Summer Wrap Up, Senior Year, and Things.

if you ever find yourself wondering, "hmm.. I wonder how Aly writes all of these blog posts and remembers all of her events to such detail". Well friends, it's not because of my impeccable memory, if that's what you're thinking. My memory sucks. I write down snippets of what happens, so I can flesh them out later when I sit down to blog. Sometimes it's on a sheet of paper, sometimes it's in an open blog post draft or a note on my phone. Here's an example of two blog notes I wrote, copied and pasted into this blog, from June and July. Since I haven't blogged since then, I will show you what I wrote and never got around to finishing.

//June 24th//
Taco Tuesday
tequila, tacos, fun.
Steel stacks soccer event. Emily, dress, no bra, blue and white.
Top down, don't care, naw.
Don't have to babysit. sleep
financial aid, Shaku, class.
Sitting in class
grocery store to make tuna noodle salad.
backpack came!!
wine wednesday

Alecs birthday Thursday oh my god

Friday pack and pick up josh

Firefly ticket 7:59

Can't find Sam or spot

Modest mouse: smile just grew on my face without even trying and I knew I had found what was missing 

Paul McCartney 

Can't find, leave, get josh, set up tent

Wake up, breakfast at Mexican place

Drink all day make friends 

Matt and Kim 

Foster the people

Rain out

Unexpected walk home alone, lost and wet 

Party in the rain all night

Sleep in my car in wet romper and wet towel. Hypothermia ?

8am up and make it to Applebee's.

Bornz - electric love 

Never been so hot. 

Pack up campsite and move car

Someone after that but idk who, then hozier, can't stop listening.

Bastille

Skip snoop dog to get to the front of the killers

Meet people from point pleasant

Killers absolutely blow my mind

Sobbing the entire time because the music and the experience is just so awesome and overwhelming and what I've been missing from my life. 

The white panda, glow sticks 

Drive home, wawa first 

"Wake me up when you're falling asleep". We probably should've crashed. My eyes weren't even open, I couldn't see out of them.

Make it home by 3:30 and shower.

Sleep, josh goes to work

I sleep more until 11:30

Go to my own home

Hang with teddy and rob and eat pasta and watch soccer and catfish

Breakfast at local urban kitchen

Airport

Lehigh

Nap and taco Tuesday

Help students with code

Bars: John: pool: missing phone: missing dot: missing nitro: buffalo wings: 476: kitty: home: bed

//July 29\\
It's physically impossible for me to spend less than $100 any time I go into a Target store.


I don't even remember what some of these snippets are supposed to mean. I can't remember what I was referring to when I wrote them down. Usually I write things within a few days of taking notes, still fresh in memory. The June post was mostly my experience at firefly Music Festival, and I'd like to append some of the notes, just to make them a little more real.

Alec's 21st birthday celebration on June 18th at midnight (so really June 19th) was an actual shit show. I was sober for it because I knew I was driving to firefly the next day. It involved a lot of drunk people, a really awesome cake, and somebody throwing up in their bed. I find it easy to get drunker than the birthday person on their birthday, because it's a celebration to drink, but the spotlight is on the birthday person. So if someone is taking shot with the birthday person all night long because you're celebrating with them, you're likely to drink as much if not more than them. I played it safe and did not imbibe. Holler atcha, sobriety. Friday afternoon I left for Secaucus train station to pick up Josh. He didn't have his wristband yet, and we were on the way to pick up mine. We hit zero traffic. Ticket master warned me I had to pick up my wrist band by 8pm because that's when they leave for the day, and do you want to know what time we arrived at the will-call? 7:59pm. Getting that wristband was one of the most successful moments I've ever had. Firefly is in Dover, Delaware, which is about 3 hours from home. The real trouble was Josh. His cousin sam ordered the wrist bands, and all of their phones were dead. We had no idea where to park, where their tent was, how to get to the concert, nothing. So we convinced a security man to let us drive into the campsite to try and find our friends. We ended up driving in circles, roughly around the area they told us they had a tent set up, but we didn't know where they were. Parked my car in the parking lot of Dover International Speedway, right next to Firefly, left all of our stuff in it, and walked to the concert. Josh couldn't get in, so he sent me, on my own, into Firefly. it was 10pm and modest mouse was playing "float on" as I walked in. I swear it was like a dream. They were on the closest stage to the entrance, and I was drawn to it like a bug to a light. I stumbled through the mud and the crowds, closer and closer to the stage, and a smile crept along my face, getting bigger with every step I took until I was at a full blown grin. I've never felt a moment like that in my life, and I knew I was in the right place at the right moment in time and that everything was going to be alright. I made a few festival friends, but my real mission was to find Sam and co. Impossible. It was just an unattainable goal. After modest mouse, I sloshed my way through inches of mud and beer, barefoot and holding my now-ruined sandals in my hand. I bumped into a crowd of people that spanned a quarter mile in radius from the Main Stage. "Paul's playing" "oh yeah my boy paul" "we gotta go say hi to Paul" and it took me a minute to realize these nonsensical comments from my drugged out new friends meant that Paul McCartney from the Beatles was about to play. Live. Here. At Firefly. I wandered the grounds and checked the tents, not really in a hurry, but keeping an eye open for my friends, while casually listening to one of the greatest musicians from one of the most revolutionary bands to ever exist. It was an experience I will never get over.

I did not find my friends, so I returned to Josh, and once again, we went to my car, grabbed our stuff, and just sat at the campsite we thought could have been theres. Eventually a stranger came up and was like "Elizabeth!?!" the same time we went "Sam!?!", lo and behold we both were looking for people we did not find. We asked them if they knew who their neighbors were, and he said "a couple of jersey kids". That was promising to hear. We asked if he new a "Sam (insert last name here)" but he said no sorry. And then like a zap from a fork in a plug he suddenly turns around and remembers a name and says "Oh yeah, there was some kid named.. Yeti?" and Josh and I freaked out. One of Sam's friends nicknames is Yeti. thank god. We set up our tent and waited not patiently at all for his return. Getting drunk made up for hard feelings.

Festivals are weird. But I love them. fast forward to the last concert of the night, The Killers. I loved it so much I just sobbed the whole time. It's what I do if I really love a band or an artist and I see them live. (read: I hysterically cried from start to finish both times I saw Taylor Swift in concert). There's something about belting along in the same vicinity as the artist that wrote the song I usually belt out alone in my car that's just magical. But that's not the part that stuck in my mind the most. Sure I'll always remember it, but theres a vision I have from the walk back to the campsite that I will never forget. White Panda, some DJ group, was playing a song I love by the Chainsmokers called Kanye, and we wandered over to their stage. The song is building up, and it's getting closer to another bass drop, and all of the sudden, the moment the bass drops, THOUSANDS of glow sticks are hurled into the air by the audience. It felt like I was watching it in slow motion, beams of light, all thrown in unison, floating into the air. Blue, green, pink, yellow, orange, as the strobe lights go off from the stage along with a massive bass drop in the song, people screaming the lyrics out loud. It was absolutely ridiculous. I've never seen anything like that, and that's probably why people go to EDC and festivals like that.

I think that's all I wanted to elaborate on from my notes. The rest of the summer we had a couple more birthdays, I went home for ten days to go to the beach, and that was roughly it. I fed my gambling addiction at Atlantic City, and now I'm back at school.

I'm a TA for a Comp Sci class in Java, where I even get to hold office hours. I feel like a baller. I did a preLUsion (pre orientation) program where I got to hang out with some awesome new first year women engineering students. I'm taking a programming course in Scala, a language I've never seen before. I spent 3 hours in my professor's office last night bothering him about how to do it until I figured it out. It's so satisfying, it's almost an addiction. I love figuring out problems while learning a new language. Speaking of new languages I'm also taking french. Je m'appelles Aly, amirite? un deux trois. On top of that are two Psychology courses, Childhood Development and Personality, which seem to be running similar paths right now, complementing each other. How do babies develop into people and what causes them to act the way they do. What is human nature and why do we act the way we act? What is a personality? what affects the personality, shapes it, builds it. Who are we as people and what makes us do the things we do. These are the kindz of questions we talk about in both these courses. It cray. Today is Thursday, the day of my first ever Society of Women Engineers meeting as President. The rest of executive board and I are super stoked (at least I am). I had a meeting yesterday for all presidents and treasurers for a wide collection of clubs on campus. We learned a whole lot of boring rules we can't break, and got free cookies. It's 12:21 and I have class at 2:35 to 3:50, and then the meeting is at 4. All very exciting things. So exciting I think I might take a nap. 

Everything

Tuesday afternoon. I walked back from proctoring an exam in the rain to my house. I didn't know it was supposed to rain today. My sundress got drenched, but I didn't take it off. I kind of smell like a wet dog. Maybe a wet puppy. but it's still wet, and I'm still wearing it. sitting at my desk. Well, the desk I bought from Claire. I guess it's mine, but it doesn't feel like mine. eating cream cheese and grape jelly on an eggo waffle. A messy meal, a meal for children. I only eat it because I babysat my neighbor's kids and that's what she packed for their lunch. It looked really good. Only she didn't pack them eggos, she made a sandwich out of it and cut it into triangles. Triangles are my favorite shape. If I got a tattoo, it would be the outline of a triangle, on my neck right behind my right ear. I put a temporary tattoo of that very thing in that very spot over memorial day weekend and somebody I didn't know told me that it looked good and they liked it.

A lot of things that I smell today are bringing back really old and weird memories. The air fresheners my housemate bought and strategically placed all around our house make it smell nice. Today, for the first time, I walked into my house and the smell instantly brought me back to my Aunt and Uncle's old house. I spent a lot of time there because my cousin, who is an only child, is exactly 1 year, 1 month, and 11 days older than me. Which means she's smack dab in the middle of Rob and I. We would spend hours and hours playing nintendo and making videos and drinking grape soda in the basement and accidentally spilling cans of it on the carpet but not telling our Aunt and mastering the art of carpet cleaner by the age of 6. They eventually found all of the stains when they ripped up the carpet to change it. And then, I was making eggo toaster waffles for myself and the smell brought me back to my parents' old log cabin we used to live in. Specifically, we used to have a Disney popcorn machine. You would put the kernals in and then when they popped you would hold a brown paper grocery bag, Usually A&P cause that's where mom worked and we shopped, and you let the popcorn fall into it. Then, you would add the melted butter. Followed by salt, lots of salt. And then mom folded the top part down so you could grab onto it. Our little hands holding on for dear life, shaking the popcorn bag with all of our might. You had to shake it up enough so that all of the popcorns got plenty of butter and salt coverage. That's what my waffles smelled like today. When you opened the freshly buttered and salted and shaken to shit popcorn bag, and stuck your face in it to smell its glory.

My cousins' college and high school graduation party was Saturday night. All of Sam's friends that I met on memorial day weekend were there. I was looking forward to seeing them again, partially because they're all crazy, and partially because they're all beautiful. The graduation party had my grandmother there, and my grandmother's fiance, and his entire family. That's how I know this family, and I spent enough time with them that I eventually became a part of it. If they ever get married, then I would actually be a member of the family. But I'm basically one now anyway. The party was on the bay beach, and we had a perfect view of the sunset. The bartender they hired was really clumsy. That's one of the worst traits for a bartender to have. Standing there for about twenty minutes, I watched her drop an entire bottle of wine on the ground and shatter it, drop a handle of vodka which (thank god) didn't shatter, and knock over a full water bottle onto the counter. It made me want to go to bartending school because, shit, I could do better than that. We played ping pong and drank until it was dark, and then it was time to clean up. If any of you have experienced this crazy family with me, you know full well that the party was brought back to their garage (which isn't really a garage, its more like a guest house) and the party continued. Becca kept asking when we were going to the bar, meanwhile, she is the youngest one there, not yet even 21. She got the ball rolling, and the next thing I knew I was being dragged into an Uber with becca, cam, and my brother. We didn't know if anybody was even following us, but we hoped they would catch on. sat at the outside bar, and becca bought drinks for her and I. After a few rounds, everybody from the garage started rolling up. I won't delve into the details of the night, but if I had to sum it up in a few words, I would say drinking, dancing, and kissing. Everybody was having fun. Cam flirted with a bouncer and then hopped the fence and ran off to get pizza. I dance with two people for a lot longer than I should have, and eventually, after far too many things happened that probably shouldn't have, my cousin took me by the arm and put me in a cab. The rest of the night was a blur from there, but the only thing that needs to be remembered is the Bolognese pasta. RIP Bolognese. the 20 of us got the extra food out from the party and went to town on it. Singing "Don't. Drop that Bo-lo-nese" to the beat of the song "don't drop that duhn duhn duhn". I really can't say much more, because what happens at club grieco, never happened.

Sunday was a perfect day. Sometimes I'm torn while I'm blogging to post as much detail as I can, which makes the posts super long, or just skim over major parts. But anyway, I woke up on the couch of the garage in different clothes than I remember wearing last. I got up and took a slow look around. People are scattered everywhere, strewn over couches and floors, like somebody yelled " stop!" and people dropped whatever they were doing and fell asleep. I mean, they were everywhere. My aunts laughed at me when they saw me. I must've looked as bad as I felt. I ate a bagel and went back to bed. I slept on the couch in the back room for hours. When I woke up, I felt slightly better. We eventually made it a beach day, like we always do. and we roasted like chickens in the sun, recapping the antics from the previous night. We surfed and played volleyball and kadima(paddle ball) and we slept and swam and had a day. The sun got low, and food was necessary. We left the beach, I was itching to shower. Everybody showered. I put on a sundress. I've been wearing more dresses lately. More dresses and less bras. #freethenipple. Dresses are easy because it's one piece of clothing. and I look presentable. It's all a facade. I put on a face a lot. But then I convince myself that I am that face. I act like the person that I think people think I am. Read it again if it doesn't make sense, because it will. I'm starting to wonder if that's actually who I am, or it's who I'm pretending to be. I believe in a thing called Underface. Depicted here:

We went to the boardwalk in my town for dinner at a bar. I used to hook up with the guy who was our waiter, small, painful world. Cam was wearing just a tank top, and oversized tank top. as a shirt, or a dress. I'm not sure. But I've never met a person like Campbell before in my life. She has three last names. Her first name, middle name, and last name are all last names. Unbelievable. Will and Becca split two Megaritas at dinner. Which is a 49oz margarita. $25 each. it was absurd. The Lobster Mac and Cheese was god awful, and then it started thunderstorming. Some of us went to the arcade afterwards and we played at the candy wheel for a while. We didn't win, but the girl who was working the stand was flawless. She had one nose piercing and a tattoo of a cool pattern on her left thigh and her name was morgan and I liked how she talked. She wasn't afraid to be funny. 

Monday morning I went back to school, and picked up the midterms I needed to grade. This is why I get paid, right? Went to Alec's house to grade because mine is lonely. Watching three best guy friends try and coexist in a house together and do tasks such as grocery shop and put away groceries and cook dinner is a treat. Boys are dummer than fish, but I love these boys. They are one of my main sources of entertainment. I believe, in the words of John Green, that friendship is the business of mutual amusement. So I hope for their sake that I do enough stupid shit to amuse them. I think I do. We watched X-files with no lights on, and it was horrifying. I fell asleep on the couch and went home at 6am. Could I have slept in Alec's bed with him? yes. Should I have? probably not. Crossing lines with friends are things you can't un-cross. So I played it safe with couch, for now. Made it to the 10am class that I graded exams for. Got to hand them back and feel like teacher. I ran into this boy about three times today, and we texted a bunch last night. We were originally talking about the class I am grading. Then we just kept going. It was nice, it was friendly. I don't think it means anything. Not everything that happens is supposed to "mean something". So for now I will ride the wave.

I got to proctor my first ever exam today. I picked up the exams this morning, and when the students got there I waited right up until 2pm to hand them out, that's when it started. I sat around for the full hour and a half watching them take the test, being in their shoes so many times before. Sitting in a room watching people do something you've done more times than you can count is creepy. But I like being on this side way more than that side. Just watching, and grading. and answering questions. I like helping people understand things. 

I found the song I am going to dance to at my wedding. Listen to it and picture a warm, June evening, when the sun is real low and you're on the dance floor outside with the love of your life, dancing and smiling and kissing and so in love. That's what I picture when I hear this song, and if I ever fall in love again and then get married, I am playing this song at my wedding for the first dance. It's the happiest song I have ever heard. 

Stressed Out

Stressed out by 21 Pilots.

21 pilots songs are the only things my brain can comprehend right now. It is an addiction. I can't listen to anything else. Wednesday I woke up and messaged every groupMe I was a part of and asked them for book recommendations. I want to read more books. I got a bunch of responses, and some of them looked appealing once I googled them. I drove myself to Barnes and Noble and came out with and armful of literature. The Girl On The Train, It's Kind Of A Funny Story, Constellation Of A Vital Phenomena. Started Girl On The Train first, will review once I finish. So far, everybody in it is British and the girl is an alcoholic. my kind of book. // After Barnes and Nobel I went to Tony's house to finally finish painting his wall. Finished taping the pattern. Pour the paint. mix the paint. paint the wall. fuck up the pattern. Paint some more. paint over it. let's try labeling the shapes with the corresponding colors Before we paint them. Still mess it up? awesome. Let the paint dry. Peel off the tape. The tape rips off pieces of dry wall in chunks. Ruining portions of our design. Times like this in life really test you. We put hours into it trying to make it perfect, only to have tape and dry wall rip it to pieces. In the end, it still turned out pretty awesome.

Somehow I found myself on Alec's porch later on. Sometimes I don't know how I get places or why I go there, I'm just.. there. I look up and realize I am somewhere, doing something.

That night I went to Vegan Treats in the North Side for the first time with Steph, and got a cookie and a cake. Then it turned into wine Wednesday, and I might have even made a friend. People who like 21 Pilots are my kind of people. Also, who knew vegan & gluten free cakes would taste so damn good.

OH and as I was waiting to get picked up to go to Vegan Treats, I am sitting on my porch and five Townie kids are outside of it on the corner. One can't be older than 18, one is an infant, and three are anywhere from 6 to 10 years old. Turns out they graffitied our porch with chalk. If you look close enough at the picture I posted, they actually wrote "Deez nuts". on my fucking porch. like, WHAT? Go get a hobby, or play in a park or some shit. Don't write things on my porch.

Thursday morning I woke up and took a shower. I could see the grease in my hair. Emily calls me to see if we are still on for lunch at the farmer's market. Yep lemme throw on clothes, give me 8 minutes. Emily loves all things related to growing things and farms and fruits and vegetables and plants. It was hot and nice out, but a little breezy for the dress I was wearing. We took a lap around the square, seeing what each tent had to offer before making choices. I bought an apple cider, and she bought a pepper plant (like a bell pepper maybe? or a hot one?) and some peanut butter. For lunch we ate from the Taza Truck, which has average to above average middle eastern food. No idea what country it's from. Could be anything from Turkey to India. She's a good lunch date. // Walked together as far as we could go before our destinations dictated we go different directions. Said goodbye for the weekend. Next stop, admissions building for me, back to work for her. Dropped off some paperwork at Financial Aid Office so hopefully I can continue going to this ridiculously expensive school. After a phone call with mom, I go home and pack my bags, hop in my car and leave. I picked what must have been the world's slowest pumping gas station to fill up at before we left. // Two hours of 21 Pilots and Taylor swift later, I'm home at my house. Home with my mom, and my pup, and my brothers and step dad. I miss my mom a lot, even though we talk every day when I'm at school. She's just nice, and she likes me, and helps me do shit, and doesn't judge me for my awful decisions. and sometimes she throws me some money for new shoes if mine have holes in them. I miss my pup too, all the time. I've never loved a pet with the same love I have for Ted. Of course I've loved all of my pets, but Ted is different. and I've never seen a dog love a family like Ted loves us. // Went to a local surf shop with Rob, Brave New World. Got myself a new snapback. It's mesh and blue and red and I love it. Rob and I get along sometimes, most of the time. In limited doses. I say the wrong thing, a lot. and I know I do but I don't mean to. Doesn't take it back, but that's my entire life. // At home I convince .. "convince" mom to watch Harry Potter with me. All day I've been craving Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It's a classic. I can quote the entire thing, while simultaneously annoying every other person that's watching it with me.

Stayed up until 1am on the computer watching youtube videos and netflix and modern family on the television. Went upstairs and went to bed, and somehow it's 3:24am and I'm still not asleep. Why sleep when you could not?

Sometimes when you make really, really poor decisions with your actions, you have to sit there and take all of the consequences. Even if the consequences are watching someone you care about get really, really hurt. I'm pretty sure this is an example of the phrase that has something to do with making a bed and lying in it. So this is me, lying in my metaphorical (and actual) bed. Hoping that if I just accept the shit I did, eventually I can stop feeling so horrible.

Jenna Marbles made a video that I watched and couldn't believe I watched it. She says everything that I've tried to put into cohesive thoughts for a very long time. Which is why she is amazing and I love her. Here's that video, in case you're interested.

And also another 21 Pilots song because I can't listen to anything else. it's sick, really. help me.

Migraine

And also...

Not Today

It's Always Sunny

I think if my mom and most people that I know didn't read this, or if I was anonymous, I would actually write what I do with my life. But unfortunately, I give a moderately censored version. Should I censor it? Probably.

I've discovered a new Netflix show. Although it didn't need much discovery, considering everybody knows It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Now that my television is set up in my room, I can lie in bed and watch netflix using my chrome cast. I spend most of my free time simultaneously streaming netflix and grading all of the computer programs I'm responsible for. Fan on, pants off. One leg out, on top of the covers. Charlie Day's whiney voice making crude jokes in the background, lines and lines of amateur java code light up the screen and make my eyes sting. I'm not sure why I write the blog anymore, but I'll keep it anyway, because each post kills about an hour of my time.

Thursday night I went to trivia for the first time. Nitro texted me around 7pm about bars and trivia. me stella dot nitro and face went. I realize that their frisbee names are weird. We went to Sotto's first, saw nobody there, and were like nawwwww, then we went to Molly's instead. Lots of bars do trivia on Thursdays. After we bombed at our first trivia, we went to MacGrady's (my favorite bar at school). They have a shuffleboard table and it's shitty and magical all at the same time. Ran into some familiar faces, had a good time, then went to Sottos for pizza, and finally walked myself home. woke up naked. Guess that's what I get for having my own bedroom.

Friday I wandered over to Meade Street to help Tony paint his bedroom. We managed to tape most of the pattern up, and start the cutting job by the time we were exhausted and decided to call it quits. Hungout at Alec's house afterwards per usual.

there was much more than that, but I'm really terrible at taking pictures. Note to Self: take more photos when doing fun things, while simultaneously not looking like an asshole in real life, taking photos every time I do something. 

Saturday afternoon we drove to the Delaware River Gap to swim and play frisbee and hike way too far barefoot just to float down the river for a while.

Saturday night the Great American Challenge happened. Unfortunately I can't detail this for you, but team Sharks won, and I slept on Alec's couch. Fortunately for me, I fell asleep in the clothes I was wearing, so I could wake up and proceed to wear them all day Sunday.

Emily had a movie showing that night at her work and invited Alec and I to go watch. Her boss told her to "bring your friends". We had nooooooooo idea what we were in for. Turns out it was totally classy and business-y with a lot of important people and fancy french finger food. naturally first thing we do is grab a beer and "business mingle" according to alec. Talked to cute boy with a mustache from Emily's work. Watched video on education reform. focused on High Tech High, a progressive high school in California that isn't involved in a school district. It's takes the framework of the education system that has been in place for over 100 years and just shatters it. Shatters it harder than a wooden chair being roof tested off a frat house. They do hands on, collaborative, student run projects throughout the semester, starting freshmen year. No tests, no grades, just an exhibition at the end of the year to show off the projects. The film focused on one freshmen class and their project was a history class on the rise and fall of civilizations, and a woodworking, engineering class with gears and computers and laser cutting machines. Their end project was very impressive. After the film, we moved into this big, unfinished room with a few tables and a bunch of chairs, and we grabbed another beer and were allowed to eat and mingle more for a bit. We ended up at a table, and we watched as a panel of five men from the community got asked a bunch of questions by other important members of the community. Being the youngest people in the room, we were quite timid to ask any questions. The questions were supposed to be based on the movie we just watched, and for the most part they were. A lot of the answers were focused mainly on Building 21, some new high school in Allentown that's supposed to be similar to this "High Tech High". One of the men was the superintendent of Allentown, another was Bethlehem School District's superintendent, another man said himself that his wife was better qualified to be on that panel than he was, the man on the far right was a professor at Lehigh whom I've never met, and the last man I don't remember. Notice how the entire panel was a panel of men. Not one woman was invited to be on the panel. Since it didn't have high school education as the main focus, I refrained from addressing the lack of women on the panel. Also fun fact, the only people in the room sake for ONE soul were middle-aged to old white people. All the men on the panel? Old white men. Some of the questions the ladies in the crowd had were actually blasting these men. One addressed the fact that some of the kids in their schools can't even read. Another asked about how these progressive schools are beneficial to kids with common learning disorders such as dyslexia. (also who the hell picked the spelling for dyslexia? I never remember how to spell it and I don't have a lingual disability). Another woman actually said how they HAD progressive project-based programs in their school, in the ARTS department of their school, but had to cut them due to government budget cuts. The men on the panel had very nice, generic and vague responses to most, if not all, of the questions. Nonetheless, I learned a lot from this movie and discussion. Some about educational reforms, and some about how racism and sexism are subtle and real and everybody is so numb to it that they're comfortable with it.

Sunday night we wanted to do something ridiculous. Trespassing and swimming naked in the Lehigh river sound good? yep! Pretty sure that's how you become better friends with the friends you already have; get naked and do illegal things. It was dark and I had a flashlight and we were in the middle of the woods and the river was cold and it was frightening and amazing and I loved every second of it.

I woke up Monday morning and pretended to be productive. But I really just sat in my room until 2pm and then went to Alec's house. It's basically a second home. I walked in and he was in the midst of rewiring his entire house speaker system while his landlord pretended to be an electrician. Turns out, neither Alec nor his landlord are electricians. Once Tim, the landlord, left, Alec and I did some major home improvement on his house. Including but not limited to: vacuuming his entire basement ceiling to get rid of the cobwebs, fixing his pool table, and tying cables to straightened out coat hangers and shoving them through holes in the basement roof and up through the living room hole floor. I told Alec he ruined a perfectly good hanger and he proceeded to tell me "naw it's all good we can still use it for abortions". Blatantly kidding, so don't get crazy. It was funny. We picked up Emily and went to the beer supply store. Alec brews beer, and we got to help. It starts out with boiling three gallons of water, then adding some hops, and more hops, and some malt barley and some wheat, aaaaaaand some yeast? I dunno. But it takes about 3 hours. and there's some stirring, and a pretty intense cooling process with water in the sink or something. Then, you put the pot in a cool place and let it ferment for two weeks. I think this batch is gonna be called "the pursuit of hoppiness" according to alec. He's so punny. We played some cards, and I learned how to play hearts. USA women's soccer team won their first game, go America. Alec, Brad, Emily and I played ruit (Lehigh talk for beer pong) in the basement, best 2 of 3, except it was strip-ruit. Each time you lost, you had to take an article of clothing off. Won't tell you who took off what, but I will tell you that it was girls against boys, and we lost twice.

Tuesday was Taco Tuesday, per usual. Woke up at 12pm, did some financial aid things with momma via Facetime, and had a battle with Wells Fargo. I actually hate Wells Fargo. They locked me out of my account, wouldn't let me change my password, and their phone service is ridiculously useless. I almost went cliff jumping today at Peace Rock in Hamburg, but then plans fell through because all of my friends work until 5pm every day, and that's pretty much when daytime activities happen, like river swimming and cliff jumping. Somehow I rallied everybody at my house for Taco Tuesday. So the 8 of us made tacos and margaritas and probably thoroughly scared my new housemate, because together I think we are a loud crew. We cause a ruckus, often, most places we go. I like having friends.

And now it's almost midnight and I'm binge watching It's Always Sunny, typing up a blog for you good people. If you're reading this right now, you're awesome, and I love you. thanks for reading.

Now I get to fall asleep and dream up some more awesome things to do tomorrow. Friends welcome, texts appreciated, snapchats preferred.

Waiting For Love.

Monday:

My car has a flat tire. Sick. It wasn't flat all at once, either. It took its damn time deflating. Which could mean that it had a nail in it, according to mom. Sunday night I dropped it off at the STS station down the street and walked home alone in the dark. I need to talk more walks. They're wonderful. // Early Monday morning I got up and rode my bike for the first time in a long time. Dropped off my keys so they could work on my car. I packed up my room and ate some breakfast, plopped on the couch and put on the TV. What's on besides How to Train Your Dragon. Cool. Might as well watch it. // An hour later they call me and my car is fixed. Since Frank overslept his alarm and was two hours late for school, I asked him to drop me off on his way. Car fixed, take it home, throw all of my shit into it and hit the road. Trying to get to Lehigh as quick as possible, because my friend needed a ride to King of Prussia at 12:15.

When we got back I went to my storage unit with Alec (the bestie is back from Prague thank god). He was a good sport about it. I sat at his house for half an hour while we finished an episode of X-files before we left. X-files is really creepy. I can't tell if I like it or not. // Moved stuff into my house. Time to cook dinner at his house. We goofed around before making dinner, and were only half paying attention to any of the cooking we were doing. I got to meet his new friend kevin. Dinner was pasta with chicken and onions and brussel sprouts. The Frisbee girls came over to see his house for the first time. We did hoodrat things. Jk. we sat around. I fell asleep on his couch and drove home around midnight.

Tuesday:

It was raining on Tuesday. I didn't move things into my storage unit. I didn't do much of anything. So I went for a run. I got lost between the bridges, and ended up out there for 45 minutes. It was cold and wet. I couldn't tell if I was sweating or just soaking wet.

Next, picked up Alec to go to the grocery store to get all the fixings for the first of many Taco Tuesdays. Picked up Em from work on our way. I don't like grocery shopping. I don't know how to do it. I don't know what I need to buy. I don't know how to adult. I go in there and just grab all the things I could possibly think of  that I'll need to eat. No rhyme or reason. Disregarding all money. It's a terrible approach.

Brought my groceries to my house, and didn't want to drive my car to Alec's house because, well, ya know, taco tuesday also means tequila tuesday. Gotta be safe, ya hear? So I wrote my tiny little penny board to his house. I need to invest in a long board eventually. Or bring my bike out here. Although the penny board is quite a workout. Emily made guac, Alec and Brad cooked, and the rest of the girls made the drinks. It was the most delicious taco tuesday I've ever had. such a success.

Alec's house has a pullup bar, so we created a "toll". You have to do two pull ups every time you enter the living room to pay the toll. We're all gonna have jacked arms one day.

We played this game. OH my god. There were about ten of us. and you sit at a table in a circle. Each person gets dealt one card at a time. It's called Kings. The first person to get dealt a king gets to go choose any alcohol they want and put it on the table. The next person who gets a king gets to go choose a mixer. Mind you, to be considered a mixer, it has to be a liquid and have an alcohol percentage of below 5%. The third person to be dealt a king gets to mix the drinks in a cup any way they want to. The person who gets the last king has to drink whatever drink is made by the first three kings. FOR EXAMPLE. We had olive oil and Gin, Apple Pie Moonshine and Grenadine, Tequila and Almond Milk, Buttercup Schnapps and Rum Chata, etc. You get the point. It's absolutely ridiculous and I can't believe we played it. We even added a rule that if you got dealt two of a kind during one round, you had to chug a cream based Genessee ale before it was over. Lord send help.

I walked home with diva and dot, and I had my skateboard. The street behind their house is hill, and it was too steep to stand up and skateboard down, so, I sat. I put my feet on the ground infront of me as brakes, and I just straight street luged it down. It was the most fun I've had in a long time. I continued to luge down more streets on my way home. For some reason I was feeling very ambitious on my ride home, and I made it home in record time. However, as soon as I got outside of my house, LIke twenty feet in front of it, I wiped out so hard. I was getting cocky so I was drifting left and right, and it was going fine except for the fact that the roads were wet. So much blood. much bandaids needed. I fell asleep with an open water in my bed, and I woke myself up by jerking really fast and the entire water bottle (one liter because Nalgene) splashed all over me like a tidal wave. I was soaked from head to hips, my pillows were soaked, my sheets and mattress were soak. So stripped my bed of the sheets, stripped myself of my clothes, and went to sleep.

Wednesday: Although Wednesday isn't over yet, this is when I find myself writing the blog. I have done two things today, paid my rent, and got the rest of my room stuff out of my storage unit. Since then, I've been sitting on the floor of my room feebly attempting to put everything in a place and make it feel like a room. I found my fan and it's been drying off my mattress for the past 3 hours. How exactly do you dry a mattress? Not sure. Winging it. Alec suggested Gold Bond. I believed him for a hot second then was like, wait that's stupid.

Tonight in store for myself I'm thinking monopoly or scrabble with the friends, and some more sleeping. Am I going to continue using my skateboard even though I ate shit last night? absolutely. Practice makes perfect. and it's a better workout than walking.

Here are some songs because music.

Surrender - cash cash

beautiful now - zedd (this on is a little creepy but I like it)

lastly...

waiting for love - avicii

Ode To Sleep

Just a song by Twenty One Pilots that I like.

Friday:

I really actually do not remember what I did on Friday. Let's think. ok ok got it. Woke up, went to get Porta in Asbury Park for lunch with Rob, Monica, Mom and Joe. We had five pizzas and five people. Seems reasonable. And of course a Nutella pizza for (lunch) dessert. Because lunch needs dessert too. Dinner can't be the only one.

Rob, Monica and I romped around Asbury Park board walk until we didn't feel like it anymore. We got home and somebody had the idea to see a movie in the theaters. I am always, always down to go see a movie. If you ever need a movie buddy, you can always call me. Unless I have a prior engagement, I will always say yes. There's something about the big screen, the buttery popcorn smell, and the sticky floors that get me going. We saw Mad Max: Fury Road. I have never seen a Mad Max movie prior to this one, so I didn't know what I was getting myself into. It had the highest ratings out of all the movies in theaters, so we figured we would go for it. It was, in fact, an excellent movie. Although I had no idea what was going on for most of it. I would recommend it if you are looking for an action movie with hints of comedy and feminism. Lots of explosions and bloodshed. 

Friday night was the Rangers playoffs game against Tampa Bay (right?). Popped over to Molly's house to watch it because apparently she's into hockey now. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but it was disappointing to watch them lose. Root, root root for the hoooommee teeeaaaam. Wrong sport? Don't matta. 

Saturday:

Spent my morning and most of the afternoon lying around on the beach getting a butt-sunburn. No ragrets. For some reason my cousin Jake was in a work-outy mood, and we did about 3 sets of sprints on the beach. I don't recommend. Ten out of ten wouldn't do again. I love the beach. I know that most people could get sick of the beach if they went every day, but not me. I love waking up and knowing that I get to go to the beach any day that I am home and choose to. I love the sun and the sand and the water and the towels and blankets and bathing suits and sunscreen and salty air and salty hair and seagulls and surfboards and sandwiches and SANDwhiches (if you know what I mean) and card games and kadima and volley ball and water bottles and all things beach. Every day. I would go every day if I could. I'm trying this new thing where I actually apply sunblock before and at the beach because of like, skin cancer and stuff. It's working, but not 100% effective because I'm defective and don't know how to apply it evenly. If you have been around me within the past 48 hours then you have heard multiple times from me that I have a sunburn on my butt. It's something about people with sunburns, they always tell you about it. You know. You have a 0% chance of not hearing about any sunburn that I have. Because Imma tell you. Because I'm gonna complain about it until it's gone. Even though it's my own damn fault. Deal with it? 

Post-beach, time to shower and get ready. Saturday night at midnight (so technically Sunday) one of my best friends Ally turned 21. My friend Molls and I are already 21 so we planned on going up to Hoboken because she goes to school at Stevens to help her celebrate her birthday properly. And celebrate we did. Driving up to Hoboken, I didn't have an EZ-pass because I lent it to my brother and forgot to put it back in my car. SIXTEEN DOLLARS. I spent $16 on tolls. why New Jersey, why? And they only take cash. like, who even are you? who do you know here? Arrival 10pm on the dot at Stevens, and to her apartment we go. Walk in and there's about 15 or so people in the living room. her apartment is SWEET. There exists nothing like it at Lehigh. Lehigh buildings ain't got SHIT on Stevens. Sorry to say. But it was huge and beautiful and spacious and looked like a home.

Funny story: I pull five bottles of Corona in a plastic bag out of my backpack and put them in the kitchen. Molls and I are gonna split them. Take two of them out of the bag, go sit in the living room to hangout and drink. I then go back into the kitchen real quick to grab the bag with the other three in it so we don't have to keep getting up to drink them. As soon as my hand gets ahold of the plastic bag and I lift it, I hear a "BANG!" like somebody just picked up one of the Corona bottles and whipped it against the wall as hard as they could and it exploded. Luckily the explosion was contained to inside the plastic bag. I have no idea how it happened, but the bottle just burst. I feel a sharp pain on my hand and I look down and just blood. dripping off of my finger. Sink please. wash please. bandaid please. Don't let me look at it. #faintingproblems. A piece of the glass hit my hand so hard it actually left a bruise on my hand (I checked it out Sunday morning). Ridiculous. why would a bottle just explode out of nowhere? I am still baffled by it. and if you've been around me the passed 48 hours, you also have already heard this story. It was messed up.

It's funny how you can catch a strangers eye and somehow know that moment would be the first of many you would have. It started with exchanging glances and laughs during a drinking game with the entire group of us. maybe 22 people. Don't know her name, who she is, who she knows. Just a set of eyes that somehow keeps ending up locked with mine. I take a shot with my friends, the next thing I know she comes up to me and introduces herself. I get a name and an age and a major. Are you going out to the bars? yeah. In the elevator, we fit 18 people in it. the person I end up squished against is her. We get split up from the group, I only know 4 people total out of the 18 we are with. When we accidentally get split up, I am with her and two guys, none of which I know. We are in a bar, it's huge and loud and busy and we are looking for our friends. She takes me by the hand and pulls me and I follow. She keeps my hand the entire time and she leads and I don't let go. There's something about hands, man. Hands. Found our friends, DAncing in a circle with 10 of us. Somehow she ends up next to me, every time. We make it to a rooftop bar. my friend is puking in the bathroom. I go down to check, and I see her again. Her and I are the only two in the bathroom while our friend is puking in the stall. They call a cab for our friend home, but there's no room for me, and she stays with me and offers to walk me home. We get a slice of pizza and run into my cousin. She doesn't smoke so I decline and we walk. She walked me eight blocks to her street, but I needed to go twelve. She offered for me to stay at her place. I almost said yes. But my home friends were at their apartment, and I was driving home with them early tomorrow. She put her number in my phone and called herself from it. Stayed on the phone with me for my entire walk back. alone, at 3:30am in a city I've never been. Sometimes, I really really like people. Just people in general. I love being surprised by people. I'll never see her again but that's okay. I don't think I need to.

FUNNIER story. The first bar we get to, we end up getting kicked out of. The blacked out birthday girl was banging on the bathroom door yelling "STOP TAKING A SHIT". Whoever was in there was taking too long for her. Turns out it was one of the bar tenders. She exits the bathroom in a fury, "You guys need to get the fuck out of here". Who? Me? I didn't do shit, lady. She gets the bouncer. We leave. oops. 

No more stories need to be shared about Hoboken. Ten out of Ten, would go back and do again. Thanks for the memories. 

Sunday:

Wake up 8am, in the birthday girls bed, alone, with molly on the floor. Back to sleep. 9am, I should probably get up. Everyone else is awake. Wash my feet in the bathtub because they are covered in dirt and full of blisters. Hoboken literally did me dirty. Pack my backpack, grab molly, go home. I am actually racing my friends from school (the frisbee girls). They left at 10am from lehigh headed to my house, and I left hoboken at 10:26am. Luckily I beat them with an hour to spare. Gave me time to shower and prepare myself for the day. its 12:42am right now as i'm typing this, and it doesn't even feel like I was so far away this morning. All of that happened last night. Like, crazy how time works, right? It's insane. Anyway, Dot, Diva, Nitro, and Stella all get to my house. They meet Ted, fall in love. The first thing Stella does is lay down face first in my front lawn on the grass. Drunk much? Probably. Not unlikely. 

We get lunch and head to the beach. It's cold, and cloudy, and we waited until we actually heard thunder before we got the hell off the beach. My car has a flat tire, also, so that's cool. We were driving around in Stella's red Prius the whole time. Back to my house for hot tub in the rain. One of the dumbest ideas I've ever been a part of. Odds of us getting electrocuted? pretty high. Went inside for Cards Against Humanity. Every card that Diva picked as the winner had something to do with poop. that girl loves the butt stuff. Headed to the boardwalk to do some touristy things. Butterfly fries on the beach. yum. My favorite arcade next. Diva won a blue ball, first try. One dollar. OH MY GOD. I found the most amazing gave ever. It's basically guitar hero only with a four giant piano keys and you have to hit them matching up with whatevers on the screen. I had to try it. found some quarters, I placed 15th on the top 15 board. I can do so much better oh my god get me another dollar. Next time, absolutely killed it. my friends couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I got 103 keys in the time limit they give you. The top score before that was 82. I blew them away on my second try. Playing that game got me so hyped. My heart-rate was elevated, I'll tell ya that much. Got ourselves some temporary tattoos and other various shitty prizes, and went home. hot tub time round 2. out to dinner at my parents To-Go restaurant, and then they went back to Lehigh, and me back home. 

Dropped my car off at STS down the street overnight in case the tire is too flat to drive tomorrow. Walked back. It was a calming walk, I have to say. Not too far but far enough. it was dark out and warm and breezy and the streets were empty. Decision made, I need to walk more places. Besides the fact that my feet are covered in blisters. 

Sleepy time. Gotta get up early and get back to Lehigh to move into my new house. I like not being in one place for too long. I used to feel comfortable when I was in a place I was familiar with, but I like changing so much more now. I don't wanna stand still. Something about me has changed I think. I itch to just be places with people, even if people means myself. I just wanna be places. I don't want to be attached to one specific place. 

"never let the grass grow under your feet" 

- mom to me via text message 

Electric Love

The night of me babysitting Teddy (when I typed my last post) my friend Sofia came over. I haven't seen her in about two years, and we fall back into the same conversations we used to have. I love effortless friendships. Friends you don't even need to try and be friends with, it just comes naturally. Sometimes things get fucked up, but if you have effortless friends in life, you should recognize it and cherish that shit.

Phrase I learned from this weekend: "Ride the Wave". it's basically a contemporary "Go with the flow". but i like ride the wave so much more.

I woke up the next morning (Wednesday) and drove all the way back to Lehigh. I wanted to nap so badly but instead, I just packed up everything in my room, shoved it into my car, and then it started thunderstorming. I couldn't put things into my storage unit since the heavens opened up with violent showers. So, I went to my usual place: 476 birkel. After the rain passed, Emily and I moved everything into my storage unit, went on a beer run for Coronas and Lime-a-Ritas, and then to the guacamole store for guac. And yes, I mean grocery store. Also, just a side note, I would like to point out that Lime-a-Ritas are fuckin' dangerous. They're 8% alcohol, come in little 10oz cans, and taste like sweet Jesus. Don't do more than two. I promise. the hangover WILL be real. Emily is a master guac maker, although she prefers it a little spicy for my taste, but it's good just the same. We hungout with the other roommates and some frisbee girls, creating a new version of truth or dare. The only new part is that it's played with a deck of cards. When it's your turn you draw a card, if it's Red, then it's truth, and Black is Dare. Unfortunately with the frisbee girls, every black card meant a Shot of Bankers Rum, and every red card meant an uncomfortable question about sex. But let's be real, that's the reason I'm friends with these fools.

As I was typing this, I heard a thud and a scratch on my door (it's 1:15am). I could only assume it was my pup. I let him in and he immediately jumped onto my bed and rolled onto his back, exposing his puppy belly. He does this every single time he's in my room. I got back on the bed and he immediately places his body on top of mine and washes my face for me. with his tongue. I love this dog.

anyway..

Woke up early this morning and tried to be a real person. Turns out I'm just an idiot. I literally packed everything I needed to get ready for the day into my storage unit. Including but not limited to: My bath towel, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, razor, tooth brush, and tooth paste. So, first thing i had to do was walk my ass down to the Rite Aid to pick up everything I needed. and then to Target because of course Rite Aid wouldn't sell towels. duh aly. fuck. While I was at Target, I did manage to pick up a dress and shoes for tonight, along with a romper, and the best tshirt ever made. oh and a coke zero, for the hell of it. love me some coke zero.

Moved final things into storage unit and said goodbye to 515 Taylor forever. You were a great house. The Taylor Gang is a legendary crew and I'm lucky to have been a part of it. The drive home was filled with 21 Pilots. Emily's favorite band. I listened to their newest album, Blurryface, probably three times over. It's pretty good. My favorites are Tear In My Heart, Stressed Out, and Heavydirtysoul. in case you plan on listening to it. I find myself making this drive to or from school very often. it gives me lots of time to think about things. Today's thoughts were mostly about sunburns. A) Because I have a sunburn and B)because a sunburn can be so relatable to things. The thought I had was relating a sunburn to any event or experience you've ever had. Say for instance, this weekend for me, which was this big awesome memorial day weekend party. I didn't realize how great it was while it was happening, only when it was over, just like how you don't realize you're getting a sunburn until you have one. And then fresh after it happens, you're still ablaze from the memory of it, riding the coattails of the good time, that's the actual sunburn. It hurts because you know you can't go back and turn the memories back into moments. And then once you start peeling after the sunburn, it's like you're letting little pieces of the memories go, leaving no more physical trace of the sunburn. Just a newer, tanner version of yourself. This could also be a metaphor for a relationship, but I need not go down that road.

As soon as I got back to my home in Point Pleasant, My mother, step father, brother, and doggie were waiting outside for me. Guess I got there just in time, because I walked in the front door as Monica came upstairs ready to leave. We all piled into the Tahoe, right after grabbing ice cream from the ice cream man with my 6 year old neighbor. Destination? Atlantic City.

The idea for this trip came about when a buddy of my step dad's, Jeff Pirrami (also known as "the fat rat bastard" look him up on google he's a riot) invited us to see his show, Burlesque, in the Borgata. He got us all free tickets to the sold out show, so we figured we would make a night out of it. First Stop: The Knife and Fork. Holy amazing. This building has been around since prohibition, I kid you not. 1912. It was super old and the benches on the booth seats lifted up to secret compartments to store your alcohol when the cops came. Sounds like a high school party to me. We had one of the best dinners I've ever had. The most notable part of dinner was the French Fried Beet Chips. Slices of beets, fried like potato chips. They tasted like sweet and salty chips and they were just magical. holy good god.

At one point in the conversation we got to talking about stick shifts. Monica told us she was fortunate enough for her parents to buy her a car for her birthday one year. She said they bought her a stick shift in order to keep her from texting and driving. But she tells us while laughing, "I can cream cheese a bagel drivin that thing". I guess their tactics didn't quite work.

Full to bursting, we rolled our way out and into the car. Next Stop: the Borgata Hotel and Casino and Spa. This is by far my favorite hotel/casino in Atlantic City. You could say I'm spoiled via Location in my life; an hour from NYC, and hour from Philly, and hour from AC, so I am no stranger to this place. I've been coming here to the hotels and casinos ever since my mom met my step dad and got married in '06. Sometimes we just come down here for dinner. Nothing special. Just dinner. My step dad has been coming here ever since he could drive. We parked the car and made our way to the casino floor. YES. Finally. I'm 21 and get to use my powers for good. and by that I mean Losing $54.50 on slot machines... Womp. Not as good as the first time I was at a casino in the US for my birthday last month. I won $175. Wizard of Oz slots let me down this time. Mom made out like a banshee right as we were leaving, winning a hunnerd somthing off of her initial fifty to start. She won $88 on one spin. That's som bullllllshit.

Final Stop: Burlesque. Now when you think of a burlesque show, you probably think of nipple pasties, flashy costumes, loud music, boobs, butts, and naked women. Well, add in a fat comedian and you've got yourself the Burlesque show at the Borgata. Now I know you're thinking, "why the hell would you see a Burlesque show with your parents and your brother and his girlfriend." But in reality, it wasn't that bad. and the show itself was OMG worthy. I would see it again in a heart beat. fifteen beautiful women showing off what their mother gave them on stage to music and dance? Yep. Absolutely. The best number was with two girls and a hoop dangling from the ceiling. they did some cirque de sole shit, accompanied by the 50 shades of Grey version of Crazy In Love by Beyonce (will post below if you haven't heard it yet). It was hot. so hot. oh and Jeff's jokes were hilarious too. Like laugh out loud funny.

If there's one thing I learned from watching this how, it was the art of stripping. Because let me tell you, there was a lot of stripping. Lots of stripping, and lots of nipple pasties. So here it is folks, in case you ever need to strip for someone.

The art of stripping: always start with gloves, and you must throw them in a sassy manner. then hats or anything on your head. followed by any outer jacket or garment. Next is your dress. but make sure you're wearing a corset because that follows the dress. You can untie it yourself or let them do it, or let another half naked girl do it. If you're wearing one, remove any drape covering underwear. Last but not least, you take off your bra. All that's left is undies and pasties, and it's beautiful. Sometimes you can even get the boobs to spin in the same direction if you practice enough.

After the show, we met up with Jeff and some other really old but famous comedian, and went to the Long Bar, some classy looking bar in the hotel. We actually saw four Burlesque girls there in regular clothes, and I was absolutely star struck. I wanted to like, go up and just tell them how amazing they are and buy them a drink. It was really odd though, seeing them go from Literally just nipple pasties and underwear to yoga pants and nikes and a zip up hoodie. Like, marry me, plz. thnx.

We all ordered drinks and I got my favorite per usual: Whiskey sour. I started feeling like an adult. Then I was like, naaaaaaaaah. The ride home was a bit rough. life lesson: don't drink and ride in the back seat of your parents Tahoe. or you gonna get sick.

the game of the week so far has been Dice with Buddies. a game an old friend of mine showed me, but my mom plays it all the time still. She's got me into it, and I got Monica into it, and I'm always looking for people to play with. So if you have it, and are reading this, and want to be my friend, you should start a game with me. I wouldn't hate it. 

Thats about all I got. Here's my new song for the summer, along with the song from the burlesque show.

the part they used in the show starts around 1:30 in this video. It's not exactly the same version of this song but it's close. and fuck. is it sexy.

Trap Queen

Being trapped in a car for three days with someone who is sick with strep throat can only have two outcomes. 1) I walk outta this trip with strep throat. Or 2) I have the immune system and will power of a deity.

.. I wrote that post while I was still on the road on my cross country trip from Colorado to Pennsylvania. A lot has happened since then, I guess life got in the way of blogging. But so far I've ran into three people I don't speak to regularly or at all who have told me that they like reading my blog and keep up with it. SO, since today and I am sitting at home all night, babysitting my dog who's in a cone (I'll explain that in a minute) I figured I would try and type my life out since it's been so damn good.

To wrap up the road trip, I got back to Lehigh and went to the frisbee girls' house to pick up my car and water Emily's plants. That girl has a lot of plants. A. Lot. on the porch, in the kitchen, in her room, on the roof. plants. flowers. cacti. you name it. My car was blocked in and I panicked for a bit because Rob had to leave home for Jersey but he didn't want to leave me if I didn't have my car. Turns out Em left me a car key to move her car and all was well. I watched the movie Kingsmen twice in a row that night, too tired to do anything else. The first time was for me, the second time was with somebody else. Luckily for you, I don't kiss and tell. I actually ended up missing Lehigh's graduation ceremony that I wanted to go to because I was too tired from the road trip. Actually, the graduation ceremony was the only reason I went back to Lehigh instead of going straight home to Jersey. But, as it happens, it worked out fine.

The next few days I spent at home are pretty much a blur. Monica, Robbie's girlfriend, came to visit. She flew in on Wednesday. Mom and I thought it would be a fantastic idea to rearrange all of the furniture before she got here. We weren't happy with the layout of the living room and the den, so we were just like, fuck it, let's switch them. So we did. and it surprisingly turned out really really well. My favorite black, leather sectional couch is in the den, where the big TV is. and the two leather chairs and the round side table got moved to the living room, where it's much more secluded. Moving furniture is actually a pain in the ass. But the entire time, I couldn't help but say "I'm having so much fun", because I was having fun. I'm a big fan of moving furniture around. Anyway, Monica is here, and she's from Cali and went to school with Rob at Boulder in CO. She's a total doll. I love her. We hung out for a while. I learned that the game Heads UP! is actually dangerous. (see instagram). At some point I saw Pitch Perfect 2 with Elizabeth. I got a good laugh from it, although it was a bit short of a cinematographic masterpiece. Then, one of the days, I shut my finger in the front door of the house and ripped some skin off of it.

The highlight of my life so far since summer has started was Memorial Day Weekend. Which also was my cousin Jake's birthday (and the twins, Carly and Lyndsie). I picked up Josh from his cousin's house in Colts Neck on Friday morning and we went to Normandy Beach to prep for the weekend. Sam and Jake got there shortly after us and we had a lot of work to do. We had to finish decorating the garage with picture frames and make sure there is enough room for people to sleep. Jake and Sam pull up in a huge pick-up truck and in the truck bed is, I shit you not, a pig. No, not a live one. Picture this cold, wet, dead little piggy who was gutted, tied up, and put in a bag. I didn't even know what to say. But their plan for the weekend was a pig roast. They had two kegs, and just armfuls and armfuls of booze. Josh and my first job was to get to WaWa as fast as we could to pick up ice for this pig. How much ice do you need to keep a pig cold? I dunno, do you? Nope. 18 bags of ice sound good? yep. So that's what we bought. A few of Jake's and Sam's friends got there on Friday night, and we hung out at the house and got to know each other a little. It's sometimes hard for me when I'm there because all the cousins, Jake Josh and Sam, all seem to know each others friends, or at least, it seems that way to me. And not many people know me. So going into this weekend, I knew 4 people that were going to be there. At most, there was about 30 people there. However, by the end of the weekend, we were chatting and had said that everyone there was really, really great company.

Saturday morning we woke up at 8am to get the pig roasting. People just started showing up at all hours of the day, we got some games going, some music playing, and there was just some good, wholesome fun. I learned a few new drinking games, and made some new friends. It was awesome. I can't explain much more to you, because "What Happens At Club Grieco, Didn't Happen", but I will do my best. By the time Saturday afternoon rolled around, I found myself asleep in the garage on the couch, awoken only by a group of 5 people that I didn't know but they knew me, dancing around and singing one direction. It was probably about 5pm and I heard the song "Kiss You" and it happens to be a favorite of mine. So I got up, put on my snapback (that wasn't really mine, it was Cam's, who is one of those girls that books are written about, my god) and my sunglasses, and danced. and sang. and rallied for the day. I'm pretty sure I was hungover by that time, but a few (seven) ibuprofen later, and I was fine. Before I knew it, there was talk of "wanna go out?" "when are we going to Hemmingways?" "who's all going?". Shots were taken, mostly of fireball, mostly out of sea shells, Ubers rolled up, people were scrambling around. It was a free for all. But somehow, we all ended up at the same club, and even managed to grab a booth. Bar or a club? I honestly don't know the difference. I think it has to do with size. I would rather not say what happened at Hemmingways that night because A) I don't really even remember and B) the parts I do remember do not need to be repeated on the internet. But you can only imagine that it was a damn good time.

That night I slept on a half-inflated air mattress with no pillow and no blanket. Woke up and found my phone, and a full bottle of water on the bed. I love you, Nalgene water bottle. Never let me down this entire weekend. Checked my wallet; ID, check. Credit Card, check. we made it folks. we did it. We got our lives together and made it to the beach. I tried to prevent a sun burn, but alas, that shit is inevitable. I even purchased a bottle of sunscreen for myself, and applied rigorously, the most rigorously I've ever applied in May. Yet, still sunburn. I purchased the most beautiful Navy Spirit Jersey that has Normandy Beach written on the back. It's something that I would steal from somebody if they owned it. But now I own it, so I don't even have to steal it. Sunday night we held a Beer Pong tournament. Played with random partners of either Boy/Girl, or Girl/Girl. It was absolutely boss. I had such a good time. Ridiculous. My partner was Becca, this short, curly haired girl who was easily as good as I was at beer pong. Our first team we played was her boyfriends team, and we ended up beating them. I hit the last cup, and it was great. We celebrated so hard. We lost our second and third games, knocking us out of the tournament, but the two teams that we lost to were the ones who ended up in the final four. So, I don't feel that bad. I don't know what even Sunday night was, I think it was pretty chill, and I wish I could say more, but I can't. I have some snapchats of the night I might post on here with this post. I haven't decided yet if I will. but, what happens at club grieco, didn't happen.

Monday morning people started rollin out, and the clean up started. I bet you're wondering, where are the parents in this situation? Well. Because of the entire party, my aunt and uncle left for the weekend to stay at another cousin's house. absolutely absurd. My aunt is completely anal about her house, and keeping it clean, and basically it just got trashed. We cleaned up as best we could before she came home. I thought it looked pretty good. the rest of sunday was spent on the beach, soakin in them rays. and by that I mean getting more sunburned. This weekend was one for the books, and if you were there, you know, and if you weren't, then you just can't.

Josh and three of his friends and I got dinner at the Patio Bar last night and it was just the perfect end to the weekend. The sun was setting, our table was at the edge of the deck, looking out over the bay, there was live music playing, we had drinks and shrimps and oysters (yes I tried one) and nachos and calamari and clams and lobster rolls, and it was just fantastic. I've never had a summer start out so great.

Both of my brothers had the stomach flu last night, so we spent the night in watching Harry Potter. I fell asleep on the couch at 9pm and woke up in my bed at 11am. You could say that I was wiped out. I woke up this morning and walked into my mom's office to over hear a phone conversation of her and my step father about my dog, Ted. If you aren't aware, this dog is the love and light of my life. I have never met a more amazing, brilliant, loving and sweet creature in my life. He loves easier than any human could ever love, and he loves me. A rare trait to find for me. So as you could imagine, hearing that he jumped out the window of my family's Tahoe going 50mph almost brought me to tears. I almost started yelling. but once I calmed down, I had to wait until my step dad got home and brought him inside. He was limping a little, had a gash over his eye, and road rash all over. My step dad said he heard this huge noise and looked into his rearview, slamming on his brakes and almost hitting a pole trying to pull over, all while watching his baby puppy dog go tumbling down the shoulder of the road. Boom, boom, boom, this poor dog just slammed along the highway. Just hearing this story was horrifying. I cannot imagine watching it happen in person, because my step dad loves this dog more than I do, and I say that with full confidence, and I love this dog more than myself. Mom took him to the vet and they patched him all up, nothing too serious, but he has to wear a cone so he doesn't bite off his bandages. My step dad took the Tahoe to the cleaner to get the blood and fur out of the carpets. My family is so busy that unfortunately they can't be home for a portion of the night to take care of the pup, so that's where I come in. I'm sitting on the couch, with this baby at my feet, miserable in his cone, watching chopped and typing up the blog. I don't have a strict schedule, so fortunately I was here to watch him. I'm making sure he's happy and is not licking his bandages. I also have to hand feed him and water him because his cone makes sure he can't hit the ground.

I'm so sunburned it hurts my insides. This is nowhere near my worst burn, but it's still not pleasant. It's a light burned glaze over my whole body. I'm looking to eat some dinner sometime soon, and can't stop craving fried chicken.  If anybody wants to come over and have dinner with me, I wouldn't say no.

this post is super long. I didn't even proof read. no regrets. I should probably either blog more frequently, or have less detailed blogs. But let's face it, if you've made it to the bottom of this blog, then you had the time to read the whole thing anyway. and now, I leave you with the song of the weekend: Trap Queen.

Illinois thru Ohio

10:50pm Saturday Night (typing to you from room 319 at the Hampton Inn and Suites: Youngstown, Ohio)

Robbie woke up today looking and sounding like he had the plague. Alarm went off at 5:30am and he took a shower. Then immediately came out and had the chills and was shaking and went back to bed. Hmm. More sleep for us I suppose. 8am rolls around and we make the call the Rob is too sick to drive today. I run around the hotel looking for advil or some sort of fever reducer/pain reliever, and also deodorant (because one of us that isn't me forgot it). I grab and butter 4 pieces of toast, some capt'n crunch, and a hot tea to bring upstairs from the complimentary breakfast. Rob falls asleep and I get to shower. I come out and he's asleep in the bed with a plate of toast on top of him. Kid must've been tired.

Checkout and hit the road. Drive .2 miles and stop at target. Purchases include: twin pack of tooth brushes, a razor for me, and some starbucks. ok WE OUT. I know I'm the solo driver for at least six hours, so earlier this morning while I was letting Rob sleep I made a six+ hour long spotify playlist. and it didn't let me down. We hunkered down for some solid driving, and I drove straight through two tanks of gas, making only two stops for gas/food. The first leg of the trip it was pouring. So badly. I actually had to turn my hazards on and drive 40mph. I could barely see the car in front of me, let alone the rest of the road. It proceeded to rain for most of the state of Illinois and Indiana.

I've started to make a mental list throughout this road trip, and wanted to write it down to remember it. It's called..

Top 50 Most Mildly Annoying Things That Happen to Me (in order of when I think of them)
1.) Driving behind and next to three Tractor Trailer Trucks
2.) Having somebody pass you on the right
3.) Having to slam on your breaks because everyone in front of you sees a cop and throws out the anchor
4.) Having your last hair tie snap while you're putting your hair up.
5.) Forgetting to Pack a key toiletry, such as toothpaste or deodorant.

More to come, as soon as more mildly annoying things happen to me. Today was severely uneventful. I drove for seven hours straight, from 11am Central time to 6:42 central time. Filled up for gas, and Rob drove us the last hour to the Hotel in Youngstown, Ohio.

The room isn't as nice as last nights room, but the beds are the same. With the same sheets and pillows. The bathroom in this hotel room is waaaay less fancy than in Peru, Illinois (where we stayed last night also in a Hampton Inn&Suites). Mom googled us a restaurant to go to, and it ended up being two buildings away from our hotel. It was called the Station Square. It was a semi-fancy semi-casual Italian Restaurant. Now, seeing that our step dad owns an amazing Italian Restaurant, sometimes it seems insane to go to other ones, especially when we don't know if they're decent before hand. The first things that gets brought to us that we ordered were our soup/salad, shrimp cocktail appetizer we ordered, and the bread. oh the bread. It was literally sandwich bread. Like white bread. Like wonderbread if I had to choose a brand name to give it. It was a rocky start for us, but the entrees were pretty good, as were the shrimp cocktail and soups/salads. Overall 5/10, might go back again. Wine was good. I got a glass of wine. Because legal and I can. Rob and I chatted about how different we are and why we manage to get on each other's nerves so quickly. We decided that we are so similar in some ways, and too different in others. I'm a macro and he's a micro. Plain and simple.

Post dinner coma. Rob facetimes girlfriend Monica. who is visiting us in NJ for Ten whole days. the excitement is real. She was going to smuggle Robbie some In-N-Out burgers the day she left, but she is leaving too early so they won't be open. Disappointment.

Final grades went on the internet today. I got 2 B+'s and 4 A's. 3.75 semester GPA? I'll take it I suppose.

Snap chat is my favorite application for social media. Like, if I had to pick one. add me ;). alywang.

I think I see a trip to Houston, Texas in my future. Whether that future is in my sleep tonight or in real life later this summer, I'm not sure.

Now, currently, Listening to the Smiths, putting some more songs on my extensive spotify playlist, and writing this blog. No idea what time my alarm should be set for tomorrow, and I don't even care. I'm just gonna sleep until I wake up. Night night.

Distance of day 2

Total distance (~1200 miles)

LOL at the Peru Hampton Inn. come on. 

mmmm clean white sheets

because I'm super fly now. 

So disappointed with the bread sitution

SURF AND TURF good god.