Lies and Damn Lies

Things that my brother has told me that I recently found out he made up (to everyone's amusement):

1) The highest score in mini-golf wins.
-Although mini-golf is a sport built around ridiculousness, it is, in fact,the lowest score that wins in mini-golf and not the highest. The goal is not to take as many strokes as possible.

2)Every Hanukah, the Hanukah snails pull Hanukah Harry's dreidle around to every little Jewish boy's and girl's houses, helping him distribute the required 8 gifts.
-The Hanukah snails, Hanukah Harry's equivalent of Santa's reindeer, are in fact, a figment of my brother's imagination. I apologize to anyone to whom I have explained the purpose of the Hanukah snails. I am no longer in wonder why no one else in the world knows about the snails. Until a few weeks ago, I believed that they were a normal lie that parents tell their chidren in order for them to feel less "special" at Christmas time.

3) The game "Who can punch the softest" is a lot of fun and no one will get hurt.
-The point of the game "Who can punch the softest" is not to punch the softest. It is to punch your younger siblings hard while they try to punch very, very softly.

At least they never told me that I was adopted.

Ye Olde London Towne

I think I've finally recovered from London. It was fantastic and exhausting. Spending only 6 days in a time zone 5 hrs ahead and walking all over the city from 9 am to 8 pm tuckered me out. A short list of what we saw:
-Hyde Park
-Westminster Abbey
-the V&A museum
-Salisbury Cathedral and town
-Stonhenge
-Sting's house
-Tower of London(all of it)
-British Museum (Rosetta Stone!!)
-Changing of the Guards
-Harrod's, Top Shop
-Pub Walk on the Thames
-Globe Theater (Antony and Cleopatra)
-Buckingham Palace
-Borough Market
-Tate Modern

You know, just a few things. Needless to say, the next few days after we got back I was asleep by 10 pm. In fact, on Saturday when we got back, I was "watching the Met game" on the couch at 9 and my brother called. My parents answered that I was sleeping so he should tak to me later. It has been said that I protested that I wasn't sleeping and that I was still watching the game. Alas, I have absolutely no recollection of this.

The one part that sucked was time spent in the airport. We knew that our flight was delayed to 11 pm from 9, so we left an hour later for the airport. When we got there, we were given clear plastic baggies like everyone else traveling to London and told that our flight would now be leaving at 2 am. Woohoo. We sat around the airport for a while and then went through security at like 10 to go to our gate. FYI, the seats at JFK are not conducive to sleeping. But the plane that we are taking gets into the gate at 12 and we leave around 12:30, flight goes swimmingly. (Virgin Atlantic is awesome, all entertainment is on demand!) Coming back is a different story. We get to Heathrow under 3 hours before (my parents' fault), since we were told that everything was much better than before, in fact, we were even allowed carry ons, although reduced in size. (so no tampons in a clear baggie) We're standing in line to check in for you know, only like 2 hours. Then we had to go through security. We walk to the area. The line is through all of the shopping areas, food areas and out to the parking garage. Our flight leaves in 30 min. (It was delayed half an hour but we didn't find that out until we got to the gate). The line is moving, and there are people calling out flight times. "11:35" "11:45" Ok. Our flight is at 11:55 so they'll call us soon and then we can just skip ahead. At this point they stop calling out times. We finally get up to where we can see the metal detectors. By this time we have less than 15 min and there's still a snaking line. We literally had our shoes off and threw everything into the metal detector, pick it up on the other side and run. We make it to the gate at 11:53. And then the flight is delayed 30 minutes so it turns out ok, although they start to board just after we have time to catch our breaths. And of course, I get to sit in the row with the screaming baby!! His parents were really trying to calm him, but he was a little guy and his ears probably hurt. Still, 6 hours of a screaming baby on a 7 hour flight is a bit much.

We got home safely and in time to listen to the '86 Mets reunion.

Anyone going to London I suggest a pub walk. Here is my half pint of Young's Waggledance:



And the after shot of my first ever pint:

London or Bust??

Sooooo as of right now I'm still going. . .although my mom is ready to cancel so we'll see whether or not we actually go. If she does decide against it I'm putting up a hissy fit for myself to go. And if not I'll be able to spend a week with my parents! What joy!!!!! If not, then I'll be able to walk through Heathrow with a clear plastic bag full of tampons! Yay!!

Why Does MLB.com Hate Me?

It's Mike Piazza's big return to Shea tonight; I've honestly been looking forward to this for like a month. If I could, I'd be in Queens cheering for him as he saunters up to bat. Alas, I am in Baltimore and MLB.com hates me. Every big game so far my computer has refused to play the games streaming on internet radio on Windows Media Player. I am about to write an angry letter to MLB yelling at them for this problem. Right now, I can't even try to listen to it as I have "logged in too many times. Try back later" popping up each time I do. Soooooooo angry. At least I have Phish Food to drown my sorrows in.

I got to go to the SEM (scanning electron microscope for you non-sciencey types). This is what nanowires look like:



Soooooooooooooo cool. Definitely the coolest toy I've ever gotten to played with.

Not Depressing

After dropping Barry off at the airport last week, Laura and I took a detour to the Baltimore Cupcake Factory:



YUM- and it had pink frosting and sprinkles! I think it's the best cupcake ever. Other than the others I've had from there of course.

End of an Era

Ok, so Lukasz, I'm giving in and writing a blog. Ha, now we'll see if you can find it.

I decided that I need some sort of outlet for all of my obsessing because I never actually write in my journal and as we all know, my generation is all about projecting themselves and sharing their lives with the entire world. I'm just giving in to peer pressure! Now everyone will know how much I obsess over stuff, although I never show it.

My summer: food, Spoons, bike rides, jdates, cupcakes, adventures, good times all around.

It's hard to believe that this will be my last summer vacation ever. Everyone keeps asking what I'm planning on doing next year but I reallly only have one option: work. Unfortunately, dear old Johnnh Hop was not conducive to allowing me more options. I'll be off working next summer. Who knows where or doing what. Hopefully on the east coast. I think I would miss family and friends too much if I moved too far, although I could always go to LA. It's scary. For years you get asked that question, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" Well, I'm grown up now! I know what I would like to do, who knows if I'll be able to. Life is filled with so much uncertainty at this point, it's amazing how much only a year makes. Last year all the uncertainty was about being an upperclassman, now it's about graduating, and finding a job, and a place to live, and staying in touch with everyone I love so much and finding a mate. There's a transition from being able to live from test to test, or class to class to determining my future so that I'm not left broke and at home sleeping in my old lavendar room.

This summer has been so much fun, it just slipped by. I really have enjoyed living in Baltimore and becoming a sort of transplanted local this summer. There's still so many more things that I would like to do but I know that unless I live around here next year I'll probably never get to do them. That's what scares me, leaving exciting adventures unexplored. At least we went to Ocean City. That was a blast. And I have the slighlty pink skin to prove it. The next time I take a vacation like that I'll have to worry about work and how I'm spending my own money- not my parents. I know- I'm a spoiled college kid.

I read some excellent beach trash yesterday. It's called "Dumping Billy". A guy, of course a good looking, successful one that comes off as an arrogant jerk dates every girl in Brooklyn. The interesting part is that after he dumps them, they all wind up married to the next guy they date. If only it were that easy. I've had my summer of fun, I'm leaving any more to next summer. Maybe I won't end up an old maid.

I know this is depressing, but the next posts should be better.