Random thoughts...?

Less than 2 months of school left. Thank fucking god. I can't wait to be done with these terrible classes and my boyfriend will also return to his normal self...which I am beyond excited for. You have no idea. He's one hell of student though, so I'll give him that. :)

I think I'm going to buy myself a new camera this week so that should be nice. I need some sort of new gadget to play with and a second computer to mess around with is out of the question since I'm trying really hard to save money. I also just opened up a Flickr account cause I have a ton of old pictures that are just so great, great meaning hysterical/pathetic/really lame...such as 9th grade me...oh god haha. It'll help me organize myself and it'll also be fun going through tons of older pictures again.

New Animal Collective cd in January. So psyched!

I can't stand Kovu anymore. And as I typed that I looked behind me and he sitting there giving me a really cute look. Ughhh....

I'm in the middle of a wordtwist game on facebook with Jeff...adios

Time flies...

A lot has been going on lately, thus lack of updates. School's been a pain, I really can't stand it this semester. Usually its only one, maybe two, classes that I dislike. This time around it's all five of my classes. Awesome

This past Thursday October 16 marked the day that my brother Jimmy passed away in 2002. I think everything really sunk in last night when I was laying in bed. I'm so bothered by it, still. I really miss him. I should put a picture him up on here, don't feel like digging out my external harddrive at the moment. Next post. And my dad isn't doing much better. He had to start chemo again a few weeks ago and his body is so fragile. He broke 3 ribs yesterday just from coughing. Everything's just crashing down at once and I'm not too sure how to handle it. Best to just keep my chin up.

In happier news, I turned 18 on October 10th. Danielle came down from New Paltz for the weekend and her, Evan, and I went to see In the Heights that night. I loved it, and surprisingly Evan and Danielle did too...thank god. I would have felt terrible if they would have spent all this money to take me to see it and they didn't like it. Overall, really fun night. It was the third show I saw in 2 weeks haha. I saw Xanadu the night of Sept. 27 with Marissa, [title of show] with Andrew on Oct. 4, and then In the Heights with the boy and dannyyyyelllll, as my little brother Frankie would say.

The day after I drove out to my dad's house with Michael to see my brother Johnny, my sister Kathy, their mom Gerri, and Kat's two kids Ben and Meg who were up from Georgia. My family is awesome. That's me, Johnny, Michael, and Kathy...not such a hot picture of yours truly but you get the idea.

Ben and I took a couple of cute pictures too.

That would be Johnny and Meg playing in the girly kitchen

And Ben is secretly a vampire.

Halloween is coming up and I think I want to schedule myself to work that night just so I can wear a costume and mess around with my manager Steve. If I can master the Sarah Palin imitation I may do that but not unless I have it down really well. We shall see.

It's 1:20 am on Saturday technically, I should get to sleep. This is the first weekend in a long time that I really can just relax and do nothing. I did all of my homework while waiting for Evan to get out of work last night. High five Jen.

Summer's over....

These last few days of summer have been pretty sweet. Sunday night I went to Evan's after work and did the typical Jen and Evan hangout. Monday I went to Evan's and then later that night we went out with Sean and Ashley for dinner and such. We were planning on going to Bobbique but it was closed (Labor Day...lame) so we went to the JR's Steakhouse right next door. First off they sat the 4 of us at a table that was clearly made for 2. Then they proceeded to give me a napkin/silverware combo that was missing a fork. With the fork, the waitress gave us napkins. Next, we ordered a dozen wings and only got 11. More napkins were brought. Then our steaks came. More napkins. We decided to just make a pile in the middle of the table and use my rice dish as a weight to keep them down. The waitress came to check on us...more napkins. Following a conversation about various porn sites we have all seen, I dropped my fork on the floor. Ashley was then kind enough to as the waitress for another for and then she added in "and can we have a few more napkins?" while pointing to the giant stack we already had. The waitress brought us more napkins. We figured out that we had about 50 napkins at the table. I guess this counts as a "you had to be there" moment.

We went to the Sayville AMF to go bowling after dinner. I was wearing flip flops so I had to buy socks out of a vending machine which was pretty damn weird. Anyways, I am a terrible, terrible bowler and I don't do it to be cute and get sympathy either, I just suck at it. We ended up playing 2 games, both of which I score the lowest. I think the first game I scored around a 71 and then the second was a 47. Yikes. Ashley and Evan did awesome though...it was probably because of their funny little moves they do while bowling. Sean pointed out that when Evan bowls he swerves to the right, then left, then right again while adding a little skip to his step. You would never notice it unless you were staring straight at Evan's body. Hmm, Sean.... . And Ashley does this thing after she throws the ball where her hands are positioned like a Spanish dancer holding those clicky things about to yell "Ole!". It was a fun night.

Tuesday, Evan's. We went to the mall in hopes of finding a few more shirts and whatnot but I had no success. He found a couple of things. Later that night we went over to his sister Heather's house for a family bbq which was really nice. I absolutely love his family.

Classes began today at St. Joseph's but since Wednesday is one of my days off I got to enjoy one extra day of summer. Evan had 2 classes today, one of which was cancelled so I went to visit him at his house for a few hours before he went to tutor at the school. I decided to be cute and make him lunch and get him a slurpee, which was such a hassle to get at 10:30 in the morning. I went to 3 711's, 2 of which had slurpees that were still liquid and the 3rd that was by Evan's...such a pain, but he's totally worth it. It's going to be pretty shitty not seeing him every day but the semester will be over before we know it, god willing. I really love him.

In other news, Danielle is up at New Paltz and from what I've heard from her so far is that she's having a great time. She's doing yoga classes and her roommates are cool so yay for her! I miss her quite a bit though. Marissa started at CW Post this week and she's absolutely insane for wanting to commute from Shirley to that school (over an hour away!) 5 days a week. She's crazy, though that really isn't anything new.

I start classes tomorrow and it's going to be one hell of a long day. First class at 8, last one ends at 4:35. Update tomorrow.

Adios summer 08, you will be missed!

weird dream

Last night I had a pretty strange dream. Not sure why I'm writing about it but it was pretty interesting from my viewpoint. In the dream I was going to this college, no idea where it was but I went there knowing not a single person. The college was set up like a giant mall, well it was a giant mall. The classrooms were classrooms but once you left one the hallways were filled with shops on each side. Out of nowhere came every single person I had ever met/seen in Longwood High School, many of which were friends but others who I just knew of and had never spoken to. It's been a few hours since I woke up so I don't remember too many specifics but there was a point where Courtney Rainey and Tamar Massen (miss you guys!) were walking somewhere and I was behind them but never said anything and then suddenly Marie Ledger (miss you too :/)came out of nowhere and was like remember the old days, or something like that. More crap happened that I don't remember but then I went outside and sat on the grass with Evan and apparently John Krasinski (Jim from The Office..mmm) went to this school too and was yelling out of this window on some really high floor. He yelled something of which I replied to sarcastically and then he proceeded to tell me to come upstairs. On my way back inside the building Brianna Carro was there and she was like Jennnnn Klockkkk! and that's it haha When I saw him he looked nothing like the real J.K haha but he told me to go to some room, the door said it was called "the cuddle room", and it was pretty much just like a kid's playroom/daycare at a gym. Very, very strange. After that I met back up with Evan and more shit happened that I can't remember but suddenly I was at an office in Bedford, New Hampshire where my Aunt lives. Then I woke up.

Compared to other dreams I've had in the past, this one seems quite normal. For some reason though, it's sticking in my head and I'm tempted to try to fall back asleep and pick up where I left off...but its 1:40 in the afternoon and I have to leave for work in 3 hours.

Speaking of work, this is the last week I'll be working during the week at Michaels for a while. School starts again on September 4th and I'd like to enjoy the last few days before then and just work the weekends that I am home. However, I really want to leave Michaels. Most of the people who I'm good friends with there are leaving/have left already and I really just don't like it there anymore. I used to enjoy going to work but now I can care less about doing my job well. As soon as I find another means of gathering income I'm out of there.

Philadelphia 8/16/08

I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and ended up leaving the house at 6:00 to catch the train from Ronkonkoma to Penn station at 6:40. Surprisingly there were a ton of people on the train which I was not expecting since it was so early on a Saturday morning but it was a typical ride on the LIRR. I got to the city at 8:05 and went upstairs to pick up my Amtrak tickets and then got on the train to Philly at 9:10 and was on my way! The picture above was taken on the Amtrak train.

The train ride was actually really nice and only an hour and a half long. The inside of 30th Street Station was beautiful! I explored around there for a few minutes and then Jeff called me.

Him and I made a plan the night before that he was going to pick me up from the station around noon when he brings his friend Damian there to go back to nyc. However, on the phone he told me that they were all by Independence Hall and he wanted to know if I wanted to meet them there. So I said yes and asked one of the security guards how to get there and if there was a bus that went to that area. He showed me a map and it turns out it was just down the street that the station was on and that it was only about a "15 minute walk". Sounded good enough and keep in mind that I was very quickly so I figured it would take me no time. Well, turns out the walk was over a half hour long and Jeff and I kept calling eachother and all I could say was "5 more minutes". the outside of 30th Street Station

Market Street, the beginning of the trek to Independence Hall

City Hall

Independence Hall

Anyways, eventually I get to Independence Hall, called up Jeff and he said they were sitting in the park behind the building. So I walked over there and finally saw Jeff, Gary, Damian, and their poodle Charli! Hugs were exchanged and then Gary asked if we all wanted to go grab lunch. The 5 of us walked for a while until we found this cute little cafe called Gigi that had tables set up outside so we sat down there and had a really nice lunch. The food was really good; I had a chicken caesar salad (Jeff did as well) and the waiter was really nice, oh and Gary and Jeff wouldn't let me pay so that was extremely nice of them. While eating this old guy was attempting to parallel park right next to us and he failed miserably. It took him forever to just figure out that he had to actually turn his wheel to get his car into the spot. What made watching this guy awesome was that we all just kinda stared at him and then looked at eachother and cracked up. I'm surprised no one spit out their food or drink from laughing so hard. In conclusion, lunch was fun.

We finished lunch a little after 1:00 so Gary and I needed to start going to the theater for Spamalot. On our walk back to the city hall area, there was this random guy who was dancing on the sidewalk and was trying to get people to join in with him. Jeff and I broke out a dance move for like 4 seconds and then proceeded to laugh a lot. We parted ways with Jeff, Damian and Charli and the plan was to meet Jeff back at their hotel after the show. Gary and I started walking towards the theater and he was telling me a lot of random facts about places around the city, he knows his stuff! He took me into this Macy's that used to be some other department store, the name escapes me, but it's like going into a palace or something. The architecture inside was gorgeous and it was also home to the world's largest working pipe organ. When we got to the theater Gary told me to wait by the stage door after the show and he'd come get me and whatnot. I still had a few minutes to waste so I ventured into this small mall which once again, was freaking gorgeous inside and had 2 chandeliers right at the entrance. 1:40 came around and I went back to the theater to get my Spamalot on.

The Kimmel Center where Spamalot is playing until the end of August

The show was great. I saw it on broadway the day before Les Mis closed just because Gary told me he was joining the touring cast and I wanted to see what he was getting himself into. I have to say, the tour (though I'm quite biased because Gary is King Arthur) was much, much better than the broadway version. Gary was a fantastic King and he had the audience in the palm of his hand. In my opinion, with Roger DeBris from The Producers being the best, King Arthur may just be his next best role possibly ever. He was really great!

After the show, I waited about 30 seconds or so then Gary came out of the theater and we started walking back to the hotel. I think we were talking about Europe mostly haha. Anyways, when we got back to their hotel, Gary called Jeff to see if he was coming outside to meet us but he told Gary that he was paying bills and that we should just go up to the room. So we went upstairs to their room to hang out for a while. We watched a lot of CNN, I drank some strange Italian soda they had ( but it was very good), and we played with Charli.
Gary walking in front of Charli haha

For a while now Jeff and I settled on a plan to get cheesesteaks and italian ices when I came to Philadelphia so that was our idea for dinner. There was a marketplace not to far down the road that they said had a lot to choose from but they closed pretty early so we left Charli asleep in the room and went out to get dinner. When we got to the market, pretty much everything there was closed or closing but there was a nice italian restaurant so we got a table outside to eat. We started off with this really good salad and then proceeded to eat our weight in pasta. All of us were extremely full haha. Once again, they said that the meal was on them but I kept insisting to pay at least something. But Gary said that he was going to wait until we went out to a very expensive restaurant and then I could pay for everything because this would simply be a waste hahaha. I managed to have a bus boy take a picture of us right before we left, too bad it's not in focus really.

We left the restaurant and headed back to the hotel. However, not much longer after getting back did Gary have to leave to go back to the theater and do the 8:00 show. I grabbed a picture with him right before he left and then he told me that he'd see me again when they got back to NY, yay.
Gary left at about a quarter to 7 so that left me with just about an hour to hang out with Jeff. We talked for a bit and then we decided to verse eachother in Word Twist, a game which I have not been able to been him in for several months now actually. I lost by 2 freaking points, 2! Ugh. It was fun though.

That would be Jeff's gameface.

Oh yeah, I put up Charli's hair , she really didn't like it at all though haha but it was cute while it lasted!

Jeff told me that he was glad I came to Philly instead of Raliegh or anywhere else because we actually had time to hang out, which was nice. Before I knew it, I had to get ready to leave but Jeff and I managed to take a few pictures before heading outside.

Jeff got Charli and the 3 of us went outside to catch a cab right out of the hotel. While waiting on the sidewalk a bunch of people started coming up and freaking out about Charli and how cute she was haha. We finally got a cab and I gave Jeff a hug goodbye and we decided that we definitely would get together in Ny soon. It sucked to leave but I had a really nice time with everyone and a great day.

The Amtrak back to NY was delayed 2 hours and then once getting back to Penn Station I had to wait another hour until there was a train back to Ronkonkoma. I didn't get home till after 2 am. Ew.

Overall, I had a really great time with Gary and Jeff in Philadelphia. Making a trip to see them has been in the works since February when I was originally going to fly down to Orlando over spring break, and then since that didn't work I was going to try Raliegh, NC but that just never went through. Philly was much easier and it was worth the wait.

I'm back

Life is awesome.

Tomorrow I'm going to Philadelphia to spend the day with Gary and Jeff and see Spamalot in the afternoon to watch Gary rock out as King Arthur. I haven't seen him, or Jeff, since January when Les Mis closed so I'm really looking forward to seeing them. It promises to be a fun time!

The vacation vlog is in the works, I've been really lazy lately with the video stuff lately so bare with me.

Danielle is leaving me in 7 days for New Paltz, blahhh. I'll miss her tons but her first break is the weekend of October 10th...my birthday!

and I love my boyfriend.

That's all for now

Summer Lovin'

My poor, poor blog. I abandoned it for quite some time now, I guess it's time to start posting again. Summer has been pretty sweet so far and I cannot believe it is July already...yikes! August is the exciting month but tomorrow at noon my dad, step mom, brother Mike, and myself are going to Candlewood Lake in Connecticut for a week. Though it is not the usual "stay at a mansion with the best people in the world for 14 days on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina" vacation, I'm pretty excited. We're renting a cute little house right on the lake and I think Mike and I are going to attempt wakeboarding at somepoint during the week. I dropped Kovu off at Snow Drift this past Thursday to stay while I'm away and I can't believe I actually miss him haha. He makes me want to shoot myself when he's home and as soon as I leave him, 2 hours later I'm waiting for him to charge into my room and rip my arm to shreds. Cutie pie.
At the moment I'm sitting in my dad's den watching standup by George Carlin and it's very funny. Speaking of funny...new reality show airs on sunday...I LOVE MONEY! The best contestants from I Love New York, Flavor of Love, and Rock of Love in a house together, a.k.a FREAKING SWEEEEEET!
Oh yeah, so the short film thing I made for Marissa and Danielle's AP Euro class got rave reviews from the class. It should be up on youtube at some point this week. I'm also probably going to make a vacation video blog so that should be fun.

Updates during the week from the lake house. See ya!