graduation 2011.

graduation is such a momentous occasion, as it marks the end of one chapter in our lives and the beginning of the next.  it's crazy to think that, exactly one year ago today, i graduated with the wonderful aliso niguel high school class of 2010.

yesterday, i had the pleasure of supporting several of my good friends as they walked in their own graduation ceremony, with the class of 2011.  although it was quite hot outside and we (me, christine, ina, taylor, zach, matt, jason, and gavin) had to do a lot of walking to get to the ceremony, it was completely worth it to be able to support our friends in such an important milestone in their lives.

and, of course, it was great to be back at the high school football stadium (a.k.a. the marching field), the place that brought us all together in the first place.  it seems perfectly fitting that the field we spent countless hours on together for marching band/drumline/color guard practices should be the last place we all set foot on as high schoolers.

i'm so happy for and proud of all of my friends that graduated yesterday.  they each have so much to offer the world and i can't wait for them to start the next chapter in their lives.  congratulations, class of 2011!  you did it!

an unexpected twist.

i was expecting today to be just another simple, fun day with the friends.  i got coffee with suzie, played mario kart with christine and her little brother, and was ready to play a good game of mao with the group from last week's barbecue at night.  nothing out of the ordinary.  and it seemed that my day was going as expected, as christine and i got into my little green bug and headed for ina's house.

alas, we were within three minutes of ina's house when it happened.  we were sitting at a red light at a major intersection, talking to pass the time.  we didn't notice anything funny, until the light turned green.  before i hit the gas, we felt my car give a rough shake.  it startled us, but we didn't think much of it.  but then, i pressed down on the gas pedal and nothing happened.  no noise, no shaking... nothing.  my car just wouldn't move.  i looked at my dashboard and my battery light was on.  this had happened to me once before (last year), so i didn't totally freak out, but the light had turned on while i was driving that time, so i at least was able to pull my car over to the side of the road.  but this time, i couldn't even move an inch, so we just sat there, turned on my hazards, and blocked traffic.  (some people are idiots and don't realize that they should go around a car that has its hazards on).

everyone else moving, but not us :(

we quickly called my stepdad and AAA.  of course, in the midst of this mini emergency, we had time to take a picture:

my stepdad beat AAA there and helped us out.  we were three full lanes away from the side of the road and my stepdad pushed us all the way there!  i had to manually maneuver the wheel back and forth to steer us over there, as he pushed (and let me tell you, i appreciate power steering a million times more now!).  it was so hard to steer that christine and i both had to pull on the wheel.  i even had to take my jacket off because i was seriously working up a sweat.  i felt like we were in a scene from a movie or something!  some nice man also pulled over to the side of the road and helped my stepdad push my car and ward off traffic so that we didn't get hit.

luckily, we were able to get my car to start again and i drove it to pep boys.  phew.  so much for a simple day.

but the night improved once we got to ina's (my stepdad dropped us off), thank goodness.  we made s'mores on her stove (which actually worked out quite well) and played mao and a few rounds of egyptian rat slap.  i still can't believe how many hours cards can keep us entertained for.  i <3 christine, nili, taylor, ina, gavin, matt and jeff :)

the wolfpack.

i feel like almost every day this summer has been a reminder of how the aliso niguel high school marching band, drumline and color guard program creates lasting and supportive friendships.  and tonight was no exception.

we (me, christine, nili, ina, evan, jeff, samantha, and jessica) got together to support our good friends (jason, matt, cameron, dan, and zach) play a game in their basketball league at the Y.

they call their team the wolfpack, which totally works for them because they act like "brothers" and play really well together.  and tonight was definitely their best game so far.  it was very fast paced and aggressive and it was obvious that they were trying really hard, which made it super entertaining!  it actually held my interest the whole time (and that's saying something because sports generally don't hold my interest all that well).

these are our game watching faces:

unfortunately, we lost the game, but that's perfectly fine because it's really not all about winning.  participating in this kind of a league is more about having fun playing a sport that you love than what the scoreboard says.  plus it's a great excuse to spend time with friends :)  regardless of the score, tonight was a victory in my eyes because the wolfpack put up a great fight and played hard.

after the game, we had a little post-game munch sesh at in-n-out, where we spent the next couple of hours hanging out.  yet another great night :)

i am mao, your mom's a cow.

so, i kicked the morning off right with a long overdue gym workout with nili and ina.  but this workout didn't even compare to the ab workout that we got later from laughing so hard with our friends.

tonight, we (me, nili, ina, taylor, jeff, matt, gavin, and lauren) had a wonderfully fantastic barbecue and jacuzzi sesh at ina's community pool...  i can honestly say that i haven't had this much fun in a long time!  first, matt and gavin barbecued burgers, hot dogs, and sausage for us (and a boca burger and fake chicken for taylor, of course).  and ohmygoodness it was soo tasty!  we also had plenty of soda, salad, chips, and chocolate chip cookies to make for quite a little feast.  we definitely ate to our heart's content :)

then, on very full stomachs, we headed for the jacuzzi.  we spent a good couple of hours in there, passing the time by playing some version of the "one word game," where each person is only allowed to say one word to continue the sentence in order to form a somewhat coherent sentence - generally with very random and crazy results.  two of our favorite phrases of the night: "salty looks" and "mundane."  probably one of those "had to be there" moments.

but, i guess we let time get away from us while playing our fun little game because, in the middle of a very awkward/bad-timing conversation, the pool security guard crept up behind us (def heard our conversation) and then kicked us out.  he acted all stern at first, asking who lived there and blah blah blah, but, thanks to ina's silliness about keys, we befriended him and he told us a story about how a guy pulled a machete on him the night before.  apparently, you can go to jail if you use a community pool and someone in your group doesn't live there.  note to self: don't do that.  so, anyway, this guy got all freaked out when mr. security man asked for his key (which he obviously didn't have because he didn't live there) and i guess then "attempted murder."  so then mr. security man tasered him!  i think he ended up going to jail for the whole machete thing.  should have stuck with the punishment for not having a key.  we asked mr. security man if he would have arrested all of us if no one lived there, but he said he wouldn't have because he didn't want to fill out paper work until six in the morning :P

these are our "we got kicked out faces":

but, no worries, we just moved right back to the barbecue area and made s'mores with the grill!  and took more random pictures, of course :)

by this time, our night was only halfway over.  we packed up our stuff and moved our fun to ina's house, where we spent the next few hours playing the card game "mao" (the name of the communist dictator).  i never thought a game of cards could be so much fun!

the game starts with a fun little phrase: "i am mao, your mom's a cow, and this is how we start..." and then it's played like uno, but secret rules are added each round by whoever is "mao," the dictator of that round.  if you fail to follow a rule, you are punished by getting a card.  my brain was fried by the end of the night, trying to figure out and remember all of the secret rules.  but, oh how much fun it was :)  a fried brain was totally worth it!
 
a few of our secret rules:

failure to touch an ear.  failure to touch someone's chin.  failure to tap.  but those are just the ones pictured above.  failure to pinch and failure to slap were a bit more painful.  my personal favorites were failure to clear your throat and failure to "moo" :)  i'm already looking forward to next week when we get to play together again!

as is evident by the time of this blog posting, today (well, yesterday now) was just such a great day that i couldn't go to sleep without writing about it.  i love my friends <3