I have Love Shack stuck in my head

WOW. Folks, this is what they call an ACTION-PACKED 48 hours. My poor brain is so befuddled it doesn't know what to do. Because it's so completely fitting, I think I will go through everything out of sequence.

First of all, I just ate a wonderful scallop meal. I can die completely happy. I did not have the foresight (or self-restraint) to fetch my camera and take a picture of my pretty, pretty scallop meal to show you, as possibly more devoted bloggers may have done. You'll all just have to take my word for it that it was both esthetically and gastronomically pleasing.

Speaking of meal-documenting bloggers, Jen read today at Westfest. I've been a little bit of a flake lately, I think, and I'm really glad I didn't flake out on this one (I nearly did... see below for completely valid reason). When I showed up, I pulled up a chair to listen to the first writer (who was hilarious. I'm putting her book on my list). When Jen was introduced, I heard a cheering behind me and joined her fan section, which consisted of a couple people I'd met (Megan, Michael) and a few I didn't, but who were very friendly. Directly after Jen's reading, a late Andrea arrived, BH and more importantly, little Morty in tow. While I am totally not a dog person, I am in love with that dog. He's SO CUTE. I will take full advantage of his close proximity to my house while I still can, before Andrea moves (boo. But not really.)

Canine entertainment aside, Westfest lit was very enjoyable. I love Jen's book, I've read it more than once, and it's always fun to hear a book read by the voice who made it. Now that I've heard Jen read a couple times, when I read her book, it reads in her voice in my head. Heather O'Neill was the another author who read who I really liked. I think I'll put her book on my list.

In a fun and exciting twist of time and space, I'm going to jump to yesterday morning. As the last day of school, this meant something called grad breakfast. It's exactly what it sounds like: graduating students and breakfast burritos cooked by teachers. I teared up when I walked into the caf and saw them all hard at work. Gosh darn. They make it so hard to leave.

Before hand, a group of grads met up by the canal to hang out, eat "special" watermelon and discuss the latest happenings. The most exciting grad prank was a beach that was created at smokers' corner, complete with sand, lawn chairs and umbrellas. I think it's exactly what a grad prank should be, light-hearted and funny, but one student got suspended, which was quite upsetting. The whole thing was cleaned up before anyone got to school, but I'm hoping someone took a picture so I can see.

The rest of that day went by in a flash. There was an awards assembly ("oh, math and science awards... asian, asian, asian, south-east asian...") which included a high school coup of the nerdy trivia team having a more exciting film than Dance Club. We spent hours signing yearbooks, and before I knew what was happening, it was 2pm and I scurried home to grab a swimsuit and pop over for a pleasant afternoon of sun and pool with some grads.

Last night though, was the most epic part. The reason I almost skipped out on Westfest lit was because I spent last night, 7pm-7am, doing the twelve hour Relay for Life, to raise money for cancer research. Usually an event where my school barely has enough people for a team, this year a bunch of us decided we couldn't think of a better way to spend the night of our last day than hanging out with friends and staying up all night. We were not one of the competitive teams with pro runner guys in tiny shorts, but we had a nice time taking turns walking and sometimes even running around the track. I was super impressed with myself for running not one but TWO laps (summer goal to get in shape?). Some highlights of the night:

-pizza and valedictorian cake at 11pm, delivered by Anand's dad
-Kevin's epic "eight-person" tent
-the most amazing home-made cookies ever
-actually semi decent music from Bob fm, until they decided the only song in the world was Love Shack at about 5:30 am.
-A huge thunder storm at 1am
-a tent fly that malfunctioned
-soaking wet everything
-falling asleep at a funny angle in a camp chair at 6am.
-smelling like bug spray and sweat and wet dog

...and I loved being with those people. I will miss them very much, one and all.

I got in the car at 7am and dozed while listening to a strangely familiar voice on the radio who turned out to be Michael Bhardwaj. I think I enjoyed the show, but I can't really remember, because I crashed the minute I got home.

Like I said, ACTION-PACKED. I hope this bodes well for the summer...