Goodbye Vacation, Hello Madness

My two weeks went by way too fast. I am glad I chose to stay near home despite really wanting to get out of town and visit some friends and family.
Week one I enjoyed some serious me time. Spent a day shopping and getting a mani/pedi and haircut. I came home later and went out for a cup of coffee at my favorite new coffee shop down the street. I went to the beach two days in a row with my friend Sarah. She introduced me to boogie boarding. I cannot believe I have waited so long to take advantage of this fun. Got a tan and really enjoyed leisure time on the beach. Sarah is the best beach buddy. She packed us a lunch both days. Delicious veggie sandwiches, yogurt and fruit. She had beach chairs and boogie boards. It was the perfect setup. I still cheated and went for some mango water ice. The second day we couldn't resist the taco stop. There were definitely more days in there. I did something I enjoyed every day, though at the moment I can't think of what else I did.
This past week was a little lazier. I spent a few days kicking back in bed with netflix. Watched some good and some crappy movies, but enjoyed every minute of it. Then I headed to the shore with some of my friends. We spend 3 nights and 4 days. The first two were perfect. We played on boogie boards (thanks to the loan from Sarah), and laid in the sun reading trashy magazines. Casi and I woke up in the mornings to take walks and get coffee. We searched for shells and took pictures. I almost took home a hermit crab by mistake!

We got a bit of rain the next two days, but still managed to enjoy the beach time. Ate good dinners, had good drinks and good conversations.
Now it is back to school tomorrow. I spent today trying to get ready. Buying groceries for my breakfasts and lunches, getting my folders together. I printed the syllabus for the class and discovered I was supposed to have read 5 chapters for lab class tomorrow. What the heck! It is definitely back to the grind. Needless to say, I skimmed the chapters and will deal with the rest tomorrow. I miss my break already.

Birthday fun

Well, I turned 31! I know it's not that old, but the reality is that once you hit 30 people stop saying "Oh you look older than that" and start saying "wow, I would have never guessed you were that old. I think that actually started around 26. Needless to say here I am at 31, working on a bachelors degree (my second but still), and bouncing around from town to town. I would say it's actually a pretty good life :)

Jovan is finally learning about the importance of birthdays in my family. My mom always blew them up into big events and made us all feel very special. Jovan is fine with just ignoring his birthday all together. So over the last few years I've had to "train" him on how to get excited for my birthday. When I got home from school that day he had a chocolate cake waiting for me on the kitchen table! This year he planned a dinner at a traditional Moroccan restaurant called Marrakesh. They serve a 7 course traditional meal. We weren't sure when we first arrived if we were at the front door or the back. There were no people coming or going from the front door, and right down the street there were a lot of people standing outside another restuarant laughing and enjoying themselves so we figured that must be it. We were wrong. Actually it was the abandoned door, which was locked. You ring the doorbell and are escorted to your seat by a very nice gentlement. We went to a room filled with bench seating and small stools around a small circular table (knee high). Ordered a couple of drings and the food began. The seven courses is $25 per person which I found to be a very reasonable price. We had so much food, including honey lamb pieces and spicy chicken (I can't at all remember the real names). Jovan insisted on cleaning our shared plate so he was so full by the end that he could hardly move!
The next day we went to the Philadelphia Folk Festival for a full day of music. We saw the Decemberists and Iron and Wine, and many others. We had a wonderful day, and a little too much to drink :)
Here are some fun folks we saw at the folk festival.








Iron and Wine


and happy, drunk us :)

I am now on a 2 week break from school and have a long list of things I want to do while I'm on break. Meanwhile I sit here in bed on my first day off at 10:30am! That is actually on my list. Other things on my list include catching up on some movies (Harry Potter for starters!), Reading a book at the park, chilling pool side with a friend, a trip to the shore for a few days, laundry (booo), and being there for some old friends from Texas who are in town for medical reasons and dealing with a lot.

I'm just happy to have surived my first semester of Nursing School, and to be kicking back for a bit breathing in and out every once in a while.