Merry Christmas!

Quote of the day: Me: "Colette, let's go, it's Christmas!!!"
Colette: "No it's not, I don't believe you."
Song of the day: The Christmas Song by Alvin and the Chipmunks

Merry Christmas! We are all done opening presents at my house... now we're playing with our toys!

Mom got a 46" HDTV and blu ray player... and some movies and tickets to see the Guess Who

Colette got the new Tony Hawk skateboarding game... where the controller is a skateboard... and lots of clothes

Dad got cymbals for his Rock Band setup and a sweet drum stool... and some other xbox games

I got Windows 7...also a North Face jacket but I think I need a different size. I also got Up, Charlie Bartlett, and Strange Brew plus a couple Modest Mouse cds and some books. and lots of chocolate!! and "the world's largest Reese's cup" woo!

Anyway it should be a fun week at home playing with all the new stuff (and swimming doubles with the Bluefish). yayyyy!

If you're reading this, have a great holiday! :)

I'm Back!

Song of the day: Do Better by Say Anything

I'm back! HOORAY!!

If you didn't notice, I took a long hiatus from this blogging thing. Let me tell you, sophomore year is a bitch. School has been a bit of a struggle this year... but now I'm home on winter break and will have plenty of time for fun things like staring at my computer screen and typing mindlessly (oh wait, I do that during the year...) and posting it on here (ah, that's the difference).

For this entry I don't have too much to say... it would be a real pain to make an update on my whole life, but I guess I can do a quick version:

L: Chico off to a great start in his race; R: Rob and me at the Chili Cookoff in August.

1. The last month of summer was fun. Alice came to visit, Chico and Gilligan did really well at the Chichuahua races (both made semifinals, and Gilly came in 3rd in finals.. so close to a NYC trip!!), and the chili cookoff at Morgan's was a blast.

2. This year I live in a 7-person apartment with 6 other girls. It's going surprisingly well. I love all my roomies!

3. I sprained my ankle in September, which has made for a difficult swim season so far. I have spent a lot of time doing rehab, and even more time not swimming but instead pulling freestyle with a buoy and one -footed open turns. I am past the pulling now and can kick again, but it took forever. I'm still doing rehab. I swam kind of slow at several meets and sat one out. We had a meet in early December that I finally swam well at - all of my times were around what they were last year at this time, and I pr'ed in the 100 back. Quite satisfying.

Clockwise: The "fat five" (Duje, Cullen, Rob, Spaz, Lee) take on Goldstar, pt 2; Alex, me, and Toni at "techno pasta party" during water polo season (Alex joined swim... yay!); some of our lovely freshmen (Emily, Duje, Cullen, Heather, and James) at Camp Harrington this year.

4. I love the team this year. We got lots of awesome freshmen (awesome meaning they are fun and I like them, but they are also awesome in the area of being fast at swimming) and the usual crew is still around. I got to know a lot of the new kids during water polo season in A term, so we're all pretty close now. Basically it's a good time all the time. :) Let's hope I still feel that way after spending days on a bus with them to and from Florida (yes.... we are driving to Miami in about 2 weeks for training trip...)

5. School is hard. A term was okay, but B term was tough. How tough is still TBA. Hopefully C term will be better. I get to take a course on conducting so that will at least be an enormous bright spot!!

6. I am home for break. I'm pretty pumped about it. Our Christmas tree looks good even though it only has lights on it so far. Ornaments forthcoming. I intend to spend the entire break relaxing, eating, and exercising... lifiting, swimming, and running. I have to slowly increase my running as my ankle is still healing, and will most likely be swimming with the Attleboro Bluefish (or at least the kids who are coming home from college and training there... most of the team will be on a training trip) and I'm kind of excited about it.


Oh, and they finally updated the record board!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY! This isn't even current... Heather (fr) now owns the 50 and 100 backstrokes, and Karen's 100 IM is faster. Recently, Morgan's diving records have been properly updated. Sweet!

Surprise!

Quote of the day: Woah... What?! -me
Song of the day: You Surprised Me by Superchief Trio

Yesterday was a RIDICULOUS day. Why? Let me tell you.

It started off as a normal Saturday, I woke up early and attended the 815 Butts, Guts, and Glory class at the YMCA. This was all normal and good. I saw Brittany LeClair, one of my friends from high school, at the class. It was nice to see her. Class was good, as usual my outer thighs hurt a lot at the end. Apparently they're very weak.

After class, I drove home. I walk in the door and find Carl and Eric sitting at my kitchen table eating pancakes with my sister. "WOAH, WHAT?!" I couldn't believe my eyes. I was so confused. Legit. I can't even express what I was thinking. Anyway, this is what happened. Several weeks before Carl contacted Colette and said he'd like to come for a surprise visit. So my family told me we'd be going to see Harry Potter 6 in theaters all together on that day and ensured my schedule was clear. It worked. He was planning to bring Rob with him as well but ended up with Eric, which was cool too. They stayed in Worcester the night before and left bright and early to make it to my house before I got back.

Once I had calmed down a little and ate some pancakes myself, I showered and got dressed. I didn't really know what to do with them (obviously I didn't have anything planned.. but neither did anyone else!) so we decided to go mini golfing. On the way Colette and I gave the general tour of Taunton that we always do. Drove around the Green (post office, El Mariachi, empty lot, Sovereign Bank, Lights On, Eastern Music, courthouse.) and past THS. We actually got to drive on the property this time, as opposed to when Alford came and we had to stay on Williams St. I'm not sure that we were supposed to be in there but oh well, nobody stopped us and we didn't bother anyone. It really is a mess now though, there's so much construction going on. They were impressed by the size of the building though.

After THS, we carried on and stopped to get slushies at Cumberland Farms. It was a struggle because I got red and Colette got watermelon. Then we decided to trade. Carl got yellow and was disappointed to discover it was banana (but there was a monkey on the label!) because he hates banana. So we did another trade and I got banana and Carl had watermelon. Eric got Sobe (drink, not slush) with some lemon mixed in, and he seemed happy with it.

Finally we made it to mini golf, and got our clubs and balls as usual. The mini golf place we went to is called "Jurassic Mini Golf" and has dinosaur (and random rabbit) statues all over the place. It was very empty on Saturday. I got stuck keeping score, but I could tell by the second hole that it was going to be interesting. The balls kept going off the course and into the water/trees. On the third hole, Carl hit his green ball into a bush. We couldn't find it. Eric, however, did manage to find a garter snake...perfect! It was okay though because Carl found a purple ball in the bushes. So we still had 4 in total.
We carried on and a little while later, Carl found his green ball.... far away from the 3rd hole. Ah well. Now we had 5. We got to the hole with the waterfall cave thing and Eric hit his ball very straight and very hard. It flew out of the cave, over the river and into Narnia. We couldn't find it! Luckily we still had the purple one, so Eric used that for the rest of the time. During the course of our round, Carl would sit on the dino statues and "tame" them. It was pretty funny and we took some pictures. We eventually finished up our golfing without much trouble and the final scores were as follows: Eric 47 (at par), Alana 48, Colette 52, Carl 55. Pretty good.

We had decided while golfing that we wanted to climb to the top of the waterfall/cave thing. So after returning our clubs, we did. It wasn't really to hard but definitely against the rules. We didn't get caught though. Colette took some pictures of Carl, Eric, and I at the top. It was awesome.

After mini golf we headed over to the mall. Carl wanted to see Harry Potter but the rest of us had already seen it and were too cheap to go again. We tried to ask nicely to get let in for free but were rejected (surprise, surprise). We walked all around the mall and spent a long time in the pet store! We walked in and immediately asked to play with the puppy in the window. It was very hyper. I don't even know what kind of dog it was, but it was cute. Eric loved it and couldn't get over how adorable it it was. haha. Lots of tug of war and belly scratching. It was fun.

On the way home from the mall we stopped at Wendy's for lunch. I got a chicken sandwich just as a break from my normal burger. I also got a frosty... always a good choice. Anyway Wendy's was delicious, as it always is. While there we discussed what to do for the rest of the day. Eric suggested tennis and we decided that was a good idea.

We stopped at home and picked up tennis rackets and balls. Drove to Friedman and picked the court with the most shade, even though it wasn't that shady. We played some informal Colette & Alana vs Carl & Eric. Carl quit very early and then just sat in the shade. It was extremely hot and humid... Eric's shirt was soaked halfway through. Colette and I played Eric and lost 11-5, then Colette and Eric had a one on one match. At one point it was 10-5 for Colette... but then she lost 12-10. lame! Oh well. It was fun (except probably for Carl) and different.

Once we got home Eric showered (good idea) and then we all just sat around the computer and watched videos on youtube and the site "Today's Big Thing." They were pretty funny and it was nice and relaxing. Always need a little downtime, you know. :) For dinner my parent got pizza from Pepperoni's. I don't eat Pepperoni's regularly but it was excellent. We had a Hawaiian pizza and a Barbecue Chicken pizza. SO DELICIOUS. ahhh and there was so much chicken, it was fantastic. They made salad too, but we all know that's not nearly as important or interesting as the pizza.

After dinner we decided to watch a movie. We eventually chose to go to Blockbuster to rent one, and after much debate got 'Shooter' with Mark Wahlberg. It was a great movie. I actually ended up watching it again the next day with my mom. Anyway, it's about this sniper who leaves the military because they left him for dead somewhere, but he survived. He's pretty much the best sniper in the world. A few years later some government people approach him about planning an assassination attempt on the president so they can use his expertise to stop an attempt that is supposedly going to take place. Then, once he plans it out, they start chasing him making it seem like he was actually going to do it and they had nothing to do with it at all. Anyway he's running away from them trying to reveal the truth and stay alive. Ah, it's so good. Maybe I'll watch it again before I have to return it.

After the movie was over, Carl and Eric headed back to Worcester :( They were thinking about staying the night, but that would have resulted in a lot of driving for Carl on Sunday. Oh well. They were here for a solid 12 hours and it was awesome. I'm so glad they came to see me!!!!! I love my friends =D

Summer Camp

Quote of the day: You have to step and slide! - Steve
Song of the day: Homesick at Space Camp by Fall Out Boy

I saved somebody today.

This is my fourth summer as a lifeguard, and I never had to save anyone before this summer. Today was my second save. This little kid, Chris, can't swim but managed to kind of walk to water that is over his head. All of the sudden I head "somebody help me!" and the next thing I know I had hopped in and grabbed him. He was fine - maybe a little shaken - but fine.

This summer at camp has been crazy. The first day, my canoe flipped over in the river and we (two kids and I) had to swim back to the dock (see picture). The next day I made my first save ever. I was guarding the deep end and some kid had an asthma attack, but I grabbed him. Pretty much the same story as today's save. He was fine. I was soaking wet in my shorts and shirt. Saweeeet.

Alyssa had to jump in the river last Friday to rescue a Brockton counselor and 2 kids whose canoe tipped and couldn't swim. The kids had lifejackets, at least. Amy jumped in the river a couple weeks ago to save someone. She also had to get in the pool last week to grab an Autistic kid who was totally fine but was convinced he was drowning. He was holding onto a noodle and touching the bottom. Ruston saved a kid failing the swim test today. A few weeks ago Meagan jumped in the pool to grab a kid, though he was okay by the time she got there. Not really sure what happened there.

Either way, it's been ridiculous. In addition to the frequent life saving taking place, we have a bunch of Autistic kids with one on one aids coming to camp Monday to Thursday. It's interesting, to say the least. We've also had a couple of groups from other Boys' Clubs come to camp for a day. More obnoxious than interesting. The first 2 weeks of camp were filled with rain. Lately, it's been quite sunny. It's nice, but very very hot.

Every Friday is pizza day. That's awesome. Fridays are also theme days. First, red white and blue day before July 4th. Then Crazy Clothes Day. I wore a crazy drag suit and a tie dye shirt I had just made. Last week was Halloween in July. Colette and I dressed the same and said we were twins. Several people got us confused... success! This coming Friday is Ronald Snodgrass's birthday... a carnival day. Ronald is an imaginary camper that was made up several years ago. Every year we have a big party on one day and say it's for his birthday. It's really fun!

Guarding hasn't been too bad. Swimming lessons are tough and frustrating but hey, it happens, and it's expected. Canoeing has been okay in general. We have a much better system this year than we used to, so that's a plus. Despite this, I really hope to have a different job next summer. The organization and communication from the bosses is lacking, and it bothers me a lot. Plus, I'm bored. Three years working at the same summer camp is too many.

Luckily, my coworkers are awesome. The lifeguard team is the same as last year, plus Ruston and my sister. I really like working with Colette and I'm glad to be able to spend time with her during the summer since I'm away all year at school. The counselors are pretty cool, too. I love most of the returnees from last year, and about 10 of us hang out every Friday night doing various fun things. Most of the new counselors are from my graduating class of THS. It's a little weird because I knew them in high school but we weren't really friends... but it's not too bad.

Sometimes I work at camp on the weekends, guarding for private functions like graduation parties and church functions. I like extra money so it's all good as far as that's concerned, even if it can be very boring.

I think that's about all I've got about summer camp. It's a love/hate relationship....

Taunton River Adventure!

Quote of the day: WHERE ARE WE?!?! - us
Song of the day: Use Somebody by The Kings of Leon

I decided to write this entry like a book, with very short, titled chapters. Enjoy.

1. Intro

Last Sunday, Josh and I went on a canoe adventure on the Taunton River. We had decided a while before that we wanted to go canoeing, but didn't decide on the place until the day of the trip. We had options - Sabbatia Lake, Watson's Pond, Lake Rico, Taunton River, and others I'm sure - but we just couldn't decide. We finally agreed to go on the river; we would go upriver until we got tired then turn around and float back. Good plan!

2. The Launch

The first struggle of the day was attaching the canoe to the truck. We were taking his dad's truck because it had canoe racks in the back. We grabbed the canoe from the backyard (funnily enough, the same exact kind of canoe I use at camp) and muscled it up onto the racks. From then on we were just confused. He didn't really know how to use the canoe racks so we had to go ask his sister. She helped us tighten the sides and we put straps over the top. It seemed fine. It wasn't. By the time we were driving past THS the boat was perched precariously on the racks. We pulled over and realized that we had kind of failed miserably at the tying it down part. We figured out what was wrong though and fixed it, and made it to our launch point.

We decided to launch in East Taunton, near the River Bend Condominiums. We parked the truck and hauled the canoe down to the river. We got in with no problems. Josh sat in the front and I sat in the back and steered. And off we went!

3. The Softball

So we're paddling along, discussing how the whole river looks the same, and I see something floating in the river. I thought it was trash at first. On the way by I realized it was a softball floating along with the current. I decided I wanted it. Josh and I canoed backwards for a minute and caught up to it. I picked it up and was excited. Then I accidentally dropped it back in the river. But I managed to grab it again. Success. It was a really dirty softball with one side of the stiches gone. I don't really know what to do with it, but it's very cool. "First souvenir of the trip!"
4. The Cows

After canoeing for a while, past the first bridge, Josh said, "is there something in that tree? a person?" I was confused, but as we got closer realized there was indeed something moving around in a tree on the riverbank. Come to discover that it was a cow! Several cows, in fact. Black cows, chilling underneath this tree. They looked at us with crazy eyes and kind of followed us as we went by. They were on the edge of a field but they walked in the field along with us until we were out of their range. It was a little freaky but pretty cool.

5. The Unidentified Creature

At one point, I don't remember when exactly, we were paddling lazily up the river when we noticed some bubbles. These were no ordinary bubbles. These bubbles seemed to be coming from underwater in a straight line, as if something was swimming below the surface creating them. We watched as the bubble path was appearing, but nothing ever popped up to claim them. Weirdddddd.

6. WHERE ARE WE?!

Since Josh and I both have terrible senses of directions, we pretty much had no idea where we were the whole time. We asked that question many times but of course never got an answer. A few times we paddled by someone's backyard or something and hoped they would be outside so we could ask. No dice. I even stood up once to look around but couldn't figure it out.

In case you're wondering, here's a map of our trip:

We followed that white line with the red dots from the lower lefthand corner to the upper righthand corner, then back down. Along the way we saw lots of turtles sunbathing, and many of them jumped off their perches when we approached. It was cool. I like turtles.

7. The Bridge

After canoeing upriver for a while, before we met the cows, we came upon a bridge. We weren't really sure where it was but we did notice that current moved much faster in that area. It was really tiring actually, getting to the bridge. I had to take a little break after we got past the really fast part. The same thing happened when we got to the second bridge, where we turned around. The second bridge was on 44, and we saw a sign on the road that said "Welcome to Raynham." Turns out we canoed 2.44 miles up the river from our original starting point. That took about 80 ish minutes. The return trip with the current took about 50.

8. The Sparrow

After we turned around we decided to relax a little and let the river carry us back. For a while there was a sparrow flying above us among the trees. This little sparrow seemed to be having the time of its life. It wasn't going anywhere that we could tell or trying to do anything in particular. It was just flying around for the fun of it, diving and swerving all around. It was so neat. I'd like to be happy and careless like that sparrow.

9. The Geese

About halfway down on the way back, we spotted some birds swimming in a row ahead of us. We kind of thought it was a mommy bird and her babies. Josh got really excited... apparently he likes ducks. Anyway, it turned out to be a flock of geese. They seemed to all be adults, or at least almost full grown. We caught up to them while they were swimming and then watched them swim to the bank and have a party. It looked like a party, anyway. They were all eating grass from the riverbank, and a couple got out of the water to go up a little further. They all seemed to be having a grand old time eating the grass together. I guess it was a good day to be a bird!

10. Making It Interesting

"Let's try to slide under that tree over there."
"Why?"
"Well, if we're on an adventure, we might as well make it adventurous."
"Good point."

We had to go limbo style to get under the tree limb. It was awesome.

11. The Auctioneer

When we were almost back to our starting point, we thought we heard a voice. It sounded like somebody talking about money very loudly. Finally Josh suggested that it was an auction. Upon closer listening it definitely was. We went down a little sidepath from the river to see if we could get closer, but we couldn't find this auction. We could hear it though. There were too many trees and riverbank in the way to see anything. It felt like we were sneaking around and spying, but we were just curious. hahaha. It was sweet though and I wish I knew what kind of auction it was. Can you imagine canoeing up to an auction? and bidding on something? ahahaha it would have been great.

12. The End

After over 2 hours and about 5 miles of canoeing, we made it back to our starting point. We pulled the boat up with no problem, attached it (properly) on the first try, and made it back to Josh's. It was kind of struggle to get the boat off the truck and over the fence back into the yard, but it wasn't too bad. It was such a fun trip!!

We had burgers for dinner (delicious) and watched the movie Italian Job. I had never seen it but it's one of Josh's faves and I will say that I was definitely not disappointed. I thought it was a great movie.

Sunday was such a good day. : D

Blogged out

I just wrote three blogs in a row. I'm blogged out for today. But I have so much interesting stuff to write about... I'll make a list:

City Band
Tie Dye
This weekend- Thurs and Fri
Away We Go
Canoeing - DONE
Summer Camp - DONE
Piano
Coming up this weekend - Carl's meet and Alfie's visit

Look at all that great stuff to look forward too. Wooooooo