Truck Bear and Andy are still alive.

I Lovermont and all that jazz, but the one thing that I really can't stand is that everyone seems to want to outdo each other in how long they can go without turning on the heat in their homes. I know the price of heating fuel is nothing to scoff at, but if you don't have a fireplace or a wood stove in your home to help supplement the freezing damp air that can settle into the old floorboards and stone foundations and make it feel like you're living in a damp, cold cloud then maybe you should turn the heat up soon than later. Right now I have on three shirts, a wool sweater, and wool socks that I pilfered from my mom's sock drawer and I'm still nippy. I spent the morning walking around with my fuzzy over my shoulder, making me look like half a yeti and no friend of PETA and am was seconds away from stick my hands in boiling water just to feel something. I wish I had purchased the wool and fleece mittens from Caplan's (Morrisville's answer to a Cabela's but with all of the hunting equipment already sold out for the season). In fact when I head back up to Morrisville to pick up my car I think I will stop and pick up a pair. Now do I want full mittens or the ones that flip over and become fingerling gloves?

It was a nice morning in Lamoille County despite the fact that poor Twilla has to have to body work done to pass inspection. I dropped her off and walked into the village to get my skates sharpened and purchase tape and some new laces. I went with the butter yellow ones that were popular in high school. The store was almost completely unchanged form my childhood. The summer items were still in stock so most of the hockey and ski equipment were still in back. The same guy who sharpened my figure skate was still running the shop and the only other customer was a James Franco look-a-like trying on ski boots. In the back half of the shop is the work area where a tired fluffy dog was laying in a pile of saw dust taking a nap. After I made my purchase I wandered next door to Caplan's and perused their winter apparel. I would liked to have gotten a few flannel shirts, but they were all in larger lady sizes. I'll have to hit up the Carhartt website for those. When I grew tired of browsing I went outside and sat on the curb and replaced the laces in my skates until Lance arrived to take me back to my car, which I had to leave overnight anyways.

Even after my trip to Morrisville the house was still freezing and somewhat damp so I wandered across the field to my godparent's house where I knew they had a wood stove. Total jackpot with that idea. I ended up spending several hours catching up with everyone over there over a nice Long Trail and a cup of tea. I only ended up leaving because my mother called over and said that it was time for dinner with Cathy otherwise I would have enjoyed the pesto macaroni and cheese and acorn squash filled with butter and maple syrup that was roasting in the oven.

Future house, maybe.

Just because I slept with you doesn't mean I'll ski with you.

So true with so many things. 

I'm in Vermont for fall break so you know that only means one thing: broing out with my dad. And of course sushi and mai tais at the Matterhorn where I got the lovely shirt above the last time I was there. It was an atypical day for me, waking up after 9:00am, going to lunch with my mom and some friends and then taking a long nap before heading out around 7:00pm with Lance. It'd been months since I could really sleep in and I only got up then because he was catering and I wanted to eat some of the scraps for breakfast. I'm not used to having so much food in one place, last night I was hunting around for a snack and got so overwhelmed by the choices that I just went for Saltines and grape jelly while I caught up on episodes of Always Sunny and The League. 

The last child that lived here moved out two years ago.

The Matterhorn was crowded, a good sign and the last of the leaf peepers bring income into town. It's a cool little bar at the foot of The Mountain with a sushi bar along the river and an enclosed smoking deck where the ski patrol forces newbies to do shots of Jager until they drop while everyone sings the cheer that's supposed to accompany the drinking. Tonight we sat at a quiet table on the sushi side and I watched the tail end of the Auburn game. I had two Jesse mai tais, two rolls of sushi and beer battered scallops. The mai tais were successful in dulling the senses and we spent a majority of the night in a half stupor once we got home. Someone messed up on a pizza order and I got to take it home for breakfast tomorrow. Sometimes it pays to be a Purnell and other times a Molino. This was one of those times, thank you free pizza. On our way out I was pleasantly pleased to see that the yellow lab and horse were still hanging outside the bar. The dog was very sweet and had a crowd of it's own and the horse was extremely gentle although not impressed with getting it's picture taken by so many people. The owner of course was inside looking like a total douche with his ten gallon hat and spurs. You're in Vermont asshole not Texas and leaving your animals out in the cold while you drink beer does not make you cool. 

A horsie!

Being in Vermont could not have come a better time. It's almost 11pm and I'm in bed watch Ugly Americans and writing this post, something I haven't done on a Saturday night ages. Usually I would be working and then heading out to the bar to spend a percentage of my nightly earnings on beer and blue collar fun. As much as I enjoy doing those things it's nice to get out of the city and away from school and all of the other crap I have going on in my life. Sometimes it just gets a little overwhelming not knowing what it going on that I need to just take a step back and head up into the woods. So that's where I am now: in the woods. I have to write a paper and get my backgrounds blog updated, but I also need to sleep in, eat ridiculous amounts of sugary cereal, go hiking, canoeing, and eat chili tomorrow afternoon. This weekend couldn't have come at a better time. 

Hey that last guy was at least a six.

I haven't written in a few days because A: I'm on vacation, B: I didn't want to and C: I'm on vacation. The problem with not writing though is that I have all of these awesome things happening to/around me that I end up having too much to say and so my posts become super long (and a little boring) and I forget half the stuff that I wanted to write about in the first place. So I've decided to write now instead of waiting until I get home tomorrow night. I'm in Vermont right now for those of you aren't Cynthia! or Yon or missed the fact that I typed vacation twice in a sentence (see above). I have so much energy from all of the thoughts zooming through my head right now I keep getting distracted by the episodes of M*A*S*H that I'm watching right now and all of the cool stuff that I keep finding on the internet (because there is so much cool stuff out there besides the porn), it's hard to focus and put this all down.

Alright I'll just start. Today I bought more books. I had the car in Burlington while my mom was at an appointment and since it was raining I did the obvious thing, go to Barnes and Noble. I have purchased so many books this summer I could open up my own bookstore, hey there is a space available in Wynnewood so you never know. Actually I do know, I don't like to share my books with most people, a trait I've inherited from Lance. So I went in and it seriously is the book Mecca of Vermont. There has never been a better Barnes and Noble than the one in South Burlington. It is the best corporate bookstore around. Two stories of book bliss. While I was there I purchased the second Flappers book, I have an unabashed addiction to YA literature, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, my Hebrew Friend has been telling everyone to read this book and since Lance doesn't lend his books to anyone I had to buy my own, and a copy of One Day. I've been seeing this book everywhere and when I went to see The Help with my mom the trailer for One Day played and the movie looks amazing so I'm hoping that the book is as well.

I also went to the Good Will today too. I've become obsessed with finding thrifty things to decorate my apartment with. I started at the car show flea market this weekend looking for empty frames to paint and hang on my wall. I saw the idea of hanging empty frames at art pieces in an article on Hello Giggles and now I have to do it to my own walls. I painted three that I found at the car show white and then I found three more at the Good Will for .99 cents each. I was excited and I think I'm going to paint these one a couple of different colors and hang them on the purple wall in my living room. I'm only in the apartment for nine more months but I think that's still plenty of time to make the apartment cool and pretty. I've also become obsessed with spray painting things. I have a couple of lamps that need to be painted when I get back to the city and them I'm going over to IKEA to get cheap lampshades and a small area rug if I can find one.

I'm also taking home the extra power drill in the garage. I have to hang up the frames and and some shelves to hold up all of the new books that I've bought recently. I picked up a few Faulkner's at the library book sale this weekend for the price of: on the house (that was for you Kyle). Since my book shelves are completely filled I have to put them somewhere else. I love old books so the ones that don't fit in the cases and shelves I am going to use as part of the decor I have going on: mumbly jumbly.

The best thing about this weekend was the visit to the Matterhorn. The greatest little ski bar at the base of Mountain Mansfield. It was first opened by my Latin teacher Ms. Knapp back in the 80s and has since changed hands many times, but it is now a super cool bar where you can get the greatest sushi. I always get the soft shell crab roll, it has the legs and claws sticking out of the ends of the roll. I also went with the spicy tuna martini this time too. It's segments of raw tuna and seaweed tossed in a spicy Thai sauce, topped with caviar and served in a martini glass. So yummy! And of course to accompany this I also had one of Jesse mai tais. 

A delicious drink that smells like coconut rum. 

My sushi. There is next to no real lighting and my phone doesn't have a flash :(

Check back tomorrow. I'll be in transit but there will be a post sometime tomorrow afternoon. 

I'm completely behind teen abstinence, but as a former teen it's not going to happen.

It's been almost two weeks since I last blogged. I've been a bad bad blogger and I have the angry reader tweets, comments, and phone calls to prove it. It's also been a week since Yonni's computer broke and I guess I figured that since he's not reading it and my mom could use a break from her scandalous daughter's not so scandalous life that no one else would care either. I was so wrong. So anyways I am back and I have a recap of the last two weeks to break down and share.

I guess the easiest place to start would be at Memorial Day Weekend because that's when you last heard from. I think the last post I mentioned said that I was going to Jersey to see my aunt and uncle and meet up with my parents. Which I did and it was nice. But prior to meeting up with my parents I got to spend some time with my cousin Ryan. Ryan is thirteen years older than me, the most guido looking person in the family with a Purnell surname, and possibly the only person who is more sarcastic and willing to take easy shots at their mother (Poor Aunt Pat). He is also the most easiest going and fun person after Lance. I've also looked up to Ryan as an older brother. Of all four of my older male cousins he is the only one I ever saw on a somewhat regular basis growing up. Unlike his brother and the other two that live in Florida, Ryan always took the time to stop by his parent's house and visit with us and talk to me. And since there's the same age gap between me and him as there is between he and Lance, Ryan likes to teach me the same bad shit Lance exposed to him. Though to be fair Ryan has distanced him beyond the shenanigans of Lance by miles and miles at this point. Anyways the night before my parents came Ryan took me out with some of his friends and finally let me join in on his "fun and games" and I had a really nice time. Like a good big brother Ryan also took care of me when I got too tired and made sure I was home in time to get some sleep before my parents showed up the next morning.

The next morning I hit the beach with my parents and it was actually a nice time. My mother kept her comments to herself and even took the time to notice by slightly improved physique (though I've fallen off the wagon these past few days). It also helped that Samantha wasn't there to be a pain in everyone's ass and act like a seven year old. There comes a point in everyone's life when they need to accept the fact that their childhood is over and that holding onto it is only stunting your personality and making you look like an idiot. Samantha has yet to realize any of this to the point where she will sometimes talk like a small child in a very whiny voice if she thinks it will help her get her way with things. It was a good time all around for everyone. I haven't seen my mother since I left Vermont in January and the last time my dad visited he spent more time with his friends in Hershey and his older sister than he did with me.


I got back early Monday night so I could go see a movie with my Hebrew Friend. We saw Fast Five, which was kind of funny because about an hour before I left Jersey we were all sitting on my Uncle's back porch discussing which was the best movie from the Fast and the Furious franchise. It was agreed that the first was the best, except for Lance who was the only who had seen Fast Five at the time, and that Tokyo Drift was the worst. After seeing Fast Five I agree with Lance. Even though the plot was a little borrowed from The Italian Job, the movie had the best lineup of characters and the best cars by far. Even without the amazing Michelle Rodriguez I was still happy and will definitely go see Vin Diesel and his Dungeons and Dragons loving self in the sixth movie.

I think there was one morning/night where I spent a chunk of time with Yonni. We've started having semi regular brunches on Thursday mornings with our friend Cynthia and if Kyle can come then Kyle  will come and eat with us. Texas Toast Kyle. The last time we ate together Yonni made a lovely Israeli salad with is possibly one of my new favorite breakfast foods after Greek marmalade and Challah French toast. We need to do Challah toast sometime soon. Yonni likes to try new breakfast foods whenever we get together, it's just funny because it's all stuff I've been doing since birth. Anyways one Thursday we spent a chunk of time together first in the morning and then later after he got off work we smoked hookah on his back porch for a while and I discovered my love for dark Israeli coffee. I usually reserve coffee for Aunt Val's and Christmas where I drink six cups in a row while eating the hundreds of pizzelles Lance has conned me into making for him. But I was really surprised how much I took to the coffee, even the muddy grounds at the bottom of the cup were nice. I've been really surprised at how quickly and easily I have become so close to Yonni. Especially after what we put ourselves through, it's nice that we were able to take a step back and become even closer. It's almost shocking to me how much I love him as a friend because usually it takes people years for me to love them and right now it's only a special few that I would drop everything for (Marg you need to come back to the city I finally picked up my pool pass). But that's the kind of personality that Yonni has, someone how is easy to get along with and really genuine. I dropped him at the airport the other day and I jokingly said "I'll miss you" even though he's only gone for a few days, but now I kind of miss his down the road presence. I'm going to be such a mess when I leave after graduation.


I've been watching a lot of Aaron Sorkin television shows lately. The old ones that never really got past a season or two that are now on Netflix. First it was Sports Night with Felicity Huffman and Josh Charles. The show's premise was the inner workings of a sport's news show in New York City. The dialogue and plot lines were excellent, but with the impending success of The West Wing, Sorkin decided to abandon the show and eventually it was canceled. Too bad because it's really good. The other Sorkin show that I got into was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The show was about the west coast version of SNL with guest stars from Sorkin's other series. The show only lasted one season, but it was easily Matthew Perry's best performance, even better than Friends. Perry played an addict writer who was getting a second chance as the show's execute producer after being ousted for writing politically sensitive sketches post-9/11. If you can get your hands on it, watch this show and then write NBC and tell them you want it back.

I started my second class this week. I'm two weeks away from finishing Western Civ I and I've already had to write an autobiographical haiku and do several readings and journal entries for my nonfiction shorts class. My autobiographical haiku is 100 words long and reads like a phone conversation to my dad. I've been really excited for this class, but the whole online aspect has me a little nervous because the school recently upgraded Black Board and it's now more confusing than ever and I've never taken an online class before and so I'm little confused about what we have to do anyways. The instructor is super nice and interesting and is definitely invested in helping us get through this course successfully. I've had teachers in the past who could care less about their students so having Dr. Spinner is really exciting and nice.

I took my Hebrew Friend to the beach with me on Wednesday. We went to the state park and I finally purchased my season pass. The guy at the gate thought that I was a total idiot because I kept asking about how to buy a pass, but the old lady who kept asking the poor girl about the shark was even worse and Yonni making fun of her made me feel better about being a total idiot. The water when we got there was amazing. I just wish it had been low tide when we went because the sandbar is much better when it's shallow. The water was frigid, but after playing frisbee in the sun for a while I warmed up and went in. I need to get a better bathing suit top because the one I have is not meant for any sort of physical activity. Thank God it was just Yonni, who doesn't care about my boobs and that we were almost the only ones on the beach. I almost went topless when I was lying in the sun, but I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable. Later I took him over to the Sawmill for some pizza. He had never experienced their pizza, which is the size of three normal sized slices and then walked the boardwalk for a little bit. Lance and I thought that it was funny that he had never been to Seaside considering what a huge fan of The Jersey Shore that he is. I told him I'd take him back when they start shooting the next season later this summer. It was a good past two weeks.

Shout out to my best reader ever @Chris_akaTiny!

Herbies on Marathon

Herbies is a small shack off of Route 1 on Vaca Key in the city of Marathon. Small and without the pretentiousness of other established restaurants next door, Herbies serves simple, delicious food that has stood the test of time. Already a local institution in 1984, my mother took me back there today for lunch where it was still packed as ever. The menu is a simple selection of local seafood cooked to comfort and perfection and nothing suits your fancy Herbies will clean and blacken your catch of the day for only $10.

Daily specials.

Conch fritters the size of my fist.

Sparse decorations on plain walls, but we just came for the food.

Fried oyster sandwich.

Buoys hung on the walls. 

Day Five: Key Lime Pie

I know I said I was  going to do all these things today, but today ended up being a nothing day. Lance didn't really want to do anything but kayaking and reading and Samantha spent the entire first half of the day burning herself to a crisp. So after some sunning and napping I made a pie. There's something romantic about making a key lime pie in the Florida Keys. Very similar to camping at Walden Pond. I kind of really wish Marg were here right now. Family time is fun for a little while but now I wish I had someone to cavort around the islands with. Or at least have a bicycle.

I think I made the key lime pie too key limey. 

Day Four: Key West

Today it was a little too cold and windy for a beach day so we drove down to Key West. Way too many cruise ships and college students for my liking but plenty of bad graphic t-shirts for Lance and rum runners for my mother. Got my hands on some conch, more tomorrow and a better beach.

Old Seven Mile bridge.

Hey Cuba! We see you!

Fully took advantage of the open container laws today.

Mile Maker Zero.

Literary Mecca: Hemingway's House.

Hemingway's dead cats. 

Sunset on the ride home (Samantha took this, I was passed out in the car).

Day Three: First Full Day

Finally a first full day of Key Colony. Cheryl dropped by yesterday and stayed until this evening. It was a low key Sunday with some kayaking, beach time, and late afternoon tennis. I finally got to sleep in, but now that Pete's posted the runs for the week I'll be up early and out on the pavement before it get's too hot. High of 85 F today and expected thunderstorms overnight.

Plenty of boats out on the ocean side today. 

Small jetties break up the beach with long piers at the end of them.

Cabana Club on the beach. Not my favorite beach, small and crowded isn't my thing. I want to go over to Sombrero tomorrow. 

Red skies at night sailors' delight!

Cheryl came to visit!

Day One: Long long looooong.

So cold leaving Philadelphia.

I couldn't find the southbound sign from the car. 

Merrie's homeland!

Samantha found my camera.

Gas station in Georgia. I had just finished driving us through the Carolinas and everything seemed really funny at 2am. I found a neon Hooters sign that only had Hoot lit up. 

Almost there.

I'm so close I can almost taste it. I have almost everything packed, I just have to go downstairs and fold my laundry and repack everything and then I will be set. Today was a monster of a day. I have been up since 4am on Wednesday and have been moving nonstop ever since. I briefly fell asleep this morning around 7am and woke up at 7am crying because I convinced myself that I had overslept my 10am midterm. It took me several minutes to realize that I still had two hours before I had to leave for school. I had to rush from my midterm to work because I thankfully switched shifts with The Ballerina. I had to get there early but I was able to leave at 8pm and have since then cleaned, folded, packed and showered and am almost ready for the rest of my family to get here. They're not expected until sometime around 2am or 3am so until they get here I'll just be up doing a little work and watching movies. Not the most exciting Thursday night I've ever had.

I'm thinking that I might not write so much while I'm in the Keys, but instead do a photo blog. Instead of lengthy posts I'll just show pictures of the day and have only a caption or two. I have family and friends that read this so posting daily photos will be much easier than having to call everyone all the time. Pictures are more fun to look at anyways than read some of the stuff than I write.

Book of the Day: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. A story about a hermaphrodite growing up in Detroit during the 1960s and the history of how their family carried the mutated gene through the generations.

Song of the Day: Pyro by Kings of Leon. Not their best technically but still sounds good and has been getting a lot of air play.

Shoe of the Day: Green corduroy slip on Keds. 

So so so so TIRED.

Im going to make this short and sweet. Sugar. Sugar is sweet. I am super tired today, but this may end up being the longest night ever. I have so much reading and writing to do and since I stupidly told my boss I could work a longer shift than I normally do I have to get laundry and packing done tonight too and set out the spare bed and make sure I have clean linens on hand for when the rest of my family arrives on Friday. It's going to be a very long night for me and an even longer day tomorrow. Readers who actually know me, feel free to comment or text me tonight just so I stay awake. I could really use your help here.

Me after the next 36 hours.