A Long-Awaited Update

Hello all in the blogging world!

It has been so incredibly long since my last blog, and I am sorry for that. So much has happened in my life since I last talked to you. School is still going, and I am in my second full semester at TU. I'm finally in classes that have to do with my major and my required nonsense classes are OVER, thank the Lord. I ended up doing really well last semester, finishing with a 3.40 GPA which I am pretty darn proud of. Hopefully I can pull another good semester and finish my first year here strong. And if you were wondering about the roommate front, I, thankfully, moved out of the apartment I was in last semester and got rid of those crazy people!! (After having ANOTHER $20 stolen from me, got yelled at and made to have a meeting about cleaning a sink, and being harassed endlessly with my roommates incessant need to leave on lights.) Now, I'm in the apartment next door with the RA and three other girls. It's five of us now, but I love them!! We've had two dinners all together and a few nights we've stayed out in the living room talking about ourselves and laughing hysterically! It was definitely a good choice to move!

As for my personal life, it's been rocky to say the least. I last talked to you in October. Four holidays have since passed, and all have had their share of controversy.

First, Halloween. I was a little upset about this Halloween because I didn't even get to celebrate it. Unfortunately (as much as I love Choir) we had a concert the day before Halloween, going late into the night. This prevented me from going home and having the normal mother-daughter freak-out over Halloween. My mom and I have always loved the holiday, and last year we even pulled out our Snuggies and sat on the front porch with them on accompanied by some scary looking skull masks. We called ourselves "The Snuggie Cult". Some people may say that we are totally ridiculous, but I say that it was hilarious. Especially with these new Snuggie commercials they have now where they sing a jingle to the tune of the "Macarena". If that's not some crazy kind of cult, I don't know what is! But unfortunately I had to miss out on all the fun and spent the whole day locked up in my room at school.

Next comes Thanksgiving. It was relatively good on the actual day and we had our normal dinner at my Grandma's. I made the unfortunate mistake of going back to my dad's house after our normal family get together and after pulling an all-nighter for the Black Friday shopping. I was really excited to go to my dad's because we were having deep-fried turkey and I missed my dogs terribly! By the next day after I arrived, I was already packed and leaving for my Grandma's again. Apparently, I am not supposed to be allergic to cigarette smoke and am not supposed to offer anyone help for anything because it's selfish... Don't even get me started. Basically, a whole ginormous fight ensued between my dad, his girlfriend/fiance, and me which resulted in blocked phone numbers on my end and threats of taking my car away from the other. Now, my dad and I have called a truce, so to speak, and are being generally civil to each other. As for my dad's girlfriend/fiance, if I never lay eyes on her again, it would make me the happiest person alive.

Now, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, something terrible happened. My Grandpa had a stroke. This happened the weekend right before finals and I found out on Facebook. (Which I'm totally not blaming my Aunt for, but it was still hard to find out that way). Luckily, he survived with hardly any problems with movement, though the stroke basically destroyed his linguistics system. He can barely talk now, and when he does try to say anything, he only gets a few words (if that) out before he gives up and waves his hand in a gesture as to say "nevermind". He spent about a month or so in a nursing home while having surgery on his corroted arteries (which were clogged and caused the stroke). Thankfully he's home now, and has been for the last couple weeks. He's still trying to get used to be so inable to do certain things, and his speech is coming along slowly with the help of speech therapy three times a week. I just thank God that he's still alive and with us.

At Christmas, it was hard. My Grandpa (dad's side) was in the nursing home when we had our family get-together, and when we prayed before we ate, I started crying and had to run to the bathroom right when we finished so no one would notice. It was so empty without him there, and even though we all got a lot of nice things, it just didn't feel right. That just proves everything about Christmas. It's not about the gifts, what you get, how much you get, but who you share it with and the love and caring you feel for everyone around you. Except for having my dad and his girlfriend/fiance there. I was so upset with them (and still am) about the fight that we had. They were the last people I wanted to see on Christmas. Regardless, I was so glad to go and visit my Grandpa in the nursing home, and even more glad to be able to take my brother with me. It was the first time that my brother had seen him since the stroke happened, and I hope he was grateful to see him. Then, after all that, the day after Christmas my mom and Grandma (mom's side) got in a fight. It was so ridiculous and trivial, and I tried as hard as possible not to get in the middle of it. It just put the icing on the cake of one of the worst Christmas' I've ever had.

New Year's was fun though. Pina Colada's with my mom and watching The Twilight Zone until two minutes before midnight where we switched over to watch the ball drop. I really hope that this new year turns out to be a hell of a lot better than 2010.