Let's Watch the Books Sleep

Yes, I have neglected to blog the past few weeks.  Life happens, get over it.  A lot of shit went down a little over a week ago and everyone who should have known about it, knows about it.  If you don't know what I'm talking about you clearly aren't one of those people.  Moving on...

1. I really should be doing homework as usual but I am so not motivated to write a lesson plan that copies a scripted lesson plan from a textbook.  Thank god this is my last Everyday Math lesson that I have to do for field because it makes me want to shoot myself.

2. I will catch up on Florida and Chicago, I promise.  Maybe I'll find some random time this week to finish up Florida because I really need to get that done already before I forget everything.

3. School has been schooly.  Luckily my classmates keep me sane.  I'm so glad to have epic people in my classes.  I loves them bunches.

4. Off to the 40th annual Woollybear Festival tomorrow!  The last time I was there they were celebrating the 22nd, it's been quite awhile.  In fact I had just started preschool, now I'm just finishing college.  Funny how that happens.

5. It is almost October.  This is very sad because it means my least favorite months in the world will be arriving.  Can we just skip November-February and call it a year?  My beef with these months:

• November- Thanksgiving.  I cannot stand Thanksgiving.  There is nothing for me to eat except mashed potatoes and bread.  My family also has a tendency to get into a political debate on this day.  I blame the dead bird carcass smoking in the kitchen.  So fuck November.
• December: Christmas.  I cannot stand Christmas.  This is not just because I am not a Christian but it's pretty much a repeat of Thanksgiving except this time I have plenty to eat.  But in return for having a lot to eat, I have to endure 3 hour present opening.  Every year I try and come up with some plot to get out of this but my grandma's cheesy potatoes just bring me right back.
• January: January wouldn't be listed here if I didn't live in Ohio.  Though recent Disney World trips seem to happen in January so it hasn't been as bad as it used to be.  As long as the snowfall stays below normal.
• February: Valentine's Day.  People don't understand "you're in a relationship, why the hell would you hate valentine's day?"  Why?  Because it's a load of shit.  It's always been a load of shit whether you're single or in a relationship.  There's also always a large snowstorm in February.  It's just a month of blah.  At least it's the shortest of the year.

Florida Roadtrip Days 3 and 4

Day 3: Lazy Ass Day Of Laziness (July 30, 2012)
  After finally having a full nights sleep and a shower, our first full day in Inverness was dubbed a lazy day from the very beginning.  In fact, I'm pretty sure we never left the house until about 6.  It rained for at least 12 hours straight (see?  Not-So Sunshine State).  My reliance on the internet became more than usual because I do not have ANY cell phone service at Ashy's house unless my phone is at a 30 degree angle rested on the first shelf leaning on a KISS collection box set on the second shelf of the coat rack.  Otherwise my phone also believes it is in a different country.  So we lazed around the house, I'm pretty sure this was the day Dillon busted out Animaniacs and Beetleborgs until we went to Outback for his birthday celebration.  I did receive a free steak!  They didn't cook my steak all the way and some of it was rare and because I didn't want another one they just gave me a free meal.  Score!  Following Outback we went to Ashy's mom's house where I met her little brothers and saw a rather large collection of plastic animals.  Nearing the end of our lazy day, Steph and I went to the Walmart of Inverness to grab breakfast noms for the rest of the week and any other items we needed, like matching Marvel shirts to wear to Universal the next day!

Day 4: With Great Power, Comes Great Shoes (July 31, 2012)

  IT'S UNIVERSAL DAY!!!  I was finally going to an Orlando theme park that wasn't Disney World.  So our day started off very early, I think it was about 6:30.  We eventually hit the road for Orlandosville to meet with Matt at his workplace.  In case you aren't aware, Matt is Evan's BFF LIKE OMG and when they are together shit gets amusing.  However, you're going to want to remember this for when him and Steph get married.  And make babies.  Because it's just one of those things that's gonna happen.  It's destiny, people.  ANYWAY!  I was able to witness and plot the meeting of these two star-crossed lovers for the first time.  Take that, Shakespeare.  So we journey on over to Universal Islands of Adventure (because I need to see it before LeakyCon- there will be more on that later!) and dart around until I can see Hogwarts.  Then the spazzing comes.  And the jumpy leapy hyperactivity that I felt like throughout the majority of the day.  Who's in Diagon Alley?  I'M IN DIAGON ALLEY.  ON HARRY POTTER AND J.K. ROWLINGS BIRTHDAY.  We did make signs for this, see?  Though I'm not sure why it uploaded funky on here...fuck you, Blogger.  So the first thing we do is get in line for Olivander's.  The wait was only a little less than an hour and I just had to see this.  We walk in the small little room with the rest of our party and see Olivander up on a small staircase.  He walks down and talks to us, eying the children for which one he is going to pick.  THEN he looks at us and starts walking over.  Who get's chosen at Olivander's?  STEPH AND I GET CHOSEN AT OLIVANDER'S.  Like holy fucking shit, Dumbledore.  Luckily, Matt caught almost the whole thing on video, even though it's dark, but who cares because we know what it is!  I bought my wand chosen for me, it saved me the trouble of having to find one in the gift shop, as well as a postcard and Ravenclaw pin to attach to my clothing for LeakyCon.  We continue over to Hogs Head to down some Butterbeers (which are completely phenominal) then head over to do the walk through of Hogwarts which then led to getting in line for the ride because there was more to see.  I, do not do rollercoasters or rides that are not geared toward children, so I cut out of the line before they tried to get me on it.  They did a wonderful job of designing the place and I'm glad my pictures came out so well for it being so dark.  Following this we explored the Diagon Alley shops and headed to CityWalk to find somewhere to eat.  This ended up being Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.  I am sad I did not have a margarita in Margaritaville, nor did I step on a pop top.  But I did have some yummy chicken enchilada soup even though I'm in the middle of Florida in the summer.  After lunch we hit up Seussland where we just went all crazy and rode some killer rides.  We then went over to Lost World where there's an epic talking/spitting fountain and went through Posiedon's Fury.  Next came, Superhero Island where we met Spiderman, Green Goblin, and Captain America.  Unfortunately I didn't get to have a picture with Wolverine. :(  But I did take one with the huge ass cutout, as well as Doctor Octopus!! which made my day.  I'm pretty sure the Marvel and Hogwarts parts of the parks are tied at best for me.  I adored them both.

  Following Universal IOA, we headed over to Downtown Disney which is one part of the trip I do not like to reflect on.  I was not expecting to be so torn up to be walking around Downtown Disney without Evan there.  I seriously hated the place and couldn't stand to be there.  We ate at Earl of Sandwich, I got a shake at Ghiradelli and I was done.  Luckily we weren't there long, dropped Matt back off at his workplace and headed back to Inverness.  The day was a blast, minus the whole DTD bit.

Florida Roatrip - Days 1 and 2

This is a post about the Florida roadtrip from almost two months ago.  I'm a little behind but there's been a lot going on.  Now that I'm sick *cough hacccck* I figured I can work on this before I grow old and forget it even happened.  Here's the first two days.

Day 1: The Journey -Take 1 (July 28, 2012)
Steph and I set off in King Arthur (her new car of awesome) a little after 9am and made pitstops at our home Speedway and Walmart.  We were going through rain until we got off of 301 and onto 71.  We made a stop in Dayton at a bar/restaurant named 'Frickers' Home of the Frickin' Chicken.  I believe as usual, Steph and I split an order of nachos which is absolutely a must when we eat anywhere that offers nachos, especially Denny's.  We met up with her LuRe friends that I finally had the chance to meet.  Such amazing women!  After hanging out there for about 2.5 hours we made a stop at a Big Lots nearby to buy a speaker contraption so we could listen to our iPods in the car.  We weren't exactly thinking and didn't realize the contraption would need batteries...which led to another pitstop at a Big Lots in Richmond, KY after buying gas.  Note to self:  if ever travelling on I-75 this far again, stop in Richmond, they have a TONNN of places, including "Kelly's Fruit Stand" that was established my birth year.  I so should have went in there to see if I could get some free fruit.

        A ways down the highway we finally enter Tennessee, which I was particularly excited about because I had never been.  I also saw my first mountains!  Like mountain, mountains, not hilly mountains though they were hilly.  Stop crushing my dreams, gawd.  Anywhoo, we were travelling through Tenn and it gets to be past our dinner time with the nachos wearing off.  We decide our next stop will be a place that has Fazoli's.  So where do we end up?  CLEVELAND!  We traveled 7 hours just to end up back in Cleveland.  Ha!  Kidding.  It was clearly Cleveland, Tennessee.  We had some Fazoli's while talking on the phone with our mothers about our adventures so far.  I mostly talked about the amazingly epic pop machines that you could get basically any soda you ever wanted, even flavored Sprite!  I had raspberry and peach Fanta.  That Fazoli's also served their food on actual plates with real silverware.  Apparently this is a thing all Fazoli's are going to start doing.  Either to help save the environment or cut down costs of constantly buying disposable dishes and cutlery.  After getting our noms on in Cleveland, we head out during an epic sunset and stop at the scenic overlook right on the highway.  Perfect timing for the sunset too!  Following this mini pitstop we enter Georgia, another state that I'm excited about because I had never been.  That was two states crossed off the never been to list in one day!  Our destination was Marietta, GA to stay with Trevor who lives just a half an hour north of Atlanta.  We arrived a little after 10 pm which was great timing.  We chatted with Trevor and prepared to crash for the rest of the journey and arrival to Inverness the next day.

Day 2: Mini Journey and the Crash in Inverness (July 29, 2012)

  Before jumping back on the roads of America, Steph, Trevor, and I ate at a Waffle House.  I had NEVER eaten at a Waffle House until this day.  The place is cute, small, and has very yummy waffles.  HUGE yummy waffles.  After breakfast noms we hopped back on I-75 and went through Atlanta.  Now, Cleveland/Pittsburgh/Detroit are the largest cities I've ever seen.  They are pretty tiny (especially Cleveland) compared to Atlanta.  So now Atlanta is the largest city I've ever seen (until Chicago which came 2 weeks later....that's another blog story).  About halfway through Georgia we see a sign for Georgia peaches.  We decide to be adventurous and stop for peaches at a little stand quite a few other people have stopped at.  It was pretty epic to eat Georgia peaches in freaking Georgia.  Damn good peaches, people.  Eventually we cross the border into Florida!!  Now I have been to Florida before but it's always been flying into Orlando by plane and living in Walt Disney World for a week.  I haven't seen much of the Sunshine State.  Shortly after entering we stop at the visitors center, receive grapefruit and orange juice and admire a HUGE poster advertising the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which we will get to, I promise!).  Continuing through Florida it rains.  Which I learned is just something Florida does.  Welcome to the Sunshine State!!  *rain*  It should be called The Washout State, that would be a lot less misleading.  So we're going and finally end up at the Wildwood/Inverness exit!  We're almost there!  Upon entering Inverness we stop at McDonald's to see if Dillon is working.  Apparently there was a power outage and he was sent home.  So we continue to Ashy's (our residence for the week).  We arrive and unload and chill.  We finally don't have much more driving to do until Tuesday!  After a few hours of chilling we head over to the Applebee's of Inverness and meet up with Alex and his brother which was somewhat awkward.  It was weird actually meeting these people I've heard Steph talk about.  So we ate then stopped over at their place for a little bit where there was one of those little lizardy critters on the sliding door and a sperm looking branch on a table.  Yeah, I remember the random things about places.  We then head back home and crash for some sleep after finally getting a shower.

Quick! Use Your Zappy Gun!

1. And *poof* September happens.  Seriously life, stop going so fast.

2. I can now add "getting hit on and pick up attempted at a bar" on my list of bucket list fulfillments.  Apparently Kelsey and I just cannot be left alone at tables. XD  I also discovered Wolfey's has a drink called a "Purple Gatorade" that is so damn delicious.

3. Evan's been oddly affectionate recently.  Bonus for me!

4. Not bonus-ing for me is the fact that I need to be up in less than 7 hours and cannot sleep.  I also have my long day of classes tomorrow.  I also really need to get some productivity going on.

5. Maybe if I read more that will help me go to sleep.

6. Yeah, running out of things to talk about on here.  It just happens to be a slow night.  Mostly because I have about a million things I should be doing, that I'm clearly not doing because instead I'm mindlessly typing about my life on here to strangers.

7.  What are you still reading this for?  Go get yourself a Purple Gatorade you silly goose.