I have two neighbors that are really, really nice but I can’t really talk to them because they don’t speak much english. Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like to live somewhere and not know very much of the language but I can’t really just imagine something like that, I think I would have to experience it before I could have any idea of how hard it would be. Anyway, I love it when people try to talk to me even though they can’t say very much. I mean you can’t learn anything without trying, right?

Anyway, our neighbor just brought his daughter over and she was collecting money for the jog-a-thon. He was trying really hard to tell me that last year she collected the most money out of her whole school and hopefully she could do it this year too. He had the biggest smile on his face and was just so happy looking. I don’t know why this little encounter touched me so much but I think it was because the guy was totally putting himself out there, trying to talk to me when he really couldn’t say much and he was just being there for his daughter and being so proud of her. It made my day. Hip hip hooray for cool Dads!

Well I had two classes today, one was database processing and the other was that .Net class my teacher suggested. So now I have 3 classes, woo hoo. They both sound like a lot of work but I’ve been pretty lazy for awhile now so some hard work will do my spirit good.

I had the same teacher for both of my classes today and he is pretty funny. He’s asian so he has this cute little accent and he makes little jokes all through the lecture. Michael had him for some classes and he really liked him so I’m sure I will too.

Blah, blah blah. I’m going to be doing a lot of sewing tonight and tomorrow and then Saturday we’re going to a birthday dinner (hi Lisa!!) and Sunday is the marathon. I’m really excited and I hope someone will take lots of pictures this year because we only had a couple from last year and that’s pretty sad.

I just ate 1/2 a bag of snickers fun size bars and washed them down with two cups of chocolate milk so I’m going to use all my sugar power to go get some work done. I wish I had more interesting things to say but I don’t. Maybe tomorrow. Oh, here’s one thing: I think the 2nd episode of the office is on tonight. y’all should watch it because it’s the funniest thing since laughter. ha ha ha ha.

Today was my first day back as a college student. Yup, it’s just like I remembered, except with even less girls, actually no girls, just me, lonely little lovely Laycie. This should make for some interesting topics later . . .

As for today though, I had my senior project class. There are 13 people total. We got assigned into groups and I hope I got the smart people, they look pretty smart. We had to make up a group name and ours is so simple and boring that on my entire drive home I tried to think of a better one, but I had no luck. We’ll be designing a piece of software for a business this term and next term we will be implementing it.

Our teacher told us that in his 20 years of doing this class there has never been a group that couldn’t find a business to work with. He did say though that we shouldn’t come to them with the offer of a free piece of software because these projects are not going to work. I thought that was funny, we’re going to spend two terms working on this huge project that in the end isn’t expected to work. Okay . . .

Later on the teacher is like This project is going to be written with .net, so who in here hasn’t taken 470 or isn’t enrolled in it right now? About 3 people raise their hands, including me and then he says to us Well do you guys have a plan for learning .net by next term? The best way is to take a course but you can certainly try to learn it on your own . . . Um, what the heck . . .

I wrote this teacher about 2 months ago and asked him if there was anything I needed to do to be prepared for this class and all he said was that I should start thinking about a business I could do the project for. Why did he say something about .net then? Oh well, what can you do.

So that was my first day back really exciting I know. I just hyped it up so much I had to be sure to tell you how it went, I won’t bore you with every dumb detail along the way so don’t worry.

We went and looked at a car for me yesterday. It sucked, the search continues.

Today is Michael’s mom’s birthday, so Happy Birthday Marlee! I love you!!

Most people know I’m a Harry Potter fan. I love Harry. I love Hogwarts. I love the magic. Apparently some people don’t.

I was at the fabric store today and I overheard something quite funny. There was a cute little boy, trailing behind his bitter looking grandma, spouting off costume ideas for halloween. I wasn’t paying too much attention but then I heard him say with great enthusiasm “I know, I could be Harry Potter!”

I thought it was cute, and he actually would have been a perfect Harry. He had the hair and everything. Then I was surprised to hear the grandma say “Oh no, yuck! You’re not being Harry Potter.” The boy immediately says “How about a vampire?” and she says “No, that’s even worse”

Hmmm. I don’t really see what is so yucky about Harry but I pray to God that this kid one day can be what he wants for Halloween. If I ever have kids and one of them wants to be a turd, then I’ll make them a brown turd costume. I will even glue the peanuts on. Now that costume could warrant a yuck, but Harry? I love Harry!

I can’t remember the last time I had to be somewhere at a certain time. No “job” and no school for the past year and a half have really had an effect on me. I did somehow manage to get up, shower and leave by the time I needed to.

It is so beautiful outside today which made it way easier to be in a happy mood. This morning my nervousness was replaced with excitement. I couldn’t wait to go meet some new people and see what my senior project was all about.

The drive to Monmouth is different now. The trees that line the highway are a lot taller and there is a new off-ramp instead of the good ol’ intersection I once knew. It really makes me feel like I have been away for so long. I know it hasn’t been that long but it’s still weird.

I’m not the same person I was last time I drove out there. This time I am absolutely positive about what I want and what I need to do to get it. I’m not even 1% unsure of my decision. I am unsure about what I’ll do once I get my degree but all I need to know right now is that I’m gettin’ the damn thing.

I pull into the pretty campus after pondering all these deep thoughts I’ve just told you and I walk to the CS building. I open the door that I haven’t opened in 2 years and walk up the stairs that I have walked up a million times before. I felt so proud of myself for going back, for finishing what I started. I felt strong and maybe happier than I have been with myself in a long time. I see the door to room 305, the room I spent many hours sitting in, the room that looks quite a bit different than it did the last time I was there, the room that has a big note on the door: CS 425 class cancelled today.

I doubt all the same feelings will be with me on Wednesday, my new first day of school . . .

My teachers are at some conference so the first day of my Tuesday/Thursday class is cancelled too. lame.

My first day of school is tomorrow, aaahhh! I’m a little more nervous than I thought, kinda been a little loco all day but what can ya do? I know it’ll go fine but I just have crazy things going through my head. I hope I can sleep . . .

I am so not prepared. I have no car, so I borrowed one from Michael’s parents. I’ve known about the whole you’ve gotta drive to school everyday thing for awhile now but I still managed to not get my shit together. what the heck?

At Michael’s parents house I took a walk with his mom and we saw the new baby cows and I got to feed some donkeys. One donkey was really hungry apparently because he kicked this other donkey out of the way, it was insanity. hmm. not so nice there mr. donkey.

In other random news Spunky and Badger are becoming better friends everyday. Tonight they were chasing eachother around outside for a long time, hopefully Spunky can lose some weight since Badger isn’t really one to lie around.

I’ll let you know how my first day goes right when I get back tomorrow. ’till then, adios amigos!

Michael ran 20 miles this morning. I rode the bike alongside him. Yeah I had the easier of the two activities but riding a bike really slow is freakin’ hard! Michael has a fancy bike with the shoes that click into the pedals and I kinda had a rough time with that, I’m not too graceful.

We were only about 1 minute from the house before I fell over. No joke, I just tipped over. It was like slow motion. I forgot how to get my foot out of the clicky pedal lock thing. At that point I was thinking this is gonna be one helluva ride

I didn’t fall over any more but I had my share of funny moments. Slow bike riding should really be a competitive sport. The winner would be the last person to cross the finish line without falling over. I would lose on the first mile, and probably take some people down with me.

Riding a bike really slow for 4 hours really isn’t what I would have picked to do on a Saturday morning but I had already ran my long run and 4 hours is a long time to be out there alone. At least I got to see Michael for 4 hours, ha ha. He would’ve done it for me so that’s the only reason I needed.

It is so beautiful today, my god. Crisp cool air but nice warm sun, perfect combo to make Laycie a happy camper. The only thing that would make me happier is if someone cute and sweet made me dinner. Hi Lisa!

Last night we got to see the first episode of The Office, Season 3. Compliments of Scott and Lisa, thanks guys! It was GREAT! I was wondering how they were going to make the first episode super funny when they left off last season with Pam and Jim’s kiss. They must have thought long and hard becuase they did it perfectly. I am so impressed with the first episode, it just makes me so excited for the rest of the season. The Office rocks! If you don’t know you better find out.

It’s going to be hard waiting a week like everyone else. I’m used to watching shows after they’ve been on t.v. for years and I can watch and entire season in one day. Oh well. I will just have to fill my week up with lots of other shows.

Prison Break is a favorite right now, we’re in the middle of season 1. Scott and Lisa told us last night though that season 2 is kind of sucking. Sad.

Badger is on my lap right now, he is so needy. He has gas too, stinky poo! Everytime I put him down on the floor he jumps right back on my lap. It’s cute.

We ran around the neighborhood this morning and saw a million cats. I tried hard to follow my new rule of not talking to animals, beacuse they tend to follow you, but after awhile it got hard and I decided that if they have a collar on then I can talk to them.

We saw the most adorable manx kitten (what is up with the manx cats everywhere?) and he had a collar on so we decided to talk to him and then that led to petting him and soon he was trying to follow us down the street. We put him in someone’s yard and ran off. He was way too cute though. I gotta stay indoors, I’ll end up with 500 cats living around here.

No more talking to animals, no more!

Here is a cute cat that belongs to someone we know. Isn’t he cute?

The sun was shining just right and it made his eyes water . . . click to get the full size pic

You know what, I’ve been doing this blog for just over a year now. Wow, I am sooo cool. I thought I’d take some time and let you reflect on my coolness, so here is a deep thoughts post from a year ago: