Yesterday my family and I spent the day hiking Mt. Washington, the highest peak in New England. I have to admit, at first I was extremely apprehensive to the idea. You see, I don't actually really like hiking. Well, no. I like hiking. But I hate the feeling right before a long hike when you know that you have so far to go still and you know it will be strenuous and tiring. But during a hike the exercise feels good and it's so peaceful being in the woods and away from civilization. 

We hike Washington using the Crawford Path which passed by the "Lakes of the Clouds Hut" and came down on the Jewell trail. In all the hike was supposed to take about nine hours and was categorized in the "strenuous" category in our guide book. Needless to say, I was scared. 

But that day I saw some of the most beautiful views this world must have to offer. It was by far more amazing than anything I've seen in my life thus far.

To accurately describe the feeling: I felt like a character in The Lord of the Rings. 

Yeah. That pretty much sums it up.  

If any of you are considering doing this hike, but may be a bit apprehensive: DO IT. 

It really wasn't that bad, just long. It did end up taking about nine hours, but we stopped for about 30 minutes at the hut on the way up and about an hour at the summit where we ate lunch and checked out the museum. I think in total it was about seven hours of walking and the first and last hour and a half were pretty mild. Though, it was definitely a workout. 

It was one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen and the photographs simply don't do it justice. 

I actually think that one day, perhaps, I might hike the Appalachian trail. You know, if there was ever a point in my life when a had several months to simply hike across the country. Which I doubt will happen. But still, I can dream. 

I am so thankful for having been able to have had such an experience as this and can't wait to have many similar experiences in the future. (New Zealand here I come!) 

Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille

Not About Angels by Birdy

Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille

Yesterday was a pleasant and relaxing day, spent at a local beach here in North Conway, NH and a visit to the beautiful Diana's Bath waterfall. We finished off the day with a trip to the Muddy Moose for dinner and then decided that we would end the day with a fun game of mini golf down the street. 

Bad idea.

It was during this golf game that I came to realize what being a camp counselor has truly done to me. 

It's my theory that because I am around children eleven hours a day, five days a week, nine weeks out of the summer begins to take a bit of a tole on me. ...Well, obviously it tires us counselors out, but there is many other things that it does as well. 

For instance, we are constantly singing camp songs in our heads, and whenever we hear an air horn we feel our stomach drop. And on occasion we feel compelled to discipline other people children while in public because you see them standing on stumps or trading Magic the Gathering cards. 

But in addition, I blame all my idiotic behaviors on the fact that I spend too much time telling the children not to do such things. 

For example, last night at mini golfing I stuck my golf club in a tree and noticed that the end was hooked on a branch. hmm...interesting I thought. Wouldn't it be fun to swing from this? 

Long story short: Lot's of blood, a few bad bruises and the inability to wear close-toed shoes for a while. But I laughed it off and we were on the last hole so I simply finished my turn and walked to the car before I could make eye-contact with the many strangers who were given a great show that night. 

So lesson of the day: 

Don't swing from trees with golf clubs. Especially when you're wearing a skirt...

Thanks for reading, 
Amanda Lucille

p.s.   No, I have not seen my brain lately. I'll let you know when I find it.

Yesterday was a tiring, yet enjoyable day here in North Conway, NH. The four of us hiked the beautiful Mt Eisenhower to its 4,780 ft peak. At first I was a bit apprehensive because the last time we were vacationing at our time share here my mother had us climb a different - and slightly shorter - 4,000 footer (it's her plan to climb every 4,000 ft mountain in the White Mountains) I was miserable. 

Everyone last time had to put up with me falling behind and complaining the whole hike. I was barely able to make it to the top. Literally. I'm pretty sure I thought that I was going to die. 

This time was a lot different. I was ahead of the pack for most of the hike, stopping occasionally to let them catch up. I wasn't every really too tired. Out of breath and sweating, yes. But not so tired I couldn't keep walking. 

We did the whole hike in about 5 hours, then soaked in the hot tub to relax and finished our night with a trip to Ben & Jerry's and some family games. It was a wonderful day, but something else made it even better. John Green. 

You may know him as the author of The Fault in Our Stars, as the film has just recently come out in theaters around the country. But to me, he is the man in the Crash Course videos that I watch on YouTube (as I mentioned in a previous post). When I read The Fault in Our Stars I had an extremely difficult time picturing John Green writing the story. But over the past few days I have been reading another one of Green's novels, An Abundance of Katherines, and I am completely in love. 

As I read this novel I feel like I can hear Green's voice in my head. It is just so...him. For those of you who are John Green fans out there, this is definitely a book that you will love as well. It has been a while since a book has made me feel like this. I walk around all day, waiting for an opportunity to whip out the book and read a little further. It's great. And the funny thing is that it's not the story that keeps me on edge and turning the pages, it's purely the delightful, clever and witty way in which he writes. 

There's something so special about finding books like these. They can lift your mood, help you relax and offer a great way to escape the real world for an hour or two at a time. Great books are not to be underestimated, and for those of you who are on the lookout for another, I can definitely recommend this book. It's fun and easy to read and will definitely get you laughing out loud. 

Yesterday I was enjoying life, reading it while at the top of Eisenhower and enjoying the perfect weather. 

Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille

All of the Stars by Ed Sheeran

Last Friday my sister and I competed in our first ever Triathlon in Sutton, MA. At first it was a birthday present for my sister from my cousin, Bob, who has recently gotten into the world of triathlons himself. But upon hearing that she would be racing, I thought that I would give it a go as well and so I was signed up and hence began the "training". 

Haha, just kidding. I didn't train. 

I kept telling myself that I would. I even biked to my father's house then ran back to my mother's on several occasions to practice the transitioning from biking to running as Bob had told us that it would be the most difficult part. 

It was indeed a lot harder to run after having biked, as it took significantly longer to hit my stride. But for the most part I just did a lot more running as "training" since I have been trying to improve upon my running skills this summer as a nice way to get a good cardio workout and also enjoy the beautiful weather. My usual run is six miles right now, though the other day I did a nine mile loop and I really enjoyed it. 

In the end I was really proud of having finished the race. My sister and I weren't really pushing to come in first. In fact, we were not AT ALL close to first. But we were glad to have finished (it was a sprint marathon so .25 mile swim, 10 mile bike, and a 5K run).  It was literally the second time I have actually swam all summer and one of the only times I actually "swam" in what feels like forever since usually I'm just hanging out in the pool or riding the waves at the beach. I'm proud that we went all the way and made it to the end and I am definitely going to do it again next year (as long as I haven't moved to New York yet). And I will hopefully be a tad more prepared and beat the time we got this year! 

What amazes me most is that just a year ago I know that I wouldn't not have been able to do something like this at all (or run nine miles for that matter). And it just proved to me how far I've come already.

Today my mother, sister, brother, and I traveled to North Conway, NH in the heart of the White Mountains for a week long vacation of mountain hiking, mini golfing and some good, old-fashioned family bonding. 

A vacation couldn't be more needed at this time and I'm ready for a relaxing week away from all the hustle and bustle of Massachusetts life as it can become rather exhausting. And I feel like this is a nice way to rest before the craziness of the summer starts. When I return it's back to 70+ hr work weeks and getting ready for the semester ahead. 

I'll keep you updated on the week ahead, but I truly hope that I will find some inspiration for some better, less "journal-y" posts that may actually interests you people out there! 

That's all for now!

Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille

How Long Will I Love You by Ellie Goulding (been really getting into her lately!) 

So I like to think that I haven't necessarily "jumped on the bandwagon" with this film, but rather I beat everyone else to it. And I'm not just saying that! I became a huge John Green fan when one of my high school teachers made my history class watch some of his "Crash Course" videos to introduce various subject matters as we moved through the curriculum. 
 
As my teacher would let the videos play the class sat there in silence, staring blankly ahead. But if they listened carefully they would hear a small, stifled laughter at the back of the class, as I attempted to contain myself. No one else (aside from our teacher) seemed to think the videos were funny. But I was cracking up the whole time from Green's clever and well-placed humor. His ability to be informative and humorous was perfect and I was immediately hooked. 

I went home and actually began watching his crash courses for other, more interesting subjects, such as Literature and Philosophy. They were a joy to watch, even though I had to admit that these were some of my nerdiest moments. But who cares? 


Soon I learned that he was also an author, and began looking into his work. I learned about Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns and, of course, The Fault in Our Stars. But it didn't make sense to me that a book such as this was coming from John Green, the man from all those Crash Course videos. But I decided I would give it a chance. By this time word had spread that the book was going to be turned into a movie and therefore more and more people were reading it. (It also meant I had to but it in hardcover, much to my dismay). 

I bought the book and put it on my "to-read" bookshelf which was already filled to the brim with other books that were lined up for me to read. Normally I would then forget about a book until months later when I finally decide to read it. But this book was a bit more difficult to forget about. Mainly because the vibrant blue cover stuck out among all the rest of my more dull covered novels that I got at various used book stores and yard sales. So it only sat on the bookshelf for a few short weeks until I turned to it. 

By now, word had spread like wildfire among the YA community about this book. Everyone was saying how amazing it was, every review on Goodreads gave the novel 5 stars. People who I knew didn't read books were reading this one and were enthralled over it. So I was obviously extremely excited about it and dove right in. It only took me a couple days to read since it was easy and enjoyable. But in the end I was a bit let down. Not because the book was poorly written or the plot was uninteresting. It was actually a really great book. But I think that there was so much build-up to it and too many people telling me that  I would "cry my eyes out" and that it would "change my life", that I was waiting for that moment a little too consciously. The same thing happened when I read The Perks of Being a Wallpaper. Too much build-up tends to ruin books for me. It also makes it more difficult to really loose yourself in the novel, and feel like it's your own little world since you know there are so many others who are in there with you as well. 

ANYWAYS, back to the movie. I was really looking forward to the movie adaptation of the novel mainly because I knew that I wasn't going to be as critical as I would have been if I had really LOVED the book. When such is the case, you tend to be more offended when scenes are left out or changed. But I knew that this would just be a nice romantic, tear-jerker no matter if it was slightly different than the novel or not. 

I went with my sister and her friend on opening night. Mistake one. We showed up for the 7:00 showing only ten minutes early without having had pre-ordered tickets. Mistake two. The show was sold out and the next showing wasn't until 9:30, so we had to figure out how to kill two and a half hours while we waited until the next show (which we went ahead and bought tickets to then before those sold out as well). When we entered the theater at 9:15 it was packed and I knew I wasn't going to be able to enjoy this movie the way I would have liked to. 

In the end I really  enjoyed the film and I think it's safe to say that most anyone else will as well no matter if they read the book first or not. Both Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort blew me away with their performances. Shailene has continued to amaze me lately with these new and improved roles of hers. She has come a long way from the girl on The Secret Life of the American Teenager all those years ago. I used to really dislike her as an actress because of that show, but now she is one of my absolute favorite starlets of the time. And don't even get me started on Ansel. Did you know that this movie was only his third film? That's right. He was a lead in Carrie in 2013 (his first ever film...!) then went on as yet another lead in Divergent (playing Woodley's brother here, as ironic as that sounds) and now he is debuting as the lead in The Fault in Our Stars. I'm not sure if he's just very, very lucky or an absolutely amazing actor. Perhaps it's a bit of both. But what's undeniable is that if there is ever posters made with his face on it, there will soon be one on the wall of every teenage girl in America. He's a charmer, ladies! And has a killer smile to boot. I felt my heart absolutely melting in some scenes because of the chemistry between these two. 

All in all this was one of the best film adaptations of a YA novel that I have yet to see. Probably died with Divergent, which was another amazing adaptation. The only thing that would have made this movie a bit better would have been to see it in a less crowded theater, and without Audrey's friend, Lily, next to me. It's a bit hard to loose yourself in a film when there is a cacophony of sniffled and sobs pulling you back into the real world. And it's hard to feel sad when your laughing at the person sitting next to you who has completely lost it. 

I give this movie four and a half stars out of five, way to go John Green! 

Thank you for reading, 
Amanda Lucille

Your Song covered by Ellie Goulding 

One of my favorite Crash Courses by John Green: How and Why We Read

The past weekend was a whirlwind of events (and bad eating, shame on me) but full of family, friends and good times. F

Friday my sister and I went to see The Fault in Our Stars with one of her friends (review to follow soon) after I came home from work. Exciting, but not unusual. 

Saturday was Chickee's Dance World's annual recital, entitled Legendary this year. It marked Chickee's 30th year in business and was also the first recital I attended without participating in as a dancer. It was felt strange and melancholic but it is always a joy to see my old teammates dance and the little ones whom I used to teach.
The past few years Chickee and her daughter, Ariana, have asked me to create a "commerical" of sorts that advertise the recital and reveal the theme on the day tickets go on sale, but as I was away and dealing with finals this year it was a bit more difficult. Instead, I made a video to play as the opening to the show and commemorate the 30 years that Chickee's has been open. It took a while to create as most of the old video clips I needed were on VHS tape. Very long story short, I ended up having to film them as they played on my television using my friend's VCR while I sat close to the screen under a fort that I made with a blanket so the sunlight wouldn't reflect on the image. In the end, all worked out and I came out the other end with a fairly decent video...

The opening is a compilation of the titles of the dances in the show. Skip to 1:40 to see the beginning of the actual video! 

I feel so proud to have been given the privilege to make this video for my amazing dance family, and can't wait to do more, and hopefully even better, projects for them in the future as I work to improve. 

Following recital we enjoyed a wonderful, Italian "family" dinner with the CDW group. Though, I do feel bad for those poor employees who seemed a bit over whelmed with the what had to have been 50 people that suddenly entered their restaurant hungry and loud. sorry! 


The rest of the weekend was slightly more average, consisting of working a wedding (I love my job!) and two birthdays: my father's and a friend/coworker, Jen Stone, who's we celebrated last night at the Gardner Ale House. It was a great time and reminded me of how much of a difference it makes when your coworkers are all also great friends and amazing company. 

Thank you for reading and hope you enjoy the video,
Amanda Lucille 

Stay With Me - Ed Sheeran cover!!!