We'll be heading out to the airport to fly to Miami. Lola's already gone with Marcia to hang out there for the week. She needs to socialize, and being with her brothers is a good way to start. Plus she loves Marcia. XD

I'm not bringing my laptop with me, nor the iPad. The iPad is actually still at school. There's wifi on the ship, but it's expensive and it's slow, so I won't really be on it. I'll be checking e-mail and that's basically it. I get to forget about school for a week, except for reading a book on Alternate Reality Games, which won't be a chore.

Was supposed to have posted this, but then got caught up in sending a couple e-mails to professors. Off the laptop goes! Won't be any posts until I get back, but I'm hoping to have lots of pictures to share.

I'm dreading the end of my vacation. :( We're heading back tomorrow morning sometime. I really don't want to go back. It's been fun up here, although the lack of a driver's license kind of kicked me in the butt and had me stuck at home for two days straight. Really, it was more stuck at home without good TV for two days straight--the stations up here suck. They run informercials during the day. Sometimes between two non-infomercials. The city's TV is so much better. But yeah, up until yesterday, it was just me, Craig, and the dog. And without Mom around, the two of us were a lot better about cleaning. Craig actually offered to do dishes on Friday when we made spaghetti and Italian sausage, as long as I put the food away. I guess he and I will make another batch of brownies. I'd said we could, but we waited too long, and I didn't feel like making anything. It's not like Craig can't do it himself, but he always has me line the pan with foil. The brownies stay warm that way.

Mom had a talk with Craig about his temper, which he blamed on lack of socialization. (Craig got mad at Dead Rising yesterday and tossed the disc at the window, breaking the already-broken slat on his blinds further.) He said he was fine (ha) when he was going to school up here, but now that he's down in the city with no friends, he gets angry more often. Never mind that he essentially let it happen. He can't say Dad didn't warn him. I don't think it should've been handled the way it was, but Dad warned him at least three times.

Is it wrong for me to say that sometimes I wish Mom and Dad had stopped with me instead of being concerned that I was an only child? -_-

Dad's down in Oklahoma with Grandma, because the rest of the family down there went on a cruise. He's supposed to be staying for a month, but might stay an extra month since Aunt Cheryl is going to Africa after she gets back from the cruise, and Grandma doesn't really trust Aunt Lisa (whose mind isn't right anymore after encephalitis) to take care of her.

Got the application for apartments on 42nd and 10th, and told Mom about it. She said looking for an apartment is good reason to keep my current job, because people are looking for stability, not "I just got a new job and might not keep it." I don't want to hear that, damnit.

Oliver is eating Chef Michael's wet food. This is significant because it's been ground food. Mom got some containers of chunky food and some pates, and he's eaten absolutely everything I've thrown at him. This morning he had filet mignon, haha. We went out yesterday and bought like 15 more containers. Oliver does not eat ground food, so for him to stick his nose in the bowl and not come up until every piece of wet food is gone is something wondrous. They must do something different with this stuff, or Oliver's gotten less picky.

There's a history class I'm sort of eying. Good news, teacher's supposed to be great and it would eliminate the Saturday morning class. Bad news, it'll bump me up to three nights a week of getting home past 9pm: The class is from 8:05-9:35 two days a week. There's one slot open, and getting it would require going to the school and getting the F1 stop temporary lifted. (Yeah, I know I keep bouncing around, but they put all the professors' names back up on the class schedules, so now I can actually see who's teaching.) Speaking of school, I am SO disappointed that I didn't keep my registration for the creative writing workshop over the summer. I took it off once I registered for Communication, because that was an online class and I didn't want a conflict between that and anything else. Turns out there wouldn't have been a conflict, I could be three credits closer to graduation, and I wouldn't be looking sadly at the current creative writing sections I can't take because of new actual conflicts. It sucks. The classes in the Fall II term overlap with the Fundamentals of Professional Advancement course I want to take. BOTH of them. One runs into the beginning of the class, the other takes place at the same time. I'll have to get lucky in the spring, I guess.

I was the first person up, which amuses me a bit. I'm already washed and dressed. I'm not in a rush to get home (although I do get to see Nick today), but I figured I was awake and it made no sense to go back to sleep when I'd probably get woken up ten minutes later. (That single thought kept me in a very shallow sleep for about twenty minutes before I finally got up.)

I can't remember if Mom has tomorrow off, and I dare not ask her. It might jog her memory and remind her that I took the day off. I took it, and I'm not taking it back, but I don't want the lecture. It gives me the opportunity to really work on cleaning my room, anyway. I'm planning on getting a new computer desk. My current one is more than ten years old and shakes when the printer's in use, and I want something shiny and sleek and pretty for my room. I'm a little worried I'll have to move everything around. (I still want that room setup I saw in Ikea. So pretty. Mom said we could redo my room, but... eee. And if I were going to go that far, I'd rather get my own place and furnish the bedroom with that furniture. ^^;)

Speaking of cleaning, Nick offered to help me. I told him he didn't want to do that. XD; He said it might help him start on his place, though. He's been living like a bachelor, and I think he wants to change that a bit. He called last week said he actually went grocery shopping. Being attached is changing both of us. I actually found myself looking at dresses online and liking them, and not minding the thought of wearing some of them. (Stayed away from pink, of course. I draw the line at pink.)

I haven't journaled in a few days. We went to Howe Caverns on Friday. It was awesome. We took a guided tour down to an underground lake and rode a boat out to the end of the conditioned part of the cave. (They're planning on expanding it.) Next time I go, I want to do the adventure tour, which involves crawling and flashlights and getting all muddy. XD Also mined for gemstones and found some really nice pieces of amethyst and quartz, and about sixteen pieces of pyrite. The trip reminded me how much I loved Geology while I was in Brooklyn College. Easily the most fun science I've taken. Pictures of the caverns may follow if I can get some from the parents, because my camera sucks for that sort of thing. I need a better one. Image stabilization, please.

Also, ( Nintendogs rambles... )

Oh, and Beano came over! We haven't seen him in forever since he got a girlfriend. I missed his randomness. Craig's friend Tim (who needs other friends, damnit) is a whiny crybaby when we're playing Halo, so it was nice to have Beano around to have fun with. Beano doesn't care if he loses.

Haha, Craig just woke up and stared at my bed for a couple seconds until I said something, looked over at me, said "bye-bye", and threw the covers over his head. XDDD