Good morning!

Hello to all!

Lauren--good to hear from you. Everyone is very excited to see you too. I can't wait for you guys to come visit here. Our girlie night should be a great time. We are also hoping to come to Buffalo while Kristy is visiting (Are Amber and Katy coming too? That would be great!) but Dave is working all those days so I have to see what can be arranged.

Bernadette--did you get that moth??? Sorry your wine wasn't so good. I was wishing for a glass last night myself but we don't have any at the moment. We only have a bottle that we bought in Italy and we are saving it for a special day....maybe our 5 year wedding anniversary in November, or something like that.

Susan--do you have a busy day today? I understand about not wanting to eat anything that meat was cooked with. I wish I could give meat up. I don't really like it. I tend to eat ground meat, especially ground turkey, but not much else. The only time I eat meat is with dinner and a few days a week I make meals without meat. Daniel doesn't care for it much either but Dave likes it. I make a few things with meat but let Dave eat the meat and I eat the veggies. Daniel would prefer to eat fruit all day. Oh and noodles or pasta. He could live on just fruit and pasta. No wonder he is so skinny.

Sarah--how's the coffee this morning?

Oh I didn't tell you guys about my trip to Philadelphia yesterday. That place is weird!!!! Ok, first, the trip in was fine. I got to the highway that has bad traffic but it wasn't too bad yet. The directions from Yahoo Maps took me on a short trip through the ghetto where I saw a white man jogging wearing a bullet proof vest. Nice! Ok, then I get to class which was in a really nice area. Its called University City because it has Penn and Drexel literally next door to each other. Anyway, when I got to class, I wanted an end seat but they were taken so I took the third seat in leaving a buffer area between myself and the girl on the end. However, a kid comes in about 30 minutes late and although there were numerous empty seat, he sat next to in the buffer zone. He was a bit annoying too because he kept text messaging someone. Not a text every 5 or 10 minutes but literally every 15 seconds or so. Then he would miss something we were supposed to write down and he would try to look at my paper but he did it like he was trying to be unnoticed. It was as if he was cheating on a test and didn't want to get caught. He'd yawn and stretch and just happen to lean towards me so he could see my notes. Anyway, so that went on for the whole time. Other than that, class was good but by the end the room got so hot. It had to be 80 degrees in there and it was hard to stay awake. But then the excitement started....this girl walked into class with only 20 minutes left of class. Now the class was 3 hours and 45 minutes so why come for only the last 20 minutes? This, by itself, sparked my curiosity. So, I am no longer hot and tired, rather I am just really concerned as to why this girl showed up. Oh and I should mention that her appearance was odd. She was dressed nice and all but she was white as a ghost. No lie. Not just a little pale and in need of a tan but pure white. Then she sits down and gets out a pile of tissues and starts to dab her forehead and her neck as if she is sweating. She does this for about 3 minutes. Then she starts rummaging through her purse and I notice her hands are shaking bad. She pulls out a baggie. She then takes off her white scarf, folds it very meticulously and places it in the baggie. Meanwhile, this whole time, she has had her backpack standing up on her lap. She starts moving her fingers on top of the backpack and it appears she is petting something. As I look more closely, she appears to have a rabbit or a chinchilla or something large and gray in this backpack and she is petting it! I can see this thing moving. Not sure what part I was seeing which is why I can't identify the animal but I think it was a chinchilla. So, now I am just really confused as to why you would get all dressed up in a suit, come to class for the last 20 minutes and bring your pet chinchilla! So I turn to the annoying boy next to me and I say to him, "does that girl have an animal in her bag?" Of course, at first, he thinks I am crazy but then he looks and he says "Yeah, I think she does...and did you notice that she is white as a ghost?" So the two of us try to figure out what she has in her bag and why she is so pale. And then the 20 minutes was up and class was over. I came home and that was that. I wonder what my next trip will bring...

Love,
Tricia