Thursday, June 30, 2011

The little bit of random...

Question...is it a train station?












Or a restaurant?
hey polarized lens, you kinda suck. I can see my reflection, as well as everything elses.
Apparently it's both! 

The TVF show I went to yesterday was in this town I had never heard of called, Gloucester. And right outside the venue was the cutest train station. Since we were early for the show, Dan and I decided to take some pictures of the cute train station, to find out they also served food; breakfast, lunch and dinners. Yup, "dinners", not just one dinner, but multiple dinners. Which is interesting, since they close at 3 pm. 
These train tracks were right up to the concrete barrier, which is very close, and made me wonder if the restaurant shakes as a train passes by. Then I thought, with the weird train painting, the restaurant being right there and...well I didn't think about it too much, but I thought possibly they were dead tracks. 

















But they're not! Between sets, the VFW played music from Pandora, and a certain specific song that I can no longer stand began to play. Not wanting to hear it, I left to eat my sandwich I had in the car, and I was just in time to catch a train passing by!

















So now I still wonder, does the place shake as trains pass by?


"Don't shake, I hate to see you tremble."

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Day 81!

The Venetia Fair!
Drove an hour and a half for this...and I'd like to think it was well worth it. Every time The Venetia Fair hit Jersey, there was always something going on where I couldn't see them. FINALLY I was able to catch one of their shows. They are a pretty crazy band, full of ridiculous amounts of energy, they act insane. Which made it a killer show.

Being I'm way short, and the show was at a VFW where there was no stage, I wasn't able to get a photo of the full band.  After 11 years of going to shows, you get used to this. 

























So I was only able to snap a shot of the singer, Benny. Not sure if you can see, but that's a bandage on his head, covering the stitches he got the previous day. Not sure what happened the night before, but he split his head open during their set. Insane.

I wasn't sure if going to Warped Tour this year was worth it, but they were my deciding factor. Can not wait! If you happen to like MSI and The Matches, and some other band I can't figure out which though, you would like The Venetia Fair, it's like those two (possibly three) bands put together. So check them out. They have a new EP out, "The Pits", and the song "I'm Still Amazed" is nuts.

Also, while Shawn Harris used to be my ultimate "band dude" crush (I don't have too many of those btw), being The Matches broke up, Shawn's style is rather interesting, but not the same as it used to be, I don't think I still have the same crush on him as I once did. And I think Benny may be the new replacement, he is quite a good looking dude. lol. We'll see.

Just want to clarify, "band dude" crushes are not the same as regular crushes. Band dude crushes are rather safe, since they are fanciful/will never happen, you can't get hurt by them, unlike real crushes. Also, having real crushes on band dudes is kinda lame. Just saying.


"It’s safe to say that you’ve got no idea what you’re in for."

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Day 80!

More trips to Kennedy Park!

I try to post photos that defend Jersey, like the ones below, claiming Jersey isn't as gross as many think.





However it becomes really difficult to continue defending this place when you have stuff like this. Now being that half of my town was built on clay pits, one can assume the brownish/orangish color is just from the clay. But the green? I haven't a clue. Toxic waste possibly, from the 8 power plants in town?
Other weird stuff in this park, goodness is this list endless, a cat sanctuary. Nearing dark it was impossible to get a good photo of what I'm talking about. But basically within the woods there are tarps hung, warped wooden planks on the ground, crates, boxes and nasty fly infested cat food. It's the weirdest thing, but I assume someone feels bad for the massive amounts of stray cats in town, and made them an odd and primitive looking shelter. I didn't see many cats, but I did find one hiding in the bushes. I want to get a few good photos of the area and send them to Weird NJ, that would be awesome.












 Earlier I caught three boys fishing on this bridge. They were "big boy" enough to fish, but once they caught a fish, they freaked out, dropped it on the concrete and repeatedly kicked it until it fell off the bridge and landed in the water. I wish they would ban fishing at the park. I mean not only because of the boys, but for the fishing line always left behind that the ducks entangle themselves in, the fishing hooks always left, as well as the rubber worms and packaging. I don't even understand fishing at this park, you can't eat the fish, nor would you want to, I mean you did see that questionable green substance above right? lol












"At least I'm finally learning how. Things are really weird right now."

Monday, June 27, 2011

The little bit of random...

Ahh! I've been waiting for this song to be released since I heard it at one of their last shows! 

It's a must that you check out Patent Pending's new song, "Douchebag". These are the best lyrics ever. Promise! And as I have wrote a thousand times before, they are one of the best bands ever.



If you really liked it you should definitely go pre-order their new album too, it's going to be ridiculously  awesome.  http://www.patentpending.bigcartel.com/


Can't wait till July 12th!
"Hey dude we get it, you're cooler than us."
Goodness, this song reminds me of someone I know.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Day 79!

Operation Recon Rescue 
(or what I call it)
Operation DVD Rescue

My friend Rachael was friends with this boy, and I'm not giving any names or much about him other than his code name is Nick and we don't like Nick too much. While Nick was still cool and all he had borrowed about ten dvds from Rachael, when he became a... not so cool dude anymore Rachael of course wanted her dvds back. Now for the problem, coming up with every excuse possible for about five days, it was seeming as if Nick was never going to return the dvds.

(the dvd collection)



















After getting annoyed of hearing the runaround stories about why Nick couldn't bring the dvds to work, or to her house, or how he wouldn't be home for Rachael to pick them up herself, we decided we needed to do something about it. Especially for that fact that they weren't actually Rachael's dvds, but her dad's. And he was giving her a deadline for her to get them back before he himself stepped in. Goodness we couldn't let that happen.

So this could be my longest post ever, but instead I shall give the cliff notes version. Basically we drove to Nick's house to get the dvds and to our dismay, he wasn't lying, he wasn't home. Feeling defeated, we decided to drive home, half way down the highway we realized that we shouldn't have left and should have knocked on the door, hoping his roommate was there to give us the dvds. Collecting enough nerve we drove back, went straight up to the door step and knocked.




















We waited, and waited and yup no one was home. We wanted proof we had enough nerve to even do this, so we took photos to document it. This is us on Nick's porch. Best and worst picture ever.



















After feeling defeated for the second time we went back to the car and called Nick, or maybe he called us, I don't know, but it was a mix of phone tag there. We asked if he was close to home, he replied with a no, then he hung up. Living on a dead end cul-de-sac, we went to make a u-turn to drive home. As we turned and were behind a tree in the median, a car pulled onto the street. Nick's car! Not really sure why, but Rachael and I have done this before in her car, we started to scream. Even though he didn't see us. But anyways, we drove back and knocked on the door and when the door opened, it was truly priceless.













I would have taken a photo of Nick's expression, but that might have been weird. Especially since I assume Nick thinks we were following or waiting for him. But that's not true, our timing is simply impeccable. So instead I have a great reenactment sketch, which truly captures Nick beautifully. Look at that fancy popped collar and that jaw drop! In the end we got the dvds back, I'd like to think operation recon rescue was a success.

6 Things I learned from this experience.
1. Don't lend boys your dvd's  Don't lend boys your dad's dvd's.
2. We win!
3. Trees are very useful, you can hide behind them and cars wont see you as you make a u-turn.
4. Sometimes you have to do this on your own and not wait for others.
5. I'm not really good with cliff note versions.
6. Rachael and I might want to look into drawing classes.

"You got my sweaters, my hat. I can't find my cat! The hardest part of breaking up, is getting back your stuff."

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The little bit of random...

Happy Summer Solstice! Happy last day of spring and first day of summer!

It's been just about one year since I restarted my blog. And I'm up to 78 photo posts and quite a few 'little bit of random' posts. My goal this summer is to hit 100 photo posts by September. Let's hope I can make this happen.

In celebration of the summer I have something super special. I have an original Rachael Gross production up for sale. This masterpiece was done on 8.5 x 11, 97 brightness, white, HP printer paper. The medium used is crayon. Specifically, a Crayola 64 pack of crayons (you know the one with the built in sharpener). The title of this piece is "My Jungle Of A World At The Gym. Always Ready To Pounce." And the story behind this may be even more interesting than her vast use of color and space. What brought her to this art was boredom, at work, which is at the gym. Fascinating.


















I'd like to start the bidding for this Rachael original at $250. Do I hear $250?


BTW I'm not really selling this artwork, but I'm sure that's obvious. lol. Isn't it adorable though?


"Cause her mind is set now and no one can save her. It’s inevitable tonight. She’s a tiger."

Monday, June 20, 2011

Day 78!

Midsummer's Eve

When I was 16 I did this thing, and it's hard to explain but I was 16 and it was simply something my mother told me to try, so I did. Had to be done on a specific day in June, with a small saying before you went to bed and writing something on a paper, to be left under your pillow, that night you would dream of your true love, or soulmate. I can't remember which (they are different though, I promise). I'm not sure if it worked, I didn't dream of a person that night but of a name instead. The name Joris, never even knew that name existed till that dream.

With my BFF Rachael having boy issues and slightly upset I told her what I did when I was 16 and she should try it for herself, just for the hell of it. The problem...I couldn't remember the directions or exactly what I did. Nor could I find it on google, or any of my mothers books that I thought she could have gotten it from. So doing a google search for a few hours I came across something very similar.

Under a rosemary bush on Midsummer's Eve, you are supposed to leave a plate of flour, and in the morning written in the flour you are supposed to find your true love's initials.

















Since it was late, I decided I would do this for Rachael instead of her coming over herself. And in the morning, it was the craziest thing. I didn't spot initials right away, but instead a heart in the flour.

























I moved it to the concrete so I could get a better look and it did shift a bit, but you can still see the heart. Right? Well after getting over the fact there was a heart in the flour, I analyzed it for some time, trying to figure out what initials could be there. The letters I got for Rachael seemed to be M E J, now this could be J E or E M or J M E, or the many different ways you can put it. Or I could have screwed up and read the M as a W.

















Or maybe there was nothing there. I'm not quite sure if it even worked, for two reasons. One, I didn't have a rosemary bush as much as I had a rosemary stalk to put the flour under. Also I did it for Rachael, and I'm sure it would have been more effective if she was there herself. I guess either way I'd like to think it did work.

Side note...
Now I find the flour heart to be crazy, yes, but the best was the day I was looking for this was the 19th. Without realizing it, it was Midsummer's Eve, which was the day I had to put the flour under the rosemary bush. It seemed all too perfect to find the directions on the day it needed to be done. Interesting?

So what do you think about all of this? Did it work? Also if you are a dude, and happen to have two/three of the initials J E M/W, let me know. I can set you up with an awesomely cute girl named Rachael. She's super cool, smart, pretty and fun. And she's a keeper. Oh la la.

"And some say love is everything
And some say they don't know"

Friday, June 17, 2011

Day 77!

"Blood on the moon! Where's my tiger's eye?"
-Practical Magic
Late night trip to Laurence Harbor with my mom and Blake! 


When I got home from work I noticed that there was blood on the moon. (Basically the sun reflecting on the moon causing red/orange spots on the moons, sometimes making it totally red/orange also.) Since I was younger, after seeing the movie Practical Magic, I always quote Gillian (Nicole Kidman) when she sees blood on the moon, and I myself get my tiger's eye stone. Because the moon looked so awesome, we wanted to get a better view of it, and we decided to hit the beach. (With my tiger's eye and camera of course.)



























By the time we got to the LH, of course the moon wasn't as big as the half hour earlier and the red spots were gone. But still pretty cool looking.





















It was a bit eerie on the boardwalk, there was no one there. Go figure, 10:30 at night and no people by the water? lol. We did find a whole bunch of snails though. And I mean a whole bunch. It got to the point we were cautiously walking, afraid we'd step on the poor things. 


















After an hour or so of walking we went home. And when we got there, we found a little ladybug hanging out on our chandelier.  I love ladybugs so I found this awesome but especially awesome since there was blood on the moon and that is usually seen as bad luck. I feel as if the the ladybug counteracted that for us. 

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Day 76!

 I need desperate help with displaying. Good thing I go to school for that. At an attempt to be creative, I wanted to use a pineapple for a jewelry display. Lacking the fitting jewelry I tried my best to pull this off, but it didn't really work out too well. The lighting isn't the greatest in my kitchen and the incandescent lights bouncing off my table made the photo very orangey. I'll have to try this again, maybe with better suiting jewelry and a different fruit.




Something that did work out...
Heather and I apparently have too much time on our hands. The pineapple was originally meant for eating and not my creative uses and since it was going bad, we had to cut it asap. Before we cut it Heather was about to eat an orange, but instead she gave it a sad face, and then some how it turned out to this whole scene here. We find ourselves all too amusing.



















"Sometimes We Have Too Much Fun"

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Day 75!

"Boys and girls, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, cats and dogs, welcome to The World of Strawberry Shortcake Kira Key Lime Pie..." 


I went strawberry picking! As cute and fun as it sounds, it really wasn't that cool. Being the end of the season, finding strawberries that weren't moldy, or mushy was kinda hard. However out of the two small  baskets I was able to fill, the strawberries were delicious.



















Here is the farm Dan and I went to. They invited us back for pick your own raspberries next month. It's considerable. But honestly, I rather just wait till fall for pick your own pumpkins.

They might have been tiny but these local grown strawberries were so much better than going to the grocery store. Promise.




















I'm not sure which was a bigger deal, finally going to pick strawberries, or finally having an excuse to wear my floppy straw hat!

Too bad I didn't have a cute, pink and red strawberry hat to be Strawberry Shortcake. The entire time picking strawberries, I had the Strawberry Shortcake theme song stuck in my head, and having her hat would have been very fitting. However, even just wearing the black hat I think the resemblance is uncanny. No?
Yes I know,  I took a lame "myspace" photo of myself. But I had to show off the hat!
"Who sleeps all night in a cake made of strawberry? Wakes up bright in a cake made of strawberry? Livin' right in a cake made of strawberry? Strawberry Shortcake wouldn't ya know."

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Day 74!

If you weren't aware of this, I am the master of cereal.

























When my mother goes food shopping, she always asks what kind of cereal she should buy. I always respond with, "Chex, cornflakes or rice crispies, I don't really like all that sugary cereal you normally buy." While I request simple cereal for it's lack of sugary sweetness, I completely contradict myself. Not always, but the majority of the time with toppings availability permitting, I usually put something sweet on my cereal. Never sugar, but either M&M's, cool whip, whipped cream, chocolate syrup or instant cappuccino. What a hypocrite I am, at the same time an amazing master cereal chef! lol. If you have never tried it, this is a must...cereal on ice cream. Specifically, Kix on vanilla ice cream. So good!

Please note: You can tell it's not Christmas time by my usage of dish wear. Notice I used a cup for my cereal, as I normally use, unless I get to use the awesome seasonal dishes during the Christmas season lol.

"Sweet things, I will never get enough."

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Day 73!

No McDonald's, I'm not lovin' it.
So for breakfast I had McDonald's. I know very healthy. I got the egg and steak sandwich, probably the worst thing you can get on the breakfast menu. Already feeling guilty for the high in calorie, fat and sodium sandwich, Mickey D's had to put a lovely drawing of a cow on my sandwich, reminding me what I was about to eat. Goodness I could have done with out that. It's like Longhorn Steakhouse, an entire menu of beef entrees, at the same time an entire restaurant filled with cow heads on the walls. How can you eat a steak with a beady eyed cow staring at you?! It's difficult. For the McDonald's, I just reminded myself how questionable their meat is, and probably wasn't even real steak lol.
"I'll name the land Saqqara, which means golden arches in which we have before you walk in and sit. And our saying will be "I'm lovin' it"."

Monday, June 6, 2011

The little bit of random...

Just a small continuation of day 72 and Kennedy Park. When Dan and I go to Kennedy at night, we walk a decent amount at the least we do three laps around the lake, and each lap is a mile. When we go in the mornings and if we have our cameras on us, we walk maybe, just maybe 2 laps. But usually it's one and a quarter because we get side tracked by going behind the park and checking out the stuff back there. Or this time, to add to that, we stopped at the kiddy park!

Next to the wood park that was knocked down for a skatepark, this used to be my favorite jungle gym at the park. I'm not sure why but I used to love to jump on this bridge. I did it while I was there, but it just wasn't the same.
Dan at the other end of a tunnel. I used my fish eye lens for this, looks pretty cool. 

I'm curious to know who listens to the New York Dolls that would still be going to the kiddy park/graffitiing a slide.














Speaking of graffiti....why? I just don't get it. "It was the spinach?" What does that even mean?! And why must people graffiti? I hate that so much. I mean this is hardly art, so don't say otherwise. And why can't you just get some canvas and express yourself on that? Psh!

"Teenage graffiti shut your mouth, turn off the tv. Ain't got no money honey I don't mind."

Day 72!

The sixth sign that summer is on its way...trips to Kennedy Park at 7am!

Or maybe it's all the baby ducks around. 











Ducklings are the cutest things ever!














Almost certain that this turtle either just made her nest to lay eggs or she just laid them. Last year and the year before I would always see egg shells in a small ditch, in this exact spot, so yay for more baby turtles! Aka hatchlings.

















I wish I took a clearer shot of this moth. Bugs always freak me out, but this little thing is actually really cute.


"She traps a velvet moth between her harmless hands"