. I must have written 40 papers by this time. Finals went well for me (I scored a 3.6 GPA), but not so much for my friends, most of whom managed to land themselves on academic probation. It's a bit of a disappointment, which leads me now to think I should find some friends who are more positively influential. We had a quiet Christmas at home (Chase visited again, which was absolutely wonderful-I took him to a local tavern for dinner, which we both enjoyed, and we made cookies together.). I finished reading Queen of the Damned and read The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson in about three days, it was so wonderful. Click here for an excerpt from the novel; I promise it won't disappoint. I also had my first vehicular collision-I backed into an elderly tailor's car in the parking lot of a mini-mall, but fortunately, I only scraped mud off of his bumper. He laughed it off, saying he should pay me for my services, which made me feel much better about my idiocy.

January: Here we are. For New Year's, my family drove to downtown Johnstown for the fireworks they were supposedly showing. We had a snowball fight on top of a deserted parking garage, and watched the lame show through a dense cloud of winter fog. Then we went home and ate pizza. Oh, what a night.

So now I sit, ten days from my nineteenth birthday, ready to get back into the flow of things, now that my life isn't being taken over by multitudes of unimportant things. I promise, my next entry will be more thoughtful. In the meantime, check out the books I recommended, and finish sending all those thank you cards from the holidays.