A Thought and a Half: It's Back: Five on Friday!

As the title suggests, my Five on Fridays are back! I haven't done one in a couple weeks, because I haven't had all that much to write about. But now I do, so let's go!

1. Visit from Florida Friends -- When my family left Atlanta in 2006, our dear friends left for Tampa, Florida. Although we keep in touch via technology, it's not the same as true visits. Last weekend, Kristina and her mom Jamie came up to Pennsylvania to see us, and it was wonderful. I'm so glad Kristina and I have remained friends over the years. Best friends, established 2001!

2. David Sedaris -- Noticing a trend in my reading habits? I just finished Me Talk Pretty One Day, and it was absolutely hilarious. I didn't wait too long before purchasing his latest release, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls. I told myself I wouldn't get it so hastily, but I really couldn't resist.

3. Hey, Old Friend -- I played violin for 12 years, and stopped halfway through my sophomore year of college. It was sad, but it was time to slow down and make time for other activities that would be more beneficial in the long run. I've only taken my violin out a couple of times since I stopped playing regularly. Today was one of those times. I'd been thinking about playing again for a few days, but today I finally broke down and did it. It felt so weird, but my favorite sonatas and concertos came back pretty quickly after an hour of reviewing scales.

4. MAT > GRE -- I thought I was done with standardized tests after high school. Apparently not. Grad school has its own version of the SAT called the GRE. I bought a book for it & started going through its exercises. The verbal sections don't scare me, but I haven't taken real math since fall semester of my freshman year at VT. I am not looking forward to math on the GRE. But then, an admissions adviser from one of my grad school options told me about the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), which has minimal math. I looked it up, and boom, no actual math problems. So much nicer-looking than the GRE. Sure, analogies are still tough, but I'd much rather do 120 analogies than face calculus again. What's a derivative again?

5. Ocean Avenue Acoustic -- It's here! It's here! It arrived yesterday! I got my CD and this awesome t-shirt for $30 through a special pre-release preorder. And of course, the album is incredible. Could you expect anything less from these guys? Ahh...I'm so happy I have this. And I'm so happy the Yellowcard guys did this. What a great way to honor the 10 years since its original release.