A Summer Well Spent?

Well, Summer time is over, and for most of us kids, school has started again. The question on many of our minds is was the summer well spent? What did I even do with my life this summer? (As for me, I ask the question "How do I start this post?") I can't answer these questions for anybody (besides my own question, which the answer to is to just write and see what happens). That being said, I can report that one week of everyone's summer was well spent, and that week was the Summer Beach Vacation.

The summer beach house, for all of us kids, is a fun packed week where we stay in the Outer Banks right next to the beach so naturally we go to the beach, swim in the pool, relax in the hottubs, hang out with our cousins while playing video games, talking, playing board games, and doing other interesting things. This year was no different, besides the fact that we didn't play as many video games; which actually, despite what some of us may say, made the vacation much more enjoyable, and much more of a family event. In past years we may have played 6-10 hours of video games per day, this year we only played 2-4 hours a day, which even though is still a lot, is significantly less. Also, after missing a Christmas vacation, Meirra rejoined the "gang" and made her first family appearance after taking a gap year in Paraguay. And yes, the Meirra v. Shayla cat fights were even more ridiculous. 

So now to report on what actually happened in this Beach Week, the most important part! As previously stated, we weren't allowed to as much gaming time, so obviously our creative minds went to work to find something to do with all our free time, so some pretty interesting things happened over the course of the trip; I'll come back to that in a bit. The first thing of note that happened was a Meirra v. Shayla cat fight. This was the first quarrel of the week, in my memory at least, where Meirra and Shayla were fighting over where to sleep. Apparently, Meirra had chosen a place, yet had to take that back and "screw everything up", because she can't sleep under a fan. Shayla was furious because she didn't want to switch, even though she "didn't care" about where she slept, yet she just didn't want to move. Oh lord, the ridiculous-ness refuses to cease getting more ridiculous. To solve this, their mom had to come in and essentially bark orders, until everybody's bed was moved around in version of the chinese-fire-drill (besides Joseph's--who was sleeping on the couch). Amazing how hard it is to get 4 people's sleeping locations in the same room to please both Meirra and Shayla. The only other issue I remember them having was the general squabble about how so and so got fat and how so and so is going to have a tough time doing some other thing, essentially it was just the ongoing Meirra v. Shayla cat fight that never ends.

It was a tremendous beach vacation, in part because of two things that us "young'ns" did. (Sorry, I had to say the word "young'ns" just once during this update.) The first thing we did, is attempted to take the NJ Drivers Test. Now if you didn't already know, NJ (New Jersey) has some of the strictest and most ridiculous driving laws, so ridiculous that even some of our legal drivers from other states couldn't get some of these questions right. For example one asked you how many feet would it take for a large vehicle going 70 mph would stop on a "dry surface". Another question told us that it was a moving violation to pass a "Frozen Desert's Truck". The other interesting thing we did was attempt to get a passing score on a Canadian Citizenship Test. Well this was no easy test, let me tell you that. It was 144 questions, and it was all about Canadian Government, Rights, Freedoms, and History. And even though Canada was only formed in 1867 due to the British North America Act, its history extends far before that. And did you know that they discovered insulin, one of the greatest medical science advances in history? Well, now you do. Those were some of the more "tame" facts. Anyway, we had a blast learning about Canada, and it payed off when the Olympic Opening Ceremonies were on TV on the last day of our stay, and we could salute our Canadian Athletes like good Canadians. "O Canada. Our Home and Native Land. True Patriot Love, In All Thy Sons Command..." 

Lastly, our vacation was one of beach sports, and the beach. We all had a great time riding the waves, which on one of the days were so ferocious that every 5 minutes we'd have to get out to relocate so we didn't drift to far, despite our best efforts to stay in for longer increments at a time. We also held jumping contests at the pool, trying to jump over a pool noodle and safely into the pool. I am glad to report that I, Ben Grass, was the winner of these contests jumping at max around 4 or 5 feet above the pool. Other than that we played beach baseball and football on a regular basis, and took a few walks to the beach to get "facebook adequate" pictures. It was a great time. Overall, it was one of the best summer beach vacation in recent history, and I speak for all the kids when I say that. Disclaimer: I cannot speak for the younger kids because they really would have enjoyed the Wii, a video game that we elected to not bring this year. Now we are ready to move on to the Winter Vacation, where we will have a Patelolympics, or Patelothon--name to be decided later--that will have games for all members of the family. 

Well, Summer has ended, and that means that college has started for our good friend Ms. Meirra Birath! She says, and I quote, "I am loving every minute of it." She spends most of her time studying, and the occasional "going out with a friend or two". I wonder what she is actually doing... Josh responds to this by saying, "Ben, let me tell you, you will not enjoy every minute of college." I believe him on this one, sorry Meirra. Meirra says she has gone through a few all nighters and has even enjoyed them. Well, we all wish her good luck on her ventures in the humanities. 

Josh, however, is still debating in his mind whether he will stick to Political Science, or transfer to Middle Georgia College at the end of the year to pursue Air Traffic Control. As I said last month, Air Traffic Control does bring in a decent amount of money, and it is his passion, so it is not a bad choice for him. He does say that he is enjoying Political Science so far, and if he continues to enjoy it during the next year of studies, he will stick with it. Political Scientists can do all sorts of jobs like becoming a lawyer, analyzing politics, or pursuing a career in politics. Josh has said he is interested in the international relations part of Political Science, which is where you study international politics and relationships between countries. So for now, all seems well with our Comrades in College. 

In other kid news, Joseph hit the wrong brake while riding his bicycle at about 20 mph down a steep hill, and flipped his bike over, leaving him with bruises on his face and a broken arm. Meirra's Birthday is coming up on September 10th (which is tomorrow) so happy Birthday to her! And that seems to be all the news we have for this update. Happy September! For the next issue we plan to have a close up look on the aspirations of our youngest members. This will be published October the 14th. Talk to you then!