Sunday, August 01, 2004

Bates Mill Complex, Being Eighteen, and Whatnot

Gee, I feel like a big jerk. I haven't blogged all week, and I'm truly sorry. Not to place blame or anything, but a few comments on the PAGES of posts I made last time would have helped to motivate me. What are you thoughts, darnit!

Moving right along, I would like to give a shoutout to my friend Charles over at 539days. He turned eighteen a few days ago--Happy Birthday!

My birthday was Friday, July 30th. Over all, it was pretty normal, but a very nice birthday indeed. My co-worker Andrea brought in strawberry shortcake for me and my co-workers, and it was wonderful. It's been a long time since I've had Strawberry Shortcake.

Please don't be freaked out by that link--I was.

I haven't done any of the "18 things" yet, but I plan to at LEAST buy a lotto ticket. But honestly, unless I buy cigarettes for a friend who smokes and they reimburse me, I'm not going to waste my money on something I don't want at all. Additionally, there is a sex shop down the street, but I really don't think I could muster up the courage to go in there--it's just too creepy. I guess I'm not that adventurous.

Speaking of adventurous, I was going to go Urban Exploring tonight, and get some exercise in the process. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lewiston, it was once home to the many mills. Up until the 1960's, it was the largest employer in the state of Maine. Now, they have all been emptied out and they were beginning to decay, until the city decided to do something.

The mills are visible in this photograph. ALL the large brick buildings are mills, accounting for millions of square feet. The Bates Mill alone (about on third of those brick buildings) is 1.2 million square feet. They are doing amazing things to these buildings: Look at this Before and after photos:

Before:

AFTER:

For more information, please visit these sites:
Envirmonmental Protection Agency's Involvment,
Lewiston, Degeneration of City
City of Lewiston
Leasing Info

All websites have pictures, but Lewiston, Degeneration of a city is the most interesting by far. Have fun.

Okay, moving to a completely different topic, let's talk about how weird it is to write a check for $2,728.92 and another for $1,600.47 and mail them off. That's FOUR THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED TWENTY NINE DOLLARS AND THIRTY NINE CENTS. (4,329.39) I mean, seriously, I've never seen that much money in one place. EVER. But then, when you consider that first semester costs $18,053.00. Unbe-frickin'-lievable. I can't believe I am going to college that costs $34,615.00 dollars a year for tuition, fees, room and board. Well, I think it's going to be worth it, though.

What else have I done lately. Not much really. Keep spreading this page around! It's interesting, isn't it?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand the whole writing college tuition checks... It's real freaky... I'm just worrying that Wellesley hasn't gotten mine yet... I keep looking at my online checking website to see if the check has cleared... Especially as it was all due yesterday... I don't want to get stuck with fees...

Have you found out any of your rooming info yet? Once you do I'd like to have it, us 'Burg kids in Boston need to stick together... ^_^ Once I figure out how to write my address I'll e-mail it to you... We should try to see each other some during the year, talk, remember all the spring plays, ect...

Oh yes, and happy birthday!!

My e-mail is still Gundam_Emerald@hotmail.com, so feel free to drop me a line at any point. I'll have to update my address book so that your g-mail account is in there. Anyway, talk to you later.

Anna K.

Anonymous said...

Well maybe if you weren't so hard on anonymous posters you'd get more posts?

Anonymous said...

happy birthday ezra! really, if you aren't going to do a sex shop trip, you must at least buy a lotto ticket. do not buy a scratch ticket, however; i bought $8 worth of scratch tickets last week, and although the scratching was exhilerating for .04 seconds, it was a waste of money as i won absolutely nothing.

and o dear, paying for college! i just sent a check for $8243. i hope the check gets there in one piece/in time. i'm so worried because it needs to cross the country! but gosh, college costs so much - tuition and stuff costs ~$45,000 for me, and that doesn't include phone and ethernet usage, and all of those goddamn books.

well have fun being 18.
x harmonie