"Get This Fruit Off My Freaking Pizza!"

So today was another exciting day at newspaper....no, exciting is the wrong word, mind numbing, yes, mind numbing day at newspaper. So today was the new teacher induction ceremony at my high school which explained why when I arrived at 9 this morning the entire school, even the main office was completely empty. We had a few teachers who retired last year, some have been at the school for over 20 years and now I guess their replacements have arrived, but anyways, back to newspaper. Not too much really happened today, we got another contract done today which brought in another $500+ which is nice, unfortunately, we need to raise about $2,000 worth of ads per issue and currently we are at only about $660. Businesses aren't quite as lavish when it comes to advertising expenses as in previous years due to the recent recession and placing an ad in a school newsmagazine might not seem to be the wisest choice considering the many other more prestigious outlets out there. So yeah, for now at least, the business manager job I hold with my partner Sarah is rather dull and repetitive with a cycle of calls, emails and letters, 97% of which go unanswered in the end :/

Later on, the day did get better though at 1 when we got lunch, we ordered a cheese and pineapple pizza and our teacher/advisor kept banging on how the fake Hawaiian pizza (sans Canadian bacon) left much to be desired and how we were now forbidden to order pizza again. Our teacher, let's call him Mr. Jones is a really entertaining person to work with, for example, the day icebreakers for the new staffers involved a "goblet of fire" and a hula hoop challenge. The challenge was that you had to be able to hula for 15 seconds and if you did you got to choose a prize. Prizes included an ipod shuffle or a free yearbook ($79!!!). Mr. Jones is openly gay also which makes him that much cooler. One mystery for me though is apparently he has a "spice dance" which is playing off the spice girls which I might be able to see one day on a journalism trip to a competition later this year. needless to say, I can't wait to see this. Finally I had a nice conversation with Matt today, he's the guy I've liked since last October, he's also in Newspaper and runs XC. Apparently he was at the XC car wash who competed against us this past weekend, I should of tried and sold some of our baked goods to them haha. He writes for the sports section this year I've learned.

Afterward I went out to lunch with Maria, kind of late to be honest as we didn't have lunch until 3. We went to California Pizza Kitchen and we ordered a pear and gorgonzola pizza to share, hmmmm. It was different to say the least, I approve of the mix of sweet and savoury but the gorgonzola was a bit strong for my taste. Afterwards we walked around the mall for a bit but I really wanted to be outside, the weather here has been amazing and it will continue for the rest of the week. Today it was a high of 77, mostly sunny and breezy with low humidity, how is this August!? As this will continue for the week, I would like to thank mother nature for making this final week of summer meteorologically enjoyable.

Also, today's Ben's birthday - so Happy Birthday to You Mate, wishing you many more happy and memory filled years to come.

This song has been stuck in my head for about 3 days

A Good Kind of Pain

Today was probably one of the most tiring days of my entire summer, yet, it also one of my favorite because today was the day of my high school crew team's car wash/bake sale fundraisers. This morning didn't look to promising, tropical storm (depression?) Danny was going up along the East coast the night before and it was still really grey and threatening to rain. That did not bode well for people wanting to donate money to get their car sponge washed behind an Exxon station, but we plowed on like the steadfast rowers we are. In the end, my first job ended up being selling baked goods from a basket while patrolling a median in the middle of a busy road, apart from losing my voice and extreme diaphragm pains from shouting for an hour straight, it turned out to be a surprising success. Despite the cross country team competing with us across the street, we still did well. By the way, a little background- apparently the gas station we were at doubled booked us with cross country, but since we technically booked first we got the spot. This probably intensified the little competition between us and XC and you can guess fundraising wars can get quite intense. I still had three people just give me $20 without evening taking some cookies and whatnot and many other people who paid $5 for one brownie, needless to say, it was a good day. But probably the highlight for me was the little kick line me and two of my friends did to draw attention on said busy road, judging from the many smiles we got, I can confidently say we made a few commuter's days a little better. But in the end, the most important thing for us was that this was a fundraiser and happily, we possibly set a new record for ourselves. By the end of the day, we had made $1,021.41 which is not bad for 6 hours of playful work and a day which ended up being pleasantly sunny; sure, my legs hurt still from all the running, jumping and kick-lining but hey, it's worth it, and I can comfortably say we beat XC this time.

Also, just to clear things up, I don't have anything against XC, it's just competitive between us. Heck, all the guys I've liked, and I mean ALL of them including Ben have run or are running XC. I guess I have something for runners then, eh?

But yeah, today was an eventful and productive day, and if if nature wanted to just make my day a wee bit more exciting, it's storming right now, thunder, lightning, the whole lot, so thank you, mother nature. Unfortunately, my dog, Max, does not approve of this weather as he has gone into his terrified-destructive mode where he attempts to hide and will not let anything get in his way. We've locked him in a bathroom so he doesn't damage anything or himself for that matter until the worst of it passes. Finally, to wrap up this week, tomorrow will be my aunt's 60th birthday dinner so that means another family gathering and for me, time to have talk time with one of my cousins who is also in his spare time teaching me to drive stick shift. I have a long way to go haha.

Also, Maria, if you're reading this, "Hi" and send me a FB message. Maria's my best friend by the way, she's the first person I came out to and the first person I've told this blog about to. Random, I know.

I'm really tired so I'm probably going to go take a nap or something before I try and get some more of my last minute summer work done.

Moon Pie and Gay PDA

Three cheers for procrastination! So anyways, instead of working on summer assignments like a good High School Senior should, I'm watching a show about car crashes on Discovery Channel and typing up this post. Today was a pretty quiet day, I got up earlier than normal today so I actually made myself a semi decent breakfast of pancakes and half a grapefruit which was nice. I'm feeling better about things that are going on at the moment, time really does heal all sorts of problems and issues. All of this aside, I was reading an article online about people and their pet peeves and what really ticks some people off and it got me thinking about some of mine. I'm not very easily annoyed or bothered, i usually let things slide but there are some things which really irk me.

1. Chewing with one's mouth open- we aren't cows people, not only does it look bad but it's also terribly impolite in my mind, we don't need to see what you're eating once it enters your mouth, especially after it's been all ground up and mangled. SO yeah, please keep your mouth shut when you chew.

2. Wearing Pajama Pants in Public - I don't really know why this bothers me personally, but it just does. The reason Pajama pants are called pajama pants is because they are meant to be worn when you sleep, not grocery shopping, getting gas or in the worst case I've seen, going out for dinner in a place like The Cheesecake Factory - I almost wanted to scream at that time.

3. Using your high beams at the wrong time - This has happened to be on so many occasions and it drives me mad. It usually occurs on single lane roads in more rural areas which for me is suburban southern Maryland and often the driver is someone in a Range Rover or BMW X5 who probably believes they are better than everyone else and thus can get away with driving with fog lights, and high beams all on at the same time. Not only is it annoying but dangerous as well for all the other drivers on the road.

So yeah, those are some of my pet peeves, not really the most exciting of things in the world but it's informative.

Another example of my ace procrastination skills will probably be me spending a little too much time on YouTube. I can spend hours at a time on that website, but in the process I have found some very cool videos. This one I found particularly interesting, it was originally aired on 20/20, an American current events type news show which focuses on current issues as well as more obscure news and brings them into the spotlight. This was originally aired a few years back but I feel it's still very relevant. It's about Gay PDA (public displays of affection) and it follows what happens when gay couples get a little affectionate in a public setting and the reactions of the general public who are being filmed without their knowledge. It shows reactions by men, women and families in two settings, highly conservative Alabama and more liberal New Jersey.

Any thoughts?

-Also, the title doesn't really have to do anything with the post, but instead it's some fun cake like confection I bought on my way back home from the cruise in South Carolina. It's like two thin, dense-ish cakes with marshmallow in between and then covered in chocolate. Yes, it's quite delicious.

Panacea Found

What do you do when you need something to take your mind off things? Bake of course!

Billiard Ball Cupcake Anyone?

Fer, think of this as a thank you for the shoutout and as a belated birthday gift. ;D

FML

Four things happened today.

1. I got a surprise text yesterday telling me that I had to go in to school today to work on getting advertising clients as part of my business manager position in journalism. I did not notice said text until 9:30 this morning because my phone was off the night before, I was supposed to be there at 9.

2. We (meaning me and my business co-position holder Sarah) did not get lunch during our surprise meeting for the first time. I essentially worked my ass off for 6 hours while running on a small bowl of frosted flakes I hastily downed this morning after getting the text.

3. I accidentally brought home a set of keys which I shouldn't have because neither me nor my teacher remembered the detail of returning the set until after I got home an hour later. As it turned out, one of the keys apparently is a master key to all the locks both inside and out in the entire school; so, I got a pleasant surprise 2 mile round trip run to school in prime time summer heat.

4. I friended Ben on facebook today, he accepted, but like what happens every time for me, he's straight. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go read two post back titled "A Week of Sun, Sea, Sand, and Ben". Now, this would be all fine and normal except for the fact that I sorta hit on him during my little holiday, and I don't know how subtle I was or if he picked up on it in any way or form. Needless to say, I feel really awkward and also really bad for any discomfort I might of caused him during his holiday.

Life's a mess right now, and school starts in less than two weeks.

FML

Comfort Food

-Foodie
Noun
-Informal, a person with a keen interest in food and cookery

I'm a self admitted foodie, I love to cook and I love to eat and try new things, but after a week of trying some new and interesting foods from various Caribbean cultures, I've come back home to a big bowl of noodle soup. This got me wondering, as I looked back to past events in my life both happy and sad, I discovered a pattern, I would almost always end up going back to a staple like noodle soup. At this point i realized that for me, Noodle soup is a comfort food for me, something warm and nourishing that i could fall back on and provide me come respite from the bustles of daily life. Comfort food then is something every culture and every group of people has, whether it be national or regional within a state. But not everything I think can be comfort food, my definition of something that is a comfort food has 4 main parts.


1. It must be warm or hot - Comfort food should be something one can fall back on after a long days work, something cold will never provide the calming experience and soothing nature something nice and hot can. Would you rather return after a long winters walk to a bowl of soup or a bowl of ice cream?

2. It must be simple - Comfort food can not be something that takes hours to prepare and require a day of shopping to find all the ingredients for. It should be simple and nourishing that anyone should be able to make and not require a team professionally trained chefs to prepare.

3. It must be normally served in decent portions - Comfort food isn't something that is one bite and go, it should be something that you would sit down to and savour for a few minutes or even hours with mates or family. It should not be bite sized but rather hearty like a big bowl of mash or like for me, a big bowl of noodle-y goodness.

4. It must be something you grew up with - The reason comfort food is called as such is because it reminds the eater of a simpler, more carefree time like childhood. It should not be something you randomly pick up in your 20s or 30s but something your mom or grandma made when you were young and you would eagerly sit down to after school or for dinner.


So what is comfort food for me? As I mentioned earlier, a bowl of noodle soup is pure comfort food for me, it meets all my criteria and is something I will likely enjoy eating for many many years to come. But comfort food varies widely from nation to nation and even within regions in a nation as the United States shows.

The American South - When I think of southern comfort, I picture collard greens, fried chicken, warm biscuits and the like. Sure it might sound cliché but growing up in Virginia has shown me some truth to this.

The Southwest - I think the epitome of comfort food in the Southwest would be something hearty, a testament to the original settlers in the region from ranchers to farmers who took the dry climate and made it their own. Chili, then would be my pick for this region.

But some foods probably transcend all boundaries in the US, things like mashed potatoes, mac n' cheese and probably most popular and widely accepted, chicken noodle soup - that bowl of savoury goodness that can cure almost anything from a cold to a bad day at school.

My knowledge of comfort food outside of the United States unfortunately is limited. In Southeast and East Asia Things like Noodle soup and congee or rice porridge in one form or another probably dominate the comfort food scene. They essentially are peasant foods, something everyone can enjoy regardless of wealth. Europe is even more of a mystery for me, the highly variable cultures in the continent foster so many cultures that it's a mosaic of food. Russia's chicken noodle soup then maybe is borscht, the beet soup with the distinctive bright purple hue and in England, fish and chips could be considered a food everyone can fall back on. But I'm never sure of any of these, only people form these places themselves can make a definite statement as to what is and what is not comfort food for them. the most mysterious regions though for me would be Latin and South America, Africa and the Middle East. While I enjoy foods from across the world, I figure that the stuff I get at the local Mexican or Indian place isn't exactly as authentic as it should be.


As I love to know more about the world we all live on, I would like to ask a question to anyone who is reading this blog-

Wherever you are from, whether it be the U.S. or internationally, what is your comfort food?
What is your chicken noodle soup or mac n' cheese?

Also, if my assumptions about a regions comfort foods are incorrect in your mind, please do correct me. I'd rather be wrong and then learn something new than forever be under an incorrect assumption about one of a culture's most important aspects, their food.

Yum.

A Week of Sun, Sea, Sand, and Ben.

All good things have to come to an end, including a week on a massive ship with thousands of other people, but over the course of this one week, I've come to realize a lot of things about myself and about how we as people and especially teenagers act. I've met a lot of people during this past week on the Freedom of the Seas, people from near where I live in DC and also people from across the pond in England, but the one thing that I've realized most clearly is that no matter where you are from, we are very clique-y. It was apparent the first night, there was the group of Brits in one corner, the West-Coasters on one other corner and the New Yorkers in their own little group, and even by the end, not much had changed but people intermingled and we had quite a good time together. Even I, not exactly the most extroverted individual made quite a good amount of new friends which I will talk more about in a minute. But yeah, the cruise was fun, it involved a lot of food, entertainment and some fun times at the various ports. One thing I will definitely remember though will be jet skiing for the first time in Labadee, Haiti. if you have never driven or ridden on a wave runner before, try it out the next time you can since that was probably one of the most intense things I have ever done in my life (130 HP in something that weighs as much as a postage stamp is hella fun). But mostly I'll miss the amazing people I got to spend one week at sea with. This was a pretty super vague account of my vacation so i might go into greater detail later but I'm exhausted right now and full of southern comfort food as I overnight here in South Carolina with is really taking a toll on my focus.

While all the activities and fun stuff I was involved in will be remembered, if there is one thing I will remember the most, it would be of a guy I met on the first day named Ben. Ben was a quirky person, as cute as he was smart, he lives in New Jersey and went on the cruise with 15 other people from his family. We met on the first night when we departed from Port Canaveral when me, him and a girl named Sarah went off on a walk to explore and familiarize ourselves with the ship but it would not be until the second day that we would get to talking more and getting to know each other a bit better, needless to say, it was by day two that I really started to like him. He runs cross country and does track and plays field hockey because all of his friends do and once "accidentally scored a goal". He took French for three years and this next year said he would be taking 5 AP courses which is impressive by any standard. He's trying to get into UPenn much like me yet he has two generations of legacy there so he has a very good chance of getting in. How did I learn all of this? well, Ice skating of course. There's an ice skating rink on board the ship and it was during a special teens-only skating session where we went around and around talking about school and whatever. For the rest of the cruise we would end up seeing each other and hang out from time to time. The last day I got to see him was at a party on day six, we talked for quite a while that evening, neither of us were ones to really dance. In the end the last time I would see him would be when he went to go get a drink, he didn't show up at the email/facebook exchange the next day or at the final party at the Fuel nightclub. Unless someone did get his contact info then, he will will forever only live on in my mind, shame really, he was one of the nicest people I met all cruise. Was he gay? I don't know, he did dress surprisingly well and sported a v-neck or two and his voice and laugh made a blip on my gaydar, but judging on this would be all based on stereotype which i personally dislike, I guess this too will always be a mystery. I hate mysteries. -.-

Anyways, there only remains two weeks of summer left before I have to go back to school for my senior year and I still have some English, history and all of of French summer work to finish. Needless to say, I hate busywork, it's pointless and does not do any of the reinforcing teachers claim it does in the end and in the end just provides some drudgery and torture during the supposedly relaxing summer months.

-I'll probably post some pictures when I get back home so hang tight for those. And also, in case you have read my earlier posts from a week ago, I never did go do the flowrider thing :/, o well, there's always Hershey Park a few hours away if I ever feel the urge.

-Also, I really miss my bed. Long vacations always do this to me, for the past 10 days I've slept on either a sofa bed or on a tri-fold bunk bed that retracts into the ceiling (cool to look at, a pain to get in to), so when I finally get to curl up in my own bed and the familiar covers and surroundings, I will finally be able to rest well again.

Thoughts

I'm tired of hiding who I really am, who I am from my friends and more importantly my family. Ever since I first came out to my friends Maria for the first time back on July 22, 2008, I've slowly come out to more of my friends and fortunately most of them have taken it very well, some surprised, some not. I've come out in front of grocery stores, during AP Chem Lab write ups and once at an FBLA competition, but I digress. It feels great to come out and let some of my friends know who I really am and not just me with a mask that I've worn for way to long. But there is still one thing I have yet to do, something that I've known that must happen eventually but have put off due to fear and too many other reasons and excuses, and that is coming out to my family.

I've come to realize that coming out to my family will probably be one of the most difficult things I will ever have to do in my life. Their little boy, someone who they have raised turning out to be gay. I've found help with my situation form the many other blogs I read and follow like Jason Carwin's blog which I feel is one every gay teenager should be reading as it's one of the best written blogs on the web. I'm embarking tomorrow on a cruise that will last one week and I'm hesitant to say this but I want to take at least a first step towards coming out to my family. When i say first step, I don't mean hinting or the like, but I really want to tell at least one person in my family the little but heavy secret I've been carrying now for nearly 17 years.

But now, the question is, who should this be? my mom? my dad? maybe even my cousin who's closer to my age. My mom and I have shared a very close relationship for as long as I remember, we often have little talks in the evening, about random things and like how our days have gone and recent events in the news. We don't really discuss issues pertaining to gay life or news, but she doesn't oppose gays and has stated that she believes that people should be able to live they way they want to which I hope is a good sign. I even believe she might suspect that I might be gay but is just not taking any action and letting me take this whole process at my own pace but I'm not positive of this fact.

My dad is another story and will be hardest person for me to come out to. He isn't what I would call overly traditional but he has some firm beliefs that he adheres to. Unlike my mom, I really doubt he knows or even suspects that I might be gay. He has never expressed any beliefs that outright oppose gay rights or really the gay lifestyle but I haven't seen him outright support them either. But the main thing I'm just worried about, terrified about is how he would react, while I'm not as close with him as my mom, he's still extremely important in my life and need him there like anyone in my family.

The rest of my family is a mish-mosh of folks, many who don't speak fluent English and i doubt carry too much opinion either way in the gay right or gay life debate, I probably will save them for later after I come out to at least one of my parents and maybe some more friends. On the subject of friends, they too are a mish-mosh of people. Like many people, there is the inner circle who I haven known for quite some time and I hold closer to my heart than others and then there other friends who are not quite as close but still are important to me. In this group, there are those on both extremes, I have a few gay friends and I also have friends who I've learned do not exactly carry the most favourable view of gays that I have uncovered over the years. As I will be a senior next year, if I do come out the word will spread fast, high school isn't very well known for secrets being kept quiet for long periods of time, but I'll tackle this later on and go further in depth in a another post.

So I feel that I've reached a point in my life where I feel that secrets, or at least this one should no longer be hidden away. I know this will be a long and possibly difficult process but in the end, I'll have to go through it eventually and I shouldn't keep ignoring this and pushing this aside.

-Finally this will likely be my last post for at least a week because while the ship has internet, paying 55 cents a minute or $28 an hour is rather steep and I doubt my dad will appreciate having this all put onto his credit card in the end haha.

Freedom of the Seas, my home for one week.

FlowRider - if I suddenly have the guts or a burst of spontaneity.

High Seas Shenanigans and a Thank You

If I could take any vacation, it would be in the form of a cruise, so I guess you can see why I am excited for this next week as I will departing for 7 days of unlimited food, live shows, beaches, and hot guys sunbathing by the pool (and maybe erging in the gym as to not get carried away). While this isn't my first cruise (I've been on six) this will be my first on Royal Caribbean so I'm looking forward to the experience and do some inter-cruise line comparisons. I'll be on the Freedom of the Seas, which apart from currently being the biggest cruise ship on the high seas at least until Oasis comes out, apparently features a rock wall, infinite wave machine and an ice skating rink. While I doubt I'll end up trying all of the above maybe I'll have a random burst of spontaneity and hopefully not make a fool of myself.

In other news, my recent obsession with gay story lines in international soaps has grown this week when I was referred by a friend over to a British soap called Hollyoaks and the John Paul and Craig storyline. To put into perspective how addicting this show is, I've watched so far 8 months worth of their storyline in two days on Youtube (and I wonder why I can't get any summer work done...) It's has your everyday gay soap storyline, the whole realization, hesitation, falling in love with a friend, denial, anger, and then coming out phases but so far this is the most realistic and believable portrayal of gay characters and their lives of any show I've watched so far. They aren't camp or stereotypical and they face many normal problems from queer-bashing and normal everyday family drama and for JP in the story, drama associated with having to live with 5 sisters. So I highly recommend watching it if you have the time, kimbaforeva has kinda posted all the episodes JP and Craig are featured in chronological order. Another one I follow would be Verbotene Liebe and the Christian and Olli storyline; it's a German show and if you're interested in that, you can also find it on Youtube painstakingly translated and subtitled by Ichglotzutube.

Finally, I have realized I got my first follower for this blog as well as my first comment on one of my other posts, so I'm very happy to see that people are actually reading my posts and scribblings. I really enjoy reading responses and input on things I write about so all I can say is "Thank You".

Craig Dean and John Paul McQueen from Hollyoaks.

I Feel Like a Terrible Person

With only four weeks of summer left before I have to start heading back to school, I have to get going and finish up all my summer assignments now. Luckily I've gotten most of what I have to do done, but I haven't touched my French journal assignments yet and I still have a book to finish, so I guess you can figure out what I'll be doing after I post this, ugh. In other news I'll be leaving on a cruise this Friday, I'm going to be going to the Caribbean on the Freedom of the Seas which should be fun, but now let me get to the point of this post.

About 4 days ago, I found out that my crush is single again. He had dated his girlfriend for over a year, they even went to prom together last year. He had always been a great guy, funny, charming, and unbelieveably cute, and towards the end of the year we came to be good friends in my AP chem class; so I guess you can imagine that I was shocked when i found out that he broke up with his girlfriend. They always seemed to be so happy, i often saw them together and even my chem teacher knew about them and their relationship. I found out over facebook of all sources and after my initial shock, I was actually kinda happy that they broke up and that he was single again, and I feel absolutely horrible for it. I feel that I really should not be happy over a couple breaking up, both of whom I am friends with, just because they guy I like is now back on the market to put it in a way. So right now, I don't know how to feel, happy? sympathetic? indifferent? I guess I'll have to work through this but things are more complicated than ever as now both of the guys I like are now single, one that I've liked since October of last year and this one since this past winter. I'm just one giant mess right now.

Enjoy the Rest of Your Summer

Time to Make Money

Waking up at 7:30 over the summer is not something I am used to doing or personally enjoy doing, but today was special as today I went to my first day of "work" for my position of Co-Business and Ad Manager for my school's newspaper. I had to get to school by 9 this morning to get ready and learn about what my duties would be and get some preliminary client contact work done, in the end, it turned out to be a grand day made up of database updating, filing, and preparing and licking shut 180 manila envelopes to be sent out to advertisers. The girl who held the position before me and my partner had held the spot for three years and pretty much built up the entire advertising program from the ground up, from a $700 budget three years ago, to over $15,000 last year, so we have quite some big shoes to fill. Our goal is to get $2,000 or so per issue, and there are about 9 or so issues in a year so we need to raise about $18,000 this year, I guess that's hwy we need to get started early.

In other news, I've gotten back to Eastern Time and am no longer set onto Pacific time which is good since I set a new record for myself when I got up at 11:30 two days ago, I pretty much wasted my entire morning. But one thing though I still have not gotten used to again would be how horrible the heat is here in Virginia. In Nevada it easily gets above 110 degrees during the summer, but it's such a dry heat it's pretty bearable. Now here, it gets to about 88 or so now during the August but it's terribly humid and muggy so it's that much worse. The next time it storms, I'm going to dance my heart out in the rain.

"No, I won't give you $3": Adventures in Vegas

So i have finally gotten back from a week in Vegas with my parents, aunt, and cousin to celebrate my mom and dad;s 10th anniversary and I miss it already. So you might be wondering how a 16 y/o could possibly have anything to do in a city like Vegas where things pretty much center around gambling and plenty of booze par gratis, well I have discovered there is plenty of things to do to keep myself entertained. During our week long holiday, we succeeded in visiting every major hotel on the strip except for maybe Treasure Island, but I don't know if that honestly really even counts and I discovered some stores where i ended up buying crap that I honestly have no need for. But there was one thing I bought that I am really too proud of, and that would be my new Ferrari key chain/lanyard things, I got it at the Ferrari store at the Wynn Las Vegas and it cost me $10, and now i have something every true petrolhead should own, and that is a piece of Ferrari swag. But probably one o fthe weirdest thing that happened to me was when I was sitting and taking a break at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet hollywood, some creepy guy came up to me and asked me for $3 saying that he was on a date with his "girlfriend" at PF changs and that he was short on cash and it was really embarassing for him. Okay I don't even know how many flaws i could have possibly pointed out in his story or the fact that he was wearing a torn white t-shirt and an open red flannel button up on a "date" of all things, but god that was creepy, and in such a public place it almost frightens me with his level of audacity. So yeah, pedo alert.

So other things I did on the trip included visiting Red Rock Canyon, dad had to stop at EVERY last "scenic overlook" and take pictures or film, which wouldn't b so bad except for that it was 112 degrees every day. Talking about the weather, it's actually weird thinking that I've gotten used to the hot but very dry heat in Nevada compared to the cooler, but still hot and muggy heat here in Virginia, I honestly now prefer the hot dry heat, humidity does not do any wonders for my comfort.

Ugh, I honestly can't concentrate at the moment and I've actually been working on this post for about 2 hours now, so yeah, this post sucks to be honest but hopefully it'll get better when I can actually focus.

-also, if you like punk-pop-rock sort of music like I do, go out and buy "A Shipwreck in the Sand" by Silverstein, it's pretty good, maybe not their best but it's definitely worth checking out. My personal favorite Silverstein album would be "Discovering the Waterfront"

A Shipwreck in the Sand here! - http://www.ashipwreckinthesand.com/