Day 118

Ok, I took a bunch of picture of the trail I run on, but they're all coming out SIDEWAYS and I can't change it and it's driving me nuts. So for now, this is all I got. More to come later when I have the patience to deal with blogspot.

Pretty, eh?

Day 117

Yep.

Day 116

My favorite shot so far for the NOH8 campaign. It's a marriage equality campaign which for now is just, I believe, taking a bunch of pictures of famous supporters with duct tape over their mouths and "NOH8" written on their cheek. The one of perez hilton is freaking awful, but so is he so yeah. Anyway, I thought this was clever. Read more at http://www.noh8campaign.com/ 

Day 115

Still at Mom's house. I woke up today with no plans and instead of sitting around the house watching the nanny in my pjs, I decided to spend this very hot day down the shore. I found parking almost right next to the boardwalk which was awesome. The water is freakishly warm. Seriously, in the 80s. It was weird being there alone and not in a house with a ton of family, but still so nice to get down to the beach. I'd love to take Abby down there and see what she thinks of the ocean, but car rides aren't her thing. Eh, she wasn't a huge fan of the lake though. Who knows. Anyway, funnel cake was a must. I went down for the day on Saturday with Dave and underestimated the amount of stomach space boardwalk food takes up. No room for kohr brothers or funnel cake that day. Now, two down, one to go. Can I get another trip to the beach this summer? Doubtful, but I won't give up. 

I sent this picture to MJ. I'm not sure when she was in Ocean City, but she left quite the impression on the boardwalk. 

I'm trying to remember the story with Geoff's broken _____ glass. I *think* it was a smurf glass, so when I saw these in a boardwalk vintage shop I send the picture to Amy. Shoot, I just skyped with them tonight, I should have explained. Note to self - get the actual story from Amy. This shop was pretty cool. For a vintage store, they sure had a lot of shit from the 80s and 90s.

Ah, here she is :) I brought my camera to take a bunch of pictures of Ocean City for when I'm feeling homesick but, go figure, once I got there the battery was dead. boo. It's ok. I'll be back. I took this from the boardwalk near the surf mall and playland.

Home again home again jiggity jig. Traffic actually wasn't that bad. Shocking because I was driving home during evening rush hour. Silly me. I thought if I left soon enough I could beat it. Forty minutes into the trip I was wishing I'd just stuck around and stayed at the beach all night. I had to take the busy roads, ACE, 76, 676, etc. Living in Chi we knew the back way to the beach like we knew the layout of the house. If there is a back way to the beach from here, I haven't figured it out yet. 

I didn't get any good pictures from the trip Saturday, but it's been a pretty eventful weekend. Friday night we hung out and I saw my first glimpse of McReady rock. It wasn't the whole band but I think I got a feel for what they're about. Saturday morning Dave and I headed to Ocean City for the day, then went down to Toms River for Bush's home show that night. I was a little worried I wouldn't know anyone but a lot of alumni came out. It was so nice seeing everyone. I got so nostalgic by the end of the night that I just wanted to cry. Not in a sad way. It's bittersweet, I suppose. Remembering some of the best days of my life so far, but also knowing that now I'm just a part of a previous generation. Weird, fun, sad, emotional... you know how it goes. 

I decided, with Brittany, that all us old pit gals are going to start buying real estate. We'll each buy a house in a cul de sac and make each others kids cut our grass and shovel our snow. So far, whether they know it or not, we've recruited woody, amy, deana, maria, an basically whoever else wants to come live there. Ha. Sounds lame but the mental image that night was pretty comforting. The last time we were at tom's river was in 2002. One of the first shows I ever did was there in 2000. They've redone the stadium since then. AND - I get grown up points for NOT calling memphis and leaving mag 7 on his voice mail.

Day 114

I've been at my Mom's house for about a week. I'm trying to just chill and let this visit happen however it's going to happen. Trips home are usually so stressful. I only have so much time to run around and see so many people. I generally spend more time driving than visiting. So since I've had about a week and a half of summer break this year, I figure I'll see who I see, but mostly just relax. 

Staying with my Mom means frequently scooting off to Phoenixville to see friends. Phoenixville is, I hear, the new manayunk. And this is a random waterfall thing in phoenixville.

Dave and I laughed a lot at this. Where do the straight pedestrians go?

day 113

Where else I've been...

While on the orchestra tour, we went to the baltimore sports legends museum. I think that's what it was called. We had some down time so Marty was like "Ok, lets go walk around Baltimore for 3 hours." lol, ok?

This is Babe Ruth's house! He was born in Baltimore. They turned his whole house into a museum. I think just being in the house and going through the rooms was way cooler than the stuff they had in there. 

This is the outside of the Baltimore sports legends museum. It's right near camden yards.

We played at this church in Philly during the tour. It got so hot that day, and we couldn't fit half our equipment through the door. I was annoyed at first, but since we couldn't fit our stuff in there, half the percussionists got free time instead of playing. Bean and I just hung out in the truck, walked to dunkin donuts, saw the skyline!, and I had some time to practice which I was grateful for since my recital was the day after we got back.

Me and Mallrat had our recital! So did Egon and Screw! On the same day! haha. I thought I'd be more anxious about it. Having it in 121 and during the day took some pressure off. The big relief was having my family there. My parents, Sarah, and all their spouses (spare Robin because her back is still too messed up for the long trip) sat in the front row. I wasn't nervous at all, I was just so happy and excited to have them there. I had a blast!

The season at Johnstown ended at Wildwood. They didn't make finals but I hope they still got something from the season. It was definitely a long one. As much as I love teaching, trying to do it during a busy semester adds SO much stress. Especially with a limited staff. But I feel like they got an experience they may not have had if I'd turned down the job. Plus it was nice hanging out with Piffle more and making some new friends. Wildwood was EXACTLY what I needed! All season long we did these middle of nowhere western PA shows and piffle was constantly running into friends and people he knew. I was like "Uh, yeah hi." We walked into Kelly's the night of finals and lord, I can't remember the last time I was that happy. So many drum corps friends were there. I literally could not walk 5 feet without bumping into someone I knew. And I saw Christian freaking Gliko! Man, we talked for at least an hour straight. I cannot wait to come home to this life now. Christian and I lamented about teaching experiences and realized we need to just teach together. Andrew hung out with us for the last night. Spending time with piffle and andrew at time is amusing to say the least. Long story short, Wildwood was great.

My dogs, as always, were adorable.

Sarah and I stopped in at condom kingdom to pick up ridiculousness for Amanda's surprise bachelorette party. 

And had some cocktails with dry ice in them at her bachelorette party. We had hoped to have a huge surprise with all her friends waiting for her at the house, but it was kind of short notice and all of them were busy. Turns out, having it just be the three of us was SO much fun. Amanda got exactly what I think she needed, which was a night to relax, vent, and not worry. I mean, it's family, do what you want and say what you mean, they're sticking around. After a fun night at the tobacco factory.... tobacco club? Shoot I forget... anyway we went back to her house and slept on the living room floor in sleeping bags, just like old times :) So great.

And walmart got crabs. What an odd thing for walmart to sell...

Day 112

Where I've been.....

(This is going to go backwards chronologically because blogspot is mad at me, apparently)

Got to spend some time with these guys.

At their home!

A co-worker at eat n park found this abandoned kitten. We took care of it for the night before another friend from eat n park adopted the little guy. Never had something so toothless and hairy been so cute.

Amanda and Justin had their wedding!!!!!!!

And of course the bachelorette party :)

The King has passed :(

I found my first and unfortunately only toad of the summer at Mom's house. Not sure why he's sideways...

Amy, Geoff, Lila, and Viv came to visit. I'm amazed a two year old knows the word "ipod" and knows how to use it. Kids these days...

Jay and I watched Chris play without shoes in Astoria.
I drove. A LOT. The Cruiser officially bit the dust on my way to pick up Wengert in Harrisburg for keystone. I was 22 miles from where he was at. The car had over 175,000 on it. Thankfully, Uncle Jack was kind enough to let me have one of the cars he's been trying to sell. I am mobile!

I've been taking classes at IUP this summer. Not getting a three month break from this place is waring on me but I'm going home soon. And the every day summer class schedule is way better for me than the four month every other day schedule. I got a job. It's what you would expect for a part time college job but it pays the bills. It's a pretty good motivator. Like, "Hey, this will be you life if you don't try harder." I don't think I've ever wanted to go home so badly in my life.