Mmmmmball

Yesterday I went with my family to a Pumpkin Patch in Youngsville.

Kelsey was so cute because she thinks that everything that is round is an "mmmmball" and everything that has fur is a puppy. But I wanted her to be like a precious little pumpkin princess (or whatever the equivalent is of very adorable little girls who cooperate and sit still amidst pumpkins) so I could take some cute pictures but she was this hat-hair, pumpkin-tossin’ mess…



My mom quickly reminded me that when I was a kid I threw up on people I didn’t like so I needed to lay off. But I didn’t stop trying…





Tomorrow we are going to the fair and I think I will wear my Barack n’ Roll t-shirt. I wish I were going to the James Taylor for Change (& Obama) concert on campus tonight but I’m not. So sad.

ten/three

Last night I went to see Nights in Rodanthe and I really loved it. But I felt so soo bad for every man or manly girl there because I know they probably wanted to stab their eyeballs.

So before the movie started I had about 15 minutes to do nothing so I decided to go to Urban Outfitters. I bought this Barack Obama tshirt.



The tshirt says “Barack and Roll.” And I cut those bangs myself this morning. I think I did a good job but they are a little long. I’m scared to cut them any shorter because I don’t want to make any regretful snips. Maybe I’ll work on them more later.

But I did see this cute Hello Kitty toaster that I think Julie and Shafaq would appreciate.

First day of Fall :-)

Saturday morning I woke up early and found pictures of plants online for THREE HOURS. I make flash cards of the plants that are on my recognition lists each week.

Then I went to a little family gathering for my grandmother’s 80th birthday.







Kelsey is starting to talk more. Last week I taught her how to say Obama. She likes to say “ducky, doggie, puppy…” and then if you throw a new word in at the end she’ll say it.

Hmmmm

Today’s flora lab was better and more interesting. There were a lot of pretty flowers to look at but the plants are never as interesting as my classmates. Last week someone collected a batch of pokeberries and went home and painted a picture of pokeberries with the ink from the berries.

See... pretty.

A leaf is a leaf is a leaf

I have a lab in which we hike for three hours through the woods looking at leaves. Then we spend the next week memorizing the plants for a quiz. Then we do it all over again.



I took some pictures of some of the plants with my iPhone. It’s really hard memorizing the leave structures and the venation. We have approximately 35 plants on each quiz. The TAs go through the woods and pick the plants for our quiz, then we walk around and write the Latin name of the plant, family, and the common name. It’s difficult because you start to memorize the picture, and then when you see the plant on the quiz you’re like “okay, what the hell is this……” But photos like this will help..

Kal Penn

How did I miss this? I love that little Indian dude and I would have been so excited to hear about his love for Obama. I wasn't doing anything better on Sunday, either.

Yummy goodness

Look at this plate of sushi. It was so beautiful and delicious and the most amazing edible birthday present ever! I love pretty things that you can eat. I didn’t mess with that Wasabi roll because wasabi makes my eyeballs burn, but the other stuff was so good.

Note to self:

Never travel with small children ever again.

They scream too much. They're cute when they are quiet but they're only quiet about 20% of the time.

But the beach was fun. I would have liked to stay a couple more days by myself. I spent the evenings sitting on the beach alone messing around on my phone. I really liked that alone time. During the days I didn't do anything of real substance besides one small fishing trip in the ocean on a boat.


This is Kelsey being super cute


And this is the tangled mess I created when fishing. I don't know how but my line got tangled with two other people's and they had to work to get it undone while the poor fish just chilled there.


My brother caught these two fish at the same time. The top one is a black sea bass that was too small to keep and the bottom thing is a sea toad.


That sea toad creature was ridiculous looking.


I caught this black sea bass that was deemed a "keeper". The mate on the boat talked shit to me for not knowing how to hold a fish and I almost threw him overboard because this was a new experience for me and I have never caught or held a slimy fish before (except for the one I dissected in biology lab) so he just needed to shut up and leave me alone.


Dolphins..


I took this picture of a pretty sunset with my iPhone.

At the beach..

I am sitting in the hotel lobby with a bunch of work-a-holics sucking up the internet. I look like I'm doing important things but I'm definitely not.. BUT I can drink coffee with the best of 'em. I know that I am electronically dependent. I have everything that I need for survival. 1.) Laptop. 2.) Blistex. The original plan was just to check my email but then I read Julie’s blog and got caught up uploading this so that I can listen to it when I get deathly bored tonight. I think it is a Professor’s last lecture about following your childhood dreams and living your life optimistically and I know that I will love this so much and probably cry like a big ole’ baby just like she did. That will be the second time this week I have cried like that and I am embarrassed to admit that but sometimes life’s situations are owed that type of emotional release. I’m totally okay with that.

Sooo.. yesterday I fell in love with my iPhone. Deep, ultimate, desperate, unconditional, cannot live without you, fuck up my entire life, never leave me, forever and ever LOVE. This happened when I was sitting on the beach and I received an email and I was able to respond RIGHT THERE. And even take a picture and send it. Then I was informed of the quality. If my phone and I were a Disney movie that would have been the moment where it put the glass slipper on my little foot. It was beautiful. Then my brother threw sand at me and I hid the phone in the cushiony, safe part of my bag and left it with my mom to stand guard over. It’s that special.

I took these pictures with it..


This is me on the pier


And my brother and Kelsey.


And Kelsey eating sand because we don't feed her. Kidding.

Laaaaazy

Everyone keeps encouraging me to be a lazy bum now that summer school is out and I have stopped resisting and embraced the laziness. Thursday was a brutal exam day and that deserved celebration so Friday night I had a sushi feast at Mt. Fuji. Mt. Fuji is my favorite sushi restaurant and this is the first time I went when it wasn’t half price so I didn’t have to wait forever. I am getting really good with chop sticks, but I give up on the slippery pieces and just use my fingers. It was so beautiful I didn't want to eat it.. but that only lasted about 5 seconds.

Then Saturday was uneventful but Sunday completely made up for it. I have been working all week trying to get my hands on an iphone. It was necessary for me to obtain this phone before going to the beach with my family. I was starting to get very worried about the possibility of spending days with them without any form of auditory escape. I’m not a proud AT&T customer but since that’s the only way I could have the iphone, I’m sticking with them. My relationship with them is like an unhappy marriage with 3 kids in middle school. I complain about them a lot, but I’m not leaving. And the Customer Services Reps in the stores talked so much shit to me over the past couple of days. They told me I wouldn’t find the phone any where and that just made me crazier about getting one. So here is what I have to say to them..



We waited in line for only an hour and a half, and when we left the apple store there was about 100 people waiting outside. I was probably 10th in line so I'm glad we got there early.

Then Jamie and I went to the pool but it was cloudy and cold..



And we're still dorks and hold our noses when jumping in.

It's been a while..

Going to summer school is like drinking water from a fire hose. I hope I never ever ever have to do this EVER again. That’s why I haven’t updated in a while. That and there’s not much exciting going on.

So it’s July 5th which means that yesterday was July 4th, which made me remember the best July 4th ever on a sailboat in Coronado Bay. I was probably 16 and the fireworks over the bay were so pretty. Six years later July 4th was spent eating Chinese food and trying to watch Pulp Fiction (for my Film class) while listening to huge thunderstorms outside. So today a lot of people are without power, including my workplace, so they sent us home. Now I’m STILL trying to watch Pulp Fiction but I don’t like it.

So since there’s not much going on, here’s some random pictures I took this weekend..

On a walk through downtown Thursday night..















And at the pool yesterday with my neice..





And then I found this brave, lifeless mouse in the filter so I was ready to go..

Stooopid

Friday night Tabbatha and I tried to go see SATC. It’s been all the hype around here so we got tickets early and everything. I spent most of Friday afternoon being stupid excited about it. When we got to the theatre there was a looong line. So naturally, we assumed that’s where we needed to be. We stood there watching all the girls in the theatre and the outfits they were wearing. It was crazy! I would say at least 60% of the population was dressed in clubbin girl clothes. And at least 40% of them looked nasty. They looked so crazy that people were laughing out loud at them. I wish I had my camera. But the joke turned out to be on us because we were standing in line for the 10:45 show and our tickets were for 10:15. So we are going this evening. Hopefully.

The weather is quite nice these days so I am starting to take long walks/jogs. It is going to be so good for me. I need to exercise more and I know it will help me relieve this frustration that my relatives cause me. And I need to start drinking more water. But this morning I retreated to my special little corner in Panera and drank an unhealthy amount of coffee. But it was so good. And quiet!