Open Up Your Eyes

When I went to New York (which I have still failed to write about), I was brilliantly schemed into purchasing a new Olympus camera. I do regret that it cost more than normal retail, but so far the exposure of the photos has been more than satisfying.

Here's a glance into my life-- sometimes through the filters of the camera as well!

No harm done in a little photo editing and experimentation.  Tomorrow I'm heading off to Vans Warped Tour, take four.  I can't wait to fill you in on the ear-bursting adventures under the blistering sun :).

Listening:"Surprise, Surprise" by Brett Dennen

This is A'MERicuh (sorry it's funny to say it that way)

I'm currently at home watching the mega fireworks displays in NYC and D.C. on t.v.
I'm too lame to be there, and my friends and I were too exhausted to go out and find a real display.. Oops.

Yesterday I woke up at 5:45 for my 6:30 Sunday breakfast shift at Mill Creek Cafe.  This is my second season I've worked here, and it's exciting to see my name gain priority on the schedule list.  It pretty much means that my boss feels that he can depend on me to work more, and I have greater full front-of-the-house serving shifts, rather than prepping or ice cream.  Despite the dirty work and way too many dishes, I do try my best every shift I work; it pays off for the restaurant, the customers and myself!  I made mad moneycustomer during our 7 - 12 breakfast, and a few new friends!
All the staff are laid back and we try to keep things positive and fun and that's another reason I love working at Mill Creek.  One of our breakfast specials was 'Red, White and Blue French Toast', which combined strawberries, blueberries and fresh cream stuffed into French Toast.  It was absolutely wonderful; this is my own order, the full order that customers ordered actually came with three slices and bacon or sausage!
Whenever one of these was in the window ready to be served, I chanted, "U-S-A! U-S-A!" I couldn't help it :D.  Needless to say, the special sold out.

After closing the Cafe and coming home, my family and I had Independence Day festivities at my house.  I was so pleased to see that the weather was cooperating, my nieces and nephews enjoyed the pool and good food was grilled up and served.  Did any of you have a picnic, watch fireworks or go out and do something full-blown American (:P) for the weekend?

I didn't partake in swimming this time, but all the younger kids seemed to have a blast!

Our back deck has a great umbrella so we aren't completely roasted beneath the sun.

Throwing down zucchini, summer squash, chicken and Zwiegle's on the new grill!

Generally we serve massive amounts of food at every holiday.
My favorite dishes from this one?  My mom's artichoke cheese French bread and the tomato-mozzarella salad that one of my sisters-in-law made.

Typical look for my Dad :B

And both my Mom and Pops! Have to love them for tolerating so many years of insanity.  Well, that was some solid family bonding.  It'll probably be another month before I see them all again, haha.  Despite us their all living within 45 minutes of each other, my siblings and kids are constantly running around for their summer sports, work, short vacations and whatnot.  And me, Mill Creek Cafe seems to own my soul...
And tomorrow marks my fourth summer teaching swim lessons at the town beach!  Oh dear, I hope I end up with the 6 year olds.. 

Have a stellar week!

p.s. A few recent Instagram photos from my iPhone-- the one of the trees reflecting in my pool was selected as one of the Josh Johnson forum favorites for the evening! Although, if you don't have Instagram I suppose that would mean nothing to you... haha, oh well.
 

Fields of Friendship

Corny title, but who doesn't like a little alliteration (or consonance/assonance) every now and then?

We are trying to fight monotony.  We really are.
Whenever my friends and I aren't at the mercy of our parental figures and/or summer occupations, I insist upon regrouping whenever possible.  The rain's been interfering with several attempts at fire boning (have I ever mentioned that I enjoy reversing compound words? :D) and then at last, our little hamlet dried up enough for some kerosene-induced flames.

The typical crew was in attendance, plus or minus a few.  Ariel generously brought honey grahams, Hershey's bars, giant marshmallows and roasting sticks for the quintessential s'more.  Conversations from there bounced between salacious gossip, to the recent high school graduation of Ariel and Jen (congrats, girls!), to wishing for independence and adventure and recollections, sing alongs and re-enactments of the amazing television shows we all grew up with!
You know... Zuboomafoo, Arthur, The Wild Thornberry's (* Netflix instant heyooo), The Reading Rainbow, Zoom! (which had decidedly high educational merit), Dragon Tales and obviously many more.  Even though our childhoods had a generous range of television, which were always watched in your household?

I was particularly fond of Sesame Street when I was really young, then Pokemon, So Weird, Zoom, Hey Arnold! and Out of the Box-- also, those TGIF shows and One Saturday Morning on ABC.

And now that I think about it, does anyone remember "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Honey, I Shrunk Ourselves" ?!  Love it!  Nineties entertainment wasn't bad :).  Ohh man, those mega 'mellows made for some seriously sweet, sticky, oozing goodness for s'mores.  Toasted perfection.

Jen and Ariel spent the night, I proceeded to do nothing for a few hours that morning and then Ariel invited me out with her!  We went strawberry picking, staining our hands with the ripened jewels of summer.

I've conducted extensive recipe searching to use these strawberries.  In light of all my recent food postings, I shall save my creations for next week :).


It was one of those magnificently clear days at the farm.  There's a deep gratification in eating and preparing food that is locally grown and harvested and, most essentially, in season.  I understand that we are unflailingly privileged to exist in a society of mass transportation and capitalism to deliver produce year-round, yet there are some serious consequences with this consumption.  We deal with global food insecurity (which was just addressed by the world's top 20 economies at the G20 summit on agriculture), pollution from transport, chemicals, and machines (amidst countless other environmental implications), the demise of the family-farm in favor of mass-producing industrial-agriculture practices, reduced nutritional value in our diets and just bland-tasting and perhaps genetically modified food that we need to think more about.
end// off-topic tiraid on the commodification of global food systems.  Hehe, but I like the fact that I do understand what I'm mentioning; I learned a ton about that in school this past year!

Ariel and I went for a run after this under the blistering sun, and I couldn't make it.  I had to walk and my psyche wasn't recovering any better for it, yet it's defeating to finally accept that I am no longer a runner.
I run, but I am not a runner.  (These dwellings inspired the previous post)

Finally, I was able to reunite with one of my dear friends, Kerry!  She and I met three summers ago when we worked at the lake beach, though she found a better paying job that actually will be relevant on her future career resume, as I continue to slave at the Cafe and wade the questionable depths of the lake with first graders blowing bubbles in the water and refusing to float on their backs.

We caught up on many months over stomach-bulging, hearty homemade ice cream.

*Gasp!  We chose to enter the lake!!!

Alright, and next post I really think I should write about my first trip of infatuation with New York City. 
Until then, enjoy the weekend!
Listening: the new album Torches by Foster the People