Simon!!!

I just got back from CVS, and was more than thrilled to see Simon at the pharmacy! For those of you who have a good memory, you'll know that Simon is my favorite pharmacist. Unfortunately, I have not seen him since around June, because he was not there when I went in July and August. I walked to the pharmacy, saw him, and went "Hi Simon!" and then...looking surprised, he responded with "Hi Ben!" I was happy" :)


These kind of things make me really happy. Bringing my medication to the pharmacy is usually dull and boring, which is why when I find a friendly pharmacist, I stick with them. And then we get to talk while he works on my prescription. So, we discussed the snow, and the weather in Vermont, and what Champlain is like. It's always a good thing to establish a personal connection with people, even if you do not see them that often. In addition, I know that if there is ever an issue with my prescription, there is someone there that will help me out. 


For example, when I used to get my prescription filled at Rite Aid many years ago, they weren't very good with keeping my medication in stock, but the head pharmacist there had a really cool African-type name, and when she found out that I liked it, she became very helpful. So when they would only have a couple pills in stock, they would give those to me up front, and I would come back a day or two later to pick up the rest. This was before I learned to leave at least five days of overlap between refills. 


So, there it is. It was cool to talk with Simon today, and I probably won't see him again until May. I wanted to drop by TD Bank to cash my paycheck, but they weren't open until 11, so I'll have to go back out. In other news, the snow has started! Yay!

Another from the Aruba series. (let's wait for Nora to scream..)

My poor watch...

My watchband is on its last threads...mostly literally, except it is rubber. Any minute now, the band will snap and, I will not be able to wear my watch anymore. I have had this watch since 4th grade, and it has become a part of me. The only period of time where I was able to separate myself from it, was this summer, when I decided that not wearing it would help me relax (and not give me a watch tan). 


The fracture in the band is right were I would expect it to be; right above the notch where I fasten my watch. So, all these years of me pulling on it to tighten it, and pulling back to loosen have finally taken its toll. I dont really want to replace the band because the new one is going to be stiff rubber that will probably be uncomfortable and weird. See, over the years, my band has been smoothed over and the edges rounded. The new one wont have that feature. 


Next up is the "replace the watch" suggestion. Well, I've grown to love it. And I really don't want to replace it. Its a very simplistic watch, and it functions well. All I need to do is replace the battery every couple of years. In addition, if I get a new one, then I'll start being all concerned about getting it scratched up or whatnot...


About a year ago, the little floating piece that holds down the excess band snapped. So I emailed Swiss Army, and asked them if it would be possible to purchase a replacement. They mailed me back two of them, and I was thrilled. I am tempted to email them again to see how much a replacement band would cost, because I know at their stores, they'll probably charge me an obnoxious amount, and I'd still have to pay for them to do the work on it. 


Meh, I just checked their website, and the replacement band is $20


So there's my situation. I don't really want to have to do anything, but as soon as I can't wear my watch anymore, I'll go nuts, so I better do something. I'd take a picture of it, but I don't want to disturb it as it sits on my wrist. Therefore, I am exempting myself from the picture from this post. Or not... I felt bad because it was such a long hunk of text. Here's another one from the Aruba series

I didn't realize you could play the New York Lottery in Aruba...

More things that get on my nerves...

When there is a long line to exit off the highway, and people decide to cruise along normally until the last minute, where they cut into the exit line. This is stupid, selfish, and it slows down traffic even more. This evening, when I was on my way to JFK to pick up my aunt and cousin from France, I made a point of not allowing anyone who did this to cut in front of me. I waited a good chunk of time to use that exit, and I'm not about to give it up to someone who just cut the line. And don't try and use the "I didn't know" excuse. Most of these cars are taxis that go back and forth to the airport several times a day, they know exactly where the exit is, but just don't want to wait. 

On to something else...When I was waiting for my family to arrive, I decided to use the bathroom. These bathrooms were pretty darn gross. Now, I don't know about other people, but as much as tourists can be annoying, I want them to have a good impression of New York. If the first thing they see when they land is these crummy bathrooms, then that is pretty bad. They need to do something about that. 

So that's that. Today, I went along with my dad and his friend to test drive a Porsche Panamera, which they of course want to get, even though they already have a Porsche Carrera. It's unnecessary, but highly amusing. There goes my college fund...

Oh, and it's Christmas Eve...or something like that where people decide to celebrate, so everyone decides to close. Okay, that's fine. I'm eating an apple right now that my mom brought me. It's really quite yummy. Okay, I'll go find a picture...

Since I mentioned the Porsche, and I can't find any picture of interest, here's one of me in the Carrera over Thanksgiving break. Yes, it was cold, but if you drive fast enough, it goes right over you!

Bonus points if you can figure out where this was taken...

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Wow, this week is just crusin' on by....

So, lets start off with some complaints. Right now facebook is getting on my nerves, because for a while now, whenever I click on my new notifications, the list appears, but then the newest one (that I want to click on), disappears. And I cannot get it to show up without refreshing facebook. It is quite aggravating, and I can't tell if it's a major glitch, or if it just happens to me.

I also hate when you walk towards the subway station, and when you get downstairs, you discover that you just missed the train. So then I get all annoyed because if I had walked a little bit faster, or made that light, I would have made the train. On the other hand, if I run towards the train station, and make it downstairs only to witness the train pulling away, I also get annoyed, because if I had walked normally, I would not have "just missed" it, and therefore not be annoyed.
Tough stuff, eh?

I think that's about it for the complaints now, although when I was exiting the train station, someone who was walking in front of me decided to stop abruptly and turn around, which led me to literally slam my foot down so I did not run him over. I like to think that I've perfected the art of stopping on very short notice. It's a good skill to have in New York.

Anyway, yesterday, I saw my aunt Nathalie and her boyfriend who dropped by from France, and tomorrow I get to see my aunt Sophie and cousin Magali, also coming by from France. Yay!

I got my hair cut today. I should be good until May... Also, it was pretty frigid out today. It says 34 degrees, but the wind is numbing. I couldn't even walk from the train to my house without having my gloves on.

Yes, that is all for now. Huzzah!
(looks for a picture...)


Actually, no, thats not all. So, when I was getting the mail, I found a self-addressed envelope that I had written. It was postmarked in Burlington, so I knew that it had something to do with school, but I could not figure out what the heck it was. So, I opened it, and it made me pretty happy.
When I went to my Champlain Summer Launch, we talked a lot about what the first semester of college would be like, and they had us pick out some goals that we would aim for, and then write a letter to our future selves to see how well we did. Here is my letter:


7/21/10
Dear Ben


Hey! I hope first semester was awesome!
I hope that you've made some awesome new friends, and kept in touch with those from OAP.
Hope you've been widening your horizons, and chilling and learning.
I'm sorry that my handwriting sucks!
Love, Ben M




Anyway, it made me really happy. I think this confirms that I had an awesome first semester!

Letter, feat. my new haircut

Benny Lava!

Okay. Loong good day.
I saw "Unstoppable" this morning (for $6 of course) with Matt and Alex. Apparently Matt had seen the movie this past weekend, and actually told me that he saw it yesterday. I did not hear that because I was too busy laughing at some joke that I had made. (Unfortunately, I do not remember what it was)

The movie was awesome. Totally my kind of movie. Loved it! Afterwards, it was around lunchtime, and if you know anything about us, you'll know where we went next...Schnippers!
Schnippers is our default lunch location if we are ever hungry around Times Square. Good food, not too expensive. They were packed, so we sat at the counter, which was just as interesting. After eating, we began our walk uptown. As usual, we have no plans at all, but we just walk places, and have fun along the way. We met up with Juan while we were playing around at the Samsung store. On a side note, they rearranged things and removed the DJ equipment! We were very disappointed, but spent over an hour there anyway...

On our way uptown, we passed Hale and Hearty Soups, which really made me want #233. Soup number 233 is probably my favorite soup they have, and that was the codename that we would refer to it by (they though we were crazy because we knew the number). I can't even remember what the soup consists of, but It is really good. Unfortunately, they did not have it :( Matt got a sample of Tomato Cheddar-A very good "default choice" when you cannot figure out what to get.

Overall, very good day, but we were all wiped out at the end. Mrawrr.

So, I've been trying to switch over to Chrome from Firefox, but I just can't do it. Chrome is great and all, but I cannot get my bookmarks set up the same way, which leads to me forgetting to check certain websites that have become part of my "daily routine." Right now, I am writing this in Firefox, but I am also using Chrome at the same time. This might not be too bad-multitasking between browsers...I can live with that.
However, when I watch Hulu, I always use Safari, because when I only used Firefox, trying to play videos and keep all of my tabs open would just freeze up the video like crazy. So I play them in Safari, because I really dislike the browser, but it works for my videos. (I also use Safari when I'm signing into other people's accounts, so it does not interfere with my personal account)

Ahhh, I think that is about all. Let me see if I can find a picture to make this a tad more interesting...

Oh, also, I'm getting a haircut on Thursday...

Birds chilling in Aruba...

 

Well, Well, Well

I finally met up with Juan, Matt, Alex and Daniel today, and we went to Chipotle (duh). It was awesome. I also got my first paycheck from Champlain, which is also awesome.


I know that I have not been posting anything of value here lately, and I am truly sorry for that. But I have been quite busy. I hope to say more soon.! Rawr!

Home again

Yes, its been years. I'm sorry. I've been just so bogged down with everything.


Caution: This post may bore you! It's a detailed trip log (me rambling)


So, here's the wonderful recap of my trip home.


I went to sleep the night before at about 1:45AM (No, I cannot fall asleep earlier), and woke up at 4:15AM when my alarm rang. I was really confused, because it felt like I had not actually been asleep at all. Also, a good chunk of people in Bankus were still awake. Haaa


Andrew, was just awesome, and woke up to drive me to the airport. It was snowing, and there was decent accumulation. It was still dark out. We got to the airport, and I said goodbye to Andrew. It looked pretty busy inside. Luckily, jetBlue never has lines at their counter because everyone pretty much checks themselves in, and all they need to do is drop off bags. The first thing I noticed was that the gate agent who had checked my bag for my flight home on my last flight home at 11AM, was here at 5AM. She has long hours!


When I left the counter, I noticed something; a line for security. That's unusual, and I surely was not expecting this at 5AM, but for the most part, this qualified as a commuter flight for businesspeople, so I guess it made sense. The TSA crew also looked familiar, and seemed to be in a relatively good mood. I was prepared this time, taking my keys out of my bag, so they could not possibly be confused with a knife.


I cleared security with my bag only needing to be re-screened once, which is fine by me, because it is usually filled with electronics, and hard to see through things. And that was it. I went to the restroom to change into my Champlain sweatpants (which I did not wear through security because it would give them reason to pull me aside for a pat-down). 


I found my seat at the gate, and hung out with Fudge, my travel buddy, until it was time to board.
Following Ben-style travel protocol, I timed my arrival at the counter perfectly, and was the first person to board the aircraft after those needing priority/extra time.


We pushed back on-time at 6AM, but then had to wait while the aircraft was de-iced and anti-iced. It was still dark out, so I could not see much, but I had a general idea of where we were at the airport as we taxied towards the runway. I think this was the first time I took off heading South. Regardless, my take-off song was Double Vision by 3oh!3. I timed the song perfectly so that the first "na na naaa" coincided with the engines being pushed to full thrust. 


Even though I know the flight lasts just about an hour, I'm always a bit surprised when I realize how fast It goes by. My first indicator of our location was the Tappan-Zee Bridge, which is quite possibly my favorite bridge. We landed, and got to the gate pretty quickly. They switched the luggage carousels on us without saying anything, so I was waiting at number three, while they were over at five. I was pretty sure that they had been switched, but walking around would have possibly infringed on Ben-style travel protocol, because I would have lost the spot in front of the crowd where I was standing. 


Finally pulled my bag, called my dad, and he drove over from the cellphone lot. And that more or less concluded my travels. The end.


p.s. If you actually read all of this, I applaud you!


Here's a picture of Fudge:

*No Title*

It's crunch time. 


There is a lot to be said, and little time to say it, therefore, I will use bullet points.

More Aruban soda :) (I can't align the picture right)

• I went to NYC this weekend, and pretended to be a tourist. It was interesting. We did touristy things like go to IKEA Red Hook for lunch. Hahahahaha
• It finally started snowing Sunday night through Monday. It's not a ton of snow, but it is enough to keep me happy for now. 
• I started working at the Enrollment Service Center (which basically is the front line of help when people have questions about anything Champlain-related)
• Since I need to learn how to access records, I was going through my file on the computer. It's ridiculous how much information there is. I'm also concerned that I might accidentally mess something up in the records!
• I have two essays and two presentations for Friday
• When we sat down to eat at Olive Garden in NYC, we were offered a taste of their house wine. I politely declined.
• I took out my boots and winter jacket in celebration of the snow. I like winter clothes
• I need more deadline pressure to get my work done

I am sorry to inform you that new posts will be scarce

As there are less than two weeks left in the semester, I do not really have much time to write here. For that, I apologize. But as always, school comes first.

Thursday??

Well this week is going by quickly!


So, I decided recently that I don't want to wake up to a boring alarm anymore. I decided that I want my wake up song to be "Hello, Good Morning" (for now at least), but I can't get the dumb file on my phone because the filesize is too big. I'm determined to make it work.
Stay tuned.


In other news, I'm considering increasing my snooze time to 15 minutes at a time. 8 is kind of early to wake up, and since I don't have to be anywhere until 9:20, there is not really any rush to get out of bed. So, I'd like 8:30 to be my new wake up time. 


In other news, I'm going on a trip to NYC tomorrow, because I can. It has not sufficiently snowed here yet, although it did flurry last night. If I look at my weather widget, it shows snow from Friday through Tuesday, but with highs just above freezing. If the first real snow arrives when I'm in NYC, I'm not going to be too happy about it. 


The end


edit: Oh, I forgot an image. Let me go find one...


I think I'm gonna stick with the "Aruba" series for a while

It makes it much better to know that the soda is local :D