Ohh boy, so here we go with the summer thing. Great. I mean, there is a lot that I love about summer, for sure, but the Jule Wandering Around Aimlessly in Search of a Greater Life Purpose thing is like, a part of summer that I could really do without. It’s also a part of summer that has been like, HAPPENING in the extremes this week. But oh well, I guess. Summer is summer is summer.
I graduated from high school. It was all kind of a big mix of excitement and joy and achievement, and pure and utter tragedy. I couldn’t really wrap my head around it. But it happened, you know, in spite of my efforts to stave it off (1, 2, 3….no one is going to get this reference) and now life keeps just rolling on regardless of whether I’m ready or not. In a way it’s comforting to know that, no matter what I do, even if I just curl up in a ball and knock myself unconscious and take no action at all, life is still going to come at me with the same undeterred aggression. In other ways, it’s terrifying to know that. But in every way, that’s just how the baaaalll bounces.
So, some recent events of interest.
My first day of summer was sublime. It started out lame, then got a little better, then got SO TERRIBLE and then ended SO AMAZINGLY that like, I can’t even believe it happened. It was a great way to begin things, and whenever I think about that night I feel such a pleasant glow.
The ensuing days of summer have been enjoyable, but not extraordinary so far.
The Coppa Family Bowling League has been formed and activated (activated like…isn’t the word that I mean. But I can’t think of a better one. SIGH.) with much enthusiasm. Today was DAY 3 of the CFBL Summer Spectacular and shit has been nuts. So far, surprisingly, the MVPs have been Lisetta and Olivia, due to their bizarre and frustrating technique of getting an extremely heavy ball, placing it in the center of the lane, and pushing it JUST ENOUGH that it gets rolling. Today we timed Olivia’s ball and it took exactly 1 minute and 3 seconds to make it to the bowling pins. But when it got there, somehow, it wreaked major havoc and she ended getting up like a spare anyway. And MEANWHILE, there’s JULE who LOVES BOWLING and who is the sponsor and creator and chauffer of the bowling league, and I SUCK SO BADLY. Seriously, I am like. The worst bowler of all time. THE. WORST. I’m not even exaggerating or being overly modest or something. Sometimes I do that, where I’m like “oh no seriouslyyy I am like NO good at building sandcastles”, when meanwhile my sand-architecture has won like numerous awards at beaches across the east coast (a totally fictional example). But I am literally just terrible at bowling. And it’s really upsetting because I am the number one FAN of these bowling trips and I ENJOY it so much but I can’t even make it past fifty points and meanwhile Lisetta and Olivia are in like the triple-digits somehow.
SIGHHHH I’m just really having a hard time with this. I am totally the LVP of the league, and I’m the butt of everyone’s jokes, but I keep going anyway because I have hope deep down that my technique will improve and I won’t be as horrifically bad someday. So far though, the league has been pretty ashamed of me.
In other depressing news, I went to Barnes & Noble the other day to stock up on some books (even though I have NO money) because I just have so much READING time nowadays and I’m so sick of all this rereading I’ve been doing. So I went and I was really stoked because one of my favorite authors, Sarah Dessen (go ahead. look her up. make fun of me. I don’t even care anymore) has a NEW BOOK out and I haaad to get it, so I got that and something else and I came home. And I was totally planning on saving the book and reading it little by little so that I could stretch it out for as long as possible since my reading supply is dwindling as it is, and plus who even KNOWS when she’ll come out with a new book again, so I really had to make this one last. But somehow, and I swear to you I don’t even KNOW how it happened, but I started the book on Tuesday when I bought it and I ended up staying up till like 3am and I READ THE ENTIRE FUCKING BOOK IN ONE NIGHT. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I have no self control, it’s pathetic. I can’t even believe I let it happen. So I woke up the next morning like, wallowing in a pool of self-loathing for my total lack of restraint, and even though I’ve been trying to hold off I’m already halfway through the OTHER book I got, and so now I’m going to have to make weekly trips to the library for like the whole summer.
AHHHHHHH.
Well yeah. So are you enjoying all these totally badass and exciting stories about my life? I know I am. While the rest of the world is off getting crrrrunked on senior week and hooking up with every single person they know and waking up in the morning in the outdoor shower of their beach house having NO clue what happened the night before, here I am in good old Trooper, PA, waking up safely in my bed every morning after having cried myself to sleep for finishing a BOOK in one night instead of trying to savor it. And then heading off for an exciting day of bowling with my six younger siblings in my twelve passenger van.
You can say it. I’m the biggest fucking party animal you know.
Oh, so speaking of that, check this out: my family is leaving for the beach tomorrow night, and except for like the two days that I’m going to visit them down there, I am staying home with my sister because we both have work. So that means that I’m going to be like alone in my terrifying house for a huge long week. IT’S GOING TO BE SO WEIRD. I’m so used to having everyone here. And I don’t really know what I’m going to do with myself other than like, sleep with a baseball bat every night, go to work, and feed Maria’s new goldfish, but it seems like, with such a huge amount of house and aloneness, I should find something exciting to do. (Normally I would be concerned about publishing my home-alone-ness to the worldwide web but like. If the little “views per day” counter on my homepage is any indicator…I’ve got nothing to worry about. :a tumble weed blows lazily across Juliana’s blog page: ::crickets chirp in the distance::)
OH my lord, want to hear something WILD? This time last year I was in COLORADO, writing all of those suicidal and bored photo-entries on here and whining about how much time I spent with old people, and talking about the girls I met in the goldmine who thought I was Jordin Sparks, and talking about how I spotted a black bear even though I didn’t really and I had just zoomed in really close on a postcard in the gift shop. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT WAS A YEAR AGO? I definitely can’t. Time really does go fast, it blows my mind.
Any.way. I am sort of dying to continue this book I’m reading, and also this entry is soo extremely long and lame that like. I just need to put it out of its misery. But it’s been nice catching up as I’m sure you agree, and don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted as to how my bowling technique improves etc.
OK. So goodnight.
About three or four days ago, Barb baked a cake. This was a magnificent white cake, with pink raspberry frosting, and decorated with raspberries all over. We ate some of this cake for dessert on the day she made it, and have had it for dessert a couple times since then. The cake was being stored on the countertop in a tin cake dish, with a cover.
WELL.
Last night we got back late (11:00–that’s way beyond the witching hour for these folks), and everybody went to bed except Ron, because he insisted that he needed a little midnight snack before bed, and would have a piece of cake.
The next day after lunch, Barb decided to have a piece of cake for dessert, and she went into the kitchen and uncovered the cake, only to find that IT WAS COVERED IN DISGUSTING FUZZY GRAY MOLD!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. There was like an inch of hair on that baby.
“Sakes alive!” She exclaimed.
“GROSS!!!!!” I shouted, appropriately dismayed at the NASTY MONSTROSITY that had replaced our beautiful cake.
“Hmm, maybe I’ll pass on the cake,” said Barb. I patted her on the back comfortingly.
“Ron…?” said Kathy, “Ron, did you actually eat a piece of cake last night? Or did you realize that there was something terribly wrong when you lifted the cover and saw all of that nasty blue fuzz, and decide against it?”
Ron patted his stomach and shrugged.
”Tasted fine to me!”
Seriously, these are the people I’ve been living with.
I would like to formally apologize for the excessive use of exclamation points in the previous entry. I don’t know what came over me, but it won’t happen again. Also, I didn’t actually see a bear. I just zoomed in on a postcard in the gift shop, and used the photo to try to make this trip sound more interesting.
Anyway, now that that’s out of the way! Here is a list of some random thoughts and events from the past two days for you, since I am too deliriously tired to make an actual entry.
ahem:
THOUGHTS AND EVENTS OF THE LAST TWO DAYS
a brief list by j. coppa
- Took a bus Wednesday to Denver (by myself, thank you jesus) and met up with some of my awesome Denver buddies to chill
- Sarah S. is my new BEST FRIEND and HERO
- Saw “The Incredible Hulk”–sucked, as expected, however the story was WAY more touchingly romantic than I thought it would be.
- Hung out with Sarah, Erin, Cecilia, Maura, Jordan, and Gabe throughout the course of my time in Denver. All of whom were totally cool <3
- Had a Special K bar the other day for the first time. The strawberry ones are DELISH, just thought I’d share.
- Thursday we went to the Royal Gorge, a gigantic Canyon in the middle of freaking NOWHERE
- We walked across a suspension bridge, and went on a cable car over the gorge, then we went on an incline railway INTO the gorge.
- Despite all of this, the gorge didn’t really get any cooler. It remained a gigantic hole in the ground.
- I photographed an Elk yesterday. FOR REAL too, it wasn’t a postcard.
- I am getting totally sick of Ron and Kathy. They act like I’ve been living in like outerspace my whole life and have never seen nature before.
“Oh look Juliana, do you see that mountain?” “
“Yes Ron. I am not BLIND. WE ARE STANDING NEXT TO IT. OF COURSE I SEE IT.”
“Oh look Jules! A squirrel! That would make a good picture to show your folks!”
“WHAT THE HECK KATHY?? ITS A SQUIRREL!!!!! THERE ARE SQUIRRELS WHERE I LIVE!!!!! MY ‘FOLKS’ HAVE SEEN A SQUIRREL BEFORE!”
“Now, this is a little Colorado specialty that we like to call LEMONADE!“
“WTF????? Lemonade is not a Colorado specialty you IDIOT, they have that everywhere. I hate you both.”
I could go on, but the Ron and Kathy bullet is way too long. This was supposed to be a brief list. - Today we went to “The Mollie Kathleen Goldmine” in Cripple Creek, CO.
- While we were in the goldmine, there were these two girls who kept whispering and pointing at me. Finally, at the end of the tour, they came up to me and asked me if I was Jordin Sparks. I almost wet my pants.
- Jordin Sparks is half BLACK
- WTF WOULD JORDIN SPARKS BE DOING IN A GOLDMINE IN CRIPPLE CREEK COLORADO?
- All the roads were closed in Cripple Creek, because this weekend is the annual CHILI COOK OFF! woohoo.
- If I eat anymore Mexican food at all ever again in my entire life, I will probably kill myself. Cause other than that Strawberry Special K bar, Mexican food is all they give me here.
- While we were out at a Mexican restaurant tonight, I met my soulmate.
- He was waiting on our table. Looking into his eyes was like swimming in a bottomless, crystal clear lagoon of wonder and beauty.
- We also went to an old fashioned western theater this evening
- The title of tonight’s performance was “The Arrant Knave”
- We were specifically instructed before the performance to hiss and boo whenever the villain spoke or came onstage, and to applaud wildly whenever the hero entered.
- The hero and the villain had very similar costumes and body structure, so I kept mixing them up. People kept looking at me like I was a totally psychotic promoter of evil and hater of justice.
- Right now there is a major lightning storm going on. Huge forks of lightning are tearing up the sky all over the place.
- If this lightning storm keeps up, and my flight home tomorrow is at all affected in any way, I will kill myself.
Ahhhh this entry is so stupid and boring! But I am too tired to upload photos. And I thought a list would be a good way to convey my fractured thoughts, but in the end it turned out dumb.
Anyway guys, if all goes well, I will be HOME! the day after tomorrow, and you won’t have to hear any more about all my boring trips to look at rocks! I know you’re as excited as I am.
I am way toooooooooo tired to write anything much!! So I’m just gonna put up some new photos.
Two days ago we drove up into the mountains to see some sights. It was a long drive, and let me tell you: Ron has MORE than his fair share of DEAD BORING facts and stories.
A dirt road! No pavement! Lots of dust! Where the hell am I?!
oh look guys. more rocks.
We parked the car by this awesome sign and went for a hike.
On the hike we saw these crazy trees.
Check it out, the lady under the umbrella was making money selling ROCKS. What the heck!!! Who does she think she is?! All I need is like a pickaxe and a ziploc bag and I could put her out of business. Jeeze.
This sign was outside of the little park ranger hut thing.
THIS IS THE BLACK BEAR THAT I SIGHTED JUST OFF THE TRAIL IN A CLEARING!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SO TERRIFYING!!!! But it scampered off.
In order to recover from the traumatic bear sighting, we paid a visit to the beautiful and serene Broadmoor Hotel for some afternoon drinks. This is a FIVE START RESORT that like, costs more to spend one night at than like, my whole house cost probably.
When I am devastatingly rich and famous, I will no doubt return to the Broadmoor as an honored guest, rather than the outside riff-raff who come in for lunch.
So, yesterday was totally foggy and disgusting, so we went to the U.S. Air Force Academy. But since it was foggy and disgusting, I have like zero pictures of the planes or cool monuments. We did however pay a visit to the TOTALLY COOL chapel they have there, so I photographed that.
This is the totally neat chapel!! It’s gigantic. It has a Protestant church, a Catholic church, a Synagogue and a Buddhist temple!! So it is quite the multi-tasking structure.
The ceiling of the Protestant church.
The wicked sweet organ in the Protestant church. Clearly Protestants are a favorite at the air force academy.
. 
The Catholic church.
The Synagogue
The Buddhist temple. Seriously. I guess the Buddhists were like at the bottom of the USAF budget list.
This image will probably only ring a bell for like, Anna, Siena and Anthony. But yes guys: it’s true. I WENT TO WHIT’S END!!! IT WAS EVERYTHING I DREAMED IT WOULD BE AND MORE!!!!!! I WILL SHOW ALL OF YOU THE FULL SET OF PHOTOS WHEN I GET HOME!!!!! <333
TODAY we took the Cog Railway up to PIKE’S PEAK. It was an epic journey.
The cog railway has many unique and wonderful patrons.
This is ROGER and KEITH!!!! Ron’s totally wild high school buddies who accompanied us for our journey! I LOVE THESE GUYS!!!!!!! <33
OMG. We are so lucky to live in such a magnificent world. aweuawijaefdawe LOOK at that!
I have no words
AHHH SNOW!!!!!!
Lookie there! It’s a Yellow-Bellied Marmot sitting on that pipe, but its difficult to see.
Finally, we made it to the peak. 14,110 feet baby!!!!!
If you are ever feeling all self-important and big, go to the top of Pike’s Peak. You will feel like nothing at all.
AWWW YAY ITS ME, RIGHT SIDE-UP!!!! For those of you who are wondering, but who are too polite to ask, the answer is yes: I have gotten uglier in Colorado.
Anyway I took like a BAZILLION! more pictures than that, but whatevz, it takes too long to put them up, and you don’t care anyway!!!
I must get off to bed, because I have an exciting day (for real) planned for tomorrow, which I will tell you about later if it works out!
packed up and ready to go.
we were on the ground for a whiiiiile.
we eventually lifted off thank GOD
My lap.
My new room! huzzah.
Some of my new room accomodations. Nothin like some Sleepy Time in a pluggable teapot!
Billy Collins is everywhere.
My personal patio.
Today we attended the Pike’s Peak arts festival.
The Pike’s Peak arts festival included some LAME music from these guys.
This is a terrific sculpture of a door. I tried walking through, with the expectation that I would be transported to another world. No such luck.
We wandered away from the arts festival (No one said it was because of the music, but we were all thinking it) and I felt obligated to photograph this neat building.
Words of wisdom to the ignoramus pedestrian. Thank you Colorado Springs.
Kathryn Lee Bates! Who wrote “America the Beautiful”. The purple mountains are obviously Colorado’s.
A cool cash register in the Pike’s Peak museum (FREE ADMISSION! in case you’re ever in town). I felt a connection with this piece, since I myself am a cashier. My fingers were just itching to get to work.
An awesome fountain where the young’ns of Colorado Springs cool off. JUST WAIT!!!! It gets awesomer.
Every half hour it suddenly starts playing music!!!! Then it grows into this incredible, tuba-playing, water-squirting wonder!!!!!!!! THIS FOUNTAIN ROCKS!!!!!! (sorry for the sideways. deal with it.)
Another sideways! Whateva dude I have no idea how to rotate it. Anyway this is in the library that my hosts were gracious enough to take me to.
Then we were off to the Garden of the Gods!!!!!
The gods were apparently waay too cool to grow flowers. They grew rocks instead.
There is actually a man climbing in this picture, but you probably can’t see it, it’s like this tiiiiiny little dot above the trees to the right.
BLLLLAAAHHHH!!!! More gorgeous scenery. Are you bored?? I am.
My three awesome tourguides.
AWWWWWW YAY ITS ME!!!!!!! Too bad its freaking sideways again, so you can’t be hit head on by my stunning beauty. Oh well.
UPLOADING PICTURES TAKES SO LONG. I AM DONE.
DAY ONE–Colorado Springs, Colorado
Well guys, I am here. Oh my God. I have a limited amount of time on the computer, cause their internet is a bit spotty and kicks you off all the time (of course).
Well, we landed in CO an hour and a half late, due to some delays in Philly because of southeast storms or something. So that sucked. The good news is, I befriended this totally awesome dude named Malik who was sitting next to me. He’s originally from Uganda but now resides in Denver, and he was wearing this sweet black pinstripe suit. We had a nice couple conversations, mostly about the high cost of fuel, global warming, the summer olympics, and the upcoming election. Once you get Malik going, it’s difficult getting him to stop. But he was really nice, and other than the fact that he completely sprawled across MY armrest and totally smoshed me up against the window because he was so huge, I really enjoyed his company.
Anyway, Barb and I arrive in Colorado, and it was time for KATHY and RON to pick us up. I was actually kind of excited for this, because I have had this hilarious picture of what Kathy and Ron would be like in my head for quite some time, and I was waiting to see if they would do it any justice. WELL! K&R did not disappoint! Although not identical to the image in my head, they had enough kooky idiosyncrasies to satisfy even me. Kathy is a children’s librarian. Her glasses are perfect circles (YES!!) and her voice is similar to Mrs. Elton’s in Emma, though I doubt that reference will mean much to most people. Ron’s voice is pretty much identical to Roadrunners’, and he appears to be speaking in the same language as Roadrunner as well. (MEEP!) So far I haven’t understood anything that he’s said to me, although I’m getting good at pretending that I have. Both Ron and Kathy look very smart. There’s just something about their faces that appears very intelligent. They both wear Crocs (Ron’s blue, Kathy’s fuschia) and they both have a hilarious knack for making completely obvious observations. (“Well. Your suitcase is awfully black! Isn’t it?”)
As humorous as this horrible trip is, I feel very alone. Kathy and Ron chat with Barb about totally boring stuff, and I just sit here in agony, wondering over and over in my head why the hell I’m here.
I guess it will be good for me, to not talk a lot. To sit and contemplate. To rot away in CO with limited internet access. This has to benefit me in some way.
Feel free to call me, I would love to hear from seriously anyone. I’ll try to put up some pictures the next time the internet flickers back on. For now, I’ve got to go. We’re headed off to a bird sanctuary.
seriously, please call.
