Band camp ended, after which I promptly headed up north to home sweet home to bring my sister back to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario / visit with the grandparents on their farm. Had a great time demolishing a nasty beaver dam down the creek that was flooding the fields. (Ambiguous shouts: dam[n]! Sorry, only old-fashioned pictures that haven't been developed yet.)

I also got to see my sister's house in Kingston. It's one of those great college kid houses, with forty pairs of shoes in the front entrance and Swedish fish on the table in the cramped living room. Narrow staircase (the house itself is pretty ancient), quotes written on toilet paper hung on the walls, glow-in-the-dark things taped to the floors, ethernet cables snaking from room to room, that sort of thing. There are streets and streets lined with these brick beauties in Kingston. You can see Lake Ontario just at the end of the road. Around the corner is the greatest park, where they make an ice rink in the winter. People are biking or walking everywhere. It's a nice city, imho. Not too huge, but big enough.

Of course, I got home on Sunday and promptly left again on Monday: this time heading west and south, not north. It's a six-hour drive to Pittsburgh, which isn't the greatest fun in the world. Pittsburgh was pretty crazy; I'm not that used to cities that big, and it's supposedly not the nicest one out there. Got lost a little trying to find the hotel and had to double back a few times, back and forth over a million one and one bridges and hillside roads. Played some fun 'get lost in downtown Pittsburgh on foot as it's getting dark' afterward, in search of food and contact solution. For the latter, my mother and I managed to find our way outside an Eckerd at 9:04. It closed at 9. Luckily, there was a 24-hour Rite-Aid around the corner, as the woman at the 7-11 halfway back to the hotel so kindly told us.

Tuesday morning I visited Carnegie Mellon University, had an admissions interview, and got my GPG key signed by Matthew Danish, who was kind enough to give a little tour as well. The interview was great - mostly because the admissions guy whom I was interviewed by was just great fun to talk to. Apparently they have a band that wears kilts, and many people are involved with fine arts outside of their major (or as an extra). Neat school, not-so-great city. (Silence, joshk.)

Applied for NM today. Christian Perrier, a most awesome and amazing mentor, has agreed to be my advocate. Two weeks (I think?) until classes start back up again. Marching band first performance (non-competition preview) is this Saturday. Need to finish summer homework. Crazy stuff.