So I Lied…
Okay, so I have to come clean a little bit. I did NOT go on a trip with Andy and Lauren to go up north to Silver Lake for Labor Day weekend. Instead, it was an elaborate lie that Andy and Lauren had suggested, so I could go down to Illinois to visit Shawna. I didn't like the fact that I had to lie to my parents, but I chose to do so because I STILL feel justified in going to visit her. Regardless of what people want to say, I stick to my choice to visit her.
It all started that Sunday when I was pissed off after TRYING to get through to my parents with my, solid logic. That didn't work, obviously. Andy and Lauren were online, so I started to talk to them. They asked if I wanted to hang out with them. I said sure, since I wanted out of the house more than usual. I explain the whole situation to them, and Andy suggests that the 3 of us go down to visit Shawna on Labor Day weekend. This was great news, and I figured it'd be easy enough to mention going to Silver Lake instead. Well, come to find out Monday night that Andy and Lauren can't go. I was ready to throw in the towel over the plans, and Shawna was upset. Then Andy and Lauren suggested that I still go, and they'd cover for me. I took them up on the offer.
Apparently, my mom never truly did trust that my plan was to go up to Silver Lake. How right she was. That day, she apparently wrote down the mileage on my odometer (yeah, I know, that's invasion of privacy). Well, I come back from my trip to see Shawna on Sunday, and my parents come back from camping on Monday. They again invade my privacy and check the odometer. They see that I put 1000 miles on my car for the week instead of the 400 that it was going to take for a round trip to Silver Lake.
Anyways, long story short, my parents decided to keep their word, and they are giving me a deadline to get out of the house. From what my dad was discussing with me earlier, it might not be until the end of the year, which would work great for me. My parents have talked since then, so I don't know if anything has changed. We'll see. I'm not too worried, and I'm actually somewhat welcoming this opportunity to get out of the house. Many of my family members, especially my grandma, seem to be critical of my decision. Maybe my views are a bit too socially liberal for them.
So enough of that story, I have a few more things to let you guys in on. First is how my trip went. My trip went pretty well, although we were quite lazy. Well, I was the lazy one, anyways. I drove all day Friday, so I took Saturday easy. Shawna was restless, and I offered to get out of the house with her, but she didn't know what there was to do, so we ended up staying home, laying down all day. It was comfortable, though. I can't complain that I was able to just relax with my girlfriend for once. The trip down there was easier than I thought. Though, once the sun went down, I started to feel the fatigue. I made there safely, and my body wasn't too sore. On Sunday, I headed out at about 3pm CST (4pm EST), and that drive was considerably easier than the one to Illinois. Again, once the sun went down, I started to feel the fatigue. Only this time, I was even more tired coming down to the last hour and half of driving. I struggled to keep myself awake, but I was glad that I was able to do so.
Another thing I want to mention is I have been working extensively on my designs as of late, again. I got my portfolio up to snuff, but there's a few things I have to tweak. I've also made sure that all of my sites are XHTML 1.0 Strict. I don't want to use any of that pussy Transitional bullshit because I know that I can actually code. Yeah, Roger, that's an insult directed towards you. 
Also, quick plug... I found this great program that syncs my files automatically. It's called AllwaySync. Since I lost all my designs because I didn't have more than one copy of them, I decided that it's probably a good idea to find something to back up all my files with. Two months later, I finally do so. I searched Google for a program to synchronize files, and that was one of the first to come up. I looked through that, and I noticed that it was free, and it was just what I wanted, too. Hopefully, I won't be at risk to lose all my files again. If you're interested, you can get it at http://www.allwaysync.com.