4 days!

So my last weekend at home went pretty well...

Friday night I went to my sister's high school football game. I actually had a good time; saw some people I hadn't seen in forever (including a friend from high school who had been in Iraq and my high school trumpet teacher) and took a bunch of pictures for my sister and her friends.

Saturday I brought my sister to Habitat w/ me and we laid tile for 4 hours. Helped my mom w/ some of her school work, and read The Great Gatsby aloud to my sister for her English class.

Sunday morning I gave blood (and got a free movie ticket!), and Sunday night I saw "The Illusionist" at the movies.

This morning I helped my dad plant a garden in the backyard. Then Rey and I went to the beach this afternoon. Three day weekends are nice.

Tomorrow, I'm going in for one last day of work. Then I have to pack Wed. and Thurs. before I fly to Boston on Friday!! Yay!

My Puffin has left.

Well, Ivy left this morning :( but we did have an awesome time... Saturday we drove to Tampa and went to a water park, then had dinner with our friend from middle school who goes to school in Tampa. And long car rides with my other half can be awesome :) Sunday we went to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, where I hadn't been in years. We saw alligators, a barn owl, and a giant cricket. And this morning Ivy flew home. Soon she will leave for Spain for the semester (Ivy, I expect lots of pictures!!!) and I will not see her again until January. Sadness. But I get to see other cool people in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!! This makes me happy. I am eagerly awaiting my reunion with Mather, Cambridge, Boston, hiking, cool people, awesome roommates, less humidity, and many other wonderful things that I have been missing for the last 3 months...

MY PUFFIN IS HERE!!!

We went to the beach today, and to a Marlins game last night! :)

Also, interesting fact of the day from work: there was an old guy there today (I think he's on the Habitat board), who when he laughed sounded exactly like the Sicilian, Vizzini from the movie The Princess Bride! It was reeeeally funny!

I hate airlines!!

Again! Ivy was supposed to get here at 8pm, but due to her flight being delayed, missing a connection, and then getting delayed again, she is now scheduled to get in at midnight! Why do Ivy and I have such horrible luck with flying? It was a disaster when she flew to Boston in May (thanks Faon for helping salvage the night!) and I am still bitter about the extravaganza getting to New Zealand. WHY? Ok sorry, just had to vent... and trying to keep myself awake to go pick her up...

In other news, we know who our fourth roommate is for next year... Elizabeth Miller if anyone reading this cares/is bored and wants to facebook her. Seems ok; we'll see. She cannot, however, EVER replace our awesome K-Roz, and there will be some sort of Katie Rose shrine and frequent letters sent until we get her back and smuggle her into our room in the spring!

Only a few more weeks now... very excited for the next week with my Ivy Puffin (plans to go to a baseball game and a waterpark, among other things, are in the works...)!!! But after that, very ready to go back and see you all......... yay!

Not quite Lost in Translation

So for my amusing story of the week...

There's this guy at work (Rey, who by the way is Cuban and just learned English 2 years ago... this info will be helpful later) who I've been kinda-sorta-dating-ish this summer... but it was somewhat unclear. We had gone to a couple movies, to the beach, etc. So we were having the infamous "us" discussion yesterday, b/c we aren't really that serious, but he wanted to know where it stood since I'm leaving in a few weeks. We got through the 'I'm not doing another long distance relationship' part (b/c I've had enough of that for a while!), and he says, "so more like friends with um... how do you say? Friends with some opportunities?" and I couldn't stop laughing! Obviously he meant "friends with benefits," but he couldn't figure out the translation, and came up with "some opportunities" instead. Ok, so I guess it was funnier when he said it than when I'm writing it now, but it really was funny! :)

And now, off to a high school football game! (groan) My sister is in the band, and I am required to go the the games the next few weeks while I'm still here... fascinating. Oh well.

My Puffin comes on Tuesday!!!! I can't wait!!!

Beach day!

Spent the day at the beach, went for pizza for late lunch, then hung out in my pool for a few hours... me and five guy friends from high school (and one of their little brothers). Just like the old days. Good to see them all again, had lots of fun, but at the end of the day I still miss my roomies and the rest of my Cambridge peoples... less than a month now...

ping pong... note the awesome net made of rope and paint cans b/c I couldn't find ours.




Mark in midair about to do a cannonball.








Stevie gets pushed into the pool while about to throw David into the pool.

Back to work...

So I went back to work at Habitat on Monday. The interesting story for the week ocurred yesterday morning on the construction site...
There is this old guy (well, there are a lot of them, acutally!) Bob, who must be in his 80s, and really shouldn't be driving, but of course still does. And every day he pulls his car (an old Buick I believe?) up onto the sandy area (which will eventually be a driveway but isn't yet) in front of the houses. Well, this time he got stuck. Double stuck. When he tried to back out, he managed to go so that this pipe (plastic, 6in diameter, maybe 2 feet high) got stuck between his tire and the side panel of his car. Don't ask me how he managed that; I still can't figure it out. On top of that, he was stuck in the sand and spinning his tires like crazy until they were smoking! We had to cut the pipe into many pieces with a jigsaw, dig out the tires, and lift the back of the car with a forklift while he was flooring it in order for him to get out! So basically, 20 minutes, 4 people, one hammer, 3 shovels, and a forklift later we did manage to get it out. Quite an adventure!

Other than that, I've just been tiling and painting houses the last couple days... and today I helped my mom move furniture in her classroom for a few hours after work. Exciting, I know.

Oh, one other thing. I went running again last night (and I'm sore now, pathetic, I know), and the moon was gorgeous! I decided that although I hate running, I kinda like running at night when I can watch the stars and the moon. But I must be barefoot, it's the only way to go. I'm weird. But my feet will be nicely calloused, and maybe I will remotely resemble being in shape by the time I see you people again... One more month...