Is there a glitch? Because my blog section seems eerily empty. Where I used to have 50+ blogs, now I see "has no blog entries yet." I supposedly have 1 new message, but when I try to open it I see "You have no messages at this time." What is going on? I realize I haven't been on in a few days, but would they really wipe my account? And I still have all my editorships intact. I'm confused. And I have no little box that says "Friends' Recent Blogs" or whatever it's supposed to say. So I'm sorry that I can't read your blogs.

I will be gone the rest of today and all of tomorrow until 8pm for college orientation. See you all later!

When me (my parents and I) were shopping in the free section of a used book/CD/DVD store last Wednesday, there was a grandmotherly woman looking at books. She picked an old book with a flaky cover off the shelf, looked at it for a moment, then put it onto the pile of books she wanted. After looking around a bit more, she turned to us and asked "Does this have a death in it?" We weren't quite sure what she meant, but my mom had read the book so she told her that it did indeed have a death. The woman looked thoughtful, then put it back on the top of her stack. Before she turned around to leave, she looked at us again. "The death, how do they handle it?" she asked us. Mom explained it to her. The woman looked down at the carpet, then at the stack of books she hugged, then back up at us. "My daughter, she's leaving us in 8 months." We weren't sure what she meant. As we watched, her eyes welled with tears and the light glinted off her golden "Nana" necklace. "She's pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl," she smiled a little, "and the doctors want her to end the pregnancy so she can get chemo, but she won't do that to her babies. Her cancer, it's cervical. She got it from herpes. Her husband - ex-husband - cheated on her and gave her herpes." A tear rolled down her cheek. She lowered her gaze to the carpet again, then focused her eyes somewhere behind Mom. Dad put his hand on her shoulder and patted. "She's my oldest, my best. Always does what's right. The other two, they're rebelious. But her, she's so good. She saved herself until marriage. Her ex-husband told us he couldn't believe he found a woman no one else had touched. Now she's dating a man who proposes to her every day, but she sees something in him that reminds her of her ex-husband, and she won't marry him. It's always the good ones that die before their time. Why is it always the good ones?" She blinked again as tears welled and almost spilled over. "She'll be leaving behind her twins and a six year old boy. People are so generous. There was a college fund set up for him, and people have donated so much to him that his whole education is paid for." A smile spread over her lips as she thought about the kindness of strangers. "He will get a certain amount each month, then when he graduates from college he'll get control of the account. If you go into MiMi Maternity, remember him." She blinked back tears, then looked at me. "Know the man you love. Get him tested. Save yourself for marriage, because it's worth it. Please." A couple tears made rivers down her cheek. Mom said "What's your daughter's name, we'll pray for her?" The woman said "Lauren, her name's Lauren. Please." Then she looked at me again. "Know the man you love." She hugged her stack of books closer, turned, and walked away.

So please, if you pray, pray for Lauren and her family, her twins, her son, and the people she's leaving behind.

Well hello! How are you? I'm peachy! Haha...

Well, Naaiya, Fwirrel, and I picked up foster pups yesterday from the shelter. We went in expecting to get three, but the foster coordinator told us the three we were expecting weren't ready yet, and the only other litter she had was a litter of six. So we took the litter of six. They're about 3-4 weeks old and are black spaniel/lab mixes. We got three boys and three girls. We split them up and each took a boy and a girl to look after. Naaiya's girl is Serenity (like Mal's ship in Firefly) and her boy is Sirius Black. Fwirrel's girl is Jaida and her boy is Jeremy (like Jeremy Irons, right Fwirrel?). My girl is Marcy and my boy is McCoy (it rhymes...and he's named after Cord McCoy, a PBR rider). Pictures of my two:
Marcy
McCoy

This is a very eventful weekend!

First, on my last day of exams, my cousin drove down from PA to be at my graduation! She wanted to surprise me - she did! She's still here and leaves next Wednesday. It's great having her here. I never talked to her that much, but we have a lot in common and it's nice to have someone to relate to.

Then Thursday we had out two hour (!) awards ceremony then luncheon. MM frozen lasagna..haha. Then that night we had our Baccalaureate Mass. The mass lasted two hours (from like 7:30 to 9:30) and the Bishop talked forever. It was nice, but I had an awful headache and felt like I was going to pass out the whole time. After the mass my parents gave me my graduation present: a brand new Canon Rebel! I'm very happy. I'd been wanting one for years and was about to start saving money to buy one.

Then Friday was an off-day! We had nothing! So my cousin and I went to a bicentennial garden and walked around and took pictures. There were a bunch of construction cones (thus the blog title) and a big, very square and precise hole in the ground. As we were walking by we read a sign that said "Archeological Dig." So naturally after the walk we went back and were going to just watch, but they asked if we wanted to help. We sifted through dirt and found pottery shards, brick, and a pig tooth. It was really cool. Then the man asked if I wanted to trowl (sp?). He showed me how to use the shovel thing and I shaved at the dirt. It was very awesome. When I was little I wanted to be an archaeologist, but I'd abandoned that dream. This was very cool for me. They said they were going to be back there next Thursday and Friday from 8:30 to 4. So guess where I'm going to be next Thursday and Friday? Then Friday night my parents went out to pick up my birthday present, and came home an hour and a half later with my other cousin from PA. She flew down for my graduation and surprised me. I felt loved! Haha..She had to leave today, though, because she's moving into her apartment tomorrow.

So yesterday we had the comencment exercises. Those weren't as long as I'd expected. It was kind of cool. We'd all been goofing off and not taking any of the practice seriously, but it was nice to see that once we all got on stage we did everything maturely. So today I'm just relaxing and learning how to work my new camera.

Tomorrow we're going to a little pottery town for my 18th birthday. I got to pick what we were going to do, and the little town seems to be the best choice for everyone (we're all pretty artsy). Yay! Eventful weekend...

How is everyone? Good, I hope!
(One of the pictures I took at the bicentennial garden thing. I didn't photoshop it or anything! it just looked this awesome!)