Not having to wake up before ten, or really, 9:55 for the last five years has done nothing but further perpetuate my aversion to mornings.

I drove my cousin to high school today, and let me tell you, it was not a pretty sight. I managed to stumble out of bed and, against better judgement, attempted to make hot chocolate to wake myself up. After pouring the packet of chocolate mix into the mug, i looked down and realized that nothing but tiny white almost certainly plastic marshmellows had come out. I stared puzzled at my mug for about an hour before it hit me that perhaps I needed a different packet. I stirred the marshmellow water and contemplated drinking my hot chocolate sans chocolate simply because it was too early to move. I thanked God that I was choosing to avoid the famed "real world" with all its early aspirations and was staying in school for five more years, until I had a deathly thought- what if in graduate school they make you get up earlier than in college?!?! I almost had an aneurysm the thought was so painful, and suddenly realized how much my eyeballs felt like sandpaper, and thumped my head down on the counter.

I then for some odd reason wandered outside to wait for my cousin in the Illinois freezing cold, and plopped myself down on the deck chair. And felt something I at first couldn't recognize as it'd been quite a while since I'd encountered it- dew. You don't see much dew if you live in California and never wake up before twelve. It's like a myth to us college kids- like the "boogie man" or "sunrises." I still can't figure out how I manage to get up all wide-eyed and perky at five AM to go snowboarding, yet if you ask me to wake up before nine for any other reason, I'll act as if you're pulling my fingernails out one by one. I decided if graduate school wants me to get up early, they'll have another thing coming, (What does that mean, exactly? What other thing?) and also, all that complaining about the hot weather I did whilst in Thailand may not have been taking into account the fact that it snows in May in other parts of the world, and thus was not exactly well though out.

As you may have noticed, my posts have been quite sporadic lately, as I came back to the states and then took a train from DC up here to Illinois to visit family, and then fell into a black hole and stopped posting for a while. It's been a great intermission for me to be back in the states these past couple weeks- and of course it's been great to see all my cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles, and more importantly my AUNT MARY. Did I mention I stayed with my Aunt Mary? Oh, you want to know who I was visiting? Mary of course. That's spelled M-A-R-Y. Pronounced Mare-ee. Yes, she's my wonderful aunt, and her name is Mary. OK, enough with the shameless plugs. (She made me mention her!)

In a couple days I will leave Illinois and head back to the infamous Madrid, where I will be giving everyone the "stink eye" as my good friend Callie calls it, and will do my best to stay out of trouble. I will be meeting up with Callie, my former roommate from college, and we will "tear it up" as the kids say, as we make our way from Spain to Greece.

Here is a picture of my cousins, my Yiayia (grandmother in Greek) and myself. I'm the one sitting down without the grey hair, and then that's Nick, Will, and Ellie above us. Bye you guys! I'll miss you!