Prom Recap (and other stuff)

Well, prom was actually (surprisingly) fun. I actually liked about half of the songs, which was better than I thought it would be (I thought it would be like Fall Formal, where I knew about five songs). The DJ played the Cha Cha Slide, which kind of made the night (also, "Firework" by Katy Perry kind of made the night also... I kind of love that song).
The last song was "Bohemian Rhapsody," which was kind of the most epic finale ever.
Mostly because of the fact that it was "Bohemian Rhapsody," and everyone who was in Concert Choir last year was singing along in attempted harmony for the bit we knew (Concert Choir did a Queen medley for the spring concert last year, and part of it was a part of "Bohemian Rhapsody"). It was kind of epic.
There was very little slow dancing, and kind of a lot of people just jumping around and going kind of insane.
Some of my friends were there, and we did one of those Spaz in a Circle things... I've no idea what they are called. But that's essentially what it was: spazzing in a circle. It was kind of hilarious.
We tried to get the chorus teacher, who was chaperoning, to dance too (because teachers actually do that at my school), but that was kind of a fail. It happened, but he refused to dance a lot, even though our circle was most assuredly NOT one of the ones where people were grinding with other people's dates and stuff (we were the circle that jumped around like idiots who think they can dance, since that's what we were!).
I had a sash on my dress, and that was where I kept my camera tied a lot of the time. Except when I realized that it was probably going to become a missile at some point if it stayed there, so I left it in my bag the rest of the night. In all, prom was actually kind of fun. Bonus points for being at the Kennedy Center! YAY!
Of course, now I seem to be physically incapable of going to sleep before midnight, which kind of stinks, and I'm getting bad at waking up when my alarm goes off.
For example, I woke up at around 7:45 this morning.
That's normally when I have to leave breakfast.
Needless to say, I was late to school (later than I normally am).
Yesterday was about the same, though English had been canceled because of prom (though I didn't remember this until I got to school).

Now I just have to get some old physics stuff in and yell at people to sign my yearbook, and then the year is essentially done for me. This is very saddening. WAH!
For the record, don't expect me to blog a lot during the month of July - I'll be doing Shakespeare and going to Switzerland and Italy, where I don't think I will be in the range of any computer with which to blog. Just warning you. Also, ASP is a week from Saturday, so that's another week where I will be nowhere near a computer (I WILL be near some power tools, however... YAY!). SOooo yeah.
Farewell for now. I shall return... at some point. SO long!

I have returned!

Right now, I want school to be over. So many of my friends are already out, and it kind of sucks.
The Summer of Adventure starts on Wednesday. Not TOMORROW Wednesday - the one after.
Well, the Summer of Adventure doesn't really technically start until next Saturday (which is even LONGER), when I depart with my youth group at church for my third year of Appalachian Service Project (aka ASP). SO EXCITED!
At the same time, I kind of don't want the school year to end (though I REALLY do not want to stay in this school-ends-in-a-week state of immense blah-ness where nothing gets done), because that means I'll be a senior. And I'm terrified. And it also means that I'm going to have to say farewell to my exchange student friends, which will be even more saddening because it's unlikely that I'll be able to see them again (unless Nisa decides to go to college in the US). I'll miss them tremendously. And I have a lot of friends who are currently seniors who I'm going to miss as well.
This is probably the most frustrating end of the school year that I have ever experienced ever.
Well, I think next year might be worse, because I'll be the one leaving.
Actually, it might be better because I'll be going to college and meeting new people and having cool adventures and stuff, instead of sitting at home wondering what my college-age friends are doing at that moment, procrastinating on college applications, and generally making myself useless.

stuff

Well, prom is tonight. WOOHOO!!! I'm rather excited. And I WILL be posting photos (to facebook). If you want to see photos, go there. I may be posting photos that aren't of people on here, but I don't know yet. That shall be determined at a later time (here meaning in approximately 12 hours, when it's all officially over).

In other news, it's FINALLY getting to be the end of the school year. Part of the reason I'm on a computer at school at all is so I can email all the stuff I want to email to myself from my account at school before they all get deleted. This involves stories, mostly, and other stuff that I don't want to lose (not yet, anyway).

But, of course, knowing me, I wound up doing something that's completely irrelevant to emailing myself literature that I wrote. I don't have anything else to do for the rest of the afternoon (except to drop by Film and Creative Writing, but that'll only take like five minutes each).

So I essentially have nothing to do today, which is both good and bad. I'll TRY and be productive. Which means that I'll be leaving the blog for now and going forth and emailing myself some stuff and doing other things to that effect. I shall post at a later date (probably tomorrow, when I have equally little to do).
Farewell for now!

Scripts and prom

Well, prom is tomorrow. HOORAY! I did NOT finish knitting the dress in time (I should have finished yesterday and I would be sewing right now), but I'm kind of in love with the dress I got on Saturday, so it's fine. I am kind of excited. Except for the super-long photo op that my mother is going to demand of us. That won't be so much fun. But after we survive that, it should be fine. Hopefully. :)
Anyway, in other news, I'm attempting to write a script. For what? I have no idea. I may use it for my senior project next year, but I don't know yet. I'm not yet a senior. I still have a week and a half of school before the summer, which is very saddening because it means that I will be a senior. I mean, I AM excited to be a senior, but I'm also not because it means that it's my last year at the school where I have essentially done all of my growing up. I have gone to the same school since sixth grade and I really do not want to leave.
I guess I have to value the last year for what it's worth. But the last year isn't here yet, so in the mean time, I'm going to go crazy to the best of my ability! (also, turn in my physics stuff so I won't get a D. That would be good.)
Anyway, the script is sort of based off of the Electra and Orestes myth, where Orestes kills Clytemnestra and Aigisthos (spelling?) for killing Agamemnon. It's kind of dark, and Electra is really troubled and annoyed and stuff. Well, who wouldn't be, when (at least in this version) their parents are dead, their stepdad (no, he doesn't die in this) is negligent, and their older brother (who's still around) is sort of a psycho?
Yeah...
Anyway, that's what I have for now. More later. Maybe.

progress...?

Well, last night I finished the front of my prom dress. HOORAY! Although I'm quite pleased that the front is done, I'm fully aware that it should have happened on Tuesday. Now I have four days (today, tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday - Monday will be dedicated to sewing) to make the back. I'll have to do about 5400 stitches a day - somewhere between three and five hours of work per day - in order to finish.
Although I knit a lot, I don't knit THAT much.
My record in one day is 4400 stitches.
Yeah, this won't end well.

If I'm not done with at least half the bodice by Saturday afternoon, though, Mom and I have agreed that we're going to go and buy a dress.
I think Mom would kind of prefer that I buy the dress rather than make it, despite what she says to the contrary. I think she wants to talk me out of knitting my prom dress, but I think she knows that it won't work because I'm not the kind of person who'll give up on this that easily.
That being said, I kind of feel like I may not finish the dress.
Having said that, I'm now going to stop blogging, then waste some time, and then knit ALL AFTERNOON (except when I'm going to line up my schedule. We the students assign our own classes to our own blocks, and that's happening today). YAY SCHEDULING!
Now on to knitting my hands off. Only 4000 more stitches to go...
Farewell for now.
Photos to come.
Maybe.

Prom knitting!

Well, next Tuesday (not day after tomorrow Tuesday - Tuesday the 14th) is prom. Yes, I know that it's unconventional to have prom on a Tuesday, but my school's awesome and that's what we do. Also, I don't think our school is important enough (and I don't think the seniors have enough money) to shut down the venue on a weekend for prom. It's at the Kennedy Center. Which is kind of awesome in itself - it's like DC's Broadway.
Anyway, since I can (and because I want to, and because I don't think anyone else has ever tried), I'm knitting my dress for prom. I don't have a backup, yet, but I've made an agreement with my mother that if I haven't done at least half of the back bodice by Saturday, we're going to go buy a dress. Either way, we have to go out and get shoes - my date and I are about the same height, so I can't wear heels, and I don't have formal flats. I was sort of considering wearing hi tops, but then my brother and my mom and the mother I babysit for talked me out of it.
And I also found out that he isn't going to wear hi tops (he's the kind of guy who'd go either way), so it would look really weird. So yeah. I need proper flats.
I really want to knit the dress, though. I mean, not only will it get me super awesome creative points, it'll also be totally unique - nobody else will have a dress exactly like mine, because I designed it and made it myself (Okay, I didn't design the lace bit. So I designed MOST of it. But still).
Also, some underclassmen may see the dress and ask me to do their fall formal dresses, which'll help me pay for college! (As much as I love my underclass friends, they'll still have to pay. It won't be as much as they probably have to pay for a normal dress... or maybe it will, because it's handmade... I'll figure that out later) Win-win!
Also, I want to finish knitting my dress just so I can say that I made something cool. Regardless of who is wearing it when, making something cool is really fun. And awesome. And stuff.
Needless to say, if you were considering asking me to knit something, you have to wait until after next Tuesday. If you were considering asking me to knit your prom dress... ask me next April.

Literary stuff!

So for Creative Writing, we are doing Satire. This is my *very lame* attempt at doing a satirical version of "Cinderella." I'm not horridly familiar with satire (I've probably seen some stuff, but I didn't directly associate it with satire/ wasn't told directly, "THIS IS A SATIRE OF ______"), so this may be a bit horrendous. Or it could be good. Either one.

Once upon a time in the faraway land of the DC Metro area, there was a girl whose name was Nicole (or Nik for short). When Nik was seventeen and a junior in high school, she decided that she would go to the prom, because she probably would never get another chance to go to the prom at the Kennedy Center (though that was the only reason she was bothering to go at all).
The trouble was, Nik had a rehearsal schedule that wouldn’t allow this to happen, and eventually she became used to the idea of not going to prom, and made other plans involving a Friday night in front of the TV.
Why couldn’t she go, exactly?
Well, prom started at eight, and rehearsal ended at nine.

However, Nik’s faerie godmother was able to talk to her director, and between the two of them, they were able to make all the necessary arrangements to let all the prom-bound upper-class-people out of rehearsal on the Friday in question.
The faerie godmother also managed to get a really expensive dress from a designer store for a fraction of the real cost, and also some cool shoes.
When Nik learned about this, she became very confused. Her director was not the kind of person who would cancel rehearsal ever; in fact, he was the kind of person who would plan a dawn-to-dusk run on a summer solstice apocalypse on purpose.
When Nik saw her dress, she became even more confused. Not only was a ridiculously expensive dress laid out for her on her bed, this ridiculously expensive dress was perhaps the ugliest shade of puke-colored blue-green that she had ever seen in her life, and was twelve sizes too big for her and had a long train and lots of ruffles, which Nik hated.
The only cool thing that Nik saw that could come out of this not-prom was that she now had a cool pair of bronze gladiator sandals and no rehearsal on Friday night, which meant she could watch lots of reruns of MythBusters and actually sleep before midnight.
On Friday, when the whole school was buzzing about prom this and prom that and prom-I-do-not-know-what-shoes-to-wear, Nik was looking immensely forward to the afternoon she would be spending watching Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage blow stuff up on public television. She wasn’t worried about prom, or where she would go to have dinner, since her parents were already going out – Nik decided she’d call the Chinese restaurant down the street from school once class let out, and then eat spring rolls and watch TV all afternoon.
When Nik got home after school that day, armed with four spring rolls, a large serving of fried rice, a large serving of lo mein, and an eager curiosity about what would go down on MythBusters, she found that the size eighteen dress was on her bed and her faerie godmother was standing in the kitchen, armed for the biggest Prom Attendance Battle ever to take place in the history of the world. Nik and the godmother would probably wind up on the history channel.
The faerie godmother assured Nik that her parents would know where she had gone and that Happily Ever After awaited her on the roof of the Kennedy Center.
“But I don’t WANT a Happily Ever After like that!” Nik complained. “My Happily Ever After involves Chinese takeout and the Discovery Channel!”
“Well, deal with it,” the godmother said. “This is my job. I’m trying to make a living doing this. If you don’t go to that dance, I don’t get paid, and if I don’t get paid, I’ll starve next month, and if I starve next month, that means I’m not going to be able to help you next year when you want to go to prom! So you’re going to GO TO PROM, MISSIE!”
“I have an idea,” Nik said, “You can have two spring rolls and my lo mein, and eat half a bite of spring roll and one noodle every day while you go and help your next charge, and then you’ll get paid next month, and then you can pay me the twelve dollars back then. Okay?”
“No, that’s NOT OKAY!” the godmother said. “I’m also about to get kicked out of the World Union of Faerie Godmothers!”
“You have a UNION?” Nik exclaimed in confusion.
“How ELSE could we manage to get so many Cinderellas to so many balls, dances, proms, festivals, celebrations, fairs, carnivals, parties, galas, and general events involving merrymaking and get PAID as well? Now, my Union Card will get you a better dress – I’m sorry I got the wrong size – I didn’t know what size you were, so I just guessed. We can fix that, though. And the shoes – what size are you?”
“Eight. But why are you doing this?”
“Because I’m getting paid, and I want to eat. Now, the shoes should fit. You should start to eat; I’ll handle the dress and makeup and hair. Don’t go ANYWHERE; I’ll be back in three hours.”
Nik looked at her watch. It was about 3:30. She wasn’t hungry enough to eat dinner yet, but she resigned herself to the fact that she’d have to do this over pain of death, and morosely began to consume a spring roll.
Three hours later, the faerie godmother returned with a new dress and what looked like the entire stock of the cosmetics store and the hair care store combined.
The faerie godmother then set about putting far too much makeup on Nik, and then told her to change clothes, and then did her hair, and then sent her on her way.
Nik arrived at the Kennedy Center in good time. She figured out where the dance was being held and proceeded to go to the location in question.
She spent five minutes perusing the perimeter of the dance floor, and then decided that she was a lot more bored than she would have been if she’d had her afternoon the way she would have liked, and proceeded to bum some free soda and chocolate before attempting to leave the building.
Then she was stopped by the assistant director of the show, whose name was Jake. They had a reasonably intelligent half-hour discussion about MythBusters and other good shows on TV, and then they both decided that the dance was really, REALLY loud, so they went up to the top of the roof to continue their discussion of physics and other interesting matters that good, solid, curious students who like to act would normally discuss. When they arrived on the roof, the magic of the faerie godmother was enacted, and a small jazz band consisting of Nik’s three friends, who began to attempt to serenade Nik and Jake as they walked around the roof.
However, this didn’t really work, as the jazz trio hadn’t rehearsed at all, so after about ten minutes of attempting to play some mushy romantic songs and having them sound like something out of a horror movie, the jazz trio returned to the dance so they could get some more chocolate and some caffeine.
After about twenty more minutes of discussing a great variety of stuff, Nik and Jake decided to go back home – first to Nik’s house, so she could change, and then to Jake’s house, so he could change and so they could have a Star Wars marathon while eating ice cream, Girl Scout cookies, fortune cookies, and all of the Chinese food that Nik hadn’t eaten earlier.

climbing and rocking and getting bruises

Well, for the second weekend in a row, I have returned to school with lots of bruises on my knees. First it was because I'm incapable of doing an adequate stage death; for this past weekend, it was because I was climbing a Via Ferrata. A Via Ferrata is an "Iron Mountain," and this past weekend, I also got a nasty cut on my knee that bled for five minutes because I had no time to clean it because I was climbing up a sheer rock face and fearing for my life.
There are a lot of Via Ferratas in Europe - during World War Two, people really wanted to stealthily kill each other, so they put iron rungs into nearly-vertical rock faces and climbed over the mountains. They must really have wanted to do some serious killing, because Via Ferratas are HARD (both physically and mentally).
Any altophobes would either be dead by the time the group reached the other side, or be cured of their altophobia by the time they reached the other side. Or be so affected by their altophobia that they went insane and were shot in the head for their own good.
Although the Via Ferrata in West Virginia that we went to wasn't used during World War Two (and is allegedly more intense than the ones in Europe), it's a similar sort of shindig: the iron rungs, sheer cliff faces, and the only things stopping you from a 200 + foot fall to your death being airplane wire and a pair of carabeaners (though that might be an added bonus for us crazy people who find some entertainment in climbing mountains). Although I'm AWARE that each length of airplane wire can hold up to seven tons and I KNOW that it was EXTREMELY unlikely that the beaners would fail, I was still scared gutless for at least half my climb. I chickened out - yes, I'm willing to admit that I'm a chicken - at the halfway point and took the last escape route - there was no WAY I was going on an airplane wire bridge 150 feet long and 200 feet from anything that could break a fall.
I really shouldn't have, because apparently it got easier, but I was still recovering from the shock of going around Scheize Notch.
And yes, that's German. I'm not going to tell you the translation, because if I do, my mom will succeed in killing me, even though the Notch didn't.
Why's it called Scheize Notch?
Well...
The German-speaking climbers who were psyched about the climb would go around the Notch and say, "Oh, Scheize, that's a really nice view!"
The more timid German speakers would look down and say, "oooooh Scheize, that's a really long drop!"
The absolutely terrified German speakers (and the non-German speakers who also happened to be completely terrified) would look down, let out a long and loud and terrified wail, and go Scheize in their pants.
I was in the second category.

Despite the fact that I completely chickened out, I really kind of enjoyed the climb. And despite the whole heights thing. I really shouldn't have dropped out, though - I'm probably never going to get another chance to go back and get over the Scheize, and I really kind of want to. I know I sound crazy when I say that, but it's totally true.
Maybe the climb is easier the second time around.

Proms and such

I don't remember if I said this earlier: my friends and I were contemplating crashing prom, but we decided against it.  I was still kind of into the idea of going, but I decided that I wouldn't go unless someone asked me.
Well, I just got asked.  By a guy.  That I reasonably like.  And I said yes.  So yes, I am going to prom.
WOOHOO!!

I can't believe it's over...

Wow. The world premiere of "Benagridazir" is over. I cannot believe it's done. I really have yet to get my head around it. Honestly, it's kind of like... AAAHHH!!! I'm not sure whether to be happy about the time that I now have to read about dead Greek guys, do psychotherapy for mathematics, and study stuff that happened in the US fifty years ago, or to be sad that I no longer will have a connection to Piper, or to anyone else in the cast, or to just say goodbye to the show in general. It makes me exceedingly sad to say goodbye to Piper - I know it sounds weird to talk about my character as an actual person, but it feels like she is. I think she's too much a part of me to not be an actual person in some sense. Does that sound strange? I don't care if I'm going slightly mad - everyone needs to be slightly insane in order to survive.
Closing night went really well. I kept having this feeling that someone I knew from forever ago would come see the show, or that something amazingly epic would happen during or after the show or something, but it didn't.
Well, nothing EXCEEDINGLY epic.
The biggest thing that happened is that I got some mini motivational monologues because I was kind of nervous for some reason, and also none of the sound effects worked, so the lights were up for like three minutes before I went on for the first time, because I was waiting for the sound cue that didn't come.
Which sucked.
But whatever.
The show went on, and we survived, and it was wonderful.
The cast party was held at a minor character's house, and it was kind of amazing in its own right because her house is HUGE. They have a backyard the size of my house that contains a trampoline and a half-size basketball court.
Since it was warm out, we did the paper plate awards on the basketball court (I think it was also because that was the only well-lit area that could hold everybody).
We did paper plates a bit differently this time - instead of the director coming up with good paper plates for half the cast and lousy ones for the other half, she just announced who was getting the plate and had members of the cast suggest the award, and then she wrote down a few of them on the plate, so we each got seven warm and fuzzies on one paper plate award. It was also a good way to do warm and fuzzies without actually saying that we were doing warm and fuzzies.
For those of you who don't know what warm and fuzzies are... they're when you say lots of nice stuff about other people in your group; they usually happen on mission trips or at cast parties and stuff - places where people feel like they've become each other's unbiological family.
It tends to happen a lot with shows and, apparently, in movies - I think I read some Johnny Depp or Gene Wilder quote that supports the claim that your castmates are your temporary unbiological family.
And any other actor can probably vouch for me as well.

Two shows down...

Tonight was the mid-night. Last night was opening night. It was INSANE!!!
I feel like we had a LOT more energy last night than we did tonight, but tonight was generally better because we didn't rush too many of the lines.
Also, the love interest DID tell me to kiss him tonight (he forgot to last night). So yeah.
I think the bigger energy yesterday came from the fact that yesterday was opening night, and the general meh energy tonight is the fact that it's Middle Night. It's not closing night; it's not opening night. It's just... here. And we're just... performing.
True, there was probably a bigger crowd tonight than there was last night, but still. I feel like there was less anticipation tonight because we knew we could totally pull this shindig off.
And we DID pull it off.
And it was awesome.
I think my favorite part of the night was when I was hug-attacked by a bunch of my friends tonight - a few of them knew each other, but I was hug-attacked by like five friends within a few minutes of each other, so it was like, "ATTACK THE STAR!!! YAY!!!"
I was also told I had done well by several younger siblings and a lot of parents too, which was kind of... wow. The only time I've been told I've done well in a show by a younger sibling was when I had twelve lines as a robot in eighth grade. I wasn't a big part then, but I had to have the most character. I was a freaking tempramental ROBOT!!!
By the way, it was one of my most favorite (favoritest?) parts EVER. Except for this one, of course. :)

In other news, this is one of the few times that I didn't go to Silver Diner after a Friday show. I really don't feel like going - not only is it going to be loud and crowded and a hassle, AND I have no cash, I'm going to get back at midnight and then get like two hours of sleep and then run on complete adrenaline all day tomorrow, which really sucks.
I mean, running on adrenaline is fine, except when you have a three-hour rehearsal and also a closing performance in which you are the main character.
Yeah, adrenaline running? Not so fun then.

Opening NIGHT!

Well, tonight is opening night. I'm kind of psyched, but I'm also kind of nervous. I didn't say this earlier because I was in denial about it, but the love interest had to drop out last Saturday because of some family issues. He was replaced by the director's son, who is two years younger than me and clearly didn't want to do the role OR the show (probably partially because his mom wrote the show and was the director and was making him kiss someone). The son is good, but the awkward kiss scene... the awkwardness is still there, but it's a different sort of awkwardness - more like "Hi! I'm supposed to have a crush on/ kiss the director's son!" instead of "Hi! You're an attractive senior, and I'm actually sort of nervous around you! And now I have to kiss you! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!"
But still, the show must go on. And so it's going on in five hours. I have to be here an hour and a half early, of course - I'll be arriving at six to change and do makeup before a 6:15 fight call.
And then the show goes up.
I'm still kind of in denial. It's really hard to believe that the show is going up. I mean, we only rehearsed for like a month and a bit. Having been in more school musicals than school plays, I'm used to having two-hour rehearsals nearly every day for a minimum of two months (usually around 2.5 months), and then three-hour rehearsals, then four-hour rehearsals, then five-hour rehearsals during tech week. But with this show, we did two-hour rehearsals two or three times a week for a month and a half, and then three- or four-hour rehearsals this week.
So part of the reason I'm kind of like "whoa, this is opening night" is because there wasn't as much buildup to it.
I mean, yes, there was buildup, but... yesterday, I got home at around seven thirty. During tech week of the musical, I got home at around ten.
I feel about the same amount of pressure for this show as I did for the musical, just in a different way. In this show, I'm one of two people who really drives the production, because I'm the main character. If I flub, I have to cover, and it's really awkward. In the musical, if I flub up, the choreography looks weird or props don't get taken onstage or something, and then the entire scene looks horrid because a minor actress missed something. Trust me, it happens.
So no pressure or anything.
Also, COME SEE THE SHOW!