Summer Vacation!!!

Hi Blog-Readers!  I'm done whining about ex-boyfriends now.  Are you happy about that?  I sure am.  I finally feel happy and free for the first time in a long time.  Hopeful!  Not like a terrible person!  Not boiling with rage or weighed down by guilt!  What a weight off my shoulders and bed, amirite?

Anyway, enough about that.  Really.  I'm in LA right now, about to embark on an almost-two-week long journey!  Tomorrow, I'm flying out of LAX for Washington, DC, where I'm spending a few days with my friend Rachel and her boyfriend, Jeff.  I studied abroad in New Zealand with Rachel in 2008 and we did a fair amount of traveling together there, as well as a road trip up to Vancouver in 2009, so I know we are good travel buddies.  I'm really looking forward to having her show me around her city, which I haven't visited since I was eight years old!  I remember being really mystified by Washington, DC as a kid, and I'm sure I'll get so much more out of it now.  Plus, everything is free (unless you consider the tax dollars...)!!!  Smithsonians, memorials, HOLOCAUST MUSEUM (yaaaay!) -- FREE!  Such good news for my ever-shrinking checking account and ever-growing Daddy Debt.

On Friday, Rachel and I are driving up to Watkins Glen, New York, where we will be staying with my former co-worker, Cyndy!  Watkins Glen is the home of Farm Sanctuary, the largest farm animal sanctuary in the U.S., and site of my life-changing summer internship in 2009.  I cannot express how excited I am to go to the farm!  The whole world falls away in this vegan bubble, full of people who have devoted their lives to better the lives of farm animals.  Also, I get to cuddle with some sheep and goats!  I'm hoping some of my goat/sheep friends from 2009 are still there (including my boyfriend, Cash, who tried to mount me on my last day at the farm).  This place isn't just a farm animal sanctuary, but it's also a sanctuary for people, and I'm really glad I get to share that with Rachel.  On Saturday and Sunday, the farm is holding a retreat for former interns, complete with guest speakers, a bonfire, and plenty of vegan food!  Hopefully I can finally score big with Gene Baur, the Farm Sanctuary founder and my biggest celebrity crush (tied with J-Timb!).

Rachel will go back to Washington, DC on Sunday or Monday, and then my sister and her husband, Adam, will pick me up from the farm on Tuesday!  They are currently on a giant roundtrip, cross-country road trip, and the timing worked out perfectly for me to tag along with them for a few days!  I'll be joining them for the Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Chicago portion of their trip.  I haven't been to any of those places, so I'm pretty excited!  I will hopefully get to see my friend, LeoLin, in Chicago and eat at Chicago Diner (vegan landmark).

I fly home on July 2nd, and return to real life.  Wah wahhhhh.  I couldn't be more excited!!

Everything's coming up roses!  ( <---- gaayyy)