Christmas "Bear"oling 2016

Merry, Merry (almost) Christmas, friends!

Do you know what my favorite part about college is? ... ... ... all the Christmases you get to have! So far I've decorated for Christmas, been to one Christmas party, participated in one gift exchange, AND gone Christmas caroling! AND there's going to be more Christmas when Short Girl gets back in January! PLUS Christmas with Katie's family after Finals! Man, oh man, do I like Christmas!!

So, yesterday, the Honors Program went Christmas caroling at nursing homes in Jacksonville. It's Katie's favorite thing to do--I think because it involves Christmas and making people happy, and those are her two favorite things in the world. There were 13 people who came, so there were enough people to have a whole choir! Katie was nervous because she doesn't like to sing in front of people (I hear her sing Hamilton all the time around the dorm, and I can attest that it's probably for the best), but since there were a lot of people that made her feel better. She went a liiiiiiittttllleeee over-the-top and wore a Christmas sweater AND Christmas leggings, but what can you expect from her?

We had so much fun caroling! And the people at the nursing homes (surpriSINGly) loved us! One lady even told Katie that we should be on the radio!! I don't know about that, but it sure was nice of her to say! We sang lots of Christmas songs like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells" and "Frosty the Snowman" and "Winter Wonderland" and lots of hymns like "Away in a Manager" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "We Three Kings." And at the second place, we got to sing for a birthday party! Miss Mary turned 90 years old yesterday, and I just think that's so neat! I wonder if I'll live to be 90 someday! (I don't know how old I am now, so I've got a little bit of an uphill battle to fight there, but I'm sure it's possible!) And the nice ladies there took our pictures while we sang, and I think someone even took a video! (Oh my goodness I hope we sound okay!)

But no matter how good or bad we were, what matters is that we made people happy. They LOVED us everywhere we went, and they were really thankful that we took the time to come sing to them. I don't really think of it as a "sacrifice" or anything, because it's just so much fun! I wish we could go Christmas caroling all year long! It was so great to see the little old ladies' faces light up and sing along with us. I would sing to them all day if I had vocal chords!

I'm actually a little sad that Christmas caroling is over for this year. It always goes by so fast, and I never want it to end! But, who knows? Maybe we WILL have a Christmas album next year? Wouldn't that be something?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, friends! I hope you all have a super great time surrounded by friends and family! And thanks for keeping up with my adventures this year! I'll keep you posted!

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

I got to see lots of my old friends at Christmas caroling (see Tall Girl and Bearded Boy and Curly-Haired Boy and The Babies?) AND I made lots of new friends, too! It was so much fun, but I'm a little sad that it's over. On the plus side, there's still so much Christmas fun to be had!

Trash Bear Gives Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

Today's a pretty important day--and not just because it's the reason Katie's been off school all week. Today's Thanksgiving! It's a day for, well, being thankful! And if Katie's taking a break from celebrating Christmas and writing her research paper(s), then it must be an important day.

I know it can seem like everything's going wrong right now, and the country's experiencing some big, scary changes, and it still hasn't rained in forever, but I just wanted to remind you that there's so much to be thankful for!

Like, for me, I'm thankful that Katie and her friends found me in the trashcan. I got a new life with them, and it's been awesome! And I'm thankful that her friends are now my friends. I'm thankful that we laugh whenever we're together, and I'm thankful for all the pictures we take together, because they'll be forever reminders of our fun memories. I'm thankful that I have plenty of shirts to wear so that I'm never cold, and I'm thankful I get to write this blog to you every once in a while. I'm thankful for my roommates (the animal ones and the human ones). I'm thankful that even when I get sick sometimes I have medicine to help me get better and friends to help take care of me. I'm thankful that Katie shares her bed with me at night and that she lets me come home with her on vacations. I'm thankful that we can watch the MAcy's parade together and sneak bites of food off the kitchen table. And hugs. I'm really thankful for hugs.

I know that some of those things seem silly to you, but I'm lucky enough to be a bear without a lot of responsibilities, I don't have homework or real work or families to take care of or friends who are in the hospital or loved ones who have died. But that also means that I don't have any of the good things that come with those things--and you do! So I bet you have a LOT to be thankful for today. And everyone who knows you has something to be thankful for, too: YOU!

So, in honor of Thanksgiving, I want to share some of the things I've been most thankful for this year (but there so many more!)

I went to my first prom in April, and it was so much fun! I met all these
great girls and their handsome dates, and we took so many pictures!

I also went to my first formal in April, and that's where I
met Fancy Boy. We're basically best friends now, so I'm
thankful that I got to meet him that day!

This is from the day that Katie and I saw "Captain America:Civil War."
Even though we were on different sides, I'm glad we could share this
day together. (PS #TeamIronMan !!)

Even though I was sick this day, it was fun because I got
to spend it with Katie in The Chanticleer office! (And I
got new unicorn pajamas!) 

This is one of my favorite pictures because it has all of my stuffed friends in it! I have some really great friends, with and
without opposable thumbs, and that's probably what I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving. What about you?

So, what are you all thankful for today? I know there's probably a lot!

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

Special Friends & Special Favors

Hi friends,

I have a special request today. Katie's roommate/BFF and one of my very good friends--Short Girl--is having some big, big, big surgery today. The doctors are going to break both her legs and move them around so they don't hurt her anymore. Because, right now, sometimes her legs hurt really, really bad when she walks...or when the weather changes...or when she has to stand up a lot.

I've never had surgery before, but it sounds kind of scary. And Katie says this is a special surgery, because Short Girl won't come back to college until next semester because she won't be able to walk! She'll be in a wheelchair and on crutches for a long time--like 6 weeks!--and she'll have to go to something called physical therapy. (That's a special kind of doctor who teaches you how to do stuff again. For Short Girl, they'll teach her how to walk and move around and make sure her new legs are strong and getting better.)

I was a little scared for Short Girl when found out, but Katie told me she's going to be just fine. She's a tough cookie, that Short Girl, and this is going to be really, really good for her. She left after the football game on Saturday with her family and Curly-Haired Boy, so I know she's going to be taken care of. (Between you and me, though, Katie's already missing her like crazy and has a countdown to when she'll get to see her again. I can't really blame her. I'd miss Katie that much if she had to go away for a long time.)

But, still, I'm a nervous little bear, so if you're a praying kind of person, would you pretty please pray for Short Girl and her family and her friends and her doctors? And if you're not a praying person, would you pretty please send some positive thoughts her way? And if you're not a positive person, would you pretty please just think about her?

Short Girl is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very amazing person, and Katie and I love her very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very much and want her to get better as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, here are some of my favorite memories with Short Girl! (She doesn't like pictures, but she took some with me and Katie, and that makes me smile!)

It's always sad when you have to be away from your friends, but I know that this surgery is going to be good for Short Girl in the long run. She's the kind of person who always thinks about other people before herself, and now all those people get to help take care of her in return. So, even though it's going to be tough for everyone, I wanted to say thanks for being such great friends, friends! I really appreciate it, and I know Short Girl does, too!

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

Have Yourself A "Beary" Little Christmas

Hi, friends!

It's officially the most wonderful time of the year! That's right: IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

Okay, okay. Katie told me that some of you might yell at me for saying that, but let me explain.
It's only officially College Christmas time. Real Christmas doesn't start until December, but because Katie and my other friends will only get to see each other for a few days in December, she decided that they needed to decorate now, AND SHE LET ME HELP!

I love spending Christmas with Katie, because she always has so much to do: shopping for presents and baking cookies and decorating the dorm and making ornaments and taking pictures; she basically IS Christmas spirit. When you're around her, you can't help but get excited, too!

Katie's Freshman Year
ornament

Katie's Sophomore Year
ornament--a snow princess!

So this weekend, Katie (and I helped, too!) decorated the dorm room for Christmas!! It was a lot of work--we had to move furniture and build a Christmas tree and unpack boxes--but it was SO worth it! Katie and Katie's Mom even made new Christmas ornaments for all of Katie's friends. Katie makes them a new ornament every year so they'll always remember all the fun they had in college. The first year was a little red cup with a lime wedge on it that says, "Baby's First Christmas" on it. (She made these ones before I knew her!! That's so weird to think about!) Then last year's was a snow-filled ornament with a snowman on it that was themed around her friends' favorite things. Tall Girl's snowman was holding mallets, because she plays marimba, and Glasses Boy's snowman was wearing a fez and a funny scarf, because he really likes this TV show called Dr. Who, and Short Girl's snowman was carrying lots of books, because she likes history, and Curly-Haired Boy's snowman was wearing a teeny tiny replica of his favorite tie, and Bearded Boy's snowman had a beard! And now this year, Katie and Katie's Mom painted little canvases and put pretty Christmas stickers on them. Tall Girl says they're fancy!! All of her friends really like their ornaments, and I know that Katie likes making them for them and making her friends feel special.

Katie's Junior Year ornaments!

"Don't get your tinsel in a tangle!"

They put allllllll those ornaments on the tree, plus more! Katie kind of has a thing for tinsel (because it's like glitter but less messy), so their Christmas tree is ALL silver tinsel! I think it's pretty cool. But they put MORE tinsel on it! Red and gold tinsel! Plus red and gold jingle bells and fake candy canes (you CANNOT eat these!! I tried!!) and a blue crab covered in Christmas lights and a cat with reindeer antlers and a nativity scene and a Santa head and all of Tall Girl's ornaments that she made! They're called "sat dough ornaments," and you kind of make them like you would make cookies, only the dough isn't yummy, and then you let them dry and paint them. Tall Girl has one that's shaped like a sloth, and it's really cute!

"The stockings were hung by the futon with care...."

Even Johnny Depp is in the Christmas spirit!

And Legolas, too! He's wearing an elf hat....
get it?

Besides the Christmas tree, Katie put out lots of Christmas signs, and she put tinsel around the lamps and TV, and she hung their stockings over the futon, and she even has ornaments that she's going to hang from the ceiling later!! Our dorm room is super Christmas-y, and I'm so excited about it!!

Christmas is my favorite time of year, because I get to send extra special time with my extra special friends! For a few days, we can all put aside our really busy schedules and have fun as a little family. They all make me and Katie feel so loved, and I'm so glad they stole me out of the trash can two and a half years ago.

"Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys"

I know it's a little early for "Real Christmas time," but I just wanted to wish all of my friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah and a Merry Kwanzaa and a Happy/Merry/Wonderful/Fun/Whatever-Holiday-or-Holidays-you-celebrate right now!

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~ 

The 2016 Election as Told by a Bear

Hiya, friends,

Today's a special day in American history (according to Katie)! It's election day, which means America is going to pick a new person to be in charge of the country! Right now, Mr. Obama is in charge of America, but he's been the president as long as he's allowed to be, so now it's someone else's turn. And because this is America, the people who live here get to choose the new president. That's called a "democracy." It was set up by the Founding Fathers when they started America in 1776.

Katie got to vote because she's a person. But she didn't vote for
Mickey Mouse. That would be weird. She even got a cool
sticker for voting! It makes me wish I had thumbs! I love
stickers!!

But this year is a little different. People have been really mean about this election. Some people like the man who's running, and some people like the woman. (Side note: they're not actually running. That would be exhausting. But they are getting on TV and going to big rallies and talking to news people, and that sounds pretty exhausting, too!) And some of the things the man says are really mean, and some of the things the woman does aren't very nice, and the people who support them get really mad at the people who support the other one, and some people don't support either of them, and, instead, they support this other guy or this other lady, and it's all very confusing to my fluff-filled head.
I wish people would just be nice.
Because I'm a bear.
I don't care about politics. I care about happy things: friendship and snacks and movies and cat videos.
And it makes me sad when Katie gets on Facebook to show me a video about my BFF Lil Bub and all I see are people yelling at each other about Mr. Maybe President and Mrs. Maybe President.
Now, maybe I don't understand how politics works, but maybe we should just accept that some people have different opinions.
Like, I like Fritos. They're my favorite. But Katie's favorite are Cheetos. And that's ok. We're allowed to have different favorites. And she's still my friend, and I'm still her friend.
It's a little different with picking a president, I guess. But, like Katie tells me when we play Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit together, "You can't always win."
I guess it could be worse. At least we live in America. And it has some problems, yeah--like people who try to throw away their bear friends just because they broke up--but it doesn't have as many problems as some other places.
Come tomorrow, America is going to have a new president. And lots of people won't be happy. And that makes me sad, too. I guess you can't make everyone happy, but I'm afraid that people will be mad at each other, and I'll never get to watch my Lil Bub videos in peace again!
So, maybe we should all just be nice to each other, no matter what happens tomorrow. We're all people (and bears!) after all. And we all want the same things in the end: friendship and snacks and movies and cat videos and to feel safe and to be happy.
I don't think the Founding Fathers would be very happy if they saw how America is handling the 2016 election. In fact, Katie says this may be the craziest election since the election of 1800! You can see how that went down in this song from Hamilton. Katie likes this musical a lot. She's been playing it all day long. And it's about politics, so I guess that counts.

(Katie's Note:  Hamilton is fantastic! But there are some explicit lyrics. Go check it out if you haven't already, and really consider what people went through to set up the democracy we have today. America has never been perfect, but sometimes you just have to accept that and keep going.)

 ~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

These Shining {Bear} Lives

Hi, friends!

I'm feeling much better! Thanks for asking! And Katie's getting better, too. I didn't MEAN to get her sick, but...........whoops.

But tonight was a good night! Katie went to see These Shining Lives. It's the first play of JSU's Drama Department's season, and Short Girl and Glasses Boy are both part of it, so of course Katie had to go support them.

Short Girl is the costume designer. Over the summer, she drew pictures of EVERY costume that the actors are going to wear! And then she colored them, and then she MADE THEM! Because not only is Short Girl a costume designer, but she's also a costume maker! (I think they're called stitchers or sewers or manual laborers or something.) And she didn't just come up with these ideas out of nowhere. She had to do research and talk to the director and then redraw some stuff and talk to the director again! But she finally came up with lots of really, really good costumes. And when she got back to college, she got to pick out the fabrics for them! (Katie's favorite is the polka dotted one, but I kind of like the orange plaid one the best!) Then she and some other people put the costumes together, and now BOOM they're done! Which is good, because the show opened last night! I think Short Girl is kind of amazing! She can design and draw AND sew! I can't do ANY of those things! I don't have thumbs! And she's put so much hard work into this show! I know Katie must be really, really proud of her, because I'M really, really proud of her. She's only a Junior (like Katie), and this is the second show that she's designed all by herself. She's, like, really talented, guys. Katie says that you should go see the show and see for yourself.

"Glasses Boy" is spelled "A-A-R-O-N" 

And then there's Glasses Boy. As you may recall, Glasses Boy is one of Katie's really good friends, and he's Tall Girl's boyfriend. He's also an actor. These Shining Lives is the first show he's been at at JSU, but he did a lot of acting when he was in high school. Glasses Boy plays THREE different characters in this show! One of them is really nice, but the other two are kind of mean. I don't like them much. I don't know how he remembers all those lines! I can't even remember his real name!! Glasses Boy is really good, though, because he can play ALL those characters and make you believe them! I think he was kind of nervous about being in his first play, but he's done so well! Katie is so proud of him that she made him a poster (also because she's nuts, but in a nice way). He's been working on this play since September, and sometimes he's out really late at rehearsal learning lines and wear to stand onstage and making sure his costume fits and stuff. Apparently, acting isn't as easy as it seems on TV. He's also made a lot of new friends, because, even though his characters aren't very nice, Glasses Boy is pretty cool, and everyone likes him. (Tbh, Katie was  a little worried that he wouldn't make friends and that he would be scared and lonely and never do theatre again, but she's overdramatic. He's fine.)

Apparently, the show was amazing, and Katie cried the whole time (but we really should have expected that!). But Glasses Boy acted amazing, and Short Girl's costumes were beautiful. Katie and I are lucky to have such amazing friends, and we're both really, really, really proud of them.

Look at them all!! From L to R, that's Roommate, Big Friend, The Baby, Tall Girl, Glasses Boy, Bearded Boy, and Curly Haired Boy! (And Katie in the front, of course!)

Ok, I told Katie not to type this part, but she has the thumbs and is doing the actual typing so it doesn't look like I can stop her, but you should check out the article she wrote for The Chanticleer about the play. Katie really likes theatre, guys, so she's really excited about this article:

Katie's These Shining Lives Article

And the Drama Department made a video about Short Girl that you can watch here!









You can still see These Shining Lives this weekend, and you should totally go!!

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

Take Your Bear to Work Because He's Sick Day

Hi *cough*, friends, *sniffle*,

I've been a little sick recently. Tall Girl says it's the "Band Plague," and I blame her for it, because she's in the band. Band Plague is just an icky, sniffly sickness that happens every year. One person in band gets sick, and then they get someone else sick, and then their whole section gets sick, and the whole band gets sick, and then everyone's roommates get sick. Katie and Short Girl didn't get sick, BUT I DID!
I'm so sniffly that Katie told me I could come to work with her so she could take care of me. (Really, I don't think I'm that sick, but Katie
worries a lot, and I don't feel like doing anything, so I let her bring me to work.) She didn't even make me put on real clothes! I got to wear my new unicorn jammies!
But, as it turns out, there's not much to do in the Chanticleer office...and Katie wouldn't even play with me because she had to "work." So I found some other things to do...






I climbed a tree! (Katie wasn't very happy with me for that. She said I'm not very good at being sick, and I told her that I was feeling better, and she didn't believe me. Sometimes she's such a mom.....)













So then I climbed on some old newspapers! Bears like to climb things, you know! (They're much lower to the ground, and Katie was more okay with that, but she still said she wished I would take it easy...)











It's really, really, REALLY cold in the Chanticleer office, but, thankfully, Katie is always prepared, and she let me borrow her Inside Out blanket! I was so warm and happy! (And Katie was happy, too, because it meant that I had to sit still for once.)











But then I got hot, so I took a nap on some newspapers. I was starting to feel stuffy and generally sickish again, so I figured it was a good idea.








Not too much later, Katie woke me up!! She said it was "time for class" and that I had to come with her! Needless to say, I was not a happy bear. In fact, you could say I was a grumpy bear. And I know Grumpy Bear. He's a distant cousin, and he's not very nice. No one likes it when I act like Grumpy Bear.






But I didn't want to stay in the cold office by myself, so I went with Katie to class. It was her Internet Production class (the class she has to write my blog for!), so I didn't really understand anything that was being said, but I did get to sit in a spinny chair, so that by itself was worth waking up from my nap for. And I got to meet all of Katie's friends in that class. Two of the other editors--Mr. Assistant and Mr. Sports--are in that class, so we all walked down the hall together. And I got to meet Katie's teacher, Ms. Communication. She's very nice and fun...but also very loud. I was still a little sleepy when I came into her class, but I was really awake when I left!

Katie did some work (including working on this blog!), and then it was finally time to get dinner and go home. It was a long day of being bored and sick, and I've decided that I'm never going to be sick again, because it's no fun! So if any of you guys know how not to be sick, I could really use that advice. Thanks, friends!

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

(Katie's note: Not long after this blog was published, I also got sick. Thanks a lot, Trash Bear!!)