This is a picture of me six years ago on the day I graduated from college –

This is a picture that 2012 Angela would have sent 2006 Angela a few weeks before said graduation (if one could do those types of things…) –

College went something like this for me:

Ugh, I don’t know what I want to do, but I have to go to college….  Oooh, I’ll be a Liberal Arts major.  That’s broad enough….  Oh wait, I like to write – I’ll be an English major!….  If I have to write ANOTHER FLIPPING PAPER about a book I am going to go jump off the Ben Franklin Bridge….  I’ll switch my major to Political Science!  I like politics, and all that matters in the end is that I have a degree of some sort, right?….  RIGHT?!

I went to Rutgers University (it’s a good school) and my lack of direction aside, I was no dummy.  I graduated with honors.

Six years later, to quote Sandra Bullock‘s character Lucy in While You Were Sleeping, “I go to work and I sit in a box like a veal.”  Granted, she sat in a toll booth while I sit in a cubicle, and my lovely desk job has probably turned me into a much fattier piece of meat than a veal but you get the point.

Is this where I wanted to end up, with a yearly salary that is STILL a smaller number than the amount of money I had to take out in student loans to finance my useless Bachelor’s degree? (Still paying those back by the way…)  I guess that’s what happens when you don’t have a plan but even years later I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up (some more).

I guess I should just be happy that I’m not graduating NOW, when a picture like this would be the most apropos –

There is one good thing I took away from my college years (aside from that lovely, EXPENSIVE piece of paper hanging on the wall in my home office) and that is Starbucks Passion Tea Lemonade.  There was a Starbucks on campus.  Going there for my PTL fix was the only thing I looked forward to every day.

Last week at the grocery store I saw Tazo Iced Passion teabags.  The thought that I could now make my drink at home instead of paying Starbucks the six dollars and a kidney it costs for a Grande Tea these days made me very happy.  Then I had an even happier thought, and that involved Limoncello.  Enter, Tipsy Tea Lemonade…

This one is pretty simple.  Prepare the tea according to the directions on the box and sweeten it (or not!) to your tastes.  I used honey to sweeten mine.  Once the tea is chilled fill a glass with half tea and half lemonade.  As you can see, I used a bottle of convenience store lemonade (if you don’t have a Wawa where you live I’d like to offer my condolences) but if you want to get fancy feel free to make your own!  The last step is to add as much Limoncello as your drunken heart desires.  I used about a shot glass full.  Mix, add ice and ENJOY!

Cheers to all the recent grads!  Make this drink for your poor mothers when you all have to move back home for the next ten years…