Hello Summer

So the weather ended up being PERFECT this week--no rain, lots of sunshine, slight breeze at night. I'm such a lucky girl.

Spent Cinco de Mayo in Clearwater with J and his familiaaaa and stayed for some greatly anticipated beach time. Hooray for beautiful sand and clear water (ha ha, get it?) and waves and swimming and getting tan! Oh, and margaritas and piña coladas, too ;)

Set out Friday after a nice breakfast for my home sweet home. I spent the weekend engaged in family festivities in celebration of my Grandpa's 90th birthday (whoaaaa he's as old as John Paul Stevens!) and had a fantastic time. Finally got to meet some of my baby cousins (ahhhh they're so cute!!!) and see relatives I haven't talked to in years and years. And Grandpa really seemed to enjoy himself. He said to me, "Look! All these people are here because of me!" "Well, Grandpa," I said, "you're a pretty important guy!"

Then yesterday, spent the day with my mommy for Mother's Day. We took her to brunch and a movie about babies, dropped KK off at the airport, and later went to dinner as well. Spent the evening watching The Blindside and eating delicious cake my culinarily-gifted sister baked (she's kind of amazing). Then sleep.

I'd say it was a successful start to a very sweet summer :)

The Graduate

Well, it's official. I am now a Gator Alumna! Graduation itself was rather unpleasant. Everyone was hot and sweaty and smelly and gross because they made us wait outside in the 95 degree weather for SO LONG at 2:30 in the afternoon. When they finally let us into the building, we just waited in line for another million years before the processional started and we could go to our seats. And the cap and gown were itchy and heavy and ughhhh. Silly silly ceremony. However, I LOVED the dress my mom bought me, and everything after graduation turned out really nice. So call it a win?

For dinner we went to Paramount Grill, this leeeettle tiny place downtown across from American Apparel. The food was excccccellent. The people at the table--even better :) I have the best family and friends/roommates and boyfriend in the world, and ::sigh:: I'm really going to miss them...

Leaving for Korea in less than two months to begin my teaching assistantship! Yaaaaaaay! And I'm happy to report that tfa has granted me a one-year two-year deferral!

In the meantime, summer is going to be wonderful! Got to see my Little for dinner yesterday, then stopped by J's "Olympics" for a short while. Ended the evening with some drinks with Em and co downtown and midtown. Sweet.

Today I just cleaned and packed some (and maybe took a 2 hour break to watch The Ugly Truth...and liked it *guilty*). Leaving Gainesvegas tomorrow to spend Cinco de Mayo in Clearwater with boyfriend. Beach and margaritas, here I come!