I hate school so incredibley much right now... I swear I'm only three weeks into the semester and I am already gasping for breath, I am so far behind.  Monday, my first big formal paper in English V01B is due... I'm not even halfway through with it yet.  Tuesday, I have a HUGE Chemistry test, that I am not going to get to even start studying for until Monday night.  Wednesday, I'm supposed to study for my Trigonometry test, but I doubt that will happen because it will be the first day since it rained to groom the horses.  Thursday, my Trig test.  Friday?  Start working on the next formal english paper that is due next Monday.  God help me.  I don't need to be a soothsayer to see that there are all-nighters and cups of caffiene in my future...  Maybe posting a little here will help me to relax.  Probably not, lol.

I know I promised to finish my vacation for all my friends who know I'm on LiveJournal... but time got away from me.  Now, for my list of excuses lol... My grandmother died, my dalmation died, my family and I went on another three-week vacation (I'm am not leaving the house for at least a year!), and I've been fighting with my mom over how many classes/units I am going to take this upcoming semester (she says two on-line with eight units, I say a bunch more classes equaling roughly 15-17 units).  

However, providence smiled upon me during the second vacation.  We spent most of if in Washington D.C with my sister, and she convinced me to read Dracula.  After I wolfed the book down, we rented Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula.  What an amazing movie!  I now find myself fully immersed in a fascinating study of the real Vlad the Imapler as well as the study of Vampires (would that be called Vampire-ology?).  What is interesting about Vlad is he is so black and white.  I found it difficult to find an essay on him where he was fairly portrayed.  Every essay either turned him into a blood-thirsty monster that loved to torture people, or he was a kind soul that was forced to commission unspeakable acts in order to keep his enemies at bay.  Where do I stand?  Somewhere in the middle I suppose.  I feel that Vlad was twisted and gruesome, but I also feel that he did need to instil a sense of fear into his enemies to protect himself and keep his ass on the throne.  So I guess I think that Vlad was heartless and cruel but he was justifiably so.  Plus, you have to admit his punishments were imaginative; he has to get some points for that!

I swear, I could study nothing but Vampires and Vlad for the rest of my life and be totally content.  Oddly enough, reading today some of the things Vlad did to his enemies I actually felt sick and nausous; it is the first time I have felt that way since I was 6 and watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for the first time.  I'm waiting for the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula to come in from Netflix... it has been so long since I have seen that version, I would like to compare it to all of the information that I have gathered thus far.

Anyway... off to feed my babies and get the obese cat out of the food bag again, lol.  Muah!

Hello to LiveJournal! I intended to introduce myself here several weeks ago when I returned home after a three week driving vacation with my family. However, the fates decided against that, and threw so much crap at me these past two and a half weeks that I haven't had time to even ride my beautiful horses. Now, I am sitting on my bed with some good music, a cup of mint tea, and an extremely obese cat at my feet, and I feel ready to tell my Charlie Brown-ish tale to cyberspace.

On September 4th my mom, dad, and brother, Randy, drove out our driveway on our way to Denver, Colorado.  We drove until we hit St. George, Utah, only stopping in Las Vegas.  We spent three hours driving around the residential district of Las Vegas looking for a Whole Foods for Mom.  Uneventful first day, unless you count our driving tour of 'life outside the Vegas Strip'.  

Our second day we drove through Capitol Reef National Park.  It was so beautiful, I really recommend that everyone that reads this go there!  On our way to our second night hotel, we stopped at a seedy-lookin Mexican restaraunt and had dinner... big mistake.  Mom and I woke up at 3 AM with horrible food poisoning.  We seriously had to debate whether or not to continue.  Fortunately, Mom and I were feeling a little better by checkout, so we continued on and ended up driving through Arches National Park.  Dad and Randy ended up doing all the hikes and taking pictures of everything for Mom and I because we couldn't walk very far!  Based on what I saw out the car window and from Dad's pictures, I am disappointed that I missed everything!  We made it to the Utah/Colorado border that night.

Next morning, Mom and I were feeling normal, so we were able to make it to Denver, Colorado by midnight.  We were staying with an old friend of my moms, Ray.  Of course... the first morning of our stay in Colorado Randy caught a horrible flu bug!

Next Post:  Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah (second go round!).