post #55

I honestly need to come up with better post titles. Anyway, I am bored and have nothing to do. Today is a conversation day that I have off in Spanish, and I am technically supposed to be doing independent work, but I did not feel like it. So I am not doing it. I will do it tonight as homework. It is not that hard. Maybe. I think.

OOH!!! That just reminded me of the "Tonight" (West Side Story-the duet "tonight") parodies that my friend and I made up on the Atlanta trip.

Or some of them, anyway. We only did a few.

Like, for example,

tonight
tonight
we're leaving town tonight
tonight we will not get any sleep
tonight
tonight
we're leaving home tonight
and we're going
to Atlanta
tonight

And,

today
all day I had a feeling
that I would have to sing
I know now
I was right
for here we are
and what was just some boredom
is a song

Or something like that. That was the day that the chorus people went to competition. The other one was the night we were leaving our home town and going to Atlanta. We did this one for going home:

tonight
tonight
we're leaving town tonight
tonight we will not get any sleep
tonight
tonight
we're going home tonight
and we will not
be in Atlanta
anymore

Ah, good times. That trip was so much fun. Where are we going next year?

Last weekend I went to this thing with my venture crew. Venturing is a sort of subdivision of boy scouting that is coed. It's awesome, even though my venture crew has like fifteen people and only two of them are guys. Or something like that. It's rather lame. But what the heck.

Anyway, the worst part of it was the food. Most of the food was just the sort of thing that comes in a package and then you heat it up and give it to people, and it has a ton of gross preservatives and crap on it. It's really gross. I hate eating stuff like that without having a chance to do something to actually wear it off. I did, technically, but the only things that I really did to somewhat wear it off was archery and the long walk down the long hill to the archery range and back to the tent. Which was quite a long way, by the way. There was also this dancing thing, but that was not a whole ton of fun. I was bored most of the time. And I was tired because I couldn't sleep that well because my sleeping bag was on a rock.

After diner was this carnival/dance thing, which was kind of fun. I won a rubber duck by blowing on it and beating my friend. It was all in good fun, though. I was originally going to be in the jell-o eating contest, but then I saw the portions for the first round, and I was like, no. Just no. Because I thought the portions would be like the size of your fist, or maybe a bit bigger, but not by much, but no, they weren't even close. Those portions were as big as the entire plate. AND they were at least an inch thick. And then they put on whipped cream. Sugar is nice, but that much sugar in that concentration and consuming it at a very fast rate is rather gross. And I had had enough crap that day anyway, so I didn't want to barf. Which I probably would have if I had gone through with it.

This weekend, I'm going on a retreat with my youth group. I'm not saying where, number one because someone could stalk me, and number two because I have absolutely no idea where it is. These things as they are, I'm not saying anything.

And I'm really tired.

And I have a headache.

And a cold.

And I don't know why I have a cold or a headache, but I probably have a headache because I have a cold. That makes absolutely no sense, does it?

Anyway....

Atlanta recap part 3

Okay, I know that the recap was a bit patchy, but here's the rest. Unless I have to get off the computer before I can finish. Anyway, here it is. So after I found out that I passed my black belt test and everyone cheered and I was all psyched and I went to the bathroom and then came back and showed another girl at my table where the bathroom was and then we had to leave, but I had accidentally left my sweater at the table, but my other friend had gotten it. While I was going back to the table, I passed the table where the middle school chorus teacher and the high school chorus teacher were sitting, and I was still super psyched about the test, so I was like, "guess what???" And they were like, "what???" And I was like, "I PASSED MY BLACK BELT TEST!!!!!!" Then the middle school teacher was like, "yaaaay!!!" And the high school teacher was like, "yaaay!! how long have you known?" Or something like that. So I'm like, "I only found out like twenty minutes ago!!" Except that it wasn't twenty minutes ago because it didn't take twenty minutes for me to go to the bathroom. Anyway, the high school chorus teacher (the one for my choir) was like, "YAAY!" again, because he's awesome like that. Then we went back to the hotel and I was psyched the entire way back. Then I was all stressed because I was panicking because we had to pack and all my stuff was all over the place and so I was randomly throwing my clothes into my suitcase and hoping it all fit. I left my bathroom stuff in the bathroom, obviously, because I needed it the next morning. So then we went to bed. The next morning we got up and dashed around to make sure we hadn't left anything. Okay, it was mostly me doing the running, because I packed so much crap for some reason, and it was all over the place. Then we went to the band competitions, and then we ate pizza for lunch and hung out for a while. I went on another picture quest with two of my friends who were eighth graders but they were in one of the high school bands. Then I hung out some more and talked to the principal of my school for a while. He asked about the test and the passing. Not a lot of schools have principals nice enough to ask about that sort of thing, but ours does. Then our last band went and then we went to Six Flags. It was good, except for the part where it was raining. I went on a roller coaster called the Superman with some guy friends, and we got stuck just after it ended. I'm not sure why. I think it had something to do with someone messing up something for the riders in front of us. Anyway, I have to go, because my half an hour on the computer before homework for today is up.

Atlanta recap continued

I gave the teacher the hat. It was way too small but I don't care. It was awesome. Anyway, where was I with regards to Atlanta? Okay. So after we ate at Hard Rock Cafe, we went to the CNN studios and saw lots of awesome things, including riding on the world's longest free-standing escalator. Then we went on a tour and saw how they did all the newscasting and research and everything. It was rather awesome. We actually got to see what goes on during the typical day at the studios, which was rather cool. There's like a zillion computers behind the screens. And we saw how they do the weather stuff. It used to be a green screen, but now they use an actual projection. And the way they do teleprompters is really cool. I'm not saying here, because they would probably find out and sue me for all I'm worth. Which isn't a lot. Anyway, after that we ate lunch in the food court. They actually had some pretty decent places like Moe's that were the kind of places that use actual food but the people can put together the stuff really really fast.
After lunch we went to the Georgia Aquarium. Best Place Ever. I took seriously 97 pictures, but then I deleted some. The tanks were designed so that the fish could swim above you and it was really cool. I got some really cool back lit shots of manta rays and I think a whale shark. The aquarium was probably the coolest place we went to on the entire trip except for the world of coke. We also saw this 4-D movie that was really cute, but it was directed to the younger generation, I think. But before that I was in the gift shop and I got a necklace for my friend at school and a necklace for my friend who lives in Australia whose birthday was that day and a necklace for me. It was awesome. I was alone most of the time, but at the movie I hooked up with some people from my school and then afterwards I hooked up with the eight other people that I spent most of the rest of the trip with.
After the aquarium, we went to the hotel. The hotel was really nice. There were two double beds, and four of us, but it worked out alright, because two of the people in my room were willing to sleep in the same bed and another was willing to sleep on the couch (I did NOT, on ANY TERMS, attempt to force anyone out of letting me have a double bed to myself. I SWEAR!), so I got a double bed to myself. Then we hung out for a while and all took showers. That was the only shower I had on the entire trip, because there wasn't any time. After we hung out for a while, it was time for dinner, which was really good. The non-vegetarians got salmon and the vegetarians got a cool spaghetti sauce type thing over pasta. It was really good. Anyway, afterwards, since it was a dinner theater thing, there was a game show type thing. It was hilarious. There were people randomly picked from the crowd (all students until the last round), and they had to answer random questions about stuff, or heard the question and got a sound clip or heard the clip and got a question. There was a sound clip from The Lion King, and the question was, "who are the characters in this song?" and for some reason, the two freshmen who were up during that round, both of whom hang out with me, somehow didn't get it right, even though I seriously have The Lion King memorized. Seriously. Well, not memorized, but I can say the lines along with the movie. It's amazing. And awesome. And everything. Anyway, my favorite round was the last round, because the chorus teacher and the band teacher went up and they had to dance, like some people from the other rounds (the group the crowd cheered loudest for got the points, and obviously, the teachers, hilarious as they were, got the cheers for their round). I got a video of that. It was THE FUNNIEST thing EVER. Seriously. When I come back for the chorus concert when I'm in college, I'll remind the chorus teacher of that time on the Atlanta trip that he had to do the YMCA. I'm going to haunt him for the rest of his days. Not really.
Anyway, the next day we got breakfast in our rooms and then went to the World of Coke. It was amazing. I gave up soda for lent, but I made an exception when I got to the tasting part because, seriously, when ELSE am I going to get to taste coke products from Italy and Paraguay and Uganda? Really. But I'm not going to have soda again until like July. Or May. Or something. A couple of months, anyway. After the tasting portion was the gift shop. That was amazing. And I spent most of my budget on stuff there. I wanted to get this really cool messenger bag type thing, but it would have cleared out my budget, so in the end I got a sweatshirt, a tank top, a recycled bag for my mom, and one of those sprite-flavored lip gloss things. It tastes nothing like sprite, but what the heck. And I don't think it counts as soda, since it's technically lip gloss.
After the World of Coke we had lunch at the CNN place again and then went to the the hotel so the chorus people could change for competition. Treble did well, I think, except for the part that you STILL couldn't hear the sopranos. It was annoying. Really annoying. Because ever since all the parts got switched around, all the loud people moved to the harmony parts and you can't hear the sopranos at ALL. Anyway, the judge who did critique with us told us to do everything that we had always been told NOT to do. And the pianist was really annoying. She wasn't that last-minute, and she had time to learn the music for everything (our normal pianist had to go to a wedding or something so she couldn't make it), but she wasn't amazing. On our French piece, she was four measures behind us the entire time and it was really annoying, because there's this one part at the end where we hold a note for a long time and then go quiet for a while and then sing a little bit. During the part where all was supposed to be quiet, she was still playing, and the chorus teacher was practically yelling at her with his hands to cut off, but she kept playing and it was really embarrassing.
That night, we went to the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. Our music department plus chaperons was huge, so we took up the entire restaurant. During dinner, a lot of people were bursting into cheers because some seniors were getting texts from their parents saying that they got into certain colleges. What would happen was that someone would get the text, and then they would cheer, and then their table would cheer, and then the entire restaurant would burst into cheering even though we had no idea why. My table was the group I hung out with at the aquarium, and we were sitting in the far corner. I was in the corner. It was fun. Not. Well, the dinner was fun, because for the first time since kindergarten I was able to hang out with mostly normal guys as friends and not feel awkward. But anyway, we were telling jokes, like epically long jokes, and I got a text message from my mom saying I passed my black belt test. So I scream-laughed, and showed the guy across from me the text, and then once the person telling the joke was done, I told the entire table, and then the table cheered, and then the restaurant cheered, and it was amazing. I have to go now. There's not much left to tell, but still. Class.

Atlanta recap

Well, I'm back from Atlanta. It was hilarious. And amazing. And awesome. And MY CHOIR GOT FIRST IN THE COMPETITION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So first we went down on an overnight bus on Wednesday night. We had to sleep on the bus. It was hard because the friend that was sitting next to me is an insomniac, so he was up all night and I was like, shut up and go to sleep. Over there. No, nothing awkward happened. So in the morning, we went to Hard Rock Cafe for breakfast. I didn't eat a lot because I was tired. And I was talking to some friends. When we went to the bathroom, there were signs on the front of the stall doors that said something like, "no smoking or nuclear weapons allowed," or something. I forget the last part, but there was the no smoking/nuclear weapons part. Anyway, I have to go now. I'm making a hat for the biology sub that's been here for four months while the actual teacher is on maternity leave. So hopefully I'll finish it by the time that class rolls around. It's his last day today.