Borders is the ultimate.

We all know Amazon is pretty darn awesome, but it's online. Borders is officially the best store, not online.

1. Borders is open early and closes late.
Yesterday, after I ate breakfast I thought about going to Rittenhouse square. It was pretty darn chilly outside and I was dressed for 80 degree weather. So I thought I'll go where all good things come from, Tower Records. So I walked towards Tower, I get there. Fancy that, there was no one inside. Oh well the plan was: I'd continue towards the door, bang on it and start crying until they would let me in so I can continue to listen to music and not buy anything. It's 8:45 and Tower opens at 9. Okay...what to do, what to do? I notice people walking into Borders so I decide to take my non-existent business elsewhere. Borders happened to have been open since 8:30. Perfecto.

2. Borders combines three of the best things in life: books, movies and music.
I made my way upstairs towards the music when I spotted a book I was intrested in because Amazon told me I would like it since I liked the Postal Service. They were right. The book had a tone much like J.D. Slainger and seemed to have the same idea of my book, but by that I mean he wrote about school. Once I finished reading for around half an hour, I listened to a little bit of the Cure's new album, and left.

3. People watching.
It was fun to watch the different people who sat down across from me and began to read. You could tell when people were ready to buy the book or put it back. Watching people enjoy an album was nice, but watching people dance to an album was funny. I'm sure people were watching me. And the one time when I laughed out loud at the book seemed to be the signal "Come sit next to me," because suddenly two people showed up out of nowhere.

Borders only downfall is: the one in Rosemont lost a lot of points by making their music section smaller.

In case you were wondering...

Jane has finally hit 5'9"...I think...if Helen's tape measure is right. Just one more inch will be sufficient.

The lies of California

Steven and I are back from Cali, and lest any of you be jealous of our week in the sun, at the beach, I'm here to tell you... It's all lies. No one goes to the beach. The water was to cold for swimming, from San Diego to San Francisco. And it's not hot, at least not at the coast. I think the highest temperature we saw hovered around 75. All the Californians know this, too. The beaches are deserted. It looks like the Jersey Shore in October -- only the die-hards, the stragglers, and the people just out for a little quiet are there.

More space for the likes of us, so that's fine with me. But I'm just here to tell you, don't believe the hype. It doesn't go down like you see on TV. Even in Orange County.

I want a turtle!

Being on the river this spring sparked my love for turtles. They're always hanging out on logs, looking cute. In New Orleans my math teacher had a really cute baby turtle, Gloria. Gloria was definitely the most popular pet in whole school. Don't tell but she was also the only pet. So now for the past couple months I've really wanted a turtle. On Saturday I was in New York and I saw the cutest turtles. I was going to buy one but it was absurdly hot and I wasn't going to be leaving for another 7 hours or so. So today I did some research and decided a Slider turtle is right for me. If anyone knows someone trying to get rid of their slider turtle, old or new tell me. Or if you know where I can get a slider turtle that information would also be appreciated.

Last Summer Revisited

The world hates me! First, the units have been hassling me about how I don't do anything productive with my day. I go to bed too late. I wake up too late. I made plans too late. It seems I have technically difficulty with doing things on time. So the crew team needed an extra person, and I was a little uneasy about saying yes. Crew is one of those sports that completely takes over your life. After several lectures on what I'm doing this summer, I thought why not? I'll be outside, with the crew team, out of the house. So now I'm doing crew for the rest of the summer. My first practice was yesterday.

This morning Moore called around noon to tell me that none of the classes I signed up for were open. Sweet, I thought I really am going to do nothing this summer. I looked on the website for another class in the morning I would like to take. I called back and now I'm taking studio watercolors. So basically, crew and art camp. Wow this sounds a lot like last summer.

My plan to make money this summer is to start things in my backyard. The neighborhood kids would love it, but here's the kicker they have to pay to get in. I'll buy a bigger trampoline than the one down the street. I'll start my own riverquest safariventure. We'll play awesome games red rover, duck duck goose, maybe a little sprinkler action. 15 dollars per child for 6 hours of quality babysitting. Man, if did that every Friday I could make a mint. Definitely the riverquest safariventure will be the best part.

California, here I come!

In grade school, we did a Spring Show every year. When I first started at the school, they would choose a theme, and each grade would get a category from that theme, and perform songs associated with it. (Later, they switched to the much more straightforward musical. The only problem with that? There are only a limited number of shows that you could conceivably put an entire school's worth of children in to.)

Anyway, one year, the theme was states. My class had Pennsylvania. We sang "The Bristol Stomp", "South Street", and that Patti LaBelle classic, "Philadelphia (Get to Know Us)". And, of course, having rehearsed those songs twice a week all spring, they are deeply ingrained in my memory. But why do I remember "California, Here I Come"? I mean, I could practically sing the whole song! It's not a song that I've ever heard outside of that show. (My remembrance of that song is hearing it the way a group of kids sing it.) And yet.

P.S. I'd like to see John Sack while we're in CA if I can. If anyone knows his email address or phone number, let me know.

I am your Judas.

Today I ended my endless wandering. I woke up at 11:30, ate breakfast, took a shower, and man I was on a roll. While in the shower I decided today was the day I was going to accomplish things. I was going to make a to-do list and then do things. I know, not your average to-do list reaction. I was going to get a job today, and do several important things like clean my flip-flops, sort through my clothes, hang out with Missy before she left, paint my nails, you know important things.

First, I resolved that I was going to spend my whole summer lounging around the house/the pool while eating chewy sprees. I mean come on, applications, phone calls, I'm just not a people person; this was the best plan. Then, I ignored that to-do list idea, and found those applications I picked up back in April. I also held on to the scholarship to Moore my art teacher gave me. I'd rather get paid and do nothing then do nothing in my own home, so I filled out the Color Me Mine application first. Well, after I filled it out I found out that they aren't hiring. Then I had the Ubead2 application, but I remember in April they had one position left so I skipped that. I did not want to work at peace a pizza. Plastic Fantastic is official closed, and Shady Dog doesn't want me to work for them until the fall. So I filled out my art camp application. I'll be taking one of the three (listed in probability order): Photography II, Painting I or Metal working/Jewelry making. Then I'll continue to write my book in the afternoon or for the rest of my life, who knows. Sounds like I'll be spending quality time this summer with my mom's laptop, Rittenhouse Square and for the fourth year in a row...the R5!

Best. Graduation. Ever.

Anne graduated from culinary school last night. Any school administrators out there, take note. This is the way a graduation should be run.

First off: It started at 6pm. SHA does ok with the 1pm graduations. I don't know why every college graduation I have ever been to needed to start at 10 AM. Everyone is just going to go out to eat afterwards, so let's just make the meal of choice dinner instead of lunch.

Second: they served food before the graduation started! We walked into the room, and there were little nibbles laid out all around the edges of the room, and a bar in the back. Feed people first, and everyone will be a little less antsy when they have to listen to boring speeches.

Third: Oh, they left out the boring speeches. Instead, one guy talked for 10 minutes, a lady spoke for 3, then they started bringing the students up for a presentation. A presentation of a silly paper hat! Ah, the crowning moment. Even better, Anne dropped her hat 3 or 4 times. Yee-ha!

All told, the whole thing took about an hour and 20 minutes, INCLUDING the food. Anne, you rule. All my other sisters, if you ever have another graduation, we can just throw you and your closest friends a graduation like that one, and we'll just skip the one your incompetent school administrators set up for you.

Helen's the boss of me

So Helen took me to all these cool places this weekend and then we celebrated my unrgoundedness. I'm repaying her by writing this blog which she's been bugging me about for the past couple days. I'll tell you stories rather than a wrap up.

Story #1: The Never-ending token
Friday, was the first night Helen, Steven and I attempted to go to Harry Potter. So we're driving along, cookies in our mouths, helmets on our heads, and glee in our heart. Wait that was just me. So I'm practicing my dance moves in the back, wait, not allowed to do that for a lack of music. So Helen's calling people and people are all no way man we're totally sold out. So the baby (Steven) starts crying, but we give him a cookie and he's okay. And then the baby wanted to go bat. Yea batting! I try to throw him off course by telling him Chonshahocken is in the other direction, but Helen gets us there.
We're out batting and everyone has two tokens, except Helen who "doesn't like batting." That's a lie, everyone likes batting. She was just practicing being fancy, even though she's too dirty for it. I don't mess around though, I know I like to bat even if I'm not very good at it. So I go to use my second token with a lighter bat. After batting for around 10 minutes on the same token, the ball-spitter-outter thingy stops. So I tell Helen to come bat because I'm tired (batting for 10 minutes wears out your arm). Then around 6 or 7 balls get stuck in tube before they comeout. So I decided I will stick my hand into the next hit the tube with a softball and then we'll get going again. Then the guy who works there comes out of nowhere on his skateboard and says he'll come fix it. So he fixes it and gives us two free tokens. We got a good twenty minutes of batting out of one token because I rule.

Hmm that took a lot out of me. I'll continue later. Coming next Story #2: DDR

What is better than book recommendations?

Books! Kitten and Fred are my two favorite people right now, as they both have been supplying me with unsolicited good books. Kitten even lent me a book that she was planning to reread, before she reread it. That is awesome.

But, since I am not as cool as they are, I will offer up some recommendations instead. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay is the book Kitten was about to reread, and I see why. I'm only halfway done, but if you like fantasy, pick it up.

I will, as always, reiterate my call for recommendations. I'd rather read a book you thought was really good than the stuff that has been gathering dust on my shelves for years. Unless you happen to recommend a book that is currently gathering dust on my shelves. (No joke -- that happened last month! And, actually, I read it and liked it. So there. I will even brave dust for your recommendations.)

The Egg and Me, part 1

Apparently, Jane is so busy going to Dorney Park and being finished with exams that she needs me to break the blog silence. Jane, you are responsible for part 2. Also, before we get started, would you like to have to explain why people call you Jub-Jubs? Then I wouldn't be calling people out over their nicknames.

A warning for all readers. Beware the post-exam Jane. If you encounter the post-exam Jane, DO NOT, under any circumstances, feed her sugar. Jane arrived last Thursday at 1PM. She proceeded to talk non-stop from then until 6PM, when we planned to leave for Boston. She claims she had lunch with Missy, but I think they ate in silence, because how long can one person really talk continuously? I blame the snack cabinet.