Lots of ... uh... news...
Family Rant
Oie, I so wish I was still living in the apartment down at U of I. Here, at home, you hear EVERYTHING. Like this morning. I got woken up because the parents were watching tv in their bedroom and I could hear it loud as day AND they're conversation. Sigh... Now I'm hiding in the basement trying to get away from the loudness of the TV as my dad watches Oklahomah. I swear he's going deaf. Shudder. In the apartment, noises stayed pretty much within floors and the tv was unhearable with me on the 3rd and the tv on the 1st. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to learn to adapt.
Other bitch fests for home life (I've been home but two days now) is that my parents have already gotten into another argument over 1. the fact my mother thinks that the value of the house has gone down because an African American Family (my words, not hers) moved into the neighborhood a few years back and 2. because she couldn't find the tape and got pissed because none of us were looking. How could we? Dad was making lunch and had to watch the stove while me and Nathan were busy doing dishes. If we stop doing dishes, they'll never got done. It's a proven fact in our family. Sigh... My mom can be so prejudices/ignorant/annoying at times. Oh well.
Trip to South Carolina
On to other news, I went to see my sister who works on Hilton Head Island this past week. Took us about a day and a half to get there. Let me just say that the blue mountains/smokey mountains/Appalachian mountains are just GORGEOUS!!! If I can ever get someone who's experience in camping to come with me, I'm so going back there someday for a week. Just gorgeous. I'll have to steal some of the pictures we took someday. They're really cool.
Sadly however, the trip did not begin well. While driving through Louisville, Kentucky my brother got into a car accident. Some lady in front of us slammed on her breaks to come to a complete stop and my brother slid into her car since he locked the brakes in response. Bent the hood a little and caused some scratches on our car that we know of. We didn't actually look underneath our hood though. To afriad we wouldn't be able to close it again if we did ^^ Still, the damage to her car wasn't that bad. Looked like a bent license plate and a possible bent tail-pipe which the insurance coming is checking out.
This is our theory of what really happened though. We were crossing a bridge and the exit is directly afterwards....literally. Someone didn't realize this and cut into the exit lane causing someone in front of the lady we hit to slam on his breaks, followed by the lady, and then us. However, the only one's to stick around were us and the lady. Bah. So stupid. Needless to say, my dad drove the rest of the trip there.
Sunday: First day in Hilton Head. We met up with my sister at 7pm after she got off of work and went out to Mi Terra (or something like that). Good mexican restaurant you'd never know was there. It's unmarked and set off the road. Still, someone knew about it since it was PACKED!! Great food though. After that, we sat around our hotel and just talked. Over all, not to bad.
Monday: Went to Hunting Island that was semi-nearby. I think it took us an hour all told to get there. Learned what Duckweed is. It's a green plant that covers the lakes/ponds on the island preventing the water from evaporating in the 'hot southern air.' It was actually kind of cool. I didn't see any alligators though. *pout* However, it did have a workable, REAL lighthouse on the island and a natural beach. Let me just say that nothing beats a natural beach. The sand just feels so much different on your feet! That, and the half buried driftwood and tidepools were neat scenery to look at. We got lots of pictures of crabs too! Woot! Other than that, Dad and Nathan finally got to meet my sister's bf of 3 years named Brian Riley because we took them out to the old Oyster Factory. I had fried mahi-mahi that was just divine. Although, it was just to much food for me to eat. We brought the leftover fish to Sabrinna's for her cat, Marius. We then watched Hell's Kitchen which is a hilarious show! You should watch it. Really!
Tuesday: Trip to Savannah. Wasn't much there I hadn't already seen before on my trip to see Sabrinna about a year and a half ago. We walked through some of the garden plaza's and along river street doing a little bit of shopping. It was fun, but nothing new ^^ Um... Other then that, we had dinner at my sister's and took pictures of the cats (Bubba and Marius) and then went to see the fireworks over the harbor at Shelter Cove. Nothing really to fancy, just about 5/10 minutes of fireworks. It's more a reason for tourists to browse the shops then not.
Wednesday: Spent the time walking around Hilton Head. Went to Folly's Cove, one entrance to the beach that surrounds Hilton Head. This one, sadly, was not a natural beach and you could tell. The sand was coarse and there really wasn't much to look at. Pretty much, you just enjoyed the feel of the tide washing your feet and the sound of the ocean. Not a bad way to spend the morning. Then we picked up my sister, and lunch at Sunrise Cafe, and then walked around some of the shops on the island. After that we saw 'Sheer Madness', the summer play hosted by the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. Mainly, we were seeing it because it was the first professional play my sister did set design solo. She's co-designed a few last year. All in all, I think it looked really nice, but then again I'm prejudiced. Heheh. The play wasn't bad too. Quite interesting and lends to multiple viewings since the ending changes based on who the audience votes as the murderer.
Thursday: Went to Charlotte SC and walked around Fort Sumter, where the "war of disunion" was started according to our Southern Park Ranger. Yes, it's the War of Disunion and not the Civil War according to us Yankees. I thought it was amusing. *wink* After that, we caught Batman Begins on Imax. Quite a different experience seeing it on the big screen rather then a movie theater. After that, it was to late to do much else and so we headed back home.
Friday: Woke up at 4 Eastern time, as on the road by 4:15 and drove ALL the way home to get to Rockford at 10:15 Central Time. Yep, that was 19 hours of driving. I only did about 1.5 hours though in Kentucky though. Let me just say that it's quite different driving up and down hills then on the flat plains like I'm used to. It takes a little getting used to. Nathan drove the last hour or so home. Sigh, I can't really blame dad though for doing all the driving. I haven't been behind the wheel for six months, and I haven't driven steadily for two years. Then there's Nathan who seems to have ADD when driving. I HATE driving with him. Bleh. I think he's gotten into more accidents then anyone I know. Most of which were because he was to impatient to wait for his windshield to defog in the winter, or because he was to busy changing the radio station in the car. Bleh. Let me drive. Please!
And that's about it.