being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up.

Dear friend,

I'm sorry I haven't been posting. Lots of things have happened. I don't really know where to begin.

My best friend, Kelli, left for college. We had a farewell dinner, and I spent the entire night before crying. I know this whole college thing is temporary, and she's only two hours away, but that doesn't change the fact that the person who has been my confidant since age two has been taken away from me, no longer around for my convenience. Maybe I'm just selfish.

I am now a college student myself at the prestigious Lewis and Clark Community College. I'm majoring in radio broadcast, and I will be on the air in mid-October for WLCA, 89.9 FM. I'm incredibly nervous and excited. I'm really just a flurry of mixed emotions. I've been doing pretty well in the broadcast classes so far. I passed my first two oral exams perfectly. Mike Lemons, the program director, said that my voice is lovely, perfect, and that I can articulate and read a copy without sounding robotic. It makes me excited. He even said I was up in the heavens with a glow around me. I'm getting excited, and maybe I'll apply for a director's position myself (preferably music director, but there will be some tough competition there because EVERYONE wants to be music director).

I've also had quite a few grand concert experiences. Over Labor Day weekend, I went with Rachel to see Treaty of Paris in Peoria and in Chicago. They've made it to the official status of "my favorite band" (behind the Beatles of course, but nobody beats the Beatles ever). There was a tad bit of drama, there, though. This girl had decided to make fun of Rachel and me and condescend us. She had some preconceived idea of who we were already because she was apparently a friend of Treaty of Paris's new merch man, Mike Gongol. Of course, this led us to believe that Gongol was saying bad things about us. So we didn't really talk to him at the Chicago show because we thought he didn't like us, so that led him to believe that we didn't like him, and he didn't even know about the drama that had happened. Things get a little crazy. Dan and Fonzi were incredibly upset with this girl, and Dan even told her off when she tried to talk about us after we had left. It felt really nice, to find out that they truly like us and don't just think of us as their fangirls.

Even after the Chicago show, Dan said to us, "You know we love you girls, right?" It was absolutely heartwarming. Now I'm just getting all mushy and sentimental, and this is starting to look a whole lot like namedropping.

Alas, I must be getting ready for work. I have been working totally nonstop lately. It's been absolutely nuts. It's getting to the point where I really don't have the motivation to show up exactly on time, put my best effort into things, and it's really hard to keep myself from slipping out of the drive-thru window to never return. I've just hit a rut, and I don't know how much longer I can take it.