I think a sea sprite stole my mind away the last time I was at the beach. The beach has been all that's on my mind lately; I want to be near the sea. There's nothing else I want to see there (though going to the Palmetto Grill is always awesome--especially their spinach and artichoke dip with the fried bowtie pasta... Damn, I'm hungry now.) All I wanna see is the sea. I've never spent as much time around it as I would like. Whenever we go to the beach, we go and hang out by the House of Blues or Broadway at the Beach or one bar or another. I'm tired of staying inside on gorgeous beach days while they do nothing but drink!

I would just like to sit on the sand and stare at the ocean and listen to it. There are few natural sounds that make me happier than hearing seagulls shrieking and the waves going up against the sand. The other natural sounds, in case you're wondering, are the mountain wind and that eerie little breeze that sometimes goes through a graveyard when you're walking around.

Even when we went to the beach on my birthday, we didn't do what I would have liked. I wanted to go and sit on the beach, or visit the aquarium or Ripley's Believe it or Not. Instead, we ended up making a couple rounds at Barefoot Landing and Broadway at the Beach and hanging around some bars and restaurants. Look, I suppose it's understandable that Karen and Dad wanna do it--they're nearing 50 years old and they've never been very fit people, but MUST they drag me along? I just turned into an adult and they insist on dragging me everywhere with them, telling me to "grow up!" Well, if I'm never away from my parents' overprotective gaze, how am I to ever grow up? How am I to form my perspective on the world? It's rather askance right now, thanks to swings of "OMG RIDING ON TOP OF THE WORLD YAY!" and "Am I going insane?" for the past couple of weeks.

I really need to be in charge of my own life for awhile. Explore the world. Form my own perspective.

Now the last wall of the castle--telling them that I've gone to do so!