"One part ice cream, two parts awesome! "

Wow, it has been nearly two weeks since i wrote anything. Now there's only five weeks between me and the next two years of my life.

I went to jackson over the weekend, and it was pretty great. I actually managed to see everyone, if only for a few minutes. Friday night i drove up to jackson. It was a pretty nice drive, nothing crazy, not like the drive home, but i'm getting ahead of myself. I had this genius plan to call in a take-out order with a fake voice (under the name Dr. Payne) and give johnny all sorts of hard times, but then my phone died on the way up. That also meant i couldn't call ahead and figure out what was what, but luckily everyone in the known universe works at Sal and Mookie's now, so I headed there first. I talked to caitlin and johnny for a bit and found out that everybody was over at Jerusalem Cafe, so i went over there and got to hang out with a bunch of people for a while. After that we went over to the McCrazies house, for a weird party with a bunch of high schoolers. It ended up with all the people over 18 hanging out on the steps where it was cool and mature or something, so that was fun. After that we hung out at emmett's for a while while johnny and emmett decided what their tattoos were going to look like.

The next day I had planned to set up ultimate, and it looked promising, the McIntyre's were in, as were kyle, mcnally, spencer, michael, me, maybe ian, and whoever else happened to show up. Unfortunately, i was the only one who showed up, but i ran into Mrs. Van Uden at the park, and talked to her for a while, so that was way cool. After that i bought a tooth brush (i had left mine in biloxi and was feeling pretty gross) and some breakfast and found McNally and tried to figure out what to do. We ended up going to Sal and Mookie's for a while and then met up with Johnny, Caitlin, and Emmett and headed downtown to where Emmett was getting his tattoo. From the outside, the place looked like a good place to get shot, but inside it was pretty urban and awesome. Hopefully jackson's downtown can keep getting hip businesses where old rundown buildings are so that downtown isn't just a place to go to work and/or get mugged.

Somehow, i ended up responsible for giving emmett a ride home, and apparently when a tattoo artist says 45 minutes, what he really means is two and a half hours. So that was sort of frustrating. After that though we did...something. I think maybe we went to spencer's house and played video games. We also watched Michael Phelps be incredibly awesome, so that was pretty impressive. After that we played some more video games and went to sleep.

Sunday, i went to church in madison, that was way cool. I got to see a whole bunch of people i haven't seen in a long long time. After that i went to caitlin's and ate lunch and eventually johnny came over and watched psych. Then we went and had birthday festivities at Johnny's house, they got presents and we got cake and dinner courtesy of the Breauxs. (i've never pluralized breaux before, it looks wrong) Then we went back to caitlin's and hung out for a while and i learned how to open a butterfly knife awesomely, but then the awesome was too much for it and screws started coming loose, so i had to stop. I watched mythbusters and actually managed to get an indecent amount of sleep, having gotten around 5 hours the last two nights. Monday was my last day in town, so after sleeping in until noon, i got some breakfast and i then went to Murrah to visit teachers. I ran into melissa on her way out of murrah, so that was cool. I saw Ms' Williams, D, Lamb, and Van Uden. Ms. Brierly was out on maternity leave, so i didn't get to talk to her, but i think it was still a pretty good run. Michael and Spencer met up with me at murrah, and then we went to his house for a while and then met up with a bunch of people at Kiefer's. That was pretty delicious. Then we went to Emmett's and partied the night away. It being my last night, i had to say goodbye to people every time they left, it was sad. We took a bunch of pictures though, and had generally good times. I slept at emmett's that night, and headed out the next morning, today, saying Adeus to Spencer on my way out.

All in all it was a pretty great Jackson Trip. The drive home was probably one of the more exciting drives of my life. The first half was pretty smooth, i made great time (which is always tricky on 49). At some point i got stuck behind a truck carrying these giant bridge looking things. It was taking up both lanes completely, and the escort guys were going a terrible job. The truck was just small enough that it would probably be possible to get around it if you went on the shoulder just a little, and it was driving sort of to the right so this little suv kept trying to get around it but the little escort car kept cutting him off. Had the truck just driven in the middle of the road it wouldn't have been a problem. So i had been stuck behind this truck for about five minutes, but we were cruising along in the upper sixties, so i wasn't too upset, when suddenly the truck just plowed through a sign on the side of the road. It wasn't like a mile marker sign either, this was a substantial, six foot wide sign with two bars behind it, but it was completely destroyed. So at that point i lost a lot of respect for this guy who before was just doing his job, but now was doing his job really badly and if things had gone a little differently could have caused a pretty serious collision. Anyway, eventually the lanes widened a little and we got a better shoulder and i managed to squeeze by him (which seemed a little dangerous and is the sort of the escort guy is there to prevent from happening, but after he blew up a sign, i decided i was getting far away from him.)

Things smoothened out for a while, but then it got really rainy, and i experienced my first high-speed hydroplaning. That was exciting. I started drifting off the road as the road was turning a little and completely covered in water. But like a good driver a eased off the gas and steered very gently. Happily i didn't run off the road, and i got back to biloxi without any further incident, so that was cool.

So yeah, all in all, a good trip to jackson. I think this entry is long enough without any further comments.

~Something clever

Already i'm so lonesome i can die...

Well, school is almost done. Tomorrow i have to do a project, and then i'm more or less done. Typical of my life, the days before i leave are the best of my stay here. Everything i have wanted this year has come about very recently. I have great friends, i have enough money, i can walk again, it's warm and happy, i even have a relationship of sorts (btw, i'm not sure whether or not it's worth dating in the weeks before you leave somewhere for 2 years. It does make that last little bit a lot of fun, but it makes leaving so very hard.) But i guess that's why it's called a sacrifice, and i'm sure when i come back, everything will still be here, though perhaps not through the same people. My friend offered to chip for a bus ticket, and it was really very tempting. But tuesday remains my departure. That john denver song is great, but it takes on so much more meaning when you're leaving someplace. Actually lots of songs do. We sang Improve Each Shining Moment and God Be With You Till We Meet Again in church today, which was nice, since this is the last sunday for a large portion of the ward.

I actually have lost my voice almost entirely over the past couple of days and have a pretty gnarly cough, but other than that, this last weekend has been awesome. Friday i had a linear algebra and a physics final, with a physical in between. The physics final didn't go great but it's awesome to be done. And in talking to other people i get the feeling that it didn't go great for too many people, so hooray for curves. Other than that friday was pretty chill, i watched doctor who, did something productive i think, and went to sleep.

Saturday was amazing. I don't think a day could be very much better than saturday was, except if you threw in like a temple trip in the morning, but otherwise it was a very complete day. We went to play baseball at the place where the sandlot was filmed, and also saw vincent's drug store (which looks exactly the same) and tore the skin off a baseball, and i bought glass bottles of pop and rootbeer, so all in all it was a very sandlotish day. After that i went to a modern dance performance, which was cool, if a little abstract. Then we hung out for a while, got hot chocolate, and watched august rush, which is a really sweet movie, and has a very cool soundtrack. That little kid is such a great actor. Also saturday night i submitted my misson papers, so that's almost done with

Today was nice too, i got to church on time so i got to play piano one last time. Sunday school was good, we did Q&A with return missionaries on stuff. And then the bishopric spoke and said farewell and that sort of thing. After church i got an interview with the bishop so now all that stands between me and my call is setting up an interview with the stake president. This actually may turn out to be difficult, but i'm sure everything will work out. After church i ate and took a nap and then went to dinner, ward prayer, and then we watched a couple movies to round the night up very late. Now i'm tired, and i have to get up tomorrow to do that project and hopefully have a bit of time for fun, so it's time for bed. The next one of these will most likely be from mississippi, so, until then, fare well.

~Roger the Shrubber

Oh, by the way, we can now rest easy knowing that i don't have Tuburculosis, or as some have loved to call it, "The Consumption!!" So yeah, physicals, while always extremely awkward, and great when they basically tell you that you are entirely healthy. Fun times.

Leaving on a jet plane

Real quick because i need sleep. I'm supposed to wake up to fly back to utah in 2 hours, i hardly see the point in that little sleep, but at least it'll differentiate today from tomorrow, which looks to be a wicked hectic day. I fly out at 6, and classes start at 10:45.

Now that i'm actually leaving i'm kinda sad to go, more than i was the first time. But then last summer was weird, i barely saw any of my family and i was off to new and exciting things. This time i saw almost nothing but my family and i'm off to old but still relatively exciting things. Either way, saying goodbye to isaac was sad, he's by far my favorite little brother.

Today was a nice last day, i had church and then had my dad make some really good asian noodley stuff, and then we played some games and i got packed and so forth. I finished Katie's gift, and it's awesome. There are pictures, but i'm not going to upload them for a few days, thereby maintaining the surprise. Hopefully katie will post some pictures when she gets it. Now all my presents lie in the more than adequate postal abilities of my mom.

So that's all for now, i suppose i'm going to meet my new roommate today, that'll be exciting. I was pretty amped about having my own room, so i've been thinking of ways to get him to leave. He's asian, and i wonder how he would respond to me playing the typical asian music on my keyboard everytime he walks in...or just use the gong sound. I think that would actually be pretty hilarious, and if he thought it was funny, i'd know he was a keeper, and if not, then i'd have 200ish glorious square feet of room to myself...anyway, i guess i'll take what little sleep i'm offered. I've never been one to sleep on airplanes or in cars, so i'll probably take a nice nap in the afternoon tomorrow. So that's it, signing off from Mississippi.

~Sister Susie Sittin' On a Thistle
(for some reason this song is stuck in my head, which makes no sense, other than that it sort of reminds me of the Oscar Mayer Weiner song, which was stuck in my head moments ago.)

"Adieu, Adieu, parting is such sweet sorrow."

I don't remember how long it's been since i updated, but i think it was at least a week, since that's when i lost my computer access. Anyway, not a lot happened last week until friday. Friday was my last day at work, and that was good. Blake sprayed me with ketchup, and charlie dumped a bucket of ice water on me. then i went to spencer's house and almost finished master quest. I didn't completely finish though, one of my great regrets.

Saturday was my last day in jackson, and as last days go, it was good. I woke up late, and went in to work to get my last tip out and give them an address for my check. I went over to spencer's house with roberta and then michael and kirk came and we played risk. Kirk won, because I, while lucky, am unable to count correctly (1...2...5). After that we played a little bit of mario party, and then went to Bravo, with melissa, annie, and kate. That was nice. After bravo we swung by annie's house, and i saw hailey and josh and emmett, but i had to leave to get a hair cut and pack. By the time i finished spencer and roberta and michael had adjourned to spencer's house, and so i went over there. I passed tyler and got to say a proper good bye, and then we played some mario party, and then i left, after getting some sweet presents from spencer, and then said goodbye to spencer and michael, and then drove roberta home. X & Y is the most perfectly awful goodbye music, so that was at least appropriate. Said goodbye, and listened to The Hardest Part on the way home.

Today i spoke in church, and that was good, i played piano for the last time (at church, not generally) At the end of the church i got ordained an Elder, so that's pretty major, and then we ate dinner, and then we went home and i finished packing and cleaning up. I got to see johnny on my way out, and that was good. A bit of driving, and now i'm home, in a manner of speaking. I'm here tomorrow, then i ship out teusday morning at 9:55, due to get into Salt Lake at 3:20.

I guess that's about it. My dad's the seminary teacher down here, so he's going to waking up at the crack of 5 to be doing that. He was doing this before pretty much anyway, but now he's not driving 3 hours shortly afterwards.

my bags are packed...