I’ve already been in a frazzled mess over finals from this past semester. I usually need my 3 month summer break to relax and recoup, but this year I have almost no down time for that at all.

I’ve had this week off, then I’m moving right back to school for spring term, where I am taking two full Writing classes and Logic (math credit, can you believe it?!) for the next six weeks. After that, I have a few days to prepare, then I’m on a plane to England and Europe for the next month and a half or so. Then I have two weeks to get over jet lag, and then get ready to jump into the fall semester with another fun, full load of classes!

Let’s hope I can keep up with it and maintain my sanity as well! Wish me luck!

Then, in addition to that, I’ll be staying an extra two weeks afterwards and backpacking Europe! I’ve already bought a new backpack, a High Sierra Transport.

My destinations will include Paris, southern France, Milan, Frankfurt, and I’ll be heading home in August out of Amsterdam. For those two weeks, I will be traveling by rail, staying in hostels, and living out of this 70L backpack. I’m excited, and nervous, but mostly excited. I’ve been doing lots of reading on travel sites about backpacking, and what to do in cities, and how to get around. It’ll be such a great life experience to have.

This is my first time outside of North America, so why not jump in with both feet and travel a bit out of your comfort zone? Since this is my first time, I would like to ask any readers, have you toured Europe? What was your experience? And do you have any tips?

It ended up being two days of very little sleep and long days of waiting around on set just being fascinated by the film crew, and a little time where you’re actually doing something useful while filming. I was cast as a hot dog vendor with three other guys, so I spent most of my time inside a little glass box that blocked the cold, under 50ºF winds and got to warm my hands on the heat lamps for the french fries. The other extras played tourists on Virginia beach on a hot Labor Day afternoon. HAH! Some warm Labor Day. Everyone was shivering and got to wear coats in between sets.

There were, however a few celebrities on camera. Jennifer Connelly plays the crazy ex-wife of Ed Harris, who is a sheriff running for State Senate. Toby Jones has a part. He plays Dobby the House Elf’s voice in the Harry Potter movies. There was one guy who was cast from Michigan playing Dale, the friend of the sheriff’s son, Emmett who was played by a guy cast from Australia. Dale has a cool death scene that was right outside my hot dog stand, so I got to witness that being filmed about two dozen times from inside there.

I’m so glad that Michigan passed the film incentives and is bringing the film industry into Michigan. It’s a beautiful state that can use the economic boost of Hollywood films. And a big thanks to TicTock Studios as well for being one of the first film studios to cater to Michigan. I hope to see lots more film productions coming to Michigan. I greatly enjoyed my teensy acting experience, and would like to be an extra again in the future.

I do not garden. The last time I  “gardened” I picked weeds out of the bricks for my mom when I was 9. That’s the extent of my green thumb outdoors; killing weeds.

My mother however, loves to keep a garden. A few years ago she decided she was “too old” to go crawling around in the garden, so she’s hired a gardener to keep tending it and planting new flowers. And now, it’s made a nice place for me to take pictures! I use it as a background for senior portraits, and now I make it my subject as there are quite an abundance of lovely flowers in bloom. So check out this new lovely set of a Summer Garden.

#7. Plant some potted flowers and keep them alive.

So it’s not flowers, but it’s an avocado plant. I’ve decided to adopt it from my mother and help it grow in my room. I remember having another avocado plant when I was about 7, so it’s not that hard to keep alive, but it’s pretty fragile right now. I’ll keep track of it’s progress through the summer with more photos as it grows. But this is all I have for now.

Photo is also one of my 365 Days flickr project for today.

My home at college was so exciting. I lived in the same building as many of my friends, I didn’t have to ask my parents if I could go out or have my friends come up for a movie. We just did it. And I loved the freedom. Now that I’m back in my parent’s house, it’s a little restricting again. Even though I do have more freedoms than I did while going to grade school here (read: car), I still have all those memories of being trapped here because I wasn’t allowed to go out. It makes it pretty suffocating here still. So my goal, as I leave my little dorm room an come home here, is to try to make it more exciting again. Basically, stay active and creative so I don’t feel so suffocated at home.

So guess what I did?! First thing I did when I came home Thursday, was jump in my car (I missed it) and drive down to the beach and take pictures of the sunset. I had about three minutes before it was gone when I got there, so I snapped until my battery died. Then I just sat in the car for a while and watched the sky get dark. It was nice. As much as I hate the clichéd pictures of my town’s lighthouse (there are only so many angles one can cover), I don’t think I can ever get sick of the sunsets over Lake Michigan.

I went out again last night. This time in an attempt to chase some lightning. I didn’t get any good lightning pictures, but I got some cool rainy night shots  of the bridge and the river downtown. I also have found some good locations for shooting lighting on the lake for when the weather is better. It’s still a bit chilly out here. Some summer rains will be more comfortable I think. See the results from both nights of shooting on my Flickr.

For one, I can never answer the question, “What’s your favorite season?” because it’s a tie between summer and winter. I always recall once when I was in preschool I was babysat by my best friend’s mom. So when we weren’t in school, I was with my best friend all day long! And I remember, standing at the big bay window at the front of the house, complaining about the heat of summer jumping up and down singing, “We want winter! We want winter!” in that generic child sing-song voice. But then after winter rolled around, we would get sick of being wet and cold from playing in the snow. We would go to the same bay window, where the snow drifted up to our chest level against the window, and sing, “We want summer! We want summer!”

That has basically stayed the same, and now I love both summer and winter equally. Now, why do I hate spring? It’s because of where I live. My house, which I’ve lived in all my life, is next to a steep, slightly wooded ravine with a stream at the bottom. It’s beautiful and we have huge windows in our kitchen that look out over it where we can watch all the little critters run around and birds eat at the feeders. But the thing with all the trees dropping their leaves in a temperate area, is they soon get covered in snow for a whole winter. That means, come spring, when the snow melts, all the dead leaves get soaked and start rotting under the sunlight. Rotting equals disgusting smell, not to mention the worms. Also, living next to a ravine with a stream means that there’s stagnant water around which is prime breeding ground for mosquitos. We literally get clouds of mosqitos by my house and as a kid I was always covered in mosquito bites in spring. I’m still shocked I’ve never gotten West Nile or Malaria or something. Haha! (I’m kidding about the Malaria, only half kidding about West Nile….)

It’s these events that have made me come to the point where I hate spring. I hope this is more understandable now and you can excuse my disgust for the season. I make up for it with enthusiasm for summer and winter, and even fall in the right conditions! :)

See videos of my ravine in late winter when the snow first melts and in late spring when its more bearable.