Arisona [Recap of the last 3 days]

Days 5, 6, & 7. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The 8th through the 10th.

Monday, mom & I walked to the shopping place across the street from our hotel. We hit jackpot with a two-story Barnes & Noble. It had escalators! I decided to use my $20 giftcard that I had gotten from my cousins for Christmas. Then I paid another $20 of my own money. I bought a hardback compilation of four of C.S. Lewis's works [$9.95!!], a hardback B&N Classics compilation of great American short stories [$7.95!!], a SparkNotes book on Huck Finn [ughh. One of the few books I just CANNOT read. Okay... if I read C.S. Lewis, great american short story classics, Emile Bronte, and Jane Austen for fun... you cannot blame me for having a few books that I must use SparkNotes for.] Then I also bought three SparkCharts to help me with history. [APUSH and American Government. They've helped already! Concise, to the point, simple lists of information. I wish my history books were written like that.] The first time I ever used SparkNotes was for Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar. I got an A on the paper and test! And after I read the SparkNotes version, I always read the real version. Since I know what's going on, I can understand it better. Why am I justifying myself to you? I do not know. I guess it makes me feel better justified after I got a lecture from my father about cheating. I maintain that SparkNotes is not cheating, if it helps me grasp the concept. And besides, if I retain the necessary info [I can still remember what Julius Ceasar was about!], who cares how I learned it?

Anyways. Tuesday I did homework for 2 hours straight while mom wrote letters to her brother and a few friends. Then we went to the shopping center again, had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory [shared the Navajo sandwich. Best sandwich ever! Looove the avocado. ^_^] and went to Crate & Barrel. They had some cool stuff. We talked with dad outside by a chiminea [sp?] when he was done with his conference stuff for the day. He told us some of the stuff that one of the speakers was talking aobut [dealing with "problem people."]. Somehow mom ended up attempting to lecture me on not talking enough [my inner perfectionist doesn't let me speak because I may be wrong. One of the 'problem people' traits. Whatever.] because people think I'm not that smart. Okay, I'm shy and I don't want to say anything that makes me look stupid. What's wrong with that? This is why I like talking to people over the internet. I can say what I'm really thinking because when I type it out I feel more confident about it. She says that on the occaison I do actually talk when her friends are around, they are "amazed" at how smart I am. I told her that smart people [especially smart perfectionists... don't think I'm tooting my own horn here, I'm just repeating the convo between my parents & me] don't say much because we go by the, "It's better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than open your mouth and prove it," mentality. Because my dad is a borderline genius [even if he expects WAY too much out of me] and he is definitely NOT the talkative type. He's more of the... intimidate by silence type. haha. Then my dad basically told me I need to speak up more when I'm around people so they don't think I'm stuck up. I said that's their loss if they think I'm stuck up. I'm not. I'm just shy. And I don't mind what other people think. I also more of the sit back and watch type. I love watching people. It's just so fascinating! I don't see how people can get the stuck up impression from that, but apparently they do. I told my dad at least I don't intimidate them. Half of my friends are scared of my dad because.... he's just generally intimidating, I guess. Heck, I'm one of the only people I know that can last at least a good ten minutes in an argument with him while holding my own. When his brother last longer in an argument with him... my dad is just trying not to offend him. Dad doesn't care if he offends me. But I digress. Actually, I've been digressing for a good while now. I'll move on.

After my dad's last meeting Tuesday night we went to a movie. Four Christmases. It was hilarious, but the Mary and Joseph [actually the whole church thing] thing was definitely over the top. Outright making fun of Christians and church. They sort of crossed a line there. But other than that [and the fact that they weren't married] I loved it! And Reese Witherspoon is SO cute. I love her. :D

Once more, we went back to the pizza place. The pizza place also had THE BEST cheese bread ever.

The trip home was uneventful. Except for the fact that we were running late, then dad's calendar on his phone went whack so dad thought he'd accidentally gotten tickets for the NEXT day and we thought we'd be on standby. Then he realized that the time zone change had messed with his phone so we were in a hurry again because our tickets WERE actually for Wednesday. We were in another crappy terminal of Dallas FTW again [B this time. Why we never got to go to D when we always do, I don't know.] and I got my Auntie Anne's as always. I made plans to go to church because Courtney was going to be there, and then I got french fries from McDonald's because mom insisted I eat something. We made it home uneventfully, I got to read a good 6-7 chapters in "Blue Like Jazz," and we finally made it home.

To the cold.
But oh well.
Tina.