HURRRAH! now i am REALLY HAPPY! AND ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

so.

yesterday evening craig came over and was all dressed up, and guess what he brought me?!!

THAI PEANUT NOODLES! so we are some thai noodles and then went to go see the dance show, which was extremely loud and interactive. The audience sat in our tiny tiny theatre and yelled to their friends who jumped around in spandex on the floor because we dont have a stage. we evidently also dont have enough seating, as many audience members sat on the floor/stage. my favorite part of the show was when rachel sholte's who is my very short, happy, white, friend danced a traditional african dance. it was really amusing.

so then craig and i went to Ross's christmas party!!! which was super cute. they still had all their halloween king Arthur's castle decorations up, so it was like a ...king Arthur's castle christmas party! there was alot of jingle bells that everyone had to wear and classical christmas music playing and beer pong and there were alot of seniors standing around in really nice christmas apparel! they also had a whole bunch of sugar cookies/ decorations which made me really happy... because who doesnt like decorating christmas cookies?! I made this really awesome camel which was wearing pink and black knee socks and had an extremely elaborate saddle, and Ross got really excited and started saying that i should have an exhibition at the Hishorn. which made me really excited, so then i proceeded to make craig the ULTIMATE christmas cookie. Craig kept losing beer pong games and telling me how much he really loved my awesome cookie decorating skills. i didnt want to drink at all because i had my race the next morning. so i left craig there with his christmas butterfly cookie and went home pretty early and went to bed.

Then i got up this morning, and drove out in the drizzle with a couple of my friends to solomans island...

oh gross i think i just dropped fish food in my popcorn by accident.

LESSON TO YOU ALL... never eat popcorn while feeding your fish.

SO anyways. then i ran my first ever 5K this morning!! (applause here) FOR ARTHRITIS. I sure hope all you people out there with ARTHRITIS APPRECIATE ME!!!

the fact that i finished made me SUPER HAPPY. because i ran the whole time!! and it was really long, and i thought i might die (several times). of course i have nothing on the real runners of the family like chris lo, who last i heard, was averaging like... 200 miles a day or something.

but anyways, i got an official number to pin on me and like a little cardboard timer thing to tie on my shoe (also we all got jingle bells to tie on our shoes... but then we all started running and they fell all over the road and added a new element to the whole race) and then i ran and ran and didnt actually die. PLUS I GOT A FREE T-SHIRT. except its not really free because you have to pay to race. which is ridiculous. people should have to pay you to run that far.

so then i was really excited and i called my mom:

laura: HEY MOM I JUST RAN A 5K!

mom: thats nice.

laura: YEAH THE WHOLE THING!!

mom: did you win?

laura: there were 600 people there mom.

mom: so you didnt win?

laura: ...no...

mom: oh well.

Then i went home and i said goodbye to craig, who was hung over, and was off to baltimore for the day to go play with an orchestra there for the day. then i took a shower (which felt AMAZING) and printed out mapquest directions to get to this nearby (okay... relatively nearby...) historic plantation where i had offered to volunteer for the day. so then my friend drove me over there and i did childrens crafts from 12 until 6 in an unheated tent in a pond! it wasnt really in a pond but it was raining again today (big surprise) and we were kind of in a valley, so everything was pretty flooded. BUT i still had a good time and made many pipe cleaner ornaments and candy cane mice! you would be surprised at the things kids make... like christmas bunny rabbits ornaments! It was actually a really neat event, it was like mainly hosted for the children of the community and there were lots of girl scouts and christmas cookies and caroling and cute crafts and such. and they gave me free mistle-toe to take home!

When we got to the part where i was allowed to leave, it occured to me that i did not exactly have a ride home per-say... because craig was still in Baltimore and because... I STILL DONT HAVE A CAR, so i was driven home by some random lady named linda who was happy she got to leave early, who told me her entire life story up to date (its like a 45 minute drive)...and guess where she met her husband? E-HARMONY.

AND GUESS WHAT ELSE? IT STARTED SNOWING.

of course its not sticking or anything, what with there being like four feet of water covering all of southern md at this point. however none the less there is frozen precipitation falling out of the sky.

and now i am home, and to tired to go eat dinner, so im eating popcorn and probably working on my sociology paper before i pass out. THE END.

OH AND ALSO. the girls next door have taken to playing recorder/ whistle. it is really weird. recorder as in, like the ones we learned to play in second grade, with like a grand total of five holes and the sound of shrieking horribleness. her room mate accompanies her on something that sounds very much like a rape whistle. who are they doing this? it is really strange... this is the third time i have heard them "practicing." they play great classics like "hot cross buns" AND "happy birthday" these are the only recognizable songs i have identified.