I just got back from Albemarle. On the way home, some guy in a Civic wanted to race. Now, my car is old and I haven't done anything to it to make it faster. It's just your average Honda. So as far as speed is concerned, he could probably blow me away on a straight road. But the thing is, I can drive. I was behind him and he just took off. We were on a country road so I decided to keep up with him, which is what he was challenging me to do. So anyway he got way ahead of me at first. Then I got up to about 95 and I was gaining on him big time. I know the roads around here like the back of my hand and I just tailed him to the end. Glad he didn't slam on the brakes, we would have both been dead. I don't know why I wrote about this. It was just fun. I can be an idiot sometimes.

We put up the Christmas tree and everything yesterday. Took a while. We couldn't find the stockings. They're probably in a closet somewhere. This morning I sent in my MOPs. I don't feel like explaining what that is. I haven't eaten today so that's what I'm going to do right now.

I just finished cleaning out the living room closet and the attic. Found the stockings. It was a chore, but it was fun to look through old stuff. I don't feel like separating this entry into paragraphs, so it's just going to all run together. I found a cheap computer and we ordered it this afternoon. 512MB, 533FSB, 60GB hard drive, 6 USB, 64MB Video/Sound/Lan/Mod (wanted 128 but that's good enough for now), keyboard, mouse, and a 17-inch flat screen monitor. All for $591 ($42 of which is S&H). Oh, and Windows XP. Should be here in a week. Carolina had their first loss December 3 against Illinois. Had to lose sometime. 5-1. Carlyn's in the living room working on his science project for school. I remember when I did mine in 6th grade. OK, I don't know what else to say.

Well, I know what I made in my two online classes: 97 and 98. I don't know about the others, yet. I'm taking four of those bastards next semester. I like online better than being in the class because I can just logon and do this stuff whenever I want. I still learn just as much, but it's more convenient. I've been cursing too much lately. Oh, why try to cover up my southern way of speaking? I've been cussin' too much lately. That's better.

Christmas is getting really close. I still love Christmas time, but it's a lot different from when I was a child. It was so special and I had that feeling of excitement all month long. It's not that way anymore. I guess that comes with growing up, which sucks. But, I think I still have a little of that left in me. I certainly love Christmas more than your average 21-year-old male.

Here's the image I'm currently using as my desktop background. It's pretty nifty.

Well, I got the new computer, but I have to get a modem and configure the sound card and some other crap. I also have to get a floppy drive. But, Jeff has 4 at his house so I'll probably end up getting one of those. It'll be a week or so before I get it all ready to set up. It's way too busy around here to be setting that up. I'm in no hurry.

We're still not sure what exactly we're doing Christmas Eve and Day. We usually go to church Christmas Eve and then head over to Papa's or James'. Then Christmas morning we all get together again. Then over to Lisa's later in the day. It'll go something like that, hopefully.

I ate way too much today. I'm going to lose some weight when the new year gets here. Carolina beat Vermont last night. 6-2.

I woke up about 6:30 this morning. Went in the living room and turned the tree on, sat down, and flipped around the channels. I took a shower and soon after my parents got up, Dad went for food at Bojangles. After breakfast Dad and I went up to Albemarle to do a little shopping. I bought Carlyn this knife he has been wanting. I don't know why he wants a pocket knife. I found this Santa thing for Mama. Bought a couple other little things.

I think the Christmas plans are nearly finalized. We're going to John's Christmas Eve before the candle lighting service at church. Then in the morning, we're meeting again over here for breakfast. Then, we'll go over to Mama's side of the family in the afternoon. We'll probably head over to Papa's again later in the day just to visit and stuff, even though he'll be at the Christmas Eve and Day get-togethers. It doesn't feel like Christmas unless I visit that house.

Carlyn is at basketball practice right now. He and I are planning on going to see Lord of the Rings Monday. Then I'll go buy Daddy something. He's gone to the grocery store at the moment. Why do I write stupid things such as this? Because I know when I'm 50 that it'll be nice to read about. I wish I had kept a thorough journal when I was younger. NCSU is playing right now; winning by almost 40 points. Those games are nice but just not as fun as the close, OH-MY-GOD-WE-HAVE-TO-SCORE-RIGHT-NOW-OR-DIE games.

• We made M&M cookies today
• Gonna get fat
• Carolina won again, now 7-2
• Visited Papa for a little bit
• Played a lot of basketball with Carlyn. Up .50 now after 10:20pm playing.

Carlyn and I went shopping this morning. Walmart was first. There we bought Gig a 24" bone. He'll never finish that thing. Bought dad a golf glove since he loves golf now for some reason. Then we went to K-Mart. Bought nothing. Sam Goody came next. I just bought a magazine. Then we headed over to Eastgate Cinema to see The Two Towers. It was only 11:30am and the movie didn't start 'til 12. The doors weren't even unlocked yet. So, we went into the Family Dollar which is close by. There we bought a couple gag gifts; a barbie doll for Dad and a big jar of mustard for Mom. But, we also bought her a candle. After putting the items in the car we went on into the theater. Josh was tearing tickets. He counted me as a child so I wouldn't have to pay as much.

As expected, the movie was quite long. I had to pee very badly. After that we went over to McDonald's and then headed home. It was 4-something by then. Dad had gotten off early. Carlyn and I waited 'til he went outside and then grabbed some wrapping paper and went into my room to wrap the presents we bought.

It's 5:20am and I just finished placing my presents around the tree. Of course, mine and my brother's had already been laid out before I woke up. They said we're getting up at 5:30 to open them. They didn't know I was getting them presents, so hopefully that'll be a surprise.

Yesterday was very busy. Carlyn and I played video games on and off all morning while helping to get everything ready. Dad had to run to the store more than once. We're cooking breakfast for everyone this morning. They should all be here about 8 o'clock. Mom had to work 'til noon yesterday. After she got home it really got busy. At 3:30 we left to go to John's. It was a lot of fun. Jeremy, Justin, Josh and everyone else were there. I parked on the curb. At one point Catie kept playing with me while I was sitting on the couch. She was grabbing at my hat and the little strings on my hooded sweatshirt thing. I finally had to get up, and ran around with her chasing me. Everyone was laughing. They had two small kittens, both gray. Smokey and Tiger, I think. What original names. It's getting closer to 5:30 now. I'll come and finish this later today.

After I finished the below entry I went back to Carlyn's room and got him up. Then we opened presents. The doll and mustard were pretty funny. Stupid, but funny. After presents were opened, Dad scrambled around trying to get breakfast done. He could tell it was going to take him longer to finish than anticipated. So, he called everyone and told them it would be 8:30am instead of 8 o'clock. Carlyn got the camcorder he wanted, and we fiddled around with it for a while. We had just enough time for the battery to charge before everyone arrived. He really likes it. He recorded the whole morning. Jeremy, Justin, Josh, Carlyn, and I played Vice City for a while. Obviously, we took turns. The house was pretty loud; lots of conversation, of course. Justin said he was going to see The Two Towers again, so I said I'd go with him. After a couple hours everyone was gone and Carlyn and I messed around with his camera some more. At about 1:30pm we headed over to Lisa and Bobby's house. The wind was blowing very hard, which made it feel much colder. We attempted to play basketball with Eric and David. But, that didn't really go anywhere. After a while we all went in. They had a little food. David had gotten a small chess set for Christmas and wanted to play my Dad—he's very good at chess. He won some tournaments back in the day. So anyway, he wiped the floor with David. Since I was leaving early to go to Justin's they went ahead and gave my present to me. As expected, it was a Carolina sweatshirt. So then I drove over to James' house. He and Justin were the only ones there at the time. Josh was working at the theatre and Jeremy was at his girlfriend's house. I don't know about Cynthia. So anyway, we took Justin's car. We didn't see Josh at the movies. He was up in the reel room or something. After the movie he drove us back to James' and then I drove home. It was 7:15pm then (the movie started at 3:45).

So, Christmas was a success. Now that it's over I think I'll consider items I may want. I need to purchase a new Nintendo Entertainment System. I miss it. I especially miss Super Mario Bros. 2, ExciteBike, and Battletoads. I also need to repurchase the Super Nintendo. Out of this World was an amazing game. I would buy a new system just to have that game again. Super Mario World, Street Fighter II, and Star Fox were also awesome games. So many memories associated. I remember playing Zelda, Chip N Dale's Rescue Rangers, Street Fighter II, etc. at the Js' house. Street Figther became so monotonous and/or infuriating (because of the real-life fights that ensued) after a while that we decided the first person to get a hit won.