I'm finally ready to blog about my summer! It may have been best that I blogged after every major event (so the details would be more fresh) but for whatever reason...I wasn't feeling it (blogging). This was the best, and most eventful summer of my life. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a long post...so lets begin:) In May I went to Miami to visit a my little brother (shout out to Brandon Tirrell) only to come back and find out that my restaurant was going out of business that weekend. boo! Especially since I'd just blown mad money and given up a bunch of shifts while on vacay. It did however end up working out, as one of my restaurant regulars hired me as a nanny and wanted me to come and help her out in South Hampton on the weekends. This allowed me to be jobless, take a summer course, and do all the other things I really wanted to do. Some of the funnest of things I got to do while taking my class were catching summer movies in the park, seeing Talib Kewli (and Blitz the Ambassador) in concert, going to bomb rooftop parties in Brooklyn, chilling at the beach for my roomie's Bday, and seeing Lyfe Jennings perform. So I signed up for this Chem class I needed to take that lasted until July 22. It was cool. My study buddy was this very smart but very suppressed guy whom we'll call Dee. When I say suppressed I mean...hes a 24 year old 7th day Adventist that...is always at church...has had sex one time...sleeps in a bunk bed above his little brother...cant talk on the phone after eleven...has a midnight curfew...has never had a drink...has never smoked a spliff...and listens "non-worldly" music...ect. ect. Needless to say our conversations were interesting as I was constantly trying to sway him to try everything he's not allowed...he amused me. Who can really get down like that and be okay with it? So Dee made an A in the class and I made a very bad grade:)...it happens. The moment I finished my final exam I ran outside with my bags. Now was when my one month summer had officially begun. My girl friend Gina, her roommate Chrissy, a dude named Jason and I were headed upstate to the Grassroots Festival 2010. They picked me up straight from City College and we were off! We lit up immediately and began our 5 hour drive upstate only to be entertained by Dan who had volunteered to drive us. This kid's humor...is on some other shit. So I grew up in Tennessee and every year there's this music festival called Bonnaroo which I've never been to. This was a mini version of that I guess, and I had a ball. As soon as we got there we set up our tent. Gina and Chrissy have been to Grassroots for the past ten years and a big group of their friends and family were stationed in a bunch of different spots. After meeting Gina's wonderful family and childhood friends I got the tour. There was the Grandstand, the Cabaret, the Dance tent, and the Main Stage each with a never ending rotation of great music. The acts ranged from hip hop, to Native American hoop dancing, to folk, to house, to bass and drum, to acoustic. Whatever you like. EVERY SINGLE PERSON HAD POT. EVERY SINGLE PERSON. for real. It was hippie heaven. Tye dye everywhere. Food vendors of all sort (thai/vegetarian/mexican/a coffee shop/you name it). The people were funny looking. VERY funny looking actually:) We were way upstate so everyone was extremely pale and also malnourished looking...feeble as well. Yea, those people looked feeble. Bad teeth too. On the flip side they were the nicest people I've every met in my life as most hippies are...and everyone had eerily and extraordinarily beautiful eyes. Their eyes were like crystals. The clearest greens and blues I'd ever seen. And they were ALL ABOUT the peace, the love, and the drugs. So the festival lasted from Thursday to Sunday. Thursday night was normal. We smoked, drank, and danced our way from tent to stage to tent again. That night we all came back to the tent and we went to sleep. Boo to sleeping in a tent with not enough to keep you warm. It stormed that night. My first night sleeping in a tent and it storms. What's a girl to do? When morning came a few of us from the group decided to walk a little and get some breakfast from the only restaurant within miles. I had a delicious country style ham and cheese omelet, a blueberry pancake, and a cup of coffee. So good. The fun began that night. So all day we just kicked it. Around 9pm the band Arrested Development took the stage. They're still great:) Everyone's dancing and hoola hooping. At any given moment during the whole weekend I could look around and see at least a dozen people hoola hooping. While I was getting my groove on Gina handed me a tiny sheet of paper. My first drug ever (besides weed)...acid. So I put this paper under my tongue and the next thing you know...whoa, I feel like super woman. I was wide awake...and everything was curvy...yea...curvy. I knew I was going to try a couple drugs for the first time on this trip and was really down strictly for the purpose of objective observance;) Really. I just wanted to know what it was like (I have an "everything once" complex). So after the bands finished I'm ready to explore. Everyone was down to do what I wanted to do because it was my first time at Grassroots; and what I wanted to do was check out the off site camp grounds of which I'd heard rumors about. We started walking and at this point its Gina, Chrissy, Jason, and I. So we stumble upon this painted wall...and it looks like its wet still. "What the hell?" I think to myself. I think the acid has me buggin' out...so i walk over to touch it. To my surprise I'm not buggin! The wall was covered with globs of wet paint. Needless to say we had soon covered each other in wet paint. Paint on our arms, paint on our faces, and new designs on the wall. In the distance we see the bus to the off site campgrounds pull up and we all climb aboard. We drive downhill along side a river we'd bathed in earlier (yea, that river had LEECHES. Wtf? How my friends gunna bring me down to a river and then throw in "Oh yea, watch out for the leeches".....:/). Off site was Completely different. A bunch of cars and sludge. We had to walk through sludge. Chrissy had gotten "poop toe" a few years back where she had to go get antibiotics and everything. There's only porta-potties out there and with the rain action sometimes you can't tell if you walking though mud or...not mud. If there was any place at this festival for a girl to catch poop toe, this was it. We hear loud drums and decide to follow our ears and soon we're in a forest. What I saw...was some other shit. So there's a drum circle with a fire blazing in the middle and about 1oo people gathered round. A lot of people have lazer lights or these spinning lights that they have aimed up and racing around through the tree tops. There's 2 girls dancing, but as if they are possessed!! (keep in mind I'm on acid) Every now and then somebody lets out some sort of primitive type animal cry! The energy is super intense and it damn near feels like and orgy is going to break out. We watch for a long time and sort of explore the area around. I spot a guy twirling fire and want to walk over. Above my head I see a huge net that was attached way up high to about 5 different trees and there are at least 3 people in it doing God knows what. It looked like something out of the movie Avatar. After seeing that, we had to go! We walk out of the trees and somehow its morning. We want to continue to the bus but are stopped by the most beautiful sky I've ever seen. This was the best part of acid, as I could literally control the clouds in the sky with my hands and mind. The clouds moved and flowed like water wherever I desired. It sounds insane, and even at the time it was to me...but it was easily one of the most amazing moments in my life. We journeyed back. Chrissy and Jason went to sleep but I was in such shock and so wired there was no way I could lay down. I played with an inch worm I found for about an hour. Coolest bug ever. They crawl forward but eat with their butt. It's pretty nuts and I was quite amused as I am a biologist:) So I can't sleep. It's now Saturday. I call Jimbo to tell him about the trip thus far and then I find Gina. We walk over to the Grandstand where we find Native Americans playing music and calling for people to join a rain dance. I can't resist and join in. A huge circle of people led by a beautiful Native American woman join hands and we stomp the ground while walking in various formations. To my surprise and definitely my delight, we bring rain:) I can't help but call my bestie (shout out to Molly Allen) and tell her what we did. She laughs and tells me she'd love nothing more than to be rain dancing with me. After that Gina and I meet a guy named Neal who explains to us the theory of 6 degrees of separation and how people aren't separated by more than 6 degrees...or people (so a friend of yours in one degree away from you and a friend of a friend is 2 degrees away...get it?). He wanted to meet as many people as possible in order to lessen his degree of separation. Not a bad idea. It's now time to shower. They had this cute trailor shower thing I'd yet to use and I desperately needed a washing. I bought a lavender bandanna and then walked over only to meet the cutest lady in line wearing all lavender. That's when I discovered I'm a lavender girl...whatever that means. Her name was Cassandra and we talked about how there are no coincidences in life and everything has meaning. This was her tenth year at the festival, she was born in 1950, and had just turned 60 on the tenth day of the month. Numbers ending in zero were always showing up in her life. We go in the showers and I see a daddy long leg who's very intriguing for some reason. As I'm taking a pic of him with my camera phone someone tells me how daddy long legs bring the rain. Everyone's naked and there are all kinds of bodies up in there! I'm extremely shy when it comes to my body but for the first time ever I decide I'm not going to be anymore. I strip down and have to the most refreshing shower and once I get out remain in the shower room for over an hour saying good mornings and having convo a convo with hippie women:) Now that I'm refreshed it's breakfast time. I walk by myself over to Gina's uncle's tent. Very nice guy who's always cooking. Pancakes! Yes! His daughter (the most adorable little red head named Aubrey) wants to go to be a part of the Happiness Parade. It sounds ridiculous...but why not? I volunteer to take her over. We dig through bins looking for the perfect outfit. I tie streamers around her wrists and paint her face with hearts and sun shines. I then place to lavender stickers on the outside of my eyes and we're off! It was kind of downhill after the parade as nothing could top the Friday night experience. I hadn't slept at this point in about two days and decided a nap was in order. When I woke up it was night time and I walked around only to find Chrissy and Jason in the dance tent. My second drug was taken then. Chrissy and I split a Molly pill that had us wide awake and cracking up at everything. I sat down just to relax, all smiles. There was one boy whom Chrissy and this other dude who'd been around thought was the most attractive at the whole campsite. What do you know? He approaches me and asks to dance. Why not? I dance with him and we small talk. Come to find he's pretty looney but amusing enough. We dance until early morning when the band stops playing. Sunday, Gina her mom and I decide one last trip to the river is in order. It's better this time. When we get there we find Jason and Chrissy drinking beers and Chrissy shows me this secret spot where you can sit and let the water fall over your shoulders. Ahhh! Now it's time to say our goodbyes and go home. As fun as it was...I'm tired of porta potties and I want my bed! My favorite trip this summer!!! I had one more trip before my summer ended which I will make much more brief. I have a very good girl friend by the name of Leide Cabral. She was one of my room mates when I first moved to NYC and we've been super cool ever since. We used to nonstop party and decided to take a trip to L.A. and also to spend a couple days in Vegas in order to end the Summer right. We decided to fly standby. We'd take a train to Baltimore and fly to L.A. for 100 bucks. BIG MISTAKE. We got stuck in Baltimore for a day, which ended up being great. Coming home however was a nightmare. In Baltimore we stayed at a very nice discounted hotel. We then headed downtown to check it out as neither of us had never been to Baltimore before. Downtown Baltimore was pretty sweet to both of our surprise. The harbor was beautiful and the shops and restaurants were plentiful. The most good looking black men I have ever seen (in case anyone is in search). We needed something to sip on...hmmmm. We asked a random dude where we could find a liquor store and he and there weren't any around. We then knew we needed to journey to the hood. As soon as we felt it get hoody we got off the bus and didn't have to walk more than a blocks to find a liquor store. Go figure. The drink for the day was pomegranate vodka with pomegranate juice, and it was pretty good. Soon were slooshed, back downtown, and hungry. Our restaurant of choice is the infamous "Dick's" where the waitstaff is purposely very, very rude to you. Our menus were thrown at us, the pictures we asked them to take were out of focus, and they made us hats suggesting we had very bad stds. The food was the opposite of the service, muy bueno! We then went paddle boating in dragon boats and hit the Cheesecake Factory before heading back to the hotel. Las Angeles! In short, It's incredibly beautiful-especially the hills and the homes which are mostly Spanish style. The nightlife severely disappointed us and made us decide that's what New York is for. We did go on a pretty neat tour of the Hollywood homes where we saw the crib Michael Jackson died in, the hotel where JFK and Marilyn Monroe used to cheat in, the locations where River Phoenix and John Belushi died, the house from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and a bunch of other celebrity homes. I was really thrown off by how close a lot of these celebrities live to one another. It's almost disgusting. For example Colin Ferral and Ben Stiller are next door neighbors and live a stones throw away from another actress whom I can't remember. A few other stops were the garment district, China town, and the O-so-good IN and OUT BURGER. We spent most of our time laying out at Malibu beach which is by far the most amazing beach I have ever been to. I felt like I was in Europe. The Spanish homes that I could see were help up in the hills by stilts, the water was blue, and the the sand flawless. It was also far more desolate than the Florida or New York beaches I've been to which made it feel exclusive:) Three or four nights while we were there we visited a friend of mine named Brandon. He's also form Memphis but moved to L.A. around the same time I moved to Brooklyn. He has his own print shop in South Central and gave us a "tour of L.A. hood culture" which we thoroughly enjoyed. His shop was great too, and in the back he and friends had graffitied various murals on the wall. One night that we were chillin outside with him, we heard his neighbor up on the roof. They were having a party. We asked if we could come over and they said yea. They were kickin' it in a pool shop (with a jacuzzi, pool filters, floaties, the whole 9). There was even a d.j. by the cash register. What?!? Very nice surprise. On the last day we were there Brandon took us to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in South Central. Stereotype or not....SO GOOD! On one of the nights we were there we also went to an art walk in downtown L.A. where all the galleries were open late night for free. The was music, food vendors, and hand me down clothes for sale. It was fun...except for the part where we had to run from the cop for jay-walking. They for real got out of their cars and tried to give us a ticket:/ The most fun I had on our trip was our detour to Vegas. We drove our rental car 4 hours through Death Valley to get there. It was so hot that there were warning not to turn on your a.c. because your car would over heat. Thus, we drove the whole way in bikinis. Vegas is what it looks like in the movies!! It's amazing and all just one long strip. We had bought tickets for a show and got dinner before hand. I got Ahi tuna...and Leide, a steak. The show we aw was called Zumanity and was the erotic Cirque de Soleil show. It was VERY erotic to say the least but done in a way that portrayed sex as beautiful. It even had its funny parts. I doubt there was one person in the audience that wasn't completely delighted by the end. We didn't have a place to crash for the night and i was far to exausted to drive back so we ended up crashing with some random 21 year old dudes we met from my hometown, Oakland. They were super funny and didn't try anything...phew! We watched a documentary on T.I. while the 2 brothers played quarter and sipped hypnotic and Hennessey....hahaha! Who REALLY drinks the Incredible Hulk?? They rode back with us to L.A. the next day as they had been in Vegas for a week and were ready to go home. They wanted to catch a greyhound from L.A. and had done us a big favor...so why not. The kept us laughing the whole way home with stories of their life in Oakland. They were dope boys so they had PLENTY of stories, with which Leide and I were very amused. Leide's favorite was how they were both in jail at the same time once and one of the bothers was allowed to leave AND had bail money, but just stayed to kick it for 2 extra weeks becuase he was having so much fun with his other bother in there. I liked the story about when one brother was locked up and heard another dude in the prison getting taken advantage one night. This is whathe said QUOTE ON QUOTE, "It's funny now! but I ain't gon' lie, that night I was scared. I was like, If somebody's getting it, then somebody's walking around taking it. That whole week I was thinking-You waiting on me to drop the soap, I'm waiting on you to drop the soap- So what's happenin?!". Too Much!! I was dying laughing. Thursday we wanted to head home, so we showed up super early to the airport and were told we probably couldn't get a flight until late that evening. We had already returned our car and were upset since we had tried the night before to get out as well. Knowing our friend's didn't want to play the back and fourth game from the airport we had to come up with a plan. Leide decided we should take a free shuttle to a hotel...and we did. Upon arriving we tipped the driver, found a nook in the hallway of the 3rd floor to hide our stuff, changed in to bikini's in the downstairs lobby, and located the hotel's rooftop swimming pool and hot tub:) We sent the day there chatting with the people who were actually staying there, soaking in the hot tub, and doing water ballet. After dinner we headed back to the airport. We had to separate to get home and I had to sleep by myself overnight in that cold airport. It wasn't until the next morning, and 3rd day of trying, that I was finally able to get out of Las Angeles. The last major thing I did this summer was Rock the Bells and that was just 2 weekends ago. Rock the Bells in an all day Hip Hop concert that hits about 4 cities in the U.S. every year. I went with Jimbo and my roomie Brian. While the location was off the day was great. We had a great time taking pictures in the coca-cola tent (pic on facebook) and doing karaoke. My favorites were A TRIBE CALLED QUEST and SNOOP DOG. However we also go to see Rakim, Krs-1, Yelawolf, and Lauryn Hill. Some of the celebs in a attendance that got called to the stage were Swizz Beatz, Jay-z, Busta (who also performed with his band Tribe), and Alicia Keys.And there you have it folks! My summer 2010. If only I'd passed that Chem class...
I'm finally ready to blog about my summer! It may have been best that I blogged after every major event (so the details would be more fresh) but for whatever reason...I wasn't feeling it (blogging). This was the best, and most eventful summer of my life. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a long post...so lets begin:) In May I went to Miami to visit a my little brother (shout out to Brandon Tirrell) only to come back and find out that my restaurant was going out of business 
that weekend. boo! Especially since I'd just blown mad money and given up a bunch of shifts while on vacay. It did however end up working out, as one of my restaurant regulars hired me as a nanny and wanted me to come and help her out in South Hampton on the weekends. This allowed me to be jobless, take a summer course, and do all the other things I really wanted to do. Some of the funnest of things I got to do while taking my class were catching summer movies in the park, seeing Talib Kewli (and Blitz the Ambassador) in concert, going to bomb rooftop parties in Brooklyn, chilling at the beach for my roomie's Bday, and seeing Lyfe Jennings perform. So I signed up for this Chem class I needed to take that lasted until July 22. It was cool. My study buddy was this very smart but very suppressed guy whom we'll call Dee. When I say suppressed I mean...hes a 24 year old 7th day Adventist that...is always at church...has had sex one time...sleeps in a bunk bed above his little brother...cant talk on the phone after eleven...has a midnight curfew...has never had a drink...has never smoked a spliff...and listens "non-worldly" music...ect. ect. Needless to say our conversations were interesting as I was constantly trying to sway him to try everything he's not allowed...he amused me. Who can really get down like that and be okay with it? So Dee made an A in the class and I made a very bad grade:)...it happens. The moment I finished my final exam I ran outside with my bags. Now was when my one month summer had officially begun. My girl friend Gina, her roommate Chrissy, a dude named Jason and I were headed upstate to the Grassroots Festival 2010. They picked me up straight from City College and we were off! We lit up immediately and began our 5 hour drive upstate only to be entertained by Dan who had volunteered to drive us. This kid's humor...is on some other shit. So I grew up in Tennessee and every year there's this music festival called Bonnaroo which I've never been to. This was a mini version of that I guess, and I had a ball. As soon as we got there we set up our tent. Gina and Chrissy have been to Grassroots for the past ten years and a big group of their friends and family were stationed in a bunch of different spots. After meeting Gina's wonderful family and childhood friends I got the tour. There was the Grandstand, the Cabaret, the Dance tent, and the Main Stage each with a never ending rotation of great music. The acts ranged from hip hop, to Native American hoop dancing, to folk, to house, to bass and drum, to acoustic. Whatever you like. EVERY SINGLE PERSON HAD POT. EVERY SINGLE PERSON. for real. It was hippie heaven. Tye dye everywhere. Food vendors of all sort (thai/vegetarian/mexican/a coffee shop/you name it). The people were funny looking. VERY funny looking actually:) We were way upstate so everyone was extremely pale and also malnourished looking...feeble as well. Yea, those people looked feeble. Bad teeth too. On the flip side they were the nicest people I've every met in my life as most hippies are...and everyone had eerily and extraordinarily beautiful eyes. Their eyes were like crystals. The clearest greens and blues I'd ever seen. And they were ALL ABOUT the peace, the love, and the drugs. So the festival lasted from Thursday to Sunday. Thursday night was normal. We smoked, drank, and danced our way from tent to stage to tent again. That night we all came back to the tent and we went to sleep. Boo to sleeping in a tent with not enough to keep you warm. It stormed that night. My first night sleeping in a tent and it storms. What's a girl to do? When morning came a few of us from the group decided to walk a little and get some breakfast from the only restaurant within miles. I had a delicious country style ham and cheese omelet, a blueberry pancake, and a cup of coffee. So good. The fun began that night. So all day we just kicked it. Around 9pm the band Arrested Development took the stage. They're still great:) Everyone's dancing and hoola hooping. At any given moment during the whole weekend I could look around and see at least a dozen people hoola hooping. While I was getting my groove on Gina handed me a tiny sheet of paper. My first drug ever (besides weed)...acid. So I put this paper under my tongue and the next thing you know...whoa, I feel like super woman. I was wide awake...and everything was curvy...yea...curvy. I knew I was going to try a couple drugs for the first time on this trip and was really down strictly for the purpose of objective observance;) Really. I just wanted to know what it was like (I have an "everything once" complex). So after the bands finished I'm ready to explore. Everyone was down to do what I wanted to do because it was my first time at Grassroots; and what I wanted to do was check out the off site camp grounds of which I'd heard rumors about. We started walking and at this point its Gina, Chrissy, Jason, and I. So we stumble upon this painted wall...and it looks like its wet still. "What the hell?" I think to myself. I think the acid has me buggin' out...so i walk over to touch it. To my surprise I'm not buggin! The wall was covered with globs of wet paint. Needless to say we had soon covered each other in wet paint. Paint on our arms, paint on our faces, and new designs on the wall. In the distance we see the bus to the off site campgrounds pull up and we all climb aboard. We drive downhill along side a river we'd bathed in earlier (yea, that river had LEECHES. Wtf? How my friends gunna bring me down to a river and then throw in "Oh yea, watch out for the leeches".....:/). Off site was Completely different. A bunch of cars and sludge. We had to walk through sludge. Chrissy had gotten "poop toe" a few years back where she had to go get antibiotics and everything. There's only porta-potties out there and with the rain action sometimes you can't tell if you walking though mud or...not mud. If there was any place at this festival for a girl to catch poop toe, this was it. We hear loud drums and decide to follow our ears and soon we're in a forest. What I saw...was some other shit. So there's a drum circle with a fire blazing in the middle and about 1oo people gathered round. A lot of people have lazer lights or these spinning lights that they have aimed up and racing around through the tree tops. There's 2 girls dancing, but as if they are possessed!! (keep in mind I'm on acid) Every now and then somebody lets out some sort of primitive type animal cry! The energy is super intense and it damn near feels like and orgy is going to break out. We watch for a long time and sort of explore the area around. I spot a guy twirling fire and want to walk over. Above my head I see a huge net that was attached way up high to about 5 different trees and there are at least 3 people in it doing God knows what. It looked like something out of the movie Avatar. After seeing that, we had to go! We walk out of the trees and somehow its morning. We want to continue to the bus but are stopped by the most beautiful sky I've ever seen. This was the best part of acid, as I could literally control the clouds in the sky with my hands and mind. The clouds moved and flowed like water wherever I desired. It sounds insane, and even at the time it was to me...but it was easily one of the most amazing moments in my life. We journeyed back. Chrissy and Jason went to sleep but I was in such shock and so wired there was no way I could lay down. I played with an inch worm I found for about an hour. Coolest bug ever. They crawl forward but eat with their butt. It's pretty nuts and I was quite amused as I am a biologist:) So I can't sleep. It's now Saturday. I call Jimbo to tell him about the trip thus far and then I find Gina. We walk over to the Grandstand where we find Native Americans playing music and calling for people to join a rain dance. I can't resist and join in. A huge circle of people led by a beautiful Native American woman join hands and we stomp the ground while walking in various formations. To my surprise and definitely my delight, we bring rain:) I can't help but call my bestie (shout out to Molly Allen) and tell her what we did. She laughs and tells me she'd love nothing more than to be rain dancing with me. After that Gina and I meet a guy named Neal who explains to us the theory of 6 degrees of separation and how people aren't separated by more than 6 degrees...or people (so a friend of yours in one degree away from you and a friend of a friend is 2 degrees away...get it?). He wanted to meet as many people as possible in order to lessen his degree of separation. Not a bad idea. It's now time to shower. They had this cute trailor shower thing I'd yet to use and I desperately needed a washing. I bought a lavender bandanna and then walked over only to meet the cutest lady in line wearing all lavender. That's when I discovered I'm a lavender girl...whatever that means. Her name was Cassandra and we talked about how there are no coincidences in life and everything has meaning. This was her tenth year at the festival, she was born in 1950, and had just turned 60 on the tenth day of the month. Numbers ending in zero were always showing up in her life. We go in the showers and I see a daddy long leg who's very intriguing for some reason. As I'm taking a pic of him with my camera phone someone tells me how daddy long legs bring the rain. Everyone's naked and there are all kinds of bodies up in there! I'm extremely shy when it comes to my body but for the first time ever I decide I'm not going to be anymore. I strip down and have to the most refreshing shower and once I get out remain in the shower room for over an hour saying good mornings and having convo a convo with hippie women:) Now that I'm refreshed it's breakfast time. I walk by myself over to Gina's uncle's tent. Very nice guy who's always cooking. Pancakes! Yes! His daughter (the most adorable little red head named Aubrey) wants to go to be a part of the Happiness Parade. It sounds ridiculous...but why not? I volunteer to take her over. We dig through bins looking for the perfect outfit. I tie streamers around her wrists and paint her face with hearts and sun shines. I then place to lavender stickers on the outside of my eyes and we're off! It was kind of downhill after the parade as nothing could top the Friday night experience. I hadn't slept at this point in about two days and decided a nap was in order. When I woke up it was night time and I walked around only to find Chrissy and Jason in the dance tent. My second drug was taken then. Chrissy and I split a Molly pill that had us wide awake and cracking up at everything. I sat down just to relax, all smiles. There was one boy whom Chrissy and this other dude who'd been around thought was the most attractive at the whole campsite. What do you know? He approaches me and asks to dance. Why not? I dance with him and we small talk. Come to find he's pretty looney but amusing enough. We dance until early morning when the band stops playing. Sunday, Gina her mom and I decide one last trip to the river is in order. It's better this time. When we get there we find Jason and Chrissy drinking beers and Chrissy shows me this secret spot where you can sit and let the water fall over your shoulders. Ahhh! Now it's time to say our goodbyes and go home. As fun as it was...I'm tired of porta potties and I want my bed! My favorite trip this summer!!! I had one more trip before my summer ended which I will make much more brief. I have a very good girl friend by the name of Leide Cabral. She was one of my room mates when I first moved to NYC and we've been super cool ever since. We used to nonstop party and decided to take a trip to L.A. and also to spend a couple days in Vegas in order to end the Summer right. We decided to fly standby. We'd take a train to Baltimore and fly to L.A. for 100 bucks. BIG MISTAKE. We got stuck in Baltimore for a day, which ended up being great. Coming home however was a nightmare. In Baltimore we stayed at a very nice discounted hotel. We then headed downtown to check it out as neither of us had never been to Baltimore before. Downtown Baltimore was pretty sweet to both of our surprise. The harbor was beautiful and the shops and restaurants were plentiful. The most good looking black men I have ever seen (in case anyone is in search). We needed something to sip on...hmmmm. We asked a random dude where we could find a liquor store and he and there weren't any around. We then knew we needed to journey to the hood. As soon as we felt it get hoody we got off the bus and didn't have to walk more than a blocks to find a liquor store. Go figure. The drink for the day was pomegranate vodka with pomegranate juice, and it was pretty good. Soon were slooshed, back downtown, and hungry. Our restaurant of choice is the infamous "Dick's" where the waitstaff is purposely very, very rude to you. Our menus were thrown at us, the pictures we asked them to take were out of focus, and they made us hats suggesting we had very bad stds. The food was the opposite of the service, muy bueno! We then went paddle boating in dragon boats and hit the Cheesecake Factory before heading back to the hotel. Las Angeles! In short, It's incredibly beautiful-especially the hills and the homes which are mostly Spanish style. The nightlife severely disappointed us and made us decide that's what New York is for. We did go on a pretty neat tour of the Hollywood homes where we saw the crib Michael Jackson died in, the hotel where JFK and Marilyn Monroe used to cheat in, the locations where River Phoenix and John Belushi died, the house from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and a bunch of other celebrity homes. I was really thrown off by how close a lot of these celebrities live to one another. It's almost disgusting. For example Colin Ferral and Ben Stiller are next door neighbors and live a stones throw away from another actress whom I can't remember. A few other stops were the garment district, China town, and the O-so-good IN and OUT BURGER. We spent most of our time laying out at Malibu beach which is by far the most amazing beach I have ever been to. I felt like I was in Europe. The Spanish homes that I could see were help up in the hills by stilts, the water was blue, and the the sand flawless. It was also far more desolate than the Florida or New York beaches I've been to which made it feel exclusive:) Three or four nights while we were there we visited a friend of mine named Brandon. He's also form Memphis but moved to L.A. around the same time I moved to Brooklyn. He has his own print shop in South Central and gave us a "tour of L.A. hood culture" which we thoroughly enjoyed. His shop was great too, and in the back he and friends had graffitied various murals on the wall. One night that we were chillin outside with him, we heard his neighbor up on the roof. They were having a party. We asked if we could come over and they said yea. They were kickin' it in a pool shop (with a jacuzzi, pool filters, floaties, the whole 9). There was even a d.j. by the cash register. What?!? Very nice surprise. On the last day we were there Brandon took us to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in South Central. Stereotype or not....SO GOOD! On one of the nights we were there we also went to an art walk in downtown L.A. where all the galleries were open late night for free. The was music, food vendors, and hand me down clothes for sale. It was fun...except for the part where we had to run from the cop for jay-walking. They for real got out of their cars and tried to give us a ticket:/ The most fun I had on our trip was our detour to Vegas. We drove our rental car 4 hours through Death Valley to get there. It was so hot that there were warning not to turn on your a.c. because your car would over heat. Thus, we drove the whole way in bikinis. Vegas is what it looks like in the movies!! It's amazing and all just one long strip. We had bought tickets for a show and got dinner before hand. I got Ahi tuna...and Leide, a steak. The show we aw was called Zumanity and was the erotic Cirque de Soleil show. It was VERY erotic to say the least but done in a way that portrayed sex as beautiful. It even had its funny parts. I doubt there was one person in the audience that wasn't completely delighted by the end. We didn't have a place to crash for the night and i was far to exausted to drive back so we ended up crashing with some random 21 year old dudes we met from my hometown, Oakland. They were super funny and didn't try anything...phew! We watched a documentary on T.I. while the 2 brothers played quarter and sipped hypnotic and Hennessey....hahaha! Who REALLY drinks the Incredible Hulk?? They rode back with us to L.A. the next day as they had been in Vegas for a week and were ready to go home. They wanted to catch a greyhound from L.A. and had done us a big favor...so why not. The kept us laughing the whole way home with stories of their life in Oakland. They were dope boys so they had PLENTY of stories, with which Leide and I were very amused. Leide's favorite was how they were both in jail at the same time once and one of the bothers was allowed to leave AND had bail money, but just stayed to kick it for 2 extra weeks becuase he was having so much fun with his other bother in there. I liked the story about when one brother was locked up and heard another dude in the prison getting taken advantage one night. This is whathe said QUOTE ON QUOTE, "It's funny now! but I ain't gon' lie, that night I was scared. I was like, If somebody's getting it, then somebody's walking around taking it. That whole week I was thinking-You waiting on me to drop the soap, I'm waiting on you to drop the soap- So what's happenin?!". Too Much!! I was dying laughing. Thursday we wanted to head home, so we showed up super early to the airport and were told we probably couldn't get a flight until late that evening. We had already returned our car and were upset since we had tried the night before to get out as well. Knowing our friend's didn't want to play the back and fourth game from the airport we had to come up with a plan. Leide decided we should take a free shuttle to a hotel...and we did. Upon arriving we tipped the driver, found a nook in the hallway of the 3rd floor to hide our stuff, changed in to bikini's in the downstairs lobby, and located the hotel's rooftop swimming pool and hot tub:) We sent the day there chatting with the people who were actually staying there, soaking in the hot tub, and doing water ballet. After dinner we headed back to the airport. We had to separate to get home and I had to sleep by myself overnight in that cold airport. It wasn't until the next morning, and 3rd day of trying, that I was finally able to get out of Las Angeles. The last major thing I did this summer was Rock the Bells and that was just 2 weekends ago. Rock the Bells in an all day Hip Hop concert that hits about 4 cities in the U.S. every year. I went with Jimbo and my roomie Brian. While the location was off the day was great. We had a great time taking pictures in the coca-cola tent (pic on facebook) and doing karaoke. My favorites were A TRIBE CALLED QUEST and SNOOP DOG. However we also go to see Rakim, Krs-1, Yelawolf, and Lauryn Hill. Some of the celebs in a attendance that got called to the stage were Swizz Beatz, Jay-z, Busta (who also performed with his band Tribe), and Alicia Keys.And there you have it folks! My summer 2010. If only I'd passed that Chem class...
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