95 Freakin’ Days? Are you Kidding? (That's right!)

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m graduating in less than 100 days! My life will change dramatically when I graduate. I’ll lose all my school friends—well, maybe the real friends will continue being my friends, right? At least that’s what everybody says. It would be nice to actually meet my friends though. So that brings me to graduation day, which is September 4, 2015. It’s also my final birthday of being able to say I’m forty-something, which is pretty much what I do now. That way I’ve got the slight chance they’ll think I’m 45ish. But I’ve heard terrible things about graduation and the way the whole scheduley thing changes. No, I don’t think “scheduley thing” is correct. Yes, I’m a writer. But I think being a professional writer should allow me some deliberate breaks in writing. Being perfect is a hard criteria to live up to, and everyone needs a break from perfection. Even me!

            This past week, my kids and I lived off of two bags of flour, a large package of grated cheese, Italian seasoning, a package of diced ham, two gallons of milk, ½ container of oatmeal, 4 packages of spaghetti noodles, and 8 jars of spaghetti sauce. Think this is a lot? Let me tell you, I skipped at least one meal every day, and sometimes two. The good news is, my appetite has dwindled. The bad news? When I don’t eat, my teeny-tiny daughter won’t either. And I hear you saying, “Why don’t you fake it?” You can’t fake eating! Faking orgasms, I can do that. But that won’t help the situation much.

Our trip will DEFINITELY be more eventful than the Griswold's

            So I was talking to my friend today on the phone and I mentioned going to Winter Park, Florida for graduation. Flying is way expensive, and by the time I could afford the tickets they’d be sending my urn. Granted it would be less expensive, but it would sort of defeat the purpose. I figured a road trip might be fun! See the countryside, see  America’s biggest ball of string, or the smallest house. I’m not sure what we’d find, but it would be a stretch from what my kids are used to. Five years ago, we went to California and had the time of our lives at Disneyland. Doing that again, on the opposite coast, would be incredible! Putting up with the kids for 2,310.9 miles one-way? Could be another story.

            Today we went to Costco to renew my membership, thinking that I’ll start working soon and will need to save money. They asked me if I wanted to keep my executive account. I don’t really get why I said “yes,” but I did. Turns out, when I had my account 5 years ago, they still had my info. on file. Apparently, they’d tried to send me my yearly refund and it was returned. Guess how I paid for my membership renewal? Yeah! Basically, it was free! Strange how that works.

The cheapest and tastiest pizza EVER!

            I invented this new sort of pizza last night. The night before, with all my snazzy ingredients, I made homemade ravioli. (But a much simpler version.) That’s right, I made dough and everything, and then stuffed it with cream cheese and mozzarella. Yummy! When I was finished, I had some dough left over and was afraid to throw it out. I opened the practically empty fridge last night and found two strips of half frozen ravioli dough. Pulling it out, I rolled it so thin I could have rolled a doobie with it. Did I say “doobie”? The dough was paper thin, I tell you. I used the homemade rice paper, spread with tomato sauce, diced ham, coated with cheese and baked it for 7 minutes. I made a cracker pizza that was smokin’ good. (And that’s just old school talk.)

            But tonight I did some investing in The Film Scene. We were supposed to watch Avengers:

"You up all night to Loki? I'm up all night to get Thor!"

Age of Ultron. Magnificent movie that caught my attention at the beginning when they all hit a slo-mo moment overlaid while fighting. The show was nearly 2.5 hours, but worth every single second. The only thing my simple little mind isn’t particularly fond of is the absence of Pepper, and the addition of four new characters. Now I’m aware of comics enough to be aware the X-men and the Avengers have thousands of characters in their house, but following them all in one show can be so confusing! And what of the Incredible Hulk? Sure, he’s green, but the Widow wants him. I’m not sure I’d get involved with someone named Black Widow, but I’m not going to hold it against him. The ultimate bad guy was played by non other than James Spader, but I didn't find out 'til the credits at the end, and boy, was I surprised. The Avenger that makes me giddy is heavenly Thor. Good night! And it is late, so I bid you adieu.