It's officially Columbus Day, folks!  (Unlike in Keene, a city that apparently doesn't credit dear o'l Chris with the discovery of our lovely l'il country and gives students off on friday for "fall break", and the rest of the world...err, continent that believes it deserves a day off from work...) But no, whether it was vikings, russians, or not-yet-evolved man that discovered the continents of north, middle and south america, today, Saturday October 12, 2002 is Columbus Day.

Moving on....(isn't it cool how i worked the date into that?? Hehe.  Yeah, so once again, my journal has become an insane portion of my procrastination technique.  What am I putting off tonite, you ask?  2 midterms for varying history classes.  yeah, i really need to get those done, but first you have to hear about my AWESOME trip to Salem, NH.

So my dear friend Mandi decided that she would be going home for COLUMBUS DAY (fall break for u keene staters, for whom columbus does not exist).  Anywho, she invited me to join her, and being the rule-abiding college student that i am (rule #1: never turn down a chance to get off-campus), i said "Hell yeah!"  and Marie (also a rule-abiding student) responded in a similar manner.  And so my story begins.

So us three gals pile into the car thurs (after classes were CANCELLED!) and head out to the casa/chez of dear mandi.  (and let me just say that 1 1/2 hours in the car to salem beats 4 1/2 to NJ anyday!) We arrived somewhere in the dinner-eating area, and had yummy food from the pizza place.  After that, fun times folks!  Trampoline, anyone?  Yeah, so much to the amusement of Mandi and Lizzie (a l'il mandi) Marie and I spent quite a while bouncin' around outside...meditation popcorn?  Only people as cool as us can do that!  After that we watched 40 Days and 40 Nights, Oceans 11, and Jumanjii (filmed in keene, folks!) and went out for another round on the trampoline...in a state that mandi eloquently phrased as "not quite ourselves."   4am rolled around rather quickly, so we tucked ourselves into beds, and dreamed about oatmeal rasin cookies and steak tips until friday morning (afternoon for some of us, ::cough, cough:: marie!).

Friday began wonderfully...u never fully appreciate a shower until you go to school and have to shower in shoes, w/ l'il buckets of soap products and 26 other women (and an occasional boy). .. point being...real shower...no shoes, etc.  Then breakfast, shoe-shopping, a lizzy pick-up, and off to the Rockingham Mall for...well, mall time.  Real mall-time.  Ya know?  I need to say no more.  Some yummy salad and fries from Ruby Tuedays, and we were off to our next destination...visited some mandi-family, always a good time! and then to the movie theatre to see The Transporter...not bad, not great...good food smuggling... :-)

Saturday included a trip to the Apple Tree mall...(i didnt see any apple trees, but i wasnt looking very hard, hehe) and some laundry and YUMMY food by mandi's mom (marie and i got to eat REAL meat!!!!)!  and...oh, we got to meet mandi's friend Mandy...and...well, we did a lot more than i told you about...but this is getting novel-ish, and i am forgetting things, but us gals had a GREAT time!!!