Back to school. Year 2!

      Hey all of you Kristamaniacs! How are you doing? I'm doing well. I am in my 2nd week of school here at Glendale Community College. It's a pretty full semester. 16 credits. So...my first week of school was SO bad it's comical. First day of school I had math and theatre make-up. Well, you may or may not know, but I'm not good at math. I did get an A last year, but it was a struggle. First day of school, my teacher starts talking about something that I completely don't understand, and then he assigned 5 different homework assignments for the first chapter. I was like "Are you kidding me? It's the 1st day of school!" .Oh, also, Danielle and I realized we made my schedule so that I'm on two campuses on Mondays and Wednesdays. Not too fun. So I just assumed the next day would be better. I was only scheduled for a communications class. Well I get to school and there is literally NO parking. Everybody wants to have classes on only Tuesday and Thursday, so the campus was packed. I was 17 minutes late to my first class because I had to park at a park that is not on the school property. It was pretty awful. Then, Danielle talked me into crashing an English 102 class so I could get that out of the way. I tried 3 classes and they were all full. I tried the 4th one and he took me, but he is a really intense teacher and kind of a dick. So we'll see what I got myself into. On Wednesday I had car troubles and I had to take my car in to get checked out and Danielle had to take me to school. Well when I get there, they cut classes early because the air conditioning went out in all the buildings and it's just too hot in AZ to go to school without AC. So they closed the whole campus and I was stuck there until 8 o'clock but not able to go into any of the buildings. So I was able to go to the public library, but it was a walk and it was probably 110 degrees outside. I felt so digusting. Thursday and Friday went by alright. Nothing terrible, but nothing too awesome. Then Saturday comes and I worked to Farmers Market for the 1st time without Danielle because she was at a school orientation. It was so slow and hot. I sold like $34 dollars worth. So lame. Then Sunday...omg Sunday pisses me off. I had to print something up for my make-up class. Well, Danielle's printer isn't working so we went over to her grandparents. They were watching Danielle's cousin's dog, Sydney. This dog apparently had a really rough life and was beaten and abandoned. Super sad if you think about it. But this dog also is f'n crazy! The few times I've seen it, it bakrs 100% of the time. Non-stop. Well this time, rather than just barking, it f*ckin' bites me! Her grandparents open the front door, Danielle walks in the house and the dog comes charging. Danielle moves out of the way and the dog just grabs hold of my leg through my jeans. I literally didn't have both feet in the door yet. Then it bites my shoe until Danielle's grandpa pulled the dog off. I was SO pissed! I've never been bitten before. Wanna here the best part? Apparently Sunday was National Dog Day. Haha. I cannot stand that dog. I don't care what sort of past life this dog had, but if it's biting relatives before they get in the door, it probably shouldn't be a pet (in my opinion).
      This week has been a lot better. I didn't know we were supposed to read for my communications class. But I got an 8 out of 10 on the quiz and I haven't even opened the book. Tuesday was a really good day. I had my classes and then my friend Kevin and I carpooled down to Phoenix to get make-up for my make-up class. While we were there, we met ALICE COOPER! He was just in there lookin at hats and stuff. It was so cool! I was pretty stoked. Then Kevin and I talked about wrestling, people from our old acting class, musicals, plays, and everything in between until Danielle got off work. It was a good day. I really needed it.
    This weekend I get to go home because I have tickets to see my 4th favorite musical, Les Miserables. I am definitely looking forward to it. And of course Danielle and I are going to stop by Disneyland. We also might get to see a few friends since it's the labor day weekend.
    Thanks for readin'! Hope to get some feedback!
-HBK

The Two Week Vacation

The second part of my summer started in the last week of June. It's what I really considered my vacation since I got to travel. I spent a week in San Diego (my home town) and then about 4 or 5 days in New York. The first part of the vacation in San Diego was really nice. Danielle's grandparents rent out a beach cottage on Pacific Beach every summer. It's a nice beach cottage, and we get to hang out with her grandparents, sister and cousins if we want, or we go out and do our own thing. It's like a real vacation. The first few days, we went boogie boarding. It was actually my first time in the ocean since I got stung by a sting-ray last year. Danielle had such a nice time in the ocean. I lived in California my whole life and I never went in the ocean half as much as I have since I started dating Danielle. I'm really glad she likes doing outdoor activities. Also while we were there we got to see a handful of friends. I saw my friend Cory who used to be a customer of mine while I worked at the worst Starbucks in the country. I also got to see my friend Cameron who has been my friend since high school, along with his wife Alanna and new baby, Nolan. I love that family. Nolan is the cutest kid, Cameron is such a good friend and Alanna is such a sweet person who has really been helping Danielle on her road to becoming a vegan. While we saw them, they made us a vegan meal and it really showed Danielle that you can have really good vegan food. Then on a different day, we went to SeaWorld with them. It was so much fun. Alanna was an employee there before Nolan came into their life. She worked with the birds. So while we were there, she was able to get us to a backstage part and me, Danielle and her sister got to pet penguins and a baby penguin! It was so neat! Penguins are actually my favorite animal, so getting to touch one was a really neat experience. After the week at the beach cottages, we drove back to Arizona for like 2 days and then we went to New York.
      Danielle and I went to New York with my dad for a wedding. The wedding was for a friend of my dad's daughter. It was definitely an interesting wedding. It was an Indian wedding. The groom rode in on a horse, much of it took place on the ground, and we had to take off our shoes and have our heads covered. The wedding was at Cornell University in a chapel called Sage Chapel. Cornell and the town of Ithaca was such a neat place. It was so green. Living in Arizona, I definitely miss the green. It was definitely a college town, but still a fun place to explore.
       After exploring the town of Ithaca, we went to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. That was mostly for me and my dad. Sadly, Danielle isn't a baseball fan, so she got nothing out of that experience. However my dad and I really liked it. I found baseball plaques for all my favorite Hall of Famers like Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson. There were so many artifacts, jerseys, stats, World Series rings, and just so much stuff to see in there. It was really neat to see. When I have a kid, I'd like to take them there. Possibly with my dad too so it could be a generational thing. And if you've never been to Cooperstown, it's such a cool little town. There's nothing like it near where I lived in San Diego or where I live in Arizona. I really liked the small towns in upstate New York. The buildings were built before California was even a state. We even found cemeteries while we were there. One of the cemeteries had people buried there who fought in the Revolutionary War!
      Then we went to New York City via Amtrak. It was a smooth ride and really nice to catch up on sleep during the ride. When we got there, we only had one day to hang out in the city. My dad needed to rest so he spent the majority of the day in the hotel room. Danielle and I wanted to explore. We went to Central Park and we had sketches drawn of us. The artist was really good. I really love Central Park. It's so green and peaceful, right in the middle of the city. I wish that all big cities had something similar to that. We walked on 5th Ave. and checked out FAO Schwartz and the Disney Store and I bought a new hat in Times Square. While we were on 5th Avenue, Danielle and I ran into Snoop Dogg! Yes, a few weeks before he turned into Snoop Lion. Super cool.
        By far, the best part of the trip was seeing The Book Of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is a broadway musical from the creators of South Park. Of course they would include vulgarity in their show, but they also had some of the best writing, music, and characters in the show. I can't give away anything, but it's a story of 2 Mormon missionaries who get sent to Uganda and what they deal with there, both in real life, and internally. As long as you can put up with some swearing and a little blasphemy, I truly recommend this show. I've seen MANY musicals, but this one has definitely become my favorite! The cast of the show really draws you into the characters and make you feel like you're really on a journey of new experiences while traveling to Africa with them.
      I guess that's it for now. I have been lucky enough to travel with my very limited income. If you ever get oppurtunities to go somewhere else other than your regular everyday life, do it. It is really good for the soul and gives you ambition to actually do something with your life. It's certainly one of my favorite reasons for traveling. Just to get away from real life.
-HBK

Beginning of the Summer '12

Hey all! How are you doing? As summer is winding down, I just thought I'd talk about some of the fun things I did. One of the early summer activities I did was go to the opening of Cars Land. The Cars Land opening was definitely a unique Disney experience for me. Danielle & I camped out overnight in front of the park. We got to the park around 11:30pm, while the park opened at 9am the next day. Danielle actually ended up sleeping in the car the majority of the time while I had a blanket and slept in front of the park. It wasn't as bad a you might think. Then the time came where they let us into the park. Bob Iger made a speech and really made us believe that Disney California Adventure was now a contender as a real Grade A Theme Park. Well, he's right. Disney California Adventure (or DCA as us regulars, and cast-members call it) really is a great park now that the expansion is complete. When we first got in the park, Buena Vista Street was the first thing we saw. It's reminiscent of Los Angeles in 1923 when Walt Disney Arrived. It's very close to what Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World is like, but I really believe ours is better. But Cars Land is the biggest, and most advertised addition to the park. Walking into Cars Land was a surreal experience to me. It almost made me cry. It's something I'll never forget. When we walked into Cars Land, it really looked just like Radiator Springs from the movie Cars. Seriously, they had every single detail down. But the part I found so neat was the cast members. When we walked in, we were probably within the first 200 people inside of Cars Land. So we saw cast members, rather than attending their regular duties were just waving at us and high fiving us while we walked in. It was so cool! They were all SO proud to be there for the Cars Land opening. It was such a good feeling. You could tell their hearts were invested in the park, just the way I could imagine Walt Disney and the original cast members felt when Disneyland opened. We finished our Cars Land experience in about an hour once we got in. While all the crowds rushed to Radiator Springs Races, the E ticket attraction, we went and got fastpasses for it. Then we walked onto Luigi's Flying Tires and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree (the other two attractions). Literally no lines. But Radiator Springs Racers is where it's at! It's amazing. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I just have to say there's something special about that ride. There's a whole part that they never show on television and it's just such a great surprise. It really makes you feel like you're part of the movie. I know this is almost an advertisement for Cars Land, but I'd really recommend you go!
      Originally I was going to write a blog about my whole summer, but this one got too long...so get ready for future blogs!
-HBK