Camping and Shops and Witches, Oh My!!

Well, I have internet again!! It's time to celebrate!!!
I love camping, and it's really nice to disconnect from the world, but once I'm back to all of this technology, it is kind of nice.
We camped near Stockbridge, MA, which is where the Norman Rockwell Museum is. That's basically the main thing we did there, and it was pretty cool. They gave me free admission because I am a CMNH employee (YAY!!! Love Love Love discounts!!)!! I really do enjoy Norman Rockwell's work, and particularly enjoyed seeing his works for the Saturday Evening Post. We have a picture of the Four Freedoms hanging above our kitchen sink at home, but I never really knew what they stood for.
We spent the next day just sitting and hanging around camp. I did some crocheting, some knitting, and some reading (I finished Pride and Prejudice so I'll post about that soon). We had an MRE for lunch, which is something that we always do when we go camping. In this MRE were the "patriotic cookies," which were adorable. They were basically animal crackers in the shapes of eagles, the Statue of Liberty, and Uncle Sam.I should also mention that it rained pretty much the WHOLE time we were there! That's really annoying when you're trying to pack up camp and everything is wet.
We got here to Boston yesterday afternoon. Today, we went around Salem, and did all of the touristy attractions. We went to the Customs House on the wharf and went to the Salem Witch Museum. I didn't enjoy the Customs House as much as I enjoyed the place where the merchants stored all of the goods that they couldn't pay the taxes for. I liked the history of the Customs House, though. The Salem Witch Museum (which also gave me a discount!!) was alright. I think that it wasn't as good as it could have been, and I think that it could have been more in depth about what happened. I did like their display about different herbs and their medicinal and "magical" properties.
While we were walking around Salem, we stopped in a lot of little gift stores. There were several antique shops that were very good, and there were a bunch of stores selling things involving "witchcraft." We also passed a number of "psychic" shops and other places that used who-knows-what-type of supposed magic to tell one's future. We also went into this cafe that had the best bubble tea that I have ever had. I had a green tea mango bubble tea for lunch, and my mom and I loved it so much, that we had to get another one before we left. It was sooooo good!!
On our way back to the parking garage where we parked our car, my dad took us to see this:

It's a statue of Samantha from Bewitched!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!  I absolutely loved that show in fifth and sixth grade! Though my favorite character from the show was that one witch that collected doorknobs. 

That was awesome.

Lots and Lots of Awesome!

There has been a lot of Awesome in my life for the last couple of days.
1. I went to Joanne's yesterday (the store. I don't have a friend named Joanne), and bought a bunch of craft making stuff. I found this yarn called Sashay, and I can make this AWESOME scarf that curls. Here's a picture of what a sashay scarf looks like:

I got that picture off of google images. Doesn't it look awesome?! I knitted one yesterday, and it only took two hours! It was so easy!  So yeah, that's exciting. I also got some yarn for crocheting some flowers. I've never officially crocheted anything, so this will be a fun experience. I made a flower today, it was supposed to be a six petaled daisy or something, and it turned out looking like a starfish. So I'm hoping for some improvement there.
2. We're leaving for Massachusetts tomorrow. We're going camping in Boston, and I guess we're going to go see all of the touristy places. We'll be gone for a week. I love camping, and I'm excited to go take my scarf making stuff. And since I volunteer at the Natural History Museum, I'm excited to see if we'll get any discounts at any of the museums we'll go to!
3. My mom and I went to the commissary at the C.E. Kelly army base, and guess what we got!? Lucky Charms!! They're so unhealthy, but it's kind of exciting. I haven't had them in like five years.
4. I asked to get my schedule fixed for this year. The schedule said I would be taking Theater 2 this year. Anyone who knows me knows that I can't act to save my life. I hadn't even taken Theater 1, so I asked to get that changed, and the lady said I could take PHOTO!!!! I really wanted to take that class, and I got in!! Now I just have to tell her I'd like to take it.
As you can see, that was a lot of awesome! I don't know how I'm going to post while I'm in Massachusetts, so it might be a while! But check regularly to make sure! You never know, there might be some piece of internet connection that's lost in the woods, and I might be able to upload something!
P.S. Yesterday, I was in Squirrel Hill, and I saw two people from school….again…. Bill Sykes (not the one from Oliver Twist. If it had been, I would have ran in the other direction, but those who know why I call him Bill Sykes will know who I'm talking about), and a friend of his, who I also went to school with. Watch me see someone I know in Massachusetts….creepy...

They're Following Me...

'Tis a small world after all.

I used to think that I never ran into people when I left my house. There was never a time when I would see someone I knew when I was shopping, or at the movie theater.

Now, they're everywhere.

When I'm out and about in Squirrel Hill, or at the Waterfront, there is a garantee that I will run into someone that I know. Not necessarily run into, but I'll see someone from school that is on the other side of the street, or in the same store that I'm in.

Today, for example, I was volunteering at the Natural History Museum, and I saw one of my mother's students in the courtyard playing with her kids.

When I went to go see The Dark Knight Rises for the second time about a week ago, I saw a girl there that had shared the same gym class as me. There have been many many instances similar to these, and they have been happening all summer.

Here's the crazy one. On Saturday, my mom, dad, and I went shopping at the Tanger Outlet mall that's located about an hour and a half away from our house. And guess what!? I saw a girl from school there. It's one of those situations where it would be awkward to go up and say hi, because I know who she is (because of her reputation), but she doesn't know who I am. 

They're EVERYWHERE!!

Happens all of the time. Probably, tomorrow, I'll see someone I know at the gym or something. You never know.

P.S. My gum goal has been going well. No Great Expectations so far!

Pedal Pittsburgh (in the rain)

I biked 25 miles today.
Pedal Pittsburgh is an annual bike ride that takes bikers through the main streets in Pittsburgh, letting the bikers experience what seems like hill after hill after hill (there's also some nice flat areas too).
The day started out really nice. It was cloudy, but there was a rumor that there were going to be some thunder storms. We parked at the entrance to the Jail Trail (it's called the Jail Trail because it runs by the county jail) and rode over the Hot Metal bridge to the place where all of the vendors were. When we got there, my mom noticed that there was something wrong with her tire, and we had to stop for a while while she got it fixed (no charge!). While we were waiting, we saw a bike that was twice as high as a normal bike, and one that was called the "eliptigo," basically an elliptical that had wheels, which is awesome.
We started the ride after that. I enjoy biking a lot, but this was a different kind of thrill. I would get to experience Pittsburgh through a biker's perspective. One thing I noticed; Pittsburgh has way too many potholes.
It was dry until the ten mile mark.
The rain started out as just a little sprinkle. It felt really good, because at that point, we had just finished riding up the BIGGEST hill ever. However, by the time that we were done with the ride, I was completely soaked. I biked in the rain for about an hour and a half. It gets really slippery when it rains, so I had to be extra careful. We finished the ride with no injuries or anything, thankfully.
We came to to where all of the vendors were, and this is the place where my major complaining starts. First of all, they didn't even give out t-shirts. What kind of major event doesn't give out t-shirts? The only thing that the Pedal Pittsburgh people gave us was our numbers to put on the back of the shirt (they were also generous enough to give us four safety pins each), and some food that was mostly wet by the time that we got to it. Nothing was free, and honestly, we biked 25 miles in the rain. How could you not give things out for free??
Next year, Pedal Pittsburgh organizers, please give out free stuff. It would be nice.
So if you'll excuse me, I have to start my training for the Tour de France.

I Am the Gum Monster

I am not the Cookie Monster. Or the Veggie Monster.

I am the Gum Monster.

Two years ago, when I got my braces on (aka the worst day of my life), I promised myself that I would not chew gum until I got my braces off. It was a good plan, I didn't get in trouble for chewing gum in school, and if I needed to freshen up my breath, I would just eat a mint.

I did that for two years. Two years. I didn't think that it would be possible, because even if people have braces, they still chew gum, but I was one of the few who didn't chew the gum. 

I got my braces off in June, and since then, have been catching up on my gum chewing. It's bad. Gum isn't the worst thing in the world (at least it's not as unhealthy as movie theater popcorn), but I think I'm going over the top. Just five minutes ago, I was chewing gum. I feel like it's become one of those things that I just do because I can, and that's not a good thing!!! Don't do things just because you can! Have another good reason. "It's fun" is always a good reason.

Chewing gum isn't fun though. I think I've gone over the edge. So, I will make a resolution. One strip of gum per day. For a whole week, and then from there, I'll make another resolution about how much I can eat. And for each time that I go over my one strip per day quota, I will read one chapter of Great Expectations (if I eat two strips extra, I will read two chapters of GE). That will be the worst punishment ever. So I won't do it. 

Someday, I'll talk about my hatred for Great Expectations, and why I hate it. But not today. 

 Today, I will tell you that the forest fragmentation exhibit will open at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on the 25th of August, 2012. The teen docents are currently working on it, and it sounds like it'll be a pretty cool exhibit. 

We'll see if I can do this challenge. I'll let you know how it goes.

It Really Wasn't That Simple...

I started off the day wanting to just rest and read Pride and Prejudice, but that was not to be. Instead, I have spent the whole day working on the third floor closet that I've been decorating. You might remember me trying to paint this room last month.
I thought that it would be cute to have shutters for my shelving, so I got some shutters at Construction Junction, the best junk store ever. I thought it would be simple to attach the shutters to the wall, but boy, was I wrong!! I wanted to get these brackets that I found at the store Anthropologie, but just like everything else at that store, it was really expensive. Instead, I had to figure out a way to make my own brackets so the shelves would stay up. Ugh. I thought about it for like a week, and finally came to the conclusion that I should use bannisters to keep the shutters up. I would have a shutter attached to the wall, and then have another shutter placed like a shelf on top of that, and then there would be a bannister making the third side of this triangle, which is basically what a bracket looks like. So I went to Construction Junction again, bought the bannisters, and then had to figure out how to attach them to the shutters.
Thankfully, my dad, someone who is used to doing projects around the house, helped me out. We spent all morning working on cutting the bannister to the right length, and attaching it to the shelving. Then there was the issue, that, because our house is a century old, the walls are made out of plaster, and if you want things to be stable on a wall, you have to go through a stud in the wall. It was really a guess-and-check sort of thing. I think we drilled seven different holes before we actually hit a stud. Once it was done, though, it looked amazing.
I had two other shutters that I needed to put up, but they were a different size, so we couldn't do the bannister thing all over again.
Of course.
That would be too easy.
We made a trip to Lowe's, and got the right materials, and came back home to finish the job. We ended up putting the shutters up against the wall, and holding them up with a chain. We also put mini brackets under the shelves, so it would be more stable.
So now it's like four thirty, and we just finished up the shelves. We were trying to put some doorknobs onto the walls (because that's cool) but that didn't work, because the way that the doorknobs are made, they just don't want to go into the wall like that. They want to go into some drawers.
I have to think about how I'm going to accomplish that task now. We'll see how that goes.

A WHOLE MONTH!!

It's August first!!! You know what that means!!??
This blog has been going for A WHOLE MONTH!!!
I didn't think I'd make it this far, but here I am. Though the sad thing is, in a month, I will be back in school. (ToT)
So in this blog entry, I am going to talk about the summer, and what I've been doing, and then I'll also talk about what I want to do with the rest of my summer. At the end, there will be a paragraph about something that is really bugging me.
This summer, I have been reading. I've finished eight books. I feel like I should have read more, and I feel like I have read more than those eight books, but apparently not. I've volunteered at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. I have painted a closet, and I've played the piano. I went SCUBA diving. There was also that one week when I went to film camp, and that's basically what I've done this summer. I've summarized my summer into seven sentences. I probably should have done more, but I think summer is also about unwinding and doing things that you normally would not have done during the school year, like go SCUBA diving.
In the month of August, I plan to:

• Finish my summer reading books (Pride and Prejudice, All Quiet on the Western Front, and some Spanish book I don't know the name to)
• Go to Massachusetts 
• Finish decorating my closet 
• Play more ukulele

And that's it. We're going to find out how that goes.

On another note, I'm reading a book called The Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo, who wrote War Horse and Kensuke's Kingdom. I read the latter in about fourth grade, and it was absolutely wonderful. The thing about The Elephant in the Garden, is that it's around 200 pages long. I don't have a problem with that, but the font is HUGE!! It's not only that the font is huge, but there's also a large spacing between the lines, so you only get to read like 12 lines per page! Michael Morpurgo is not a tree hugger. It makes the book look like it's for third graders, and I don't like it. If you're going to write a book for teens, make it so that it looks like it was written for teens!! Teen books have around thirty-five lines per page!!

P.S. I thought, for the month of August, I would change the background of the blog. We'll see how it goes.