Song of the Day

Video of the Day

Followed by #2:

Approximated time. This is what I wrote on the plane.

2.10 AM. Waking up an hour before my alarm (Africa, by Toto) goes off because my cousin Adam had to pee, and is not at all a quiet person. I tried to get back to sleep, but of course, can not. I perused facebook for a while before neurotically dumping out my entire suitcase an repacking it again to check that I had not forgotten anything. For the eighth time. 

4.05 AM. Approximately. Franz and I leave the house to walk to the lightrail. Being the end of August, the street is pitch black, which leads to an interesting story about a man throwing a baby carseat at Franz one morning as he walked to work. 

4.18 AM. Franz and I get on the lightrail to the airport. We trek my stuff through the airport; up escalators and on trams, until we get to my gate. E9. 

5.06 AM. I search for coffee and postcard stamps. I only find one. I had this, lets see, Vanilla White Chocolate Mocha cooler. Jeez. SO sugary. I think I got energy just from the sugar, not the caffeine. Sitting in this tiny, tiny airplane, I’m regretting my drink choice. 

5.42 AM. The plane starts boarding. Since I’m flying on one of those “extra seat” ticket things, I had to wait until everybody else had gotten on the plane. I’m in seat 19C. I’m the very last seat on the plane, right in between the lavatory and the big whirly thing that ate that guy on the beach in LOST. I do, however, have a great view out the window. 

5.57 AM. Franz knocks on the side of the plane. I was reading my book (Bossypants- Tina Fey) and hear this bang bang bang on the side of the plane. I, of course, jump up (well, try to anyway. It’s difficult to jump out of your seat when you’re already wearing your seat belt.) and look out the window. Franz was standing there in a neon orange vest, grinning hugely and waving. I waved back, but I think the guy in the seat next to me thought I was crazy. Oh, by the way, guy in seat next to me: if you’re reading this over my shoulder, that’s totally fine. I get it. I would too, if you were typing on your computer. 

6.02 AM. The plane starts to back away from the airport and turn down the runway. It seemed a little odd how long it took us to get from the airport to actually taking off, but I guess we were just towards the end of the first wave of planes taking off this morning. Takeoff was actually really pleasant. The sun was just rising, so I got to see lots of light blues, pinks and oranges in the sky. As we got higher in the air (I was surprised at how quickly it happened- then I was surprised at how long we were diagonal in the air) I watched the streets, schools, playgrounds (did you know there’s a parking lot on the roof of the Mall of America?) swimming pools, baseball fields, and so much more get smaller and smaller, and thought to myself “Self, isn’t it crazy how people can make such straight lines so straight for so long?” Really, it’s pretty crazy. You think it’d waver after a few blocks, but no. Those roads just keep going stick straight for miles. 

6.58 AM. Guy across the isle pulls his phone out to listen to music. I decide it’s okay to pull out my computer. I start typing this. At the moment, it’s just in a word document on my computer because, you know, you’re not supposed to use the internet in the sky (why is that? Is it specially reserved for God or something? Jeez God, can’t you just share?) By the time you read this though, I’ll obviously have landed and found some internet to upload this to the interwebs. 

7.20 AM thoughts: “These clouds are very nice to me and the people on this side of the plane. They’re making such lovely patterns and swirls and stuff. That’s nice of them.” And “Geez, this stream of people coming in and out of the bathroom is never ending. Really. It’s like the second someone leaves the bathroom, someone else is pushing past them in the isle to get in. I really wish I wasn’t right next to it. This is going to get really annoying in the next two and a half hours.” “I could do this. Flying a plane doesn’t seem that tough” “I wish I’d thought to take my headphones out of my bag before I pulled this tray down. Now I’m going to have to navigate around this guy’s knee and try to not wake him up.”

8.04 AM. We hit turbulence. Really short. But still. Turbulence.

Almost there...

It's 2.50 Am. Franz and I are leaving for the airport at 4 Am, so I thought I'd sleep until about 3.15, shower, get dressed, make sure I have everything packed, and be on my way. WELL. Adam is staying with mom while Emily and I are in NY, so he's here. He got up to pee at 2.10, and I've been up ever since. That kid's as quiet as a gun. I guess I could be using this time to be doing the things I was planning to do at 3, but for some reason, I just can't turn on the light. Mornings are really rough for me, and this is a really early morning. Lately, if you don't already know, I've had lots of trouble falling asleep, and by this time usually, I'm still trying to fall asleep, not wake up.
Today is the day that a lot of people start school. I'm relieved that I don't, because I absolutely hated school, but I also feel like a loser for not going to college with everyone else. I mean, I will be going to college, but I'm taking a year off, because I plan on being in college for a really, really long time, to get an advanced degree in medicine. Either way though, I'm glad I don't start today.
I suppose I really should be doing something to get ready. We leave for the airport in an hour.

Almost ready!

I'm filming a mini-series on what I'm bringing in my carry on luggage! I leave in approximately one day, seventeen hours, fifty seven minutes and thirty seconds. I just filmed my luggage part of the travel series, and now I'm about to film the "what's in my personal carry on" video. In case you don't know, my youtube username is pancakesaresocool, all one word. The videos should appear at the top of this page, but then again, I am awful at technology, and may have butchered the codes. I hope to do a "follow me around" series when I am there as well, but you may know, I am forgetful, and that is a lot of work. Just letting you know what's up! Next time I see you, I'll probably be in New York!

Less than a week!

Well, it's official! Less than a week and I'll be in New York, the city that never sleeps! (How perfect for me lately. Yes, I still can't sleep) I have an open-ended ticket, so I still haven't decided when I'll leave. I'm thinking that I might leave either Saturday or Sunday so that I can spend a day or two in Jersey with these Couchsurfers that just stayed with me. Emily is driving out (she can't fly) and our hotel is booked Monday through Saturday. We're meeting a friend, Jonas, there and he'll probably stay with us for a few days. He's lived in New York before, so he knows the city really well. I can't wait!
On another note, I'm so close to finishing school, but now the memorizing factor is really really setting in. I'm not ready to take the final test. Maybe I'll just wait to take the test until I get back from vacation, that way I can study on the plane and the car ride back. (we're driving home so we can go to Niagara Falls.)

UGHHH. Decisions. They SO do not bode well with me. Ah well, here's to another day less left to pack.

Norb!

I have a new pet. His name is Norb (as in Norbert) and he is a hedgehog. I adopted him from a friend's daughter who had adopted him from a neglectful frat house in hopes of taking him along to college. I ended up with him because she wasn't able to bring him with her. I absolutely love him, but the feeling is so not mutual. He wasn't socialized, and it's very important to socialize them when they're young. Today I took him out of his cage, and he threw a literal hissy fit, then pooped on my couch. Thank god it's vinyl.
Anyway, if any of you know how to get an unfriendly hedgehog to like you, please let me know!

Oh my god, you guys.

So, every once in a while I look at Tumblr still. I deactivated my account, so I have nowhere to share this little gem. Except for here! So here you go. I apologize in advance.

Organization.

Let me start by saying I do not have a small room. My room is a good sized room for a teenager. I have a double bed, a full dresser set, a footlocker and a sewing machine in my room, plus some. I've gotten to the point where I have a definitive style, and therefore, I only own clothes that fit that style, which means I wear them all. This poses the biggest problem because I wear all of my clothes and shoes on a regular basis, but I can not seem to find a place to put all of them. Does anyone out there have a method that works particularly well for them? I would really appreciate it if you could leave a comment or shoot me an email that helps me fix this problem of mine!