Meet the Roomies

Hi again, friends!

Well, since I start every entry with "hi, friends," I'm guessing you know that you're all my friends. But you're not my only friends! I like to think that I have a lot. I have my human friends (Katie and Tall Girl and Short Girl and Redhead Girl and Glasses Boy and Curly-Haired Boy and Blonde Boy and Bearded Boy), but I also have some pretty cool animal friends, too! They live in Katie's dorm room with me, and their personalities are as big as they are! I'd like to introduce all of you, my Blog Friends, to my roommates!

When you and your roomie are twinning! 

Susan: Susan's a unicorn. A giant unicorn. A giant pink, glittery unicorn. And, yes, that does make her as awesome as she sounds. But don't be fooled. Just because she's pink and glittery doesn't mean she wants to be a princess all the time. Susan's really cool because she likes getting dressed up and putting on makeup and running around outside and playing video games. She's not afraid to go on adventures with the rest of us, but she's also really good at keeping us organized--especially when it comes to group activities! As the only girl in the group, we tend to tease her a lot, but she can totally take it! And, trust me, she can give it back, too! Even though she's as spunky as her pink coat, Susan notices every little detail about you, and she remembers everything. If she ever wants to be sassy with you, she knows just the comeback to stop you in your tracks. She's a spitfire with a big heart for her friends and family, but don't cross her. That glittery horn isn't just for looks, you know.

Maxx doesn't usually take nice pictures!

Maxx: Maxx is the Monkey King of Shenanigans. He's 4ft of pure sock monkey silliness--and I wouldn't have it any other way! He always has a joke to tell or a game to play, and he's known for pranking the rest of the roommates. Sometimes it can get frustrating (like when he hides your wallet), but we know it's all in good fun. (And then the rest of us gang up to prank him back!) Maxx loves all things holidays, but his favorites are Halloween and April Fool's Day (which is coming up, so I'm actually pretty nervous!). He's a great friend to have, because he always knows how to cheer you up, and he's not afraid to make fun of himself to make you laugh. He doesn't mind laughing at himself, either, and he never takes life too seriously. (I think that's good for Katie, too, because you know how she gets sometimes!) He's a good balance for Phillip, who tends to be solemn about everything, and he's a great playmate for Susan, who likes fun about as much as anyone.

*looks dramatically off into the distance*

Phillip: Phillip is definitely the calmest of our friend group, and I'm pretty sure he's the reason we still have some of our sanity! He hasn't let his lack of thumbs stop him from doing what he loves! Phillip loves reading and can usually be found with his nose in a book. Sometimes he gets so absorbed in what he's reading that he doesn't realize things are happening around him! He's the perfect friend to talk to, though, especially at nighttime. Right before bed, you can find him sitting in the living room with a book, a cup of tea, and a notebook to write his thoughts in. Phillip doesn't talk much, but he has some of the deepest and most profound thoughts of anyone I've ever met! He loves thinking about things, and I'm pretty sure he's already figured out the meaning of life. (He just has to mull it over a little more before he tells us!) Phillip is by far the most responsible of us, and he sometimes has to rein us back in when our ideas get too wild (get it? Because he's a horse?). We all appreciate him so much, though; we wouldn't be where we are without him!


So, as you can see, my roommates are all pretty different. But they're my best animal friends in the whole world, and I'm pretty sure we could be friends through anything! Do you ever feel that way? That even though you've just met people that you're meant to be friends with them and they're meant to be in your life and you're meant to learn things from each other? Because that's how I feel when I'm with Susan and Maxx and Phillip. I'm starting to sound all mushy like Katie, but I really am glad to have met these guys. They make my good days great and my bad days better. All my friends do.

~Trash Bear and Katie~

A "Beary" "Hoppy" Easter to You!

Hey, everyone!

Sorry I'm a day late, but I ate sooooo much food yesterday that all I wanted to do was sleep! And we had to move Katie back into her dorm room, because classes started back today, and she has SO. MUCH. STUFF. Anyway, I hope you all had a fantastic Easter and that the rain didn't ruin it too much. (Katie's Mom wasn't very happy with the weather, because it messed up her Easter pictures. But don't worry. We made it work. You'll see.)

I actually kind of had two Easters. Katie's church had an egg hunt last weekend, and she let me go with her to help out. (She also let me where my "Leprechauns Made Me Do It" shirt that she got on sale the day after St. Patrick's Day!) It was fun. There wasn't a lot for me to do, because I don't have thumbs, and I can't walk by myself. But I did get to color a picture and eat some cookies and lemonade, so that was fun. Most of time was spent inside with Katie's Mom, because she was doing a lesson and craft with the kids before they hunted their eggs. The lesson was all about why Christians celebrate Easter. And apparently it doesn't have anything to do with bunnies or candy.

A long, long time ago, a man named Jesus died on the cross (ouch!) for our "sins" (those are all the bad things we do, like tell lies about doing our homework and hurting our friends' feelings and even big bad stuff like killing people and robbing banks). See, I guess if Jesus hadn't have died for us, we'd get in a lot of trouble after we died. But because He did die (even though He didn't have to), we get to live in Heaven. And then the story gets kind of confusing, because even though Jesus died, He didn't stay dead. He came back! When people came to check on His tomb, He wasn't there. And that's what Easter is about: Jesus died for everyone (and from what I understand that means everyone). That's kind of cool. Dying for someone means you love them a lot. Like, a lot a lot. So I understand why that's something worth celebrating.

So Katie's Mom told the kids that story. (It's called the Crucifixion and Resurrection story.) And then they made an Easter egg craft that was really cute. And then they got to go outside and search for their eggs! They didn't have to search very hard, though, because there were SO MANY EGGS!! 

SO MANY!

There were eggs everywhere! And the kids had so much fun gathering them all up. Their baskets were overflowing, and they were all smiling! I'm glad they had fun, and I did, too.







And then yesterday was Easter Sunday. The whole family got dressed up (because that's just a thing you do on Easter) and went to church. It was only raining a little when we got there, but by the end of the service it was POURING! And Katie's Mom wasn't happy about that, because that meant she couldn't take pictures in front of all the pretty flowers in their yard. It's a tradition, apparently. But that did not mean that we weren't taking pictures, much to Katie's Brother's disappointment. (He doesn't like taking pictures, I've learned.) We found a nice covered area (at Martin Hall, hahahaha!) where we wouldn't get too wet.










I actually like taking pictures. Which is good, because Katie and her mom take a lot of them. (I think I know where Katie gets it from now.) It was fun, though, and when we got home, we got to eat a scrum-diddly-umptious Easter lunch with ham and potatoes and eggs and pie (and green beans, but those are green, so I don't really like them too much.) Not long after that, it was time to take me and Katie back to the dorm. (My post-lunch nap got interrupted, and I wasn't too happy about that.)

It's nice being back. I get to see all my animal and human friends again. Spring Break was nice, and Easter was fun, but now I feel like I'm really back home.

~Trash Bear and Katie~

Historical Picnicking

Hey friends!

This week I learned a new term: "Spring Break." That's the time when Katie doesn't have to go to classes for a whooooole week. (It also means that my other friends went back to their homes, and that's kind of sad, but I know that they all deserve a break.) Some people go to the beach for Spring Break; some people go camping; one of Katie's Facebook friends went to Canada! But, for Katie, apparently Spring Break means sleeping a lot and reading books. (She reads books really fast by the way. And she cries a lot while she reads them. It's a little scary at 3 o'clock in the morning.)

But today, Katie took me on an adventure with her mom and dad to a place called Janney Furnace in a little town called Ohatchee. We made friends with a puppy that we named Eustace, played on some rocks by the old furnace, toured a little museum with lots of old artifacts, and ate a picnic lunch.

But the thing I learned most about was the whole reason Janney Furnace is important: The Civil War. Katie told me to be careful talking about the Civil War in a blog, because some people have really strong opinions about it, but I just wanted to say a few things from the perspective of a bear who had never heard about it before today

I learned that the Civil War was fought between the North (the Union) and the South (the Confederacy). The South didn't want to be part of the United States anymore, so they "seceded." (Which is very different from "succeeding.") Katie said there were a lot of different reasons for the Civil War, like slavery and states' rights. She also said that history books sometimes don't tell you the whole story, because, as Winston Churchill said, "History is written by the victors." And in this case, I guess the North won.

But did they really?

I don't see how anyone could "win" a war against themselves. Katie said it was a "Pyrrhic victory," which means that they technically won, but it hurt them so much that they didn't really get any pride from it, so it's almost like they didn't win at all.

War just seems so scary. And the United States was less that 100 years old when the Civil War happened. 100 years old seems really old to me, but for countries it's not really old at all. We were still a baby country, and we almost destroyed ourselves with this war. That's not something I'm very proud of, but Katie says that a lot of people--in the North and the South--take the Civil War pretty seriously even today. She says people get angry about the Union "winning" and that people have even hurt each other over it, and that makes me sad.

The Civil War happened a long, long time ago, but we're still letting it divide us like it was still 1863. The South only has monuments to the Confederates who died, and the North only has monuments to the Union soldiers. In reality, lots of really good people died on both sides, and they probably didn't want to. They probably didn't want to leave their mommies and daddies and brothers and sisters and boyfriends and girlfriends and best friends and Trash Bears to go fight in a war. They might not have even known what they were fighting about. And they were probably really, really scared.

But no one really remembers that now.

People only remember that they were "damn Yankees" (sorry for the dirty word, Katie!) and "traitors." It's been 151 years since the Civil War ended, and we can't move past all the bad things we did to each other. We're stuck in it. And that's going to hurt us for 151 more years if we don't do something about it.

I think the sooner we stop thinking of each other as "Southerners" and "Northerners" and start thinking of each other as people who share a long and scary and broken and confusing history, we'll be happier. Or at least less bitter.


Maybe we should just all say we're sorry. Not for what our ancestors did, but for still pretending there's a war going on.

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

Happy Birthday, Katie!

I want to wish a very happy birthday to my best friend in the whole wide world: Katie! Her birthday was on Thursday, and we've been celebrating ever since! Her friends threw a party for her on Thursday night, and I and to keep it a secret! That was kind of hard, but it was worth it to see how happy she was when they surprised her! (I think she thought they forgot, to be honest.)

I was twinning with Bob the Minion!

I'm glad Katie has human friends who love her as much as I do. They tried so hard to make her day special. They got her cupcakes and presents and balloons, and they wrote her nice cards, and they even let her take a picture of all of them together. (Katie's note: The group picture was my favorite part. I'm definitely going to be in love with those pictures for the rest of my life!) But Katie had to go to college the next day, so they couldn't stay up too late. She definitely had a lot of fun, though, and that makes me happy.

The only sad part about Katie's birthday was that she didn't get to spend it with her family. Everyone was so busy during the week that they didn't get to see each other until Saturday! So after Preview Day and the Serving Table and helping  Katie's Brother fill out scholarship applications, I went with Katie's family to Cracker Barrel for her birthday dinner and presents. I don't get to go to real restaurants very often, so I was really excited. I promised Katie that I would be on my "beary best" behavior, though.


We ate dinner (I had salmon patties!), and it was yummy, but my favorite thing about Cracker Barrel is all the fun games you can play!





Katie taught me how to play this game (it's just called the peg board game) where you have to jump all the other pegs on the board and only leave one! If you leave one, you're a genius. If you leave two, you're pretty smart. If you leave three, you're just plain dumb, and if you leave four or more, you're "eg-no-ra-moose"--whatever that means. (The game told Katie that she was dumb, and I thought that was pretty funny!!)





After dinner, I got to play checkers on the porch (Katie won, because I've never played checkers before), and they even had a Trash Bear-sized rocking chair for me!








I had so much fun celebrating with Katie and her family last night! Even though I don't know when my birthday is, I know that birthdays are special. It's a day for your friends and family to celebrate you and how happy they are that they get to know you. That's the kind of thing that should be celebrated every day, but especially on birthdays! You know, because it's the day your whole life started! If you didn't have a birthday, the world wouldn't have you, and that would be sad. So I hope all of you have great birthdays whenever they come, because my life would be sad without all of you, too!

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

Service with a Smile

I know it's been a while since my last adventure, but it's not that I haven't been busy. I just don't have thumbs, so sometimes it's hard for me to find the time to sit down and actually WRITE about what I've been doing.
I celebrated my first Valentine's day a few weeks ago. (I may have been a Valentine's Day gift myself once. I don't actually remember. That was during the "Dark Times.") It was fun. I ate so much chocolate! I got a little sick afterwards, but it was totally worth it. I regret nothing. And I also got some pretty cool new roommates who I'll tell you about later in another blog post.

Pre-Preview Day Pic! We look good!

Today is really the adventure I wanted to talk about, though.

Katie woke up early, and I was confused, because I thought we got to sleep extra late on Saturdays. But Katie said no, that we had lots of things to do today and that I had to wear my JSU shirt to do them. I was a little grumpy, but I changed shirts anyway. Katie said she had to go to Preview Day, and she wanted me to look all school spirit-y because there would be lots of future students on campus. (It was her job to convince them to join the Honors Program. I hope those kids aren't afraid of her bubbliness. It's my favorite thing about her, but some people think it's a little much for 9 o'clock in the morning. It's okay. If she can deal with all of my quirks, I can deal with hers, too. Because that's what best friends do.) I didn't get to go to Preview Day because Katie had to be "professional," so I waited impatiently for her to get back.

I didn't have to wait too long, though. (Side note: You'd think I'd be used to waiting, but I'm not. I don't like it. It makes me feel anxious. I think I have abandonment issues. But it's okay. Katie and her friends always come back to me, no matter how long they're gone. I think I'm starting to accept that they really do love me and that they're going to be around for a long, long time. Sometimes it's hard, though.) When Katie got back she said it was time to go to church, and, again, I was confused. Thankfully, she explained that the Methodist church in Jacksonville hosts something called the Serving Table once a month. They cook yummy, homemade meals for people who can't always eat every day, and they get to eat it for free. Katie explained that some people don't have jobs, or maybe they have a lot of doctor bills, or maybe they're old or sick, and that makes it hard to go out and buy food or to even afford food to buy. A guaranteed meal, even if it's only once a month, takes a lot of worry off of their minds. After I heard that, I was really excited to help. Katie even said that some of our other friends might be there!

Eating the best lunch ever courtesy of Ms. Mandee!

The Serving Table ended up being really fun! There were a lot of people who came to eat and help. They said we served over 100 meals! That's a lot of food! I was a little sad that there are so many people in Jacksonville who need help getting food, but Katie reminded me that that was why we were there: to help them. And everyone was so nice. They weren't mad or sad that they had to come to a church to eat; they were just happy to be alive! There were little kids and big kids and old men and young men and everyone in-between. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside that I got to be part of their days!
Katie was right that some of our other friends would be there. I got to see Curly-Haired Boy, and I made some new friends, too! A lot of them were in the Honors Program with Katie, but I also made friends with some of the grown ups from Katie's church. (Katie says that I'm kind of a celebrity now!)

Dessert was my favorite part!

This may not have been my biggest or most extravagant adventure so far, but it was definitely the most rewarding. I feel like sometimes people complain without thinking about how much worse it could be. It's important to see that some people are positive and upbeat even though they're not where they want to be in life. It "puts things in perspective," as Katie told me. These were so grateful that a bunch of college kids and a bear came out to serve them lunch, but I was grateful to have met them. All we did was put food on their plates; they put a smile in my heart.

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

Over the Mountain and Through the Woods

Hi, again!

I hope you've all been keeping up with my Facebook page! (24 likes is pretty exciting!) I just posted some pictures from last summer, but I wanted to tell you guys about my super fun weekend!

On Sunday, Katie and her friends (Curly-Haired Boy and Short Girl) took me to the Quad. It was so pretty outside, and we laid on the grass and looked at the sky and talked. It was nice to just get to relax, because Katie's been really stressed since school started. (Trash Bear Note: Don't tell Katie this, but she gets really stressed about a lot of things!) Then, they took me to this place called the Mountain. Have you guys ever been to the Mountain? You have to drive there, so we all got in a car and we drove up and up and up on this curvy road. It was really fun, but also kind of scary! So we kept driving and driving and driving, and the sun was getting closer and closer and closer. I thought we might actually catch the sun! Well, we finally reached the spot, because Curly-Haired Boy pulled over, and everyone got out. There were some other people here, too, and at first I was confused as to why.







But then I saw the sunset, and I figured that that's why they were all there.













I've really only ever seen a few sunsets in my life, but Katie talks about them a lot, and she says that Jacksonville sunsets are the prettiest sunsets in the whole world! And now I think she's right! The sky looked so pretty!! It was striped blue and purple and orange and yellow, and the sun was this tiny ball of fire and the mountains in the distance were purple, and the sky stayed all streaked with reds and pinks for a really long time after the sun was gone.

Curly-Haired Boy and Short Girl sat on the hood of his car, and Katie took a lot of pictures, and the car beside us played music really loudly. I'm pretty sure this is what it would feel like if life was a movie. No one said anything for a long time, so we just sat and watched the sun set. I thought about my life and how happy I am now compared to a year ago. I thought about my friends and how much I love them, and I thought a little bit about how sad I'll be when we all have to go our separate ways. But I didn't think about that too much, because that's sad. Every once in awhile someone would say something, but we didn't really talk much. We watched the other cars drive away until it was just us and Music Car. We could have been the only people and bear in the whole world just then, and that would have been okay with me.



And so we all sat around and watched as the sky got darker and darker, and we talked a little bit more, and finally the wind got a little cold, so we got back in the car and drove down and down and down the scary winding road, and the sky and sun got farther away, and the street lights got bigger, and the world got louder, and then it felt like real life again.


And that's a little bit sad. Because the Mountain seems like a really special place. No one was stressed out while we were watching the sunset. No one was worried about homework or tests or work or how they would get it all done. But as soon as we got back to the dorm it felt like it was time to worry about those things again.


I guess the good news is that the Mountain will always be there to calm us down if things ever get too stressful.

And that makes me happy. 

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~

Trash Bear's Story

Hello, New Friends!

My name is Trash Bear, and this is my blog. With the help of my friend Katie, I'm going to tell you about all the adventures I go on and maybe share some of my personal bear-thoughts as well. (It's hard to type with only paws, you know, so I'm going to utilize Katie's thumbs.)

But first, I'm sure you'd like to know about me. 'Who is this Trash Bear?' 'Where did he come from?' 'WHY is he going on adventures?' 'Where on Earth did he get devilishly good looks AND an impeccable fashion sense?' Well, I'm going to tell you. (Okay, I'm going to tell Katie, who's going to type it, and you're going to read it.)

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away--oops! Wrong story.
But it was a long time ago, or at least it felt that way. I started out my life in a store. Then, one day, a person showed up. He picked me off the shelf and took me to the register and put me in his car and took me home. It was the day I had always dreamed about. I was so happy. And then he gave me to another person, a girl. She was so happy and excited. She hugged the boy and gave him a kiss. Now I had TWO people who loved me! They were my "parents." And for a while, we were a happy family.

But not forever.

"Mom" and "Dad" started not getting along. It was some time during the Fall of 2014. Sometimes they'd yell. Sometimes they wouldn't talk at all, and I wouldn't see "Dad" for days. Then it finally happened. "Mom" got really sad. She was crying a lot, and she was angry, too. Angrier than I'd ever seen her. She gathered up a bunch of things--me included--and carried us down the hall. She put some things in the trash can and left me beside it.

I thought she'd be back soon.
But she wasn't.

So I sat and waited. I don't know how long I was there. Trash Bear Time works differently, you see. It might have been a few minutes or hours, or it might have been a few days. But, eventually, this skinny kid with spiky blonde hair and a big, scary coat and pictures on his arm (Katie says those are called "tattoos") showed up. He smiled and grabbed me, and, honestly, I was a little afraid. Then he took me to a new room that I'd never been to before where a bunch of other people were waiting on him. They all smiled when they saw him, so I was less afraid. These new people seemed fun and happy. They weren't mad like "Mom" and "Dad." They were playing games on the TV and laughing, and it was a refreshing change from the hallway and trashcan.

That was also the first day I met Katie.

I lived with the blonde boy and his roommates (a curly-haired boy and tall boy with a beard and a boy with glasses) alllllll year. We celebrated Christmas and birthdays, and we watched movies and
ate lots of food. It was fun. My new people were always happy. Sometimes they were silly. A lot of times they were loud. Sometimes they got stressed out, but they always made each other laugh when that happened. I was starting to feel like I was part of a family again.

And then they started packing.

It was only little things at first--a picture from the wall or books from the shelf. But little by little, everything got cleaned up. My friends were putting everything in boxes and bags and taking them places. I never saw the boxes and bags of things come back. And that's when I got scared again. Surely, this was the end.

Pretty soon I was one of the only things left in the room. My friends were walking around the room getting the last things together, and I was alone on the table. By now, they had started calling me Trash Bear, and it was nice to have a name.

"Who's taking Trash Bear?" Katie asked.

Blonde Boy shrugged.

Bearded Boy shrugged.

Glasses Boy and Curly-Haired Boy shrugged.

So Katie picked me up and squeezed me hard. She seemed sad, and I wasn't sure why. I kind of thought she was saying goodbye to me, so I started to get sad, too.

She said goodbye to all her friends. She hugged Blonde Boy and Bearded Boy and Glasses Boy and Curly-Haired Boy. Then she hugged Short Girl and Tall Girl and Redhead Girl (Those are our the other friends that I didn't live with that year.)

But Katie never said goodbye to me.

She carried me all the way downstairs and outside, and we got into a car with two other people and all of her things (I later found out that those people were her parents), and we drove not-so-far away, and we got to this house that was much smaller than the big house with lots of rooms that we had come from, Katie said, "Welcome Home, Trash Bear!"

And that's where my adventures began.



So that's me. Now I'm just a little bear living in a big world that I haven't seen yet. Once upon a time, someone thought I was trash and someone else didn't. And from what I can tell, that's just life sometimes. The important thing is that you stay with the people who grab you out of the trash.

~Trash Bear (and Katie)~