It is the first official full week of my summer vacation, and it has taken me this long to wrap my head around the fact that I’m not a first year teacher anymore. Everyone kept saying that this would be the hardest year of my life, and while my job was difficult and stressful and took up a lot of my time, this was actually one of the most fun and most fulfilling years I’ve ever had.

I think, as opposed to calling it the hardest, I would call it one of the most eye-opening years. I’ve learned and grown a ridiculous amount, as a teacher and as an adult, this year. I thought that today, as I try to wrap my head about this past year and all the knowledge and wisdom I’ve taken in, I would attempt to recount some of the nuggets of goodness I have acquired this year. Here goes:

- Kids lose EVERYTHING. Staple things to their faces…or just teach them to be organized before doing anything else.
- There will always be one more thing to do. At some point, you just have to accept that, stop working, and go buy shoes.
- Coffee cures all, most importantly, mid-afternoon caffeine-withdrawal headaches that come on from not drinking coffee in the morning. On a related note: don’t get too addicted to coffee.
- Grading sucks.
- Kids get annoyed when you take six weeks to grade an essay that took them three weeks to write.
- Kids will call you out when you misspeak, misspell, or misquote ANYTHING. They will take great pleasure in it.
- Students are oddly interested in their teachers’ lives. Tell them a little something about yourself to get them interested in anything else you are talking about.
- Staying up late to get work done helps no one. You cannot face a classroom full of children on less than 6 hours of sleep without exploding.
- If kids don’t know WHY they have to learn something, they won’t WANT to learn it. Explain why you are making them take three pages of notes or write that fourth response to literature essay if you want them to care enough to actually complete it.
- Make time for students before and after school, even if you have 9,000 other things to do. If they are asking you for extra help, they deserve your time and undivided attention.
- Don’t take things personally. Take obnoxious teenage comments as constructive criticism. Fix the problem. If kids complain that they’re bored, be more interesting. If kids complain that they have too much to do, teach them to manage their time.
- Kids care. Even when they act like they don’t, they really really REALLY do.
- The kids you think aren’t listening sometimes are. They kids you think are angels sometimes aren’t.
- In the end, you’ll be surprised by who claims you were their favorite teacher. You’ll claim you don’t care if kids like you, as long as they learn, but its still ridiculously nice to get the “Thanks and I’ll miss you!” hug on the last day of school.

I probably have more, but I’m tearing up. I’ll leave you with my favorite student letter to me on the last day of school, not because she said nice things (She did), but because of how observant she was and how well she seemed to know me. It completely caught me by surprise. I always forgot that these kids had to stare at me for two hours a day, five days a week, for nine months. They noticed EVERYTHING I did.

“I think it was really funny how you would sing or hum when you were trying to get the class to calm down or when you used to “hmph” really quietly. lol You are a great teacher Amanda, and I love you for that.”

And now….to summer!

Instead of being all negative and whiney, I’m going to try to follow some of the excellent advice you guys left me and be postive and happy about all the things that are going well, because, really? My life is going pretty well.

Well, I will pause for a brief moment of bitchery….The DMV can suck it. They can suck it HARD. Yesterday, I took my second trip there in two weeks, waited in 4 lines, gave them $1500 (well, my dad gave them $1500), was told I had to pay a $200 late fine because the LAST trip I took ended in utter failure (I contested this…angrily), yelled at the people helping me for the first time ever (I’m overly nice to everyone. This was a big deal), and after 5 (yes FIVE) hours, finally got my California plates and driver’s license. I think, however, it cost me my faith in government. I’ll have to watch copious amounts of The West Wing to get that back.

Anyway, things that are going well…

Friday I went bowling with my co-workers, like all of them. I don’t know if I emphasize this enough, but the staff at my school is comically amazing. They actually make intelligent, thoughful, and caring decisions about students, about what would actually be best for them, about how we can make them successful, happy, and prepared for work and college. It makes me sad and mildly angry that not every school can be run like mine is, with students being the most important factor in decision making. It makes so much sense, yet it seems like no one does it.

Besides being awesome teachers and all that business, they are fun. Like ridiculously fun. Like cheering louder than the entire bowling alley when I finally (amazingly) got a strike after 6 frames of gutter balls and starting dance parties in the middle of the lanes after a number of drinks. I doubt my high school teachers were ever this much fun, although, I kind of hope they were.

My kids are also kind of amazing. I’ve gotten two emails over the break from kids wanting to know what they can do to pull up their grades, and I spent two hours after school on Friday sitting with two girls in my class discussing Twilight and eating cookies. How is that not an amazing end to the week?

And the best thing about my job slash life? We have this ENTIRE week off! It’s literally the longest Thanksgiving break I’ve ever heard of, and despite spending the better part of my day yesterday at the DMV, it’s been an excellent break thus far, and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. I’ve played beach vollyball, seen New Moon, eaten all-you-can-eat tacos, gone to the dentist (where they let me watch House while getting my teeth cleaned!), gotten my haircut, and been to a mildly ridiculous birthdary party. Tonight my sister is coming over to help me cook dinner, drink wine, and watch Glee. She’s staying over tonight to prepare for tomorrow when we will embark on a Gilmore Girl-esque thanksgiving adventure. We start at noon by meeting our San Diego relatives for lunch at the Montage in Beverly Hills for, what I assume, will be a ridiculously fancy Thanksgiving “dinner.” We’re then heading out to her neighbor’s dinner and then to her boyfriend’s dinner. I anticipate not being able to move by six.

If that is the case, I’m sure I won’t be able to type, so I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving!

My 22nd year was, in the truest sense, a life-changing year. My life right now looks almost nothing like my life did last year:

Last year, I was in the midst of high school-like drama. This year, I’m teaching high schoolers. Last year, I was drowning in homework. This year, I’m the one giving it. Last year, I didn’t feel any older. This year, I feel about 100.

In the past year, I traveled half-way around the world. I moved back home and moved 3,000 miles from it. I graduated college. I became a real-live adult. I got my first paycheck over $1000. I partied in Vegas and fell asleep at 8:00PM from exhaustion. I went from being endlessly bored, waking up at 10:00AM regularly, to endlessly stressed, pulling myself out of bed at 5:30AM. I made some new friends, visited some old ones, and moved back in with some cool ones. I’ve cried more times than I can count, over friends, over stress, and over leaving behind an amazing city and four years of (mostly) fun.

But now, I’m entering my 23rd year. I welcomed it with a group of 32 teenagers belting out “Happy Birthday” as they ran into my classroom. I welcomed it with ridiculously large homemade cupcakes with contraband candles burning on top. (I told them not to bring fire to school!) I welcomed it with hand-made cards thanking me for “helping us with problems and being a wonderful teacher.” I welcomed it over beers with new, amazing friends who truly understand how old I feel.

While my 23rd year most likely won’t seem as life-changing on paper as  my 22nd, I’m thinking that by my 24th year, I’m going to be an entirely different person, and for today at least, I feel kind of OK with that.

First of all, thanks for the encouragement on my last (majorly downer) post. Last week was especially rough, and the weekend was not much better. It included breaking out in a stress rash, driving to the doctor to find it closed, driving to my school to find my key didn’t work, and driving home sobbing on the phone to my mom. After a rough start on Monday which included dropping a stack my student’s scrapbooks on my foot, this week has been….not terrible.

My students have been understanding the information this week and have been more engaged than usual. They actually started doing internet research today, and kept checking with me to make sure their sources were credible and reliable. (English teacher win!) I had someone observe my class this morning, and instead of telling me I’m completely failing at life, she basically told me to work on things I already knew I had to work on. It was less discouraging and more validating, having someone tell me that I’m not crazy in thinking there are some things I’m good at and some things I definitely need to work on. I have trouble knowing when I’m being too hard on myself and when I’m not being hard enough. Having another set of eyes helps me see what I can’t – it’s much less scary than I thought it would be.

I also somehow finally got into a grove this week of getting all my work done in such a way that I can take an hour or two at night to just sit back, kind of relax in that I’m-almost-not-able-to-keep-my-eyes-open way, and watch Bob and Jillian scream at sweaty, “Biggest Loser” contestants. Yes, I still have a lot going on, and yes, I still might have another nervous breakdown this weekend, but right now, in this moment, I feel alright, and that is definitely worth documenting.

Oh, and as an early birthday present to myself (12 days!), I bought myself Adobe Lightroom with my educator’s discount. $100 baby! Hopefully, it will motivate me to finally edit the awesome photos I took at my cousin’s bar mitzvah a few weeks ago.

My schedule today: 

9:30 to 10:30 – Sit in Starbucks “observing” people (mildly awkwardly) for Acting class

10:30 – 10:45 – Run to Union to set up Link table to advertise for Bay State auditions. (There is a row of tables at the entrance to our student union that student groups rent out to promote their goings on. We’ve had one for the past three days.)

10:45 – 11:00 – Realize reservations office hasn’t given us the table I requested. Run to the basement computers to double check my email confirmation. Realize I am right, and they are wrong. Go upstairs to tell them such only to be told I can just take any empty table. Awesome. 

11:00 – 1:30 – Man said table, stopping only to eat a delicious, delicious salad with poppyseed dressing. Mmmm

2:00 – 5:00 – Attend acting class, where I kick ass at improv and begin building my character for our exercise in which we have to create a character out of picture our teacher found in National Geographic. Mine is a 19 year old North Carolinian named Tiff whose mom has died leaving her to deal with her 16 year old twin brother and sister. She’s badass. 

5:00 – 9:00 – Watch 75 people audition for Bay State, with the same four scenes! (I may or may not have memorized them all. Despite having blurred vision by the end, it was an amazing accomplishment for us to get this many people auditioning for seven roles. Last year we only had about 30 people. So go team! Horay for having casting options.)

9:00 – 10:30 – Eat ridiculously late dinner of Pad Thai (again, I say, Mmmmmm) while discussing said casting options.  Decide to call 20 people back tomorrow. Eeek!

10:30 to now – Come home. Read blogs. Watch Greek. Try to relax…

Aaaannnddd…I’m dead. And getting mildly nervous about my playwriting assignment for Thursday which includes having ideas for two plays and a full scene for one, as I do not have ANY of these things yet and tomorrow is looking about the same as today did (Meeting with Josh at 10, Tap Class at 11, Shower and run to Work from 2 until BUTV General Interest Meeting at 6, Bay State Callbacks from 7 to 9, Discussion of Callbacks until ???) I’m hoping for a slow work day, which means lot of homework time. If not, tomorrow’s going to be a long night. I guess I’ll have to continue to neglect the blogging world. *Tear*

I’ve learned in the past two weeks that I am bad at being busy and blogging. I’ve been so caught up in getting back into the swing of having an actual life in all senses: a social life, a school life, a work life. I can never say no to things, and thus, I have been running around from event to event, meeting to meeting, not stopping to look around enough to have anything to actually write about. 

The things that have been taking up the bulk of my time can be divided into four categories: classes, work, Bay State and friends. Let’s take them one by one, so as not to knock me over with the sheer amount of things I have to split my focus between. 

Classes: Have been good. Really good. I got into an Advanced playwriting class I applied to early in the summer as a back-up to my ever changing schedule. It’s taught by a guy who, among other writerly things, runs an organization to lobby for the arts in Massachusetts, a subject very near and dear to my heart. (In fact, when asked to talk in my acting class for 1 to 3 minutes about a subject I am passionate about, I spoke about the arts in education.) I think it will be nice to go back to a subject that was so important to me in high school. (Background side note: I was in a Performing Arts magnet program my last two years of high school, causing me to take playwriting for two years with my amazingly amazing drama teacher.)

Speaking of high school, I am also returning to an acting class for the first time since senior year in Acting for Writers and Directors. It’s so cool to look at acting from a different viewpoint, while still being the actor yourself in class. I think it’s going to really  help with my playwriting class. 

My last class is photography, which I am BEYOND excited about. (Stupid sidenote: I had to pick up prints today from Ritz Camera for work. While I waited, I, of course, had to ask if I could look at the D90 I knew they had to have just gotten in. I think I impressed the camera sales boys.) We went into the darkroom at the end of class, and I got all tingly. I can’t wait to get started on my first assignment, which is a very good thing during your last semester of college. Most people are just trying to push their ways to the end. 

Next up…WORK: Could be going better. For one thing, after interviewing for the infamous job and being told they wanted to make a quick decision, I have heard absolutely NOTHING. At this point, I’m going on the assumption that I didn’t get it, but is it too much to want to know for sure? I just feel like I need to start gearing myself up for the reality that I have to look for a job in five months and having this possibility of getting out of it hanging over my head is wildly unhelpful. Plus, they seem to want me to act like I have the position (i.e.: working more) without actually hiring me, which is wildly unfair to me. I’m not going to give up my life to work unless I’m being paid salary, thankyouverymuch. 

Which leads me to the reason for not wanting to work more, which is BAY STATE: the campus TV show I am Co-Executive Producing this semester. I’ve worked on the show, which, by the way, is America’s longest running college soap opera, since freshman year, and it has always been my goal to Executive Produce. Actually doing the job is kind of surreal. I’m sharing Executive Producer responsibilities with my friend Josh, who you may remember from my numerous summer outings to his apartment, who is SUPER serious about the show, and thus, likes to have conversations and meetings about it basically every day. This is great for the show and for the quality, which we are always trying to ramp up, but it is a little hard on my sanity when I am dealing with lots of other things. 

And lastly FRIENDS: who I am SO HAPPY to have back in my life after my summer of two friends. I’ve basically been out with people every night, whether singing “Oops I did it Again” with Jillian at Karaoke Tuesdays at our favorite bar (after some drunk hoes sang “See you Again” by our best friend Miley Cyrus  before we got a chance!) or playing Mario Kart (and sucking majorly) with Jenn, Lauren and Alex. It is just nice to have somewhere to go every night and to have people to call when I’m bored. I feel like I need to soak all this up now before I possibly move somewhere with no friends and work so much I never want to leave my apartment. Boo to the future. 

So that is where I’ve been. There are so many stories I wish I could tell in full, like traveling out to Porter Square with Jillian and Alex to visit Megan (one of my two summer friends) and her boyfriend Paul to see their new grown-up apartment and realizing that I could live there after graduation (for SO MUCH CHEAPER than staying around campus) and be pretty happy. Or about my work day from hell, which I only survived with constant texting (including riddles from Alex) and a Quiznos sub. Or about my new wish to live in Europe for a year due to a combination of reading and loving My Life in France by Julia Child (who I now want to be) and seeing and loving Vicky Christina Barcelona (does Woody Allen EVER disappoint?). 

Luckily, every time I write here, I remember why I like writing here. Hopefully, I’ll catch up on the blog world once I’ve caught up on my life a little bit more. I’ve been neglecting commenting, and I don’t like it. So, is anyone else having trouble getting back into the swing of things?

Some (read: none) of you may remember the girl who sat directly in front of me in my political science class last session, who I oh so lovingly wanted to “punch in the face.”  Since I started my new class four weeks ago, I have rarely thought of her, thinking her a thing of the past, that is until she waltz into my new class, not 45 minutes late like I had grown to expect from her, but THREE AND A HALF WEEKS LATE! (Take note: this is only a SIX week class.) She plopped herself down and asked if she had missed anything important, as she was hoping to pick up the class. Well, I wanted to respond, only half the freakin’ class, but you obviously don’t mind too much about that. Everyone (read: the two other people who had shown up that day) assured her she had only missed some reading, and you know most of the discussions, but she would be fine. I said nothing, just silently seethed. Even my professor seemed oddly accomodating, teling her which reading to focus on to catch up, as she obviously couldn’t do all of it. (It’s a pretty reading heavy class.) 

For the next 3 hours of class, she proceeded to raise her hand every 5 to 10 minutes to ask questions that a) she would have known if she had done the reading, b) she would have known if she had been in class the past three weeks or c) had nothing to do with the scope of the class, which she would know if she had glanced at the syllabus. She basically wasted the class time of everyone who had been responsible enough to show up for the past three weeks, acting like we were all there solely to catch her up. 

On Monday, I got to class, and she wasn’t there. This wasn’t all that surprising; however, when halfway through the class, she still hadn’t shown up, I assumed she had dropped the class. I’m not going to lie: I was a little too excited. Today, however, about 30 minutes into class, she showed up again! She, again, hadn’t read all the material required for the day (how could she have?) and again she asked asinine question after asinine question. 

Now as a college student, I am used to dealing with that guy or girl in class. Every class has one: they sit in front. They presume to know more than the professor or like to show off how their life exactly relates to every topic covered in class. Everyone hates them, and everyone knows it. I have, however, never been so offended by that guy or girl as I am by this girl. I find her behavior completely disrespectful, not only to the professor but also to the other students. She is wasting our time and basically saying we are wasting our time by actually coming to class and being prepared. I’m frankly surprised the professor has put up with it.

I also worry that she (and the three other people in my class who come and go so much we wonder every day if they’ve dropped the class) is giving a completely terrible representation of my school, as our professor is visiting form another university AND we have a senior citizen in our class who is auditing through a special program run by the university. Because of this, I find myself over-preparing for class and making sure I am always present and on time, if not early. It’s like I’ve taken it on myself to represent my school well, becuase no one else will. I personally have to make up for their slacking. 

Then I started thinking, I do this for my generation as a whole ALL THE TIME. I overtip so the waiter won’t think young people are cheap. I never get sloppy drunk in public, especially on public transportation, because I don’t want the actual adults to think we are all alcoholics. I keep up on current events so when I interact with adults, I have something interesting and intelligent to say, keeping them from thinking “These young people are so wrapped up in themselves, I doubt they’ve even HEARD of the New York Times.” I’ve done this in internships, in social situations, EVERYWHERE. I’ve somehow appointed myself ambassador for twenty-somethings, at lesat the college aged ones. Everyone else screws up our reputation, and I, for some reason, feel it’s my job to fix it. 

Does anyone else do this? Do you feel constantly embarrassed by your peers? Do you just want to scream at them, “YOU ARE MAKING ME LOOK LIKE A FOOL!”? Because a lot of them really are. 

(Obviously, I’m not saying all college kids are like this. I don’t want people to think I hate everyone. I just don’t appreciate the few who make us all look bad.)

Loving: My Saturday night spent out on the town with my uncle. We started at an art opening, where I got to drink free alcohol (delicious Pinot Grigio) that wasn’t in red or plastic (or both) cup and rename art work with one of my favorite family members. Uncle D then took me to Rocca in the South End for a delicious and painfully filling Italian meal. Class level for the weekend: a perfect 10. 

Hating: My apartment. It’s dirty. There are bugs. There are dishes in the sink that I refuse to clean (hint: because they aren’t MINE!), plus, while I LOVE LOVE LOVE my roommate, it’s so hard to share a room with after sophomore year in college. 

Loving: That I’m heading to NYC on Friday. It’s seriously all that is getting me through my week. 

Hating: That I am having trouble saving up money to spend on myself in NYC because I am forced to buy trash bags, toilet paper, aluminum foil, and other random essentials for our apartment that no one else will buy. Plus paying all those stupid bills. Damn you, Comcast!

Loving: My political science class. It’s nice to be in a regular class again, especially one that is actually interesting. If anyone has any questions about the black/white achievement gap, the lack of women in science and engineering, bilingual education, or teacher pay, I’m your girl. 

Hating: The girl who chooses to sit directly in front of me in my Political Science class, despite the fact that there are only EIGHT people in the class, and thus ample numbers of seats that are not directly in front of me. Plus, she seems to not understand the concept of a start time to class, as she comes in EVERY DAY around 6 or 6:15, feigning embarrassment, despite the fact that class starts at 5:30. This shouldn’t bother me that much, but on top of everything else, it makes me want to punch her in the face. 

Loving: That they are making Rock Band for Wii.

Hating: That I cannot afford a Wii OR a rock band for the Wii. Or a Wii Fit, which looks totally awesome too. 

That last one is completely random, but really…they HAD to make Rock Band for Wii? Because I didn’t already want to spend all my nonexistent money buying a Wii and a Wii fit? 

Sorry to be such a downer lately. I’m just in that place where every little thing is driving me crazy to the point where I will punch anyone in the face who even looks at me on the T. For real. 

Deep breathes…ok….so NYC in four days. Visit to my parent’s in 10. I can last til then, right? Right. 

Oh, and in my annoyance, I’m hoping I didn’t start some kind of internet fight here. Oops. 

I’ve been feeling like I have nothing to write about lately. Well, first, I had no computer access, then my days began to consist of nothing but errand running and apartment cleaning. Not the stuff of inspirational blog postings.

To catch everyone up: This past weekend, I finally moved back to Boston, spending the weekend with my mom at my uncle’s house, seeing my cousins, and easing myself back into East Coast living (brunch in the South End, Lunch with Patrick in Faneuil Hall, shopping on Newbury). 

Then my friend (and my little in my sorority) Lynn moved into our summer apartment and proceeded to clean the entire place. I’m not used to living in places with three months worth of dust and grime build up as I’m what I refer to as a constant cleaner. If I’m standing in the kitchen waiting for something to boil, I’m wiping down the counter with clorox wipes. When I brush my teeth, I wipe down my sink. You get the picture. This way things never reach a point where I actually have to spend entire days cleaning. Sadly, it was unavoidable here. Also unavoidable was doing a grocery store run for all my kitchen basics, which I’m SO tired of doing, having done it there times in the past 9 months alone. Happily, next time I move it will only be across campus so I can just take all my spices and frozen foods with me. 

I also started class last night, which was a little hard to get in the mindset for as I haven’t had a real class since december. It was also hard because there are only five people in the class, which kind of forces attentiveness, an already difficult task in a three and half hour class. My professor proved interesting, however, as she walked into class with her adorable 17 year old dog in a stroller, then half way through class had to stop lecturing to buy the dog sun chips. 

Today I’ve been in a weird funk of not wanting to leave the apartment as I have nothing concrete to do. I should be running to Shaw’s to get things I forgot to or could not pick up at Trader Joe’s or making a copy of the building key because for some reason Lynn and I were only given one and have been having to meet up every time one of us wants to get in the building. This is my problem with having free time. I do absolutely nothing with it. I know I’m going to get busy soon, so I should get these things done now, but I just want to sit around and watch How I Met Your Mother DVDs or read commentary on David Cook’s triumphant win last night. 

I’m hoping once I get busier I will get out of this funk. This weekend Jillian and Patrick will be in town, so we can have a LA type party around Boston. I also go back to my work-study job, which I love, tomorrow. I can’t deal with not getting myself to leave my apartment for much longer. 

Hopefully my life will get more interesting soon. These wrap-up entries depress me. 

I’ve recently decided that I am slowly turning into a 76 year old woman.

About four days ago I was walking home, because I walk everywhere, when I suddenly got an intense pain in my foot. It wasn’t like something was breaking or bruised. The closest thing I can think of is when I had a stress fracture in 12th grade, but I hope to god that is not what this is. Whatever it is, this pain is debilitating. Nothing helps. I’ve been limping, walking on it differently, wearing my tennis shoes non-stop (thus taking my skinny jeans out of my wardrobe cylce), taking Tylenol every 6 hours, even paying for public transportation. That last one I consider the most upsetting and ironic as I have been walking so much as to avoid paying to take the T, but now that I am injured from all this walking, I am being forced to take the T even more.

Today I had to go out and buy orthotic shoe-inserts, which I’ve learned most people in my family have, but keep in mind these people in my family are all over the age of 46. I was also informed by my mom that I probably won’t be able to wear flats or heels or any type of fashionable shoe without fear of debilitating foot pain ever again. I tried to get her to understand the gravity of this statement. Half of my under bed storage is devoted to my shoes. The idea of having to choose between them and stabbing foot pain plus constant t-riding is like Sophie’s choice. I really don’t want to become an orthotics/birkinstock convert at 20. My shoes have so much life left to live.

Now shoe-inserts alone do not turn me into an old woman. My political science paper is also helping the cause. I had to pick an interest group to do field research on, which basically means I had to volunteer for them and write a paper about it. I, rather cleverly, decided to convince my teacher that the local NPR station qualified as an interest group, because it is related to my interests and is conveniently located right across the street from my apartment. Perfect. I went to volunteer one day, took some phone calls from listeners making donations, got some free books. All was good. Then I started reading their website. I got intersted in some of their programs, one of which I was already pretty obssessed with. I thought it would be good background knowledge to listen to a few other programs. Next thing you know, I’ve got NPR streaming on my computer as I work, and the Talk of the Nation podcast on my Ipod as I limp down the street. It’s good to be informed, right?

Now I know that simply wearing shoe-inserts and listening to NPR doesn’t qualify me as a 76 year old, but add in the fact that for three nights in the past week I have chosen not to go out and party with the rest of my college aged brethren, but rather have chosen to stay in with friends playing Scategories and Balderdash (which, I’m sorry, is way more fun than seeing your friends get trashed. Where else can you come up with movie plots for a film titled The “Imp” Probable Mr. Wee Gee?), and you get a pretty convincing case. Plus the fact that when I do go out, I get excited when the party I’m at has Gin and Tonic available. Sold yet?

So, what does this have to do with LA? Only the fact that I’m excited to go to a place where I can drive…less foot pain.