Promised Whale Watch entry + photos by the weekend AT THE LATEST. I’m still catching up on all the homework I would have done over the weekend (Sophomore Speech research, DBQ) and I don’t plan on even getting on the internet tomorrow, it’s straight home and into Appleworks to type my notes and my DBQ and if I have time after that, normal homework. Gah.

I feel like crap.

Back. Got to go.

Friday, April 29th
After school at 2:45pm I grabbed my luggage from the science room, said goodbye to my friends, and headed outside to the buses. Earlier that day I left a message on the machine for my mom to ask her to bring my water bottle to school because I had left it in the freezer. So when I got to the buses, there was my mom with my alarm clock. How she got “alarm clock” from “water bottle”, I have no idea. Thank goodness for my sister though because she saw my water in the freezer and told my mom I probably forgot it, so she brought the water too. I said goodbye to her and got on the bus. I got to have 2 seats to myself. Amanda and Michelle sat behind me. I’m not friends with either of them, more like acquaintances. But I wasn’t friends with anyone else, so I dealt. Then we departed. During the ride we watched 3 movies, Meet the Fockers, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Anger Management. During Monty Python I became that annoying kid that says every line to the movie, but no one minded because the kids next to me were doing the same. I also read a lot of The Resturant at the End of the Universe and ate some Chex Mix. We stopped for dinner around 6pm. We went to Burger King. Ugh. I got a chicken nugget Big Kids meal. I felt bad for the employees. There were 200 of us and 4 of them. Ha. Later we arrived at Cape Cod Sea Camps in Brewster Massachusetts. We all met in the dinning hall and the teachers went over some stuff. Then we headed to our cabins. I was in good ol’ Cabin 18. Heated good ol’ Cabin 18. Heated good ol’ Cabin 18 with showers. It was awesome. I packed so many layers for at night and I didn’t even need it. It actually was a bit too hot at night. It was 12:45am so I went to sleep pretty easily after reading a bit more from The Resturant at the End of the Universe.

Saturday, April 30th
I got up around 6:15am. Breakfast was at 7am, but I was woken up by all the stupid freshmen getting ready. Do they really need to straighten their hair and do their makeup on a whale watch? Yeah, so I got ready in 5 minutes so I straightened up my bed and my luggage. At 7 I went to breakfast in the dinning hall and ate some waffles and tator tots (yes, tator tots!). After breakfast we went back to our cabins to get ready for the day. My group consisted of 6 girls and 21 boys. It sucked. Boys are annoying. First we went to the ocean. My first time at the ocean! We all took off our shoes and rolled up our pants and headed to the sandbar. It was so cold! But I didn’t mind, I was just so excited to be there. I got a bucket and collect seashells and small animals. I found a little tiny crab and a crab without limbs and a shell, which I thought was a sea shell until I saw it had eyes. When Mr. Porta told me what it was a yelled. It was a creepy little thing. Later some boys found a horseshoe crab which was very cool. I ended up getting pretty wet because I went into water that was too deep. So afterwards we walked barefoot back to our cabins and changed. Then we packed our lunches and got on the bus again. We drove to an aquaculture center. They split the group in half, but with 4 girls and one group and 2 in another. Guess which group I was in? First we took a 3 mile hike in a fresh water marsh. It was mostly a board walk, which was nice, but it started to rain. We went to this old house that belonged to some whale hunting captain. He had this really awesome gate in the front made of whale jaw bones. We were lucky enough to come at a time when they were giving free tours so we got to go inside and look around. The wallpaper was really cool. And we got to see the garage and see the old gadgets they had back then (funny looking washing machines, a sleigh, a buggy, etc.). Afterwards we walked back towards the aquaculture center. The hike was pretty boring. A thorn bush attacked me but Jay saved me, so it was all good. On the way back we at lunch at a overlook where we could see the ocean. I had a ham sandwich and a Rice Crispie treat. We eventually made it back and went in the aquaculture center. The guy that showed us around, Pete, was pretty funny and it probably would have been really boring if he didn’t explain everything like he did. After the tour we got back on the bus and went to the harbor. It was still pouring so I put on my handy rain pants that were in my backpack. We got on this little fishing boat and went out to sea. My first time on a real boat! The guys that ran it put a net in the water and caught some stuff like crabs and fish. They sorted them all out and explained what each one was and stuff. It was pretty interesting. And being on a boat was awesome. I got plenty of pictures of the animals too. Afterwards we got off the boat and waited for the bus for 20 minutes (in the rain might I add once again). We got on and travelled to go on yet another hike. On the way though we had to turn around because the bus missed the turn so we pulled into the Ben and Jerry’s parking lot. After much persistent begging, they stopped the bus and let us get ice cream. I got a chocolate peanut butter waffle cone. It was so good. We got back on the bus and rode to the trail. We hiked for 3 or 4 miles until we got to a beach. An actual beach (not the beach in the harbor like the first one) with waves and everything! I kicked off my shoes and ran in. I’ve never been in the ocean, and when the waves came in I totally wasn’t expecting it and I almost fell over. I was soaked, but so was almost everyone else. It was still pouring and no one really cared anymore. We walked to the bus barefoot and sopping wet. We just wanted to get back to the camp at that point, but we made one last stop at a stream where there were supposed to be herring (…with a herring!) swimming upstream, but they weren’t there. Which, frankly, made us all pretty pissed off. Meh. We boarded the bus again and finally went back to the camp. We changed and got ready for dinner. Dinner was at 6:30pm. I think it was pasta. It wasn’t really that good, I remember that much. Afterwards Debbie, Kelly, Amanda, Michelle, Dylan, and I played Spoons (with coffee stirrers) and BS. It was a blast, especially Spoons. The first round we played I grabbed for a stirrer and ended up on the ground after knocking over the bench I was sitting on and the salt and pepper shakers I put on it (ironically enough because I thought I was getting them out of the way). At 9pm we went back to our cabins and got ready for bed because there was seriously nothing else to do. I read and finished The Resturant at the End of the Universe and ate some Goldfish. At 10:45pm we went to bed.

Okay, it’s been a month and I think it’s obvious that I will probably never finish this. Sorry.

Tomorrow is Whale Watch! I’m leaving at 3pm from school and I’ll be back around 8pm on Monday (So I probably won’t post until Tuesday or Wednesday). I’m really excited, but I’m mad that none of my friends are on my bus. I’ll have to sit with someone I don’t like (well, I have semi-friends on my bus, but I don’t like ‘em very much). I’m all packed up and ready to go. I bought plenty of snacks for the bus ride and both The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, the Universe and Everything to read. Plus my iPod of course. And my NEW DIGITAL CAMERA! It’s mucho awesome and I’m very excited to use it. I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures for you all.

8th period- I waited with Michaela in Berg’s room while she had her singing lesson. Afterwards I called my mom on the payphone to ask her to call Brighton Rec. to see if there was a BYT meeting today. I told her I’d call back in 10 minutes. So then we headed to the snack line and I bought a slice of pepperoni pizza and a Dr Pepper. And then I called my mom back. She said there was indeed a meeting. So Michaela and I walked to the middle school and went in the front door. We went to room 311 but no one was there. So we walked downstairs to the cafeteria where we’ve been doing our mural. There I found Katie and JP. Mrs. Fabrizio (my old PE teacher) yelled at me for being loud during sports study hall so Michaela had to leave and I had to shut up. Turns out the point of the meeting was to tell us there was a meeting next week. Oye. So then I walked back to my school and got my jacket out of my locker. Then I went to Dr. Smith’s room to ask him about changing buses, but he said no. So I walked outside to my bus (after being stopped by the student council as they practically forced me to buy a bracelet with “Barons” written on it, but I was able to resist) and saw that the buses were leaving. I didn’t want to be that kid that the losers on my bus makes fun of for running after the bus, so I walked casually towards it and was lucky that the light turned red and the buses were moving very slowly. And then I went home.

The design site is temporarily closed. Here’s the plan:
 • add required field* code to download form
 • add code in each template to hid navbar
 • upload all the images into one place
 • make download page easier to understand
 • use FTP and clean account (load faster?)
 • redesign the site
 • make a new template?
 • triple check all validation
 • and if I have time, recode dumb old templates

I finished The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and now I’m onto The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

I had batting practice today at the sports garden. I hit 4 rounds, 0 hits the first round, 9 hits the second round, 9 hits the third round, and 12 hits the last round. Which isn’t bad considering I usually practice on the slow pitch machine, not the fast pitch.

Afterwards Lori took Kate, Liz, my mom, and I to Don Pablo’s. The host guy was cool. He wasn’t wearing a name tag so we asked him what his name was. He answered it was stitched in his shirt, Don Pablo. So we called him Don or Mr. Pablo for the rest of the night. He sat us at a huge circle table, but then Lori and my mom decided they wanted their own table so we got a huge 8 person table to ourselves. The three of us got [virgin] piña coladas, and they were awesome. We were pretty loud during dinner (as usual), but it was past 9 on a Tuesday and no one was there/cared. Yeah, later we blasted “Blister in the Sun” in the car and sang along until our mom’s turned it down so they could talk without yelling.

Now I’m tired and I need a shower.

I’m totally bummed that school is happening again this week.

Yuuumm, my mom made pudding.

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea. And frolicked in the autumn mist, in
a land called Honah Lee. <– stuck in my head, thanks Kate.

I had softball practice today (duh, it’s Sunday!). It was freezing out, literally. There were only 6 of us there, just enough to play a makeshift game, one first basemen, one second basement, one shortstop, one third basemen, one catcher, and one outfielder. Coach played pitcher. Guess where I played? It’s freaking hard to cover the whole outfield, but I managed to catch every pop-fly hit to me. And I bunted. Not well, but I did it which is a big improvment. Mom was 45 minutes late picking Liz and I up. We were cold as we waited so we sat on the blechers singing camp songs and doing hand jives to keep our fingers moving. When that stopped working we square-danced.

Cast:
• Lanni, a.k.a. Lan
• Katie, a.k.a. Kate
• Kate’s mom, a.k.a. Lori
• Lori’s friend, a.k.a. Cindy

Scenes:
• “Lan’s casa”: Lan sits at home on the computer with her dad on the computer next to her. Kate calls and the following dialogue is spoken:

Kate: Hey Lan. So can you come?
Lan: I don’t know, hang on. *to her dad* Can I go with Katie to the store and then do stuff?
Lan’s dad: Uhh, okay…
Lan: Yeah, I can go.

Lan gets ready to go and waits for Kate and Lori to come get her.

• “the car”: Kate and Lori pick Lan up via car and they travel approximately 3 miles to Buffalo Wild Wings. The conversation is fairly light and a certain incident involving 99 cent kid’s entrees and middleage Irish women is discussed. Lan’s new hair color is also brought up.

• Buffalo Wild Wings: Kate, Lori, and Lan arrive at the restaurant and wait a few minutes until a table is free, for it is Friday and it’s happy hour so the place is fairly crowded. They are soon seated and later Cindy arrives. Prom dresses are discussed, and also something about a diamond-studded cake knife available at the nearby JoAnn’s. Drinks are served. Kate and Lan are bored to death by this “adult chit-chat” and resolve the issue by obtaining some trivia handholds. They both score poorly and end up in 9th and 10th place. Nachos are then served followed by chicken wings for Lan and a chicken sandwich for Kate. After approximately 38 minutes, they depart for David’s Bridal.

• David’s Bridal: Lori runs over to buy a cake knife at JoAnn’s and leaves Kate and Lan to fend for themselves. They browse around the few dresses that are left and manage to pick out a few for Kate to try on. Cindy assigns Kate a dressing room and Kate tries on the first dress, a pastel pink ruffly thing. She doesn’t like it, nor does Lan. The second dress is pink and white and lacy. It too is given the boot. A few dresses later and Kate comes out in a wonderful scarlet dress with a nice tie thing-a-ma-jig up the side. Kate looks very thin and pretty and that dress is chosen. Lori has still not arrived. Cindy keeps calling Lan “Lan”, which confuses her because grown-ups call her Alanna. She soon adjusts and helps Cindy pick things out for Kate while she changes. Cindy requires that Lan pick out some necklaces for Kate to try on with the dress to see if it will match. The choices are: pearls, diamonds, or really ugly pearls. Lan is luckily wearing a scarlet necklace to match with Kate’s dress, solving this ridiculous problem. Lori arrives and makes Kate try on all the dresses again so she can see them. Then Kate tries on a pretty white dress, and throws on the matching TACKY pink translucent poncho adorned with pink and white butterflies. Bleach. Lori loves it. After much convincing, Lori sides with Kate and Lan and agrees to buy the scarlet dress. During all this Lan has retreated to the car to retrieve her red umbrella and her new red sunglasses (soaking herself in the rain also). Kate tries on the sunglasses and models in front of the mirror with the umbrella. Photographs are taken and soon the three take leave.

• Blockbuster: They pass by Blockbuster and decide to rent a movie. Kate and Lan pick out The Amityville Horror and Meet the Fockers. They purchased the movies and continue on their way.

• Mark’s Pizzaria: On the way home they decide that they are still hungry and stop by the local pizza place, Mark’s, and order a large cheese pizza with one quarter pepperoni and a dozen mild wings (because Lori and Kate are wusses). After waiting 15 minutes the pizza is done and the finally go home.

• “Kate’s casa”: After eating their pizza at home, Kate and Lan sit down on the couch and watch The Amityville Horror. Kate falls asleep before it is finished and Lan shuts it off at 12:30am. Exhausted, she then attempts to go to sleep but is not asleep until after 4:30am.

• Dollar General: The next morning at around 9am, Kate wakes up and watches TV until Lan gets up at 10am. They eat breakfast and see off Lori, who is going to see some friends. They are soon bored out of their minds so they get their shoes on, grab some money, and head to the Dollar General. They are fairly disappointed with the selection and end up buying only a can of hairspray for Kate and a sour apple blowpop for Lan.

• Tops: They arrive at Tops and decide to go the the bulk section for some candy. On the way to the bulk section they pass through the fruits/vegetables section and Lan spots smoothie mixes. Not finding a banana-flavored one, they decide to make their own. They grab four bananas and a cup of yogurt. They check out and head home.

• “Kate’s casa”: Kate and Lan get home at last and whip out the blender. Being a dinosaur, the blender wouldn’t blend very well and seemed so smell of burning, so they opened a window and spent 20 minutes blending their precious smoothie. But before they could unplug the air freshener in the other room, Lori arrived home. The following lines are very important:

Lori: What’s that smell?
Kate: Uhhh… ummm… I farted.
Lori: It smells like something is burning, either that or it’s permanent markers.
Lan: Oh, well… uh…
Kate: OKAY! We were making a smoothie and burned, all right?… it burned!

It was the worst tasting smoothie ever. Lan soon leaves and returns home. Everyone’s lives move on.

And today I watched The Emperor’s New Groove. Pull the lever Cronk!… WRONG LEVER! [later] Why do we even have the lever?

I dyed my hair Fishbowl Blue today. It’s aqua-ish. Actually, it’s the exact shade of my mac. It’s kind of cool. I do wish it was a bit brighter, but it’ll do. When I get around to replacing the batteries in my camera I’ll post a picture.

I’m addicted to hitting.

I really need to watch The Emperer’s New Groove. I’ve looked all over the house for my copy that I taped off the tv, but alas, it’s nowhere to be found.

I went out to lunch with the family today. We went downtown during my dad’s lunch break and ate at the chinese buffet (not all-you-can eat, pay by the pound). It was fun. I love being in public with my family, I can embarrass them much with my smooth (NOT) talking and awesome (NOT) dance moves.

Today I practiced hitting again. But it rained the whole time and was very depressing.

I was going to dye my hair today, but my mom was too tired and said she’d do it tomorrow.