"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."

Woot woot time to blog!

This week has been a typical summer week with some glimpses of joy and happiness mixed in with boredom and laziness.

On Monday, I got to intern for a day at the world. It was awesome and I loved it. I followed Lisa Mullens around all day and I had a lot of fun with her as well as with the rest of the staff at the world. She has had a lot of experience with broadcast journalism all around the world and she had a lot of advice to impart on me. We began the morning with their daily meeting, discussing what the show was going to be about with the producers in London. It was cool. We then read a lot of stories in the news room and did an interview at 9:30. I got to help write the questions. They were interviewing international students who were in New York for the first spelling bee for non-native English speakers. They were phenomenal. I then helped Dave find a story for the daily GeoQuiz, and we ended up calling these people on Cyprus who were concerned about their village's tomb. Apparently, if you scrape off part of the tomb and put it in someone's drink, they will fall in love with you. Not true. We interviewed him, too, but unfortunately were unable to air it because the quality was bad. Sadly, I didn't get a story on my first day. Bummer. But I helped to edit a story about Afghanistan's first national park, and when I was done with that I got to sit in on the recording of the show. I learned about this temple that's supposed to fall from the sky, Indian reality tv, and a Latin singer named Bebe. It was a very fun day.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for Tuesday and Wednesday. They were lame. On the brightside I finished Sister Carrie and got a month's worth of laundry done, so it wasn't totally counterproductive.

Today I went into Worcester to visit my favorite place, MAMAS!! I got a yearbook and got approved for community service. Thank god, or else I would have had to jump off a cliff cause I would still need 40 hours. Then my mom, Thomas, and I went shopping at the Auburn Mall.

And that is my week! So boring. I can't wait to get back to school.

Long time no see.

Wow, I've been slacking on the blogging. It's been nearly a week since I blogged last. To be totally honest, there isn't much to talk about because nothing really ever goes on here. Anyways, I'll do my best.

Last Sunday was Rui's 18th birthday, so we all went to Stephanie's house to celebrate this once in a lifetime occasion. It ended up being me, Steph, Rui, Hailey, Avri, Giff, Gabby, and Alex. I made awesome ice cream cone cupcakes, I even dyed the batter. They were awesome. We all sat in Steph's house and then Steph was like "I need a new phone." So we went and met these really sketchy people from Craig's list and she [most likely] got a stolen chocolate. Then we went back to Steph's house and we all watched Borat. I had already seen it. I mean, I laughed a few times, but it's not that good. Honestly. (Sorry Aashish!)

I had to leave Steph's house and go home because the next morning my car had to go get a new muffler. Being carless and all, I didn't really go anywhere on Monday. But I did finish my summer reading book, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman. I would have liked this book better if I were more into science in general, but it was alright. Now I'm reading Sister Carrie, which is pretty messed up but yet it accurately portrays how guys will let women use them.

On Tuesday I read a lot of that book. I also attended a Zumba class with Jessica. (Zumba: fitness program inspired by Latin dance. Spanish slang for "to move fast and have fun.) These classes are most interesting because there are a lot of older women who just slack off in the back and scream "Ay! Ay! Ay!" from time to time. It was all good fun.

On Wednesday I went to Lea's house. I am not to disclose what we did there because we are embarrassed of the 8 hours of tv we watched. Oops, too late. Lots of wife swap and ghost hunters.

Thursday I went to the doctor's to be told that I still have an ear infection. It's so awesome, I have to go to a specialist because I haven't been able to hear in 8 weeks.

Friday was definitely the most fun day this week. I went to Hampton beach with Luke, Brittney, Hailey, Gabby, Rui, Steph, Sarah Platt, Alex, and Steve Tsai. We basically chilled on the beach all day and had a ton of fun. It was a perfect beach day and I did not get a sunburn. But I did have this amazingly good Island Oasis Rasberry Smoothie. I then drove Luke, Britt, and Gabby to the Solomon Pond Mall and we chilled there for like three hours. We got to do whatever we wanted in Brookstone because Gabby's sister Heather works there. It was awesome! Then I drove Luke and Britt (I'm just going to start calling them LB) back to Westminster and had cupcakes that Rachel made. They were very good. Then I drove back home and after adding 300 miles to my odometer, went to sleep.

Yesterday I worked at the Grace House once again but this time with Alex Cote. We only worked for 6 hours serving people. That job is pretty exhausting and you meet some pretty interesting people.

Now, I am chilling in my room writing this blog. It's hard to believe that there are only two weeks left of summer. To be honest, I am ready to go back to school because it has been a very, very long summer. I enjoy vacation, but I really want everyone to be together again!

It's August!

Alright, so I just wanted to say my favorite part of the year is now over (May, June, July). But, on the bright side I have Labor Day weekend to look forward to. Sadly, for all my readers out there I do not have any photo additions to add to this blog. I know the true fans will look past that and continue reading though.

Let's see...what have I been up to lately?

On Wednesday Lea and I packed up the car (Gretta) and headed to the beach. This is also the day in which my exhaust decided to break on me so it sounded like I was driving an 18 wheeler. So I get to Lea's and the sky is gray and we take a ride to the beach where the sky is also gray. It was gray all day. But it wasn't raining like it has been all summer so it wasn't too bad. While we're sitting on the beach eating our candy and chips we bought at Wal-Mart this family decides to basically sit on top of us. They pitched a stupid beach tent about 4 feet from my head. We just laughed about it for like 10 minutes. Then, we went in the water and I fell asleep with my mouth open and stuff like that. It was a pretty typical beach day with Lea in which we laughed every two minutes. I went home and went to bed.

The next morning I went over to MacMed Spa and I got a facial. It was extremely relaxing and my face had cleared up a ton since then. Unfortunately, we walked out without tipping the lady. Oops. The rest of the day was kind of boring and uneventful. Except when I watched the Colbert Report and found this awesome band called Movits! I keep listening to their very catchy song, Fel Del Av Garden. Yeah, they're Swedish.

Friday was a really fun and tiring day because I went into Boston early to look at Boston University and Boston College. After touring both schools I definitely liked Boston University more. It is right in the city, it had a lot of options, and it has what I'm looking for. The atmosphere was much more laid back and the students were, too. I know a lot of people have problems with the fact that there isn't really a legit campus, but that didn't bother me at all. Boston College had a beautiful campus but it was way too removed for me. It took almost an hour on the T to get to Government Center! It was also a little bit too religious for my liking. It was almost like they were forcing you to get involved and have fun there. I think I'll apply to both schools, but I know which one I like more. Oh, while we were at BC we thought we saw some nun praying to this beautiful statue of Mary. Then we realized she was just talking on her cell phone. Anyways, after the college visits we went to the north end and quincy market and ate at Trattoria di Monica and I had the most delicious gnoccis. It was amazing. I pretty much just passed out when I got home. Since I dragged Thomas around all day, he got pretty tired, too:

On Saturday, I got 12 hours of community service at the Grace House in Framingham. It was a long day. I started at 7:30. We picked up clothes, folded clothes, picked up food, got ready for dinner, went to a yard sale, served dinner, and then cleaned up. It was fun, minus rubbing aloe on people's backs and getting hit on by homeless men. I got home this day and passed out too.

Well, that's all for now. Peace out!

The Weekend!

Ok so my weekend began on Friday. I woke up (in Maine) and looked out the window. The waves were coming over the wall and the only people at the beach had surf boards. Even the dairy bar was closed! It had basically rained all week long and we only had two beach days, so all 8 of us decided to pack up and go home. I then drove pubescent Thomas home.Friday night I got to hang out with my second family. I went to Mulligan's for junior-senior mini golf! So I was in a group with all juniors and.. they're like we were a year ago. It's kind of weird to be a senior now. They had no complaints about summer reading and had a lot of questions about school. I love trying to scare them, and after 12 years of school I finally have that right! Anyways, it was fun and afterwards we all went swimming at Cait's house. The pool was so cold! And I'm so white! It's just horrible to be around the Lagoy's when they feel like being annoying. Haha, jk. And I did not give anyone a peep show! Then we drove to Stephanie's and Cait, Steph, and I invaded the kitchen and ate salad, cheesy bread, and chocolate milk. It was good. Next we watched Sex and the City and Alex and Laura came.In the morning, Alex went and got us Starbucks. Sixteen dollars for four drinks. Ridiculous. I got home at around two in the afternoon and pretty much just chilled for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, Jessica called and asked if I wanted to hang out. I said certainly and we ended up driving to Rhode Island to this carousel I used to go to when I was little. It's 115 years old. Something very exciting happened: I got the brass ring! You see, I have never gotten the brass ring before in my entire life, so I was very happy. I won a free ride.

After we had spent 5 dollars on rides, we decided to stop at the Prov Place mall. We window shopped for a while, and I fell in love with the store Lust. I let the worker there put all this lotion on me and then I didn't buy anything because I'm poor. We stopped at the Cheesecake Factory and bought two slices of cheesecake. I got my favorite Chocolate Tuxedo Cream. It's the best. On the way home, we stopped at Wright's Chicken Farm and I filled outa job application. I need a job so badly! Then I got home and we celebrated Thomas's birthday with a chocolate angel cake.

Yesterday, Jessica and I decided to hike Mount Wachusett. We were supposed to go at 9, but when I woke up in the morning and looked at my clock it was 11! Oops. Anyways, it was quite a hike. Freaking vertical climb. I was sweating so much! We finally got to the top, and we had a lovely lunch of blackberries, watermelon, turkey wraps, and banana chips. It was tasty. We drove back to my house and stopped at Target to get white t-shirts because we wanted to tie dye shirts. They came out so awesome. Then, Jessica left and I went to the doctor's. Exciting.

Today was wicked boring. Nothing to even say. I read, complained about how bored I was, and watched tv. Oh, I also applied for a job at Hannaford's. Hopefully I get a job at some point. Now, I'm going to go watch The Office. But first, here are our shirts. Check it!

York Beach, Rain

Per request of my parents, this blog will not be abandoned. I would not want to disappoint my two biggest readers. I went on a brief hiatus because of vacation, but now I am back in Douglas.

So two months ago Aashish and I took a brief day trip to Maine and quickly discovered that....there's nothing to do there in the rain! My family and I also discovered that the week we were there. Now, the sun is shining and it is supposed to be in the 80s all week long! That's a shame....

After leaving Boothbay, we stopped at the L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine. Thomas just had to have one of those hats with the lights on it. I'm not the biggest fan of gear for the outdoors.

When we got to York, it was actually nice out. Ashley came up to visit me before she left for a month to go to Tenesee. Wtf, everyone is leaving me! Anyways, I decided to sit in the ocean fully clothed...good idea.

We do miss Aashish, of course.

The next day we went and sat on the beach.

Here I am, tanning.

Here you can see the red results of my tan.

I was supposed to be sharing a bed with Amoret. She's 9. And hogs the entire bed.

But the next day we had fun burying her in the sand.

We went out to eat at Lobster Cove.

Amoret thought she could talk to Aashish across the ocean. She loves him.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures in the rain, so maybe I will remember this vacation as sunny. Perhaps not, though.

I <3 ME

This week has flown by, and for the first time I have begun to appreciate the beauty of Maine. It's so nice! Since I have been too lazy to blog or keep track of the days in general, I will use pictures to do it for me. On Tuesday we visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. They were so beautiful. Wednesday and Thursday we kind of just chilled around town, and today we spent our last day driving around the area and buying souveniers. We haven't been busy, but I suppose that's what vacation is all about. To the left is a picture I took at this little shack that sells seafood. The woman goes fishing in the morning and then sells it in the afternoon. It was soooo fresh and delicious. We also had good calamari last night, my uncle who is a good judge of food called it "excellent." I just don't like eating the ones that look like little squid, I prefer the ones that look like onion rings.

Aunt Ellen bought this baseball hat at L.L. Bean, it has two L.E.D's in the front. As you can see, it is quite bright at night. This was taken as we were sitting in front of the fireplace.

Here is a picture from the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful there, and I kept screaming it was beautiful. Kind of like the time when I watched Slumdog Millionaire and just kept screaming about how beautiful Freida Pinto is. But really, this place was so beautiful! And romantic...too bad I was allllllll alone.

There were many sculptures like this one at the gardens.

A quaint waterfall.

Thomas came running up to me in the bookstore screaming, "MARY I THINK AASHISH WOULD REALLY LIKE THIS BOOK!"

Today, the fog was so cool on the water. We stopped to take a good picture.

Here, I am pictured with my new boyfriend. Wicked cute. ;)

We all know how mom loves flamingos....

I thought this looked cool, it was down at the dock.

It's still pretty foggy outside.

I don't know if we'll come back here again because my dad says that as he grows older he appreciates the finer things in life, such as microwaves and working showerheads. We had a good week though. Tomorrow we are off to York Beach, and I'm so excited!

Tour of Boothbay!

In the past few days I have realized how much of a New England person I am. I love it here! Well it's the best place ever, right? Maybe not, but it sure is beautiful. I can't just go on describing it, so here is my photo tour.

Classic Maine: lobster traps and buoys.

Moose!

We stopped here for a quick lunch. I had some haddock nuggets and french fries. So good!

This boat was in some movie at one point, but I forget the name. Apparently it's a pretty famous movie because when I told my dad I had never heard of it, he nearly had a heart attack.

Wow. I have nothing to say about this. It fits my mood 3/4 of a time. Get it? Crabby? Ha.

Well, as Thomas said, "If I had to pick my last meal, this would be it." A belgian waffle covered with chocolate ice cream, marshmallow sauce (NOT fluff), hot fudge, whipped cream, and graham crackers. I don't even know how to talk about how good it is.

My dad decided to take us on a beautiful scenic drive, so of course I had to take a picture of the Adirondacks looking out on the ocean. Someday this will be my backyard.

Apparently this is the church I always wanted to get married in when I was a little girl. I've always had good taste, the view is gorgeous.

I convinced Thomas to walk down to the dock with me at sunset. It's so peaceful with all the little boats.

The view from the dock.

Thomas having a blast at breakfast the next morning! I hadn't slept well, considering the walls here are paper thin and there were snorers on both sides of me. Snoring drives me absolutely insane. GAH!

We climbed to the top of a lighthouse. Pemaquid Point, I believe. I should mention that this is my second adventure this summer to a location on a state quarter. I was pretty excited about that fact.

Climbin' on the rocks.

The view from the top.

The lighthouse from the shore.

We've had two beautiful first days here. My mom would like for me to document here that it has been the coldest summer ever in New England. Also, I miss Aashish a ton. Obviously. Now I'm going to head downstairs to have some dinner and enjoy the cool evening. I'm hoping some visitors will join me up here.