Princess Ruby

In the last week, I have acquired three sunburns. THREE. I even have sunscreen fingerprints from where I tried to unsuccessfully protect myself from sunburn. A few days ago, an old man accosted me as I sat out in the sunshine at Starbucks and told me to get in the shade before I developed melanoma. I really don't think I have that, but all this red skin has made me think back to my childhood, when I would go to the waterpark for a day, turn into an absolute lobster, and play "Princess Ruby" for the rest of the week.

Anyway, what everyone wants to know now is, "How did the rest of crazy week turn out?"

I'll tell you. It became excellent. 

Sunburn-Monday (hooray for reading outside) became shishkabob night with my old RA and her best friend.

On Tuesday, Alyssa and I went to see the new Jane Eyre, which was quite a sad, dark shocker for the girl who's never read the book (even though her English major friends won't let her live it down). That was when we got the call that power had returned to the house on the mountain and made plans to head for Chatty the next day.

And that night we played Wii. This was my Wii Me--or WiiMii--or WeeMee--whatever. I actually changed it's gender-confused name to "Vanester".

Wednesday and Thursday were a blur of babysitting and good-byes. Little Ariel (you remember her, right? Ok, so her name isn't really Ariel, but I kind of wish it was.) graciously had me over for dinner on Thursday night and it was delicious (actually, I would say her mom Amy did most of the cooking and deserves the credit). It was also a time of shoving everything I left in my dorm room during evacuation into my car. Beaulah was not pleased.

On Friday, Alyssa's family hosted a pre-graduation dinner at the Terminal. You know what that meant? FREE SALMON CAKES, STEAK, AND CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR LAURA.

The real occasion, of course, was graduation on Saturday. My high school graduation was fun--they had to call less than 50 names to come up and get their diplomas. It doesn't work that way with college graduations. At college graduations, over 300 people have to come up and get diplomas. That's a lot of people.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Most people go out to eat or see a movie on Mother's Day. The Love Family spent the day opening and cleaning our pool (hello, sunburn #3). Audrey and I (as the good daughters we are) also made mom some special brownies (not those special brownies, you weirdo), cut her some roses, and made her a book.

(That piece of chocolate in the middle has "Happy Mother's Day" inscribed on it via kitchen knife)

So Mother's Day was a success. 

Now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the month as my funds rapidly decrease. At the moment, I'm crossing my fingers that some desperate Sevierville mother is frantically searching for my number as I type, or that my own mother will give me some money for cleaning windows and vacuuming around the house (aka that thing called "allowance" that I thought I would never need again). 

In the meantime, maybe my crocodile-leather, ruby-red skin will smooth out into a beautiful, mellow brown. 

Here's to hoping.