Building the Nostalgia

We had a little surprise get-together for my friend's 18th birthday the other day, and it was a huge success! Somehow, she had no idea of our intentions, even with the multiple times we knew that she had to have seen our secret Facebook messages or sly texts... Somehow though, we pulled it off and our night of surprise food, music, cake and friends was fabulous (just like her!)
We spent the night siting around on our other friend's back deck, over looking the lake, forgetting about the ten-page English paper that was due the next morning and the multiple tests that we should have been studying for, and instead enjoyed each other's company because we knew that although we still had two more months of summer, this would be one of the last times we would all be seeing this group together, and it marked the end of an era of seeing each other, the same people that we've spent the last thirteen years growing up with, every day.
This year, I couldn't wait until the day of graduation came when I wouldn't have to step through these hallways or see the same people ever again, but as the days numbered and the real "lasts" started to happen, it really sank in. These people, that at the beginning of this year I couldn't wait to get away from, were the people I held the most memories with. These were the people that I had grown up with, that I laughed and cried with, that I fought with, secretly hated, but ultimately loved. Suddenly, the thought of spending the last thirteen years with the same groups of people became not a burden, but a gift. I am so thankful for all the memories that I have been able to create with my classmates, and although I never let myself admit it before, I will truly miss them all a ton.

The Kooks

After a long day at work, I ventured to see The Kooks this weekend: my 15-year-old self's impossible dream!  Although it was insanely hot, it was SPECTACULAR!  I drove down with my friend, and it took a lot shorter than we had expected, which was awesome.  When we arrived, we waited in the quickly growing line for a while, talking to his brother and his bro's girlfriend, before I met a girl that I'll be going to college with next year! I talked to her for a while, met her friends, and then we went inside, and reconnected after a little while.

The openers were (surprisingly) excellent, so the concert started off on a good note.  Plus, it seriously helped that we were just two rows of people away from the front!  After a while, due to the insane amount of people in the small, standing-room-only bar, it got hot and crowded very, very quickly.  Before The Kooks even came on stage, four people had to be carried away because they fainted of heat exhaustion!  Thankfully, they started giving away their $3 waters into the crowd and spraying us with the leftovers to cool us down.  I was pushed, elbowed, and crowded by sweaty people the whole night, but it was fantastic.  I was literally within feet of the beautiful Luke Pritchard, and it was all worth it.

After the concert, we went to the gas station next door and got huge ice-cold water bottles, and sat outside in the cool (finally!!) air to talk for a while.  It was such a fantastic night, I'm so glad I was able to go, meet new people, and listen to AWESOME music!

What I wore:

An old tank from my Grandma that I fitted, my mom's old shorts

What I heard:

Sway The Kooks

Slave Northern Faces (Formerly Around the World and Back)

Wild #2 Royal Teeth

What I saw:

Luke Pritchard from The Kooks my friend's photo

Northern Faces (formerly Around the World and Back) their website

Definitely need to do it again sometime SOON!

Disposable

Everything I'm Looking For by The Dirty Heads

One of my favorite Dirty Heads song! It happened to start playing while I wrote up this post and its chilled out melody and lyrics seemed to fit perfectly with the summery vibe of this post!

Little Reilly on the lake in his favorite spot in the world

The Adirondack chairs with the best Adirondack view

Reilly and Dad bonding in the greatest place on earth

These are just a few pictures I took with a disposable camera last summer.  I've been looking through them and realizing how quickly this year has really gone by... Each day and each week seems to be taking forever, but when I look back on it, my senior year really did fly by like everyone warned me.  But I'm so ready to make loads of cash this summer (or am I?) and spend as much time (or hopefully MORE!) on the beach as I did last year.  Only a few short months and I'll be sitting on the beach, or on the boat, done with high school forever... I can't wait!