Summer has been kinda fun lately, so I haven’t felt the need to sit online everyday – which is one of the reasons I haven’t updated. Also, our air conditioner broke in our bedroom where the computer is… so we stay in the living room all the time where it’s cool.

For the past two weeks, Justin, Chris, Brandy and I have been planning a trip to Darien Lake, which is a local theme park. It was a Six Flags park until 2006, when they sold it along with a few other SF parks. We’ve all been really excited but it wasn’t a concrete plan until maybe 5 days ago. Yesterday, Justin mentioned to his boss’ wife that we were going to Darien Lake and she said that her sister had 4 passes she didn’t want, so she hooked us up with them. So now we don’t have to buy expensive tickets!

I loooove roller coasters of all kinds, so I’m always excited to go to amusement parks. I’ve been to about 7 theme parks so far, which is sort of a lot for someone who doesn’t actively pursue that sort of thing. Here they are, with the ones I’ve been to the most times at the top, and least times on the bottom:

Anyway, we’re going tomorrow, which is the 4th of July. It will either be packed with people, or dead. I am hoping for the latter! I have been to Darien Lake twice before, because I once lived in a group home waaaay up in northern PA, on the border of NY, so we went there a couple times. It’ll be weird to go and see all the rides renamed, since they rebranded everything now that it is no longer a Six Flags.

Tonight Justin and I are going to a show to see Suicide Note, which is a band I’ve been into for about 5 years. Neither of us have seen them, so we’re excited.

The Suicide Note show was great. The amusement park at Darien Lake was a lot of fun also; I hope we can go again on Labor Day. I got sun poisoning or something but didn’t realize at the time. I was nauseous and dizzy during the sunniest parts of the day, and when I got home, I noticed I had a horrible sunburn. We were going to stop at Rite Aid for sunscreen before we went, but we were late and had to run. I feel so stupid because I know that it’s dangerous and accelerates aging and such… and I don’t want any extra freckles on my cheeks!

The fall semester starts in 6 weeks and I’m actually really excited, even if it means the end of summer. I can’t wait to teach Social Studies, and I can’t wait to move back east to New York or Philadelphia where the demand for inner-city teachers is high. As a kid, I lived in housing projects in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and even southeastern Virginia. I moved from foster home to group home and back again. I went to “bad schools” in crip-infested areas, and I went to well-funded “white schools” in the Poconos, where stock brokers buy lake houses. I know the difference, and I think I could bring something unique to the table and maybe even make a difference. Justin laughs at me when I talk like this, but I’m serious. Somehow though, I think the toughest trials with teaching will not be with the kids, but with the administration…

Anyway, I always beat myself up over waiting so long to get in school, but I’m trying to get over it. I can’t undo the past. The fact is, I’m 21 and I waited 3 years to start my post-secondary education, instead of the 1 year I thought it would be. I’m ready to get started with “real life”.

It’s been hot hot hot out lately. I am already looking forward to fall. On Sunday, I went to a tiny amusement park called Martin’s Fantasy Island. It caters to families and little kids more than adults, but I still had fun. Justin’s family is visiting from New Mexico (his uncle works and lives there), so it was a family thing. All together it was Justin, his uncle, his grandfather, two cousins, his grandfather’s wife, and me. I remembered to wear sunscreen this time, and am very happy.

It’s Shark Week on Discovery Channel. Justin and I are pretty excited – a response that’s pretty much coded in our nerd DNA. Justin is scared to swim in the ocean because of these creatures, even though I assure him it is so rare and he can’t live in fear, and these shows either ease his fear or make it worse. Hopefully not the latter. Since he grew up here along the Great Lakes, far from the sea, he had never even seen the ocean. In fact, not until out trip to Spain in 2005 did he get to see or swim in the ocean. His first swim was at night, and he was convinced we’d be eaten by a shark or something. I wonder if all people born far inland have this fear of sharks and the ocean. I remember seeing the Jaws movies when I was 9 and being scared of sharks for about a month, but the fear evaporated once we actually hit the beach. Anyway, I hope Justin gets over it by next summer. I’m already counting down the months until we hit Italy & Greece!