This is probably the only time I'll ever update twice in one day.

Yeah, that was a really long title.

Anyway, I had said earlier that I'd try to sum up the past two days at some point.  However, I'd like to extend that to the past four days, because that's when a lot of the important stuff happened.  So.... yeah.

*clears throat awkwardly* Moving on.  So.  Let's start with Thursday.  I was feeling pretty down because, as you may or may not know, I didn't get accepted straight into NCSSM - I was waitlisted.  And though my spirits had been pretty high at the beginning of the summer, by Thursday I was starting to be pretty bummed.  It had finally sunk in that move-in was in two days, and despite the fact that I jumped every time the phone rang, it was never NCSSM on the other end.  I had begun to realize that even though my chances of getting in off the waitlist were pretty good, my chances of actually getting the phone call before move-in were, well, slim.  Besides,  I was sick of trying to live two lives at once - one for Leesville, my regular school (which is amazing, by the way), and one for NCSSM.  I had spent my summer doing work for both schools and it was getting to me.  Thursday was pretty much rock bottom.  Despite the fact that it was my dad's birthday (which meant I got to bake a cake - yay!), I spent most of the day just moping.

I was upstairs folding laundry when the phone rang.  I kind of dismissed it automatically because I knew it couldn't be NCSSM.  However, I became interested when my dad picked it up:

"Hello?  ... yes, this is him.  *pause*  Well, I'd be fine with that, but you might want to ask her..."

By this time I was at the top of the stairs, hardly daring to hope, but hoping anyway.  My heart kind of got stuck in my throat when I ran down the stairs and saw my dad trying (and failing) to contain this absolutely ginormous grin.

"Emmalee," he said, "it's NCSSM and I think they've got something to ask you."

You can guess, I'm sure, what the phone call was.  I accepted (of course!), freaked out for about 10 minutes, posted some stuff on Facebook, texted some people, called my mom and my brother, la la la.  And then it kind of hit me what I was actually doing.  I had just agreed to leave home two years early.  And I would be moving into my new home in two days.  A vague feeling of terror crept over me.  Am I making the right decision?


However, Thursday night and Friday were so hectic that I really didn't have much time to think or be terrified.  The next 36 hours were a whirlwind of packing, last-minute shopping, and standing in the middle of my closet wondering which 'Canes posters to bring; I also attended an amazing party thrown by some of my friends.  There was cake and fireworks and PIZZA!  :D  It was wonderful.  It was also really nice to see all (or at least most) of my friends again one last time before I left, because I realized I probably wouldn't be seeing much of them from there on out.  I guess you could say it was bittersweet.

I went to bed Friday night feeling apprehensive, but also excited.  I was also saddened to realize that it would be the last night for a long time that I spent in my own bed, with my cat trying to knead my face at 4 a.m.  (Yeah.  She does that.)  Surprisingly, I slept pretty well, and woke up the next morning to blueberry pancakes and sausage.  Last-minute packing then ensued, and we left for NCSSM at about 9 a.m.

When we got there at 9:30, the rain was ridiculous, but it started clearing up by the time we actually unloaded.  Mom had to go park the car, and Dad decided to be altruistic and actually help other people get their stuff out of their cars, so I just stood there for a while.  Eventually, though, we hiked up 4 flights of stairs to 4th Bryan and began the process of moving in.  Furniture was shifted, things were packed, smelly closets were wiped down with Clorox wipes.  Good times.  I also got to meet my roommate, Ena, and her family.  My first impressions were positive, so I was relieved; I had been worried that I would somehow end up having a roommate I couldn't stand.  Later, deciding to avoid the cafeteria food for as long as we could, my parents and I trekked down Ninth Street to Chubby's Tacos.  (Om nom nom.)  There were some information sessions when we got back, and then we said our goodbyes.

I was sad to see my mom and dad leave.  In fact, I had to hold back a few tears.  But as I walked back into Bryan, I vowed to jump wholeheartedly into this next phase of my life, as unknown (and kind of frightening) as it seemed to be at the beginning.

The rest of the day was pretty crazy.  I sorted out my room (kind of), met some awesome people, and started learning my way around campus.  There was a picnic, an ice cream social, and a dance at which very few people actually knew how to dance.  But there was a flying afro, crowd surfing, and some people that actually could dance like nobody's business, so it made it worthwhile.  Hyped up on sugar and adrenaline, I watched some Star Trek after I finally got back to my dorm and ready for bed, and ended up not getting to sleep until about 1 a.m.

Woke up at 7:30 this morning feeling absolutely exhausted.  But I got dressed and staggered down to breakfast, only to find that there were no forks or spoons.  I had to eat my scrambled eggs and Rice Krispies with a knife.  (Try it sometime if you want to become extremely frustrated in less than 20 seconds.)

For the rest of the morning (and part of the afternoon), we heard lectures about getting adjusted, online safety (bizarre costumes!!!  BIZARRE COSTUMES!!!), and other lovely topics.  Then we did a massive scavenger hunt with our sibling halls.  4th Bryan's brother hall ended up being 1st Hunt, and they seemed pretty chill.  In fact, our combined awesomeness earned us first place.  (S'more party as a prize!  woot woot)

Then we had free time and ate dinner and did icebreaking activities with our sibling halls, and then more free time and a lecture about Housekeeping.  We had Happy Half, but it got cut to Happy Five Minutes because of lightning.  (Just so you know, Happy Half is a half hour of pure socialization outside by the big bench in front of Hill, one of the dorms.)

So here I am, writing this blog (which is probably nowhere near my normal standards of writing owing to exhaustion), trying not to think about how bloodshot my eyes are going to be when I go to take my contacts out... I should get to bed earlier.  Or sleep later.  Or not spend forty minutes trying to write a blog... hmmmm.  Yeah.