*SPOILER ALERT*

Anyone who knows me knows that I love spoilers. Ben is really bothered by this... I think. I want to know whats going to happen in any movie, books, television show, etc. that I watch/read (P.S. I already looked up who the Bachelorette is going to get engaged to. I had to know. If you do too, click here). Anyhoo, that was not where I was going with this post. Lately I have a dilemma and that dilemma is I cannot sleep. I can't for the life of me figure it out (well except for last night, I think I figured it out then). The last few nights I have been wide awake way past the point of tired. My bed isn't comfortable nor is my body. At first I chalked it up to P90X. Ben and I have started the torturous adventure of literally kicking out bodies into shape. My body has hurt so bad, that its almost impossible to get my seemingly broken body into bed. Last night I realized that besides the P90X there was something else factoring into my insomnia.

+ =

I have always read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I love them. The four girls reminded me of a group of friends that I had growing up and in high school. Granted, we were never as close as the girls in the book, but the characters were so much like each of us that it was kind of eerie. Well (and this is where the SPOILER ALERT comes in) this book takes place ten years after the last book and the girls are almost thirty. Almost immediately the tone of the book is a little bit darker and more grown up than the last four (naturally). Also, almost immediately there is a lack of Tibby. Basically, she kills herself and this is right at the beginning. Great. But the whole book revolves around Bee, Carmen and Lena coming to terms with that and trying to figure out who the heck they are without Tibby. This book is so sad, but it is great at the same time. I am captivated by it, but I can't help but feel these girls sadness as I read through it. It is almost real and its really effecting me. This is why I love spoilers. If I had spoiled this for myself like I do everything else, I wouldn't have been surprised by the killing off of Tibby and would have been able to read through it emotionlessly. That is why I spoil things. I knew that Dobby would die in Harry Potter before I read those fateful words. I knew that Henry and Ugly Betty would break up before I could watch their magic unfold and then be disappointed by the breakup. Oh, and I totally called that Ashley, the bachelorette, would get engaged to JP. Now that was a pleasant not-so-surprise.

Okay, long story short, I have read this book every night before I try to go to bed. Each night I find myself really distraught and nervous with a looming feeling overhead. It is because I have read this book and feel stressed out for the girls and then I keep that stress within myself for some odd reason. This is why spoilers are a necessity in my life.

A Week In My Life

Every week I make a to do list that helps me keep track of my week. I realized, after making this list who knows how many times, that its almost identical every week. This made me feel claustrophobic. Its like I'm one of those sheep everyone talks about when referencing people who don't deviate from their "schedule." I'll be the first to admit that I hate change, but I think it might be mandatory to throw a little change into this. So here it is, a week in the life of Kaylee....

Monday: Work, go to class, do homework for Tuesday night's class. (*Watch the Bachelorette at Amanda W.'s house... sometimes)

Tuesday: Work, go to class, do homework for Wednesday night's class.

Wednesday: Work, go to class, do homework for Thursday night's class.

Thursday: Work, go to class, volleyball at the church (although I haven't been going lately because I'm exhausted).

Friday: sleep in, head to the library to work on homework, date night with Ben.

Saturday: something productive, laundry, something with Ben.

Sunday: church, possible visiting teaching, make dinner and finish any homework left undone.

Then at the bottom of the list I keep track of the assignments I need to to and the notes I need to take for each class:

Assignments: Wills, Trusts & Estate Administration, Legal Research 1, English Comp. 2 (This is the 3rd time I've taken it because both FSU and Valencia refuse to recognize that I have passed it twice!), Legal Technology.

Notes: Wills, Trusts & Estate Administration, Legal Research 1, English Comp. 2, Legal Technology.

This Saturday's something productive is that Ben is helping me plant a small garden. Also, since this weekend is Father's day, I'll be busy doing father stuff, so that's exciting too. Pretty much that lousy piece of paper with my weekly life on it depresses me. I think I'll start to find random things to put on it to entertain myself like, "walk backwards for 100 steps," or "sing in the shower," you know, little things to make my rather mundane life a tad bit more interesting. I need a spark of liveliness added to this schedule.... or two....

I'm Going To Paris!!!!!!

...hopefully. Oh Happy Day is giving the give away of a life time. No joke! Skip on over to the blog and have a happy day and maybe dream up a little Paris for yourself. For myself, I can already see the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa smiling at me and the super cute striped shirt and beret I will be wearing. Yes. I can picture it already. Oh what a happy day it is!

Snakes, Crocodiles, India... Oh My!

"If you are interested in total immersion into the culture of India (YES!) and enjoy rustic living (depends), apply for this trip to India with Professor Steve Myers. You will meet world renowned herpetologist and conservationist Rom Whitaker as well as the experienced staff at India's largest crocodilian breeding facility, the Madras Crocodile Bank (Sweet!). See how this famed facility is racing against time to save some of the most imperiled species on Earth. You will accompany the legendary snake trackers of India(wait, what? Did you just say, snake trackers?!), the indigenous Irula, as they collect venomous snakes for venom extraction which will go into the production of anti-venom. Learn about the secrets of the medicinal plants used by the Irula people. You will take a 16 hour train ride across exotic southern India to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station in the remote wilderness of the Western Ghats. This is the only King Cobra preserve in the world. (Okay. Now there are King Cobras? Like super poisonous cobras?! Seriously?!?!) Learn about the fascinating research which is taking place here with the largest venomous snake in the world as well as other amazing studies that are taking place here in one of the great Biodiversity Hotspots on the planet."

This is the course description for the short-term (meaning two weeks) study abroad trip to India through Valencia. I'm like 90% sold on going. I have had this super bad travel bug, well, my whole life. Recently it has been worse because all of my friends are studying abroad or have studies abroad and I'm jealous! India is one of my all-time destinations to visit. I really really want to go there. My problems for not being able to go abroad were money, the fact that I would miss Ben wayyy to much and the timing. This program is 2 weeks, right after finals and all of my friends' weddings that are happening in the same week. I will be there for New Years and my 22nd birthday, but hey, that could be legit! Also, the program can be paid for through my financial aid that I receive. I can also get scholarships for it. I can take two weeks off of work and I'll be back in just enough time to start Spring '12 semester (I'm pretty sure I land the Monday that classes start.... after a 28 hour flight). Right now I'm nervous, because I feel like something should be stopping me. Something has to because this is too good to be true (well, with the exception of snakes!). Only 9 students can go. I need to head over to Valencia and talk to the advisors and see if they have any road blocks for me (I'm sure they will). I think I"m going to go though the motions and we'll see what happens. Who knows. I might be in a foreign country in about 6 months!!!!

These are the pictures from the last trip that Valencia did:

(This will be me... with a snake and awesome hands)

(I will be in a picture similar to this one... I'll prob. be that girl in the front... She just saw a snake. It wasn't amusing)

(I will be that girl, about to get wacked with a cricket paddle-thing)

Nostalgia

I have tired from music. The crap that is on the radio is lame. The CDs in my car are so overplayed that I'm starting to hate my favorite bands. Solution: my old iPod Nano, you know... the teal tall and skinny one with just the square face. I forgot that it has been sitting in my center console for over a year now unplayed. Once turned on, tons of memories came back from old times. I have some great music on that little thing. This morning, a Mates of State song came on (I'm even listening to it as I type this). The have brought back the most nostalgia so far.

(Amanda and I at the Mates of State Show)

(The show at Club Downunder I'm pretty sure we were standing right where the picture cuts off under the keyboard. We were super close.)

The Mates of State show at Club Downunder on FSU campus was the first concert I went to that actually counts. It is also the first "show" where I learned the difference between the words "show" and "concert." It was on a Sunday. I remember my bishop telling me that it was okay for me to go because I'm not doing it every single Sunday. This was a huge relief. My best friend Amanda LOVES them and I have always liked them. She put their albums on the exact iPod I just mentioned before so I could listen to them while walking around FSU's beautiful campus the week before. This, she said, would help me feel prepared for the show. Thanks to that show and that playlist, I automatically associate the Mates of State with FSU and my first semester there, away from home. This morning when the song came on in the car, flashes of walkways through whimsical trees covered in Spanish moss popped into my head as well as waiting for Amanda to let me into her dorm so we could sit on her bed and talk about life. I think of how grown-up I felt as I walked to and from my classes and how beautiful FSU is all year round.

(Amanda's Dorm. I waited on those stair so many times. Her room is the one on the second floor, second in from the stairs; the one in between the mini Christmas trees.)

(The most beautiful walkways ever.)

(I swam in this fountain multiple times.)

This song (in fact this band) makes me yearn for FSU and the life I started there. It was so new, so fresh and so open. I love my life now; I wouldn't trade it for the world. I can't help but feel the nostalgia though. It's strong today. That small time in my life was wonderful and Amanda and the Mates of State have a lot to do with it. They are the only two things that bring up that specific nostalgia that I have for Florida State. I want to go back. Just for today. Just so I can listen to this playlist while I walk around campus.

Young Girls

“I get worried for young girls sometimes; I want them to feel that they can be sassy and full and weird and geeky and smart and independent, and not so withered and shriveled.” — Amy Poehler

Some words of wisdom. Ben and I went to visit his mother on Memorial Day and on the way back to Orlando, we stopped to get gas in Clermont. At the gas station there was a Lake County Truck full of teenage boys and girls, no doubt out having fun somewhere in Clermont (I'm really not sure what you do for fun there, but I'm sure its close to what we did in Leesburg.... nothing). These girls were young and cute. The boys were young and stupid. They had a song blaring in which every other word was f-this or b-that. One girl was pumping gas to the truck, which was being driven by a dip-doing boy. Another girl was on her phone with her finger in her ear trying to listen on the phone. I suspect that she was doing what I had many times before, trying to convince her parents that she would be home soon and that she wasn't out doing stupid teenager things and making some excuse as to why she was still out so late. My heart ached. I wanted to scream to those girls, "Go home! I'll take you home, but don't ride anywhere with those boys. They can pump their own gas and you don't have to think they are cool. Really you don't. Go home, get good sleep, be good students and do what YOU really like. Be good honest girls. Trust me, these years really WILL NOT matter a year after you leave. You probably won't even leave this town if you don't stop hanging out with boys like that. Go home, so you can have a better and happier life." I hope those girls heard me.

On to more eternal things:

Tonight Ben and I are going to Sam and Montana Carroll's open house. I cannot tell you how wonderful each of them are and I am more than happy that they are married for time and all eternity. Congratulation guys, I know you will have an amazing life!

Typography and a Little Harry Potter Wisdom.

This blog hit its official 150th post last post! Waahoo! I feel like that is a big moment, and I completely overlooked it.

Thanks to the highly addicting pinterest, I have a little Harry Potter wisdom. I have also started a huge collection on pinterest of typography. I had no clue what that word was until I saw it on there multiple times. To show how much of a nerd I am and how inspiring Albus Dumbledore was, here are some of his quotes, all fancy-i-fied.

Most of these came from this blog via pinterest. Have a great Thursday. I know I will. This gal is visiting me tonight! I've missed her a lot.