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