I've gotten really bad about keeping this updated. The truth is, I haven't done much of anything to update about. Josh and I went up to Lake Jocassee on Sunday (pictured above) but it started pouring as soon as we got there. We couldn't swim because, even after the rain stopped, it continued to thunder the whole time we were there. It was a nice trip, but it would have been a lot nicer if the weather had been better.

Our thermostat on our AC broke two nights ago. It was literally like living in hell in this apartment. I put in a service request yesterday, but apparently they didn't get it. So the maintenance man didn't come until 4:00pm today. We were last on his list, even though it literally took him about one minute to fix it, and that includes the amount of time it took him to walk over to the office and get a new thermostat. When he put the new one up, it was reading 93 degrees. Ugh. It was awful. And I think our animals were more miserable than we were. But it's nice and cool now, and I am so thankful.

Josh filed for unemployment almost two months ago, and he still hasn't gotten a check because Clemson hasn't filled out the necessary paperwork. Gotta love em. By the time he gets his first check, we'll be back at work and won't be able to get it. I filed a couple of weeks ago, but same deal; I doubt I'll even get my check before we go back. But it was worth a try, I guess.

Other than that, there's really nothing going on. Just finishing up the summer, getting ready to go back to school and work. While I know I'll be wishing for a break as soon as it starts, right now I'd like it to hurry up cause I'm so bored!

book review: twilight

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Do I really need to give a description? I'll just give the Amazon one again because otherwise I'm just gonna tell you "It's about a girl who falls in love with a vampire."

Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.

So, obviously I'm really late to jump on the Twilight Saga bandwagon. My aunt suggested it to me when it first came out, but I never got around to reading it. Then it started to get really popular, and I was skeptical. (I was the same way about Harry Potter. I didn't start reading the books until I'd seen the first two movies.) I saw the movie, and I thought it was terrible, so I had no desire to read it. But then I saw Eclipse and loved it, so I decided to read the books, and Twilight was so good! I wish I had read it sooner. I thought with all of the hype that it would be a letdown, but that wasn't the case at all. It completely lived up to my expectations. So if you haven't read it yet, you definitely should.

it's time to try defying gravity

It's been awhile. I'd like to say that I've been busy, but I haven't. Not doing anything means not having anything to talk about.

I had wanted to go to the Pendleton fireworks on the fourth, but we ended up going to the lake instead. There were too many people, and the fireworks sucked. We could see Pendleton's fireworks over the trees, and they lasted about 20 minutes longer than Clemson's fireworks. It was lame. I probably won't go to the fireworks at the lake again, even though I've been doing it for half my life.


It's nearly impossible to get a good picture of fireworks when you're standing on a boat that's constantly rocking. Oh well.

Thursday was my birthday. It wasn't anything exciting. We went to Outback, and then we went to see Eclipse. I liked it a lot. Much better than the first two. Aside from the whole romance aspect of it. Bella drives me nuts, and I wish she'd just grow up and stop being an annoying little brat. I don't know. I haven't read the books, so I don't know if it's bad script writing, or if that's really the way Stephanie Meyer intended for her to be.

I'm reading Twilight right now, actually. I bought it last night, and I'm almost halfway through. That's the one thing I hate about books. If they're good, they consume me. It gets to the point where I don't even want to put the book down to get up and get a drink. I have to force myself to take breaks, or I'll just sit there and read the whole thing, no matter how long it is. Twilight has definitely consumed me. It's been a long time since I saw the movie, and I don't remember it well, so luckily my brain isn't trying to do much comparing.


Music: Wicked (Kristin Chenowith and Idina Menzel) - Defying Gravity

book review: looking for salvation at the dairy queen

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen - Susan Gregg Gilmore


It’s the early 1970s. The town of Ringgold, Georgia, has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. The daughter of Ringgold’s third-generation Baptist preacher, Catherine Grace is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and dying to escape her small-town life.

Every Saturday afternoon, she sits at the Dairy Queen, eating Dilly Bars and plotting her getaway to Atlanta. And when, with the help of a family friend, the dream becomes a reality, she immediately packs her bags, leaving her family and the boy she loves to claim the life she’s always imagined. But before things have even begun to get off the ground in Atlanta, tragedy brings Catherine Grace back home. As a series of extraordinary events alter her perspective–and sweeping changes come to Ringgold itself–Catherine Grace begins to wonder if her place in the world may actually be, against all odds, right where she began.
*description from Amazon* (because I read it more than a week ago, and I wanted to be sure it was accurate)

I loved this book. It was a quick, easy read. It may not have been the most original story in the world. I mean, let's face it, there are hundreds (thousands?) of books about girls growing up in a small town in the south and trying to escape to a big city. It was also fairly predictable. Some surprises were easier to figure out than others, but it didn't make me like the book any less. This was Susan Gregg Gilmore's first book. I saw on Amazon that she has at least one other one out, and I'm definitely going to check it out.