summer television

one great thing about summer t.v. is that it typically aims to entertain. example: wipeout. on its second season this show isnt anything ground breaking but it sure is fun to watch.

also - the apartment below me is surprisingly loud but not obnoxious as much as impressive. they seem to have a playlist of music on that everyone who is there is singing along to. while the most popular track of the night was 'must be the money' the one that first caused us to take notice of them all belting along was the song they sang the loudest to last night - that taylor swift song that has the annoying pause-to-breath moment in the chorus "SEEEeeee *pause* eee"

i dont like that song. its pretty stupid lyrically. i mean are we really writing songs about how mr. popular wont love you because your not the head cheerleader. does that even happen - captain of the football team paired with ms cheerleader? did it ever?

its time again

i set a few goals for myself for my days leading up to class. first was to take care of the electric/gas bill. second was to take care of the cable situation. third was to call the central park early learning center to inquire about a position. past that was unpack, decorate, and pay my parking violation.

i am pacing myself so i took care of the first two today. we have power and the cable guy is coming thursday. i also started to unpack in in doing so unrolled all my posters and laid them out with shoes and other assorted objects holding down the corners to flatten them out. ill work on figuring out where i can put them all tomorrow.

moved in

i guess thats relative though. i am in the bronx now. this building is now my primary residence after spending 3 different times here as a visitor knowing i was returning home i am now turning the tables. i know theres stuff we still need - but for the most part we are settled. my goal for tonight was to unpack and tomorrow was to food shop but got hungry. so tomorrow my goal is to unpack. its better this way because i can have a bowl of cereal or some eggs in the morning before i unpack instead of waking up totally unpacked and with no food.

nfl draft is tomorrow for my fantasy team and i havent given it any more thought than i am right now as im typing it. i should change that.

also - my big light wouldnt fit in my car and my desk lamp sucks so i brought a clip light figuring i can just bend that where ever i need to. problem - bulb is burnt out. solution - went to target for things like bowls and shower curtain which we needed and bought bulb. no resolution - socket didnt match. alas i am using my closet light to illuminate my room. yes they give you a light in the ceiling in the closet - but not in the bedroom.

the end.

things arent what they used to be

above is a picture of my little sister's freshman year dorm room. the title of this post, while usually relfecting on a time when things were better, is in fact - the opposite. this room is massive for a freshman dorm room. its as big as an ohare dorm room or bigger with a two door (seen on the left) closet, comcast cable, and a handicap bathroom that is massive. its probably 2/3 the size of my martyrs dorm room. did i mention that they have a bathroom - their freshman year! what happened to communal showers and getting locked out in your towel. in addition to the sweet digs, they have their own thermostat for control of heat and air in their room. they are right next to the laundry room which is 5 washers and 5 dryers for the floor which are all new (brand new dorm building). five rooms down the hall the other way there is a gym and in the building next to theirs in the basement there is a diner. which is right infront of the brand new cafeteria.

atleast i got a good 3 years of sudexho quality meals - :(

taking some advice and laying in the grass

digital exhibition

i read tonight on a blog i follow written by david horvitz a pretty interesting prompt. david uploads screen shots on the program TextEdit the Mac equivalent of Notepad every one to two days of a prompt for his readers. i typically read them for a purely 'hmm thats a cool idea' but i liked the latest one. he said - go to your grandparents house an take a picture of every photograph up in the home and email the gallery to family or friends or whomever as sort of a digital exhibition. i dont have my digital camera home but im planning on trying this with my house to see, after taking pictures of the photographs here with my phone, if the idea turns out to seem as intriguing once i have all of the images. i took a picture of just one frame in my family room tonight. its probably my favorite picture we have.

hurry up and wait

while i dont regret my decision to drive home last night and sleep in my own bed until 1 pm - i do now have alot of time on my hands in a home that is feeling a bit void which could probably be because of most of my stuff being at school in addition to no one really being home.

i know when im in the heat of the year or month or week when i have a laundry list of things to get done and im waking up early/going to bed late i cant wait for a day to just do nothing. but then there are days like today where i literally feel shitty form just sitting on the couch for 2/3 of the time ive been awake.

last night. i never got to the point of eyes closing or anything like that but i could tell my judgment was off at some points like circling a parking lot in a rest stop trying to get to the exit when, where i was parked was very close to the way out. i also never thought that it was possible to get stuck in traffic at 3 in the morning. i know that when a road like 95 goes from 3 lanes to 1 that that should mean traffic but a 30 minute backup at 3 am is hard to conceive...how are there that many cars on the road at 3 am? also, truckers are crazy. i saw 18 wheelers pulling maneuvers that cars would make. going 75 on 95 isnt fast but its also not slow. so to say that truckers were flashing their lights and flying past me going lane to lane and nearly hitting other cars on the road while doint so is almost difficult to picture but it was almost like when the lights go down and everyone retreats home, these truckers treat the highway like that area of road just beyond a toll where there are no lanes and its almost a free-for-all.

new york was fun. once the chaos passes (4 people occupying a 2 person apartment is one thing, 4 people and all their shit in a 2 person apartment is another) our apartment should be a bit more spacious. back in the bx on sat.

i think i want some ice cream.

two things i never thought id do (not sexual)

lengthier post tomorrow but for now tonight was an interesting one. not only did i get to see a band i thought i would never get to see again but i also drove form NY to philadelphia at 130 am. hit two rest stops looking for food (apparently rest stops arent all night not even the coffee places in them) and got stuck in traffic (at 330 am). totally worth it. bed.

unfortunate

in the center any small chunk still looks like it

sparklers are a muggles wand

packing: part 2 of 3

im really not gonna write about packing again other than to say my plan of putting all my clothes in bags failed when i realized too late that we have no bags - so theyr sitting in a pile on my floor.

today was the last day of work. it remains to be seen if i will be allowed to work there form my apartment. fingers crossed.

on my way to and from work fro a few years now ive passed this hill in the midst of a series of windy back roads that was mainly dirt for awhile. then over the course of the end of last summer i notice some activity and in the winter there was construction. now every day (that im alert enough to realize where i am) i look out my window at this place. its not the biggest house of seen or the most elaborate but something about this place just causes me to look up day after day.

thanks to alex for snapping the picture out the driver's side window on the ride home.

new york tomorrow!

packing: part 1 of 3

so i started pulling my shit that needs to go to school together tonight. typically for me when i get home from school in the spring my least concern is finding a sensible place for everything or keeping in mind what i use at school that i will be using at home and need to remember to pack 4 months later. So packing to return is always interesting. There are things i find that i didnt remember to bring the year previous and theres plenty of shit i will realize i forgot once i get to the bronx. (i have too much shit).

so tonight was part 1 - the most brainless of the packing - all of the 'stuff' which is classified as all non-clothes. these things are typically either close by (stuff ive used since returning home) or still in the boxes they came home in (stuff i didnt). the second part is harder to find because finding places for these boxes in may is a challenge and i have to get creative - and so its like a treasure hunt come august. part two will be packing up my clothes which in the past has been sensible and packed in suitcases - this year im thinking grabbing what i think is 'enough' and putting it in trash bags.

part 3 is the day of - tetris-style packing of the car. im driving myself up this weekend but cant fully move in until next weekend when my parents will follow with - hopefully everything else. so i have to sorta pack it all now despite most of it staying here until then. i just hope that once my car is packed there isnt more than what can fit in a small suv.
thats my living room right now. think i'll fit it all? another question is - wheres it all going?

amazing final grill day

today was our last grill day of the summer. it was a great one. decided that we needed to top things off by hitting our old favorite bakery from when me and alicia worked at blue cross on folk rd back in soph year of highschool. i do love this place and they never dissapoint. the day was mostly great after that - food was great and some familiar faces from BCBSD showed up to join us. it was nice. 2 days left

come to think of it, it is

so after being asked to make dinner for everyone tonight i realized that despite the fact that i do cook and that i am italian i have never made meatballs before. so yes - even though its tough to tell from that picture, those are meatballs (beef-left, turkey-right). they turned out pretty well, although other than making sure i rotated them so that the outsides didnt burn, i didnt have to do much.

the ingredients

fanny packs are still acceptable in some places

The past few days I spent in Sandusky, Ohio at 'America's Roller Coast'. Cedar Point is a must for anyone who enjoys roller coasters. 17 Coasters and several thrill rides that put other coaster parks to shame. The ride took around seven and a half hours each way, including rest stops.

First day we got there around 2 pm. Originally planned on getting there around 330, since the directions said it was close to 8 hours and we figured an extra 30-45 minutes for rest stops. Check-in wasn't until 4 so pulling into the parking lot there was some serious consideration of hitting the bowling alley that we passed down the street. Luckily it never came to that as they let us check in then. Brief nap and trip to the arcade and it was on to the park for our 5pm-close tickets.

It doesn't really make sense to describe each of the rides here. If you are curious - theyr listed with pictures on Cedar Points page. If you are really curious then you should figure out when you can get there.

We did get to go mini-golfing both nights after our time in the park. I love to mini-golf and usually get to on my vacation week to the Jersey Shore. Since i took a short vacation this year, I had no chance to do so, and thus was very excited to get to mini-golf here. The course was pretty great and with 2 different 18 hole options, we didnt have to repeat. Alex took the trophy the first night and Leo took it the second. Overall I came in third. Lets not leave out the fact that despite my shaky back 9 I had 4 hole in ones (3 the first night within the first 4 holes) two of them being the first hole of each night. So even though I didnt win either night I still am pleased with that.

Days like those in the intense heat going from severe adrenaline rush to standing in line for 40 minutes really wear on you. Our full day (day 2) we had to leave the park around 4 and take a 30 minute nap before returning because we were all dragging. Its hard to be on your feet from 830 to 10 pm especially in this situation. Needless to say by the end of the trip I was/we all were very tired. I was so tired that I had two slightly delrious rest stop transactions. At the first rest stop I wanted an iced coffee but couldnt figure out exactly what that entailed and then after ordering it was planning on leaving to go to the car to get my wallet (cash was in my pocket) so i could come back and take out cash to pay Leo for gas. Had forgotten that even though i paid for my drink, I hadnt gotten it yet. About 3 hours later we stopped for dinner and I went to Popeyes. I do love their biscuits but decided that I was hungry enough for a meal and ordered the #5. My sister came from the bathroom and asked what I ordered which I proudly announced - the number 5. popcorn shrimp. As i finished saying that I remembered that I do not and have never enjoyed shrimp in any form and the #5 despite it very clearly showing that it was popcorn shrimp, was not the popcorn chicken i was hoping to receive. I then recalled the man repeating back to me 'number 5 popcorn shrimp, what side do you want?' It got worked out and i got something else.

So all in all - it was an amazing trip for a very very affordable amount. But I would suggest that if you plan on going that you do not go for anymore than 3 days or plan on taking more naps - otherwise you may suffer the same temporary loss of brain activity that I did.

I am going to post a facebook album tomorrow of the 20 or so pics I took on my Iphone. I will link it then. For now ill just include one.

p.s. - we counted fanny packs and mullets on our trip. day one between 5pm and 10 pm we counted 4 mullets and 59 fanny packs. day 2 we stopped counting around midday as we had already broken 100 fanny packs. i dont recall the total number of mullets but it was less than expected (apparently there was a nascar event this week which may have accounted for the lack of mullet presence).

i should be in bed already

thats about all that needs to be said. but alas theres things to be done.

may not post the next few days - heading to cedar point in sandusky, ohio. not planning on bringing my computer. will tweet photos - if you arent on twitter you can still check out my page twitter.com/pennooch.

see you soon.

if its good then ok

it seems like the menu of items we make for dinner in the summer, this one especially, gets cut back to about 4 things and 3 are made on the grill - the 4th is pasta. not complaining - just something i thought about recently.

one last time...

real or fake is sometimes better left unanswered

my sister got me this coffee as a post birthday gift while down the shore. the place is like a candy shop with series of different dispensers but theyr all full of coffee beans. you select which type and the place grinds them for your there and you get a bag of fresh grinded coffee. she got a blend of brazillian and columbian. im very excited

also - if you are up for a bit of mystery there is a youtube series running that im addicted to. updates come every few days and videos last about 45sec-2 minutes long. warning: not for those easily scared.

watch them in order. start with 'introduction'. shouldnt take more than 15 minutes to catch up.

watch here

atleast watch the intro. its 2 minutes long and explains what the series is about. if you are interested then watch the rest...its definitely worth it.

things are different on the other side

(above picture is my picture-of-the-day. one of the many barn buildings on the farm property that i work at. this place is just a horror movie set in waiting)

so after work today i headed home for a bit before going into the city to a (dive) bar to see a good friend of mine's band play a show. Rare chance since they are out of Boston and are not big enough to say them coming to philly is no big deal. I had seen them before but that was 2 years ago, and theyve definitely gotten their shit together in their performance, which i imagine is partially due to the lineup changes bringing in more enthusiastic/talented people. Above picture is of the opening band made up of 3 people, two men one woman, two keyboards, a mac laptop, alot of sythnesizers and beats and programmed loops, and the a dude with a drawn on (literally) moustache playing bass and guitar (not at once - he switched depending on the song). They were alot of fun.

My aunt bought me a carpet for my apt for my birthday which was unexpected (i shwed her one i liked while with her looking for a carpet for our office - i work for my aunt - and she said 'happy birthday).

Also, someone turned 22 today. Welcome to the club. Laugh now all you lot who are still young. Youll be here soon.

5 days until Cedar Point

theres always time for practice

rip john hughes

(tried to replicate the fist in the air and the end of breakfast club. now thinking the hands-behind-the-head-ferris-beuller may have been better)

does anyone live there now?

picture of the day:

if you enlarge the photo you may notice how long the grass is. at my house 5-6 days is the max you should let the grass go before cutting it again. because of rain and going away its been 10. needless to say it looked like we had just given up with how overgrown it had gotten.

living alone is odd because even though i have provided meals for myself, taken out the trash, and done my own laundry - doing it at home just feels different. its creepier to shut everything off at night in your own home especially for me where this is probably the longest ive been in my house with no one else here.

also - via text from my friend nelson i was able to catch a young version of alex on america's got talent:

these pictures might not be as convincing as watching it but im telling you - take a 14 year old picture of alex and crop his hair from recently onto it and its pretty damn close. anyway, this kid is a dancer and is on to the semi-finals. wonder if alex could give his look-a-like some competition...id put my money on it.

a visitor at work

last day at the beach

'i told you so' but still wrong

hello all. since starting this project i have had the unfortunate upturn of activity. what makes it unfortunate is that dpicting something meorable ive done in the past 24 hours a week ago would have been easy and soon will be again as i do very little, but im now on a mini vacation and doing a fair share of things which makes taking a picture encmpasing the events of the day more difficult. as such today im posting a few because i couldnt decide.

if anyone saw my away message today it was clear that i was upset that my family despite the thunderstorm/flood warning scrolling across the tv - decided to go to the beach with all my extended fam anyway. needless to say it was torrential within an hour. but even so - we all went back to one house, ordered subs and hung out. so despite my hohum-ing, it was a good day. following pics are the annual family on the beach, followed by the chaos of gathering around the 4 person kitchen table trying to get snacks. (not apparent in the second picture but everyone from the pic on the right was in the house)



after all this we came back only to head to sea isle to meet up with some long time family friends for a get together/celebration of my older sisters engagement. i spent some time just relaxing on their deck.
finally - i d/l an app called doodlebuddy on my phone today and in between here and there drew a little picture that i decided to share.
thats all. tomorrow we head back to sea isle with those friends to spend the day on the beach. then its back to Ocean City for a shower and dinner before heading home.

adios

cumpleanos

thanks, everyone, for the texts/calls/facebook messages/ims. without you guys it wouldnt have really felt like a birthday.