"A True Friend Is There For You When They Would Rather Be Somewhere Else."

The last few days have been interesting, if nothing else. I'll start with Saturday. We had an attempt at a nice day at the beach, but decided we would rather lay out on the front lawn than pay $15 for parking. So after a nice day in the dirt and grass, we decided to go to the fireworks in Hyannis. Jocelyn, Alyssa, and I took my car, with Drew and her wonderful boyfriend Mike following us in Drew's car. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones to think to go to the fireworks that night, and due to crazy traffic and no parking whatsoever, the two cars got split up. So Jocelyn, Alyssa, and I found a nice spot in the midst of thousands of other people on the Hyannis green. The fireworks were fantastic - and it really felt like summer had officially kicked in. At one point Jocelyn turned to us and said..."You know, I truly feel blessed right now. There is no place I would rather be." Both Alyssa and myself wholeheartedly agreed. On the way home from Hyannis we stopped at Blondie's to visit Jenn/get ice cream and Jocelyn and I both talked about how excited we were for our FAVORITE HOLIDAY (July 4th).

I felt fine that night when I went to bed, but I woke up Sunday morning with an AWFUL pain in my right side. At first, I thought it was just a cramp, and got out of bed to walk around the house. I tried everything I could think of, stretching, drinking a glass of water, breathing really deeply...this cramp would just not go away. I was laying on our couch when Jocelyn came out into the living room and asked what was wrong. "I don't know...I have this really bad cramp...it's really bad...it's actually like the worst thing I have ever felt." I could barely move. Jocelyn got me some motrin and a glass of water. Immediately after I took the motrin, I got sick in the bathroom and knew it was bad. Alyssa called an ambulance and in literally five minutes they were there. I can't really recall anything from then on, other than the pain and people asking me 300 questions. Alyssa came with me in the ambulance and Alyssa's mom came right after we arrived. They stuck by my side the entire day After hearing the news, my mom drove the three hours to get here and arrived right after I had a CAT scan. They put me on some AWESOME pain medication and I slept for about an hour. When I woke up, it was official: I had kidney stones. I went back to Alyssa's house for the night, and she and her mother waited on me hand and foot. We were supposed to sing the National Anthem at the Bourne Braves game but the girls decided to cancel everything for the night. I got a flood of text messages and phone calls from all the girls, and Drew had even packed me a bag of clothes, my stuffed bunny (yeah, yeah...laugh it up), my iPod, my phone charger, and a framed picture of me and my boyfriend. I felt so loved and so looked after, and even through the absolutely excruciating pain (yes...it was that bad) I couldn't help but think "You know, I truly feel blessed right now. There is no place I would rather be."