i graduated (yay!), had a small graduation party which included my boyfriend, my sister and her boyfriend, mom, dad, vanessa, and nina. small and perfect. i don't need to have huge parties all the time - sometimes smaller is better.
the day after graduation, nina and i got in the car at 7 am and started off towards Michigan. we hit traffic 10 minutes later in paterson. nj. great start - yes, i know. after the initial upset of having to sit in morning commuter traffic for half an hour, everything went smoothly until sometime in pennsylvania where we were hit with crazy fog for some odd reason because 20 minutes later the sun was shining and we were at the highest point in PA at something like 2,000 ft. pennsylvania ever so slowly finally turned into ohio where nothing truly interesting happened except that when i saw the exit for niles, oh, i thought of a friend of mine i haven't seen in years who was, at the time, in basic training - or something like that (he has since finished :D). after driving through ohio for who knows how long, Gertie (my GPS) get all excited and tells me to take the exit to Toledo/Detroit. (finally) but the journey's not over. my gas light is on, and as a jersey girl, i've never pumped my own gas (i am now an expert). so nina and i have to figure out how to do that, we survive and i drink a 5 hour energy because my eyes aren't really doing their job and staying open. after that nice long ride, we finally see detroit... and the commuter rush hour - GREAT! we're supposed to be 15 minutes from my brothers house in rochester hills, but it takes us another 45 minutes to actually get there thanks to crazy construction on rt 75 and rochester rd. well - 11 hours after we left my house, we finally make it to my brothers house, where we are expertly maneuvered into playing catch with Timmy and assaulted by Loki (their golden - pictured below - oh and the cat is juno .. or is it meow-meow now?).
my brother, mike, and his girlfriend, anna, proceed to prepare a wonderful bbq, which nina and i enjoyed immesely since our lunch consisted of a 5 hour energy, a farmer (swiss granola bar), and war heads - healthy right?anyways, always grateful for a meal, a shower, and a bed, nina takes a shower and i proceed breaking it in the process.. i think? either way, i took another shower the next day in mike's shower because i couldn't wash my hair in Timmy's bathroom. after the shower dilema, we crash in bed and our trip has officially begun.
after that first day, we faced some crazy sand dunes at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, torrential downpours at Tims Ford State Park in Lynchburg, TN, and the longest, hottest walk i've ever made in cowboy boots in Memphis to the infamous Sun Studio where Elvis, Jerry Lee, Carl, and Johnny recorded some of their first hits in the 1950's - that studio was interesting, the walk was brutal. ever heard of Memphis heat? it's sweltering and makes you feel so disgustingly sweaty even a shower won't help. the one song that kept on blaring from my speakers from my iPod was Walking In Memphis by Marc Cohn - amazing song that actually makes most sense if you've been in Memphis and know about Beale St., Union Ave., and Graceland (by the way: Graceland tourism is a disgrace! it's terrible how people are profiting from Elvis' death. Rock in Peace (1935-1977)).
now, as for the BP issue and the world cup, which american's aren't understand how huge of a deal it is, there are only a few things i can say.
BP: i can't believe what's happening is actually happening. oh, and if sea turtles are going to be completely extinct as opposed to them being endangered, you're going to have some hard core environmentalist on your a*s about what happened. i'll be right there alongside them. here's a article from the chiago trib that explains some of it for those who aren't aware of the sea turtle issue.
2010 World Cup: hell yes the swiss beat the spanish and then along came this stupid as* of a ref that was probably dropped on his head as a baby. terrible calls AND he red carded Valon Behrami - crazy man, that ref. either way, some guy in switzerland started a group called "Ich hasse Schiedsrichter Khalil Al Ghamdi (Schweiz vs. Chile)" which basically means I hate ref Khalil Al Ghamdi.after just a few hours, the group has over 47,000 fans. just goes to show.!
thats about it for now.
with love, from the graduated, caroline. xo
