Did October even exist?

Uh... October is almost over before I even realized it started. I was late with every single birthday card I sent (and I have a lot of October birthdays to attend to), and I even missed Mom and Dad's anniversary (on that note, BRETT: thanks for upholding your sibling obligation of subtly reminding me, ahem). So I figure I'd better do a 'what I've been up to' post before November hits anyway - November is usually the 'whoa...' month, but apparently we're making that a two-month ordeal this year. It's ok I'll roll with it.

So, what happened? Well, in the beginning of the month (I think... I honestly have no idea when this was, some football Saturday) there was a tailgate. This is someone else's picture, but I like it more than the ones I took from that day:














To any self-respecting northerner, I realize this doesn't look like football garb. In fact, Sarah Reddon went to a football game at PSU that day and I think she wore jeans and blue and white all over the place. Not Vanderbilt. The way it was explained to me: frat boys ask girls to be their dates to football games, so they're kind of all on dates so they're dressed up. Altho people who aren't on dates also dress up. So I don't know, it's silly really but it was fun to pretend. And I'm really really glad I didn't ruin my dress... I was fully prepared for that.

The next weekend, Babs and I went to a ... get ready for this ... high school marching band competition in Vanderbilt's stadium. Obligatory picture:













Babs works for the band director's wife, so she gets free tickets through the band, and well why not? I mean I liked the movie Drumline and Brett's drumline back at CYHS. It wasn't super exciting, and it was cold... but we went to Border's afterwards and I discovered that Border's has a-maz-ing hot cocoa. Deal.

I can't remember if I ever explained my course schedule on here or not, so if I have already oh well, I'm gonna do it again: I have three courses... two of them meet on weekends (a total of 6 weekends of the semester) and the third course meets every Monday. It's a bit of a cop-out really - I don't feel like the full-time student I supposedly am. One of the huge bummers about not having class very often though is that I don't get to know people in my classes, plus I'm never on Peabody campus because I work at the Law School and I don't like the Peabody library. So we organized a get-together for the first-year students. It was sooo nice to finally socialize with people who are also adjusting to a new situation. After our social dinner, a few of us came back to my place to watch Project Runway. (I don't even want to talk about Jeffrey winning...) They looked so cute sitting on my carpet in our rather unfurnished living room, eating brownies (which are never as good as Dad's, try as I may).













That was a Wednesday, I remember that much. Because about 7 hours later, Sarah Spetgang and Kristy Wilson rolled into Nashville! There was some travelling ish, primarily in the form of speeding... K.Wil got a ticket before she even left Pennsylvania (I mean... it's like a 40 minute drive from Etown to Maryland, so I think it's ok to pick on her a little bit), and then poor Spets - who is not really a speeder normally - got pulled over in Virginia, where apparently speeding gets you a summons to court for 'reckless driving.' I felt horrible. :-( Luckily my boss gave me the day off on Thursday since she didn't really have anything for me to do, so I just stayed up til they got there around 5 o'clock on Thursday morning. The weekend was wonderful... huge morale booster for me, a breath of fresh air. We did a lot of sitting around gossipping and catching up on life, which I have missed terribly of course haha. We did venture out for a mini tour of Vandy and driving tour of downtown, checked out the Opry, and went to the Loveless Cafe for the Bluegrass and Biscuits Festival. We each got half a biscuit tho, so that name is a bit of a crock if you ask me.


Obnoxious sunglasses.










We bought matching Vanderbilt t-shirts too haha. This picture was bright and early on Sunday before they left... miss them.













I had my last weekend class this past weekend - so I now only have one 3-hour class a week, contributing to my feeling of being a fake student. It was also Homecoming weekend here and also at Etown... I was laaaaaame and didn't do anything with Vanderbilt's Homecoming, it was just reminding me of how I wasn't at Etown so I had to get away. When we drove out to the Loveless Cafe the weekend before I'd seen a couple parks on the way, so I decided to go out there and take a hike. Yes, a hike. Mom, Dad, Dave and Cathy - go ahead and be shocked, all those years of you trying to drag Brett and Carissa and I on hikes... but I kinda like it. It was my first time hiking alone without even the Duncan dog - a good refresher. I can't remember what else we did... I think that was the night we went on a deli hunt and ended up at Jersey Mike's, a sub shop. I don't think Babs and I had ever been so disappointed to hear that no one working there was actually from New Jersey.

Sad thing is, I can't ever seem to escape the sounds of highways. I-440 is seriously like 50-70 yards out from my window (that could be a lie, I can't really judge distance, but you get the point: it's super-close) so I hear it constantly, and then at the park even though it felt like nature and mountains and fresh air, I could see the main road through the trees. I'm really really not a city girl; even though this barely feels like a city, it's too city for me. It's funny actually... even though Nashville is Music City and more importantly the home of country music, I hear country on the radio and it just reminds me of the small quietness of Millville or Sullivan County, not Nashville. I'm not the type to not be happy wherever I go, and I'm doing totally fine, but I am certainly learning what isn't for me. I think the only way Nashville can redeem itself is if it snows sometime this winter - let's bank on it.

The GOOD NEWS: I'm coming back to Etown next weekend... I just needed to do it now since I probably won't in the spring or summer, so I up and booked a flight. (p.s. I'm still looking for a little help in getting there... can anyone pick me up at the airport on Thursday night after Grey's? I promise to compensate!) I'll pop in and see the famdamily too, which is also needed. :)

See y'all before December, let's hope,
<3 La

p.s. This p.s. should actually have come first. Thanks for the great feedback I've received from this thing, I'm glad people enjoy it and I thoroughly appreciate the comments and am flattered and honored. And another bonus... because of the one annonymous comment, I have finally found the recycling center. Oh, blogs. Or as Nana calls it, my Blob. :)