One Crazy Summer

Hello readers of this utterly bland blog of mine. Let me just start by saying that I hope you are having a tremendously fun summer, and spending it with friends and family doing the activities that you love to do.

I have been spending my summer balancing two online college classes. I am taking Western Civilization 3 and Social Problems through Hawkeye Community College to satisfy two required liberal arts classes at UNI (six credits). Due to not wanting to read during the summer, my mother has been taking my Western Civ tests with me. We have straight B- scores on each test, so apparently neither of us are really informed. The other class has been a breeze, and I am just glad that this is the last week of the class, with my final exams being due Monday the 27th.

As for work, my options dwindled out as fast as the small amount of money in my checking account. I had started the summer thinking I would have a full-time (or at least a few times a week) babysitting job in Elkader. To this very day, I am not sure why that fell through, but I babysat twice and was never contacted again. I didn't do anything wrong, so who really knows. I tried to get some hours at my previous hometown job, but to no avail. So I have been skating through the summer thanks to generous contributions from my parents (i.e. my mother has been giving me cash every time I need some). I have also been pulling weeds with Jessica for Lorna Christeleit, so that has become what you could call "a steady income". A reminder: if anyone needs any work done in their yard, home, or whatever you can think of, Jessica and I are still working towards donations for our trip to Ireland next spring. If you don't need both of us, contact one or the other. We're eager beavers.

Now to the playing. I have went many places this summer, but haven't knocked many things off my summer bucket list. I've went to numerous movies (Max, Magic Mike XXL, The Gallows, Spy, Jurassic World, Inside Out, the list goes on and on), spent some time creeping around Elkader with the "squad", and taken some trips outside of town too. Keaton, Tara and I went to Dubuque a few weeks ago for shopping and leisure, and had palm readings done downtown. We also rode the Fenelon Place Elevator, and I got a new pair of Van's (which I probably didn't need, but I am a girl, so the more shoes, the merrier).

Keaton, Tara and I at the top of the Fenelon Place Elevator in Dubuque, Iowa

I went to Lost Island Waterpark in Waterloo with Charlie, and I have went down to UNI twice this summer to work the choir booth at the orientation fair. I did Black Hawk County Relay for Life with Melissa Curtis, a grand friend, in honor of my aunt Sandra Shippy. I paid $5 to throw a softball at UNI President Bill Ruud in the dunk tank, but missed. Thankfully, he has no reason to expel me.

One cool cat named Melissa, my cousin Avery, and yours truly.

Another one of my favorite summer memories would have to be the addition of Janice the Snail to
our Elkader Squad:

Janice with a fan.

Janice was an art project created by Megan Rochleau, and she was made of fabric, what I am assuming was cardboard, and other objects. She was discarded at the school dumpster and had apparently sat there for a few weeks before I seized the opportunity I saw with her. She became known as "Janice" after Janis on Friends, and we took numerous photos of her around Elkader. My mother decided to call her skanky since she lived by the dumpster, and would not allowed me to bring her in our house, so she took up residence in the hatch of my car. She fell apart, I put her back together with a new disguise, and then we accidentally left her out in the rain in early July. She was thrown away and is now resting peacefully in a landfill somewhere, courtesy of Hawkeye Sanitation.

I had an amazing Fourth of July spent camping out at my house with just a handful of my awesome friends, genuinely having a good time. It was a very memorable night. We were definitely a mess. A few days later, Tara and I ventured on out to Holstein Dip to see what all the long-talked fuss was about, and sure enough, it is a beautiful location. I'm a sucker for old bridges, creeks, and natural waterfalls. Tara dropped her socks in the water, and scared the crap out of me because it very well could've been her car keys or iPhone. A close call there.

Holstein Dip (plus Tara)

A few weeks ago Jessica, Keaton, and I decided to venture on over to McGregor for a Friday night cruise on the Maiden Voyage, listening to some lovely singing by Sophia Landis, as she was accompanied by the Big Blue Sky Band. Even though 90% of the people on the boat were our parents friends and people we've grown up around (which made it a little awksauce) we definitely had a good time and I was just glad to get out on the river and listen to Sophia sing (she has a beautiful voice). If you haven't heard her sing, here's a link to a website where she has some songs! https://sophialandis.bandcamp.com/

One side of the Maiden Voyager during our trip (photo courtesy of Daryl Bruxvoort)

The only really upsetting thing that has happened this summer was supposed to occur on July 14th at 7:30 p.m. There was a Nickelback concert scheduled to happen at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. I am a die-hard, obsessed Nickelback fan, and I was so so so excited that I would finally get to see them live! But of course, no job = no money and I couldn't afford tickets to go. When I finally convinced my mother to buy them, I went online to see that there were no tickets left! I immediately started crying because it was just my luck. But, I found an article online saying they had to cancel all their remaining tour dates because lead singer Chad Kroeger had a cyst on his vocal cords and he needed to have surgery. That made it a lot better and makes it promising that they will probably return to the area in the near future.

I hope that this blog post wasn't incredibly boring/long, and that you've enjoyed reading about my wild and crazy summer. This weekend is Sweet Corn Days, so I'm sure some rowdy photo will surface on the internet. Only a few short weeks until I return to Cedar Falls and investigate into my second year of criminology. :)