our eventful trip: this is gonna be long

so heres how it happened:

4:10, nick and i leave binghamton for sara's, its cool, we know the way to ithaca to get ernest, its gonna be lots of fun.
5:30, we're in ernests dorm room, his mom and sister are there along with jonathon, nicola, and some other cool people. ernest sends him mom home, which he is sad about because she wanted to go out to dinner or something, but we wanted to go out to dinner at cornell. we get stuff together, nicola heads over to his dorm to get something, and ernest goes to check call backs for ithacapella. it turns out, he made it, and as great as that is, it means he has to stay home, the call backs were from 7-9, the whole time.
6:00, me, nick, jonathan, and nicola leave for cornell, its pretty easy because there are lots of signs and we get there easily.
6:30, we're lost on the cornell campus and we ask a jogger for directions. its cool because he was from johnson city and he gave us good directions. we had to double back and when we were going the right direction, we saw him running again and he shouted "your good so far" and we honked, it was neat.
7:00 or so, me, sara, lily, melissa (saras roomie), nicola, nick, jonathon, and firdev (sara's neighbor) went out for chinese food in college town. it was good and while we were there, katy called and we made plans to meet up with her later. that was lots of fun.
9 or so?, we headed back to saras dorm. some people went to listen to some of an outdoor concert, but me, sara, jonathon, and nick stopped and listened to an arch sing where 10 guys or so who were all amazingly gorgious and had wonderful voices sang some awesome songs. sara says they didnt do their best piece, but it was still dreamy. and one guy sang the lead in "lets get it on" and had a great whiny voice for it, and he took off his shirt. he must have been cold, it was freezing that night. then we hung out in saras room for a bit.
10?, we go to rpcc which is the place where you can get expensive fast food, there are lots of tvs, lots of chairs and booths, pool tables, a dining hall upstairs, a place to meet people and hang out when there is nothing better to do. we signed up for a pool table but we were on the waiting list so we watched some tennis and met some people and gave massages. katy showed up with taneeka in tow, and some of us realized that we had not missed taneeka at all. i was one of them. we got introduced to everyone in the room watching tv, even the randoms who were not with us and didnt come with katy. also, ernest called at this point saying that he got into ithacapella, which was totally awesome and that it was probably too late to go get him.
10:30, we play pool for about an hour, it was cool, jonathan was good for how little he played and nicola was real good, but i was able to hold my own against him, we got it down to whoever hit the 8 ball in first. i was very proud of myself.
11:30 or so, we decide to go over to ithaca and hang out in ernest and jons room because then we could see ernest and we have to take jon and nicola home anyway.
12:00, i blow a tire. i dont know how it happened, i think i hit the curb, but maybe it was a nail, i dont know. the spare tire is rusted into the trunk of the car and we cant get it out. after much toiling and exploring, we find the jack and some tools. we use some soda as lubricant and sara pounds on the screw that is holding the spare tire in place and we are finally able to get the tire out of the car. now we jack up the car, which was a lot of effort on nicola and jonathans part, and we start unscrewing the blown tire. we get the bolts off and some half drunk cornell kids walk by and ask "are you having car trouble?". i was amazed at this. our previous attempts to get help included 1) standing in the road and waving to people, this resulted in people waving back and driving by. 2) going to find a cop, which resulted in him offering to call a tow service, but sorry, thats all he was authorized to do. he gives us some good advice: when tightening the bolts back onto the new tire, always tighten in a star pattern, not in a circle, because a circle will cause the alignments to get off kilter and the wheel will later fall off. so these kids are some help in that aspect. we get the tire on and lower the car, the only problems now are we are still lost, trying to find our way to ithaca college and the tire is a bit low.
1:00, we head off again, i drive about 25-30 mph tops. but we are still lost. we get onto a road that looks right until it starts taking us back to binghamton. we call up ernest to get him to find directions online but it fails miserably due to lack in communication. the phone starts breaking up and we are on our own. we eventually find a 24 hour food place and jonathan and nicola go in to get directions. we get good directions and we also stop at a gas station and put some more air in the tire. that was really hard because the machine wouldnt go and we had no light to see if there was a pressure gauge or anything. sara eventually got fed up and hit the machine, and it starts working. we put a conservative amount of air in the tire, not wanting it to blow up.
1:45 we get to ernests room and are hanging out there. i was pretty freaked out still and stressed out, but i got a massage and it made me feel better. there were a lot of jamacain people in the room, and i found it a bit awkward, but it was nice.
2:30 nick, sara, and i take nicola home (on the other side of campus) and we head back to saras.
3:00, we get into sara's room, sara and nick take showers (the changing of the tire was a dirty process and i didnt do much, i was pretty useless) and we go hang out in the common room talking and eating fruit loops and popcorn. it was nice.
4:00 we went to bed in sara's room.
9:40 we wake up 10 minutes late to meet lily, katy, etc for breakfast. we try to call around, but it turns out the dining hall doesnt open til 10 anyway.
10:10 or so, we get breakfast and since its $10 for non students, nick and i ate so much. it was lots of fun. it was me, nick, sara and melissa, and after we finished eating, we had some fun checking out the people and how she can say things in a mean tone but you should know shes really not trying to be mean. we also talked about how they should go out and meet guys together because they both need to do that. she was pretty cool, but a bit reserved and safe. she went to bed real early, which, in my opinion, is not the thing to do on a weekend when a bunch of people are there.
11:15 lily and her roommate show up for breakfast and eat with us, it was nice.
12:15, we head back to the dorm to get our stuff and meet katy there.
12:45 nick and i head back to binghamton, we took a roundabout way because i wasnt sure on highways initially and we didnt really know where we were going, but it worked out anyway. we got home safe, and it only took 20 min longer than it would have otherwise.
2:10 we get home safe and sound.

so thats how it went. we saw some really hot guys, asked for a lot of directions, and had a lot of fun. we are all pretty tired and we all have the knowledge of how to change a tire under our belts now! so i guess it all turned out ok, and even better than ok, great and a good learning trip. it was good practice for driving to nj in a couple days and it was great to see old friends and make some new ones.

confusing issue

i have a friend..no really, i do! but this friend has the confusing issue of whether to consider being with a guy even though we are so close to going to college. so should she risk it with a friend right before she meets lots of new people or hold off? its hard because she says he is really close to perfect, and it hard also because they are already friends. i dont envy her having to deal with this..

a final farwell to my good friends bryan and andrew. bryan, we had some good times..french class, quebec, history with norris, those ridiculus pens you were so attached to. andrew, we had some good times as well, i remember sleeping over at your house when i was about 6. i remember the immigration day in 8th grade and you dressed up as a ridiculus french guy. i remember the musicals, the magic card game, randomly sitting in your room forever. i will miss you both, have lots and lots of fun at rit. keep in touch. love you both.

now its only me and nick, im so lonely here without my friends...come back alley! come back alleys sister..while im at it, come back my friends..or, just send me a time machine so i can go forward to when im in chicago and then i will be as busy as you and will make some new friends to help fill the void.

french

some canadian quotes from le Notre Dame de Paris, if you were in mrs wetsigs class you would understand. these are stuck in my head now.

Le monde est entre dans un nouveau millenaire.
Bohemienne, c'est ecrit dans le ligne de ma main.
Ne cherches plus ''amour, il est la, il est la pour toujours, je le crois.
Le pape des fous.
Phoebus veut dit soleil.
Dechire, je suis un homme dedouble.
Tu vas me detruire.
Prepare de mourir parce que je t'aime.



while im at it, some good jack handy quotes:
"It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man."
"To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kind of scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus, and a clown killed my dad."
"As I bit into the nectarine, it had a crisp juiciness about it that was very pleasurable - until I realized it wasn't a nectarine at all, but A HUMAN HEAD!!"
"Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someones neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because what is that thing."
"As the evening sky faded from a salmon color to a sort of flint gray, I thought back to the salmon I caught that morning, and how gray he was, and how I named him Flint."
"If you ever catch on fire, try to avoid looking in a mirror, because I bet that will really throw you into a panic."

why?

why do so many people find it fascinating to read about other peoples lives, people that you dont know, or people that you might not know much about? what in our human nature makes us so interested in knowing other peoples lives, and what, in turns, makes us want to share it?

if you have any suggestions: my aim is patsmith03 or email me at bethanys@uchicago.edu

pool night events

there were two spectacular events tonight, which i will recount here.

1. bryan picked me and nick jesenof up and we were driving down riverside. the car behind us honked and we realize its andrew and tim, so we wave out the window. the car in front of us seemed pretty cool too, it was a ford pick up truck, but the guy scratched into the ford "sorry its FlOoReD" which we all thought was very creative. but so the guy in the truck stops on the riverside bridge which has construction and is really small as is and gets out. he is a big guy, pretty burly, and kinda scary lookin. he heads over to bryans car and screamed "what!" with his hands in the air. we were scared that we were gonna get shot or anything, but he had no place to put the gun, being that he was shirtless and in very tiny shorts. however, he did have an abundance of hair. but then bryan tried to expain while sounding as un-wimpy as possibly that the car behind us honked because they were our friends. then the guy in the ford mumbles something about wondering if there was something dragging from his car, and drives away. it was so weird, scary, and stupid of him to stop on a bridge to begin with.

2. it was nicks turn to shoot and he goes to hit the cue ball, but backs up into one of those little tables that are scattered around and knocks off 2 cans of soda onto the carpet. he looks at them a second, laughing at his stupidity, and then picks them up and i go to get napkins. i pick up the whole container because he spilled a lot. he tries to clean it up, but by then it has all soaked in. he goes to hit the shot again, and this time knocks the napkin container off the bench and it falls with a loud crash. we all laugh at him some more and he comments that the shot better go in for all the trouble that hes gone through. he lines up the shot, hits it, the cue ball bounces back and forth for a minute before scratching without even touching the ball it was supposed to hit in. it was hilarious.

lord of the ring names

bethany suggs - elvish - Séreméla Lossëhelin, hobbit - Orangeblossom Bramble of Willowbottom.
garett rose - elvish - Curufinwë Silimaurë, hobbit - Mongo Brambleburr of Bindbale Wood.
bryan comer - elvish - Maeglin Amandil, hobbit - Todo Boggy-Hillocks.
sara allen - elvish - Merenwen Ancalimë, hobbit - Ruby Knotwise of Michel Delving.
emily feingold - elvish - Itarildë Súrion, hobbit - Berylla Bracegirdle of Hardbottle
andrew peak - Valandil Tasardur, hobbit - Mungo Sackville-Bracegirdle

if you want yours done : http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/default.asp and http://www.chriswetherell.com/elf/Default.asp. let me know and ill post it here.

bits and fluff

today is my best friend emily's birthday, shes off at oberlin and she left me here, to be all alone and wait for school to start. i dont know how i would feel about having my birthday the first week of school. but i guess it will be a good ice breaker "hi, i live next door, its my birthday, do you have a present for me?". just kidding, emily wouldnt say that. oberlin also has a parent orientation that i had never realized was common. could you ucers imagine if our parents had planned activities for 3 days? we're going to the school, we need orientation, not our parents. and i bet it would be akward for parents wanting to spend as much time with their child as possible before they are finally gone and students wanting to get out and meet new friends and get to know new people. im glad uc doesnt have parent orientation. but anyway, happy sweet 18 emily, hope you have lots of friends there to wish you happy birthday.

totally awesome people

i really cant wait for college to start, and one of the biggest reasons is to meet some of the totally awesome people i have been talking to online and to become friends with them, and other cool people that i havent talked to yet. its depressing hearing my friends talk about all the people they've met, the cool roommates, the hot guys they accidentally follow around, the randoms who come in to talk, and it all seems so appealing. i cant wait to be out there on my own, making my own decisions and being independant. i also cant wait to get out of binghamton into someplace more stimulating, for example, chicago. so for all you totally awesome people out there, thanks for giving me something to look forward to. :D

cool new make-up brushes

one of my friend, emily's graduation presents was a huge set of make up brushes, which seem to be very specific, but somehow they seem to look a lot alike. well, she had no idea what to do with all of them, so i took about half, and i am so excited. i love make-up brushes, not because they're useful, but because they are so much fun to play with. i almost want to carry them around and just rub my face with them, because they are so soft, but dont worry, i wont. but im still excited.

my latest stupid thing

i was talking to my roommate and suitemate on my laptop and they both live near chicago. so they asked me what the time difference was and it turns out we had the same time, so i suggested it was due to daylight savings, but nope, all three of us did daylight savings. so at around 12 i go to bed, and i look at my clock, and its 1. then i remember, i was so excited about chicago, i set my laptop to chicago time..and it was an hour later than i thought. the worst part was i had to tell them that we are an hour ahead and im just stupid... :D thought you oughta know.

really strange mood

today and last night have been such strange days for me. i got all introverted after emily's party because i dont like dealing with large groups of people. so i went to barnes and noble to be by myself, but that didnt work out too well, so i came home again. then my parents wanted to spend "quality time" which was not working out for me, so i talked to garett and becky brocker until the wee hours of the morning which was not very wise on my part. but it all worked out, because my mom let me sleep in today. then i worked all day with a break because a friend came over very distraught and needed to talk. so i did that. and then i worked some more. and then i spent this evening inside with nothing to do. i rented chicago, i watched tv and then talked to garett and becky brocker and harold and some others online again. it has not been a bad day, and i have no reason to be upset, but it hasnt been a good day, and i have no reason to be very happy either, all my friends are leaving and all i have left is a computer screen. so im just in the weird not knowing whether to be happy or not kind of way tonight. ok, i do have one reason to be happy. :D

i am the lorax, i speak for the trees

my parents and i have decided to chain ourselves to the other tree if our neighbors try to cut it down. its not hurting them, why cant they just let it be?!

update: they cut down the other tree.. and the owner is an asshole.

theyre cutting down the trees!

my back door neighbor has decided to cut down the two beautiful maple trees that shade our lawn, how horrible is that! now we have to see the lights from the ball park and we have no daytime shade. :( you might ask, why are they doing it? the only answer is they are stupid! and also completely apathetic. now off to paint some more, woohoo.

all my friends are leaving

its a sad time, my friends are leaving for college and im stuck here because uchicago is on trimesters. my best friend sara is leaving tomorrow and i will still be home for her first break. how sad is that. the only perk is that i get to earn some extra money. i will miss sara a lot and she better call me, because i will be stuck here and you must have a tiny bit of compassion in you.
my last conversation with sara included the wonderful quote "thats gross, its sex, first of all. and third of all..." by sara. it was classic.

who reads this stuff?

i was just about to post about all the wild and crazy stuff i did this weekend, and then i got to thinking, who reads this stuff? i dont know and is that good or bad? i know my brothers is really public and my parents read it and all that, so i dont know if i want to post if they read it, but i really dont think they do. another possibility is people from school who got the address off my profile, but idk who these people are, i think i might know one person who reads it like a mo-fo, but i will never know because i dont talk to that person very much. so do i divulge all this crazy stuff that becky and sara and i did because its funny or not because it might incriminate us? i might never know..

and now, neither will you :D