May 2009!

Hello all! It's been far too long since my last post! I finished up exams, passed my classes (haha), and went to the beach for a few days! I begin my 5th semester of nursing school tomorrow, and will ever so anxiously be counting down the days until August 8!!!!

It's always so hard to get back into the swing of things and master your routine after a few days off. After going through 117+ emails, I was quite shocked at one my dad sent. It was a link to CNN politics. Summary: The National Institutes of Health are paying researchers to cruise bars in Buenos Aires to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior while drunk. Whoa! Really? The researchers are getting paid $400, 000!! So much for the bad economy, eh? I think there are more pertinent things we could be 'researching'. I can tell you what information they're going to get out of that: Gay men tend to be more promiscuous and alcohol consumption makes you lose your inhibition. What happens when more people engage in sexual activity: rise in STDs. The end NIH. They should have hired me!!!

I went home a few weekends ago. Had a great time, of course. We had a family get-together for a cousin's 2nd birthday. This get-together was a little more peculiar though because my mom and dad were there at the same time in the same place. Long overdue. Both sides of my family were there. We all had such a terrific time! Even with drinking involved, mom & dad got along GUREEEEAT! What a pleasant surprise that left me totally content.

On the beautiful beach of Destin, FL, us 5 girls encountered a lot!! I was so excited for J from Philly to get to see the gorgeous water of Destin! One little problem- we were there during a full moon, and doesn't something happen with the gravitational pull and full moon with the ocean?! If not, I definitely like to think so. The first 2 days were stunning...then our 3rd, we walked up to a toothbrush, plastic fork, an onion. plastic containers w/ crustateans, etc. To top things off, some kids beside us that were about our age, pull a box out of the ocean. I'm not sure if it was a box-box, or like a coral-ameoba kind of thing. One guy pulled out an OCTUPUS!!!!!!!!! Yes. I try to uninitiate my gag reflex by seeing this slimy, squidy creature with 8 legs. We all gather around like we're zoology majors. This kid thew it back in the ocean!!! The thing was practically dead, and I was about to get back in that water. Goofball.

B & I walk down to escape the 'ocean fill' (not a land fill, since we were in water). We sipping on a few, playing on the sandbar, getting a tan. Of course, we get approached by an older man. We start to shoot the bull. I tell him about the octupus. He asks if it was still alive, so quick-witted me, I say, "Well, it was definitely on it's last leg." HAHHAHAH. He laughed pretty hard as well! Allllllrrrrrrriiiiight!

The ride down there was a little insane, as well. MG took her last final, and we hopped on the road. Right as we lock our apartment door, a monsoon comes and the bottom falls out. We contemplate running, but then a gravity wave force of wind comes through with thunder/lightning, everything else. 30 minutes later, we get in the car, go to the gas station- the rain stops!!!! Of course. We had to drive 40mph the whole way past Montgomery. I thought it was Armageddon. Two men (65+) pass us on a 2-lane road, neither of them with license plates. Hha. We stop at the gas station before reaching Destin and buy some beer. Well, ole' Tom Thumb likes to scan your ID any and every which way! The machine wasn't reading mine, so he's reluctantly gave it back and sold the beer to me. I said, "Look, it's legit!!" The Tom Tom got us a lost, but eventually, we made it, as frazzled as can be.

To be continued...