Springy Breaker

Ya know how sometimes you just want to talk to an old friend? But you think, "they're probably busy" or "they won't have time." But you really want to call them up and say, "Hey, I kinda miss you. Just thought I'd let you know." That was pretty much my whole spring break. I had a blast, but as I was blasting all I really wanted to do was call up that old friend. Did I? Nope. Why? Cause I'm a wuss. Anyway… old friend, I miss ya!

Anyway, like I said spring break was lots of fun. I went to good ol' New Jersey! I think this was the first time I ever did a solo spring break trip. It was kinda weird going somewhere cold for spring break. It felt more like a christmas break trip. And to my surprise the week felt like two! It was rad. I did a bunch of stuff but mostly hung out with family I hadn't seen in a while. It was the first time in almost four years that I was in NJ.

On Wednesday, I took a trip down to Philly to visit Kaity Lang! Originally from Tehachapi, I met her at woodward a few years back. Now she's going to school on the east coast and I was super excited to be able to hang out with her somewhere not in California. I left home around five and took 3 trains before I got to Philly. It was a nice trip. First trip I've ever taken on a train alone. Somerville to Newark, Newark to Trenton, Trenton to Philly. Kaity met me at the 30th street station and our adventure commenced! from the station we walked a bunch until we got to the Rocky statue at the Museum, where a guy insisted on taking our picture but we said 'no thanks.' After photo-ing with Rocky, we went to Love Park, and the Reading Terminal Market. If you've never been to the market and you've been to Philly, you are, hands down, looney! I got to eat pretty much the best pretzels I've ever had! They were so soft and buttery, not that salty or expensive. They were phenomenal. So good. Bummed I didn't get more than one. After the market we headed to Kaity's house where we recharged both our batteries and our phone's batteries. Later, on our way to more sight seeing goodness, we got a Philly cheese steak to go from Jim's. Kaity let me pretend I was a local and taught me the right way to order. 'Provolone wit' I mentioned in a post a couple years ago that I wouldn't have meat unless it was in a philly cheese steak in Philly or a Chicago Dog in Chicago. It was great.(sorry anti-meat-eating-people) I felt sick a few hours afterwards, but I don't know if it was the meat or the four cups of coffee I had during the day or the train ride or what. It was awesome though. Later we went to the Eastern State Penitentiary, where we saw Al Capone's cell, a coffee shop and, and the Museum where we saw a bunch of artsy stuff. By the museum I was exhausted and over walking. By the time I got home I was completely dead.

On Friday I went to NYC and got to go to a bunch of places I either forgot I went to when I was younger or just never went to, namely, the library to meet Patience and Fortitude, the colombian consulate, Chinatown, Little Italy, Macy's, this really good cannoli place and the subway. I got nuts! I don't know why but NY nuts are so much better than any other nuts.

I got to go to New Hope and have some awesome chocolate. Went to Red Lobster for the first time in three years. Had Fro-yo in somerville. It's insane how much the places you frequented as a kid change as the years pass. Somerville is pretty much a new town. There are so many new buildings. I had a butt load of pizza on this trip. I think I had more pizza in this one week than I had in the last year!

Seriously an awesome trip. No matter how far or long I stay away New Jersey will always be home to me.

A whole row all to myself! I took a nice horizontal nap.

NJ from the plane

Last time I saw this kid he didn't speak. Now I can't get a word in.

There was snow. It was cold.

I knew it was time to get up when I saw this on my stomach.

A whole car to my self at 6 am to Philly.

I don't know why, but I really liked this lady. So I took a picture.

The museum! Recognize those steps?!

Kaity Lang in her natural habitat

Jim's to get a Philly. That might be Jim. 

Cool wall, bro

Even cooler wall. That guy is holding a pizza. I like pizza.

The goods.

Sharing a good meal with a good friend. Nothing better than that.

Eastern State Penitentiary

More of the creepy/cool jail

That's not a statue. It's a real lady.

Good ol' panorama

Al Capone's cell

Almost at the top of the museum stairs

Museum

There's an exhibit here called 'something something Korea'

Same view different place on the steps

Night view from the top of the stairs

Train homebound

NYC bound

Something I didn't really miss about NJ

Track in Seacaucus

Times Square

New York Public Library

Cool ceiling

Girl

Old wrecked book. I know someone who would probably cry if one of her books looked like this. 

This guy's name is Patience

NY Public Library from  the outside

Like I said, NY nuts are tasty.

Man, that lady in the middle is skinny! tee hee!

"Pretend to be asleep!"

Asian baby hulk

Little Italy

People crossing the street. Shortly after this I got durian! It was delicious!

Cool mural

Another cool mural. I think that's one of the things I like the most about cities. You get to see cool stuff. Like this.

Chinatown sign

Empire state from afar

Tiniest plane to Philly on the way back to FL.

Sometime on the Philly trip my phone died and I took pictures on Kaity's phone. Here they are for your eyeballs to gaze at.

 Classic Rocky pose

 Holding onto Love for dear life

 Amish cheese seller

 Amish hot dog ladies

 THIS!! The pretzels we got from this place were the best I've EVER had. They were just so warm and soft and buttery and salty and delicious. Bummed I didn't buy more than one. They were so good! 

 Delicious looking cookies. We didn't get any. But they looked great.

 So many people

 Black and white cookies. Need I say more?

 Some guy with a bird..

 Irish potato famine sculpty

Boats. Lotsa boats.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.. Sometimes a really long, deep breath makes you feel a little bit better. Today was very bittersweet. Exhausted from having fun and exhausted from dealing with irresponsible adults. I guess that's what life's all about.

What would you attempt to do today, if you knew you couldn't fail?

Working it out!

Phew! I am beat! Today was day two of this awesome body rock workout! I'm slowly but surely becoming a fan! I'm not one of those people that's overly concerned with what they look like or enjoys working out. I mean I do care, just not enough to be a gym rat for two hours everyday. I like working out when it doesn't feel like working. My idea of a workout is wrestling for two hours or going skating or surfing or just playing. Since knee surgery, a lot of the physical activity I was used has been pretty much out of the question. It's been pretty much all strength building for my knee and bicycle riding. I got sick of that really fast. It was boring. I've gotten to the point where I need something I can do to stay healthy, that won't hurt my knee, and is fun. This lady makes it fun to exercise. She talks to you the whole time and motivates you to keep going even if slowly. And at the end she gives you an air five!! It's just great! Hopefully I'll stay motivated to keep going! So far so good!

Ocean withdrawals

Dear Florida, lately you've shown me a side of your weather that I am not too fond of. This whole 50-60-70 thing isn't working out for me. You see, I had the impression that you were warm year round. You've proven me wrong all winter. Can you go back up to 80s? You see, I'm having ocean withdrawals and I'd like to make it back out there before I shrivel up and die. I mean, I most likely won't die but it's best if we don't chance it. I guess I could go out there in this frigid weather, but then there's a chance I might get hypothermia and guess what could result from that. Yup, you got it, death. So, yeah. Just get warmer.

Never warm,
Lolo

Ps. This is when you graced me with your cuddly warmness. 

I'm pretty sure you only ever fall in love once.

Kinda funny..

How sometimes you want something or think about someone so much, that all you do is dream about it. At first you wake up filled with happiness and hope. You dream that someday you'll be able to have that thing that you so desire. Eventually, you wake up knowing that once again it was only a dream, and that dream begins to turn into a nightmare. You realize that no matter how much you dream of it, you'll never have that which you want. Partly because you are scared to try and get it, partly because you don't know how or where to begin. I think it's kinda funny. Sad maybe. But funny.

I'm Back

Its funny how much stuff you forget about as time goes on. I've spent a few hours today just looking back at old posts and just laughing at my 20-21 year old mindset or being bummed on stupid stuff I've done (but gladly learned from) or remembered not doing (even though I wanted to). I'm really glad I started this blog when I did. The last three years were such a weird time. I grew and learned a lot about life and people and friends, made a heck ton of mistakes, made some really good friends and even lost a few friends. It's really cool to look back and refresh. Granted there's stuff that's happened that I will be perfectly okay never remembering (like getting drunk and puking all over a bed..and floor..and hair..and clothes..let's just say everywhere..twice) and other stuff I could never forget no matter how hard I tried and of course wouldn't want to forget (like my first summer at Woodward).

So now I'm back. I think I'll stick around and keeping doing this bloggy stuff just as a way to remember. Remembering is fun. Most of the time. I don't remember how long it's been since I wrote on this thing (I could check but that takes time) but it's been a while. I'm now 23, almost done with school, have less of an idea of what I want to do with life, have a somewhat better taste in music, no longer dress in just shades of black, am vegan (almost a year now), no longer skateboard (got knee surgery nov 2012, re-injured it this past summer at camp..I think my board is in Cass' trunk), started surfing, haven't had time to read a good book in months, still have the same backpack, boys are a still a mystery, have three tattoos, still don't wear earrings, have a bookshelf in my room, am probably failing organic chemistry, and still live in Florida.

This last summer was a pretty great one. Cass and I decided to drive her car out to camp instead of fly, so we could have a car. Having a car was really cool. But I feel like all we used it for was to go into town to do laundry and get food. I feel like I got fatter. I did. (I'm losing it now, but it always goes away slower than it comes on.) The only sucky thing about having a car at camp was not being able to skate down from hilltop. Which considering I had had knee surgery done quite recently was probably a good thing. I guess we could've but when you have a car it's easy to get lazy.

We left on May 5th (I think) and started out our journey at like 4 am because we just couldn't sleep. I packed so much fruit it was insane how long it lasted. We had bikes, boards, blades, pillows, blankets, food and clothes all packed into her little hyundai. If it got messy it felt cramped, but we are so organized that it didn't get super cramped and we didn't go crazy. The first stop was in Texas with my aunts and uncle. We stayed at my uncle's place two nights so we could skate in Houston. We skated a park that started with a J and Southside (where, I just learned, the Johnny Romano skate event is held).Southside was fun. I still wasn't supposed to be skating when we went, but I stepped on my board and pushed around for a little and it felt so good to be back on a skateboard.

Next we stayed with our trainer friend Monica in Lubbock, Texas  for a night. We got to see the Texas Tech campus, got Chipotle and went to this kinda run down indoor park that I can't remember the name of. Around the indoor park there were abandoned buildings/warehouses that I was completely creeped out by. We walked around inside of a few of them and kicked tumbleweeds. At one point I got separated from Cass and ended up sitting back by the car, completely weirded out. I left my phone in the car, which was locked, didn't know where Cass was and if she was alright (maybe the ghost got her), didn't know what time it was, was starting to get hungry...It was just all around bad. Those 15 minutes felt like 45. Eventually we met back up, got kinda reprimanded for going in the buildings by some toothless guy and were on our way.

Next place we stayed at was in NM with a girl Cass had gotten in touch with through couchsurfing.com. She was deaf, Buddhist, and vegan. She was super welcoming and had the best vegan bread I had ever tasted up until that point! I think it was blueberry or something berry like.

Next stop...Arizona!!! I love Arizona. I think it's the weather, combined with the smell of the air, combined with good memories, mountains, pretty sunsets, Venezia's, cacti, and just the vibes. I don't even know. I just love everything about it. I'm thinking I'll end up living there someday. Anyway... we stayed with Chase K and her family. I didn't know Chase that well before this trip. (I think I was always hanging out with a different camp crew) I knew she was the arts and crafts lady, was Tyler's sister, was cool with Cass and lived in AZ (a huge plus in my book) so she was cool. We lurked in Glendale, had artichoke hearts, went to little sister choir concerts, ate burritos, had beans and rice at a chicken and waffles place, went rock climbing, went to Tempe park and the wedge, had Venezia's, witnessed corgi flops into a pool, sang songs in the car, broke down on the side of the road, went to the Grand Canyon, watched candle making in Sedona, got dirt shirts and kokopelli socks, had Mother's day and did a bunch of other cool stuff.

From there we went to San Diego and stayed at the Bladie house for I think two nights. Cruised San Diego late at night with our tour guide Melissa, and then skated parks in the area the next day. (if you've forgotten by now, I wasn't able to skate at this time, so parks were kinda the least memorable part of this trip, at least for me) We went to this mexican-ish place for lunch one of the days called Rancho Cocina , maybe, and they had so many vegan options. I got a burrito and then dessert "for later." I ate it in the car. It was a huge vegan cinnamon roll. It was super glazed and super gooey and super perfect. Later we went to Escondido which was cool, but I was too full to move so it was all a blur.

Last stop on our east to west summer tour was San Jose. We stayed with Cass' cousins but mostly hung out with another one of our campy trainer friends, Patrick. He's a bmxer, vegetarian, high school athletic trainer, super punny. (see what I did there?) He's an all around great guy. I think I've known him for about three years and I think he loves burritos almost as much, if not more, than I do. He took us to this one burrito place that had orange sauce. It was vegan; it said it on the bottle. I have no clue what is in the orange sauce, but it is seriously addicting. I could put that stuff on a shoe and it would taste good. Spicy but not I need water spicy. Just a 'I need more' kind of spicy. This whole trip we had burritos. It was awesome. I don't really remember the parks we went to. I know Pat took us to a bunch of parks and I had a blast at each and every one, but at this point we had been on our trip for about 15 days and wanted nothing more than a day off. I was so tired and just wanted a bed to call my own and a nice long shower. I remember one with big trees, another one that we thought would be better than it was (Antioch?), Cunningham, and Sunnyvale. I know I'm missing a bunch but like I said.. Oh and we went to a farmer's market we had been to the year before. I think we all had naan wraps. Naan wraps are basically Indian burritos. Again, sticking with the burrito theme. I bought fresh, juicy, deliciously sweet strawberries. They were amazing. Pat bought nuts. I think they were cinnamon covered almonds. Sometime that day I think it sounded like I called him fat. I definitely didn't. It just sounded like I did.

We eventually made it to camp. By the time we made it I wanted nothing more than to unpack, take a warm shower in a shower with a good shower head, and see nothing but the inside of my eyelids. I might have done that stuff but I was too tired to make a mental note of what I actually did.

Stuck