June 16th

Dear Iola,

My god. Do I have a story to tell you. First of all, you saw The Maine in concert? Lucky. Your new friends sound like fun. The Maine or We The Kings? So The Maine.

Anyways, I found out how fun hotel rooms can be.

So, our little gang going on this trip is, Callie, Frank Chet, Tony, Biff, this new kid we've adopted, Phil, and Scott.

Phil seems ok. He's shy, were going to have to fix that. But he's really smart. That will probably come in handy in the near future. His parents were hesitant about letting him go with us, because we've known him for all of a week and a half. But in the summer a week and a half is forever. You spend all day together. So, after we all crashed his house one evening and introduced ourselves, they said yes.

I know you're thinking, Scott?

I think that was our parents attempt at keeping us in check. Send the Freshman with us, we'll be good.

Ha ha. Nope.

First of all, we load up to drive there. We took our family's van so we could all ride. Callie was voted driver by us, and our parents. Frank was riding shot gun. Chet, Tony, and Scott were behind them. Biff, Phil, and I were in the far back. So here we are, yelling and screaming and driving the three hour or so drive. And, to top it off, we were recording video's with Callie's camera. There is this hysterical one when were stuck in traffic, and playing the alphabet game, you know, the one where you have to find the letter's on signs? Well, were looking for Q, and the radio is playing in the background, and were totally oblivious, then The Fray's song, Over My Head comes on.

I never knew, never knew that everyone was waiting on a Q.

We. Died. Laughing.

We also had a crossword book, which Chet and Biff were doing, and Chet accidentally said Precipitation when the clue was presidents.

It gets better. Biff then had the book, and was reading the clue out loud to us, when all of a sudden he starts freaking out. Were like, what's wrong? He says the clue is condom.

It was condiments!

Then there is this video of us starving, and these animal crackers. I'll have to show it to you when we get home.

So, then we are almost there, and Tony has to pee. I mean PEE. Like he is having a spasm he has to pee so bad. Chet and Frank are yelling at him to just pee in this tub, Biff is suggesting we pull over, Callie is yelling at him because for the whole trip, every time we took a bathroom break, he insisted he didn't have to pee, Phil looked scared, and Scott was just laughing at us.

So, we finally get to the hotel, and in our excitement over the pool and the luggage carts, Tony forgets he has to pee.

We have two rooms, Callie, Frank, Phil, and Chet are in one. Scott, Tony, Biff, and me in the other. The rooms are connected.

We promised our parent's we wouldn't roam on Friday night, that we would order pizza, and hang at the hotel. And we had to call from the hotel phone, to prove it. So we did all this, and our hotel rooms are connected to this huge, like, court yard, that's indoor, with a skylight and a pool, some games, a crappy mini golf area, and lots of tables. There is nobody else here, we pretty, much took this area over. It was so funny, Frank was in this lawn chair half asleep, so Biff and I snuck over to him, grabbed each side of the chair, and threw him in.

I don't know how we managed to NOT get in trouble for that.

He was so pissed, it was hysterical. So then Frank gets out, and managed to shove Biff in. He then goes over to Callie, tucks her under his arm, tosses her in the pool, then jumps in after her.

I'm not sure how it happened, but next thing I know, were ALL in the pool.

At about midnight the hotel staff made us get out. We then all hung out in our room, played poker, jumped on the beds, channel surfed, and had and Callie almost killed herself in the shower. Apparently she plugged the tub, so the tub was filling up, then she whacked the faucet and turned that on, so the tub was filling up at killer rate, then she cut herself shaving, and fell over.

So, at first were all laughing, then we were freaking out. So Frank picks the lock on the door, yanks her out of the tub, turns the water sources off, wraps her in a towel, and carries her into her room.

Do you know the amount of jokes we made about this?

So, we go to bed, then woke up, yeah.

Then first thing Callie insists on dragging us fucking shopping.

I think I did more work carrying her bags than I do working out. They were freaking heavy! Oh, and she bought you something. This feminine scarfy thingy. It's pink.

So, we went shopping, then we went to Ellis Island.

Damn, it was cool.

I know we've been to New York before, and seen just about everything, except this. Callie and Frank made us go, and it was cool. So, were standing in the main room, and Tony is like let's lay down. And we all look at him like he's nut, and he says 'no really. Let's look at this from a different perspective. Come on, try it.' So we look for the security guard, see him no where in sight, then in a straight line we all lay down. Biff, Callie, Frank, Tony, Phil, Scott, Chet, and me. And Tony gives this incredible impromptu speech.

"Just think guys, years ago our ancestors, our history, walking on this very floor. Their feet once touched where we are laying, each one with a different story, Some rich, some poor, well, most poor. They went through true and utter shit, and they still kept going, kept laughing, stood where we stood, or more so, stood where we laid. It's amazing isn't it?"

Then he sneezed and went on for five minutes about how his saliva came back down and hit him in the face.

It was so freaking weird, philosophical Tony. Then the security guard came. Then we left. Not necessarily by choice either.

We also saw the statue of Liberty, walked through Times Square, and now were at this little bar/restaurant thing, with underage drinking. Don't worry, Callie is designated driver. They have music too. Callie and Frank are dancing. It's mostly really old stuff, like fifties, sixties, and seventies, but they are playing Bryan Adams, Summer of 69'. You love that song. Remember when you would always play it, and you said it was the ultimate summer song? I loved that.

Yeah…

Your suddenly awkward illegally drinking and hotel room trashing friend,

Joe