Getting ready to head home to Centralia...I'm finally excited about Christmas-maybe it has to do with the fact that I don't have to work anymore! YA-AAY! Anyway, sorry if the last post seemed boring/mindless/lame/or grouchy, it kinda was. Anyway, hugs and kisses to all, I'll be down in Tennessee for the next few days, but no fear, I'll be back in Springfield on the 28th! If you need me, just call my cell-I can't promise anything, bc my grandparents live in this woodland area (seriously...it's beautiful, but cell reception is almost zero), but I'll try to venture out of the house at least once to find a cell signal.

Be safe everyone...see you soon...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Just for the record, Famous Barr is trying to kill me. Seriously.

Also for the record, I look horrible in that picture below with Diller. The one with Marylynn and Angela isn't quite as bad. But they're the only pictures I took on my birthday, so I felt obligated to post them. Oh well. We had a fabulous time regardless of how my pictures look.

I think my hair is a little too short right now. I like it short, but I don't like it when it's just been trimmed. I always feel like it's too short.

I don't have much else to say...this has been a random, mindless post. I swear I'll have more important stuff to say in the coming weeks...but right now, I've got NOTHING.

Tomorrow is my last day of work at FB before the holidays...thank God. Tomorrow night I'll crash, seeing as no one is going to be in town, then head home EARLY on Christmas eve. My break should go as follows: Christmas eve church service, dinner w/ the family, opening presents Christmas morning, driving to Tennessee to be with the family, having Christmas there and staying for a few days, getting back on Monday, hopefully hanging out with Krissa and Cheryl at some point and giving them their gifts, family picture Tuesday morning (yuck), and heading back to Springfield after that. Geez, it's bad enough to make me want to start school again! I feel like I haven't had a moment to myself, other than my birthday, but whatever.

I'm also ready for some warm weather. Springfield is positively frosty. Spring break is going to be sooooooooo great...a whole week in Charleston, SC...it's three months away but I'm definitely ready for some sun and some fun! And of course it will be great to see Tanya again! (for those who don't know her, she moved to Charleston with her parents last summer and now attends College of Charleston)

Anyway, to sum things up, it's cold and life is busy here in Springfield right now, and not good busy-boring busy. Looking forward to Christmas getting here and New Years too, and DEFINITELY looking forward to my huge par-tay on the 8th of January! More details on that to come, but for now, I'm going to bed.

Last night, in honor of my birthday, I went out to dinner and had some of my friends join me. We had a great time-I wish more people could have made it, but there were between 5-7 people hanging out at any given time all night, it was good times. Thanks to all who made it out. Anyway, here's a picture of Marylynn, me, and Angela after dinner... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

In light of my birthday I've been looking at old pictures, and seeing how much I've changed. Other than gaining some weight, I haven't changed as far as looking older, except for altering my hair and makeup. But no nasty lines on the face or sun damage. So yay. Here's a picture taken the summer before my senior year of high school.  

NOW...amazing the difference a 6 years makes! 

Just FYI, not much has happened this week-I've worked something like 45 hours in the last 6 days and been quite tired/busy; needless to say I haven't gone out as much or done as much as I would have liked, other than wrapping gifts (almost done w/ that) and finishing Christmas cards. Several friends are coming tomorrow to meet up with me and my Springfield friends for my birthday dinner (since my parents can't be here, I'll settle for my friends...and frankly, if you know my friends, that's not bad at all) and other fun stuff. A full update and pictures will be posted after tomorrow, but right now I'm awfully tired. And I have to work in 3 hours. blah.

My family came up yesterday to celebrate my birthday (which is actually tomorrow), bc Jami has semester exams this week, and they're still in school (they're teachers, of course). So of course, I told them just to come up this weekend. We had a nice time, except for my sisters being monsters, but that's what little sisters do. Here is my birthday cake!  

Me, with my birthday cake. It was yummy!  

My parents got me a papasan chair and footstool as my main gifts-I also got perfume, Billy Joel greatest hits collection, an air compressor for my car, and money. Not a bad haul, I'd say!  

Me with my evil sisters...they just look semi-angelic. 

Me and my parents at my early birthday par-tay :o)  

Haven't posted in awhile, so I'll update...

Finals are OVER-I haven't done much except work and study for the past 2 weeks thanks to this, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to reclaim my social life. The last two weeks I have been absorbed in the study of the British constitutional system, which is actually made more interesting by the fact that they don't have a written constitution-their "constitution" consists primarily of common law and legal precedent. Anyway, the class was fascinating, and I learned a great deal about the system of government and social structure in the U.K. I love con law-this was my first class in comparative law. So to sum up, finals went well, I should have a 4.0, so all is awesome.

Diller had a Christmas party on Friday night (for the College Republicans) so I made the trip to Chambana for a few hours to hang out with him and some of my other friends. I took Lori & Amanda, and met up with Natalie there. The party was fun, in true CR tradition, drinking, Risk, and socializing. It was nice to see some of the young CR's-I think they're headed in the right direction for 2005, which makes me and the rest of the old folks happy, seeing as we put so much time and energy into the club in our days at U of I.

Anyway, around 1 a.m. everyone had left the party, but me and Diller stayed behind and talked almost all night-and as usual, we had one of those awesome conversations that you can only have with very good friends, and that you wish would never end. About 3:45 I decided I needed to move my car, so Diller came with me and we went to Perkins where we talked even more, about everything from relationships to feminist studies (and our own experience and enlightenment in our W.S. courses-suprise!) to family and life goals and inspiration. It was funny that while we were discussing Susan Estrich and and feminist theory, etc., Diller stopped for a second and said, "AMY! Can you believe that 2 REPUBLICANS are sitting here having this conversation?" Anyway, the thing that's great about Diller and me is that we're wonderful friends, and even though we don't see each other as much anymore, he's the type of person I can get together with after a month of not talking and it's like nothing has changed. The nice thing is, it will probably be like that when we're 50 and back at an alumni mixer-time changes, but a person's soul doesn't have to.

Anyway, I finally headed back to Springfield at 5:30 a.m. and promptly crashed. It's nice to have some free time now that finals are over. I'll be working a lot over break, but will have plenty of free time to go out-thank goodness. And of course no one should forget my party on JANUARY 8th! It's going to be great!

As for me, I'm going to go relax some more...more posting later.

If you want to know more about the U of I...just keep reading!

We number somewhere over 30,000. Champaign for sports, Urbana for academics. Classes on the Quad. Crazy party hopping nights. Fighting Illini. Talking to random people on the bus drunk. Pokey sticks. Fat Don’s. Waiting for the 22. Pregaming in the dorms. Late night Jimmy John’s runs. Sleeping in the Union between classes. Kam’s, C.O’s, The Clybourne, Gully’s, Brother’s, Station, Legend’s, and Murphy’s. #4 party school in the country. We are all 21 on nights out, whether our birth certificates say so or not. Talking to everyone (including people next door) on AIM. Huge lectures in Follinger and Lincoln. LAR/PAR/FAR. 2004 Big Ten OUTRIGHT basketball champs. Orange Krush and Illini Pride. The Morrow Plots. Undergrad underground. Espresso Royale. Oskee-Wow-Wow. Hopkins/Forbes/Garner/Weston/Scott/Snyder: The 6 Pack. Pro-Chief or Anti-Chief? The Altgeld bells. Chambana. The 21 Quad. Going to class drunk at 9 a.m. on Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day.. Largest Greek system in the country. Assembly Hall. UIUC: University of Illinois under construction. Hail to the Orange, Hail to the Blue. Frisbee on the Quad. Reading the DI instead of paying attention to lectures. I-L-L…I-N-I. IMPE. Green Street. Memorial Stadium. The Alma Mater. The annual “paint the hall orange” game. Drunken cross-campus walks. FIRST in the nation to celebrate Homecoming. Bonnie Jean’s and the Mug Club. All-nighters in the dorms. We’re a drinking town with a football problem. “Muck Fichigan, Ann Arbor is a whore.” Fear the Illini. We’ve been having more fun than you since 1867. We are guys, girls, tall, short, smart (and on scholarships), dumb (and owing more than our life's worth in student loans...).. We're defined by the roommates we've had, the parties we've attended, the classes we've taken, the people we've kissed...those that we've missed. Nights of laughter. Nights of tears. Hellos, goodbyes, "I'm sorry"s, "I'll call you"s, "what's your major?"s and everything in b e t w e e n.but most of all, we are the friendships we've made and the bonds we've built. The people may f a d e, but the memories never will. We bleed orange and blue. We are U of I, forever Illini… and we don’t mess around.

-I can't take credit for this, found it on someone's U of I website...but that's U of I...absolutely all of it!

If I don't post much this week, you can rest assured that I'm buried in term papers.

Stay tuned for more details...a lot of stuff is going on; I'm still trying to figure out how to "end" something that never really started...more one that later, but for now, I'm out of time.

Back to the papers...