Sunday, January 4, 2009

Gee, two weeks sure go by fast...

I guess I'd better get the ball rolling, seeing as school starts again tomorrow. blech.

FIRST BLOG POST OF 2009!
and yet, I'm lost for ideas. So I'll ask the most predictable question:
What's the best memory you have of 2008?
here's mine:

When I go to Florida on Thanksgiving break, it's not just my family that goes. 2 more families of Van Spankerens pack up and ship off to Longboat Key, FLA. (it's like 2o minutes from Sarasota, for those of you who've never heard of it...) So all in all, there are 11 cousins from 3 different families that are all in Florida at one time. Four from my house, four from another, and 3 from another. 3 are 16 yrs old, 1 is 15 yrs old, 2 are 14 (we have the same birthday), 1 is 13, 1 is 12, 1 is 10, 1 is 9, and 1 is 8. (and there's a WHOOOOOOLE other family that doesn't come up for thanksgiving...)
ANYWAY.

It was thanksgiving day, and we were all totally stuffed. We were lazing about on the beach, we watched the sun set, fed the turkey carcass to the seagulls (they were unaware that that is cannibalism.). And when night fell, we walked down the beach to the long concrete pier that everyone fishes on in the mornings. We sat on the edge of the pier, salty air soaking everything in ocean water. and then my cousin got the bright idea to take a fishing pole someone had left there and fish. It wasn't the normal kind of pole. It was a bamboo one, the old kind that are very picturesque and just as impractical. He was casting and reeling in when all of a sudden it broke in half , mid cast. and so, half of this bamboo pole that didn't belong to us was floating abou tin the ocean. Our first reaction was to try to get it back, but it was too far gone by then, bobbing away on the black of the sea. So he took the half of the pole that survived and started walking back to our family. We all followed, noisily commemmorating all the silly things we'd done that trip. Halfway down the beach, there was this huge explosion. We turned around and found that someone had set up fireworks, blazing away in the night sky. Not the little stupid ones that are legal in wisconsin, but the HUGE glittering ones that go off on 4th of july. They were literally 2o feet away from us.
We all watched the fireworks show, and then laughed, and then went to the hot tub to soak our feet before they closed the pool at ten.
It was a goooooood day.

So everyone, that's my story. It sounds lame now that I'm rereading it, but I guess it's one of those things where you'd have to be there.

What's your favorite 2008 memory? Or least favorite memory? I don't care, whichever you can think of.

7 comments:

Meghana said...

sorry, i couldn't even concentrate on what you wrote. when it came up in my feed reader the 0 in the number 20 was smaller than the two. like this: 2o. it made me crazy.

Alex D said...

I'll give you a couple, cause you totally want to hear me talk. =P

1. Graduation. I was ecstatic to leave NBJH. Unlike what I've heard of other districts, district 28 elementary school is awesome and junior high, not so much.
2. Anything from Israel, Jordan, or Egypt.
3. Marching band competitions.
4. That's about it.

MK said...

yeah... i'll give a couple too.

1. D.C. TRIP! it was amazing, nuff said.
2. NJHS-dairy bar part. We went there for 3 years after so it was kinda sad.
3. Graduation. Surprisingly, our school threw a good party.
4. ohhh and CABO! I, of all people got TAN!

Alex D said...

Oh my GOSH!!! D.C., how could I forget?! Fantastic, of course.

Does anybody else have better odd years than even years?

chelly. said...

Graduation. I was the first one to recieve my diploma. I went up to the altar, the priest said a few words, I shaked his and my favorite principal's hand, I recieved my diploma, and I faced the crowd as I switched my tassel from the left to the right. The rest of my class class proceeded to do the same. I looked around and I knew I was going to miss my friends, none of whom would be going to my high school, who would be going off their separate ways; who knows who they will become. We all lined up as our friends, relatives, and teachers got on their feet and started clapping their hands. For a quick second, I caught the eye of my grandma, who was sitting in the very first row, facing me. She smiled at me and nodded her head. She was a woman that valued education, who begged her father to send her to school, and who cared and was constantly giving to her family. In that moment I realized that she was actually proud of me. My grandpa was smiling too. Seeing both of them there, happy to just see me graduating made every moment of graduation special. And of course, a little tear welled up in my eye...my favorite memory of 2008.

Fatima H said...

1. Graduation
2. Got my own laptop
3. Got a facebook ~ really addicting! heheh :)


Can't really remember anything big, heheh :)

clycchick13 said...

how profound, chels.

hmm, 2008....i have to say school pretty much sucked.

my big awesome special memories came from summer, my absolute favorite time of the year.