I want to thank everyone for the comments on the last blog about my grandpap. It really helped.

As for how he is doing, he didn't look as bad as I thought. He just looked very old. He was very weak, and we're pretty sure he did not remember us. He was also very quiet. I think we all handled it really well, we saw him on a good day. When the rest of my family went to see him on Thanksgiving, yesterday, he was in a terrible mood and screaming and yelling. So his moods fluctuate a lot. I'm just really glad I saw him on a good day.

He's not eating very much; he's eating about 48% of breakfast, 15% of lunch, and 12% of dinner, which is not a lot. He says he's full. He also thinks that he is coming home, which is not completely out of the question, but the chances are slim. He keeps calling home and asking for my grandma to come get him. :/

Yesterday, Thanksgiving was really good. We went to my aunt's so not to stress my grandma and all the food was delicious and I probably gained 2349087 pounds. ;P I'm so grateful for everything that God has given my family.

Today, me and my mom and dad did a little bit of shopping, but not much. We mainly met up with some other friends, and that was nice. Then, about fifteen minutes after we got to my grandma's, my grandma was having severe pains. She was throwing up and she had to lie down because she felt like she was going to pass out. She thought she needed to go to the hospital.

Soooo, we called an ambulance and then my aunt that lives right next door. The paramedics came and we figured that she had disturbed or done something to a rupture that she had years back that she had surgery on. We're not really sure from there. I have a mentally retarded aunt that is currently staying at my grandma's for the holiday,  and through this whole ordeal she was sleeping, and still is. Me and my mom stayed behind in case she woke up or if any of our other relatives called to ask for information.

We're just playing the waiting game right now. We don't know if she'll have surgery, or if they'll post-pone it for another date and just give her pain medications... we don't know. So I'm just trying to do what I can to pass the time.

Our original plan was to come home Saturday, tomorrow, but we don't know if we're still going to do that. My grandma may need us here, and if so, we'll stay an extra day.

All in all, this has been a really hard week for my family. :/
 
Almost every year for Christmas, we go to my grandparents in Pennsylvania for Christmas. It's a long drive, about 12 hours, but it's always good to see them as we normally only see them and the rest of my dad's family once a year.

My grandpap (or pap-pap, as we call him sometimes), has not been doing very well. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about three years ago, and at first it wasn't too bad. He would forget little things, like where he placed his keys, or if he had already taken his medicine for the day, but recently it has got to the point that my grandma can not take care of him anymore. About a month ago, he fell down the stairs in his house and hit his head and was unable to get back up. So my grandmother, old with age as she is, called my aunt who conveniently lives right next door. They managed to get my grandpap to the hospital and he was placed in ICU.

From there on, the details are a bit fuzzy except for the fact that his health is failing. The doctors say that it's common for Alzheimer patients to become mean, and my grandpap has now reached that point. My aunts and uncles have placed him in a nursing home, but it's only angered him more and they now say he has symptoms of depression as well.

The last time we came up here, last December, my grandpap didn't know who we were. All in all, it's been a rather difficult time for my family up here in Pennsylvania, and for mine back home. The doctors aren't sure how long my grandpap is going to last. My parents decided it would be better to come up for Thanksgiving this year instead of Christmas; it would relieve some stress on my grandma's part and to be honest, we're not sure he will make it to Christmas. It's one of those things that no one is saying aloud, but we're all thinking it.

So I'm in PA now at my grandparents. My grandma seems to be doing fine, though she misses him. She went to see him the other day and he told her that he loved her, which gives me hope, but also breaks my heart. One of these days, he won't recognize the woman he has been married to for more than 50 years.

My dad is attending a meeting tomorrow with his brothers and sisters at the nursing home to discuss what's going on, be updated on information, make sure everyone is okay with the plans, etc. My mother and I will go see him a little while later. I'm really nervous to be honest. I already know that he will not know who I am, and I feel terrible for my dad too as his own dad will probably not recognize him. My dad isn't really one to let his feelings show, but I know he has to be hurting at lieas But, I'm glad I will be able to see him, nonetheless.

I may or may not blog again until after Thanksgiving break, so I thought I would fill you all in with what's happening in my life right now. If not, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and gain lots of weight, because I know I will! :)
 
This is rather late and overdue, but oh well...

The bet that me and Andrew (my boyfriend made), I totally win. Oh yes, I read all 607 pages in 4 days. :)

I went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One as I mentioned in my last blog, and to put it simply, it was amazing. Me and a couple close friends and Andrew headed up to the theater at about 9:30 and there were already tons of people in line. We still managed to get great seats, despite the fact there was a bunch of drunk guys behind us, but you can't really control that.

For the most part, the movie followed the book, which is a big plus for me. As I had just read the book before I went and saw it, I couldn't help but pick out minor details that were different, which made me wish I hadn't read it right before, but overall, it stuck to the book. I think if you wouldn't have read the book and just went and saw it, you would've been totally lost, as it didn't really give a lot of background information and whatnot.

Just a couple random points (spoilers! do not read further if you have not seen the movie!):

 
As you all know, I'm sure, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One is coming out on Thursday at midnight (WOOOOTTTT!!). So, I was talking to my boyfriend and I was saying how I need to read the 7th book by then, as I haven't read it in a while. And he said, "You can't do it."

Now, when someone tells me I can't do something, I want to a.) punch them in the face and b.) prove them wrong. I did not punch my boyfriend in the face, though I did consider it, haha. Either way, we betted on whether I could or not, and I am going to so totally win.

The only problem is, I have soooo much going on. I've been swamped with homework, and on top of that I have my nano and a 607 page book to read. Needless to say, I'm a busy bee. I've fallen a bit behind in my nano, and really need to catch up, but for now, I've gotta read my book first. I can't lose to my boyfriend!

So really, this post is kind of useless except for the fact that I can say: OMGGGG HARRY POTTER IS COMING OUT IN LESS THAN THREE DAYSS YESSSSSSSSS. I got my tickets last night and I am PSYCHED.

So yeah, before I kill you with all my caps lockedness, I'm just going to say I probably won't be updating for a while as I've got so much going on.

Is anyone going to see Harry Potter at midnight? Is everyone else as super excited as I am to see this EPICNESS!!!?
 
Normally, I really hate shopping for clothes. Every time I go to a store, the clothes keep getting smaller and more expensive, and it makes me feel like I'm getting bigger and bigger... horizontally, that is; and I'm not even considered overweight.

Let me tell you, I have been putting this off for a while as I was dreading it and I finally realized I just needed to get it over with. So tonight I went shopping as I desperately needed some new jeans and shirts and a jacket.  I was looking at some of the jackets and I found one that was slightly similar to one I got a couple years ago. My old jacket still fits and I still wear it, and when I bought it, it was a medium. So when trying on this new jacket, the one that fitted was an extra-large. Really? They have to keep making the sizes smaller and smaller and smaller? I don't really see the point of making the all the clothes anorexic sized.

Either way, I normally hate shopping because I always feel like I need to go lose weight cause nothing ever fits and I need to stop eating so much and blah blah blah. But! Tonight, I was victorious! So take that you evil clothing stores. I managed to get two pairs of jeans, some nice black pants for church, a couple of long-sleeved shirts, annnndddddddd A PEA COAT! :DD
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I have been wanting a pea coat for the longest time and I guess for various different reasons, I never got one. Tonight, however, I found a really cute one that I loved and got for a great deal. It was originally $100, but it was already on sale for 30% off, (which would bring it to $70), and then I had a coupon for 50% off that, so it came down to 35$. Oh yes!

So overall, it was a very successful trip and I was in a good mood when I left, which is indeed rather rare. So, a question: Am I the only one that absolutely hates clothe shopping? Any tips on how I can hate it less?
 
This weekend, I was completely and utterly swamped by homework. On Saturday, I spent a total of seven hours on homework, and on Sunday, I spent five. Never in my life have I had so much homework to do.

Most of it was for my AP English class. We're currently reading the Scarlet Letter and we are required to write post-its. So, I had gotten behind on my reading and post-it-ing, which I'll admit was my fault, so I had to go back over the last 8 chapters or so and do that. Then I had pre-calculus and physics, and then social studies, and it just went on and on.

Sunday, I worked some more on my physics and then had some friends from AP English come over so we could work on our project in there. And that took forever and a day. They didn't leave 'til late, around 10ish, and by then all I wanted to do was sleep.

Sooo, I didn't work on my nano hardly at all, so I've got a bit of catching up to do tonight. Thankfully, I don't have hardly any homework.

As a side note: I hate bugs. And when they fly and attack the light in my room I tend to run to get my dad to come kill it. What I hate is when it's not there anymore, which means, it is somewhere else in my room, lurking, and waiting to pounce on me when I least expect it. Curse you bug, curse you.
 
It's November (duhh) and with that comes NaNoWriMo. A lot of my friends participate in this every year, and I always wanted to but never thought I could really follow through with it. They're crazy for doing it, but also super awesome because I mean, who can say that they've written a 50,000 word novel?

Soooo, this year, on a whim, I've decided I'm going to participate in it. For me, I have a lot of trouble with really following through with stuff I do. I love to start new things and all, but rarely do I actually finish what I start. (What a terrible thing, I know.)

I think if I'm actually able to finish writing a 50,000 word novel, I'm going to be extremely proud of myself. I don't care if it's a piece of crap and I would never even read it to my dog, I will be so happy that I actually had a finished product, that after all that hard work and late nights I can show something for it.

So! I'm really excited about it! I had kind of a late start, but nontheless, I've started! Wish me luck?


Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo? If so, how far along are you? And if you would like to be Writing Buddies, my username is Jovers. (: Good luck to everyone else who's participating!
 
As some of you may or may not know, I've been taking piano lessons for the past five years, and overall, it's been something that I have really enjoyed. Lately though, I've been growing more and more apathetic about it. So, I'm considering quitting, but it's a hard decision for me to make.

On one side, in a year and a half I'm going to be heading off to college and I'm going to have to quit taking lessons either way, so maybe I should just stick it out for the next year and a half and try to learn as much as I can in that amount of time.

On the other hand, I don't want to continue doing something that I don't enjoy, waste my parents' money on lessons, and waste my time as well as my piano teacher's time. If I really don't want to continue, then I probably won't practice, and I definitely won't improve. So what's the point?

Also, I feel that by quitting taking lessons, I'm disappointing my mom. When she grew up, she didn't have the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument, or really to do much with any hobby or interest she had. I feel like she wants me to keep going because she didn't have the chance to. And I feel like I've just wasted all of her money for taking lessons, and then quitting.

I've considered a reason that I may want to quit is because I stopped taking lessons during tennis season, as I didn't have time for both, and now I'm just struggling to get back in the swing of it. Maybe I need time.

I talked to my mom about it, told her how I felt. She then talked to my piano teacher and said that most students that quit regret it. So we all came to the temporary solution that I will continue taking lessons until after Christmas season is over, and then we would decide if I really wanted to quit or not.

No one likes a quitter anyways.