All around me are... not so familiar faces?

I have been working at Parlor City for, well, a while now. This would be my second summer working there, and so far it has been quite interesting.

So when I started up the second season, about a couple months ago, things were a little shaky. I won't go into details, but a lot of unnecessary problems occured with me or someone else, making things difficult. I basically started off the year on the wrong foot, and I have been trying to get back on gear to have another good summer with it. Right now, things have been going fantastic, but there have been a lot of changes.

One thing is a lot of my employees have left. Some for other jobs, some for school work, and others have been... well you know, terminated. There are honestly only five or six people left that I know and like, and now my boss has hired a couple new people. It has been kind of hard for me to get to know new people because they know way less than me, which puts pressure on me and kind of tests me to know what I am doing and if I have been doing things right this whole time, when they would ask how to do this or make that. For instance, this one new guy asked me how to make a parfait. I had honestly never made one in my whole life, so I sort of winged it and told him what I thought he should do. Luckily, the dessert turned out good, but I was just lucky that time. Anyways, when I saw all these new names in the schedule, I began to get stressed. There are so many new people and I now have to work harder to help them get on track, while still making sure that I myself don't mess up! I freaked myself out, but I really never needed to and still don't.

Last night, I worked with these new girl named Rachel. As I walked into work for my shift, I saw her standing there kind of dumbfoundedly. She turned and asked me "Where do I put my things, its me first night?" Right away I thought, great, she is brand new and doesn't even know where to set her phone! Plus, the weather was nice and there were only a couple of us. It was going to be so busy! I started preparing myself for possibly the worse night of my life... but that soon faded. The girl turned out to be really cool, and we were all actually getting along. Plus, the night wasn't even too busy, so everything just worked out!

I realized that, if I am just patient and am nice to these new people, things will go down smoothly. I just have to keep remembering my first day, and how I loved it when they were nice to me.

Always treat others how you want to be treated!

Thank you, mother.

Ohhh you deadly parfait. So complicated.

Summer

Summer! Summer summer summer summer PLEASE come to me!

I miss the late week nights.

Hanging out with someone everyday.

Basically being free.

But wait... don't think that'll be my summer anymore.

So once school ends, I am officially going to be a senior. Wow. Really? So I am really excited because I know next year is going to be amazing... yet there is so much to do! I am going to be working extra this summer, trying to get more money in that little piggy bank of mine. Plus, I have a babysitting job, where a couple days a week I have to watch two little crazy girls from eight in the morning, till dinner time. So basically, there isn't going to be as much free time as I thought there would be. Then I realize, oh yeah! Last summer I did this exact same thing and it wasn't even bad, at all! Oh, but oh yeah Rachel. You are going to be gone looking at colleges and trying to figure out your future along the way, as well as these two little jobs of yours. Fantastic.

Why do I have to grow up so fast? I was talking with one of my good friends the other day, and she was telling me about how much she wished to be little kid again. I kept thinking, why? I love being grown up and doing what I do today. Then I think about and I start to agree with her. There were no worries when you were a kid. Everything was given to you, you never had to work hard, and you were free. It just sucks so much! I remember wanting to grow up so bad! Why does every kid do that? Why is life like this? You know, things are really unfair sometimes.

Well, I know this summer may be my busiest ever... but I am going to make it worth while. Stress free, that is gonna be me!

I am content

Last week was our going out concert, and for many, it was very emotional. But honestly, why does it have to be like that? Why does everyone always have to cry? I really have mixed emotions about this because it depends on who the person is that gets all worked up.

So there are the seniors. They have been in showchoir for, what, four years? More? Sometimes less, and it really doesn't matter. Either way, it is their last year of being in such a high honored group, and they have every right to be sad. When this last performance comes, it is the seniors last time to do what they love. To do this one last performance with the people they have come close to. So for those seniors who bawl their eyes out and go insane, I guess they have every right. But when it comes to people like, well me, things are so different.

I am really, well oddly, emotional. There are times where things just really move me, or affect me, and I just break down and cry. But those times come only but rarely; I can honestly say that I am not an emotional person. So when the going out concert came, I thought to myself that I was going to cry. I knew that I would and am really going to miss the seniors that I got close to, and the rough year that we went through, so I truly thought it was all going to be so hard. The concert was over, and even as I hugged those who left tears of mascara on my shoulder, I had no urge to cry whatsoever. I felt so cold-hearted! So out of place! It kind of hurt me that I wasn't really sad about all of this, but then I realized something. You don't have to be so emotional. Why do you? So many of them asked me, "Aren't you going to miss the seniors? How can you not cry?" And I thought about it. Well, you see friends, I am going to miss them all, but that doesn't mean I have to be all emotional to show it. I am who I am.

To answer my question about why everyone has to be so emotional and why do they have to cry... well, it is their way of showing how much it means to them, blah blah. For those who can't cry and be emotional, in times like this, well... I am with ya! We have emotion, just sometimes can't show it in the normal kind of ways.

It's... adventure time!

There is this show; a very good show. Some might know it, but others may question it. This show, is THE show. It makes you laugh, it is a good show, and it makes you laugh. This show... is the MISADVENTURES OF FLAPJACK.

I haven't watched cartoon network in years. I remember when I used to watch scooby doo and courage the cowardly dog like twenty-four seven, but that was when I was really young. Then when Nickelodeon came around, following disney channel, I lost touch with it. I finall started watching adult swim, but I still never considered that to be anywhere near cartoon network. One random day, when my brother was home visiting from college, he was watching cartoon network. He always watches weird shows, so I didn't really pay much attention to it, until he told me to watch. I was really bored, so I listened to him and actually watched it. As I was watching, I kept thinking to myself... this is really weird? While my brother was sitting next to me, laughing every two seconds, I was still trying to figure out what was even going on in the show.

This little boy, named Flapjack, supposedly was living in a huge whale with his old friend, Knuckles. They go on adventures all the time and everything that goes on in the show makes no sense. So as I figured this all out, I kept thinking, how is this even funny or good? All of a sudden, it all clicked with me. This is actually really, really funny. And why is it funny? Because it's so stupid and ridiculus... hello like spongebob! I fell in love.

So I started watching it everyday when I came home from school. Turned on my television to cartoon network and wa la!!! An hour of Flapjack. So as time went on, I would hang out with my friends and if it would be on, we'd watch it; no questions asked. One day, I was at my boyfriends house, and it came on. Him and his brother were freaking out because they thought it was THE stupidest thing ever, but I made them watch it. They kept saying how ridiculus it was, but as they literally were saying this, they were laughing at the same time. Success!!! Today, he still says how dumb it is... but I know deep down he thinks it is hilarious!

So this show just makes me happy.

Almost the end

School is slowly coming to an end. It truly is weird to think about, and I honestly don't know why. I have always been really relaxed through each year I've spent in school. I mean there have been numerous times where I've felt like I was going to kill myself because of that one test or project, but other than that it was all steadily normal if you know what I mean. By the end of each year, I was kind of sad to see it all go. Like, even the classes and schoolwork, because for the majority of the time I had fun with it all. So this year, because things have been so different, I have just been wanting the year to be over so badly and I don't even care.

This year has been extremely hard for an exceeded amount of reasons. One reason is that it has been my first year taking an AP class, and I am taking TWO of them. So that is not a lot and shouldn't be that difficult, but at times it just gets so overwhelming! Basically, I have learned that with these classes, you get homework or work to do and are given a date and then done. You have to plan it out on your own and work on it the best you can, no real motivation in hand. I mean you have to learn to do work without teachers being like, okay come on lets go, lets go! You can do it, come on! It really got to me, just how much I based my work ethics on people motivating me to do things. So yeah, I have been overwhelmed a lot by these classes, but I have learned a lot about myself and how I can work on my own.

Another thing is the extra cirriculars. I have been spending soooo much time with Happiness Inc., speech team, and tennis, practicing, along with my friends, AND especially with a special person. With that special person, some nights I just am lazy and would rather hang out with them or other people instead of doing some homework. It has made me so behind that I don't know what to do with myself. The work just keeps coming and coming that, in the end, I just want it all to stop!

Thats why I really just need this year to end. I have one more year here and I want it to be THE best year ever, but I need to be working hard and balancing my time like I could have done better this year.

The volcanic ash that almost made us miss our plane date and have to wait extra days to go to Ireland. That would have stunk!!

Mother's Day, Hooray!

Mother's Day is such a, well, regular day. What happened?

When I was little, our family used this day as a HUGE celebration for our family. Of course, my mom got all these roses and cards from us (mine always being the best) and we would go out and do everything together.

I remember this one year, I might have been six or seven, and my dad had this big reservation for our family. After our church service, we were forced to get all dressed up and ready because we were going to eat at a big mother's day brunch in this huge center. I can't really remember the details, but I just know there were a bunch of other dressed up familys and that I ate a lot of food. Very good food, of course.

This year, it crept up on me. I was working at my job about three days ago, and one of my work friends was like, "What are you getting your momma for momma's day?". I started freaking out! I had nooo idea what to get her or anything because I had no time to go and shop for something nice, and I also found out that I had to work mother's day, basically the whooole day. So for the rest of my shift, I was trying to figure it all out. What is quick and easy to get, but also thoughtful and nice? Hmmm? All of a sudden, one of my other work friends walks in and starts making a quart of yogurt and writing happy mother's day on it. BRILLIANT. I knew my mom loved our yogurt that we make, and with me working on Mother's day, I could just buy it on my way out so she would never see it!

So today, I worked and grapped a half-gallon of strawberry yogurt, her favorite, and drove home. Running inside, I put the yogurt in the freezer and called my mom upstairs. Before I knew it, she was smiling and happy, so surprised that I had gotten this for her!

Mission accomplished.

Auditions amiss

While in Ireland, the big auditions were taking place. You know, the ones for Happiness and all it's guts and glory; I was missing them. Right before I left, I was getting caught up in trying to get all my school work from teachers so I wouldn't be behind, that I wasn't thinking twice about what other things I was going to miss. Then, my choir teacher announced a reminder on the dance and singing auditions, and I froze.

What should I do?

These are huge, I can't just miss them?

Great, now I won't be in Happiness for my senior year and everything is ruined (a little much, oh well)

I kept thinking all these things, but of course, I was over analyzing the situation. Before I jumped to anymore conclusions, I went up to the teacher and talked to him about it. He, without much emotion, was perfectly fine with the situation.

"I know how you sing and dance, Rachel. Don't even worry about it."

Woo! A big weight lifted off my shoulders! I still had to do a singing audition when I got back, but that was perfectly fine with me.

Then, another thing came up that was gradually... a bummer.

A couple weeks before my vacation, I was going through my usual daily schedule. School, tennis, bed. While walking onto the tennis courts one normal day, someone came up to me and told me that I had a tube of tennis balls with my name on it. I stood there, staring at her like, what? I was so confused! She pointed them out, and I started walking towards them with this gut feeling that, well, I knew what it was all about. I didn't want it to be that though, not at all, because I have known since the beginning of the year that I was going to miss prom. I shook it off, and picked up the tube. There it was, my full name on a little piece of paper that was folded. I opened the paper, which said "open can", and so I opened the can. Three tennis balls fell out: one said P R, the next had an 0 and M, and the last had a question mark and a number.

Shoot.

Crap.

Uh what.

The whole rest of the practice, I was freaking out. I wanted to go soo badly, but I couldn't! And I also felt bad knowing that now the person who asked me would have to go find someone else, and that wouldn't be fun for me if I was in that position.

In the end, I talked with him and it was all cool. He found another fun date and it was all good!

Moral of the story: I probably should have left at a different time of the year, am I right?

Breakfast in Ireland

When I woke up the first Monday of my return, I didn't know what to do with myself. There was no breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, or toast laid out for me to eat. It became a ritual that I selfishly got used to in Ireland, having breakfast cooked to perfection for me, and now that I am backI have to eat old pop tarts.

When we went to Ireland, we had stayed in different bed and breakfasts through out the country. They were all very different in their own way, but had one thing in common; their breakfasts. The typical breakfast consisted of poached eggs or scrambled, with bacon or sausage, cereals on the side, and different kinds of bread. It sounds like what we would usually eat here in America, but of course it tastes way different.

First off, the scrambled eggs that I had almost every morning were kind of runny. Not only that, but the flavor was different. I can't explain the difference of the flavor, but I could just tell that there was something sort of off. Then came the sausages, which were not my favorite. I love them, don't get me wrong, but the texture just wasn't doing it for me. I usually freak myself out when I eat weird things, and then I end up not being able to eat them, and that is exactly what I did with the sausage. So, for the whole week, I stuck with the bacon; it was so good! Bacon here is extra crispy and greasy, but there, it is actual slices of ham that are lightly cooked and crispy. The cereal was also really good, but different. They tend to eat a little healthier there, so all the cereal was like bran flakes and corn flakes (no sugar), and things like that.

Leading off the whole breakast topic, lets talk about the "quantities" of the food there. When we would go to a pub or a little restaurant, we would generally order an hors d'eouvre and without thinking, would expect it to be a big portion for a family. When it would arrive, there would basically be nothing. One time, we had ordered onion rings and the basket was full of maybe six rings? So we ordered some spring rolls and, yeah, we got two.

No wonder americans are so fat!

Irish people are just so great

If you asked me what I would miss the most from Ireland? Probably would not be a hard answer because... well wait? Isn't it obvious? THE PEOPLE.

I really don't understand how so many people can be so nice. It just is so weird to me. I mean, I honestly thought that we, Americans, were pretty polite and respectful. I mean, of course not everyone is because no one is perfect, but seriously. They are so nice and warming that it was almost uncomfortable.

Before I go any further, I probably should bring up the fact that most Europeans hate americans. I really don't know the reason, nor do I care much, but I do know that it is probably really true. When we asked my sister about her mini trips to Italy, Greece, France, and so on, she kept saying how rude the people were to her and her friends. It always depends where you are in the country, the city, and so on, because the experience is and could be different for every other person, but still. So as we stayed through the week, in Ireland, we never really came across anyone who we couldn't have a good conversation with. They were all just SO FRIENDLY.

For instance, we would be sitting in a regular, old pub, just relaxing and enjoying ourselves, and the man or woman by us would just turn around and start talking to us. Before we knew, we were talking for almost twenty minutes and the conversation just kept going and going and wouldn't stop. I can't get over the fact of how nice it all was!

It is all really simple, actually, if you really think about. If you are nice and friendly to a person, that one person will want to be nice right back and be just as friendly. It rubs off, ya know? Before you know it, everyone around you is being nice and friendly and it spreads everywhere. Thats how I felt the whole time I was there. I never had a need to be mean, I mean I don't anyways but their, especially, it was just calming. Calming, knowing these people were going to treat us with respect and so on.

Yep, so I love Irish people.

See! This guy just has "friendship" all over his face

Flying jumbo across the atlantic

I officially just got back from one of the most cool/amazing/spectacular trips I have ever been on. I can't even begin to describe what all I saw and experienced, but I could start with the flight. Oh, how much I love it... and hate it the next minute.

So we arrived to Chicago, stayed the night in a hotel, and woke up and drove to the airport. While waiting in line to check in our baggage, we had a talk with some Irish men who had been stuck in America for an extra 8 days because of the whole volcano and ash crisis. It was kinda crazy and my family and I were reeeally lucky that it cleared up just in time for our original flight plan. Anywho, this was all a ritual. I mean, no, I don't go to Ireland all the time and go to Chicago airports to chill with some Irish men, but I mean when we all fly places it usually goes along these lines. Well, when the flight came around, things were a liiiittle different.

For starters, it was a jumbo plane. Who gets to ride on jumbo planes when they fly places? Or should I ask, who gets to go far, far away a lot? Well clearly not me, cause it was all new. There were 7 or 8 seats in each row, and twice the amount of people. Now, I haven't been on a regular plane in a looong time, so I don't remember if they have movies or not, but this plane had little movie screens in every seat. It was SO COOL.

But what's even more cool than the little touch screens? What they have to entertain you! So much, so so so much.

There are movies, and not just any movies, really good ones. I had such a hard time choosing them, and not just cause they were really good, but because I also had other selections. Selections of telelvision shows, games, and so much more. Why did I even need my Ipod?

So yeah, the entertainment was bomb, and the coolest thing ever. But when it comes to the service... that was a little different story.

I can't tell you how many times the intercom lady or whatever kept cutting into our movies and making us have to start them over or whatever, because she had to let us know we were having beef noodles for dinner. Okay, I understand they need to make safety announcements and food announcements and more, but to do them every five minutes. It gets annoying.

Oh! And the whole bathroom situation. Suuuch a pain. As soon as the plane has a little turbulance... BAM. Seat belt sign ON. You can't get up, and you have to put on your seat belt. This was an on and off process the whole 8 hour flight, and I tell you not, every time they went on was when I needed to go to the bathroom. Such a pain!

There was a lot of pros and cons overall, but I guess a flight is a flight.

At a loss for... directions

If you knew me, you would know that I am horrible with directions. If I haven't driven in the specific area that I am driving in more than four or five times, I won't remember anything. It is really kind of a strange thing to me, cause I am really good at remembering images and what not, but when it comes to driving, I just can't do it.

There was one time... a really bad time... where I needed directions to where I was going to get tennis lessons, downtown. My mom wrote me down the streets and where I turned and such, so I started driving and read the paper like she had told me to. Now, usually this works out for me. I mean it is written down, so I won't forget where to turn and such, but sometimes it goes bad. So anyways, the paper told me to take this turn, left, onto a street that was a oneway to the right. I immediately started freaking out because I didn't know what to do! So I called my mom, who started walking me through what to do. It was going okay, until she told me to turn left onto Coe Rd., which was again a oneway right. BUT, since I was on the phone with my mom AND drving, I didn't notice... and what do I do? turn left and end up in the middle of an intersection, downtown, with cars honking at me... very obnoxiously. So, I do the stupidest thing because, well, it was all I could do to get out of the intersection: I drove up onto a sidewalk, drove down that sidewalk, and wound up in a random parking lot. Oh, and the guy who had watched me this whole time, a professor at Coe, I'm sure, walked right up to my window and glared at me. Yeah it was really bad, very very bad, but hey, I am still alive!

Time number two:

I needed directions, this time, to a new doctor's office that I was going to. It was waaay out past Granite City and all those different stores, so I was kind of worried. But hey, I thought, I have these directions and I am NOT going to be downtown with right oneways, so I will be fine! WRONG. Turns out the directions we had gotten were different then where the actual place was because THEY never changed their new address on the mapquest thing. So yeah... I followed all the directions, all proud of myself, and I wound up at a daycare center. In the end, I got there, after calling my dad and him and I figuring out where to go, and it was too late for me to even have my appointment.

There have been more times where I have been beaten by the scary streets of Iowa, but too many to list them all

procrastination

This is not the time for me to procrastinate. I really cannot be procrastinating at all. But of course, I have already procrastinated enough that now I have more work to do than I really should have to do. Oh and to top it all off? I am leaving Saturday for a week... meaning I will be missing a week of school... also meaning that I will have a butt load of work to do, and I really cannot be procrastinating that.

How do you force yourself to get work done? The days are getting prettier, tennis is becoming busier, and the work load is just getting bigger. All I want to do is to come home from school and take a big, huge nap. I don't want to have to go to tennis practice, come home, probably have to go to work for a little bit, and then come home again late at night. By that time, I deeefinitely won't want to do any work, but I have to.

Last night was like a break through for me, or maybe just a reeeally good working night. I had a ton of homework, like usual, and I was ready to just wait till the last minute to get it all done. All of a sudden, like my body was controling itself, it shut off my television, grabbed my back pack, and took all my homework out. I really am not making this up, but it all was a blur to me because I just started working and writing and reading and I couldn't stop. I always get side tracked so easily, but I was doing a really good job of just getting what needed to be done, done.

I really hope I have more nights like that.

Lil Wayne

Okay, so I think rap is pretty cool. I don't really know why I like it, but for some reason, I just do. Possibly, it is because there are so many diferent genres of it, from the radio edited hip hop type, to the straight up black talk that is kind of hard to listen to. I am more of the hip hop kind, because I love the up beat music and what not, but the artists of this so called "rap music"make an impact on me as well.

So, why don't I just bring up the so called"king of rap"? THE most famous guy out there? Yeah, this guy is named Lil Wayne, and I really don't know who doesn't like him.

His voice is so unique, and he raps on the spot, never writes down lyrics or anything. He has been on almost all the t.v. shows that are out there, and overall, he knows hes amazing... which makes him even MORE amazing. But, to be honest, I am not that in love with him.

When I listen to the music, in general, I always pay attention to the background music and the beats and rarely even know what the rapper is saying. So yeah, he is a good rapper and all, and I like him, but I just never really know who is truly a good rapper or not. Well, my boyfriend, on the other hand, knows like everything there is about this stuff.

He is IN love with Lil Wayne, I am sure, and always shows me these different songs with him in them, and tells me little facts about him. Not only that, but there are other rappers and artists that he always has to quiz me on, which of course, I don't even know about. It is kind of funny, cause I feel like he has turned me all wangsta because I never used to be so interested in this kind of music.

Well, I mean never actually that interested in the rapper, himself.

Except for Lil Wayne, but now I like him even more.

LIFE

The new series on, well I kind of forget the name of the channel, but channel 41 for me.... is LIFE.

The show is so spectacular and amazing and wonderful and all around great.

It basically is a more high-tech and detailed version of the series PLANET EARTH and I absolutely LOVE that series! Anyways, it shows clips of animals in their daily rituals that have NEVER BEEN CAUGHT ON FILM. WOOOOAH MAN.

The other day I was watching it (of course) and they showed this lizard type thing just lounging on a branch. Alright, I thought, thats cool. The lizard looks all cool up close, with its' variety of colors and so forth, but then... it sticks its tongue out in a blit second and snatches a bug! Okay, you may be thinking oh reaaaally cool, not like I really want to see that anyways. But you DO! It shows it in super slow motion, and you can see in really good detail every little thing of something that in real life, is not even a millisecond long.

Another part of an episode I was watching showed this little tree frog, female frog, that was pregnant. It takes you on a journey through the frogs birth of the little baby frogs in the shallows of the stream in the forest, to the frog making it's long journey up and down and up and down this big tree to put a single egg, at a time, in a little leaf filled with water, so the frogs can hatch and so forth. The cool thing about this, is that the frog is barely the size of an ordinary fingernail, so that trip up the tree takes waaay more time and effort than you would think. Not only that, but some how, the cameras get really, really up close to this animal, and even somehow get into the not even centimeter deep water of the leaf they were placed in so the the baby frogs who life changing stages could be filmed. I don't know how they do it.

Overall, that is the coolest thing about this show. They not only capture things that have never before been seen, but they capture the smallest detail of that thing, making it feel like you could be right there with the animal, just chilling.

But of course, you can NOT watch the show without having HD TV. Okay, you can, but it is NOT the same experience. My dad had gotten HD a looong time ago, and I rarely had used it because i never really saw the difference... until this show. Everything is way better in quality and picture, and HD makes the taping look that much more real. I love it!

In fact, I am going to watch one of our recordings of the ocean life... ta ta for now!

OH... and Oprah Winfrey does the narration. Cool, right?

Orphan

This movie was, well, really uncomfortable. I mostly felt disturbed the whole time I was watching it, and I don't really know why?

It is about this family, a mom, dad, their son and youngest daughter whose deaf, who are looking to adopt another daughter. They had tried to have another child, but she died in the womb, which was illustrated at the begining of the movie in a really horrific manner. Anyways, the parents come across this little girl who is from Russia and is, well, different.

So the movie plays out these scenes with the little girl becoming weirder and weirder. She goes from pushing a girl off the slide who made fun of her, breaking her arm, to harrassing her deaf sister and brother, to killing a nun, and then trying to kill the whole family because she couldn't "be with the dad" if you know what I mean. Oh, and she wasn't from Russia. She was acutally from some weird country's mental institute, and is really a 30 some year old dwarf. Typical, right?

The whole time, I was just like... um, what? Who would have ever thought of this movie? It was just the randomnist thing, ever.

Oh and the ending? Horrible.

So this 30 year old dwarf thing was chasing after that mom and the deaf daughter, trying to kill them. They were all outside in the snow, and the mom and demon thing had fallen into the frozen over pond, with the dwarf trying to stab her. Eventually, the mom knocks her out and she slowly floats to the bottom, yet you know for a fact that she'll pop back up... they always do. Anyways, it pops back up and yells

"mommy, don't you love me?"

and then, the last line of the movie... wait for it...

"I am not your f***ing mommy!"

Yep.

Such a good movie

weird quirks

Me and my friends do weird things, and I mean weird things. Our sense of humor is not the most common, I'd have to say, yet I can't get enough of it.

Whatever is going on or whereever we are, we always do weird movements or faces depending on what the vibe is. If we are mad, it's a blank face that we push back with our necks and make totally weird. If happy, its a mouth open smile thats super cheesy, like in the old fashioned commercials. We can't help the fact that we act all weird, it is just how we get through those slow and boring days (which usually are almost everyday).

Along with this, we have another little thing we always do; carry out jokes or stories waaaaaaaay too long.

So something funny is said, we laugh a little, okay there the joke is done. No; someone else adds something at the end to make the joke seem more funny, har har. Then, the "what if..." comes out and the joke lasts for another ten minutes. It is so hilarious because we all know that we are making things more stupid and idiotic than they are, yet we can't stop it. Lately we have been noticing it a lot, and one of my friends has even started this thing where if we start doing this thing again, we just skip to the end and go BLAHK... that is what we eventually get to, so why not do it early?

Lastly, I started this harmonizing thing that me and my friends do all the time now. Whenever a song comes on the radio, or some sort of singing is happening, we tend to jump in and harmonize to the melody. Ever since I was little, I've always been able to do this thing and now that my friends can do it with me, it makes it TEN TIMES BETTER.

sleep

Sleep.
The name of the song we are singing in concert choir.
It sounds so boring, yet I am so obsessed with it.
It is basically a musical orgasm in your ears. Some of you who aren't musical probably won't appreciate it that much, but it is just so amazing.
The story behind the song is this:
This composer, Eric Whitacre, composed this song originally to another poem... I don't remember which one... but one that he didn't write. Supposedly, a lot of other artists and composers had used the poem too for their songs, so he didn't think anything of it. Then, the author of the poem found out the Whitacre used it, and wouldn't let him or anyone else use it again. So, Whitacre hired another author to write him a poem... and there was a born this poem about sleep.
This is the official poem, by Charles Anthony Silvestri:

The evening hangs beneath the moon
A silver thread on darkened dune
With closing eyes and resting head
I know that sleep is coming soon

Upon my pillow, safe in bed
A thousand pictures fill my head
I cannot sleep, my mind’s a-flight
And yet my limbs seem made of lead

If there are noises in the night
A frightening shadow, flickering light
Then I surrender unto sleep
Where clouds of dream give second sight

What dreams may come, both dark and deep
Of flying wings and soaring leap
As I surrender unto sleep,
As I surrender unto sleep.

And here is the actual song...

just listen

the windy city: dance party and showchoir

The next day, after the long drive in, shopping, and the blue man group, it was time for our concert choir competition. It was a little one, held in a GORGEOUS cathedral. I was in awe when I walked into that church, it was just so beautiful! Anyways, it was really interesting to sit and listen to all the little chamber choirs and big choirs and to hear how good they sounded. We ended up not placing in the top three for concert choir and chamber choir, but it was still a remarkable experience.
That night, we were all pumped and ready to get all dressy and lookin' nice for the dance club! At first, I thought it really was going to be some stupid little place that played music and served us food, and that no one really was going to dance. Boy, I was WAY wrong. We arrived there, and it was a three story dance club in a city, no other explanation. We all ate for like, I'd say 15 minutes, and then danced the whoooole rest of the time. I was pooped at the end.
The next day was our last, and probably THE most important out of the whole trip. It was nationals, the big squeeze, our last chance to show everyone who we are. With everyone's hard a and tight curls in their hair (guys included... just kidding) we all loaded onto the bus, anxiously awaiting the day to begin. When we first got there, it was just to watch protege as they performed in the prep category. It was between them and one other group, and with the group sucking butt, it was a given championship for them. Right after they went, we all headed back to the bus and went back to the hotel to get ready for our performance. We only had a short period of time, but it all got done efficiently and it was eventually the time to shine.
We were all ancy as we warmed up and got ourselves in the mode. To make finals there was like the grand championship to us. No matter how well we did at the end, having two performances made us a group to be scared of. The show went by and felt amazing; I had a weird feeling, but didn't know what it was. When awards came around, they started listing off the six who would be performing in finals. As the names got listed, we kept getting more and more nervous. Three groups went by and STILL no happiness. Then.... we heard our name loud and clear. We were all SO pumped!!! It got even better when we found out we were THIRD IN THE DAY ROUND, only a TENTH OF A POINT behind second, and FOUR POINTS behind first. Nobody could believe it, well I couldn't!
Finals came really fast after, and we all had THE biggest moment of the year. Seniors were crying, everyone bonding, things just clicked. We went out on that stage and killed it. I don't even remember much that happened because I was just so happy the whole time. When we found out at the main awards that we had gotten fourth, I was happy. Yeah, bummed because we moved down one, but so so happy.
The trip, as a whole, was a success.
P.S. picture is of group who won... totino grace... SO GOOD

the windy city: blue man group

It was the beginning of spring break, and I was already getting myself ready for a school related trip. Alright, it wasn't a boring bus ride to the museum or a tour through the great, big, wild, nature center, but much much more. We, we as in Happiness, Protege, and the whole choir group, were about to go on a journey to Chicago for nationals.This trip was, by far, the biggest one we had taken alllll year for a showchoir event. There was so much to do before we could even leave, like finish off payments, get our schedule together, and so on. Along with that, we were spending about three and a half days there, giving us plenty of time to do a variety of things (AKA shop). When the day finally arrived, we all slumped to Kennedy in the wee a.m., and started the exciting, sad, wonderful, different, trip.

When we got to Chicago, the bus literally dropped us off in the city, and we were left on our own to shop shop shop shop SHOP. Of course, my friends and I all ran through the windy and vicious city to our favorite store... FOREVER 21. When we walked in, we were all so overwhelmed that I am pretty sure it took all of us about 10 minutes just to be able to pick out a shirt. Of course, I got like four things from there, but I wish we had had more time because I know I would have gotten so much more! Anyways, we finished up our 3 hours of shopping, and got back on the bus to go to our hotel. The hotel was so nice, by the way. Our room had this cool like mini room inside of it, and we all kept climbing on the counter and looking over the big wall like we were monsters, cause we are really mature like that.
The night came around fast, and before we knew it, we were back on the bus and were about to go see a pretty amazing thing... the BLUE MAN GROUP.
So this group consists of three people... they are grown men who have hands covered in blue gloves, faces totally covered in some blue elastic, paint thing, and wear a plain black suit thing with metal holes in their bellies. Basically, they are supposed alien things that don't say one thing the whole time and are expressionless. Its' ingenious though, all that they do. They play drums and beats and dance and do weird things and everyone just loved it!
I had seen them before, so honestly, it wasn't as cool for me as it was everyone else, but I still had a lot of fun overall.
Thought this picture was funny. haha

Say no to phones

I hate technology.
I really really dislike it.
Well I like computers and such, but phones.... nope.
Phones hate me.
My first phone fell in the toilet because it just decided to vibrate off my counter and into the open hole.
Second phone thought it would be really cool to mysteriously get a cracked screen and die.
Third phone slipped out of my back pocket and fell into the toilet, in Indiana, and on Christmas Eve.
The phone I have, or used to have, slips out of my pocket, yet again, and falls into the school toilet. Surprisingly, it worked, but just yesterday, while I was on my way into a building, my phone falls to the cement where it took its' last breath of life.
I am now phoneless.
Honestly, I should just stay like this because I don't know what to do anymore. No matter how careful I am or what I try to do, phones just don't wanna work with me.
I am going to Verizon today to get a new phone.
Once this one falls in a toilet, hits the ground of death, or shuts down, I'll let you know.

Get to the Point

So I was sitting at my computer the other day, and I was staring at my computer screen. Let me make this more clear... I was sitting at my computer and was staring at a blank Microsoft office paper trying to figure out what in the world I was doing.
One of the worst things in the world that I absolutely hate is trying to figure out an outline for writing a paper. I have never been good at it, and I usually don't do it because it makes me all flustered. Your probably thinking I'm stupid or whatever, but trying to begin a paper is so hard for me. I'm a math girl. You get an equation, use the method, and get the write answer. Easy as 1, 2, 3. With writing, there are a billion million zillion different ways to write and a billion million zillion different things to write about. This isn't really that bad though because it gives you a freedom and way to let you write whatever, but it takes me forever to write things because of it. I'm a perfectionist and I want things to be done perfectly and fast, but with writing it's not always like that.
First of all, you need to really understand what you are writing about. Well that is sort of common sense. It's impossible to write a whole paper if you don't even know what you are talking about. It is THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING EVER. Right now I am writing, well trying to write, a paper arguing about the insanity plea and how I think it isn't a valid form of defense. I spent all of yesterday going back and forth on what I am even getting at in my paper. Is it good or bad? Should I write that I think the defense has changed over time? Why am I sitting here freaking out??
Basically, I need to get to the point when I write. I need to really understand what I am saying and I need to make sure my reader doesn't fall asleep half way through the paper.
I really need to get going on it.

Show Choirs Around the World

I haven't talked much about all the different show choirs there are in the United States (don't know if there are any in China..?) so I think I should give a little background on the ones I know.

Okay, so basically show choir is a national thing that most states have a variety of different ones included in them. Our city alone has about five, so you can probably guess that there are aloooot more in just one state. Throughout my years as a show choir member, I've only seen groups from as far as, well probably, Minnesota, so I haven't seen much. When we do see the Minnesota groups, though, some of them are REALLY good.

One Minnesota group in particular is Totino Grace; probably the best show choir I've ever seen live. We saw them at one of our competitions we were at and I almost fainted with aweness (?). The dances they did were just spectacular! All these different things going on at the same time, and to top it off, they could sing. I don't mean sing, I mean SING. As soon as their mouths open, you heard this sound like the angels from heaven were singing. Ugh it was so good!!!!

Although Totino is amazing and quite possibly impossible to beat, we rarely compete against them so they aren't technically our main competition. If I had to pick a group that is our "main rival", it'd have to be Urbandale.

I'm not for sure how long we have been competing against them, but I do know that for years and years, its been us... and them... till the end! The quality of their show is almost exactly like ours, and they even have the same choreographer as us. When we go to our competitions, and they are there competing as well, the day ends up with us and them having scores with only a couple points difference. Basically, they are really good and we all become extra happy if we ever actually beat them.

And it all begins...

Last night marks my first night of the new season at the one and only... Parlor City (NOT Tastee Freeze). Since they closed last fall, I sort of drifted away from the flow of making cones, working the scary freeze machine, and trying to fry the yummy cheddar nuggets without burning myself. I was so nervous walking into the place... the whole night was just so different!
For starters, basically the whole back of the store was all new. We got rid of our old fryer machine and got this new and improved one. With the old one you had to put the measured amount of food into this slot, type in the timed amount, and drop the food in. When the timer went off, the food would fall onto whichever side you dropped it in on, and then ya scooped it up and BAM ready. NOW, all you have to do is put the measured amount of food into the basket, push a button, it drops in and when its done, you put the food in the bag and your ready! I love it. Everything else, the machines and utensils, are the same, but the owners put in new steel counters. They are pretty cool! Easy to clean too.
Anyways, the night went actually really well. I came in and immediately started making ice cream cones for the people up front, and helping drive thru with their orders. I had kept thinking that it would take me a while to remember how to make an actual ice cream cone or how to blend a malt without it splattering all over me, but it clicked just like that. I was my usual working self in less than a minute. To top it off, the conversations with my worker friends was VERY interesting. So much was talked about and spilled throughout the whole night that I never had a moment where I felt "bored". Work has always had its' dull moments when I worked, but that night was just the best.
I don't work until tomorrow, but I am trying to get out of it because I have my first tennis practice and I do NOT want to miss that.

Home Sweet Home

About two weeks ago, we hosted our very own show choir competition... it was one hell of a day! Everyone had their own little job: host a middle school/ high school group; be a judge assistant; or even run around the school and flip the signs up so that the sign says what group is performing at the time. There wasn't one person who didn't have something to do, but that was why the day ran so well; my job, being a the host of Johnston Middle School, went especially well.

Waking up around 6 am wasn't a joy, but I got my dress on (we had to look nice, it sucked) and got there a little early so I could get some amazing breakfast that we had. Eventually I met up with Dan, the other man (haha) I was hosting with, and he told me some bad news. He found out that our group was going to be an HOUR LATE. I had gotten up early and even showed up earlier than I was suppose to for my group to show up late. ASGJFGKJDFGKJA. No matter the little problem, we ended up having time to fix up some of our decorations we put up, and we were extra calm and ready when they finally showed up.

Hosting is a pretty easy job, if you really think about it. Your group comes in on a bus, like ours, or members gradually come in from car rides by parents. When they do arrive, you give them a stamp, palm up, and send them to the room. When everyone has arrived, you go up to the room and talk to the director about the simple rules to apply to:

1. No eating or drinking in the room (water is an exception)

2. No changing in the room (dressing rooms are in bathrooms or the two rooms on main floor, don't remember numbers)

3. And some others I don't really remember...

Luckily, our director AND group were really respectful of these rules, and the day with my group was kind of fun. They hadn't won their division, so with that they packed up and got out of the room before you could say SUPERCALI...FRAG..LISTICES.PEE whatever. We cleaned up and I was free! But no, I really wasn't, because Happiness had to perform after the day round (not competing), around 5ish.

Eventually, we performed, and I left the school very, very soon after.

The following school day, our director told us how good we did and how wonderful the day went. Nothing major went on and most importantly, no one complained about our attitudes or actions because we were VERY RESPECTFUL.

I'd give the day five thumbs up.

Great River

It has always been the competition that Happiness claims; the one that we always get crowned grand champion at, well at least for the past six years. This year, with how we had been scoring and how much harder the competion was, things were looking different. We hadn't thought, no matter how lucky the place may be, that we would even place in the top three after getting fourth at our last one. But, the magical day somehow caught a hold of us.

Another early morning for the showchoir "gangs" as we stumbled onto the bus around 8ish. Luckily, Happiness didn't have to perform until 5:45 so we had alllllll day to relax and gain energy for our performance. The bus arrived sooner than later, and we all huddled into the big gym area with the rest of the groups.

The day went by quite slowly, as we sat around for an hour or two, walking around aimlessly, being bored. Protege performed around noonish and of course, they were amazing. My friends and I stayed in the auditorium to watch other groups; some who were outstanding... and others who I had to keep from laughing from (not to be mean or anything).

It grew closer and closer, everyone was starting to feel it. I, for one, don't actually get that feeling of "Oh, my god we're gonna perform!! Aghhasognj;adjognak;jfg!!" right when we start getting ready.

No.

It is when we link arms with our partner, and walk in single file to our warm up room. Our supporters, well family, come and cheer us on and the sensations burst inside of me. I officially become pumped.

The performance went by like a blur; they always do. Afterwards, I never know how I feel. Whenever we do kind of bad, I think we do normal and whenever we do completely amazing, I feel like it is still normal. It isn't until I see all the hugs and joyious smiles that I know we did an amazingly wonderful job; I saw that all over after our performance.

Critique was pretty good, as well, actually way better than good. The guy was in love with us! He talked and talked and talked about how wonderful he thought we were, and to top it off, he told us he thought we were in first place for the day round. For how crappy our year had been going, I just wanted to go up to the man and give him a huge hug; I loved everything!

We eventually calmed down and ran to the awards, still in our costumes due to time, and listened for who made finals.

Protege had one the prep division, again, so we hoped we could get up there right along with them. Then came the random drawing of the six finalists for the finals round, and we had to go second! Everyone was freaking out because we had just performed and now, all worn out, we had to go right back up there and give a second, ten times better, show. While getting ready, our director informed us that we were second in the day round... SECOND. Only 16 points behind first which sounds like alot, but is really only a couple of points per judge. No matter the circumstances, we all got ready again and performed what people said was THE best show we had ever done.

Waiting... waiting... waiting and then finally, awards arrived. I was super tired and worn out, but became all hyped as we all held hands and waited for our outcome. Sixth place... fifth place... fourth place... third place... breath held... second place Happiness! We didn't care, it was second place; second place! The group that won had been amazing, and the group that got third was almost exactly like them and we BEAT THEM.

It was a day to remember, and with the results, our group has started to gain more confidence; confidence that we had been lacking for the whole year.

Jefferson is this weekend, and with how we performed at this place, I know we can claim the gold without a doubt.

It's coming up...

Next weekend is Urbandale, the next competition for Happiness that is coming up, and I am getting a little nervous. It has been over two weeks since we have had a competition or consistant pracices because we kind of took a break, but now we need to get back into gear.
Last Mondays practice was the worst, but could be considered the best, practice we have had in a long time. It started out as usual: we warmed up with some scales and began to sing. Things started going ugly, though, as people kept talking and talking and wouldn't shut up. The next thing I knew, our director just walked out without a word. Everyone just stood around... stunned.
We had to do something, so we actually began working together, without arguments, and decided to clean what we could of our show. We ended up getting a lot done, and by the end of the night, our director came in to talk to us and stated how we were being disrespectful and what not, but things could have been worse.
Then last Thursday, the practice was a lot better. We spent the whole night cleaning things, and everyone was actually trying and listening. Of course it wasn't perfect, and we had our little bad moments, but I feel like we got a lot done!
This week, I am hoping everyone is going to be focused and ready. We need to prove ourselves for saturday... I know we can!

Fingers Crossed

It was state for our speech team, or for those who made it past districts, and I was really excited. For one thing, the competition was at Linn Mar, so I didn't have to travel far AND our group didn't go until three o' clock! Yesterday was a very good day, lets just say.
I woke up Saturday around ten o' clock, and I felt good. I love those mornings when you wake up and know that it is going to be a good day. I mean you just pop right out of bed, no grogginess or wanting to climb back into those warm covers, and the feeling is just right. Then I climbed into my shower, hot water running just perfectly, and when I got out, my mirror wasn't foggy. My mirror ALWAYS fogs up because I hate keeping my door open while in the shower; that just added to the amazing day. Then, the best part happened. So I usually try to figure out what I am going to wear the day before, especially when I have something like this going on, but that day I had no clue. I was out of the dress up clothes that fit the certain color scheme we were doing (black, white, or gray, if you care) and so I was sort of freaking out about what to do because, of course, I waited until the last minute to ask someone else. All of a sudden, I found nice black pants in the back of my closet AND my friend, luckily, had a shirt for me to wear; so perfect! With the day beginning like this, I knew our group was going to do good, and I was right.
When I arrived to Linn Mar, I got my hair curled and ready for the day and already began warming up with my group. Before I knew it, we were all walking to our room where we were going to perform. Everything felt right to me, and when we stood in front of everyone in our beginning poses, it hit me. This could potentially be our last time performing Spring Awakening, and we had to give it our all. With that, it all went fabulously good. It was our best show EVER.
The day ended and we found out we got all ones from the three judges, PLUS a one from our critique judge. I was so happy! Now a one is the best you can get, but you can get all ones and still not move onto Allstate. No one will know if they made Allstate or not until next week, so we are all anxiously waiting.
Fingers crossed till then!
P.S. I typed in "perfect day" into Google and this is the picture it gave me. Thought I'd put it up... it's pretty tight.

Super Bowl, say whaaa?

So of course it is a big deal to everyone in the whole galaxy. Kay not really, but people worship this day. Over half the kids in America probably woke up today with the smell of little weenies simmering in barbecue sauce, cheesy sauce and tostitos, or even brownies that almost always make you want to fall over and die of happiness. It has been a ritual for over five hundred bazillion million years, and everyone takes it SO seriously, yet I take it as a typical football game. Why does it matter so much?
For starters, you are either a football fan or not. Okay, yes I like watching football. It is probably my favorite sport to watch, so we have that established. If you like football, there should be some sort of team that you would prefer to win. For my sake, I am a Bears fan; yes, this is true. I know they haven't been the greatest during these past years, but I can't just turn my back on them? NO! Anyways, when you have a team, you watch when they play and hope for the best. So this year, when the Super Bowl came today, I wasn't enthused at all. Honestly, even if the bears WERE playing, I wouldn't be super stoked. It is a game to me, a fun game to watch, and that is it. People want to go ballistic over bets and little score sheets, some losing over hundreds of dollars! Why? Why why why why why? I guess because it is, well, fun.
When I went to watch the game with a bunch of my friends, things were tense from the start. I take that back; things weren't really that bad, but people were jokingly getting competitive with eachother. "Yo man your team is going down, you know the Colts are gonna beat your guys ass!" "Yeah whatever man, you will see whose da best eva!" Giggles giggles giggles.
(3 hours later)
Fists flying, screaming, people leaving the room. What? I literally sat and laughed for about an hour at all of these crazy people. It is a GAME. You know your going to get over it in a day, right? I know this is just my opinion on this whole matter, and it truly doesn't matter, but I just can't get how everyone is just so nuts.
I know I will probably go crazy once I actually really get football and love it as much as all the crazies, but for now, I am chill.
GO COUGS.

Grammys, YEAH MAN

I love the Grammys! I had totally forgotten about them until my parents yelled at me while I was downstairs creeping on peoples facebooks, telling me to get upstairs and watch them!
Of course, it opened with the one and only Lady Gaga, I love her! She is definitely unique and genuine, which is truly what makes someone really remarkable. I love it when people can actually perform and sing almost exactly like they do on their CD's or music videos, and she surely doesn't have a problem doing that!
All I really got to see of the Grammys tonight was the performances and some of the awards, because we kept switching back and forth between this and this SNL special showing that was broadcasting. My dad and I usually watch SNL together, so tonight wasn't unusual; it was so hilarious! I think it was a look back on the sports clips that SNL did. Some were eh, a little too old for me to get, but then there were some that were kind of new and real hilarious. For instance, there was a skit with people acting like Tiger Woods and his wife, ex-wife, whatever, and I almost died! Then, there was a skit where two guys were being news reporters and one was supposedly an alien, and he was just hysterical. I can't get enough of that show!
Anyways, back to the Grammys, I tuned back and got to see Pinks performance. She did this song where she wound up in this white blanket thing and hung from the ceiling, doing acrobatic type moves. Of course, at the time, she was sing beautifully, but there was no way that she was singing live then. I mean of course she could have very well been singing live, but I am a singer and I know that it is kind of hard to even talk when you are bent over backwards. No matter that, it was still really good. Then came Beyonce, who is probably one of my top three favorite singers. She can dance, sing, act, and she is truly a role model. I haven't heard of any bad things about her, like I do with most other pop stars who get in trouble with there shenanigans.
There were a lot of things that went on tonight, like Taylor getting her first ever Grammy award and such, that was cool to see.
I love the Grammys!

Hmm, very peculia

I am very surprised with myself; I just realized that I have never really talked about concert choir! Nothing really interesting happens in it, I guess, but lately we have been singing the weirdest, but really cool, things.
Contest is coming up, so we have to sing a couple of all girl songs, all boy songs, and then songs altogether. I have no clue what the boys are singing for their little songs, but I know that ours are just really out there and crazy! There is this one that is about vacuuming. Yeah, I know right, what?!? It sounds really stupid, but the song is really really neat. All the different parts, alto, soprano two, and soprano one, have different sounds and beats that make the song sound really cool. Words like hoom, wye (why-ya), and cu cu ru(coo coo roo); it is really strange but I like it!
Then we have another song that has weird, but cool, beats like the vacuuming song. I forget how it starts, but I know that at the end of the songs, things get REALLY crazy. We all say this line, "tucka tucka tucka tucka tee tucka ton" but on different levels and it sounds so legit. Since I am singing in it I don't get to hear how cool it sounds, but our director told us that if done right, you hear "tee tee tee, ton ton ton" from the lines fitting together just right.
I am really excited to get these two songs down because I know how amazing they will be, but right now we are definitely not there.
Although those two are my favorite, the songs that we sing as a whole are pretty nice too. We're singing a Mozart one, eh, and another choral one that is like Mozart, but it isn't. They are both songs that are very proper, sort of slow at parts, but sound really pretty.
That is basically all that is really going on right now in choir, the longest class of my school day, but I am sure once something else comes up that interests me, I'll be blogging about it.

I am sixteen, going on seventeen

Ahh, the Sound of Music. That movie is just the greatest thing ever! I haven't seen it in a while, but if it ever happened to be on television or I would happen to see it in our big mess of DVDs, I would totally watch it! The thing I love the most about it is all the music in it; there is the puppet song (don't remember what it is called), the "DO RE ME" song, but most importantly, the song "I am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen". Why is that song so important? Well, there is a national holiday coming up for this one girl who is, weirdly enough, sixteen and turning seventeen! Yes, that is right, it's ME. So what could I write about? What I hope I am getting? Nope, I know what I am getting, sad enough. It all, strangely, goes back to Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, around ten or so at night, my cousins and I were all just hanging out in my cousins basement, in Indiana. I happen to have had to go to the bathroom, so I halted my texting session with a friend and plopped my phone in my back pocket... not a good plan. Next thing I know, my phone is half way in the toilet, floating around like an inner tube. Now I know what you are thinking, and NO there wasn't anything IN the toilet.. ew! But still, my phone was IN THE TOILET. I frantically took it out, drying it as fast as I could, yet in the end there was nothing I could do. Turning it off and blow drying it, laying it in a bag of rice, nothing. So I had to talk with my parents about what to do because, in the long run, my plan for my phone wasn't going to be up for quite sometime and I was going to need a new phone, pronto. My mom, unfortunately, had to tell me that I was getting a camera for my birthday and that she needed to know if I wanted a phone instead of a camera, or the camera, cause she had to return the camera soon if I chose the phone. Luckily enough, I found out that my plan was over February 28, so I only had to use one of my old working phones for a couple of months! With that said, I was very pleased, yet disappointed that I knew my upcoming birthday gift.
So instead of talking about what I want, I want to look back on my sweet sixteen. It actually was one of my best years, so far. I went through a lot, but I grew a lot from everything. There has been new and amazing people that I have met and are now my best friends, and there are some things that I have left behind. I went from being afraid of a lot of things, to letting myself go a little and learning what I could from my mistakes. I know I have become way more responsible with my school work and life outside of school, and I am more open about things. I've learned that, no matter what, be yourself. In the end, even if you lose things that you thought were what you needed, everything will be where it is suppose to be. I've lived one of THE best sweet sixteens that anyone ever could, but tomorrow, a new page is being turned.
At 7:30, I will be officially a woman... well, at least someone with new driving hours!

Sweeney Todd

So for our schools musical this year, we are doing Sweeney Todd; I am kind of ecstatic.
If you haven't seen the movie, first of all, than you definitely need to do that pronto! Before I even had seen this movie/musical play, I thought it sounded really weird. I didn't know it was a broadway play, only a movie, so I couldn't help but wonder why they were making a movie like this. To me it just seemed out of the blue. After I went to see it with my family, I was so surprised; I loved it! The storyline, though full of gruesome goriness and blood, was really clever and good.
It is set in London, and is about this man, Benjamin Barker, who was a barber and who married this beautiful woman. They had a daughter, Johanna, and the family lived happily ever after... until the judge of the town made a scheme that sent him (Sweeney) far away from London so that he could have Sweeney's wife all to himself. Sweeney eventually comes back to london, years later, full of revenge and anger towards this judge. Then comes all the blood and goriness as he kills men, in hopes to kill the judge and get his family back. That was a really short description, but you just really need to see the movie for yourself.

Wii Fittin' it up

It was Christmas day, and as all the gifts were being passed out there was one in particular that stuck out to me. It was abnormally big and on the top there was a sticker labeling the gift as our family's; I was pumped! Before I knew it, the wrapping paper was being ripped off this gift and there laid the most amazing thing ever... Wii Fit!
Ever since that fateful day my Wii sat untouched in my living room, longing for the attention of my busy family and I. About a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on my couch and noticed it all alone, and I knew I had to get this thing-a-ma-gig going. Literally ten minutes later, my mom and I were setting up our accounts. My mom, of course, got bored of the game and decided to go back to her other daily tasks, so I took over and started playing.
There are so many things to do! You can do yoga, aerobics, strength training, balance games, and so much more! All the games have there different ways of helping you get "fit", and boy do they really work you. I decided to go to the aerobics games and play "super hula-hooping" the other day and by the time I was done, I was about to collapse on the floor! I know that I am really out of shape, but I never knew I would get kicked in the butt with this one little game. After that, I tried this dance step game, a punching game, and this one where you actually take a "jog". The aerobics really tired me out, but I kept up my workout! I went to yoga and strength training, and those were even harder. You have to focus on all these things at once, like your posture, what muscles you are using, how to breathe right' it all just makes you wanna fall over and die... but it is really good for you.
Before you can even play the little games, you have to do this body test. They go through all these little facts to help you understand everything, and then you have to take a balance test, give it your info, and then it measures you. It's actually kind of cool to see how healthy your body is and how fit you are. The game even gives you what age it thinks you are by all the tests it did on you, and it thought I was 17; perfect! I had to laugh when one of my friends, who is really big and buff, told me that the game thought he was 47.
After awhile, I got the hang of it all and now I'm practically using it like everyday. Who wouldn't want to get into shape by playing a simple, fun game that is produced with a simple click of a Wii control? Well I am for sure and absolutely positive that this game is the best thing ever. That is, until I get really tired of it; lets hope that doesn't happen soon!

On to State!

I've talked a little bit about our speech team and the musical theater gig that I am doing for it, but nothing has actually happened until yesterday. Yesterday was the big day, districts, and I am sure that everyone was a little nervous. There were so many different schools there with all their groups of people that it was all just so crazy!
It was another early morning for me; 3 am to be exact. We all had to meet at Kennedy at 545, load the buses, and take the long ride to Monticello. When we got there, we all packed ourselves into the gym with the other hundred people; it was so packed! So many schools were there, all getting themselves ready for their different shows. Our show, Spring Awakening, was scheduled to go around 9:30 am, so we immediately got ourselves ready and dressed into our nice clothes. Sooner than later, we were humming our short show and warming up our voices for the performance. Right after we went, I felt satisfied. I knew we were pretty good and that it wasn't very hard to go onto State, but there always those small details that could cause us our chance.
With the long day ahead of us, we decided to go and watch other groups. There were a lot of very good ones, like miming, one act, choral reading, and a lot more. For Kennedy, I'd have to say that almost all of our groups did amazingly well. We even had a choral reading where everyone in it got their make up professionally done, making them look like real demons which is what they were. Also, we had another musical theater group that did RENT, and they did exceptionally well. Everyone was pumped and happy about there performance, and at the end of the day we all found out our scores. I am almost positive that all of our groups went on to State, except for a few, but overall that is quite good!
For other schools, I think the percentage of who made it on and who didn't was a little different. Some of the performances out there were just awful! One group, a musical theater one, had girls who couldn't sing one right note or people who would, while acting, look at people in the audience and basically forget what they were doing. I know it is my first year doing this, so I am not a pro, but I do know how to pick out a good actor/actress in a performance and someone who shouldn't even be up there. It is kind of harsh, but I mean seriously people!
Overall, everyone tried their hardest and I am so happy that I did speech this year! I can't wait for the rest of the season.

Speech Team: Spring Awakening

I haven't talked much about this, but I have been in it for quite some time. Speech team has been going on for about a couple months now, and it is truly an experience. Its my first year and I am already loving the little musical that I'm in, called Spring Awakening.

So at the beginning of the year, there were auditions to be on the speech team and I didn't think anything of it. A lot of the people I knew were signing up and all excited about it, and I was just like... what. Then the leader of it all, the theater director, pulled me out of the hall and asked if I was going to try out for the team. I looked at him and answered no when he gave me the try out sheets and told me he wanted me to do musical theater. I walked out of his room and thought, maybe I should do this. So with that, I practiced and practiced my music, trying to learn all the notes and words in one day because, well, the try outs were that next day. I showed up to the try outs, did the little speaking skit, a skit between me and one of my friends, and then the song. I did alright for only practicing it a day, but I wasn't expecting to make it at all. The next day, we had a meeting for everyone who auditioned; I soon found out I made the musical! I was so happy!
Ever since then, we have been practicing our three songs and the main skit in between. Our first song is called, "I believe" and it sort of opens the show, which is about a sort of touchy subject. This teenage girl doesn't understand what sex is, and during the song her and her boyfriend are doing the confusing thing. The girl tries to talk to her mother about it, to learn, but her mother doesn't want to explain, and it is all just a confusing thing. That is the skit, between the mother and the daughter, but before the scene there is a song just with the main girl singing. Then, at the very end of the show, everyone comes together and sings "Mama who bore me". That song is more of a moody one, where we are suppose to be upset and angry at the mother who wouldn't "reach" to her daughter and help her through all her confusion. The little 10 minute show is actually pretty good, and we have our first performance this weekend at districts. I am, of course, really nervous because I have never done this before, but then again I am so excited! I can't wait to see what will happen.