Just so you know that despite all of the stress of finals and final papers coming up, there is still funny stuff going on in my room. Kaileigh is watching a “When A Stranger Calls” to do a project, and, after a few minutes of blissful silence, she trys to jump out of her chair (the cords of her headphone were stuck around her neck) and starts screaming! Aly and I are clueless until she says, “That was so scary!” So, picture Kaileigh laying on the floor laughing, Aly and I staring at her laughing, and then Kaileigh looking up and screaming “BAT!!” Aly freaks out, shakes her head back and forth and screams bloody murder, and she didn’t even look at the thing. It took a second for me to register what she had said, but when it did, I asked her, “Are you serious?” I looked out the window and there is something huge flapping against it. I run up to go look at it closer, Aly runs away and yells, “Don’t let it in!” (Like I would!) Then she runs out to Janae to let her know there’s a bat flying around. Of course, it wasn’t a bat: just a giant moth. As if we don’t have enough bugs.

The end of the semester is always so hard!!! I have a 10 page research paper due next week (haven’t really started it), a project on India due next week, and an entrepreneurship group project due the week after. That doesn’t include all of the little in between assignments that I get. So naturally, I have all this work to do, and my boss at Barnes and Noble puts me on the schedule for work for five days!! So I have very little time to do everything. I will be staying up late and getting up pretty early. Very tired Jana for the next two weeks or so. And I might as well kiss my life goodbye because I’m not going to be doing anything fun!

Black Friday! It was also my grandparents 50th anniversary, but we weren’t celebrating until the next day. This year was the first time I ever went shopping on Black Friday. Aunt Laura drove me and Amber out to Knoxville to one of the malls there. We had to follow Aunt Cheryl because we didn’t know how to get there. The first thing we did was have lunch at a little Mexican place called Margaritas. It was so colorful! There were bright pictures of the sun and moon on the tables and chairs and there were huge fake parrots hanging from the ceiling. We wandered through the mall and I decided that I wanted to get a dress. I tried on about 8 or 9 different dresses at Dillard’s until I found one I wanted. Aunt Laura actually bought it for me. She also bought Amber a skirt at Hot Topic. After shopping for two or three hours (not nearly as long as we wanted to), Uncle Daryl called us because he and Laura were going shopping for the Secret Anniversary supplies that we needed for the next day. Me and Amber went with Dad, Jill, and Dad’s best friend Brian and his wife Betty to a restaurant called the Mellow Mushroom. We were there for a good 3 hours. Afterwawrds, we were supposed to go and decorate the room that we were going to hold the 50th anniversary celebration in, but we it was too late. Amber and I were dropped off at home and went to sleep!

Thanksgiving! I woke up really early on Thursday for some reason. Everyone came over pretty early: my dad, stepmom, two stepbrothers (who I was really happy to see), Uncle Daryl, and Aunt Laura (Aunt Cheryl had stayed overnight). For breakfast, we had my Mamaw’s biscuits and chocolate gravy!! MMMM! (Chocolate gravy is not gravy with chocolate in it–it’s basically homemade chocolate syrup, in case I grossed you out!) We started making Thanksgiving dinner around 11 or 12, not sure which.

The men cooked the turkey in some kind of pot outside.

My stepmom made fudge and sweet potato (casserole?) with pecans in it and the little marshmallows on top (yum to both!). Amber and I made the devilled eggs because that’s what we love best. We raced to see who could peel the most boiled eggs while they were still hot–I think she won. I peeled potatoes for mashed taters.

Amber sliced celery.

 

Papaw sliced onions for the stuffing.

Mamaw made the stuffing (probably the best food we had!). 

Amber made a green bean casserole. We didn’t have a table for all of us to sit down at, so we kind spread ourselves out in the living room. My Uncle came in with my Aunt sometime after dinner, so I got to see her, too. After dinner, we all sat around and watched football (I can’t remember which teams) until it was time for everyone to leave. That ended up being the only day I got to see my stepbrothers because they left the next morning. So we had pictures taken of the four of us. At some point, everyone else left (me, Amber, and Cheryl were the only ones who stayed with Mamaw and Papaw because of lack of space) and we all went to bed!

Thanksgiving was great! I arrived in Tennessee on Wednesday night after a delayed flight. Mamaw, Papaw, and my Aunt Cheryl picked me up. It’s an hour from the airport in Knoxville to where they live in Tennessee, and Mamaw kept asking if I wanted to stop and get anything to eat. I said no, because I already knew she had green beans in the crockpot waiting for me. When we got home, I saw my sister, my dad, and the new puppy my sister had talked my grandparents into getting: her name’s Casey. So I ate green beans, talked to my sister for a while, and went to bed. Day 1 was pretty uneventful except that I arrived.

I’m leaving today for Thanksgiving break! I’m flying up to Tennessee where my grandparents (I call them Mamaw and Papaw) live for their 50th anniversary. There’s going to be a lot of people there; we’re basically having a miniature family reunion. I’m going to get to see my step brothers, one of whom I haven’t seen in a good four years, my sister, my uncle, my dad and step mom, my dad’s best friend, my aunt, and probably a bunch of people who live there and are family. It’s kind of exciting. The best part is: homecooked meals!! I’m so tired of cafeteria food (not that it’s bad) and I cannot wait to have my Mamaw’s green beans and chocolate gravy and cornbread (not all together!). The downside: No internet for a week. Therefore, no blogs. I will, however, try to keep a diary and inform everyone of my amazing week in Tennessee at some point when I get back. Oh yeah, there’s another downside: Mountains of homework. I’ll have to do homework while I’m there, which I’m kind of not looking forward to because it takes time away from family, but it’s gotta be done. I’ll probably try to do a lot of it on the plane rides. So anyway, I won’t be blogging for a while and I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

I think one of the great things about this school that I rarely think about is the clothing drive we have each year. There is a box put in every dorm for students to deposit clothes in. Then these clothes are donated to some organization or to people who really need them. It’s really nice to know that there is something productive and useful that I can do with clothes that are lying, unworn, in the back of my closet. I remember last year, someone changed the boxes fairly often because they became full really quickly. Maybe the clothes aren’t given with the most generous intentions; often people put them in the box just to get rid of them. However, it doesn’t make the giving any less important.

It has recently come to my attention that this clothing drive, a vehicle used to give to the needy, has been misused. One of the most generous people I know donated some of his clothes to one of these boxes, nice things that he cherished, yet decided to give up to someone who could use it more than he could. Apparently, he walked by the box today, and noticed that those things were missing. I myself know the box has not been changed yet; it has had the same clothes in it for the past few days. So, we know that the box was not simply changed out. Someone stole the clothes.

I did not know there was anyone here, at this school, who could be so callous considering the blessings they have in their lives. The very fact that this person attends this college is enough evidence that he/she has a blessing. What this person did was disgraceful, and I hope he/she realizes it. It was shameful and greedy and thoroughly disgusting. I hope I don’t know this person and am not friends with him/her, because I would be ashamed of that friendship. If this person reads this, I hope you realize how wrong it was and do the right thing and return the clothes you stole. They weren’t meant for you.

Oh, I forgot. If you’ve been reading, you’ll know that the brakes on my bike have been broken. Well, Matt, the guy who brought me home (he has a truck, so he was able to put my bike in the back of it), fixed them!! I was so happy; I feel so much safer riding now. Plus, I didn’t have to ride it all the way to Walmart to get it done! He even said he’s going to bring a wrench so that he can tighten them for me so that hopefully, it won’t happen again. So yay, I’m happy about that.

I woke up this morning, got ready to go to breakfast and the library for work, and I realized I didn’t have my ID card. I spent ten fruitless minutes searching for it around my bed, in my back pack, in the closet, and in the bathroom. I finally gave up and decided to go to the cafeteria to see if anyone had turned it in there. No one had, but fortunately, the lady who swipes the cards let me eat anyway. So I went to work and looked for it in the lost and found there. Nada. Then I went back to the room, had to have Kaileigh open the door for me, and stopped over at Residence Life to see if anyone had turned it in there. Still nothing. So I went to class, then came back to my room and called Matt, the guy who brought me home from work last night. I asked if I had left it in his car; he looked for it, but couldn’t find it. Finally, I decided to go to the Security Shack for one last hope. It was not to be. So I had to walk all the way to SAS to get a new one, but I got a temporary one in case it showed up in the next couple of days. I told the lady I would come and get a permanent one if it didn’t turn up before Thanksgiving. Then, I had to walk back over to Residence Life so they could activate it for me to be able to get into my room. So I came back to my room, had some peanut butter, and started packing my bag for work. Genius that I am, I finally remember that I don’t think I looked in the little pocket on one of the shoulders of my back pack (there are a lot of pockets). Voila. There it was. I wasted all that energy walking back and forth and it was right there. Let me tell you, I felt like a genius.

After work last night, Aly, Kaileigh, and I hung out for a couple of hours. It’s really the first time we’ve done it and it was so much fun! We didn’t really do anything, but we took a lot of pictures. Aly and Kaileigh danced.

Aly dressed up in all her jewelry

 

I held onto Aly for dear life

And Kaileigh

Kaileigh fell off a couch, we took pictures with Johnny Depp and Floyd (I haven’t written about him; he’s the light up flamingo in our room).

 

It was just an all around great night. At about one in the morning, I fell asleep and sometime later, they did too. The wierd thing is that we all woke up around 6:00 for no reason at all. It was synchronized. We went back to sleep pretty quickly,  though. Best of all, I was so worn out from  having so much fun, that I slept later than I have since I got here: I woke up at 10:48. I really needed that fun night. Life has been a little monotonous lately with work and al the homework I’ve had. It’s always good to take a break when you need it. I’ve said it before, but let me say it again: I love my roommates. I don’t think I could ask for better. I really hope that we can always stay friends and keep in touch. Maybe that sounds a little idealistic, but they kind of help make Lynn my home for me. Without them, I’d be pretty miserable most of the time, and I’d like to think they feel the same way.