Partying like it's Summer 2008.

Whew.  It's tough work celebrating summer.  Especially when the month of May has decided to take on the role of JANUARY.  Everyday, I get up and look at the greyness and talk to myself for about 5 min convincing myself that it really is in fact summer and not winter and that I don't have school to attend.  It's not quite Bummer Vacation yet, but if May doesn't pull its head out of its butt soon there will be many posts about the weather.  I'm so weather dependent.

That being said, my first week of Summer Vacation 2008 (from here on referred to as SV08) has been spectacular.  But first, a recap of my final.

My final was at 5:30am on Monday.  I know some people that get up even earlier, but that's by choice and they're used to it.  Me?  Not used to it.  And I couldn't just show up in clean PJ's and slippers (which describes my wardrobe for most of my Westmont class attendance, says a lot doesn't it?) because of infernal orientation at 8am.  The final was OK- it was pretty much how I expected it to go, with the expected few questions that cause me to think, "Really?  You wanted us to know that?  Out of everything you covered, that?"  I handed it off to my beloved professor with a "Nyehhh, take it, I'm done!" and headed off to Starbucks with two friends.

Starbucks was a challenge.  I refer to our time spent that morning as When Nursing Students Breakdown.  I gave ordering the drink I always order a heck of a go, but it came out like this:

Cashier: Hi, what can I get you?

Me: Um yeah, I'll have a... have a... hold on.

Cashier: Uh.. take your time.

Me: (with the picture of my beloved beverage in my head and no way of getting it out verbally) I know it's gonna be a grande.  And iced, yeah pretty sure it's iced.  Um, grande.  Iced.  Nonfat? Caramel... macchiato... iced?  That's a drink right, you make those here, right?

Cashier: (with a weird look and a pause) Yeah...

So sad.  

My orientation was pretty boring, but they fed us 2 meals and the chief safety officer told some pretty funny stories during his presentation so I guess it all evens out.  We kept sneaking out to use the cafeteria computers to check our final scores.  I needed an 85 to keep my grade... and I got an 89.  First B on a final in over 2 years and I could've cared less.  I even got some bloodwork results- good news!  I'm immune to measles, mumps and rubella, Hep B, and the chicken pox.  Dodged those bullets...

And since then, it's been whatever I want to do!  Sleep in, stay up late, go for a run.  I'd surf, but I still don't have a new state park pass and Bummer Vacation weather has taken care of the rest.  So I run.  It's OK.  

I've hijacked my mother-in-law's sewing machine and have embarked on my adventures in sewing.  I'm pretty much atrocious, but it's fun and I've made a purse and two skirts, neither of which fit me well.  One's too small, the other is too big.  I considered taking a sewing class for about 0.59 seconds and then I kicked myself in the head to knock some sense back into me.  I just got out of school- and I want to be saddled with sewing projects like "I want to see three perfect zippers by next Tuesday."  Anyway, here are my 3 creations:

Too big.

Too small.

My cute purse!!!  See, from this picture, you can't see how haggard it looks.  But I made it, and so therefore it is awesome.

In garden news, the lettuce patch has some expanding residents and some surprising exits.  

- I have 3 heads of lettuce that I'm leaving to grow to full size before I chop the leaves off.

- Spinach is fickle and it pisses me off.  

- I ripped out the last arugula bush and planted a couple of seeds to see if I can't grow small plants this time.

- I've been finding some pretty sizeable caterpillars in my lettuce patch.  They are the latest additions to my hit list, joining rats and slugs.  My preferred method of removal is to find them and then stab them in half with twigs.  I'm the 32 yr old equivalent of a boy burning ants with a magnifying glass.  Anyway, here is a picture of most of the lettuce patch because it's kind of funny looking right now.  The Tall One refers to it as the Dr. Seuss Garden because it's, well, odd.

I have romaine pillars!!

Well, today is our 1 year anniversary.  I better get cracking at some housecleaning and maybe some cookie baking.  We're celebrating one year with food.  I think we're off to a good start.