The Trip Thus Far.
So, here we are, driving along route (Ooo, lightning!)...well, somewhere on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It's raining so much it seems like a Noah's ark flood is going to start happening soon. In fact, we did have to change our destination because of the excessive flooding in the area. Alex's grandparent's driveway was washed away- literally.
We've been driving for about ten hours now, and we still have two or three to go. For some reason, Alex and I couldn't sleep last night, so we ended up having about three hours rest before we hit the road at six. But not to worry! Alex and I have been switching off driving and sleeping, and thus far, we haven't yet died.
Alex's parents and brother are in the car ahead of us. We've been following/tailgating them the whole time. We are currently in the mountainous region of PA, where the highway goes through the hill-mountains. I became alarmed when I first saw the 'Beware: Falling Rocks' sign, but I have not yet been hit by any, so I suppose I have 'bewared' successfully.
I'm typing in the car, since I now have a laptop. Woot woot! Alex pointed out that my laptop actually cost more than her car, to which I responded that, in the case of an accident, we must save the computer first.
She was not amused.
We are now stuck behind a few trucks, in this dreadful (new favorite word!) weather. Alex tends to tap the brakes a lot, making me clench my teeth in a death grin.
Why did that semi have a picture of Jesus on the door?
Or, my favorite sign thus far: "Falling Rock" Presumably, somewhere up there, there is a rock that is tumbling down, about to crush us. The second best sign is for the website 'poopycredit.com' They deserve points for putting the word 'poopy' up there.
Alex is obsessed with the song "Satellite' by Guster. I swear, we've heard it, like, four times already. But I suppose four times in ten hours isn't too bad...Yay for Linkin Park remixes.
Ooo, windmills! Giant windmills! They are huge! Yay for alternative energy things! I apparently have an hour and fourty-five minutes remaining before my buddy decides it needs energy.
Let's see...interesting things spotted thus far...A car with a smiley face for its bumper. There were the 'waterfalls' off of the mountains we drove through. The super-powered hand dryers in the bathrooms at the rest stop (they pretty much blew your skin off). And then there was the 'WASABI1' license plate; that was nifty.
Hahah, we are now under a mountain...Allegheny Mountain. ...and now we are not. Alex's butt hurts. Apparently, "it is like, 'wahhh, stop sitting on me!'"
In the tunnel:
We're listening to Eminem ('Lose Yourself' to be exact). We are so...special. Beautiful countryside out here. Our ears keep popping.
So we just passed a motorcyclist that we had seen twenty miles earlier at the gas station. If we recall correctly, he said something like,"Shit man, I got this stuff (he was holding motorcycle rain pants) for like twenty dollars at the Harley Davidson store!" The other man replied, "Man, that shit usually costs sixty bucks!" Indeed.
I also overheard some girls in the bathroom exclaim, "No, no no! She was a were-rabbit!" I didn't stick around long enough to learn what 'she' was supposed to be.
Oh no. I have just realized that I have bunny teeth. Damnit!
Poor laptop, it is becoming much too hot. Bleh. I better put her to sleep for a bit.
Alrighty then. More interesting things: We saw the $20 pants-man again; he chose to go to the same rest stop we did. While getting on the highway, we passed an accident; I believe that tumbling rock finally found a target, because the car was smashed in, at about the place the mirror is held up on the windshield. There was a gaping hole in it. Maybe three or four other vehicles stopped to help, and I saw two people (presumably those who were in the accident) standing around- their clothes appeared to be mud-caked but closer inspection revealed them to be, not exactly 'covered,' but perhaps splattered in blood. However, they were both standing so I believe they are alright. They were relatively lucky, because the rock (if there was one) seemed to have gone through the windshield right in the middle of the car.
We also saw an advertisement for 'Llamalot' which has "Llamas for sale!"
There is an excessive amount of fog/mist out here.
It is sad; whenever I spot a cell-phone tower, I immediately check mine, hoping I'm not still roaming.
I am.
We are now listening to some ES Posthumus and nearly there. Except for another toll. Alex finds it strange that we must pay to use a road. Oooo, we are going to go through another tunnel;. Sweet...
Back later.
Bwahaha, I, the almighty Alex, have managed to commandeer the computer! (But only because Amara is driving. I wanted to drive for the rest of the way, but my leg kept twitching and it was not good.) It is now 6:35PM and we are about an hour away from our destination. I must comment on how much nicer it is to be making this trip in my own car with a friend instead of smooshed in with my family. Yes.
It is still raining, which is to be expected, I suppose.
More nifty things: license plate: RU SAVED, two more tunnels~ (I just think that it is superb that instead of going around a mountain, you actually go *through* it!), lots of mountains (which is wonderful because Michigan is so extremely FLAT), annnd.. that's about it for now. I guess.
Amara is concerned that I will get cheese oil on her new toy because I was eating string-cheese earlier. I have discovered that fruit is the perfect snack when you are sitting down for twelve hours, almost non-stop. Also, smoothies are teh yummy.
I am liking this laptop very much. I think I will sniff around and see what other spiffy things it does.
Well, we made it in one piece (mostly). Food and family is good. Everybody seems to be getting along well. We may go to New York and we may go to the beach and many other things.
11:56PM Sunday. Amara reporting. We're now at Alex's cousins' house, and in Rebecca's room. When we got here Alex's uncle had just come out of the well, as the water seemed to have decided to abandon us. But we lucked out and it is now running just spiffily. We played some Dictionary (Who knows what 'sciamachy' or lapstrake means?), but only a few rounds before Alex and I began to feel stupid/uncreative. We all bonded when Rebecca brought out a flute; Alex learned that she can no longer play with her lip-ring in and I learned that the pads on the keys are evil.
Rebecca:
Alex's deodorant melted in the car.
I am feeling very dead and all sorts of icky. I forgot to bring my face wash stuff. Bleh. Oh, and speaking of death- Rebecca's parents are the keepers of a cemetery. Woot woot. It seems that some lady's ashes are in the garage right now, awaiting burial. If I don't return, we must assume I have become either possessed or I have been taken to the underworld for some strange reason.
Wee. I am exhausted. Alex offered me the choice of two different pillows; me being me, I said I didn't care, do which she replied that she didn't care either. We were all set to get into a circular 'No, you go first' kind of argument when she mentioned that she drooled on the blue one the most.
Thank you, I'll be taking the red one.
12:22PM Monday. Alex is at the train station picking up her uncle. Rebecca's downstairs playing The Sims (w00t w00t), and I just finished my shower and ate some banana bread (very yummy). I have no idea what we are going to do during the rest of the day, and thus, nothing more to add.
Later.
8:31PM. We went thrifting at the Goodwill over here. There were some truly awful clothes (a dress that looked like someone had lengthened one of my father's shirts) and some formerly-expensive ones (the $850 and $500 dresses come to mind, neither of which was very cute). I looked at the book section for a while- there was a book bin, with the poor books thrown into it all higgly-piggly. Alex found some cool clothes- this kitty camisole, and some cargo-ish pants, to name a few. Rebecca also got this nifty skirt and an asian dress.
I learned that I had somehow lost my right contact, which sucks. I ended up calling my mom and grandma for help (of course, my grandma was the first to answer, and then my mom called while I was begging her to aid me). My grandma went to my house, found where I store my contacts, and is UPS-ing them to me, which was another set of hassles. The UPS site doesn't recognize Rebecca's address, so it decided to be evil. I am supposed to expect a call from the UPS driver sometime on Wednesday, when he is searching for the house.
Alex, Rebecca, and Niles (Rebecca's brother) have been stuck in front of the computer, downloading Sims stuff. I'll admit, I was commenting over Alex's shoulder a lot of the time. Now I want to go play it.
The menfolk made everyone sandwiches for lunch on pumpernickel bread, which was my first time trying it. Pumpernickel is officially the coolest word today. We ate some magnificent chicken curry for dinner, along with this chickpea stuff, and some other indian food There was a spider near me, but he didn't try anything so I suppose we're good. We ate some tasty ice-cream for dinner out on the porch.
Alex finished her Meg Cabot book already and is re-reading War for the Oaks (I recommend this book). She also read Flight Vol. 3 and says, "I like it." My favorite story was the morphing creature one- 'The Rescue.' There is a huge black moth in here, very frightening... Vicki found the book Her Father's Daughter, by Gene Stratton-Porter, at the thrift store. It is falling apart at the seems and was published in 1921. It contains these incredibly awful paragraphs. For example:
"Linda laughed suddenly. When Linda laughed, which was very seldom, those within hearing turned to look at her. Hers was not a laugh that can be achieved. There were a few high places on the peak of Linda's soul, and on one of them homed a small flock of notes of rapture; notes as sweet as the voice of the white-banded mocking-bird of Argentina."
Right...
Most of the family has gone off to the cemetery (very old, I'm told that archeologists are coming later this week to study some graves). Alex's dad is napping/reading on the couch next to mine and Alex is building a house. Fireworks are being set off behind me, somewhere in the city.
I read a Popular Science magazine and am a excited about the future. Woo.
11:42PM. I'm reading another Popular Science and Alex is reading her book when we have this exchange:
"Oo, Alex, it's a motorcycle that's powered by fuel cells!"
"What?"
"Hydrogen fuel cells."
"Ohh, I thought you said 'fetal cells'..."
11:06AM Tuesday. Alex, Rebecca, Vicky , Rebecca's mom, and I are in the car, off to Chesapeake Bay. We're lucky, as this car has air conditioning. W00t w00t. We are on main street, and we just passed the library, which has a passage to the house across the street- it used to be part of the Underground Railroad. Now we've passed through the town and have an hour and a half to go.
Everyone is chatting about politics (except for Alex- she's reading her book). Rebecca said, "...she's probably a democrat because she likes cats." It's funny to be here, as most of my relatives are Republicans, and nobody in Alex's family cares for the Republicans.
I am feeling far too tired. Wow.
I lost my cell-phone this morning. Alex's uncle Charlie (he's very tall) found it. The battery had died, so our calls, to hear the ring, were for naught. But yes, crisis avoided. Yay.
We have stopped. Alex's dad's car seems to be having difficulties. The power steering is acting up again. We had to stop a few times on the way here to mess with it too. We keep adding more fluid.
I had a strange dream last night involving wolves with auras, my school, cool stationary that made me think of Melody, my second grade teacher, Mrs. Nelson, discussing my turn for the shower with Alex's mom and uncle, and skipping class. It was an odd dream.
Ooo, we saw a fox. It looked a bit ill.
12:11PM. Still on the road. The place we were going to eat lunch at was closed (fourth of July and all that), so now we're just going to eat there.
Oh, yes. Rebecca braided my hair and Alex's dad's hair. Vicki braided Rebecca's hair. It is cool.
12:50PM. We're at a gas station, as the power steering is acting up again. Alex's dad and her uncle Ron are trying to fix the problem, but so far, it's not working. We went to the grocery store and bought a turkey baster, as the power steering needs to have some of the liquid sucked out of it. All of the adults are putting their minds together, searching for a way to fix the problem.
It is quite hot outside. Rebecca refuses to let Alex take her picture.
We bought some scrumptious maple cookies- like oreos, but with maple filling. They were shaped like little leaves.
12:59PM (Alex) It is very, very, very HOT and Amara, Rebecca and I are all scrunched in the backseat of my aunt's Prius while the adults are attempting to fix our car. I am very, very hot. It is just SO incredibly warm out. Thank goodness we will probably be able to go swimming when we get to the bay. Also, we are apparently going to go on a boat ride. Yay? It is so hot. Goodness.
At the grocery store, Amara was looking for another Popular Science magazine, but couldn't find one. Rebecca explained that "they only have magazines for rednecks and people who get married and have kids when they're 18."
Haha. I love my family. <3
1:03PM. Amara here. Alex's dad dropped the power steering fluid bottle's cap into the power steering thing, so now they're trying to fish it out. Rebecca's reading Tithe (and excellent book), by Holly Black, and Alex is fanning herself. Alex says that Holly Black's newest book (the sequel to Tithe), Ironside, will soon be coming out. Woohoo.I will soon be reading a book that's put out by the college students.
6:16PM. Alright, I lied; I didn't read that college student book. Instead, I took Tithe from Rebecca and re-read it. I just finished a few minutes ago. I am a sad soul. (Such a great book!)
6:52PM. We all went down to the beach while Alex slept over here on the couch. There's this giant cliff of sand that we went by. I spent most of the time looking for beach sanded glass (all I could find was white and a few nasty old beer bottle pieces. Why can't more companies- beer ones especially- make differently colored glass? I want blues and greens and reds, damnit! Cici, the cute doggy, spent the time chasing after any rocks or sticks thrown in the waves, and whined when she didn't have one to go after.
Niles and Geordie are learning how to drive on the tractor.
Earlier we went on the pontoon boat; we were just about to go in, when a storm seemed to be coming, so we came out. After it had passed, we went back in and went around the bay for a bit (I was reading the whole time). We came out after, maybe thirty minutes or so, we came out again, and Alex, Rebecca, and I wanted to leave right away, so we went ahead with Alex's dad in the car (a Prius), when it started raining. Well, we thought little of it, but when the others returned, it seems there was a bit of a tornado, and branches and such were all over the roads. All of the guys had to get out and move them out of the way.
Hahah, now everyone is trying to whistle with the rock Uncle Ron found, the one with a hole in it.
Okay, time for dinner.
Hot dogs, shrimp/lime soup, and some rice/noode salads. We ate out at the picnic table. For some reason, I got all itchy and the more I scratched myself, the worse it was. It's happened before, but meh. Distracting.
(alex) dessert is teh yummy.
9:28PM. Becca: "I know England isn't part of Europe, but they don't kiss people [on the neck] there either."
9:53PM. Becca's mom: "Our father had an Uncle Lancelot?!"
Alex is driving us home in the Prius. I swear, we are going to die (kidding Alex!). There seems to be a bug in here with us, which is not very good. The dashboard says that it is 79 degrees outside. That is sad.
Geordie and Niles were almost run over by a tractor.
We set off some bottle rockets, sparklers (my favorite), and fire crackers. Cici freaked out. Sadly the sparklers didn't last too long.
Alex is about to give her mother a heart attack- we are tailgating and the quick stops are terrifying her. We're listening to the bible in Hebrew, which is very soothing. Becca says, "It sounds like English to me, but I can't understand it," I could totally fall asleep to this.
Now everyone is chewing gum. We've switched over to Pride and Prejudice.One of the speakers sounds transgendered.
I'm sitting here, clicking the airport wifi connector thingy, trying to see what networks show up. As we passed through town, about six were visible. I don't know how many were unsecured though - we passed through too fast to bother connecting.
12:00AM (Alex) We are back at the house! Yay! The trip back was really cool because we were driving when everyone was putting up fireworks, and there was also a thunderstorm with a lot of lightning. Plus, we were listening to the kronos quartet for most of the time, so it was just altogether spiffy. My mom and aunt talk about crack-whores too much.
The bay was fun. I took a nap because it was so relaxing and smelled really good - like old must and mildew and thunderstorm and hamburgers and food. Which is kind of weird, but it smelled really good.
Right now I am laying on Amara's bed (which is a pull-out couch in Hannah and Rebecca's room) waiting for Becca to get out of the bathroom so I can shower. Sharing one bathroom with nine other people is really not fun in the least. Especially in an old house with a decently small hot water heater. Which is why I take all of my showers at night, unlike everybody else who takes them in the morning.
I ate wayyyy too much food today but it was all so delicious!
I love my family because whenever we are all together it is wonderful, happy chaos. with a lot of rather unique conversations and tons and tons of really really awful horrible jokes.
One side of Amara's nose bump is bigger and sharper than the other. Apparently Am's grandmother told her that she shouldn't feel bad about having fat legs because some people don't even have legs and she should think about how they feel. (Amara note: I was complaining about wearing shorts and she was trying to make me feel guilty so I'd feel better.)
Haha. what a self confidence booster. Yeah!
I have way too many pictures of Am looking like a zombie queen.
Also, she has a black spot on her palm that won't come out. She is probably turning into a monster, she says.
12:19AM Wednesday. Ahahahah! The Babinski reflex is so funny. Rebecca and I are easily amused.
The Babinski Reflex: "a reflex action in which the big toe remains extended or extends itself when the sole of the foot is stimulated." Try it. It's awesome.
We just spent and hour using Garageband; each of us would do a portion of a song and then not listen to the other peoples while we made ours. Then we put them all together. Terrible 'music.'
We also took the funniest pictures.
The laptop is heating up so much, it shall explode. Farewell.
Our scariest picture taken tonight:
12:12PM. We spent and hour or two last night chatting. See, first Alex spotted this huge centipede, I mean, absolutely gigantic; think the size of your pinky finger- that wide, too. Its legs were nearly an inch long. Well, we all freaked out, and I wanted the light on, reasoning that "centipedes don't like the light; they like dark and damp places...like your mouth."Alex refused to sleep with a light on, so I turned the light off, but then we started to chat.
We talked about a bunch of strange things, from underwear to aliens. But once we began talking about the aliens, we all freaked out again. I had to shut my eyes and hide under the covers, as the shadows suddenly seemed very...sinister. Well, then all of the scary movies I've seen through the years started to flash through my head, along with a few other things my brain made up itself, just for good measure. So now I'm huddled under the blanket (and worried about suffocating, as I always worry when my head is underneath it), just waiting for a centipede to crawl in my mouth/a demon-possessed person to drop down from the ceiling/a half-rotted corpse to come and kill me.
Lovely.
Rebecca then began to tell us about The Mothman Prophesies, sending a whole new assortment of chilling visions to flash in my brain. Alex and I demanded that she stop telling us about the movie and we all reached a consensus that we would not talk of any more spooky things. I believe our next few sentences were something akin to this:
Alex: "I like fluffy kittens."
Amara: "Yes. Dogs are cute too."
...indeed. In the end, though, we managed to fall asleep. As far as I know, no mammoth centipedes crawled into my mouth in the night.
Now it is time for breakfast. Pancakes, if I'm not mistaken. Mmm...
4:42PM. I just returned from the woodworking store place; Niles, Alex's dad, and her uncle Ron went too. I mostly wandered around, looking at the various kinds of wood, until I became bored and returned to the car. I opened up my laptop and what do you know? The wood shop has an unsecured wireless network. Woohoo! I immediately went online and downloaded Firefox. I didn't have time for much else, as everyone came out then and we had to leave.
The entire way home I kept refreshing the wireless network sensor, seeing what showed up. There were a surprising number of unsecured networks, especially in the rich people area. We also passed by a frat house's network. It was fun.
Alex, her mom, her uncle Charlie, and her aunt are out thrifting again. Rebecca and I declined; I don't know Becca's reason, but I was feeling very tired.I think I will now take a nap.
11:00PM. I didn't take a nap. Instead, I tried to get the black junk that was coming off of the laptop bag to come out; I only made it worse. Think of it as something akin to tar, but will come off with a bit of soap. Still annoying.
Alex returned with some more clothing. Niles managed to find me a cable, so I have internet over here now. I got online and spent my time looking up widgets (so fun), and chatting with Josh. Alex and Becca played The Sims most of the time (Becca spent three hours building a house and Alex doesn't understand why we are so judgmental on the Sim people's beauty).
Everyone went to the cemetery for a walk after leftovers dinner (I love the chicken curry!). There were wineberries everywhere; think raspberries, but a little bit more tart. I don't think we have them in Michigan, but I wish we did. I ate a bunch of them. It was kinda sad, looking at all of the graves of forgotten people, or seeing the number of children some parents lost way back when. We passed a few crypts. One had wineberries growing atop of it.
I also learned about the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Alex's dad is considering making city models for train sets. He is big into trains.
When we returned, we ate some ice cream. Some of the family played Scrabble, I sat on the computer. Tomorrow, we are off to Philly. Woo.
We've been driving for about ten hours now, and we still have two or three to go. For some reason, Alex and I couldn't sleep last night, so we ended up having about three hours rest before we hit the road at six. But not to worry! Alex and I have been switching off driving and sleeping, and thus far, we haven't yet died.
Alex's parents and brother are in the car ahead of us. We've been following/tailgating them the whole time. We are currently in the mountainous region of PA, where the highway goes through the hill-mountains. I became alarmed when I first saw the 'Beware: Falling Rocks' sign, but I have not yet been hit by any, so I suppose I have 'bewared' successfully.
I'm typing in the car, since I now have a laptop. Woot woot! Alex pointed out that my laptop actually cost more than her car, to which I responded that, in the case of an accident, we must save the computer first.
She was not amused.
We are now stuck behind a few trucks, in this dreadful (new favorite word!) weather. Alex tends to tap the brakes a lot, making me clench my teeth in a death grin.
Why did that semi have a picture of Jesus on the door?
Or, my favorite sign thus far: "Falling Rock" Presumably, somewhere up there, there is a rock that is tumbling down, about to crush us. The second best sign is for the website 'poopycredit.com' They deserve points for putting the word 'poopy' up there.
Alex is obsessed with the song "Satellite' by Guster. I swear, we've heard it, like, four times already. But I suppose four times in ten hours isn't too bad...Yay for Linkin Park remixes.
Ooo, windmills! Giant windmills! They are huge! Yay for alternative energy things! I apparently have an hour and fourty-five minutes remaining before my buddy decides it needs energy.
Let's see...interesting things spotted thus far...A car with a smiley face for its bumper. There were the 'waterfalls' off of the mountains we drove through. The super-powered hand dryers in the bathrooms at the rest stop (they pretty much blew your skin off). And then there was the 'WASABI1' license plate; that was nifty.
Hahah, we are now under a mountain...Allegheny Mountain. ...and now we are not. Alex's butt hurts. Apparently, "it is like, 'wahhh, stop sitting on me!'"
In the tunnel:
We're listening to Eminem ('Lose Yourself' to be exact). We are so...special. Beautiful countryside out here. Our ears keep popping.
So we just passed a motorcyclist that we had seen twenty miles earlier at the gas station. If we recall correctly, he said something like,"Shit man, I got this stuff (he was holding motorcycle rain pants) for like twenty dollars at the Harley Davidson store!" The other man replied, "Man, that shit usually costs sixty bucks!" Indeed.
I also overheard some girls in the bathroom exclaim, "No, no no! She was a were-rabbit!" I didn't stick around long enough to learn what 'she' was supposed to be.
Oh no. I have just realized that I have bunny teeth. Damnit!
Poor laptop, it is becoming much too hot. Bleh. I better put her to sleep for a bit.
Alrighty then. More interesting things: We saw the $20 pants-man again; he chose to go to the same rest stop we did. While getting on the highway, we passed an accident; I believe that tumbling rock finally found a target, because the car was smashed in, at about the place the mirror is held up on the windshield. There was a gaping hole in it. Maybe three or four other vehicles stopped to help, and I saw two people (presumably those who were in the accident) standing around- their clothes appeared to be mud-caked but closer inspection revealed them to be, not exactly 'covered,' but perhaps splattered in blood. However, they were both standing so I believe they are alright. They were relatively lucky, because the rock (if there was one) seemed to have gone through the windshield right in the middle of the car.
We also saw an advertisement for 'Llamalot' which has "Llamas for sale!"
There is an excessive amount of fog/mist out here.
It is sad; whenever I spot a cell-phone tower, I immediately check mine, hoping I'm not still roaming.
I am.
We are now listening to some ES Posthumus and nearly there. Except for another toll. Alex finds it strange that we must pay to use a road. Oooo, we are going to go through another tunnel;. Sweet...
Back later.
Bwahaha, I, the almighty Alex, have managed to commandeer the computer! (But only because Amara is driving. I wanted to drive for the rest of the way, but my leg kept twitching and it was not good.) It is now 6:35PM and we are about an hour away from our destination. I must comment on how much nicer it is to be making this trip in my own car with a friend instead of smooshed in with my family. Yes.
It is still raining, which is to be expected, I suppose.
More nifty things: license plate: RU SAVED, two more tunnels~ (I just think that it is superb that instead of going around a mountain, you actually go *through* it!), lots of mountains (which is wonderful because Michigan is so extremely FLAT), annnd.. that's about it for now. I guess.
Amara is concerned that I will get cheese oil on her new toy because I was eating string-cheese earlier. I have discovered that fruit is the perfect snack when you are sitting down for twelve hours, almost non-stop. Also, smoothies are teh yummy.
I am liking this laptop very much. I think I will sniff around and see what other spiffy things it does.
Well, we made it in one piece (mostly). Food and family is good. Everybody seems to be getting along well. We may go to New York and we may go to the beach and many other things.
11:56PM Sunday. Amara reporting. We're now at Alex's cousins' house, and in Rebecca's room. When we got here Alex's uncle had just come out of the well, as the water seemed to have decided to abandon us. But we lucked out and it is now running just spiffily. We played some Dictionary (Who knows what 'sciamachy' or lapstrake means?), but only a few rounds before Alex and I began to feel stupid/uncreative. We all bonded when Rebecca brought out a flute; Alex learned that she can no longer play with her lip-ring in and I learned that the pads on the keys are evil.
Rebecca:
Alex's deodorant melted in the car.
I am feeling very dead and all sorts of icky. I forgot to bring my face wash stuff. Bleh. Oh, and speaking of death- Rebecca's parents are the keepers of a cemetery. Woot woot. It seems that some lady's ashes are in the garage right now, awaiting burial. If I don't return, we must assume I have become either possessed or I have been taken to the underworld for some strange reason.
Wee. I am exhausted. Alex offered me the choice of two different pillows; me being me, I said I didn't care, do which she replied that she didn't care either. We were all set to get into a circular 'No, you go first' kind of argument when she mentioned that she drooled on the blue one the most.
Thank you, I'll be taking the red one.
12:22PM Monday. Alex is at the train station picking up her uncle. Rebecca's downstairs playing The Sims (w00t w00t), and I just finished my shower and ate some banana bread (very yummy). I have no idea what we are going to do during the rest of the day, and thus, nothing more to add.
Later.
8:31PM. We went thrifting at the Goodwill over here. There were some truly awful clothes (a dress that looked like someone had lengthened one of my father's shirts) and some formerly-expensive ones (the $850 and $500 dresses come to mind, neither of which was very cute). I looked at the book section for a while- there was a book bin, with the poor books thrown into it all higgly-piggly. Alex found some cool clothes- this kitty camisole, and some cargo-ish pants, to name a few. Rebecca also got this nifty skirt and an asian dress.
I learned that I had somehow lost my right contact, which sucks. I ended up calling my mom and grandma for help (of course, my grandma was the first to answer, and then my mom called while I was begging her to aid me). My grandma went to my house, found where I store my contacts, and is UPS-ing them to me, which was another set of hassles. The UPS site doesn't recognize Rebecca's address, so it decided to be evil. I am supposed to expect a call from the UPS driver sometime on Wednesday, when he is searching for the house.
Alex, Rebecca, and Niles (Rebecca's brother) have been stuck in front of the computer, downloading Sims stuff. I'll admit, I was commenting over Alex's shoulder a lot of the time. Now I want to go play it.
The menfolk made everyone sandwiches for lunch on pumpernickel bread, which was my first time trying it. Pumpernickel is officially the coolest word today. We ate some magnificent chicken curry for dinner, along with this chickpea stuff, and some other indian food There was a spider near me, but he didn't try anything so I suppose we're good. We ate some tasty ice-cream for dinner out on the porch.
Alex finished her Meg Cabot book already and is re-reading War for the Oaks (I recommend this book). She also read Flight Vol. 3 and says, "I like it." My favorite story was the morphing creature one- 'The Rescue.' There is a huge black moth in here, very frightening... Vicki found the book Her Father's Daughter, by Gene Stratton-Porter, at the thrift store. It is falling apart at the seems and was published in 1921. It contains these incredibly awful paragraphs. For example:
"Linda laughed suddenly. When Linda laughed, which was very seldom, those within hearing turned to look at her. Hers was not a laugh that can be achieved. There were a few high places on the peak of Linda's soul, and on one of them homed a small flock of notes of rapture; notes as sweet as the voice of the white-banded mocking-bird of Argentina."
Right...
Most of the family has gone off to the cemetery (very old, I'm told that archeologists are coming later this week to study some graves). Alex's dad is napping/reading on the couch next to mine and Alex is building a house. Fireworks are being set off behind me, somewhere in the city.
I read a Popular Science magazine and am a excited about the future. Woo.
11:42PM. I'm reading another Popular Science and Alex is reading her book when we have this exchange:
"Oo, Alex, it's a motorcycle that's powered by fuel cells!"
"What?"
"Hydrogen fuel cells."
"Ohh, I thought you said 'fetal cells'..."
11:06AM Tuesday. Alex, Rebecca, Vicky , Rebecca's mom, and I are in the car, off to Chesapeake Bay. We're lucky, as this car has air conditioning. W00t w00t. We are on main street, and we just passed the library, which has a passage to the house across the street- it used to be part of the Underground Railroad. Now we've passed through the town and have an hour and a half to go.
Everyone is chatting about politics (except for Alex- she's reading her book). Rebecca said, "...she's probably a democrat because she likes cats." It's funny to be here, as most of my relatives are Republicans, and nobody in Alex's family cares for the Republicans.
I am feeling far too tired. Wow.
I lost my cell-phone this morning. Alex's uncle Charlie (he's very tall) found it. The battery had died, so our calls, to hear the ring, were for naught. But yes, crisis avoided. Yay.
We have stopped. Alex's dad's car seems to be having difficulties. The power steering is acting up again. We had to stop a few times on the way here to mess with it too. We keep adding more fluid.
I had a strange dream last night involving wolves with auras, my school, cool stationary that made me think of Melody, my second grade teacher, Mrs. Nelson, discussing my turn for the shower with Alex's mom and uncle, and skipping class. It was an odd dream.
Ooo, we saw a fox. It looked a bit ill.
12:11PM. Still on the road. The place we were going to eat lunch at was closed (fourth of July and all that), so now we're just going to eat there.
Oh, yes. Rebecca braided my hair and Alex's dad's hair. Vicki braided Rebecca's hair. It is cool.
12:50PM. We're at a gas station, as the power steering is acting up again. Alex's dad and her uncle Ron are trying to fix the problem, but so far, it's not working. We went to the grocery store and bought a turkey baster, as the power steering needs to have some of the liquid sucked out of it. All of the adults are putting their minds together, searching for a way to fix the problem.
It is quite hot outside. Rebecca refuses to let Alex take her picture.
We bought some scrumptious maple cookies- like oreos, but with maple filling. They were shaped like little leaves.
12:59PM (Alex) It is very, very, very HOT and Amara, Rebecca and I are all scrunched in the backseat of my aunt's Prius while the adults are attempting to fix our car. I am very, very hot. It is just SO incredibly warm out. Thank goodness we will probably be able to go swimming when we get to the bay. Also, we are apparently going to go on a boat ride. Yay? It is so hot. Goodness.
At the grocery store, Amara was looking for another Popular Science magazine, but couldn't find one. Rebecca explained that "they only have magazines for rednecks and people who get married and have kids when they're 18."
Haha. I love my family. <3
1:03PM. Amara here. Alex's dad dropped the power steering fluid bottle's cap into the power steering thing, so now they're trying to fish it out. Rebecca's reading Tithe (and excellent book), by Holly Black, and Alex is fanning herself. Alex says that Holly Black's newest book (the sequel to Tithe), Ironside, will soon be coming out. Woohoo.I will soon be reading a book that's put out by the college students.
6:16PM. Alright, I lied; I didn't read that college student book. Instead, I took Tithe from Rebecca and re-read it. I just finished a few minutes ago. I am a sad soul. (Such a great book!)
6:52PM. We all went down to the beach while Alex slept over here on the couch. There's this giant cliff of sand that we went by. I spent most of the time looking for beach sanded glass (all I could find was white and a few nasty old beer bottle pieces. Why can't more companies- beer ones especially- make differently colored glass? I want blues and greens and reds, damnit! Cici, the cute doggy, spent the time chasing after any rocks or sticks thrown in the waves, and whined when she didn't have one to go after.
Niles and Geordie are learning how to drive on the tractor.
Earlier we went on the pontoon boat; we were just about to go in, when a storm seemed to be coming, so we came out. After it had passed, we went back in and went around the bay for a bit (I was reading the whole time). We came out after, maybe thirty minutes or so, we came out again, and Alex, Rebecca, and I wanted to leave right away, so we went ahead with Alex's dad in the car (a Prius), when it started raining. Well, we thought little of it, but when the others returned, it seems there was a bit of a tornado, and branches and such were all over the roads. All of the guys had to get out and move them out of the way.
Hahah, now everyone is trying to whistle with the rock Uncle Ron found, the one with a hole in it.
Okay, time for dinner.
Hot dogs, shrimp/lime soup, and some rice/noode salads. We ate out at the picnic table. For some reason, I got all itchy and the more I scratched myself, the worse it was. It's happened before, but meh. Distracting.
(alex) dessert is teh yummy.
9:28PM. Becca: "I know England isn't part of Europe, but they don't kiss people [on the neck] there either."
9:53PM. Becca's mom: "Our father had an Uncle Lancelot?!"
Alex is driving us home in the Prius. I swear, we are going to die (kidding Alex!). There seems to be a bug in here with us, which is not very good. The dashboard says that it is 79 degrees outside. That is sad.
Geordie and Niles were almost run over by a tractor.
We set off some bottle rockets, sparklers (my favorite), and fire crackers. Cici freaked out. Sadly the sparklers didn't last too long.
Alex is about to give her mother a heart attack- we are tailgating and the quick stops are terrifying her. We're listening to the bible in Hebrew, which is very soothing. Becca says, "It sounds like English to me, but I can't understand it," I could totally fall asleep to this.
Now everyone is chewing gum. We've switched over to Pride and Prejudice.One of the speakers sounds transgendered.
I'm sitting here, clicking the airport wifi connector thingy, trying to see what networks show up. As we passed through town, about six were visible. I don't know how many were unsecured though - we passed through too fast to bother connecting.
12:00AM (Alex) We are back at the house! Yay! The trip back was really cool because we were driving when everyone was putting up fireworks, and there was also a thunderstorm with a lot of lightning. Plus, we were listening to the kronos quartet for most of the time, so it was just altogether spiffy. My mom and aunt talk about crack-whores too much.
The bay was fun. I took a nap because it was so relaxing and smelled really good - like old must and mildew and thunderstorm and hamburgers and food. Which is kind of weird, but it smelled really good.
Right now I am laying on Amara's bed (which is a pull-out couch in Hannah and Rebecca's room) waiting for Becca to get out of the bathroom so I can shower. Sharing one bathroom with nine other people is really not fun in the least. Especially in an old house with a decently small hot water heater. Which is why I take all of my showers at night, unlike everybody else who takes them in the morning.
I ate wayyyy too much food today but it was all so delicious!
I love my family because whenever we are all together it is wonderful, happy chaos. with a lot of rather unique conversations and tons and tons of really really awful horrible jokes.
One side of Amara's nose bump is bigger and sharper than the other. Apparently Am's grandmother told her that she shouldn't feel bad about having fat legs because some people don't even have legs and she should think about how they feel. (Amara note: I was complaining about wearing shorts and she was trying to make me feel guilty so I'd feel better.)
Haha. what a self confidence booster. Yeah!
I have way too many pictures of Am looking like a zombie queen.
Also, she has a black spot on her palm that won't come out. She is probably turning into a monster, she says.
12:19AM Wednesday. Ahahahah! The Babinski reflex is so funny. Rebecca and I are easily amused.
The Babinski Reflex: "a reflex action in which the big toe remains extended or extends itself when the sole of the foot is stimulated." Try it. It's awesome.
We just spent and hour using Garageband; each of us would do a portion of a song and then not listen to the other peoples while we made ours. Then we put them all together. Terrible 'music.'
We also took the funniest pictures.
The laptop is heating up so much, it shall explode. Farewell.
Our scariest picture taken tonight:
12:12PM. We spent and hour or two last night chatting. See, first Alex spotted this huge centipede, I mean, absolutely gigantic; think the size of your pinky finger- that wide, too. Its legs were nearly an inch long. Well, we all freaked out, and I wanted the light on, reasoning that "centipedes don't like the light; they like dark and damp places...like your mouth."Alex refused to sleep with a light on, so I turned the light off, but then we started to chat.
We talked about a bunch of strange things, from underwear to aliens. But once we began talking about the aliens, we all freaked out again. I had to shut my eyes and hide under the covers, as the shadows suddenly seemed very...sinister. Well, then all of the scary movies I've seen through the years started to flash through my head, along with a few other things my brain made up itself, just for good measure. So now I'm huddled under the blanket (and worried about suffocating, as I always worry when my head is underneath it), just waiting for a centipede to crawl in my mouth/a demon-possessed person to drop down from the ceiling/a half-rotted corpse to come and kill me.
Lovely.
Rebecca then began to tell us about The Mothman Prophesies, sending a whole new assortment of chilling visions to flash in my brain. Alex and I demanded that she stop telling us about the movie and we all reached a consensus that we would not talk of any more spooky things. I believe our next few sentences were something akin to this:
Alex: "I like fluffy kittens."
Amara: "Yes. Dogs are cute too."
...indeed. In the end, though, we managed to fall asleep. As far as I know, no mammoth centipedes crawled into my mouth in the night.
Now it is time for breakfast. Pancakes, if I'm not mistaken. Mmm...
4:42PM. I just returned from the woodworking store place; Niles, Alex's dad, and her uncle Ron went too. I mostly wandered around, looking at the various kinds of wood, until I became bored and returned to the car. I opened up my laptop and what do you know? The wood shop has an unsecured wireless network. Woohoo! I immediately went online and downloaded Firefox. I didn't have time for much else, as everyone came out then and we had to leave.
The entire way home I kept refreshing the wireless network sensor, seeing what showed up. There were a surprising number of unsecured networks, especially in the rich people area. We also passed by a frat house's network. It was fun.
Alex, her mom, her uncle Charlie, and her aunt are out thrifting again. Rebecca and I declined; I don't know Becca's reason, but I was feeling very tired.I think I will now take a nap.
11:00PM. I didn't take a nap. Instead, I tried to get the black junk that was coming off of the laptop bag to come out; I only made it worse. Think of it as something akin to tar, but will come off with a bit of soap. Still annoying.
Alex returned with some more clothing. Niles managed to find me a cable, so I have internet over here now. I got online and spent my time looking up widgets (so fun), and chatting with Josh. Alex and Becca played The Sims most of the time (Becca spent three hours building a house and Alex doesn't understand why we are so judgmental on the Sim people's beauty).
Everyone went to the cemetery for a walk after leftovers dinner (I love the chicken curry!). There were wineberries everywhere; think raspberries, but a little bit more tart. I don't think we have them in Michigan, but I wish we did. I ate a bunch of them. It was kinda sad, looking at all of the graves of forgotten people, or seeing the number of children some parents lost way back when. We passed a few crypts. One had wineberries growing atop of it.
I also learned about the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Alex's dad is considering making city models for train sets. He is big into trains.
When we returned, we ate some ice cream. Some of the family played Scrabble, I sat on the computer. Tomorrow, we are off to Philly. Woo.