It's fun getting into trouble

You know, I thought that when I came to Vassar I would be very focused and do nothing but study all day and all night. However, that's not that case. I feel like at least half my time is devoted to having fun, and that isn't necessarily a good thing, considering that in the 2 months I've been at this institution, I've already managed to have to meet with the dean twice. Not once, but twice.

The first time was kind of my own fault. I got way too drunk at a party and had to go to the hospital. I ended up have a million different meetings with people ranging from doctors to counselors to the dean of students himself. I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed in my whole life. Not just with my serious lack of judgement, but with having to hang my head in shame while being lectured to by the person who I would only want to think that I'm a wonderful student.

The second time was just bullshit. Illegally downloading music? Come on now, who actually gets caught doing that. I didn't even know it was possible. Anyway, I cannot tell you how humiliating it was to meet with him for the second time. What was worse was the phone call home to my parents he had to make. My parents are paying a lot of money for me to go to this school, and I felt extremely guilty. Fortunately, my mother is a very forgiving person.

Anyway, I've come to this conclusion: You definitely need to have fun in college (and in life), but you need to have a happy medium between work and play. Too much of either one will result in serious consequences.

To be and not to be, are the same and not the same

Hello! I never blog anymore, and I feel kind of guilty about that (although I don't know why that should make me feel guilty).

So, Vassar is great, and I knew it would be. My classes are very interesting (and hard). I think my favorite class is Philosophy. I've never taken Philosophy before, so I'm being introduced to new concepts and ways of thinking on a daily basis.

I have my car which is very convenient for going places that I need to get to. It also seems to be convenient for everyone else considering the fact that since I've brought my car to Vassar I've become a regular chauffeur. I don't mind giving people rides at all. I just didn't think they'd be requesting them quite so frequently. Gas is expensive, and I think I'm gonna start charging for my taxi service.

Oh, and I'm running for class treasurer! I've never been on student council, so I think this could be an exciting new experience. So vote for John LaRosa!

College

I just wanted to say that I love Vassar and I'm really sorry that I never blog anymore.

My Apologies

So I feel really horrible (well, not THAT horrible) that I've gone so long w/o blogging. After all, I made a promise to all of you (and by "all of you" I mean the 2 or 3 people that read this) that I would be blogging very frequently this summer. But yeah, it just didn't work out like that. I was under the impression that this summer was going to be just like all my previous summers which means doing nothing but sleeping and relaxing. Turns out that this was a very eventful summer. I was extremely busy with my jobs of babysitting for my aunt and being a cashier at Panera. When I wasn't working (which was not very often), I tried to spend time with friends.

Anyway, to make up for such a long amount of time with no blogging, I'll make this an extra long post (you're welcome to stop reading here, if you'd like).

The Zoo!!

I like the zoo, but who doesn't? Probably people that don't like animals, and people who don't like animals tend to have undesirable personalities. But that's just my opinion. Of course, you may not like the zoo because you don't like to see cute little critters behind bars. That's understandable.

Anyway, I went to the zoo last month with my Auntie Anne. I enjoyed it very much because I haven't been there since I was a child. I love doing things that make me reminisce about the past.

Anyway, here's some pictures I took of the animals:

Big A, little a, what begins with A? Aunt Annie's Alligator A A A!

The Shore

I went to Wildwood, NJ last week with my family. I had a great time. I really love the beach and the rides at the boardwalk. But more importantly than all of that, I really love funnel cake, fried oreos, and fresh fries.

Other Random Stuff I did This Summer

I went to Dorney Park. High thrill rides=fun

I went tubing on the esopus with Maegan. It's always nice to spend time with your best friend, even when you're both worried about dying. One thing I've learned is that tubing on a river should be considered an extreme sport.

I had my graduation party. I didn't really want one, but I enjoyed getting to see certain members of my family that I haven't seen in years. I also raked in some serious dough which I will be blowing on a car to take with me to Vassar (I really don't want to have to be stuck on the college's grounds for the whole entire year despite the fact that Vassar is absolutely beautiful).

I went to some other people's grad parties. They were okay, I guess.

Oh, and one last thing: I had myself a little summer romance. Unfortunately, the whole thing turned out horribly, so I will not be discussing it at this time.

I'll be leaving for Vassar in 2 weeks. Excited? Hell yeah.

Let Freedom Ring

Happy Independence Day! Today marks the birth of the United States, when we were finally able to get away from those nasty British people with their crumpets and such. Haha, just kidding, I love English people, and I do enjoy a glass of some English tea every now and again.

Anyway, I just got back yesterday from my trip to Rochester. I have to say, I really enjoyed myself. I love spending time with my Aunt Anne and my cousins (minus Christopher) and Canidaguia lake is absolutely beautiful.

As I Go On

So, I am currently in Rochester visiting my Aunty Anne after a very eventful couple of days. Friday was my graduation, and though I was expecting to not be sad at all, I find myself emotionally distraught. Something about this whole thing seems so final. I feel as though I'm leaving my youth behind. I'm sure we all could agree that high school was often a real pain in the osh kosh bagosh, but, despite that, I had some of the best times in my life in that building, and I know in the future I will only look back at that school with fondness. I haven't even been a Middletown alumni for more than a couple of days, and I am already yearning for the past.

Friday night was the all night grad party. I don't know if you could exactly say the party was hoppin', but it was kind of fun and it was nice spending time with people that you more than likely will never see again (how depressing).

The actual graduation was decent. Of course I would have loved to graduate on the new field, but at least our graduation was memorable. Mother nature was very upset with us for some reason.

Thursday was the scholarship award thing. The food was very excellent, but they could have made the whole process of giving out the awards a bit quicker. Oh, and we had to evacuate the premises due to a gas leak? Good thing it's something we're more than familiar with.

Anyway, my dad got some nice pictures at the graduation:

(I love my mommy)

So , I guess I'm leaving something behind as I go out into the real world (or the protective bubble of my college.) But I think I'm gaining much more. Independence, freedom, etc. I'm anxious to learn everything I can and to continue to develop and grow. I look forward to making new friends and cherishing the old ones, but more importantly, I look forward to seeing what life has in store for me.

Babysitting

So, the one thing that may be worse than my job at Panera is babysitting my little cousins, Lauren and Christopher. Lauren is very well-behaved, but Chris is not. I would like to share a story with you of his abuse:

A couple years ago at my family's Easter get-together, I was sitting in my aunt's living room minding my own business when Chris decided to come in and bother me. However, this particular instance proved to be more unpleasant than the usual harassment I've grown accustomed to. He had this big long toy snake filled with these bean things (like the stuff they fill the beanie babies with?), and I guess he thought it would be fun to hit me in the face with it. After a few hits one of his friends was like "hey! let me have a whack!" and then THAT little devil started hitting me in the face, too! Anyway, I was very confused as to what I ever did to deserve such treatment, and I hastily retreated to one of the upstairs bedrooms to escape the whacking. But, the malevolent little tykes all ran up after me and started chucking hot wheels cars at me. I finally got away from them when I ran into the bathroom and locked myself in. I had to stay there for the majority of the remainder of the evening. I would have loved to retaliate, but it seems like every time I do I get yelled at by my aunt because he's younger than I am. He may be younger, but he still knows how to do horrible things to me with a bean filled snake. She thinks he's a precious gift from above, but I know that he is evil.

Anyway, I only bring this up because I am babysitting at this very moment. Fortunately, Chris is watching a show right now, so I have a moment of peace. If I survive the rest of the day, I'm going to go to Angie's going away party tonight. I hope she'll come back from Korea to visit.

Summery Goodness

I'm planning on finally starting to get back into writing more now that the long anticipated lazy months of summer have arrived.

So... how did I spend my first day of summer break? Doing nothing, of course! There's no better way to celebrate the end of a year marked by painstaking hard work then by spending half of the day sleeping and the other half of the day relaxing (yes, there is a big difference). Anyway, I'm looking forward to doing a lot of things outdoors this summer. It would be nice if this weather would improve a little bit. This perpetual cloudiness just isn't cutting it.

I haven't been blogging much about any significant events of my life, and I certainly don't feel like doing a major recap on the things that have taken place in the last few weeks. So, I suppose I'll just keep the memories to myself.

Graudation is coming up very soon. I'm very excited (and sad) for school to be officially over.

Expect to hear (or read) a lot from me this summer. I'm going to get very bored very quickly.

P-P-P-Poker Face

(they should change the title of the song to puppy face)

So, my sister came up to visit last weekend. She taught me how to play poker which was kind of fun even though I suck at it and I'm sure if I ever played for money I would be left without a penny to my name. Anyway, it reminded me of one of my favorite pictures of my puppy! Enjoy.

(5 more days left!!!!!)

A Night to Remember

Hello there!

I have an English term paper due tomorrow so I think I'll blog as an excuse to put off writing it.

Last Friday was prom and I can honestly say I enjoyed myself. In the days leading up to the event I had a sort of "lets just get it over with" attitude, but I actually ended up having a good time. The only thing that bothered me the whole night was that Nora and I kept being harassed by everyone we knew to dance more. I figured our friends would be proud that we even got on the dance floor, but, apparently not.

Anyway, going to prom reminded me that my days left at Middletown High School are very limited. I wish I could just enjoy the rest of my senior year, but since my teachers choose to keep giving me pointless work, that's not going to happen.

Grin and Bear it

I had a somewhat interesting week.

After APs were over, it was time for the NHS induction/graduation thing. It was a lot quicker than last year and I actually almost enjoyed it. One of my invited inspiring teachers gave me a 25$ gift card to borders which I thought to be a lovely gesture. I also got to see Mrs. Mac again! She was my 6th grade English teacher and she was probably one of the only nice people I encountered throughout those horrifying years of middle school. I was worried that she wouldn't remember me, but her enthusiasm suggested otherwise.

The dessert that they served afterwards was very excellent (especially the cream puffs). While I was rushing over to snatch me some eats, Claudia tried to hi-five me but hit me right in the nose. Being the fragile child that I am, my nose immediately started gushing out blood. Luckily, Alexis was there to help, and she seemed to know exactly how to handle the situation.

Yesterday, while I was working at Panera, I encountered the meanest customer I've had in the 5 months I've had this terrible job. She was rude, she kept complaining and yelling, and she even went as far as to insult me. I'm sorry, but if I'm being nice to you, you better be nice to me. Of course, I just had to smile at her, hand her the bagel, and tell her to have a nice day. I wish I had just a little bit more nerve. If I did, I would have jumped over that counter and shown her who's boss. Unfortunately, college is very expensive, and I need this job over the summer so I can save up my money.

Double Trouble

So I took the AP Biology and Physics Exams today. 8 hours of standardized testing. It was a very mentally exhausting day.

I felt kind of uncomfortable being in a little office all by myself taking the bio test with Ms. Degra watching me in a hawk-like manner. She kept saying things that made me feel slow like "fill in the name of the school. You go to Middletown High School. Make sure you write Middletown High School." I think anyone taking an advanced placement test knows the name of the school they go to and how to color in ovals. It also didn't help that she started eating at one point during the exam, either. There was only a desk separating her and myself, so I could hear her chewing which was just about enough to make me want to take my own life.

Anyway, now that those 2 AP tests are over, Physics and Bio should pretty much be free periods. I'm glad that my life is finally beginning to become less stressful as we approach the months of summer.

Heat Wave

Today was an absolute perfect day to lye around the house and do nothing at all. I woke up at about 10 AM, took a cool shower, and immediately went outside on my deck to avoid wasting a second of the gorgeous weather.

I felt very in tune with my environment today. My neighbor plucking a very peaceful tune on his mandolin was the perfect background noise to read a good book in. While I read in the shade, I enjoyed a glass of iced green tea while my puppy-panting feverishly at the intense heat-sat on my lap. I felt very guilty that I hadn't gone to church when I heard the bells chime, but it almost seemed like more of a sin to sit in a stuffy building on such a glorious day.

I did get some things accomplished: I went to the coin drop for the national honor society and then went to work. (I love to see everything in bloom)

I still think the highlight of my day was the time I set aside to be lazy and lounge about.

Bursting in Bloom, All the Flowers Assume...

the nice weather is finally back! Stress has been getting the best of me lately, so perhaps tomorrow I'll go out in the near 90 degree weather and try to relax and renew.

Not many interesting things happened this week. At my job (which at this point I absolutely can't stand) I burnt some cinnamon rolls because I forgot to take them out of the oven. What a surprise? I'm always screwing things up. So, I got yelled at again by the new bitch manager, Melanie. If I can find another job, I'll be saying sayonara to panera. Before I leave, I'll tell Melanie where she can put that French Baguette.

There was a crow with a broken wing walking around our yard. We couldn't let scrappy outside because we were worried that she would try to attack the crow but the crow would probably attack her. All of his crow friends were circling around him, probably calling "Hey! What are you doing down there?? Come on!" (in bird language). We have a net in the garage and my mom told me to go get the net and get rid of it. I don't know what she expected me to do with a net, but I was certainly not prepared to try and catch a crow in one. So, when my dad got home he chased it out of the yard with a rake like farmer joe. I feel kind of bad for that crow, but they're kind of evilish looking birds.

Cocoa Chanel

So, I'm done having arguments over stupid shit. There's no point in trying to prove a point if it's going to make your friends hate you.

Instead I'm going to introduce you to the coolest cat in town. Cocoa Chanel!

She's just so beautiful. I don't know what I would do without her.

Anyway, here's the story of how she came to be a part of my family. At the beginning of 10th grade, we saw Cocoa and her partner in crime, Leo, lounging around in our driveway under my mom's car. It looked like they were kind of thin so my sister and I gave them slices of baloney which they seemed to enjoy very much (although Leo was quite voracious and gobbled up almost all of it before Cocoa could get even a little morsel). It was starting to get cold so we begged our mom to let us take them inside. Her response was "you know how much Gerald hates cats!". But she's a pushover and she let us take Cocoa inside. Then she called up my aunt Nancy who lives down the road and told them about the other cat. My cousin Alea rushed over to pick him up and he is now happily living with them, eating everything in sight.

My father was most upset at first that we got a cat without his consent (which he would have never given). But now he admits that he has never seen a more mild mannered cat. I even catch him on the floor with her sometimes, rubbing her belly.

But still, Cocoa and I are the closest, I think. I don't know if it's just because I feed her, or if it's because I'm the one that gives her the most attention, but every night when I go to sleep she's always stretched out on my bed waiting for snuggles. I wish I could take her to Vassar with me, but it's not allowed. I might have to sneak her in. I'm sure she'll adapt to college life very well.

Don't Be Foolish

People get offended much too easily. I say this because some people are getting unnecessarily angry at other people because they're apparently "playing the race card". Where to begin...

First of all, if you didn't get into your top choice college, you have my utmost sympathy. You would think that your friends would be understanding of how hurt you must be after what you've been working so hard for. Obviously, after trying so hard to accomplish a goal and then failing, the first thing we do is tear ourselves to pieces and say how much we suck at life. But after a while, you'll want to try and make yourself feel better by looking at other factors that could have been involved in your rejection. Of course, as soon as you say that minorities have an advantage over white students, you're a racist.

A minority student has to work every bit as hard as a white student to get into a decent college. There's no doubt about that. A student who is lazy, and unintelligent is not going to get into Harvard just because he/she is Spanish. However, some schools (not ALL schools, but SOME) do favor minority students. These schools are mostly the schools that have been criticized in the past for only accepting rich white students that went to some fancy preparatory school and whose parents made a financial contribution to the school (examples: the ivy league schools and other prestigious universities). For example, the well known Stanford University has only 48% white students. Now, if 70% of the people in the United States are White, then that means that if race was not a factor in Stanford's admission process, approximately 70% of their student body would be white. Since about 15% of the people in this country are black, then approximately 15% of their student body should be black, correct? However, that is not the case.

Even the less prestigious schools want to make sure that they have a certain amount of diversity on their campus. It shows that the college is very accepting and represents students that come from every walk of life. I'm excited to be going to a college where I can meet all different kinds of people from all over the world, but I still think that college admission should be based on intelligence and motivation alone and not on things you have no control over.

So, if I am a better student than you (and you just happen to be a minority), and we both applied to the same school, I'm sure that I would get in and you would not. However, if you and I are equally qualified (and you just happen to be a minority), I wouldn't be surprised if you were chosen over me. Be that as it may, if you get into a good college, you had to work your ass off and I would never say the only reason you got in was because you were ethnically diverse.

I'm sorry that some people get upset way too easily but I don't think that gives them an excuse to go around implying things about others. I'm not racist at all, and it really offends me that people would insinuate something like that.

Money Matters

Thankfully I'm done sulking over Cornell and Columbia. I mean, schools that start with Cs are so overrated anyway. It's sort of like Abercrombie and Fitch: sure, the clothes are nice, but people only buy them for the name.

I could not be more ecstatic to be going to Vassar College. A beautiful campus, a variety of majors to choose from, only 40 minutes from home, what's not to like? Not to mention that it is one of the most accredited colleges in the US, so I'm covered in the prestige department.

Oh, and did I mention that Vassar is giving me a 43,000 dollar scholarship? How could I possibly refuse such an offer? All the other schools that I applied to (which, mind you, are not as good as Vassar) hardly gave me anything. Money talks, and I like what I'm hearing.

I apologize if the comment about "being born black helping me get into college" offended anyone. I didn't mean it the way it sounded. But I'm sure we all know that Ivy league schools favor minority students over the classic white male such as myself.

But There Are Dreams That Cannot Be

I am most upset to say that I was denied to both Cornell and Columbia. The emotional blow of looking online to see if I made it in and then seeing that I had been rejected to both was almost physically painful. I couldn't help but think if there was something I could have done differently. I mean, my sat score was excellent, my gpa was high, my class rank is great, I have numerous extracurriculars, I wrote a knock-em-dead essay (at least I thought), I met every single requirement that they had. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

Anyway, I didn't go to school today. I needed a day to get this out of my system. I don't think I could bare to have to go to school and act happy for everyone else when I'm burning inside.

Vassar College

I got in!

Only 2 more left to hear from.

I'll know where I'm going by tuesday

I'm not exactly an artist...

but I'm very appreciative of art. I just discovered that little "add photo" button that was hiding from me. Now I can make my posts a little nicer! I'm pretty sucky at photography, but it is kind of fun, and it's probably the only form of visual art I have a chance of being not completely horrible at. So enjoy these pictures of this winter (taken at the mohonk preserve)

By the way, the mohonk preserve is simply amazing (during all of the seasons) and is definitely worth a trip to New Paltz