I survived this past weekend. I had a blast playing pool with the boys from the physics department on Friday night. I invited Lori to come. Bringing my tall, thin, blonde, Irish best friend into a recreational arena with many boys who don't spend a lot of time with women, proved to make an interesting evening. I listened to quite a lot of bad pick-up lines that night but it was fun nonetheless. Woke up early on Saturday to spend five hours cleaning my apartment, yes, it was THAT bad. Then I had to run around and pick up food as well as odds and ends, to prepare for the arrival of my family for my graduation. They, of course, arrived an hour early, throwing my whole day off but everything eventually got accomplished. We ate, drank, and were merry. I received enough graduation money to start shopping for computers, www.apple.com, here I come. I graduated Saturday night with 1199 other people. My mom was pleased with the VIP seats I was able to get for her. I ended up sitting 20 feet from her in a huge stadium. After the incredibly boring two hour ceremony, Mom insisted on taking pictures. I hate her new digital camera. When she takes her pictures now, she inspects them right after she takes them and if she doesn't like the result, she makes us pose again, its SO not fun. Afterwards, we headed back to my apartment for a quick bite of cake before my parents, grandma, and brother headed to their hotel. My sister decided she wanted to stay with me so we rented a movie and relaxed. It was nice to have her there. We did talk quite a bit. Sister bonding time happens so infrequently with us, I cherish it when it does occur. Sunday we had an early family breakfast and a trip to Target where my brother bought my bike rack for my car. He told me that I can't go to Key West without my bike. He was sweet about it. So I do have my bike with me. Which brings me to where I am now, I am sitting in a quaint townhome owned by Jai's boyfriend Spike. He is graciously letting me use his computer. I arrived last night after 7 and a half hours of driving. Believe it or not, the drive was nice. I didn't have to think about anything. I just let go of everything that had been stressing me out over the past few weeks and months. It all kind of melted away the farther I drove from home. It also helped that I listened to The Lord of the Rings on cd most of the drive down. When I arrived, I found Spike and Jai painting the front deck so I helped with that for awhile before passing out. I slept so hard and so deep for twelve straight hours last night. It was fucking fabulous to wake up naturally this morning. No alarms, no stress, no pressure, and in Key West no less. So I spent the day reading and doing a crossword puzzle. I took Jai to work and then perused downtown for awhile. Got a tattoo airbrushed on the back of my neck, less permanent, just as fun. Stopped by a souvenir shop and picked up a couple of magnets. Stopped by a used book store which had an usually good collection of hard-to-find Louisa May Alcott books. Walked through Mallory Park. Found a beach/pier to watch the sunset. Then headed back to Spike's so I could get some reading done for the lab. Spike is napping now. I will most likely run to get Jai from work in a few minutes and grab a huge cup of coffee on the way. We are playing pool tonight. I am super excited to play with Jai. She is one of the few people that can go shot-for-shot with me. Its definitely an even competition between us. Very fun. I should be off to pick up Jai now.... so let the night festivities begin....