Oh my God! You like sneeze glitter.

Someone mentioned nostalgia to me recently and being young still there aren't very many things that I am nostalgic for especially since I've running away from most things in the recent years. This morning on my way to school I was stopped at a light, while I was sitting, waiting for the green, an Amtrak train passed by on it's way to 30th Street Station. I see the trains go by all of the time, hear them at night when my window's open and never think twice about it, but something this morning made me think about all the times I would take the train from Philadelphia to Vermont before I co-purchased Twila. I used to ride twelve hours up the eastern seaboard and into New England to visit my family whenever I had time off from school.

It would be very rare for me to fly to Vermont and when I did it was often from JFK and would cost almost as much as a train ticket home to get to New York just to shave a few hours off of my travel time. After the planes, trains, and automobiles fiasco at Thanksgiving my freshman year of college, I decided to stick to Amtrak. I even enrolled in the Amtrak points program so that I could get free tickets to Lancaster to visit my mother's side of our family. The train ride to Vermont, also called The Vermonter, took a full day to complete, but it allowed me some free time away from school to read, watch a movie, or work on my log book. In my log book there are many a page dedicated to all of my train rides and the weird stories that came with them.

One summer, during the two week gap between summer and fall semesters, I was forced out of student housing to make way for the cleaners and had to go home. It was also a chance to get away form one of the muggiest summers in the city and go water skiing and eat sushi at the Matterhorn. A week before I had to clear out of my tiny dorm room, I had one of my local friends come down and help me pack up all of my belongings and move them over to my aunt's house out in the suburbs. For the rest of the week that I was on campus I lived out of a small backpack and slept under a set of sheets that I planned on throwing out as soon as I left. The night before I was scheduled to depart I had campus security drive me to the R5 and I caught the last train into the city, this was sometime around 12:30am. My train was scheduled to depart some time after 5am. Lance was at a corporate meeting in Albany, NY and would drive through Whitehall around the same time one of the upstate NY trains would be passing through. We previously arranged that I should take a train to Penn Station and then get on the Whitehall train so that I could meet him and have him drive me home instead of wasting a full day on the tracks. The only problem with this was that there is no early morning way to get to 30th Street without taking a cab and was once a very, very poor college student, in fact I still am. So instead of paying a cab, I spent the night in the train station with a crazy lady who wouldn't leave despite security's best attempts. I slept like a dolphin, one eye open to guard my bag and make sure I didn't miss my train. I eventually made it to Whitehall only to spend half an hour sitting at a picnic table waiting for my dad to arrive (Whitehall is an outdoor platform and a picnic place all in one).

One of the stations I pass through on my way into Waterbury.

This weather we've been having as also been something that has made me feel comfortable and miss Vermont, just a little bit. Up north foliage is coming to an end and the winter rains are coming in and stripping the trees of their leaves and preparing everyone for the snow that will begin to arrive at the end of the month. The weather is mostly a cold dampness and overcast. It is the time where wool sweaters are brought out of storage and extra blankets cover the sofa (God forbid and turns up the heat in their house). The mountain begins to start blowing snow on a trail or two to get a jump start on the season and the rink posts the upcoming public skating times. On Sundays I can convince my mother to make pot roast (with Lance's supervision) and I will put on the rain boots I bought in 7th grade and walk around in the last of the wet brown leaves that cover the backyard. For the next week or so the road in front of my house will be coated in hay from the hayrides her church hosts and I will have tried every apple recipe I can get my hands on. It's the brief few weeks that signify the end of a bright, tourist filled fall and before the advent of a white, tourist filled winter that I love the most and wish that I could experience something like it down in the city. 

Next time you're in Upper Darby you better let me know. I'm about to get laid off and I live with my mom.

The heartland of Uzbekistan is the Fergana Valley. Located across most of the country, this valley is extremely fertile and protected by mountains at the north and at the south. Two rivers run through the valley supplying life to area. Once part of the Northern Silk Road, it sustains the country's silk industry. It is a beautiful part of a often overlooked country in western Asia. I want to go to Uzbekistan and see the Fergana Valley. I want to stay in a yurt and hike through the mountains and travel along the rivers.

Fergana Valley

I just got back recently from a trip to Ocean City, NJ with my Hebrew Friend to see some friends who are staying at the shore for the week. It was the perfect day for the shore. Completely flawless skies and just the right amount of waves to go swimming and body surfing. We left the city early and were able to have a full rich day in Jersey. The shore was not too crowded, kind of like going to the Park on a weekend when the state park is too full to get into. We were all able to swim (those of us that actually like water), read, rest, and play Frisbee. Hebrew Friend taught me to play football though I still need some help with my catching and aim. He and I are going to have to go throw a ball around when I get back from Vermont (I'm not terribly excited about driving home alone tomorrow evening). Mini golf and pizza concluded our day and I did get a chance to see Chem Anna in action at the coffee shop. On the way home I nearly fell asleep, but then had a extremely enlightening experience with a friend. 

Yes I was with this person and yes he wore socks and shoes on the beach.

This time last year Chem Anna began her senior freak out. She would unexpectedly cry and fret about the idea of leaving school and getting into grad school. She had a hard time letting go of her safety net and preparing for the scariness of the real world. I though she and my other senior friends were crazy for crying about leaving school. They were only nine months away from no more homework. I thought that they should be celebrating and not mourning. Now that it's my turn, I feel even less prepared and successful than Chem Anna and some of my other friends who recently graduated. I just cry and cry at unexpected moments about school and the paths I've taken and how my life is going to turn out at the end of the next nine months. I'm scared about graduating especially since I will only have been working at my chosen major for three semesters. I don't have enough material for a portfolio to send to graduate schools and I haven't started studying for the GREs. I'm also terrified about leaving because I don't know where I'm going and I know I can't go home. I also don't want to leave my best friend. For the first time I have someone that I am unconditionally close to and I'm not quite prepared to put any distance between us. When I was in Vermont last time Lance said some very sage words to me: "Most choices aren't wrong, they're just not right." The decisions that I've made may not have been the best or the wisest for me but they've led me to finding a passion or two and to Yonni and to new skills. I'm just waiting for when I can start making the right choices the first time around. 

It seems like all Jersey people do is hump and punch each other.

So I know last post that I would have this great story about me and Cynthia! driving to Newark to pick up our Hebrew Friend from the airport, alas!, this did not happen. Hebrew Friend has decided to stay in Israel another week and spend more time with his family. Funny, because he wasn't all too excited to go in the first place, but once he got there he's been very happy. Just goes to show what getting out of the city does for you. Anyways now I'm going to pick him up next weekend and Cynthia! will be at the beach so I'm traveling alone through the dark and dangerous streets of Newark until I pick up the Hebrew Hammer. I took the day off from work so I should just capture him and bring him down to Cynthia! or drop him at the Philadelphia exit and head to the beach myself. Just kidding Yon I'll take you home, but I really may just go to the beach afterwards. And to risk sounding too much like a teenage girl, Yonni I miss you and I'm excited to see you whenever you decide to come back from the Holy Land. Marg I miss you too. Your tiny apartment and I miss you in the city. Please come back from Maryland soon!

In this heat infested city I have come to the conclusion that I am more suited for a life at the beach. I'm just not sure when or where yet. With less than a year left here I have begun to face the grim reality of having to pack up everything in my apartment and move somewhere. I'm just struggling with the "where" bit. Right now my sister has a sweet gig at a beach resort in Florida and as I am no stranger to the service industry I am seriously beginning to consider something like that for a season or two.  

Thursday was my last class! The exam was annoying and long, but now it's over and as long as I passed the course I really don't care anymore. The school is getting rid of the course in the spring and it's just a requirement for graduation that I won't need for anything else in life. Seriously it really is one of those classes that no one needs unless you're a history major. But hey! It's over and done with and I can focus on my nonfiction class and my world lit class that starts next week. Very excited for these two classes.

I am having the best weekend ever so far. I was supposed to go to Manayunk for a friend's birthday, but I ended up having to close at work and by the time I got out of there and would have gone home to shower and change everyone would have been much more drunk that they already were and I didn't want to have to spend the next two hours playing catch up. Instead I went out with some of my friends from work. We went to this play that has a late night happy hour and the best curly fries ever. We all got properly soused and then spent the last hour or two sobering up and eating curly fries and chatting. I smoked a cigarette and fully remembered why I stopped smoking. Worst tasting mouth ever. I also did tequila shots with Lauren and one of Neil's friends. I haven't had tequila since the worst Tequila Sunrise ever incident that involved a clothing free bartender and orange juice. It's now why I don't drink orange juice with alcohol. Anyways...Neil's friend was very nice and extremely cute so now I need to meet up with him again. Poor Neil, I'm systematically going through his friends this summer. But he's good with it so so am I.

I'm ending this with the video "Hello" by Martin Solveig. I love the video because it reminds me of Luke Wilson's character, Richie, from The Royal Tenenbaums. Richie is the epitome of the late '70s tennis player who has a John McEnroe-esque meltdown and leaves professional tennis to move back home. It is an excellent Wes Anderson film.

Our sperm counts are higher, even in our women.

I got another writing request. It's kind of like getting a notice from the library about an overdue book. This time it was actual fun and creatively written and you can see it in the comment section in the post before this one. I also updated My Tumblr today too. It had been a good month or two since I was even on the dashboard. I noticed that a lot of people that I follow hadn't updated either and that I now have 25 followers. The last time I checked I only had 6 and of course none of them are my sister whom I do follow and even plugged a link to her blog on my tumblr. Thanks a lot bitch. Of course now you kind of have an idea about our relationship and can see why we may not be actively following each other.

I've been busy lately. Nothing important just a billion menial things that had to get done around the apartment and at works and school. I've been trying to clean out the apartment and do a little redecorating. I bought some gauzy curtains for my bedroom and I'm liking them more and more. They have a very nice light and romantic feel to them. They aren't heavy and awkward looking like the other ones that I had up before. I also put up a shelving unit in my kitchen that I'm also liking more and more. It's a lot of vertical space, maybe more than I need because I'm still trying to fill it all, but it's given me use of my kitchen table again and to celebrate I pulled out my tablecloth that I've been keeping in my closet for the past year. Now that I have less then a year left of living here I may clean it out and start inviting more people over, especially since I've gotten the Wii and the very nice Netflix channel. To date only eight people have been inside my apartment not including my family members. Now that it's summer and the pool is opening soon and I can have guests over I'm going to invite more people over to the apartment. I also want to go out more this summer. I want to go dancing and drinking with Anna and meet boys and makeout all over the place. I miss kissing boys, I haven't done it in ages.

I'm so glad it's summer for more than just the pool. I've been losing weight recently as a part of my challenge to get fitter. It hasn't been a substantial amount just yet, but enough that my cousin Dan said that my waist has become more defined and when I was trying on clothes at J. Crew all of my usual sizes were too big. I felt really good after that. I have a way to go yet, I want to get to the point where the people I see everyday start to notice that I'm smaller in size and look better. I've been going through an ugly duckling phase since my senior year of high school and it's only recently that I've really been willing to push myself to get out of it. I think its the combination of Yonni and Dre working out a lot and the fact that I haven't been on a date in a year. I'm tired of where I am right now and I'm willing to make the changes that I need to do to get out of this rut. I want a boyfriend again and I'm not going to meet anyone by sitting around being a fat lump. Of course this also means new clothes and new makeup and with the income that I have this summer, it's been easier to buy clothing and shoes. I'm almost done with my start of summer purchases. I've bought several pairs of shoes and clothes this past week and all that's left is underwear. Love love love underwear shopping. I just really like lacey things. I also want Yonni to come shipping with me sometime, not necessarily for underwear though I'm sure he as valid thoughts, but for clothes in general. I'm way too comfortable in my ways and I need someone to push me to try new things on. I can't bring a girl because they secretly sabotage each other even if its unknowingly so I have to bring Yonni and get his honest man thoughts.

I also need to get up to Vermont, but not until it's dry and warm up there. I have a July trip tentatively scheduled and My Hebrew Friend has tentatively agreed to drive with me. I need someone to drive through New York. 87 late at night is so boring especially when its 2am and I've been driving by myself for five hours. I can get us to New York and through Vermont, but I need someone to do New York otherwise I will crash and die and there will be no more sushi and mai tais at the Matterhorn for Sidney. That's really what I miss, the Matterhorn and boating on the reservoir. July's is the perfect time for that because everything is finally dried out and it's warm outside to the point where it's almost hot and the garden looks really pretty. The blueberry bushes won't be ready, but that's what a trip in August is for. 

Day Two: Getting better.

Day two was much better. I woke up somewhere in a Denny's parking lot, but I can still say that I have never been inside of one. I continued to finally get much needed sleep and woke up in the upper-middle Keys. 

After I woke up and started taking pictures of each key sign. 

Not yet on Vaca Key but Marathon seems to be taking over. 

Giant dolphin. Why not?

Finally a survivable temperature. 

The house for the week. Right on the canal and close to the beach. Lance and Samantha have already kayaked around Key Colony.