Allison's Wonderland

Day One Texas: 7-29-2011
On the road again....I just can't wait to get on the road again. Well that isn't necessarily true, but oh well. I'm headed to Texas which means another pin for the map! Yippee! Nothing too interesting happened today. I left work at noon today in order to leave the Burg at 1:30. Halfway thru we stopped at a McDonald's for dinner and then got back to business. We stopped in Birmingham, AL and got stuck in a sketchy part of town. We stopped at 3 different hotels before finding one we liked. The other two were having family reunions and softball trips and were kinda sketchy. So we're staying in a nice Hampton far away from the Ghetto and craziness. Yeah! Sleepy Time!

We went to see Ernie and Lorrie this past weekend in Durham and it was HOT! Just a little hot and stuff. But we had fun none the less...Kels and I got there Friday night around 8 and we just had brother and sista time. Ernie didn't get in till late because he had to stay late at church. We all kinda went to bed early on a Friday night. It was lame, but Lorrie's pregnant, Ernie worked a long night, and Kels and I were just plain tired. But guess who I got to see?!? KOKO! One of my most favorite pets in the world. Kelsey and I had to take Chanel and Armani, Jeanne's dogs, down with us to NC. They were so stinkin cute in the car and behaved tremendlously. Although they were cute, I was definitely happy to see my Koko.

The next morning we went to The Duke Homestead. It was cool, but it was hot. They actually weren't running tours, because there was a heat advisory. Kinda suck, but whatever. I took some pictures of Aaron and Lorrie together with her pregnant belly since Alex wouldn't the weekend before Kels and I got there. After hanging out at the Homestead we picked up Pizza Hut for dinner. It was pretty good. I got to have chips and dip too! Lorrie knows what I like. :) After our lovely meal we went to Maple View Farms and got homeade ice cream and waffle cones. It was delicious! Aaron was getting so mad though because we drove Dad's car there. And there was someething wrong with the electronic system. The car alarm would not stop going off and everybody was looking. Aaron moved the car to the back of the building since we were parked in the very front spot, but it would not stop. It went on for about 15 minutes straight. This woman women who was sitting on the front porch was just laughing her head off. I mean it wasn't really that funny. We finally got it to stop and then we walked around the place with Koko.

Sunday morning we went to Aaron and Lorrie's church and got to see him Internship in action. He's the worship pastor at this church which is kinda weird for me to see him in that role. He never really was a singer, but he did a great job! It was a great weekend hanging with the fam and we'll be back again once little Baby Brooks is out the chute! Can't wait!

Nothing like driving to just get some dinner and driving back, but for my gill Rebekah, I'd do it in a heartbeat! And that's just what I did. Well, Micah did it with me as well. We hit the road after work and made our way up to Christiansburg which is about the halfway point from where little Rebekah gill works. We wanted to go to a cool local place, but after looking at how much we had in our bank accounts we decided on Red Robin. Not as good, but it'll have to do. When Micah and I saw our little gill walk into the room we jumped at her and gave her a huge hug. Bigger than any other hug you would've ever known! I always forget how much I miss that girl until I see her, and then I realize there's a little Rebekah void in my life. We talked about everything under the sun as gills do and then we had to say our goodbyes. These are always the worst but have to be done. On our way home after missing and leaving Rebekah, who would've called but a JenniferGill Crews! Yeah! We had all four of us together (kind of) in one night. It was a wonderful evening and I'm so glad we did it! Hopefully I'll see Rebekah again sooner than later!

It has been hot. Like seriously hot. Like walk outside instant frizzy hair, instant dripping kind of hot. The kind of hot where it is 84 degrees at 11:30 pm. Heat doesn't scare me though. Not one little tid bit. EndStation Theater Company does Shakespeare outdoors every summer up at Sweet Briar and its so fun. So this year wasn't any different. We had to go. This year they were doing 12th Night. If you've ever seen "She's the Man" you'll know how this story goes.

Shaun and Lindsey made us late so we had to walk in while the show had already started. Micah hated that! It was outside and it was right by the old train depot. So cool. We were sweating bullets though because it was so stinking hot! Kels, Bubba, Micah, Me, Shaun, Lindsey, Phil, and Robert all went. We brought ourselves a little outdoor picnic. We looked like little old people, but fun old people at that. The first act was really good, but like every Shakespeare show I've ever seen, I got a little bored with the second act. Micah and Me's favorite guy was there. His name is George, but we call him GAY ORG cause it sounds better. :) We absolutely love his voice! Lindsey and Shaun were making fun of him, and we were getting mad. Anyways, despite the heat, it was a great show, and we had lots of fun. Afterwards we went to Rivermont Pizza, Bull Branch, and Waffle House. Always have to end a good night with Waffle House. I really wanted to jump around in the sprinklers at the downtown park afterwards, but they weren't on. So disappointing because I even wore my bathing suit under my clothes. DUMB! But we had fun, and that's all that matters! :)

The end. The end is always a start to a new beginning. Harry Potter has officially come to an end. I have read all 7 books and I must say that I fell in love. I was one of those skeptics who always thought it was so stupid and juvenile and then my friend Josh started into the wand business. He had made all the Harry Potter fans in our friend group wands made out of wood that he whittled. I must say, they were pretty awesome. So I told Josh I wanted a wand. He was like "Why? You don't even like Harry Potter?" So he said if I read the books he would make me one. Needless to say, I took him up on his challenge. Read all seven books in record time and like I said before fell in love!!

So, I have several friends including Josh who are all about Harry Potter. His girlfriend, Micah (also my roommate), and my friend Shaun all love it, so we decided for the midnight premiere showing of Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part II, we
were going to go all out. We purchased our tickets months in advanced so that we wouldn't be disappointed with a SOLD OUT show. At work day of, I picked out the best butter beer recipe I could find and bought the goods from the grocery store (see below for recipe). Then Shaun and I went to Goodwill and tried to find our best Harry Potter costumes. I wasn't having much luck. I wanted to be Umbridge at first, but then I found an outfit that looked similar to Bellatrix. After looking through racks of smelly clothes I found the perfect outfit. I was Umbridge all dressed in pink. Shaun went as Harry with the black graduation gown (thanks to Josh) and his red tie, glasses, and authentic forehead lightning scar. We took pictures before the show, drank our butter beer which was AWESOME and headed to the show. We took pictures like Umbridge and Trewlaney were getting drunk together, and Snape and Harry were getting drunk and happy together. We weren't REALLY! It was just funny for the pictures because those characters would NEVER do that! Off to the show!

We figured since it was the midnight premiere all the crazy fans wold be out. But they weren't! We were seriously some of the very few that dressed up. But I think all four of us liked it. This girl cornered me in the bathroom and was like "GIRRLLL why are you her? I hate her! Who in their right mind would dress up as her!"Whoopsy. Josh had tons of people ask him to take pictures with him since he was Snape. I actually had a girl ask me if she could take her picture with me too. I thought that was funny. got there kinda late and got stuck on the second row, but Shaun and I wanted to show off our costumes so we started to do a theater tour. We came across one theater that was completely empty. So we got all of our friends to move and we had the best seats smack dab in the middle and not too close. It was a smart move.

The movie was awesome! I think I cried four times. Don't tell though cause it's a little embarrassing. I won't tell you what happens cause you definitely need to READ the books first, then you can watch the movies. It was a good night and I didn't even fall asleep in the theater. Work the next day at 8:00 in the morning sucked the next day, but that's life. Anyway, remember BOOK FIRST! Movie Later Jennifer Crews! :)

Butter Beer Recipe

Ingredients:

1 quart butter brickle or vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup butterscotch syrup or Butterscotch Schnapps
32 oz of your favorite cream soda

Directions:

1. Place 4 (16-ounce) glasses in freezer and chill for at least 20 minutes

2. Mix ice cream and cream soda in a blender until combined

3. Divide between the frosted glasses

4. Top each glass with whipped cream, if desired

5. Serve with spoons and straws

My July concert was a last minute kind of a pick. I kept looking at all the venues remotely close to me and they had squat. All the good concerts I want to go to, are the first week in August when I will be in Texas. I'm excited for Texas, but I'm a little disappointed I can't see the concerts I want to see. After researching for what seemed like centuries I ran across The National Venue in Richmond. I got to see Legwarmers at the National back in January which was one of my favorite concerts through my whole Year of the Concert Series. July 8th they were having Jack's Mannequin in concert and I was so excited to find one that I really wanted to see and was somewhat close! The problem was finding someone to go with me that liked them just as much as me. So I asked around and most of my friends hadn't even heard of the band. Most people who don't know the band you're seeing are not fun to go to concerts with. I remembered thought that Tyler really liked these guys and was actually the person who first introduced me to them. So I call him up, well text him up I guess you would say, and he was totally on board. We drive to Richmond after work on Friday and stop at Chik-fil-A for dinner. Today was cow appreciation day, so if you dressed like a cow you would get free chicken. Unfortunately Tyler and I left our cow costumes at home, so we had to pay full price. Bummer.

On our way there, a rainbow was practically following us. It was extremely weird. I totally saw the end of the rainbow and there was not a pot of gold. It was the most beautiful I've seen. Better than Ireland. We arrived at The National a little late which wasn’t too awful because the two opening acts were not anything to write home about. The first band was called Steel Train and the second was called Lady Danville. The first band I felt really bad for because they left half of their band in Pennsylvania (Not sure why) so all they had were three guitarists. I think they would’ve been a lot better if they had their whole band. The second band, Lady Danville, I liked a lot better. They had some pretty catchy songs. The one song I loved was where they sang just acoustic around a mic about a girl who they were in love with who hated their guts. So funny! Tyler and I sat in the balcony for the openers and then moved to the floor to listen to Jack. He was so flipping good! Way better live than on the CD I think.

The only sucky part is #1 I’m short so standing behind a bunch of people was a problem. #2 These drunk guys in front of me would NOT stop talking. I wanted to hit them in their face and say, “If you want to talk, Go outside!” Why pay 40 bucks to go to a concert and talk when you can do that for free at a coffee shop. Ugh! Last but not least #3 The girl standing behind us was tone deaf but loved to sing. Seriously woman SHUTUP! That is my only complaint(s). I think my favorite song that he did was “Bruised”. He didn’t sing “Miss California” which made me sad, but he did play “Dark Blue” in his Encore. His piano skills were mad out of this world. I liked it when he also climbed up on the piano and started singing and going crazy. There was this one point and time in the middle of the concert where he just started dancing CRAZY. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. It seriously was mesmerizing. So fun! After the concert I took the weird scary way home that comes out by Appomattox Court House but we had a blast. We put on Mumford & Sons and screamed till our lungs hurt. I kept feeling like the rain was coming through the car come to find out it was Tyler’s spit that was ricocheting off the windshield onto me. I started laughing and gagging at the same time. It was a pretty stinkin good concert. Probably will go down in the top five for this year for sure. Till the next concert!

I got told I was a little crazy for this next trip. I will say that I do like to torture myself with 2:00 am drives, but I wouldn’t go as far to say that I am crazy. A little nuts, but not crazy. I haven’t seen my Niagara Falls relatives since my sister’s graduation, which only consisted of my Grandma Genie and my Aunt Beverly. The week before July 4th, I decided I wanted to go, but needed a posse in order to do that. So naturally my mind wandered to my travel buddy Shaun and my lil Sista Kelsey. Sista has a boyfriend named Lucas, who we call Bubba. He has never been to the falls along with Shaun, so Kelsey and I wanted to play tour guide. Come to find out, Bubba couldn’t go because he wasn’t 18 and his parents didn’t feel comfortable sending him with just crazy ole me and no parents. It kind of made me feel like a terrible person. Anyways, that’s beside the point.
In his absence we asked Kali, who is always an excellent choice, and headed out after work to Niagara Falls, NY. It took us about 9 hours and we ended up getting there at 2:00 in the morning. Yuck!

The next day Shaun and I hit the Falls. The girls stayed at G-ma’s because neither of them had passports to go into Canada. I’ve been to Niagara Falls pretty much at least once a year since I can remember and I have NEVER in my life seen it this mobbed. People everywhere! I made a parking attendant pretty mad because I went his parking lot over the curb instead of in the actual entrance. He started yelling and waving his arms. Umm…can we say FUNNY?!? Shaun and I bought our $13.50 tickets to ride the Maid of the Mist and got stuck next to this crew of foreigners who were SO obnoxious and took pics every two seconds. Shaun and I normally do the picture taking thing, but we weren’t really feeling it today. Fortunately for us we got up in the very top of the boat right smack dab in the front. The falls always amaze me. I could go there a million times and still be in complete awe. For some reason the Maid of the Mist really kinda scares me so once we started getting close to Horseshoe Falls I started to have a little bit of a panick attack, but I made myself calm down. Shaun really liked it. After we got done with the Maid of the Mist we headed over to Canada on foot by taking the Rainbow Bridge. We both were a little disappointed because we ddn't get our passports stamped. We got our Niagara Falls pins and then we rode the Skywheel on Clifton Hill which was cool but I kind of got sick. Went back to Gma's and had pizza and wings with the fam. New York has the best wings ever. Like for REAL! We got ice cream too at Dee Dee's which has the most amazing ice cream with the biggest scoops! I got a small and couldn't finish. After ice cream we went and watched fireworks outside of th Casino which were so amazing! We were right by them too. It looked like they were going to fall right on our heads. The next day was even better and full of wonderful events! Kali, Kels, Me, Gert, & Shaun headed over to Goat Island to experience the Cave of the Winds.
This attraction is where you actually stand in Bridal Vail falls on the American side. I was excited to take Shaun because he's never been, and it's my favorite over Maid of the Mist. We get there and every Indian person who ever lived is in line to go. We waited in line for 2 hrs!! TEYIBLE! We were supposed to be meeting the rest of the family for lunch in Lewiston at 1:00 and it was 1:00 when we left Goat Island.

We finally made it and ate a wonderful lunch at the Silo! So good. The guy from Man vs. Food did an episode at the little Silo now turned restaurant. Their sweet potatoe fries were out of this world. So good! We shoved the food down our faces and ran over to where we were supposed to pick up the JetBoat. We were all so excited for this because Kels and I go to ride it once before and it was awesome!This huge Jet Boat takes you down the Niagara River Gorge with Class 5 & 6 Rapids. We also get to go in Devil's Hole which is a whirlpool formed because of the Falls. Shaun and I were screaming our lungs out and made the people in front of us so annoyed. SOYEE!! It made the experience so much more fun doing it that way. Kels, Greta and I got hit by this hupe rapid wave after going through them 3 different times. I wanted to just stay out on the water because it was SOO FUN! But unfortunatey all good things must come to an end. After we got off the boat and were completely soaked we went to Hibbard's for some custard. This place is off the chains awsesome. I got Cookies & Cream Custard and I was in heaven!!! Afterwards we met the family at Fort Niagara for a sunset. BEAUTIFUL! Sometimes you can see Toronto in the distance. Today it was perfectly clear and absolutely beautiful. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Watched the sunset and then everybody went to go get Hibbard’s again. Kels and I headed out to Lockport to go visit Grandmother Brooks. We had a nice little visit for a couple of hours and then we went back to Gma G’s. The next day, July 4rth we spent the day with the family at Aunt Becky’s and Bob’s house. Had a blast. We played Ladder Ball and I killed Shaun. Legitimately killed him. It made me happy!
We also celebrated the July birthday’s and I was laughing so hard because they sang to Shaun and put him in all the pictures. My family won’t remember who he is! I was rolling on the floor laughing. We left at around 5:00 and set out for home. Meaning we got home at like 4:00 in the morning. I was so tired and I practically drove the entire way. I also had to get up for work in the morning which was torture! We sang and made videos in the car like idiots. Got stuck in Williamsport, PA where they shut down the town bridge for the fireworks display. Kind of funny. All in all it was a great trip and was a wonderful way to spend the Independence Day holiday! Hope to be up in NY again soon!