Break's over

An octopus at the aquarium... they had a sign warning us not to tap on the glass because octie would flip out, so of course I wanted to do that really, really badly
The astrological signs were tiled in front of the Ringling Mansion and Anna and I could figure out all of them except this one. Naked man holding on to tree stump and taking a poop? We even enlisted the help of an elderly couple and they had no idea either. Eventually I googled it. It's Aquarius, the "water carrier." But this guy is not carrying water, he's dumping it. And why is he naked?
Mini circus! I could've spent a day looking at it, it was really detailed and so adorable.
me and my little!
Apparently they serve brain to their fish in the Mote Aquarium, I guess they want zombie fish. Just kidding! It's the aptly named "Brain" sponge! 

Wah. My spring break is over and I'm pretty bummed about that. It was a fantastic, relaxing time. I flew into Sarasota, FL on March 6th to spend the weekend with Anna. I had to take the 5 AM shuttle to get to Harrisburg Airport in time for my flight, and I figured that going to sleep the night before would just be a waste of time and it would be harder to wake up in the morning. Plus my friends were all up and partying, so I joined in the fun. And I indeed managed to stay up, but found myself in zombie mode around 3 AM when I realized I had been staring at a bowl of instant oatmeal I made myself for about 5 minutes. After that lackluster breakfast I went to my room to stare at my suitcase for 20 minutes before finally getting on the shuttle. 

Sarasota was fantastic. The weather was gorgeous and it's such a cute little place. Well... I guess not that little. But it's adorable! We got coffee Friday at the Sarasota Olive Company, a coffeehouse/olive company with really cool different olive oils. We ate dinner at Taste of Asia, the best damn Thai/Asian fusion restaurant I've ever been to. We then proceeded to drink an econo size bottle of wine and share secrets/etc., before trudging down to the weekly party, the "Wall." Like every other Wall I've been to, it was shut down exactly 5-7 minutes after I arrived. It was ok though, I still got my fix of new college dancing, a weird mix of that "haha look how awkward I am!" style dancing with genuine, unadulteratedly earnest boogying. 

I also managed to force two beach trips while I was there, drunkenly rolled a few cigarettes that Anna proceeded to throw away, visit the aquarium, eat lots of ice cream, see the Ringling estate, and get dog poop on my shoe. I also saw two awesome films- Psycho Beach Party and Let the Right One In. I ALSO ran into a Bucknell student on the New College campus! Then he turned out to be sort of weird so we ditched him. If I ever run into him on campus I will be mortified, and I will also lie through my teeth and say we were really messed up that night and had no clue what was going on.

When we were in the aquarium gift shop, Anna and I found personalized Mote Aquarium tins with mints in them. They had special messages printed on the outside like "#1 dad!" or "I love you!" Our favorite, however, was "You're Fired!" I can't imagine that that could possibly be the best way to go about firing someone, but I really hope someone out there has tried. The runner up for worst possible message to print on a tin of mints was "Gangsta."

I flew home on Monday and had a lovely, calm Spring Break spent with my mom, Ryan, and my pets! I managed to lay in the sun just about every day, went to the beach twice and actually got in the water. I saw Watchmen, which was ok, and rented a few movies. I wish I could've stayed another month but alas my time was cut short. 

I had to fly out today in inclement weather and I thought I was really going to die on the flight out of Pensacola- not so smooth. It was awful. The clouds were so extensive and thick I never saw the sky, it was like flying through a tunnel, which made me feel sick. The plane was tilted to an angle the ENTIRE time... I don't know if that helps things when you're flying in bad weather but it sucked for the rest of us. And by the rest of us I mean only me... when I panic I get really chatty and the poor girl next to me had to endure that for awhile. Then the plane began to drop very suddenly, the kind of drop where your stomach falls out and your heart jumps into your throat. I was really certain for a few minutes that that was it for me, I prepared to cover my head and curl up in a ball and hope that the initial impact didn't kill me and I could crawl out the exit without too many third degree burns. I was in complete panic mode, which kind of disappointed me. I've had an issue with flying for a few years now, but I've mostly been able to become a pretty subdued, rational flier but today I was just a mess. If my body could've talked it would have been shrieking. When we finally landed in Atlanta (and there was so much cloud coverage I didn't see the ground until about 7 seconds before we actually landed!) I thanked God and then tried to steel myself for the next flight (which was thankfully a LOT smoother). I'm just glad I'm not flying for awhile now!

And since spring break is over and class is tomorrow...I have a few things to finish up!