Awards Ceremonies, M16s, AK-47’s, Long Island & New York City, Travel
moocowinthecity Dad’s Award Banquet
Dad’s award banquet was, simply put, stunning. The UJA honored him, his business partner, and one other individual for their work in raising 130,000.00 and because my Dad’s company is building a handicap friendly tree house, for a free summer camp for children with cancer. It even has a ramp going around the tree so wheel chairs have access. There were 223 guests (including some of my family and extended family and family friends, which was nice since I hadn’t seen them in a long time…Margie even came up from North Carolina and Dad’s friend came from Dublin, Ireland — I told him to say hi to scarletquill’s Dad if he stops into his restaurant). It was an incredibly lovely event and just so well done. Dad received citations from the town and an award and there was a huge book full of messages from everyone congratulating him. It was so nice to see him recognized for doing the good work that he does. I know I’m hard on him (and vice versa) but he’s a good guy who does good work, so this was a good thing.
M16s, AK-47s and Other Ways to Bond With Family Members or “I think I’ve finally found something more scary than that one time they let you teach Kindergartners”
So on Friday Dad and I and the security person that he uses took me to the Nassau County firing range and I learned how to fire the above mentioned rifles, as well as a few others. It was certainly a learning experience. I did very well, I learned how to use the site, and fire with and without a laser scope and I learned how to take apart, put together, and load the rifles. I’m excited to continue the lessons.
Historically, it provides a much different view of world history when you feel the actual force of the rifle against the crook of your arm as the bullet goes off and you realize that the force came from just one shot. I can’t imagine the noise and smell of a battlefield after smelling and hearing the bullets (even with noise protectors on) in a closed and regulated environment.
We spent about two hours at it. When I’m home next we’ll do four hours or so at the outside range (which is where he originally wanted to take me, but weather didn’t permit it) and I’ll learn how to shoot at distances from the four positions, and then after that, I want to learn how properly use a handgun.
Linguistic Fun
The person working the counter at the shooting range was African American (I mention race, because it plays a factor in what happened) with a fascinating accent.
After I handed him my ID to register my presence there, I turned to Dad as we were walking in and went “huh, I’ll have to come back out here and talk to him.” So as the trainer was getting me setup, Dad went back outside to talk to him, and came back and said “he challenges you, apparently other people have tried to guess where he’s from before.”
So when we were done, I went outside and had a conversation with him, and finally he says “Okay, now that we’ve spoken, where am I from” and I said “North Carolina” and he goes “Wow, you’re the first person to get it right.”
It’s no where near as impressive as it sounds, but it looked really, really cool if you didn’t know that. First, Wolf has had us listen to his U.S. Accent tapes ad nauseam, so you get a sense for them; secondly, he wouldn’t be outside of the U.S. since you have to be a Citizen to work as the director of a shooting range (or at least, I made that assumption, I don’t actually know if I was right but it sounded logical) and based on how young he was and how thick his accent was, I didn’t find it likely that he would have been able to go through the entire process of obtaining citizenship yet so I assumed he was born in the U.S. It wasn’t an accent I’d heard on the tapes from New Orleans, so I wrote that off, and it reminded me of the accents that we heard from the Gulla Islands, but not quite…so I pinned it as North Carolina (and in fact, he said he grew up by the North Carolina Coast, so double points for me). I allowed myself a mark of personal pride that I got it right, especially as my father walked away with the face of someone who was stunned that his son payed attention in class and just did something “macho” and in front of witnesses.
It makes for a neat party trick though, and while I am nowhere near as competent as Wolf Wolk (…yet, that comes with age and practice and study), at least I remember what I learned in class.
Long Island & NYC
Long Island was wonderful, it was good to catch up with friends and family but it felt weird because so much changes between visits home (no matter how frequent the are)…The City on the other hand…The City in its constant state of ebb and flow always feels like home, because since it’s always in a stage of flux I never feel that it’s changed since I left, because it’s natural state is always changing (if that makes any sense).
I’m adding Long Island City to my list of places I need to explore (and bring my camera with me) I think it’ll have some interesting places to take pictures at.
Travel
Where am I?
I landed in Buffalo this evening and I’m currently in my Apartment up here in the B-Lo.
Toronto
I’ll be in Toronto later Today at the last staff meeting before Anime North/Yaoi North. Then I’ll be back in Buffalo Tonight until Thursday. Thursday is when the Yaoi North crew will be driving up to Anime North/Yaoi North from Buffalo and doing our thing.
I’ll return to Buffalo on the 28th.
New York City/Long Island
I’ll be back in NYC/LI on the 29th. I have a Broadway show on the 30th with my Grandma, Grandpa and my Mom :o) I haven’t been to a show in a while so this is a real treat (plus it’s with family, so that’s an added bonus). I then fly out of Newark airport on the 5th for Tel Aviv, Israel…I have to restrain my urge to constantly mutter “I wanna go now, I wanna go now, I wanna go now…” over and over again as I pad around the apartment and prepare the apartment for a month without me living in it (cleaning out the fridge, giving the bathroom an extra good scrubbing, etc)…I’m chomping at the bit.
Israel
I leave out of Newark Airport on the 5th of June and I can’t wait. I have 300.00US saved which is rougly 1,199.10ILS and cosidering that (thanks to nir1 and the free hostel in Jerusalem, I have a roof over my head) my only expenses are travel, food and whatever extras I purchase. I won’t be making the walk to Jerusalem this trip, I will however attempt it after I make Aliyah (roughly, if everything goes according to plan, in April) mostly because I am unfamiliar with the area as of yet so I’ll be taking the bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which, according to my travel research is 6.00US or roughly 24.00ILS. Not only can’t I wait to meet Itai and see Shirah (stoicdaydreamer) again, but I am craving some good falafel.
Soo excited, so, so, so excited…so many museums, towns, historic sites to see…so many people to meet (everyone’s a stranger until you get to know them), and so many men to enjoy on the beach.
I’m also doing this trip with just my messenger bag as an experiment in minimalism, so that’s exciting as well…the bag really does fit everything though.
Summer Courses
Classes start July 2nd, and continue on July 3rd…and July 5th, which means I am once again in Buffalo on the 4th of July which (really) pisses me off, since it meant I had to turn down an invite to Myrtle Beach and/or Vermont. I’m hoping that there’ll at least be a BBQ or something somewhere…or maybe Club Marcella is doing something fun…last year, while…enjoyable, was sort of a bust overall…but I also had Mono at that point in time (which I caught from either parox or naytomorrow or both…no need to change the names to protect the guilty).
Harry Potter
I don’t know how (unless I get the $150.00 that folks need to get to me sooner rather then later and use that to just buy the tickets and make do with $300.00 in Israel) but I am sure as hell going to be in Montreal for the Harry Potter Book Release.
Saratoga
Saratoga is a planned trip for Jackie (iolausian) and I. Right now the only problem I’m facing is too many plans, too little days in a calendar month; which, isn’t my fault, but rather the blame for that rests with the Divine Architect(s). However, the trip is currently in the planning stages involving seeing Hair of the Dog and watching many, many, many RKO Films, and in general bumming about (though I’m hopeful that if I can get there during the fall we can go bike riding through the foliage…which reminds me that I need to bring a bike back up with me from the Shed at my Parent’s house when I come back to Buffalo in July).
Boston
I’ve been meaning to get back down to Boston to see irenefinlay and saintgabby for some time now and I really, really need to get on planning that.
The Next Seven Months
June
I’m in Israel. I will be bringing a camera, I won’t be bringing a laptop. I will catch up with the entire month of your entries when I get back.
July
I’m back in Buffalo starting the 1st of the Month. I’ll also be in Montreal, somehow, someway for the HP Book Release.
August
Classes begin, I hope to be in Saratoga to visit iolausian, I’m also photographing christya512 & lolo1424’s wedding with hollow_voice doing lighting.
September
My Birthday is the 2nd of the Month…ohh, maybe I can go to Boston for that, that might be fun, actually (since it’s a three-four day weekend). Classes will, at this point be in full swing.
October
Not a whole lot to mention here, it will be my younger Brother’s 17th birthday though, how weird is that!?
November
Home for Thanksgiving, then back to Buffalo
December
My undergraduate career comes to a close on December 7th. I will be moving out of Buffalo on December 22nd, using the days prior for saying goodbye to friends, enjoying Amy’s Place, SPoT Coffee, Club Marcella and taking photos of friends and reflecting on the memories that I’ll have of Buffalo.
Okay, shower time, then sleep…then MORE LJ entries that need writing, emails that need to be sent, etc. etc.
