Tourism and Life Quotes

Today, I attended the last class of my entire undergraduate college career.  Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited for graduation.  It hasn't hit me yet, to be honest.  Nothing feels monumental or different or strange.  Oh, I'm sure it will eventually, but right now, everything is just typical, tedious, the same. 

My weekend wasn't nearly as raging as I had originally planned.  Florida was covered in rainy, cloudy, muggy, overcast, gross weather.  We got one good half-day at the pool out of it.  I also did some shopping at the outlet malls.  Did I mention I despise the outlet malls in Orlando?  Sales people asked if my friends and I were from a tour bus.  No.  I live here.  This is my place of residence.  I am not a tourist.  Do I look like a loud, obnoxious, clueless, non-English-speaking, walks-into-people, breast-feeds-a-baby-in-public tourist?  Absofreakinglutely NOT. 

I cleaned out my craft bin yesterday.  No lie, I had an entire under-bed Rubbermaid tub full of scrap booking and crafting supplies.  Let me tell you how ecstatic I am to go through all of the rest of the junk I've collected over the years and throw it away.  My moving motto is if I don't need it, aren't currently using it, and can't sell it, donate it or throw it away.  Half of me feels guilty getting rid of things people have given me, but a bigger half of me feels rejuvenated and free.  My craft bucket is being donated to my sorority; they'll definitely get more use out of it than I will. 

 Oh, yeah, and Thursday evening, after margaritas, we ended up back at a friends house to hang out.  He had these canvas paintings in the living room, and I immediately became nostalgic and slightly obsessed.

He painted a Hunter S. Thompson quote on them, which may not seem like any huge deal to you, but it was like a breath of fresh air to me.  Confused?  Yeah, I figured.  Ever heard of the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?  With Johnny Depp?  Yeah, well, Hunter S. Thompson wrote the original book.  He wrote a lot of other awesome things, too. Mr. Thompson, along with Mario Puzo, were probably my two most favorite authors growing up.  Weird, since most other girls my age were reading the Gossip Girl series before it became a television show.  Oh, you have no idea who Mario Puzo is?  It's because my generation, sadly, knows all these great literary works by the feature films they were made into.  (Mario Puzo wrote The Godfather.  Yeah, it was a book first, kids.)  Anyways, seeing this quote the other night made me remember why I loved writing so much.  It reminded me of my early inspirations to tell the world as I see it, to try and capture otherwise speechless moments in words.  And, I guess I could say this was a great reminder for me to enjoy life while I can.  Young, wild, and free.

Love,
N