Number 10...THE END

Watch the sunrise...

I can't believe this is it.

A few days ago, or maybe it has been a week at this point I don't even remember, my best friend Marie and I decided one night (at about 10 PM) that we were going to go to the beach.

That is what I love soo much about Marie. She is willing to be crazy spontaneous with me whenever I want!

Anddd soo we went to her house and she got everything she needed and put on her swimsuit (at least for the beachy look) and then we headed to my house.

I put on my bathing suit, got a sheet for us to sit on, and we both got our music collections.

We decided to leave my house about 2 and head for the beach. First, of course we stopped at Sheetz and we both got energy drinks and snacks.

Then we hit the road...
The drive was a blast and we listened to all our music and rocked out hardcore. The trip was our attempt to feel "infinite"

We pulled up to the beach and got out and it was so beautiful so late. You could see all the stars and hear the ocean. It was quite hypnotic.

We first decided to go up and sit in the lifeguard stand...
...but that got kind of boring so we decided to move down onto the sheet
We sat for awhile and just talked about everything in our lives. It is crazy that we are about to be sophomores in college and we are still best friends. Marie has been there for me since we were eight. We bonded and talked, and talked and bonded.
Then we decided to get into our bathing suits and go for a walk. I really wanted to go swimming but Marie was positive that I would get attacked by sharks so I didn't go in past my knees. It was so beautiful out there. Ok, ok I know i'm going a little picture overkill but it's my last post and I'm kind of emotional about it.

Finally, the beach slowly started to get lighter.It was only about 5:15 AM so Marie and I couldn't tell if we were going crazy or if the sun was already coming up. This went on for almost an hour. It just kept getting lighter and lighter with no signs of the sun.

I decided to pass my time by feeding the seagulls some Cool Ranch Munchies.Marie was not very happy at all. She ran half way down the beach screaming and threatened to go sit in the car. Apparently, she has a bird phobia...who knew?

Finally, we turned and could see the place where the sun was starting to come up.
It was just over these little houses (I was kind of upset because I was hoping it'd rise over the water but such is life). We watched it and took pictures.

It was honestly one of the most magnificent things i've ever seen. It is soo crazy how it happens, and so fast too. One second there was no sun and then less than five minutes later it was up.We finally left and headed home. We were both extremely tired and ready to get into bed.

We made a safe drive home, said goodbye to each other, and then slept the day away.
...and number 10 was completed.

And just like that, I'm done. I'm finished. It is so hard for me to even comprehend. It seems like just yesterday when the idea popped into my head.

It has been such an incredible summer. I appreciate everyone who has read this so so much. I have had a blast and am so thankful I did this. Thank you to everyone who helped me in any of the tasks.

I made this video sort of as a scrapbook of my summer. It is basically the entire blog put into about 3 minutes. It is my way of remembering everything.
I finished it.

MY LIST

MY LIFE

MY SUMMER

Number 14

Start training to run in a half-marathon...

Can we begin by noticing the word "start"

This task is more something that is going to be completed as I go into the fall. I'm not really sure what to write about it honestly.

My dad ran in the Outer Banks marathon a few years ago and that is when our family really was introduced into the whole marathon thing.

Since, he has also ran in a half marathon in Myrtle Beach (holla pops, i'm giving you a shout out).

I hate running. So, when I was thinking about what to add to the list I decided i'd put something that would be out of my ordinary.

Why did I pick this? I'm not sure.

I started running and let me just tell you that I couldn't even run a half mile. No lie I was about to fall over dead.

Now, I'm running about three miles and hoping to continue to improve.

The only reason i'm not overly stressing about this is because the Outer Banks half-marathon (if I choose to do it) is in November so I still have months to prepare.

I have actually learned to enjoy the running aspect (as long as i have my ipod) and it's been a nice way to have some alone time.

I have been doing lots of research about different training techniques and all this stuff I don't really understand. I'm trying to figure it all out but for now I guess the best thing is to just keep running and hope that one day i'll reach my goal.

Number 14 is done...(at least the "start" part)

ALSO, Harvey opened this weekend so everyone should come out!

Go to the Magnolia Arts Center website for more information. It is a really great and fun play. Hope to see you there!

Number 5

Buy lemonade from a neighborhood stand...

Ughh this one was sooo hard. Every time I would drive through any neighborhood I would look but could never find one.

About a month ago, I got a call from my parents saying they had found one and so I got dressed and rushed to the place they said it was...and nothing.

Then earlier this week, I got a text from my brother's girlfriend Whitney saying she had seen one. I get in the car head to where it was...and it was gone...again.

I was starting to get really frustrated until my savior texted me.

Allison is amazing and told me that her daughter was setting up a lemonade stand the next day and I should stop by, and I did!

T.D. and Allison were my youth pastors in high school. They have two daughters and one is the perfect age for lemonade stand-ing?

I stopped by, got my 25 cent cup of awesome, and loved my life to finally cross it off.


Thank you so much T.D., Allison, and most importantly Isabella!

Number 3 and Number 4

Have my 15 minutes of fame...

Jump into water fully clothed...

I have been so excited about these. When I first added have my 15 minutes of fame, I was worried about whether it would be possible or not. I knew I didn't want to use my plays because they were used for another specific task.

Soooo I started contacting people right away telling them what I was doing. I actually got one e-mail from a woman saying she was interested from The Daily Reflector and then about two hours later I got an e-mail from a different woman saying she was interested from The Daily Reflector. I e-mailed them both back and then they talked to each other and we worked something out.

Kristen Day is my hero. She is the one who wrote the article, interviewed me, and put up with all my stuff for probably about 6 weeks.

We have been e-mailing back and forth almost all summer ironing out little details and trying to come up with ways to get the article together.

We decided that it would be cool to have me do "jump into water fully clothed" for a picture for the newspaper. After a few issues on where to do it, Kristen e-mailed me and told me that she had talked to the people at North Campus Crossing and they would love for us to do it there.

Wednesday, July 21st, we set the day and time to meet for our interview and to do the big jump. I brought Pat (my little sister) along to video me because I knew I'd want documentation myself.

I met Kristen outside and we sat at a table and began our interview.

1. Kristen is possibly the nicest person I know in the world
2. I was so nervous and felt like I talked in circles
3. The interview lasted close to 45 minutes

After that Pat and I ran to the gas station for a drink (we had about 30 minutes until the photographer was showing up) and Kristen went to run an errand.

We all met back up for the big jump!

I was pretty nervous because I was going to run and jump into the North Campus Crossing pool with all of my clothes on in front of probably about 30 peers.

I told Kristen that I was silently hoping they were all drunk enough not to be aware of what was going on.

For the jump, I wore a white collared shirt and a teal undershirt (I wanted something summer-y looking for the paper) and shorts and rainbows.

After some planning out about where I should jump, we settled for through the waterfall underneath the pirate ship.

The rest can be seen on the video...



After the initial jump, the photographer wanted to take a few pictures just in case so we staged me kind of falling into the water backwards...



After, I got out, attempted to dry off, said goodbye, and headed home.


Then came the fun part...waiting for the article.

I had a good 10 days to wait until it would be published.

I did, however, have a few things to help.

In the interview, Kristen had asked if she could talk to one of my friends, so I set up a phone interview with her and Marie for that Monday (July 26)

That helped quench my nervous/excitement a little

AND then

On Friday, the 30th I woke up to a picture message from her showing me what the front page would look like.

I was bouncing around all day showing just about everyone I could the picture.

Alas, today came (Sunday, August 1) and my article came out.
I woke up at 6 and ran to the mailbox only to see that it hadn't come yet so I went back to sleep for a few hours and finally saw it!

Here is a link to the article for anyone that wants to read it...for some reason it won't let me make it a hyperlink so just copy and paste it.

www.reflector.com/features/done-and-done-43261

I am so so happy and so thankful to Kristen and everyone at The Daily Reflector!

Also, if maybe you stumbled across my blog from the article or something, leave a comment. I would really appreciate hearing from you!

All you guys that have been faithful readers, I love hearing from you too!

Number 3 and 4 are done!

Number 8

Fly a kite

Ahhh alas a task to take me back to my youth

Sooo last Saturday (July 24) we (my family and I) woke up and went to Family Dollar or Dollar General or something and picked up an awesome kite.

I didn't originally plan on it having any particular picture or design on it but when I saw the Spiderman one I knew it would be perfect...plus it was only a dollar!

We decided to drive to New Bern to fly the kite because we knew there would be some wind coming off the water.

It was beautiful weather (apart from the six million degree heat)

I got out and took off running and before I knew it BAMMM there was all sorts of crazy kite flying going



After a few minutes, we packed up and headed to lunch.

It wasn't the most life-changing task, but it was fun!

I'm wrapping up the list and just have a few small requests...

IF YOU SEE A LEMONADE STAND PLEASE TEXT ME

Also, stay tuned because some exciting ones are coming up!

Number 11

Go on a camping trip...

I'm not outdoors-y. Let me begin with that.

Why did I put this on my list? I knew that I wanted to be able to have a time where I did something by myself and I thought going camping would be perfect.

I had no idea when i would do this so when I woke up last Saturday (July 17) and realized I had nothing to do all day or Sunday, I decided I better go ahead and do it while I have time.

I called KOA campground in New Bern and they said they had a site available so I made a reservation and began planning my day.

I packed up my car up throughout the day and ran to Food Lion with Pat to get some food, dropped pat off, then headed to Anne Michelle's to get the tent. It was when I was on my there that the world decided to come to an end...and I am not being melodramtic (ok, maybe a little bit).

It was pouring and wind was crazy and blah blah...I ran into Anne Michelle's house to get the tent and was soaked.

I was not going to be stopped easily though and headed to New Bern. I drove through the storm and actually got on the other side of it.

I arrived at the campsite, checked in, and then decided I would try to set up my tent before the storm hit.

I did...I'm amazing, I know!

I got the tent up (by myself) in about fifteen minutes and not a second too soon. The storm went crazy and I jumped in my car.

I sat and waited out of the rain for about 45 minutes.

Once it stopped raining, I got out and finished unpacking the car.

I set out everything and was getting ready to cook dinner and then...it started raining again. I had to pack everything up in the car again and sat again, and waited for an hour.

I was annoyed at this point...in fact I sent a text to my dad along the lines of "It's hot and rainy and I hate camping" to which he replied "boo." He's a man of few words when it comes to texting.

When the rain finally stopped, I was soaked and sweaty and bug-spray-y (you know what I mean) so I decided to take a shower and get cleaned up before dinner.

After a nice shower (thank God for clean bathrooms) I decided to start on dinner.

It was amazing if I must say so myself. I gots me some grilled ham and cheese and some cool ranch doritos and a water and just enjoyed myself.

After dinner, I cleaned up and decided to get in the car and head into the city of New Bern.

After about an hour in town, I headed back and snuggled into my tent with my laptop (ok ok don't judge me) and watched some movies then hit the sack.



The next morning, I woke up and packed everything up and left early.


I slept better than I thought I would have but those dang birds started chirping soo loud so that woke me up too early.

After packing up, I decided to head to the beach since I was close and the weather was beautiful. I rolled down the windows and turned up the music and had quite the moment.

Camping was great and I actually had a much better time than I would have thought.

I call it my Man Vs. Wild Vs. Nature experience.

Number 11 is doneeeee

Number 20

Change a bad habit...

This one was hard because I don't have any bad habits...i'm kidding.

I actually thought about this one awhile. I mean I knew I could do like no soft drinks or eating healthy or biting finger nails but those don't really affect my life. I decided to go with something a little bigger.

Stop gossiping...

Before I even begin to start, let me say that I am not sure it is possible to not gossip at all. My goal was to just cut back considerably.

I didn't want to tell anyone about it when I decided this is what I was going to do. I was going to see if it was something that maybe people could pick up on.

Sooo it began, and it was hard, especially with my best friends.

You don't even realize how much you talk about people until you're trying to make a conscious effort not to. (Look, I know how bad that sounds but i'm just trying to keep it real). It is not always in a bad way just random little things. It's hard to just not say anything back when somebody makes a comment.

There is no way I can show any proof of improvement but feel free to test me. Come up to me and just be like "James, did you know blah blah blah" Hopefully, I'll smile and nod and try to steer the conversation away.

Feel free to ask my friend Marie, she is probably the one who could be some form of testimonial (at least I hope). There have been multiple times where I'll start saying something and then pull a "Oh, nevermind" and then she'll catch on.

I actual feel really good about this one. This is something that will definitely change me for the better in the long run and I plan to keep this up. I don't think there is ever a time that I'll be able to say that this habit is completely changed because I think I'll have to make an effort on it everyday. It is something that will hopefully allow me to mature and allow me to become a bigger person.

Another little added bad habit I feel I am breaking is that I usually never finish anything I start. This blog may actually be an exception! There is a finish line in sight and I really think it's going to happen, I really think I can finish it!

Sooo exciting.

Sorry this was kind of a vague entry but it is more personal and something that I feel is seen better in person than something I can write about.

Number 20 is done(ish)...and by -ish I mean i'm going to continue working on it everyday!

Number 23

Ride on a train...

I was soo excited about this one. When I first put it on the list, I knew it would be a stretch but I wanted to make it happen. I have been planning this one for awhile.

My lovely friend Marie has an amazing sister who moved to Washington D.C. recently. With this in mind, we began planning an epic weekend.

We bought our train tickets online about three weeks ago. The tickets were from Wilson to DC's Union Station. We left on July 9 and came back the 11.

Words cannot begin to describe how excited I was about it ESPECIALLY because it was my first vacation of the summer. We woke up early Friday morning and with all our belongings headed to Wilson.

I'm not gonna lie, I was a little discouraged upon arrival because the Wilson Train Station is quite unimpressive. I did, however, find some encouragement from the parking attendant. I went up to ask her if it was fine to leave our car there for the weekend and she said, "Honey, you can park wherever you want with those pretty eyes." Yep, my life is amazing.

We got there almost two hours early because we wanted to make sure we could find everything in time...

It took us ten minutes...and we sat.

For a long time.

Finally, we heard the train coming and ran outside to wait for it. The train stopped and there was a mad rush to get aboard.

Climbing on was actually a pleasant surprise.
The interior was similar to that of a plane (two rows of two with an aisle in the middle) except even more roomy.

Marie and I took our seats and before we knew it, we were off. It was a pretty crazy experience because it felt almost like the beginning of a roller coaster or something. Almost like the take-off for a plane, except it never takes off. It was a smooth ride though and we got comfortable really quickly.

The novelty of the train ride wore off rather quickly, and we were stuck with about five hours with not much to do.

I occupied myself by...
1. Annoying Marie
2. Drawing a DC picture/poster/awesome

3. Learning lines for Harvey (do I ever do anything else?)
4. Going to the cafe car (they had sweet booths and stuff)
5. Playing with my Blackberry/Marie's iTouch
6. Annoying Marie
7. Making obnoxious "choo-choo" noises

After a long wait, and many many stops we finally pulled into UNION STATIONNNNNNNN

I practically ran off the train (ok, i'm not going to lie the entire weekend I basically ran everywhere).

I took off into Union Station and was running all around looking at everything. It was very airport-esque (I try to throw a "esque" word into every blog if you haven't noticed yet) and I am in love with airports.

Marie got a hold of Nicole on the phone and she told us to meet her down at the metro station within Union Station.

Ok, let me just explain how big of a deal the metro is for me. I have (had) never been a metro before in my life and it embodies city life to me. If you know me at all, you know that I can't wait to move to the city.

Nicole got off the metro and we ran and hugged and blahhhh. She then taught us how to get our metro cards. I am such a nerd like I'm not sure I have been that excited in my life. I wanted to seem such like a city-mouse. I swiped all my things and put my ticket in and grabbed it out and then walked through. I was the junk, or so I thought.

Nicole taught us the escalator etiquette (If you want to stand, stand on the right. If you want to walk, you walk down the left. I am a walker. I love face-paced life.)


Finally, the big moment came where we got onto the metro.

It was so above and beyond any expectation I had. The station was perfect, the noise and hustle and bustle was like a drug. When the metro came up with the lights and it rushed passed me, the wind was blowing and I felt like my life was complete. No lie, I am very tempted to begin using some "artsy adjectives."

My metro ride changed my life. I wanted to ride it everywhere!

We took it to Friendship Heights and got off and walked to Nicole's apartment.

That night, we went out with some of Nicole's friends to a nice restaurant called Chadwick's. We then just went back to the apartment and talked some before going to sleep.

Saturday was the big day. We woke up...it was raining...we didn't care.

We went to some nice little bagel shop and then hit the metro (love my life) for the middle of the city. We went to the Holocaust Museum, the Natural History Museum, walked to a billion monuments, saw Nicole's work place, ate at Luigi's (My mom's favorite hangout from when she was in her teens), got Hello Cupcake, rented movies and got lots of junk food. We walked sooo much I can't even begin to tell you how much.


Here are some pics from Saturday...



On the metro on Saturday, we did have a mini adventure. We were headed back to Nicole's apartment after a very long day and there was this loud BOOM. The metro came to a stop and the lights went out. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty terrified. We sat like that for a minute and then the doors opened and we had to get out...and walk. I am not sure how many stops early it was, I think like four or five.
This is about half-way through our walk.

Sunday morning we woke up, took the metro (by ourselves) back to Union Station, got on the train and rode home.

A successful trip...another task completed.

Number 23 is finished!

Number 16

Prank someone...

I was really excited about this one when I put it on the list.

Then time came when I decided to do it...anddddd my mind went blank. I had no really good ideas about what to do.

I finally decided on something that would be easy. You have no idea how busy I have been lately. It has been so hard to find time to do anything. Right now, I am writing this, uploading the videos from youtube, preparing for another thing on my list i'm doing this weekend, need to shower, have play practice, and just came from an eight hour day at work. I am not trying to complain but instead say that I didn't have time to plan out some huge elaborate prank. I was very pleased at how this one turned out though.

I went with the well known "rubber band on faucet sprayer" prank. I knew that I could get my family to fall for it.

Enjoyyyyy






Humorous...I know!

Number 16 is done!

Number 9

Learn every word to Bohemian Rhapsody...

Great...

I knew this would be pretty difficult because there are so many words and the lyrics are kind of a whole lot of crazy. I told my parentals that I wasn't going to make a video I was just going to write about it and take a picture of the lyrics or something...they did not approve.

Sooo since I have no pride left, I made a very middle-schooler-esque music video of me with a remote as a microphone and sweet sunglasses. Please do not judge me for anything you see...especially my dancing skills (or lack thereof).

There is one part in the middle I mess up at, but I didn't feel like rerecording the entire thing. I promise I know the words though.

Enjoy the video! I 100% understand if none of you ever want to talk to me again after seeing this.



Number 9 is finishedddddd

Number 19

Stay up for 24 hours...

Doesn't this one just sound like so much fun...yeah, it's not. I remember when it used to be so cool to pull all-nighters. You would go to sleepovers and whoever made it through the night wins some unspoken prize. Well, I haven't done that in about five years. I love sleep.

I figured I'd put it on the list because it would be something fun that would kind of make me feel like a little kid again. Also, in all honesty, I didn't think it would be that hard.

I have been putting this off for awhile, but I finally set a date and decided I would do it then. Since I have already marked off see a movie at midnight, I figured I would do my "stay up for 24 hours" on the night of the Eclipse premiere.

My friend Marie and I bought tickets about 2 weeks before the movie and were set to go. Here, I ran into a few complications. I work Monday-Friday 8-4. This means that I would be up at 7 on Tuesday morning then my 24 hours would be completed by 7 Wednesday morning...BUT there is a problem because I still would have to go to work Wednesday. Sooo in all honesty, this stay up for 24 hours really became more of a "stay up for 32 hours."

I woke up Tuesday morning already tired and was wondering how I would get through it. Work was sooo long and my kids could tell I was tired. Work ended and I went home for dinner and then had my first event of the evening.

My second play of the summer, Harvey, had its read-through. I went to play practice and was there for about two and a half hours working on the details for the show.

After, I went to my friend's house where we chilled until about 10:30 when we headed to the theater. When we got there the place was already packed! We walked through about 7 different theaters trying to find a seat (all the theaters were sold out) and after fifteen minutes of looking (please, keep in mind that we were already there over an hour early) we found two seats in the top row.

Marie and I settled down and talked until we were visited by a few of my friends from high school (this is my shoutout Kayla and Camber).

Finally, the movie started and I began getting tired really quickly. Eclipse was a little over 2 hours so it was about 2:15 when we got out. I asked Marie (she drove) if we could stop by Sheetz on the way home. She agreed because she's awesome like that and I got two Red Bulls and one Five hour energy shot thingy. I knew I would need some ammunition because I was already almost asleep.

We got back to my car, and Marie went inside to sleep and I went home...

and time slowed down...

a lot....

I got on facebook. My blog. My online banking. Facebook. Anything to keep me awake.

I then knew it would be best to go ahead and drink my first Red Bull. It actually helped considerably. I decided I would do something constructive with my new found energy and hit the script hard.

I have quite a few lines in Harvey and need to get them down, not to mention that the director borderline trashed me at the read through so I need to prove something now. I worked on that for about an hour and learned around 50 lines (let's remember it is really late/early).

After that, I went downstairs to feast on some doughnuts my parentals had gotten for me then came back upstairs for more facebook, blog, whatever.

I decided to open the second Red Bull because I felt like I was about to fall asleep, however, my stomach was not wanting more sweet sugary drink. With two Red Bulls and two doughnuts in my stomach, I felt quite sick...I guess it was better than tired?

At this point, it was only about an hour until 7 so I turned on the tv and watched MTV (it was just showing music videos)and chilled.

FINALLY, it turned 7, I took a picture with the clock haha...and DID NOT go to sleep but instead got in the shower to head to work.

Work was interesting seeing how I was completely delirious not to mention my three runs to the bathroom gagging from my energy drinks. I dried heaved many times that day. Those things messed me up and my stomach hurt so bad all day.

I made it through and am back on a semi-normal sleep schedule.

Another marked off...goodbye number 19!

Number 24

Start writing a book...

In the beginning, I thought this task would be pretty easy. I have always enjoyed writing and have many different half-finished books on my computer. Throughout high school, I would be able to sit down and just simply write. Back then, I felt like I was halfway decent too.

Soo I first try to come up with a story or something I want to write about. I toyed with an idea sort of resembling my blog. I thought about a kid whose best friends becomes involved with a drug dealer. A lot of different stories went through my head, some I even sat down and tried to start writing, however, the result was always little to no success.

One night last week, I found that I had a few hours one evening and so I sat down, locked my door, turned on my itunes (The Beatles...of course)...and started writing.

Right now, I am about 6000 words into it which is about 25 pages in an actual published book. I do have an outline planned, and plan on continuing with the story. I know where i want it to go and feel like i'll be able to get it there if i work at it.

Synopsis: A boy, Trent (I am not sold on the name), is from a very rich family up north. He has always been the highest on the socioeconomic scale, but he is the black sheep within his family. One day, he decides to leave and go on a mission to "find himself." He catches a train to New York (I mean really where else would I have him go?) and on it he meets Chuck. They talk blah blah blah they become friends(ish) and Chuck takes him to this place where he lives. The place is the back parking lot at an old gym. It is a society that is hippy/con-artist-esque place with 7 other people living there. They form a kind of dysfunctional family...and the story goes from there.

I'll put a small section of it in here for everyone. I know that I don't have any pictures but I didn't know what they'd be of...I mean who really wants a picture of me sitting typing on my laptop.

As the train continued to slow, I began telling Chuck about everything in my life and how I was leaving with no destination. I didn’t have a place but more a feeling I was searching for. I was not sure what that feeling was or where I would find it. The whole time he merely smiled and nodded at the appropriate times.

I was rambling on when Chuck stopped me. “We should probably get off before the train leaves the station.”

I looked up to see that we were sitting in Penn Station and new passengers were boarding. “Oh crap.” I jumped up, threw on my book bag and began getting off the train.

“Umm hello? Slow down please.”

I turned to see Chuck struggling to keep up with me as I jumped off the train onto the platform.

“Oh, my bad. It was great meeting you and I appreciate you listening. I really do.” I smiled, turned, and walked way.

Penn Station was packed and I had to zig and zag out of people’s way. Finally, I found the stairs and managed to climb them into the city. The noise hit me before the scenery did. The sound of people talking, taxi’s honking, street venders screaming. It was then I looked up and realized I was in the heart of New York City. I had never been there before and I felt so overwhelmed. People kept bumping into me as I just stood at the top of the stairs smiling. Suddenly, I couldn’t hold it in any longer and just began laughing. I wasn’t sure what came over me but I was in hysterics in the middle of the city, doubled over in laugher. I managed to get out of people’s way as I stumbled over towards a nearby vender. He gave me a look like I was insane, but hey, maybe I was. The euphoric feeling didn’t pass I just stood there taking in the scene.

After a few seconds, I took my first steps into my new life. Sadly, my first steps were directly into the path of an oncoming taxi. I felt a strong pull and was ripped out of the path of the vehicle at the last second. I stumbled to the concrete and landed hard unable to catch my fall.

“Crap” I said as I tried to connect what had just happened. Confused, I slowly sat up when a familiar hand reached out to me.

“You are never going to survive in the big city without my help” Chuck’s sarcastic smile was welcomed and I appreciated a small sense of familiarity in the foreign city. I grabbed his hand and he helped me up. I opened my mouth to say thanks but he just shook his head and started walking off.

“Where are you going?” I screamed after him.

He turned and began walking backwards, “Well, you can stand there in the city and become a taxi’s hood ornament, or you can follow me and find out.” My options seemed limited so I decided to follow him. It was my first big decision and I stuck with it as we began weaving our way throughout the people. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I was ok with it.

Number 22

Read five books...

I love reading. It is possibly my favorite thing in the world! Sadly, during this past school year I had basically no chance to read at all. Since I was deprived during the year, I decided to put this task on the list. I knew it would be fun and enjoyable!

I started off by going to the library and getting four books. I read two of them. I am VERYYYY picky about what I read. It has to be either really famous, have a cool cover, or be about something really weird.

My first book I read was The Crazy School...I almost put an exclamation point there but let's be real, this book did NOT deserve an exclamation point. This book gets a pretty solid thumbs down. When I first picked it up, I was sold on it....and then I started reading it. The book is about a women who is a teacher at a school for mentally crazy teens. Sounds good right? WRONG! I just kept reading hoping at some point it would stop being boring...it didn't. Hate my life. Waste of time.

The next book I read was The Dark House.
Thank God this book was a million times better than the last one. I actually found this book really entertaining. It is about a man who is stuck in the monotony of life so he decides to start following cars. One car leads him to a house where a mystery begins unfolding involving the disappearance of his cousin. The book kept my attention so that is always a plus. It wasn't my favorite book in the whole world especially towards the end but I would still recommend it.

That was my first two books. I then returned my books to the library and decided I had no idea what I was going to read.Soo...HELLO AMAZON. I was sitting at Building Hope one day (let's be real that is like everyday) and my mind wondered to online shopping...next thing you know BAM three books show up on my doorstep.

My third book I read was The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
I had heard a lot about this book but really had no idea what the plot involved. The title makes it sound like it is a chick flick teenage blah blah blah...but in fact it is the most beautiful book in the world. I am slightly addicted to this book. The story is told by a young boy named Charlie. The entire book is written as though you are reading letters that he wrote to an anonymous person. In short, it is a very coming of age book. This book is literally a laugh and cry type book. It is perfect and tragic. Basically, it brings out my artsy adjectives. Although it is pretty graphic sexually and verbally, it is perfect. I love it. Two thumbs up fo sho!

Book number fourrrr... Island

I love any book that has the world island in it (no lie three books just popped into my head). Soo when I was cruising around on Amazon I decided to go for it and i'm glad I did. The story is told as though a boy wrote his story about being stranded on an island with a family in his journal. The family is eventually hunted and people start dying one by one. It is kind of a trashy horror/romance/sci-fi/guilty pleasure. The book is long but it doesn't take much brain power to read and so i finished it pretty quickly. You know how some books are like emotionally draining? Yeah, this one wasn't like that. I still enjoyed the book though and give it a thumbs up!

The third book I got from Amazon is called House of Leaves...I honestly can't even explain it. Literally when it arrived, I thought it was a text book. It is HUGEEE and written so weird. Some pages the writing is vertical, some horizontal, some one word a page, and others diagonally. If that isn't confusing enough, every page had either a footnote or endnote. Sooo I took the easy way out and the book is still unread.

So what is book number 5 you ask? I'd really, honestly, rather not tell because it is quite embarrassing but what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't air my dirty laundry. Here it goes. I'm a Twilight fan. Yeah, I know, they are girl books whatever, BUT I was reading them years ago...2007 to be exact. Soo about a month ago (maybe?) Stephanie Meyer (the author of the series) released a short book called The Short Secret Life of Bree Tanner.
The book is kind of a "look behind the curtain" at one of the characters from the third Twilight book, Eclipse. In my defense, I did not go to the library or buy this book. Stephanie Meyer put the book online free for all her fans (ehh, I guess that's me). I honestly had no intention of reading it at all but...things change. I pulled up the website just to look at it and next thing you know I'd been reading for a few hours and finished the book. Yep, embarrassing! It was cute (that is what you say when you like a "little kid" book) and an easy read.

There you have it folks, five books DONEEEE.

Glad to have it marked off.

Number 22 is done. Hecka yeah!