Adirondack Weekend

     This last weekend was one of the BEST weekends I've experienced in quite some time. I went with the Bob Marshall Club of ESF for an overnight stay in the High Peaks in the Adirondacks.  
    
     To start off our trip, we got going from the nearby student center at 5:30 am. I was jittery from excitment and just a little from being nervous. Heck as excited as I was, I'd never done a trip like this before and I just didn't know what to expect.
     Well, about 3 hours later ,and north of Newcomb, we were starting our 5-6 mile hike to the lean-to. The trail was absolutely gorgeous, even if it was covered in icy snow. It was alot of uphill to get to where we wanted to be, but finally made it around lunchtime. A friend and I stayed behind at the lean-to while the other six group members decided to summit Mount Marshall, a nearby high peak. Don't get me wrong, I really wated to join them, but since I was already a little tired and had learned that they were going to climb 2000 ft. in elevation in 5 miles, I thought better of it. I needed legs that actually worked for the next day's hike out!

     My friend and I decided first to go down by the shore of the "Flowed Lands" in which we were camping next to. We stepped out from behind the trees and met a breathtaking sight. Straight in front of us was Mt. Colden. The pond/lake was iced over and the top of the mountain was dusted with snow. We sat on some rocks and listened to the silence. The veiw was absolutely incredible!

     We next decided to explore down the trail a little bit to keep our blood moving (after all, it was only 40-50 degrees out!). We met a man who worked for the DEC on our short hike, and he suggested a "secret" spot off to the left of the next lean-to down the trail. We walked about a quarter mile more and came out to a beautiful spot. The lean-to had direct sun and a great view. We wandered off to the left and found ourselves next to a pretty little rocky stream.

     After about fifteen minutes, we decided to head back to our lean-to. The rest of the group said they'd be back when the sun set and we figured we'd want to be back in time for that.
     We got there early enough to rest out on the rocks again and to lay out our sleeping bags in the lean-to in our desired spot- the middle. There was going to be eight people in that lean-to that night, and we wanted to be warm!
     Eventually the rest of the group joined us and we took a couple pictures. We worked together to make a delicious spaghetti and sausage dinner and then headed to our sleeping bags, snuggled in nice and tight.
     The next morning called for oatmeal and hot drinks. The thermometer read 25 degrees. We sat out by the pond/lake as the sun rose, enjoying the warmth while pumping more water.

     Soon, it was time to head back out. The trail was just as wonderful as the day before and hiking it went too fast. We soon arrived at the parking spot and enjoyed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before driving back to Syracuse.

     Everyone was sad to leave, but were thankful for the glorious weekend, away from the stresses of college life.

More Views of Syracuse

Yep, I haven't bogged in forever, I know. It's just, this whole college thing really sucks the time out of me! I can't believe I'm in my 6th week of 15 already! The weeks go incredibly fast and it's amazing that it's already going to be the second week of October! Anyway, things are going good and the only downside is that I kind of miss my family and friends. :)
Anyway.... I figured this post would be about posting some pictures of my lovely school :)
Enjoy:

Dear Blog,

     I'm sorry. I've left you out in the cold again. I know it was wrong of me, but I have good reason, I promise, my lonely little blog. These past few weeks, dare I say months, have been excruciatingly busy for me, for it's truely painful to have to deal with

a.) getting up at 4:50am every weekday
b.) spending eight hours at a job that I hate, because we literally can not do anything
c.) knowing that those eight hours of nothing could be spent doing so many more productive things
d.) not being able to do what I need to after work, because I'm too exhausted from trying to look busy all day (I'm not lazy, my boss told me to do this)
e.) knowing I can't relax on the weekend because we have so much going on (not complaining though, because they're all so worth it...they just make me tired is all)
    
     And, on top of this all, I'm trying to get used to the fact that I will soon be surrounded by hundreds of people I don't know, trying to make friends and basically handling living on my own. I'm not entirely scared of this, I mean, home is only a couple hours away and I can contact help whenever I need it. It's just intimidating to know that I won't be seeing anything familiar for at least a couple weeks. I believe I can handle college, it's only the change that I'm hoping I can get used to fast.
    
     It's not you, dearest blog, it's me. Those reasons are why you have been so deprived of new material. When I come home to check all of my e-mails and my facebook, I'm simply too tired to carry on and spend up to an hour writing an entry. I wish not to spend my precious few hours in the evening sucked into cyberspace only to come out moments before bedtime wondering why it's suddenly so dark out. This is summer, the one season a year I have to relax and enjoy being outdoors, the place that I so dearly love.

     So forgive me, my beloved blog, for leaving you for the warm vernal breezes, the cool nights under the stars, the marshmallows toasted over the campfires, and the coziness of a sleeping bag in our tent. Also, for dealing with thank-you cards, spending time with family and for sorting and determining which of my belongings is worthy enough to accompany me to the next stage of my life.

     I promise to always keep you in mind, but I cannot say how often future entries will be posted. I posess no knowledge of how much time I'll have in order to sit and write, although I hope I'll have just a little!

Take care, and I hope to write again soon,
Love,
Holly

This Is My Car

Or, rather, my family's nonexistant one.
One of the many reasons I haven't written in here since the beginning of the month was because I wasn't here at all last week. We, my family and I, were all set out to go on vacation last Sunday. Our plan was to go to Chestertown, Lake Placid and then Old Forge to do some hiking, kayaking and other awesome things we like to do in the Adirondacks. We have to go through Utica to get where we were going and then continue on route 8 in the direction of Speculator.
Well, we hit the West Canadas and stopped at a picnic spot on West Canada Creek about midday (maybe 1:00) to have lunch. After lots of pictures and lovely turkey sandwiches, we went further down the turn-off road to a possible hiking spot. We all decided we were just a little too tired to hike four miles round trip, so we turned around to rt. 8 and went on our way.
It wasn't twenty minutes later that we turned around a left curve to see a long stretch of road and this car pulling hastily back into a line of about seven. That car had cut in front of a track (Ford) that was pulling a boat on his trailer.
That threw the truck out of control...which sent it fishtailing across the highway. Once we saw that, my dad slowed right down, pulled off the highway and into the grass.  Sooner than we could think, we saw the truck wildly swerving to the left... and then... straight into our left side.
Honestly, it was so fast that I had no time to think. I really thought it would miss us because, you know, things always worked out that way. But, no, I realized it was coming for us when it was about a foot away from the side of the car. We all braced, flinched or both as it drove us into the weeds.
I don't remember hearing anything really, except the impact and the windows blowing out.
When we were stopped, Mom checked to see if we were all ok, and then we got out of the car (note: we were informed later that it is a bad idea to do that).  Mostly, we were cut up from glass and bruised. Dad had the worst of it right under his ribs. The truck driver immediately got out of his truck to ask if we were alright and to see if we needed an ambulance.

The passer was nowhere to be seen. Grr.

Fast forward to when the ambulance came; we were all put in precautionary neck braces and taken all the way back to Utica. Our vacation was going pretty poorly, but we were more concerned about each other at that point. An hour later, we were wheeled into St. Luke's hospital and cleaned up. We were all in shock, which was probably good because it bore the blunt of hearing that Dad was going into surgery for a splenectomy, but bad because our minds were still set on "Ok, so we'll have to cancel the hotel tonight, but maybe tomorrow we can go on our way."
Eventually we figured out the car was taken to Speculator, so we went and cleaned it out the next day. Seeing our things back at the hostpital, the nurses jokingly said we were the most prepared accident victims they'd ever seen. And soon, the shock wore off to a point that we realized we had to cancel all of vacation.
One week later, last Saturday, we came home from Utica after staying with my Aunt and Uncle, at a hotel, and with my mom's cousin. Dad was all stapled up (turns out he could keep his spleen, yay!),-and the rest of us just weary from the tiring previous days.

I'm definitely still feeling it, but we're all a lot better. Several people commented to us that maybe it happened for a reason, and I agree that it's a possibility. Maybe it was saving us from a more terrible accident down the road, or maybe it's the cause for a beneficial effect. I suppose we'll never really know, and all we can do is be really thankful for how it turned out. It could certainly be a whole lot worse!

Happy July!

Finally, summer is here!

     Okay, so it's officially been summer since June 21st, but this weekend really hit things off for me. This month is THE month of summer. There's Independence Day festivities, our town holds its Lumberjack Festival, the weather is hot and several flowers are blooming. Kids don't have to worry about school and seemingly everyone takes a vacation around this time.
     What I like most about summer is the opportunities to be outside. It's warm out, and I enjoy wearing dresses, shorts and skirts. I like taking pictures of flowers and leaves and things as well as just going outside for walks or trips to the state park. Like I said, last weekend was really great for me, and want to know why? It's because I spent most of it outside.
     My grandparents own a little piece of land out in the middle of the woods, a couple miles out of town. It takes quite a while to get there, mostly because the road you travel in on is completely dirt and rocks and you have to drive about 10 mph in order to keep from bouncing up and down too much. Anyway, they built a simple cabin out there and invited my sister and I to sleep over the night before our Independence Day family get together. 
     That first day was kind of cool- around 70 degrees- and after helping unpack the vehicles, my sis and I went around to the stone wall to search for salamanders. Just like that, we caught a black one with white spots that was covered in a slime that resembled Elmer's Glue. The slime made it kind of hard to catch him/her and it took some good scrubbing to get it off our fingers, but it was worth the pictures we got. We returned him/her to the stone wall and moved on into the woods to look under logs and more rocks. There we found mostly slugs, one Red-Backed Salamander and a toad.
     For the rest of the day, we walked around, got our bunks ready for bed and did crossword puzzles. After a delicious steak and potato dinner courtesy of Grandpa, we scratched off a couple lotto tickets and then went to bed.
     The next day we woke up, and had breakfast. Seeing as there no electricity up there, it's understandable that there was no toaster; I instead toasted my cinnamon raisin bagel over the fire, and it was simply fabulous. I then went inside with the others to get ready to welcome the rest of the family. When everyone was there we started one of the best annual meals in the world. First out were the shrimp and drunken shrimp, then was oysters rockefeller, then chicken, clams, macaroni salad, crescent rolls, and fruit salad. It was all delicious, and by dinnertime I only had room for a grilled hotdog (actually, I didn't, but I made room because it looked so good). A couple walks in the woods followed and we just visited until it was dark- and time to go home.
     And that's just one of the reasons I love summer so much. All the fresh air and good spirits. I felt so fresh after coming home, despite missing a shower that morning. Afterwards, we just couldn't help but go back outside to look at the stars. It was one of those super-clear nights when you can almost make out every one of the billions of stars in the milky way- they're not just a cloudy swath in the sky- and we even saw a few shooting stars!
     Oh it was truly the best weekend I've had in awhile! I can't wait to see what the rest of this season brings!

B-B-B-Bennie and the Jetssss

  
      High school is just about over... all I have to do is take a NYS regents test and then graduate. That's it! If I haven't already said so, I'm amazed at how fast this year went by. All my upperclassmen friends used to warn me how fast their senior years went by and how I should make sure to enjoy mine, but I don't think I ever really thought it would go this quick!
      Anyway, I was thinking about that today and how I finally have ALL of my schoolwork done and handed in. It seemed a little weird to have two big projects due the last day of school, but I suppose that's what comes with taking a course like AP Biology... Our projects were actually pretty cool- for one, my partner and I re-wrote Bennie and the Jets to Bennie and the Biomes (maybe I'll post that in here soon...) and for the other we were given the assignment to collect pictures of things such as "eight bugs," "five wildflowers," and "two amphibians/reptiles" and put them in a PowerPoint slideshow with it (hey it was right up my alley!), but taking all of those pictures outside reminded me of the above picture.
     A couple of years ago, I took it upon myself to make a Nature Alphabet just like the one above. I thought it was the coolest thing to find letters hidden in plain sight like that and I just had to try it out. The only problem with this? Back then, it was the dead of winter. I didn't care though and followed through to make one very cool, but very monochromatic alphabet.
     Now, however, with it being summer and me having no other obligations than finding a job and attending graduation parties, I think I'll have the time to make a really fantastic, knock-your-socks-off alphabet. Hopefully it'll be much more colorful than the last...
     Obviously nothing else has been too awesome in my life lately to blog about (I mean, I wrote about AP bio today... 'nuff said) ... but hopefully with all of this free time I'll have a chance to stretch my mind's creative legs. So, sorry for the boring stuff!


 Oh, and for anyone who still wants to read our rendition of Bennie and the Biomes:

Hey kids, shake out loose together,
Snowboards hitting powder
Tundra’s known to change it’s weather
We’ll kill the caribou tonight
So stick around.
Your gonna hear eccentric bugles
Solid howls from hounds

Say, Bennie, those forests, have you seen them yet
Oh it’s gettin’ warmer out, were bennie and the jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh bennie they’re really green.
Thats an electric moose, a grizzly too
We’ve only seen em’ in a magazine
We’re bennie and the jets

Hey kids, wait is that a coyote?
Maybe their friendly
I think that we should find out
We shall survive, let us walk across the sand
The sun is high ,we’re burnin’ our feet
Let’s get to a cooler land

Say, Mandy and Tommy do you want to get wet?
Oh, it’s raining out, we’re Bennie and the jets
It’s really hot and its humid
They’re cutting down all the trees!
It’s a panda boo, eating bamboo shoots
Just like in your NG magazine
We’re Bennie and the Jets

Bennie!
 
yeah... I thought it was at least a 5 on the top ten songs of all time... hahaha :)