I sound like a broken record.
Sorry for the infrequent posting, it's pathetic, and I hate it :P.
It's just, whenever I have the free time to blog, I usually cannot. Either my mother is using the computer, or I have some place to be within a short stretch of time. Like, now. I was invited to Julie's tonight, and was planning to drive over within the hour. But I couldn't put off posting any longer, so oh well :).


This is what the three of us looked like upon reaching our destination of the icecream parlor, after roughly 15 tedious miles of biking. The journey was a bit difficult for me, since I'm not at all accustomed to riding for long distances, usually only a few miles at a time. So I was discouraged at first, trailing forever behind my two comrades, whose bike's were too quick to allow them to go at my beginning pace, haha. Thankfully, Julie noticed that I wasn't using my gears properly, I didn't know that I could use one of the sides, which drastically improved my speed. So after that, I was able to keep up for the most part. It was a nice experience though, getting the exercise, scoping out the scenery, chatting with friends, even if it was with hoarse, exasperated voices. Once we got there, I realized I had never deserved icecream as much as I did right then. We couldn't even wait for our teachers to meet us there before we pigged out. Chocolate vanilla twist with rainbow sprinkles. I think more made it onto my cheeks and chin that in my stomach ;P. We had a nice time once the cool teachers, whom we now consider friends, arrived.

The past couple of days have been busy, busy, busy. Graduation, parties, you name it. I would like to drone on and on in elaboration, but I'm cutting it close time-wise, and I figure that may be boring to read, anyways. But the main point is, I'm really going to miss the class of 2009. It was bittersweet to watch Julie and Jenna walk across the stage to retrieve their diplomas, because I'm wicked excited for them to usher out into the "real world", and drag us younger friends on into it :P, and for them to start making their futures. But it's difficult imagining the next school year without them. Who's going to sit at our lunch table? Who am I going to walk with in the hallways? So many things are going to change, and I'll just have to make adjustments. I'm glad to still have Amanda :), the two of us together should be able to manage. It'll just be a little harder without our buddies. Then Julie's graduation party was pretty fun. The teachers came and hung out, haha. It was cool. I ate far more than I thought I was capable of consuming. But hey, once in awhile you're entitled to just let yourself go. Of course my stomach is cursing me for it now, but that's okay. I went to two more today, and I have a few more left, but luckily I think they're more spaced out. Some things I have been up to, but failed to really mention included walking my lovely dog through the park with Amanda, eating lots of Subway, and taking pictures in the library.

Hahah, Ermm.. ;P I wasn't actually reading it, but Amanda thought it'd be a funny pose.

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, I passed my chemistry regents.. Just by the skin of my teeth, though. 65 isn't a good mark to me, but I'm atleast happy to have passed. I'm uncertain as to whether I can re-try it, or if I even want to. Do regents scores particularly matter, so long as the course average was high? The major I want to persue isn't science related.. so I'm thinking maybe I don't really need a high chemistry mark? I don't know, if any of you are more informed about this, let me know. The rest of my grades were satisfactory. I scored 99's on both the U.S. History and English regents, and my cumulative average for my Junior year was 93.57 I believe.
I hope you're all having a wonderful summer time.
♥ Olive

Hellooo, summer :)

It's finally here, and it feels incredible.
Seriously, it has felt like eons just waiting for testing to be done, especially while most of you ended way before me, hahah. Well, I'll be the one laughing when you start class in August ;P, and I get to wait for September. But I will not mention the start of school again, I'll just push that grim thought aside for a couple of months.

The free spirit of the weekend has been good to me :). Waking up Saturday morning, I decided I wanted to take a drive to Barnes&Nobles, Forever 21, and the nice downtown area in that region. Of course I contacted Amanda and Julie to join me on this expedition. So we drove for 45 minutes(yes, getting to cool places takes THAT long for me), and stopped at the mall. I bought a hippie-esque peacock design shirt pictured below. Groovy, no? Hahah. Sometimes I think I'm stuck in the wrong time period :P, take me back to the 60's/70's! After that it was B&N, where I purchased On the Road,Jack Kerouac, GOD- the failed hypothesis, by Victor J. Spenger,because it was a bargain, and seemed interesting. Lastly I got a volume of Sherlock Holmes stories, I think they're interesting. That was also on sale :). I wanted to buy My Sister's Keeper, or the first couple of Christopher Fowler books from the Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery series. However, they were all PAPERBACK, and I cannot stand those :(. I do have paperback books, but as time has progressed I've discovered I'm much fonder of good, reliable hardcover books. It annoys me endlessly when the cover of the book curves upward and away from the rest of the book :. Atleast the On the Road cover was durable, it was paperback, but it was thick enough for me to tell that it would remain in tact, and I wouldn't have the urge to allow a steamroller to plow over it to fix the cover. Major pet peeve, I guess :P.


Downtown was wicked cool. Where I live, "town" consists of a post office, small bank, gas station, the school, and a tiny library that is open for two hours, two days a week. Lame? Yes. So it's nice to be able to go to a more city-like area, where there's boutiques, restaurants, a park, and just a whole lot to do. One funny thing we noticed were all of these Andre the Giant stickers, on like EVERY streetsign/crossing walk pole. I forgot what they said, I think it might've been "Andre has a possee". Julie and Amanda peeled a couple off. I should've taken pictures of them, but alas, I failed :P. So then we walked around checking things out and talking. Next time we go, I'll try to photograph and document the whole thing better. After getting ricedreams from the organic store, we wandered back to my car and drove back home. On the way Julie had the idea to stop at this bar&grill place she usually goes with her friend Ben, to play pool. So we just went in and bought a couple of games, which I lost terribly. Figures, since it was my loose change that paid for it, hahah. Oh well, it was fun :). Afterwards we got the idea to set up my pool table in the basement so we could "practice". But something's wrong with one of the legs or whatever, supporting it. I need to have my dad fix it, or something. We had fun at my house anyways, sneaking across the road and up the hill to spy on the heifers. For those who aren't agricultural experts, heifers are cows who have not calved yet, and therefore don't produce milk. Anyways, we snuck up behind the herd, and eventually noticed us, and stared for awhile, until a few of them decided to come towards us, resulting in the whole group coming, so we ran like crazy, thinking we would be stampeded :P. However, they did not come far, so we regrouped and went in for round two, with a little more confidence. After a little tough-talk, they moved in on us again, and we made a dash for the barbed wire fence. We escaped with plenty of time to spare, cows really aren't that quick, and they lose interest easily. Still, it was fun :D. We spent the rest of the evening talking in my hay mow about life.
Sunday morning I slept until 45 minutes of when I was scheduled to work. Nottt good, haha. I grabbed a quick shower, skipped breakfast, and rushed out of here. The park was super packed, but the store wasn't busy at all. I think it was because since it was a big lacrosse tournament, and there were plenty of vendors to buy merchandise from. I enjoyed work though. JoAnne, my second grade teacher, works with me, and we talk quite a bit. I told her that I've never been to New York City, because my parents are unfamiliar and terrified of urban areas, haha. Anyways, she said it might be possible to come along with her and another teacher she's friends with, sometime :D. I guess they take a visit down there every once in awhile, and they just might go down this summer. That would be incredible. I want to see the city so bad.
Once I was home from work I had the urge to soak up the nice weather and get some exercise. This time I decided to leave Candy at home, and go armed with plastic bags and my ipod. Every time I walk on my road, I notice how disgustingly littered it is, and I can't stand it. On a stretch of 1 or 1.5 miles one way, 2 or 3 total trip, I accumulated FOUR target bags full of trash >:/. How can people be so inconsiderate of the enviornment? This is our planet, every piece of garbage is like a drop of poison.
It felt good to alieviate some of that, though. I know it wasn't much, but atleast it was something. I didn't get every piece I'm sure, and a piece or two I left until later maybe, because they were down in the ditch farther than I wanted to venture, and soaked. I'm still not over my fear of snakes, and I'm pretty sure one was moving near me when I was snatching a styrofoam coffee cup D:. That wasn't enough to stop me though, I trudged onward, hahah. Maybe I'll make a routine of doing this every Sunday, or every other one. Afterwards I just threw the bags in our waste receptacle, and washed my hands reaaaall good, haha. Honestly I just wish I could erect a billboard on my road saying something along the lines of; "HEY, SCUMBAGS. THE EARTH IS NOT YOUR PERSONAL TRASHCAN." Of course, that's a little mean, haha. But I highly discourage littering. Why not wait until you get home..? I just think it's infuriating :P. I mean, accidents happen. I've had my windows down, and tiny things have blown out before, and I felt bad. But seriously, I don't see why people feel like they have the right to huck their McDonalds bag of junk out into the ditch, or their baby's filthy diaper. Luckily I didn't find any of those today.. haha.

Happy Father's Day, people. I hope you enjoyed it :). I worked most of today, and then my dad was busy. But I went out and bought a small cake, and a card which I promised inside to take him out to dinner whenever he has the time to get away. I also went over to visit the Grandparents, and give my Grandpa his card :)

Tomorrow I must go back to the school[ eww :P], and let them take my senior picture. I wanted myself or Amanda to do it, but my mom insists that I atleast have to taken "professionally", for backup. I guess that isn't a bad idea :P. So I'll go in around 1:45, 2:00ish for that. Otherwise, tomorrow's up in the air. I'll find something to do, I hope. Tuesday Amanda, Julie, and I plan to go for a bicycle ride. A 20 mile or so one, to be exact. What in the world are we getting ourselves into?! I'm not even sure if my tires have air in them, I'll have to check. We shall see :).

Amanda gave me a giftcard for Forever21 for my birthday last weekend. I'm contemplating spending it on these...



Well, as always, have a superfantastic week :)
♥ Olive

Surpriseeee :)

Seventeenth birthday was a success!
After the previous post, I went to Ridge Street Coffee, our preferred venue ;), with Shayla and Jenna. It was fairly warm out, so instead of the usual butterscotch chai, I got myself this calypso juice drink, strawberry something or another. It was good, whatever it was, haha. Then we realized we were hungry, so we ran over to Subway for some $3 six inches, haha. I like using that as the alternative to the $5 foot long. It was really nice being able to hang out with them, especially Shayla since there wasn't enough room for her on the boat :(. At this point Amanda and Julie were growing impatient, because they were already at the lake, waiting to go out on the boat. I had no idea they would be waiting on us, so I felt awful :P, and we rushed back to drop Shayla off. We wound up parking a million blocks away from the dock, but after a short hike through the village, we arrived. Mrs.Barosi, her husband, their daughter Kara, and Amanda and Julie of course, were all there. I wasn't expected their whole family, so I apoligized profusely for making them wait on me D:. None of them seemed too bothered, they were all smiles and such when we got there :), so I felt loads better.
Storm clouds were looming overhead, so we decided to take a walk around the village until they passed, before we would go on the boat. We looked in some neat little shops, talked amongst ourselves, and everyone besides Jenna and me bought lunch. Thankfully by that point the sky was much clearer, and we were able to make our way back for our boat ride :).





Hah, not the most flattering shots, excuse the double chinnage on my part in the last one :P, but the main point it, we had a good time. Just zipping over the waves was cool enough for me, because I never go out on the water. But Julie and Jenna took it a step forward and actually got in the water :P. First Julie tried tubing, because Kara did it, and it seemed fun enough. But when it was Julie's turn, after like a minute or so, her foot broke through the cover or something, and flipped her right out of it! Apparently there had been a tiny hole, but it got opened up, and the entire tube popped. So that exposition was cut short, hahah. She wasn't hurt or anything, thankfully. It scared us something awful though, :P. THENNNN they broke out the waterskiis. And of course Julie hopped right back out there, hahah. That girl has some guts. The skiis were alot trickier though, she said. After many attempts, and one short-lived success, she let Jenna give it a try, and she didn't have much luck either. I was contemplating on it, but I was kinda cold, and plus I didn't want to keep us out too long, because I knew they wanted to head back in not toooo long. It was definitely alot of fun though :):). Barosi said we're welcome to come out on it again during the summer, hopefully on a day that's sunnier.

On the way home we made a couple of stops that confused me. First sitting outside of Amanda's house for like 2o minutes, haha. I didn't understand why we were waiting :P. But then her mom invited us inside for some delicious bread, and there were streamers up, all pretty like. Then we went to pick up Shayla, and to Jenna's for her shorts.. then we went back to Amanda's for some reason, only to find out her and Julie had already come and gone. I'll later discover that whole thing was a diversion.. HAHAH. It certainly didn't make sense at the time :P. Then we drove to Julie's, and there were a few cars parked outside. I thought that was kind of strange, and when I walked in, everyone was gathered around the kitchen... "SURPRISE!" :D :D, it was so awesome. It was not only Amanda and Julie, but Zack, Derek, Jen, Sam, Greg, Ben, Steve, Jeff, Cody, Taylor, and Johnny Boy. Later Jeremiah, Bob, and three girls whom I had never seen before in my life, showed up :P. But it was really cool, and sweet how they planned that all for me. Zack was a big part of planning it too, so I'm quite pleased with him as well :). I've got some pretty incredible friends. After I went around hugging literally everyone there, haha, Steve and Cody pulled me aside. They asked if I wanted them to play for me, because they brought all of their equipment, but Amanda and Julie weren't sure if there'd be enough people and stuff. But I thought that was a great idea, and I told them I would love it if they played for me :D. So they brought in all of their stuff and set up in Julie's attic.

I know, the light isn't fabulous, but it's an attic :P. The whole thing was just really fun though, they played some of their original songs, plus punk covers. I'd totally post the videos if my internet wasn't so lame. I cannot wait until I get a laptop next fall. After awhile they decided to take a break, so we convinced Johnny boy to go downstairs and grab his saxophone for a jazz intermission, haha! It was so great. He wasn't practiced up, so he was nervous, but I loved it. He played me 'Happy Birthday'. Then the three girls who I didn't know were like "Ehmigawd, it's your birthday?" And I was like "Yupp.. this is my surprise party..thanks for coming." Hahahah. I guess they had met the guys last night, and they invited them along. I didn't really care, I just thought it was strangely amusing that they showed up to a place and a party for someone who they didn't even know. Oh well, made it look like there was a bigger crowd--haha :P. The only thing that vaguely upset me about the night was the lack of Tom's presence. He was there.. at the house. But he stayed downstairs with two of his friends the entire time, not coming up to see me once. He missed the whole initial "surprise!" too. I don't know, it just really disappointed me that he chose to blow me off like that. I would've been pleased as punch if he had simply come up, gave me a hug, and explained that it wasn't really his scene, but would hang out with me later. Oh well, I truly did have a wonderful time regardless, and it's not worth it to dwell on the itty bitty disappointing factor, haha. Plus he apologized after, when I told him it had hurt me to not see him there. So I may as well get over it. But THANKYOU,THANKYOU,THANKYOU to all of my marvelous friends, who helped make my birthday so amazingly sweet, I love you guys.

A few of the lovely gifts I received...


The top card's from Shayla, the bottom one from Derek, and the one with the fishies, Amanda made :). Julie made a cool one too, but I failed to take a picture.

The Pen Commandments, a book about writing from Jenna :). A cool Japanese style journal from Shayla, along with a funny cat bookmark, and an Ameila Earhart toy from my dad, because it came in his happymeal hahah :P. A little painted fishie box from Amanda, which held a necklace, faux pearl bracelets, and a giftcard to Forever 21, SCORE :P, haha, Then Shayla gave me that adorable little ceramic cupcake, with another pretty necklace, and these nice heart earrings :). Gah, these girls spoil me so baddd. And everything is sitting on my new hammock, courtesy of my parents. Now I can actually chill outside, without being covered in insects.
Oh, and what did Julie get me, you ask?

Burgle! Yes, that's her hamster that she got months ago, but with the addition of the ferret, she realizes the hamster doesn't get so much of her attention. So she offered her to me, because I don't have a little creature of my own, and I've wanted a dwarf hamster for awhile now. :). So, that was my birthday in a nutshell.


SIX,EIGHTEEN.
Alright, let us venture back to present time now :). I'm done reminiscing my glorious little weekend. This was my LAST week of tests, today being the final exam, English Regents Session Two. Woohooo. So it's safe to say... SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER! I'm just so happy to be done. The past couple of nights I have been taking advantage of my new driving priveledges, staying out past 9:00 :). Tuesday night I went to a bonfire by the extremely large pond in our town. It's like at an akward size between pond and lake.. strange. But that was pretty fun. I mainly talked to Shayla, Julie, and Ben, but everyone else was pretty entertaining too. The guy who hosted it brought marshmallows and graham crackers. But, NO chocolate, hahah. We complained so much, just to be a nuisance. "Patrick, you have got to be kidding me.. this is the worst excuse for a 'smore I've ever seen" But he knew we were just messing around :P. Then the following night I went to Julie's for another bonfire, but it was just her, John, Shayla, and me. It was nice though, I enjoyed it. No fires tonight though, I have to go to work when six o' clock rolls around. I dislike this lousy weather, it's been raining relentlessly all day long. Hmmph. I suppose it's not too bad though, this way I was able to catch up on blogging :), which I'm sorry I've been slacking lately in. Now that tests are no longer in the way, I should be able to post often. In theory.. we'll see how well that actually works.
My U.S. History teacher is quick with his grading, and I got to see that I received a 98 on the final, and an astonishing 99 on the NYS regents.. that just blew my mind. Both I believe were the highest grades in the class. I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging D:, but I was just really surprised. I know I bombed chemistry, but it's nice to know I made up for it in other classes that I enjoy more.

I hope everyone's having a great beginning to their summer adventures :), I'll catch up with blogs eventually, I promise!
♥ Olive