Wind & Rain

It's been a bit since I've blogged, so I suppose I should catch up a bit. John just wants to watch TV right now anyways. :P Lazy bum. ;)

Anyways, I got all kinds of cool things for Christmas. The fun part will be getting it to all fit in my suitcases though to fly back. John's mom cooked a fancy 5-course meal for Christmas dinner which was absolutely excellent. I was so stuffed afterwards though. Monday and Tuesday were fairly quiet. Just a bit of shopping and such. Then on Wednesday morning, bright and early, John and I headed for my grandparents' place. We got up there around noon and spent the afternoon with my grandparents, aunt, cousin, and my uncle was able to stop by too. We had a lot of fun playing Uno Attack. :D It's an interesting version of Uno with this thing that shoots Uno cards at you when you push a button. Quite amusing. After staying as long as we felt we could, we then headed towards the coast. John's parents had reserved some hotel rooms along the beach for the four of us. We got there a bit late the first night, but the sky was beautiful and perfectly clear. The next day was a bit rainy and windy, but not too bad until evening. So we went out on the beach a little bit with the dogs, then went and poked around a few shops and went and had dinner at a very nice restuarant. That evening the winds picked up to at least around 70 miles per hour. All night and this morning the winds were very strong. This morning we stopped for breakfast and then headed back here where we relaxed for a bit and then headed out for dinner. I-5 is closed south of Ashland right now, because of mudslides, so all the restuarants were very full, but we got a spot in a mexican place that was very good. I am going to be so entirely sick of eating out by the time I get back to Alaska though. Which is probably good, since I won't be able to afford to eat out much anyways. And it's no fun to go out to eat by myself anyways.

Well, that's the news so far. No idea really what we're doing for New Year's yet. I guess I'll find out soon. *shrug* Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve, I'm in Ashland, Oregon, and it's nearly 50 degrees outside at 5:30 p.m. :) My kind of Christmas. It's so good to see John again. And his family, including the pets. Akiro is better behaved, although still his normal nuisance self. Lady is glad to see me. And Lexus is as cute as ever. :D The Christmas tree has more presents under it than 4 people could ever realistically open and actually want and use. Oh well. It'll be fun I guess. I hope John likes his present. I still have to finish it, but I decided to wrap it up now so I don't have to look at it for a couple days at least, then I'll finish the last little things on it after he opens it. Shouldn't take too long. I almost bought him a little something else today while we were at the mall, but I really can't afford to right now. *sigh* Soon I'll have a job, then I can... well... save for a car. :P C'est la vie! Anyways, I just came in here to change to go out to dinner and check my email briefly, so I'm off. I've won one game of pool so far. ;)

OMG! I'm done!!!

Four and a half long years and I am now officially done with my Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting. Well, maybe not officially done with it according to UAF, but all my classes are done now. Unfortunately UAF thinks I have a parking fine that has to be phony, cause I know for certain that I've taken care of any I have gotten.

Anyways, I've got a lot to write about, but it's not coming to me right now. I'm in Wasilla at Brad's parents' place now and will be flying to Wrangell tomorrow.

Packing

Today (Tuesday) was my packing day... the majority of my packing at least. I did get a lot done. In fact all I really have is a few odds and ends, the clothes and things I want to take farther than Anchorage w/me, and my kitchen stuff.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my studying day. Both of the finals I have left are on Thursday, so I get to study study study. And go to work for a little while too, and try to get those odds and ends cleaned up. Plus I've got a few more errands to run either tomorrow or Thursday.

Time is flying!

P.S. I know I have been very remiss about posting pictures. I have a bunch that I still intend to post, but they're still on my camera. I think I will save that project for once I get myself out of here. I've got too many other things to do right now. Keep checking, and bug me after Friday.

Chena!!!

Yippee!!! I finally got to go to Chena Hot Springs today! I've been wanting to all semester, and I actually hadn't been there in about a year or so. It was so nice. Erica, Kyle and I went. We actually went to Denny's for dinner first, then headed out. It was cold, but not terribly so, and the water was wonderfully warm.

Now it's time for bed, as I have work in the morning.

More fun this weekend

Yesterday morning I read "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" in 2 hours. Then I went to three west coast swing dance classes. Those were a lot of fun, but I hadn't had much to eat yet and was getting pretty tired. And of course my feet were hurting after 3 hours of dancing. Then I headed straight over to the GAAP Christmas Party and the Princess. That was a lot of fun and we had a great turnout! We had a very nice dinner and a Chinese gift exchange. I ended up with the board game Clue. :D After the party Erica and I did a car dropoff and then went back to the Princess to hang out with some of the group in the bar for a little while. Then Crystal, her husband, Erica, and I went to see Narnia - LWW again. (It was again for all but Erica.) Patrick joined us at the theater. They did such a fabulous job on the movie!!! I may end up seeing it again this week, and possibly again while I'm in Oregon w/John. ;) And I definitely do not mind! :D Then I stayed up last night and read "Prince Caspian". I really shouldn't have, and it was actually really hard to stay awake, but each time it was "just let me finish this chapter", then I'd realize I'd already started the next chapter without realizing it and therefore had to finish that one too, until there were only about 20 pages left to the book, which naturally had to be finished. :D

Now to work on my take home exam. Yay. :P

Now to write about something other than that dreadful paper...

This evening was fabulous!!! A huge thank you to everyone who was at the party and for all the laughs! You guys are wonderful and I'm going to miss you all so much! So you have to come and visit me in Anchortown. We will take Club Soraya over like a storm!

For all you who don't know what I'm talking about, here's what happened this evening.
Judy, JJ, and Ana showed up at 6:00 p.m. to take me to dinner. I knew there was going to be some sort of small group of dance friends and there had been talk about going to Lemon Grass for dinner. So the three of them showed up and said that we had to stop by Mary's house first because she had finally gotten her loan approved and had started moving in, so I had to go see her dance floor. So we head over there, with JJ pretending he has no idea where he's going, and Judy taking all the time in the world pointing out christmas lights and the works, and I'm just actively looking for street names and whatnot. We come up on this house that's all lit up and I spot people in the window and instantly realize that two of them are Vaughn and Megan. So I'm like, "that must be it there, I know those people!". So we pull up in the driveway and head inside. Mary answers the door and immediately offers to give us a quick tour. (No one else is in sight. Slightly odd, since I know there are at least 3 or more in the house.) So we head upstairs and she shows me her office, and her bedroom, and then the other bedroom. This is where everyone says, "Surprise!" There were so many of my dance friends!!! It was awesome! I won't dare try to list them all, because I know I'll end up forgetting to include one or more, but it was so cool! We danced and ate delicious food and beverages, and generally laughed a whole lot. Afterwards a bunch of us decided to go see "Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". It was awesome! They did an amazing job!!! I'm so psyched about it that I'm going to read the book tomorrow and go see it again tomorrow night! ;) I'm serious about seeing it again, and I'm fairly serious about at least trying to get the book read again between now and then.

Thank you all again for such a fabulous evening! I am going to miss you all!

Paper is done!!!

My paper is turned in! It's not perfect, but it's done. That's what matters. Now there's only relatively small stuff left. Now I'm headed to bed though, as I'm going to go to work for several hours tomorrow.

Nearly done, but still not close enough

The paper is finally starting to look like something. We still need about three more pages, at least, but that's not too bad. It's due tomorrow, so whatever is done, is done. I won't have to worry about it after that. Finally!!! Then there isn't too much left.

Paper, paper, paper, and dancing

Work was fun. Sitting and attempting to write my paper all afternoon was not. Especially since I only wrote a few sentences. I can't frickin' focus! Salsa rueda practice was a blast. Contra was great. It was tinged with sadness though, as it was my last one here unless I come back to visit on a contra weekend. Then we did the mandatory one last late night rendevous (sp? sorry, too tired to look it up) at Denny's after contra. Generally today was good, except for not getting anywhere on my paper. Tomorrow will be packed. Paper, dancing, more dancing, more dancing, and more dancing. Sunday's tango practice was cancelled :( so that day will end up being paper, paper, paper, and more paper. Monday will hopefully see the finish of the paper, as well as possibly (depending on the paper status) a few hours of work. Tuesday will see the paper turned in, whatever it may look like by that point, and the absolute rejoicing by me.

Ok, I'm obviously tired, so goodnight.