One Song - Many Memories

As I was on my way home last night, I decided to plug my phone into my car radio and listen to some newly downloaded music. Saturday, on the way home from Atlantic City, I downloaded about 5 new songs, one of them being "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver. This song was one of the many Hanna had playing on her iPod in the car on the way home. When it first came on, my first thought was, 'Wow, mom loves John Denver. This is so weird.' The song brought back so many memories. We sung along to it. It was great.
Anyway, back to the main point. As I was driving home last night, I played this song. Very rarely is it that I hear a song and begin to cry. This was one of those times. As soon as the chorus came on, I began to bawl my eyes out. Every single memory that lives in this song, came to my mind.
First and foremost was trips up to Old Forge, New York with my mom and dad, mostly the trips when I was younger, around the ages of 4-6. Mom and dad would argue about what music we should listen to. Dad wanted to listen to the Madonna CD's we had and mom wanted to listen to the John Denver tapes. I was always the one to choose. Dad used to hate Country music, so listening to John Denver for him was probably like nails on a chalkboard.
Secondly, Kentucky trips with my mom. This song would always come on either in Kentucky, or somewhere in the boondocks in West Virginia. For everyone that truly knows me, you know that Lexington, Kentucky is basically my second home. So when this song would come on when we would be on our way to Lexington, it was kind of like a going-home song, if you will.
Third, horse show trips with my mom. Yes, the crazy little plastic model horse collection. Once again, when I was younger, my mom would always listen to the John Denver tapes on the way to horse shows. "Take Me Home, Country Roads" was one of her favorites, so she would constantly be pressing the repeat button for that song, and I'd hear it over and over again on the way to the model horse shows.
It makes me happy now that I can add one more memory to this song-the first trip I ever took to Atlantic City with dad and Hanna. It will remind me of how we were coming up the parkway, off of Long Beach Island, singing along to the lyrics. It will remind me that we previously listened to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" and I sat in the backseat shaking my head. It will remind me of how we were screaming along to the lyrics of "Dancing Queen" by Abba earlier on that day. It will remind me of how we collected seashells on the beaches of Atlantic City and Asbury Park, and how I kept running from the water in Asbury Park trying not to get my boots soaked every time the tide came in. It will remind me of all the great music we listened to and how Hanna kept looking in the mirror at me in the backseat to see the weird looks I was giving the both of them. It will remind me of how I walked full force into a glass door. It will remind me how dad and Hanna were fighting with the GPS of where to get on the Atlantic City Expressway at. It will remind me of the first race I went to with the both of them. Lastly, it will remind me of the fabulous memories I had with the two of them, that I never, ever will forget.
It's amazing how much one song, that is roughly three minutes long can impact someones life. I love the fact that I heard that song during the duration of that trip. I'll never forget the memories that hide in those lyrics.

What happens in Atlantic City, stays in Atlantic City (except the memories)

JUST got back about an hour ago. What a fun time we had! We ended up not leaving until 4:30 yesterday; two and a half hours after the time we had planned. No biggie though, we still got down there at a reasonable time-7:30. Ride down wasn't bad at all-except for the fact I experienced getting carsick for the first time. We took my car, and dad wanted to drive so I was like, yeah, I'll sit in the back, won't be bad, never sat in the backseat of my own car before. About 20 minutes into the trip I began to feel like I was going to puke. Temporarily fixed that by listening to my iPod, but still felt sick every time I moved. Then dad and Hanna are in the front yelling at the GPS...ahh, good times. Checked in at the hotel/casino-Bally's. When my dad mentioned to look for it and I saw it, the first thing that came to mind was, "Shit! That's a tall ass building!" Following that thought was one word: elevator.
I have a pathological fear of elevators that I don't think will ever be fully conquered-no matter how many times I keep going in them. My only wish was that we didn't end up getting a room on like the, oh I don't know...34th floor. We didn't. Halle-fucking-lujah. It was only on the 11th. Though that's still high for me, it could have been much higher. And guarantee if I was able to find stairs that didn't have a sign saying "Keep doors closed-alarm will sound" damn willing I would have hiked up and down 11 flights of stairs every time we came to the room and left. That being until Hanna would forcibly drag me into the elevator-just like she did at Easton Hospital two weeks ago.
Once we checked in and got settled into the room, we walked over to Boardwalk Hall to see the MicroSprint and TQ races, which was the main reason we went down there. I have to admit, for the full two and a half hours that we were there watching this, I highly enjoyed it. I think dad thought I was bored out of my mind, but I wasn't at all. Okay, so maybe at one point I was. The cars kept crashing so every time that happened, things got a little boring. Following that, we got dinner. Latest I've probably ever eaten dinner-11:20. We ate at this place called Johnny Rockets-boardwalk food, you know, french fries, cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, stuff like that. Wasn't the best restaurant, but it wasn't that bad.
Walking back into the hotel I managed to walk full force into a glass door. Yepp, that one hurt.12:20 and we were back in the hotel room. Woke up today at 9:30-shockingly because I never sleep late. It was around 11 when we finally were out of the hotel room. Went down to the lobby and tried to figure out where we could go to get dinner. Ended up deciding to go to the Bistro which was on the 6th floor. Then to get back to the room, we had to go back down, to go back up. Worst layout for a hotel ever. Checked out and piled back into my car. From there we went over to the beach and collected some shells. After that, we walked on the boardwalk for a little bit more-went into another casino-got to watch dad and Hanna gamble a little bit, yepp, goooooooddd tiimmesss. By the time we left AC it was around 3:00. I sat in the back again-didn't feel as bad as I did yesterday though. We took a few detours on the way home. The first being stopping at Long Beach Island. Dad wanted to show us his old grandparents beach house. Following that we stopped at Asbury Park. Once again, we collected some seashells and I drew my froggy in the sand. Ate dinner at a Tavern and from there I drove the rest of the way home. I think if I sat in the back again I would have lost it.
So there I was flying up the parkway doing 75mph. Stopped at QuickChek in Manville and had some guy basically back up into my front bumper. Thank God I was in the car and layed on the horn or else the jackass would have hit me. Stupid BMW drivers.
Now I'm finally home. Well home as in at Hanna's. I'm completely exhausted. I feel like what happened in the past day should have been 2 days. Crazy. All the stuff that happened, will stay there. But the memories of that trip I will forever keep in my heart.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day! Of course the darn groundhog had to see his shadow, as usual. Maybe six more weeks of winter won't be such a bad thing. Although, I did like the warm weather that we had the past two days.
Also, Happy Birthday to my little (soon-to-be) stepbrother!
I feel like I haven't written in days. I know it's been a month since I wrote a blog, but I feel as if I haven't expressed my thoughts in days, which I haven't. Recently I started keeping a journal, which I keep at my stepmoms house. I haven't wrote in it since either Saturday night or Sunday morning, just because I've been incredibly busy. I need to get my thoughts out...
So now I'm sitting in my Journalism class, debating on what I should do. Technically, I should be finishing my sports article, which is due on Monday, though I still have today and tomorrow to do it. It's mostly done, I mean, I can't really write too much more of it until I get some information from my dad-which I'll be able to do over the weekend. My article is a sports personality profile on my dad and stepmom. They both drove race cars so I asked them a few questions about it and went from there.
I can't believe it's February already. If you would have asked me a year ago, I'd say I couldn't wait until I turned 18, graduated high school, and went off to college. Now with my dad back in my life and my stepmom finally in it, I feel like I have missed out on so much stuff. If only I could go back two years, I would. Yes, I would still be a Sophomore and wouldn't even have my permit yet, but I want to go back and enjoy it. 2012 in general just needs to slow down.
So many changes are going to come about this year-good changes. I'll be graduating, getting a job, starting college, joining karate again, and probably even moving in with my dad and Hanna (no complaints about that). But things need to slow down and move one day at a time.
Enough about my ranting though. Like I said about good things coming about-tomorrow is one of them. In the early afternoon, dad, Hanna, and I are leaving to go to Atlantic City through Saturday night. I'm really looking forward to that. It's kind of like a mini-vacation.
Anyway, that's it for this. Maybe I'll write something when we get back on Sunday. God only knows what will inspire my mind next to write about...