Definitely not your grandmother's fellatio.

"I think all of us would rather have oral sex than throat cancer."

Yes, Mike I think we would. Especially early in the morning. Today in Journalism we discussed a photo that appeared on the cover of a Florida college newspaper of a guy performing cunnilingus on a scantily dressed woman. The photo caused a stir of controversy about whether or not it was relevant to the story of people possibly developing throat cancer after having oral sex with people who are infected with HPV. It sparked quite the debate in class about the boundaries in journalism and whether or not the story could have been sold without the photo. Now personally I think that the story was relevant to college students and I wouldn't have needed the photo to pick the paper up and read, but I don't see any reason that the newspaper should have been penalized for it. In fact I like the photo. Not for journalistic reasons, but because of the taboo subject matter given and the roles that were assigned to the man and woman. It's not you typical oral sex scene, well it is for most people but not the kind that gets printed often. It is rare that women get shown in a position of power in a sex scene. Very often its the woman performing the act on a man and the scene is very lewd and crude. I appreciated the photo chosen by the newspaper and the clean and powerful image that they produced. Oral sex, especially cunnilingus is still the naughty no-no for many  (silly) people and it was nice to see college students who have moved past a back of the bus lipstick game.

Remember to get yourself checked.

Outside of journalism, but still in the realm of writing, I have decided to make my fiction piece more pulpy and exaggerated. I got a lot of surprising feedback from my classmates. They loved the story and they want me to push the limits with it. I think tonight when I get back I'm going to revise another draft so I have a hard copy to give to My Hebrew Friend to go over for me. I think I'll just print him out a copy this time and let him write all over it. I found it most helpful when people wrote on their so I knew exactly where to go back and make changes with it. 

Day Six: 1983

Today my mother took me around the island to all of the places that she and her friends lived and worked. We spent the day mostly down on the southern end of the island by Sombrero Beach and the marina. My mother came to the Keys after a brief stint in Virginia Beach and stayed for almost two years until she and Lance decided to get married in 1984. It took her a little while to find everything, with age comes memory loss, but eventually we got there and no stone was left untouched.

Where she worked when she first arrived. 

Pancho's, the place to be after work. 

The duplex apartment she shared with her roommate. 

Annette, my mother's roommate. 

What used to be the Captain's Galley where Lance worked. 

Lance's apartment on 11th Street. 

Day Five: Key Lime Pie

I know I said I was  going to do all these things today, but today ended up being a nothing day. Lance didn't really want to do anything but kayaking and reading and Samantha spent the entire first half of the day burning herself to a crisp. So after some sunning and napping I made a pie. There's something romantic about making a key lime pie in the Florida Keys. Very similar to camping at Walden Pond. I kind of really wish Marg were here right now. Family time is fun for a little while but now I wish I had someone to cavort around the islands with. Or at least have a bicycle.

I think I made the key lime pie too key limey. 

Day Four: Key West

Today it was a little too cold and windy for a beach day so we drove down to Key West. Way too many cruise ships and college students for my liking but plenty of bad graphic t-shirts for Lance and rum runners for my mother. Got my hands on some conch, more tomorrow and a better beach.

Old Seven Mile bridge.

Hey Cuba! We see you!

Fully took advantage of the open container laws today.

Mile Maker Zero.

Literary Mecca: Hemingway's House.

Hemingway's dead cats. 

Sunset on the ride home (Samantha took this, I was passed out in the car).

Day Three: First Full Day

Finally a first full day of Key Colony. Cheryl dropped by yesterday and stayed until this evening. It was a low key Sunday with some kayaking, beach time, and late afternoon tennis. I finally got to sleep in, but now that Pete's posted the runs for the week I'll be up early and out on the pavement before it get's too hot. High of 85 F today and expected thunderstorms overnight.

Plenty of boats out on the ocean side today. 

Small jetties break up the beach with long piers at the end of them.

Cabana Club on the beach. Not my favorite beach, small and crowded isn't my thing. I want to go over to Sombrero tomorrow. 

Red skies at night sailors' delight!

Cheryl came to visit!

Day Two: Getting better.

Day two was much better. I woke up somewhere in a Denny's parking lot, but I can still say that I have never been inside of one. I continued to finally get much needed sleep and woke up in the upper-middle Keys. 

After I woke up and started taking pictures of each key sign. 

Not yet on Vaca Key but Marathon seems to be taking over. 

Giant dolphin. Why not?

Finally a survivable temperature. 

The house for the week. Right on the canal and close to the beach. Lance and Samantha have already kayaked around Key Colony. 

Almost there.

I'm so close I can almost taste it. I have almost everything packed, I just have to go downstairs and fold my laundry and repack everything and then I will be set. Today was a monster of a day. I have been up since 4am on Wednesday and have been moving nonstop ever since. I briefly fell asleep this morning around 7am and woke up at 7am crying because I convinced myself that I had overslept my 10am midterm. It took me several minutes to realize that I still had two hours before I had to leave for school. I had to rush from my midterm to work because I thankfully switched shifts with The Ballerina. I had to get there early but I was able to leave at 8pm and have since then cleaned, folded, packed and showered and am almost ready for the rest of my family to get here. They're not expected until sometime around 2am or 3am so until they get here I'll just be up doing a little work and watching movies. Not the most exciting Thursday night I've ever had.

I'm thinking that I might not write so much while I'm in the Keys, but instead do a photo blog. Instead of lengthy posts I'll just show pictures of the day and have only a caption or two. I have family and friends that read this so posting daily photos will be much easier than having to call everyone all the time. Pictures are more fun to look at anyways than read some of the stuff than I write.

Book of the Day: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. A story about a hermaphrodite growing up in Detroit during the 1960s and the history of how their family carried the mutated gene through the generations.

Song of the Day: Pyro by Kings of Leon. Not their best technically but still sounds good and has been getting a lot of air play.

Shoe of the Day: Green corduroy slip on Keds. 

Steak 'n Shake on Friday

Argh I wish I were a pirate out at sea instead of a student in Philadelphia. I've been working all morning since I came back from the first half of my American Lit. midterm and then I fell asleep. I just woke up a little while ago and I am starved. I have absolutely no food in the apartment unless you count soy sauce and a few slice of American cheese. I'm going to go out and get something, but I'm not sure what I want to commit to. I have a feeling that it's going to be a very late night and since I have BOMF in the morning I'm almost tempted to get something take a nap for a couple of hours and then eat again and work until it's time to go running. Decisions, decisions.

I'll update this post later.

The lines at Acme were atrocious. They only had the self-serve checkout lines running and I didn't want to wait in line so I walked laps around the store until the lines shortened up. I didn't get much just some stuff to tide me over for the next couple  of days. Im trying to get as much of the perishable food out of the fridge before I go away. I'm almost there. Hopefully the rest of my family won't be expecting anything from me in terms of food when they get in Friday morning.

I still have laundry to do and some homework to finish and now that I've eaten a little I feel much better. I just need to take a shower and clean off the futon and open it up to put all the stuff I need to pack on it. I have to pack light and I'm limiting my clothing to only the barest of necessities. I also want to be packed before I head out to work on Thursday. I have an ugly habit of packing ten seconds before I go anywhere. When I left for college my freshman year I packed my room up three hours before Lance wanted to leave for the city. What a nightmare!

Anyways, sometime on Friday I will finally be able to get to Steak 'n Shake. The greatest fast food chain ever to come out of the Bible Belt. The place makes the world's best milk shakes in just about any flavor and combination. Someone in the car always gets a strawberry banana shake, I prefer something with chocolate, but their banana flavor is simply amazing. Yonni's never heard of the place and most people out of the south haven't unless you've driven through. Yonni doesn't drive to Florida so I'm going to have to tell him about it when I get back from the Keys.

Three days until takeoff, four days until the beach.

Okay last words of the night. I've decided to follow the Andy Botwin sleeping method. Three pillows, one for my head, one between my legs, and one to cuddle with. Makes for some very comfortable sleeping.

So this is cool.

February has certainly been my writing month. I think I'm trying to get it all in before I decide to go on hiatus. Usually happens in the summer months when I get super busy with work. Last summer I sat in front of a computer screen inputing course numbers into a spread sheet all day. By the time I was finished I couldn't write even if I had wanted to. This summer I may just power through, especially if I end up with a job that keeps be away from a computer. I should just go home and work for a landscaping company or a gardening service. If I did that I could waitress at the Hob Knob a few nights a week and spend the rest of the time on the boat. By then Kate and Batman will have had their mocha baby and I can play with it in the kitchen when the dining room is slow. I'm super excited for this kid to be born and I can stop having sympathy food cravings when I work with Kate. Though let's face it, I have the tastebuds of a pregnant woman all of the time. I'll probably end up with a normal palet when I pop my own out. Shames. Of course I would have to share the boat with Samantha, but we all know who Lance's favorite is. Get your boating license bitch.

Right now I am slated to spend the summer in Philadelphia agian. Hopefully my last. I have to take Western Civ II before it goes extinct and maybe a theorlogy or English class. Maybe both. I haven't decided if I want to go after a theology minor yet, but if I do I have to start it this summer. It only means three more religion courses above a certain level which is no problem, I just need to make sure I have enough room with my new major requirements. I do enjoy the summer in the city. It is much more warmer and sunnier than in Vermont and now that I have Twila I can make the trip out to Sea Side and Toms River. A weekend in the park sounds nice with all of the cold weather I have been experiencing in Philadelphia. Of course it's nothing like Vermont right now. I swear Lance is counting down to the seconds when we can leave for the Keys.

I had hockey this morning and Norberg was there. Love Norberg. Apparently so does every other female on campus. I mentioned my love of him in my Sophomore Seminar class and the professor said that the department had been hoping that the Norberg craze had died down. Apparently she hasn't been seeing the long line of girls that are outside of his office during every single one of his office hours. Anyways hockey has been improving. The girls have gotten the hang of skating and holding their sticks. Puck handling has been improving for everyone. Captain has been trying to get the girls to go to an open hockey time at the Skatium and if it's during a night when I'm not at Borders or if I can go afterwards, I'll join them. I also want to get in some freestyle time before Penn closes for the season. Their website and the skate board at the rink say conflicting things so I'm going to have to call down there when I get a chance. Hopefully it's the website that's right because I can only go Tuesday mornings before classes.