| Jan. 1st, 2009 @ 12:00 pm What A Year... |
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January 1, 2009. Two thousand nine. Can you believe it? Where has the time gone? Looking back on 2008, I realize it was one of my better years, if not the best.
Lets recap.
JANUARY 2008.
-I came into the New Year once again with Al; I decided I wanted a friendship with him, if nothing else. Half-hour into the New Year - he kissed me, and everything I did to keep myself from liking him disappeared. He was on leave from the army, and left a few days later.
-Not wanting to deal with the hassle of having a date, Jenelle and I decided to go to our senior year Winter Ball alone. It was fun, but by the end of the night we were both on our cell phones.
FEBRUARY 2008.
-Jenelle and I flew to Texas to go visit Zach and Al, with Zach's mom. That was my first time flying anywhere without a family member. The trip was a lot of fun, although I wish I could've seen Al more. We went to the Human Body Exhibit, a wax museum, and out to dinner. We saw the Alamo. The worst part was when I had to leave. We were only there for 4 nights.
-I met my future roommate, Alyssa on Facebook.
MARCH 2008.
-Seana's 18th!
-I decided to attend the University of Rhode Island in the fall.
-I worked on the high school's production of 'After Juliet' as set decorator? I also took lots of pictures.
APRIL 2008.
-April Vacation
MAY 2008.
-Senior Ball on the 9th, I went with Nick from work. Our "limo" was a mini van, which was the farthest thing from a limo. Jenelle went with Bobby from her work, and Brittany went with her boyfriend Will, and Danielle had the last minute date of Ray. I have never danced so much in my life. I had a blast.
-I was inducted into the Rhode Island Honor Society.
-Gala for Friends Way, where more of my photographs were auctioned off, and my note cards were sold. I also ran into my friend Alix, who I had met working on a 48 hour film project in 2007. She happened to be singing at the event.
-Jenelle, Dalex, and I all had breakfast with Hobin, the principal of the high school. This was our prize for our costumes coming in 5th place for 'The Hunt' back in October 2007. We were Tetris pieces.
-The 28th was our Senior Super. Our last opportunity to all be together before graduation. I liked this event very much, for the fact that it was just OUR class, underclassmen were not allowed. We received our caps and gowns, our yearbooks among other things. I was strange and exciting at the same time.
JUNE 2008.
-Dalex and I were in charge of decorating for the Drama Banquet. We managed to get there ten minutes before people showed up. We rushed around to make the place look presentable. And we succeeded. I showed a slide show of all of my pictures taken of the productions over the years as the band played.
-Seana flew in to come to Graduation.
-June 10th was class day, where we paraded around the school in our caps and gowns and the Juniors officially became the Seniors of Coventry High School.
-June 11th was Jenelle's 18th birthday, as well as our Graduation rehearsal at the University of Rhode Island Ryan Center. After rehearsal Aseel helped me navigate around campus to find the VA office so I could get some things straightened out for the fall.
-June 12, 2008, was my Graduation from Coventry High School. What an amazing feeling. Graduating, everything I had done, had led up to that moment where I got to walk across the stage and proclaimed that I could do it, that I was successful. No more high school. I miss it though. I miss the people, my friends.
-June 14th was my graduation party, I didn't have a huge amount of people show up, but it was still fun. The next day was Jenelle's.
-Al flew home for a couple weeks.
-June 19th and 20th I was at URI for Orientation. It was terrible. I didn't really fit in with anyone. I hated sleeping on the top bunk; I felt as if I'd crash to the floor in the middle of the night and crack my head open. There wasn't any cell phone service in my room, and to top it all off, I was stuck at URI while Al was home, in the state.
-My cousin John had his graduation party
-Audition for Brotherhood (didn't get the part)
JULY 2008.
-Plain White T's Concert with Seana in Newport. One word: TEENIES! I was jealous of the mom in front of me reading Eclipse.
-July 14th flew to Miami to board the Norwegian Sky for a four-night cruise. We went to three islands in the Bahamas. The staff accidentally delivered a birthday cake to our room, two days early. There was a restaurant manager working on the boat from Turkey, his name was Zach and he was my favorite person on the ship. He custom made food that I could eat, since I'm allergic to Dairy.
-July 15th (Al's Birthday). The first stop of the cruise was Freeport, which was very stormy and rainy. We took a tour bus around the island, where I fell asleep.
-July 16th was my 18th birthday. I started it off by singing karaoke for the first time in a little club on board. The cruise ship was docked at Grand Bahama Island, which is where I've always wanted to go ever since I watched the movie 'Holiday In The Sun' We took a taxi to Atlantis Paradise resort where I was able to legally gamble for the first time. After that we went on a boat to a small island where I had a dolphin encounter with Shawn (: he was lovely, and gave me kisses on my birthday. We decided to go eat at one of the more expensive places on the ship for my birthday dinner. The staff was awful and didn't know what they were talking about and told me I food didn't have dairy in it, when it in fact did. We should've stuck with Zach; he would have taken care of me.
-July 17th, the ship was docked at NCL's own Private Island. I went snorkeling, that was absolutely the most incredible experience, and I loved it. I could see everything.
-Friday, July 18th we woke up back in Miami. We packed everything up, and left for the airport.
-That night began the 48 Hour film project. I got home from the airport, took a shower, got dressed and headed to the Cranston office to work on some Ideas for our film. Our genre was political drama, we needed to use a pear, the line of dialogue 'if you see him again, tell me', and the character Monica or Monte Chaney - hairstylist. I ended up leaving and going home to sleep, and headed back in the morning.
-That Saturday I went back to the office, and we wrapped up a script and began scouting for locations. Our story was based of the true events of Patti Smith, an Oregon state representative who lobbied for the European Pear to become the state fruit. We got really lucky with this story line. I found a pear farm in Cranston and headed over there to see if they would allow us to film on the farm. The gentleman there was very nice, he didn’t completely understand the concept of our project, but he gave us the green light to film on his property. That day was one of the hottest days of the year. We spent the whole day filming, until the morning.
-Sunday was insane. Apparently the two editors fell asleep before the footage finished logging. That set us back substantially. And to top it all off, the girl who was doing the editing had no idea what she was doing, so our final product wasn’t what it could’ve been. Once it was completed, we took the hard drive and risked our lives by speeding to get it to the Hilton Garden Inn. We got it in on time, unlike last year when we were four minutes late.
-Later that night, I went to see The Dark Knight with TJ and Ben. I was so exhausted from the events of the past week, than I managed to fall asleep in between the two of them. I was a little upset, but I couldn’t even pretend to keep my eyes open.
-The next day was the Panera trip to Six Flags. Like I needed any more excitement? I went with Yawei, Brandon, and Simone. We somehow got lost on the way there. I went on an upside down with Yawei… that was priceless… I love her. We didn’t stay too long, we weren’t really in the mood for that much excitement, and Brandon needed to get back to bake overnight.
-I had a day to rest, then went to Warped Tour with Des! That was insane. There were tornado warnings, it was raining, and there was lighting… INSANE. It got to the point where they had to shop all of the shows. We were soaked, absolutely drenched. We ran into Alex and Jacki and camped out in Alex’s car while the storm passed. I saw a lot of great bands. And I also met Angels and Airwaves – minus Tom since he was sick. They were the last to play on the main stage, but at that point the weather had gotten awful. And Des and I just wanted out.
-The next day we had the 48 Hour Film Screening where our film ‘HJR 8’ was officially shown.
-Sometime that week we had our above ground pool installed! Wonderful.
-That Saturday I was hired to take photographs of Coventry High School’s Class of 1988 20th Reunion. A couple of my teachers recommended me. It was my first paying photography gig. I felt awkward the whole time I was there, like I was invading their space. But the pay was worth it.
-I went to the movies with Matt to go see Step Brothers then later that night I drove to Boston to go stay in a hotel to work on a movie in the morning. I stayed with Anthony and Nick in their hotel suite. It was lovely.
-The movie was called ‘Tricks of a Woman’ I played an Extra at a Fashion show. Getting there was a thrill. I drove around for over an hour trying to find a parking spot. Not realizing that there was a relatively cheap parking garage located across the street from the set. I ended up parking on top of a bus station somewhere. And walked my way to set. Anthony’s step dad brought me out later to try to find somewhere where I could get something I could eat, since catering had dairy infested products, and seafood. Gross. We had such a hard time finding a place. We eventually found a Panera in the middle of the city, but they were closed. I don’t think I ended up eating that night. I had a pretty exhausting couple of weeks. I drove home that night.
-I went out to eat with Jonny at Chili’s. Before we headed off to school.
AUGUST 2008.
-My graduation present from Jenelle was tickets to go see the Producers on August 7th. It was Jenelle, Zach, Matt, and I. The weather was terrible if I remember correctly.
-The Best of Providence 48 Hour Screening was on August 10th. ‘HJR 8’ won two awards! Best Screenplay, and Best Use of Prop – Thematic. I was so proud to be apart of that team. Which was relatively small.
-August 17th was the Paramore, Jack’s Mannequin, and Phantom Planet show at Providence Piers. I went with Brittany. Amazing show. I’ve wanted to see JM for a while.
-August 22nd was the Boys Like Girls and Good Charlotte concert at Lupo’s. I went with Des before she left for France. Metro Station was a major disappointment, I love their CD but they were not so hot live. Seeing Good Charlotte again made me fall in love with them all over again. I used to be a GC fanatic when I was in middle school during my punk phase. Yeah, punk phase… Funny.
-Wednesday the 27th I woke up at 4:30 AM to go pick up Matt and drive to New Haven, Connecticut so we could catch a train to New York City. We went specifically to go see ‘Spring Awakening’; we waited in the TKTS line to get cheap tickets. Once we had our tickets we wondered the city for a bit, got some Jamba Juice. We eventually took at taxi and ended up at the Super Hero Museum at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Seeing Spring Awakening was absolutely incredible. I’m obsessed. I’ve never really been a huge fan of musicals, but the music in this show is brilliant. The acting was unbelievably powerful. I want to go back and see it again. After the show, we got more Jamba Juice and headed back to the train station. We grabbed some food and hopped on a train. We were so tired from walking around the City all day. Matt slept on the way home from New Haven.
-Saturday August 30th, I moved into my dorm room at URI. I met my roommates Alyssa and Jill and we rearranged the room to make the best use of the space. We had the greatest room. We had everything you could ever need. Move in day was exhausting. I was nervous and excited at the same time.
-That Sunday Jill, Alyssa and I went shopping for some more things for our dorm now that we knew what we had to work with. The three of us got along really well. It seemed like we’d known each other for a while, when we had only met the day before. We bought a goldfish named Herman.
SEPTEMBER 2008.
-September 3rd was the first day of classes for the semester. My first class was General Nutrition. Oh man. Followed by Intro to Mass Media and Intro to Film.
-September 7th Jill and I went to go see comedian Jeff Dunham at The Ryan Center on campus. He uses puppets throughout his acts.
-I worked at the Pawtucket Film Festival one night because my Film professor made a joke about how you’d get extra credit if you went to see his film ‘You Must Be This Tall: The Story of Rocky Point Park’ at the Pawtucket Festival. Since I worked it last year, I figured I’d go that night and say hello to my professor. I told him in class that I was going; he probably thought that was weird… But once he saw that I actually knew the people running it really well… that changed.
-Railey’s 6th Birthday Party.
-Herman the goldfish had an accident. (RIP) So I bought three more fishes named Herman Junior, Hermione, and Hermosa.
OCTOBER 2008.
-I decided to transfer to the Panera Bread in Wakefield for convenience. It is closer to school. They run things so differently there. It’s a lot slower. I missed everyone from East Greenwich, so much that I transferred back.
-I joined the Student Entertainment Committee: Concert Section. I loved the idea of the club. I wanted to join something on campus to meet more people. But I started to get scheduled to work on the nights of the meeting, and it only lasted for a couple weeks.
-Jill’s Birthday, Alyssa and I got her the Twilight Calendar. She left her cell phone at Applebee’s.
-Flame of Hope Water Fire in Providence. Bad Idea. I took Matt with me, since it was his last weekend in Rhode Island before moving to New York for school. We were on the highway exit ramp for about an hour. It was ridiculous. We had no choice; I needed to pick up Jill and her friend who had spent about 8 hours roaming around Providence Place Mall. We walked around the Water Fire for a while. It was so romantic. Matt and I decided that we weren’t the people we’d want to be with for something so romantic, but we were the next best things.
-October 14th I went with my mom to go see Lisa Williams at PPAC. She is a medium and clairvoyant, what an incredible experience. I was nervous and upset all day leading up to it.
-Saw Small Tragedy at School.
-Friday October 24th, I flew to Georgia to go see Al. That was my first time ever flying by myself. Before I left I stopped at his house where his dad had hot wieners that I brought with m. Al picked me up from the airport. He greeted me with a motorcycle helmet as a joke. He actually had his friend Banner’s car. It took about 40 minutes to get back to the base. I got in at 11:30 PM, so I was pretty tired. I had a lot of fun just getting to spend time with Al. One of his friends had his motorcycle stolen. I gave Banner a shot. We went to a house party and I met a lot of the people Al works with. They loved me. I got to play Rock Band with all of the kids.
-My flight was supposed to leave that Monday night, but I received a phone call saying that my flight was delayed and that would cause me to miss my connecting flight in North Carolina. I had to reschedule my flight for Tuesday morning. We had to wake up at 4:30. I didn’t want to leave. Al sat with me at the airport for as long as he could, until I had to go through security.
NOVEMBER 2008.
-Election Day. I voted =)
-After voting I went and bought myself the new MacBook Pro at Providence Place. Buying this thing was a pain in my ass. I had debit card issues, ATM issues. I had more than enough money, but there were limits on how much you could spend within a 24-hour period. The guy at the Apple store was very patient with me as I called the bank, and wandered the mall in search of an ATM. He ended up giving me a dollar from his pocket just so I could get it. Then I forgot about the dollar I needed for parking. Somehow I had one in a wallet in my car. I love my MacBook Pro very much.
-I went back to Coventry High to take pictures of their production of ‘Grease’. I went to a few dress rehearsals and the opening night performance with Seana.
-After the show we drove to Boston to try to get in line to get a chance to meet Robert Pattinson. We got there around 11 PM and they had already given out 500 wristbands. Rob wasn’t even signing until 6 PM the next day. Ridiculous. We found out there was a question and answer session at 7 PM after the signing. We ended up sleeping in the mall parking garage. We woke up at 6 AM and found a Panera to hang out in. They have free WIFI and food that I know I can eat, and they’re insane and are open that early. We spent about four hours there. Then went back to the mall, and camped out waiting for Rob. We were in the mall by 10 – 11 AM and never went back to the car until 8 – 9 PM. Horrible experience. I have never seen that many obsessed human beings in one place. I have never head that many screaming voices in my life. Oh well, it was an experience. Not sure if it was totally worth it. But I can say I did it. God Damn Teenies.
-I spent hours upon hours trying to find good classes for next semester.
-For my URI 101 class we had to do a service-learning project. Since we are all film majors we promoted a film, and attended it. It was a documentary called ‘Lost In Woonsocket’ I thought it’d be boring as hell, but it was great, really inspiring and real raw emotions.
-Seana and I went to the midnight showing of Twilight. Again, TEENIES. Aghh. The movie was independent and I feel as though there was too much hype, and it wasn’t the best it could have been. The acting wasn’t terrible, I just don’t feel like the characters were developed enough. And you could tell it was low budget compared to what it should have been.
-I went and saw ‘Oklahoma!’ at school. It was cool because I knew a lot of people in the cast. It was especially great to see Shannon and Miles.
-Thanksgiving. Enough said.
DECEMBER 2008.
-My Theatre 100 performance was called ‘Cut’. I was the business manager for the show. I controlled the lights in the house. I also designed and printed the posters and programs. The theatre department gave me $40 to get everything printed. Somehow the money fell out of my pocket so I had to use my own money for everything and then pay them they rest. I was pissed. I hated that class with a passion.
-I’ve been working as Post Production Supervisor for ‘HJR 8’. I basically make sure that things are getting done on the film.
-I successfully completed my first semester of college with a 3.0 GPA. I was a little worried there for a while with two of my classes, But managed to pass them both.
-I sold one of my textbooks back for $1.
-Al came home. I went with him, his brother, niece, and nephew to Providence Place so the kids could go to Build-A-Bear Workshop. I spent a lot of time with Al this time. It was nice.
-Christmas Eve I went to My Aunts house in Mystic to be with my Dad’s side of the family.
-Christmas Day I wasn’t feeling too well.
-December 26th I went with Jenelle to go see Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers in Cambridge, MA. It was probably the best concert I’ve ever been to. They were incredible as always. I managed to record almost every song in it’s entirety. My favorites were ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ and ‘Milwaukee’ which is my favorite song ever, and they performed it right next to me.
-On December 30th, I had work then we had Christmas at my house. My Grammy, Uncle Ernie, Erin and Roselyn came over as well as Al. I had a great time. There was red whine spilt on the couch, brownies and cookies sprawled on the floor… We couldn’t stop laughing.
-New Years Eve. We had a snow storm. I went over Zach’s house to see Al late that night. I got there twenty minutes of. Then just stayed at Al’s.
What a year. I enjoyed it thoroughly. |
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