At the parents' house

Know what's great about being home? I'm on a normal-ish sleep schedule, I get healthy meals, and there's always something that needs to get done, so I'm always busy. But not stressed-busy, because not much of it is actually urgent.

So today I followed the parents around on a bunch of errands, and then I had a meeting with the Carpers, friends of the family that I make a Christmas card for every year. It was funny listening to the mom and her 19-year-old daughter fighting over which pictures they wanted to use. I'm glad my mom and I don't fight that bad over silly little things. Also, I fell in love with their cat, Brinley, who happens to be up for adoption because they have six cats and think that's too many to keep track of. Unfortunately, I can't have pets just yet. Dangit!

Know what's weird about being home? Everything seems so much smaller! I remember when I used to have to climb on a stool to reach the bathroom sink upstairs. Now it seems unnaturally low. A bunch of trees have been cut down since I was here last, and a lot of buildings have been built, throwing me off just a bit. It definitely seems a lot more cow-y. And a lot of the people have thicker accents than I remembered. And there isn't any snow around anywhere. I was thinking that we usually had snow in the wintertime here, but now that I think about it more, I guess I recall always being bummed that I'd never had a white Christmas before, so I guess not. Or not until January or February, at least.

People think it's weird that I can go outside barefoot and in short sleeves when it's 30 degrees outside. Silly. As long as I'm not staying outside for an extended period of time, it really doesn't matter.

I would have thought that I'd like my keyboard better than my parents' piano simply because my keyboard is actually mine... but I grew up playing the piano here, and the feel of it is still more natural. I like the sound better too. I haven't been able to stay away from it for long. I'd spend even more time playing it if Dad didn't like to crank up his Christmas carols on the stereo and dance around.

Oh oh oh! Also, my grades got posted, and I got all As and Bs! Even in speech and ethics! I don't know how, but I'm really super excited! Yay, I'm not a C student after all!!!

That said, I'm going to go to sleep now, since the parents make sure I get up in a timely manner in the mornings. Some things will never change. And I loathe getting ice water poured on my head while I'm sleeping.