in a good mood.

hmm...where did i leave off? halloween, i think, and missing my friends.

yesterday was All Saint's Day, and Father Tom gave a sermon at Mass that I truly got a lot out of. i was happy, becasue Father Tom is a great guy, but he is sometimes hard to follow. yesterday, however, i had no trouble at all. he talked about the Saints, and how they were truly ordinary people who had no idea how many lives they had touched. he then added how there must be people in our own lives who truly touched our lives in that way. i thought about it, and i realized how many of my heroes were from Portledge. as much as high school was crappy, i had some of the greatest teachers in the world. Mr. Mac, Mr. Hoyler, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Schuessler, Mrs. Rigg, Ms. Nugent, Ms. Atkins, Ms. Oehrlein, and--nobody laugh but Mr. Peek-- will always be my heroes. they touched my life in a way that is truly irreplacable. Dr. Lawber, Mrs. Hawkridge, and Mrs. Murphy are awesome, but i just don't have the same relationship with them--yet. who's to say that they won't be up there in time, but those people from Portledge will always be my heroes. something really awesome happened yesterday that i won't go into details of...and i got a 93 on my bio midterm =)

today i had coffee with Claire and then portal--then i had lunch with some of the bests, spent an hour in the box office in Megley theatre with Allison, and finally made my way to the *bleep bleep bleeping* ATM in town because the *bleep bleep bleeping* ATM in Miley hasn't worked in forever. then i went to Ann's house on campus and we "hemmed" our extremely long concert dresses with duct tape. then Ann, Steph, and I watched part of The Holiday which i kinda want to finish now. showered, dressed, met Steph and Allison at sky ranch and went to rehearsal. Allison is having major roomate issues and i feel really, really bad for her. rehearsal was good. i actually have confidence in Maccers--i've never had confidence in a show with two weeks to opening night before!! then my parents came!

i had a heartfelt reunion with my parents, and my dad uttered the words i've waited years for, that he didn't realize how much i meant to him until i wasn't living at home every day. as much as i miss them, i miss Fagin, i miss my bed, i miss NYC, i miss my grandma, and i miss my friends beyond belief, i honestly think and believe that this is the way that it should be right now. my dad has never appreciated me in this way, or at least he never realized how much he appreciated me. i wish that i could put my friends from home in a gigantic box and bring them to Salve, the way i brought my clothes and my shoes. i feel like it's almost a double edged sword--if i'm here, i miss my friends at home, who have been there forever, and if i go home, i'll miss my friends at Salve, who i've only known a few months but we've already had some amazing memories. i wish that i could be with everyone all together, in one place. but being away makes me even prouder to be a New Yorker who says "dawg" and "cawfee"--my friends from Salve tease me about that a lot. i really miss being 40 minutes or less from NYC. and, i appreciate my best friends even more. we have to make more of an effort to talk and the distance has forced me to be better about keeping in touch with people. there are now more people to balance, but that only means that i'll have more happy memories. i'm so glad to be happy. i'm staying with my parents in the hotel tonight, and all feels right with the world, finally. my dad said to me tonight, "so i guess college is pretty good now, huh?" it was a rhetorical question that i was happy to say "yes" to. Dani lectured me last night about how i need to relax...my parents, Bevin, Arielle, Gauri, Alex, and Dr. Lamonica have all told me that at separate times. i'll figure it all out.

i just need to learn a lesson from this quote from one of my fav movies, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: Being happy isn't having everything in your life be perfect. Maybe it's about stringing together all the little things like wearing these pants or getting to a new level of Dragon's Lair - making those count for more than the bad stuff. Maybe we just get through it... and that's all we can ask for.