Beach Post #2!

     I'm back with the second update on what I've been doing on vacation! Unfortunately this update is a bit more...crispy. But we'll get to that.

     Monday was stormy and rainy. I didn't mind because I like storms to begin with; a beach storm is twice as nice! We spent much of the day working on jigsaw puzzles and playing board games.

 
     And we saw dolphins! They like to swim along the shore here, but unfortunately the slippery little devils are really hard to catch in pictures. But I tried anyway!

     Once the rain slowed a bit we ventured out to do a bit of shopping. 

      Somewhat difficult, because the rain had flooded...um, everything. At times it felt more like a boat ride than a drive, but we made it nonetheless.

     I didn't buy anything, but I got to pet the world's fluffiest dog, so I'll call it a success. Later we found a nearby restaurant for dinner. I ordered a coconut breaded chicken sandwich, which came with a pineapple sauce that made it amaaaazing. 

     The next day was considerably brighter, so we decided to park ourselves on the beach for the day. We built this monster of a sandcastle. 

      All of my input was based almost entirely on Game of Thrones logic. I mean, obviously back there is the Keep, and the courtyard where the sand people practice their archery skills, and we need a good strong moat to keep the Lannisters at bay. 

     Unfortunately I sat in the sun screaming "NO, IT'S FINE, YOU STEPPED ON MY MOAT, I CAN JUST DIG IT AGAIN" for too long and got a painful sunburn. 

     Yep, that embarrassingly abrupt line is where the hem of my shorts falls. Luckily, since the breeze on the beach kept it a bit chilly, I had a zip-up hoodie on, so my top half didn't get burned at all. So at least that's something to be grateful for as I slather my entire lower half in aloe every ten minutes and walk around all stiffly like a recently reanimated skeleton, lest I accidentally move some skin and ignite the burning pain of the sun's core on my flesh.

     Anyway, despite feeling like I've got two steamed hot dogs instead of legs, I'm still having a good time. It takes more than sizzled skin to stop me!

Favorite Things Friday!

     It's that time again! Time for me to show you the things that have made me happier than a pig in mud. Although really, I think pigs are probably pretty happy most of the time. They certainly seem like jolly little porkers. 

• Revisiting my childhood with Sailor Moon. I was obsessed with Sailor Moon when I was younger (Yep, I've always been this nerdy), and after re-watching some of the episodes this week I can definitively say it stands the test of time. Sure, sometimes the villains store their evil plans on floppy disks, but it's still entertaining as all get-out and full of girl-power awesomeness. And sure, I won't lie, I see a lot of myself in Sailor Moon. For example, I totally psych myself up to start writing...
  
  
  
  
  
  And do this when I get writer's block.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Teaching Big Bessie to stand up on her back legs for a treat, like a puppy. What can I say? The girl's food motivated. I could probably train her to play chess given enough time and kitty treats.
  
  
• This new comic essay about depression from Hyperbole and a Half. It sounds weird to say something about depression could make me happy, but it did. It's such an accurate description of what that horrible lingering depression feels like, but I still laughed at it. It's a tricky thing to take a dark topic and make it ok to laugh about, and this did it so well. Definitely worth perusing!
  
  
• The Scribblenauts Remix app. This game is so fun, and SO ADDICTIVE. Basically, it's a creative problem-solving game. You're given a task, and you can create anything you can think of to help you do it. So for all those times you've played a videogame and though "Ughh, if I could just grab some wings or a jetpack, I could get right where I need to go!" Well, now you can. You can also just play around creating whatever you want without working toward a goal. Obviously the first thing I did was create a Game of Thrones scene.
  

  

  Knights, dragons, direwolves, snow, and heads on spikes. Basically you know everything about Game of Thrones now.

     You didn't think I could make it through a whole week without making a Game of Thrones reference, did you? 

Method.

     My obsession with Game of Thrones has grown recently. I started out watching the tv show, and now I've undertaken the monumental task of reading the books (seriously, they're massively detailed). But the thing of it is, I can't just read a book. If I'm gonna read, I'm gonna READ. I'm talking staying up late every night, time slipping away as I say to myself "Just one more chapter..." over and over again. 

    But that's not the worst of it. When I'm spending so much time reading a series, and even more time thinking about it during the rest of my waking hours, things can start to get...intense. The book starts to bleed out into real life, until I see it everywhere and the line between this world and the fictional one start to blur. I'm like a method actor, completely immersing myself in the story and the characters. Only I'm a method...reader. Which leads to awkward moments like this...

Or like this...

Or even this.

Um....it's pretty bad.