I just wanna be okay, be okay, be okay.

I think it's appropriate to head this post with some Ingrid Michaelson lyrics, because she's all I've been listening to for the past week and a half. I just love her! Heather bought me her CD and I can't get enough. We have a lot of ground to cover in this post, so let's get to it.

Shall we?

The first Saturday of Spring Break, which was March 12, I woke up early so I could shower and pack and get gas before embarking on the 2 1/2 hour drive to Waco. What's in Waco? Tim and Ryan are in Waco! I made sure to burn plenty of CD's for the road and while my tank was filling up, I bought two big bags of Doritos for Tim and Ryan. The drive wasn't bad actually. I thought it would be long and grueling and boring, but time flies when you're jamming out. When I was leaving Huntsville, my GPS predicted that I would arrive in Waco at 11:52, but I arrived at 11:15. How's that for defeating the system?

We all met at Ryan's apartment, which was conveniently located right off the highway. No corkscrewing through little avenues and getting lost. What a relief! Tim met us there about half an hour later and we had lunch at Five Guys, which was delicious, then... since Ryan is a certified Baylor tour guide, I was treated to a state-of-the-art tour of Baylor University.

Fun fact: Baylor University is home to two live bears! I literally thought Tim was joking when he told me... then I was face-to-face with the bear enclosure. Lovely!

They showed me a ton of cool stuff, like the library that people apparently get married in, a huge concert hall with a huge organ, a time capsule that was buried in 1945 and will be uncovered in 2045, and this bench circle where everything echoes like crazy. Baylor is actually really beautiful. I thought SHSU was an exceptionally scenic campus, but Baylor is just as pretty if not more so.

After sneaking around the music building, the art building, and the ENORMOUS science building -- it was more like a 5-star hotel, if you ask me -- they took me to an amazing snow cone hut called Mr. Snow. At first, I was a little skeptical. I mean, a snow cone is a snow cone. Right? Wrong. This snow cone was the mother of all snow cones. It eats other snow cones for breakfast. Get the picture?

I sat there dumbfounded for a good five minutes, staring at the gigantic list of flavors, and couldn't decide, so Ryan took the initiative and ordered for me. So, I ended up with a polar ice/electric lemonade flavored snow cone nestled on top of homemade vanilla ice cream. What is also known as a "love nest". It was amazing. The next time I'm in Waco, I might just drive straight to Mr. Snow and forget to visit Tim and Ryan.

Kidding!

Anyway, check this baby out.

Doesn't that look delicious? I know!!

After that excursion, we retired to Tim's apartment and played a few quick games of Bananagrams, then Ryan had to leave. Sadness ensues. Tim and I played Super Smash Bros on my Wii for about an hour, and he made me a ham and egg sandwich. I learned something new from this sandwich, and that is the way college boys cook eggs. We were standing in Tim's kitchen and I was watching him whip the egg in a mug, mixing in salt and pepper and the usual. Then, he pops open the microwave and puts the mug in the microwave. I've never, in my life, seen someone cook eggs in the microwave. Isn't that such a "boy" thing to do?

Anyway, that ham-and-microwaved-egg sandwich was my dinner, and as Tim's friends started to trickle in for a fun little get-together, I sadly had to go if I wanted to be home by midnight. The drive back was definitely more exhausting than the drive there. I was super tired by the time I got home, but I'm really glad I went. Really glad.

Childhood calls.

I came home this weekend to re-pot my sunflower saplings, and now the weekend is gone. It's gone by so fast, probably because it was amazing, and amazing weekends are always far too short.

On Friday, I went around looking at apartments for the Fall, and I think I've settled on one. It's called Woodcreek Apartments, and when I toured it, I fell in love with its quaint charm and roomy apartments. The concept of having a place to myself in just a few months is unbelievably thrilling. The only thing I'm worried about is taking Peach there. I don't know how she'll handle the move, but I'm sure everything will work itself out.

Saturday morning, my dad and I had a HUGE brunch at The Egg & I, one of my favourite restaurants in the Tomball area. I just love em. After that, we went to Wal-mart to purchase ingredients for a new dish I wanted to make: Creamy Rice Casserole. I saw it on the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate", and the recipe sounded simple enough. With ingredients in hand, we went next door to Dollar Tree to find a watering can to properly water my sunflower, but we couldn't find one so we settled on a spray bottle. While I was there, I bought a new pot for my sunflower. Why not?... It was only a dollar. And since I was at a dollar store, or any store for that matter, anyone who knows me knows that I bought several unnecessary items. I bought a bubble set and a huge bottle of Arizona sweet tea. Hey, that's not so bad. I could've done worse, don't you think?

The bubbles and sweet tea weren't a complete waste. I spent the afternoon in the backyard blowing bubbles and watching Snapu chase after them. It was a gorgeous sunny day, just breezy enough to keep my bubbles afloat until they burst mid-air. My dad filled two glasses with ice and we downed the sweet tea in no time. After my bubble supply was exhausted, it was already 4:30 in the afternoon. Time to prepare the casserole. My dad did most of the work, but I got to dice the poblano peppers and mix the cream sauce. The casserole was delicious. That recipe gets my stamp of approval, for sure. My mom brought home rotisserie chicken, and it was a complete meal with enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

This morning, I woke up early -- "early" meaning 9:40 a.m. -- and woke my dad up so that we could make breakfast. I recently learned how to poach eggs through a Youtube tutorial... dorky, right? But I wanted to try it, so my dad and I poached eggs for the very first time. It was rather successful, and pretty much tasted awesome. My dad made his famous french toast, and I poached three eggs: one for me, one for my dad, and one for my mom. It was a fun breakfast, and one that I was pretty proud of. Probably because I helped, which is a big deal, because I am a goner when it comes to anything culinary. That's a fact.

I just came back from seeing "Alice in Wonderland" with my dad, and I really liked it. It was pretty graphic at times, which seemed out-of-place in what I thought was going to be a children's movie but turned out to be anything but. The acting was tremendous, Helena Bonham Carter was completely adorable and Johnny Depp was so loveable and complex.

Anyway, I had a great weekend and spent oodles of quality time with my dad, which is always a good thing. I'm now headed downstairs for my dinner, then am heading back to Huntsville where I belong. Ooh by the way, the Waco trip is on again, and I hope it stays that way this time. However, a lot can change between now and this coming weekend. Fingers crossed.

Love ya.