You're Love is my Drug

Peach Tree

Summer is like a natural upper for me. From June 21 until the first day of Fall semester, I feel like I am on drugs. I give up sleeping just to spend time outside under the stars (I miss the days of Camp Lindenmere). My nights after work usually involve me getting drinks with friends, no matter how long my workday was. My weekends are booked at least a month in advance, and I look forward to every single activity. Summer 2010 did not fail me this year. My nine weekends this summer were filled with: BBQ's, the Shore/Hamptons, an engagement party, a graduation party, peach picking, birthdays, Rhode Island visits, completing all five seasons of Weeds, reuniting with old friends, reading some fabulous books and trying desperately to spend quality time with my brother (which I failed at doing).

Even though I spent most of my weekends with the same people, I would not trade a single minute of it (although I do wish I had more time to spend with other friends). It was great seeing which of my friends made an effort to see me often, and I am sure they were happy to see me make an effort to see them regularly. I hope I can continue to see my friends often, as well as see/visit more friends that I didn't get to see during the summer.  I also enjoyed all the parties my friends and I had/attended, and I hope we can continue our partying all year long (I have a lot of confidence in us).

One of the BBQ's that I had this summer, was my First Annual BBQ for a Cause. I signed up to participate in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer happening the weekend of October 16th. My BBQ raised over $400 to help in the fight to end Breast Cancer.  I am so proud of all my friends for coming together and donating money to support me!  I am also very proud that my friends are champs at drinking, and enjoyed the Sangria that had way too much wine, and not enough juice (none, at all).  If you would like to donate to help fight against breast cancer, please visit www.avonwalk.org/goto/sammykaps.  Your support means the world to me!  I am also planning on having another BBQ next summer, or maybe a holiday party to raise money for another foundation.  If you have any suggestions of where to donate the money, please let me know!   Donating money makes me feel fabulous!

Perfect Peach

Something else I did this summer, which was new to me, was peach picking.  I went with a good friend of mine from Montclair.  We had a blast, even with all the flies swarming around.  We went to a place in Hillsdale, NJ called Demarest Farms.  In order to get to the peach trees, we had to take a "hay" ride, minus the hay.  We were a little disappointed that there was no hay, but at least we weren't itchy on the ride to the peaches.  There were three different types of peaches that we could pick.  Unfortunately we forgot the names of the peaches two seconds after our tractor guy left us.  I loved getting to see what a peach tree looks like (especially since in Gone With the Wind Scarlett resides on Peachtree Street while staying in Atlanta).  They aren't very tall, probably six and half feet tall, and the peaches weigh down the branches a bit.  The best part about picking peaches is that you get to eat them while you're picking them!  Just a word of advice: bring wipes.  The juice was dripping down our faces, there were bugs all around, and it was a very hot day.  Needless to say, we couldn't wait to get home and shower after we picked our peaches.

Before I finish this blog post, I want to mention a fabulous book that I read: Water for Elephants.  I fell in love with this book during the prologue, and my love continued throughout the whole book.  It took me about 5 days to read it, and that was only because I worked during those days.  The story is about a 23 year old guy who leaves college right before finishing his finals.  He winds up on a circus train for three months.  The novel takes place during those three months.  I honestly cannot tell you if I loved the story more, or if I loved the writing and imagery.  Throughout the whole book, I could imagine myself standing right where the main character was.  I was able to clearly see the whole book in my head.  As for the story, it's very magical.  The love the main character feels for the animals on the circus makes you want to work with animals (or live at a zoo).  I love the connection he has with each of the animals, and how he understands them, and talks to them.  Honestly, I felt like I was in another world while reading this novel, when in reality I was transplanted to the 1930's, riding on a dirty train, stuck in a room with horses.  I want to keep talking about the book, but do not want to give away what happens.  When you do read it, please update me on how you felt and thought about the book!!!

I feel like I have so much more to write about my summer, but this blog entry is long enough already.  I promise that I will continue writing about what I did this summer.  With school starting, I will be missing summer, and need to relive it through my blog.  I will probably also be wicked bored during my classes, so I will be writing while "listening" to my professors.

As awful as this sounds, I am ready for fall. My Uggs (esp my BRAND NEW ones), are calling my name, and my feet are equally excited. My DVR and Netflix queue are also screaming my name. I have fallen behind on too many shows to count, and my Netflix list has reached about 300 movies, and I've watched about 3 this summer. Complete failure. IThe only thing I am not ready for this fall is class.  I have seen a syllabus for one of my classes, and I'm not very excited.  I am ready to go to another school, preferably outside of NJ.  I am also excited to do another program.  I just have to keep reminding myself that there are only a few more months at Montclair, and then who knows where I will be.

In order to keep my spirits up this semester, I have already started mentally creating a bucket list of what I would like to do this fall.  Unlike my Summer 2010 list, my Fall list will be accomplished by the start of winter.  The list isn't too long because I have learned that I'm not good at completing my lists.  Currently there are 6 things on my Fall Bucket List.  Let me know which activities you want to do with me and when.  Also let me know what else to add to it!!

Fall 2010 Bucket List

Apple Picking/Making candied apples

Bronx Zoo

Whitney Museum

MoMa

Met Museum
Museum of Natural History (yes I want to go back!)

Knick, Knack, Nook

Hi everyone! I have returned to the blogging world! This has been one super busy summer for me, and it's not over yet! In my next blog entry I will tell you all about my summer events (and include pictures!). This entry is dedicated to the new Nook I just bought two days ago. I am still getting used to it, and haven't figured out how I truly feel about the Nook.

Before I express my feelings about the nook, let me express how I feel about books in general. It's hard for me to wrap my head around reading a book off of an electronic device. I love walking into Barnes & Noble or Borders, and just seeing all the books. I love holding the books, looking at the covers, reading the backs of books, information about the author, and scanning through the book to see if it looks exciting. I love holding the book in my hands, seeing how much I've read, being able to flip the pages. To me, a book is something magical. It holds all these special characters, events, and words. Books hold information about the author. They are also a separate, special world. Whether it take place on Earth or underwater, or in space, we are transported to that location. We are able to leave our worry and stress behind and enter into this new world. We, the reader, visit new locations, make new friends with the characters, and learn about ourselves. Open up any of my favorite books, and you will see colorful highlighting, blue underlying (yes blue, I have OCD when it comes to marking up my books) and notes in the margins. Those marks aren't there just because a paragraph is important to the story, but because it meant something special to me. Yes, the nook offers all of this, you can even highlight, but it is not the same. When I begin to think about books being replaced by the nook, or the kindle, or whatever device, I become depressed.

But now back to the pros and cons of the nook. Yesterday I went into NYC to meet up with a friend. I took a bus and subway to get to the meeting location. It was great having my Nook. I have ruined many bags by carrying around heavy books. The nook is nice and light, and fits very well in my bag. I also enjoy the fact that my nook remembers my spot in the book. I am very bad with bookmarks (I always lose them). All I have to do is turn on my nook, press a button, and it goes right to my spot. Fabulous. I also like the nook because I can hold thousands of books on it. I am the type of person who can read more than one book at a time. I usually read two books at a time. I will either alternate days, or depending on how I feel at the moment, I will decide which book to read. With the nook I don't have to worry about carrying around two books with me. I can just carry one device, and read whatever I want.

As for what I do not enjoy about the nook, I still can't believe I spent $150 when I can go down to the library, take out a book for free, and read it. And even though I still have the nook, I will be visiting the library very often. There are a lot of new books out that I would love to read, but I don't want to spend the money unless I know how great the book is. I also do not like the fact that you can only borrow books from friends for 14 days. Some books take longer to read than others, especially when I have schoolwork to do. If I don't finish that book in the 14 days, than I either have to buy it, sit in Barnes & Nobles and finish the book, or rent it from the library. I am not opposed to the last two, but it would be a lot easier if I could just keep it on the nook for a little longer.

Now that I am done with my issues about the nook, I will move on to my issues with electronic reading devices. Since I am going to school to be a teacher, we hear a lot about illiteracy, and schools and families not having the money for books. Since these electronic reading devices are so expensive (plus the cost of books), not everyone will be able to afford them. Also people who have electronic devices will stop buying books, meaning there won't be as many books to donate to schools, shelters, libraries, etc. I feel like in 10 years people will be judging each other based on if they read from books or from electronic devices. Hopefully I am proven wrong.

I feel a lot better now that I have vented. All these thoughts about the nook have been swirling around my head. One minute I feel guilty for buying such an expensive device when I can just go to the library. The next minute I am excited to whip out my nook, and read through. Since there is less space in the window than on the page, I feel like I am reading a lot more quickly. This makes me happy. I would love to know how other people feel about their nook and electronic reading devices.