Belated 300th Post

My actual 300th post occurred on 5/24 but I didn't realize it was my 300th until the end of that week. I feel like I was just celebrating my 200th post. which was on 3/11. Man, does the time fly by. What the hell have I been writing about anyway? How did I manage to come up with 300 original ideas? It boggles my mind.

For my 300th post I want to do something a little different and interactive. But before I tell you, I have an announcement. Can everyone hear me okay? How about you in the back with the WHAM! t-shirt, can you hear me okay? Good, my announcement is that Nicole and I are going on vacation for a week starting tomorrow. I will not disclose our destination until we come back. I don't want 'Just the Cheese' stalkers to follow us on vacation. I can say that where we are going is warm and is right next to the ocean.

On that note, I will not be posting anything for a whole week, from 6/3 to 6/10 (maybe 6/10, depends how late we get back). I will also not be reading any of your terrific blogs. I will not be responding to any comment nor emails. I am going to try to be blog free for a whole week. It is going to be very tough but I'm not going on vacation to blog, I'm going to spend a week alone with Nicole to..... um, use your imagination here. I am going to turn my email notification off on my phone so I am not tempted to read comments. One good thing about this is I will hopefully come home to a plethora comments and emails from loyal fans. Does anybody want me to bring them back anything?

Okay so here is what I want you to do while I am gone. I want you to go into my archives and read and comment on posts that you have never read. I would love it if some of you would go back to when I didn't have followers (all of 2009 basically) and comment on stuff that doesn't really have any comments. I don't know if my writing was any good back then because I didn't get any love. I would suggest some but that would defeat the purpose of you randomly picking them. If all goes well maybe I will turn this into a weekly or monthly thing where I get people to retro read. I will definitely return the favor when I get back from vacay.

I will also reveal the winner to the Battle of the Game Show Hosts. The final round is upon us. Did you vote on the final round yet? What are you waiting for? Just scroll down a little, it was yesterday's post. AND DON'T FORGET TO TAKE A GANDER INTO MY ARCHIVES!!

I will be thinking about you (if Nicole lets me). I will probably have a couple posts about our vacation with pictures when I return. Have fun without me.

Summer in Rome

Rome, the Eternal City.
Picture it. Italy. 2007. A young college student and her classmates arrive in Rome after an 8 hour flight. They are studying there for 3 weeks, trying to learn the ins and outs of roman culture. Also, they are trying to come back to America as alcoholics.

That's just a little back story. I had the privilege to study abroad in Italy my first summer of college. It cost $4200 to go, and I worked my ass off changing diapers, bedpans, answering call bells, and dealing with psychotic people. My professor informed us we were going to there to study, me and my friends informed him we were going on vacation. Me and my two friends shared a room. We actually lucked out because a chaperon was supposed to be the fourth person in our room but very last minute (in the airport) she was unable to come and we had the room to ourselves.
We had class from about 9am until maybe 3 in the afternoon. After that we were free to do whatever we wanted. Usually what we did was go take a nap after class, wake up, get ready, go out to dinner and then stay out all night until 3 or 4 and wake up at 9 and do it all over again. That is exactly how it went for 3 straight weeks. It was great.

It wasn't just about partying though. I saw some things I would probably never have and don't know if I will again. I hope so. The Pantheon, Coliseum, the Vatican, The Pope himself, the Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain, and plenty more. We even traveled to Florence where I saw the stature of David.
Me and my group of friends convinced our professor to give us 2 days off in a row so we could travel to Capri. We weren't supposed to but, we were on fucking vacation okay! We went there and it was beautiful. The water is so blue, the island is just breath taking, and its very expensive. We got ourselves a hotel and stayed overnight. In fact, everyone heard about how much fun we had, and, it is now an official excursion on the trip now. Yeah that's right, I'm a trendsetter.

On another day off, me and my friends also traveled to Pompeii. Yup, the city that was destroyed by a big volcanic explosion years and years ago. We even got to climb that very volcano. Yes. We climbed a volcano and it was amazing. I cant even describe it. It was so beautiful, so breath taking, so awesome. Words cant describe it. Everyone should see it once. That picture actually was taken at the very top and u can see the inside wall of the volcano. Pretty sick. Words cant even describe it, just go.
I cant wait to go back, God willing, I will. I want to go with Jamie. I want to show him all the things I saw because I think he would really love it. I WILL go again. Someday.. The point of the story is: travel. Travel near and far, I want to go so many places. Shoot, I even want to just go to Disney world just because I haven't been, (Jamie is taking me). See as much as you can, you never know when it will be gone. I was able to experience centuries of culture and tradition, and I really do hope I get to see much more.
Nicole