Day 151 - The Official Beginning of Summer

Today has been surprisingly productive. I woke up (a tad later than I planned) at 8:45 a.m. and straightened hair/got ready for the day. I took an inventory of the kitchen and went out to the grocery store to get the ingredients for dinner (rather simple - we're just grilling out).

I "accidentally" passed the grocery store and just happened to pull in to a Starbucks parking lot - but really, what can I say? It was 9:00 a.m., 92 degrees, and I needed a fix. With a venti Raspberry Passion tea in hand (about 10 minutes later ... they were really slow), I finally went to Albertson's, only to get lost in the aisles. Oops. I guess I don't really remember where everything is.

I came back home, unloaded groceries, and made myself lunch (peanut butter sandwich and some Honey Nut Cheerios). After putzing around for a while (there was a MADE marathon on MTV that I got sucked into), I worked out some, mostly just strength stuff and ab workouts. I made cookies, and then put a swimsuit on and went to tan.

I surprised myself by laying out for about an hour and a half, and as of right now, I'm not even burned! Though I am beginning to get tan lines .... which I'm not a big fan of (I'm thinking an investment in another bandeau top might be in order). But the most exciting thing? (other than realizing that I may not always be Casper the Ghost) I'm getting shoulder freckles, which, to me, is the quintessential sign that it is summer.

The freckles always show up right at the tops of my shoulders, where the arm meets the torso. They're light and small, and I find them adorable. I'm sure it's probably bad to get freckles (too much sun?), but I always get excited when I get them.

Since then, I've started laundry, eaten dinner with my dad, and have just hung around. I need to finish laundry tonight, and read some. Tomorrow looks like it'll be a shopping day. Oh glorious summer .... how I'm going to enjoy you.

Day 150 - Day Two in Gumboland

So I know I promised the rest of the trip, but I also realized that all of the photos I thought I had taken were, in fact, from day 1 of the drive. May I just say that it wasn't all that interesting? I slept through half of Mississippi (a very boring state), and actually missed us entering Louisiana.

Today has been more notable:

8:15: wake up (the earliest in a while) and lounge around a bit. Get breakfast (unfortunately we only had plain, boring Cheerios) and read the local paper (well, the comics, mostly). Then it was time to pick out an outfit, straighten hair, douse it in anti-humidity hairspray, and get all pretty

11:30: my dad finally rolls out of bed (he has woken up at 4:00 a.m. to drive my mom to New Orleans so she could fly back to Michigan - it's an hour drive each way) and we spend a good chunk of time just watching a Law&Order marathon on TNT. I brushed a cat, took some photos, and perused the internet

3:45: my dad and I finally get our wits about us and decide to go down to the pool and tan for a bit. I slip into a bikini (VERY strange and different than in Michigan), spray on a generous amount of sunscreen, and head down. There was a group of 5 college-aged kids (2 girls [cheerleaders] and 3 guys [2 looked like football players]) who were doing cheerleading stunts in the pool. It was quite fun/funny to watch, so we stayed down at the pool for about an hour and half or so.

6:00: after getting back from the pool and cleaning up a bit (changing, showers, etc.) my dad and I head over to LSU to go to dinner at Chimes. The food was AMAZING - I had a blackened chicken breast sandwich, and may I say, the dorms CANNOT replicate the real thing. At all. The spices were spicy, but yet not too overpowering. All around delicious.

7:30: we finally get back home, after driving around a bit and looking at houses and such. I change into workout stuff and go down to the fitness center to work out a bit. I'm going to be frank: I'm going to be sore tomorrow. Overall, my workout summary:

1. 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. Burned 300 calories. Incline 10/10, resistance 4. Total distance: 1.5 miles
2. 30 minutes on stationary bike (upright). Burned 150 calories (was taking it easy). Program had me alternate between leisurely pedaling and rapid bursts of speed. Total distance: 4.75 miles
3. Walk with my dad to cool down. Total distance: 0.5 miles

So, in all, I stepped/walked/biked over 6 1/2 miles. After sitting in the car for two days, I think my legs will be sore ... I'll take a day off of distance stuff and focus on core/abs tomorrow.

I swear I'm going to be ripped by the end of summer. And look great in a bikini.

Tomorrow's plans: work-out, grocery shopping, baking, and maybe some tanning. May go to Target or somewhere to get another bikini top to hide some tan lines ....

Day 137-149: A new route

So I know I have been horrible with posting - I have been keeping track of the days, but it has just been a hassle to sit down at the computer and type them all up. So, I'm thinking about doing a new sort of thing: instead of having a set topic to write about each day, I'll have a choice - either write about my day/something I find interesting, or, if nothing comes to mind, I can use the topics I originally planned on.

Since I haven't posted in a while, I'm hoping an extra-long post will make up for it. Here's what's happened so far:

• Cafeteria duty: my mom "volunteered" me to help out at my old elementary school (she currently teaches there) as a lunch lady. Meaning, for half of lunch hour, I supervised 200 kids playing on a playscape and the blacktop area of the playground. Boy, was that interesting. Mainly, I didn't remember exactly how cool ice packs were until all of the kids came up to me with invisible boo-boos and wanted to go to the clinic and get one. Luckily, during my three weeks there, not one kid died, or was injured permanently. After 30 minutes outside, I would go inside with the kids to watch them while they ate lunch. Now that was interesting - I was assigned to two second grade classes, each holding about 30 kids, and was told, simply, to "handle" them. I had the hardest time controlling the volume, their incessant bathroom and water fountain needs, and, of course, the ultimate crime of throwing/sharing food. It. was. horrible. But we made it through, with only a couple of kids crying (they didn't like getting punished), and only one girl getting sick (luckily she had the foresight to go to the bathroom).
• Friends: Since the cafeteria job only lasted for an hour each day, I had the afternoons to myself. While sometimes I would just go home and watch copious amounts of House, I also enjoyed getting to see friends (both new and old). I would usually grab a late lunch with them, and then hang out for a bit before heading home to meet my mom after work. A couple of times, I drove out to see friends from school, and, I must admit, that was so nice. It's strange going from seeing a person every day, multiple times per day, and living only down the hall from them, to being an hour or two away from them at any time. It was great to see everyone again, and though I didn't catch up as much as I'd have liked to with everyone, it was amazing to spend the time we did together.
• The drive to Baton Rouge: yesterday my mom and I set out, along with our two cats and my three fish (from school) on the drive from Grosse Pointe to Baton Rouge (about 1200 miles). It was going to be an adventure, and I had my camera ready every step of the way. Here we go!

Michigan: we set out around 8:00 a.m. EST. The car was loaded (surprisingly there was room left - surprising because I'm a teenage girl who was leaving for three months) and the cats were already yowling to get out of their cage. Starting on I-94, we hit I-75 and began the trek south.

This is what I left: grey skies, threatening rain, and industrial smoke. Luckily, I wasn't too attached to it, otherwise I would have been leaving my version of paradise.

Ohio: Ew. Let me just say that I'm a Michigan person: I was born and raised there, and attend the University of Michigan. Therefore, it is my opinion that Ohio is a good-for-nothing state. It just isn't. I mean, other than connecting Michigan with the rest of the United States, it doesn't do anything for me (and on that note, I could always just drive West and go down into Indiana). And, apparently Ohio isn't the biggest fan of me, either, since it was grey and rainy throughout the state as well

But, our luck with stormy skies turned around Cincinnati, when we got our first glimpse of blue. It was like a beacon of light from Kentucky, calling to us, saying "come here! Don't worry - you won't be in horrible Ohio much longer!". And we weren't. We passed over my favorite bridge (the one that connects Cincinnati to Kentucky) and were finally rid of the worst state in the United States.

Kentucky: nothing really of note happened here. Unfortunately. We had sunny skies throughout the state, but saw a lot of police officers on patrol, which really hampered our speed (we usually try to cruise around 75 or 80 to make nice time, but with the police out, we were forced to top out at 70 mph). But, the slowed speed certainly let me take nice pictures of the mountains and rocky summits that surrounded the highway!

We passed a couple of tourist attractions that never fail to make us laugh. Our favorite? Dinosaur World.

Tennessee: again, nothing really of note. I drove for most of the state, so there weren't too many chances to snap photos. The roads were windy, and wound around mountains, so I had a minor freak out when I heard a strange whistling noise that I swore was coming from the tires. After testing them by braking, accelerating, etc. , my mom woke up from her nap and asked what I was doing. I told her, and she gently explained that the sound was, in fact, only wind, and that had I been listening to which direction it was coming from, I would have noticed that it was always on the side of the car closest to the mountain, meaning that it was only a crosswind.

Alabama: by far my favorite state. Not only is it (as the sign says) absolutely BEAUTIFUL, but I also lost my heart to the University of Alabama. We entered it around 5:00 p.m. CST, and we had been making good time all day. So, we relaxed the pace a bit, and the search for my favorite house began.

We were greeted by a space shuttle at the Welcome Center of Alabama. So we thought we were getting close to my all-time favorite part of the drive. You see, there's this house. Well, it's not really just a house. It's my future. It's gorgeous, and on a hill, with a river at the bottom and a winding driveway, complete with a white fence. There are fields and a barn and horses and it's just all-around stunning. And I'm going to live there when I grow up. No, honestly. I'm going to.

The one problem is that we never know exactly where this house is. It's much like Nanny McPhee, where the house will only appear when you need it to, once you've lost all hope at catching a glimpse of it. I remembered that it was in Alabama (last time we thought it was right outside Nashville, TN), but thought it was around 10 miles into the state (just past the Welcome Center). So I began stalking all the right-hand bends, camera ready, and snapping whenever we passed by.

The first five or six times were all false alarms. There was nothing (except for a random shack) in any of the fields, and so I lost hope. I was convinced that we had missed it, or that something had happened to it (disappeared? tornado? I'm not quite sure what my mind thought would happen to a giant house to make it just vanish). But, about 10 miles before Birmingham, AL, my mom gasped and pointed to the side of the road.

There it was, in all its glory. The house, and road, and lake, and barn, and fields. There was paradise. And though I couldn't get a photo of the house (the trees surrounding it were too lush to see through), I still squealed with excitement. Here was my house: we hadn't missed it, and it hadn't left me.

With that, we pulled into the hotel (to the discovery that my mom was the "Guest of the Day") and hunkered down for the night. And it is there that my tale ends, since the photos from today's journey have yet to be uploaded to my computer. But I guess it'll just wait until tomorrow.

Day 136 - A song that makes you cry (or nearly)

Don't watch the video. Just listen to the song.

I'm not sure why this always gets me, but it does. Especially if I try to sing along ... I just can't. Maybe it's because it's so ... deep. It's not a song about sex, or drugs, or a guy just looking for a play-thing. This is the real deal: he loves her. He really really loves her.

Unlike some of the more popular songs of today, the song doesn't seem to be mournful because the girl isn't sure about what she wants (think "Grenade"), but rather, it seems to be pleading for the girl to give him a chance to express just how much he loves her.

And that's what gets me. I want her to say yes. I want her to love him back just the same.

Day 135 - Your favorite website

There are way too many.

• blogger: obviously. I mean, I need to post 365 posts this year, which means that I'm getting to know it quite personally
• tumblr: my other blog is fun as well - I like that there are more than one type of post, and it's more of a "here's a spurt of my thinking ...." rather than a "let's sit down and write a legible post"
• Facebook: I've tried to ween myself off, and have been successful a couple of times. I'm trying it again, but it isn't working out too well .... depending on how bad it gets, I may just delete it for a bit and see how it goes.
• Dear Old Love: it's really sad, but something draws me to it. I have the Dear Old Love book, and every day I go to three websites the first time I log onto the computer: email, Facebook, and dearoldlove.

Those are my top 4. Another one? GMail. I'm slightly addicted to checking my email (even though I don't usually have anything other than subscription notifications).

Day 134 - A non-fictional book

I read this book a while ago (was it really last summer?) and loved the premise. Basically the author is recounting her struggles with knitting a Fair Isles sweater (they are gorgeous, as well as difficult), which may seem like a boring topic, but I'm slightly in love with knitting.

Some of the writing wasn't the best, and I really didn't enjoy the ending, but the rest of the book was enjoyable. It made me go out and get some yarn and attempt to knit again! And now I'm almost done with my first sweater (only a sleeve, the collar, and sewing left!) - so maybe it affected me more than I realized ....

Day 133 - A fictional book

I read this book for a book group via Facebook, and I must admit, it was absolutely amazing. I was a bit wary of it when I first read the description (I'm not much of a historical fiction person), but I could barely put it down!

If you haven't heard of it, definitely look it up - it comes highly recommended. My one issue with it? I read it at the same time as Beloved and Margaret Garner: A Libretto, which should be an issue, other than the fact that the main character of The Kitchen House seems to reflect upon Margaret Garner a bit. So there were a couple of times in my English class where I referred to something and no one had any idea what I was talking about, since I got the books confused.

Day 132 - Your friends

Word association time:

Julia: adorable. Intelligent.

Elizabeth: musical. Practical. Comforting.

Nicolette: gorgeous. Sweaters. Astonishing.

Brighid: crazy. Witty. Entertaining.

Anna: emotions. Advice. Giggly.

Michelle: sporty. Compassionate.


Now for non-UM friends:

Lizzie: sister. Laughs.

Michele: books. Hanging out.

Everyone has their niche. And all of the niches of friendships are filled - there isn't something missing, nor are there two people competing for the same spot. But I have found a common thread with everyone: they're all amazing in their own way, and I trust all of them.

Day 131 - A photo of you taken recently

Again, sorry for the late posts - but I have been keeping up with it!

This is the most recent photo that I could find, though I'm sure there are more recent ones. This was taken around two weeks ago (was it really that soon?). One of my best friends Michelle (standing 2nd to the right) was leaving school, and so we decided to all (well .. the rest of us) get together for a couple of pictures.

It was a nice day - hence the capris and t-shirts. It threatened rain, but luckily we moved Michelle out before the first droplets came down. I guess the weather reflected the events of the day: sunshine in the morning, cloudy when moving out, and the sky finally cried when she left.

I miss this: school, friends close by, being together. Part of me wishes the summer would already be over, because I really want to be together again. But I also know that we'll have amazing stories to tell when we see each other again in the fall.

Day 130 - A photo of you taken over ten years ago

((Just a note, I'm all caught up - I have been writing down what I should be posting (complete with notes about what photos to put up), but because we don't have WiFi at our house, it sometimes is a bit cumbersome to sit down every day to post. I'll try to get better about it, but also know that I'm doing my best))

So, a photo of me as a baby? I have lots of those ...

So here I am, baby bucket and all. My favorite part of the picture is the fact that there is more padding than baby in the car seat - I mustn't have been more than a couple of months old (if that), and I guess my parents were just being overcautious about keeping me warm.

Though I do wonder sometimes how I wouldn't overheat. Maybe I was sleeping too soundly ... 

Day 129 - A photo you took

This was taken from my dormitory room window, last October. No wonder why I had a problem studying .... the view was absolutely gorgeous, especially when the sun was setting (some nights, the sky turned orange/pink and I would just sit at my desk and stare out until the sun had set).

This was during my ... interesting ... semester. I took too many credits, worked too much, and overall just stretched myself too thin (lots of superlatives there, I know). But for some reason, looking out at clear blue skies and the sun would always put a smile on my face, no matter what else was going on. I think that it's magic for me ... nothing bad can happen when the sun is setting.

Day 128 - A photo that makes you angry/sad

I saw this photo on the Internet a while back, and it's stuck with me. Every time I look at it, a little part of my heart screams at me to comfort the girl, but I know that she can't be comforted.

This isn't meant to be my opinions on the wars, or deportation of troops ... but it does make me aware of everything that people give up to be soldiers. Not only did the dad have to give up his family, but his family had to give him up too. And it's obvious that the girl didn't want that to happen quite yet.

I hope that everything is safe, and that the girl knows that her father loves her. I mean, it isn't every day that a little girl is allowed to hold her father's hand during line-up.

Day 127 - A photo that makes you happy

This photo makes me laugh every time I see it. The three people are three of my better friends at school: Sloane, Michelle, and Nicolette.

They're always crazy, and I love them all to death. It's somewhat upsetting that I don't get to see them all the time now, but I've been keeping in touch, and I know that the summer will fly by and then we'll all be together again.

I'm not quit sure what they're doing here ... comparing leg lengths? (Nicolette would win) Trying a 'sexy' pose? Nahh. Being amazing? Absolutely

Day 126 - Your favorite game

Gin Rummy.

Hands down.

Why?

Because it's what I played with my grandparents, and what I play now with my mom and brother. It's one of the first true card games I learned how to play, and even though I couldn't hold all of the cards ("Gram/Grandad don't look!!!") and probably lost every single game.

This is the game that my family goes to whenever we want to do anything with our free time, and it is for this game that we have scorecards on the refrigerator, bragging about good hands, and won games.

Day 125 - Your favorite quote

Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the thins a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love ... true love never dies.

This is a quote from one of my favorite movies Secondhand Lions, and it is so true. Sometimes you need to believe in the impossible to keep on going, you need to trust that people are good, and that the evil things in life have not affected them.

I think the last part is what makes this stick with me - true love never dies. And as much as I would like to believe sometimes that what I'm feeling is true love, I know that it's not, because it isn't sustained. It doesn't keep burning even when the source of ignition, or the fuel, leaves.

I have this quote memorized. Forward and backward, side to side. It hung at three different places in my dorm room last year, and is still featured prominently on my memory board. I've made designs with it, special fonts, postcards. And this is always the quote that I tell my friends when they need some advice. When they need someone to remind them that there is good in the world.

Day 124 - Your favorite book

This is an impossible post, because I have too many favorites and no favorites at the same time. It sounds strange, but it kind of makes sense: each time I read a book, it's my favorite for a short time (because I'm actually taking time to read it), but in the long run, I don't really have any favorites. Except for one.

Winnie-the-Pooh is always there, and I usually go back to him if I'm having a bad day, or just need a familiar ... face ... to see. The stories don't change, but sometimes my perspective on them does - Pooh has given me more insight than anyone, and as abnormal as that seems, it's also the truth.

I'm in love with Winnie-the-Pooh, because he'll never leave, and he'll never change. I think he knows that he's my favorite.

Day 123 - Your favorite television show

Though I'd like to say that I've actually been productive during my summer vacation thus far, that isn't necessarily the case. But how does this pertain to the prompt?

Well, in the past two days, I have watched (and re-watched half) the first season of Ice Road Truckers.

I started watching it on Tuesday when I hung out with a friend, and we watched the first 2 1/2 episodes. Then the ball just kept on rolling. I've been watching the episodes whenever I can, and usually just sit down on our couch and knit while I"m watching. But, as strange as this sounds, it almost makes me feel as if it's the middle of the winter, and that instead of wearing a short-sleeve shirt, or capris, I should be wearing a ski jacket and longjohns.

Day 122 - Your favorite movie

This is a tough one, because most of my favorite movies, I've already talked about. But here's another one:

I watched this film in Italian during high school, and fell in love with it. It's such a cute story: postman falls in love with girl who won't have him, romantic poet moves in on postman's route, postman asks advice, poet is cranky, but it all ends up perfectly in the end.

I'm not sure if it's the Italian language, or the actors, or the plot, or all three, but something about this movie strikes a chord with me. It's beautiful in more ways than one, and this beauty transcends the screen and fills me with happiness.

This is one of the few movies that I've actually bought, and it's one of my most watched movies too. In fact, I may just go and watch it right now ...

Day 121 - Your favorite song

So thanks to one of my friends, this song has now been stuck in my head for hours (seven, at least). I heard it the other day on the radio, then later on my Pandora, and finally, I just had to figure out what it was. And that led to me watching/listening to the video around ten times ... straight.

I'm not sure what it is about this song, because it's definitely not my usual genre of music. But part of it is the lyrics, and the "coming home" part of it - I've been waiting to come home for months, and though I'm not completely there yet, it's within reach, and within sight.

Is this song my favorite of all time? No. Absolutely not. But it's my favorite right now, and that's the important thing. Because just like the artist, I'm coming home, and coming home soon.