Im still balls deep in finals. Literally. My bed is scary now....piles of papers, books, notebook, Spanish dictionaries, laptop, pens. My bedside tables are covered with glasses of tea, highlighters, phones (blackberry, old cell phone, and house phone because Im forced to play house receptionist while my parents relax in Aruba), candles and a nice little arrangement of roses from our yard.

Yes, you read correctly, I made a flower arrangement. I've been domestic the past 24 hours...basically in desperate attempts to avoid learning meaningless history of Spanish civilizations in the U.S. I hope to one day be the domestic wife/mom who enjoys gardening, flower arranging and baking the perfect batch of scones, but as of now, my domestic skills leave a lot to be desired. I tried making chocolate chip pancakes this morning and about gagged when I ate them. Note to self: when the package says, "whole milk or buttermilk", DONT use Skim milk in attempt of making a healthier version. I made a HUGE mess on the stove top and practically destroyed one of Dad's oh-so-treasured Calphalon pans. If it were caught on video, you'ld probably laugh. So, Im leaving the left overs for Sarah and Im anticipating her to first act like they're good because she knows I get my feelings hurt if I make food and hear it said that its nasty. Yeh, I should probably work on this insecurity. It works the same for my gift giving anxiety, but I digress.

Anyway, I've been making desperate attempts to escape my reality for the next 5 days by doing things around the house. Example 1: folding and putting away all of Sarah's laundry. REALLY!?? she doesnt even do it for herself. Literally...she just leaves it in a hamper and pulls out what she needs, and throws the dirty stuff on the floor to later be collected and washed. As I was putting up her clothes, I realized her room is a dump (probably because she's in the process of moving all of her dorm stuff home for the summer) and I was determined to give it a makeover. Again, REALLY?? She could care less that her room reflects her personality. Give her a comfy bed and a TV, she's set. Who cares that you can't walk in her room. You don't need to. Its funny that she does this because it irritates mom to NO END. The two times a day she makes it upstairs (morning to open blinds and night to close them), she acts as though life simply cannot go on with a pigsty for a room. "Rachel, PLEASE dont use those pillows to sleep on!!" I get that one a lot.

Example 2: I did my laundry. Ok let me clarify something here. I usually make laundry a bi-monthly experience. I devote a day to the laundry room and the breakfast room table eventually becomes invisible because it is covered with my clothes. I even took it so far as to iron my jeans. Im not proud of this at all. Im simply avoiding studying.

Example 3: I've spent a good hour and a half finding new blogs. This is easy to do, but the problem is, you have to read each blog before you make it a favorite. So, imagine how much information I've absorbed from 4 new blogs. If only that information would help me remember the path of Hernando DeSoto's expedition and deciphering between noun, adjective, and adverb clauses IN SPANISH. I was so excited yesterday to stumble across the Gossip Girl article, that I keep hoping someone will send something as juicy my way!

Alright, enough. Back to meaningless mess that I will have forgotten 10 minutes after the final!