Is it really because I let you call me Barry?

Today is Friday which means that I have double work. Yesterday I did double work but in opposite order and then went to class and now I feel completely dead on the inside. Of course it didn't help that there was a giant lightning/thunder storm that started just as I was about to fall asleep, but right now I could really use a nap. I also think I strained my wrist at work this week, because right now it feels really sore anytime I bend it in any direction. I'm hoping it's just overused and not seriously damaged. I want to get out of tray service for the night, but I don't want to have to miss a whole bunch of work. I am also not going out tonight. I am putting my foot down right now and saying no. I have too much homework to catch up on and I am so tired that I just want to sleep.

So I finally caught up with my friend Karrie. She goes home every summer and so I don't see her very much. We try to call each other when we can, but for the last couple of weeks we were playing a very bad game of phone tag. It was literally to the point where I had to start passing messages to her through our friend Merrie just so I could maintain some sort of communication. Of Merrie, who was supposed to stay in the city for the summer, is now back in Baltimore and there is a good chance that Karrie will be back before Merrie is. My Hebrew Friend is currently in the Holy Land right now and hopefully taking the nice candid shots of Israel that I wanted him to take for me. He asked if I wanted something from Israel, but I just want to see what the desert country is really like. Almost all of my knowledge about Israel is ancient and comes from the religion classes that I take at school. My Hebrew Friend is straight up Israeli so he knows what it's really like and when he comes back I'm going to make him go through all of the pictures and explain everything to me. I had him go over currency and Hebrew before he left and now we're going to have more once I get those pictures. I'm hoping that Liz Bloch-Smith does another course to the Holy Lands next year so I can actually set foot in Israel and get a step closer to completing my minor. Next Thursday night/Friday morning Cynthia! and I are going to trek out to Newark to pick up our Hebrew Friend from the airport. I love random rambles through New Jersey. I used to do them all the time with friends at weird hours of the night.

Last night I watched Never Let Me Go with Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, and Carrey Mulligan. It's about a dystopian society in England where clones are grown and raised as organ donors for their Originals. The clones are raised in schools all over the countryside and not told about what they are until they are much older. They are also kept away from society and people have certain prejudices about whether or not the clones are real humans and have souls. The movie focuses on a group of friends: Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, beginning as young children and following them until they begin their donations and eventual completion (death). The film is about young love and the pure human emotions or joy, love, and jealousy that every young person goes through. Even though I was familiar with the plot I couldn't help but cry throughout most of the movie because it was just too sad to know that those poor children would never have a full life, condemned to die as their organs are slowly harvested from them. Of course the crying could have also been from the PMS I'm currently raging against.

I don't skinny dip...I chunk dunk.

It is said that only boring people are bored. Well I don't care I'm bored. All of my friends are either at home with their parents, sick with mono, or too cranky right now and I'm at home eating red grapes and writing on my blog. It's hard being bored, I'm not very good at it. I am good at sleeping in and being a sloth, but that's not being bored that's accomplishing being a sloth. Right now though, I have too much energy to sit around but I have nothing to channel that energy into. It's hard especially since I'm usually compared to a seven year old boy. Ask Marg, but it's true, she usually has to pull me out of trees or keep me from climbing over fences. I need to take a shower, but then I might do for a drive. I need to get out of the apartment and do something, however I have no real destination to drive to and I don't really want to just go out for a half hour and then return home. I just really want to go get lost for a while. I used to do that back in Vermont, go driving and get lost on the back roads. Not as fun here because of the six million more people on the road but still effective. I'm going to have to ponder this idea while I take a shower. 

My friend Christ recently just started a blog, Porch Beers. It's about his life as a recent college grad living back home in South Philly. I met Chris in one of my summer classes last summer and since then I've only seen him a handful of times on campus, but we've been following each other's lives almost religiously on the various social networks that we are apart of. His first post was a mini tribute to me! So exciting to have someone notice my little impact on the blogosphere and then report on it. I really love the style and layout of Porch Beers. It's got a poor man's men's club vibe going on with the black and white cigar and martini on top of a PBR themed background. I love PBR, it's the only part of the Vermont hipster/redneck that I allow out of me (except for oversized flannel shirts, but those are for the winter and days when I don't wear a bra). Anyways check out Porch Beers and follow Chris on his blog and his twitter and while you're at it follow this blog and check out my twitter: @smpurnell

I think I'm trying to overcompensate for missing two weeks of blogging!

I've got the animal kingdom Axis of Evil down there.

I left the bar an hour ago with the intention of going home and going straight to bed. I was just going to leave a message on a friend's phone to let him know that he could call me tomorrow, but he ended up answering and we had a nice long cat about the stuff going on in his life. Now back not to recently when I easily got bored on the phone and checked out I would have been fine listening to him talk for an hour, but now that we've pushed through all of our crap I want a chance to talk to sometimes. I seriously hope his future wife has big ears because sometimes he won't shut up. Now I love you, and you know that I love you (everyone who reads this knows I love you) but I can't pay attention to you at 2am when I'm already in bed and the thing holding the phone to my ear is my pillow. I'm not sixteen anymore and you're not my boyfriend, so I no longer have the phone conversation listening stamina that I once had. Not his fault though, I'm the one that called first. I do appreciate that he is willing to talk to me and I really do like listening to him. He shares a lot of stuff with me and it's made me much more comfortable and willing to open up and share things with him. Sometimes I feel like he and I are the only two people who know anything about each other (with certain things).

One another note, I need to stop drinking beer. I went out with some friends from work and after one beer I felt like I had eaten a loaf of bread. It was gross. I'm thinking of switching up to pinot grigio. I know it's a chick wine and one that Lance scoffs at, but I need to try something new. I can't keep feeling full and dead from a pint of beer every time I go out. I also need to start going out with people because everyone at work thinks that there's something going on between me and my new bestie and they couldn't be more far from the truth for so many reasons. Next weekend I will commence with the pinot grigio and let you all know how it goes.

So I finally watcher the fist 7th Harry Potter movie. Liked it, not loved it. There were too many important details that I felt were left out. Totally bummed me out, but I felt where they cut the movie was a really good place. It's far along in the book where they did it, but the last portion of the book was densely packed with action and details that having a second part will give the movie room to breathe. I was really disturbed by the Hermione torture scene at the end of the movie. In the book I imagined it to not be so up close a personal between Hermione and Bellatrix and more magic based. In the movie Bellatrix was on top of Hermione driving a piece of wood into her hand herself. Not cool. My favorite scene was the one where Harry and Hermione dance in the tent. It was just really touching to see the two characters be able to hold onto a piece of their childhood innocence despite all of the stuff that was going on around them.

I was going to write tonight and then I wasn't because I was so tired, but then as soon as I hung up I was wide awake. I bet everyone else is asleep by now.

Shout out to Andi who has mono. Feel better! And to Cynthia! because it's her birthday. Happy Birthday!

The Sedar's universal and you'll be playing the part of the evil Pharaoh.

So I've really started getting into  90s sitcoms and most recently it's been 3rd Rock from the Sun. I never got that joke for the longest time until I heard someone say it in a movie, which was also about aliens too (funny). I started watching 3rd Rock with the impression that it was going to just be something mindless and funny, but without any depth to the characters. I also started watching because I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt and I needed something to fill the void until Hesher becomes available to me. I must say I love this show. It is actual very well written (even if my writing sucks) and the plot lines are just silly enough to keep me entertain without getting bored. I was also pleasantly surprised with Kristen Johnson. I first saw her in Bride Wars and thought she was really funny and also kind of reminded me of a skinny Kirstie Alley. She really pulled the show together.

I'm looking for more 90s television shows to watch next so send me your suggestions.

Pros for tomorrow: Reading by the pool, possibly shopping at J. Crew, going for a run.

Cons for tomorrow: Not going to the beach, not making any money(?). 

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!

She makes me feel unaccomplished, she's my Voldemort.

So last night I went to Creepy Clown Bar after work. It was hot in our air condition-less restaurant and by the time my last table left and I got everything turned around and I stayed to help the closer finish everything and cash out I just wanted a cold beer somewhere quiet. I was tempted just to go to McClusky's because that's what we do, but I decided that would fit in better at Creepy Clown Bar in my server uniform.  It was great: quiet, cold, and a friend I hadn't seen in ages was there. I love this girl. She has the outward appearance of someone who is a metal grunge-head that chain smokes and only reads Sartre. In reality this girl is bright and darkly bubbly who loves Lady Gaga and Danzig. She showed me her pictures from her time out in Portland and they were beautiful. She and her boyfriend had been out in a lava field and in an extensive cave system and then they went to the zoo. The pictures were so amazing and beautiful and she told me all about the city. She even said that if she could she would pack up and move out there too. I wish she had that opportunity too now that she might be out of a job in a few weeks. Poor girl. We also started talking about the west with some Irish guy and he had only awesome things to say so now I definitely need to head out there before I go south.

I'm headed to Jersey tonight, I think. My parents are supposed to be out there and I haven't seen my mom in several months. I'm also thinking about getting a state park pass for the year. It's fifty dollars to put a sticker on my car and drive through Island Beach State Park until I find a spot I like. Almost always it will be at the end of the drive past the Coast Guard house and the bird platforms. No one except the fishermen like the end because there's no lifeguards, bathrooms, or parking lots. I like it because there aren't any people to contend with and because its pay by the car load and parking is free inside instead of like the Heights or the Park where you have to pay for a beach pass and parking too. I just need to get through my last day in the heat at Bucca and then I'll shower and head over, maybe. I'm also hoping that this is  my last no air conditioning day at work too.

Hi Cynthia!

I can't believe that he paid for everyone, who ever heard of a rich nurse?

So I just read the syllabus for my next class that begins in two weeks and I am unbelievably excited about it. The class is on writing non-fiction shorts and is being taught by Spinner. I've never had her, but we've interacted quite frequently over this past semester, first when I tried to see if I could go on her Chile study tour and we discussed our love of Allende and South American literature and Norberg I couldn't go because of time and cost, but it turned out that the trip had to be canceled and now she's teaching this online course that I'm in. The other times that we've spoken were about course registrations and where to find a stapler in the English department (a lot harder than it should be, but also how I've become friendly with Fr. Brennan). Spinner also runs the Writing Center and is really enthusiastic about what she does, so I'm pretty excited to be taking her even if it is an online class. I've never taken one before, but Marge swears by them and I am looking forwards to not having to be chained to a classroom for eight weeks.

I got to go outside today during work to run errands and it ended up being a struggle for me to want to come back into the building. It is so nice and hot and sunny outside right now, that I am practically counting down the seconds to Monday when I can be back on the beach. I did run into Tom while I was running errands and he informed me that I can pick up my portfolio at anytime, so I'm going to email him about it next week. I can't wait to get it and see what he had to say about my final pieces. I did really well in the class (better than I thought I would) and I want to see what he had to say about everything. Running errands also gave me a chance to see the construction that is going on around campus. There is a lot of it all over the place, most of it away from where I work and have class so I don't see the progress so regularly. It is crazy how torn up everything is right now and how many trees and green spaces have been torn up to make way for all of the construction, I'm really hoping that these buildings turn out nice because all I want is a turn field on Maguire and a few more trees, not the Learning Center, which will just be a glorified computer lab and and place for students to nap in between classes.

My parents have taken off for Lancaster and I have three days of Bucca, starting tonight. Samantha is in Florida slowing burning the layers of skin off of her body and no one has been out in the boat yet this summer.




The title is a shout out to my mom. It's from Nurse Jackie.