Today was an absolutely beautiful day.

I had to wake up early this morning to go have breakfast with my grandparents. Boy, my grandparents are really amazing people. My grandpa has this magical look to him, like any second he’ll ask you what you want for your first wish. He’s a magnificent story teller, the way he talks; it makes the words come to life. I could listen to him tell me stories all day. He’s somewhat quiet, and he looks like a strange character to the outsider. I’m sure, you know, with his white hair and his tan skin and those blue-silver eyes, like my dad’s.

My grandmother is so much the opposite. She wears this beautiful jewelry and extravagant sweaters and this bright pink lipstick that just yells at you: “never forget me”. She is one of the sweetest women you will ever meet. She can be undeniably pushy, but it’s what is so charming about her. She’ll whisper to the waitress to bring my grandpa extra grape jelly because he really loves it, but he won’t ask for it (like I said, he’s quiet, and he just wants to please everyone). She’s also super-friendly, even to people she’s just met. For instance, when we were in the small store connected to the restaurant, she led us to this hand lotion display and before I could even say anything, she had grabbed my hand and squirted some in telling me how wonderful it was and how good it smelled. When the manager walked by, she summoned her to her side and without even asking put some into the manager’s hand and started telling /her/ how great it was. She offered some to the stock boy (“Marcus” she called him by his name tag, acting like she’d known him for years) but he politely declined. And you’d think no one could get away with that right? Wrong. Once you see my grandmother’s smile, it will just about melt your heart and you just want to ask for more hand lotion even though you really don’t want any. And that’s what’s so funny about her; she’s slightly irritating sometimes, but it is absolutely impossible to be upset with her, because she is just so sweet and she wants to help everyone. Some people say I’m a lot like my grandmother. I don’t know about that, especially since she can be a total neat freak; and me, well, I prefer an organized mess to a pine-fresh bedroom any day.

Overall, breakfast was totally pleasant. Before we went home, me and my mother went to this quaint little fruit stand in the middle of no where. They have the best darn Orange Juice in all of
Florida, and boy do I really love OJ. That’s one of the things I really admire about my mother. She knows about all these little places the average never knew existed.

Once we got home, my dad took my out to do some chores. First we went to the gas station and I just exclaimed pretty randomly “I really could go for some ice cream!” And he, being this amazingly go-with-the-flow dad replied: “well, you got paid yesterday, go get some!”

As I’ve said, I really love orange juice so I was sort of looking for an orange popsicle, the closest they had was pineapple so I got that. I smiled at the man working behind the counter and bid him a fair morning. He smiled back and told me to enjoy my ice cream. It really tasted like crap, but it was somewhat refreshing so I held onto it until me and my dad got to the Blockbuster. There was nothing of interest there so we went right to the bookstore. Apparently my dad found nothing there either so we went straight to the library.

I ended up checking out six books. Two were about Louie Armstrong for my history report.  Two were about the best careers for colleges (I think it’s ridiculous that after 8-10 years of college the entrance level salary for a marine biologist is only 49,000!) And the final was a book called “Triumph over Shyness”. Now, don’t get the wrong idea, I am probably the least-inhibited person you will ever meet. I mean, I’m not arrogant or anything, and I get social butterflies just as much as the next person but I still like to think of myself as a pretty friendly person. I mostly got it because I become interested in really random things sometimes (usually having to do with psychology). Also, though, because I have a friend, Spencer, who is really cool, but freakishly shy! To the point where I can barely have a conversation with him in public. He’s gotten a lot better since I first met him last year, and I can tell he’s really trying, but I’d really love to help him out a bit! (The book mostly says things like Smile, Remember Names, Use Small Talk, Give Compliments; that kind of stuff)

My dad got his book on the physics of superheroes (hehe!) and we left.

We went to this whacky Tex-Mex place for lunch where I got a vegetarian burrito and analyzed over my several job options (as my dad says, never too early to start looking!) I took the
Holland test, for the second time in my life. My artistic score was still the highest, followed by my investigative (ability to solve problems and come up with unique solutions) score and then my social (dealing with people) score. Close behind that was my realistic (ability to work with your hands and solve everyday problems) score. Close to none were my enterprising (business and CEO crap) and conventional (secretary-ish stuff) scores. There are lots of jobs I’m interested in, mostly, though I’ve still pretty much got my heart set on Marine Biology (since Kindergarten, ;D). On the back burner, however, is theever-persistant
High School Literature Teacher / Creative writer, and a new something, Optometry. I doubt I’d ever go through with being an eye doctor, but it caught my interest, which is pretty hard to do.

I would’ve liked to stay longer and read through all of my new books, especially since the weather was a perfect 79 degrees, but my dad was in a hurry.

From there, we ran from place to place, pretty boring so I won’t make you sit through it.

And I doubt this day comes across as a great day, but it really was one of my best days in a while… Shows how low my standards are.

My mother got me upset sometime in mid-afternoon, but it’s not like that isn’t an everyday occurrence. She was having a good day too, apparently, because she only hurt my feelings once and, whoa, I think it actually may have been unintentional.

Plus, I get to go fishing with my grandpa and dad next Sunday! I never get to spend time with my dad since he works so much, and like I said, my grandpa is absolutely wonderful. I haven’t been fishing in so long!

And I love the ocean. God, it takes me breath every time. I hope I can jump into the water when we’re in the middle of the ocean. I doubt my dad will let me, but, boy would I enjoy that.

When I have a family, I’m going to buy a boat and take them fishing at least once a month.

And I’ll let them jump into the water if they want to.