I never thought I'd say that, but it's true. I've been driving again for three days now (four if you count today as a new day; it is after midnight) and I have had no accidents. I've made a few wide turns and I ran over two tennis balls the other day because some stupid boys were playing street hockey and their balls rolled in front of my car. (That could be taken the wrong way...) However, I have not hit: people, animals, other cars, mailboxes, or anything else that could be damaged by being hit by a car. Furthermore, I have parked fine the three times I parked. I drove all the way to the grocery store tonight and I'm confident enough that I think I could go to the library tomorrow or Saturday. (They're having a book sale this weekend; it may not be there if we go tomorrow evening, but it should be on Saturday afternoon.) I have yet to go on the highway, and I haven't driven back home from anywhere yet, but I think I might be getting the hang of this driving thing. The real test comes, of course, when I decide that I can go driving by myself without Daddy in the car to help me. I've been driving by myself all the times I had an accident.

Here is the new driving plan, based on the fact that I went out of the neighborhood after only two days of driving in it (it was getting a litlte boring):

1) Drive to the library, thus getting experience going down the big hill there and stopping in time to turn. Reward: books from the book sale. (For the record, rewards are about $5 in value. I'm not sure how much the ice cream was tonight but since I'm sharing it, I don't think the price matters so much.)

2) Drive to Target.

3) Drive to Michael's (reward is yarn, obviously.)

4) Drive to Target via the highway. (Note: continued practice on the highway may be needed to lead up to the driving to Cedar thing.)

5) Drive to CVS and back on my own, bringing back a treat as proof I got there.

6) Drive to the library on my own.

7) Drive part of the way up to Cedar Campus.

8) Drive part of the way back from Cedar Campus.

9) Drive up to school with Daddy. Have him bring the car home.

10) Practice driving again during breaks from school, then drive car back to school myself after Christmas and learn the way to whatever school I do practicum in up in Marion. Drive to practicum twice a week and get back to school safely. Also drive to Walmart or Meijer periodically and possibly to Joann's Fabrics. (Figure out how to get to Joann's as part of driving in Marion practice, which should be had...)

I think this looks like a good plan. I have 14 days before I have to go to Cedar Campus. By that day--June 13--I need to be ready to drive on the highway without getting into an accident of any sort. I'm doing pretty well so far, I think. This reward system is working quite well. (It might be taken into consideration by the management to employ a similar system when the other two members of the family learn to drive. It might also be taken into consideration that when Matt learns to drive I will demand to be driven home by someone else from school so that he won't hurt my car.)

Oh! Also, somewhere in the midst of this "Re-learning to drive" plan, we need to work on parallel parking, which I never really got, on how to go through roundabouts (there aren't any in Marion, I don't think, but it seems like a useful skill to have), and on figuring out up and down only aisles in parking lots. That's the other big problem I had. I went up the down aisle at Walmart once. That was bad.

That's all for now.
 

Here's the plan for the summer (just so everyone is clear on this):

May 19-June 10--return from England trip (done), relax at home. Bake, knit, write, read, and enjoy my family and my cats. Do not think (much) about schoolwork or teaching type things.

June 11-12--Rush around to get stuff ready for Cedar. Dig out Beginner's Bible, burn a CD of kids music, pack clothes, yarn, books, etc. Write vague lesson plans for preschool through 8-10 year olds. At this point I will discuss teaching things, crafts, etc. with Mom.

June 13-August 8--Work at Cedar Campus, having buckets of fun, knitting things, and playing with kids all week.

August 8-Sept 3--Return home. Relax. Bake, knit, write, read, and enjoy the family and the kitties. Make sure that Daddy has the list of books I need for school and get those, but otherwise do not think much about school stuff.

Sept 4--Rush around like a chicken without a head packing up everything to go to school.

Sept 5--Return to school.

This schedule is subject to change based on what I feel like (I may decide to pack earlier for things, for example, depending on my mood) and if I remember what I wrote here. However, for the most part, during the time that I am home and have no obligations to work or study, I would like to be allowed to do what I wish (within reason).

On a similar subject, let me make something else clear. I recognize the necessity of my learning to drive again. I also know that it has been a year since I last drove (probably nearly to the day now). Therefore, I am going to propose a "learning to drive again" plan. Here it is:

Step 1: Drive around the neighborhood with Daddy. This will get me back into the driver's seat and allow me to refamiliarize myself with the way you drive a car and how stuff works, etc. This should go on for at least a week.

Step 2: Drive to places nearby, such as the library, Target, and Michael's. For driving I get a reward, such as library books, a treat at Target, or yarn from Michael's. This will familiarize me with driving on roads outside the neighborhood again and with the layout of Zionsville. This should take place for at least a week too, maybe more.

Step 3: Drive on the highway. This will include driving to Target on the highway instead of through town and driving up to Cedar Campus. On that topic, I refuse to drive all the way there, even with Daddy in the car. I will insist upon doing no more than 1/3 of the driving (so if it's 8-10 hours, I will drive for no more than 4 of those hours). This could work quite well if we brought Debbie along as well, which I think we planned on. Daddy can do 1/3 of the driving, Debbie can do 1/3, and I can do 1/3. I will also insist that Daddy do the last 1/3 of the driving as that will include driving on the camp road at Cedar, which I am in no way going to be ready to drive on at this time.

Step 4: From here I will be carless for most of the summer, as I will be up at Cedar. When the family comes up in July, I will refuse to drive because you'll bring the van and I don't drive the van. Also, it's supposed to be vacation and I refuse to drive on the camp road. When I return at the beginning of August, I will drive 1/3 of the way home (possibly the last 1/3 of that journey, since that will be bringing us back into Zionsville). From there we will continue the driving practice outlined in Step 2 above until it's time to return to school. Then I will go back to school with Daddy along in the car with me so that I can learn the new way to go up to school. I don't need a car this coming semester so Daddy will bring Silver home with him again. When I come home on breaks (that would be Fall Break, Thanksgiving Break, and then Christmas Break) I will continue to practice driving with Daddy, including driving in the snow, which I have to learn because--

Step 5--After Christmas break, I will drive myself back up to school and keep the car there because I have to start Practicums, which means that I will be going out to a school twice a week and teaching. I may ask Daddy to come up one weekend shortly after I return so that I can learn my way to the school (if I don't know which one it is beforehand; if I do, we may do that the day I drive up there...somehow...) From here on out I will be on my own with driving. I will do my very best not to get into accidents.

I could go on from there but I don't feel like planning out the rest of my driving career. I will say, however, that I think it will be foolish to expect me to drive up to Cedar on my own next year (assuming I work there again) and that there is little point of having a car there anyways so I won't do that. I don't think there can be any objections to this plan. I like it.

That's all for now. I have to go downstairs and eat my cheeseburger. Bye!
 

That's right. In 12.5 hours, I will be getting on the bus and the official journey to England and Scotland will begin. I completed most of my goals from yesterday. The second sock is done. My stuff is packed. I ended up packing both the huge and the little suitcase. The little one will be my carryon. My laundry dried after hanging in various places all over my room overnight. I can't check out until tomorrow morning right before I leave, so I'll do that. The family came and took away all my unneccessary stuff (sheets, pillow, swift, computer, etc.) so I'm using one of the computers downstairs in the lab here. I did return the mailbox key. I just dropped it in the little campus mail slot so hopefully on Monday they'll get it and be like, "Okay, here's her key."

It's just now starting to hit me that I'm really going to England. I've wanted to go pretty much my whole life and now, before I'm 20, I'm going. Obviously we won't see everything, which means I'll have to go back someday. But that's not the point. The point is, I'm GOING. I'm going to the place where C.S. Lewis and Jane Austen and William Shakespeare lived. I'm going to the place where Narnia and Middle Earth were created, where Elizabeth Bennet was born. I'm going to a place I've only read about in books and seen in movies, and it's really truly happening. They may have to drag me onto the plane to go back home. I'm predicting now that I won't want to leave...
 

1) Finish the second sock in the pair so I have cool hand-knit socks to wear on the trip to England.
2) Pack everything up again. Try to get all the clothes into the little suitcase so that I don't have to lug the big one around. Impediment to this goal: I only had enough quarters to wash one load of laundry so I put everything in together and it's not dry yet. So I have all my clothes sitting around drying and I'll hopefully pack them up tomorrow.
3) Check out tomorrow evening. Stay in room one more night.
4) Return mailbox key.
5) Meet at flagpole at 8:45 Sunday morning to go to England at last!!!
 

This week has already been a lot of fun. I spent most of yesterday with the girls who are on the Bride of Lammermoor panel with me. We had class and then a movie (Liam Neeson's Les Miserables; it's pretty good) and then we went searching for a Goodwill to find costumes. We didn't find any. Instead, we found a K-mart, so we bought some hats there and then went to Walmart to buy fabric for a cape, feathers for one of the hats, and a few other bits and bobs that we needed. My friends were very good at keeping me away from the yarn, though I almost wish I'd gotten some so we could have had an easier time of making a necklace (we got blue ribbon instead and it was hard to break off a piece that I needed; ribbon doesn't break like yarn apparently).

Well, I have to go. I have to print off our script before I go to class! Toodles!
 

Actually, by this time next Sunday, I will be on the bus on the way to Chicago to catch our plane to England. I am very nearly ready. I'm tutoring Jacksyn again this week and hope to get paid on Thursday so I'll have money (though probably only enough to get meals, etc. If people want presents, I'm going to need money from the Bank of Dad). I have my yarn for the England sock. I actually started it the other day. I couldn't help it. I finished my first real sock and started its mate, but this yarn is pretty and fuzzy and I needed to practice ribbing and so I started the sock. I only did the ribbing and a few rows of regular sock. I'm saving the rest of it for the trip. I am really, really excited to go, and I can't believe there's only a week left! Aah!
 

Well, here I am, sitting in my new room in Evans Hall, playing on my computer. I've left the cord at home (argh) and I called Mom when I realized it, but there's little point in having her mail it or something, or bring it to me. I think I'll just write this and turn it off. I probably shouldn't keep it on long. Oy...

Anyways, I'm listening to Jane Eyre and uploading it and Pride and Prejudice and The Bride of Lammermoor on my iPod. That way I'll have them to listen to when the computer is off. I need to buy Jane Eyre and Bride of Lammermoor and the book about the Bronte sisters tomorrow in the bookstore (probably after my class).

Well, I'm going to go search for my computer cord again. If I find it, I'll call Mom and let her know. G'night!
 

I have most of my stuff packed (I need to get my pajama top, my shoes, and one more pair of pants in there and then I need to get my knitting stuff from the post office when I go back to school and buy my books). I am insanely excited about this trip (and the class; the class will easy and fun). I'm actually thinking that I may need a smaller suitcase to check--this one is so big I could probably fit everything I need into it and then a cat. Which isn't a bad thing, exactly, but it's also really really big and I'm wondering if I'll be able to carry it up stairs, etc. I may go digging in my parents' closet for a smaller one. And I need to find out where Daddy put my passport...
 

Right, so I think I figured out what happened with that money thing. It's not that I had overspent anything. It's just that the bank thing was telling me how much I had available vs. how much I had in the account. I spent money on iTunes and on Joann.com and on Knit Picks (a yarn website) and that money wasn't available to be used. When I checked the thing right after I ordered, it had already figured out that there was money that I couldn't spend there. So, as far as I can tell, there is no problem. I was just overreacting a bit (thank goodness). I'll talk to Daddy about it and see what he says, but I think I'm right.
 

I have way too much stuff. I have realized this while cleaning out my room to go home. I have used all the bags and boxes and containers I've got and I still have buckets of crap left. Well okay, maybe not buckes, but there's still a lot of stuff floating around without something to hold it. And I haven't even gotten to the stuff in the cupboard over the sink yet. And I have my Philosophy final at 1 that I need to study for.

Oy...

I wanna go home (but only for a little bit and then I want to come back, take a class, and go to England and then go home again for a bit longer.)