Unicorns and Smashed-Up Cars, Dancing Bears and Going Far

It's 4 AM. I leave in about an hour for the airport. Needless to say, it's been a long day. I was up incredibly late last night...well Wednesday night anyways...packing and painting and writing on here. Waking up early this morning (Thursday), I went for a run. At 50 degrees outside, it felt lovely. I ran a whole two miles! Quite a distance for me, I'm a terrible runner. After getting dressed I grabbed my dear little brother, Alex, and we drove off, ready to mark the first few things off my long To Do list. Fate was against us. I was out of gas, so we stopped at the nearest gas station. As I was pulling away, about to enter the street, my car sputtered out and stopped running entirely. Hazard lights went on, cell phone was pulled out, and I frantically began calling my parents. Alternating between my dad's phone, which refused to 'find itself' and ring, and my mom's phone, which either when to voicemail or hung up after a  few rings, I soon left about 20 missed calls on each parent's cellular device. Cars would pull up behind me, sit there for awhile, stare me down in the rearview mirror, and then honk incessantly. One would think that hazard lights simply meant 'my blinkers are skitzophrenic and I'm really just trying to hold you up and piss you off." Somehow the people lining up behind my stalled car failed to realize that I couldn't turn right. They'd finally remember what hazard lights mean and pull around me. Frustratingly enough, none managed to stop and see if I needed help. I kept trying to turn my car on, but to no avail. My dad was at a doctor's appointment with my mom and said he couldn't come help. His lack of care for his daughter's plight was upsetting, but what happens happens! All the while I was praying the car would start or someone would come. Finally a nice lady from the gas station walked over from her car to see if I needed help. She wasn't able to push my car herself, but after calling her husband, and a few nice men filling their truck up assisted, my car was pushed into a safe parking spot. Thankfully Megan just got her license. She drove the suburban to the Phillips station and picked us up. We commandeered the suburban, after dropping Meg off at home, and journeyed on to the mall.

Our adventures were far from over, due to my rather forgetful brain. Dear Alex was a great sport, I'm quite proud of him. We finally found a parking space at the quite crowded mall and walked/skidded inside, only to find that I had forgotten my bag with the sweater and keyboard cover I needed to return! Dashing back out to the car, we grabbed the bag, and made our way back inside. Then it was back and forth across the mall. We looked for slippers, found hats, changed our minds about what to buy, returned my sweater, found clothes for me to exchange the sweater for, looked for a few late Christmas gifts, bought Alex's new ZuZu pet (named Rocko), and purchased my new iPod at the Apple store. A bit worn out, with many errands left to run, we went back out to the car. I then discovered I had forgotten to return the keyboard cover! Back into the mall, up the escalator, and to the Apple store we went. I'm sure they thought I was the dumbest blonde to enter the store in at least a few days, hopefully not. I returned the keyboard cover and we went to Target. A few pairs of socks and some shampoo later we were back in the car. Poor Alex was hungry, but he cheerfully played with Rocko and didn't complain. We picked up my paycheck and went to the bank.

I'm not a big fan of banks. They stress me out, money is just a stressful thing! Plus, they change the way one is to deposit money every time, I swear. Sometimes you have to provide the account number, but they have to give it to you. This frustrates the teller. Then I'm never sure which lines to write the check amount and number and dollar amount on, and it changes based on a deposit or withdrawal. Confusing. Then sometimes you have to write in your name and sign the slip of paper, other times the teller doesn't care! So many variations result in me asking a lot of questions, and the banker looking at me like I'm mentally challenged. I generally leave banks feeling like quite the moron. Ah, well.

We got back home and I went to go set up my new iPod. The screen was messed up. First the car, then the iPod, it was almost more than I could bear! I packed it up and prepared to go back to the mall...again. Megan came with me, and before we had left she looked at the iPod to see what was wrong. It miraculously worked, I thank Jesus for fixing it. So I didn't have to go back to the mall and look like the truly dumbest blonde ever, which was a blessing. I spent the next hour putting music and photos on my new iPod. His name is Fredrick.

Frenzied packing and general running around flipping out ensued. Not enough time, too many clothes, and not enough space in my bags. I'm now currently facing a massive duffel bag I could definitely fit in, one only slightly smaller, a way-too-large camera bag stuffed with three cameras, an external harddrive, various batteries, lenses, and other cameraic odds and ends, and a dinosaur backpack stuffed with books.
We went out to O'Charley's for dinner, last family event before I head back to college. A few hours and much packing later, Charlie and Andre came over to chill for a bit. It was so good to see them! We talked, listened to music, and took a midnight hippie trip to Taco Bell and Jack in the Box. Hippie for Andre and I...we just chilled in the back of Charlie's van, which currently has no back seats, just like old times. Some old times are still good times, quite lovely.

Now I get to finish packing and then leave for lovely Denver! I'm so excited to be back, and see Katherine and Andy and Alaina and everyone else!