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!

The Decision

Hey look, I'm posting faster than I thought.

I've started Depicting Deposit -another blog... I'll definitly keep posting in both, but just letting you all know that I have no posts up at this new one, so don't get too excited yet. :)

that's all for now ....

Thoughts...

I have a question for all of those who have blogs out there. Do you ever sometimes feel that your blog makes no sense? That you came in with a plan and had tons of ideas of what to write about and yet now you're here, twenty-some random posts later, asking these questions of your followers? No? Well that's how I feel today.
Honestly, I was thinking of starting another blog, completely dedicated to a single topic. I've looked around for ideas and have seen some that only post pictures, others with artwork and some with a continuing story, each post representing another chapter. I'm kind of liking the photography one...
For now, I'll keep thinking. Who knows how things'll go with work starting next week and college in august but I'll certainly post my decision.

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 :)

Nerves of Steel

          So, again it's been a few weeks since I last posted... I swear this last month of high school is just hectic!!
     
     What inspired me to write today, besides the fact that I have free time (strangely enough...), was my trip to Darien Lake last week. Our physics class went for Physics Day, along with just about half of all the other high schools in the state.
     One of the first rides my seven-student class went on was Ride of Steel, formerly known as Superman when Six Flags owned the park. After we had ridden it the first time, we all decided to go again because the line was short. It wasn't until a friend asked me to ride up front that I actually got nervous about the ride.
     I agreed to go up front because a.) I didn't want to be the one to 'chicken out' and b.) It was thrilling just thinking about front row. So we went up to the line for the first car. Right there my palms started sweating, "what if's" began popping up in my mind and I was getting a little nauseous. What had I gotten myself into?

     On the outside though, I kept cool, even though my friend and our teacher kept making fun of me and another friend who'd come to ride up front with us. I took deep breaths and even when I was sure I should get to a car farther back, I stayed in line. When we got to the front and climbed in our seats, I was almost shaking. I told myself over and over "you'll be fine, it's just the first seat, no biggie" etc. I mean, what could be the problem? I already rode it once; this would be no different, except...

     It was WAY better!

     That ride was just fantastic, I knew I'd love it, I just had to convince myself! A 208ft drop at 76 degrees is O.K. in the middle of the train, but when you've got nothing in front of you, and your hands in the air (a.k.a. in the front), it's awesome! As soon as I was about halfway down that first hill I knew I'd been silly to freak out.
     I got to thinking about it later in the day and I realized something: that I can do whatever I have the courage to do. Even if I'm scared out of my wits or just nervous, as long as I have that initial surge of bravery, I can hold onto that and it'll bring me through. I mean, I knew I'd be fine on Ride of Steel, but I got into second guessing myself and worrying about stupid, obscure things. When that kind of thing happens it overtakes my mind and clouds my judgement, but if I hold onto that first "I can do it!" feeling, everything works out just fine. 

     I'm just so happy that I've come to this realization, and that I can use it in future experiences!

How Far Away is Graduation?

42 days.

     Yeah, that's right... forty-two days until I'm done with my high school career... forever. Honestly, I'm not too upset about it, but I also kind of feel like I'm losing a little part of me. I mean, think about it: I've been going to school for the last (almost) 13 years. I've known nothing else than to get up at 6:30 and get ready for school on weekdays and, heck, I can barely remember my life before school. Maybe I'm just nervous because this routine, the one constant in my life (besides family of course), won't be there anymore.
     I know I'll be ok and I think I'll adapt just fine, but sometimes I have little doubts. I think about being two hours from home, about friends I may or may not make and basically hoping that I can get to class on time (my residence halls will be a mile and a half from my first class...ah!). Then I remind myself that it's only two hours, not across the country; that all the freshmen will be in the same boat and it'll be easy to make friends, and that a 1.5 mi isn't that bad when you can ride the bus for free.

     Anyway... that was my little stress release for the week. I finished my biology exam on Monday and have felt burnt out ever since (and I stil have backwork I need to finish!!), and I'm going to my third track meet of the week tonight... oh I can't WAIT for the weekend!