7 Things: Summer

Y'all remember Miley Cyrus? Well, I was listening to one of MileyBird's amazing singles the other day and it inspired me.

You know how in "7 Things," Ms. Cyrus lists the seven things she hates in her beau, then, in the final chorus, lists the seven things she likes? Well I've decided to copy that format and list seven things I like and hate about different subjects! Up first, summer.

The 7 Things I Hate About Summer


1. Heat
This one doesn't need much explanation, right? Especially after last week! I was so hot in my house (with no a/c) that I spent much of the heatwave weekend hiding in the library. Being hot is so uncomfortable and I just keep looking out the window hoping for snow.

2. Fleas
Living with six five cats can be great at times. But all the cats are outdoor cats so they bring fleas in with them. Fleas are tiny, annoying, and extremely elusive, and apparently they only come out in the summer. At one point, I had to vacuum my room every day to make sure they weren't in my floorboards. Everything's under control now, but I can't let the cats in my room, and that's sad.

3. Weeds
I spent a few days earlier this summer planting a garden with my roommate Shawn. Now, the garden is filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, peppers, zucchini, beans, chard, basil, lettuce and weeds. The weeds came out of nowhere and tried to strangle all our vegetables. It's tough work weeding the garden (in the heat!), making weeds one of the seven things I hate about summer.

4. Other People's Vacations
I'm poor! Other people keep going on vacation, making me sad that I can't take off work and can't afford to travel.

5. The Air Conditioning In My Office
OK, I know I just talked about hating heat, but the a/c in my office is O.O.C. I have to wear a hoodie AND wrap a blanket around myself at work because it's freezing in the office! It's true that I'd rather freeze than be hot, but I don't know why someone in the office can't just adjust the temperature so I could remove my blanket. It's so awkward going into the bathroom and using a urinal with a blanket wrapped around me...

6. Not Getting New Syllabi
Call me a nerd if you want, but I usually like the end of summer because I begin to get new syllabi for the upcoming fall semester of college. But I graduated in May, so now I don't get any new syllabi :(

7. Dress Codes
This mostly applies to work, but when it's unbearable outside, I just want to wear shorts and a white t-shirt. But since I work all week, I have to leave the house each morning with long pants since I can't wear shorts at work. Today, it was so hot that I actually wore shorts there and changed in the car!


The 7 Things I Like About Summer


1. Prolonged Daylight
I sometimes don't get out of work until 7 or later, and it's so nice to leave and see that it's still light outside. Not only does that mean I get to drive home in daylight (I don't drive in the dark), but I get to read outside for a bit when I get home.

2. True Blood
I didn't much like seasons 2 or 3 of True Blood, but the new season is so good! I love the storylines (especially the way they ended the boring ones I didn't like from last season), the writing is funny ("Shut up or make up a new chant already!"), and I think they are doing a much better job at pacing. I don't mind when shows move a little slower and calm down with the drama.

3. Concerts
My summer concert schedule began with Katy Perry (amazing!) and is really picking up steam next week, as I'm seeing Ellie Goulding, Lykke Li, and Britney Spears all within a week!

4. Pool Olympics
Invented a few years ago, Pool Olympics is an amazing competition where teams battle in various events in order to win the competition. I'm the creator of the PO and this summer I've already played twice, bringing new games into the mix (recreate a famous movie scene involving water, dive for change) to make this summer a great summer for Pool Olympics!

5. Summer Reading
Since I usually spend most of the fall/winter/spring reading books for school, summer is always a great opportunity to read for fun! This summer I've read a bunch of great books, like Kafka on the Shore, Wide Sargasso Sea, Freedom, all three books in The Hunger Games trilogy, and I'm almost done with The Magus. I guess that's not that many books, but three of them were over 500 pages, so I've done a lot of reading!

6. Summer Driving
Barefoot, windows down, screaming Adele.

7. Fridays
The day that Rebecca Black and Katy Perry celebrate in song is really a great day for me this summer. Not only do I get to participate in JET Fridays with my good friends (Jenna, Enrico, Todd), but I also don't have to work on Fridays! It's the best!

Catch Me While I'm Sleeping

Many of you know that on my list of least favorite things, cops and paying for things are near the top of the list. Unfortunately, I was in the city recently and had a terrible moment where both of these things came together.... Yes, I got a ticket! BOO!!

Here's the story.

I was dancing in the city with some of my BFFs, Delisa and Josh. We were having fun, looking like these people, just less blurry.

We left around 2:30 and took the subway back to Brooklyn. When we were one stop away from Jay Street, I decided to take a nap, so I leaned by head against the metal bars at the end of the seat (I know, not the ideal pillow), scrunched up into a little ball, and fell asleep.

Well, my nap was interrupted at the next stop when I heard a banging near my head. I open my eyes to see a cop banging her stick against the metal bars and she's like, "Step off the subway." So I followed her (and the three male cops accompanying her...) off the subway and she asked me for my license. I gave it to her and she ran it and said, "If you have any warrants out, we'll have to take you in." And I was like,

Alright, so at this point I was sure that the cops were just trying to find a drunk person so they could give them a ticket for public intoxication. Since I'm a teetotaller, I figured I'd be fine; they would see it was six months and I was still sober and let me go. However, after the approx. 4 hours it took to run my license, the female cop handed my license to one of the male cops who started writing me a ticket!

When I got the ticket, I read it and saw that the official reason for the ticket was "obstruction of seating." In the note section, the cop wrote, "Observed resp lying down across bench aboard a s/b F train occupying more than one seat."

LYING ACROSS?! No. I was not like this guy:

Or even this woman:

Y'all know how I can squeeze myself into a little ball. Was I taking up more than one seat? Probably. Two at the most. But it was 3am and no one needed the seat!! Plus, while there are signs saying you can't smoke, listen to music, litter, eat, block the conductor's station, or walk between cars while the train is moving, there are no signs about taking up more than one seat!

So I just was like

and got back on the subway and we went home.

Now I'm wondering whether I should try to fight the ticket. What do y'all think? Has this ridiculous ticket ever been fought successfully?! Should I just pay the ridiculously costly ticket ($50)?!