to the great blogosphere

I swear, I'm not dead yet. This blog is still very much alive and well and I've got lots of posts planned. The only issue right now is having the time to write them. It takes me more time than it should to create posts, especially the picture ones. I'm a total html newb.

What I got through with every post. D:

Haha, I still love it, don't get me wrong, just takes a while. And I've been busy lately with summer work and college apps distracted by Tumblr lately. And I need to get started on that icky summer work and stuff. I've got band camp this week and I'm going on vacation next week with my family. And then school starts. Joy.

But my flickr is being updated regularly so check that.

I'll try to catch up asap, but just letting you guys know that I'm still alive. :D

hersheypark

Our second day in Hershey went on pretty much like the first, with the older boys and my dad going on the bigger coasters in the park and the rest of us wandering around the park aimlessly, going on rides as we saw them. Hershey is alright, but it bothered me a little. A lot of the rides overlap each other, the riders coming dangerously close to people on other rides. And the coasters also go right above the walkways, which is really frightening. And the map is absolute crap. It just made me long for Disneyworld, where the atmosphere is magical, the transitions from area to area are smooth, and even waiting in line is fun. I need to go again soon. D:

But Hershey and Disney shared the same huge crowds.

Hanging around a small fountain to get some water shots and creep on strangers. Mhmmm.

I LOVE THIS ONE. SO MUCH.

Obligatory.

There was a zoo in the park that Alec and I went to with his parents. It was a sad little place with tiny enclosures.

MINIONS. Too bad we all fail at claw. D:

Aleccc.

Andre's just eating a big bucket of fries, nbd.

Inside the factory tour ride, complete with Disney-esque dancing cows. Oy.

Giftshoppppp

LOOK AT ALL THAT CHOCOLATE. Too bad my dad flipped out on me lagging behind to salivate over the chocolate so I only got a bag of Reese's Pieces. Bah.

Our hotel had a cool pool. =]

Papa John's for dinner, yummm.

entering the land of chocolate

One thing that's wonderful about my mother is that while other parents may be excessively paranoid about talking to strangers online, she approves of it. Probably because she met one of her best friends through Korean drama forums.

About three years ago, a correspondence started up between my mom and this woman named Angela. Eventually they started calling each other nearly everyday and talking on the phone for hours on end. Fast forward a couple months and the two families are meeting each other. Fast forward another year and we're visiting each other and sometimes even taking vacations together. It's really fantastic that my mother doesn't bat an eyelash when I mention Ari from Boston or Trish from Belgium or Nik from Sweden or even when I say I met them online. She realizes that in this day and age when the everything is so interconnected it's getting to be pretty normal for friends to be made on the Internet as well.

Last weekend, Angela and her family met us Pennsylvania because none of the kids had ever been to Hershey Park. We went to this cavern beforehand though. It's this place called Indian Echo Caves. I think most people have been to somewhere like it before. One of those dark, cool caves with these strange rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites all over. The steady sound of water dripping all around you. And sometimes, underground lakes with the clearest water you've ever seen in your life.

The cavern place had farm animals by the gift shop, including a hutch of adorable bunnies.

The caves have this strange sort of beauty that makes you feel like you're intruding on something ancient and wonderful, which you actually are. It takes hundreds of years to form an inch worth of stalactite.

Butterflies were all over outside.

Angela on the left and my mother on the right.

We took advantage of this "preview" thing that Hershey offered where you can get into the park the night before and get a head start on the park. My dad took Andre (Angela's oldest son) and Timmy, my little brother, on the bigger coasters while the rest of us went on whatever Alec and I wanted to so. Alec is Angela's baby, this chubby fifth grader who we all adore. Me and him stuck together for most of the trip doing kiddie rides because I'm scared of dropping so I don't do bigger coasters. But I have a penchant for spinning rides. I think it's because I don't get dizzy and that I'm impervious to motion sickness. I went on pretty much every spinning ride in the park and dragged my mom and Alec with me. I had a blast. :D

Oh and by the way, I was lied to. Hershey does not smell of chocolate. >:(

IT'S A MINION. I wish Andre won one for me. Turns out the kid isn't as good at carnival games as he claims.

I have this obsession with water. Expect a lot to show up in upcoming blog posts.

On the Tilt-A-Whirl. They just screamed first date. So cute.

Andre tried this game where you have to try to get rings on the bottle. He kinda failed at it.

THIS RIDE. You go in one of those bird things and it spins around on two axises and rises up like four stories in the air, stops at the top, and comes back down. Pretty frightening once you get all the way to the top. But still a lot of fun.

I love this ride too. (Notice the spinning pattern.) That's Andre in the blue. He's in 8th, I think?

This man who was making kettle corn. Would've been perfect if I got it when his face wasn't so awkward.

busted televisions and starry nights

Over the summer, I like to volunteer at the library to rack up hours for NHS or whatever thing in my future needs volunteer hours. Last year, my supervisor, Christina, didn't know what to do with me half the time so she just stuck me in circulation for most of the summer and left me to the ladies in circ. It turned out to be one of the best parts about that summer. They would give me a cart full of books that people from across town had put on hold and I would organize them onto the hold shelves alphabetically. It's tedious but strangely rewarding. I just disappear into my alphabatizing zone and everything else goes away. It's really relaxing.

Overtime I started to recognize the names of people that regularly put books on hold and you start to get to know them a little. And even if they don't regularly put books on hold, you can get this little glimpse into what they like to do or what they're like. This person loves to knit, he's just starting to figure out programming, that person has a penchant for Stephen King thillers, she's hosting a fourth of July party soon. It's funny when I see names of people I know in real life. It's really fascinating. And it feels satisfying to know that I'm accomplishing something useful. It was really awesome to meet all the ladies that worked there too. And they loved me too and gave me food and free books. :D

But this year, I walked into Christina's office the beginning of summer and she takes me to the front table and tells me to sign people up for the summer reading program at the library. Basically I just sit at the front table and log people into this program.

I'm really really bad at dealing with people I haven't met before ( and honestly just people in general) so I really hate calling people over when they walk in to ask them if they would like to sign up for the summer reading program. Confrontation is not my forte, especially when I have a stuttering problem that tends to arise when I get nervous. So instead, I just smile sweetly at whoever passes in front of me and hope that they're so charmed by me that they come over and ask to be registered...needless to say, that doesn't happen. Instead, they just kinda look around to make sure I'm smiling at them and then, if I'm lucky, they smile back.

And my work ethic while I'm in the library is too good for my own sanity. I feel guilty using the computer for anything other than what I'm supposed to be using it for, so I just end up reading my summer reading book and signing up all my friends (and fictional characters) without their permission. What a life.

The worst part is that from where I sit, I can see the circulation office where I used to work, so I just stare wistfully at the bustle back there and wave at Loretta, Jenny, and Irena and the rest of the ladies as I just sit there being useless.

It's not so terrible when people come to keep me company though, like usually my friend Udbhav comes before his shift starts and we hang out. Or like yesterday, when Julia and her family came to the library and she ended up coming over to my house afterwards for dinner and a Life marathon.

We went outside for a little bit before dinner to take pictures.

My television broke recently (FINALLY) and julia wanted us to sit on it.

Messing around with dried up leaves on my lawn.

This concept looked a lot nicer in my head. Bah.

I don't know if you can see the stars, but they're there, and there's a lot. One second exposure if you can believe it. I'm so doing this again some other day.