It is hard for an empty bag to stand up right.

The title of this really has nothing to do with the actual entry. I was eating a fortune cookie and that happened to be what was inside. It's an interesting little quotation.

Anyway, this has been a bizarre week. A grade school classmate of mine died of a drug overdose. A large general store in the area where I grew up was leveled by a horrific fire. Fortunately, no people died in the fire, but several small pets and a llama perished. And then there was the whole bizarre Amish school shooting.

What the fuck is going on here?

So last week I won a radio contest. Everyday, the only radio station that I'm able to pick up in my office has an impossible trivia question. Last Friday, the question was "In 1979, Jimmy Carter was canoeing and something strange happened to him. What was it?" I got the answer right and they told me that I won a $25 gift card to the Giant grocery store as well as a chance to win a backpack full of school supplies that they were going to draw for a half hour later. I ended up winning the school supplies too! They said, "And you're not going to believe who our winner is! It's Chrissy - our own Jimmy Carter expert from earlier today!"

I suppose I've been called worse things.

Laura and I went to the station today to pick up the prize and I told the receptionist that I was there to pick up the two prizes. She went through her book and said, "Chrissy, did you know you were the grand prize winner?"

I said, "Yeah, actually. I heard them announce it."

The lady looked a little disappointed. I said, "Wait. I'll pretend that I didn't know. Go ahead and tell me again." So she did and I said, "REALLY?!?!?! OH WOW! YOU'RE KIDDING?!?!" really loud and jumped up and down. A couple people in the adjoining cubicles came out and talked to me then. Another guy brought out the backpack and there was so much stuff that went with it that they couldn't even fit it all in. This is what I got:

2 reams of paper

5 notebooks

10 packs of pencils (12 pencils in each...guess what's going to be in your stocking this year)

10 blank CDs

A three hole punch (I've needed one of those desperately for school for quite some time now)

A calculator

A six pack of post-its

More post-its in one of those twisty shapes

6 packs of note cards

Twisty crayons

About a dozen of those foamy grip things you put on your pencils

A super duper stapler that can staple up to 15 pages at a time (Ooh! Ahh!)

3 erasers

A pack of those erasers that you put on your pencils

A six pack of purple glue sticks (my favorite color...perfect for huffing!)

A pack of skinny highlighters

A pack of big yellow highlighters

3 rolls of tape (which I never seem to have in my house, especially when I need to wrap a gift)

AND

A roll of duct tape (since when is duct tape a school supply?!?!?)

They also threw a bunch of bumper stickers in there.

And to think the only reason why I bothered picking it up was because I'm going grocery shopping tonight and thought the $25 gift card would come in handy. I really hit the mother load.

I have been sort of out of touch all week. I had a group presentation in school on Tuesday night that monopolized a lot of my time. On my way to the presentation, my tire blew out. I had to call Paul to come save me and swap out cars. I'm so lucky to have him. I don't know what I would have done if he wasn't there. I was really freaked out. I called my professor before I even called AAA. I felt like I was letting my group down. Luckily, I was able to make it to class only 15 minutes late. And my group wanted to be the last to present anyway, so that got us out of going first.

The weirdest thing was that I had a dream over the summer that I missed a presentation for class because I blew out a tire. In the dream, I was only a mile or so away from where it actually happened.

Wednesday, I traveled with my boss to meet the new branches that I will be handling. It was a nice little road trip and everyone that I met seems really nice. I now officially have a lot on my plate, taking on three more branches in addition to the five that I already handle. But at least I won't be bored at work anymore.

October is looking like it will be very busy. I have a few concerts coming up. I'm actually going out for Halloween this year. And I also get to go to Lake Lure, NC for a business trip with the guys again. I had such a good time there last year. I can't wait.