summer

I was going to wait until the very end of summer and then write a post about what all I had done and do a wrap up basically, buuuut I’m babysitting right now and I have some spare time, so I figured I’d catch you up so far! Back in May I was the graduate assistant for the high school choir I used to be in. Every year we go on a tour and perform around the United States. This year the trip was to Chicago!

I had never been before and I loved it! I got to meet up with two of my friends from school that live there, so I was glad to see them. We walked around the RiverWalk and explored downtown. Up on the 94th floor of the Hancock Tower there is an attraction called The Tilt where you are standing at a window with railings on the side and it lowers you out away from the building. It was awesome. I hate heights, but I love the adrenaline rush from being scared of them, so I thought it was fun! Throughout the trip we got to sing at some pretty amazing and beautiful places. In Nashville, Tennessee we stopped at an old traditional church that is one of my favorite places ever. I’m a complete architecture nerd and old, gothic style castles are my favorite. So, when we pulled up to this church you can imagine how excited I was. It looks like a castle!

I was really concentrating on the sunset in the picture but that church is beautiful. I loved that trip and the group of people with it and I’m very grateful I was able to go help.

In June. I got my wisdom teeth out, so I didn’t do much haha. I had never seen Spongebob (my mom HATES it so i never watched it as a kid) so my friends used the opportunity of me being bedridden to make me watch some of the first season. They reference it all the time and got tired of me never understanding the jokes. However, I was high off of pain meds the whole time we were watching it and I barely remember it. Haha don’t tell them. All I remember is Sandy the squirrel being in her house and Spongebob drying out into an actual sponge…that’s all I got. I’m sure they’ll make me re-watch it at some point. My friends and I  did go down to an Alabama Symphony Orchestra performance in a park near my house. We packed sandwiches, blankets, and chairs and listened to the music. It was a nice change from the usual performance hall (which I also love).

***DISCLAIMER: That is not my photo. The Alabama Symphony tweeted that photo and I saved it. I don’t want to be sued haha.

At the end of June/ beginning of July, my best friend and I drove up to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to visit my mom! My mom moved up there when I moved into college. She is getting hitched and her fiance lives up there, so we went to spend time with them. We drove from Birmingham to Chattanooga the first day and went to the Tennessee Aquarium. That place is huge and awesome. They have this freaking incredible sea turtle named Oscar. His back flipper was cut off from a boat propeller. When turtle experiences a traumatic event, it can buoyancy issues, so Oscar had to figure out a new way to swim. Now his back end floats up towards the surface and he swims harder with his front two flippers to pull himself down. What a trooper. We spent the night with a friend in Chattanooga and woke up early the next day to drive all the way to Pittsburgh! While we were up there we went on a couple tours. We did a river boat tour that takes you around the perimeter of downtown. Here’s a picture of us on the boat.

We also went to a symphony performance in Pittsburgh at Hartwood Acres. The orchestra performed John Williams’ famous pieces from movies like E.T and Jurassic Park. There were a lot more people at this concert than the one in Birmingham. The music was beautiful and my favorite part was at sunset because right at the sun was going down the orchestra played the theme from E.T. and it was perfect. I couldn’t help but take pictures.

My mom’s fiance, Roy, likes to play tour guide, so by now, on my fourth visit to Pittsburgh, I had learned a lot about the history of it. Pittsburgh has two inclines that lead up to Mount Washington which overlooks the city.  The inclines were used to move coal up the mountain back in the day. Now, they are used as public transportation to shuffle people up and down the hill. On top of the hill there are a couple of overlooks of the city. My mom, Roy, my friend Eliza, and I had been waiting in line for about 30 minutes to get a spot in the cart to ride up. We were actually really pissed off because people cut in front of us and wouldn’t get off the cart…but that’s another story. Either way we got up to the top a good 45 minutes later than we wanted to, but it was worth it. That sunset was the most gorgeous sunset I’ve ever seen. These pictures haven’t been edited or anything. I just took them on my phone once we  got to the top.

I’m glad those people cut in front of us otherwise we would have missed this. Also, sorry for all the sunset pictures, but I really like them. The trip to Pittsburgh was really fun overall. We went to the science museum and toured Pitt (the college). We also got to sort of watch the Kenny Chesney concert in Heinz field (where the Steelers play). You can see into Heinz stadium from where my mom lives, so even though he was facing away from us, we could hear him and see the lights! It was pretty cool.

That’s about all I’ve done that is “blog worthy.” I work ALL THE TIME and then I hang out with my friends a lot haha. We usually swim or play video games depending on what kind of mood they’re in.

Thanks for reading about my life this summer so far! I’m going to the beach to close out my summer in 2 weeks so I’m excited for that. Talk to you soon 🙂

I love you all. Be adventurous. Chérir la vie.

Ellie X.

Random Life Moment #3

Story time. So, today I had to rush out of my room to get to my friend’s car outside. I had my camera bag and I was juggling my keys and when I got out of my hall door into the lobby of my building I got the BIGGEST WEDGIE EVER! I was trying to get it, but I was half running and my hands were full, so really it just looked like I was running and scratching my butt. Then I turned around and standing by the vending machines behind me was one of the most beautiful boys I have ever seen and was staring at me like I was the weirdest person ever haha. Oops. I took off running and ran laughing to my friends car. It was embarrassing.

Random Life Moment #2

One of my best friends at college, Sara, had a roommate at the beginning of the year move out on her. They were best friends from home and hung out all the time, but once they got to college and Sara’s friend made new friends, she packed her stuff and moved out! Rude. Anyway, so I was in a friend’s dorm the other night watching a movie in the lobby area and that same girl that moved out of Sara’s dorm sat down right behind me. Well, I thought I would be funny and send a snapchat of her to Sara. I halfway turned around to talk to someone else who was behind me and I stuck my phone halfway above the couch I was on, just enough so the camera could get the picture. I took the picture (keep in mind the lights are off) AND THE FLASH WAS ON!!! AAAAHHHH! So she knew. She knew I was taking a picture of her. She just stared at me. It was hilariously awful.

Random Life Moment

Last night, I went to a sorority swap at a bar near my school! A swap is where one sorority and one fraternity gets together and hangs out. Most people were hanging out, dancing, and playing pool. However, I realized at about 10 o’clock that I had a math quiz due at 12. My friends and I spent our night taking napkins and a pen and doing my math quiz on my phone at a table at the bar. I have the greatest friends ever 🙂

tales of some exes

I’ve had my fair share of interesting relationships and one of my friends favorite things to do is to bring up stories of my ex-boyfriends. So, here is a wonderful list of the FANTASTIC relationships that I have experienced. Enjoy the ride. *Names have been changed…duh*

Boyfriend #1: We will call him Jack

First off let me just say that this guy was gross. This is that relationship that I look back on and I’m just like….why Ellie…why? He was my first kiss (which I oh so regret) and my first boyfriend, so I thought I was in love and all that. My mom HATED him and tried to get me to dump him and he actually texted her almost threatening her. WHAT WAS I DOING?!? Fast forward to the present and he has dropped out of school because he wants to be a Major League Gamer (he sucks) and he is a “Vape Activist.” You laugh but that is seriously his Instagram bio…”Vape Activist.” Good for you Jack. Go you.

Boyfriend #2:

There aren’t too many stories about this one because we weren’t that close. This guy took me to a dance and spent the entire time in the corner of the room watching ESPN on his phone. I did not see him dance once haha. Then another time, I took him to the pumpkin patch with my family and he had earphones in 90% of the time and wouldn’t talk to us! So that ended quickly.

Boyfriend #3: We will call him Richard 🙂

So I really, really liked Richard. He was sweet, funny, outgoing, and super sarcastic. We dated for a couple months and I thought he was the best thing ever. Then, he went to camp for a weekend and didn’t have his phone. When he got back I didn’t hear from him for 2 weeks. I was freaking out a little bit because I was wondering if something happened to him. He didn’t go to the same school, so I never saw him. Then, 2 weeks after this camp he called me and said “Ellie…I realized something at camp…I’m gay.” WHAT THE FUCK? That would’ve been nice to know like 4 months before when we had started dating haha. So, we didn’t talk for a while after that, but then he called me a couple months later and said that he was going through a really hard time back then and that he was just confused; he actually does like girls. Mhmm. Okay.

Boyfriend #4: Derek

Derek was my best friend boyfriend. We were in the same friend group for forever and everyone was always like “Oh Derek totally likes you” and I always ignored it because I didn’t think he did! Well we ended up dating and it was really awesome! As anyone else who has dated their best friend knows, it is super fun. I thought things were going great. We dated for a couple months and he traveled to Korea for the summer. We got a texting app for international distance and I didn’t hear from him much and would usually get about a text a day. I blamed it on the time change. I went to one of my friend’s houses and I found out that he had been messaging her the entire time he had been in Korea all day long. I got a break-up text from him the next day…all the way from Korea.

Boyfriend #5: Joe

Joe was an annoying relationship. It felt more like babysitting than an actual relationship. He was one of those guys who listened to metal music and was always sad because “life isn’t fair.” Now I’m not saying metal is bad! I actually like it! It was just the fact that he used it as an excuse to be sad like “oh I’m sad and I can prove it because I listen to depressing metal and I’ll put it on my snapchat for everyone to see how sad I am.” Something that always bothered me about Joe was that his best friend was a girl. We will call her Lily. I’m a super jealous person. I completely admit that. It’s a problem and I try to control it, but I get super jealous about things like that. Lily always bothered me. I talked to Joe about it a couple times and he would always assure me that he didn’t think she was attractive or he thought she was annoying or something like that. Well out of the blue one day Joe informs me that he “just wants to be friends” and a couple months later he asked out Lily and they are dating to this day! However, I have to say they are super cute together.

So those are some of my boyfriend stories! I’m sure I’ll think of more or my friends will read this and remind me of some and I’ll add those on. Now you know how bad I am at dating! I suck at choosing boys. Hope you enjoyed these 🙂

I love you all. Be adventurous. Chérir la vie.

Ellie X.