Sleepy zzzzz's

Listening to No More Tears, by David Nevue. I absolutely love his music, but of course on Pandora they always play music from CDs that are $14.99 on Amazon and usually not much cheaper used! I created a station with Fernando Ortega and it has the most relaxing tunes :)

I'm super tired. Even now, I could drop off to sleep right now, but I just ate a huge Napoleon (cake, not person!) and a bunch of other tiddly bits for supper at 9 pm and figured I should stay up a bit before retiring. It's been a lot of late nights, usually after midnight, for the past week or so because of the heat. It's impossible to go to sleep when it feels like 103 with 99% humidity and there's no a/c, no fan, and not even a breeze! Thankfully tonight it has cooled down significantly so I shall be able to nod off to dreamland much easier!

Friday was quite the adventure. About 3 days prior I had reserved a rental online with Enterprise just down the street from AUC and they were going to pick me up to get the car and everything, plus it was really cheap, so I was super excited. Until I was at the counter presenting my card and was informed that I needed to have a major credit-card to rent their car. I guess they have a pretty strict policy, so I found myself back at the dorm with no car, 2 friends ready for a day of adventure, and I'd already purchased a $55 ticket to the New England Aquarium online for Sunday. However, I am my mother's daughter, so less than an hour later I had booked another car over the phone from Hertz and they could pick me up even though they were almost 30 minutes away. Even though it was twice the price, the service was worth it! So slightly later than we anticipated, we pulled out into traffic in a beautiful red Chevy Cobalt '09 with GPS and great airconditioning, headed for Martha's Vineyard. (that is my next dream car)

The day was absolutely amazing. Not a drop of the 30% chance rain fell, the sky was blue, and clouds conveniently shaded the sun every so often so we weren't burnt to a crisp. With the extremely handy GPS calmly telling us where to go, we found parking, hopped on a shuttle bus, then took a ferry over to the island where we clambered on to our aging tour bus. The friendly tour guide was a native who had all kinds of interesting stories to tell (which I've forgotten now) and who also seemed to be best friends with Bill Clinton (former president) as he somehow worked Clinton's name into every other sentence! We toodled around the entire island, saw all six tiny towns, stopped in the town of Aquinnah for snacks and saw a little lighthouse, and saw the place where Jaws was filmed. After our ride, we wandered about the town of Oak Bluffs, going in and out of fun shops and eyeing handmade fudge that cost $18 for 3 pieces. The restaurants were outrageously priced and we'd just about given up hope of finding anything under $20 for one item, but Heidi, Joan and I finally stumbled across Linda Jean's restaurant, a family-friendly place with student-friendly prices and something for everyone to enjoy (hey, that sounds like a great advertisement!). I ordered the Portobello Wrap which came with such fresh grated carrots, shredded lettuce, and just-cooked baby beetroot slices that I realized I have been missing good tasty vegetables. The caf here is fine but it doesn't taste the same! Then we headed back on the ferry, enjoying a lightning storm on the ride back to the mainland.

I've started my final class for this summer, Christian Bioethics, and spent 5.5 hours on homework this afternoon. I was excited at first about this class because I think I shall actually be learning stuff and feel like I'll be challenged to stretch academically, but being tired, I don't quite appreciate it as much, plus I'm worried about getting in all the extra things that have to be worked on throughout the week. Oh well! It's only 2 weeks, and now it's even less, till I go home!!! I'm almost ready to go back to work. Almost. Give me another year or two, and then I'll be super ready!!!