Libre Los toros!!

Greetings from Barcelona! I just wanted to write a quick note to explain my recent absence. My Europe adventure has officially begun. Ireland has been covered and I'm now in Barcelona. Next up is Greece in a few days. Traveling abroad for the first time has certainly been an experience and I already have a ton of stories to tell. But I wanted to say that there will probably be radio silence for the next few weeks until I'm back in the states because whO wants to be stuck on a computer when there's so much to see here!

However here are a few of the interesting things I've learned so far on the way...

Wear comfortable shoes!!

Public transportation is acceptable abroad however most people really do walk everywhere. I feel like I haven't stopped walking since I got here and my feet are protesting loudly with another two weeks to go.

Hostels have water timers in their showers. Basically...you press a button into a wall and the water runs for the amount of time it takes for the button to push itself back out to it's starting position...aka about 15-20 seconds. And then you hav to push the button again. And again. And once again. It does make for efficient showers though.

Stick shift + driving on the wrong side of the road = nausea.

People in Ireland wear very strange stockings. And are often hard to understand.

Things are waaaay too expensive on this side of the pond. However wine is often cheaper than soda. Or water for that matter.

While it is apparently technically illegal...no one will stop you from buying bottles of wine or sangria and walking around with them on the street drinking from coffee cups.

Alright friends, I am off. Our first actual vacation day on this vacation starts tomorrow...beach, picnic, shopping, and pub crawls!

Bestie

So one of the things I really want to start doing in my blog is celebrating the most important people in my life. And considering today one of my favorite people on the planet turns 27, I thought I would start with one of my best friends Diana.

Diana and I met in middle school and were always friendly but it wasn't until sophomore year of high school that she became one of my closest friends. She is one of the most caring, giving, generous people you will ever meet in your life. She will do whatever it takes to cheer you up if you need it and goes out of her way to be a good friend. She is one of the few people that I could tell every minute detail about myself to and she would still accept me without question or judgment.

(after a particularly eventful night out in Clearwater...I believe this was about 4 am, we were on a search for contact solution and it was about 15 minutes before we ran into a naked guy in a hotel parking lot)

She is also one of the funniest people I know. And I don't just mean she can tell a good joke...the way she tells a story with such detail and animation will have you rolling on the floor until you think your sides are going to burst. Even the most serious, heavy subjects she can turn into a ridiculous story. More than once I've wished for even a third of the amount of humor she can spontaneously create at any point in time. 

(my 21st birthday...one of my fav pics of us)

Other reasons why Diana is awesome: She's amazingly smart (she's a dentist!). She has fabulous sense of style and likes to flaunt her curves as much as I do. Her mom was Miss Egypt. She's a die-hard Seminoles fan. She'll rock out with me on any dance floor. The top of every single page of my senior year high school yearbook is filled with quotes, inside jokes, and memories she recorded for me. She came back with a country accent after living in Tennessee for 4 years even though she's the last person who looks like they should be busting out with a country accent. She moved back to Tampa this summer for a residency and is planning on sticking around after its over next summer! 

Basically, she rocks my world and I would not be the same without her!

The smell is in the air

No, I'm not talking about fall. I'm more of a spring/summer girl anyway. But what is in the air is COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!

I've got split loyalties when it comes to college football. I'm a born and raised Nole girl. I bleed garnet and gold. I can't imagine feeling this strongly about any other team. But I also got two degrees at UCF and I'm passionate about my Knights as well. Lucky for me, the two have never played each other so I've never had to choose between the two. And hopefully it will be many many years before that happens. When it does I might just have to wear gold because at least then I could plausibly be supporting either team.

So this morning I ran some errands and went to a bridesmaid dressing fitting and then ran home in time to watch the Florida State season opener. It was home at Doak Campbell so I got to see this guy run out on the field:

Something about Chief Osceola riding out onto the field on Renegade and planting a spear on the 50 yard line just gets my blood pumping. Needless to say it was a great game. We played University of Louisiana at Monroe and shut them out 34-0!! Great way to start the season! One of the best parts was this guy's punt return:

Most teams purposefully kick as far away from Greg Reid as possible because he is the king of punt returns but ULM made the mistake today and regretted greatly. I can't wait for next weeks game! Unfortunately I'm going to miss week 3 when we play #1 Oklahoma but I'll be there in spirit. (We're ranked #5 currently and will be going into the game 2-0 so its going to be an awesome game!)

Unfortunately, the UCF game wasn't broadcast today so I'm currently watching like a good little Knight fan on ESPN's game cast. I'm so proud of my Knights. We're currently kicking Charleston Southern's ass 56-0 with 7 minutes left in the 4th. I definitely need to make it back to cheer for my alum sometime this season.

I'll leave you with the beginning of the UCF chant that I've had stuck in my head all day.

U-C-F charge on to the field...

The Alphabet of ME

As I mentioned in my very first blog ever, Imitation is the Greatest form of Flattery, so in upcoming entries I've decided to adopt things from other blogs that I read and enjoy and bring them over to my side of the blogosphere. I came across this in a new blog I started to follow and it reminded me of those chain emails friends used to send in middle school and early high school (which I loved, btw) so I thought I'd slap it on my blog and let yall learn some fun random facts you may or may not know.  

Ambition: happiness and security
Bad Habit: picking at my cuticles
City: Tampa

Drink: Chick-fil-a lemonade
Education: BA in Psych and BS in Nursing
Food: Mexican food or chocolate dessert with nuts
Guilty Pleasure: bad tv
Hometown: Tallahassee, Florida
Ice Cream: prefer fro-yo esp TCBY or my new fav Yogurtology
Jonesing for: a "big spoon"
Kryptonite: having my hair played with
Look-a-like: Amanda Bynes
Movie: The Departed, Pride and Prejudice, The Notebook, Mean Girls
Nickname: Krys, K, KC
Obsession: all things Buffy the Vampire Slayer or written/created by Joss Whedon
Perfume: Provocative Woman by Elizabeth Arden
Quirk: if I drag one foot or bump one arm, I have to do the same to the other side to make it "even"
Regret: For me to know...and to not repeat in the future
Starbucks: Iced Skinny Caramel Macchiato or Nonfat, No whip 3-pump Mocha

Thrift Find of the Year: I don't think I've left Express this year without getting at least 60% off everything I bought
University: UCF! Go Knights!!
Vacation: EUROPE!! 9 days away!!
Wine: Riesling please!
X: On to the next!
Years: J'ai 26 ans. (Just felt like busting out the french for some reason)
Zen: is in my king size bed with sateen sheets and my animals curled up next to me

The Perfect Man

So they say if you put things out into the Universe, oftentimes you get them back. So Universe, this is what I'm requesting of you: my perfect man. He should have these qualities:

*6'0" - 6'4" tall
*brown hair
*brown eyes
*lean, athletic build (think basketball/baseball player)
*great sense of humor
*confident
*ambitious
*intelligent
*loves animals
*liberal political mind
*environmentally friendly
*loves to travel
*extroverted
*good cook
*amazing lover
*enjoys public displays of affection
*wants a family, but not any time soon
*close with his family
*Christian
*a decent dancer
*will pick up a book at least occasionally
*loves surprises (giving and receiving)
*honest
*reliable
*generous
*faithful
*open minded
*good dresser
*passionate
*think I'm pretty much the hottest thing since sliced bread

Not too tall of an order, right? Alright Universe, I'll be waiting!

Dealing with Disappointment

I'm an angry blogger. I know this. The unspoken rule with facebook statuses that sometimes carries over into blogs and other such public forums is to post when your life is going particularly well so everyone sees just how fabulous it is to be you. Or to write about something so maddening that everyone can't help but chime in on and once again...oh aren't you so popular with your 50 replies.

I'm the opposite. I love sharing good news and writing about the highs in my life. But I'm most inspired to blog, or just write in general, when I'm sad/upset/mad/hurting. It's like I mentioned a couple entries ago...for some reason my thoughts and feelings feel like they carry more weight when I can see them spelled out in front of me, whether or not they're viewed by anyones eyes besides my own. And I preface this entry this way because again tonight I was inspired to write because I was hurting. I want to get it all out of my system and just leave it on the page.

I won't describe tonight's inspiring drama. In fact I wrote a few paragraphs before this one and just deleted them because they weren't the point of this entry. My question is...how do you deal with the disappointment? I've never been good at that. I feel like I'm perpetually starting over (in all areas of my life) so why aren't I an expert by now? Shouldn't there be a check list someone's developed by this point? Complete steps one through eight and you're done. I'm impatient and I admit it. I'm tired of going through the trial and error of dating. I'm tired of putting energy into a friendship only to be told my effort into keeping lines of communication open are causing her stress. How do you remind yourself that is all part of a plan when you've never truly, completely believed things happen for a reason? How do you accept being let down and move on from it, a stronger person? How do you remind yourself that the fault is with them, even though you're the one wounded? When someone figures all that out, I'd love to be let in on the secret.

Seventeen days

In seventeen days I will be leaving for a glorious 2 and a half weeks traveling to:

Dublin, Ireland

Barcelona, Spain

Athens, Greece

Santorini, Greece

London, England

Edinburgh, Scotland

Excited doesn't even begin to describe how I'm feeling!!