Welcome to Po Town
We can't all live in the wonderful world of Po Town (aka Poughkeepsie, NY) so I've
created this website to share my experiences with you...aren't you lucky?
1-13-02 Ok a bit of catching up to do here...
My family flew down to Orlando, FL on Christmas Eve and drove to Estero where my grandparents live. Very relaxing holiday, although it was a little weird to be wearing shorts instead of being in CT for that white christmas...my parents actually swam on x-mas, but my sis and I just couldn't do it...too weird... So the next few days were pretty much spent just playing games and watching movies, very enjoyable. I got a new 35mm Nikon camera as a present, so we took some trips to go take some pics with it...one of which involved seeing the manatees taking advantage of the warm water near a power plant...riiight, hope that water was clean...
So then we headed back to Orlando on that Monday Dec 30 and went to Disney World! We went to Disney's Boardwalk and ate at ESPN...too much football for me, but good food. We spent the night at EPCOT, seeing all the best stuff, the big golf ball thing and of course Figment. On New Years Eve, everything seemed to go wrong. We tried making reservations for dinner, but there were none available in the entire park, except one at 11 in the Norwegian restaurant or something...not quite what we were looking for. We tried to get a fastpass for this new ride, Test Track, since the line had been too long the day before, and the ride was closed cuz it broke or something. go figure. We gave up on EPCOT for a while and checked out MGM, probably my favorite (could have something to do with the fact that its an actual working studio, and I enjoy behind the scenes movie stuff since i want to do that or something like it eventually) So then we returned to EPCOT for the night and I can sum up that night with 3 statements: We wore ponchos. EPCOT was flooding. There was a puddle in my shoe. So it was pouring rain for 4 hrs straight before we finally gave in about 10:30 and headed back to the hotel.
We took a day off from visiting parks Wed. and went shopping at Downtown Disney (which is where you can find Pleasure Island by the way...my family threatened to ditch me for the night and go there). Then Thurs. it was back to the parks, and we headed to Magic Kingdom...not my favorite because it was definitely too crowded, but definitely had some great rides. There's a new Buzz Lightyear one where you have to shoot things along the way and get points...definitely my new favorite. And of course there's its a small world, a classic. We went on the jungle cruise, and as we were getting ready to go, our guide starts crying and telling us that we were her last cruise ever...her jokes were a lot less funny told through tears...but anyway now i'm thinking i need to go get a job at Disney for a summer...
Friday morning we went to Animal Kingdom, which we had never been to before. We headed straight to the Jungle Safari. I got lots of good pics with my new camera, but i had some doubts as to whether all the animals were real or not...they try to play a lot of tricks on you...at the end of the ride after seeing the animals they had this strange thing where you're tracking down poachers, which was kind of stupid, but fun only because they started driving really fast in your little safari car. But anyway, at one point, we're all looking at some cheetahs on the left, and I turn to the right and see a lioness on top of some rocks, like the big rock in the Lion King, but it instantly goes out of sight. so i think i'm imagining things, til we turn the corner and get a good look at it. Our guide was all amazed, telling us he'd never seen that before and he wished he had a camera. So I was a bit skeptical, not sure if he was lying to us then..but I managed to take a picture, which was very difficult with the bouncing of the car and everything...didn't develop as well as I would have liked, but not bad considering everything...oh and we went back on the same ride later since it was so good, and the lioness wasn't up there, so maybe it was really rare to see.
Then that night we went back to MGM. And it was snowing!!! They make this fake snow from some kind of soap or something and blow it off the roofs of New York Ave. Finally it felt like x-mas :) So then we got some 3-d glasses and walked through the Osborne Festival of Lights, which essentially consisted of entirely covering a street of houses with lights, and I mean actual nets of lights over the sides of houses and lawns. It was crazy, and the glasses made it look like all the lights were surrounded by angels.
So then Sat we flew back home, and Sunday it was back to work already at CompUSA. I was supposed to have my wisdom teeth out Tues, but the DR cancelled, so I ended up getting tricked into working Mon, Wed, and Thurs nights. But don't worry, I managed to fit in some fun times too. Of course right now, i can't remember exactly what or when i did things...so we'll skip to Sat night when I had everyone I could get in touch with over my house. I had the ping pong table set up, and probably something like 10 ping pong balls...which somehow disappeared leaving me with one at the end of the night...hmmm...and of course there was the dip, and lots of pool games. Favorite game of the night was definitely cutthroat (if you don't know what that is, it isn't as violent as it sounds, i promise) Definitely a fun time, great to see everyone one last time before i left Sunday.
After everyone left (probably about 1 when I finally got rid of Dan and Eric) I cleaned up the basement, then headed to my room to pack up all my stuff. My room was a disaster with all my clothes and everything all around, so it was around 4am when I finally finished and went to bed. Then I left with my parents around 11:30 to go back to school, and jumped right into rehearsal for Shakespeare's "As YOU Like It" that night around 6. Then Monday was more rehearsal from 11-4, and now its Tuesday and I have the day off with absolutely nothing to do, and no one around except lots of creepy guys who work here...oh, and I have no food. Well, except for easy-mac and clementines, and some other random junk food. Not quite the balanced diet you'd want for an entire week...mmmm yummy...hard to believe, but I actually can't wait for cafe food.
So about the play. Seems like everything is going wrong. We already lost our stage manager to the war (yeah thats right, he got called to Iraq), and the part of Celia has already gone through 2 actresses, and from what I last heard is still uncast. And no one seems quite thrilled about the directors concept for a modern version of the play set in...you guessed it...Po Town. oh the drama, the drama...
12-23-02 Ok so I finally got home thursday night, after a long day of waiting around and packing. Almost right after I walked in the door, I was heading out again to go to dinner and to see Lord of the Rings with my Dad...awesome movie, can't wait to see it again...Oh, and it was funny, which was surprising since you don't expect to laugh during a movie with hour long battle scenes...
So then Friday it was back to good ol' compusa for about 10 hrs of work...oh the fun...Lots of crazy people doing their last minute christmas shopping. And of course they all expected me to know everything and I knew...well pretty much nothing, since I haven't really been there in months. Yet somehow I kept ending up alone at customer service trying to do stuff I couldn't remember or never knew how to do...I love compusa!!! haha
And then since 10 hours just wasn't enough, I worked another 9 hrs or so on Saturday...and then took advantage of my employee discount and did some christmas shopping of my own :) I managed to escape by 6:15, not bad considering I was scheduled till 6 (Fri night i was scheduled till 10 and stayed till 11). Once I was home it was a quick dinner, and then party time!! It was a small group this time, Amy, Susan, Kristin, Becky, Andrew, and Amy Gundrum...who just got back from England and showed us her pictures!! She lived in a castle for the semester!!! Awesome pics, now I really can't wait to do my semester abroad :) She left a little early, and then Andrew amazed us all with his card tricks. And of course we all played some pictionary, any excuse to write on the walls ;)
Sunday was another party at my house, with lots of family and friends...kind of an early x-mas since we'll be gone x-mas day. Exchanged some gifts with my Aunt Anna, a few with my family that were too big or fragile to bring to Florida, and of course lots of eating and playing games. Oh, and my cousin John got all his grades on-line from UConn...supposedly we'll be getting ours by Jan 31, but somehow I doubt that since our midterm grades still aren't up... Oh well, but good job to John on his first semester, nice grades :)
Today was a very busy day of watching tapes of old Tv shows I missed during finals, then watching Monsters, Inc. which I got from my Aunt Anna the day before, then some packing and time for another movie :) Very lazy and relaxing day, nice to be able to just be home for a day, no hw to do or anything. Oh, but I did go out once to buy some Powerball tickets, since I've been 18 for over 6 months now and haven't bought any lottery tickets...I figured now was a good time to start, I guess the jackpot is something like 280 million...I can't even imagine winning that much, but gotta try anyway!
So now its off to bed a little early, since we're leaving here at 4:30 tomorrow morning for our 6:30 flight. Getting an early start to take one of the first flights out of the airport on such a busy flying day...hopefully there won't be any delays since we're the first group of people to get there. So thats it from here, last update of the year! Happy Holidays everybody!
12-19-02 So its about 4:00 Thursday and I'm waiting to go home, all packed and stuff just waiting for my Dad to come get me out of here!!!! It's been a crazy semester, and I'm definitely ready to be home for a little break.
Nothing too exciting this week, just a lot of studying for philosophy, and a lot of procrastinating instead of writing my two essays for Comm. Principles and Art of Film. But this morning I woke up early and finally finished off the last work, handed them in at 9, and headed back to bed. Eventually I headed down to the bookstore to sell back all my books (except Ital, luckily I use the same books next semester) and I got back $107...not too bad, unless you consider that I paid over $400 at the beginning of the semester...oh well.
Oh, so last night we had a 5 minute break from the week of 24 hr quiet hours to "yell like hell" as the posters described it...and let me tell you, people sure did yell. I had head phones on, but i knew that it had started when the floor started shaking...yeah, crazy people.
So that's it from here, I'm headin home!!
12-16-02 Lots of birthdays going on lately, so I gotta say Happy Birthday to both Lisa and Angela today, and then yesterday Happy Birthday to Laura G...and of course that means my half-birthday was yesterday too, so Happy Half-Birthday to me!
Ok, so now that's taken care of, a quick update and back to studying. I'm so tired of finals, I'm just ready to be done. And all of those people who are done already...i'm jealous. Tomorrow I have my philosophy exam which will just be evil, and then two papers due Thursday and I'm done. Of course for both papers, I have to watch and write about movies...luckily both are good movies (Dead Poets Society and American Beauty...good stuff)
But anyway, back on Tuesday was the HuMarist's Big Show, which they have at the end of each semester. For those of you who don't know, the HuMarist's are an improv group, very funny if not always appropriate :) Good show, even if I didn't get a free t-shirt...oh well, there's always next semester...
So then thursday night, friday night, and a good part of saturday I spent at auditions for "As
You
Like It", and watching auditions was definitely a new experience for me. And then came the hard part...deciding who should play what part...luckily the final decision was up to the director. So Sunday night we had a design meeting and a production meeting and then Laurie and I stayed to talk to the director a little more. The cast list finally went up, so I disappeared from the Student Center cuz I didn't want to be around when people saw the list. So now that's all set, I can't wait to start rehearsing, should definitely be some fun times. Looks like I'll be staying with Laurie in her house when I come back early to school, so that week could either be really boring, or one long party.
But for now its back to work, can't wait for break!! 3 more days!!!
12-11-02 Ok so its been almost a month since I last updated, but hey, I've been busy. But no excuses, here's the quick update on what I've been doing...
Way back on the weekend of Nov. 21-24 was the five performances of "Pippin". It was an awesome show, and for those of you who didn't get to see it, you missed out. I still have the songs from the play stuck in my head...stupid musicals...
After that insane week, I got a nice break and went home for Thanksgiving. Wednesday night before Thanksgiving was my big party, with the usual stuff...the dip, games of pool, and a whole bunch of crazy people :P It was great seeing everyone, can't wait to do it again!! Thanksgiving I headed over to my Aunt Virginia's house, and of course for that one day only, I was sick. Oh the fun. But luckily I recovered in time to work Black Friday at CompUSA, then return for a second day of craziness on Saturday. Despite the customers, I actually enjoyed working, or more truthfully, avoiding work while catching up with my friends.
So then it was back to school, and silly me thinking I would be less busy now that the play was over...but instead I ended up getting in over my head making a promotional video of Marist for my Communication Principles research project. A lot of work, but definitely worth it when the whole class told me how impressed they were by how professional the video looked...I know, i'm just that good :) (hey i'm allowed to brag about myself here, it is my website afterall)
So now its the last week of classes, and I just had my first exam today in Italian which went pretty well. Now just one more day of classes, a long weekend of studying, one evil philosophy exam, and three other take home exams, and I'm outta here. Oh boy am I ready for a month off from homework.
Everybody go take my quiz, link is in my profile, and check back here again soon cuz sometime this weekend I'll be putting up some more pictures from school. And I promise I won't go another month before updating, I know how much you all love reading about me :P
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Check out some pictures, see where I've been these past months!!
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Email: jfiascon8@yahoo.com
