BriTANicK floats.

I've been a fan of comedy duo BriTANicK for a while now. I first came across their videos on Cracked after searching for something to fill the gaps in between weekly Dan O'Brien articles and their Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer video that was featured on Cracked's homepage. The video, a compilation of all of the most common elements found in award winning movies, essentially portrays a heartfelt and funny movie about absolutely nothing. During the harsh winter months in Philadelphia there is very little else to do besides homework and beer pong so watching BriTANicK videos became a welcoming treat.

Currently based out of New York City,  the comedy team composed of Georgia natives Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, writes, edits, and produces all of their own material and often feature many of their friends in their sketches. Recently I came across BriTANicK's latest video Boys Night In, a short about one dude's inability to keep his pants on.

www.britanick.com

Boys Night In

Almost a library card.

It's been a busy week of job hunting and interviewing and landing the job, but I am pleased to finally have summer income as a breakfast server where the hills are alive with the sound music. No joke that's exactly where I'll be working, 6am to noon complete with the Austrian girl's costume. My first day of training was today and it is a very basic server job, but very early. I was surprised at how easy it was for me to get up this morning. Of course it helped that I had napped seven hours yesterday and that the sun comes up around 5am, but still for me to be up so early is impressive. I have a few more days of training before I'm officially on the floor making money, but with town as quiet as it is I am making more money training than I would be serving.

This week I also stopped in at the Stowe Free Library and attempted to get a new library card for the summer. Unfortunately I wasn't able to prove my Stowe address just yet and also wasn't willing to pay ten dollars so I ended up checking out the books under my mother's name until my next piece of mail comes when I can get my own card. I've been fiercely reading the Song of Fire and Ice books (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin, but after finishing the third one I am a bit tired out by the series. Instead of checking out the fourth book I picked out a Vonnegut and a Fitzgerald to keep me entertained in my free time until I'm motivated to crack open the fourth Martin book. Unfortunately it means that I will be falling behind in the book challenge that I have going with the Hebrew Friend, but no matter my heart wasn't in it as much as his. 

The boat is in.

Summer in Vermont is slowly setting in. Now the days are getting perpetually warmer and the last of the winter snowfall has melted off the tops of the mountains the reservoir has cleared itself of its seasonal turnover and is ready for the boat. This evening Lance and I brought out the boat and opened the engine on the Waterbury Reservoir.

Almost the only boat there, the water was as smooth as glass with very little wind. We started by taking the bat over to the public beach and checked out the little inlets and personal docks of private homes located along the shoreline. Next we headed towards the Stowe side of the water and took our time heading into Cotton Brook. The state hasn't put out the buoys yet so there was no restricted boating areas until next weekend. Along the shoreline people had begun to set up camps sites in preparation for Memorial Day Weekend and a few fisherman had their lines out in the hopes of something other than the catfish floating near the water's surface. We took the boat almost into Nebraska Valley before the mud flats became to much for the propellor and then headed over to the dam before packing it in for the night. 

If tonight is any indication of how the summer will be it looks like Vermont has a very pleasant forecast in its future. 

So this is life... after graduation.

It's been an adjustment ending college and moving back home. I went from moving 100 mph to about 5 mph in the blink of an eye. The shock of having a tightly scheduled life almost everyday and then no longer having courses and being temporarily unemployed is taking a bigger toll on me than I realized. I knew that it would be tough setting into this new stage in my life, but not this tough. My cousin made a point to tell to take this time to focus on myself and do things for me while I look for a job and get focused. My uncle told me to use the time to enjoy myself, but put my studies to good use (whatever that means). I want to do all of these things and really dive back into life in Vermont. For the first couple of days I did just that. I unpacked and organized all of my belongings back into my parents' house then journeyed to Connecticut. 

Connecticut was a phenomenal time with Slolly and her family. I got to have one last hurrah to celebrate graduation and meet some great new people. I even got invited to a polo party next weekend in Greenwich where I was assured I would be able to find a nice starter husband. Ever since getting back to Vermont though, I've hit a block where all I want to do is lounge about watching old episodes of Frasier in bed with the curtains closed eating gourmet coffee ice cream in bed. Not exactly the plan I had for myself. Today I pushed myself to get up and going. After waking up at 6am and watching several hours of missed television on Hulu (it's been an adjustment getting used to cable again) I went outside. The weather was beautiful, somewhere in the high 70s and very sunny. With no real direction I started gessoing old canvases and digging in the garden. 

Between finishing up thank you notes and sending out job inquiry e-mails I am slowly figuring out how to have my first real summer since high school. I have some big personal projects in the works and with Moonrise Kingdom coming out next week I will eventually get myself on some track with my life even if it means only going about 45 mph while I'm relearning country living. 

Our party cake was dropped on the ground outside so we had to eat all the deliciousness before the birds and insects got to it. 

Back in Vermont, let's take a nap.

It's been a quiet and uneventful week, but I'm finally back in Vermont. The ride up here was long with little traffic, a rarity on the Garden State Parkway. I had Samantha in the car with me so she was able to take the wheel after the New York Thruway and most of 22A in Vermont. Those sections of roads are some of the most beautiful country to drive through, but also some of the longest and most boring.

Now that I'm home I have to unpack and put things away and decide if I really need to actually keep twenty white t-shirts with the same stain on the front. I think the rest of tonight will be devoted to catching up on all the TV I've missed these last couple of days and taking a long hot shower to wash away New Jersey. Tomorrow I'll tackle my room and the garage and eventually call school and have them mail me my diploma. 

Winterfell, Vermont

So it turns out Winterfell is not in Westeros, but really in Stowe, Vermont. I was driving up the mountain road on my way to work for a night of catering to Stowe's "finest" and noticed a small sign on the side of the road in the Edgewise building. Instantly I was overcome with excitement at seeing our small ski town embracing its inner nerd, something it rarely ever does. I asked around if anyone knew about the sign or what sort of business was in the building besides the ski shop. No one had an answer and only one other person knew what Winterfell was or about Game of Thrones. I stopped by the building on my way home and then again today to investigate, but being off-season the ski shop was closed and there were no other clues about the sign's meaning or origin. I'm going to have see what develops over the course of the summer.

Besides finding out more about the Winterfell sign, today was also a day for Israeli salad. I've been missing brunch with the Hebro and Kyle when he used to come and so I decided to make some Israeli salad for dinner tonight. Usually the dish is served at breakfast, but since I slept in today and didn't think of it until this afternoon when I was at the Agway buying seeds for the summer vegetable garden. It's a simple dish that only takes about fifteen minutes to prepare once you have all the ingredients. To make the salad all you need is a couple of large tomatoes, a couple of peeled cucumbers, a large red bell pepper, and a mall bunch of scallions. Dice all of the ingredients and place them in a large bowl. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and spices to taste and then mix everything together. Some people like to serve the dish right away, but I found that it tastes best when it sits a little while before being served. The flavors get a chance to seep together and infuse the vegetables.

I sampled some of the salad before putting it in the fridge and I think it tastes pretty good, almost as good as the Hebrew Friend's. 

Finals Week: Done

I just completed my last final of college ever and all I want to do is go back to bed. For the first time in four years I had a Saturday final and it had to be at 9am. I would have preferred 11am or better yet no Saturday final at all. If I hadn't had this exam I could have been home already yesterday or Thursday if I was feeling ambitious. It doesn't matter anymore though because I am done and I'll be heading home for a short week tomorrow.

It still hasn't sunk in that I'm actually leaving school and have to say goodbye to my friends. I got a small taste of what next weekend is going to be like last night. Because of my final this morning I didn't want to go to the bar or stay out late drinking so instead I went over to some friends' apartment and hung out. I got to do my laundry there since I've run out of quarters and watch WWE Smackdown. I'm not a huge fan of wrestling, but while watching it last night with my friends I got really into it and kept shouting at the television and critiquing the characters. It is a really silly thing to watch because it is so over the top and ridiculous, but I had a good time anyways. After wrestling we stayed up talking in there near empty apartment. I kept counting down the hours until our 9am finals and when it got to about seven hours left I decided to go home and get a little bit of sleep. When I got up to go I got up not even remembering that this was going to be the last time I would see these guys. They've been an awesome group of junior boys that share similar interests as me and taught me how to play Skyrim this semester. Each one gave me a hug and I even teared up a little bit. I had to get to the elevator and wipe my face before anyone could see. By the time I hit the lobby I had dry eyes, but it was just too sad to say goodbye. 

Paint and PSAs

In between getting paintings ready for tomorrow and writing my Powell paper (I can already tell it's going to be an up all night kind of night) I felt like blogging. I have an idea for a painting but I'm almost out of paints and it's becoming harder and harder to mix the colors that I need for my ideas. I'm going to have to take a trip into the city with my parents next week and restock my supplies before I head back up to Vermont. I never thought I would ever use up two tubes of white, but now it's like trying to squeeze water from a stone to get enough pigment out of the tube. I have two canvases started, but I really hate the one so I think I'll just let it dry and paint over the colors and create something new. I have fourteen hours before the critique, plenty of time to come up with something new. I mean look what can change in the course of an hour:

First Attempt

Final Product

For the record I liked the first version, but Dennis felt the second was a better use of the paint and since he's the one giving grade I will paint what Dennis wants. I actually like how the final version came out, there's a lot of texture. If you run yours hand over the canvas you can feel the raised lines of paint that make the painting feel more three dimensional. 

So while I'm waiting for the paints to dry I found these on Stumbleupon: 

They're Harry Potter PSAs. They're funny on their own, but are even better and make much more sense if you have any knowledge of the Harry Potter world. Being raised on the writing of J.K Rowling and even reading the first book in Latin, I am quite adept at Potter humor. The fire safety PSA is particularly amusing because Hebrew Friend likes to say "Augamenti!" when ever he pours himself a glass of water even if he is by himself. Ahh the simple pleasures in life. 

Finals Week: Not even close.

I nearly halfway through finals week and I feel like I haven't accomplished much and truth be told I really haven't. So far Monday night's exam has been my only one. It took six pages of handwritten essays to complete the exam and by the time I was done I could not feel my arm and had to go home and lay down for a few hours before I had the will to do anything else. Today was a nothing day, my only one for the week. I tried to get into the library and work on my paper, but here weren't any available study spaces in the quiet section so I ended up checking out about ten ancient books on Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon and taking them home with me. The books were so old the library had to take out the old punch cards and replace them with the lined sheet so she could stamp the date on the back of the cover.

Reading through the books lasted about ten seconds before I took out my paints and started working on a new piece for my final portfolio that has to be presented on Thursday afternoon. Right now I have the required ten, but I'm not particularly pleased with some of my earlier works and want to beef up the collection I have. Around 6:00 I wiped the paint of my face and hands, I get really involved with my art, and drove up to watch my Hebrew Friend coach his tiny high school laxers. I sat in the stands behind the bench this time and even waved when he was looking in my direction, but apparently he is completely oblivious. In between whistles I studied for my Southern Lit exam that's supposed to happen tomorrow morning. I'm more prepared than I realized and only had to read a few of the stories and just look through my notes. The youth leaguers kept giving me funny looks while I read during the game. Eventually it just got too cold for me and I had to head home.

Ugh I just want play Scrabble.