I Love Virginia

Okay. I LOVE Virginia. I lived there my tenth grade year of high school, all last summer, and I think I might move back in the fall. There's just something about that place that makes me feel happy and okay with the world. I love the variety of people, the trees, the ocean, the cities, the tobacco farms, the mysterious forests, the fog, the big mansions, the winding roads, the endless shopping opportunities, my friends there, my family there, and the amazing restaurants to choose from. So I'm going to record here some of my favorite moments from my summer in Virginia.

Things I Want To Remember From Virginia:
-Descending the basement stairs of a friend of a friend's house to see that his ENTIRE basement is covered with Marvel comics memorabilia. Every inch of every wall and shelf after shelf were just jammed with action figures, posters, lunchboxes, music boxes, everything you could think of. I've never seen anything like it
-Me giggling about something, and the friend saying, in drunken wonder, "Oh my god. You hiccup EVERY time you laugh." I do. It's embarrassing.
-Sitting on the National Mall on the evening of the Fourth of July, eating cheezits and staring up at huge fireworks right above us, with people crowded all around us and cigarette smoke wafting through the air and mingling with firework smoke
-Walking back to the metro after the fireworks and just seeing thousands of people clogging the streets, with no regard for traffic or stoplights haha.
-Walking around the JFK airport at 6:00 am while I wait for my connecting flight to D.C. and feeling out of place among all the harangued-looking business men and cheerful morning employees
-Watching the sun rise from a random field while my friend plays guitar (Haha very hippie of me, I know)
-Having to pee while in that field and prancing into what I think is a nice copse of trees, only to find myself up to my thighs in a marsh. I dropped my phone, lost a shoe, and stumbled back to my friends covered in mud and little bugs. They laughed at me.
-Sitting in a circle on my friend's porch, basking in cigar smoke and having deep discussions about dying, aliens, color and other things
-Waking up in my aunt's house one summer morning and finding my little cousin Eva to be the only one home. She is precious, with big Italian brown eyes and tiny limbs and a raspy smoker's voice. We played games for like two hours :)
-Attending a party at my friend's big brick house and having him give me a sharpie tattoo that said "Dare To Be Different". That is basically my life philosophy so it was cool.
-Walking around Georgetown with my cousin, taking artsy pictures next to ivy-covered buildings and dark canals and random signs.
-Getting attacked by a sudden, violent downpour and having to take shelter in an indoor mall. If you haven't experienced east coast rain, then there is really no way of explaining it to you! It pummels you with huge drops. You are instantly soaked. It almost hurts, but it makes you feel alive! I miss it like crazy.
-Following a film crew around D.C. and Georgetown, watching them film an upcoming film starring Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson and Paul Rudd. I was like twenty feet away from these people! It was so cooooool. Owen Wilson's nose is just as crooked in real life, Reese Witherspoon is TINY (like 5 feet tall), Paul Rudd is very nice (He came over and spoke to the watching crowd) and Jack Nicholson is very dapper looking.
-Going on a 3-mile run through the maze of neighborhoods and trees by my aunt's house. The humidity made it harder to breathe but it was cool!
-Going to an Irish pub with my some of my relatives. Eating beautiful shepherd's pie and Irish whiskey cake. To the sound of a raucous Irish two-piece band. (One on pipes, one on guitar)
-Spending the night at my uncle's Capitol Hill apt (very tastefully designed) and going to art museums by myself all day while my cousin went to his film internship. I love going to art museums by myself. I can stand in front of a piece as LONG as I want without feeling pressured or nudged onward. I went to the Hirshwin (Modern art, lots of lovely Warhols, Lichtensteins, etc), The National Gallery (so overwhelming but so good! Any artist you can think of has work there, and it's the only museum in America to have a Da Vinci!) and some other good ones as well.
-Driving through various forests
-Going to a Spanish restaurant in Arlington with my grandma, cousin and aunt. It was a Tapas style restaurant, which means you order three small things and it was so cool! I had delicious smoked salmon on toast and a baby octopus!
-Going boating with my Italian relatives on the Potomac. My high strung Italian aunt got into a screaming, swearing fight with her husband and everyone else just kind of sat there awkwardly.. but it was fun!
-Driving in my friend's BMW, listening to Lil' Wayne as the trees whipped by
-Going to the premiere of the new Iphone at 4 am in Alexandria. I sat bleary eyed on a chair while my friend and his brother discussed iMacs with an employee.
-Going with my cousin on his bread truck delivery route, which starts at midnight and ends at ten am! It was so crazy to go into empty grocery stores at like 3 am to restock the bread shelves. Afterward, we went to Red Robin and we were so starving and wired and brain dead that everything was funny.
-Having my Italian uncle come over and cook dinner for his kids. I love his cooking.
-Renting movie after movie with my cousin and binging on them. (They have one of those unlimited movie rental things at Blockbuster. Pretty much the best thing ever.)
-Seeing Coon Skin caps worn in total seriousness.
-Having my cousin sit in a state of total shock and then run around the house grinning when two of his films got into a festival.
-My friend pushing me in a shopping cart through an empty parking lot at 3 am
-Driving on this ridiculously windy road in the middle of the night. There were literally 90 degree turns and huge sudden hills and drops. So exciting!
-Eating Arabic sweets in my Lebanese friend's kitchen.
-My friend thinking my grandma worked at Pottery Barn, when really she is an eccentric poet
-Walking by a random beautiful lake
-Driving around eating Flintstones Push Pops and listening to summery tunes
-Sitting outside the Ford Theater in D.C. and thinking about all the things that have happened there. (Abe Lincoln getting shot, people getting out of their carriages in the 19th century to go there)
-My aunt telling me that the painting I sent her for christmas inspired her to finally be a dance instructor like she always dreamed.
-Eating Chinese food and discussing movies for like 3 hours with an old family friend.
-Staying at my aunt's adorable beach house in Delaware
-Seeing a scary man in the middle of the woods and everyone in the car screaming for about five straight minutes
-Going to an all-night diner at 5 am and being served by a fastidious man in a bow tie that bowed to us! Named Herman!
-Going to my friend's and learning that he has a Mastiff dog. There are no words to describe the size of those dogs! It could have eaten me whole! It was almost taller than me! Yikes!
-Walking into 7-11 on 7/11 without realizing it and getting a free slurpie
-Hitting a deer on the way home from Delaware and killing it! We went into a random family's trailer until the tow truck could come. There was nothing else for miles!!
-Finding out that my friend's grandpa got gored during the running of the bulls in Spain. Luckily he was too drunk for it to hurt too much!
-Going to the showing of Harry Potter at midnight and running into people I hadn't seen in years!
-Getting locked out of the house at 4 am in summer clothes and no shoes! I first tried to sleep in the backyard playhouse but it was cold so I slept in the back seat of my aunt's car haha.
-Swinging at elementary school playgrounds
-Thrift store shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Showing my friend the band Beirut and having him say "Wow. I used to LIVE in Beirut!"
-Missing the last train in d.c. and having to walk 13 blocks at 2 am with homeless people around and people sleeping on the sidewalk and being scary!
-Watching the film Crash for the first time and being utterly speechless!!!!!
-Walking around Virginia Beach and seeing a man play a 7 string bass
-Witnessing a fight between two bros outside "Ocean Mystique Jewelry"
-Floating in the dark blue swells of the ocean
-Conquering one of my biggest fears (falling into water at night) and jumping into a reservoir at night! I was sooooooo proud of myself!!!
-Driving through an underwater tunnel and listening to Transatlanticism by Death Cab. The tunnel was so long that we got to hear the whole part that says "I need you so much closer....)


All in all, it was definitely the best summer of my life. I cannot wait to go back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!