My Love and Hate for Children

I am that person that has always said "I'm never having kids- ever". I've felt that way for as long as I can remember, and babysitting since I was 14, working at a summer camp for 2 1/2 summers and working at a preschool for over a year hasn't helped me change my mind. But I also love kids at the same time- I just don't want any of my own. The best part about doing all those things that I mentioned above is that after a certain amount of predetermined time, you get to give the kids BACK to their parents.
BUT last friday I did realize that despite how I feel about kids, there are some things that parents today don't seem to understand... or at least most of them don't. When you take your children out into public, control them. These are my top places where I believe it is unacceptablt to take children if parents cannot control them:

1. Shopping- anywhere
I worked retail for five Christmases, most of my senior year of high school, and my third year of college. I believe that if parents are going to bring their children to the mall, target, or even the grocery story, the children should NOT be allowed to run around the store and do whatever they want. If a child does not know how to act in a mall (especially whatever store I was working in, or am shopping in currently for that matter) that they should be restrained by either a second parent or adult, a stroller, or a leash (yes- i said it). I had the equivalent of a child leash when i was growing up- it was red and it attached at my wrist. I am not completely messed up from the experience (or at least I don't think I am). It is not wrong or mean to use a leash equivalent on a child if that is what you have to do. If a parent does not want to use the measures I have described, or some of their own imagination, then they should leave their children at HOME.

2. Restaurants.
I was eating at Panera last Friday (not even a nice place) and there were these two women sitting at the largest table in the place with three children. These two women were talking to each other while their children were crawling under the table, screaming, and making the biggest mess I have seen. The little boy was crawling from under the table into his chair, standing in his chair, drinking from two different chocolate milk cartons (I know it was chocolate because he was COVERED in it), and then crawling back down. Repeat this process for the entire time I was there. The thing is the mothers were not concerned at all, and the best part is that I overheard them talking about parenting books, and different techniques that had totally spoken to them- when their children were running wild! Seriously... again, if you can't control them, pay a babysitter and leave them at home. I happen to know one broke ass graduate student that is willing to let you pay her to keep your wild children at home so that you don't go out and ruin other people's experiences out in public.

Those are really the only two places where children and their lack of public manners bothers me. The other part about children that is not fun is that they are germ incubators- I've been working back at the preschool for one week, and I'm sick... really. It's a little frustrating.

I don't want all people to get me wrong... I do like kids, but again, the best part about working and playing with kids is that I get to give them back and go home ALONE. But according to my friends, and my mother, I am having triplets, at the least. I do not find this a funny joke in the least.

thanksgiving week

My thanksgiving week was actually a whole nine days long. and it was amazing. I went to huntsville the first weekend to hang out with my ultimate friends and watch everyone else play ultimate... starting to be my least favorite thing to do EVER. I then headed home by way of small town Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, never once setting a foot (or a tire as the case may be) on an interstate from the time we got to Chattanooga saturday morning, from huntsville to my parents house, and then my parents house to about 30miles north of Birmingham the following weekend. it was FANTASTIC. While at home, I procrastinated on all of my school work (that is now coming back to bite me in the ass), went to the eye doctor, went to the dentist- where i had to get a filling.... booo- and generally just watched TV, napped, and baked for four fabulous days. Thanksgiving day was quite low key, just the immediate family, and too much food- it was SOOO good!
Friday, I headed to auburn for the Iron Bowl. First off, it took me 7 HOURS to get there- seven.... Auburn is SO far from Dyersburg. It is slighly ridiculous. When i got to Manhands's, J-vo and his friend spike were already there, and had been drinking for a few hours already. It was only 5:30ish- so I had some catching up to do. Needless to say- I caught up fairly quickly. We played drinking games at Amy's for a while, then headed to "the Castle" with Kim and Kyle and a few others, then went to Buffalo's downtown where we met up with Annie and Robert and Annie's fam, Blaire, Wes, J-Vo, Town, Bob, Culver, Sexton, Chelsea.... there are too many to name. After that we headed to Sexton's place, where people were playing beer pong, then Amy, Kim and I went to Jimmy John's to finish off the night, where amy proceeded to talk to every sketchy person in the place-- you think she would have learned by now, but apparently not.
Saturday was a day of tailgating... ALL DAY. No, seriously- all day. The game wasn't until 7, so it was an all day affair. The highlight of the whole day for me was that Tennessee won their game against Kentucky after 4 overtimes! It was awesome! Now TN gets to go to the SEC Championship this weekend, and the Cats lost (which was awesome for me since Culver is a UK fan... hehe). I did get to go the the Iron Bowl game, and my ticket was... the second to last row from the top- and it was cold. COLD at the game. But Auburn won, and it was awesome. at the end of the game, one of the football players started directing the band with the band director- it was hilarious. it was super fun! the rest of the night was fairly low key, with me sleeping for a good 30 minutes on amy's floor while about 8 other people watched highlights from the game and other's continued to pour in from the game. Overall- good nine days. now all i have to do is get through the next two weeks without a serious mental breakdown, and life will be good.

Insanity

I've had two different people, on two different days, quote the definition of insanity when I was just talking about life recently, and some of the not so good decisions I've been making. And the fact that I continue to be slightly crazy all the time, no matter what the outcome was last time I went into an episode. I think that they (and the world) is trying to tell me something.

Insanity: continuing to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Jumping to Conclusions

Jumping to conclusions is something that all people do. no seriously- all people do it at least every once in a while. I hope they do, because I seem to do it more than my fair share. Lets just say I'm known for doing this with my really good friends. It is part of my personality, and something that I wish I had better control over, but sometimes it just comes out and bitch slaps me before I can even do anything about it. And at the time, I feel justified in what I am feeling/getting upset over, but in the end, I end up feeling slightly foolish, but still somewhat justified. Now the question is, how do I stop doing this so often, or at least waiting until I have all the information necessary to either jump to conclusions or not?

Honestly, I have no idea. So many factors go into why I do this (along with so many of my other character flaws). Should I start letting things from the past go quicker, or letting them go altogether? Probably. Should I try and get all the facts before I assume the worst, or at least the worst when I believe it is going to affect me? Totally. But the question still is how to do this. Again I don't know. I've done it again today, and completely upset a friend, and our relationship has just started to get back to a state of semi-normalcy. And while again, I still believe that I am justified slightly in my thinking, I handled the situation the wrong way. And I don't know how to fix it. Apparently I'm not over some of the things from the past, things I thought that I had moved past, but I guess not. So if anyone has any suggestions for me on how for me to at least act less crazy, I would greatly appreciate it. But really, we all know that's all it is... an act. But suggestions on how to hide my craziness better would be greatly appreciated :)

Stupid Ignorant people trying to push their beliefs on me

So, ya know those people that you've seen on your respective college campus, or on Beale Street in Memphis, that are holding the large signs about the end of the world and how we are all going to hell? you know what I'm talking about. These are people i find amusing. No seriously. I used to love to get out of class at UT and find them between the humanities building and the library, right by the street at the major intersection of campus for cars AND for students. I loved to sit there and listen to them, because it think that they are morons, but morons who totally believe in everything they are saying. and they don't care that no one is taking them seriously... they are telling me that I am going to go to hell because of.... (insert various reasons here). If nothing else, these people were a form of entertainment at least for the five minutes i had to spare before I had to race across campus and up The Hill for my next class, and I didn't think about anything school related for that period of time.

Today instead, I encountered one thing that I have absolutely no tolerance for. I walked into the courtyard at GSU (if you've ever been here you know what I'm talking about, because this is the closest thing that meets the definition of a "campus" at GSU) and there were signs that said "Warning: Genocide project ahead" or something of that nature, warning people about what they were getting ready to see. Well, since this was still in my path to the library, I continued on my intended path. And when i walked around the corner.... there were pictures of aborted fetuses, and fetus parts next to coins to show how small they are.... and they were everywhere. No don't get me wrong- everyone should be allowed to choice to make their own decisions about how they feel about abortion. I personally have no idea how I feel, because I've never been put in a situation where that has been a questions, but i do believe that my beliefs should not affect the next woman's right to have or not have an abortion. What i find offensive is that these people thought it was OK to post these pictures in a high traffic, public place. I do not want to see these images as I'm walking to class, because i can't help but see them in my side vision at the very least. And I don't understand how people believe that showing these images is going to get the kind of response that they are trying to elicit from the general public. All it does is make me angry. And the fact that these people believe that they can change the way people feel... but the one thing that did make me laugh was the girl holding up this sign in the middle of all of it :

"Don't place your beliefs in my vagina". It was awesome.

What my name means... and how weird this is

So, I found this website today and thought "why not? I'm already procrastinating from finishing my school work anyway" and typed in my name. If you don't feel like reading all of it, here are the parts that I found weird.

In the first real section titled "The expression or destiny for #7:" it talks about how people that are the number 7 are curious about the world and knowledge seekers. that i would make a good teacher. this is weird, because that is exactly what I am doing. how does a website know this? seriously, you can find this info out about someone using their name, which coincides with a particular number, and that number can tell you this kind of info? weird.

The other part that was weird was the part talking about how I opperate on a different wavelength and don't trust people much. this thing totally freaked me out. Many of the things it said were very true for my personality. how does it do it?





From: http://www.paulsadowski.com/Numbers.asp

You entered: Caroline Hope McClure

There are 19 letters in your name.Those 19 letters total to 97There are 8 vowels and 11 consonants in your name. What your first name means:

Scottish Female Feminine form of Charles: manly.
Italian FemaleStrong. An Italian feminine form of Charles. Famous bearer: 18th century Caroline of Ansbach was the German wife of English King George II. Lady Caroline Lamb had a famous liaison with poet Lord Byron.

French Female Song of happiness.
English Female Joy. Song of happiness. Also feminine variant of Charles: manly.

Your number is: 7
The characteristics of #7 are: Analysis, understanding, knowledge, awareness, studious, meditating.

The expression or destiny for #7:Thought, analysis, introspection, and seclusiveness are all characteristics of the expression number 7. The hallmark of the number 7 is a good mind, and especially good at searching out and finding the truth. You are so very capable of analyzing, judging and discriminating, that very little ever escapes your observation and deep understanding. You are the type of person that can really get involved in a search for wisdom or hidden truths, often becoming an authority on whatever it is your are focusing on. This can easily be of a technical or scientific nature, or it may be religious or occult, it matters very little, you pursue knowledge with the same sort of vigor. You can make a very fine teacher, or because of a natural inclination toward the spiritual, you may become deeply emerged in religious affairs or even psychic explorations. You tend to operate on a rather different wavelength, and many of your friends may not really know you very well. The positive aspects of the 7 expression are that you can be a true perfectionist in a very positive sense of the word. You are very logical, and usually employ a quite rational approach to most things you do. You can be so rational at times that you almost seem to lack emotion, and when you are faced with an emotional situation, you may have a bit of a problem coping with it. You have excellent capabilities to study and learn really deep and difficult subjects, and to search for hidden fundamentals. At full maturity you are likely to be a very peaceful and poised individual.

If there is an over supply of the number 7 in your makeup, the negative aspects of the number may be apparent. The chief negative of 7 relates to the limited degree of trust that you may have in people. A tendency to be highly introverted can make you a bit on the self-centered side, certainly very much self-contained . Because of this, you are not very adaptable, and you may tend to be overly critical and intolerant. You really like to work alone, at your own pace and in your own way. You neither show or understand emotions very well.

Your Soul Urge number is: 4
A Soul Urge number of 4 means: With the Soul Urge or Motivation number of 4 you are likely to strive for a stable life. You tend to follow a rather orderly pattern and systematic approach in your endeavors. You have an inner desire to serve others in a methodical and diligent manner. You want to be in solid, conventional, and well-regulated activities, and you are somewhat disturbed by innovation and erratic or sudden changes. Excellent at organizing, systematizing, and managing, you have a way of establishing order and maintaining it. You are responsible, reliable and in the final analysis, practical. Highly analytical, you can see your way through all sorts of situations and generally have a clear understanding of the issues. You are a very honest, sincere, and conscientious individual.

The negative side of the 4 is rigid, stubborn and somewhat narrow-minded. There is a tendency to hide feelings, or to really not be aware of real feelings. Avoid being too rigid and stubborn in your thinking, and try to always see the big picture rather than becoming to involved with the detail. Don't be afraid to take a chance once in awhile.

Your Inner Dream number is: 3
An Inner Dream number of 3 means: You dream of artistic expression; writing, painting, music. You would seek to more freely express your inner feeling and obtain more enjoyment from life. You also dream of being more popular, likable, and appreciated.

A sad sad day...

So, halloween I realized that I have become a lightweight again when it comes to alcohol consumption... and that isn't necessarily a good thing. SO, I was cooking for myself and also having some beverages- Woodchucks hard cider to be exact. I know, many people do not believe that this technically is an adult beverage, but trust me it is. And sometimes, it is just nice to have something that genuinly tastes good. anyway- I was cooking and had 1 cider. then i ate dinner and I had another cider. and then thirty minutes later, I realized that I was tipsy. off of TWO ciders. The next couple of weekends could be a little rough.

Blue Tooths and Ankles

So, the last couple of weeks have been slightly eventful. First thing frist... my friend Katie from high school just got married a week and a half ago, and it was so fun! LeeAnn hit a car on the way to memphis at an exit near Talladega, AL. Was up for nearly 24 hours thursday/friday because had to student teach, drive to memphis, went straight to dinner, then to EP's (Elvis Presely's is apparently a club now... who knew?) then finally home (aka: the ralph's) and in bed around 5am eastern time. Friday I did homework for the day since I was carless for the weekend. Saturday I got up, showered, and got ready, threw a t-shirt and jeans on, leeann picked me up to take her to the church so she could get ready and take pictures, I came home, got dressed, went by the liquor store to get some "treats" for the bride's maides, then went to the church for the ceremony. and here is where part of the title comes in...

I saw someone wearing a bluetooth during the ceremony! Seriously?! No one is really that important. Take your damn bluetooth off during a wedding.... you can't have something so important on a Saturday afternoon during a wedding for either a family friend, or a personal friend that is really that important. And then, during the reception, I saw someone else with one in! I was just absolutly amazed that someone would have the balls to do something like that. Besides the fact that bluetooth's are not a fashion statement... they don't actually go with anthing that anyone would ever own, so just take the damn thing out. Use some common sense

Ok, so besides the rest of that, the wedding was so fun. It was beautiful, and I got to hang out with some people that I knew in high school and haven't seen since graduation (5 years ago!) and a few people that i didn't hang out with in high school but who are really cool. We danced and drank from the open bar, and by 8pm were totally and completely worn out. it seriously felt like midnight.

The other thing that has happened recently is that last wednesday after babysitting in the morningside area, I sprained my ankle going to my car. it was aweful. I had to go to the ER (in and out in less than an hour, and only in Atlanta will you fine free valet at the ER), and then was on crutches for six days... which BTW: crutches are not as cool as you think they are if you've never been on them. I finally went to the Dr. tuesday, and got an air cast boot with an air pump, and have to wear it for at least the next three weeks. so not ok, but better than crutches. So, I feel like an idiot for falling down a stair (yes, singular) and spraining my ankle so badly that i have to wear a boot with a cradle bottom, and may or may not have a stress fracture OR torn tendons/ligaments. It's been eventful. And now I am just super pitiful.

And then there was the girl pile and edge from last weekend... good times :)

Knoxville weekend

So, last weekend was my knoxville weekend. While just about all of my friends headed to Jacksonville for South Club Regionals or to Nashville for Itchfest to play ultimate, I headed to Knoxville for what I assumed to be another sad weekend of Tennessee football. But I'll get to that in a second.

I left Atlanta on Wednesday afternoon to head to knoxville, and I was so excited. On Thursday, Janet and I went bike riding around Cades Cove, and it was beautiful! it wasn't too terribly hot, and some of the leaves were starting to chance up in the mountains. It was awesome. The only thing we kept saying was "I'm so glad we came! I'm so glad we aren't in Atlanta." We were both totally over Atlanta at that point. After that, we headed to Gatlinburg just to june around. I mean, it was a thursday... the traffic wasn't too bad. It was fun. We were only there for about an hour, and we just walked up and down the street and bought some pumpkin fudge (it sounds gross, but it's really really not). We did have to take a picture in front of the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum (pictures to follow later). Thursday night I ended up going out with the frisbee girls, and they are hilarious. First, they are ALL 19. All of them. And we went to Sassy Ann's, which wasn't the cool place to hang out when I was in college, but it is really fun. Needless to say, Erin and I felt like we needed to live up to the stories we had been telling earlier in the night, and we got a little drunk (just a little). I was hungover until after 3pm the next day.

Friday, my mom and dad decided to show up and we went to the golf course that my brother works at, and we "played golf". my mom and I drove our own golf cart and watched my dad and brother play golf... and play is a relative term here because they aren't that good at golf... they are both actually kind of bad. it was hilarious.

Saturday was the day of the game. The Tennessee vs Georgia game. And it was HOT. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and shorts in the first weekend of October, and that is just ridiculous. All we did was tailgate all day, because my family, we don't actually go to the games... they are crowded and the staduim was apparently just sweltering. So we stayed at the tail gate and watched the game, and rode on Mr. David's scooter cooler (you heard me right). Well, surprisingly, TENNESSEE WON THE GAME. I have no idea what happened, but Tennessee beat Georgia 35-14. It was ridiculous... and I thought that Auburn beating Florida the weekend before was the biggest miracle of the season. and then, later that night, LSU beat Florida! it was such an amazing day. Florida lost (again), and Tennessee won a game! Seriously, the weekend was perfect only for those reasons... but the rest was nice too!

stupid boys

i don't understand boys. how can they be so absolutly clueless? How can they not see something that is right in front of their faces? I just don't understand. I wish that there was some magic way for boys to see exactly how things are, not see them through boy lenses. if they could, life would be a hell of a lot easier.

Top Reasons to visit Auburn

I was in Auburn this past weekend, for many many reasons. One of them was for the football game... and that didn't turn out to be a good reason, since Auburn lost- to Mississippi State. Seriously, Mississippi State? Come on... Anyway. Here is the real list that I visit Auburn and why others should seriously consider it:

1. The friends that I have there.
These people are amazing. They are ridiculous. Everytime I go down there, I always have a good time, and end up making at least two new friends. Which is awesome. Even though most of them are still under 21 (which is crazy... I didn't think that I had any friends left that weren't 21, out side of Becca), but they know how to have fun.

2. It allows me to run away from my problems in Atlanta.
Don't get me wrong- I still love Atlanta. But sometimes, I don't want to be here anymore, and I don't want to be around people from here. And since I'm not playing ultimate currently, I didn't want to be in Nooga either. So, Auburn, Manhands, and football called.

3.They allow me to be myself- all the time.
There is just something about my friends there that allows me to be totally and completely myself every time I am there. I don't have to pretend to be someone I'm not... I'm just Caroloopy- whatever that happens to entail at whatever moment. Sometimes it is skinnydipping, sometimes it is walking five miles back to Annie's on a Saturday morning, sometimes it is passing out somewhere that isn't Annie's because I partied too hard. Sometimes it is playind disc golf horrendously, and sometimes it is just chilling, watching football, and playing beer pong, catching up with my girls.

4. It's always a good time.
No matter what else is going on, Auburn is always a good time. While this weekend was fairly chill, there was still massive amounts of drinking, beer pong, and general ridiculousness. It was a prefect weekend (except that Auburn and TN lost... it was a sad weekend in Auburn- it was even sadder for the two TN fans). I saw two boys take off most of their cloths to play beer pong, drank for all of Saturday afternoon, bought Ellen her birthday beer (she's finally 21... Blair, Manhands, and T-money need to work on that), saw Thomas throw up all over himself and his friend... and he wasn't even wasted! And the best: driving by a cop who had stopped someone on the side of the road... and it was Jon Culver! He was walking back to his place and got stopped! It was awesome!!!!!

Over all... it was a good weekend, and extremely necessary. Except one thing... now I'm sick. Damnit.

It doesn't matter the school, some things never EVER change

So, as many have guessed, figured out, I'm back in school at Georgia State University (referred to as GSU from here on out) in downtown Atlanta. So far, so good- passed all four of my summer classes with A's (first 4.0 EVER), and I've been in my fall classes for two weeks. Things are going well. I don't have too much work yet, so that means I can still slack off as much as possible by doing all my homework the morning class. And while this has not changed for me since high school because I've been a slacker and a procrastinator for that long, the real think that hasn't changed are the people. And the one kind of person that still annoys the shit out of me.

The Slow Walker.
We've all encountered this kind of student on some campus somewhere, whether it was in high school, undergrad, or grad school. This person walks as slow as possible, blocks all options to maneuver around them, and is probably talking on his or her cell phone. I have a real problem with this because I am one of those people that always walk at a steady clip. I do not drag my feet, or meander. I WALK. This is not a hard concept for most of the intelligent world, but apparently for some it is a foreign concept. I think that people that walk slow should be like people that drive slow (or ride bikes in the road...)- they should have a separate area, or just stay the hell out of the way! seriously... is it really that difficult? I don't think so.

The Reigning Ultimate Whore-- an ode to Amy

So, years ago, I somehow ended up with the title of the Ultimate Whore. And no, this is not to say that i am the ultimate at whoreing. This title is something that someone (whom I can't remember at this moment) gave me because of my tendancy to go to ultimate tournaments and play with whoever would take, with very little standards on who that would be. This actually allowed me to meet many many people over the years, making my network of ultimate friends larger than most, and covering a much larger geographical area than most.

Recently, I have had someone take over my title, which I willingly gave up. Amy Manhands is now the reigning Ultimate Whore, because she exhibits the same qualities that I had back in my days of going to tournaments and picking up. She goes to tournaments and just wants to play. She goes up to people and introduces herself as "Amy from Auburn", and this is how people continue to remember her. At Mudbowl 2007 she bumped her head at some point on Saturday night, and it wasn't until July 2007 that she learned what actually happened from a player in Asheville that she met while visiting her dad. In Atlanta, she has picked up another title from her experience with us in Savannah at the Memorial Day Hat Tournament, which I am kindly going to omit (if you want to know, ask her... she'll probably tell you). While in Savannah for Toss in the Moss this past August, Amy obtained a black eye during Saturday play, and there is no telling how many more people she has met due to this "injury". She knows people all over the southeast, in DC, Ohio, and many other places. There are too many stories about why Amy is the reigning Ultimate Whore. But this is her tribute... the offical notice that I am stepping down (but will always be the origonal), and Amy is the Reigning Ultimate Whore. If you want to obtain this status one day, you will have to be mentored and go into training with Amy, just as she did with me.

All Hail Amy. The Ultimate Whore.

My First Weekend back in town... and Bar Golf

So, I've been home for a week exactly today, and the week has been fairly uneventful... fairly. I did get really violently sick on tuesday night, and have only really been eating rice, bananas, bread and gatorade for three-ish days, but on the bright side, i've lost a little weight from the experience! (you've got to find some good from and experience that was that bad!)
I was also supposed to go to Nashville this weekend for Monkey Bowl, but after I got sick, and continued to have a headache until friday, i decided that going and playing ultimate outside in the little bit of heat we've gotten, and the fact that i was still dehydrated, was not the smartest idea. I finally chose my health over ultimate (it only took four years to learn which is the smart decision). But i did decide to stay in town, so yeah.
Friday night I had dinner with susie and saw her new place. It is awesome! I absolutly love it, even though she has moved farther away from me... but I'll forgive her for that because her new place is awesome, and now we have a place for slumber parties and we don't have to drive 45 damn minutes to Scott's! After that i went and helped Samantha celebrate her 21st birthday and her and teddy's engagment.
Saturday I just juned around town for most of the morning. I had to run out to JCPenny and Payless, which thankfully are in the same place, but are both about 30ish minutes from where i live (on surface streets), but was totally worth it! I got some super cute shirts and some shoes that were cheap, but I don't really care all that much. I like them, and when they go out of style, i only paid $30 for both pairs! After that i went over to Emory to watch the AC South women's sectionals. I only got to see some of it, but both of the last two games were really good. GA Tech was up on Emory 6-5, and then Emory put their two slighly injured club players in and won the game 13-6... they weren't playing around after that. So Emory took the third bid to regionals, and poor Tech gets screwed out of a bid because a team didn't show up and the fourth bid got taken away. During the 1/2 seed game between Florida and Georgia, it was ridiculous. Florida was up 5-11, and somehow Georgia brought the game back to 11's, and then won the game 13-12! It was awesome! Those girls play so hard, they deserve it... and I can't EVER cheer for Florida under any circumstances in any sport. Ever.
After all the sectionals games were over, McCargo talked me and Parag into joining a group of atlanta folks for "Bar Golf". Well, he wouldn't tell us what Bar Golf was, but we were both pretty much down for anything. So, Parag and I went to his place (my place is in the opposite direction of everything! especially East Atlanta!) Schiebe and Edge met us, and somehow I ended being the driver... i'm still not real sure how that happened, but i didn't need to be drinking anyway. So we went to Grant Central, and at exactly 8, all the East Atlanta kids rolled in, and they were wasted. Apparently Bar Golf is a pub crawl, but with some rules. There is actually a sheet that looks like a golf score card. There are 18 stops along the way... the fron nine, and then the back nine is basically the front nine backwards (with only a few differences). A beer is par, and counts for 4 strokes, the "signiture drink" was three, a shot and a beer was two, and a shot IN a beer was a hole in one. So, we decided to join for the back nine, and it was hillarious. I don't even know if there is anyway to describe what was going on. People were taking off thier shirts, Schiebe and Parag were trying to beat eachother and then fighting about it, it was so funny. Adrienne and I decided that it was by far the best time either of us have had being the sober DD's while EVERYONE else was drunk beyond belief. it was an amazing time, even sober. Totally worth it. And only Lynch made it through 18 holes of Bar Golf... about 9 hours of bar hopping and drinking. I hope he is still alive right now. Seriously. Well, by the end of the night, we somehow had adopted a slightly passed out wart. We took him back to Parag's, and i hope he is still alive this morning, but after i dropped him off, he became their's. But it was a good night.
I don't really understand how on my weekend off, at home, i still didn't get home until after 1:30am both nights. I guess that's the way to judge a good weekend!

Day 9... in transit

So currently, Scott and I are in transit to Valencia. We left Nice this morning and 13 1/2 hours later we are in Barcelona for the night. I'll get to the reasons behind that horrendous travel time in a minute.

NICE: We arrived in Nice, France three days ago. It was a little bit of a shock to come back into a city after being in Cinque Terra for three days, and even the parts of Milan where we were weren't too crowded. So huge shock to the senses. But we made it to our hostel, which was this cute little flat split up into nine rooms, an extra bathroom, and a kitchen/office. The owner was this cute french woman named Martine, and she had a little girl who was absolutly adorable. Se, we walk up what feels like a million flights of stairs (yes, more stairs!) and walk in and Martine just does a double take when she sees me. She them proceeds to compliment me on my hair and tell me that it is blonde, not red. Now to me, that is funny, because my hair is the fartherest thing from blonde you can get in the states, but whatever. So for that night, and the next two days, we preceed to just wander through Nice. We go up to this really cool Villa that is famous for something (I'm not sure what because everything was in french), and hang out there for a while, see some churchs, the museum of modern art, the old historic center and market, the beach, the harbor. We literally just meandered for two-ish days. It was fun, and beautiful, if a little panama beachy for me (lots of neon lights... lots).

So, this morning, we got up at 5:00am to catch our train to Barcelona. If you want to know what a french train station looks like at 5am, I've got pictures! So that is literally all we did today, was ride on trains... crowded trains. We get to barcelona, and then we end up on the metro for more time, trying to find our hostel, on some university that is too far north to even be on the map! We are here though, and are just relaxing. Tomorrow morning we leave for three nights and 2 1/2 days in Valencia where I get to hang out with Ellen! I'm so super excited!

Here is something that I learned while in France: the french language totally stresses me out. So we ate absolutly every meal out of the bakery that was close to our hostel, and at some point I just made scott start ordering for me because I can't pronounce a word in french to save my life. And of course every time i tried, there was this huge line of people behind me, and i just sounded like a stupid dumb american. What I learned from the experince: Always take someone who can speak french and read it with you when visiting france!

ITALIA!!!

Yes, that is correct. I have finally made that trip to Europe that I have been talking about for at least the last 5 or so years. So, I'm here, in Italy. And it is amazing! Scott and I flew into Milan on Friday around 3pm, and mean old Scott wouldn't let me go to sleep, because we had to adjust to the time change. Whatever. All I know is that I was cranky as hell. We just kinda went exploring the evening, and while we were taking pictures of eachother hugging a ridiculously old tree, i turned my ankle again... the same one i turned three weeks ago at mudbowl. it was a little sad, and painful. on saturday we got up, and headed to the Duomo. it is the thrid largest church in europe, and it is huge. we took lots of pictures, and then we decided to head to the top. Well, let me tell you, there are more steps to the top of the Duomo than from the lake to the cabin at pickwick... it was funny because that is actually what i thought of! from here we headed to Sforza castle, ate lunch in the park behind that, and then did the museum thing. we went back to the hostel and had dinner, explored a little more, and then went to bed.

the next morning we got up early, and headed to the train station to catch our train to cinque terra. well, we got there, and realized that we had missed our train, because time had changed overnight, and being foriegners, we did not reailze this! so, we tried to get a later train, be that train wasn't going out of the region, so we got a reservation for a train to genoa, then hopped on a train to La Spezia, then hopped on another train that brought us to our town, Riomaggiore. It is a beautiful town, the southern most town in Cinque Terra (which means five lands). we dropped our stuff off at our apartment, ate lunch at a little cafe (pesto lasagna... AMAZING!), and then explored and took some pictures. We went to bed, and then got up on Monday morning and took a train to Monterosso to start the hiking. We started, and all we did was go up. and i mean UP! there were like a thousand stairs! but it was a beautiful hike through olive groves and lemon groves and vineyards. it was totally worth it. we ended that part in Vernazza, and had lunch on the water there. Then we decided to start our next part of the hike, from Vernazza to Corniglia. That hike was also just up, with lots and lots of more stairs!!! When we came down from there we had to head straight to the train station, because we couldn't walk to Manrola, because of a land slide. We got to Manrola, started on the trail, and it was flat, and paved! it was a beautiful thing after that morning!
Today we have been just town hopping, using the train, and doing some shopping, and of course taking more pictures! (i am already over 200 of the trip, and i still have three more cities!). I did get a beautiful italian scarf for me, and a purse of course, and i have picked up a few things here and there for family and friends. it was really fun.
So tomorrow we take a train to Nice, which is supposed to be a beautiful place. For now, I am going to go and eat some dinner, and rest tonight. It has been a wonderful trip so far, and I can't wait for the rest of it!!!

A Lot Like Love is a movie that came out in 2005, and it has Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet in it. It's not one that won any awards or anything like that, but it is just a good movie... a definate chick flick. It has been on the movie channels alot lately, so I've seen it a ridiculous amount of times over the last couple of months, but I still watch it everyt time it comes on TV. It's the kind of movie that makes me think about love, because what does anyone really know about love, or what love is supposed to be like? I've seen people that are in love, but I have never experienced love myself, but I think i know what love is supposed to be like. And then there is a quote in the middle of the movie, when Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet are out in the middle of the California desert. Amanda Peet asks Ashton Kutcher if he was in love with her (he last girlfriend in the movie), and he says something to the effect of "I guess so-it felt like love. that sounds stupid". and Amanda Peet says "Honestly, if you aren't willing to sound stupid, you don't deserve to be in love." And to me that rings so true. If you aren't willing to sound or be or do something stupid, then what is the point of even being in love? And who really knows what being in love is really like?