the following was found scrawled on clarion hotel stationary.  it was composed at various intervals during the class of 2002 senior trip.  it is reproduced here in its entirity for you, faithful reader.  enjoy.

WRITTEN FRIDAY NIGHT...

SENIOR TRIP 2002
*on the road*

-bus = favorite form of transportation.

*so, I'm sitting here on a chaise lounge at the hotel.  It's approx. 8:30; at the pool, there's a strong breeze.  The temp has dropped considerably since 5 pm when we left MGM Studios (which was quite lame).  I just got off the phone with lindsay, so that's a plus.  The sky is clear; I see no stars.  At the tiki bar, a local station is playing a "lost oldies weekend" deal.  The pool is, by & large, empty.  My fellow PA travelers have all retired to their rooms before grad night.  So.  The trip thus far.

THURSDAY
-car ride to school
-on bus; rode w/ Amber
-Baltimore airport
-plane; sat w/ Mich. & Steph
-1st flight; ears hurt
-Orlando airport
-Universal Islands of Adventure
-UIoA = fun.
-got Bob Marley shirt, hemp anklet to replace lost one, Ty gift, other.
-hung out with Jen and Fallon
-JFT becomes my fixed group, of sorts
-ate at NASCAR cafe; veggie burger; surprisingly un-hickish
-to hotel
-skipped out on Krick and Ozga w/ Moore
-new room = Steve, Alan, Bobby, David, Travis, Moore
-lots of gay content flying around
-shopped for deoderant alone
-showered
-called lindsay; rents & Ty
-McDonald's w/ Jen and Fal
-ate on table out front
-talk of sex; no surprise
-11 pm; hang out in hallway with J&F
-11:30 pm - forced into room; cards w/ Moore & David (egyptian ratscrew)
-12 - bed

FRIDAY:
-7:00 - wake up; breakfast
-MGM Studios by bus; sat w/ Moore
-day with Fal & Jen again
-park blew
-overwhelmingly sticky heat
-luch @ some italian place; expensive; too expensive
-Lindsay, mom gift
-have to shop for dad
-low on funds
-spent approx. 1.5 hours in shade w/ Fal
-5:00 pm - hotel.  Laid in room w/ Fal, Jen, Keri, Becky
-6:30 pm; dinner; veggie lasagna, bread, ceasar salad
-7:00 pm; grabbed pillow, slept on floor in JFKB's room
-8:00 pm; wake up
-call Linds, mom (message)

so I grabbed stationary & a clarion hotel pen from the room.  Bought 75 cent soda in shop as opposed to 90 cent soda from machine.  Sat @ pool.

My fear is that if I don't write now, I'll lose stuff.  Ate no meat so far; no intention to.  Sleep has come in strange allotments.  I need to go get dressed for repressive Nazi Disney grad night.  Trading shorts & sandals, the typical TL Martin gear, for khakis & shoes.  Queen on the radio.  Isn't Queen a "classic," not an "oldie?"  Whatever.

LATER...

FRIDAY/SATURDAY (grad night)
-writing this Saturday afternoon from Daytona Beach
-arrived @ grad night @ approx. 11 pm.
-khakis and shoes = ugh.
-8,000 HS seniors.  Yikes
-all of us dressed up
-guys looked ready to rape someone, girls looked ready to not say no.
-hung out with Megan, Jen, Fal, Keri and Becky
-spent night making sardonic, hateful comments about grad night, Disney and our generation in general.
-I miss Lindsay.
-don't remember specific events.  I vaguely remember floating around Frontierland @ 3 am; sat every ten minutes or so; awake for 21 hours.
-so tired
-just wanted sleep.
-so angry.  So bitter
-@ 3:45 am, left
-bus was in wrong spot; hour delay
-@ hotel @ 5:30 am
-sleep

SATURDAY
-wake @ 11:40.  room didn't set alarm.
-5 minutes to get ready
-breakfast buffet; avoided meat
-Daytona Beach - 2:30 pm
-float on back for hours; water warm, out further than everyone else
-at peace
-walked around town w/ Jen
-nice place; no bookstores, tho
-found a surf shop; bought a couple stickers
-came back; bus @ 6:00 pm
-bus ride back alone
-hotel @ 7:00 pm approx.
-showered
-bummed around Jen and Fal's room
-Denny's @ 8:45 pm
-buffalo chicken sandwich.  forget vegetarianism...again
-back to hotel.  watched some of Philadelphia; lights out at 12 midnight
-can't even tell what went on in my hotel room
-horrible, horrible stories about David, Steve, Alan and Bobby
-Moore and I just crouched in the corners, afraid to watch the ensuing gayness.  not at liberty to talk about what went on; sworn to secrecy.
-suffice to say, it was nuts and gay and i don't want to talk about it
-didn't get to bed till 2:30 am

SUNDAY
-last day
-up at 7:30, wiped sleep from eyes, packed
-stumbled down to breakfast; dined with Amber
-back up to room; began reading Still Life With Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins; loaned to me by Jen
-boys in room were all like "eww, you read.  you faggot" and various other comments; wonder how well i masked my contempt for them
-left for blizzard beach, disney's water park, @ approx. 9:40 am
-approx. 13 hours till i see lindsay
-tickets for parked were dated "invalid after 5/4/02"
-half hour delay whilst we got the tickets changed to the fifth of may, as opposed to the fourth
-what does cinco de mayo celebrate again?
-hung around with Jen, Fal, Keri, Becky, Megan and Mindy
-park was all right
-wave pool with waves bigger than those at Daytona
-raft race with Jen; kicked her sorry ass.  booyah
-got in tubes, floated around this huge moat thing for nearly an hour
-passed out on chaise lounge whilst mindy washed off her feet in the pool
-sun beat down; fell asleep for a short time until we had to go; chaise lounge, come back!
-bus @ 3:00 pm
-ride to Orlando airport; check in @ 5pm
-place ride back was bumpier
-sat w/ Jen and Fal
-touched down in Baltimore @ 8 pm
-ran through airport, on bus back to Lancaster
-sat on bus with Mindy
-arrive home at approx. 11 pm

and that was that.  my road journal, copied here just for you.  and for you.

i'm sunburnt as hell from the damn waterpark yesterday.  my shoulders ache ache ache.  climbing off the bus, i see my mom and lindsay standing there.  i smile, wave, get my bags.  give linds her package, she waits till we get home to open it.

drive home is largely a blur.  i've spent so much time in planes, buses, cars, trams, trains, roller coasters, and the like.  i just needed my feet on solid ground for a bit.  sat in living room with rents and linds, relayed stories of trip to them.  they went to bed at around 12:30.  linds and i went down to my room.

caught up with the girl.  she'd cut her hair.  christ, she looks beautiful.  i just couldn't stop smiling at her.  drifted in and out of sleep.  eventually woke up.  linds left around 1:45 in the morning.  i hate to have her driving that late at night, but at the same time, i hate to have her leave any earlier.

my life is going good right now.  i've got not a single complaint, save for my sunburn.  it was really bad, so i'm going into school late today.  i was working a fever last night too, but that's taken care of itself.  my mom woke me at 8:15 and said if i wanted to drive to school, i'd need to drive her to work first, since my car was going into the shop for it's now-overdue inspection.  i drove her to school, came back home, couldn't sleep because there's just too much to write about.

florida was cool as hell - not literally, of course.  my blood was boiling down there.  i want to live at the beach, but i think in delaware.  florida is simply too hot.  i'm giddy to see lindsay again after four days.  my parents told me how much she missed me and talked about me and missing me.  it surprised me, but, at the same time, made me happy that she was feeling it, too.  jen, keri and fallon had a talk at lunch the one day about how they hate it when their significant others go away and when they call home, all they say is "oh, i miss you so much."  i didn't do that, but i guess i was worried linds would find me melodramatic if i did tell her i missed her.

but, she didn't.  so yay.

read two books on the bus/plane rides.  finished the nick hornby anthology talking with the angel and also put away charles webb's the graduate.  i need to see the movie again, because it ruled.  the book was good too - sparse language, great dialogue, tight ending.  loved it.  meant to read on the road again on the bus rides, but forgot my copy i stole from fias.  so, i made due.  tom robbins is banging.  thanks to jen for introducing me to him.

jen and i were tempted to sneak off and see spider man before friday, when we're supposed to be going on a double date type thing with linds and mike also involved.  we kept our ends of the agreement, however.  jen said mike wasn't really looking forward to it, but lindsay and i are stoked.  linds has seen the evil dead.  i'm used to saying "sam raimi rules.  ever see evil dead?" and the person just giving me a weird look.  but she said "yes."  she's so damn cool.  *adoration*

waiting for my bob marley t-shirt to get finished up its stay in our dryer.  is it spelled "drier"?  feh.  gonna wear that.  most of my clothing is wrecked from the rain at the airport.

beh!  so many stories to tell, and i can't get them all out in time.  i wonder what i'm missing.  hrm.

cap and gown pick up at school today during lunch.  i wonder how it will feel to hold them in my hands.  questions fly inside my head:  will i taste the freedom that comes with the end of high school?  will i feel different?  will i change?  guess i'll find out, eh?