Since one will turn to any distraction during finals week (can we just talk for a moment about how many Lifetime movies I've managed to watch in the past 48 hours?) and since I seem completely incapable of actually studying my notes or solving problems or doing anything else even remotely productive, and since I would really rather be in the Keys than here right now, I'm posting this. Also, my parents have stayed here

Plan ahead if you want to stay at the Lightbourn Inn, whose 10 rooms seem to sell out year round. The owners, Scott Fuhriman and Kelly Summers, have gathered the collections of a traveling lifetime in this handsome 1903 family house. Because the inn is on Route 1, there's enough road noise to make poolside rooms preferable. 907 Truman Avenue (800-352-6011; 305-296-5152). Doubles from $98 to $298, including a lavish breakfast buffet.

and highly recommend it. They love the two drag queens who run the place.

Also, I've been meaning to post this for ages, but my brain is too full and mushy from finals to say anything interesting about it at the moment. So I'll just leave you with this (for those who don't click the link, this is excerpted from the regular column of an extremely liberal thinker/writer in our extremely liberal free A&E "rag" called Creative Loafing):

I've warmed you up with a little literary napalm. But what I'm going to write next isn't easy. It's the sort of thing journalists aren't comfortable acknowledging. Here it goes ...

I testify that I am a Christian. I have been ever since I came forward at a Billy Graham revival when I was 8 years old. I later fell from grace and had a lot of dark years I'll have to account for on Judgment Day. My life did not turn around until, 14 years ago, I got down on my knees and prayed. That's something I do every day now. I prefer small churches to the show palaces; Christ said to pray in private. I've felt called to be a minister, but figure I'd get to do less preaching than with this gig.

These are the sorts of "confessions" that liberals don't make often enough. It's like admitting to smoking while a student at the public health school or coming out of the closet to your southern baptist parents. I'm guilty of it too - I love discussing religion in this abstract, not-me, sort of way, but get squeamish when others confess their own personal religion, much less feel comfortable going into the details of mine. But in the spirit of things, while I'm not entirely comfortable with the Christian label, I will offer this "confession" - I talk to a vague higher power that I refer to as God pretty much on a daily basis. I feel very close to "it" (for lack of a better gender-neutral term) and feel that my life is enriched due to this relationship.