This is a video of my 19 year old brother Joshua on his motorcycle at Road Atlanta. My dad has the camera mounted on the back of his motorcycle. My brother's bike is black. The white one belongs to a friend named Frank that has been a family friend for ages.
Pretty cool, huh?
Can't really put sentences together right now. I'm exhausted. But I had a wonderful visit with Wesley. We ate tons of yummy food, spent time outdoors, fixed up his apartment a bit, relaxed, and spent lots of time snuggling and making googly eyes. It was just what the doctor ordered.
I feel like I am in an alternate reality being back here, feel lost without him being close. But school gets in full swing tomorrow and hopefully I can just race through the summer with my head buried in my books. I'm sure my professors won't mind obliging me.
And for my next trick I'll sleep like the dead for the next several hours. Maybe later on this week I'll be able to tell an actual story or two from the trip. Goodnight.
Happy birthday my love. Xoxo!
I hope you enjoy the ballet lessons...Er, I mean disc golf. ;-)
Today I will be packing. Tomorrow I will be driving. And the rest of the week I will be doting. So if you don't hear from me, forgive me. Until then, enjoy this strange little clip.
It makes me think of that kid from The Shining.
I promise I will never go to Walmart without a camera again. How dare I deprive my three and a half readers pictures of the freaks that live in this small Deep South town.
Let me tell you the story. 
I finally broke down and went grocery shopping this morning. An hour and a half after entering the 3rd circle of hell I got to the checkout line with my loot. There was an overweight and gender-confused young man working the register. He had a bleach blond, very feminine, long bob that looked like it had been moussed and straightened. He also had acrylic nails. Blue acrylic nails. With bright pink tips. I couldn't help but wonder if he was simply acting out- 'being himself'- or if he had a body dysmorphia that made him think he was a slender blond starlet on the verge of discovery. All of this is fine and dandy- to each his own insanity.
But! ((This is where my insanity comes in.)) I had laid out all of my groceries in a specific order on the conveyor belt. My meats were together so that they wouldn't be bagged with the vegetables. My frozen dinners were conveniently stacked so that they could all go in the same bag. My chips were laying next to the shredded cheddar and bag of lettuce- things that wouldn't render them a sad sack of corn flour and salt. What did Manicure-man do to my neatly organized groceries? You know what happens next. The frozen dinners were laid on top of the chips. The meat and the vegetables were put in the same bag (How unsanitary). The TP was bagged with the dry goods. All of my compulsive conveyor-belt planning was for naught. Woe is me.
The second starlet of my own little circus was a young woman with a gravity defying weave. I mean, Wow. It was stunning how she was able to balance all of that braided horse hair on the side of her head like that. It had to have been a foot tall, er, I mean wide. I kept watching to see if it would shake as she did her booty-bouncing walk through the parking lot. It. Never. Moved.
Her outfit was equally impressive. She had on a t-shirt made for a small child. I think it was Carebears, maybe Glo-worm. I'm pretty sure her denim skirt was a pair of jeans cut straight across at the crotch. And the shoes? You know they were as tall as the weave. The kicker though? What really got me? Was that she took the time to accessorize this pell-mell crazy-ass outfit. She had a pair of lime-green spandex suspenders hanging from the skirt. They covered more of her legs than the skirt itself. It gave the outfit this air of being 'completed' that was simply strange. I hate to think about how much time she spent working on her ghetto-chic look.
Once a month, I play what feels like emotional roulette. I never know exactly what tricks the ovaries are going to play on my mood and energy levels. Sometimes, more often then I care to admit, my mood jumps from highs to lows so intensely and so frequently that it leaves me exhausted, strung-out, and dizzy by the end of a few days. I'm God-awful to be around one minute and the coolest, cleverest, kindest Eryn you'll ever see in the next minute. I may spend all morning being hella productive and all afternoon lying in bed with a pillow over my head. I've been accused more than once of being bipolar while I was PMSing. By the way, that doesn't do Anyone any good.
And sometimes, I am the other cliche. I lie in bed all day dreaming about chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream but not having the energy or initiative to go get it out of the fridge. Given the chance I spend 24 hours waning in and out of consciousness and moping. It's quite a sight I assure you.
Today was one of those days until I finally forced myself into a cold shower around 3:00. I actually felt much better after that and plan on keeping it in my arsenal. The PMS had one last trick up it's sleeve though. I got all choked up and misty-eyed tonight while watching TV. Was it Lassie? No. Home Makeover? No. A Baby Story of some other Lifetime Special? God no. Are you ready? I was watching American Idol. When they showed Jordin's visit home and all of her fans being mushy, I just about lost it. There was nothing particularly moving about it. I'm not that attached to any of the Idols. I just got all soggy-eyed because Jordin got all soggy-eyed. Silly ovaries. Sometimes being a girl is just ridiculous.
"Hey I remember you," I said.
Studying at the coffeehouse is a bit of a joke. Having books in front of you seems to make everyone, even quasi-strangers, flock to where you are sitting and want to chat. Nonetheless, I attempted to study for today's finals at one of the outdoor tables yesterday. It was too nice outside to resist.
"Yeah... I remember you. You were the guy who wouldn't do my tattoo. You told me 'Sorry, but I have to go home and [screw] my teenage girlfriend. She's a cheerleader and she gets antsy when I make her wait.' So I got my tattoo somewhere else."
Behind his tattoos and face jewelry he shrunk a little bit. He said "Yeah, I'm not really like that anymore. I don't date teenagers and [stuff] these days. But sorry I wouldn't do your tattoo for you."
The other people around the table had a little chuckle and the conversation moved on. No big deal. The guy went inside.
Then the girl sitting next to me quietly said "I'm his new girlfriend."
Oops.
It is a beautiful afternoon and I'm sitting outside at the local coffeeshop quasi-working on school work. I started out studying for my Dosages final that I have tomorrow and moved on to reading ahead for my Med-Surg I class next semester. Summer classes don't even start for another three weeks and I'm already diving head-first into it. Some would think that I'm just a really devoted student- which I am- but there's more too it.
Nursing is the stable thing in my life right now. My love is roughly 564 miles away, my family is well...anyways, my friends have the bad habit of moving off to bigger and better things, and my cats just aren't the conversationalists they should be. My life isn't bad, don't get me wrong. It's just that school gives me something to really focus on, and be distracted by. It's good to feel like I am accomplishing something. With each line of the highlighter the light at the end of this academic tunnel gets a little brighter. I know I bug my professors and my classmates probably thing I am a know-it-all little brat but I don't care. I'm not there for them, I am there for me. And you know what, I'm going to be one hell of a nurse. So if it takes a little solitude to get me there then so be it.
1. It started on Wednesday with a shopping trip
2. It ended on Friday with a pedicure
3. Kristen gave me a birthday cake (soooo sweet!)
4. I got to play dress up and feel pretty
5. Gourmet pizza with Joy and Lauren
6. Yummy Mexican with Aunt
7. Perfect care-package from the boyfriend
8. Stalking the UPS man to get said care-package
9. A constantly ringing phone
10. Feeling super-loved
11. Homemade brownies from Lyerly
12. 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robins
13. Sushi with Jackie
14. Exploring downtown
15. Making a list in no particular order
One of the best birthdays yet. Thanks guys!
By now most of you have probably figured out that I think it is important to be aware of what is going on around the world. Awareness is the first step in reducing the problems our world faces today. I may not have a time slot to speak to the Senate about things we can do to reach the MDGs, but one day I may be able to share concrete information with someone who gets that opportunity in the future. The more aware we all are, the louder the voice that cries out against inequity becomes.
I have recently found two websites that give information about the state of the world in very concrete and statistical ways. I prefer to learn about things this way because I've come to resent each picture of a starving child that tries to compel me to action. For one thing, motivation must be intrinsic for one. And two, the bloat of so many humanitarian efforts has made me very cynical to private causes (see the post below).
If you have the time, check out these two very informative websites:
CIA World Factbook
and
Human Development Report
