They'll call it chance, or luck, or call it Fate

This weekend was fun, but very tiring. By Friday night stellawind, Greta, Nicole, and Zuryvette had all arrived at my house for the weekend. I was so happy to see them! I really miss them. Saturday was my (and Adam's) graduation party. It was good to get the chance to see most of my relatives before I leave for Japan (though I think I answered the same three questions about when I was leaving, where I would be living, and who I'd be teaching a million times). Seeing my friends was nice too because I haven't seen most of them very much this summer. I was happy that yaexrae visited on Saturday, too! It would have been nice to have a bit more time with my friends, but I wanted to also visit with my family. One of my favorite parts of the party was when my friends and I were playing with Hayden, helping him blow bubbles. It was too cute. I'm going to miss that little guy while I'm gone. I also laughed at the fact that my neighbor assumed there was something going on between DJ and I, even though I told her he was just a friend. (I think I've lost count of the number of people who've assumed that DJ and I are together, lol.) I also loved getting to see baby Graysen and holding him. He's so sweet~

I've got a bit to write about, so I'll start at the end of last week.

I had the house to myself on Thursday and Friday because my parents had to take Adam to his college orientation. I always love having the house to myself during the day (I get slightly nervous about it at night, but it's not that big of a deal). I basically camp out on the couch in the family room with my laptop or a book. I also listen to music loudly on the sound system and dance around. Pretty much all I did for those two days last week was watch K-pop videos on Youtube (K-pop fandom is so new and shiny to me right now~). ^_^;

Saturday was my cousin Travis's wedding to his girlfriend, Melissa. The whole thing was nice and I don't normally mind weddings, but I just felt kind of awkward at the reception. The wedding was on my mom's side of the family, which I'm not quite as fond of. I'm not that close to many of them (with the exception of my cousin Tami and her family). Tami was in the wedding party and kind of busy, so I didn't really have that many people to hang out with. I danced around with Hayden (my godson) for a bit before he got too tired, but other than that I just kind of stood around with Adam. I was glad when the evening was over.

My cousin Tami had her baby yesterday! His name is Graysen George (the George is for my Aunt Georgene <3). We got to go see him yesterday afternoon. We had watched Tami and Mike's older son Hayden (he's 5) while Tami had her c-section done and then we brought him up to the hospital. We were the first ones there to visit the baby. He was pretty cute for a newborn and big, too. He weighs almost 9 lbs! I got to hold him, which made me happy because I love babies. I'm glad that I got to see Graysen before I go away next week.

So, my brother graduated high school tonight. It's hard for me to believe he's that old now! The ceremony wasn't that bad. It was boring, but not terribly long. After the ceremony my family went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings because that's what my brother wanted. The food itself was good, but that was somewhat spoiled by the fact that our waitress spilled lemonade in my lap halfway through the night. I was all sticky, so I took a bath when I got home. :P

I'm leaving to visit Leslie on Sunday! I kep getting more excited! I packed some of my luggage today. I mostly just need to pack last minute stuff tomorrow and figure out how to safely pack Brynn in my bag (probably with some pillows). Then, I get to leave the house around 5 AM on Sunday to catch my 8:05 AM flight, which will put me Boston around 11:10. Then, there are plans to do a bit of sightseeing in Boston before Leslie and I head back to Cape Cod. I can't wait!

Forgot to mention that I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides last week with DJ. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't quite the same for me.

( Spoilery thoughts. )

All in all, it was a good adventure movie, but I couldn't quite bring myself to love it.

I'm a bit depressed that almost all of my girls are going to be at Colossalcon without me this weekend. I keep seeing tidbits about their plans online and wishing that I could go with them, but I can't go because I have to be a good big sister and attend my brother's high school graduation this weekend. It wouldn't bother me quite as much, but this would've been my last chance to see some of them before I go to Japan, like Cat and probably Alie. And Cat finished her Celty cosplay, so Emilia, Cat and I would be able to do awesome DRRR!! cosplay together. Oh, well. I'm trying not to dwell on it and I do have other plans coming up this weekend that I wouldn't be able to do if I'd gone to Colossal.

Tomorrow my cousin Tami is going in for a c-section, so that she can have her new baby! I'm going to help babysit Hayden tomorrow while she's in the hospital. I should be able to see the new baby this weekend. :)

Then, on Sunday, I get to go visit meepalicious! I'm going to fly into Boston and then we're going to meet up and I get to spend the week with her in Cape Cod. I'm so excited to see her again! A little later this week I'll have to start packing. It sounds like we're going to try to have cosplay shenanigans and take dolly pictures, so I must pack accordingly.

I'm back at IU now. I'll be going home again next weekend for Grandma's memorial service. We're having a memorial serivce instead of a funeral because Grandma always thought funerals were too sad and depressing. I've just got to get through this week. Outwardly, I'm holding up okay (inwardly is another story). I just need to keep it up.

Classes start tomorrow. I'm nervous about getting back into Japanese, worried that I'll have forgotten too much. I'm hoping that classes won't start throwing too much at me during the first week because I don't think I can take it right now.

What an awesome way to start my day. Mom called me to tell me that Grandma is back in the hospital because her pneumonia came back. She'd seemed like she was doing so much better before I left for school. I hope that everything will be okay, but now I'm worried. Why do things like this always happen once I leave for school?

I started off in a good mood this morning. I read some nice fic, had some chai tea, painted my nails two-toned black and turquoise. I also had yummy leftovers from yesterday's lunch with Aunt Judy at T.G.I.Friday's. But, as the day went on, it became a downer.

I got really bored and had trouble finding interesting things to do. It's normally not too bad because I hang out with DJ every day, but he's been feeling kind of sick, so I haven't seen him the past couple days. I would have gone to see the Scott Pilgrim movie today withimmelmanturn (as she had obtained passes and invited me along), but I didn't have any way of getting to the downtown screening. Then, I learned that the Takuya Angel store on Takeshita Dori is closing. This makes me sad because I had fond memories of shopping there. I even had a nice time talking to Takuya Angel the last time I shopped in the store. This is the second time one of my favorite places in Japan has closed since I left (the first to close was B:Lily-rose). I hear that the website will still be open for shopping, but it's not the same as being able to go to the store. I know it's stupid and unrealistic, but I almost feel like I don't want Japan to change when I'm not there. I want to be able to go back to all of my favorite places the next time I go.

There is a small bright spot though. Grandma has been released from the hospital and put into a physical rehabilitation facility. It's temporary, so she can regain her strength before going home. So, she's not home yet, but it's progress.

I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow. I just need to find something to do tonight. Maybe I'll go watch a movie. That's always a good way to occupy some time.

So, I had the house to myself last night because my parents drove up to Wisconsin to pick Adam up from band camp. Having the house to myself all day isn't really unusual for me (because both of my parents work during the day), but I don't usually have the house to myself at night. Most of my friends were busy, but DJ came over and we had a sleepover. We visited Jessie at work and then came back to my house. Then we watched Spirited Away and spent a while just talking before we went to bed. It was just a nice relaxing time.

I don't want to sound like a bitch, but I'm not really looking forward to this week. My parents both took the week off and Adam has a break from marching band. That means that everyone is going to be home all the time. I'm not so pleased about this because these days I like having some space when it comes to my family. I get along with them fine, but after having independence at school and abroad, it's harder for me to have them around constantly. Simply put, I deal with my parents better when they're not home all the time. I will probably try to balance this out by spending some time in my room and by going out with my friends.

Break has been going fine so far. I watched Gaga's new "Telephone" video about half a dozen different times on Friday. I love it! On Friday night, I hung out with DJ. I was super happy to see him. He's one of my closest friends and I miss him terribly when I'm at school. We grabbed dinner together, then ended up going back to his apartment. Allison and Alyssa came over, and so did DJ's new boyfriend Noel, and Noel's friend Shane. I approve of Noel more than I have of most of DJ's other boyfriends. Noel and Shane were sweet and watching the two of them argue back and forth (not seriously) was hilarious. Saturday morning, Dad and I ran over to Best Buy. He was nice enough to buy me a new external harddrive because my current one is dying, and I need someplace to properly back-up my files. So, I have a brand new 1 TB harddrive. I'm quite pleased. I also bought myself a copy of the new Ponyo DVD. Yay! Allison, Alyssa, and I stayed over at DJ and Elise's apartment on Saturday night. We ended up watching Dinoshark, which is a kind of awesomely horrible B-movie. It was pretty laughable. In the morning, we grabbed breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts. Then, I visited both Grandmas on Sunday. Yesterday, I did a whole lot of nothing. That looks to be today's plan, as well.

The thing about break is, I enjoy having the house to myself during the day, but I eventually start getting lonely. My family is always gone most of the day. Half of my friends aren't on break right now and the ones that are around are busy with their own lives. So, that basically leaves me stuck in the house with a whole lot of nothing to do. It's nice for a little while, but it eventually starts getting on my nerves. Oh, well. I would rather be bored at home right now, than be doing homework at school.

My aunt is coming home from the hospital today! Yay! I'm going to go visit her tonight.

I'm going back to IU tomorrow. I'm glad to be going back. It's been getting kind of boring around here recently.

I had forgotten how much of a bitch packing for school was. At least I'm nearly done with it. Then comes the extremely fun part of fitting everything in the car. :P 

Must go, because I have a hundred little things to do before tomorrow. So busy!