Like Shooting Stars

Who said Blogger was ghetto?

I thought that I was going to stay inside all day today. I was almost right.

Marching band stuff needed to be taken care of right away. Hannah and I made arrangements to meet up, and after some schedule juggling, we were ready to begin. It took us 2 hours to sign , edit (members need both a black and white collared shirt for band), prepare, and seal 97 envelopes containing marching band letters for the 102 members that signed up before the beginning of summer. This includes veterans, incoming freshmen, and psyched Spartans. Everyone wants to be in the band. This is where it's at.

I ran some errands with my dad too. We dropped off some laundry at the dry cleaners and then we carried on to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for homemade pizza. To make a long story short, we made three pizzas, we ate three pizzas. That is all.

Skype is a beautiful thing. It's just like talking on the phone but you can actually see the person on the other end listening to you and paying attention to you. I talked to Olga for about two hours, spanning topics from memories at Brown, to guacamole, to the things in her room. I miss this girl so much. She is so kind and social that my heart aches that I will not see her again for a long time. Skype will always be there.

One of the founders of the Ivy League Connection stopped by my house to pick up all of the items that Cohort #1 used at Brown University. They were just laptop security cables and Ethernet wires. The thing was when he came over, he said:

"Erin, you were the shining star this year."

He told me that they sent a bunch of students into the program and he believed that I understood what it was all about. I was flattered, and I took the praise. After such a long year of being beaten down by various people, it's always nice to know that there are people in the world that appreciate you.

Well, what WAS this all about? What was the Ivy League Connection for anyway? This organization made me find myself. It made me realize that I could do whatever I wanted if I persisted and made a strong effort for it. I'm not going to dwell on this because I already wrote 1,400 words expressing my gratitude to the ILC, but in short, I loved it. I think people need some sort of experience so that they can search their soul and become who they were meant to be. There's more to life than sitting at home or in a classroom. There's much more. People just need to go find it.

Lucina took me out to Starbucks to end my day with severe gusto. We drove around Pinole screaming at stalker cars (which turned out to be my brother and his friends) and listening to righteous music at top volume. Lucina is one of the few people that I can talk to and listen to. We talked about love, life, and even fate. Of course, we didn't get too deep on fate. It is summer after all and we don't want to think too much. We were laying down in her driveway looking at the moon and just talking. It was great. I told her about Brown and how I was definitely a changed person. I no longer feel socially awkward when I am hanging out with someone. I can contribute to a conversation and feel good about it. I can listen now. I can listen and comprehend what someone is saying to me. My mind no longer feels crammed with cement. I feel lighter. As we were talking, we saw a super bright and super slow shooting star. We screamed for about a minute before making our own wishes. I have a feeling mine will come true.

I'm doing the AIDS SF Walk on Sunday. My fundraising goal is $50 for Sunday. I think I will be able to get that. I will be walking with the El Cerrito GSA. Finally, some bonding time with an organization I really want to learn about. I'm very excited to devoting the next three days to raising money for AIDS research. Help me out!

My ILC @ Brown blog inspired me to write more. Perhaps I'll discipline myself enough to carry this tradition on. Time to let out all my caffeinated energy on sending out a care package and cleaning my room.