Yesterday I got back from Pittsburgh. I had a really good time. Played a lot of Parcheesi and Texas Hold Em and Uno. Let's see....tons of shopping. We went garage sale-ing too. And it was actually kinda cold, which is odd for July, I guess. Sunday I took everyone to the Pirates (that's baseball for all you living in a sports cave) game, and PNC Park (where the Pirates play) is beautiful! And the Pirates won. It was a great time. And I had a Primanti Bros sandwich, which is apparently a Pittsburgh trademark. They put french fries in the sandwich. Later that day we went to a Fountains of Wayne concert at Hartwood Acres. They were alright, but their opening act sucked. We still had a really good time though. I spent a majority of the time walking around with Karen looking for her friend. I saw Marissa Burdett there. That was very strange. You guys have no idea what I'm talking about, but I don't care. She's 14 now...I didn't even recognize her. She doesnt really remember me, but I would not exactly expect her to. Tuesday night my Aunt Pam held a band parents meeting at their house. Mrs. Burdett was there because Justin is a trumpet player. She wanted to see me, so I made a short appearance in the living room and was introduced by my aunt before the rest of us went out for ice cream. Shortly after we got back, the meeting ended, and Mrs. Burdett came to talk to me a little. It's a weird feeling, hard to describe. It was extremely nice to talk to her again. I tried to find her and her husband at the concert, because I knew they were there, but there were hundreds of people there. It's just weird. Sometimes I feel like I have two lives, because everything in Pittsburgh is the same. No one moves. No one is forgotten. Nothing changes. It's like a time capsule from when I was four, except the children have grown. It's honestly sometimes painful to go back. I was very close to asking my aunt to drive me over to cashley court to see my old house, but I could not bring myself to do it. But it was nice to catch up with Mrs Burdett. She asked me what I was planning on doing after high school, and I told her I was still shooting for veterinary medicine and she was not surprised in the least. She just kinda went oh yes, that's you. That's always been you, since you were three years old. It was nice to have someone so familiar. That family is like the only people outside of my family who have known me for so long that I actually have talked to. It's cool. I still have not seen justin for like 10 years though; he was at Penn State this week. I'm also applying to Penn State I think. I was sort of on the fence about it, but I think I have decided. I only have 4 other schools that I'm applying to, and it will be nice to have one more acceptance letter. That sounds a lot worse than how I meant it, but you know pretty much if you can get into a school or not. I can probably get some money from them too. We'll have to see. My mom says Penn State is a lot like UF except they get a lot of snow. Mrs Burdett told me that Justin was not even considering it until he went up this week for like a computer thing. Now she says he loves it. We'll have to see how the cards play out, but it will atleast be good to keep my options open. Anyway...back to my trip. Saturday was the family reunion, and that was one of my favorite parts of my visit. Not many people came, but we all had a good time. I cannot say that I had ever really had a real conversation with my cousin (sort of) Paul, but he's a cool guy. He's just 8 years older than me, exactly...I found out last weekend that he and I share a birthday, so there has not been much over the years that we have had in common, but now I have grown up, and he has not. He, myself, and Karen went into the kitchen and had about an hour discussion mostly about Harry Potter, as well as spiderman and passion of the christ. It was nice to have a good discussion about Harry Potter, since not many of my friends have read it or are as big fans as I. And others who are....we just dont really talk about it that much. *shrug* But it was really a fun conversation. I'm writing this down now, so that I can get it recorded down as my own idea. I came up, during this conversation, that the reason that Petunia is such a bitch is that she was either rejected or expelled or something of the sort from Hogwarts. We were discussing the origin of the howler to petunia, I forget exactly what it said, it’s been a long time since I’ve read the book. But we sort of came to the consensus that the howler was from dumbledore. But then Paul brought up the point of petunia caring for and protecting harry. Why does she care? She does not seem to care that her sister and brother in law are dead. What connection does she have to harry that she did not share with lily? It’s an interesting query. So I guessed that she has some sort of bribe or something maybe? But I seriously think that she had her shot at magic and screwed it up somehow, which is why she was so infuriated and jealous at her parents’ pride when her sister got her letter. Or maybe she just comes from a magical family, which would explain why her parents even knew enough about hogwarts to be proud, and is a reject since she has no magical abilities? Who knows... Yeah. So anyway... I’m trying to think of other highlights of the trip. We watched a lot of movies. Bennie and Joon, Spiderman 2, Bowling for Columbine (sorry Gary!), Forest Gump, and I think that was it. We never got around to seeing Rounders. We spent a good deal of time watching family guy, though, which is just great. I think we watched When You Wish Upon a Weinstein like 12 times. Hilarious, but soooo politically incorrect. Let’s see....what else...I can’t really think of anything else to write about. It was just generally fun to hang out up there. Hopefully sometime soon they can come down, since they havent been down here since 1994. We’ll see.

I can’t believe that this summer is almost over. Like normally it’s the usual “oh, the summer was too short, I still dont want to go back to school, blah blah blah” but seriously, this was NOT two months!! I am like in denial here or something. I refuse to believe that band came is next week. That’s just rediculous. It’s a cocoustic travesty!! (dont ask) I have one more summer thing left, which is the Dave Matthews concert Saturday, which I am TOTALLY psyched for, but the next day I have to go to band camp. I mean seriously...what the hell. I am going through all the stages of back to school denial though. I ignored its impendingness at first, now I’m just pissed about it.

Oh, and while I am thinking about it, my mom greeted me at the airport with some interesting news. Palm Beach County has passed a new thingy for high schools. The first and third Wednesday of every month, we go in at 10:30. How bout dem apples..

The schedule came today in the mail. It's incorrect, again, because of band. Band, in four years, has never been right on the first draft of my schedule. I have changed my schedule atleast once, probably atleast twice every year. I know it was twice or more the last two years, but freshman year is kinda fuzzy. So anyway, here's the schedule, as it sits now.

Tok -- Zappolo
French IV -- Youngman
English IV -- Timberlake
Chemistry III -- Dalsass
Calculus -- Will
Band -- Lerner
History of the Americas -- Ierace

Honestly, I kinda like a lot of the schedule as it sits. I like having band sixth hour, even though it doesn't exist, because then I could just leave school straight from there since I'm gonna be parking in the band lot. But oh well. I guess it's not really that big. I want to try to move ToK to sixth or seventh hour so that when I have my no class second semester it can just go right into the afternoon without really affecting my schedule. I could have a no class in the morning, but I'd honestly rather leave at 1:00 every other day rather than get there at 8:30 every day. Dont ask me why. I know it's an hour more sleep every morning, but...yeah, I dunno, it'd be nice to leave early instead. So anyway, that's how it stacks up. I would be asking everyone how their schedules match up, but it doesnt really matter since this will not be the schedule I follow on the 11th. Eh, C'est la vie.

Will is still in Europe. He finished up his classes in Avignon, and is now just touring Europe. Today I think he is in Florence, but tomorrow he leaves for Milan. Then he’ll jump around between Italy, France, Spain, and Switzerland before coming home August 9. I know I’ll retract this 2 hours after he gets home, but I kind of can’t wait for him to get back. Our relationship has improved a lot since we dont see each other 9 months out of the year. I recommend to every brother/sister relationship to kick one of them out of the house. It works out rather nicely.

Ok, folks, that’s all for now. I’ll probably post sometime this weekend letting you know how the concert and band meeting go, and then it’s off to senior year. This year better go as fast as they tell me it does. I am so psyched to get out of here. I can’t wait till college decisions come in, which doesnt happen until like april, but still. And I also know for the most part where I will and wont get in, and I havent even started my applications yet. I still also have to finish up the school work. Oops. Oh well, just blame it on senioritis. This is an extremely long post, better end it now. Over and out.

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