From the street urchin

I don't really know what a street urchin is, but it sounds yummy...

Anyway, here I am again for another dishing out of my daily adventures.

Today was Sunday. And that means church. And church means depression. Well, except for today. My face looked especially horrendous today and yet it made me realize something while I was sitting in the pew, barely listening to the father preach about the "truly important things in life." What I realized was that happiness comes from within. I don't know what made me feel like this but I was thinking about how my life would be different if I was a confident, attractive girl and I just imagined myself smiling more and being happier. Strangely enough, thoughts like that did make me smile more and I was happier. Happiness comes from within, I was telling myself.

That was when I remembered two things I had read, one was in my dad's psychology textbook and it said that if good looks, wealth, fame, and success equalled happiness, then Halle Berry must be the happiest person on the planet. Yet even she goes through divorce, depression, and other problems. That put things into perspective for me. The second thing was something I read from a book I checked out of the library this weekend. It had a quote from actress Jamie Lee Curtis that said: "I"m not saying I don't exercise or that I don't suck in my stomach. But I won't go on an insane diet or go to the gym for four hours to change what nature intended. The biggest lesson is that nothing on the exterior will make me feel better. It may seem that way for a short time, but those feelings of inadequacy will [re]surface."

If two famous, successful, and good-looking women like that have to go through a lot of the same problems I do, then hey, maybe there really isn't anything as a perfect person or a perfect lifestyle out there. Maybe...maybe happiness comes from somewhere else.

Secondly, I want to list the remainder of my day (yeah, I know--so thrilling.) After church came lunch and hours of homework. Then my father came home from his nail technician class and we got ready for my return to Clemson. My mom packed up all the food she had cooked for me this week (I love home-cooked meals!), I myself packed up, and we headed back to Clemson, leaving my brother to his computer and facebook addictions.

Luckily, we passed a pumpkin patch near Dodge's Chicken Store (which is actually where my father stopped to get gas for the car) and I reminded my parents to stop by a store so I can buy a pumpkin for Josh and Matt's BYOP party.

We originally went to Bi-Lo since my mom had seen some inexpensive pumpkins there, but they turned out to be a disappointment (both in price and appearance) so we zipped on over to the neighboring Wal-Mart to get a pumpkin there instead. I picked out a mostly round, slightly elliptical pumpkin and then my mom and I went to pay for it. Unfortunately, the pumpkin had no bar code or label so we asked this guy Marvin to help us instead. (He had the coolest haircut! Close-trimmed with all of these curly designs in it...If I had a camera with me, I would have asked to take his picture.)

Anyhoo, I finally had my pumpkin (which I aptly and very nerdily named Pumpkin) and I was planning to let it sit in my lap on the car ride over, but my mom said not to cling to it and my dad ended up putting poor Pumpkin into the trunk with the rest of my things.

Well, we got back to Clemson okay and my mom was actually surprised when she realized that we were already there. She had fallen asleep shortly after we said the rosary, but my dad's noisy comment rudely woke her up.

My parents helped me carry my things to the dorm and of which I am very grateful, but knowing their anal personalities, they thought that the position of the rug in the room just wouldn't do and promptly set to work, moving around things and straightening it out. Well, it looks a little better than before, I suppose...at least it's more centered now.

When they left, I went about putting up my things and eating dinner before I headed up to the bell tower for practice. Luckily, I didn't have any distractions this time around and the rest of the night was spent doing homework. Well...I showered, brushed my teeth, spent about half an hour downloading music and then did homework, but the latter still took up most of the night. I spent an hour on my paper for American Lit. and longer than I had planned on my I-Search paper, but it all turned out okay.

When I got back to the dorm, however, I was surprised to see Melissa and Johnathon there. Overjoyed, I came over and hugged both of them. They told me that they were reading Melissa's blog and Melissa told me that she had commented on mine. Then they went for an impromptu trip to Wal-Mart (yes, in the middle of the night, too) while I set about reading up on Melissa's latest blog post and then writing up my own.

Hmm...didn't write about Andy in this one. Oh well. I have at least half a dozen other blog entries dedicated to just him so I think this one deviation should be okay.

Lastly, I will be debating on whether or not to continue writing here since Melissa's is already back up. She says that she would like it if I kept on writing (she kindly threatened me even), but I don't really see much point in continuing this embarassing excuse of a journal if she has hers up. But like I said, it's up for debate.

Signing out (for now),

jumira-wings