Bittersweet

Goodbye?

2012-01-07T01:27:00.000-08:00

I have mostly decided to give up something that has been a large part of me for quite a while: track.

There is a multitude of reasons for my making this decision, but there is one that is most easy to understand and probably the most respectable. I'm not stopping because of the running, but more because of the time and effort that must be invested in it. There are so many things that I want and need to do that I haven't been and wouldn't be able to do because of track.

In the past, I've always put the highest priority on band for the first half of the school year, then pushed it aside and made it secondary in the second half to track. Somehow, though, that's something that I don't think I can do here. Perhaps it's my being in a place of responsibility in the jazz band or the higher exposure to the director's observation. Maybe I'm just beginning to realize how much I care about my musicianship. For whatever reason, I don't think I can ignore band this year. I have the feeling that I'm going to have to put a lot more into it than I ever have before.

I've been developing more stable plans for my future than I've ever had before, plans that will require a lot of work and preparation. There's a lot that I want to work toward that will require quite a bit of time and effort. I don't plan on running after high school, so I feel that a high school's interest can be compromised for my lifelong dreams.

Running is something that has threatened to crush me before. It's such a high-stress activity at all times. In even the few weeks that I was beginning conditioning here at Riverton, I began to feel underneath more than I could handle. I was starting to break, much like how I felt last year, but this time into so many more pieces.

The activity of running itself, I'll admit, is something that I've never said I loved. I do, however, love the experience that can only be felt on a track, in a race. I love that pure exhilaration, that rush of adrenaline. I love that desire to always go faster. I love to give everything left in my body to that final stretch of track. I like the track atmosphere, which is one of both self-achievement and team camaraderie. I like the definite goals set with times and PRs. Yes, I even like the shoes. Track spikes are on my list of favorite material objects (I really do love spikes).

Also, I know how important my involvement in one of my father's favorite things has made him so happy. I know that by ending it, I'm probably killing a part of the joy within him. He's always had such an avid interest in track, which is part of the reason why I got into it in the first place. He was so looking forward to getting me into jumping this year.

That's why giving track up is something that is possibly tearing me apart. It truly has been a huge part of me, and there are very few activities that I can say that about. Yes, I have quit things before, but none of them having such a hold on me as this. I don't necessarily want to give it up, I just feel like it's something that should be done. Still, as I write this, I don't feel like it can be true that I'm quitting track.

Perhaps, if there's any chance I'll be let to, I'll be able to maybe be a jumper-only. I know I'm really no good at jumping, but it could perhaps ease some of Dad's upset. But what track team lets someone show up only at meets to do nothing but jump?

In any case, I'll still go to meets, to watch and encourage. To feel that track atmosphere.

A Clarification

2011-11-11T23:58:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I said that at Timpview, there "wasn't much room for fun." For that post's sake, I felt it was an accurate statement. However, it does need some elaboration to clarify what I really feel.

It's not that Timpview isn't fun. It's just missing a certain element, an element which I feel is important. It's hard to put words to it. This factor is what puts the awe into an ensemble. It's what makes a group something new and exciting.

I had fun at Timpview and I made a startlingly large number of memories for one year. I love the people there; why else would I keep showing up to visit? I realize now that the friends I made there are important to me, very important.

Needed

2011-11-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

Yet another marching season gone. Just like that, it's passed.

This season carried its own challenges and plenty of them. Riverton's band is dysfunctional to say the least. It's been a learning experience, though. I've worked in great programs and under great directors, so I feel like I can bring something to this band. I feel like I'm finally needed.

In Easley, I felt like a contributing member. I wasn't necessarily absolutely needed, but I carried some weight. The Chelaks were a big deal there. We were definitely leaders in the program, even the little me.

After leaving Easley, I was pretty miserable. In Timpview's program, I felt like there wasn't much room for fun (sorry to my Timpview readers). It was a strict, no-nonsense band. That's good; they get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. It works for them, but I felt like it didn't work for me. I didn't feel like I fit as well into the program. I didn't know where I could help, what I could do; I wasn't needed.

So I left Timpview. I came here to Riverton. After my first rehearsal, I was honestly and truly frightened. This band had obvious issues; they spent three hours doing next to nothing. I didn't want to come back; I didn't know what to do. I thought I couldn't exist in a program that didn't work.

I made myself show up to rehearsals, though. I couldn't give up on band. It's all I have; it's who I am. At each practice, though, the internal issues only became more apparent. The leadership structure was shoddy and falling apart. The people didn't like one another. The staff and director weren't doing anything with our time. It was all enough to make me fall apart.

I found somewhere inside me a place that I could go for the three hours of rehearsal. I didn't like it; it was cold and distant and not a pleasant place to be. But it made things bearable. If I simply left whatever part of me that cared and went to this place, I could get through it. So for these summer rehearsals, I didn't say a word. I was shut off in this place of mine. I don't have a clue what people's impressions of me were. I don't know if they thought I was shy or simply didn't talk.

Things gradually got better. I started to let go of the "getting things done" hope and began to accept the time-wasting, carefree, relaxed aspect of this band. I began to hang around a group of people who at least acknowledged me. I still went to that place of mine, though.

When band camp rolled around, I didn't know what to expect. I was prepared for upset. We mostly wasted time. The band couldn't handle having a new director, who couldn't handle having a new band. Our drill wasn't completely written, so we spent a lot of time inside.

The season continued, and I began to introduce my "leadership" side of me. I tried to stop some of the crap that I saw; I tried making suggestions that would, in my opinion, benefit the band. I've gathered a lot from what works in a program and what doesn't. I tried to express that.

We went through the motions at rehearsals without really doing any work. I could see a mentality within the band that as long as we showed up, we would get better. That's not true, though, and we didn't. We remained at relatively the same level the entire season. People kept expecting our scores to go up, for us to place, but were shocked and upset when they didn't. They didn't want to put in any effort, though.

Now the season's over and not much has changed. People still predict the next section leaders using their method of picking whoever's been there the longest. There are still complete issues with attitudes. The bus is still an absolute wreck after our trips.

I have hope, though. I see these things and Mr. Faires sees that I see them. The band recognizes that I have experience and some of them look up to me. I wonder how much I can bring to this band in the remaining time I have left.

Still, though, I find myself back in that place inside my mind. A lot of what I have to say ends up shut off. I don't want to intrude or seem like a jerk, but is that what they need? Do they need someone to slap them in the face to get them to wake up?

Stress

2011-01-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

My life should be relatively carefree, right? I'm a young teenager with no responsibilities and nothing to worry about, right?

I wish. With all my heart and soul, that's all I want. For some reason, however, I manage to make my little involvements into something that consumes me. I feel overwhelmed with this weight that's crushing down on me from all sides.

The most frustrating thing, though, is that this weight should be as light as a feather. The burden that I carry should only be a minor discomfort.

Really, I'm only involved in three things: school, band, and track. It doesn't seem like much, even to me. Each activity, however, has its ability to expand into a giant, all-consuming monster that just wants to tear me to pieces.

School:

I take school very seriously. There's no option to slack off or to miss an assignment. Every assignment I turn in must be the best work I can do. I try to finish projects creatively and with meaning, even if they are expected to be cheap and commonly done. If I don't get an assignment done until the last minute, I stay up as late as it takes me to get it done, even if it's not really important. I absolutely, no exceptions, unquestionably must get all A's, and preferably higher ones. I strive to be noticed by the teachers as excellent and maintain good stature in their eyes.

Band:

Music pretty much conquers my life. I love it and I love to be good at it. That's just the thing, though. I strive to be this amazing, accomplished, revered musician but I'm just not. I don't put in the practice hours to be one and I've never taken a real lesson. Yeah, I think it would be great to take private lessons and learn all this new stuff about my passion, but it just intimidates me so much. I don't take criticism well and I feel like I never have the time to dedicate to a weekly lesson.

I don't plan on making a living off of music, yet I still want to study like I will. I want to be the best even when I feel like I shouldn't be so devoted to this. I never practice nearly enough at all, so I always become super-stressed come audition time.

Track:

I want to be a good runner. I love to call myself a runner and I love being with runners. I'd like to call myself physically fit. I can't settle for last place in a race. I always want to beat my PR. I feel like running makes me a better person.

One problem: I never run. Yes, I go to all the track practices and conditioning sessions. Yes, I normally do fairly well in races. Yes, I take track seriously. I just never can strike up enough self-motivation to go out and run by myself. Outside of practice, I'm a lazy, good-for-nothing blob. This becomes a serious problem when the majority of training is self-done. Two weeks without conditioning does serious harm on a runner's physic. Any sort of break from regular practice (say, Winter Break) just absolutely kills me. I never get out and do what I need to do, even though I tell myself constantly that I need to. I beat myself up over it, but I just never can seem to push myself to stop being such a bum.

See the common monster between the three?

It's me. I'm my greatest enemy. I hold myself back and I sabotage my chances of being what I want to be. Even now I beat myself up, which hurts me more. I can never seem to do what I need to do and I create my own stress.

I want to live a life where I have absolutely nothing to do, but I can't see any opening any time in the future. I want to live quietly and stress-free, but I feel like that will never happen. I have school, then band in Summer Break, then marching band, then school, then track, then it all repeats throughout high school (and I need to fit a job in there somewhere). After high school, I have college, work, family(?), life, expenses, etc. Aghck!!

Life never stops, never takes a break, no matter how desperately I want it to.

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

2010-12-23T23:18:00.000-08:00

It's so strange... I've been gone for six months, yet it seems as if that time has never existed.

We pulled up into the driveway of our home and it seemed like every other time. We hopped out of the car, grabbed our stuff and made our ways to the door. Like always, I was the first one to the unlocked door and walked right on in. I was greeted heartily by Rosie, who I gave a vigorous pet before the rest of the family walked in.

Everything was like we left it except for one detail: Harrison and Dad had managed to do the impossible. They completely cleaned our house out. No eccentric knick-knacks, no random pieces of furniture, no anything that wasn't necessary.

Yeah, that was really weird. To see our home clutter-free was a completely foreign concept to me.

It seems as if life (other than the house-cleaning part) has been standing still. My friends are still my friends, and just as much as ever. Nothing's really changed between us; we can converse as casually as before. Except now we actually have things to talk about.

It really doesn't feel like I'm visiting here. This is my home, the very same house that I've lived in my whole life. Those are my woods, that's the Ingles down the street. Here's my friend that I've known for the past three years. Hey, look, it's the dog that I've grown up with since before I had a cohesive thought process!

And like so many times before, I'm up in the dead of night listening to the ruckus downstairs of family friends still over. Singing and laughing along with the screams and shouts of excitement from those playing video games.

I'm here, sitting not in my room because Harrison moved in there, but in the next room over. It's the same room in the same house. I'm in the same town with the same people.

I still feel like I belong here just as much as ever.

You'll REALLY be Surprised by the Content of this Post

2010-11-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

Lies! You're not surprised at all! You know why? Because this post is about band.

Another year of marching band has come and gone so quickly. So, so quickly. Even in a new band, with new people, and a whole new world, it's all flashed by as if it were just a dream. A twisted, rocking, roller coaster of a dream, but still a dream.

This has by far been the hardest season for me yet. Even harder than my first year when I was just a little sixth grader, eleven years old, and could hardly play my instrument. Not because Timpview's more brutal or anything, or they make things intense, or anything like that. I felt that it was actually more relaxed and easy in that aspect. What made it so difficult was it wasn't Easley.

In Easley, I knew where I was needed and what I could do to help. I knew where I stood in the band and how far I could take things. I had the name of a Chelak, which helped build my respect, but I was also acknowledged as an upper-class marcher who had been around awhile.

Here at Timpview, especially at the beginning of the season, I felt that I was struggling to show that I do know how to do this and that I've been doing it for quite some time. I'd sit around helplessly watching everyone else take charge and get things done, wishing that I could know what I could do to help. My confidence was completely shattered, my feeling of self-purpose thrown way off course.

I was suddenly a first-year marcher again. People have even admitted to me that they don't see me as experienced, even though they know that I've been marching longer than they have. I nearly completely reverted back to my old self: quiet and self conscious, never wanting to come out of my shell.

Let me explain something to my fellow Timpview students who are reading this. On the Easley marching field last year, I was a different person than I am now. I was wild. Crazy, even. I, with a little aid from my brother, would be the one to run screaming back to set to get the band pumped up. During slow times, us Chelaks would be the ones to raise morale. It was the role of the Chelaks for as long as I remember.

So coming here and not knowing anyone did something to me. It shocked me back into seclusion, hiding myself away from others. It's like I have a barrier up that I want to break, but I just can't.

I realized that I'm over halfway done with my high school marching career, and it surprised me. Four years behind me, and three left in front. If the past four years have been so amazingly and terrifyingly fast, then it is only a very short time until this is all over. I can't even fathom what will happen then.

"What if?"s

2010-10-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

In my life, there aren't very many "What if?"s. Pretty much everything has either happened because I knew it was going to happen, or I made it happen. I feel like where I am is where I have always expected myself to be, without many surprises.

For as long as I can remember, I knew I was going to play an instrument. I knew. I had seen other people playing and I said to myself, "That's what I'm going to do someday." I don't have to ask myself, "What if I never picked up an instrument?" because I've always known that I would be holding an instrument at this moment in my life. Yes, there is the question, "What if I never picked up a saxophone?", but I don't consider that vital because regardless of what instrument I picked up, I would still be in relatively the same position.

Ever since the first marching band competition that I witnessed, I knew that I would play an instrument and I would march with it. So I'm spared from the question "What if I never joined marching band?" I could ask the question "What if I never joined the marching band in the sixth grade?", but the answer wouldn't stray too far from what it is now. The way I see it, if I hadn't joined band in the sixth grade, I would still be in marching band at my current age, but I perhaps would not be as good as I am now. Maybe I would, but it wouldn't affect my life position.

Even the question "What if I had never moved to Utah?" isn't necessarily a surprising one. I always have had the feeling (or known, I'm not quite sure) that we would move here. It was always talked about, and considered, and said like it would happen someday. I knew it would take awhile, but I felt that we would end up here. And we did. So the "What if?" doesn't even matter.

Now I'm stuck on the question "What will?" What will happen after this point? What will I do? Where will I go? All my life, I've been visualizing my position up to this point. And now I'm out of storyboard. I have no clue what's going to happen next, where I want to be, and what I want to do with my life. I want to know, but I don't. Nothing's been laid down for me.

So now I feel stuck. I have no prefabricated ideas of my life left; I'm running purely in the moment, and I hate it. I don't know what's going to happen next. I want to, but I don't.

I actually feel like nothing's in front of me, that the time beyond now doesn't exist or won't happen. I have this deeply-rooted feeling that it'll all just end, and everything will just be no more. I've had this feeling for quite a while, and I think it's because I'm out of rope. I have to start climbing on my own power now and start striking out in my own way. I've got to start making things happen.

The problem is, I don't know what I want to happen.

Competition

2010-09-28T18:28:00.000-07:00

Competition can be a bad thing. People can take it in a wrong way; they can take it too far. They can make it into something that causes negative feelings. However, it doesn't have to be that way.

I feel like the spirit of competition is important. Not in a "Oh, we have to beat them," or "My goodness, they're so much better than us," sort of way, but in a way that is rooted into my very concept of marching band. You don't have to work solely for the competition, but it still can play a large role.

Understand, you can celebrate victories without being arrogant. It's okay to be happy for doing well. You can be proud of what your program is capable of. There is that fine line between pride and over-confidence, but you can maintain it. It's possible to be glad that you do well and still cheer on others as well.

Competitions are your way of bonding with the other bands, of meeting new people and seeing how they do things. It's important to watch their shows and encourage them. In my view, competitions are for bonding with the band, enjoying a good time, and going new places. They are the very spirit and life of marching band, the reason I chose to do it. I fell in love with marching band at the competitions.

Marching band competitions aren't about beating the other bands. Yes, it's great to place well, but that's not all it's about. Even with your biggest competitors, you want them to do well. You're happy for them, you cheer them on. That's what it's about.

It's important to have competition. It brings life to a program, excitement. It gives you something to work for. Competition is a challenge, seeing how well you can push yourself to become. It's important to celebrate the competitions for what else they are as well: events to which bands from all over can come to showcase what they've been working on.

You can't ignore the other bands because they might "distract you from your own show". You can't ignore the opportunities for the best memories of a high schooler's life. Competition days are best as just that: a day meant for band and solely band. You can't push them aside. You have to make them a priority, otherwise the whole band experience becomes something sad.

The true spirit and understanding of what is a marching band competition is something that I feel is missing here. This year, I haven't experienced the feeling in the very pit of my being that I had come to love at Easley. The feeling of complete adoration for what I do. That feeling of fun and love. Of competition.

Show Concepts

2010-09-14T20:43:00.001-07:00

Quite often I feel like Timpview's marching band lacks the sort of energy and enthusiasm that I knew at Easley. I had pondered on why this would be, and I think I've found out.

Dr. Fullmer doesn't want to have a show concept because he thinks that they are "cheesy". I agree, sometimes they definitely are. What he's missing, though, is the sort of connection that it provides with the band and the audience.

When a band doesn't have a theme, the show becomes just another concert. The band is performing three (four with percussion feature) completely different pieces, all of which have nothing to do with each other. There's no direction, no drive, no sort of progression throughout the show. This loses some of the crowd appeal, because there's nothing to peak interest and no story to follow. It also loses a lot of the band interest.

Having no show concept leaves the band without a connection with their show. There's really not much to grasp onto, nothing to bring to an emotional level, because of just that: there's no emotion. It's just music with marching. It's not a show.

When you have that handhold on the sort of style the show should be, the guide in the mood of the performance, the thing that makes it all make sense, it makes the band care. With a theme, we have something to work for to convey, we have a show to put on. Whether serious or lighthearted, the theme can make a show more enjoyable, easier to follow, and something spectacular to look at.

I think that's what Timpview's missing.

The New Kid

2010-08-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

The past two weeks were marching band camp at Timpview High School. This was my first encounter with the whole band, and I must say that it is very intimidating to be around so many strangers. It will take me the whole year to learn everybody's names! Still, I enjoyed it very much; it was amusing to see how similar bands are, even if they're on opposite sides of the country.

There were times when Dr. Fullmer said things that were word-for-word exactly what Mr. Mainieri would say. Stuff like, "Relax, shake it out.", "They'll be throwing babies!", and "You don't need a title to lead." It was almost uncanny how often I would hear/experience things that were exactly how they would've been at Easley.

I'm assuming that band camp is band camp, no matter where you go. It had the same gist, pretty much the same urgency, and an almost identical mindset to what I've known. That's why it was so strange to have the whole opener, with music, by the end of the second day of camp. It would have taken all of camp to do that at Easley! Sure enough, we seemed to just be accomplishing so many things, without it really feeling like more work than I'm used to. We did what would've been a dream at Easley: having the entire show on the field, with music, and it not being a total disaster. And we only worked 8am to 4pm (with lunch), while Easley works 9am to 9pm!

Overall, though, I'd have to say that Timpview Marching Band has a different feel to it. While it is still fun, the band and directors don't make as much fun as Easley would. This doesn't mean it was any less enjoyable, it just didn't feel like as much of a game or a playtime. Everything had a much more professional feel to it. We were there to get work done, which we most certainly did.

In other news, I am officially registered (finally!) and all set to go to school on Tuesday. My schedule is:
[second semester]

Art Foundations (Joanne Seal) | Missing Class
Fitness for Life (Tresa Olson) | Geography (Erica Neuffer)
Japanese 1 (Shauna Palmer)
Concert Band (David Fullmer)
Biology (Alan Myrup)
Geometry/Trig Honors (Bart Christensen)
Eng 9 Honors (Suzanne Parker)
Computer Technology (Cynthia Carter) | Digital Photo (Toni Wood)

I am considering taking Jazz Band, but that would be second period, and I would have to do some rearranging. I still have to fill that empty period; I'd like to the ceramics, but I'm sure that it's full to the brim. So I'm thinking about taking the second art class. I want to be in Geography Honors, but the counselor said that it was full. I guess I'll just have to see.

I'm pretty excited, and anxious, for the new school year. It'll certainly be different, maybe you could call it an adventure. I'll have to meet new people and make friends, which I am not very good at. I'll have McKenzie there with me, so we'll just have to help each other out.

Formatting, Capitalization, and Punctuation

2010-08-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what punctuation and general formatting can do to improve text. For example, quotation marks can turn a sentence:

From now on, ending a sentence in a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

Into a quotation:

"From now on, ending a sentence in a preposition is something up with which I will not put."

And from there, you can turn a random quote into something respectable by tagging on a name:

"From now on, ending a sentence in a preposition is something up with which I will not put."

-Sir Winston Churchill

Another example:

If you cannot convince them, confuse them.

"If you cannot convince them, confuse them."

-Harry S. Truman

See? Having the proper punctuation and accreditation can make any sentence what it should be.

Quotation marks can also turn something hard to understand:

This is the Place Heritage Park

Into something understandable:

"This is the Place" Heritage Park

It took me some thinking when I saw the upper example here on a sign to riddle out what it was. I finally decided that if they had quotation marks in the title of the park, then it would be more understandably a quote and therefor the name of that particular monument.

Separating text onto different lines can turn a quotation:

"Even if you're lost you can't lose the love because it's in your heart."

Into a song:

"Even if you're lost you can't
Lose the love because
It's in your heart."

Proper capitalization can turn a bland, old, boring thing:

the white house

Into something of importance:

The White House

Italics can turn a statement:

"I command this particular drop of hot sauce to be really, really hot!"

Into something with emphasis:

"I command this particular drop of hot sauce to be really, really hot!"

I even skipped ahead and added an exclamation point where I could have put a period.

An exclamation point can turn a drab sentence:

Yay, we're here.

Into something exciting:

Yay, we're here!

I guess this post was sprouted by my writer's brain reading too many statuses on Facebook. I see them and always get to thinking about how people leave out quotation marks or commas or capitals. Leaving out crucial language marks can make something lose its charm. It's not only on Facebook; it's quite often in a lot of places. I'll see sentences around, in advertisements and other things, that are unrecognizable as quotes without the quotation marks.

I always try to remember stuff like this to better my writing. It may not seem like it, but even in my blog posts I consider a lot of the punctuation, spelling, and other grammar elements so as to create the best sentence to carry my meaning.

We're Here!

2010-07-13T20:58:00.001-07:00

Yeah, this is four days late. I know.

We arrived at our new home to a big ol' sign depicting the words, "Welcome Home! Chelaks" Though I noticed the awkward placing of the exclamation point, I wasn't at all bothered because it was so nice to be welcomed. Promptly after examining the sign, we were bombarded by cheering coming down the driveway in our cousins' white Suburban. It made me smile.

We've been busy getting everything unpacked and settled in, slowly gathering the necessary supplies for survival. Our living room is just now starting to take the shape of a livable room, with a TV that is somewhat visible from the couch. We still have countless boxes left to clear out, though.

It's been exciting. We always have things to do, places to be, people to see. It's nice to be so near things that are actually interesting and family to hang out with.

We haven't quite finished the transfer process for me to go to Timpview yet, but we're getting there.

I love to see the mountains soaring above all the buildings. It's such a pretty sight.

It's hot here! But at least it's not muggy...

I miss you, Rosie! I hope to see you and your new haircut soon!

Oh, I miss you too, Harrison. Tell Dad I miss him and I love him. Hope to see you guys out here within a month or two!

Adventure!

2010-07-05T13:27:00.001-07:00

Here we are, on our journey to Utah. The sky is clear, the mountains are beautiful, and my belly is full of McDonald's.

For once I am able to write this in present tense, because I'm writing it as it happens, on Mum's phone.

I'm feeling comfortable. It's not too hot, nor too cold (at least in the chassy of this 17-foot moving van), my pillow is soft and fluffy underneath my bottom, and the views are wonderful. I'm just hoping that I can remain this optimistic for the whole ride.

(past tense now) This morning was eventful. We woke up early, Meredith came over and we said some final goodbyes (half asleep, I might add). We finished stuffing the van as full as it would allow, after which we realized that we should've gotten the next size up. The only furniture that we packed were an old loveseat and our antique coffee table.

It was hard to leave. That was my home, where I've grown up my entire life. I'll miss the woods, especially. We had to say goodbye to the house that we've put our hearts into. We had to say "see you later" to Dad, Harrison, and Rosie.

But there will always be bigger and better things out there. There'll be other houses, nicer woods, and better locations.

(present tense) I'm a tad concerned for poor Pimmy. It's tough on her, being a little cat in a big, angry car. I think her calming drugs are wearing off, too. When I saw her when we stopped at McDonalds, she was shaking and breathing too quickly. I'm just hoping that this isn't traumatic for her.

Overall, everything's going well.

I'm excited to see all the family!

Keep checking in, I'll try and keep updating.

Freshening Up

2010-06-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I've gladly taken the liberty to freshen up the image of my blog. Because there are so many (too many to choose from) choices for blog layouts/backgrounds, I'm going to ask you to bear with me if I happen to change it up every once in a while, at least until I can find something that I really like.

In other news, as I'm sure my readers have heard, we will be moving across the country to Utah on July 5. In order to make our house sellable so that this move will be possible, we are freshening up the image of, well, everything. We've completely repainted my room and we're starting on Harrison's as I write this. We've been weeding the garden, literally and figuratively, meaning that we've been taking every bit of trash and almost-trash from every nook and cranny of the house, smacking price tags on them, and putting them on the floor and tables in (what was once) my room. You'd all better get ready for one of the largest single-household yard sales you've ever seen. This Saturday. Be there.

In other other news, school's out and I haven't gotten much rest (due to the past paragraph). It's truly bittersweet; I'll probably never see most of my classmates ever again, but of course I might not ever see some of my classmates ever again! That, and hopefully my school in Utah will be much better. And I'll be with family.

Hrmmmgrrr...

2010-04-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

Pardon me, but I'll be going on my rant again.

I'm in science class (again) on a shiny laptop (again), a little concerned about our technology-bound future (again). I've just finished taking a "technology assessment test" designed to examine my skills using the computer. Honestly, though, I think that they had the people that they were testing make the test. It upsets me that I was being asked ridiculous questions on outdated scenarios, many of which don't really apply to modern day software. Not only that, but there was a grammatical or spelling error in about every 1 of 3 questions and the formatting was sloppy. To me, it looked like they had an average, I-don't-really-understand-the-word-wrapping kid put the pictures on.

Every question had a picture or a graphic to accompany it. (many of which I'm sure they copied from Google images, even though that's what a majority of the test was about) And every question had

I mean, come on! That's basic formatting! I say if you can't make a test without having the questions cut off and separated, causing a break in mental flow and a good bit of time searching for the rest of the text, then you don't deserve to make a test. Much less one about technology and formatting.

Test the people who made the test and see their scores.

Amazing, isn't it?

2010-02-02T09:46:00.001-08:00

I'm sitting here in 4th period science in Mr. Adcox's room at the good ol' Gettys Middle School, with a shiny new laptop that our tax money has been spent on. We have "mobile computer labs" here at Gettys, which are big carts filled with bunches of laptops for the teachers to use. I can only wonder how much our school spends on computers (and not to mention promethean boards).

But what really surprises me is how technologically inept half my fellow classmates are. We are growing up in a world of computers and some people don't even know how to open Microsoft Excel! It's like a magic trick when you press the "merge and center" button.

That was our class assignment today. Make a table on Excel. Then make a bar graph. That simple. And there were still issues...

It's almost torture to watch the teachers with technology...

Let's hope they start picking it up quicker, or we'll have a lot of lost mice in a world of robots.

The World's Most Delicious Smoothie

2009-11-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

As I sit here, reading the long-past updates of my friends and family, I am also sipping on something that is so revolutionary, so mind-bogglingly wonderful that I can hardly fathom it.

It is the world's single best smoothie. Ever.

It is so good that I almost want to keep it to myself, but since I'm such a good person, I'll share with you. :-)

You start with the Pineapple-Coconut Juice, my choice liquid for making smoothies.
Put half a banana in the cup, the single ingredient that is guarenteed to make a smoothie more delicious
Add the fruit. But not just any old frozen fruit, because that would make any old smoothie. This special fruit is the secret ingredient. You need to add the Yoplait Triple Berry Smoothie Mix.

The smoothie mix is wonderful because it's like any old normal frozen fruit, only with yogurt added to it. It's such a simple idea that makes the smoothie really explode in your mouth. Yum.

You can also make it with just the fruit and some milk to make a super creamy, still-good-but-not-as-good smoothie.

In other news, the band made state and we did alright. We placed 5th, moving up two places since last year (yay!), but I still believe that we could've at least made fourth if people hadn't stopped trying at practice that week. It's still great, though! This could very well mark the last season that I will ever march at Easley. Next year at this time I might be at American Fork in Utah.

Now I'm left without much to do after school, except for homework (erg). That won't last too long, track conditioning is coming up and I want to do indoor percussion, but I don't know how that'll work out with my schedule.

I think Pim's starting to like me. She wouldn't leave me alone last night when I was trying to go to sleep.

What? What are you talking about?

2009-10-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

Hmm........

Seems like I've really let the place go. I'll give you the same excuses, I'm busy, I have no time, whiny, whine, whine, mcwhinerson.

Well, the truth is that I do have time, but I've kinda, you know, neglected my duties of keeping an updated blog. I am busy with band and stuff, but not constantly. I hope to cover many of the main points of my life that have been lost in this expanse of lost communication.

We've been working hard at marching band, and the show's going great. We still need to do some hard-core scrubbing, but we'll get it. We won Best Drumline, Best Colorguard, Best Hornline, and First Overall in our class and Grand Champions at our most recent (and first) competition. When listening to the other bands, I thought that they were too good, that we didn't stand a chance. I guess we're better than my sceptisism would allow me to believe.

School's going fine, a little slow, but that's to be expected. My teachers are much better than I thought they would be. I'm actually enjoying it this year, unlike last year when I was dreading to have to go to school each day.

McKenzie's trying to Harry Potter-curse me. Heh heh, she'll never beat my awesome wizardry.

McKenzie wants a Barnes and Noble Gift Card or Winnie the Pooh books for Christmas. That's all. Not even another cat. Pim is just fine with her. Isn't that right, Pim?... She wanted me to relay that.

As of current plans, we'll be moving to Utah at the end of the school year. That doesn't mean we've actually done anything about it. Time to hop-to! The thing is, though, I'm torn. I would love, and I mean LOVE, to move to such a wonderful place, so close to the best people that I've ever met ('cept for maybe you, Chelak cousins). I also would like to stay here, with my friends and my almost-guaranteed leadership position in the band in the next year or so. I guess the pull to move is stronger.

That's all that's happened in my life. To tell you the truth, I have no life. Just band, school, and breathing. Sigh.

Here We Go Again

2009-08-15T19:39:00.001-07:00

So, once again, the summer is coming to a close and the school year is closing in on our days of leisure. We only have two more weeks of freedom until the endless days of boredom begin again. Two weeks in which I'll be working to get my summer project finished.

Band camp just ended, a good one I would say. We got quite a bit done, though I'm worried for the saxes this year. We just need a better base of leadership and more group contribution and we could be good. Really, last year we were one of the strongest sections and this year we have all returning marchers except for one new one, who isn't a problem at all. It's just that we lost our leader and now we're decaying.

Anyways, it was a pretty tiring two weeks. My feet feel like giant bruises. I feel like it was extra tiring, more than usual, but that might just be me. Let's just hope the show turns out okay, even if the ballad is a little cheesy.

Today we had a gigantic car wash for a fund raiser. Four different locations, all spread out across Highway 123. The team that Clint was on came in last in sales and profits. Mine came in second-to-last. Oh well, it was still a huge profit for the band.

I'm looking forward to getting my school schedule and supplies, all that school-prep stuff, but when it comes to the actual getting up at 7 every morning to go to a rotting building with a bunch of punks, just to sit in a desk and be bored all day, well let's just say I'm not all that excited.

I think I just need to spice up my life a little, add a little twist. Maybe moving will do the trick.

I'm excited for CYS, seeing as I got into CO. It'll be fun, but I hope I get my music soon so I can start practicing for chair auditions.

Pim gave herself a little fohawk today. It was adorable.

We've played way too much Guild Wars today. It's awesome.

I've been working on a song on the piano. I'll be able to play it in... let's say, November. Heh.

Man, am I tired! Goodnight.

Utah!

2009-07-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

I'll let you know that the original draft of this post, even when it was unfinished, was super long. So I decided to re-write it, to shorten it a bit. Here we go:

We flew to Utah to visit our family and go to the family reunion. It was pretty awesome, I want to move out there to live.

We got to the airport a good hour early and had plenty of spare time, so we got some Cinnabons. As we were eating them and enjoying there wonderful, gooey deliciousness, we saw a lady with hair exactly like Kate's from John and Kate Plus 8. We didn't think too much of it, though, because there must be a million of people walking around with her hairstyle.

Once our airplane started to board, we went and sat at our gate. Sure enough, there was the Kate-hairstyle lady. Except it wasn't just her hair. It was everything. She was standing there with her arms crossed like Kate, surrounded by lots of luggage like Kate would be, and she had a scowl on her face that was a perfect replica of Kate's. It was weird, man.

The plane was teeny-tiny. There were two seats on one side and one on the other, and you had to crouch because the ceiling was so low. It was a very cramped hour ride there. My feet fell asleep.

Our lay-over at the airport was three, three-and-a-half, hours long. We looked at the shops for a laptop sleeve to fit my oddly-sized computer (no success), had lunch, and I found an outlet to plug Roger into so I could get some homework done.

The next plane was bigger, but not gigantic. It had two rows, both with three seats in it. We were stuck at the back, right next to the lavatory, so we were smelling perfumed blue toilet juice the whole way.

We got to Utah okay, and went to Gramma's, where we had lunch with Matt and Aunt Susan. I got to meet little Anna for the first time!

The next morning, we rolled out of bed and headed on over to the Gillespie's house, to visit and help pack if we could. We didn't really help much, but we said our hello's and chatted a bit then headed back over to Gramma's.

We packed up our things and headed out to our family reunion site, a drive that was supposed to be three hours to Junction. We took a detour through a town to see some house that Mum's grandma talked about when Mum was little. We got back on the Interstate and continued on our way.

It was a very nice drive, I didn't have to do anything except look out the window to keep myself occupied. Unlike South Carolina, where the trees block all the view, Utah is very open. I got to see all the mountains, plains, and other sorts of landscape that constantly changed the whole ride there.

Gramma knew that we were supposed to go past this town called Penguitch, not through it. We were also told to look for a sign that said, "Big Rock Candy Mountain" to tell us where to turn off. So we drove past Penguitch and we were looking for Big Rock Candy Mountain or some other sign telling us to turn. And we kept driving. "Surely it'll be just down the road." "Oh, it can't be too far." "Do you think we passed it? No, I don't think so, it must be just a little ways further." etc, etc.

We drove for an extra 45 minutes until we decided that must've missed something, so Mum pulled out her cellphone to call someone or look up a map. No service. Great. We pulled off the road into a rest area (except we couldn't see it) hoping to find a map or something. Luckily, we hit a little pocket of phone service so Mum was able to look up a map on her phone. The turnoff was right past Penguitch. Over 45 minutes away. We were on our way to Denver the way we were going.

So we turned ourselves around and we finally got to where we were going. Big Rock Candy Mountain didn't look at all like rock candy, more like chocolate and vanilla ice cream (there really wasn't a big sign that said, "Big Rock Candy Mountain," at least not one that we would've seen). We got to Junction, though a little later than we expected, and drove to our location.

Where we were staying was an old courthouse, remodeled to host family reunions. I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures or videos, oh how I wish I got some. The place was awesome! It was gigantic, though still not big enough for everyone to have a bedroom. A lot of people had to stay in the living room area, but McKenzie and I stayed in...

...the library! It was amazing. There were tons of books, a very nice chess table (which I'm sorry to say we didn't use), and a cool-looking loft. We weren't allowed in the loft, the people in the house apparently don't want people up there, but Lizzie and Ally went up there anyway. It got really hot at night, though

So the reunion was wonderful, we were able to become re-acquainted with our family. We did quite a lot of things (listed in no particular order):

panning for gold
koob
shooting skeets
playing the board game Oodles
koob
eating way more than the serving size
boating/tubing on the lake
Pooh sticks
playing the board game Ticket to Ride: Europe
koob
photo scavenger hunt
koob
and much, much more

As you can see, koob was mentioned quite a bit on that list. Koob is a game that we played on the lawn of the courthouse, and we played it pretty much all day, every day, at least if we weren't doing something else. It's a traditional viking game in which you have to knock down blocks by throwing sticks. It's more fun than it sounds. It's way, way fun. Look on McKenzie's blog for a more detailed description.

It was nice to see the family, I had to re-meet most of them. They're all cool people out there, and scarily smart. To see Harrison wasn't all that strange for me. He's just like he's always been, but a little more well-fed maybe. And even after seeing him, I don't miss him any more. He's just my brother that happens to be across the country.

It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but we had to leave by eleven on the last morning. Since it was Free National Parks Day, a bunch of us got together and went to Bryce Canyon. McKenzie and I road with Lizzie, Ally, Kirsten, Ian, and Paula. Once we got there, there really wasn't much to see. Sure enough, though, we looked at all the different prospectives of the canyon and got all hot and sweaty. The BkE trio took a hike down the canyon to look at the "Cave of Mysteries" or something like that.

The rest of us left to Penguitch to get something to eat. We were going to eat at Subway, but then they decided they'd rather eat at a local drive-in. So we went there and I had a chicken sammich and a chocolate milkshake. It was good.

We said our goodbyes and headed to Cedar (this time with Mum and Gramma) to see all Mum's locations of childhood memories. She insisted on showing us the picture in the university that had her in it. We then drove around and saw a few places, like her old friends', the Wheelers, house (it's huge!). After that we visited Lindsay (I hope I spelt that right) and her family. It was nice to see them, too. Her newborn is tiny.

We drove by and looked at Mum's childhood home and then headed back to Gramma's house. Once we got there, we went to Aunt Sue's house and played a good game of Bang with them. The outlaws won (hooray!)!

The next day, we went to the family party at Aunt Sue's house. We ate a delicious meal and played a few good games of koob. We went back inside and played a giant game of Bang while the adults played Puerto Rico. The outlaws won again by killing me, the sheriff. After that, some more koob was played while I tried to walk on the giant rolling barrel/tube thing that they had in their yard. I failed terribly at it.

The next day, we went to Logan to visit Harrison at his place of residence. BkE is nice, on a college student's level, though we weren't allowed in the door at the bottom of the stairs. I wonder what's in there...

We took Harrison shopping for athletic shoes and to Old Navy, where he got some pants and I got some sunglasses. I hope they'll do well for marching season. While we were driving through town, McKenzie and I bugged Harrison by asking him if he'd applied to the many businesses around town. Turns out he has applied to most, just not all. Come on Harry, if you want a job you'll have to open-minded!

We chatted with him a while at his home and saw the garden they were growing, but it grew time for us to leave. We had to get back to Gramma's in time to see Singing in the Rain.

It was a nice play, with real rain onstage! It was kind of like in-the-round, just missing a side, so it was a nice experience.

That was our last night, so the next morning we got up, went to Lizzie, Ally, Kirsten, Zach, Ian, and Paula's house to get my glasses and mp3 player (which I had left in their Suburban), and drove to the airport.

We had a pretty normal flight home, and we got to the house and were greeted warmly by Rosie and half-heartedly by Pim. It's been kind of unexciting since.

It took me awhile to write this, I know. I've been doing it in parts. I started the super-long version while driving home from the reunion, but I couldn't use that- it was too long! I might be behind on my posts for a while.

What's new

2009-07-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Though I have been neglecting my duties as a blogger to keep my blog updated and ship-shape for all viewers, I must assure everyone that I have indeed been watching and following your blogs. I have been stewing over my own post, but since is has reached such a time since my last one I decided to skip all the extra stewing and planning and just go ahead right my usual too-long catch-up post.

Summer is slowly trickling to an end, my friends. I hope I have not completely wasted my precious days free. I have spent a lot of time milling around in my jam jams, but I think that that time isn't as empty as it was last year. A good trip to the VA Chelaks was also an accomplishment, along with lending a hand in the theater summer workshops with the childrens. We are also about to embark on a journey tomorrow, which I hope to keep you updated with.

As many of you know, my birthday recently passed. It was kind of bittersweet, really, though. We woke up early to do nothing, until Mum wanted to go to the Biltmore Estate. I told her no, once you've seen a large, old, dusty mansion once, you've seen it a million times. I had told her the night before when she was making suggestions of what we could do that we could go to Brevard, but it seems that she ignored me. Anyway, it reached the end of the day and we ate our delicious (though almost overly rich) lemon cake quietly. It came to open presents, and to tell you the truth, I didn't expect much.

But man, was I wrong. I opened the first package and it was a box of chocolates, okay. Then I got the bigger box and tore it open and, WOW! What I had been wanting, maybe even brooding over for the past few weeks, a brand new (and super tiny) laptop computer! Roger here is extremly beautiful and a sleek, shiny blue. It's fairly easy to use, except for the fact that I can't get the webcam software to open up. I also got a laptop sleeve, but because my Acer Aspire One 11.6" is an awkward size, the one Mum gave me was too large.

So she got me another sleeve, and it was too small. I'm currently trying to find one that fits in stores, but since today is the last day before we leave on our trip, I don't know how much luck I'm going to have.

I've quite taken to wearing skirts now. They're nice and airy, and I must say that they're also quite liberating. No more pants to weigh me down, no! McKenzie has also followed in my lead.

Pim decided to be stupid and scratch my beatiful Roger. Now its wonderful smoothness is forever ruined by the small blemishes left by McKenzie's awful cat.

We've developed a small obsession for Harry Potter lately in spirit of the new movie coming out. I expect it will blow over.

There's a bed that was once on top of my own that is currently sitting in the middle of my room. Quite a hinderance for navigational purposes, but useful for everything else.

I've got a new backpack. I've had the same one since first grade. My new one's nice.

McKenzie says she'll get me a replica Harry Potter prop wand for my birthday. I don't know, though, they're pretty expensive.

Rosie's style for a while was wearing a lanyard around her neck. She wore it for quite a while, about over a week. I decided to take if off, since it got caught around one of her legs a lot and it would fall off if she ran. She likes taking it off the ground and playig tug-of-war with it. She's a cutie.

Suburban Arlington

2009-06-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

I sit here writing my post, listening to the pleasant sound of rain and the squalor of Clint and Joey.

We've spent pretty much the whole week here in Arlington, Virginia with our cousins. Today is our last day and I do hope we don't waste it. Our days have consisted of playing whiffel ball, cricket, ultimate frisbee, and Quidditch in the backyard. At nights, we've played some very good games of sardines and watched the Harry Potter movies. Every night (starting with our arrival night) we've watched one movie of the series in order. It's gotten us all excited for the sixth movie coming out on July 15th.

We walked to the Goblin Castle (retirement home) to visit our dear goblin friend (G-ma). It was quite a long and tiring journey, but it got us out of the house.

Another day we took the bus to the Metro station and took the train to the National Zoo to spend the day there. After walking around the whole zoo and watching the many different animals, we took the Metro back to Ballston, ate at the foodcourt there, and then walked all the way back home. Quite a tiring journey, too.

Penny's quite shaggy. Apparently she hasn't had a haircut since last summer. She's been pretty quiet this week, also.

We've watched a lot of soccer and baseball throughout our stay. I've come to develop a much better understanding of both sports, now.

While we were playing cricket in the backyard, Clint hit the ball over the wall and onto the buildings of the strip mall behind the house. Good thing we found another ball in the neighbor's yard, but we soon lost that in the bushes.

We've eaten a lot of ice cream. Tastey.

We made cookies twice.

Joey invented animal racing on Zoo Tycoon. It's quite fascinating. Lighning won the finals and was promoted to a Legend. Hot Pie on Sparkles became a Double Legend be he's so amazing.

Overall it's been a great week. It'll be sad to leave, but I just hope Pim greets me warmly.

little updates

2009-06-04T19:27:00.000-07:00

So much and so little has gone by and I haven't blogged about it, so here:

School's out! I finally have time to myself. Time to sleep and time to sit, time to relax and time to do absolutely nothing!

We had out CYS Lakeside concert tonight, but it got rained out. They moved into the McCalister Auditorium, so we had our Lakeside Concert indoors, on the opposite side of campus from the lake.

Rosie got a haircut recently. She looks so neat and trim!

I had one of the first naps that I've had in a while today. I've been going to bed too late. I'll make up for it tonight.

I've put myself in the mindset that I'll start scrapbooking again. (like I ever did to begin with...) It should be fun!

I've had this nagging feeling lately that I need or want to do something, but I can't think of what it is. It seems deeply important, too...

Summer's here! Time for some real sleep!

reflections on a lost brother

2009-05-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

It has been almost four months since Harrison has left, but it still hasn't yet "sunk in". I don't feel as if he is any less part of the family, or any more for that matter. I just feel as if there is this giant wall in our communication.

We are not formal enough people to go out of our way to actually call each other or send a letter/email, that would be awkward for us. The most communication we give is a short twitter or a blog post, and those always leave a question behind with a sense of mystery or a lack of details. It is not sufficient enough to keep a lasting relationship.

Sometimes I feel as if he is not gone, or will be back soon, and other times I feel like he's disappeared forever. I see his posts and his pictures on Facebook, and I'm like, "Man, he's cool. I would really like to get to know him now." A lot like with my many cousins that I have not developed a true relationship with. I don't really know them, but I can look and tell what awesome people they are.

I feel as if Harrison is drifting away, becoming one of them, yet still just being my brother who has moved to Utah. I can tell he has grown some, and is still growing. Learning from our cousins and the real world, what's it's like to be "out there". All I can do is hope to keep communications up with him and hope to see him over the summer.

See, even now I feel as if he'll just come home from this long trip and we'll share our stories, talking and filling each others' heads with what we have seen. It'll be normal, we'll just have a chat and go on our ways.

But that's not it. We probably won't speak any for a very long time, and even then it'll be little. He won't magically just start chatting with me, and I won't start chatting with him.

I know he'll probably read this, but it doesn't matter. This isn't real communication, and even if it is, there's not much said in it. There's no emotion, and I can't even explain what I'm really saying. There's just this giant, unscalable, unfeeling wall in the way, and there's nothing to do about it.

nothing

2009-04-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

There's nothing exciting or worth writing about in my life so far.

I always know that I should update more. When I'm on other websites I think, "I guess I should update my blog." But then I think harder about it and I'm like, "But there's absolutely nothing to talk about."

I've over-use track because that's all I pretty much I'm doing during the week. I did run my record of 6:11 in the last meet, though. It beat my old record of 6:28 by seventeen seconds!

Yesterday I got a superior in my Solo and Ensemble piece. The judges seemed pretty generous with them, though.

I won't be getting a letter in band because I don't have private lessons/I didn't make it to All-County and Region. What a shame for the second year in a row...

Tomorrow for CYS rehearsal it is Bring a Friend Day. I'll be bringing my friend, Mara, who plays french horn.

another surprise relay attack

2009-04-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we had a track meet. I was a little nervous, because I was expected to trim off 10 seconds in my 800 and 1600, as well as make 4'2" in the high jump. Other than that, it was expected to be perfectly normal. A little warm, maybe, but normal.

As Clint and I get to the track, everything is normal. Some guys call out to Clint, "Hey, Clint! You got any sunscreen?" *chuckle* *chuckle* *chuckle*. Making fun of his extreme whiteness (as usual to us Chelaks). So I dig into my bag to give him my sunscreen (luckily I came prepared) and Bagwell calls out, "If your name is Myya, (i don't know her name), or Taylor, come here!" Wait, what? 1. What could he want me for? 2. Why would I be grouped with the sprinters? 3. I have to get this sunscreen out and throw it to Clint.

So after tossing (and missing) the sunscreen at Clint while he wasn't looking, I trotted over to the coach to see what he could possibly want to talk to me about.

First thing he said: "Taylor, don't run the 800" I was supposed to shave 10 seconds off of that! "You'll be running the 4x400 instead."

Okay, huh? I'm no sprinter! I've never trained for the 400! But, I guess I'll do it.

So I just high jumped (didn't make it over 4'2") and ran the 1600 (shaving off 6 seconds to come out with a beautiful 6:28) and waited for awhile to warm back up. I thought that I was nervous before!

It turned out alright, I guess. I feel that it could've gone better, I could've sprinted longer and harder. But I didn't lose any of our ground. I didn't gain any, either. I just didn't know how to pace myself at all, though.

I learned that I was put in the 4x400 because 3 of our regular runners were hurt/sick. I guess he had 2 alternates, but I was his last resort for a third.

I'll be running in the Tri-County meet on Monday (only the 800 this time), and we have another meet on Thursday (if it isn't cancelled), so hopefully I'll be able to shave that 10 seconds off and give the 400 another go (like that'll ever happen).

(yes, I over use the parenthesis)

Spring Trip

2009-04-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

We (McKenzie, Clint, and I) have recently returned home from this year's marching band Spring Trip.

It was a good one, this year. We went to Williamsburg, Virginia for a Fiesta-val competition for our Wind Ensemble, Marching Band, Chorus, String Orchestra, and Varsity Guard. Fiesta-val set up all our travel arrangements, so we stayed in Great Wolf Lodge with a bunch of the other groups from around the country. The hotel was made for families, so it was fun. It had a waterpark, Magiquest, a spa, an arcade, a fitness room, some restaurants, a cafe, and other stuff.

Little kids were running around everywhere for the Magiquest, waving their wands at the conspicuously placed objects, such as plastic crystals and pictures on the walls. Kirk even said that he was woken up by children running outside his door at 4 in the morning.

We went other places, though. The first day we went to Colonial Williamsburg, which was pretty cool. A bunch of people dressed up in colonial outfits walked around and talked about life in "those days". We had to avoid a lot of horse pat on the road, though. We ate dinner at a seafood restaurant which, I might add, did not have many choices for the not-seafood-liking pesco-polo vegetarian. After that, we went back to Colonial Williamsburg for the candlelight ghost tour, which was a lady leading us through the rain on the streets of Williamsburg and telling us about all of the myths of the city. We didn't get to go in anywhere, but it was interesting.

The second day we went to Historic Jamestown, which was a museum (basically) of Jamestown. They had the original ships that sailed there and the fort that the settlers made, so it was also interesting. That night, we went to Go-Karts Plus, which was a Frankie's-Fun-Park-type place. They had four go-kart tracks (kiddie, Euro, Figure-Eight, and Stock Car), bumper boats, the "Disko", and an arcade. The go-karts were a blast, because while I am terrible at racing, it was an adventure to just not ram into the side of the person in front of you and get kicked out.

The third day we competed, played in the hotel waterpark, and went to Busch Gardens Europe for a few hours (for the Fiesta-val awards ceremony). While we were there, I didn't hang out with Briana and McKenzie (for a change), but Clint, Jason, Ted, Brandon, and Melissa. It was awesome!

The fourth day, we spent the whole time in Busch Gardens. Though the Griffon (right) there is exactly the same as SheiKra in the Florida Busch Gardens, I found it much more exciting. I also really liked Apollo's Chariot, which was a lot of weightless falling instead of ramming around and loop-de-loops.

Overall, the trip was great. We got home Monday morning at 6 o'clock and slept until 2:30 pm. It was glorious.

It's Spring Break for us right now, so we're just relaxing and stuff. We've attempted to weed the garden boxes, but who knows if that'll go anywhere.

24-hour relay

2009-03-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last Friday and Saturday, the Easley High School Track and Cross Country teams hosted the 2nd annual 24-hour relay. The hours were divided into six teams that were given a color for their team name. I got put on the white team, so I had to run from 4-8 Friday afternoon and 4-8 Saturday morning. That's the design for the t-shirt I made for myself, since we didn't have team t-shirts. I drew the cow myself!

As I began to run the first mile, everything felt great. I continued to run and I got three miles done no problem. After I chilled for a while with Mara, I continued to run. Around 5:30, I began to see the signs of a coming headache. "What a pain," I thought. I could only hope that it would come after 8:00 and leave when I slept. It came around 7:00, but at 7:30 Dad came and I went home. I had covered about 7-and-a-half miles.

I slept really well, and I didn't want to get up in the morning (at 4 o'clock!). But, sure enough, I crawled out of bed, put on the same clothes I wore the day before, and went back to the track. Luckily, my headache had completely left.

Man, it was cold! After thirty minutes of running, I was all warmed up, and I wanted to keep moving. But I went over and sat next to the fire pit, which was incredibly welcomed. I alternated between running and sitting by the fire, until I was done with all fifteen of the miles we were supposed to do (at around 6:30)! I had the rest of the time to relax and chat with Mara.

I was looking forward to seeing the sun rise, but it was kind of lame. The clouds were on the horizon, so I didn't get to see much. It was interesting, though, to see everything turn from pitch black to bright and visible.

I slept and was lazy for the rest of the day, so it was all good.

snow walls and track meets

2009-03-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated in so very long, I understand.

As you've probably read in my last post, it snowed (last week, but whatever). It started snowing at night, so we didn't get to enjoy the fluffiness of it newly fallen. The next day we slept in, cleaned the house, and then I suited up and stepped outside. By then it was already afternoon, so a lot of the snow had melted or mostly thinned. But that didn't stop me! I marched right to the middle of the yard, took my leftover dish, and started making bricks to make my amazing snow wall!

I convinced Clint to come outside, and together, we made it even more amazing! It had two perpendicular walls, both probably around four (ish) feet long and three (ish) feet high, so it was more like a fort.

The proud builders of the wall.

It was sturdy enough to withstand the heaviest
of snowball fights (if there was enough snow leftover)

Even comfort-lined with extra snow floors!

Clint decided to eat his lunch of the leftover homemade
macaroni and cheese (with rotini noodles and
elbow noodles) that McKenzie made, inside the fort. It
was quite enjoyable.

By the time it was all done, it was around 3 o' clock, and it was pretty sunny outside. The temperature started to climb, and I worried for our little snow fort. It stood for the next few days.

____________________________________________________

The track meet scrimmage that was scheduled for Monday March 2 (I guess) was cancelled, due to snow. It was rescheduled for that Thursday.

It was pretty uninteresting, except for the fact that it was my first meet-ish thing.

We were in the middle of the high jump when the coach called over the bullhorn for me to come run the 4x800. What a surprise, I can say! Coach Clark had said that I would be an alternate for it, and I didn't expect much from it, considering I'm a first-year runner and I'm not the best. Well, I ran up and got a crash course on receiving and giving the baton, and then the event started. Not much of a warning. I guess I did okay, though.

The First Snow

2009-03-01T18:59:00.001-08:00

The first snow of the season! (imagine, in March!)

Today, we went to CYS and it was raining incredibly hard. We had heard that it was supposed to snow, but we didn't think it possible. To our amazement, when Clint and I were sitting and waiting for McKenzie's rehearsal to be done, the heavy rain turned into heavy snow. It was falling so fast, I didn't realize at first that it had changed.

As we were driving home, is started to stick, and the yards of the properties we were passing gradually became more and more white. It was glorious.

We got home and sat around for awhile, and when McKenzie started to make macaroni for dinner, I thought I'd take a step outside. (though it was already dark) The tree outside next to the porch needed the snow on it to be knocked off, and what was better to do? As I walked to the front yard to knock the snow off the poor bushes, lightning struck somewhere and everything flashed purple for a split second. It was so weird! I've never seen lightning or thunder in the snow...

I heard a "crash" and thought nothing of it, for trees were falling in the woods, and why bother? As I stepped inside, Clint and McKenzie were at the back door looking out. Turns out, the weight of the snow crashed our gazebo! It completely fell in, bending the framing, ripping the fabric, and breaking the boards underneath it. It was disastrous!

I wanted to get the snow off the top of it so it didn't fall any more, but that failed. I decided after that to take Rosie on a walk. She needed to get a little energy out.

It snowed around two-and-a-half inches, I would guess. That's a lot here, but I suppose you guys in Utah would say that's a little measly.

We get out of school tomorrow, though! (but that means that the track scrimmage is canceled...)

updates

2009-02-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

I just got back from track, and I found out that I will be competing in the high jump on Monday's scrimmage meet. It's funny, really, because that was the one event that I was mostly sure that I would not be able to do. I'll do fairy okay, at best, if I could just clear 4 feet. That's the starting height. Other than that, I'm okay...
I still don't know what running event I'll be doing. Something longish I'm guessing.

I set up Mum's digital picture frame that she got for Christmas. It's pretty sweet.

We've been working on our music for our spring trip in marching band. I haven't had much time to practice it, so I'm a little on the sloppy side. I found out yesterday at practice that I'm doing the best in memorization then the rest of my section! Come on guys, step it up!

I need a birthday present for Dad tomorrow... what to get?

Lent started, and I'm giving up soda for the forty days. It's too easy, though, since I never drink it anyway.

Pim is cuter than ever!

twitter

2009-02-16T17:25:00.000-08:00

...I made a twitter account for that color wars thing harrison is doing. Pretty exciting, I guess.

It's McKenzie's birthday today, and I woke up at 8:30 to go shopping for her. It keeps getting closer and closer to the mark each holiday... I hope she enjoys her new "refrigerator"!

I actually talked to harrison yesterday for the first time since he's moved! We were driving to a play and Mom called him, so I asked if I could talk to him. The conversation lasted a whole of five minutes!!!

another useless post

2009-02-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

I have noticed the pattern that many of my siblings' and adopted siblings' posts have taken. They seem to center mostly on the stress of school and school-like activities.
I recently got done with a research project for English on Hungary. I spent many hours on a mind-blowing powerpoint stuffed with useless information, and an organized outline. I didn't feel completely satisfied with these, though because I felt like it needed more. Unfortunately, I ran out of time so I could not make Hungarian goulash or a flag to further enhance my project. Oh, well.
The locomotive project that I worked for three-and-a-half days on went well, and I turned it in all in one piece. A week later, I took it home, where it is still sitting on my bedroom desk. I still don't know what grade I made on it.
Track moved to every day after school. Lots of hard work.
I got a new perscription for my contacts, and I don't feel totally satisfied with it. I feel like it needs to be a tiny tad bit stronger, especially in my left eye.
Harrison has this "color wars" thing going on, and I have no clue about it. Should I join?
Presidents Day weekend is glorious! No school on Monday, which is also McKenzie's birthday. I still don't have a gift for her...
I need lots of rest, I've been so tired lately for no apparent reason.
Wouldn't it be cool to join a Japanese exchange program?
Mom wants to put me in some online school next year instead of going to Gettys.
Pim sees birds outside.
I wrote a poem when I was little once, about being happy.
Harrison, we really should play wii with each other sometime.
I hope all is well for everyone!

hm...

2009-01-29T14:17:00.000-08:00

If you can do the one thing that you most want to do RIGHT NOW, what would you do?

The final one

2009-01-27T12:49:00.000-08:00

On the morning of Tuesday, January the 27th, our friend, Fish passed away.

She was a good gerbil, always one to be generous in the ways of biting a big chunk out of your finger. She enjoyed leaving the cage to get some fresh air (which was much needed), but she could never leave for more than five minutes, due to the horrible seizures she got from being in an unknown environment. A very pleasurable experience, I'm sure.

As the last living descendant of the matriarch, Lil' Trooper, she wanted her life to be full, and as we all know, she lived it to the fullest. It seemed that her adventurous life of living in a hot, stinking aquarium would never end, but alas, to much of our distress, it did.

But we must not dwell upon the fact that she died a slow or painful death, for she did not. She died a death of old age and sickness (so it was more like she died a death of a disease that came on quickly, but took a while to get to the point). She now lays peacefully in the corner of her cage next to the trash can, waiting for next week's garbage day.

She lived through the deaths of her own sisters and brother: Jeff, Chips, And, and the many other unnamed siblings (not to mention that she might have been the very cause of their deaths), as well of her own parents, Char and Lil' Trooper. She knew that she must carry the last words of the Gerbil family well.

And because of her great deeds, we remember the Gerbils for this: their sharp teeth, their ability at jumping out of your hands, their twitching fits and seizures, their cleverness of escaping their cage when you're on vacation and chewing your sister's stuffed animals (oh wait, that was Jeff...), their hideously rancid odors, their ever-lasting lives, their ferocious abilities to kill their siblings, and their nocturnal little selves keeping you awake at night, hitting their water bottle against the glass of the cage. All of them, great feats.

We must never forget Fish, in times of sadness and of celebration, for she will always be close to our hearts, the last survivor of the Gerbils.

And now, a moment of silence...

Thank you.

We will remember you forever, Fish, our friend.

And now one question...
Anyone need five-and-a-half pounds of gerbil food?

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

2009-01-19T13:46:00.000-08:00

Oh, the wonders of what can happen on a long weekend. Thank goodness we have today off from school.

Harrison left for Utah yesterday. At eight in the morning, all six of us crammed into a five-person car and drove two hours to the Charlotte Airport. It was... a chance for us to be close.

We made it to the airport on time and said our goodbyes, then we took a picture with the gnome. It was kinda sad, my oldest brother leaving home permanently. I just hope you'll stay in touch, Harrison!

We found out that orchestra was canceled that day due to "snow". A few flakes floated around in the air, that's it! It didn't even stick. Oh, well. It's supposed to snow tonight. Like, a whole inch! Whatever are we going to do? Good luck Harry, in Logan!

When I got home, I finished sculpting my school project and today I finished painting it. I made a model of the first steam locomotive out of Sculpey Clay. It took me three-and-a-half days to finish it! I hope my hard work shows for it, even though my picture taking skills are down-the-drain.

the actual replica

my sculpture

McKenzie is moving into Harrison's room, so she and Mum decided that they'd clean it out. They started with the closet. Big mess. She's got a while 'til she's movin' in.

New Year's

2009-01-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone, and so has New Year's! Our VA cousins came down to celebrate the coming of the new year, and that was fun.
We went to Ceasar's Head and shot some videos with our new cameras. Harrison and I both got new video cameras for Christmas, but they're different. I don't know what his is, but mine is a Flip Mino HD, which is really tiny. It's about the size of a cell phone and it shoots in high definition. We saw some kids there that were adorable!

Joey and Harrison went to "The Rock" on the morning of New Year's to watch the sun rise. They left Clint out of it because he fell asleep just half and hour short of the adventure, and they didn't include anyone else.

Christmas

2008-12-23T14:37:00.001-08:00

It's Christmas time. I can tell.

Everyone is stressing about gifts and stuff.
I'm sleeping in until 11 every day.
We didn't finish the tree until, like, yesterday.
Our Christmas in the City houses aren't even up.
Meredith is over a lot.

Harrison is talking about leaving a lot. It makes me sad, but I guess he should go.

december...

2008-12-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

It's true. Everyone has said that time flies, but I didn't really realize what they meant until the last few years. Last year specifically, I remember the beginning of the year, and then the end of the year. Just like that. I don't really even remember Halloween, Thanksgiving break, or Christmas break. All that's in my mind is how fast it all seemed to go.
I guess it's because I've more things that I've been doing. I used to not be in marching band, until last year. Or maybe it's because I've entered middle school. I don't know. It just seems like it has gone a lot quicker.
It still seems like the beginning of the school year, just getting started in everything. But it's already December. It's the second week of Advent, two and a half weeks until Christmas. I still have to buy/make gifts for everyone on my list! I thought it was still October!
About a week ago, I purchased an mp3 player online, not really thinking about how close to Christmas it is, and that I was demolishing a gift idea for my parents. I just made it that much harder for their shopping. (and if you're reading this, Mum, I'd like to say that I don't really want much) I got that mp3 player just this past Friday, a week after I purchased it. I love it!

I would like a puppy...it is December...

Oh, the weekend is already gone.

2008-11-30T14:43:00.000-08:00

I love long weekends. It's great to have that time to just take a break, away from school and work and troubles. It's sad, though, when it's over. Everything starts again tomorrow.
It won't be too long, though. Christmas break is coming up soon, an even longer break. But I think they shortened it this year...
Speaking of Christmas, this week is the first week of Advent, so yesterday at the church, we made advent wreaths! Ours is slightly unfinished, because Mum didn't have enough supplies. We get to light the first candle today.
Dad, McKenzie, Clint, and I all went shopping on Friday. We didn't go early in the day, so we weren't hit by Black Friday shoppers. We went to a shoe store called Run In for training shoes for track. It's really cool, because they are pretty much experts on shoes. They wil l make cuts in the soles of the shoes for more flexibility, and on my shoes, they completely took out a part of the plastic soles! The manager there went to the same college as my dad, or something. They were talking the whole time while Clint and I were getting our shoes. We ended up getting free t-shirts.
We also went to Barnes and Noble and saw our friend from marching band, Jason, and his friend there. We talked for a really long time about nothing in particular. It was humorous, though, when I first saw him across the store and I was thinking, "Is that Jason? No, it can't be. But it is!" McKenzie and I couldn't stop laughing at the hilarity of it. What hilarity, I don't know. It was just great.
The last store we went to was Circuit City, where I looked for an mp3 player. I didn't end up buying one there, though later in the night I looked at one on the computer. It's a refurbished Creative Zen (4 gb). Because it's refurbished, I bought it for half off.
Today is Sunday, and I haven't done a single productive thing today. Isn't that great?

Spreading the Soda Bath Love

2008-11-29T17:32:00.000-08:00

Some of Thad's friends, enjoy and spread the word.

Hypothetical Question

2008-11-24T15:39:00.000-08:00

If you could control time, what would you do?

My favorite number!

2008-11-24T15:23:00.000-08:00

7 things 'bout me:

marching band
orchestra
good grades
music
being the best
having a watch on my wrist at all times
feeling good

7 things not 'bout me:

giving up
being lazy
not giving all
killing gerbils
eating beef
immaturity outside the house
pink

7 things I like about the number 7:

lists of 7 favorite things
July
7th day of July
my birthday
a fortune cookie told me to
people sometimes write it with a line through it
it's between 5 and 10

7 things I see outside the window:

trees
sunlight
cat
gazebo
dead grass
weedy garden
life

7 things I want to stay for a while:

elephants
pandas
rain forests
rhinos
Rosie
youth
Harrison

7 things I like about marching band:

friends
hard work
making Mum cry
laughter
saxophone
being good
competitions

7 things I'd like to own:

saxophone lessons
more time
a nice, but not too expensive, mp3 player with more than 2 gigs
a moped
the ability to stop time
an airplane
a pet that actually likes me

So much to write about...

2008-11-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

Now that I have more time, I can blog again. The problem: I've not had time to blog for the past few months (until recently), but I thought about blogging. Therefore, I have ideas of what to blog about that have just been building up. So I'm going to work really hard over the next few days and blog about everything I've thought of, and try to hold other ideas until later. You'll know when my ideas are all used up when I stop updating again.

I've started track conditioning! It is on every Monday and Thursday at the high school, but since I have band practice on Tuesday and Thursday, I can't make the Thursday conditioning days. It's definitely a challenge when you do a minute and a half straight of crunches. It's fun, though. And at least I'll be in shape, now. I think it's something I'll be good at.

My life...

2008-11-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

I guess there's something to say about someone's life when you look at their email inbox. For example, if you look at mine, all you will see is PatrickMainieri@... and ELMOGVL@... .

For those of you who don't know, Patrick Mainieri is the high school band director, and ELMOGVL is the manager, so to speak, of CYS (Carolina Youth Symphony [the orchestra I'm in]).

What I'm saying is that I don't have anyone that wants to talk to me, or any other organizations that I am part of other than saxophone-related things.

Ah, free time.

2008-10-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here at home with the TV on watching the Misadventures of Flapjack, as I listen to Mom and Harrison arguing about how to make bread, and I'm thinking, "ahhhhhh..."
It's just so great to have free time with no band, orchestra, school, or anything else. I haven't had a time like this in forever!

Yay!

Yay, State!

2008-10-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

So our marching band made it to State for the first time in three years. It was a pretty great feeling.
The way it works is that if you make in into the top six in the Upperstate competition, then you get to go to the State competition. At Upperstate we compete with the bands from just the upper half of South Carolina, and the State is with bands from the whole state.
We haven't made it to State for the past three years, so I was pretty skeptical about this year. I didn't have a clue whether we had what it takes, especially with all the marchers who don't give a care. When it came time for the awards ceremony, everyone was tense and nervous. But we made sixth place, barely making it to State. It was a pretty exciting night.
The next week, we went to State. We had met our first goal (to make it to State), and now we had a new one. Our goal was simply to beat Pickens, and hopefully make it into the top six. We met one half of that goal. We beat Pickens and placed 7th overall. We were extremely happy, though, just to be at State and to have placed higher than Pickens.
After the awards, the bands all meshed together and mingled. I high-fived a bunch of strangers in light blue uniforms. It was pretty exciting.
I'm pretty happy to have satisfied our seniors, who have never been to State, and to give them this as their "last year" gift was something special.
It was a wonderful end to a great season, and even though I'm sad that it has ended, I'm happy. Now I get to look forward to next year!

P.S.:
35 seconds

Created by Bunk Beds.net

Wow...

2008-09-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm sorry! I haven't been on in soooo long. Life is just too busy.

It's been marching band the whole time, so nothing really interesting. We did have a competition, and got schooled. At the competition, everyone had fun and all, and we performed our show. Personally, for me, it was a good run. But not for the rest of the band.
We came in third out of three bands in our class and eighth overall. It was terrible. Hopefully, though, it has opened up the eyes of the new marchers and they'll work harder now.

Woops!

2008-09-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

Uh-oh! While looking at the last remaining gerbil, we realized that it wasn't Fish that died, but And! So to clarify, it was And that died. Fish is alive.

There was no football game today, so we got the night off, and tomorrow we don't have anything to do. It feels good to be able to relax...

Recipes

2008-08-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

Today, I have been enlightened to the most awesome thing in the world. It is a simple recipe that makes a wonderful creation: awesome. The recipe is:

1 part water
2 parts cornstarch

That's it. Try mixing it with your hands, that's even better. I'll leave it to you to discover why it's so awesome. (don't eat, please!

Also, I did promise Meredith a choco chip cookie recipe with directions, so here you go:

1 c. sugar 1 teaspoon salt
1 c. brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla 1 bag of chocolate chips,
1 c. real butter or other items (like chopped nuts, raisins, coconut, 3 c. flour or any combination of the above) 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together the sugars, eggs, vanilla, and butter (when measuring the brown sugar, press it to pack it down [it should be molded into the shape of your measuring cup]). Mix until creamy and smooth. Sift the flour into a bowl and measure into 3 cups, while still keeping it fluffy (don't flatten), and put in a larger bowl with the salt, baking powder, and baking soda (make sure to keep the flour fluffy and light through the whole process of measuring and mixing). Add that mixture to the cream mixture. Add the chocolate chips or combo. Take two normal spoons and scoop the dough in one, and use the second to scoop onto ungreased cookie sheet in even clumps. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes. The cookies will still look doughy and uncooked, but when they cool, they'll be delicious!

This recipe makes enough for a person for a few days, or a few people for a day, depending on how much you eat. You can double it to make more. I'll give you a rough idea of how it makes: with the amount given, all the Chelaks plus the Core Four ate it in about a day. With double this amount, it could last those people for two or three days.

Yet another one and other news

2008-08-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

Yet another gerbil died. That makes one left. This time, Fish died, so And is the only one left.

In other news, I finished Breaking Dawn last night. The series was really good, just not my favorite.

School started, and now I don't have any free time. Oh, well.

Another one

2008-08-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

Another gerbil died today. That brings us down to two left.
It wasn't because of Pim this time, just old age. Chips was the oldest gerbil we had, and he was half-blind. We knew he was going to die, he was sitting in the same place for the whole morning, breathing very slowly. Fish and And are still alive and well, but their names aren't as special without the Chips there... oh, well.

On another account, we're getting ready to go to orchestra camp right now. It's just one thing after another! I was thinking about it, and once school starts, we won't have any free time. Sundays we have orchestra, Mondays and Tuesdays band, Wednesday nights are free, unless I get saxophone lessons, Thursdays and Fridays band, and Saturdays band competitions. We're completely booked until like, November! No time to spend with friends, and little time to write pointless little blogs...

It's Over!

2008-08-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

Band camp is finally over! I feel like it went by quickly right now, at home, but when I'm there, I feel like it's taking waaay too long. We just got home early because it's a Wednesday and everyone normally goes to church on Wednesday nights. I'm so hungry right now, writing my blog, listening to Austin and Meredith chatter and Mom making dinner.
Of course, band is not over. We still have after school practices (every day, except on Wednesdays) and football games, and band competitions, and jamborees. It's pretty all-consuming...

I love band.

everyday things

2008-08-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

tomorrow we go back to band camp
and march all day...

Pim killed my gerbil, Jeff. We all knew she would eventually. She kept jumping on top of his cage and sticking her paw in it. Yesterday she must've finally gotten him, and injured him. There was blood splattered on the walls of his tank, and he's the only gerbil in there, so it wasn't any sort of fight, it had to be Pim. This morning, when Mom came to wake us up for church, and she looked at him, and sure enough, he was dead. After church, I dumped his bedding and all the other contents in his cage (except the water bottle) in the trash, including him, and we're going to throw away the tank. No worries, though, I still have three more. They were recently named Fish, And, and Chips by Merideth. But Jeff was the only named one before...

A couple days ago, a stray cat ripped a hole in the bug-net of our gazebo, and Mom's supposed to patch it. She hasn't gotten to that yet.

Chocolate chips are a very good snack, I think much better than Hershey's chocolate.

Band Camp

2008-08-02T17:34:00.000-07:00

I was at marching band camp for the last two days, marching... and sweating. This year our show theme is basically remembering trageties that have occurred in our nation's recent history. We have three pieces that we're playing, the first is the Virginia Tech shooting, the second is the hurricane Katrina, and the third is 9-11.
Our band director, Mr. Mainieri, made this our theme because it's the election year, and "a show that shows pride will have good crowd effect" or something like that. I like the show, it's pretty cool and it will have a good effect, but that won't effect our score with the judges! We need a really good show, and we need to execute it well for us to get a good score, but we have a lot of younger marchers, like me. With so many new marchers, and with such a big band, we will have to teach everyone good technique fast to be good, and if we don't, we won't be able to compete, because even though we're big, we won't be very good...
Another thing is that our band director wants to put a voice over at the beginning of our show, explaining our show, when it's supposed to be silent and eerie, giving the effect of a moment of silence to pay tribute toward those who died in the tragic events. The first thing is that it will completely ruin the effect, the second thing is that voice overs are going out of style for marching bands, and third, it will probably be something cheesy, adding nothing to our show to make us better for the judges.
The first day of camp we just covered the basics for the first-time marchers, and yesterday we started learning our show. Camp starts at 8 in the morning, but we have to be there early because Clint is the drum major, so we get there around 7 to 7:30. We march until 11, and then we break for lunch until 1. We come back and go over our music until 4, then we break for dinner until 6. We march until 9, and then go home, but we stay late because, yet again, Clint's the drum major.
We have the weekend off and we go back on Monday, and we have camp all week, and then Monday through Wednesday the next week. We stand all day, even during the music rehearsals, at attention, so yesterday my feet hurt a lot.
Marching band pretty much IS my life. When I'm at marching band, I'm loving it. I'm gleeful, and I really feel at my element. When I'm not at marching band, I'm thinking about it. When it's not marching band season, I'm thinking about it coming up, even a few months before it even starts! Marching band gives me such a strong feeling, and I think I'm a little obsessive about it. I started in sixth grade and I want to stick with it until I'm a senior. That's seven years of marching band!!! I'm a little worried that I'll become too obsessive with it, and end up like Will Hillegeist or something. Not that he's not a great person, he is great, he's just the best saxophone player in the school, and it's litterally his life.
Marching band is such a challenge, and I love it! It gives me something to work for, and to do. Without it, I would have nothing to do and would be lazy. With all the troubles and challenges and work and sweat, I love it!

Clay

2008-07-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

Today, we were messing around with Sculpy Clay. McKenzie and I decided to have a contest to see who could make the best dragon, so we were working along, and our cat was sitting on the chair at the end of the table. I was messing around, and I said that I would start calling my dragon Pim (our cat's name). A few minutes later when the real Pim was pouncing after her invisible friend, I accidentally called her Clay. So now, I will know her as Clay Aiken instead of Pimela Anderson.

Do you ever feel...

2008-07-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

...like when you read a book, that it was made especially for you? Well, more like you were the only one to read it. Like you can't imagine anyone else reading it? When a book is so good for you, you feel like no one else can possibly like it?

Band

2008-07-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

I can remember when I was in fourth or fifth grade (not too long ago, I should add) and when people asked me what instrument I wanted to play, I said saxophone (it wasn't a question if I wanted to play, all my siblings did, we're just a musical family). Most people would reply saying, "Really? Well, the saxophone is really hard to play." I had heard that a lot, even before that was the instrument I wanted to play. Now that I play the sax, I don't understand what people meant. The saxophone is the easiest instrument to play. I think that when people heard that it's hard to play, someone said it's hard to play well or beautifully. Anyone can pick it up and blast away, playing the notes, but it really is hard to play to where it's pleasant to hear.
I'm not saying I can play beautifully. I can play notes well, with enough practice, I'm in the marching band! And I'm proud to say that last year I was, too. I was the only marching sixth grader (there was one in the front ensemble). In the beginning of the season, I was by no means any good. I could march, I could play my concert B flat scale, but I couldn't play the music. Throughout the season, I progressed, and now, the beginning of my second year, I can play the music well (5 days after getting it). I picked up so quickly, just with a challenge, and I'm proud of myself.

That was a little background of myself...and my saxophone!

Bittersweet

2008-07-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Life is bittersweet, when you get something good, it normally comes with one small, I want to say bad thing, but it's not really bad. It comes with something to balance that. For example:

A cat is cute, adorable, and fuzzy, but with that comes the responsibility, the litter box, the smell, the scratching.
Candy is sweet and delicous, but eat too much and you get fat. (and a stomach ache)
Sisters are good friends and we laugh and play, but in comes conflict and you get into arguments.

These are just a few things, so I've decided to put a "Bittersweet Bar" on my sidebar. I'll update it with a new item that's bittersweet and a description why.

An untitled poem:

2008-07-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much one thing can say
Like how feet and hands tell hot or cold
And a forehead tells you sick or well
Your heart tells you your path, your way.
So why can't I?

What can I say?
Should I say to stop, and return to old,
Or should I say to show and tell,
When things come, should you shove them away?
Will it make a difference?

Is attention something people will pay?
For time is something that will not fold,
And words are not easy to buy or sell.
So they rush through the rest of the day.
Where am I?

I am nowhere,
But not to stay,
My time to change is another day.

And I say,
To whoever reads,
Be the one who truly leads.

Words are good,
Confidence is strong,
Change lasts forever long.

-Taylor

Hello, all!

2008-07-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hello, I know I'm very new to this, and everything, but, well... yeah. I'll try my best to keep this up-to-date and interesting. Thanks!