Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Yay I'm actually caught up on homework so I can blog! And it'd only a little after 8! wOOt! hehe
Sunday, I did homework most of the day and then went to youth. After a not-so-great discussion of the marching competition during dinner, which had me very agrivated, along with some other things...we had some fun. With the groups we were in last week, we got to spend 3 minutes at each of 9 different centers. They were all different but each had some biblical reference, though some were kinda bizzare. Some were individual challenges and some were for a few people and some were for the whole group. For a while, whoever did a challenge that wasn't a whole group one couldn't do another one, but a lot of people in my group were missing so eventually we had to let some people go twice. Let's see if I can actually think of all 9...we started at #8 and went around in a circle so I'll go by the numbers and that's why they're in an odd order.
8. A few cones were set up like you'd see at a soccer practice, and we were given a ping pong ball (It had a smiley face on it!!!) and instructions to weave it around the cones without touching it. Of course, the first response was "blow it!" and they ignored my thoughts of how we could just blow it into a hat and then cary the hat between them...but that's ok lol. So one guy blew it around the course and another person blew it back. The biblical reference was something about being patient.
9. Two people had to pick up a balloon without using their arms, legs, hands, or feet and then cary it across an area marked off with tape. Two of the girls picked it up with their chins so that the balloon was between their necks and walked around like that. I don't remember what the biblical part of that one was lol probably something about working together.
1. We were given a few quarters and a line to stand behind. There was a paper with a bulls eye a few yards away and we had to try to throw the quarter so that it'd land covering the bulls eye. For some unknown reason, my group decided that I should do that one hahaha and you all know my lack of coordination...I think the closest I got was like a foot away from the paper. We eventually switched off so some other people could try, but no one got it in the center. We later found out that it was impossible anyway-the bulls eye was bigger than a quarter. The biblical reference was "All things are possible with God" but I don't think that was a good fit because it WASN'T possible lol but oh well.
2. There was a tub of water and a washcloth. One person had to wash all of the group members hands. Not exactly hard lol. It was supposed to represent the washing of some people's feet and I don't know the Bible story that goes with it so yeah.
3. Definitly the most interesting center. It was called the "good sumaritan (sp) carry," which was about the good sumaritan in the Bible (yay a story I actually knew! because it was in Godspell hehe). We had to pick partners and cary them/be carried across the gym and back. Well, my group was mostly girls, so we couldn't just pair up with one guy and one girl...Dana (one of my group's two leaders, she rules) carried me hehehe...she and I were cracking up the entire time. Much fun.
4. Good station hehe-it was called "Give the group a hug!" One person got to go around and give each of us a hug.
5. The other groups had a hard time with this, but it wasn't bad at all for mine since we had so many people missing. There was a tiny platform (like...maybe 2x2 feet? 3? somewhere around there) painted with animals and we had to all stand on it so that no feet were touching the ground and stay that way for 3 seconds. Most of the other groups put the strongest (and therefore usually largest) person in the center so that they could hold the others up, but my group put the smallest person in the center on one foot, and the rest of us counted to three and then stood on one foot and then counted to three again. We got it on the second try I think, so we just stood there for a while...then Ms. Toby came over and couldn't believe we were done so she made us do it again so she could watch haha. Obviously, that one was Noah's Ark. Dana's son helped design the platform...he's pretty little, I dunno exactly how old...but she was telling us how she asked him if she could put a chicken on it and he said "Nooo!" and she asked him if they had chickens back then. "yes." but he wouldn't tell her how they're still here if Noah didn't have any on the ark *laughs*
6. We had to list the 10 commandments. Lol we had Emily in our group so naturally she was nominated, but even she ended up missing one. I only knew like 4 of them.
7. We had to name 10 books of the Bible. I can do that! But someone else volunteered.
Yay I remembered them all! hehe
Monday...umm...I had physical therapy. And then I totally fell apart and rambled to Anna and then felt better. Hehe I <3 Annannananana.
Yesterday...I went to the orthopediest for a check up...I get to stop physical therapy after this Friday so that I can be moved to Rex Wellness Center instead...He said it's kinda like the YMCA except there are physical therapists there...so it's like a more independent physical therapy program with more variety. I had him look at my knee also...and he said that it's basically unrelated to the other things and that it's relatively common for women because we have wider hips...Basically, the thing that runs from my hip to my knee that acts as an elastic band is pulling a little too much to the side, causing my kneecap to move over, which makes it unstable. So he gave me a special brace that pushes my kneecap over and adds a little support too. I have to wear it for at least 4-6 weeks and then see how it feels. It's a little uncomfortable but mostly when I'm going up or down stairs and when I try to keep it bent for very long; its uncomfortable to bend it more than like 45 degrees (like so it's still close to being straight) and if I keep it at like 90 for very long it hurts because the back digs into the back of my knee. At least it fits under my pants though, barely. Haha, this morning Taylor saw it and since it was under my pants she didn't know I had a brace on and she freaked out because she thought my knee was really really swollen.
Today felt odd. Mr. Rowe has decided to only to challenges on Wednesdays now so there were I think 5 that were supposed to go today, but you know how Mr. Rowe is about time management...so only 2 1/2 of them went lol. Taylor and I got to go first though. She won! Which makes me very happy. As I promised her, I didn't lose on purpose, but he had me play some parts that I honestly have a lot of trouble with (like...most of the music...lol) so he said "Well, there's going to be a switch. Taylor's been really working hard, but you can practice and challenge her next week." I was like "No. She has been working really hard and she deserves to be that chair. I'd rather play second part and she'd rather play first, so we're both fine with this." He laughed and said "as long as you two are happy..." So I grinned and ran out and switched music with Taylor. Yay second part! It'll seem so much easier now that I've played first. I'll probably have to play first next year because Heather will graduate, but at least I can relish in second partness for now^^ hehe. Oh, and while Taylor was in Mr. Rowe's office doing her part of the challenge, Hannah came in the room...She walked out of drama because Mr. Gibbs called her a whore o_O I know he's known to be a pervert everyone calls him a child molester...but I've also heard a lot of great things about how he teaches and how awesome his classes are. So it surprised me that he'd actually say that to someone, especially to a freshman girl-no offense to any freshmen. He said he was just teasing her because they all tease eachother, like how she tells him he's going bald, but I thought that was overstepping the line a bit...I don't know the context of how it happened or anything, but for her to walk out of class...yeah. He's such a great teacher that she doesn't want to get him in trouble though.
Second period (English) we talked a lot about Poe. We read the Pit and the Pendulum last night. When Courtney (who is in my English class) and I were little, her mom lived in Hillsborough, so one time when we were in the car on the way there, we listened to a tape of Poe stories. One of the ones on there was the Pit and the Pendulum, but apparently it was abridged. I thought maybe it was just me not remembering the ending, but Courtney said she only remembered it going until the Pendulum is right above him and then he screams, which is what I remember too. Then we started talking about other Poe stories. Courtney and I swear there's one that's entirely about being burried alive, which was on the tape. I thought it was just called "Burried Alive" but I dunno. Mr. Koechling had never heard of it though, and the class thought we were weird because we listened to Poe on tape when we were little kids hahaha (this was in like 4th grade probably) and I swear someone said "no wonder you turned out so weird." I dunno who they were talking about or who said it, but it made me laugh anyway. Then Mr. K read us the Tell Tale Heart AGAIN *dies* I've heard that story just about every year since 7th grade. I couldn't believe there were a bunch of people in my class who'd never read it. Then we talked about the play version of it and how the one that I saw sucked and how Mr. K would make it better lol.
Lunch was pretty normal except that we ate inside again because it was wet outside...I got a ticket for The Mouse that Roared by Zach and Allison, and I'm going to get one for Anna tomorrow...We're going on the 9th (Saturday). Much fun.
In history, we talked a lot about the KKK and how they're still active...and a bunch of kids in my class have seen/heard about/have relatives that have seen the KKK doing vandalism and marching and stuff, even somehow hacking a website and "spraying grafitti" (except like...typing it w/html I guess) on it...I had no idea that was still relatively common. I talked about segregated proms though, because my cousins in Georgia go to a school that has always had segregated proms, but I think like two years ago they integrated them. Crazy. Then the fire alarm went off, like 2 minutes before the start of second lunch. So obviously it wasn't a drill, but Ms. Blanton wouldn't listen to that. She told us to stay in our seats because it'd be over in a few minutes. I've never ever been told by a teacher to stay inside when the fire alarm is going off lol. She actually went into the hallway and asked a teacher that was leading her class down the hall "Is this for real?" What was weird about that was that it wasn't like she was asking if it was a real fire, she just wanted to know if we actually wanted to leave. Well, hello, you're asking a teacher who is LEADING HER CLASS OUT OF THE BUILDING! Lol. So we finally convinced her to let us leave by saying "What if there's a real fire and we all DIE?! How would you feel, Ms. Blanton?" So we finally went outside. A few minutes later, an administrator came down and kept shouting "all clear!" so we tried to go back towards the building...but this one teacher kept telling us that if there was a real fire, we couldn't stand where we were because it was where the fire truck would pull up. So she made us all stand in the grass. The guy kept coming towards us calling "all clear!" obviously thinking we hadn't heard lol. Finally we went back inside-just in time to see the fire truck come haha. I found out later that someone knocked a fire extinguisher off the wall and it exploded. Whatever chemicals are in that filled the room and set off the smoke detector. That's according to someone in my 4th period at least-I've heard one conflicting report about some kid pulling the alarm, but I doubt it because they made an announcement for people in some 3rd period class to come get their bookbags and stuff at the end of the day.
Gah almost out of time! *hurries* Physics was cool-we finished testing our bridges today. We made them out of 20 pieces of fettucini noodles (uncooked), a meter of tape, and I think half a meter of sewing thread. My groups came in I think 5th? overall, holding 410 grams. Melissa's group won for all the classes-700 grams! Crazy!
I finished my English rough draft today! *relieved* This week I've had 3 papers, due within 4 days of eachother, and I have a test on the same day as the last paper is due. Yuck. But I'm done with two of them and I just have to edit the English one, which is due Friday.
Gnight!
Sunday, I did homework most of the day and then went to youth. After a not-so-great discussion of the marching competition during dinner, which had me very agrivated, along with some other things...we had some fun. With the groups we were in last week, we got to spend 3 minutes at each of 9 different centers. They were all different but each had some biblical reference, though some were kinda bizzare. Some were individual challenges and some were for a few people and some were for the whole group. For a while, whoever did a challenge that wasn't a whole group one couldn't do another one, but a lot of people in my group were missing so eventually we had to let some people go twice. Let's see if I can actually think of all 9...we started at #8 and went around in a circle so I'll go by the numbers and that's why they're in an odd order.
8. A few cones were set up like you'd see at a soccer practice, and we were given a ping pong ball (It had a smiley face on it!!!) and instructions to weave it around the cones without touching it. Of course, the first response was "blow it!" and they ignored my thoughts of how we could just blow it into a hat and then cary the hat between them...but that's ok lol. So one guy blew it around the course and another person blew it back. The biblical reference was something about being patient.
9. Two people had to pick up a balloon without using their arms, legs, hands, or feet and then cary it across an area marked off with tape. Two of the girls picked it up with their chins so that the balloon was between their necks and walked around like that. I don't remember what the biblical part of that one was lol probably something about working together.
1. We were given a few quarters and a line to stand behind. There was a paper with a bulls eye a few yards away and we had to try to throw the quarter so that it'd land covering the bulls eye. For some unknown reason, my group decided that I should do that one hahaha and you all know my lack of coordination...I think the closest I got was like a foot away from the paper. We eventually switched off so some other people could try, but no one got it in the center. We later found out that it was impossible anyway-the bulls eye was bigger than a quarter. The biblical reference was "All things are possible with God" but I don't think that was a good fit because it WASN'T possible lol but oh well.
2. There was a tub of water and a washcloth. One person had to wash all of the group members hands. Not exactly hard lol. It was supposed to represent the washing of some people's feet and I don't know the Bible story that goes with it so yeah.
3. Definitly the most interesting center. It was called the "good sumaritan (sp) carry," which was about the good sumaritan in the Bible (yay a story I actually knew! because it was in Godspell hehe). We had to pick partners and cary them/be carried across the gym and back. Well, my group was mostly girls, so we couldn't just pair up with one guy and one girl...Dana (one of my group's two leaders, she rules) carried me hehehe...she and I were cracking up the entire time. Much fun.
4. Good station hehe-it was called "Give the group a hug!" One person got to go around and give each of us a hug.
5. The other groups had a hard time with this, but it wasn't bad at all for mine since we had so many people missing. There was a tiny platform (like...maybe 2x2 feet? 3? somewhere around there) painted with animals and we had to all stand on it so that no feet were touching the ground and stay that way for 3 seconds. Most of the other groups put the strongest (and therefore usually largest) person in the center so that they could hold the others up, but my group put the smallest person in the center on one foot, and the rest of us counted to three and then stood on one foot and then counted to three again. We got it on the second try I think, so we just stood there for a while...then Ms. Toby came over and couldn't believe we were done so she made us do it again so she could watch haha. Obviously, that one was Noah's Ark. Dana's son helped design the platform...he's pretty little, I dunno exactly how old...but she was telling us how she asked him if she could put a chicken on it and he said "Nooo!" and she asked him if they had chickens back then. "yes." but he wouldn't tell her how they're still here if Noah didn't have any on the ark *laughs*
6. We had to list the 10 commandments. Lol we had Emily in our group so naturally she was nominated, but even she ended up missing one. I only knew like 4 of them.
7. We had to name 10 books of the Bible. I can do that! But someone else volunteered.
Yay I remembered them all! hehe
Monday...umm...I had physical therapy. And then I totally fell apart and rambled to Anna and then felt better. Hehe I <3 Annannananana.
Yesterday...I went to the orthopediest for a check up...I get to stop physical therapy after this Friday so that I can be moved to Rex Wellness Center instead...He said it's kinda like the YMCA except there are physical therapists there...so it's like a more independent physical therapy program with more variety. I had him look at my knee also...and he said that it's basically unrelated to the other things and that it's relatively common for women because we have wider hips...Basically, the thing that runs from my hip to my knee that acts as an elastic band is pulling a little too much to the side, causing my kneecap to move over, which makes it unstable. So he gave me a special brace that pushes my kneecap over and adds a little support too. I have to wear it for at least 4-6 weeks and then see how it feels. It's a little uncomfortable but mostly when I'm going up or down stairs and when I try to keep it bent for very long; its uncomfortable to bend it more than like 45 degrees (like so it's still close to being straight) and if I keep it at like 90 for very long it hurts because the back digs into the back of my knee. At least it fits under my pants though, barely. Haha, this morning Taylor saw it and since it was under my pants she didn't know I had a brace on and she freaked out because she thought my knee was really really swollen.
Today felt odd. Mr. Rowe has decided to only to challenges on Wednesdays now so there were I think 5 that were supposed to go today, but you know how Mr. Rowe is about time management...so only 2 1/2 of them went lol. Taylor and I got to go first though. She won! Which makes me very happy. As I promised her, I didn't lose on purpose, but he had me play some parts that I honestly have a lot of trouble with (like...most of the music...lol) so he said "Well, there's going to be a switch. Taylor's been really working hard, but you can practice and challenge her next week." I was like "No. She has been working really hard and she deserves to be that chair. I'd rather play second part and she'd rather play first, so we're both fine with this." He laughed and said "as long as you two are happy..." So I grinned and ran out and switched music with Taylor. Yay second part! It'll seem so much easier now that I've played first. I'll probably have to play first next year because Heather will graduate, but at least I can relish in second partness for now^^ hehe. Oh, and while Taylor was in Mr. Rowe's office doing her part of the challenge, Hannah came in the room...She walked out of drama because Mr. Gibbs called her a whore o_O I know he's known to be a pervert everyone calls him a child molester...but I've also heard a lot of great things about how he teaches and how awesome his classes are. So it surprised me that he'd actually say that to someone, especially to a freshman girl-no offense to any freshmen. He said he was just teasing her because they all tease eachother, like how she tells him he's going bald, but I thought that was overstepping the line a bit...I don't know the context of how it happened or anything, but for her to walk out of class...yeah. He's such a great teacher that she doesn't want to get him in trouble though.
Second period (English) we talked a lot about Poe. We read the Pit and the Pendulum last night. When Courtney (who is in my English class) and I were little, her mom lived in Hillsborough, so one time when we were in the car on the way there, we listened to a tape of Poe stories. One of the ones on there was the Pit and the Pendulum, but apparently it was abridged. I thought maybe it was just me not remembering the ending, but Courtney said she only remembered it going until the Pendulum is right above him and then he screams, which is what I remember too. Then we started talking about other Poe stories. Courtney and I swear there's one that's entirely about being burried alive, which was on the tape. I thought it was just called "Burried Alive" but I dunno. Mr. Koechling had never heard of it though, and the class thought we were weird because we listened to Poe on tape when we were little kids hahaha (this was in like 4th grade probably) and I swear someone said "no wonder you turned out so weird." I dunno who they were talking about or who said it, but it made me laugh anyway. Then Mr. K read us the Tell Tale Heart AGAIN *dies* I've heard that story just about every year since 7th grade. I couldn't believe there were a bunch of people in my class who'd never read it. Then we talked about the play version of it and how the one that I saw sucked and how Mr. K would make it better lol.
Lunch was pretty normal except that we ate inside again because it was wet outside...I got a ticket for The Mouse that Roared by Zach and Allison, and I'm going to get one for Anna tomorrow...We're going on the 9th (Saturday). Much fun.
In history, we talked a lot about the KKK and how they're still active...and a bunch of kids in my class have seen/heard about/have relatives that have seen the KKK doing vandalism and marching and stuff, even somehow hacking a website and "spraying grafitti" (except like...typing it w/html I guess) on it...I had no idea that was still relatively common. I talked about segregated proms though, because my cousins in Georgia go to a school that has always had segregated proms, but I think like two years ago they integrated them. Crazy. Then the fire alarm went off, like 2 minutes before the start of second lunch. So obviously it wasn't a drill, but Ms. Blanton wouldn't listen to that. She told us to stay in our seats because it'd be over in a few minutes. I've never ever been told by a teacher to stay inside when the fire alarm is going off lol. She actually went into the hallway and asked a teacher that was leading her class down the hall "Is this for real?" What was weird about that was that it wasn't like she was asking if it was a real fire, she just wanted to know if we actually wanted to leave. Well, hello, you're asking a teacher who is LEADING HER CLASS OUT OF THE BUILDING! Lol. So we finally convinced her to let us leave by saying "What if there's a real fire and we all DIE?! How would you feel, Ms. Blanton?" So we finally went outside. A few minutes later, an administrator came down and kept shouting "all clear!" so we tried to go back towards the building...but this one teacher kept telling us that if there was a real fire, we couldn't stand where we were because it was where the fire truck would pull up. So she made us all stand in the grass. The guy kept coming towards us calling "all clear!" obviously thinking we hadn't heard lol. Finally we went back inside-just in time to see the fire truck come haha. I found out later that someone knocked a fire extinguisher off the wall and it exploded. Whatever chemicals are in that filled the room and set off the smoke detector. That's according to someone in my 4th period at least-I've heard one conflicting report about some kid pulling the alarm, but I doubt it because they made an announcement for people in some 3rd period class to come get their bookbags and stuff at the end of the day.
Gah almost out of time! *hurries* Physics was cool-we finished testing our bridges today. We made them out of 20 pieces of fettucini noodles (uncooked), a meter of tape, and I think half a meter of sewing thread. My groups came in I think 5th? overall, holding 410 grams. Melissa's group won for all the classes-700 grams! Crazy!
I finished my English rough draft today! *relieved* This week I've had 3 papers, due within 4 days of eachother, and I have a test on the same day as the last paper is due. Yuck. But I'm done with two of them and I just have to edit the English one, which is due Friday.
Gnight!
