from the vault

great grandpa's sweet ride.
great grandpa

aunt collette, uncle steve, mom, aunt paula, aunt lydia
grandpa, lydia, mom, grandma, aunt paula, aunt collette, uncle steve
grandma in her wedding dress
grandpa and grandma on their wedding day

great great grandpa with great grandpa

j(action)ville

I am leaving tomorrow afternoon to visit the fam and the beautiful, beautiful coast for a few days. I have an interview at Bath&Body Works at 5pm, but if I leave right after that I should be in Jacksonville by midnight. Don is taking my car to get new brakes and an oil change on Wednesday, hurrah! I would resist but considering that I am (a) broke and (b) he likes to play dad by doing things like that, I will let him.

The weather is supposed to be very warm - mid to high 70s. OHTHANKYOUCHRIST! I will probably borrow his seabring if he still has it and drive out to the beach, hopefully with James and Mark and Nicole, and maybe fly a kite and take pictures and breathe in the air of the ocean and feel content.

family

Today I have a bad attitude (quelle suprise, no?).

I feel broke and whiney and I miss my mom and my brother. I want to go visit them and eat belated birthday cake and watch movies. My brother always makes fun of all the sentimental parts, effectively ruining them, and mom and I yell at him. We also get into shouting matches over games of trivial pursuit and especially monopoly. But then someone says something ridiculously funny (usually Stephan) and we all end up laughing so hard we turn red and start to cry.

If I work hard at saving, I should have enough in the next month to buy new brakes and rotors and finally see them again.

I AM GRADUATE

I graduated college today, woooo! BA in English, useful!

I feel like all I've done for the last 24 hours is eat and sit. grooooossss!

Too much family time though. My grandparents are old and completely clueless. But my Uncle (whom I haven't seen in around 10 years) is fucking hilarious. I'm really glad people came though. It's funny to actually feel like I have "family." Funny as in weird.

BUT BUT BUT Don got me a new computer! Holy crap! MacBook! Goodbye ghetto-rigged falling apart Dell, you've served me well, but I'm leaving you for a younger, sexier, much lighter, actual working computer.

It's nice to know that even though my "real" dad sucks, I still have a real dad. Know what I'm saying?

Anyway.

I was freaking out, but I'm now I'm strangely optimistic.

Hoppy Eggster

Holidays with the family was... a trial, as per usual. I feel like when I look at my mom, I see my own flaws reflected back at me to the n^th degree. Talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk. She is one of those people that has a tendency to turn every conversation back on herself. I think I do that too sometimes. I'm working on not doing that. I know she loves me and cares about me though. I don't think she has a lot of people to really talk to, so I pretty much just sat back from two days and took every thought that popped into her head.

I think it's funny how my brother and I have shifted roles -- he's now the optimist, and I'm bitter. ha ha ha.

I made pineapple upside down cake, which my mom and even my brother liked. yay.

Friday night was probably the best night of my life. It just reaffirmed how much I love my friends, and how much I am going to violently miss Matt when he leaves. dang.