i set my alarm clock tonight

6:50am. that's what i set it for. do you realize how long it's been (or how long it FEELS it's been) since i've had to set an alarm? i'm getting used to this life in tropical paradise-on-earth. stay up late and sleep in 'til around 8:30 or whenever my biological clock decides it's time to get up.

so, yes. i finally plugged in my alarm clock tonight and set it for 6:50am. we're headed to O-Town (Orlando) for the weekend for a girl's graduation. i'm going along to take care of Lucy while everyone's at the graduation festivities. she's almost 2 1/2 years old, but my sister just doesn't feel Lucy's quite ready to watch herself yet. hey, i'm not complainin'.

yes, most of you have probably heard by now, but it's the biggest news of my life for the week so i will say it again. i saw my 1st scorpion this week and it was horrific. it's tail alone was about 3 inches long. and andy said it was a "little" one. pssssccchh. if that was little, i don't want to see what's "normal". the good news is that it was dead. supposedly they crawl out into open areas when they're about to die, and so that's what this one had done. oh and i walked into my room last night and was greeted by a 2-3 inch long cockroach. he (or she, for that matter. i didn't take the time to inspect it's sexual orientation before yelling for help) is now sufficiently squished into various pieces and shoved under the crack in the wall, thanks to Kiedis (a friend who came down for the week to help work on the house). i check on it periodically to make sure it didn't reattach itself and crawl away. apparently, you can cut the head off a cockroach and it'll live 'til it starves to death. so for all i know, this cockroach could very well reattach it's entrails and come after me.

sound the trumpets!! i have a ticket booked to fly home from July 3-11th! WOO WOOOOT!

i'm having a great time getting to know the people down here. and learning how life goes down here. it's almost a different culture, in some aspects. here's the shocker of the day: i haven't even been to the beach yet! i've been here just over a week now, and haven't gone to the beach! i came so close to getting to go last night, but then lucy ruined our chance by not listening to her mommy, so we didn't get to go. sad. i tried to explain to sadie that lucy is her own person, and if lucy wants to only eat candy and marshmellows for dinner, that's totally fine. but sadie just doesn't get it, i guess. (totally kidding :) i can't remember what exactly lucy did that got us all punished, but i'm sure it was cute).

alright dudes, i was going to write about what i've been learning lately but my computer has finished it's updates that i was waiting for it to finish and i want to go to bed. you go to bed, too.

keep it real.
~jen~