What is a Weekend Really?

It used to be this awesome two days of FREEDOM! Starting in college it kinda lost that meaning. My schedule through college was so tough. It always annoyed me when all the other "normal" college kids would complain about never having time to work on their assignments because they were so "busy." I found it funny that I could finish my part of the group assignment while also having tons of work for my five or six classes depending on the semester, practice 20 hours a week five days a week, work two nights a week, travel every weekend with the team (Friday and Saturday), go to church all day Sunday (including orchestra rehearsal and night service), have time for my boyfriend, and maintain some small resemblance of a social life. Who ever said college athletes have it easy has NO IDEA what they are talking about. On top of all that we had to maintain a GPA that our personal advisers kept up with or else coach would find out and you would be benched for a game or suspended for a season. Of course every professor knew who we were, they got letters from the athletic director at the beginning of the semester introducing us. Heaven forbid a professor have problems with ANY athlete, Judy Rose (athletic director) doesn't mess around when it comes to UNC Charlotte Athletics's reputation. Wow, just thinking about it makes me miss that life so much! It was hard, but so much fun. I can honestly say I got up every day not knowing what to expect. I loved it.

Of course now I just work on the weekends. It's kinda sad, everyone else gets to go to the beach or hang out on Friday nights and I'm stuck at work. Then when I'm off during the week and can do stuff they are all at work! It's a never ending cycle. Hopefully it wont be too long and I can have my weekends back, a real weekend! That would be really exciting. I would love to just plan a camping trip spur of the moment and not have to worry about finding someone to cover my shifts. Yes, that would be nice.

On other subjects, I had a fantastic girls night last night. I had some of my favorite girls over for dinner and knitting. It was so relaxing and fun. Good food, good conversations, good friends. What more can you ask for out of a Saturday night? I have several finished projects I need to post for you all to see. This month's theme is, of course, Halloween! I made a hat and now I'm working on some other stuff for my sister-in-law. I think she will be pretty excited about what I'm making her. Then I'm going to pull the pattern for my elephante back out and make one for my brother. Somewhere in the next few weeks I need to start working on Christmas stuff too. I tried to make my mom a scarf, but it turned out it was going to be too small so I had to rip it apart. I'm still not sure what else I'm going to attempt, but I've got plenty of free time for that.

James has arrived safely in Baghdad. I can't believe I just used "safe" and "Baghdad" in the same sentence. That just seems really wrong. Anyways, I got a call from the stud Friday night, which made my day. I'm hoping he will soon have Internet in his room and that we will fix my wireless so we can talk more. It's funny because it is the little things that you miss the most. Of course I miss him, but I miss just being able to ride in the passenger seat of his truck going anywhere or taking a walk or going out to dinner or watching a movie together. Just knowing he was 15 minutes and a phone call away was always a comfort. Of course you miss the big things too, birthdays and holidays, but it is the small every day things that no one really thinks about when they are happening that make a relationship really special.

Side note: My rash is getting better slowly. It is still very present and annoyingly itchy at times, but it is drying up and I've cut my Benadryl usage in half!