In Sickness...

I should have known that this would happen. I'm at college and I'm sick. I guess that since I rarely, if ever, got sick at home, I just assumed that I would not get sick at college, either. Wrong. I am experiencing my first college sickness. Bleh.
I'm actually not really really sick. I just have a little sore throat. This does explain my extreme sleepiness yesterday, though.
Seriously, I should have seen this coming. I haven't had a single allergy shot since coming to college... and it's allergy season... and cold season... and almost everyone I know is sick or has been sick in the past week. Not good.
I really hope that this doesn't last long, because I hate not being able to keep up with my life. I just popped 2 vitamin C supplements and drank a whole bunch of water, so hopefully that will help. It probably didn't help that I just walked to Bible study in pouring rain and then home again in some pretty chilly temperatures.
Ok, story time. I really wanted something warm for my throat, so I thought, "hmm. i'll warm up some cheerios and milk for myself before bed." (don't judge! I didn't have any tea, and warm cheerios and milk is a major comfort food for me since my mom used to make it for me when I was little. I know it's kind of weird, but just bear with me, ok?) So. I pour the cheerios, drizzle them with honey (it's good for your throat! also very tasty) and then douse the whole mess with milk and pop it in the microwave. 30 seconds later as I pull the bowl out of the microwave I notice that the milk doesn't look like milk anymore: it looks like gross dirty water and gross dirty cheese mixed together. How revolting!!! I sniff the milk in the carton, and sure enough, it's sour. :'( So no warm cheerios and milk for me. I just ate a spoonful of honey instead, which was somehow not as satisfying. At least I discovered that the milk was sour before I ate/drank it! How much would it have sucked if I poured myself a huge glass of the stuff and then took a gulp before realizing the nastiness of it? Ewww I don't even want to think about that. Anyway, I had to carefully pour the rotten whey down my sink, being careful not to let any cheerios out of the bowl in the process, and then ziplock bag the cheerios/sour milk curds so I could throw them away without stinking up my garbage. Overall not the most pleasant experience.
Now I have to finish my Italian workbook pages, as the exam is tomorrow and all I want to do is sleep right now!!! Boo on sickness.
ps. sorry this whole post is just me complaining about how sick i am... that happens sometimes i guess. I'll try to be more interesting in the future. :)

Colleggge

The novelty is starting to wear off. Sure, college is better than high school because I love living on my own and the classes are more interesting/specific to my interests. But it's still school. Still the homework, the teachers practically pulling teeth to induce participation, the sleepiness. This all hit me today during my writing class as I struggled to make my mush of a brain work enough to participate in the conversation we were having about writing struggles. I really wanted to say something intelligent and process what other people were saying, but I couldn't. Honestly I'm still feeling a bit sluggish. There is no reason for this; I had plenty of sleep last night and I woke up at a reasonable hour this morning. I didn't wake up at all in the middle of the night. Hmmm.
Well, I have to go to piano class now. Hopefully I won't fall asleep on my keyboard. hahahahaha
...
Perhaps this whole disenchantment with college (and by college I mean classes) comes from increased social involvment, i.e. Heinz Chapel Choir!!! This is going to sound very very lame... but I think Choir Camp might have been my favorite weekend since coming to college. Now, yes, I've been to parties, and they're great, but the choir crowd is just so fun! and more welcoming/friendly than most college parties could ever be. I can't even describe it as I would like to, really, but I guess I can just say that this weekend I felt like part of a group for the first time since coming to Pitt. Now I know that I'm about to get emotional, so I will spare you that and just wrap this up.
Basically, I think my real problem is that I'm having trouble contenting myself with the whole classroom scene again after meeting and enjoying the company of so many awesome people. Also my sleep pattern seems intent on making me tired all the time, even when I've slept enough! Argh! I really need to figure this out to avoid a repeat of today.
I'm sure that eventually classes will seem interesting again. They are the real reason that I'm here, after all. I'm actually really excited that my schedule changes every semester instead of every year. Not only can I fit in lots more classes, but it prevents boredom, which I succumb to quickly, unfortunately. And I apologize for my clumsy sentence structure. Apparently the English classes haven't kicked in yet. But just wait...

Blessings

You know those days (or weeks!) when you can't seem to be happy? When all the stress in your life piles up on you and you feel like you don't even have the energy to smile? That pretty much describes this past week or so for me. There was so so much for me to worry about; I will spare you from listening to me list them all.
But you know those times when you're feeling like just living life has gotten you down, and then God does something (or several things!) to lift you up again? When you can almost feel him picking you up, brushing you off, and placing you squarely on your feet again? That pretty much describes the past couple days for me. Allow me to explain.
Looking back, I guess it would be best to say that my series of blessings began on Tuesday night, though I didn't know it at the time. Tuesday nights are Bible study nights for me, and it's been a rather unique experience for me since I've never been in a Bible study before. So anyway, I was thinking about skipping out because of my first big college test in Communications the next morning. Not that skipping would have been a big deal; the people at the Newman Center are really great about school coming first and not pressuring or guilt-tripping us into coming to stuff, and people miss things all the time (just usually not Mass :). But in the end I decided to go just for the sake of human interaction, which I don't necessarily find throughout the course of my days at Pitt. (Of course this may and probably will change, but for now, it gets kind of lonely sometimes.) And boy, am I glad I went. First of all, the story we "studied" was that of the prodigal son, which struck a chord with me because of my feelings of being far from God and stressed out this past week. Secondly, I met a girl there who lives on my floor!!! We clicked right away and walked back to the dorm together afterwards, talking all the way. We found that we think the same about a lot of things regarding living our faith, and we were both glad to find someone to discuss our struggles with. There is something so comforting in that!
After a frenzied night of studying, I again woke myself up earlier than usual to review the material. I felt like I knew the stuff pretty well, but was it enough? I had heard so many stories about people who came to college expecting it to be like high school and failed their first exams because they didn't realize the depth of understanding required. I sure as heck didn't want that to happen to me.
Well, after struggling sleepily through work-study (I altered a shirt and cleaned out a paint bin) and Italian class, the moment of truth arrived as I sat down in the lecture hall to take the test. The Scantron sheets were different from the ones in high school, blue ink with small circles instead of green ink with tiny rectangles. Also I had to fill in my name in little boxes and then fill in the corresponding bubbles, just like the SATs!!! O no!! Not the SATs!!! I felt like my brain had been sucked out after that test, and I certainly was not looking for a repeat of that. The instructor passed out the test booklets and we began. Question 1. Oh, I know this one. Question 2. Wow, I know this one too. Question 3, 4, 5, the next 4 pages of questions... O my Lord, I know all of these!!! I know what I'm doing!! I'm not going to fail!!! Hallelujah! And so blessing number 2 came to pass. I actually enjoyed taking that test, as strange as it sounds, and I finished before most of my classmates with plenty of time to check my answers and still leave the class earlier than the usual 50 minutes. Sweeet.
Later that day, I met up with a priest friend on the lawn of the Cathedral (of Learning: there are 2 Cathedrals here! the other is St. Paul's. I love both of them, but Learning doesn't hold a candle to Mass! :) It was lovely to get advice and guidance from him. He basically ordered me to go have some fun now that most of my causes for stress were over with (i.e. paper due, first big test). So I did. After 5:15 Mass I caught a bus with a new found Newman Center friend from my Bible study (not the one I met on Tuesday night: different friend) to ... well, actually I don't remember what the town itself was called, but our destination was a bakery called Dozen, where Wednesday was $1 Cupcake Day! This is a big deal because their cupcakes are gourmet and they have lots of fancy flavors like pancakes and syrup (with a small piece of bacon on top), root beer float, vegan vanilla, chocolate strawberry (made with real strawberries!), and more. Plus $1 Cupcake Day only comes once a year, during Cupcake Week. So I tried the root beer float cupcake (it tasted exactly like a root beer float!! shocking!) and also ordered some ridiculously expensive fruit/yogurt/granola mixture for a light dinner. We met with another guy that my friend knew at the bakery, and the three of us enjoyed some lively and refreshing conversation.
When we returned to the Newman Center we headed straight for the student center in the basement, because it was Ladies' Night! Now, some of you may think this to be a cliched topic, but the theme was Genuine Beauty. I know that when I first heard that, I was thinking, "O, please, I could give this talk myself, I've heard it so many times." But it wasn't like that at all. This gathering of young women was much more interactive, personal, and all around inspiring to me than it had ever been before. We took a look at what society expects us to be as women, which gave some magnificent perspective to the whole idea, and then turned our attention to what God expects us to be as daughters of Christ. The great thing about this discussion was that we decided that when someone has a truly beautiful personality, it shines through their physical, superficial features and just radiates Christ's love. On the other hand, someone could be the most beautiful person in the world but have a rotten personality, and that would also show through their mere physical beauty.
Now, again, this may not seem groundbreaking to you, but at the time I had been struggling with how much to eat here at college and the image that I was projecting to all the new people I'm meeting, so these realizations truly struck a chord with me. After the gathering ended with a prayer, I slipped away to the chapel (where there is perpetual adoration) for some alone time with God. Words can not describe what happened to my heart during the half-hour or so I spent kneeling there, but when I left I was filled with a joy and peace that I had not felt for weeks.
As a result of these blessed occurences, I feel renewed in spirit and, surprisingly, in body. I feel on top of all the work that my classes are throwing at me and ready for anything. It's fantastic, really. This is such a perfect example of the way God places certain people and situations in my life because He knows exactly what I need. "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation. O my soul praise Him, for He is thy help and salvation."
May the Lord bless you with even more grace as you carry out your mission on this earth. :)

The Last 24 Hours

Despite my obvious trouble finding things to write about in these past few days, I realized today that a recap of the events of the previous 24 hours or so could indeed be considered interesting.
Exactly 24 hours ago (from the time I'm writing this) at this very minute I was walking home from Mass at St. Paul's Cathedral. I was feeling a bit worried and very determined, because I had been trying ALL DAY to write a paper for my writing class, but the words just would not come. I had gone home early Saturday night to work on it and hermited myself all day leading up to Mass, allowing myself ample time for the creative juices to flow. I had researched and arranged my ideas in several different ways, but when it came to actually writing anything down I couldn't do it. I was discouraged with my procrastination and seeming inability to get anything down on paper, and angry with myself that I couldn't write. Writing is what I want to do with my life! I should be able to sit and write about anything, especially a topic so important to me as the one I was writing about yesterday. But no. Almost in a panic, I sank onto my knees after Mass and begged God to allow the Holy Spirit to flow through my mind and onto the paper. Perceiving no response, I turned to the Blessed Mother. "Please, dear Mother," I pleaded, "ask your Son to help me!" I knelt there for I don't even know how long, but eventually I heard or rather felt the words, "Go, do your work, little one, and I will do Mine."
So it was with this command and an incredible sense of relief and determination that I returned to my dorm room to write. I sat down at my computer and just wrote and wrote. Anytime I felt at a loss for words, I simply remembered the phrase, "you do your work, little one, and I'll do Mine," and knew that as long as I kept writing, He would take care of the rest. I wrote for 6 hours solid last night, finally crawling into bed sometime after 1 am.
For some reason, last night my sleep was somewhat disturbed by a very vivid, confusing, and upsetting dream. I dreamt that my dear father was walking me down the aisle at my wedding. I was beaming, so happy to be there with my closest friends and family and wearing such a lovely wedding dress! But as I stepped up onto the altar, I realized that I didn't know the guy I was marrying! I mean, he looked familiar, and I knew he was the one I was supposed to marry, but suddenly I didn't want to marry him. I froze, head whirling with the situation that faced me. On one hand there was the dress, the lavish reception that was planned, and the presence of all my friends and family. On the other was a life lived as the result of a mistake, and what a mistake! What would it mean for me if I backed out now? What would it mean for me if I stayed and married him? Unable to cope with the trapped, panickey feeling, I fled the church by the side door and sought refuge in one of the large white tents set up for the reception. It wasn't until I saw my mother headed towards me with a look of gentle compassion on her face that I burst into tears.
I know, this is bizarre, and very Runaway Bride -esque. Imagine the way I felt when I woke up this morning as my cell phone alarm went off beside my head. I'm having nightmares about my wedding???? ALREADY?? Geez. It doesn't help that at this point I have only had about 6 hours of sleep, a good 2 hours less than usual. So of course I hit snooze. Twice. I even got out of bed to hit snooze on the second alarm I had set at a convenient distance across the room and then proceeded to get back in bed.
By the time I got out the door of my dorm this morning I knew I was going to be late. I had only 5 minutes to get to work at 9:00 and it usually took me at least 10 to 15 minutes to get there. Luckily the clock in the costume shop is broken, so I hoped that they won't notice my tardiness.
My first job when I get to the shop? Install the new clock. Hmm. So much for that. I put batteries in the clock and polished it off before hanging it in a prominent spot on the wall where our old clock, may it rest in peace, used to hang.
My next job, though perhaps a bit more interesting, was not so simple. The head of the costume shop has recently been working on an Elvis costume for some show; I don't even know the details, really. By Elvis costume I mean white spandex jumpsuit with flared legs and sleeves and lots and lots of gold trim. And today, I studded it. Now. The costume shop does own a Bedazzler, but the studs and the machine are too weak to work with such a difficult material as spandex. So I placed by hand, 68 gold and silver studs, pushing the little metal prongs through the fabric and bending all 5 of those little prongs down on the other side with only my thumbnail as a tool. The costume looked amazing, though, and she was so grateful that I couldn't complain or really even be grumpy about it. So I headed to Italian class with a smile on my face and two very sore thumbs.
Italian class today was mildly interesting, as we were in the language lab learning how to use the recording equipment for our oral exams. The microphones were very sensitive to background noise, but not so sensitive to the person who was actually supposed to be speaking into it, so it made for an interesting 50 minutes. Bonus: hearing the guy across the table from my group speaking in an incredibly fake and cheesy Italian accent. ahahahaha gotta love it.
At noon was Communication Processes, in which we hurried through the last lecture before our test on Wednesday! It'll be my first test in this class, so I'm a little concerned about it even though I seemed to be grasping everything very well at the review session on Thursday morning of last week.
From 1 to 2 I had an hour to kill before my writing class, so I claimed a nook on the third floor of the Cathedral of Learning and settled down with Unita due of my Italian book. Unfortunately, I almost fell asleep conjugating -ere verbs and don't really know how much of the material actually stuck in my sleep-deprived brain.
In writing class we discussed why people come to college and whether it's truly necessary. I mean, what's wrong with learning a trade? Why has our culture shifted in such a way that you literally need a bachelors degree to get anywhere? An interesting topic, to be sure.
After a quick stop back to my room to change books I was on my way to piano class at 4. We are learning about intervals, which is somewhat easy for me but still something I'm glad to be delving into a little bit. At the end of class the professor assigned a song to the class to learn for Friday, then turned to me and said "Jane, I want you to learn the secondo part," referring to the teacher's part on the next page! Cool.
As I always do on Monday/Wednesday/Friday when I have piano, I hurried over to the Newman Center to catch Benediction at 5:00 and mass at 5:15. Sweet! God, I love daily mass!
On my way home around 6 I made a stop at my favorite place to be: IGA! Hahaha is it weird that I love grocery shopping? Cuz I do. This time I bought bread (I had just eaten my last piece with jam for breakfast this morning), honey, and Orbit Mint Mojito gum (they didn't have spearmint or sweetmint!! shameful).
So now, here I sit, munching on a peanut butter and honey sandwich on fresh wheat bread. Yummy! Is there anything so delicious? I think not. Or maybe I was just really hungry... either way, honey + peanut butter = :)
Now if you will excuse me I'd best be studying for my communications "quiz." Ha.

Success!

Today, I found a grocery store. :) Yay me!!!
My quest began with my desire for peanut butter. I have long since run out of the jar I initially brought to school.
I knew that there was some food at Rite Aid, so I headed in that direction. No dice there, though there were plenty of overpriced snack packages and cookies.
I left the store determined to wander along Forbes Avenue until I found this grocery store that everyone kept telling me about. I crossed Atwood and eureka! there before me like a beacon in the night was an IBG, smiling down at me from the second floor of Super Cuts. Crossing the street again I found my way up the stairs and oh, what a sight greeted my hungry eyes!
An entire aisle of fresh produce! A deli! A bakery! Aisle upon aisle of snack foods and REAL foods! Yes! But way in the back corner I found what I had come for: peanut butter and jam. The jam selection was delightful; I could barely choose between peach, pineapple, apple, grape, black raspberry and the traditional strawberry. And the peanut butters! Creamy AND crunchy! O my! On top of all this they had apple butter, a personal favorite of mine, so of course I bought a jar. In the end I checked out with a jar of creamy peanut butter, a jar of strawberry jam, a jar of apple butter, and the intent to return to IBG quite often.
In Rite Aid's defense, they are still the only place that gives cash back, so I continue to make small purchases there when I need a few dollars.
This adventure has left me with a renewed sense of self-sufficiencey, which has suffered recently due to an increase in school work. :p So although grocery shopping may not seem like a huge deal to you, I assure you that it is quite monumental to me and thus worth blogging about.
Stay tuned to hear me talk about laundry!!! hahahahahahaha I bet you can't wait...

Exhaustionnnnnnn

I am currently trying to stay awake long enough to go to choir at 4:00. I want so very badly to flop onto my bed and sleep until tomorrow. My last few days have been rather sleepless.
Two nights ago two of my friends called me, one after another, and I stayed up until almost 2am talking to them!!! This is really really late for me; usually if I know that I have to wake up early, which I did, I'm at least in bed by 11 (whether I get to sleep that quickly is sometimes another issue). Then I had to wake up at 7:30, which is early for me (especially after getting to bed so late!), to go to my work study job. <3 Yes, I love work, but that doesn't make it much easier to pull myself out of bed after only 5 or so hours of sleep. Oh, just wait. It gets worse.
Last night I was thinking, "Yes, tonight I will make up for my lack of sleep. Tonight I will go to bed on time!" But unfortunately there was something else in my future. You see, I was finishing an Italian project for the next morning when I looked up at my calender and realized that the project wasn't the only thing that was due this morning; I had a paper to write for communications that I totally totally forgot about!!!! How does this happen to me??? At this point I was seriously longing to be in my bed and I knew that I wouldn't be able to write a paper in such a ridiculously sleepy state of mind, so I went to bed as soon as the Italian project was done, about 11:30, leaving not one word of my communications paper done.
SO... I woke myself up at 6 this morning (SIX!!!!!) to write the stinkin' thing. Clearly not my best work. And now I really need sleeeeeep....

Why Do You Hate Me, Red Rug?

So today I am trying to tape down my lovely red and white rug which has been bubbling up in several places lately, possibly due to pressure on the edges when I open my bottom drawer or roll over the rug in my desk chair. Unfortunately, the rug doesn't want to be taped down. There is a whole edge that is puckering right now even though the whole rest of the rug is taped down straight. Why???? It's seriously as though one edge is longer than the other!!!! I can't decide if it's worth it to grapple further with the thing at this point, because I am using up all of my dad's rug tape and not really improving the situation much. Grrr.
Curse you, dratted rug. I will conquer you yet.

Work Study <3

I am told every time I go to work that I have snagged "the best work-study position at the University of Pittsburgh," and I couldn't agree more. You see, I am an assistant seamstress in the Theatre Department's costume shop. There are many reasons that this job RULES!!!
First of all, I'm only working 6 hours a week, which fits in very nicely with my schedule. Also, since I'm only a first year student, I will have many opportunities for a raise from the $7.65/h that I'm making now. I've landed this position for 4 years if I so choose, and my pay is only going to go up! Yippee!
Secondly, I don't really have to do any work, unless you consider sewing to be work, which I don't. So far at my job I have done the following: cut and ironed 7x7 squares of muslin for practice squares for the sewing 1 classes, sorted a huge pile of fabric, played with all the different stitch settings on "my" sewing machine (more on this later), and learned 3 kinds of hand stitches. Basically it's like being paid to take a sewing 1 class. Ha! But my boss did tell me what my first project was going to be: corsets! Corsets for the 17th and 18th century acting class! How cool is this?!?!
In addition to all this wonderousness, I, being in a work-study position, am technically above all the sewing/costume production students who work in the shop for lab hours for their classes! My boss has even suggested that I, a lowly freshman, may be giving them jobs to do and "keeping them busy," as she puts it. I'm not even taking any classes in the theatre department right now! Yet I have power over all these theatre/artsy majors! Does this get any better? Why, yes, actually, it does...
On Wednesday, when it came time for me to be assigned to a sewing machine, the head of the costume shop led me over to the newest, best machine in the shop and said to familiarize myself with the way this machine works, because it was going to be my machine every time I was working in the shop. It is quite fancy and at first I was intimidated, but after I sewed a few lines of stitching, I realized that it was quite top-of-the-line. It's fantastic, really. And since I'm going to be in the shop for 4 years, probably, I'll definitely be really familiar with the machine after a while, and very comfortable with it's quirks and settings.
On top of all this my boss (the head of the costume shop) is the sweetest, most easygoing lady. She is so friendly and helpful. She treats me as though I personally am of importance to the success of the shop, and she has been very patient with the whole training process.
Also, she apparently has quite an "in" with the theatre crowd, and said she would be happy to help me get into a show or some kind of production at Pitt. This is really awesome, because it has been my wish to keep up with a little bit of theatre during my time here, but at the theatre presentation at the beginning of the year it seemed that the directors may prefer to cast theatre majors, though the auditions are open to everyone. But now, I have found myself a way to get involved without having to switch my major or even "put my time in" so to speak.
I am so, so blessed to have found this position. I can't wait to go to work this afternoon! :)
How many people can say that about their work-study positions? ... Not a lot, I think. So thank you, my dear Lord, for bringing this opportunity into my life; I am sure that many good fruits will come of it.

Workin' Out...

So today after ballet class I was feeling really energized for some reason, so I decided it would be an excellent idea to change from leotard to workout clothes and hit the gym. Not the smartest. I did manage to have an excellent workout for the first 25 minutes, though the last 5 minutes were rather painful. Really, it's what happened as a result of my decision that put me in a bit of a fix.
Ok, let me explain.
I have ballet from 1:30 - 2:25. At 4:00 I have choir rehearsal. When I returned to my dorm room around 3, I figured that I had time for a quick workout and shower before I headed out for rehearsal. I did not, however, look at a clock at that time. This could be trouble, yes?
When I got to the gym and looked at the clock, I swear it said 2:00. This could be due to my inability to tell time properly or the clock being slow an hour. I will not comment on which I believe it to be. Either way I should have REALIZED that at 2:00 my ballet class is still in session. But I did not.
For whatever reason, I thought I had an extra HOUR to prepare for choir practice after working out, and it wasn't until I was back in my room sitting at my computer eating cheese and crackers that I realized it was 3:47.
WHAT??? Where did the time go??? Really, though, it was as though I had lost a whole hour! I ended up throwing a shirt and skirt on without even having a chance to shower (ew!) and power walking all the way to rehearsal, and even still I ended up being about 15 minutes late. Why does Lothrop have to be so far away from everything??? Why???
In the end it wasn't really a problem aside from being extremely embarrassing showing up to rehearsal late and sweaty. No one asked me any questions and I volunteered no answers. That's just how things work around here, I guess. I think I kind of like it this way. True, I had no chance to explain my almost legitimate reason for being late, but at least now I have the benefit of the doubt, right? Would people have thought better of me, or worse, if they knew the truth? Well, I guess we'll never know. Unless the people who saw me come in late read this and leave comments... then we might know. But that is unlikely, yes?
I do wish, after all, that the people sitting around me had an explanation for my post-workout stench, though. For all they know now, I might just smell like that all the time. Hmmm. I'll have to work on dispelling this belief...

Best Dorm Idea Ever!

K. So i'm supposed to be working on my notebook assignment but I just realized the most exciting thing! My dry-erase markers work on my mirrors! AWESOME!!! So I just decorated my huge wall sized mirror... and the one over my sink. Also my mini-fridge. Hahahahahaha yay!!! I love my room.

Where Is Home?

Some people have issues with calling their dorm rooms "home." They hold on to their concept of home as their parents' house. They feel homesick and hate living in a dorm. I thought I was going to be one of these people.
Imagine my surprise, then, when after 2 days away from my dorm room, sleeping in my own bed in my parents' house I found myself missing my dorm room. I love it here. I love the way it smells faintly of paint and my blankets and my air freshener. I love the blue paper in the windows and the way the lamp lights the corner when it's dark outside. Never mind that there is no air conditioning or that it's smaller than my other room. To me, this is home. Just walking in the door makes me smile. Perhaps what I love most about it is that it's mine and only mine: schedule, calender, grocery list, radio station, pillows, books, plants.
As my dad drove me back to campus last night, I was so happy to see the lit top of the Cathedral again and to know that I was back where I belonged. I was going home.
Don't get me wrong; I love my family and would hate to be cut off from them. I'm so grateful for all the years of formation that have made me ready to take this step and have allowed me to be so comfortable in my new situation. Love you, Mom and Dad! :)
In fact, I still refer to Mom and Dad's house as "home." I just have another home now, too. A home to which I am so so happy to return.