so, i saw WALL-E yesterday with liz and my dad…
omg, can you say BEST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER?

adorable/cute, funny/hilarious, et cetera/et al. action-packed, beautifully animated, a lil’ bit romantic, PERFECT. i could go on, really. if you don’t go see this movie, you’re obviously insane.

OMG AND WHEN WALL-E POWERS UP HE MAKES THE MAC BOOT UP SOUND! need i say more?

i really really like pink. like a lot. after redying my hair yesterday, i realized that i may even like pink a bit too much. lol. i have found that pink hair sometimes limits my choices of clothing an accessories (for example, red shirts look terrible with my hair), but as a rule, i always say yes to pink. i included photos of what i mean under the cut : )

( continue reading this entry! )

grandpa: what is that stuff?
liz: it’s hummus.
lan: yeah, chickpeas.
grandpa: lemme have some.
lan: hummus doesn’t really go with your cinnamon raisin bagel.
grandpa: it tastes like cat food.

FRES
school’s out! it was a fun day full of sugar and insanity. candy, cookies, and ice cream made the kids off-the-walls crazy. but it was a good day. we watched finding nemo and ice age, we had recess for two hours, we played bingo. oh, i got lots of handmade cards from the kids, complete with more bath and body works products than you could believe. so cute. it was so sad when the final bell rang, though. after several bone-crushing hugs, it was time to say goodbye.

okay, so when i went to FRES, the school year ended with the buses going around the bus loop three times and the teachers stand ing and waving as they past by. well, that was the tradition up until last year. now the buses stay in park and the teacher walk around them. i asked the principal why they stopped doing it and he said, “it’s an accident waiting to happen.” LAME. well anyway, i walked around the buses with all the other teachers and waved to everyone. passing the brighton rec bus was insane, lol.

BRIGHTON REC
the kids were really tired from school (can you say sugar crash?), so it was a pretty easy-going afternoon. we had more ice cream and popsicles, and spent even more time outside. it was kind of like a mini-version of my day at FRES. once again, it was sad to say goodbye to all the kids. most of them don’t go to the camp i work at, so i won’t see them again until i have my thanksgiving break in november (!). as for the staff, i’m not sad to say goodbye to them. i kid, i kid. orientation is monday, so i’ll see them again monday. lol.

tomorrow is the last day of school for brighton. this means it’s the last day at FRES, and the last day at after school. but camp orientation starts monday, so i really only have thursday and friday off. and then i’m working staright through until fall semester!

anyways, i’m so sad! i’m going to miss all my kidlets. today was the end of the year celebration at FRES, which was really fun, actually. they started off with an assembly and did staff recognition stuff, which the kids of course got really into (clapping, yelling, et cetera). i got to stand up when they got to teaching assistants, and suddenly i was surrounded by children shouting “LANNI!” even though i’m fairly sure they know they aren’t supposed to call me that. haha. after that they did a photo slideshow, which was really cute. the rest of the day was spent outside on a bunch of blow-up rides the school had rented, along with a dunk tank and a face painting booth. kinda like a mini carnival. the kids had a blast, and it was nice hanging out with the 4th and 5th graders that i never get to see because they’re on the other side of the building. all in all, a good second-to-last day.

brighton rec was swell, as usual. played some kickball, played some wallball, played some cards, played some cat’s cradle, played some “let’s all sit around lanni and rant about our lives.” good day.

tom petty was effing amazing.

i went with sruthi and megan (not roommate megan, the other one). megan lives in syracuse, so i picked her up from the bus station around 5pm, and then i got sruthi from her house, and we made the one hour trip to darien lake for the show. well, it was supposed to be an hour, but with the traffic going into the park, it was really two hours. but we made it in eventually.

the opener was already playing when we got there, but on the lawn we really couldn’t hear anything because no one seemed too interested and everyone was chatting and such. while we were waiting we got harassed by plenty of drunk men, but soon enough it was tom petty time. the weather was nice and breezy, and it looked like it was going to be a good night.

about ten minutes into the set, the sun had gone down enough for us to see that it was lightning in the background. a half an hour into the set, it started pouring, instantly soaking us. five minutes later, the power went out as they played my top 2 tom petty song, last dance with mary jane. everything was up and running a minute or two later, and they continued from where they left off. by then we were so wet we hardly noticed the rain, but the wind was picking up. the sun was all the way down by then and the temperature had dropped considerably. but this seemed to made the crowd more rowdy, myself and my friends included. it didn’t stop raining all night, and the power went out a few more times. but we stayed, wetter than imaginable, colder than desirable, and having a great time seeing tom petty play our favorite songs. the night ended with my top 1 tom petty song, american girl. awesome.

on the way to the car, we had no choice but to go through the mud, ruining my brand new neon pink chucks. oh well. it took us two hours to get out of the parking lot, carefully switching between idling and turning the car off, due to the fact that the gas was on SUPER-E (what i call the point when the indicator goes past the E). we eventually made it home at around 2:30am. all we wanted to do at that point was take a shower, put on some dry clothes, and get the heck in bed (megan stayed over, sruthi went home). and that’s what we did.

today was aussie day at FRES. basically they just felt bad for the third graders (because the fourth and fifth graders all got to go on field trips), so they showed a movie about australia in the cafetorium, and voila, aussie day. some of the classes got to make rainsticks, but our class couldn’t be trusted with hammers (not kidding) so we instead did australian bingo. it’s really just regular bingo, except with words about australia written on the boards. super exciting.

brighton rec has been pretty good this week, actually. we only had 20 or so kids (we usually have 40+), due to the field trips, so it was an easygoing afternoon. the highlight was when i saw some kids playing monopoly with three dice, and when i asked them why, one kid responded, “they were in the box.” am i the only one that finds that unbearably hilarious? omg.

oh, and i saw get smart tonight. i was a little sad when i saw that the newspaper gave it a 4/10, but i really enjoyed it! i’ve never seen the tv show, but i still thought it was hilarious. plus steve carell is awesome. the movie isn’t overally remarkable, but it’s a good summer movie. which reminds me, i passed the halfway point of my 100 movies in 2008 goal. i’m at 56 : )

max: chief, are you thinking what i’m thinking?
chief: i don’t know, were you thinking “holy shit, holy shit, a swordfish almost went through my head!?”

well i have been stuck on “epic fail” for the past few days.

(1) yesterday was obvs “let’s all do things that creep miss m out” day at FRES. it all started out when a boy walked into the room in the morning with a ginormous beetle on him. i almost jumped onto a table, i swear. a few minutes later, a girl walks in, her previously very long hair now cut short. i said, “cute haircut!” and she came over to me, pulled out a shoebox from her backback, and proceeded to show me a box full of her hair. A BOX FULL OF HER HAIR. soooooooo effing creepy. the teacher and i told her she had to put it in her locker, half for sanitary reasons, and half because we were so creeped out. and to top it all off a girl lost her tooth after recess. and we all know how much i hate seeing: a) loose teeth, b) teeth not inside mouths, c) places were teeth used to be but aren’t any longer, and d) blood. ew.

(2) i’ve been constantly worrying about money lately. like to extreme proportions. but i feel it’s justified. when i started high school i started saving my money. when i graduated high school, i had saved around $6,000. now that i have recently finished my first year of college, i have around $3,500. WTF WAS I DOING ALL YEAR? i’m really mad at myself right now. so mad that i bought $127 worth of shoes this morning.

(3) why are kids so keen to point out every single one of your faults CONSTANTLY? it’s seriously driving me insane. i know why i suck, guys! i don’t need to be reminded! ETA: although today the kids gave the counselors awards, and i got “most awesome pink haired counselor.” very cute : )

today i realized something: the more i write papers, the more insane i become. check it out:

from my descriptive paper, in which i wrote about my lost panda key.
I was able to come up with several other theories, but they all seemed to be the plots of poorly written horror movies (the panda key never existed to begin with, my stalker ex-boyfriend stole it and is going to stab me with it the next time he sees me, et cetera). I have come to accept the fact that the panda key will never be found, seen by my payment of twenty dollars to the Student Life Office at Geneseo.

from my informational paper, in which i wrote about scooters.
When I first got my scooter, I set aside a whole weekend to learn how to ride it. My dad took me to Parking Lot Q in the MCC parking lot (we live across the street), handed me the helmet, told me to sit on the seat, and turned the scooter on. I freaked out, afraid that I would tip over, or that I would be able to stop, or that I was going to die a painful and fiery death. After remembering how to breathe, I slowly pulled the clutch towards me, and found myself not tipped over, not springing forward at tremendous speeds, and not dead. In short, it was fantastic.

from my comparison paper, in which i wrote about rotary phones versus cell phones.
Cellular phones, on the other hand, are not so beneficial. First of all, style can be a big problem. To get a cool looking phone, you have to scrape together a couple of month’s worth of your paycheck, and then maybe sell an organ on the black market or something. And if you are able to do that, you are stuck with this flimsy piece of plastic that will be destroyed if you drop it, sit on it, put it in the wash, or run over it with your car. If any of those things happened to a rotary phone, more damage would occur to the floor, your butt, the washing machine, or your car tire, than would happen to your telephone.

i saw the incredible hulk last night (midnight release!) with liz, abby, and jon. let me just say, it was AWESOME. i loved that i was actually able to understand all of the plot for once, without having to be a comic book geek. plus edward norton is super hot. so all in all, it was a good time.

oh, and this movie is the second set up for the avengers, coming out in 2011 (as you may remember if you stayed after the credits for ironman). it’s going to be sweet. especially if they throw more super heroes in (which they are bound to do) — spiderman, captain america, lots of xmen, the fantastic 4, et al.

FRES:
i’m really having a super fun time, for reals. the kids are a handful and a half, but i’m really learning a lot. the kids call me the assistant teacher (makes me smile every time), and i think i’ve struck a balance between being a disciplinarian and being a friend, which is good. and i’m getting pretty good at reading books aloud. and i’m enjoying the grade school flashbacks that i’ve fallen victim to. oh, and did i mention that instead of doing 25 hours of service learning (the required amount), i’m doing around 150 hours? hahaha.

BRIGHTON REC:
nothing really special to write home here. it’s pretty much the same as always. i play games all day and get to hang out with my friends, and i get paid for it. plus the kids are awesome. duh.

MCC:
i got 100 on my first paper! i had another due today, and i have high hopes for that one too. the class itself is… odd. i expected a college-level course about writing, but it seems like i’m just relearning (not that i forgot) all the essay-writing skills that i developed in high school. we went over how to format an essay (paragraph one: introduction (hook + thesis), paragraph 2: body paragraph (topic sentence, information with examples, transition statement)…) for friggin’ an hour and a half. for serious?