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

Beach House

Quote of the day: I talked to this kid Mike, he said he calls you Grandma. - Toni, to Ally
Song of the day: Get the Party Started by P!nk

At the end of June, Juliana's parents let her have their beach house in Naragansett RI all to herself for a week. Pretty much it was a weeklong party. I could only make it down for the last Saturday to Sunday, but that was enough for me.

I didn't get lost getting there and I arrived in the early afternoon on Saturday. Molly had been there for a few days already. It was a happy reunion with Jules and MoPo! We walked to the beach and I met some of J's high school friends. We chilled at the beach and tanned for a while. To be honest I don't remember all the tiny details and don't have any pictures to remind me! Oh well. I do remember we ate pasta for dinner!

And Toni finally showed up and we were happy to see her!!! She made an interesting first impression on Jules's friends. hahaha

Anyway we had a bit of a party that night. I fell asleep on the couch at 10 and wanted to go upstairs but they wouldn't let me. Molly finally let me go up to bed (I was in a sleeping bag on the floor of a bedroom) at around midnight. In the morning when I woke up I found Molly sleeping on the floor as well, and Ally and Toni in the bed. Whatever haha.

We spent Sunday morning cleaning and packing up the house. I went home around noon. I was sad to leave my Riley 3 girlies!!

When I got home I went to meet my friend Susan at Friendly's. We were friends in high school but never really hung out. I like Susan a lot though so we made plans to get ice cream. It was fun and great to see her again! Susan loves to knit and makes these really cool hats, so a while ago I had asked her to knit me one. It's black. and it's so awesome!! perhaps I will take a picture later and post it. She also brought me a book called The Perks of Being A Wallflower, which I read in about a week and was fantastic. We hung out again the other day.. but that's a separate entry. :)

Canobie Lake Park

Quote of the day: You CAN'T eat that on the ride! -Ferris Wheel operator
Song of the day: My Best Friend by Weezer

On June 16th, Amy and I went to Canobie Lake Park. I had gotten two tickets for my birthday and I decided to bring my bff with me!! Work hadn't started yet and we wanted to go on a weekday. So Amy came to my house and I drove to Canobie Lake!

We had such a great day. We went on a bunch of rides and didn't have to wait in too many lines. There was basically nobody there except for all the teeny boppers on school trips. We saw a sweet peacock, too.

We wore our bikinis and matching Phelps Phan tshirts. We both had capris on so when we went on the Boston Tea Party ride we took those off and left our tshirts on. I don't know if you've ever been to Canobie Lake, but they have this great ride called... the Boston Tea Party. This ride is an oval shape. 16 people to a boat. You go up, turn around, come down and get very wet, and end up back at the start again. You get absolutely soaked. We went on it a bunch of times in a row because you might as well and the line was tiny.

BUT when we were done we were sad. Our shirts were all wet!! andddd our bikini bottoms were all wet so we sure didn't want to put our shorts on. SO we just put our sweatshirts on and walked around in bikinis and sweatshirts. We got lots of funny looks, it was great. This is us looking sad because we had no regular clothes to wear :(

At lunchtime we waited in line forever to get hot dogs and fries. Ah well, that's amusement parks for ya.

At the end of the day, we bought caramel apples. They were delicious. The lady who ran the ferris wheel told us we couldn't eat our apples on the ferris wheel... but we did anyway. Rebels. Overall, amazing day. It always is with Amy!! <3

Lake Party

Quotes of the day: I thought it was Colleen doing all the screaming, but it wasn't. It was YOU! -Dan
and
I'm going to lull them into a false sense of security! - Mr. Rose
Song of the day: Swim by Jack's Mannequin

So. It's been almost a month since I last wrote a legit blog entry. I apologize. I didn't think anyone actually read this thing but I've been informed that I "need to start blogging again."

So. I'm gonna work backwards and start with recent things, then perhaps work my way back to some of the other interesting stuff I've been doing. woohoo!

Okay! It's hard to work backwards. Forget it. We're starting with the lake party at Steve's!

On June 14th Steve invited all the swimmers to his family's house on Lake Quinsig for a party. It was lots of fun. Carl didn't know where Steve's house was so I met him at WPI and we went together. Kaitlyn was visiting from Utah and it was great to see her. Dan, Jenny, Bobby, Eric, Colleen, Minh, Chase, Lauren, Alford, Ricardo, Conn, and Steve's friend Casey (and his new black lab puppy Ares) were also there. When Carl and I arrived a bunch of people were sitting on this huge yellow tube known as Big Bertha. I swam over and they just pulled me up on the tube. Awesome. and I was so pumped to see Kaitlyn!!

After chilling on the tube for a while we all went up to the house on the porch for some food... hot dogs and beans courtesy of Steve's parents, and lots of other good food that swimmers brought. Colleen asked me to go tubing with her and I was all over that. I'd never been tubing before but it was SO amazing!! Col and I hung on this tube and Steve's dad drove the boat all around the lake. Col fell off once or twice but I hung on the whole time.

Then we went on the jetski with Steve. Col was in the middle and I was in the back. I got so much air!! ahhh it was so much fun. I'd gone jetskiing once before but didn't remember it too much. Anyway I love it. I so want to live on a lakeeeee!

After we got back from tubing some other people wanted to go tubing. I rode in the boat with Kaitlyn while Chase and Colleen tubed. Chase was terrible, he kept falling off haha. It was great though. Then it was time for Minh and I to have a turn! It was fun again. I feel off once and Minh lost grip a couple times. I kind of skidded across the water when I fell off, it was crazy. Awesome though, of course!

For the rest of the day we all just hung around and enjoyed each other's company. We made some sweet s'mores and played air hockey and pinball in Steve's basement. No idea why there is an air hockey table and pinball machine in Steve's basement, but it rocks.

When it was time to leave I brought Carl back to WPI and drove home. It was such a good day!! (and look at Jenny and I, so cute in our matching sweatshirts!!! :)

By the way, that morning I played a gig with the City Band. It was for this Portuguese Social Club pretty closeby my house. We had to march around the block at a painfully slow pace. Ah well. It wasn't too bad, and I got 40 bucks. And Tom told me some interesting stories while we were waiting around, and my mom even came to watch. Sweet.