I'm gonna eventually stop titling these

I'm home! I finished my last final, renaissance art history, yesterday morning. After packing clothes and the fiber optic christmas tree from our apartment, I said goodbye to Megan and left a note for my potential roommate for next semester. It went something like this: "I am already predisposed not to like you because I've been stuck with a bad roommate situation in the past, so if you are a chronic potsmoker, heroin addict, britney spears or country music lover, or a person who falls asleep before 11 pm, get out now! If not any of these things, i guess you can stay, but keep to your side of the room please and don't take over the bathroom with your multitude of hair care supplies. Sincerely, your adoring roommate"

No, just kidding, I was actually very nice in the note, welcomed her to our apartment, left contact info, and told her to make herself at home. I don't actually know if a new roommate will be coming that soon, I am hoping to be able to bask in the glow of a single room all to myself for at least a few weeks, but whatever happens happens. I've got a full month to relax and have my mind as far away from school as possible. Since getting home last night, I went on a cleaning frenzy and cleaned out all old clothes from my dresser and closet to donate to the homeless shelter. It's always such a battle each year with the city council to get the approval to have the homeless shelter each winter, and this year it barely passed so it will again be out in those tents on Via Princessa by Costco. They're in great need of supplies like food because they didn't think that there was going to be any homeless shelter this year so they aren't prepared so if any of you have extra food to donate, they'd probably be really happy.

Then today my mom and I went to the mall with the goal of people watching. We bought two peppermint mochas and sat in a corner and watched holiday shoppers walk by. It's nice to have the time to do that. I always forget how many retarded teenagers there are here. Everytime I see them, it reminds me of the documentary brigitte did last year about kids that just hang around at the mall and that's their only activity. It makes me really happy that 3/4 of the year I'm at college. There were also plenty of soccer moms. Now that I've gotten the annual mall trip out of the way, I can hopefully avoid going there the rest of break.

Everything here at home is extremely relaxing. When i came in, the house was decorated nicely, my mom redid the bathroom without telling me, and the Christmas palm trees are set up in the living room with presents already layed out underneath. I spied at some of them and I definitely saw a cd shaped box with my name on. Wonder what it could be. The front lawn hasn't been raked in about 10 years apparently because you can't see grass...just a sea of fall colored leaves all across the lawn and sidewalk. After I made sure no one was looking, I made a leaf pile and jumped in it. I'm sure things will pick up when my friends start coming home, but right now I'm just enjoying the simple happiness of having my family around, reading, drinking coffee, and sleeping 12 hours a night.