Saturday, July 31, 2004
Well, all too soon I am back from my vacation. But I took pictures of everything, and consequently I have much pictures to show.
To start with, Kurtis and I in the back seat of his car, well on our way to Pennsylvania. In fact, I think we were in PA when we took this one. We left around 5:30am and travelled for 12 hours to reach our first destination.
Along the way that day, we ate lunch at a little restaurant that was supposedly Dutch.
We arrived in Hamlin at 6pm, and after a quick dinner Kurtis and I ventured around town to see all the places he remembered from when he was younger. We tried to go to Bam Bam Bigelow's, but it was closed by the time we got there. So we went to Mr. Z's and to an ice cream place in Lake Ariel instead.
On our way back from Lake Ariel, we saw fireworks in the sky above the trees. Turns out Hamlin was having a carnival, and that night was the last night, so they had a fireworks show. We went and parked and watched it.
Thus ends day one.
Before we left Pennsylvania for New Jersey, we went to The Hideout, which is the private community where Kurtis used to live. It's very lovely back in there; all the hills and trees and fancy houses.
(It's a pretty little stream; it's sort of hard to see).
A couple of the houses in the Hideout; the second one used to be Kurtis's.
From there we were off to Clifton. We made it to his grandma's in early afternoon and I got to meet some of his family. We took a little walk around the neighborhood later on, then I took a picture of the sunset above the trees across the street from her yard.
After dark, we met up with Patrick and his Rachel - my first time meeting either of them in person. They took us back to Rachel's house for a bit, then took us to the wonder that is "the commons." Imagine, a two-story Barnes and Noble! I spent $40 on books there. We were going to go to Target, but it was closed.
I dunno whether or not Rachel II and Patrick want their pictures posted here, so instead I'll leave you with a picture of my first experience with Arizona green tea, provided by Rachel II. It's better than the regular tea Kurtis drinks, at least...
Thus ends day 2. I'll continue on later.
Posted by Rachel at 8:06 PM |
Friday, July 23, 2004
Early-early tomorrow morning, Kurtis and I are off to PA, New Jersey, and NYC. So I'm off to bed. I'll be sure to post pictures after we get back - either Thursday night or Friday. Until then, if I know your address, you might get a postcard. :)Posted by Rachel at 11:12 PM |
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Yesterday Kurtis and I had our one-year anniversary and as the tradition goes, we celebrated it. We attempted to find something interesting to do and were generally successful. We spent the morning over in Old Town, ate at First Wok, and came back for the afternoon/evening. Kurtis picked me flowers and got me sidewalk chalk to draw with (in the pavillion at the park - you should go check out my [not so] lovely artwork) and bought me books (and comic books - he wants me to get into comics too). We walked the streets, visited thrift stores, and stopped at the Red Eye. Later on we played baseball in previously-mentioned park (which actually means, we took turns throwing and batting at [and consequently missing] the ball). Then he bought me a big box of Nerds and a bag of miniature Almond Joys and we watched Secret Window together (the movie wasn't as good as I expected, but Johnny Depp was wonderful as always).We were going to go skating yesterday too but decided to hold off; we found other things to do. Today though I attempted to teach Kurtis to rollerblade in a parking lot - "attempted" being the operative word here. That, however, is his story, should he choose to tell it. I'm just going to tell you that I went to Meijer's today for batteries, soap, and hair products (my new hairstyle requires more upkeep than my previous "wash-n-go" hairdo) and that I completed the task of breaking two $100 bills. One bill went for cheap sunglasses (not as cheap, however, as the dollar-store ones I did have that mysteriously disappeared) and the other on a McChicken at McD's - because one, I was hungry, and two, I figured it probably wouldn't be wise to carry $100 bills around NYC. Now, what to do with all these $50's....
Posted by Rachel at 11:05 PM |
Saturday, July 17, 2004
My New HaircutBefore (pardon the dumb face I'm making):
After:
I gave my hair to Locks of Love...:)
Posted by Rachel at 5:21 PM |
Bad things that happened to me today:
-I was running late leaving for Kurtis's this morning (after a night of restless sleep [see previous entry]).
-I forgot my journal.
-On my way there,
- I could not find my sunglasses, and the bright sun made my eyes water
- I put the top of my convertible down, but when attempting to put my hair up (while driving), the hair tie broke and I had to hold my hair back the whole way
-A pen broke in my purse and I got ink on my shirt
-I discovered that there were bugs starting to form where the cappacino spilled in my car
-I tried to clean it with a bucket of soap and water, but I could still smell it there there later
-There was a spider in my driver's seat when I sat down in my car (to go home), crawling beside my leg.
Now, these things may not sound too terrible to you, but all together with a couple other things and probably a bit of PMS (sorry, had to say it) it doesn't exactly lead to cheerfulness.
Posted by Rachel at 2:09 AM |
Friday, July 16, 2004
Sigh, I don't know why my dreams have to haunt me too. I didn't sleep very well last night.Last night in the first dream I remember, I dreamt that I made a post in here about how I thought I might like someone else (whose name shall not be revealed) and Kurtis read it. But he acted completely fine with it and encouraged me to go and spend some time at this guy's house to find out for sure if I liked him or not. He even took me over there.
The strange part to me was that I haven't seen or really talked to this guy in weeks. And this should go without saying, but I don't have any feelings for him like that.
Then I dreamt that my brother and I were at our grandma's, who lives two hours away, and I was trying to get to Kurtis's so we could go to this carnival of sorts. I was trying to get away and trying to get away, and finally when it looked like I would be able to (after it got dark out in the dream), my car wouldn't go and there was steam pouring from beneath the hood and beneath the car. My dad came along and told me it was the battery, even though the car was running.
Sigh, I guess you could say that having my car break down is one of my worst fears at the moment; there isn't really money in my "budget" to fix it. Plus it has been acting a little strangely lately.
Posted by Rachel at 11:02 AM |
Thursday, July 15, 2004
I've been meaning to post but don't have anything too fascinating to post about, so to warn you, what follows may be none too exciting.~Monday night I accompanied Jeffy, his brother (Andrew), Josh, Ren, Nick, and Chris to a George Thorogood concert at the Meadowbrook Festival at Oakland University. I was given the duty of being one of the drivers - bribed really, with money for gas and food - by Jeff. As is usually the case with any big event, it was an adventure, starting with the drive there (we were given directions to the DTE instead of Meadowbrook, which was 7 exits farther down the freeway), then the concert itself (our free vouchers actually required a $5 fee for "traffic control"; we saw an old man standing up in the crowd and dancing by himself [rather entertaining]; there was an older couple in front of us displaying much more affection for each other than the public wants to see). Overall though, it was an enjoyable trip, a pretty good show, and some good experience driving on the freeway (it was the first time I have since driver's training 3 years ago).
~On the way home from the concert I bought an iced cappacino at Tim Horton's and ended up spilling it all over the floor in the back of my car. Now my car smells like...rotten cappacino. I really should try to clean out the carpet.
~Kurtis and I have been together officially for almost a year now. Come July 21, we've been together for 365 days - 366, actually, cuz this year was leap year. I have to get working on an anniversary present for him. I'm going to be making something, I think; that is all the information I can reveal about it at this time.
~I'm going on a trip with Kurtis and his dad to Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We're going to leave July 23rd and come home on the 29th (which is Kurtis's birthday...hm). We're supposed to go to the shore/the boardwalk and spend a day in NYC, among other things. I really hope it works out as planned, because I'm excited about it.
~Last thing, I promise - I finally finished my SVSU financial aid and housing paperwork. It should all be up-to-date very soon. Now I just have to take their loan counseling thing online and send in the July 28 payment, and I should be all set. Whew.
Posted by Rachel at 1:05 AM |
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Jeff: I love geeksJocks, preps, and "pretty people" everywhere, beware: the nerd/geek craze is sweeping the nation. Yes, more and more people are becoming attracted to intelligence and depth. This isn't to say that some of the "pretty people" aren't intelligent, but not all of the intelligent people are "pretty." Finally, intelligence itself is being looked at as an attractive trait.
Perhaps the world is finally getting sick of beauty without substance. I know that I myself prefer character over bland good lucks any day. Intelligence is more attractive than supermodel hair, after all.
I just this trend keeps up, because I don't think I could compete with those supermodel types and their perfect hair.
Posted by Rachel at 4:27 PM |
party's over
My graduation party has come and gone, which means no more talking about it at all now. To all of those who came, thank you, you made it a lot of fun. :)
For those who didn't, that white powder I'll be sending you is not anthrax, but powdered sugar. Feel free to eat it.
In all seriousness though, I was impressed with the turnout. More came than I first expected (of course, I was afraid at first that my only guests would be Jeff and Kurtis). So I guess that means that all the time and hard labor I spent cleaning the garage, working on my display, stressing over tables & chairs etc. was well worth it.
But it's all over now, and I've got a new project: next weekend, we're having a garage sale. Everyone's invited! We're looking to reduce the number of possessions we own. Feel free to help us by trading your money in exchange for the items we've deemed useless.
Posted by Rachel at 2:39 PM |
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
You'd think that my mom, in all her moving from house to house, would come to understand the processes. But no. She apparently doesn't even understand the basics about packing a box yet.I go out to the garage to stack all the boxes out of the way so that there's enough room for my party this Saturday. I can't tell you how many boxes I've come across that have approximately 3-4 things in them, at least one of which is too tall for the box, so that it cannot close properly. This therefore renders the box useless in the stacking process and makes me have to stop, repack everything, and then find somewhere to stack it (provided there are not other half-packed boxes in the way).
So far I've accumulated quite a stack of empty boxes in the process of repacking (huh. It seems that there are boxes which can hold 7 or 8 things and still close!) but doing all this extra work makes me twice as tired and twice as frusterated.
Argh. Sometimes I swear my mom is missing one or two of those brain cells that are in charge of common sense. That would explain why mine malfunction from time to time.
Posted by Rachel at 3:38 PM |
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Not having a room makes me feel like I don't belong here. I guess it's just a psychological thing.I started cleaning the garage for my party, but I still have a long way to go. I don't even know if that many people are going to come. Jeff, Ren, Dippy, Josh, Kurtis and maybe his family...possibly Justin, Kyle, John, and Ryan, and a few others...and my grandparents. That's about all I know of. I don't really know how to get ahold of anyone...:(
Sigh, you're probably sick of hearing about my party already and I guess Jeff is on his way. So I'm going to go.
Posted by Rachel at 5:19 PM |
I'm wearing orange eyeshadow. And amazingly enough, it doesn't look half bad.
Posted by Rachel at 1:13 PM |
Monday, July 05, 2004
A Change will do you good...I've found that I both yearn for and detest change. If too many things change too fast, I start to feel overwhelmed. Yet if things stay the same for too long, I find myself feeling restless and confined.
Like now. You'd think that my mom's moving would be enough of a change for one person, but it's not that new and exciting. She has a habit of moving once every year or so, and it starts to lose its charm after awhile.
I guess the change I crave has more to do with people. I want to see more people, different people. I want to hang out in groups (much like last night, 4th of July, at the fireworks display) and "mingle." Which is a little odd for me cuz I've never been much good at playing the part of social butterfly.
Maybe I'm starting to look forward to college. A nice, overwhelming change to send me yearning for the land of familiarity.
Until then, perhaps my graduation party will have to suffice for my sudden freak social butterfly urges.
Anyone wanna party with me? ;)
Posted by Rachel at 12:16 PM |
Sunday, July 04, 2004
I've got a time now for mah party: 2pm to 6pm. If you have any intention at all of coming, leave me a comment here or at my livejournal so we have an idea of how much food to make. Please and thanks.Posted by Rachel at 1:42 PM |
Friday, July 02, 2004
Location: my mom's new house in Chesaning. If you need exact directions, leave a comment, email me - silverspangles@gmail.com - or IM me - rachel is in use.
Time: TBA
Posted by Rachel at 9:09 PM |
I would not recommend moving. That is, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're the sort of person who enjoys packing all of your possessions into cardboard boxes, living out of said boxes for weeks, and hauling around large, heavy, awkwardly-shaped objects (like furniture) which results in sore muscles for the next several days. At least, it does in my case - the extent of my daily exercise is generally achieved through typing incessantly in IM windows and comments boxes.
However, it does help when you have friends masochistic enough to help with the moving process. Kurtis, Jeff, Josh, and Ren - thanks for being those masochistic friends. ;)
We're finally staying at the new house. And despite having to clear a path through all the odds & ends that have yet to be assigned a place to belong, all the rooms are starting to look more lived-in (as opposed to newly-moved-in). I haven't been in any hurry to unpack my own things (aside from clothes) as there is nowhere to put them right now. I seem to be one of those things that has yet to be assigned a place...
The cable guy came this morning and ran some more lines through the house (namely, to the modem) which brightened my otherwise-bleak day considerably. Now I can get back to my normal exercise routine.
