Three hundred and one dollars, fifty-one cents for books, not counting two of my Physics books, which aren’t in quite yet. I had a $291 credit balance, so thus far, I’ve paid $10.57 for books. Go me! I did end up with a hell of a lot of books, though. Two for Chem, three for Rhetoric in Science, three (eventually) for Physics, and one for each of the others (except for college and life skills). Whoo. I hope I don’t die from too much work. Actually, nervous breakdowns are probably more likely to occur… Off to another “mission”!

Guess what I got today…? My laptop, yeah, baby! It’s sweet, despite the fact that it doesn’t have FireWire (grr). So I shall be hunting down a IEEE 1394 to USB converter or something. When I have money. Right. So, the trip. I shall go blow-by-blow, including the few pictures I managed to take. It’s 680 miles from my apartment in Charlotte, North Carolina to the hotel room we stayed in in Terre Haute, Indiana. Somehow, that took us thirteen hours. Yes, 13. I did, however, manage to put the camera in the friggin’ trunk and not remember to take it out until a couple of stops later, at which…

The good news: We will be leaving (by car) for Terre Haute late tomorrow morning. Hopefully. Yay! I’m going to college! *resumes Violent, Thrashing, Happy Dance* The bad news: My father is going to have to have his gallbladder removed (I believe). He goes under the laser Tuesday, and apparently this type of thing is day surgery. Worse news is that they will have to run more tests on his liver at the same time (they fear there may be problems there too), and until the surgery, the Old Man is off his diabetic meds, so Mother-dear will undoubtedly show her codependent nature and force-feed him healthy food for the…

This is my last day in Charlotte, North Carolina. W00t, w00t! *Does Violent, Thrashing Happy Dance, which is sadly similar to both Elaine’s horrid dancing in Seinfield and the dancing of that diner/restaurant owner from Pootie Tang*. Okay, I’ll stop. Anyway… my father has spent this past night and all of today in the hospital, and my mother doesn’t know for sure that we’ll even be able to take the trip by car tomorrow. So I may be scrabbling to get a bus ticket or plane ticket (and a ride from the station or airport to school). What that means for my luggage I have no idea, but it can’t…

Note to self: Do your best to remember that Limp Bizkit’s “Three Dollar Bills Y’all” CD doesn’t have that perfect volume that Disturbed’s “The Sickness” does, at which the music can be heard quite well over the rattling of all six speakers in your mother’s poor Camero. With the LB, more volume means more rattle. Stick with Disturbed. Way early Friday, my buddy Hannah left for MIT. I miss her already, despite the fact that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to see her before I went off to college myself. It’s because I know she’s too many miles away. And because she always makes me laugh. Although I do now…