As the lightning bugs gradually burn out

There are only four more full days of summer left for me. This summer has been the longest I've ever experienced. May 15th to September 1st is a hell of a long time to be cut off from the learning process. Summer used to be my favorite time of year. It meant no more math or science classes and I could frequent the Larchmont Swim club as often as I wanted. All I'd have to do is walk next door and get Sarah and Ayah, and after a few years, Farris, and we'd be ready to walk half a mile to the pool. The summer was more than just no school and adequate pool, however. It was lightning bugs and rollerblades and carnival shows and soccer between our two houses and burning leaves with magnifying glasses and that crazy Mr. Softee jingle. It isn't really as special anymore but I don't think it'll ever lose it's magic.
ANYWHOO, I have four days left before I leave for school. Most of my friends from the Laurel bush have gone back to their respective colleges. Last night we bid Chrissy farewell, even though she's commuting to her Moore College of Art and Design in Fill-uh. We sipped Chai Tea lattes with a new friend outside of the Starbucks as the sun fell and the bugs came about. It's fun that she's not living on campus this year, but she'll still be 30 minutes away from us now that she moved :/ So all that's left to skeedaddle is Leigh-Ann, Jill and I. If you were curious about my packing skillz,...well I'm not very good at it. Some of the essentials I need to take with me (contact solution, shaving cream, q-tips) are chillin' on my dresser right now waiting for me to find a nice box to shove them in. They're going to have to wait a tad longer though cause I'm in the process of figuring out the clothes I would be willing to pack. I made a promise to myself a few days ago. I promised that I wouldn't bring as much shit as I had last year. I over compensated and it wasn't good. This year, I'll leave a lot home and if Mama T has to come bring me shit the next weekend, then that would make for a better situation. And good news, I organized all of my art supplies so now that's out of the way :)
In other news, I'm not bringing my television. Not right away at least. See, a few weeks ago I found out where I was living. I was placed in a suite with a roommate I've never met before but she lived in my building last year. I'm always open for new experiences and meeting new people. But I have no idea who the other 4 girls in the suite will be. They are unknown. EXCITING! Except I don't know if these girls plan on bringing stuff like a common room tv. Who knows, but I'm very much considering switching to the Maxey/Sam/Dana/Jess/Julie suite after two weeks like I had originally planned from the beginning. I'll see how it goes in this suite with new people. I like the idea that I have a room and I'm not going to have to pitch a tent under a tree.
It's the nicest weather right now. The windows are open and my swirly closet curtain is fluttering. It feels like it could be 75 degrees. I'm officially in love... with the weather. bahaha

RECAP!
-Number of times I watched Into the Wild this summer(not necessarily in its entirety): 23.
-Number of micron and sharpies to art with: 6.
-Number of beach trips: 3... fuck that. I'm not happy about it.
-Number of new bedrooms: 1.
-Collages created: 4.
-Hair in inches: I don't know, but it's getting longggg!
-Books read: 6.
-Days off from school: 109?
-Friends: Yup. I got 'em. And I love 'em!

I will write another entry before my departure on Tuesday morning. Until then, I'm going to be packing and singing/dancing/gyrating along to Girl Talk. buhhhbye.

<3 Thank you for being a friend.

Wet Hot American Summer

I can't sleep. I want to sleep, but right now there is a storm a-hatchin'. Actually, the storm's been hatched. It's in it's full on chicken stage now almost to the part where the bird runs around aimlessly without a head. Loud ass lightning and bright ass thunder. I like it but I kind of want to go to sleep without being jolted awake every twenty-eight seconds. Regardless, it's beautiful. The after shock makes my tiny red townhouse feel like it's going to rumble right on off of it's foundation and slide down the forty-five degree angle that is my driveway right on into the black river of pavement. Then it'll float to the stop sign at the end of the street before signaling left onto Larchmont Boulevard. All the while, the storm will continue to scramble around headless, screaming and painting the sky white with it's electric blood.

There was a farewell Jillparty/JessHock birthday party tonight. Dancing to oldies, newsies and in-betweensies. At one point, once the partaay stopped being wicked, we popped in Wet Hot American Summer and Stina couldn't stop laughing at Paul Rudd's jerkoff acting. She actually couldn't stop laughing at all, but that might not have been from the movie and it may have just been a lot of Mango Juice. My Shannon friend was there except she couldn't drink anything cause her face was swollen from that time she had her wisdom teeth taken out like two days ago. But she was still adorable and made cake with thick sprinkles and she took lots of pictures of me looking like a hot mess. I made a card for Jess that had a magazine cutout of a woman holding a 1st place ribboned pie that I stuck on top of a magazine cutout of a salty cracker. At the top of the card, I wrote "Jessica, I hope your birthday is a winner. Love, Kimberly" She really enjoyed the message and for that, I am glad. The main reason for the party though was because Kelsey and JessHock leave for their caledges on Sunday. That's tomorrow. In a little over twenty-four hours, two of my girls will be thrown back into their other lives. Where they read for pleasure, but more for assignment. Where they begin their second year of a higher education, leaving only two more full years before life. Besides Leigh-Ann cause her school starts in the middle of September, everyone including myself will be going back to school within the next two weeks. I'm excited but now I'm going to miss home! Remember that time I wanted to stay at school forever? I kind of like home right now BUT STILL I want to be surrounded by good people at FDU and I need to start learning again. I'm happy. But nervous.

The storm has died down. Maybe the chicken has bled out and that's why the storm stopped yelling. This is a prime opportunity to sleep. My stomach doesn't feel too hot right now, what with all these "see-ya" hugs and red Solo cups. I will head to bed :) but I will definitely write more before I quit summer.

One flew over the mockingbird's cradle and into the heart of a nation

The most creative task I've done in the past two weeks? Paint and then repaint my nails. Well that was before yesterday of course. I've been lacking the inspiration I need to think outside of the box. It's not like I haven't picked up my sharpie or my 2B pencil, it's just every time I do that, I end up drawing nothing worth my time and I just feel like throwing it away. I'm not interested in drawing still life anymore. Goodbye fruit and flower arrangements....hello everything else! But about the inspiration, yeah. The Philadelphia trip was more or less a concrete way to get me in that artsy mood once again. Yesterday, the Sandra, the Miguel, the Miguel's friend Wendell and I all found ourselves in the hustle and bustle of Philly. I was not expecting to go into the day meeting so many new people. I'd have to say everything about yesterday (besides almost getting hit by a car on multiple occasions and the $36 parking ticket) was premium. Remember when I said a longggg time ago that what I was most excited for in the coming years was human interaction? Well I sure as hell got what I wanted :)

So after introducing myself to Wendell, the four of us cruised up and down South Street bopping from thrift store to outlandish thrift store. While bopping, we found some pretty satisfactory bumper stickers that related mostly to the lack of Jesus' approval in certain situations as well as Girl Power! We saw lots of good stuff, like bikes (I NEED A BANANA SEAT BIKE ASAP) and $3 shoes that were probably clogged with athlete's foot....I'm just sayin'. And on our travels, there were too many (is that possible?) dreadlocked men. I'm not complaining though...just sayin'. Wanna know the best part? Miguel and Wendell were hit on by two lovely ladies working the street. BAHAHA! Just kidding. The 18 year olds weren't working the street, but they were named Barbie and Caramel and they definitely wanted the two boys, fo sho. But for about 15 minutes, the six of us exchanged everything save for our social security numbers! I'm happy that the Barbie/Caramel interaction happened, but I'm more happy that they thought Miguel was 23! hahahahaha, oh man.

We went into stupid places to get tattoos and then the "boy shop." Nothing was purchased from the squishy store besides a ridiculously unnecessary bumper sticker. And no body art was performed though Sandra wanted her lip tattooed. After we were done there, or maybe before, we had another super sonic meeting. Two really cool guys came up to us to tell us that if Outkast and TV on the Radio produced an offspring, that the man standing in front of us would be the result! They describe themselves as folk-hop and are strongly influenced by Biggie and Bob Dylan. wth...that's awesome! It was more awesome when the blondish guy thought Sandra's name was Zelda and he then proceeded to grab her shoulders and yell "I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU ALL MY LIFE!" :) it was the greatest moment in a long time. The singers are called Lee G & Delon. It's like rappy but there are sweet ass beats in the background, and sweet baby jesus, they included Joanna Newsom on three different tracks. Normally rap isn't my cup o' tea, but it isn't purely rap. It's like happy rap that I can understand! So after Joanna's weird voice appeared in the background, they had us sold at that point plus Lee G (who reminds me sooo much of someone, just can't fuckin place it!) is very familiar with Sandra's Buddy Wakefield. We bought the cd and listened to it for a while. They were very awesome people and I TOTES wouldn't mind attending a show of Lee G & Delon's. Plus, they're pretty local and that's greattttt.

More meetings! YES. Well, we went to Art Museum to pay tribute to Rocky's steps and take photographs. Wendell and Miguel showed off in front of the ladies to see who could climb to the top of the huge fountain across the street. Wendell can, and he can also make a fool of himself pretending to blow the statue. :/ There were some skateboarding boys and some foreign ladies in green jeans who thought when we asked them to take a picture of how cute we all are together, that they could take ten minutes to find the right angle and background for us! It was adorable, however. And then after that, we went to these bitchin' sculpture thingers that were massive monopoly pieces and falling dominos! THIS WAS THE BEST INTERACTION!.... okay so there were a gaggle of young children near our picture taking extravaganza. About six miniature people all under the age of 5 I would say. A precious little girl, I'm sure she's just learning to walk, smiled and gave me the cutest googly eyes. Her brother, or friend, a very young one was playing with little army men. When I was squatting down (number 1 mistake) he let the army men cascade down from my shoulder to my arm to my hand to my kneecap to the pavement. So I would take the army men and do the same to him, just to be friendly, ya know? That was all fine. Until he started staring at my shirt, and what happened to be filling my shirt at the moment. He began stuffing the little plastic men with automatic guns down his shirt, still while keeping one hell of a gaze at my goods. Guess what he tried to get me to do next? Ohhh, that's right, stuff the army men down my shirt too. :/ So his mom told him he was "fresh" and I reassured her that it should be comforting that he acts this way, in about 15 years, the kid'll be set! She didn't really care for that...but it's not like I really give a shit...I mean her kid was trying to feel me up! And he couldn't have been more than 2 and a half. But the precious young thang who is just learning how to take steps makes an appearance again in this whole interaction deal. She had a fork wrapped in plastic, probably from some fast food joint and she was chewing on the plastic. And as she did this she started waddling on over to me. So I held out my hand in an attempt to free her from her plastic restraint. Instead, the penguin found it's way over to my outstretched hand and licked my palm. So basically in a matter of about 10 minutes, a 2 year old tried to touch my boobs and a 10 month old licked me. And as they were all departing, the frisky boy shook my hand, but didn't really care to look me in the eyes....I think you probably know where he was looking.

That pretty much was the day. All of the interactions that I had with new people, even if I didn't get their names. I met peers, artists, babies, the homeless, the wealthy, the bronze (shout out to you Rockyyy). It was great and not even thirty minutes from home. I'm excited to meet more people! This weekend coming up should be premium for multiple reasons, but mostly because it's the Punk Rock Flea Market. That means Philadelphia again, and cool things to buy and friends and love and sunglasses and earrings and love and friends and fun and fleas. Can't wait. I'll update about the goodness probs on Monday. And there better be something good worth blaaging about. If you get ma drift :)

ooh, I never told y'all what I did with my inspiration. Well when the four of us were boppin and hoppin through weird stores, I picked up some awesome fliers/postcard/advertisements and such. And they're above my door frame. There is a cow that I cut out from the tattoo place, a kid that looks like his face was made into a rug, flowery things and stupid things all above my door. No biggie, but it's something new in my room. And that's what counts.

Would you see then, what I see now?

I woke up from a nap an hour and 32 minutes ago. My body still hasn't adjusted to being awake from the 45 minute slumber that consumed me. Sure, my right arm has stopped tingling from being shoved under my body without room to breathe, but that's only because I haven't stopped moving it since I woke up. Either way, I have a feeling I'm becoming dependent on the semi unconscious world of sleep. Last night, it took an hour and a half after I layed down to actually fall into sleep, until there was some yelling in the house that shook me awake for another 2 hours. I was three inches from pretending I had back pain so I could take some p.m. medicine and call it a day. Or night, rather. There were many things that created an unpleasant atmosphere for me last night, but the only thing that matters is my brain activity. Putting aside the humidity of my room and the mattress pad that won't stop spilling me off the edge of the bed along with it's down feathered innards, I was completely racked with ideas. I like it, but only during the day, please. Not when I'm trying to rest. That's why I've been frequenting the napping scenario so much this summer. My brain tells me that it's better to consider the happenings of that day rather than who to meet in my dreams.

As the sun was setting last night, the sky turned magical. All day, we were stuck with the drab gray sky. Maybe a slight hint of dark gray came about every once and a while when a storm threatened to explode. It wasn't until about eight thirty that the gray went away and the sky worked up the most intense orange I'd ever seen. A bright orange that turned the green grass into an illuminated brown. It turned the red car across the street into a fire engine. The newly paved road separating my townhouse from the ones across the way glittered with the orange lava burst. Even the kids running around in sandals throwing hula hoops into the air glowed as the surreal light made it's way onto their tiny cheeks. But as time continued and the sun was making room for the moon, there had still been some dark blue and gray storm clouds that forgot to vanish. So as this synthetic orange color blew up the sky and mixed with the blue clouds, I couldn't help but to compare what I was seeing to a bruise. I was looking up at the world's largest kneecap with the biggest Oowwiiee known to man! Maybe the kneecap hit into one of those damn corners of the table, and what I was seeing in the sky was the result. A tie dyed contusion of the healing process every great bruise endures. And as I looked up from my bedroom window, I got to see first hand. It was pure and beautiful. For the 12 minutes it stayed, anyway.

I miss my roomie. It's been 26 days since I've seen her. I wish we were rooming together next year. She'll pretty much no matter what happens, always be my roomie. Even in 30 years when we meet up in her trailer park neighborhood, with Gretta and Babs for our monthly book discussion, I'll still refer to her as Roomie. And when her children get knocked up and have babies, I'll tell them how great 2008 and 2009 were when we paraded down the hallway in our bras and underwear (Oh wait..that didn't happen!) or smacked the ceiling with all our power to let our upstairs neighbors know that it's not proper etiquette to have bowling tournaments in their dorm room at 3 in the morning. (that definitely happened!). She's probably the most well rounded person I've ever known, mostly because she doesn't exercise (i keed i keed. you are jacked!) but she also knows who she is and I love that. SAMantha ya friggin dork! You smell like a turnip bulb <3