Being that it is Thanksgiving, I have a lot of things to be thankful for. Want to hear it? Here it goes:

Living in Fresno, CA for about 4 months.

The support of my family.

Scholarship money that made it all possible.

My mom, dad, sister, brother. I am so lucky to have such a loving family.

My old roomie Lindsay took me in for Thanksgiving, and sharing her wonderful family.

The fact that I just got back from a week in Oahu!!!! Arianna rocks my world!

Chocolate. Although its getting to be a love hate relationship as my metabolism is starting to drop.

All of the awesome roomates and neighbors that I have at Fresno State!

Having a football team that is good for a semester!

My friends back home that I miss very very much.

Rent being made into a movie, I love love loved it on Broadway.

Kissing and cuddling, two great inventions.

Couches. Until you go a semester without a couch, you have no clue.

Having an awesome future roomie, Vanessa, ready to move into my first apartment when I get home!

Turkey, stuffing, anything pumpkin.

Salsa dancing with Lianne and Mike. Its soooo fun.

Being loved.

Airplanes.

Getting the experience of driving across the country.

Always having a place to stay in Honolulu.

Laughter.

Having a job that pays well and is waiting on me to come home.

My car. Its not great, but I have been fantasizing about driving it. I miss it.

Kilbourne Roll, California Roll, shrimp tempura and the Amigo salad.

Being from the south.

Biscuits and gravy!

Having a good complexion, which I owe in part to Origins.

Sunshine everyday in Fresno.

Hopefully a white Christmas?

Many more things, but for now, I need to go to the wonderful couch at Lindsay's and crash!

these are my lovely roomates (Lindsay, me, Lauren, and Jamie) before our first Bulldog game!

here is a fuzzy pic of roomates, neighbors, and friends before the game. yeah i was drunk and excited taking the picture, so i couldn't focus too well.

my salsa friends: mike, leanna, and raoul at Falltini.  it was so much fun, you pay 30 dollars to get in, and they have all sorts of martini booths and all different foods and cigars. it was great!

Leanne and I dancing at Falltini, or posing, whatever.

her cousin, and my badass neighbor Courtney, with their signs before the Homecoming game!

my buddies walkin down the beach at Santa Barbara. that place is freakin crazy!

So, now I am living in Fresno, California!  Big change, for sure.  Mostly cultural changes, I almost feel like a minority here!  But I am loving my roomies and most of Cali in general.  Very smoggy and dirty in LA, I wouldn't recommend it.  So far San Diego is the best place I have seen!  Lauren, Mike, and I took a seven day roadtrip across the states to get here, and it was so fun!  We saw the Killers at Red Rocks in Denver, we took a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, partied on top of the Palms at Ghostbar in Vegas for two nights (well partied one night, rested and watched the Preacher's Wife the second.  I guess I am not made for Vegas!) Ghostbar is so cool because it is on the 55th floor and it overlooks all of bright, shiny Vegas. We saw the Hoover Damn. We saw the world's largest thermometer!  So then we saw the White Stripes at the Greek Theatre in LA, and went to the San Diego zoo.  Hmm, we saw the painted desert, and I fell in the mud there, it was very deceiving! We pretty much had an awesome time driving 3500 miles.  The drive really didn't seem so bad!  We took a pic at every state line, I think we saw 14 states.  Most of the time we were risking our lives on the side, even once in the middle!, of the highway. We went to San Francisco the Saturday before school started and that city is cool as hell, but trust me Chinatown is not what it is cracked up to be! We took a bay tour that went under the Golden Gate and around Alcatraz.  It got kinda choppy on the water, so that was fun too!

So Fresno really isn't that big.  It has a lot of people, with a small town appeal.  It is about half white, with the rest hispanic, asian, indian, and black.  So it is very muticultural, but I like it.  It is very eye opening to see how different cultures live in different parts of the states, nothing like east TN. 

Half the girls look like they are getting ready to go out to a club just to go to class.  it really cracks me up.  I am tired of sheer tops and mini, mini skirts and stilletos!  I even saw a girl wear a bikini top to class today! C'mon people.  And southern hospitality does not exist here, mostly.

I am in two hard sciences, a nutrition and health class, kick boxing, and salsa dancing.  I love the last two, can't  say as much for the first three.  I am going to be a salsa dancing ninja when I get back to TN. I am going out to a local salsa club soon with some of my friends from class, I am so excited!

Things I miss most about TN? Axel, family, friends, my car, privacy (i have 5 roomates), southern hospitality, knowing people on campus, biscuits and gravy, and all of my clothes!

It is really nice that Jamie, Lauren, and I can go lay by the pool between classes.  I also have taken up running (treadmill, it is usually 100 degrees outside) and I am getting good!

I am very involved in my Stephanie Plum novels. I am on number seven now, I read one about every two days.  My roomates make fun of me.  You have to read these books!  They are laugh out loud funny, by Janet Evanovich.   I think they are writing a movie script now, which kind of worries me, but it might be awesome!

Ok, i have three tests next week, and our first home football game is Saturday.  There is a ton more school spirit here, probably because we are a good team.  Go Bulldogs!

I can't breathe through my nose, and that sucks.  Allergy medicine just doesn't seem to work on me.  Woe is me.

So today has been really lazy because yesterday was really busy!  My sister's wedding is in six days!  So yesterday my mom's friend Pam threw her a lingerie shower at her house.  It was so much fun.  There were about 17 girls and Pam cooked my favorite, Italian roast beef on homemade sourdough rolls.  It was awesome, she also made us chocolate dipped strawberries, raspberry cupcakes, veggies, fruit, cheese ball, everything yummy.  Michelle got all sorts of sexy stuff.  Randy just won't know what to think!  Knowing my sister, I got her some sexy but practical panties, a white thong that says "just married" in rhinestones, a Costa Rica (honeymoon spot) coverup/nightgown, and some Heavenly body powder/shimmer.  Really cute stuff!  So then it was on to the Bachelorette Party!  I put one together for her, and we had a ton of fun!  We started off at her apartment sipping on vodka redbulls and playing corny games like Condom Rally and Pin the Kiss on the Stud.  It was fun, I definitley kicked ass in the Condom Rally.  Then we showered her with fun little kinky presents, a little more exciting than lingerie.

After that we went to the Blue Plum festival to walk around, and Lauren managed to talk one band into serenading my sister with "Just to be the next to be with you."  They were hot!!  Then we went to Amigos for dinner and margaritas, and luckily we had the love of my life, Omar, as our waiter.  I swear he has to be the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.  He bought Michelle a shot of tequila and some fried ice cream.  It was great.  I am going to have to post pictures.  Omar is actually from Fresno, where Lauren and I are moving. I think it's destiny.  He did give me his email and phone number!  Haha, we just won't tell Axel that.  Not like I will use it, I just feel good having it!  He is one of my Origins customers, so he is a girly man, he also teaches salsa lessons.  Maybe he is gay, probably just metro. 

So then we went home again, to get ready to go to Stateline Bar in Bristol.  Michelle is already trashed by this point, she is a lightweight!  I would be too though, but I was DD.  So we dress her up in a condom-laced veil, and a lei, and take her out.  We had a lot of fun dancing and goofing off.  Stateline is a nice place, it actually isn't ghetto!  SO around 2, we leave to go home, and on the way home, I get pulled over!  I wasn't speeding.  He came up to inform me that my tail light was out.  Which I knew, being that a tree fell on my car last week.  Thank goodness I wasn't drinking!  He was a young cop though, he was really nice and he just told us to "live it up" for her bachelorette party.  Phew.   By this time Michelle is extremely trashed, so we stop to get some greasy Mickey-D's, which makes her feel better.  We figured out she had 14 drinks that day, but she didn't puke until about 8  this morning.  Haha, she was a trooper.  She says she remembers now why she doesn't like drinking.  poor thing, we had an awesome time though. 

Today we had a our final fittings for our dresses, a little late, being that she is getting married Saturday, but oh well.  Jeana gave me boob inserts, so it actually looks like I can fill out my dress!!  Wow that is pathetic!

Anyways, I am moving in 10 weeks!  I am so pumped, I can't wait! 

Axel and I just had our 1.5 yrs thing. If you don't count our big 2 week breakup.  Sucked because we were bigtime fighting on our anniversary.  Times they have changed.  I miss my old Axel.  But hopefully I will be hanging out with him in the next hour, and we can be happy. Well, we will see.

Tomorrow I have to drop off my car for four days, to get my back panel fixed where the stupid tree fell on it.  Luckily I am getting enough insurance money to get my air conditioning fixed too!  I won't have to sweat it out this summer!  It definitley sucks not having a car for four days, when you live in Etown and everything is in Johnson City, I hate asking for a ride.

So that is it for now, hasta la vista