"Honey, what are dumplings?"

Jody looked at me and laughed when I asked him that last night at Cracker Barrel. I was looking at the menu, in my continued quest to eat only Southern food while on my vacation, and I stumbled on the Cracker Barrel Sampler, which has Chicken and Dumplings, Meat Loaf and Ham on it. I had heard of Chicken and Dumplings but had no clue what it was. In my mind, all I could picture were Won Tons.
"Really? You don't know what dumplings are?"
"No. What are they?"
Jody tried to explain dumplings to me though I don't remember what he said. So I decided to order the sampler and then the waitress let me pick 3 sides to go with it. One of the options was fried okra, which, since I had never had it before and it is a Southern thing, I had to get. They were kinda like fried zucchini, so I liked them.
Earlier that day I had Sonic. Even though we have a couple Sonic's in Cali, none of them are near my house, and the last time I had been to one was the day after the Superbowl on the way home from Lara and Jim's. I was happy to get my Grape Cream Thingie that I had been wanting for months.
On my first night there, we went to the Waffle House for dinner. Apparently they have those on every corner out here. Yes, they serve waffles, and yes, I had one with my meal. In truth, they give you a lot of food and it was pretty cheap. I only ate half of my waffle. And in keeping with my "I've never eaten it before so I'm gonna get it" theme, I ordered grits. They kinda tasted like soggy tortillas and they had the texture of oatmeal or really really soggy rice. I put butter on them, though I think I may have put too much on. They weren't bad.

I've done more than eat of course. Yesterday we went to the Mall. Nothing to different from the Malls in Cali, but we came across this machine with Bull Horns on it. It was like one of those "Test Your Strength" machines they have in restaurants sometimes. The idea was you were supposed to grab the horns, push them together as hard as you could and hold them for about 10 seconds and it would measure your strength in terms of Bull Rider Lingo. Jody went first and even with a lingering boo-boo on his left shoulder got Bull Wrestler, which was 1 below Professional Bull Rider, the highest you can get. I was impressed, but at the same time, in my head, the same voice that convinced me to try to arm wrestle boys when I was in elementary school said to me "Yeah, he is a guy and yeah, he has muscular arms, but I weight train. I should be able to do this pretty well too." so I handed Jody my jacket and my purse, popped in a quarter and grabbed the horns and pushed them together as hard as I could. I was working my traps, my biceps, my triceps , my pecs, every major muscle group in my upper arms and upper body. In my head, I could hear my trainer Jeff's voice pushing me on. I was in pain by the time I stopped. I thought I must have done really well.
I got "City Slicker" which is 5 below Professional Bull Rider. Then the machine taunted me by saying something to me about milking a cow, which made Jody laugh. I mumbled an expletive at the machine before lacing my arm through Jody's and walking away.
On the drive back we got a few minutes of snow. I stuck my arm out the window of the car and felt it, as well as seeing it in the headlights in front of the car. It lasted for a few minutes, then stopped. It is supposed to snow on New Years, but we'll see.

8 hours and 3 time zones worth of travel

Ever flown across the country? I did it once, when I was 13. We basically wasted a whole day of our trip to DC commuting there and another whole day commuting back. So, genius that I like to think I am sometimes, I booked a red-eye flight. I would leave Los Angeles, CA at 12:30am, arrive in Houston, TX 3 hours later, have a 2 hour layover, then another 2 hours to Charlotte, NC, then another hour to Spartanburg, SC, still leaving me with the whole afternoon and evening.
If I was capable of actually sleeping on a plane, that would have been an awesome idea. Turns out, as I should have remembered when I flew to Germany, I don't sleep on planes. I may doze out of sheer fatigue after a few hours, but it isn't sleep.
Perhaps it is because I am secretly not the world's best little flyer. I blame this on too much information. Things that I know to be true (that I wish I didn't know) keep me from enjoying planes. Yes, it is true that you are more likely to be involved in a serious car accident than be involved in a plane crash, a fact that would normally bring me comfort, save for the fact that in my life I've been involved in 3 serious car crashes. Statistically, I start to think that I am "due" whenever I get on a plane. Or the fact that if you are going to be involved in some kind of airplane catastrophe, it will most likely occur during takeoff or landing. When I worked for PGS a million years ago, our owner William was involved in a plane crash on his way back from Asia, and it happened during takeoff. Luckily, he survived. But that fact alone prevents me from ever really relaxing while I'm on a plane, because even though I may have survived takeoff, we still have to land. And yet, I get window seats. Over the wings in fact. Half asleep but unable to sleep I begin to feel like Shatner in that infamous Twilight Zone episode. Every little noise I hear I am looking out onto the wing for gremlins. I swear today I heard something hit the plane.
"There's something out there! There's something on the wing!"
My flight out of LAX to Houston was on time and aside from some turbulence and the fact that I heeded everyone's advice and got to the airport to freakin' early and had to sit there for almost 3 hours, it went well. I still didn't sleep, but managed to rest my eyes. I landed in Houston (2 hours ahead of California time) 3 hours later and had a 2 hour layover, which was just enough to find my way over to my gate on the other side of the airport (I had to take a train to it), use the restroom, eat, buy a chochkie for my travel chochkie collection, and spend a few minutes going over some Mock Trial work before boarding. Apparently, when you fly connecting flights between some cities, they stick you on these teeny tiny planes instead of 747's or something that size. The plane that I was on sat 3 people across. So from wall to wall, it was: seat, aisle, seat, seat. They looked like little planes you make from empty paper towel rolls with cut up paper plates glued on them for wings. I was partially dozing off and partially on edge for the whole 2 hours I spent up in the air on this rinky little contraption, but we made it safely and on time once again to my destination. Another hour in the car from Charlotte got me safely to my hotel in Spartanburg where I eventually got a nap and a much needed shower.

Thanksgiving and Christmas 2009 Family Pictures

Here are some pictures from Chandler Family Thanksgiving and Christmas 2009 dinners.

Exhale

Today I turned in my Online English Final Exam, marking the official end of my Final Exams for the Fall 2009 Semester. I can now officially enjoy the rest of the year, stress-free. And how did I do you ask? Well, in the past, I would have fretted over anything less than an A, but now, especially for my General Education classes, I just want to get a C or better so that I don't have to take them over again. Having said that, I think I got straight B's this year, maybe an A or two, but probably straight B's. Being an honor student and a member of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, I know that straight B's aren't the best that I can do, but consider this: I took 5 classes this semester, and I really wasn't terribly interested in any of them. Only one of them was a law class, and even my teacher will tell you that Bankruptcy law is not a fun class (though she made it as fun as it could be.) So between carrying a heavy load of difficult and boring classes certainly affected my work ethic this term. Though I was really only "sick" once during the semester, I took as many "sick days" as I could from each class just to keep myself from burning out. Add to that the fact that this is my first term going to 2 schools (University of LaVerne & Mt. SAC) at the same time, I had a lot on my plate. I'm so glad the term is over.

"Thanks for the adventure. Now go have a new one."

Daniel is moving to Texas on Saturday, so we went to Disneyland one last time yesterday. I got a new Personal Best Score on Toy Story Midway Mania (216,400) and Daniel made the it onto the board for Top 3 Scores of the Day with 254,600. We spent the day going on all of our favorite rides and talking to each other about our lives and where they are headed, both figuratively and geographically. I will miss my friend, but he is coming back in May to visit and attend a family member's wedding, so we can go to Disneyland one more time before our passes expire this Summer.

Daniel,

Thank you so much for all the memories, good and bad. I will miss you, especially the next time I go to Disneyland or watch a UFC fight. Isn't it funny how life turns out sometimes? Best of luck to you on your journey, not just to Texas, but through life itself. It's been fun.

With love,
Your friend,
Holly

The home stretch

Today is the official start of finals week. I have 5 finals, 1 paper & 1 project left to do in the next 5 days. It is gonna be a busy week, but I have dinner with Trina and Gregg planned for Friday, a nice lunch with Nicki planned on Saturday and Disneyland with Daniel, Lara and Jim planned for Sunday, so at least I will end a busy week on a happy note :-)