After her misadventures with Mandy and Katie (and a few of her own), Lorelai eventually settles down into the rest of her college life with that changeling girlfriend of hers. And now it's summer - and Lorelai's at peace with herself, having reconciled with Mandy and Katie, started work on her debut novel, started taking drawing classes, gotten on antidepressants and come to terms with her autism, and finally gotten a pair of glasses (her eyesight is gradually worsening - thankfully, it's because of age, not because of her diabetes). She's finally embraced being the geeky siren she was always destined to be - and to top it off, after much, much prodding from Mandy, she takes up surfing again, this time at an indoor surfing center in the nearby town of Elliotsburg, where the water is fresh. Out on the waves, even if they're artificial, she feels the spirit of her dad come alive, even if only for just a tiny bit. You see, that semicolon tattoo on her calf is not there because she likes good punctuation. When her father, famed pro surfer Jack Benson, died of a congenital heart defect that forced him to retire early, Lorelai was absolutely devasted - she felt as if her story ended when her dad's did. But her story went on. And it continues on.

Also, Lorelai's a big fan of Ween - largely because her father got her into them by accident (he'd play The Mollusk and 12 Golden Country Greats on the way to Lorelai's surfing practice in that beat-up Volkswagen bus that Lorelai now owns), but because they remind her of good times. They were the last concert she went to before she woke up with an extreme thirst, gradually lost 20 pounds over two weeks, and started throwing up anything she'd try to eat or drink - and this was when she was nine. In fact, it's at that concert Lorelai discovered her lifelong love of Tahitian Treat (it's the one sweet she even likes - ever since starting on her closed-loop autopilot, she's at least had one once a week, albeit paired with a protein of some sort, usually boiled eggs) AND where her father gifted her not only her shell necklace but also her butterfly hair clip (he would constantly call her his "Butterfly" - he heard some guys say it in a crappy song once).

And with the surfing territory comes the movie that's on TV - if you can tell what movie that is based on the very slight bit of still you can see, I'll actually draw you something within reason. First person wins.

So now we get to see Lorelai's summer outfit - and see that she is, indeed, the daughter of a pro surfer and a half-mer. Despite the whole blood sugar thing, Lorelai's medical tech is advanced (even compared to today, where this stuff is at least three years away from market): a watch that reads her glucose levels without sticking herself, an efficient patch pump, an uninterrupted connection between watch and pump, and an insulin that works immediately upon injection and gets out without two hours (so she has less insulin stacking effects and thereby less low-blood-sugar events). This means that she's effectively a non-diabetic under these conditions - and with that, she's found herself walking barefoot a lot. And barefooting is a mighty tough thing on your feet, especially in a hilly town like Gold City. That doesn't mean she's not ticklish anymore - in fact, she thinks she's even more ticklish than ever before. Lorelai still takes care of herself, she still fights for herself, but she's not trying desperately to be the toughest girl in the room anymore.

Stay safe out there.

Lorelai Benson belongs to me.