end of an era

Helloooooo internet! Long time, no blog. Since my last post I've spent a week in the Adirondacks, visited 8 schools, gotten my license :D, and completed 1 week of NPHS marching band preseason. August 12th was in fact my birthday! No more 16 going on 17 for me. I had an awesome time with my campy camp friends in possibly the most beautiful place ever. The next day mom and dad picked me up for a whirlwind tour of NY colleges. After seeing 4 campuses, eating a ton of yummy dinners, and the 4-5 hr drive back to NJ I was pretty glad to be home. I caught myself up on SYTYCD and happily watched my favorite dancer win! That Wednesday I took my driver's test and passed! I got home burned myself a CD of music to listen to while driving and picked my buddy Emma up for some Panera. Then in the evening I enjoyed my freedom by driving to get Indian food and hang out at Ab's house. Fun fact: August 17th also marks Mamma and Poppa Nat's anniversary. 20 years! I didn't really enjoy my freedom because very, very early the next morning I left with my mom for the southern tours. Another 4 schools and too many biscuits later I was home late Saturday night. Then Sunday was supposed to be rookie night which ended early and anticlimactically due to rain. So with our new found free time me and  my section leader friends went to the diner. Then I almost died driving to the Colorado Cafe. Seriously I could barely see where I was going so I turned a GPS that was thankfully in the car on. It took me a different way then I wanted, but still I legit couldn't see anything so my sense of direction was worse then usually (Insert self deprecating joke about my navigation skills here). After some cussing, praying, and nervous singing I reached my destination thankfully. Then the next day marked my life being handed over to my band director. If I said Captaining was stress free I'd be lying. We have a new color guard director so we're all transitioning to that. He's pretty cool though. Besides that I need to manage our tshirts, our uniforms, our equipment, this crazy overbearing mother, and always be a perfect example of what the pride and class exemplifies. Easy right? But the other day at practice I told our band director that I had gathered enough uniforms for our picture and he legit hugged me! It felt really good to do a job well and help out... not to sound too sentimental. Now here's where it gets exciting last night was my surprise party! I was told that it'd just be me, Nicole, and Sonya you know chilling at Nicole's house painting toenails watching movies, but then a bunch of my friends were there! It was really exciting. I had cake and fun! I even got a $1 party hat and presents. Including a box filled with Arizona Arnold Palmer (my favorite beverage), a tshirt, scarf, and cd (the shirt says "Leave me Alone I'm Dancing..." oh how my friends know me), a short hills mall gift card, silver crackle nail polish that I'm wearing now and some jewelry, and an itunes gift card! Pretty sweet evening. I was deciding between two pairs of jeans could thing I picked the more attractive pair! Yes but then the festivity were cut short due to a NP travel ban. Thanks hurricane Irene. So my life is pretty awesome right now :)