11-01-06 @ 9:46 pm EST

This shouldn't be very long as I can't remember things well, and not much has been going on anyway. :/ Yesterday of course was Halloween, and Eric, Shannon, and Rayne went as the Incredibles. That morning Ma and I walked to the corner store and on the way back a dog followed us partway; I offered it a Combo but all it wanted to do was sniff us. It looked like a Chow that had had its fur cut short. *confused* Several friends of the family came over that evening also dressed as superheroes, then they all left to go trick-or-treating. I have to admit, I wasn't sure that people around here DID go trick-or-treating since it's highly religious. Shannon's parents came but stayed out in the driveway to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. Magni had to stay in the house with me and he wasn't happy.

It wasn't long however before Eric and Rayne returned. Rayne had had a fever that morning and now she was feeling ill, so they'd had to cut the night short. Shannon and Ma were out in the driveway now with Shannon's parents so I went out to see them. It was dark by now and there were lots of trick-or-treaters walking the road. Two small children showed up wearing backpacks, and they were Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go! (Yes, I'm learning a LOT about preschoolers' TV programming since staying here. The Upside Down Show IMO is one of the least obnoxious.) I sat down on the lawn and watched the kids with glowsticks go by. There were even older teenagers not even bothering to dress up or say, "Trick or treat," just showing up with bags for the candy and saying, "Thank you" as they left. (Pff. Has nobody any decency anymore?) This was the way I always envisioned that Halloween SHOULD be--lots of kids wandering around streets at night, chattering, going door to door and getting warm receptions and lots of candy. Where I'm from, the houses are such a distance apart (though that's rapidly changing :( ) that we would be driven around to different places to get candy, and there were never large groups of kids walking around together; I was usually just with a parent. In short, there wasn't that COMMUNUAL feeling to it that I saw here and that you always see on TV. No, I'm not looking to go trick-or-treating anymore, since I got too shy for that long long ago, but at least back when I used to do it, I wish it would have been like this.

I filched a few of the candy pieces that hadn't been handed out. Do you know what kind of candy I miss that I NEVER see for sale anymore? Charleston Chews! I used to LOVE those things but you never see them around anymore! At least, not around here. :( There were two small vanilla ones in the bucket so I took those and a couple of Tootsie Rolls. Ummmm...can't think of much else. Though I did have trouble getting to sleep again last night. -_- I thought maybe it was the heat, since this one room is warmer than the others, but even trying to sleep under a lighter blanket it didn't work. I really can't say what the problem is. I'm always so tired by the end of the day (the main reason why I never stay online for long, and certainly never to browse, and haven't listened to my CDs or done a dozen other things I thought I'd feel like doing late at night!) that that's not a problem. It's just this creepy-crawly-fidgety feeling that I can't explain. So irritating.

Eric came into the room early in the morning to do...something...then returned at least once or twice, but I pretended to be asleep so he wouldn't feel he was waking me up over and over. I looked at my clock before dozing back off and saw that it was only around 4:30. :/ That's pretty early. Once when I got up to use the bathroom the toilet was...less than pristine o_o ...so I figured that perhaps Rayne had started feeling ill again and that was why Eric had been up so early.

Shannon had to take her computer in, so that's gone, but it turns out that Eric's computer, which I'm on now, also has a camera card reader that can read SD cards so it's all good. The main reason I've been using Shannon's computer is the fact that I could upload my photos much faster--it would take months at home! (That, and the fact that Eric's has a password, but Shannon told it to me. So here I am.)

Well, today it rained -_- so no trips anywhere. *sigh* I really wanted to see that art park and maybe the Chickamauga Battlefield but it's starting to look like not. Oh well...at least I saw Rock City. Shannon, Ma, Rayne, and I went to the Hobby Lobby and I let Ma borrow my money because Hobby Lobby is like Ma's dream come true, but it turned out that almost everything was half off on a sale so it didn't cost nearly as much as she'd anticipated. She had a...thing of some kind which had two pricetags on it so she asked the cashier which was right, the approx. $8 one or the approx. $2 one. "I'll give it to you for the $2-whatever price," the cashier grumbled, turning to the cash register. "We don't have scanners here. About the only store that doesn't...drives me crazy." She seemed in a pretty foul mood from the customer she'd serviced just before us so I kept mum, though Ma did manage to wrangle a laugh out of her before leaving. Imagine, a store without scanners! That's like living in the Stone Age. o_o

On returning Ma and Shannon set to work looking at their respective finds and I keep trying to read but I'm always so distracted mentally! Ugh, just can't focus well. I keep WANTING to do various things but can't focus. I woke up this morning thinking about my D4D stories for some reason. Really need to rewrite those sometime. *sigh* Tonight I got to thinking about my schedule returning to normal when I get home and it actually felt not as good as I'd thought. :/ It's kind of nice not sticking to the same strict schedule every day. But don't get me wrong, I know that I'll change promptly back to my old ways once back home, and I'll be happy with them. After all, I haven't gotten anything done writingwise since coming here! And not much reading or drawing either. Though I have gotten more sleep...

And better food...

Anyway...can't think of much else. I'd like to say that I hope the weather clears up since we have only Thursday and MAYBE (but maybe not) Friday left to do anything, but I don't really expect it to. :/ *sigh* Shannon's already feeling stressed that it's almost time for us to leave, since she doesn't want us to and neither does Rayne. Of course.

Oh. Random quote from Rayne today:

Rayne: "Everywhere is a playground."

Me: "Ooh. That's a good philosophy."