You read this. . . you really read this!

Sooooo, it's nice to know that people are actually reading this thing. I'm sorry for the lack of posts during the month of July. It's been a busy one. . . I finally finished my classes at UNLV and then I got the heck out of town. To be fair to me it was over 120 degrees the day I left and I was happy to be in 110 degree weather. It felt positively cool!

My classes officially ended on July 5th. Of course we had July 4th off. My YA Literature professor decided to cancel class on the 5th because "It's ridiculous to make you come back the day after the 4th of July." We all agreed. My Science Fiction professor disagreed. So, I went to Toquerville for the 4th and had a great time, then raced back to Vegas on the 5th. I packed my car, got gas and drove to UNLV. It was so hot that even though I had the A/C going in my car at full blast for the 30 minutes it took me to get to UNLV it never cooled off. I walked all the way across campus in the blazing heat to find out that the "final" was a questionaire about the class that took me 5 minutes to write. So, it took me 4 times as long to walk to and from my car to the class and 6 times as long to drive to UNLV as it did to take the actual test. If it would have been possible to get even hotter than I was at the moment, I would have. I simply could not believe that this professor would force us to come back the day after the 4th of July to a 5pm class in order to take a "test" that had no academic purpose whatsoever. It made me think about whether or not I have ever made my own students jump through unneccessary hoops simply to prove that I could. I surely hope not. . .

Like I said, I left the MINUTE my class was finished to visit my sisters Christy and Jennifer in Yucca Valley California. It was nice and relaxing and that was a good thing 'cause I did the thing I generally do in June the week that school ends: I crash and burn and need to sleep about 10-15 hours out of every 24. Christy kept apologizing for having to work so much while I was there, but actually that kept me from feeling guilty for needing so many naps. I loved getting to know her new puppy Brie (quite possibly the cutest puppy in the entire world. . . with the exception of her other puppy Westley.), and we saw a couple of great movies: Ratatouille and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I liked the former and because I am officially a big giant Harry Potter nerd I LOVED LOVED LOVED the later. (On a slightly creepy note. . . for those of you who have also seen it, Daniel Ratcliff is all grown up. . . isn't he? I am just saying. . . Harry HOTTER!). We also went to Oceanside for the day to hang out with my brother and his friends and family and to get horribly burned. Funny moment: One of their friends (who is a Latina) turned to my sister and I and asked, "Do either of you ladies have suntan oil?" my sister replied, "We're white. No, we don't have suntan oil. We put on SPF 50, not suntan oil." Everyone had a good laugh at that one. But, in spite of my vigilant VIGILANT and oh yeah VIGILANT and constant reapplication of sunscreen I still burned the tops of my breasts within and inch of their life (yeah, I don't know what that means either.) and one wierd round spot on the side of one leg. Christy decided to "get a little color" which, when you're red headed and pale means that you end up looking like a cooked lobster and in a LOT of pain.

So both of us where really sore and whiny for a few days. I went to Walmart and bought both of us Solarcaine. Solarcaine is really one of the greatest inventions in the history of the world.

I then drove back to Las Vegas while crying and whining to myself about my pain and discomfort. I am REALLY patient and understanding about my own pain. I told myself repeatedly that my sunburn was the worst thing that had ever happened and that I felt really bad for me. It was really comforting.

The next morning I got up and drove to Toquerville to visit my parents for a couple of days.
TO BE CONTINUED. . .