The weather has been beautiful this week. I love this! Yesterday, I joined Janeen outside and read more of Embracing Defeat for HST202. I fell asleep, actually, and woke up to Angie (who saw us and came to say hello) saying something to Janeen about Belgium. Without opening my eyes, I rolled over so I was facing them and said, "Belgium isn't in Latin America." I'm not really sure why I said it, but it's true, right? Belgium is in Europe, Belize is in Central America. I learned this a few weeks ago. So I get my geography mixed up, so what? Apparently I say some weird things when I wake up. Noz tells me I am extra funny in the morning. I don't remember much, except I like to open the bedroom door and strike a sassy pose with a stupid grin plastered on my face in the doorway until she looks at me. It's an alomst-everyday occurence. Nicole had better appreciate my posing, because she'll be experienceing them next year.

I'm definitely ready to be home, I've decided. 6 more days of class! Woo! I'm ready for summer to come. Bring on the swimming pool, kite-flying in the field, volleyball, football, baseball, and foxtail in the backyard, cookouts, bonfires, sleepovers with all the girls, stargazing, quality time with friends, 4th of July on the combines (even though this year, we'll be at camp), CAMP!, Cyprus, tans, sleeping in my hammock, parks, rollerblading down my country road, Jeremy's baseball games in Highland Park after the regular season is over, tiki lamps and citronella oil, lemonade, watching the corn grow, eating corn staight from the field, euchre with the fam, Pruett gatherings, Hennessee stuff, pool noodles, late night antics, waking up to birds singing (and feeling like I am in the Wizard of Oz. This is dumb and embarrassing to admit, but whenever I wake up to the birds, I always feel like I should be in Oz.), watching as Kalee and Jeremy mow the grass, which I HATE doing, doing all the laundry all summer to escape mowing duty, garage sales, Snickles following me when I walk down the road, 4-square in my driveway with my family, the strawberry festival downtown, rainy days that are good for sleeping, Kalee's experimental cooking which usually ends up being pretty decent, never eating breakfast, watching Dawson't Creek from 9-11 every day (I don't know what happened to me last summer but I became hooked on that show. Smel did too and we watched the final episode together. I was disappointed. Pacey? Poo!), watching movies until the wee hours of the morning, funnel cakes, YWAV every week, volunteering at the church, only driving 10 minutes to get to small group instead of 40, youth staff discipleship, cone palace drinks, day trips, picnics, frisbee in the park...

Wow, I am excited about summer. There are lots more things to add to this list, but since I am now running behind, I'll leave those for another entry. For all the IWU folk, a big, resounding HECK YEAH to the fact that we have 6 more days of class and 3 days of finals. To everybody else, well... I'm sure your summers will begin soon.

So my dad called this afternoon. No good news on my car. In fact, it's bad news, about as bad as bad can be. Brace yourself: the Blue Meanie/Booger is dead. It was crushing to hear. As much as I claim to hate that piece of metal and rubber, which I do sometimes, it was still my car!! Ah! When it went down on Friday afternoon, it was because the timing belt had broken, which caused a bunch of valves to bend, which caused the engine to "blow." Ugh, this is no good. If the car was decent to begin with, I'd have no problem saying, "Just fix the stupid thing!"but it's so old and it wouldn't be worth it to pay the anywhere from 1100 to 1400 for a new timing belt alone, not counting repairing the valves and the engine. And when I say old, I mean that this little, blue 1987 Honda Civic CRX is past its glory days. Way past.

This means that Kalee, Jeremy, and I will all be sharing Kalee's car for the end of April, all of May, and beginning of June. The original plan of the summer was to buy Dad a new car after we get back from Cyprus, then I'd get his car and Jeremy would assume the privledges of the Blue Meanie/Booger. However, with my little car out of commission... who knows. Also, the trip to Cyprus is about 10,000 give or take a few hundred, so there isn't exactly room in the old family budget to buy a new car BEFORE we go. I'm not looking forward to the headaches that are sure to come when all three of us have schedule conflicts. Joy!

Megan decided that we need to have a funeral/memorial service for my dead car over Easter break. Maybe on Good Friday, and then it can be resurrected on Easter morning! Wait, hasn't that already been done? Haha. The last "memorial service" we had for something of mine that died was amazing. Davie (named for David Bowie, famed rocker of the 80s), my beloved platy fish, passed into the great beyond in the winter of my freshman year. I recall sitting at my desk, typing away on a paper, then looking up at my tank to see his beautiful orange, yellow, and black body floating, lifeless, on the surface of the tank. I was mortified. Like any caring parent, I immediately called Melissa and Brittany and broke the news to them. They came rushing over and before I knew it, we were having an all-out wake and funeral. Brittany and Smel put my black pants and skirts on their heads as veils of mourning, Smel led "Amazing Grace," and Brittany was the hired wailer. We marched in a small processional around my dorm room, then gently lowered his stiff body into the toilet and sent him on his way. We even threw in small flower petals that we picked off of one of Janeen's potted plants. It was beautiful. Difficult, yes, but the support of good friends helped me make it out of that dark tunnel of tragedy, despair, and hopelessness.

So to honor the Blue Meanie/Booger, we will be writing a song this weekend in his honor. I am looking forward to that. Rest in peace, little buddy.

It was so fun having Grace stay with me. She had a great time, and I liked having her tag along where ever I went. She'd always reach up and grab my hand when we walked, I felt so motherly. Also, she skipped instead of walked. It was cute. I'll definitely be having her stay with me again next year.

A new addition to the name saga. I went to the bank yesterday and the teller was having a hard time finding my account. Any guesses as to why? Yeah, sadly, they had me as a male. That explains a lot of things, though. Usually when I go to the bank, it takes them a few extra minutes to locate my account because the system lists me as a male, but when I walk up to the counter requesting money, they do a double-take. ALmost every time I go, the teller asks me to tell my name at least three times, then proceeds to say, "Robert Pruett? Jeremiah?" as if I was lying. Do I look like a Robert or a Jeremiah? Gosh, I hope not. I don't think so. :)

I registered for classes today, yay. I'm taking 17 hours. Bring it on.

I'm excited about Easter weekend. I don't have class on Good Friday OR the Monday after, so it'll be a good, much-needed 4 day weekend. Janeen and I had planned on going to Illinois that Monday, just for the heck of it (so we like making random road trips, so what?), but we both have way too much to do to just blow an entire day. Besides, my car is in the shop and I might not have it back by Friday. Ugh, that's terrible. Last Friday, when my car decided to hate me and die right on 37, less that 7 miles from campus, was one of the worst days of this entire semester. I'm glad Janeen was there to experience it with me. Not that I am the sick type who wants others to suffer if I have to, but I probably would have had a meltdown had she not been there with me. I mean, who else can I count on to sprint down 37 wearing my horrid, long, nappy black wig? Go, J-mo! So Friday was the pits. We did not catch one single break for six straight hours. No joke. From 1 until 7:30, it was one bad thing after another. On top of that, I was sick and tired. Janeen told me I needed a hug, so when she gave me one, I cried on her shoulder. Right off the elevator, standing outside of my room, I felt like a little kid, but that's ok.

Back to Easter... Megan/Owen, Megan, and Janeen are spending the weekend at my house. Angie, too, maybe? There is a bachelorette party for Monica on Friday, so I will definitely be going to that. Heck yeah! I am going shopping with Brittany on Saturday morning for her wedding dress and our bridesmaid dresses. That should be fun. Saturday evening, we are dyeing eggs in my kitchen. After that, however, I hope to be spending some time with the boyfriend. Yay!

I only have 7 days of class left, then 3 days of finals. Holy mother, this semester has gone by so quickly! It's almost unreal. Terrifying and unreal. I have lots to do in the next week and a half and not a whole lot of time to do it all. It will all get done and April 21 will come. I will find myself driving home for the last time of the year, and I'll probably break out into mad song in dance in the car. I did last year. Haha, Janeen and I had a few "goodbye" songs that we sang to each other in the parking lot right before she pulled away with her parents, making the trek back to wonderful Minnesota. We were such nerds. Were? Ha! Still are. I like us.

Time for class. Woo!