Adventure v - Shipping Up to Boston

No, not to find my wooden leg. (If I had wooden legs, you bet I'd make myself taller than 5'4")

Part of my early birthday present was tickets to the Red Sox/Royals matinee yesterday. It works out nicely because I root for the Sox, and two of my favorite players are on the team, and my official favorite player is on the Royals. Unfortunately, one of my faves from the Sox is their backup catcher and because Beckett was pitching, I didn't see him, but hey, two out of three ain't bad. The Royals won 4-3, but overall it was a really good game.

As for the bits and pieces from yesterday:

1. Not wearing sunscreen at Fenway is not an option. I have a patch of about 3"x5" on each knee of friedness.
2. I both love and hate my camera. Impressive zoom and continuous shot mode are good, the delay and people walking in front of me not so much.
3. When you're in the North End, the only way to go hungry is to be indecisive as to where to eat. Knowing where you want to go ahead of time might help, but some arbitrary decision-maker, like eenie-meenie-miney-moe or spinning around in a circle and stopping with your finger pointed at a place, is a good way to do it too.
4. No matter when you go, Mike's Pastry on Hanover Street will always be packed. Know what you want to order before you make it to the cases. And finally,
5.  Jeff Francoeur is adorable.

   

   Just saying.

Adventure iv- Starting at the Bottom

It happens in every school. The "big kids," whether they're 4th graders, 8th graders or seniors (that's how it went in the schools I went to, at least), think they're all that and a bag of chips because they're big men on campus... only to find that the next year they're on the bottom of the totem pole again. I was never one of the mean big kids that abused the younger ones, and actually I had several good friends in grades below me, but going to orientation reminded me that, once again, I'm at the bottom.

In my first official college experience, I also learned a few other things.

1. There is no such thing as a freshman 15 at my school, because you spend so much time walking up and down the hill that you'll burn off all the extra calories. Plus you'll have fantastic calves by the end of senior year.
2. There is always something to do. Unfortunately, that's not a good thing when you're an early to-bed person, like me. But the showing of Rolemodels in the pub was definitely worth staying up for.
3. The best thing you can do at a meal is sit at a table with people you've never met. It forces you to talk (to avoid the awkward silence thing), plus chances are pretty good you'll meet someone cool.
4. When you're in a tower-style dorm, especially if you're on a high floor, looking out at the view is a good idea; looking down is not.
5. And finally, there don't appear to be any boy journalism majors. Interesting.

Finishing the weekend with a day of camping with the rest of my family isn't really that exciting enough to require any details, so that must mean *le gasp!* I'm caught up with my posts. I have a good adventure tomorrow that I'll report on when I get back.

Adventure iii - Getting Away from Everyone

Well, not really. I was able to get away from peers, but only because I was in Florida with my family as a graduation present of sorts.

Anyway, since everyone and their brother has been to Florida, I'll keep the details down to a minimum. Epcot was, is and probably always will be the best part, which may or may not be related to the amount and variety of food you can get there. Plus we were there for Canada Day, which was honestly more entertaining than being in the Magic Kingdom for the Fourth of July because Canadian people are cooler. As for the lowlights, I knew we'd have downtime at the end of each day, so I brought a grand total of 11 books with me, not realizing that I would be spending said downtime sleeping. Disney is a lot more exhausting than I remember. Also a lot rainier. I know Florida, like any state in the summer, gets the obligatory threat of thunderstorms, but  a week straight of pretty heavy rain, including a flash flood right as we were leaving Animal Kingdom, was a little bizarre.

I get a week to regroup, then off to college orientation.


(Also, my apologies for being behind the 8-ball with posting, since my vacation ended 2 and a half weeks ago...)

Adventure ii - The After-Party

The whole thing probably would've been a lot more enjoyable if I was a night person.

After graduation was over, they took everyone to the "mystery location" (we all knew where it was) for a luau-type dinner... you know, when "dinner" means 10pm... but they had some killer mac&cheese, and they had a touring group there that was doing an interactive hula show. Not my cup of tea, but we also signed up for paintball. Man, laser tag has nothing on paintball. We even had a pretty good team until the team we were supposed to play backed out, so we had to split up and I was the loser no one wanted on their team. It was really muggy out, so it was hard to see through the mask, but I was doing ok (at least, I thought I was) until I made myself too visible and got shot not only in the face but in the hand too, so not only could I really not see, my hand was dribbling pink with the white paint and the blood. The rest of the night was kinda suckish 'cause it was mostly based around bad music and worse dancing, and I was starting to get tired and left out of things. To make matters worse, they had an inflatable obstacle course that I did a faceplant in and swore I broke my nose (luckily I didn't), and none of my friends noticed that I walked out of it a little dazed. Bowling made me feel better, and I had gotten to the point where I had been awake for so long that I didn't care that I was tired (this was at about 3:30 in the morning when we started the first frame), so it was a good end to the night.

...until I had to get up at 12 after having gone to bed at 6:30. But my vacation from everyone else at school will be saved for another post.

Adventure i - Graduation

(Since this is pre-college, I'll use Roman numerals, like what they have for prefaces in books)

Ok, yeah, most people have to go through graduation of some sort, and to be honest, it was pretty surreal for me.

First task: learning how to line up, walk, stand up and sit down at the right moments. You'd be surprised how long it takes ~216 high school seniors to do that. And heaven forbid graduation be outside, because the lineup and procession was the complete opposite from the lineup and procession inside.

Graduation day comes, and it's downpouring. So much for all the girls getting their hair poofed and foofed. Speaking of girls, first thing my friends say when I walk in (and mind you, this is a nice occasion, so as much as I hate wearing dresses, I suffered through one for this) is roughly "Ohmygawd you actually look like a girl." We lined up, walked into the gym, and because it's seventy thousand degrees with a bajillion-percent humidity, they have the fans going and most of us are close to losing our hats. Halfway through the speeches, lightning strikes nearby and the power surge turns on the sound system to interrupt the speeches with some pretty epic instrumental music. Then it's diploma time, and even though I'm about halfway through the alphabet, I'm in the first row because I was in the top chunk of my class, so I get mine right at the beginning... and have to sit through everyone else. After that, everyone kinda forgets how to sit down with everyone else, so the hat throwing was all disorganized and someone got theirs stuck in the ceiling.

And then it's off to the all-night grad party, which I will save for another post.

Returning with purpose

Before I start cataloging my pre-college adventures, I'll at least take the time to create a proper introduction. Any good public communicator does, plus with the added incentive of being a journalism student, being able to speak... er, type... clearly is kind of important.

A little bit about myself: other than an aspiring journalist, I enjoy baseball, music and silly hats. I'm an expert of being hidden behind the scenes, having managed for a drama production and two softball teams. As an equal-opportunity heathen, I don't follow any religious beliefs, though I'm always willing to talk and learn about those of others. And I've been told I make a mean barbecue sauce.

Hopefully I'll have enough interesting stories from this summer and the coming months to make a vaguely entertaining blog, but if not, there's always something in the news that I can run commentary on or whatever.