a halloween night

October has nearly come and gone. I'm enjoying my Halloween evening - handing out some candy, eating some myself. We don't get too many kids here at the house - probably because we are on the end of a small street. But we do border right on a cemetery - maybe it scares the kids away or something. Our most recent visitors were a skunk and Elvis. And to top it all off - Elvis sang us a song. Hands down, one of the cutest things that I have seen in a long time. Who can resist a 3-year old in an Elvis costume that sings for you? I sure can't, which is why I gave him some extra candy bars.

Speaking of visitors, I have had some "furry friends" close by, as of late. In recent days, there had been a lot of scampering and running around occurring outside of the walls of my attic room. There was even some scuffling, squirrel "growling" and scratching. At first I chalked it up to squirrels running on the roof. But then I realized they definitely weren't on the roof, but rather, were running right behind the wall by my head. They were busy little critters, and it was starting to really annoy me when they'd start early in the morning, and would run back and forth, back and forth for what seemed like hours. Fortunately, the problem is all fixed now - so hopefully they won't be back too soon. Turns out there was a big hole that they were coming in - and I assume they were building up their winter store of food in there. Too bad it's all sealed off now, suckers! Seriously though, I'm glad that I won't be waking up to the sound of squirrels scampering right by my head anymore.

As for school, things continue to go well. All four midterms were finished up last week - and as of right now, I am happy with how things are going (although I've only received one of those marks back so far, but I feel pretty good about the rest). Seriously, I don't know how I survived last year - four was more than enough this year. I was exhausted by the end of that, and am thankful that I still don't have 10 or more to go. Besides keeping up with reading and labs, I only have one more group project and two lab practicals until the end of classes. The lab practicals are what make me nervous, because that is the really important stuff. I'll get into the lab a couple times this week and next, and will hopefully feel prepared (and calm) when those roll around.

Time is seriously flying by though - hard to believe that the semester is more than half over. I have my exam schedule now. Good news is that I will be coming home on the 20th, two days earlier than I originally expected. Bad new is that we write three of our finals on back-to-back days, one of which is worth 80% and one of which is worth 100%. I know I wrote back-to-back exams in undergrad, but believe me, three back-to-back just isn't doable here in Optometry school. Thankfully, things might be changed around a little bit. We still may have to write a couple back-to-back exams, but not three in a row, and they are just spaced out and more manageable this way. Now, we just have to get our profs to agree . . .

Mom, Dad and Alicia come in just over a week to visit. I'm SO excited to have them come! They come on Thursday (9th) and fly home on Monday (13th). It will be so good to have them here - and to just relax and enjoy myself for the entire weekend. It will be good to show Alicia around here too, as she is the only family member who hasn't been here to visit me yet.

Well, I can't think of anything else to share right now. Enjoy your Halloween!