My Fourth of July

I got my haircut last Wednesday. Super short too! Possibly Lenya short, or, if you don't know Lenya, it's the same length as a many boy haircuts. I sent pictures to Becca and Colin's sisters that night. All, including Colin's mom, thought it was cute. My new friends down here didn't think I was ugly; "ooo look at you!" Then Colin came to visit Thursday night. I was excited and really missed him, so much that I had to run out to the road a couple of times. Then I saw his car turn all the way down at the intersection and just watched as I could tell he tried to figure out if it was me or not. "Who are you?" I asked if he liked it and he said something about it being different. Still shocked, I guess. But not terribly, since we'd decided not to tell the other when we were getting our haircuts and just surprise each other whenever it might be. I'm pretty sure he likes it now; he can actually play with it and play with it he does. Plus, more kissing spots available. I kind of miss my long hair but I sure love how easy it is to wash now.

Friday (the fourth) we went hiking. It rained some but it was a nice place. There were a
gazillion sinkholes in the park and we went into a cave too. I didn't want to go very far in, but Colin managed to coax me quite a ways before I scurried back to the safely daylighted opening. We hiked more than the listed miles because the trails all loop into one another and run into roads and stuff. We saw a lot of cute little toads and a couple of this weird insect that closely resembled a rose chafer but bigger with a fatter butt.

Friday night we stopped at a movie theatre that I'd spotted on the way to the trail. If it was less than $8 (roughly the price of the theatre in Lisle), we were going to see Wall-E. Well, it was and the movie is AWESOME. Hands down one of the best movies I've seen in awhile. And, with me getting like 3 or 4 movies a week, watching something about 2 out of 3 nights, I've been watching quite a lot. I don't think I have anything to complain about when it comes to Wall-E.

Saturday we went hiking in another park nearby (Yellowwood Lake). We were going to do a trail but the actual parking area was on a road that was blocked off. At the ranger station, they told us the trail was do-able; the road was closed because they did construction on the dam during the week but it was fine to go back there on the weekend. We went back and attempted to hike but found it too overgrown and watching our every step for poison ivy for over six miles didn't appeal to us. It was well-traveled, but we were wearing shorts. We did do some hiking on the "shore" of the lake (the water level was really low, the opposite of most Hoosier lakes right now) near the campground where people were continuing or wrapping up their holiday festivities.

Day-hiking was a Plan C for us; we were going to backpack, but it takes more prepping and equipment than we had and we were both pretty busy (yes, I was, for once - I had a fairly large assignment, reading, and a presentation to put together that week). So I was like "Let's just try to focus on having a good weekend and not make it stressful." Plan B was car-camping. That fell through mainly because of the quick switching of gears and the impossibility of finding a site even less than an hour of check-in at one of like two campgrounds that supposedly had spots that weekend. It was first-come-first-serve. Then it was Colin's time to say "Let's make it simpler." Anyway, just walking near the campground on Saturday made us thankful we dumped Plan B; people were cranky and noisy and, well, just plain annoying.

When we got back to the car, we decided to catch tadpoles and put them in an empty tupperware. We caught fifteen, four which already had back legs, and then researched online how to keep them alive while we kept squealing about how cute they were. The two most advanced died within 24 hours but the others have been wiggling happily around. One sprouted its front legs today so it got to go to the teenager tadpole pool and have it all to itself. I can see where its lungs are developing. Even if most, or any, don't make it, I won't be too sad; I know there's a high mortality rate for tadpoles in the wild. That's why there's so many that grow at the same time. It would be great to help the amphibious population though (they're probably toads, but they could be any kind of frog, newt, salamander, who-knows-what).

Sunday we just bummed out around my apartment. There were many reasons, such as me not feeling so great, it be really hot, and we being tired of chasing stupid trails.

Sunday night we hung out with Matt Vazquez and his brother Tim. Matt, or Skez as he is usually known, is helping with some research project at IU for his SIP a few weeks this summer. Something to do with verbs, children's lit, and psychology. It's neat that he's in town. We watched "Nosferatu" which is a German silent movie about Dracula. The boys kept adding their own subtitles. I enjoyed it, even if I can't tell where the historical intrigue ended and simple fun (if any) began.

Monday (yesterday) I was still not feeling great when I woke up. Mostly fatigue and some dizziness, and I suspect it's probably allergies. Then Colin left. Then I watched "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and did some homework. Today was hot. I had class. The guest speaker was boring. I doodled a LOT. Then I did some homework in the library. It was still hot when I walked home. I changed the tadpoles' water again and ate dinner while watching "Hang Up." Now I'm tired of typing. I hope you all enjoyed this update.