Adventure vii - Stocking Up

As much as it might've sucked in younger years, it actually works out very conveniently to have my birthday at the end of the summer, because anything I might need for the school year doubles as a birthday present.

This year, it worked out especially well because I had my graduation party and birthday party as one conglomerate, so I ended up using most of that money to buy stuff I needed.

Like, for example, the third season of The Big Bang Theory and a fuzzy dragon hat with earflaps and pom-poms.

Anyway... as my room has gotten progressively smaller with the stuff I've accumulated, here is what I've found with having bought so much stuff.

1. Coupons, coupons, coupons. Stuff adds up very quickly if you're not paying attention. For example, I went to Kohl's earlier in the week. I bought a pair of black pants, two bras and a belt. I needed everything. Everything was on sale. And I still paid over $50 for it. But I also saved over $50. So coupons are your best friend.
2. On the clothing front, losing weight is both good and bad. Having your pants not be as tight is a nice feeling, but it also means you have to buy new things, especially bras. At this point in the game, they almost don't make them small enough, and oddly enough, the only ones I can find in my size are all blue...
3. Wholesale places are also your best friend. You get more stuff in less packaging, so that means you can buy even more EasyMac to fill your room with.
4. Once you're done packing a box or Rubbermaid container or whatever, make sure you have everything inventoried before you close it. Packing is all the same: once you open it up and take stuff out, you will never get it back in again. However, unlike on vacations, you'll generally leave with less stuff than you came with (what with all the food).
5. Don't go crazy with buying stupid stuff, but allow a little bit of splurging. Graduation (and in my case, also birthday) money should mostly go towards useful things or saved, but there is nothing wrong with buying the aforementioned DVDs and fuzzy hats. They will come in handy, should you get snowed in in the winter.

Adventure vi - Technology Upgrade

I don't get why everyone is all into the Apple superiority thing. iPods are nice, yeah, but when it comes to computers, I've been raised on PCs and prefer them. (Well, my first computering experience in elementary school was on those big, clunky Macs with the handles, but in terms of computer usage when I was doing actual computer work, not just that Type-to-Learn crap.)

Unfortunately, my school requires Macbook Pros for journalism majors, so much to my chagrin, I am now the owner of a 15.4-inch hunk of über-expensiveness. I don't even technically need anything beyond Microsoft Word for this year, but we got it early so I could know how to operate the dumb thing before I needed to use it for real.

Instead of a 5-item list, I'll do a 3-item list of each good and bad.

What I like about the new computer:

1. My PC is starting to get a little slow opening things, like Google Chrome and iTunes, so the new computer will be faster.
2. The touchpad works like an iPhone screen in the sense that you can zoom in and out by moving your fingers around on it.
3. My PC can't support the software we need.

What I don't like:

1. The fact that Apple is so exclusive that you can't have all the important software, like iLife and Final Cut and the other stuff I need for journalism, on a PC.
2. Said software being extremely expensive (almost as much as the computer itself).
3. When you click the X to close out of a program, it doesn't actually close the program and you have to go to the bar at the top to "officially" close it.

And now I have two computers. I'm not sure what to do.

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.