nights of joy lead to mornings of exhaustion.

my spring break has definitely proven to be an unforgettable one. the only way to do it any justice is to start with day one and push right through. so here the documentary adventure begins.

the first few days can be summed up relatively easily. i ate dinner with reed at the pearl, had morning bike rides with kristen, did the random things there are to do at night on the island, sat at outback at least five times by wednesday, and spent almost nothing. it was wednesday, the day of my eighteenth birthday that things truly started to pick up. at midnight, i was at the pier in the middle of a circle formed by meechie, jeff, ricky, lance, and josh. the conducted the yearly ritual of "birthday spankings" and then for some reason the entire group proceeded to waffle house. the next morning valarie and kristen "kidnapped me" as they say, dressed me up, and took me to dressner's for breakfast. it was after this my day truly began. kristen and i went on our morning bike ride to christ church, i came home, showered, and made my way to watson's. two hours after the time we had decided to leave, we finally made our way to jacksonville. first stop? inksmith & rogers. purchases? one labret for mike and a tattoo for myself. surprisingly, the pain was minimal and the tattoo looks amazing. cheryl however hates it. that evening when i got home, she was already mad because it was five in the morning and when i went back out after getting home i told her it would only be for about an hour, but on top of this, she saw the tattoo. she could only dwell on the size and tell me how i ruined my life. however, i told her it's me, and if i like it, it's all that matters. the tattoo and piercing extravaganza was not the end of the jacksonville evening. mike and i had jay stop at walgreen's so that he could get mouth wash and i could get lotion, he proceeded to call me shrek because i couldn't turn my neck so i had to turn my entire body to look at who was talking, and we managed to get lost while looking for freebird. when we finally made it to freebird, the concert was amazing. the opening bands i had never heard of before, but they both put on an extremely good show and played to the crowd. however, the sick puppies were amazing. i never realized they were an australian band, the band was only made up of three members, and the bassist was a girl. they were insane and were interacting with the crowd the entire time. the songs they played were their most upbeat ones, but as i discovered, they are extremely misleading. the lyrics run extremely deep and are controversial. "cancer" makes you question if you really are what you think you are or are you losing yourself to be successful in society's eyes. unfortunately, the only video that have is for "all the same" which is an amazing song. the lyrics flow perfectly with the harmony and melody, and the words are powerful and mirror "cancer" in that they encourage you to be who you are and to accept others for who they are. the message the song and video paired sends is beautiful in a sense of security in the underlying youth, pure joy, and unadulterated love society holds. the only way to truly experience this feeling and understand the emotions i am poorly attempting to convey is to simply click play and take out three minutes and watch the video.



the birthday celebration has continued through the thursday excursion to orlando, where i am now, and where i will be until this evening. this small road trip has been a great segue to the end of an amazing week. i've gotten to run through an extremely landscaped million dollar house neighborhood every morning, sleep well into the afternoon if i choose to do so, eat a balanced mix of both home cooked meals and restaurants which brunswick doesn't have, and attend an amazing concert. the concert was definitely a mini-trip inside the over-all one. josh, hannah, lance, and i met watson, mark, jay, patty, and brandon in the arena parking lot where we proceeded to tail gate for an hour and a half. this was my first concert with mark and my first time really having a conversation with him, so at first he was really quiet but by the end of the night, he had really opened up. when we first made it inside the venue, they were out of wristbands for the floor, so we were forced to watch atreyu from the highest level in the stadium, but during the break jay and mike bought two wristbands from people who didn't want them and came back to show me and run back downstairs to catch avenged sevenfold. however, i chased them, took their wristbands after they got through the gate, and snuck down to the floor myself. with the two wristbands, we managed to trade them off and get mark and lance on the floor as well. we were in the very back of the floor at first, so for avenged's first song i sat on mike's shoulders and took pictures for him. by the second song we decided we wanted to get to the front and at the fourth song's beginning we were about four to five standing rows from the stage. needless to say, i moshed, formed a "wall" with mark, danced and jumped like my life depended on it, and crowd surfed out on the guitar solo before the encore. i have to say that this far i have been extremely thrilled with the outcome of my spring break and birthday. tomorrow the fun continues with a three doors down and 12 stones concert in st. augustine, so monday will be the ultimate relaxation day.

i've finally begun putting some of my photography online, however it will take awhile before everything i really like is up. the link is http://www.flickr.com/karalewis . take a look and give me feedback, anything and everything is appreciated.

and the stress level has elevated yet again. i heard from boston university. i'm in. oh the joys of being indecisive.

orlando days.

this post comes extremely late compared to others, and will be short due to the fact i'm sitting at lance's dad's house waiting for him to get ready so hannah, josh, lance, and i can go to chili's. however, this will be a college and birthday update so hopefully i can cram all of the random thoughts into a short, sweet, and semi-logical order.

first college. i had been steady in my footing in terms of going to oglethorpe in the fall. however, now i have heard back from northeastern in boston and hampshire, umass amherst, and mount holyoke in western mass. all have given me nice, round figure scholarships so i no longer have a set course and direction in mind. and to think i believed second semester would be less stressful.

the birthday talk is now interrupted because we are ready to leave finally. know that it was amazing and elaboration is yet to come.

concert hell.

the past few weeks have been extremely intriguing. life has had a lot to offer and much has changed. i've tackled events such as my mother's sixtith birthday, valentine's day, and this past weekend which was made up of loryn and my mother's three friends from high school coming into town. however, there were positive aspects of those chaotic events. i bought my mother tickets to see her new favorite band, celtic woman, play tomorrow evening in jacksonville. let me elaborate on the obsession my mother has for this ridiculous group of irish women. for christmas this year, like every year, nicole, my mother, and i get presents from santa claus although nicole and i recognize the fact that it is just my mother and not some mythical entity which fits down chimneys in houses that don't exist and can somehow make it all around the world in that short timeline. however i digress. my mother fills her stocking every year, wraps herself gifts, and then pretends to be extremely surprised to see what "santa has brought her". normally she buys herself the yearly gifts of razors, lotion, oranges (note nicole and i get all three of these things also), and random gifts such as last year's sewing machine. this year's random "mommy treat" was the celtic woman christmas cd. the next three weeks of nicole and i's home experience were filled with christmas carols in both gaelic and english. due note that christmas was three weeks before hand which means my mother extended the holiday season well into january. now she has purchased their "regular albums" and the celtic torture continues. so flashback to christmas morning. cheryl unwraps her new favorite possesion

^^^yet another unfinished stream of consciousness. however, cheryl's birthday concert went well, minus a few setbacks.

3/28/08