Sweating Bullets and Failing Tests

Hello Everybody,

It has been hot hot hot here and I have been feeling muy caliente (and not in a good way). Some highlights of my life overt he past few weeks have definitely been hanging out with Emily, Harrison, Kristine, Sara, Taryn, and Fiona one weekend and then being with Harrison, Fiona, and Kristine a couple more times. Yay for being in the capital district vicinity. I also feel compelled to expand on fiona's comment that a bird pooped on her at lake george. After the aforementioned avian bombardment, Fiona was convinced that it was me dropping sunscreen on here out in the lake (??), so she started rubbing the excrement onto her arm like a goof. I think that I thought this was way funnier than anyone else did, but maybe someone reading this will share five year old, bathroom sense of humor.

I also read the new Harry Potter book and that shit was poppin'!! I guess that I mainly have been working a lot. I usually feel pretty burned out at the end of the day, so I don't do anything besides make myself dinner and watch a movie, read, or make a phone call or two. On the weekends I have been playing soccer every sunday afternoon with a bunch of people at the local Waldorf school. There is an 85 year old poet and ex-Congressional candidate during the Vietnam War. Apparently, in this district at that time both the Dems and Republicans were pro-Vietnam, so he ran as a third party member and just gave them both a lot of shit for being pro-war. Then there are also little kids who play with us, so there is quite an age range. It is always really fun and the last couple weeks we have gone swimming afterwards and then we eat some ice cream. Good, wholesome, all-american summer fun.

I also failed my road test on Thursday. It was a pretty spectacular failure. I messed up the parallel parking by hitting the curb and it was all downhill from there. Once I hit the curb my heart jsut starting racing I turned into an idiot. I guess that I should have been more prepared because I only have driven about 5 times this whole summer. After I messed up the parallel parking, the examiner asked me how many times I had practiced parking and I honestly repeild that I had practiced twice. I don't think that she was impressed.... Later in the test I couldn't really see at an intersection because there was a car parked on the corner, so I just kind of pulled out a little too far and a car had to brakea little. That was the end of the test, so I didn't even finish it. The examiner jsut told me "That was bad" when I had my second mistake. Oh well, I have made it to the age of 22 without a liscense, so one more month will not hurt me. SO Colleen we still have non-driver solidarity for a little while. I have to go water some plants because we need some rain pretty badly. ttfn.

love, Matt

montreal!

this is somewhat behind the times, but me and two buddies of mine (Craig and Rocco) elected to undergo a two day adventure in that urban, french-canadian oaisis known as montreal. rocco, king of travel research, found an insane rate on a downtown hotel avec a hottub and pool.

we started off the adventure by making signs out of our mapquest directions which said, "YOU LOSE" & "call us @ 1-800-HOT-BUTT ;-)". these were flashed at many, many motorists, all of whom we understood to love hot butts if they paid any attention to us in the slightest.

we burst through the country barrier blasting avril lavigne's "girlfriend", a theme throughout the trip (sample lyric: " HEY HEY YOU YOU, I DON'T LIKE YOU GIRLFRIEND/ NO WAY NO WAY, THINK YOU NEED A NEW ONE") and made it to our hotel where we promptly watched some quebecian t.v. (canada is the best country, ever). we then talked to the concierge, got directions to old montreal, walked there and ate at 'chez eric's' and wandered through montreal's chinatown .

that night, post an early evening lark in the pool/hottub, we made our way to a bar call "brutopia" where an awful parody of tenecious d was playing. we quickly decided the only option we had was to go to the casino de montreal. our cab ride there was short and painless and we stepped foot in the door where i was immediately blinded by all the glittering, glittering lights.

not sharing rocco's affection for such places craig and i decided we each had 10 loonies (loony=dollar) to sink before we had to leave. and then, the highlight of the trip: I BEAT THE HOUSE BY 50 CENTS, TAKE THAT CANADA! we returned triumphantly to the hotel.

the next day we went to the biodome, saw some monkeys and were lectured on the arts of seduction in the animal kingdom. we returned home to the soundtrack of the lil jon, fat joe hit "i make it rain." it was a good trip.

in other news, i depart for cleveland on the 13th. i'm having a going away thang that sunday, so, if anyone can come, i fully encourage it.

also, fiones and i went to see matt this past sunday and we went swimming and ate ice cream. it was glorious. KEEP THE UPDATES COMING

the next day we went out for break

we had a show last night in oswego, and played in a small garage with about 30 kids standing around us.
we were all sweating tons but its probably the most fun ive had at a show. i finally feel like we are all a part of this band equally. i just wish summer wasn't so close to ending so we could play more in places like this, where everyone just wants to be exactly where they are.
...

my iowa cousins are coming up and we might all go to new york city together.
so in other words, i might just have to quit my job at the K.

my mother made banana bread this morning, so i should go see how that's coming along.

dancing at the bugjar tonight (wish you all were here)

xoxo.

Postedy Post Post

FEEYONA!! this blog is beautiful! this (i am ashamed to say) is my first trip to the truestatements blog, and I am so impressed! i love the dots!

i saw ratatouille TWICE in theatres already and i highly recommend it - definitely worth the eight or nine bucks. today i drove to my dad's and spent the day on the lake, soakin up rays and makin some vitamin D. i'm listenting to John Mayer's Continuum, which is refreshingly and surprisingly good. Bluesy, charming. in other news, i got a second job as a "back server" (a euphemism for water girl/busser) at a classier restaurant outside of Rochester. they KNOW i'm leaving in september, but they were like, "we want to keep the staff fresh." i guess that means i'm fresh... so fresh and so clean, clean.

i hope everyone is healthy and enjoying the amazing weather :) mucho amor to all!

fiones loves to blog! it's true.

i hope everyone is doing well! i hope to hear from more people on this, but it's totally ok if people aren't enjoying it...

today, i cut off most of my hair, after being inspired by short-haired teets & gordon. i may need some evening out by a friend, since i cut it pretty short, and can't really see how it looks in the back...

sara is off to iowa on sunday! to work for the john edwards ['08] campaign! woo! harrison, kristine and myself drove out to hudson, ny to meet up with sara and matt last night for some dinner and catch-up chats. it was nice. we saw bill the eight pound bunny again! =)

it is officially track season in saratoga. people are everywhere! especially price chopper supermarket[s]! love it!

i have been corresponding via email with colin w., who is living in geneseo for the summer. we have a bunch of ideas of stuff we want to do next semester/year. it's nice to think about. =)

i know i still have a month left of my summer, but it is crazy to think it's going to be august soon- i have had such a lovely time so far, i feel very lucky.

i am super sleepy. goodnight. i miss you all so much.
all my love. <3

break it down.

"mow, mow, mow your lawn

'til you sweat and sweat.

mowily, mowily, mowily, mowily

it will really make you sweat."

-bill murray prior to leaving the couch to go mow the lawn

it is a beautiful day in saratoga this morning! the sun in shining! babar is on tv!

this past weekend, emily, sara, matt, kristine and harrison came up to visit me in saratoga. we got to go the beach in lake george! it was super nice. a seagull pooped on me. we played volleyball for hours. my neighbors were away, so we also got to swim in their pool! we ate a lot of food. sarah wolfsont came to visit! she lives in ballston spa. on sunday, we all went to kristine's brother mark's graduation party in west sand lake. there were lots of cookies. we got to go on a rope swing! the lake was so beautiful! harrison, matt and sara were the only ones to brave the makeshift rope, but it's safe to say, a good time was had by all!

taryn stopped by at the end of the party, and she, kristine, harrison, matt and i got to go see harry potter and the order of the phoenix! it was wonderful. when we all drove matt back to his farm in hudson, we were finally able to meet a certain someone we had been dying to see the entire weekend- bill the eight pound bunny! pictures were taken!

on monday, harrison, taryn and i went on a hike in thacher park. it was called the indian ladder trail. there was a cave! we came to saratoga to enjoy some much needed rest for a bit. we visited this great antique book store in saratoga and taryn acquired a cook book! later that day, harrison and taryn made some curry from the book- it was so delicious! on tuesday, harrison, taryn, me and two of harrison's buddies went to this cute little cafe in albany for breakfast. it was a nice end to our non-stop week o' fun!

it was so nice to see everyone! i only wish more people could have come out!

last night, my good friend katie and i spent about 3 hours at borders books eagerly (sleepily) awaiting the release of the seventh and final harry potter book! it was a lot of fun. my two little sisters were so cute. bridget was all dressed up! no one really went into hysterics, but as we all know, the end of harry potter is unlike anything else in so many people's lives, and i think that's pretty amazing. when i told bill murray that maeve cried last night, at first he chuckled, but then proceeded to say "ya know, the end of these books are probably making maeve feel like it's the end of her childhood. she's read all the books as a child, and now that they're finally done, she's probably feeling like she's no longer a kid."

it is sad to think that the books are over, but also still really nice that we were able to enjoy them in our lifetime. =) and there's still two more movies! yayyy!

emily's in ireland! sara's going to iowa! tim's canvassing for pro-choice new york! i'm not really working at all!

i hope everyone is doing really well. i miss you all.

all my love. <3

heart wrenching.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/us/nationalspecial/12exile.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin