Sorry I haven't updated in so long . . . been studying for the ACT and haven't had time to do anything, including updating blog, website, and book progress.  So if you're a faithful reader, I apologize.

But I WILL be posting some pics of my homecoming, horse (, hehe!), and puppies sometime in the near future!

Go to the store on March 22nd and buy Lifehouse's new CD . . . it was moved up from March 29th, yay!  I also think Finding Neverland is on DVD that day too, but don't quote me on that . . . but yeah, go buy that too (I knew Vianne will be happy that I mentioned that . . . ).

Hurray for spring break next week!

Okay bye . . .

Peace, love, and happiness,

~Marianne Wade

P.S. Happy Belated St. Patty's Day . . . hope you watched The Fugitive just to see the green river and overgrown scary leprachauns, or however you spell that word . . .

Monday was a pretty surprising day for me (remember, that was Valentine's Day).  I walked downstairs and went to my desk, and there was a cupcake, a bag of candy, and a card on it!  I was one of the only desks in my classroom that had that stuff on it.  Here, Emily and Renee baked cupcakes the night before and made V-Day cards and put them on their best friends' desks.  That was pretty cool.  I felt bad because I didn't do anything for anybody (V-Day never has been one of my favorite holidays—in fact, it usually scrapes the bottom of the barrel for me), except I gave Courtney some Valentine's Day peppermints (peppermints are her FAVORITE!  Except for apples . . . she loves to slobber apple juice all over everything—ooh, funny story about apple slobber later).  Then Mr. Podis, Mr. Stick-Up-His-Butt Spanish teacher, went around and gave everyone 2 or 3 chocolate hearts (some even had peanut butter inside 'em, hehe!).  That was unusual.  The best part of the day was when I came back downstairs after lunch was over.  I went into my classroom and I had a plush Snoopy on my desk holding a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates.  He was sitting on top of a card.  I read the card and it was from Scott!   I ran upstairs and looked for his car, but it wasn't up there.  I guess he drove down from his school during his lunch period, dropped Snoopy off at my desk, and went back to his school.  That was pretty much the highlight of my day.

Sorry if I made anyone puke.  I usually hate Valentine's Day, too, but this year it wasn't bad.

Okay, funny story about apple slobber from Courtney.  My neighbors are always bringing treats and stuff over for Courtney.  Lee also happens to be a coffee-holic.  He can't function unless he has his cup of coffee somewhere in easy reach.  He had brought over this basketball-sized apple for Courtney.  As she was happily munching it down, apple juice came out of her mouth in big, foamy slobber.  She leaned over in Lee's direction to see what was in his coffee cup.  A big glob of horse slobber rolled off the side of her mouth right into Lee's mug!   I was SO embarassed.  Thankfully Lee had a sense of humor about it and just dumped his coffee out.

Anyways.

Last night there was a soup and salad at my school, sponsored by the seniors to help pay for our senior trip (yay!).  We had a very good turnout!  It was cool.  I made the lemonade and put out the pop and coffee.  I was kind of the drink lady, I guess.  It was also a talent show (Mr. Calaway kept calling it a "coffee house atmosphere").  I sang a song that everybody said I did a good job with, but I was beating myself over the head with a stick for my performance.  I didn't think I did very good (but then again, I'm my toughest critic).  I was in a skit later with Brittaney.  I was the "Single Ranger" and she was "Toronto."  It was a LOT of fun, and I thought I did a much better job with it than I did with my song.  I'll post the script to it when I have more time (I'm going dress shopping for homecoming today . . . I guess I should be excited).  I did a little bit of improv with it.  "Well, exCUSE me, Miss Politically-Correct-Native-American!" was one of my improv lines, and everyone loved it.  That was fun.

On a more serious note, someone broke into my school last night sometime after the soup and salad.  They kicked in a window in my classroom (the freaky thing about that is the window is right above my desk).  There's glass EVERYWHERE.  In the keyboards, on the chairs, in the desks, etc.  Thankfully nothing from the desks was stolen, but they busted into Mr. Calaway's office and stole some of his money out of his desk.  They broke down the door leading into Mrs. Christopher's office and found her jar of quarters.  They found quarters all over the floor in the morning with tobacco all over them.  Our school is in the same building as a church, and they broke into two of the pastors' offices.  Pastor Perry's is always REALLY neat and organized, but his keys were taken off the key ring and thrown all over the office and all his cupboards were thrown wide open and the stuff was taken out.  They went into Pastor Rob's office and left his jar of quarters alone, but they took the fireproof safe (there was no money in it.  The treasurer always takes the money home when he leaves, but the thief doesn't knows that) and put it in the middle of the floor and left it there.  It was pretty scary.  I was pretty shaken up about it.

But anyways . . .

I'm going dress shopping for homecoming today.  *pretends to be excited*  Not looking forward to it, but I guess I must.  If I had my qualms about it, I'd go in a nice Western Pleasure shirt, a comfy pair of Wrangler jeans, and my boots and hat, with my belt buckle all nice and shined up.  Mom would fall over in a dead faint if I said that, though.

Alright, gotta go.  See y'all around!

Peace, love, and happiness,

~Marianne

Hello, faithful readers.  And um, first time readers.  And maybe readers who come back occasionally but not all the time . . . but anyways.

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm kinda bored.  I'd usually be sleeping at this time (naps are GREAT), but I spent most of the afternoon at my grandma's house and then Mom and I went to Best Buy, got a DVD player for our useless TV that now is not quite as useless, got a TV table for the useless TV, and two movies to go along with it (for you curious minds out there, the two movies are Master and Commander and Gladiator . . . no, I'm not gah-gah over Russel Crowe, I just happen to like those movies).

This morning in Jr. Church we took all the little kids out and measured off how big the Ark would be and then we had a few kids stand at each corner of the Ark.  That was one frickin' huge boat (450' x 75' x 45').  Then these two kids started running and screaming because they thought that some ax murderer was living in a neighbor's woodpile.    But they were pretty good, for the most part.  Logan even behaved himself, and besides galloping into the classroom and falling flat on his face, Aldin behaved, too.

Well, I got to "act" in Sunday School this morning.  We divided into two teams and each team had to pick a character to portray and the other team had to guess who it was.  Each team picked one actor, and everyone in my group was like, "Hey, Marianne likes to act.  She's doing it!"  Yay!  Jimmy was the other team's actor, and he started off by singing "A Whole New World," so we correctly guessed Aladdin about 3 seconds in.  Brittaney had chosen Commodus from Gladiator (what freaked me out was she has absolutely no idea how much I like that movie, lol).  When it was my turn, I got up and screamed, "AM I NOT MERCIFUL???"  I would have grabbed a team member's face and shouted it in their ear if A) it wouldn't have freaked them out, and B) I wanted to damage their hearing.  Well, Team "Bad Guy" didn't guess that, so I said, "You simply won't . . . die."  They still didn't get it (although my youth pastor knew who I was and said I did an outstanding job, lol).  I tried one last time.  "It broke my heart when I read your list of virtues and I realized I had none of them."  Still nothing.  Jimmy's just like, "THAT GUY FROM SIGNS!!!"  LOL!  So, Paul finally said, "Okay, we'll accept Joaquin Phoenix as an answer."  It was fun.  Commodus would have been a fun guy to play, haha.  Although I wish Brittaney had said Maximus instead of Commodus.  I would have loved to have said, "Are you not entertained?  Is that not why you have come?" or "I tell my son I will see him again soon, and to keep his heels down when he's riding his horse.  And to my wife?  That's none of your business."  Although if I said, "My name is Gladiator" I think that would give it away.

So yeah, I just wasted a good 20 minutes of my time telling you about my boring day . . . hope you enjoyed it.  Everybody's starin' at me . . . I gotta go.

Peace, love, and happiness,

~Marianne

I think the Esther play is done being proof-read, so if Mrs. J has to make any revisions I hope she does so very soon!  I NEED another acting job.  I'm getting kinda tense, lol!  I'll get to be in King Xerxes' harem, yay!  (I auditioned for that part because Mrs. J said that they are the only ones in the play that have really funny parts, and I LOVE to make people laugh.)  So I went from a pickpocketing thief in the last play to a whore in this one.  See a pattern in my roles?  Don't worry, I'm not like either of 'em.  The thief was SO much fun, though.  I got to sneak around the stage and pull gold chains out of peoples' bags and get all happy about my latest "catches" and then act all innocent when the rightful owners would turn around and almost catch me . . . oh, I loved it.  Can't wait for Esther to hit the stage!

I tried talking to Mom last night about my dream of becoming an actress.  No one understands that acting is my passion.  I want more than anything to act.  Mom pretty much came out and told me I can't do it.  Sure, it might be a hard job to get, but I also know somebody that applied himself, took acting classes, and is now in California with an agent and a pilot on a Nickelodean (I don't even know if I'm spelling that right) show.  Granted, Nickelodean isn't necessarily hitting the big times, but everyone starts somewhere.  Keanu Reeves' first "acting job" was in a Corn Flakes commercial, for crying out loud!!!  What's so wrong with wanting to be an actress?  If I don't get to be an actress, I told Mom that I'd love to be part of the movie crew in the art department, and she's like, "See, I could see you doing something like that."  Oh, but refuse to support me when I state what I'd REALLY like to do?  All she ever says to me whenever I tell her about the careers I'd like is, "Well, marry someone with deep pockets" like my career choices are all foolish.  So I don't want to be a nurse, like I had originally had my mind on for 3 or 4 years, and I don't want to be a teacher, which has been my mindset since 8th or 9th grade.  I want to act.  I want to write.  I want to make movies.  I've been wanting to do that BEFORE I said I wanted to be a nurse and BEFORE I said I wanted to be a teacher.  I've just never had the gumption to tell anyone because even some of my closest friends would tell me how stupid that was.  Mom pointed out that Mrs. J writes (books and plays) and acts, but she's also a professor.  The other jobs are "on the side."  She encouraged me to get a central job and have my acting and writing as side jobs.  I'm trying to think of a career I could have to be my core thing, but everything else seems so boring compared to acting.  I don't know.  We'll see how things progress.

Anyways, just wanted to vent about that.  It's really aggravating when you don't get support from people you'd expect it to come from.  I still think one of the greatest pleasures in life is accomplishing something no one says you can do.

Haven't written in my book for a LONG time.  I wrote some a little while back, but I'm like, "Eh, that's boring and cheesy."  I'll see if I can fix it tonight, after I finish up here and make some custard . . . mmm.  But I'm excited because I filled out my senior profile the other day.  That means graduation is getting closer and closer!!!  When I came to the future plans, I got torn up again, though, 'cause I wanted to put down, "Go to film school and become an actress" but I had to put "Study middle childhood education with an emphasis in American history."  So far that's what the future plans are, but I'd like to change that.  I REALLY felt like putting, "Whatever I feel like, GOSH!" in a Napolean Dynamite tone of voice, and my friend Sandy thought that was absolutely hysterical.  But I don't think everybody would have got that and lots of adults would have called me a brat or smart aleck for doing that.

Yesterday was the Spanish class field trip to El Rincón (Mexican restaurant).  I didn't go, even though I LOVE Mexican.  Everyone's like, "Why didn't you go?  You could have gotten out of school for a few hours."  My reply?  "It's not school that bothers me.  It's Mr. Podis!  I'd rather stay here and get away from him for a few hours than go there and be around him."  For those of you who don't know, Mr. Podis is the fata . . . um, weird Spanish teacher.  He's SUPER annoying when he's in a good mood, and REALLY mean when he's in a bad mood.  He's awful.  I was gonna go just to be nice, but I totally forgot (yes, honestly, completely 100% truthfully forgot) that morning that El Rincón was on the agenda for that day, so I didn't bring any money.  Mr. Podis came up to me this morning and he's like, "We missed you yesterday!"  I was like, "I . . . *wanted to say really didn't miss you guys at all* . . . forgot my wallet."  He's like, "Oh, we all would have pitched in for you!"  I said, "No, I don't want to have you guys paying extra on my account.  Glad you had fun, bye!"  I had even planned to tell the waiter that it was Mr. Podis' birthday (even though it wasn't) just so he would get the big birthday . . . excuse me, cumpleaños . . . sombrero and the free ice cream and a bunch of Mexicans dancing around him singing "Feliz Cumpleaños a Tú" at the top of their lungs.  That would have been fun, and Mr. Podis would have got a big kick out of it.

Okay, gotta go.  I gotta make that custard before I get too sleepy.

Peace, love, and happiness,

Marianne

WHEW!  Sorry I haven't been on in a such a long time, guys.  Things have just been crazy.  I'm kinda sick today, too, which really sucks.  I puked on my way back to the barn, which wasn't pretty.

Anyways, last weekend was the BOMB!  I headed down to Cedarville University for a leadership conference and it was amazing.  I didn't want to leave.  The speakers were amazing, the people were incredibly nice, and the basketball game as always was incredible.  I've been down to Cedarville lots of times, but that was probably my most memorable trip down there.  My youth pastor hand-selected 5 people from my youth group that he thought would be good leaders, and I was one of them.  The other 4 were Brittaney, Jordan, Jimmy, and Jenny.  Our group met up with two girls from New York, Amy and Linda.  Our group leaders, Dan and Sarah, were really sweet people.  Dan was hysterical.  He's from Brazil, so he had a little bit of an accent.  To him, everything was "Unbelievable!" and "Wow, cool!"  He mentioned that he played on Cedarville's intramural soccer team.  My brother does to, so I said, "Hey, do you know someone named Phil?"  And he's like, "Yeah, man, I know Phil.  He's cool."  "I'm his sister."  His eyes got really big, and he's like, "Wow, cool!  That's unbelievable!  Small world, man!"  When we met up with my brother later, he's like, "Hey, man, I met your sister!  She's a cool sister, man!"  At the basketball game, he got really excited when they'd throw the cheerleaders really high in the air.  "Yeah, get some cool air!  Cool, hit her head on the scoreboard this time!"  During one of the time-outs there was a free-throw shoot out and this guy in his 60's was making almost every single one.  Dan's like, "Wow, that old folk could play for our team!"  Haha, he was great.

Oh, and Cedarville won 76-63.  YAY!!!

Then Drew's house was a lot of fun.  Playing board games and watching his DVDs of Friends.  That was a blast.

The weekdays were boring because all the happened was school.

This past weekend I went BACK to Cedarville for "Li'l Sibs Weekend."  We went to a play called "Spoon River Anthology."  I saw some GREAT acting, heard some incredible singing, and saw lots of talent displayed in the amount of lines these people had to memorize.  But the play was sooooo boring . . . all it was was a bunch of monologues about how the character the actor was portraying at that time died.  It was pretty dull.  The next day we raced go carts, kicked field goals, did this human-mobile type thing, and stood in line forever so Mom could get a caricature drawn of herself.  She asked if I wanted one, but caricatures aren't anything special to me because Mr. Boyd draws them of the students in his art class when he's bored and we're all working on our projects, so I get one drawn of me at least once a month.  But anyways, when we got to be next in line, the artist had to leave, lol!  Oh well, I still had fun standing around and talking with my mom and brother.

AND THE PATS WON THE SUPER BOWL!!!!  I really didn't want either team to win, but I decided I hate Terrell Owens more than all the Patriots combined.  I just hope the Patriots don't go to the Super Bowl next year.  I'm getting tired of them.  The youth group had a Super Bowl party, and more than half of us was cheering for the Eagles and the other half was cheering for the Patriots.  Scott was cheering for the Eagles (which made it really fun to cheer for the Patriots, haha) and when there was 9 seconds left on the clock he formed a chain of Eagles fans, which I guess would send out the energy that the Eagles needed to win.  Well, needless to say, it didn't work because the Eagles throw an interception, buahaha!  Scott was grief-stricken, lol!  He was like, "It didn't work!  *gets really suspicious*  There was a traitor in our group!  Who was a Patriots fan?"  About 5 minutes later, Scott was talking to Jenny about it (Jenny was one of the Eagles fans in the chain).  He's like, "If your brother would have come, it would have worked!"  She's like, "Yeah, if only we had one more Patri—I mean, Eagles fan!"  He's like, "*gasp!*  So YOU'RE the one!  TRAITOR!"  She's like, "NO, that's NOT what I meant to say!!!"  It's so funny seeing his extreme reactions to anything football related.  He's a little freak of nature, but I love him.  I even promised him I wouldn't gloat about the Super Bowl.

The game of Cranium at the Super Bowl party was fun, too.  Me and Scott came in second next to Brittaney and Jordan (we would have won if he guessed the Humdinger correctly!!  Oh well).  That was such a blast.

Okay, I think I'm done updating!  Looking forward to homecoming on March 12th!!!  Yay!

Peace, love, and happiness,

~Marianne

Anyways . . .

Dad's being a jerk-off . . . again.  I'm taking a trip out of town this weekend for a leadership conference.  Dad's like, "You're gonna have to show me what to do with your horse before you leave for the weekend."  I said, "Nope.  Mrs. Bryk's going to be taking care of Courtney."  He's like, "Well, what if she can't?"  (Um . . . I wouldn't have asked her to if she said she couldn't . . . )  "Then Liz is going to take care of Courtney.  I have everything under control."  He got SO ticked.  He's like, "You don't need to get smart with me!"  Granted, I may have sounded irritated, but he RUINS Courtney every time he comes within 15 feet of her.  He smacks her in the head if she's in his way, which has resulted in months of trying to get her from being headshy.  Also, he would NOT have remembered/listened to the instructions anyhow, and I would come home to a sick horse.  Besides, last time I gave him instructions on anything to do with Courtney, he got all mad and whimpery and he went all I-know-everything-about-horses on me.  (Actually, I'd be surprised if he could guess the head from the crapper on his first guess.)  So he's MAJORLY offended that I didn't ask him to take care of my horse while I was out of town.  I find that absolutely 100% without-a-doubt one of the most amazing things I've ever heard.  I cannot believe that he'd get so mad at me about asking Mrs. Bryk to feed Courtney instead of him, that he won't even LOOK at me, he won't even SPEAK to me, and in general not want me to be in the same room as him (every time I walk into the same room he was in, he'd get up and leave).  He says that I don't go out and break the ice out of her bucket enough.  Well, I'd say something not so nice, but I try as hard as I can not to swear.  I go back 4-5 times a day AT LEAST to break the ice out of her bucket, but he's never home to see it!  And if he IS home, he's parked in front of the Internet and can't see the barn anyhow.  I can't help it that water freezes at 32 degrees Farenheit, and that it's negative five degrees Farenheit outside right now!  He actually has the audacity to go around to people at church and tell them that I don't take good care of my horse, when he has absolutely no idea HOW to take care of a horse or even how to act around one.  That hurts SO bad.  The vet says otherwise.  Courtney's a healthy horse, despite the fact she doesn't keep weight very well.  He thinks I do a great job with her, and I trust him more than I trust my dad.  Every single night I BEG God to help me find an inch of my mind that would be willing to forgive him someday for what he's done to me.  I absolutely hate feeling this way.  Bill even offered to let me go over to his house whenever I needed to get away from him.  Bill can be annoying sometimes and I don't always agree with his point of view on everything, but he's SUCH a nice guy and the best boss anyone could ask for.  Oh, and Dad says that because I don't dress up in fancy clothes or wear makeup very often that I'm not gonna attract many guys.  Number one, I couldn't care less how many guys I attract, or don't attract.  I'm NOT a boy-crazy freak like most girls are.  The only guy I ever care about attracting is my future husband who should love me the way I am.  Number two, I have a GREAT boyfriend that doesn't demand fancy clothes and makeup, and he accepts the farm girl in me (part of it is because he's a farm boy himself, hehe).

And I'd tell you about the day when Dad called me a brainless idiot, but I don't feel like crying my eyes out for five hours again like I did last time.

Oh, I just get so mad sometimes.  It feels SO good to vent my frustrations.  But I almost started crying at work tonight and that wouldn't have been fun to deal with, haha.  Edge painting would be hard and messy if I couldn't see the edge of the belt through my tears.

And Johnny Carson died last night.  That's so sad.  I'll miss you, Johnny!!!  I'd like to watch Jay Leno tonight to see what he does to remember Johnny, but Dad's zonked out on the couch and if he wakes up and finds me watching Jay Leno he'll have another hissyfit.  He hates Jay Leno for some reason.

On a brighter note, I have homecoming to look forward to March 12th.  I'll have to call Leigh and schedule another "Play with Mariane's Hair" Day like last homecoming.  Oh, and they say it's not gonna be as formal this year, so I don't have to wear the big floofy dress like usual.  YES!  I'm still gonna wear a nice outfit that involves a skirt, but nothing over $50.  Last time we ended up spending $200 on a dress.  I was like, "Gosh, that's too much for a dress I'm only gonna wear once."  I guess I'm just not the "Play Dress-Up" type, lol!  So yeah, I'm excited about homecoming.  That's gonna be fun.

Okay, I think I'm done.  I feel really bad for making everyone who reads this go through the torture I face almost every day, but I just need to let it out somehow or I start getting depressed . . . seriously.

Yeah.  I'm done.  Okay, everybody, good night.

Peace, love, and happiness,

-Marianne

Will write tomorrow, 'cause I got a few things to say . . . ergh.

Too late tonight . . .

Everybody's starin' at me.  I gotta go.

Oh my gosh.  I haven't written in this thing since foever and a half ago.  Okay, maybe since, like, a little more than a week, but still.  *wipes cobwebs from corner and resumes typing*

I'm going down to Cedarville for a leadership conference a week from Friday (yay!).  Then I go back down to Cedarville the week after so I can visit my brother during "Li'l Sibs Weekend."  That's gonna be so much fun.  I love going to Cedarville.  I wish I could go there for college but Mom wants me to stay home so I can take care of Courtney, Wrangler, Rodeo, and chickens.  I'll probably end up going to Malone.

Thursday was "Student Switch with Staff Member Day."  That was such an awesome day.  The teachers were being immature and bratty (Mr. Podis got 8 detentions, lol) and the kids that won the bidding on being staff members were being perfect replicas of the teachers they were supposed to be (Ned even gave us a half hour speech at the end of the day that we're just so loud and he'd threaten to keep us over 10 minutes if we were that loud again.  Jordan was laughing so hard that his Gatorade almost came out his nose, haha).  So yeah, that was fun. 

Oh, and some guy at the bank thought I was a boy.  I had my hair up in a ponytail and I had my hat on, so I guess I kinda looked like a guy.  We were sitting in the drive-through teller (which probably made it even harder for him to see that I am, in fact, a woman . . . yes, that was a slight reference to Captain Jack's line in PotC), and he said to my mom, "Would the young man sitting next to you like a sucker?"  Mom almost said, "No, but I'm sure the young woman sitting next to me would love one!"  But I didn't want to make him feel bad for calling me a boy, so there's some confused man out there in Ohio somewhere, thinking that I am a boy.

Saturday I went shopping with Mom ALL DAY.  That was majorly boring, except for when we went to Border's.  I picked up Jesus Freaks Volume II (it's a sad book, but it's absolutely amazing.  It makes me want to live for Christ more than anything in the world.  No other book has ever had that affect on me) and this thriller/sci-fi/fantasy called Idlewild.  I've never heard of it, but it sounded cool so I bought it.  I actually got a really cool cashier!  None of 'em are, usually.  They're just like, "Alright, here's your crap, now get out of the store and come back when you have coupons."  This guy was really happy and social and he convinced me to buy some chocolate, lol!  He's like, "We're selling these chocolates, 4 for $1, limited time only!  Come on, you're a girl, it's chocolate.  It'll make ya feel good."  I was thinkin about it, and he could tell.  "They've got goo inside . . . "  I was like, "Yeah?  What kind of goo?"  As soon as he got to the ones with peanut butter in them, I picked up a handful and threw it on the counter.  I was like, "Okay, ya sold me."  And they were GOOD!  I'd go back just to buy out all their chocolates.

Monday I went sledding with a few kids from my youth group up at Mr. V's house.  He's got this really huge steep hill that makes up most of his backyard.  It's a pain in the butt to mow in the summer (Mrs. V rolled the mower down the hill at one point last year), but it's a fantabulous sledding hill in the winter!  Me and Kristen were racing down the hill and Paul was sitting at the bottom with his hands out.  Whoever hit his hand first won.  Well, my saucer flipped backwards, so I couldn't see where I was going.  All of the sudden, I hear Paul going "AHHHHHH!" in this girly little voice and I was like, "Ah crap, I'm gonna take out my youth pastor."  Sure enough, I crashed into him.  We laughed about it for like, 10 minutes.  Going sledding that day was probably the most fun I've had in a long time.  Except for . . . they didn't tell me there was a ramp on the steepest part of the hill, and you could only see it when you were almost on top of it.  So I felt like I broke my butt, haha.  After we were all too cold to keep going we went inside, drank some hot chocolate, and watched the Travel Channel.  It was fun.

Oh, and Mr. Proudfoot's planning a ski trip.  I might go . . .

The Varsity Guys won their game tonight!  And it was a league game, so I'm pretty thrilled.  And Chris dunked for the first time ever in a game!  I wanted to run out onto the court and give him a big hug, but something tells me I would have gotten a technical for that

Ummm . . . that's all I can think of.  Other than I left my book at school so progress on it tonight is pretty much paralyzed.  OH!  Civil War class starts tomorrow.  *laughs nervously and wrings hands*  And we go on a field trip Thursday (Great Lakes Science Center, whoopee!  It's not like we went there SIX TIMES last year!  Ah well).  And other than something else involving this kid named Scott, lol!  I finally found a guy that's crazy about me that likes horses!  In fact, he likes 'em so much, he owns THREE of 'em!  Yay for me!  Wow, I can't believe I'm actually excited about a boyfriend, lol  I've known him for about five years now, so yeah . . . weird things you'd never expect to hear about from Marianne for today—I have a boyfriend.  Why?  I don't know.  It's not like I have the time for one, but oh well.

Peace, love, and happiness,

Marianne

Would you believe work was acutally fun tonight?  Yeah.  Bill isn't very good at explaining himself, so I was using the leather finish wrong.  It made it very frustrating because I couldn't figure out why parts of the tooling wouldn't pick up the finish and other parts would.  He finally re-explained himself and it made it much easier.  And I also got to do my favorite thing ever—edge painting!  It's so easy and it's so fun.  I almost didn't want to leave.  And Bill didn't drive me off my rocker like he usually does, so that was cool.

Looking more and more forward to my Gettysburg trip.  Civil War class starts next week, and it looks like a REALLY hard class (the OUTLINE for the class, mind you, OUTLINE , is 99 freaking pages long, and we're supposed to be finished with this class by the end of the semester).  But the best part about it is that at the end of April, I think it is, we get to go to Gettysburg!!!      For a history buff like me, that's super cool.  And then I leave for a week on Mother's Day for a week to go with the senior class (yay class of 2005! ) to The Wilds in North Carolina.  THEN I go to North Carolina AGAIN in June to go on family vacation (at least that's the plan . . . it may change).  And THEN . . . Paul's trying to convince me to go to Teen Leadership Conference this July . . . so I might be spending a month away from home this year, mainly going on trips with my friends.  Spiffy.

Still freaking out about Lifehouse.  Oh my gosh, I can't wait till their new CD comes out.  It's gonna be fantabulous, I just know it.

Yesterday our power was out for 13 hours!!  We had a big ice storm and everything was covered and encased in ice that was about a half-inch thick.  Trees (not just branches, mind you) couldn't hold up all the weight of the ice and there's tons of trees snapped off at the ground laying around.  We didn't have school yesterday, even.  That's pretty bad, when Mr. Calaway actually agrees to call school off.  Then when the power came back on, I updated the site a little bit, found out some cool stuff and some scary stuff, and wanted to post them in my journal immediately but then the Internet lost connection until late this afternoon.    Oh well, I think I remembered everything I wanted to say.

First off, for all my faithful journal readers out there (all 1 of you . . . me . . . and maybe Vianne), I imagine you've been wondering where my latest entry was.  First of all, I haven't been motivated to post journal entries and second of all . . . ummmm . . . I haven't been motivated.

But anyways . . .

A very good friend of mine spent New Year's Eve with her horses and one of them was being a *pssst! rhymes with witch* and she tried to kick the other horse.  Her aim was off, and she kicked Mel.  In the head.  I was in a state of shock when Vianne told me.  I think about her alllllllllllllllll the time.  So everybody, keep Melanie in your thoughts and prayers.  GET WELL SOON, MEL!!!!

And this is kind of a long story, but it made me so freakin' happy you have no idea.  One of my all-time favorite bands (Lifehouse) released a CD a year or so ago.  Since then, I hadn't heard of them.  This June I went to their website and it was empty except for a few pictures.  I freaked out and asked my brother about it.  He's like, "Oh yeah, they broke up."  So I've been moping around for the past 7 months, wondering why on earth they broke up.  Well, the bass player left (I'll miss you, Sergio!!!), and they've been looking for a new one since then.  They found one (welcome to the band, Bryce Soderburg!!) now and they're gonna release a new album in February.  YAY!!!!!!  I almost peed my pants I was so happy (okay, not really, but I was uber-happy about it).  Oh, and Jason Wade (lead singer) is a super big Cleveland Cavaliers fan.  Alright!  He's a Calfornia resident—I thought he'd like the Lakers.  I'm glad that he's got his head screwed on straight.

Okay, gotta go (Mom wants to watch a movie)!

Peace, love, and happiness,

Marianne

P.S. PRAY FOR MEL AND THE TSUNAMI SURVIVORS!