Almost camping time

I leave to go camping tomorrow morning and I'm going to eat so many twizzlers and marsh mellows and it's going to be amazing. I've been going to the same campground for over ten years. I have a lot of fun camping memories.

Such as:

+ Getting stuck in the mud and losing my shoes
+ Getting stuck in a hammock
+ Getting ready for the campground dance to impress all the boys
+ Drinking too much sambuca and insisting I saw predator in the woods. But don't worry, he didn't attack me because I was unarmed and alone (I'm such a nerd even when intoxicated)
+ Finding baby mice under a canoe and making them a little home in a box

I'm seeing a theme of my getting stuck in things here. But to be fair I got stuck in the hammock because Dave flipped me over in it and I had my hands and feet intertwined in the rope. This left me stuck face down about an inch above the ground which had Dave in hysterics and me yelling that I was stuck.

Expect lots of pictures and possibly a "Ginny got stuck" story when I return.

A dedication to Gangsta's Paradise

I miss people dedicating songs over the radio. It doesn't really happen that much anymore.

The best radio dedication I ever made was Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise for my friend Brandy's birthday. You know, because we could really relate to that song being white pre-teens living in the burbs. We were so excited when they actually played it that we jumped up and down screaming all the words.

Gangsta's Paradise is now my go to karaoke song. Guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

I miss school lunch.

School lunch has come up twice this week and I miss it. Our high school may have not been updated since the 50s (fallout shelters anyone?) but our school lunch was awesome.

The highlight of my high school cafeteria were the french fries and gigantic chocolate chip cookies. Germana ate this every day for lunch. Sometimes she would add an Italian sub to the mix. I would usually eat the "crust" of Germana's cookie because she liked the middle part with 10 sticks of butter.

Next we had the hot lunch. This changed daily and people went crazy over a McRib like sandwich.

Then we had subs. Usually turkey, Italian or ham and cheese. All pretty good. I usually went with the turkey.

If you wanted pasta we had the pasta station where you could get pasta with tomato sauce or mac and cheese where you could ladle on the cheese yourself. Disgusting to think about but really delicious. This also came with bread.

Last but not least was the snack shack. Want a churro? You can get that! We also had vending machines with soda, juice and snacks.

I'm sure if I went back to Waltham High today the french fries and giant cookies would be gone because we're trying to fight childhood obesity. But the funny thing it most people in my school were a normal weight. Something has changed besides our diets. I'm guessing we were more active. It took a long time for the AOL dial up to work.

My mother was also pretty healthy when it came to food shopping. We didn't have soda or chips unless it was a special occasion. So at home I was not eating junk. And being friends with Germana I got tons of homemade Italian food. YUM. I highly recommend befriended someone with Italian parents. I mean Germana was ok to hang out with too.

My point here is that I wish there was a cafeteria like this at my work and I'm a bit sad that the french fries are probably gone from Waltham high. Oh and eat lots of fresh pasta.

Stick your face in things

Sorry, I really have no better title for this blog post.

I'm currently typing this while Mr. Binx sticks his face in the air conditioner and then jumps back when he realizes that there's something blowing out of there. He then tries again about 30 seconds later. You'd think he'd learn but then again if he could learn he'd be doing my laundry by now.

I was starting to think how this reminded me of my brother. When he was a baby my mom would put out the sprinkler and I would jump through it while my brother would sit there and let it spray him in the face. He'd look surprised for a moment and then do it again. Baby Chinese water torture, except he liked it. There are pictures to prove this. Maybe I should get him a sprinkler for Christmas.

Sticking your face in things is not a summer time event though. When I was a kid I would convince my friends that we should stick our faces in the snow and see who could last the longest. This was not a fun game. Once I figured this out I decided I would be the referee and make sure no one cheated. On a ski trip to Vermont I remembered this game and convinced Nate, Jackie and Dave to do this. Uncle Scott came out and asked me what was going on. I calmly replied that they were sticking their faces in the snow and I was making sure no one cheated. He shook his head and walked back into the house.

I'm thinking people like to stick their faces in things around me. I'd like to have a better persuasion power but you take what you can get.

I'm finally going to see Our Lady Peace

I don't know about you but I get really excited about seeing bands I love in concert. There's something about being there in person screaming the lyrics to your favorite songs alongside other people who get it.

One of my favorite albums is Clumsy by Our Lady Peace. It was pretty much the sound track to 7th grade. I still have that album on my ipod. I could have seen them once back in 1997 but you see my friend Melissa took my friend Brandy and Germana and I were pissed. We wanted to see Our Lady Peace too and we had to listen to Melissa and Brandy talk about how great they were in concert. Don't worry, we still talk today so I think we got over it. Now, 15 years later (gahhhh! that's a long time) we're finally going to see them in concert.

Too bad Germana and I got rid of our Jnco jeans.

Bring on the 90s rock! And they better play my favorite song.