fantasy 'r us

First Game

2006-08-26T20:57:00.000-04:00

Our first football game was yesterday! IT WAS SOOO MUCH FUN!!! WAHOO!!! MY GOODNESS I WANT TO DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN...

Band Camp

2006-08-14T17:12:00.000-04:00

I love band camp. It’s as simple as that. I absolutely love it. In fact, I like it a whole lot more than concert band, which is probably because it presents a challenge to me, something I’ve been lacking for almost my whole life. I had the best time of my life and came back with tan lines up the kazoo, the worst one being the tan line from my socks, and also a horrible farmer’s tan from my shirt sleeves and another tan line from my watch. I’ve definitely gained some muscles, mainly in my legs, but also in my arms and back and I’ve also got a ton of bruises (mostly because I just happen to be accident prone, but also a couple from my drum). It’s the day after and my back is still sore and I expect will be until the next century. I luckily didn’t get poison ivy, which was extremely easy to catch there seeing the path was literally lined with it. It didn’t help that we had to take the long way around to our field because the short way cut through another camp. The food there was okay, but definitely not something you would eat if you had another option and a few things I didn’t eat even though there was no other option. On the plus side they did give us good desserts! The people in band are amazing. They are some of the coolest, most awesome people I have ever met, Cathy being one of the best in my opinion. Some of the guys are still jerks, but I guess you can’t totally get rid of stupid anywhere, and they do buckle down on the field and give their attention to the task in front of them. So in reality they’re not that bad. In the younger grades there’s still some drama and cliques and gossip, but it goes away in the older grades. The only thing that really stunk about band camp was being a rookie. It honestly wasn’t that bad, but whenever something had to be done (i.e. pick up trash, fill in ditches on the field, put away chairs…you get the picture) it was done by us rookies. But other than that, being a rookie wasn’t bad at all.

Sunday
We left at about 10:30 and arrived at Camp Cavell (nicknamed Camp CaHell) at about 12:30/1:00. We then unpacked the bus and ate lunch. After that we put all our stuff in our cabins. The percussionists headed to the field to unpack the trailer and then met up with the full band for a small rehearsal. We had a break at 4:00 and dinner at 5:00 and were back on the field by 6:00. We went over our first song for the football show and Mr. Ridenour, being the genius that he is, changed all of the drumline’s sets. There went five pages (ten sets!) in my carefully crafted dot book. Rawr. Then we learned the first sets of our competition show. After that we headed down to “the lodge” for an activity at about 9:15. We were split up into teams and we played a game in which there was a cup with two dice, a bunch of clothes, and a present wrapped in newspaper and taped a million times over. The game was to roll doubles, put on the clothes, and unwrap the package and the first one to do that won. And then we played some music and danced for a while (not that I danced.) It probably would have been fun if I hadn’t had some killer shin splints. Boy did they HURT! After that the rookies went down to the beach at around 10:00 with Mr. R. and talked about a bunch of stuff and listened to the waves and looked at the sky and the moon. It was amazing. We got back at our cabins at 10:45. I was kept awake for a bit by some people in our cabin freaking out because of spiders (and those stupid shin splints!) but finally managed to get some sleep at about 11:30.
Overall feeling- apprehensive

Monday
I woke up at 6:45 to take a shower (as I did for most of the week) in water that smelled like rotten eggs. Yuck! 8:00 breakfast, 9:00 rehearsal, 12:00 lunch, 1:00 break (I went swimming!), 2:00 sectional, 4:00 break, 5:00 dinner, 6:00 rehearsal, 9:15 watched a movie (The Princess Bride), 11:00 sleep.
Embarrassing moment today- I fell in front of Lee and Jessie R. our drum major (and Cathy’s older sister) and Jessie P. one of our drum minors. Yup. Way to go me.
Overall feeling-tired and worried that I wasn’t going to ever get the hang of marching

Tuesday
8:00 breakfast, 9:00 rehearsal, 12:00 lunch, 1:00 break, 2:00 sectional, 4:00 break, 5:00 dinner, 6:00 rehearsal, 9:15 relay races, 11:00 sleep.
Exciting moment- during lunch Mr. R announced that a few people got to pick something from the “trunk of fun” for excellent marching. I was one of those people. (He had a hat filed with slips of paper with the names of prizes on them. I picked a “horsie” as the paper said…it was a plastic horse that sent me into fits of laughter)
Other- we missed a break because the bass drums were being stupid so Cathy called a bass drum sectional
The band tie-dyed our shirts today. I used blue and a dark red because I didn’t really feel like adding anymore colors. I should have used more dye though, as my shirt is mostly white with splotches of color everywhere.
Overall feeling- extremely frustrated and felt like it had been an extremely long day and VERY, VERY, VERY sore from wearing my drum all day long, even during basics. Ouch. That’s six hours of pain, and I only had the second drum. I wonder how Dean deals with the fourth one!

Wednesday
8:00 breakfast, 9:00 rehearsal, 12:00 lunch, 1:00 break, 2:00 sectional, 4:00 break, 5:00 dinner, 6:00 rehearsal, 9:15 bonfire, 11:00 sleep.
Other- I was soooooo excited after rehearsal because I was finally hitting my sets and playing the music right!!! YEA!!!
The drumline tie-dyed our shirts. We ended up putting both blue and pink on everyone’s and never got around to adding the letters. Oh well, guess we’ll just have to use permanent marker on our own.
The bonfire was awesome. We separated into seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen/AP 8th graders. Then we played a game where Mr. R gave us a word (love) and we went around to each group and they had to sing a portion of a song with the word love in it. The 10th graders got out first, then Mr. R changed the word to wheel because it was going on forever and ever. The juniors ended up winning. We would have been second place if it wasn’t for the rule that the seniors get to make up one song. Jessie R. (our drum major) made up a song about sitting at band camp trying to think of a song with the word wheel. But I guess it’s fair. I mean, I’ll get to do the same thing when I’m a senior.
Overall feeling- starting to think that I possibly could get this

Thursday
8:00 breakfast, 9:00 rehearsal, 12:00 lunch, 1:00 break, 2:00 sectional, 4:00 break, 5:00 dinner, 6:00 rehearsal, 9:00 back at cabins, 10:00 cabin decorating judging, 11:00 talk about skit night, 12:00 sleep.
Other- I got to pick from the trunk of fun again. This time I got these little stick things with magnets on the end and you can build stuff with them. They’re fun to play with. Hehehe.
The judging for the cabin decorating obviously had a lot to do with seniority, so we think we didn’t have a huge chance of winning. But our cabin was awesome so we thought we still had a chance. Apparently we didn’t because the cabins with mostly juniors and seniors got first and second place. We came in third.
Overall feeling- starting to love it

Friday
8:00 breakfast, 9:00 rehearsal, 12:00 lunch, 1:00 break, 2:00 sectional, 4:00 break, 5:00 dinner, 6:00 rehearsal, 9:15 skit night, 11:00 sleep.
Other- Mr. Ridenour walked in five minutes late for dinner. The band demanded he do five laps. Funny thing is…he did. The rookies told him so scream “Rookies are awesome!” He did that too. lol
Skit night was awesome. (I’m typing this on Monday, so I can’t exactly remember all the skits but I’ll try). It started off with Mr. R presenting awards. Some of the awards were funny and some were serious. All in all though, percussion got the most awards! Yeah, we rock! My friend Diana got the most outstanding woodwind rookie, and she had thought the whole week that she wasn’t doing well. Cathy got three awards, one for the most outstanding percussion vet, one for being part of the jazz ensemble, and one for the best person in the whole band. The pit got the award for the most outstanding section. Dean got the “best moves” award for his award-winning performance of bass-drum jogging and bass-drum dancing. And I got the award for the most outstanding percussion rookie. That is the award that I am most proud of. I swear I will always treasure above all the other awards that I’ve received (and let me tell you, I don’t have a scarce supply of awards.) Every year people separate into groups to put on a skit. This year they gave each cabin a bag of junk and said make something out of it and sell it in an infomercial. We ended up making a humongo dorky belt with a bazillion buttons that is meant to prevent electrical shock. Diana was the person who does “the voice” trying to sell you stuff, Katie (my friend) was the sound effects person, Brittany was the narrator person, the other Katie was the ditzy “if-I-can-use-it-you-can-use-it” person, Athena was the curious customer, Lisa was the person using the off brand product, and I was the person using our invention the “No Shock!” We did a scenario of me and Lisa plugging in outlets after licking our finger. Lisa got shocked, but I didn’t because I was wearing the “No Shock!” (I got the part because according to Diana, I make the best face. You know the really dorky ones when people are overly excited that something’s worked. The one you see on stupid commercials where people usually wink? No? Oh well… It must have been funny because I looked over and saw a few people seriously cracking up…mostly the people that “know” me but don’t really “know” me. The people that think I’m shy and not crazy at all.) Some of the other inventions were “Superhero in a Bag” “Bag of 5 Things” (where they just threw five of the junk items into a bag and thought of uses for them) a “Clone Machine” (which was funny because they had twins in their cabin, so the one twin said he wanted to clone himself…) Nay and Cathy’s cabin did a “Joke Machine” one cabin did a “Saxaguitaratrumpapianomaphone” a combination of a guitar, saxophone, trumpet, piano and a phone all in one, a “Sweat-B-Gone”, and my personal favorite a bag of stuff to help you march better. It was my favorite because Bethany imitated a mad Lee and yelled at everybody for marching badly. The best part was when someone couldn’t find their spot and Bethany started yelling at them to “Go sit by the alpacas!” (yes, we have alpacass there) and the person was like “what are alpacas?” and Bethany yelled “THE LLAMAS! GO SIT BY THE LLAMAS!” It was funny because that’s what Lee does. For example Jacob one day was complaining about the biting flies (man, do they sting!) and Lee told him to stop whining. Five minutes later Lee started complaining about the flies and Jacob said “Lee, stop whining!” Lee sent him to the corner. We also did that to him once when he walked in late. Anyway, back to the skit. The chaperones did a skit too, a re-enactment of our week at camp and then the rookie staff did one. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. Steve and two other people put it on. Steve had a toaster. Steve also had two drumsticks…can you guess where this is going? Yup, he started banging on the toaster with the drumsticks in between a little song about…you guessed it…toast. After every verse or so all three would shout out “Yeah TOAST!” Then he started talking in French. After that verse they shouted out… “French TOAST!” Oh my word, I will never look at a toaster the same way again. Ever.
Overall feeling- frustrated at bass drums and not wanting to leave

Saturday
8:00 breakfast, 8:30 pack up and clean cabin, 9:45 rehearsal, 12:00 lunch, 1:00 performance, 2:00 pack trailer, 3:00 leave, 5:00 get home
Other- the performance was awesome, except we had some phasing issues in the third piece. That screwed me up. Which stinks, cuz I’m a bass drum and I’m supposed to be the one keeping the band together…not getting them more confused. Then I remembered to look at the drum major…after we went into tacet. I should have tried harder to memorize the music…
Then we had to stay and pack up the trailer. Percussion didn’t have a choice of leaving…we all had to stay. The rest of the band is supposed to stay and help pack, but it didn’t work that way…So we were stuck there an extra hour because everyone else decided to dump their instruments by the trailer and leave. I mean the least you can do is put your own instrument on the stupid thing.
Overall feeling- extremely sad and depressed I really wanted to stay another week, even if it was a lot of work

Other things:
Shauna’s Drama- Drama Queen, Shauna. Seriously, I hope cheerleading becomes too much for her and she quits, or hopefully she’ll get stuck in pit next year or something, so I don’t have to deal with her. I think this was Thursday. I’ll tell you the correct version of events and then her version…
Correct version- (It was during a bass drum sectional with Lee) She was arguing with her brother because he told her she was playing on the wrong notes. He was right, but he shouldn’t have done it. (Honestly, the notes were on 2 and the and of 3…a 6th grader can play that, but anyway…) She starts fighting with her brother. Lee reprimands her saying that he had an older sister in drumline and they never fought. Then he gives us a water break and we meet up with the rest of the drumline. From what I hear, Shauna starts yelling at Dean for hanging out with her friends (meaning the drumline) when technically (brought up by two-faced Jordan who should also quit) we are all friends together. Kristen (section leader of the pit, a junior) tells Shauna that there shouldn’t be any of that drama at band camp and she doesn’t want to hear her do that again. Then she asks her is she understands. Shauna replies, “Yes, I’m not stupid.” Kristen gives her ten push-ups. Shauna says “I’d rather do laps” so Kristen gives her ten laps. She wasn’t really going to make her do ten, only two or so. Shauna runs the first one then cuts a HUGE corner on the next one. Kristen shouts out “No cutting corners!” Shauna (reminder that she is only a Freshman) shouts “Shut-up!” Kristen yells, “30 push-ups, next time you do that it’s 50!” So Shauna does her push-ups and sulks around to the end of the trailer. *Funny moment* Cathy complains because she’s never gotten to discipline anyone. She turns around and tells us that next time we misbehave she gets to discipline us…lol. *Back to Shauna* So naturally, we were all talking about what had just happened. Shauna apparently heard us and came clutching her stuff and walked away toward camp. Kristen and Cathy both yelled at her to come back. Steve and Lee heard the commotion and came to see what was going on. Lee sees Shauna and tells her to come back…she disobeys his direct order and keeps walking. So Lee takes after her and Steve comes with us. I don’t know what Le told Shauna but I bet it was somewhere along the lines of she can’t walk away after she made a commitment to the team. They were wrong to give her ten laps, but she was also wrong to do the things she did and yada yada ya. Then after practice her apology, as Nay so nicely put it, was a like a badly written line from a cheesy high-school movie. I couldn’t agree more. She said that she was “out-of-line” and that she was “sorry we had to witness her like that” and that she is “normally a nice person” and that she was “wrong to be like that.” The kicker is that she apologized to Kristen and she apologized to the whole group, but she never apologized to her brother. If I had needed convincing that she wasn’t really sorry, that would have been it. Besides, you don’t apologize in front of the whole group. If I had been stupid enough to do something like that (not that I would) I would apologize to the person I had offended alone…not in front of everyone. What she did was just another way to get attention.
Shauna’s version (as uncovered by Diana)- They were wrong to punish her. She walked away because she wasn’t taking “any of their crap.” Lee begged her to come back and “they were lucky she apologized to them.” Two words- Yeah Right.

Lee- he was pretty mad most of the week. I kind of got it by Friday why he was so upset. It was the stupid bass drums. (the other ones, not me obviously…I make it a habit not to call myself stupid) But as an example, one day Shauna asked me if I had my music at the cabin and asked if she could come pick it up after she went swimming. Supposedly she was going to swim for half the time and practice for the other half. She never came for the music. So I know she never practiced. Lee is normally a fun person to be around, but he was getting really upset because he cared about how we sounded and it appeared that some people didn’t care. Wednesday he took me off to the side and apologized for being really hard on the basses because he knew that I was doing my job. He encouraged me to give them a little push every now and them. By Friday I was self-proclaimed leader of the bass drums, which is probably why I was getting frustrated with them because I felt I was responsible of them somehow. And the thing is they never asked for extra help, even though I pushed them Friday, repeating myself like a broken record that it was the last day and if they needed help to GET IT NOW! They never did. And we still have a lot of work to do. (Oh yeah, we still have 3 more drills to learn and one more song to memorize. The song is very hard, and if it’s hard for me, it’s super hard for them. They better be practicing! I will kill them if they’re not!)

AHHHH!!! HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!?!- I swear, all these people came up to me during the week congratulating me on how good I was doing at marching. It was really creepy. I mean, I didn’t even know half of them. And then someone’s mom came up to me and said that you couldn’t tell that I was a rookie on the field. That was creepy because then I felt like people were watching me all the time.

Helen Keller- Not much to say here except that that’s our saying this year…sprouted because the upper battery was telling Helen Keller jokes all week (e.x. She’d be so happy if only she could see it…or hear it! ha ha ha) ….“Do it for Helen.”

Last Day of Pre-Camp

2006-08-03T19:15:00.000-04:00

Yes! I SURVIVED PRE-CAMP!!! And...I had fun! *GASP!* First of all, it stayed cool all day. Or it stayed cool outside. The band room was as hot as ever. And no, basics this morning wern't fun. But it poured rain! During our streaches it rained pretty hard and we all got wet. Then it stopped and we did some more basic work. Then we moved on to drill. That's when it poured rain. I'm not kidding. I was actually shivering. Then Mr. Ridenour, being a ding-bat, told the drumline to get our drums. We were confused. Did he mean put them inside...or did he mean put them on. Apparently he ment put them on. With the exception of Shauna (who thankfully wasn't there), we don't complain much. Well, we were definately complaining then. Especially because we had BRAND NEW MALLETS that WERN'T SUPPOSED TO GET WET! So I stuck mine in my pocket, not that it helped. I could have probably wrung out a pint or two of water from my clothes. Then the superintendent waved over Mr. R. Uh-oh. It was funny though, because we had to go in and everyone was saying, "But why?" which is definately not what normal people would say. But we're not normal, are we? So we took our lunch break early, 11 instead of 12. We all went home and changed. (Me into light/water resistant pants and my super cool drumline shirt. Our slogan this year is..."We're kind of GOOD." We were going to do, "We try to be good," but Lee wouldn't let us.) Anyway, that lunch hour was mostly spent going to three different houses and each of us changing into dry clothes and a peanut butter sandwhich made in two minutes and eating in three and almost arriving late. (We got there at 11:55, and our favorite saying is "If you're early, you're on time and if you're on time, you're LATE! And believe me, you don't want to be late.) But after that, from 12 to 2 we were back outside marching. As usual, basics followed by drill. But this time we got through all of part one! Yippie! The dumline missed a water break, though because we were all trying to write stuff down in our "Dot Books" which expain where we are and what we do for each set. I've only written down ten sets and I hate it already. We ran it begining to end a couple times and then the drumline had to go load the trailer while the horns had to pratice basics. Ha ha! But loading the trailer was work too. Although, I'd rather load the trailer than pratice basics. We got done at about 3 and had a quick ten minute meeting in the cafeteria. Then we were free to go home...and await the arrival of...duh, duh, duh...BAND CAMP!!!

P.S. After the meeting the drumline had a mini-meeting in which we were told to bring a white shirt to ty-dye. Boys are doing blue shirts proclaiming "Bums with Drums" and girls are doing pink shirts proclaiming "Chicks with Sticks." Oh yeah.

Pre-Camp Day 2

2006-08-02T19:36:00.000-04:00

Yea! One more day! Today everyone showed up at 9:00. Then we reviewed basics for a while...from 9 to 11. We rehersed our half-time show in the cafeteria, which thankfully had fans. Then we took a lunch break...Subway again. Katie's mom picked us up and I thankfully got to go home and grab my all important music...which we didn't even use. Then from 1 to 2 we had a sectional in the extremely hot hot hot hot band room. We were sweating like pigs! At least outside had a breeze! Inside was just as hot minus the breeze. Then we went back outside to "march with our instruments" according to Mr. R. But we didn't. We reviewed basics again for about a half an hour...most of which I missed cuz i was being fitted for shoes. Then we finally got to work on our drill sets. Our half-time show has "We Will Rock You" "Final Countdown" and the theme from "Halo." We worked on "We Will Rock You." Most of the time the drumline doesn't do anything so Cathy decided to make up a bunch of stuff. The basses are in back of the snares/quads/cymbols and we're in the way back of the band. So instead of standing still for oh about....70 or so counts, we move from set one to set two in 22 counts (which is only a couple of feet) then we stand still for 20 counts then we merge into one line and back in 16 counts and do it again in another 16 counts except not as far back and then for another 16 counts and while the snares/quads/cymbols lean side to side, we go the other way. We're sweet, dude! Yeah! DRUMLINE BABY! And we got out an hour early (4 insdead of 5) because of the heat!

Today the pain factor decreases, but the soreness factor increases. If that makes any sense. I'm not in pain...no headaches or anything...but I'm extremely sore. I swear, marching works every single muscle in your body. Jacob (who is in pit for our competition show, but on cymbols for the first time for the half time show, the first time he's marched) said that it wasn't that hard...it was fun! He didn't do all the basic work...so he shouldnt' talk. Drill is fun. Basics are not. But maybe drill won't be fun with a big bass drum...

Also today there were two cars who shouted at us. One yelled "You Suck" plus something else which makes me wonder if it was a band hating student or if it was someone from another band...I'm still guessing the former. The other car just screamed "AHHHH!" or something. We were told to ignore it and ignore it I did...they honestly think they can get to us by screaming things at us...yeah right. I think it actually makes me more proud to be in band. Which is some crazy logic, but hey, that's me!

Well...now to await the last day of pre-camp. Then BAND CAMP! Which I'm betting will be a lot harder, but probably much more fun.

P.S. "My toes, my toes, my toes are up my toes are up, my toes, my toes my toes are up my toes are up, my toes..." and "My heels, my heels, my heels are up my heels are up, my heels, my heels, my heels are up my heels are up, my heels..."
Don't ask.

2006-08-01T20:15:00.000-04:00

Being a Rookie isn't actually as bad as I thought it would be. And I actually didn't mind the marching part until 4:00 to 5:30 because it was 96 degrees today and it felt like 109 degrees. At least next week, during band camp, it's supposed to cool off.

So today Rookies met at 9:00 in the auditorium and Mr. R explained everything to us and told us all the rules. Like no correcting upperclassmen even if they're wrong. And if you do anything wrong, such as move while at attention, you get laps or push-ups. And things like not spitting, vomiting, or tearing up the field. Then at 9:30 we met with our section leaders (mine's Cathy!) and went over the basics of marching. (I love Lee! Even if he wasn't at pre-camp he took us out one day and showed us how to march!) Then we made a "Rookie Line" and praticed as a group. We all got push-ups for not being loud enough when we were called to attention. First ten, then four, then two. Then we finally got the picture and screamed "HUT!" rahter than "hut."

Now the Drumline does some thing different from the rest of the band, like marking time. So I was doing it the way Cathy told us to do it and Mr. R corrected me. I looked to Cathy who wasn't looking. During that time Mr. R decided that the only way to make me learn was to physically move my feet himself. So he lunged at me. I forgot all talks of staying in line no matter what and jumped back. Cathy then saw what a predicament I was in and told Mr. R and the rest of the section leaders who were trying to correct the Drumline that we do it differently. Mr. R, being very self-diciplined, got down and gave himself ten push-ups...not an easy feat for him...hehe. We breaked for lunch at 11:30. Almost everyone walked up to Subway, me included. The full band met in the cafeteria at 12:30, we talked a bit more. Then from 1:00 to 2:30. We met in the cafeteria again (instead of outside because it was too darn hot...not that the cafeteria wasn't sweltering) and went over out competition music. We did that until about 3:30 and took a half hour break. Then at four we went outside to pratice marching without our instruments. Oh my goodness was it HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT! We took a water break every 30 minutes, so it wasn't like we wern't hydrated. And if it gets to where people are fainting we move it up to 15 minutes. Oh, and he said if we feel faint, get off the field. He'd rather have us break a command then pass out. We stopped at 5:30, but I had to stay for the Rookie/Parent of Rookie meeting. I was out of the place by 6:30.

Then...finally, I got to go home and take a shower!!!!!!! THAT MAKES ME SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!! I have never sweated so much in my entire life! I swear, I'm still dehydrated although I must have guzzled six waterbottles throughout the day and another two when we stopped. Well, I'm eating dinner and going to bed. Yes! SLEEP! PRECIOUS SLEEP!

Insane Me: What an exciting expereince...just makes you want to get up tomorrow morning and do it again!
Sane Me: NO!
Insane Me: And then agan!
Sane Me: THE HORROR!
Insane Me: And then...
Sane Me: Don't say it!
Insane Me: BAND CAMP!!! YEA!!! WAHOO!!!
Sane Me: ...(faints)...

NOT Goin Camping...

2006-07-31T21:13:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I didn't get to go camping cuz the trailer broke.................ARRRRRRRRGH!!! But, good news, I spent the weekend at Diana's house. We had fun and talked a bunch and swam a little and read some and talked some more and I had my first experience in a Catholic church. Which is really different than what I'm used to. For one thing, Seventh Day Adventists are extremely happy-go-lucky and let-me-help-you-with-that and hi-nice-to-meet-you-i'm-Sam-i-hope-you've-had-a-great-week-do-you-want-to-come-to-lunch-after-Sabbath-or-maybe-you-want-to-come-over-Sunday-and-do-something-cool! I've never experienced holy water, bowing to the cross, making the cross using forehead/shoulders/chest, repling to the pastor, and some other stuff. There was a guest pastor, a missionary, and he actually was pretty good, if a little graphic about the conditions in Haiti. Then I got back and went over to Erin's and swam in her next door neighbor, Jordan's (a girl in 6th grade), pool. Fun! And we played the pretzel game with Jordan, Jordan's brother, Jordan's cousin, Erin, and her brother Tyler. Yea! Well, I should be getting ready for bed now if I want to survive pre-camp tomorrow...ahhhhh! Now I'm offically in high-school! HELP ME!

P.S. I'm reading the DaVinci Code and guess what...it says FICTION on the cover, not NON-FICTION or THE TRUTH! It's actually really good and I always try to figure out the puzzles, although most of the time I just want to read the book and forget figuring the puzzles...

Goin Camping!

2006-07-27T22:22:00.000-04:00

Going camping tomorrow! I'll tell more later!!

YIPPIE-KI-YAY!

Last rehersal before pre-camp...AHHHH!

2006-07-25T20:03:00.000-04:00

Today I got a taste of the hatred people spend on band kids. While we were praticing these kids drove by us and shouted "You SUCK!" which is just wonderful. We were a bit pissed at first, but ended up saying screw them, which is the way it always goes. People are stupid, people will never cease to be stupid, whatever.

On a brighter note, DRUMLINE REHERSAL WAS SO FREAKIN HILARIOUS!!! Oh my goodness it was sooooooo funny. It started at lunch with a discussion of our favorite movies/bands, which was awesome. Then after lunch we got into a discussion on how to play broad tiplets and how they can often become "white man's triplets." Nay, made a little joke about it on the spot. It wasn't that funny, actually, it just got blown out of proportion. All she said was "you better get your Joel's and your mayonaise because it's white man time" with the straightest face and her, Steve, and Cathy started cracking up in silent laugher which sent us basses into silent laughter, for about five minutes. Notice that it's silent which is very weird. You couldn't hear anthing because everyone was silent laughing. Then Cathy was talking about her job at Dairy Queen. Anyway, she said that the only people who buy ice cream at 2:00 in the morining are fatties. Which sent Steve rolling on the round in laughter (quite literally. No really, he was rolling on the ground). He said that he always had suspicions that employees at ice cream places talked about stuff like that and Cathy had proved it true. It made his day.

Today was awesome.

Harvest Moon

2006-07-24T19:36:00.000-04:00

I've spent the past two days zoning out and playing Harvest Moon for Gamecube. It's like a Sims game. You live on a farm and you have to raise a family and a whole herd of animals. Wow. It seems boring, but is extremely addictive. Last summer drumline pratice tomorrow. I'm going to be the only bass drum there. Shauna and Dean will DIE at band camp. They won't know what the heck is going on and no one takes any crap at band camp, somthing Shauna is famous for...

Anyway, that's about it. I've spent my days playing video games. Yippie.

Yea! Not bored!

2006-07-22T14:30:00.000-04:00

I'm not bored anymore. I might get to go camping with my cousins. It makes me happy! Yea! Only it would be camping in a trailer. If my mom says its okay, we leave Friday the 28 and come back Monday. Then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thrusday is pre-camp for band. Then Sunday-Saturday is band camp...oh boy. Mr.R is making us wear the same colored shirts to see our formations better. If he makes us wear black, I will kill him. I know I will probably be needing to go out shopping. I have a lot of dark colors, like dark blue and black. I have some green and orange, and if I absoultely must, a purple and light blue shirt. No yellow or white or red, and to be honest I really, really would need to get a better purple shirt because the one I have is hideous. Well, the shirt isn't bad, I just don't look good in it at all. So I'll have some shopping to do. Wonderful, I love shopping...not. My style of shopping is walk around like a bumbling idoit who has no idea where they're going, spot something I like, try it on, probably not buy it and if I do end up not wearing for a very long time (usually because it's a skirt that I loved, but I don't usually wear skirts...). How fun! lol

IM BORED!!! ARRRGH!

2006-07-21T23:06:00.000-04:00

I'm bored. Summer is boring. There's nothing to do except sit on the computer and take boring quizzes all day long. Saw Disney Channel Movie "Read it and Weep." It was good. Nothing else to say. Katie's in Indiana, Erin's at her dad's preparing to go on a road trip, don't know where Diana is, or Nay for that matter. I'm bored. There's nothing to do...

Ow

2006-07-18T23:10:00.000-04:00

Drumline today was grueling. Lee's friend, Steve (snare drummer) came to help and he too us battery outside. Actually, it was pretty cool outside...okay it was still very hot, I got sunburned for crying out loud, but that's not the point. We had to make an arch around Cathy (lead snare) and I got stuck in the sun, full out, while everyone else got the shade. Okay to be fair, Sam was half in half out and Nick maybe got a bit. Still, that sucked. Add on top of that one of the hardest pratices in my life. (Okay, okay, yes I know this is my first year, but hey, it was HARD!) We played exercises ALL DAY LONG, even though we have to have our first two show pieces down by camp and we only have ONE MORE REHERSAL!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Speaking of which, Shauna and Dean weren't there, of course. Anyway, I'm sore. My fore arms hurt and the front of my legs hurt. Oh, and I guess my wrist hurts as well, but that's because I was playing stupidly...I need to realax more. Now my fingers are starting to hurt from typing so fast. Ow. OW OW OW!!!! (I know I'm complaining, but I can't help it...hehe...) On a brighter note, I got to see Erin today! Yea!

Hiya

2006-07-16T21:53:00.000-04:00

I've realized something. Summer is boring. Not much to do during the summer except sit around...sit outside in the extreme heat (it reached 96 degrees Fahrenheit/35 degrees Celsius today! which is, extremely hot for me...I'd rather it was a bit cooler, like 60F/15C) or sit inside in the nice air conditioning. Ahhh, sweet bliss. Actually, all I've been doing today was sit infront of things. Mostly the computer, but also the TV. We watched Walk the Line, a movie about Johnny Cash, who I'd never heard of until the movie came out. I'm not that good at music. I've had like the best weekend ever, though. Friday, we went out to Dairy Queen (an ice cream place) and then rented some movies. That night we watched Rumor Has It, which was...interesting. Yesterday, we went out to this awesome resturant and today my parents came home at 1:00p.m.! My parents are self-employed asphalt workers, so I rarely see them during the summer, and only a little bit in the spring and fall. In the winter is when I see them the most, which still isn't a whole lot, but at least they have somewhat regualr hours then. We also went to the library, which was pure bliss, seeing as I haven't been there for like a month. I got this really cool book, Peeps by Scott Westerfield. It's a new take on the old vampire stories and is HIGHLY original. Vampirism, in this book, is really a parasite that causes strange behavior. But there's two different strains...the old one and the new one. One is more violent than the other. Also, ever other chapter is about some parasite or other. It features things like lice, toxoplasma gondii, wolbachia, plasmodium, and a couple others, presented in a very interesting, individual way. Honestly, if you can find this book...get it. And I absoultely LOVE the last page of the book, especially the last two sentences. But I shouldn't say anymore, I'd ruin it. Anyway, there's only two more drumline rehersals until band camp...fun? I'm not sure. Some say it's fun. Some change the camp's nickname from Camp Cavell to camp Ca'hell. Wonderful.

See you all later...

P.S. I added my e-mail link to my profile.

2006-07-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

I’m back! I’m back! I’m back! This year was the best year at camp I’ve ever had. I had the best counselor, Clara (pronounced Clahr-ah), and AWESOME cabin buddies! Of course there were Katie and Erin, who are the awesomest friends anyone could ever ask for. There was also Stephanie, who was in our cabin last year. The rest of the cabin included Breyer, Kristen, Chelsea, Jenny, Lia, and Rina. Breyer and Kristen were friends, Chelsea was at camp for the first time in her life, Jenny is somehow related or close friends with our counselor Clara, and Lia and Rina (short for Coralia and Katrina) were sisters. Our ages ranged from 13 (Katie) to 17 (Jenny) but we all got along great. Breyer turned 15 during camp, so we got CAKE and extra BROWNIES! After we had been sugar deprived, it felt like heaven on earth. Here’s the basic routine for camp weekdays:
Morning Song/Wake up 6:55
Village line call at 7:30
Breakfast Line Call at 7:45
Eat breakfast (depends on your number. 1 is first, 10 last)
Go to cabin and clean
Morning Worship at 9:00
Class 1 9:45-11:00
Class 2 11:15-12:30
Lunch Line Call at 12:45
Rest period starts after lunch to 2:45/3:00
Afternoon activity 1
Afternoon activity 2
Afternoon activity 3
Dinner Line Call at 6:00ish
Go back to cabin
Activity Line Call (Time differs…usually around 7:30/8:00)
Taps/Lights Out 10:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were a little bit different, but I’ll explain in a bit. My daily classes were Woodworking (Class 1) and Archery (Class 2). Here, I’ll go day-by-day…Be warned, a whole week of blogging exists beyond this point:

Sunday- We Arrive at Camp Au Sable:
We arrived at camp at 1:45. It took a LONG time to check in. First we stood in line one to register, then we stood in line two to pick our cabin (6B, the furthest from the bathrooms), then we stood in line three to register our medicines (errm, Katie and Erin’s medicines), then we stood in line four to get our wristbands for the water front. (Blue- you can go anywhere, Yellow- you have to wear a lifejacket, Red- you have to stay in the shallow area) We all got blues. Then Erin’s mom left us with Clara, our councilor. We met our fellow cabin mates and headed up to our first line call. Line call consists of standing quietly in well, lines. There we hear important announcements and whatnot, raise/lower the flags, and say grace. Then we file into the dining hall. We have little wooden numbers that tell us when to go up and get our food, buffet style. We were number 8 out of 10…wahoo. After we ate, we went back to the cabin for a while.

I’ll attempt a drawing of where our cabin is:
_ _ _ +++++++
= _ I O

Okay, kinda hard to read, I know, but let’s pretend here. The equals sign is the girls’ bathroom, the “_” and “I” are other cabins and the “O” is our cabin. The plus signs are the athletic shed and field.

Okay, so then we met out in the field for an exciting game of… CAPTURE THE FLAG!! Or rather, talk and laugh at the stupidity of boys playing capture the flag. For those who don’t know the game capture the flag involves running and grabbing an item of value from the other team’s side and making it back to your own side alive. Fun, only if you have a wooded area to sneak around in, instead of a tree-less field where your every move is being watched. Well, when that was over we went to the auditorium to learn more about camp and watch a hilariously stupid video about the camp staff and the first part of our play. We didn’t get back to our cabins until 10:15 or something, so taps didn’t play until a bit later, like 10:30 or 10:40. That doesn’t mean we fell asleep. No, we stayed up talking for a while later before finally shutting up and going sleep.

Monday- First Day of Classes!
We woke up a bit earlier than normal, at around 6:00. Clara had come in and asked us if anyone had wanted to go running. I absolutely did NOT want to go running, but a couple girls did. I went back to sleep. Well, then we ate breakfast, which was some very WEIRD, OVERCOOKED, NEED-A-BUTCHER’S-KNIFE-TO-EVEN-ATTEMPT-TO-EAT, breakfast burritos. Our cabin was already clean, so we didn’t need to go back and clean it, instead we just went straight to the auditorium. Well, my first class was welding, with Erin and Katie. Well, I kinda freaked out when the instructor started talking in a weird welding language that I had no idea even existed. Needless to say, I was extremely uncomfortable and later came to the conclusion to switch to woodworking with Erin. Katie, by some odd whim (or perhaps lured by the possibilities of working with highly dangerous, fiery materials) decided to stay. Then we went to archery, which was AWESOME! I love archery. I actually managed to hit the board every single time and I didn’t even miss the moving target! (Which, let me tell you is a major accomplishment from last year.) Then we went to lunch and finally REST PERIOD! My favorite time of day. Our first afternoon activity was mountain biking, our second activity was the swing, which is a big rope that pulls you up to the top of a tree and drops you after you yank the release cord, and lastly swimming. Well, I went mountain biking and nearly killed myself and would have done the swing if I hadn’t been so darn tired from the stupid bikes. But instead I just helped pull people up. Some boy came up to Erin with a REAL snake, which at first glance looked to be fake. It was cool. Then we went down to the waterfront. While we were waiting for the people to open the gates, me and Erin went to the office to switch our classes. Unfortunately by the time we actually got in the water it had started raining (and let me tell you…it was FREEZING!) And two minutes later we saw lightning, which meant we had to get out. Well, we went to dinner and then a while later saw the second part of the play. We went back to the cabin and went to bed. The end of day one.

Tuesday- Off to Welding…er, Woodworking!
Okay, you know you know the basics of camp I don’t have to go into itsy bitsy little mundane details, I’ll just start off after breakfast, at worship. Well, it is a teen camp…and it is a Christian camp…and well, if you put two and two together, you get…the Talk. Yes, with a capital T and all. That morning, they split up the boys and girls to have the Talk. Mostly our talk consisted of staying modest lest we provoke the boys and soon afterward became the subject of most of our jokes. (example: “Oh! Musn’t do that lest we turn on the boys!” *hysterical laughter*) Then me and Erin went to woodworking for the first time. I drew up a plan to make two bookends that when put together looked like a pine tree. Then to archery, lunch, and rest period. After that our first activity was the nature center. We had a little scavenger hunt upstairs in the rocks and dead stuffed animals, then went downstairs to pet the live ones. Then we got to swimming, this time thankfully without thunderstorms, though it was still cold. Finally we went to the horses and because we were the only cabin going, we got to go on an extra long trail ride, which was fine except I don’t think my horse was in a very good mood. Baylee (the horse) apparently didn’t get along with Erin’s horse, who happened to be in front of me. Not exactly fun when you’re worried about getting thrown off your horse the whole time you’re riding it. Then we went to dinner and the third part of the play. Now, because it was the Fourth of July, the girls and boys separated. The boys went to play capture the flag somewhere, while us girls had a Hawaiian party, leis and all. We got to make s’mores and even got a glimpse of the fireworks the nearby town of grayling put on. We also got to watch a fire dancer, which was awesome!

Wednesday- AHHH! MY HEAD ITCHES!
Well, the day started out fine. Woodworking went good, and so did archery. The only problem that I was even remotely worried about was an apparent breakout of lice the night before. I’ve had lice before, so I wasn’t particularly worried. I mean, it wouldn’t be a big deal if I had it. Well, we weren’t supposed to get checked before third period, but guess what…we got checked before FIRST period. Unfortunately, both Erin and me had it along with Chelsea and Rina. Which would have been fine if (because we weren’t scheduled to be watched until third period we missed ALL of our activities) we didn’t have to wait 5 HOURS before we could return to civilization. We actually missed dinner we were so late. We still got to eat, of course, but in an empty mess hall. The activities we missed were the wall, tubing down the freezing au sable river, and shopping at the store. We did get to see the last part of the play, though.

Thursday- Oh No! The Archery Exam!!
Fortunately for us, we had all the extra time the day before to study. But nothing can prepare you for shooting. (Sorry, Mr. D, but even picturing the target can’t compare to getting up there and shooting a couple rounds.) Well, the deal is, to pass and get your archery badge, you had to get 130 points with 30 arrows. A feat which I had deemed impossible. You also had to pass a multiple choice test of labeling parts of a bow and arrow. (Which was super easy and I finished in under a minute and still got 100%. Erin also got 100% and didn’t take long either.) But I’m getting ahead of myself. Erin and I decided to be partners, and took down each others score. Erin went up first and I was elated when she passed with fifty points to spare. While we were celebrating, the boy next to us said that he passed the test last year with a score of 207. Stupid kid, thought he was better than us girls. Well, he had a surprise coming. I asked that we get a practice round, because the pervious group had gotten one. My first two arrows, unfortunately, missed the target completely. In fact, one of them hit the rim and landed outside the yellow markers and in the forest. Oops. Then, I started using common sense instead of just shooting blindly, which is very inadvisable, mind you. I actually managed to land two bull’s-eyes in the practice round, which wasn’t that comforting because I thought that my luck would run out soon. But I had found where to set my sight. When the real test started, I was nervous as heck, but as I progressed I felt more confident. I managed to land another two bull’s-eyes and the comments from the peanut gallery about shooting a “Robin Hood” (a split arrow) definitely helped me out. After the first round of fifteen arrows I was still kind of nervous though, thinking that any second I would crash and burn. Still, I landed two more bull’s-eyes, and achieved a final score of 219! I was so happy, but was very modest and didn’t go boasting of my achievements to Mr. I-Got-207-Last-Year. See, that just shows you how much better I am. Lol. Erin, of course, would have shot much better if she had had her bow, which was 15 pounds heavier than the heaviest bow we were allowed to use. Anyway, our afternoon activities were Go-Carts, Boats, and the dreaded mountain bikes. Go-Carts were SOOOOOOOO much fun! (Erin would say otherwise) I was paired with Erin and I think I drove her insane. I swerved and nearly bumped into almost everything. At one point I actually let go of the steering wheel and demanded Erin drive (all the while with the gas pedal pressed all the way down). The boats were great too. We got to go on a boat ride, but even more fun was the tubing. They hooked up a round tube thing to the boat and off we (Erin, Katie, and I) went. It was soo much fun. I got thrown about thirty seconds into it, oops. And then again a little while later. Finally I switched with Erin to middle and managed to stay on for the rest of the ride. That night we had a rodeo/carnival. The rodeo was quite boring, and the carnival wasn’t that interesting. But thanks to Erin, I now have the memory of crawling on my hands and knees though a maze. That and the memory of pie-ing Clara!

Friday- Last Day of Classes
It was sad, the last day of classes. I finished my bookends in woodworking and won a candy bar for popping a balloon in archery. In the afternoon we watched a gymnastics show put on by the campers that was fantastic. The main thing was pyramids...pyramids that were four people high! Crazy. Then there was the staff vs. student basketball game. We led for the first half, but the staff ended up winning. Boo! Dinner was cool, the staff SERVED us! And here’s where the brownies come in!!! Yea!!! Go Breyer! And whoever gave us the whipped cream was crazy. We went insane with it. Then, because it is a Christian camp, we had a play put on for us about Jesus. I nearly cried, which is better than last year when I did cry. Then we had “alone time” which was rudely interrupted by a strange man wandering around our “alone time area” and stupid biting flies. The fact that I had to go to the bathroom didn’t help either. So my “alone time” was ruined.

Saturday- Sabbath
The camp is Seventh Day Adventist, which means basically, that they go to church on the “seventh day” or on our calendars, Saturday. So we had church service that morning, which wasn’t helped by the unbelievable pain I was in. My stomach was killing me and I had a really bad headache and to top it all off we were outside on wood benches with daddy-long-legs crawling all over them. Not fun. Then we had lunch outside and I gratefully took two Tylenol, which took the pain away! We had an extra long rest period in which we debated about various controversial issues before departing for our afternoon activity. We had different things we had to do. One of them was a scavenger hunt around the boardwalk which would have been nice if the whole scavenger hunt thing wasn’t part of it. The other, more enjoyable, activity was building a biblical sand sculpture and competing against two other cabins to make the best one. We decided to make Noah’s ark. The boys cabin made Jesus’ death area and the other girls cabin made a cross. Okay, so our boat looked more like Noah’s Submarine, but hey, it still was AWESOME! We even made it so we could pour water into it to make it look as if it was floating on the water. Our hard work paid off… WE WON!! Yea! We didn’t exactly get anything, but it doesn’t matter. Then we went to Campfire Point 1 and were told a WW2 story. It was extremely sad.

Sunday- Day of Parting
Sunday morning, we woke up and packed our things and dragged them outside. We went to breakfast, where unfortunately we were number 10, and said goodbye to Lia and Rina there. Jenny left next, along with Breyer and Kristen, and Stephanie as well. Then we went back to the cabin and met up with Katie’s parents. Chelsea was last to leave, but was only alone for a few minutes and we saw here when we were collecting out store money. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone. On our way back we stopped at the Cracker Barrel, half restaurant-half store! I spent some of my leftover money there.

Well that brings me to the end of my camp adventures. It took me three whole days to recount my adventures! (I typed on Sunday, Monday, and today, Wednesday) Nothing that important is going on. Tomorrow we are finally going to learn how to march with our instruments! AHH! I’m so nervous/apprehensive/dreading having to carry that bass drum around!!! Lol! Well, I’m tired and I have to be getting to bed soon! Goodbye!

Death

2006-07-01T19:15:00.000-04:00

The day before camp was supposed to be one filled with joy and anticipation. And it was...for a while. I didn't wake up to a good start. Nicole was complaining and yelling at me. The whole day kinda went like that too. I ask her to do something, she yells. She asks me to do something, I refuse. Then mom comes home. About two minutes later, my half-sister calls, hysterical on the phone. She says that her mom left a recording on the phone sounding breathless saying "Help me...help me..." over and over until the answering machine ran out. She's a diabetic and breathlessness isn't one of the symptoms so we assume she didn't know what was happening to her (probably a heart-attack) and didn't call 9-1-1 because she didn't know how serious it was. My dad rushed out of the house and my mom was going to call an ambulence, but we didn't know if Judy was home. When my dad and sister (and her kids) got there Judy was cold, not breathing and her lips were blue. My dad called 9-1-1 and administerec CPR. Judy was rushed to the hospital and the kids came here, crying. My dad and half-sister left back with her husband to go to the hospital. All the while I prayed. It wasn't fair. Not to me, but to my two half-sisters, to my little sister who was supposed to go to vacation Bible school with Judy, and most of all it wasn't fair to Judy. I would hate to suffocating...I would hate to die alone...to die under both conditions is just horrible. I told God that it wasn't fair, and that even if he could bring her back for a minute to see that her daughter was with her it would be better. Just that one minute to see that she wasn't alone. That's the toughest part...look my eyes are watering again. Well, it didn't work. The group who had left came back crying which sent my nephews into another fit of crying too. My other half-sister, Jen, who lives in Georgia took it pretty hard. While I go to camp, she and her husband Mike are coming up here and staying in my room. Yes, I'm still going to camp. I hate funerals. Honestly, the only funerals I would go to are my closest friends, my parents, and my grandparents. (Although my Grandma died, and I didn't go to her funeral, but that was because I wasn't allowed.) Besides I wouldn't do anything except be sad, sit home and watch TV. Judy loved God, so I don't have any worries for her at all. She'll be happy. As I sit here writing this, I baby sit my little sister and my two nephews (one is 10 and the other is 8) while my parents and their parents go to clean up the house and take care of he dog, which no one expected to out live Judy. (Vicky, the dog, is 14, the same age as me). Well, I won't be able to post anything for a week, but I promise as soon as I get back I'll write all about it. What a way to start a vacation, huh?

Drumline Rehersal #3

2006-06-27T22:36:00.000-04:00

5 days till camp!!!! YEA!!! Drumline was kinda boring today. The highlight happened when a ligntning bolt from an approaching storm came down out of a clear sky. It was sweet. It was awesome. It was cool. It was...okay, okay, I know you get it. So yeah, that's about it. Erin came over. We took personality quizzes. (one GREAT in-depth, real quality personality test website is http://similarminds.com )On the Jung personality test, Erin scored an INFP. Here's my results: INTP (Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving) "Architect" Greatest percision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 3.3% of total population. I also took some others. I forgot which tests they go to, but here's the results. "Type 5: Feels ambivalent about the world, consequently their mind is usually their best friend. Gifted in analysis and making sense of things, perception and invention come naturally. Thier inner world can become a hideaway from the real one." Yea, go me.

Been a while...

2006-06-26T17:58:00.000-04:00

Yes, it has been awhile since my last post. Partly because I've been out of it most of the time and partly because of my room. We're almost done painting it. Yea! Although, the colors looked different than the color samples. My first thought of the "beige" color was "Oh my goodness! I'm living in a field of yellow daisies!!!" I used pastel green for my border color and that looked okay. Then I got out the dark green. Katie, who was helping me paint the trim, thought of a lovely adjective to describe it. Baby Poop Green. Yes. But, surprisingly, after getting more coats on it actually looks pretty cool. We're not totally done and I haven't even started the lettering on the quotes, but that's okay. I think it's gonna look awesome. Hmmm, another big event in my life is that I had my second drumline rehersal. It was no big deal, we stayed inside the whole time, and the time kinda flew past. Oh, I also finished My Sister's Keeper which is an AWESOME and EXTREMELY SAD book. I cried at the end. Anything else worth mentioning? Well, Diana went on vacation to Washington, DC. Lucky. Erin got back from camp, and we're all going to go up to Grayling in 6 days!!! YEA! Well, that's about it. Yup. (Tormorrow's drumline rehersal #3!)

Blah

2006-06-21T21:36:00.000-04:00

Another boring day, not much to talk about. I went to missionettes (a church group) during a tornado watch. Big deal, the tornados were in the county south of us anyway. I also finished a book called Teach Me by R. A. Nelson. It was good. Somewhat controversial. That's it. Tomorrow's Drumline pratice, yippie.

Drumline Rehersal #1

2006-06-20T22:57:00.001-04:00

Technically it isn't the first drumline rehersal, but it is the first drumline rehersal that runs from 10a.m. to 4p.m. I had visions of it being the incredibly terrifing nightmare that you couldn't ecape from...but it honestly wasn't that bad at all. I was only afraid because I thought we were going to march all day, when in reality we didn't march at all. Lee, our instructor, is freaking sweet, man. He is awesome. He is a student at Michigan State University (where, coincidentally my mom went) and he plays bass drum on their drumline. He loves to talk, about irrelivant, but still totally awesome things and he knows when to work. The only time he gets ticked off is if we start regressing instead of progressing. But that's understandable. Well anyway, the only thing really bad about today was that we had to move our drums SIX TIMES! (keep in mind that each move takes us threetrips to totally move our stuff) Now, the pit only had to move TWICE and they have stupid WHEELS!!! grrr. Though I guess I'd better get used to it. Even if I now have a bruise where the side of the drum kept banging into my hip. Oh, and I had to give Nay a pep talk when she thought she was the worst player ever and wanted to just quit. I told her that she must have been good to make it on snare in the first place and yada-yada-ya. She got kinda quiet as she thought about it. After a while she stared up again. I told her that I had lethal weapons in my hands (my drumsticks) and I would smack her if she said it again. She replied "Great add physical abuse to my mental abuse. Real nice Amanda." lol. She got better in the end though and all is well in the drumline. (except for the fact that shauna decided to take a two week vacation and she really needs to work. rhythms don't just come to you in a flash of brilliance...you need to PRATICE!!!)

My New Blog

2006-06-19T13:19:00.000-04:00

I created a cool new blog! It's called "A Whole New Word" and is a collection of odd, interesting, or just plain cool words. (Or at least, the begining of a collection!) Visit it at http://awholenewword.blogspot.com Thank You!

My Dream Guy

2006-06-18T21:24:00.000-04:00

I was thinking (again), this time about my dream guy. Okay, okay, yes this post might be a bit boring, but hey, this is my blog and I can type what I want. lol. So I want to describe the perfect guy, who is probably only real in my fantasies, unfortunately. To start, he has to be smart enough to hold an intelligent conversation with me. He also has to value all kinds of people, he can't be racist or sexist. He has to be a total gentelman...well not totally. Some modern characteristics are do-able, but I would still like that sense of being a lady, not just some teen girl. I don't want to be clung to or suffocated with the reek of overprotective male. I would like to be taken care of, but only to a point. I need my personal space too. He also can't even so much as think of cheating on me. I'll kill him. And he can't be a jerk. That means no making fun of people or being rude. But I would also like a healthy dose of cynicism, I find overly optimistic people unattractive. I wouldn't mind if he was a little cold. I also wouldn't mind so much if he kept in contact with his exes, as long as they wern't jelaous jerks. But if he ever dated someone like that, I would want it to be a big mistake on his part. I also would enjoy a good argument from time to time, on political issues or such, not on relationship threatening issues. Oh, and he has to be slightly romantic. Not overspilling with romance, but just enough. His physical apperance isn't as important as his character, but for certian he can't smoke (of if he does would quit for me, but I'd prefer he didn't in the first place), and absoultely cannot do drugs, be in gangs, or be a criminal of anykind. True love doesn't focus on outward apperance, but hey, this is my dream guy we're talking about here. So, I'll describe the physical characteristics. Well, he really shouldn't be out of shape, but I wouldn't want a guy focused on building muscles either, or for that matter a really geeky skinny guy. Not that there's anything wrong with any of them, it's just that they're not my type. (If I had to pick one of the three body types, I think I'd go for the skinny one.) I'd rather have someone that's got the right amount of muscle. I really don't care about the "classic V shape" either. Okay, ideal hight would be a couple inches taller then me (I'm 5'6'' currently, and I'm not expecting to grow much more). My favorite hair color would have to be black, kept at a medium length. (I don't like short hair that much, but longer hair is okay.) Eye color would be a blue or a green. I guess a dark brown would be fine, but I'd prefer a blue or green. The ethnicities I would be most likely to date are caucasian, asian, and american indian...or a mixture of each. So there you have it, my dream guy. :-)

Random Thoughts

2006-06-17T22:48:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow we have to go pick up from Nicole from camp. Darn. She's not that bad, but (not to sound mean) I really enjoyed a week without her. The downside is that we have to leave at 6:00 in the morning. And I had to refuse an offer to spend the night at Katie's house. Erin's going to camp next week, so I won't get to see her. I'll see Nay Tuesday and Thursday during drumline pratice, and I'll see Katie and Diana soon, when I paint my room. The wallpaper is almost off my walls now (and it was only a border, I wonder how people with whole WALLS of wallpaper deal!). I swear, if you want a workout, take off wallpaper.
Anyway, I've been on the blogthings website taking quizzes all day (inbetween scrubbing the wallpaper off my walls!), and I really got thinking about me. I mean, very deep thoughts. I'd rather have have a few close friends opposed to a large group of acquaintances. I'm a little more introverted than extroverted. I love holding intelligent, if not controversial, conversations with people. I'm a bit cynical, though not over the top. I'm great at figuring people out and tailoring my personality to fit their wants, which is why I love blogging so much...I can just be FREE. I value tolerance of other religions, races, and types of people, humility, and loyality above honesty and generosity.
There are a couple things I would definately change about me though. One thing is how I look. Duh. I would love hair that behaved. (or hair that looked like Erins!) I would also love to give myself more guts to do stuff. Like with the roller coasters, I would love to go on one, but I'm scared out of my mind. People say "just do it" but they don't understand that there's more to it than that. I think about things too much and it leads to trouble sometimes. I would also changed how people saw me. Instead of being that quiet, shy, seemingly easy-to-manipulate-girl, I'd want to be that dangerous, mysterious, don't-mess-with-her type girl. Which is why I admire Nay so much I guess. I would also change myself to be more open, to not care what other people think. I don't care what people reading this might think because no matter how much I describe myself, they will never know me. When people know me, I care what they think, which I consider to be my biggest fault.
Okay, so now you know the in depth version of me. Honestly, this post was all for me, not to sound selfish. But it was all for me to figure out who I am. (Which sounds very cheesy, but it's true!)

Summer Break... YEA!

2006-06-16T18:02:00.000-04:00

I love summer break! Yesterday, I spent the night at Erin's house. We went SWIMMING and made S'MORES! Then we watched (or at least I attempted to) Pirates of the Caribbean, except I kinda fell asleep halfway through it. Oops. We also spent almost the whole afternoon on www.blogthings.com doing all the cool quizzes. (Kinda lame, huh? But we had fun!) Then we got up and Erin made these AWESOME pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. Oh yeah! Even her little brother couldn't resist them...hehe. Then we went up to Target and Tyler got a Gameshark (the little cheater) but it was defective so we had to take it back. But all worked out in the end. (Even if so far I'm the only one who figured out how to program the codes into the Gameshark off the internet, but I'm sure if Erin tired she could too.) And then we watched the best TV show ever created...HOUSE! I love House!
Oh, guess what? I cleared out ALL the stuff in my bedroom! I am finally going to paint it. I think I'm gonna make the walls a tan/beige-ish color and have the accent a dark green. And I'm gonna put quotes around my border. Yea! (I'm hyper today, can you tell? Must be all the sun!) HEHEHEHEHE!!!!
See you later...bye!!!!!!

New Friends

2006-06-13T14:17:00.000-04:00

Look, I made new friends! Yea!

http://rebekahatschool.blogspot.com/

http://dokiandfriends.blogspot.com/

http://catchanimals.blogspot.com/

Last Day of School

2006-06-13T13:51:00.000-04:00

I was initally going to post the last day of school with my Cedar Point trip, but I think the Cedar Point post was long enough. There's really not that much to tell about the last day except that it was very sad and depressing. Not the never having to see some of the teachers ever again part, but the departing with the teachers I love and the building I spent four years of my life in. The most depressing part was when I walked out of the bandroom. That was sad. But other than that, I really can't believe how fast this year went by. Wow. There are no words to explain it. One thing I do know is that next year will be a lot tougher. But, I'm looking forward to the challenge! Goodbye classmates. See you next year. I'M A FRESHMAN NOW!!!

Cedar Point Trip

2006-06-13T12:44:00.000-04:00

Okay, I admit it, I chickened out. Yes, I chickened out. Maybe if the Raptor had been my first ride I would have done it. But, since it was one of the last ones I was thinking about it all day and I chickened out. I also flat out refused to go on Sky Hawk or the Gemini (well, the one WORKING car of the Gemini). I guess from that statement there, you can guess I didn't go on any big ones such as the Millenium Force or the Dragster. I didn't go on the Blue Streak, the Mean Streak, the Magnum, the...okay, lets make this easy. I'll tell you the ones I did go on. I went on the Mine Ride twice, the Iron Dragon three times, the Wildcat twice, and the indoors one (I forgot what it was called) once. I also went on the Witches Wheel, the spiny swings, and the another spiny thingy. That's about it, and contrary to popular belief, I did have fun, even if I regretted not going on things a little bit. But as we left at 8 o'clock, the fun was only just begining. The bus ride home was possibly the most dangerous part of the whole trip...for the people behind us. Let's see, Erin thought of 6 ways to kill them without any weapons, Diana thought of some other to kill them without weapons, then ditched that idea and went for the weapons. Nay thought of her very scary family. I'm not joking. Let's just say that they could come straight out of a western movie...guns and all. Why do these people in the back deserve to die? Well, because they were (insert swear word of choice here) annoying and deserved to go to *bleep.* It was a THREE HOUR RIDE by charter bus when it normally takes only ONE AN A HALF hours in a car. And we had to deal with them.

It all started when they were being rude and obnoxious, while people were trying to sleep. They were making fun of a kid who was throwing-up in the bathroom and were causing general chaos. After a while conversation moved on to something else, but that doesn't mean they got quieter. No. So Nay and I turned around and politely asked them to keep it down. My exact words were "Hey, you guys..." (Nay said something) "Would you mind not talking so loud? Thank you." I was pretty mad, but didn't yell at them or anything and hoped they would just SHUT UP! But no, they kept on talking...this time louder! I blew it and turned around to yell at them. Again, my exact words..."You think I'm kidding! I'm not!" I guess the fact that the quiet girl stared them down and yelled at them had some effect, either that or they were talking about us and didn't want us to hear, because they were somewhat quieter. I fiugured it was problem solved. Diana was asleep, so me, Erin and Nay talked amongst ourselves. Ok, I admit, a little about them, but mostly about what we wanted to do with them. (Keep in mind that we had to deal with them on the way down there as well as the way back.) I was wrong, though. This one kid, Ali, comes out into the isle and "accidentally" falls on me (let me tell you, he's not a small kid). His arm hit Haley on the head, who was sitting right in front of us. I would have hit him back if I hadn't been in shock and still doubtful over whether he really meant to do it or not. Apparentally he did, because he just "apologized" and sat back down. That burned Nay up, big time. Erin, honest to God, I swear she was going to kill somebody. A little quirk about her is that you can tell what mood she's in by the color of her eyes. When they're a dull bluish gray-she's sad or bored, when they're a mix of blue, brown, and green-she's excited or happy, when they're Windex colored, she's ready to kill someone. Well, her eyes were brighter than windex and were literally glowing in the dark. I swear we were on the bus ride from ____. Diana woke up and though she missed the worst of it, she still got so angry at their lack of respect. Throughout the whole ride home, they were loud and obnoxious. We did not deserve it. When we were about a half hour away one of the girls sincerly apoligized, but the smart alek-y had to ruin it. She said in a very obnoxious, sarcastic voice, "Yeah, sorry." I consider my temper a rope. There are certian levels that snap before others, and I was dangerously close to the whole rope being cut in half. I flung arond in my seat and glared at her. I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was somewhere along the lines of "Stop it." The nicer girl said something like, "What the heck, I just apoligized." I told her that she was fine, and turned back to the rude one and said "You're not." We had finally arrived home, but the drama decided to take one last twist. Erin and I, along with Katie, who had fallen asleep listeing to her music, were talking to Zack. Obviously about the events that had just occured. The rude girl passed us and yelled, "You shouldn't talk sh** about people." How hipocritical. Remember my rope? Erin's a heck of a lot thinner than mine. She dropped he bag and would've gone after her. I literally barked her name, and unfortunately turned back to us and away from the little witch. We finally got home at 11:30 and I didn't fall asleep until 1 because I felt like I was on the Witches Wheel or some huge roller coaster every time I closed my eyes. What a perfect ending to an otherwise enjoyable day.

Dropping off Nicole

2006-06-11T21:59:00.000-04:00

I am back from my adventures to camp! Yea, the Nicole is gone! A whole week of bliss! It's amazing! lol I love that place, and I can't wait till I go there (along with my bestest friends, Erin and Katie). It was nice though. I got to see the camp and I spent some quality girl-on-girl time with my mom, always useful. I wonder how Nicole's doing right now, probably trying to get to sleep. The first night is always the hardest, cuz you're not tired and you're so excited sleep is impossible. The next night, though, you're exhausted and are out even before Taps plays. Anyway, I'd better get going to bed. Tomorrow we're going to CEDAR POINT! Wahoo. I'm in for some trouble. The last time I went on a roller coaster was like when I was 7. And it was a very tiny one. I absolutly refuse to go on Mellinium and the Dragster. There is no way you can make me. We plan to start out on the Raptor or possibly the Blue Streak. What joy. I know I'm gonna love them, but all this anticipation is KILLING me. I bet you I'll have nightmares tonight! AHHHHHHH!

Before Camp

2006-06-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

I spent the night at Erin's house last night. We watched X-2 until like 1 a.m., which wasn't very smart concidering I had to get up at 8 today. Oh well. We leave to take Nicole to came in a few minutes. I'm going to keep my mom company. Ah! I'm trying to get driving directions and my computer is acting stupid. Anyway, Nicole's going to the same camp that I'm going to on the first week of July. I can't wait. Wow. Map quest estimates our driving time to be 3 hours, 12 minutes. Joy. Okay, so I'd better go help pack the car. I'll post what happened late. Bye!

Erin

2006-06-10T19:14:00.000-04:00

Hi Erin! If anyone is curious about who this mysterious Erin might be, then visit her blog...

at http://blog-erin-.blogspot.com/

Drumline

2006-06-10T14:56:00.000-04:00

Okay, so here's the deal. Drumline is aswesome. Nay and I are both in Battery and Jacob is in Pit. (Battery is the marching portion of the drumline, and pit is the group off to the side) Anyway, I play 2nd bass, Nay plays snare (she is, by the way, the first non-percussionest to ever get snare and the first freshman to ever get snare. Oh and Jacob plays the marimba) So we meet Tuesdays and Thrsdays after school to reherse. When school gets out, we will meet from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Which is about 5 hours of playing if you count in all the breaks. Our instructor, Lee, is awesome. Kind crazy, but then again, aren't all percussionists? The only drawback is that bass drums are incredibly heavy, so I have to start working out to build my back muscles. Either that or get a back brace which probably wouldn't be that comfortable. I'd prefer working out to wearing one of those, but that's just me. Well I'd better go help my sister pack for camp (its a three hour ride there and we leave tomorow) I'll tell you how it went later! Adios amigos!

Friends Bio

2006-06-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

I'm not done talking yet. I figured I should give you a bio of some of the people I might talk about in my blog. So here it goes, first there’s me-
Name: Amanda
Nickname: Salamanderz, Manderz, Manda
Instrument: Clarinet/Percussion (bass drum this marching season)

Name: Erin
Nickname: Lucky Charms
Status: Best Friend
Time of current status: Since 2nd grade
Instrument: Musically Challenged
Comments: I love her. Is absolutely gorgeous

Name: Katie
Nickname: Squishy
Status: Awesome Friend
Instrument: Saxophone (aka. Saxamaphone or sexy-phone) Is marching guard.
Time of current status: Since 3/4th grade
Comments: Insane

Name: Diana
Nickname: ?
Status: Great Friend
Time of current status: Since 8th grade
Instrument: Flute
Comments: Smart, Very easy to get lost in conversation with

Name: Natalie
Nickname: Nay
Status: New Friend
Time of current status: Since 8th grade
Instrument: Bass Clarinet/Percussion (this year it’s snare drum)/Piano
Comments: Cynical, yet funny. I admire the “I don’t care” act she puts on.

Name: Jacob
Nickname: Kenny
Status: Old Friend
Time of current status: Since Kindergarten (no joke)
Instrument: Percussion (can play a few notes on a flute)
Comments: Not the best of friends, we fight like brother and sister, we mostly talked (argued) during our math class. Nay joined in often.

Fellow (Freshman) Band Geeks: Brian, Shelly, Amber, Katie (flute), Meredith, Brittany, Jordan, Diana, Amanda (flute), Chelsea, Katie (saxophone), Haley, Kylie, Amanda (tenor sax), Ashley, Eric, Jacob, Shauna, and Kenny. I think that’s it, I left out the people who are quitting, cuz they don’t count.

Well, that’s it for now. I think I might list more people later.

8th Grade Dance

2006-06-09T22:36:00.000-04:00

Today was our eighth grade dance. Oh my God, it was amazing. No, none of our school's idioitic boys asked me to dance, but I really don't care. I know some people say that when inside they're really crying, but that's not me. If any boy had asked me to dance, I would be extremely upset about coming up with a reason to refuse. I'm quiet and nice, but that doesn't mean I'm desperate. You would have to pay me millions of dollars to date almost any guy in our crack-pot school. When I get into high-school, that might all change though *Wink, wink, Erin...you said you wanted to know whom I might have a crush on (NOW GIVE ME A HINT TO WHO IT MIGHT BE!!!!)* Yeah, it was me, Erin, Katie, Diana, and Nay (Natalie) who all went together. I love all of them. Erin and Katie, I've known forever, I met Diana just this year, and Nay I've know from last year, but I really just started being friends with her this year. Everyone except Erin is a band geek, but we love Erin anyway. Erin started to freak out about going to a different school and probably never seeing anyone again, even the people she doesn't like, and is seriously reconcidering staying at our school. Diana and Katie mostly danced the whole time while Nay, Erin, and I sat and talked most of the time. We did do the country dance where you dance in circles one way then switch to the other way, then switch partners. That was awesome. In the begining I had fun dancing our "Horse" dance (which is a song we dance to in marching band). Right now though I am so incredibly tired and my feet hurt thanks to the super high heels I wore. When we were all talking about stuff, Nay brought up the point that I'm too quiet/nice, and I have to say I agree 100%. (Except if you really know me, then you know I can talk forever and can be pretty darn mean sometimes.) But in school, I am too nice. Well, anyway, we were talking about this one kid and how he asked me one day if I was going out with this other kid...Of course I wasn't. I've never even been on any sembelence of a date and I highly doubt any guy has taken a liking in me (except if you want to count this one kid in like 2nd grade, but it doesn't count because he's been dating another girl for like 9 months now.) But, as I was saying, (I tend to get off subject, have you noticed. I also jump around in my talking, I'll start with the ending, tell the begining, then explain the middle...hehe) ACHEMM! CONSICENCE!I I WAS TALKING HERE!!!! So, as I was saying, Nay told me that one day I should just tell him off or something just to show I am not here to be stepped on. She wasn't kidding either. And that's awesome, cuz I really would LOVE to do that. She said she has this amazing ability to read people, and after that I think I agree. The thing is, I would probably never have enough guts to pull a stunt like that. Maybe if he said something about me where I heard him, or if he said something to my face, but I could never start it. I don't know, maybe I am too nice.

...Dang, I wrote a lot!

Random Question

2006-06-06T22:08:00.000-04:00

Hello! I am answering a random question...it was on my profile, but i couldnt answer it the way i wanted cuz it was more than 150 characters, so ill answer it here. The children are waiting! Please tell them the story about the bald frog with the wig: Once upon a time there was a frog very handsome frog with a very handsome head of hair who lived in a well. Well, Mr. Frog had just finished tidying up his room when a ring plops down and wrecks all his hard work. Mr. Frog is not what you would call paitent (he takes anger management classes, but they don't seem to be working). Mr. Frog leaped out of the well vowing revenge on whoever threw the ring in the well. Well, it turns out that the ring belonged to the local princess, who was a snotty bratt. (Mr. Frog found this out when he went to yell at the princess) As the princess was yelling at him for stealing her ring, he leaped out the window, struck by the brilliant idea that he would destroy the ring forever. By an accident, he slipped on the ring. Little did he know that it was a magic ring, and evil ring. In fact it turned him into...a baldie. Yes, childern, a baldie. Mr. Frog had gone back to grab something from his home in the well, when he saw his reflection. He happened to be in mid-air and was stunned out of his wits, which resulted in a very painful belly-flop. (The princess, of course, lived happily ever after because that's what happenes to all those stupid princesses who are snobby bratts and never know the real world.)

The moral of the story: Never Live in a Well. Yea, I like my story!!! lol

hellooooooo

2006-06-05T19:38:00.000-04:00

yea! this is my first post in this blog! i hope this one won't crash and burn like the one i started on aol, but it was stupid and none of my friends could read it, so ta-da! my blog name is Cedar, but my real name is actually amanda, a name that i absolutly despise because EVERYONE is named amanda, grrrrrr, so i picked a cool name that i WISH i had. anyway, i'm very happy because school is out in 1 week, 1 day! i hate our stupid middle school, especially the principal, and am so glad that i will never have to step foot in the cursed place again (not that the high school is any better, but the principal seems nicer.) my friend, erin, is soooooo lucky! she gets to move to another school that kicks our school's butt! i honestly would pack up and leave in an instant if it wern't for the two most awesomest teachers in the universe, my band teachers! anyway, that's my life at a glance...

p.s. ...DRUMLINE ROCKS!...