[0139]

You know you've reached a new low when you make your 3 year old neighbor cry while fighting for the PS3 remote. HA! I love this vacation. Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco, and I'll leave mine in Jeddah.

[0138]

I feel the sun creepin' up like tick tock...

Finally woke up at a decent hour this morning. Too exhausted from the days activities, came home and stuffed my face (of course), showered, chit chatted avec mon amies, and passed the eff out at around 1130pm. Pretty much snoozed until 630am, after which my father's phone started blaring and I can hear it all the way in my room. Rolled around my humungous bed until I fell asleep again. Then I woke up to my own phone ringing. Answered it and got greeted with a "youuuu freaaaakin' whoreeee." It was an old friend who had arrived the night before; at this point it was 1030am. Hung up with her and got engulfed in the smell of eggs and sausages and butter. Slightly felt like I had awakened in another dimension. BONGIORNO! Anyway, this whole thing reminded me of something my father always says: "early to bed and early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise." WORD! Me gusta.

xxxx

[0137]

‎"Well," said Winnie the Pooh, "what I like best-- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was even better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.

-- A.A. Milne

[0136]

Something major always happens to me before any sort of holiday or break. I don't mean this in a super fantastic way, even though I wish I did. Someone always decides to royally piss me off before a vacation starts, leaving me wanting to flee the city and not look back for a while. Now normally I would consider this a great hindrance to the potential of fun I could have while away; always toiling away thinking about what happened, what I need to do, what I should say. Not this time. This time I stay awake late watching my favorite television shows in my huge king sized bed, wake up late and indulge in the most opulent food known to mankind, and chat away the evenings with the best of the best. This time I am in my zone, not giving a rat's sorry behind about what's to come. This time I am living in the moment, enjoying myself with things so trivial and lighthearted that even if my brain ceased to function I'd still be able bodied. I used to wish these things upon myself. The hope of being able to leave things as they are and not constantly fret about them, that was my ultimate goal in terms of self-preservation. I have come a long way since I was a childish seventeen year old, constantly worrying about how to fix things and mend my life. "Out of sight, out of mind" was a foreign phrase to me, I didn't understand it's meaning properly. Of course I tried to reason with myself using those words, however the true effect of them was unknown to me. Here I am now, standing on the brink of leaving teenage-hood behind, and I have finally conquered that incessant desire I possess to worry 100% of the time. Every waking hour is not spent under mental duress thinking of what should be done. There are no more sleepless nights. I am looking out for my own best interests before anyone else's. I am my own advocate. I feel truly empowered for the first time in ages. More than that, I no longer feel like I need to be defined by a man and his actions towards me. I am a woman who defines herself; not only with the way she thinks, but with the way she behaves.

[0135]

Love comes slyly, like a thief...