Anyway, so it was my first time flying and I had the fortune of being seated with someone who could tell me how I was supposed to place my bags and what not. Unfortunately, I think I bothered this elderly japanese businessman as I giggled like a child when the plane took off. He obviously wanted to sleep, so I tried to keep my noises to a minimum. Like when we flew through a cloud, I just wanted to squeal. *ahem* anyway...
So then I flew a few more times, got just as excited each time the plane took off. But on the last flight, it was a propeller plane. I was so thrilled. At the end of each flight after the first, I asked my seat mates if I could have their pictures. Well this old lady apparently thought I was hitting on her, and wouldn't let me alone about it!
:point:
Then, in Clifton Park, where my sister lives, I spent the next two days doing nothing but playing videogames as I waited for my sister's off time to kick in. We ate dinner with her friend who turned out to be really funny and cool! Then they let me try my first alcohol. (My sister's boyfriend is something of a wizard with drinks.) It was all really gross. On the next day my sister, her boyfriend, and I took a bus to New York City!
Wow, my sister was so cranky and easily irritated, but I think it was just because we were walking everywhere. We started with breakfast and I learned very fast that everyone in the city is pressed for space and no one has proper room for real seating. Ugh!
Then we continued to walk, something that apparently really bothered my sister, cause she wouldn't let up that we had no real destination in mind. It's not like we couldn't just meander aimlessly! Well, we went into a few big shops, and then stopped by times square before heading to central park to spend time at the zoo.
And wow, was that zoo really small! I mean, it was fun, and how big of a zoo can you fit into a park anyway? But still, it was a tinsy tiny dust particle of a zoo. My favorite section was the tropical exhibit. Go figure. Then, at the snow leopard exhibit, there was this ridiculous out of focus graphic saying "find the snow leopard!" and everyone was so proud that they could find it in so and so seconds.
But when it came time to spot the real thing, they couldn't, and gave up quite quickly. I couldn't see it myself either until I turned and was just about to leave. Right then, though, I turned around and saw it behind a rock. Then, I pointed it out to my sister, and she literally went to each other person there and showed them and then everyone started showing their friends and I was like, "Come on, I saw it first omg"
:mad:
Anyway, my sister really wanted to go to the children's zoo and pet the animals. The goats were so ridiculous, and the llamas didn't want anyone to touch them (much to my sister's disappointment).
So then we left central park and went to some toy store when Phunkie called me and told me he was in the area and could see the store I was in. He told me he was gonna sneak in and scare me.
Now, I pride myself on my sneaking and on my scaring, so I got the notion that I would counter-scare him as he walked in. So I made my way to the door and kept my eye out for him. Nothing. As I walked outside to try and see if he was further off, I saw him standing off to the side of the door.
Now this was my train of thought right at that moment:
First, I was filled with the disappointment of missing out on a chance to scare Joel. But that only lasted for a second, because my immediate next thought was, "Oh, hey look, it's Joel."
Next my brain pulled one of these
[Image: http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g206/whyrainfalls/loading.png]
And then I was like, "Holy crap! It's Joel! For real!"
We hung out and went to a really good hot dog place. They had amazing juice! And then we went to ride the subway. It was really fun cause it reminded me of a whole bunch of videogames and movies haha!
When we emerged, Phunkie took us to the nintendo world store, where we saw that bombed original gameboy that the cat made a thread about, and I bought a yoshi backpack.
Sadly, after that, Joel had to leave.
Amusingly, right after we no longer had him to guide us, we got lost. Which was just as well, since the next ticket on our list was to try street foods. And while we were walking, I devoted myself to the challenge of taking a picture of the whole alphabet, with the restriction that every letter had to be a standalone, and not part of any words.
I didn't get very far, though. At this point, I was dreadfully tired, my legs and feet were sore, and I was full up with so much food that I would barely stand. So we went to the bus place and I fell asleep till the bus showed up. Then I fell asleep again after we got onboard. They stopped about halfway there, where I realized that I was quite thirsty, so I got off and got some juice. After the first sip, I realized that I really wasn't thirsty, but I didn't want to throw the drink away and be a wasteful wendy.
But it was troublesome, because it was very cold, and the bus was going to leave in only a few minutes, so I ended up drinking too fast and got a few brainfreezes. But I got back on board in time, and fell asleep again. (As it turns out, Yoshi makes an amazingly comfy pillow.)
The next night, they were committed to getting me drunk. The drinks they gave me this time, though were actually quite good. Except for a drink that was named after a powerful narcotic in a fiction series that I like. I asked for it strictly on account of the name, and felt obliged to finish it for asking, but boy let me tell out it was strong.
Anyway, I wasn't getting drunk like they expected me to. After about 4 drinks and almost no effect, my sister's boyfriend broke out his really strong stuff. Needless to say, I don't remember much after that.
The next day, I woke up with no hangover, yay! Unfortunately, my levity was short lived, when I got a few texts from my mom.
Now, you might be wondering why this is in the absences section. Well, it has to do with what my mom had to say.
I got text after text, each one being worse than the last, and by the end of the day, I found out that my brother had passed out and became unresponsive. He was taken to the hospital and they found out his blood sugar was over 2000. (For those of you out of the know, regular blood sugars are between 100 and 120.)
Eventually, they found that he had severe Diabetic ketoacidosis and swelling of the brain. They transferred him out of my town's hospital into the larger one in Albuquerque, where they put him on paralytics so they could give him IVs in the neck to prepare him for brain surgery. Apparently, his chances are one out of five.
Needless to say, depending on how things turn out, I might leave nation.