K. Haire

I will get this thing off of the ground. I will!

I cannot express how happy I am that Obama has won. I can't believe that people that much sense, to vote in someone who really represents a different era for America and put that much Hope in him.
For the first time, I feel pretty hopeful about what could become of America.

His speech was amazing, if you haven't heard it. I put a link [here].

This week has been insane. In a nutshell, the Phillies won the world series, there was mass rioting on Broad Street all Halloween weekend. Josh and Steve came to visit me, and we had a grand time! We went to a lot of parties and saw many friends. Vicki also came from State College to stay the weekend. The parties we went to were neverending- and I don't think I've ever eaten so much! We had great food all weekend, which I definitely appreciated.

Last night, there was a riot last night for Obama's victory. We drank wine and walked around Broad Street cheering for Obama. People have been commenting on the pins on my jacket.

I am filled with hope! Yes we can!

click to see the letter full-size

So I'm going to Philly tomorrow. I guess we have to finish up some stuff in the apartment. Hopefully we have some hot water and lights over there! I'm pretty excited to be back in the city for the weekend, even if it will be some work. Can't be worse than last time!

Today was the 4 way harry potter capture the flag at camp! Ravenclaw (my team) came in 2nd to Gryffindor...but they cheated so we know that we really won. it was fun getting all dressed up in blue and painting our bodies and such for the big game. Next year I think I'm going to make tank tops though because i was so hot in the t-shirt that i made.

After camp we decided that since we were covered in tons of paint, glitter, etc we should jump in the lake and wash off. It was very refreshing. I was so hot after the game because Ravenclaws had the soccer field as base and I did defense along with Stacey and Trish...therefore we baked in the sun all day and that was not funnn!

I had to work at Starubucks today, but I got really sick and had to come home. Consequently some people are mad.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers last night were amazing!

It was such a good show. There were less people than last year, but the Firecracker Jazz Band didn't open for them this time.

Before the show we had dinner at this posh restaurant. Our waiter was a bitch. I normally tip well, but I only gave him $12. That just shows you how much our bill was.

I stole a red rose from the bathroom to put in my hair. It was worth it.

Some highlights from the evening:

1) Aunt Lorraine. Enough said. More on that later.

2) Before they started playing, me, mom, lisa, and aunt lorraine were sitting on the side of the room where they had chairs. All of a sudden I see Katharine Whalen and Jimbo (the 2 front-runners of SNZ) walk through the room, past the stage, and onto the balcony outside. It overlooks the ocean. This surprised me, because last year they had no interaction with the audience and came and went with the performance, giving no time for anyone to talk to them. I grab my camera and head outside where they take a picture with Lisa and me! Katharine said that we "both looked beautiful" and I told her that her dress was cute. I bashfully exited the situation, only slightly star-struck at meeting and greeting with my favorite band's lead singers/guitarist/ukeleleist/ etc.

3) Concert starts! Lisa and I dance. I have huge red heels on, which would normally not be a problem except I can't dance and I can't wear heels. Hilarity ensues. Lisa and I decide to just stand in front of the stage like last year and dance in place.

4) The place is HOPPIN! Such a good show, I couldn't sit still for the whole 2 hours they played. From dancing, no AC, and the amount of people it is roughly 200 degrees in this room. We were really sweaty, which is not good news for red lipstick.

The encore consisted of the band members each grabbing an instrument and standing in a circle playing on the dance floor. People took turns going in it and dancing. I dragged Aunt Lorraine (who, ps, turns 89 next week!) into the middle to dance with me. She said she's wobbly but we just attributed that to the scotch and not her age. The band was super impressed and commented on this after the show.

5) After the show I snagged a set-list, and headed out back on the aforementioned balcony because I was HOT! Then, who comes out to see Lisa and I but JIMBO! He lights up a cigarette and we talk about how the show went. But, then we were distracted by our old acquaintance from last year Henry Westmoreland (the baritone saxophonist) who talked to us about various things like the difference between the North and South-

Him: "it's like...you guys put the emphasis on the first syllable- 'we're goin' to a weeeeee-ding.'"  
Me: "Well, then what do you guys say?"
Him: "We're goin' to a Wedd-in'!"

Notice how, because he's from the South, I feel like he automatically had to make a church reference. Anyway we talked to him for a bit and then he headed back inside to find us a poster or something.

6) While we were waiting for him I started up a conversation with the fiddler for the group, who's name is Gabriel Pelli. This is when it starts to get weird. Not him, the situation. He was very nice.

I asked him why he wasn't at the show last year. He said that he was touring with his other band. When I asked him what his other band was,  he said The Old Ceremony. Then I almost died.

The Old Ceremony is a band started by a guy named Django who looks and sounds like he just stepped out of a Wes Anderson movie. He is super cool and taught at National Guitar Workshop for the entire duration that I attended NGW, which some of you may remember, is roughly 7 years or so. He used to live in China and speaks Mandarin. True Story.

Anyway, this guy, Gabriel, is the violinist for The Old Ceremony! He was super surprised and impressed when I told him that I knew Django and that The Old Ceremony is one of my favorite bands as well. He said that they'll be in Philly soon - but sadly not while I'm there. Still, apparently their band has opened for the SNZ many times. What a show that would be!

7) I later find out that while all this is going on, Jimbo has been talking to my Great Aunt Lorraine for roughly 12 minutes. She asked him about where he's from ("Born and raised Mississippi, Ma'am!") and some other stuff. I can't recite, because I  wasn't there. The main point of this is that he Planted One on her face. A good one. Now she can say she's been kissed by Jimbo AND Count Basie. What a life. He also said he liked her dancing!

8) Lisa and I are walking with Gabriel towards the back (because through all this the band is trying to bring their stuff out to the van or bus or whatever.) Aunt Lorraine stops him and tells him that he's the most talented violinist, and that he's the best member of the band, etc. She asks him where he's from, to which he responds "Well I was born in Zurich, Switzerland but moved to NC in '85."

I seriously can't figure out how old this guy is. I thought he was like 25 so that makes no sense in my mind. Unless his parents brought him over here when he was really little. Anyway I digress.

Aunt Lorraine goes on to talk about how she thought he was from Russia because he plays so well, etc. She might be slightly racist because she's 89. I'll let it slide. So did he.

He walks out with us and hands us 2 green posters from this year's concert. I told him how Lisa and I had stolen the one's last year from the elevator and that's why we thought that they didn't hang any this year - due to our theft. He laughed and said "probably not."

10) He later asked us to go swimming with the band after they had packed everything up. I would have loved to stay but knew that I had to drive home with my mom and aunt lorraine. Lisa was taking her car back up to  Boston.

I told aunt lorraine about this invitation while we were waiting in the lobby to go home.

"Go!" she said

"No, we have to go home."

"Why don't you wanna go? Are you wearing underwear?"

..."yes aunt lorraine, I'm wearing underwear."

"Well I've got on some nice matching black lace underwear and bra if you wanna borrow them to go swimming!"

AHHH

"Aunt lorraine!!! We're not going swimming! We have go to home."

She said, "Man if I were 20 years younger...damnit!"

--

So I decided that next year I'll be bringing my own car. This is the second year in a row that Lisa and I have been asked to hang out with the band after the show, and every year we can't do it. Next year this is going to be a 2 day event!

i saw someone stuff a dog in a trunk today

Wow, I worked with someone so rude today at starbucks, I seriously considered walking out and telling her to close up herself.

She isnt somone who normally works there, but instead was covering a shift supervisor position for emily at my store.

Closing with Emily is awesome- closing with this girl was not.

She basically corrected me 500 times in the 4 hour period I was there, and then continued to clean, polish, and restock the store as if it was her own. She kept telling me that everything was "policy" and that our store seems too lax on everything.

She grilled me about how strict our store is on dress code and other protocol, and I felt really weird talking about how we're more focused on customer service and being friendly to people rather than if we add one pump too much syrup in a drink, (which, by the way, I did one time and was promptly corrected.)

The annoying thing was that she was rude while she corrected me as well. Jen who briefly was our pre-closer was also annoyed at her. She never said "please" or even gave a hint of being nice. One time I gave her a look and she said "sorry." thats all i got out of her on the way of being nice.

We didnt talk much all night, but in the 10 minutes we did talk I learned from her that she was accepted to Juliard for music comp but decided not to go, and instead goes to ccsu for pre-law.

She also informed me that because she worked at another coffee shop before starbucks, she already knew how to make the drinks when she switched jobs to starbucks.

"All I had to learn," she said, "was the amount of syrup pumps in each drink. Within a week I was like, making drinks faster than people who had been there for a year and then I got promoted right away. Like, within a week."

Great. Thanks, I really cared about your success in making coffee.

She was so bitchy I can't even begin to tell you how frustrated I was at being corrected and patronized every 2 seconds by this cocky asshole. Jen can vouch for me, since she had to pre-close for her with me there.

Emily owes me big time.

All I want to do right now is play guitar-
and that hasn't been a desire of mine for a while now.

moved into new apartment.

day 9 of working non stop

pretty tired

apartment looks good

camp tomorrow - early.

lisa leaves thursday :(

I want someone to explain to me why the dumbass i chose to rent to after me has pictures of himself in my house
hes posting pictures of my room in philly (WITH MY STUFF STILL IN IT) on facebook
hes posting pics of the OUTSIDE OF THE APARTMENT on facebook. mind you, its not in the safest of neighborhoods
he has PICTURES OF HIMSELF DRINKING IN My KITCHEN, LIVINGROOM, ETC
with people i dont even know
meanwhile my room is unlocked and a lot of my stuff is still in my room.

oh and the best part is, HE ISNT MOVED IN THIS MONTH
his rent starts in july.

im so fucking pissed off . im calling andrew my room mate tomorrow and reaming him out.
theres no reason for this.

fuck!

now i cant sleep becaus eim all pissed off

There's something about the soap in the downstairs bathroom that reminds me of a cheap makeup kit I had as a child. My friends and I would put the makeup on, like royal blue for the eyes - sometimes emerald green. We probably looked like 8 year old hookers.

Eventually I had to stop playing makeover games with my friends, as the skin condition became an issue. This has impacted me so much, in so many small ways, it's hard to even count. It isn't about playing makeover - that stops anyway. It's about other things - confidence, questions, and appearance.

For years I have been trying to come up with a reason as to how to curb this. They say that one contributor to it is stress.

When I am home it is the worst.

I've discovered that I am one of those writers who will change their font, layout, size, etc. of their paper before beginning to write. I don't write these entries in the livejournal box, instead I use a program called writeroom which tries really hard to keep from distracting you while you're writing something. It blocks out your whole screen.

The flaw is that the program is so customizable, you can play around with the different font and color options for hours and no one will even know that you did this...because after all, you just copy and paste it into the livejournal box.

Camp training has started. I'm excited about it, although some of the workers seem a little jaded from years past, and weirdly enough they're the younger ones. My unit is interesting, and I'm curious to see how it will all turn out. We've been learning games to play with the kids, and I've been trying to remember a lot of new information such as where to go and who to see, etc.

We've had training every day this week from 3pm-8pm and it's been relatively quiet. Still, I feel tired when I get back home. I'm not really sleeping well lately. I'm tired during the day and then awake at night, or now.

Good news, though - I got the group of kids I wanted for camp! The Pioneer group is entering 6th grade. Pretty exciting time.

Tomorrow at training we're going over the procedure for lake search. I've been wearing my bathing suit like..everyday waiting for this. I guess tomorrow, the last day of training, we're finally gonna do it. jeez!

Oh tomorrow is also when we learn about sexual harassment. Can't wait.