Massive Entry -- You've Been Warned.

Eventful two days!!
Yesterday, I drove just over 2 hours almost entirely in the rain to Allentown, PA to meet Keets and Mel, grab some lunch at Panera, and grab Jake Withastar for my short precious time with him relaxing in central NY.
Before hitting the highway back to NY, we stopped at Barnes and Noble for a bathroom break and some manga available elsewhere than the English black market. A happy Jake indeed, even if you do have to read them backwards, which I found endlessly confusing.

There was major construction. The drive home took 3.5ish hours. Big huge boo.

After we finally got to Caz, I officially had a headache from the eyestrain involved with driving with shit vision, and couldn't wait to just stop being mobile for a moment. Hannah met up with us at Will's apartment (which is adorably college-student-esque) to get some Ren Fest starter clothes from me for her upcoming summer gig (which I'm insanely jealous of). She brought my hat box, I couldn't have been more thrilled. It is much much larger in real life than in my cellphone photographs, to say the least.And thanks to Christina's suggestion to walk barefoot on the boardwalk on Jake's first full day in the US, he has had to bandage his feet up since. Apparently they were ripped to shreds, and thankfully they're not as repulsive today.
From there, a Target stop, sushi in Fayetteville (thank God Will drove), and bubble tea in Syracuse.
I prefer my bubble tea with milk (yay frothy goodness) and sans bubbles, but that's just me. The rest of the night was full of Will and Jake pondering what exactly the tapioca balls tasted "just like...!!" I think it was decided that they were the consistancy of the outside of jello, where it's just a little stiffer than the rest. We also decided that flavored tapioca balls are going to be the future of bubble tea. If you steal this idea before we patent it, all hell will break loose.
After our healthy and exotic escapades (little to no help from the gps), we settled back into Will's for Ghostbusters on blu-ray. I promptly fell asleep on the couch, missing out on the entire blue-ray experience. I imagine it's pretty glorious though.

This morning, we got to wake up whenever we felt like it, and Will, being quite the proper host, made us wheat pancakes, scrambled eggs, and fresh strawberries with a cream cheese fluffy drizzle that was supposed to be our dessert the night before, but the blender had failed to wHip it properly. No harm no foul if you ask me, it was still rather delish and probably the best breakfast I've had in quite a long time (and specifically anywhere outside of an IHOP or the Linck for Sunday brunch).

The rest of today was spent attempting to Top Up poor Jake's phone (a huge fail by the T-Mobile and FYE at the mall, and a total win by Hannah), fending for my life and some veggie hotdogs at Wegmans (which, by the way, is like WalMart on Black Friday the day before a major American picnic holiday and by far the scariest place on earth today), finding out the carousels were closed due to rain and ruining our original plans, and changing them to simply checking out the random treasures of Binghamton indie and antique shops. Tom's and Old Odd & Unique were full of everything I'd hoped that would make my guests smile - the lighter side of Bing, if you will. Jake found himself some solid reusable chopsticks, a NY license plate, and one other thing for his father, Gracie got an excellent deal on a few rings, and I got my gun insides:
It's not the exact same one, but when I mentioned that the one I had been eyeing before was gone, the sales clerk (who is just jolly and helpful) popped a different one out from behind the counter, telling me that if I wanted it for $5 right then and there it was mine. He could tell I was finding this a little strange, so he went on point to another guy in the store, and told me he bought the last one and had been asking about more, and "he doesn't need them all anyway." It was cute, I was thrilled, and then we headed home for my dad's always fantastic bbq.

Chicken speidies for the meat eaters, and Morning Star "Original American Veggie Dogs" for the "vegans.. and I understand the difference between vegetarian and vegan, but vegan is just so much easier to say" - Dad. Sam Adam's Summer Ale and fresh corn on the cob. yum.

Lastly, we headed to State Street for July's First Friday. We popped into a few galleries, but like before, the Orazio Salati Gallery I & II was still my absolute favorite. In Gallery I, he was showcasing an artist named Joe Lockwood who does metal working like I've never seen:

Stunning.
Then we had to get Jake on his way back to Syracuse for Caroline to get her time with him.
I think he definitely needed the break in the middle of his holiday; I know his past week has been nonstop "American food" aka unhealthy quick to make and eat stuff, and "American past times" like baseball games and amusement parks, so the relaxed two days of driving and little shopping was necessary. I'm almost glad that Gracie and I didn't try real hard to make "real" plans because chances are due to the rain, they would have gotten messed up anyway, and then what would we do? Probably the same things we ended up doing anyway.

Delightful two day break from the real world for me. Tomorrow it's potentially back to work (I'm waiting on a 10 am phone call), tons of food and family for the holday, and right back to the daily wake up, internship, shower, Sears, hang with Kyle, fall asleep on the couch routine.

Here's your moment of zen: