Lanai's Diary: IT'S PAST MID SUMMER... Do you know were the first half went?

 

If you are anything like me I complain when it's too hot and complain again when it's cold. I live in the Northeast of the country; New Jersey to be specific so I experience four seasons. Unlike Florida that lives in constant summer or the states way up north that are a bit colder, I’m not sure where I really fit in. All I know is Summer usually starts to fade out right after my birthday (July 13th). If my mother had me 6 days prior I’d be a 7-7-77 luck baby but really if you google the day it was nothing short of disastrous. Aside from the biggest fire in federal prison history or the total Blackout in New York City, I’d think any baby born on that day or the following week would have seemed like the antichrist arrived.

All jokes aside… Where the fuuuuuu….dge did summer go? I still haven't gotten past this tacky ass uneven farmers tan that seems to exist on the skin visible from my driver’s side window.

Summers aren't what they were when I was a kid. All I do is work and by the time I get out, I’m chasing the sun home in hopes I can get a little porch time with a glass of wine and a quick fix dinner.

 Looking back at the past month, I have to say, not much went on except for a couple of weekend getaways where I went to Atlantic City to donate to Casinos, stuff my face with boardwalk eats and do a little people watching on a famous boardwalk sitting on a bench next to a guy that was chain smoking and feeding the freakin’ seagulls.

 I was sitting with my date when all of a sudden a big splatter of what appeared to be yogurt landed right in his lap and the sound of an angry Ohhh WTF!!!!  I couldn't help but laugh my ass off and hand him my used napkin. My appetite for the giant pretzel I was holding completely went away.

  After yanking his arm to move along the boardwalk to get him away from telling the seagull feeder off… we went back into the casino where I decided to slap a $10 dollar bill in a computer generated Roulette table. Ready to say bye to my donations, I scanned the board and put chips down, starting with the outside “black”. I figured it’s a 50/50 chance so why not. 

Either way I had a bottle of Ciroc waiting for me in my hotel room at Ceasar’s palace. OMG, I Hit! Feeling lucky I started playing the inside numbers. I chose a number and stacked  chips on “13” and the remaining chips around it. OMG I hit!. Figuring this is the part where I hit the cash out button and walk away while I was ahead. 

Hell I turned 10 bucks into about $250 in a matter of 10 minutes. My date was salty but impressed. Off to the hotel room we went and well…. That Ciroc ain’t nothin to mess with lol…. I sure felt it the next day!

The following weekend was my Birthday weekend. I took off on that Friday so I can really enjoy a little time away from working and adulting. I decided to hit the Poconos!  I’m a city girl but there I was in the mountains. Copped me a sweet townhouse Air BnB right next to Camelback Resort. Prior to the trip I created a detailed itinerary booklet complete with pictures of each of the excursions we had tickets for. When we arrived Thursday evening after work and a 2 hour drive, I hit up the local Walmart for a little weekend grocery shopping knowing dang well I wasn’t going to cook. Grabbed my luggage from my car ( I totally packed for 2 weeks) and settled in. Rummaged through my beach bag and pulled out a pouch of edibles; “Rainbow Download” to be exact and yea a couple of those and some Ciroc… Holy Christmas in July! I was lit up like a Christmas tree. FFS they sure don't sell those potent treats in Pennsylvania. Jersey dispensaries are something different. SMH

Anyway, not much else happened that night… smirks. 

Friday was chill… I kinda remember it… We went to Mount Airy Casino. I thought I would get lucky playing roulette there too but I was wrong. There were two tables. I was looking at the number boards to determine which one I might have a better chance with so I walked over and watched. I turned to my date and said next ball will land on “12”. I didn’t place any bets and WTF… it totally landed on that number!  I sat down and dropped $15 on a game and  lost it in one round. I was done. I’m not the gambling addict type. I’ll donate up to about $20 bucks and be done. Decided to stop by Guy Fieri’s restaurant to eat and out of curiosity googled if the place was haunted and sure enough…. I read something about the main dining area reporting the most haunted activity. My punk ass date wasn’t too thrilled and wanted to get out of there.

So Saturday… decided to Zipline. We purchased tickets online and off we went flying down a 4000 ft double barrel. My date leaped first and was halfway down when I jumped off the platform. I tried grabbing the handles for stability but I felt like I was hanging so I let go and gripped the harness. WTF! It had me turning backwards and I ended up missing the view down and just staring back up at the mountain as I was screaming bloody murder. I couldn’t catch my footing so I kinda bounced back up the mountain and the zipline spotters had to scurry to get me. One and done.

When I landed at the bottom all I heard was OOOHHHH my nuts!  I guess his harness was strapped a little too tight on those berries.  After that experience we hopped on a shuttle bus to the parking lot and left to check out The haunted Candle Shoppe.  Yup, they got ghost monkeys. Before it became a candle Shop, it was home to a deranged doctor that experimented on monkeys in the basement. People reported hearing little phantom monkey feet running across the floor and stuff like that so why not poke my curious nose around to see if something would scare the bejesus out of me. I didn’t see or hear anything strange so off we went stopping by a couple of crystal shops on route back to the Air BnB and the day was over.

Saturday morning was CamelBeach; the next excursion on my Bday itinerary. I highly recommend purchasing VIP seating near the wave pool. I sat sipping a Pina Coloda and people watched. I have to say BBLs are pretty popular. You can tell who got botched in the Dominican republic and who actually researched their plastic surgeon… just saying.

Sunday was check out day and my birthday weekend was over. I headed to visit some family about an hour away while my date headed back to Jersey. I spent the better part of Monday Thrift shopping and spending time with family before I headed back home. Not that y'all readers care what I do aside from managing this newspaper, though I’d share my bits of Summer before it's over.

 I have to say even weekend getaways doing random things with others can be fun. I totally recommend it. Stay cool and get to the end of Summer adventures while you can!

Feel free to share your summer adventures in the comment box below. I know I’m not the only one who has stories 

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The R.A.FT.- A Unique Club/Lounge Opening up on the Water at Coco Caye- Lanai Jarrico Reporting…

Have you ever partied on a raft in the middle of the water without falling off?  Probably not but in Second Life we all know anything is possible. Located at Coco Caye, the R.A.F.T is a club and lounge that holds events three times a week. Owner Psych Asylum, Co owner Aja Direwytch and their crew have created the perfect hangout for adventure seekers that love to party and have fun on the open water, sailing or jumping the waves on a jet ski. Upon landing you will find yourself in the middle of the water on a raft. You can go straight to the dance floor, hit the bar for a drink or fall back into one of the comfy lounge chair to observe the action.  Just be warned that you may come across a pirate or even a witch at the party.

We sat down with one of the owners of the R.A.F.T to find out more about this unique place.

Lanai: Hi Aja, the R.A.F.T is an interesting place to throw parties, it is away from the mainland and surrounded by water on all sides. What was the inspiration behind this unique club/lounge?

Aja: Rypmav and I decided to buy the region we lived on, Coco Caye. We knew we always wanted a place for friends etc to come and hang out but once we started to edit the region it looked so beautiful with all the water surrounding it that we decided to start our club. It helps that we have been RL friends for many years and are very similar but the opposite at the same time.

Lanai: It is certainly an advantage to work on Second Life projects with someone you know in RL. You recently had a soft opening of this new venue, how was the turn out?

Aja: Turn out was good. We got and still are getting good numbers. We are thankful to all our friends who continue to support us.

Lanai: That's great. What type of music genres do you normally feature?

Aja: We have different DJs playing different genres on different nights. We feature good music from electro and house to rock and metal. We aim to not have DJs playing tunes that can be heard any time on the radio. We look for something different.

Lanai: Uniqueness is important and a variety fmusic is a good thing. It takes a team to run a tight ship..errr raft. Who is part of your crew and what do they do?

Aja: As we are just getting started we are a small team. Rypmav is an awesome DJ so as well as being co owner he is the house DJ and the more outgoing i would say. I play treasurer, host, sales and marketing but we both pretty much wear all the hats we need to when we need to. We also have DJs with recurring sets they are: DJ Wayne, DJ Chris, DJ Mateo and DJ Nyx. Exo is a good friend of ours and also our Squatter. She helps us out when we need a host or need to bring in more traffic. We are grateful for all the attention she has brought to our little club.

Lanai: You will be hosting events three times a week, will there be contests and themes?

Aja: We are currently setting up a course for duck races and jet ski races. These events will be pay to join and will pay out a L$ prize for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

Lanai: That sounds like fun. When is your official grand opening?

Aja: Soon we hope! We have almost covered all the issues that have popped up during the soft opening and we hope to have a big grand opening before Christmas

Lanai: Are you hiring Djs and Hosts? If so, who should they contact?

Aja: We are hiring more DJs and Hosts but it can be hard to find reliable staff sometimes. We are hiring now. They can contact myself or rypmav. They can also send an email to theraftsl@gmail.com

Lanai: What do you think is the most important part about creating a venue that is successful?

Aja: I think a lot of different people are on SL and you end up with a lot of different tastes and opinions. We just try to be real and be ourselves. We wanted a place where people could come and be themselves without judgment. Everyone is welcome at the R.A.F.T furry, human, vamp, lycan, gay, straight, yellow, blue, whatever you are. Come as you are and do what you feel but please respect everyone and have fun. Ask me again in a year if we have a successful venue haha

Lanai:  I'll keep that in mind for next year lol. Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Aja: We are not one of the big commercial clubs. We just wanted to give people a beautiful place to hang out or party. You go to some clubs and everyone is in IM and stuck in dance or whatever. You come to the R.A.F.T and people are throwing water balloons at each other and hanging off the dance poles. We are definitely unique and we love to have fun

Additional Information

Teleport

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coco%20Caye/138/134/23

Join the R.A.F.T Group

8e7b5e04-6aa6-9d86-0d78-5ae2adb4dbf7

Follow the R.A.F.T on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-RAFT/279776692219085

Preferred contact: Aja Direwytch, Rypmav, theraftsl@gmail.com

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