I feel old.  

I used to be way better at all-nighters.  I think that in high school, I had enough adrenaline and Starbucks pumping through my bloodstream to carry me through any all-nighter.  In college, most all-nighters were in preparation for some sort of exam; once said exam was completed, you were allowed (and expected) to crash completely.  You also did not need to look presentable.  

Nowadays, they kick my butt big time.  Being that I had to leave my house this morning around 5, necessitating a 4:30 wakeup, I determined it much more practical to stay awake than to sleep for ninety minutes and risk not hearing my alarm.  The first leg of my travels today took me to Nashville. 

I snapped this picture arriving at the airport around 8:30 am.  It's just not right for me to travel to a completely different city before noon.  

My roommate and I decided that my four hour layover was clearly God's way of giving me plenty of time to spot celebrities, and to run into my future husband Casey James.  Apparently we were wrong, and the four hour layover was actually just because it was the only flight out of Austin this morning.  

I walked about ten feet past the above-pictured shopping destination to find: 

Holy cow!!  A dippin' dots vending machine?!?!?!  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  I don't care that dippin' dots are a novelty item.  I don't care that they've claimed to be "the ice cream of the future" for at least twenty years now.  I also don't care that they normally cost about $83 for one small cup of them.  I will almost never pass up dippin' dots.  Even at 8:40 am.  Especially for $3.50!  

Today, I did though.  Because the all-nighter sucked all passion and energy from me.  I just couldn't be bothered to stop longer than it took to snap this picture. 

Four hours to kill, and at least two of them waiting for madre to arrive to meet me gave me a lot of time to people-watch at our connecting gate.  More than one person were wearing sunglasses inside the airport.  

I also felt blessed to be connecting from gate C7, which housed snazzy carpet and these comfy thrones:

and not right across the walkway at gate C6, which held boring flooring (hehe) and those crusty old airport chairs: 

Four hours later, madre and I were bound for Providence, RI.  There, Poppy and Goola picked us up to drive to New Jersey for a few days for my cousin's graduation (another reason I feel old).  We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts outside the airport to use the restroom (which had a stinkin' flatscreen tv in it!!) and I was able to get the strawberry frosted donut I had been craving all day. 

Seriously.  An unsuccessful hunt for D'n D this morning almost made me miss my first flight.  I felt pretty satisfied to get to snack on this bad boy.  

And now the lack of sleep has officially transformed me into full on zombie mode... so I'm going to sleep before 9:30 Texas time.  Mark this one on your calendar, kids.  June 23rd (my half-birthday, btw): asleep before the nighttime news airs.  

Sweet strawberry-frosted with sprinkle dreams.