First off, me, (e:jill), (e:mk) (e:libertad) and a few others went to Rendezvous on Niagara Street. I really like that place. The outdoor patio is so nice, especially when they have all the fires lit which they didn't last night but it is still so nice! I really like it , it is so cool looking. You think little dive bar but you get faboulous patio in the back. I don't know, I just want to say I really like it....

Now on a more important note, me and (e:mk) were obsessed with trying to find out what song Billy Gilman (like 12 year old boy circa 1999ish one hit wonder) sang. Luckily as we walked through Delaware Park we ran into the embodiment of Billy Gilman in WNY, and he had sang the song in highschool for a talent show and was able to sing us a little of it. Though we were still lacking in remembering the rest of the song even though I feel like at one point all my friends probably knew all the words to it. Anyone else remember the song? LIke i think it was about a school shooting or something like that.

So this Thursday at the Square was super fun in the old school last year kind of way. Hung out with (e:amanda), (e:terry), (e:lilho), and (e:paul) at the squrae and then went to McMonkeez with (e:amanda) and andre afterwards. Three for one drinks you can't go wrong except the cover charge went up from 2 dollars to 3 dollars. ANywho, I had had enough to drink but I still had two drinks so we started talking to this guy next to us and gave them to him. Needless to say a few minutes later we see him being forced to the ground and dragged out by security and police officers arresting him. Oops....that was our cue to slip out. HJopeucflly it wasn't our drink that [pusehd him over the edge to insanity.

Headed over to skybar where I hadn't been since last year. ALways a good time......I think this might be a good summer after all...

Have you guys read about the like 13 year old girl or something who got her parents to get her a passport saying she was going to Canada but secretly fled to Palestine to meet the guy she met on the internet? Who does that? Ok it is kinda cool but a lot of crazy. Like I think Palestine is probably the last place I would run away too alone without telling anyone if I was a 13 year old girl. There is soo much wrong with this situation. Luckily the parents caught her when she landed in Beirut (maybe the second last place I would run away to alone as a 13 year old girl). My question is, how do you punish a daughter who did this? Or namely how do you punish yourself for letting your preteen trick her way over to Palestine?

Reading (e:chico)'s writing about where to get an apartment got me thinking about Buffalo and Main Street. Main Street definetley is sketchy but also I don't think it needs to be aovided like the plague. I do a limitied amount of things on Main Street, the bank, Hyatt's, hmm i guess that is probably about it. But Main Street really is a world away from (e:strip) even though it is so close. Even though numerous people here that live on Linwood, it is a whole different world. Linwood is/is becoming a haven for people with lots of expendalbe income, wanting an old, mansion for a low price. Getting in on the cusp of revitalization, though it is quite revitalized already (as compared to 1980's for instance).

How many of us have ever looked at an apartment on the other side of Main Street or Main Street itself? Probably very few. How many of us have ever even walked on Main Street really? Sure we can all talk about destigmatizing it but I don't know that a new person moving in should really try and tackle that by moving in there when noone here seems to want to.

For what you pay in rent in an elmwood apt you could buy a house a few blocks away and what you pay for a house around Elmwood/Linwood you could probably buy an entire block across Main Street. That is crazy.

This all became very rambly and maybe made no sense, maybe I wlil edit it later. I don't know, I just think everyone always talks aobut the stigma and trying to change it but it actually is within all of our power to do that but not one of us does, myself included. I don't know, that's all for now....

Then I also think about like gentrification. So what, do we want everywhere to be like elmwood/linwood? Once people with money move into those areas, then the people who live there now can't afford it and just have to move on. Is that really better? Does it really help the people there? I don't know, its all very confusing, and not really sure what I wanted out of this post.

So my family is entering the 21st century and we now have Verizon DSL. This is my first time using speedy internet and (e:strip) at my house. I think it will probably make me check out estrip and other things more often because I won't have to wait to sign on and then wait 10 minutes for it to load and the such. I am so excited! My parents finally agreeed to get it when we offered to get it for them for my mom's birthday or was it christmas? I don't remember, we have a tendency of postponing holidays/gifts in my family. IF my mom ever cashes in al lthe things I owe her (like dinners and things made and jewelery we have said we would get her over the years but she has to help pick out) I will go bankrupt. WEll everyone, I'm glad to be reading you in highspeed. See ya more soon and often....