I wish I may, I wish I might...

Thursday night I went to a show at our community theater with my dad. Afterward, we milled around and talked to everyone we knew because... well, it's what we do. When we were satisfied and practically the last people standing, we headed back out to my dad's convertible. We put the top down and rode home with the warm summer wind in our hair. The Beach Boys were singing loudly over the radio when we got to the bridge before my house, and I tilted my head back and sang straight up at the clear, starry sky. It felt like the summers when I was little riding in the convertible listening to ZZTop and the Eagles. It didn't bother me at all that my hair was whipping mercilessly around my face. I just thought happily to myself, "This... this is summer."

I hope I have moments like that... driving under the stars and singing oldies music with my dad... every summer.

Whoa.

Okay, not that many people read this or anything, but I have been gone for a long, long time. Something crazy was happening with my Internet at my place in Auburn, and since I've been home I've just felt busy what with the holiday week and all.

I'm in Kentucky right now, awaiting my best friend's wedding on Saturday evening. I've known this was coming for awhile now. Not only have they been inseparable since Day 1, Lauren's been talking about their impending nuptials since Thanksgiving and they've been engaged since New Year's Eve (Australia time). But now it's here and it's so.... so real. All of a sudden my best friend is getting married. A bride-to-be. She's going to be someone's wife. I'm sitting now in the apartment Ivan (her fiance) has been living in and that she'll move into Saturday night, and it's bizarre. This is kind of like a family home now. Family conjures up the image of children and so on, but you know what I mean.

Today Lauren played the music that we're all walking down the aisle to (in very typical Lauren fashion, it's not the traditional music that comes to mind when you think wedding march). It's an Icelandic band that Ivan likes, and it's beautiful and haunting and dramatic. I sat here listening to it, picturing Lauren walking down the aisle on what will surely be the most momentous day of her life, and I was suddenly overwhelmed with a flood of emotions. I hid it because Lauren didn't seem moved at all; if anything, she was more concerned that it seemed too dramatic. But it was like I suddenly realized the reality of the situation. Lauren, my Lauren, is Ivan's Lauren. Not that she'll ever be any less mine, but she's not just mine. Maybe that seems obvious to everyone else, but whoa. She's a grown up.

In other news, my computer has a virus, and I think my virus scanner has a virus. It keeps popping up that I have a Trojan spyware virus, and then I clean it, it says it's clean, and it pops up again. This is no good. No good at all. I haven't visited any websites that I haven't been visiting for years, and I haven't opened any suspicious links. I'm not okay with this at all.

Good night.

Call me uptight...

Plans are very important to me. My mother is a planner. All my life, there's been a schedule. Curfews, agendas, to-do lists. Not in a crazy-restrictive way; just in a 'life needs order' way. And thus, this is what I've grown accustomed to. Furthermore, I'm an up-and-at-'em kind of girl. If I'm going somewhere, I want to get there. I'm not a big fan of solo roadtrips, so I'd rather not delay the inevitable. I hate hanging around when I know something needs to be done. And if I know someone else's day depends on my own plans, then I especially hate making them wait around...

So when I say, "I'll meet you in Birmingham," I don't mean just whenever I get there. I mean as soon as possible. And if you tell me that we're leaving at six the next morning, then of course I'll be there by six, six fifteen at the latest.

If no one's depending on you, go ahead, do what you do. Consider yourself ultra laid-back and, as the Eagles said, take it easy. But if someone's depending on you, sitting around and waiting on you, make a plan. Be considerate.

Am I uptight? I prefer 'efficient.'

Memorial Weekend.

SUCCESS! We had a beautiful weekend at the beach!... which equals a tiny bit of tenderness from sun on my shins, left shoulder, and the part in my hair, but it was so worth it!

Evan and I arrived Saturday around 4:30. The rest of his family didn't get there til closer til 8, so we took it upon ourselves to go get snacks and drinks (little did I know, grocery store trips are a daily-- sometimes TWICE daily-- event on Harvey vacays). I got a bag of fresh cherries and a bag of salt & vinegar chips, and I was set for the weekend. Evan bought a variety of cheeses, crackers, and Coca-Cola Classic. When the rest of our party finally arrived (I'm SO not used to the "laid back" pace my new family moves at!), we went to eat at Mikee's. Sheila, like my own mother, loves gumbo and she thinks Mikee's has the best. I had an odd moment of home sickness sitting there at the beach without my own family. After dinner, we sat at the condo and talked and watched television until we were all falling asleep in our chairs.

Sunday I woke up first, along with John and Sheila. I enjoyed peanut butter toast, a handful of cherries, and a glass of milk as I watched the waves crash and hoped for good weather. Around 9:30, when I couldn't stand it any longer, I started waking the others up and badgering them to head toward the beach. We made it out to the beach around 11, and I quickly found my place in the sand with a good book and a bottle of water. We braved the water from time to time when the heat became unbearable, and, after the initial shock of the first cold wave to hit you, the salty water felt incredibly refreshing. Alice and I headed upstairs around 1:30 and ordered pizza for everyone for lunch. We were eventually joined by the rest of the group, and then we returned to the beach after about hour. Sunday night we ate at a dive restaurant called Fish Camp-- all 25 or more of us. All the "kids" sat at one table, and we managed to fashion a "super straw" out of all our straws. We used the straw, and a strategically placed Evan, to sip out of a cup on the adult table. Very funny. After dinner, most of us came back to the Harvey condo (as opposed to the Woodward and Glass condos; they were the rest of our party), and played Catch Phrase. Note to all: 13 year olds are not very good at Catch Phrase. Painful, in fact.

Monday morning Alice, Jane, and I headed to the grocery store to pick up supplies for a Memorial Day breakfast. I made breakfast casserole and Alice made cheese grits and homemade cinnamon rolls. It was delicious, and it held me over for most of the day. Again, we stayed on the beach all day, this time reading gossip magazines. We ate at a very nice restaurant called Cobalt Monday night; my seat looked directly at the water at sunset. Perfect. After dinner, we played laser tag. Evan, of course, won, but I finished third and I was quite pleased with that. I'm beginning to think that there is no better beach activity than laser tag at Adventure Island. It's about a dollar a minute, but it is always, always a good time.

I got up early this morning and drove back to Auburn, arriving just in time to head to my Drugs and Behavior class at 1:15. Que perfecto.

Agenda for this week: Study D&B. Study the Word. Work out the bod. And finally, head to Indiana for Ryan Wright's wedding. Busy, busy.

About that studying...

Beach bound.

We're about to head to the beach and, of course, it's raining. In fact, the ten-day forecast is nothing but rain and more rain. Evan and I have yet to have a "successful" beach trip; that is to say, we've been in strange months (i.e. October and January) and have yet to see sunshine and sand.
On the other hand, we'll be there with basically his entire family (aunt, uncles, second cousins, etc), and it's sure to be a good time regardless.... I just won't come home with a tan, but let's be honest... I don't really tan to begin with.

Back to the grind.

I'm going back to Auburn tomorrow. In my week at home, I have accomplished nothing as planned. And by that I mean that I have spent zero time in the sun, and that is solely because there has been no sun. It has literally rained every single day that I've been home, and it's really starting to get me down. I've been rocketing back and forth between my family and Evan's, mainly eating, with no sunshine and little to no physical activity. Not to mention I've seen the same five people every day for what feels like forever. Don't get me wrong: they are my favorite people on Earth, but I'm really starting to struggle with cabin fever. And I'm torn because I don't necessarily want to start back to class (especially not summer school, every single day), but I'm dying to get back to my friends. To variety. When you're around the exact same person everyday it's so easy to take your frustrations out on them, and I fear that Evan is starting to feel the brunt of my seasonal depression. It's not his fault, but we're boring. We watch movies, we go eat with either set of our parents, we watch another movie, we go out to another meal. We haven't had great weather, and none of our other friends have been home, so our choices are limited. As much as I love this house, with my perfect bed and huge bedroom and newly decorated basement, I'll be glad to get back to my tiny, never satisfactorily ventilated bedroom and my friends.

In other news, we have completely renovated the basement. New carpet, new paint job, new furniture. It looks awesome. One hundred times better than before. I've really taken an interest in it, picking out and approving the colors, etc., myself, and it's gotten me really excited about decorating my next apartment. My own apartment. My solo apartment.

I should really go see what Evan and Dad are doing in the basement...

Dead battery.

My car died today in the parking lot outside Nail Tide, where Al and I had just got pedicures, and Palm Beach Tan, where I had just gotten a spray tan. As I stood in the hot, humid parking lot, sweat accumulating in my hairline and dripping down my back (undoubtedly ruining my developing spray tan), it occurred to me that I'm not necessarily ready for summer. For warm weather and sunshine, yes. For the nearly unbearable, unbreathable Southern summer, not so sure. You can beat the heat lounging in the pool or cruising on the lake, but at the end of the day you have to get into your car and take yourself home. My car, for one, turns in an inferno even on cooler summer days. In the dead of summer, it's intolerable. The air is unbreathable, the seats scorching hot, and my shirt sticks to my back where I'm sweating profusely from the hot leather (wearing sweaty or wet clothes is possibly the worst feeling ever). Outside of my car, I'm just a sweater. Period. From mid-May to mid-September you will rarely see my hair down from a pony-tail because, outside of the humidity-driven frizziness, my hair is baby fine and the first drops of sweat soak through it until I look like I've just ran a marathon (if only). Truly, I can't walk from the front door to the mailbox without needing to blow dry my bangs.

On top of my car being dead this afternoon, my phone was quickly dying and Alice didn't have her phone. Not that a fresh batteried phone would have mattered as my daddy and my boyfriend-- my champions and knights-in-shining-armor-- were not taking my phone calls. Luckily, my sweet friend Justin just happened to be walking out of Swen, a Chinese restaurant in the same strip mall parking lot where I was stranded, and he came to my rescue. Well, I should say that his fraternity brother Trent did. Justin, fully clad in frat-boy style: long-sleeved Polo button-up, shorty Columbia shorts, Chacos, and Costas, knows little to nothing about cars. He did, however, provide jumper cables and his friend provided the needed knowledge of positive-to-positive and negative-to-negative.

At the end of the afternoon, after having blown off Alice mom and Jane for lunch because my car made us about an hour late, I left the parking lot sweaty and irritated. I have yet to recover. Today is not my day.