In The Great Wide Somewhere: 07/01/15

So Wow, I Love This Place

My favorite local guy that was talking to me the other day in the Shack
(the Scoop kind of Shack, not the Love kind.)
accurately described Martha's Vineyard. He said this place is a Fairy Tale.

It is still gorgeous and the weather has been sunny and 75... mostly.
I have some noteworthy memories from this week that I do not want to forget, so here goes.

At the beginning of last week this super funky, artsy, hippie lady came in to the Scoop Shack.

She ordered her ice cream and blah blah blah this is boring.. but then...

She tipped us.
Now a lot of people here tip us, trust me.. yesterday for example I came home with 34 dollars just from tips. The great thing about tips is
1. I can use just my tips to pay for groceries and save all of my paychecks this summer
2. These people are super wealthy.. like loaded.. fives and tens are sometimes found in our jar
3. The government gets 0% of my tips
4. TIP YOUR ICE CREAM SCOOPERS PEOPLE OF UTAH WE NEVER DO
You never know what your waiter/scooper is saving for and you were there at some point in your life. I believe in you.
but also donate to the Red Cross, animal shelters, and Pay your tithing ;)
So..
It was Chancey and I working that day and after ringing up the voodoo lady's ice cream, she simply handed over a piece of clear tape that had in between it a four leaf clover.

She said "Here's a four leaf clover, good luck." and walked out.

Arguably the greatest tip ever, only not arguably because it definitely was the greatest tip ever and proof that life is always interesting if you open your eyes.

Good Luck

Not to mention extra sentimental value because I miss my daddy that served his mission for two years in Ireland, where the charm and luck of a four leaf clover began.

I also learned: don't judge weird hippie people, they are legit in every way.

Either that night or the next.. time kind of runs together here..

Chancey and I were chillin' on the beach when this forty plus year old couple walked by with there son. I had to take a second glance because their son was my brother Saul for like five seconds before I took a double take and realized it wasn't..

but man oh man did that kid look to be the same age same race and same face as my little brother.

For those that don't know, my brother is eight years old, and he is from Guatemala. Adopted obviously if you have ever seen my mom. She is lovely, but she is also the whitest human on the Earth ;) Love you mom.

So I had to say something...

"Hi I'm sorry it's just, your son looks exactly like my brother-"

I was going to say something about how he is from Guatemala but I stopped short because I was super worried all of the sudden... Some families don't tell their kids that they are adopted and they are really stiff about it. That's fine everyone parents differently.. but I was worried all of the sudden that somehow this adorable young brown boy might not be aware that his white parents were not his biological ones.

Everything worked out because she saw the look on my face, and she quickly nodded and whispered in a comical way "Yeah he's adopted"

I kind of laughed and said "Right, my brother is from Guatemala!"

She said "Mathew was born in Guatemala as well, huh Mathew."

Then the dad told us he recognized us as workers at The Scoop Shack and apologized because he noticed some ladies that were being rude to us and he said he couldn't believe they were so mean. I had completely forgotten but he reminded me about those ladies.. yeah they were rude.

But water under the bridge...

Anyway it was really cool to meet some awesome people and see someone that looked so much like Saul.

What happens when we take a Saulfie

Speaking of the beach I took some pictures for ya'll to have a step by step walk through picture tour of the "Path To Paradise" which is the path to Lighthouse Beach.. it is paradise in and of itself.

The Hedge

The Bridge

The bridge.2

The Twisty Sandy part

The Dirt Road Part

The Road/Water part

The "Dirt Road and Hedge Part had a Baby" part

FUN STORY

Remember the acapella group that sang to us at our window? Well they call themselves

Vineyard Sound

One night this week they were talking to me at my window and one of them asked me to wait for it...

go get a drink with him.

Since I've been here for a while, I realize that "Get a drink" does not mean go to Island Splash and get a cherry flavored sprite with coconut in it like "Get a drink" means in Utah.

LOL NO

I said no

he said why

I said.. first of all I am 18

The whole Vineyard Sound group started laughing and yelling

OOOHHHHH she's only 18

then they left.

I think I have heard enough of Vineyard Sound ;)

And unfortunately none of them are the Romeo at my window that every girl dreams of..

I am okay with that.

Something else that I have had to learn, "Jimmies" over here are actually a name for chocolate sprinkles. I had to figure that out after the first few people asked for them on their ice cream and all they got was a blank stare and a "What?" from me.

Then I had to figure out that Jimmies are strictly chocolate sprinkles when someone ordered Jimmies and I asked them if they wanted rainbow ones or chocolate ones..

and all I got was a blank stare from them..
and finally

"chocolate... of course.."

of course

SENTIMENTAL LESSON TIME PREPARE YOURSELVES

The sweetest old couple came in.. I love old couples.

They give me hope.

As they left, the old man said something super awesome that I want to remember forever.

He didn't say what most people say:

Take Care

Have A Great Day

Have A Good One

I Hope You Have A Wonderful Day

He said:

Make It A Good Day

smiled, and left.

So true.. it's all about this one word: Attitude

We as humans have so much power in us, truly. We have the power to not just have a good day, but to make an awful day a good one. So this.. will be my motto in life.

Thank you old man for the inspiration.

MAKE it a good day :)

We also had one night that we were on hurricane and tornado watch..

Fun fact about my house: It might be made of cardboard, and it's many MaNy MANY years old.

My point is that staying inside would offer no protection and in fact could be more dangerous because of windows and second story business.. so what we did was not even stupid.

We ran around in the street during a small hurricane for a good hour or so.

Okay that does sound a little stupid ;)

We danced in the rain, jumped in puddles, and overall had a great time.

Also: No tornadoes happened so it really wasn't even bad at all

One Last Adventure

Sail Boating

I have never done it but I wanted to

Across the street there is a boat tour business called Mad Max's. For centuries the Scoop Shack and Mad Max's has had this sort of.. underground rule. (three years, not centuries)

They get ice cream, we get to go sailing.

So when Momas came in, (Thomas is now Momas because he likes to be bossy) and said the next sail sesh is at three for anyone that wants to go! We were so there and it was so worth it.

During the sail captain Robert came out on the rope deck to talk to us, we became besties and he asked us a whole bunch of questions about Utah and Mormons. It was awesome.

The rope deck is on the deck (shocker) and it is made of weaved ropes (another shocker)

The cool thing is that the ropes form a net-like floor and under it is nothing, and then water. We laid down on the rope net on the water, the sun was shining, and we sailed around part of the island for two hours.

Of course I had to take some Sailfies.