Friday, September 02, 2005
So...someone try to comment on this because it won't work on my computer so I'm not sure if the comments work at all or not.
Lots to update...
Band camp and marching band.: Ok so the rest of it wasn't as easy as the first day. Freshman camp wasn't totally unbearable but it wasn't a lot of fun either. Then real band camp started. It sucked. Pit had to march Thursday and Friday and it was hot and both days I got dehydrated and had to walk off the field...the second day Mr. Rowe had to help me get off. Yuck. I was not happy about it either...I hate being the one who can't do something or is worst at something and that's what I felt like. Then, week two of band camp came around...at least we were inside...but I got sick on Wednesday so I didn't go...tried to go back Thursday and Diane tried to make me sit down because apparently being dizzy was making me sway back and forth without realizing it and she was afraid I'd fall into the bass drum haha so I went home early and stayed home Friday too. Again, I felt bad, but I couldn't help getting sick so oh well. Anyway, we had two rehersals the next week and then school started the week after so we had normal practices...and I just didn't enjoy myself at all. I'm not even entirely sure why. My parts weren't hard at all and I got along well with most of my section. I was just...unreasonably miserable. I came home after a lot of the rehersals and cried. The days we were outside were awful...I've gotten really heat-sensitive lately so even just standing there I felt a little dehydrated, and the day I had to march for pregame practice I felt horrible and almost had to walk off again but Mr. Rowe gave us a water break just in time. I came home after those outside practices and felt exausted just from the heat, felt sick to my stomach from it, and had a headache from getting dehytrated. It was awful. I did a lot of thinking the last few days and spent a ton of time crying...probably more than I have in total in the last year...and finally I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't be doing marching band but I was scared to tell anyone...then Hannah T. was awesome and told Mr. Rowe for me, and even though he still made me talk to him about it, she made it a ton easier, so thanks Hannah. The one major drawback of quitting I was worried about was lack of time with my friends though...especially Corey...if there's one thing I've been jealous of while we've been going out, it's definitly been marching band because he and everyone else talk about it all the time and I've always felt left out. That's really the main reason I joined this year. Anyway, apparently a lot of the competitions this year will only let students onto the field, so parents won't be allowed to put out props sometimes, so Mr. Rowe asked if I would do props...which is the perfect solution because I can still ride the bus to competitions with everyone and see them and probably even hang out with the pit while they wait to perform, but I don't have to go to practices. He asked me to do the Thursday night football game since there wasn't enough notice to put someone else on the part (I only talked to him Wednesday), and I planned on it, but then I think just from having a tough week and finally being relieved of everything, I got sick again...not like germy sick, just weak and dizzy and hot and naseaus. But not sick kind. It's hard to explain. Anyway, so I felt really bad yet again because I felt like I was letting the band down even worse...and because I think a lot of people don't actually think I felt bad because I got one "yeah I figured you wouldn't come" today...but you know what, it's over for good now anyway so I guess I'm just not going to think about it anymore. Someone told Diana that I quit since I couldn't get in touch with her, and while others had told me everything from "don't worry, she'll be fine with it" to "you know she's going to throw stuff at you from the stands right?!" I was worried about telling her. So I'm kinda glad I didn't have to. And she told them to tell me she's not mad so...yeah. I'm glad. She's really nice and she's a good instructor and I HATE having people mad at me.
School stuff:
Honors English: Omg Ms. Whitaker is so easy. I love it but it's soooo different than AP! Ex: today we had to recite this random thing that's almost in German...it's what they spoke in England before they spoke English. When I said it, she told me "you sound like you've been reincarnated!" and I wasn't sure how to take that so I just kinda stared at her untiil she explained "it's as if it's your native tounge" or something like that and I was like "...oh." I still have no idea why she said that-my German accent sucks haha and Melissa and Corey both went before me and there's are really good. W/e. She gave everyone a 100 even though some people left words out haha. It's awesome. However, we all failed the only quiz she's given us so far, but that's because most people didn't read the page she assigned us so a ton of people got 0s. I got a 60 because I couldn't remember a couple of details but she said she might throw the quiz out since so many people failed...which is cool. And that Germlish thing was a test grade anyway so it's not too bad. Anyway, after reciting that thing today, we had "arts and crafts day" which ruled. We had to draw the lake scene from Beawulf (sp? something like that) and no one in my group could draw well so we had some interesting stuff-like my "monster" that looked like a weird blue cat hahaha. And it said there was "frowning wood" and I asked her if that just meant the wood was bent...you know like a curved frown thing...and she was like "no...FROWNING WOOD" haha so Corey drew some sad faces on the trees. The drawing is so random looking but it was fun and we spent like 45 min on it and so that was cool. Ms. Whitaker is really nice. You'd think she'd be a quiet little old lady, but she's not at all. She's funny and sarcastic but sweet at the same time. And she gives us like a week to do anything important-we got Alas, Babylon last Thursday and we have a test this Wednesday. On the first four chapters. 90 pages. She gave us 13 days to read 90 pages. Including 2 weekends, one of which is a 3 day weekend. Omg. That's awesome.
Creative writing: Umm...it's not the same as it was with Mr. Koechling. It's still a great class and Ms. Bate is really nice and a pretty cool teacher and it uses his basic outline for the course, but I'm bothered by the small details that are different. For example, we have to write our papers in Times New Roman and I know it's dumb to be bothered by but I was. And we can't W.O.M. (write on me...kids in my creative writing class sophomore year will understand) which basically means we can't write comments on someones actual paper, only on the back. Again, it's a dumb thing to be bothered by, but it was such a huge thing before that it's weird now. We also can't write negative comments about papers...umm I didn't really follow that rule today though, oops...but when someone starts out their "Who am I?" essay by stating "I'm a genius" or "I'm the smartest person in this class," I think it's okay to respond with some sarcasm and criticism. The genius boy had bad grammar and kept using the phrase " 'n stuff." Not even "and stuff." He actually wrote the 'n. *falls over* So my comment on his paper was "geniuses don't write "'n stuff."" He also wrote "I listen to music but not the retarded kind. I hate retarded stuff. I hate retarded people and retarded music and retarded *insert something else I forget*" Smartest person in the class boy wrote about the time he and a friend tied a string to a stuffed animal squirrel and put it in the road and hid somewhere and pulled the string to make cars swerve. Oh yeah. Real smart. So yeah that's kinda agrivating. Elizabeth is in there though and she's really sweet and sits next to me and Kara is there too but I haven't had a chance to talk to her much. Oh, there's this one girl though, and she has some sort of mental dissability...and while I know it sounds bad, I have to say it's annoying...she always has to say everything she's thinking, no matter how important or relevant, and it takes up a lot of class time. She seems like she'd be a good writer though, but I haven't had a chance to read her essay yet. Oh one really good thing that's different about this class though-no observation journal! I mean, it was a great idea, but it just didn't work. We all BSed far too many of those entries. Ms. Bate just has us use them in class to respond to stories she reads us and movies and topics and such and occasional homework. I guess we're watching the same movies as before too, because we watched Finding Forrester...I didn't really pay attention since it was the 3rd time I'd seen the whole thing and I'd seen pieces another time...so yeah. But it's a good movie, and she gave us a new topic to think about for a journal entry-"Why is this movie a fantasy?" which wasn't how I'd think of it so yeah it was interesting for a new perspective. I couldn't figure out a way to work in the Hanson song though, which was sad-I wanted to work in something about how no one is bothered by the song in the background because it's not a well known one so no one realizes that it's the band they all hated a few years ago.
AP Physics: Ok so it's a little harder than I expected lol. I don't remember as much from last year as I thought I did. I've got a lot of friends in there though, and like half the class hasn't had physics yet so they're lost so it means the rest of us get to slow down and go over things a little more. So that's good lol. And I've made Sheller help me a few times. I need to make fudge for that class because Ms. B keeps asking about it haha and she's awesome. I think the new kids are still kinda afraid of her though-shes very very...umm...outging? insane? weird? all that. but we love her and shes a great teacher. so that class is worth the hard work. And now, without marching band, I have plenty of time to do it!
Concert Band: Completely contrary to marching band, concert band rules this year. I mean, yeah, we've got some immature sophomores that talk all the time and are kinda annoying and all that. But I'm first chair and I'm really excited about it. We've only got 5 clarinets, 2 of which are leaving next semester, and that means that, in class, I'm the only first part. Taylor's going to play with us in concert though but that's cool because we usually play pretty well together. She's just not in our class this year because she made wind ensamble. Anyway, I get the solos, though Taylor wants one if there are multiples in the concert, but again that's okay-Taylor you can have one of those super high ones because I'm bad at them and I know they're your favorite haha-and I get a bunch of other cool parts and, other than today, I felt pretty good playing them, and Mr. Rowe has actually given me a lot of compliments. It's unusual-he usually doesn't notice anyone but the trumpets, so that made me really happy. Today I sucked lol but part of it was super super high and we were sight reading and I just died and didn't even know all the fingerings so yeah haha I lost some confidence for a day and it made me mess up another song too-luckily Taylor joined us for the end of class so I had some help. In general though, I'm really happy about that class. I thought I wouldn't like first part, but it actually just makes me pay more attention in class and I love having the solos.
I think that's mostly it...Oh well youth kickoff was last weekend and Liz might be joining us so that's cool...kickoff wasn't as exciting as usual but that's ok. I'll be glad when youth starts. I miss it. I won't get to do the senior beach trip though because of a marching competition. Oh well. Most of my youth friends won't go for the same reason so it's okay. Oh but the Haddons won't be youth leaders this year! *wails* I <3 them! I've never been on a youth trip (besides ASP and AOSP which are different) where Ms. Haddon wasn't my chaperone. So that's going to be weiiiiird. Other than that...umm...Corey's at his dad's this weekend, which is sad especially since it's a 3 day one...hopefully I'll get to see him Monday evening since he probably doesn't have scouts but I'm going out for Mom's birthday dinner that evening too so I dunno. Oh that's what I didn't mention! Corey had his Eagle ceremony last weekend and it was awesome and his speech rocked and he mentioned me and I DIDN'T CRY! Aren't you proud of me?! I was close though haha. I took a ton of pictures though and my camera kept making weird noises because the zoom jammed so I was like "ahhhh!" but I took 35 pictures hahaha. They're all super dark-guess I should've turned it off and on again after it jammed because the later ones are fine-but I ligtened them on my computer and I think they'll be okay. We went back to their house after the ceremony and had a birthday celebration for Hannah and I got some cute pictures of her with her presents hehe.
Ok I think that's it for real now. Maybe I'll go update my picture site with that Eagle stuff. Check it later if you want. I don't feel like hyperlinking this so too bad. hyperpoptart.dotphoto.com
Lots to update...
Band camp and marching band.: Ok so the rest of it wasn't as easy as the first day. Freshman camp wasn't totally unbearable but it wasn't a lot of fun either. Then real band camp started. It sucked. Pit had to march Thursday and Friday and it was hot and both days I got dehydrated and had to walk off the field...the second day Mr. Rowe had to help me get off. Yuck. I was not happy about it either...I hate being the one who can't do something or is worst at something and that's what I felt like. Then, week two of band camp came around...at least we were inside...but I got sick on Wednesday so I didn't go...tried to go back Thursday and Diane tried to make me sit down because apparently being dizzy was making me sway back and forth without realizing it and she was afraid I'd fall into the bass drum haha so I went home early and stayed home Friday too. Again, I felt bad, but I couldn't help getting sick so oh well. Anyway, we had two rehersals the next week and then school started the week after so we had normal practices...and I just didn't enjoy myself at all. I'm not even entirely sure why. My parts weren't hard at all and I got along well with most of my section. I was just...unreasonably miserable. I came home after a lot of the rehersals and cried. The days we were outside were awful...I've gotten really heat-sensitive lately so even just standing there I felt a little dehydrated, and the day I had to march for pregame practice I felt horrible and almost had to walk off again but Mr. Rowe gave us a water break just in time. I came home after those outside practices and felt exausted just from the heat, felt sick to my stomach from it, and had a headache from getting dehytrated. It was awful. I did a lot of thinking the last few days and spent a ton of time crying...probably more than I have in total in the last year...and finally I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't be doing marching band but I was scared to tell anyone...then Hannah T. was awesome and told Mr. Rowe for me, and even though he still made me talk to him about it, she made it a ton easier, so thanks Hannah. The one major drawback of quitting I was worried about was lack of time with my friends though...especially Corey...if there's one thing I've been jealous of while we've been going out, it's definitly been marching band because he and everyone else talk about it all the time and I've always felt left out. That's really the main reason I joined this year. Anyway, apparently a lot of the competitions this year will only let students onto the field, so parents won't be allowed to put out props sometimes, so Mr. Rowe asked if I would do props...which is the perfect solution because I can still ride the bus to competitions with everyone and see them and probably even hang out with the pit while they wait to perform, but I don't have to go to practices. He asked me to do the Thursday night football game since there wasn't enough notice to put someone else on the part (I only talked to him Wednesday), and I planned on it, but then I think just from having a tough week and finally being relieved of everything, I got sick again...not like germy sick, just weak and dizzy and hot and naseaus. But not sick kind. It's hard to explain. Anyway, so I felt really bad yet again because I felt like I was letting the band down even worse...and because I think a lot of people don't actually think I felt bad because I got one "yeah I figured you wouldn't come" today...but you know what, it's over for good now anyway so I guess I'm just not going to think about it anymore. Someone told Diana that I quit since I couldn't get in touch with her, and while others had told me everything from "don't worry, she'll be fine with it" to "you know she's going to throw stuff at you from the stands right?!" I was worried about telling her. So I'm kinda glad I didn't have to. And she told them to tell me she's not mad so...yeah. I'm glad. She's really nice and she's a good instructor and I HATE having people mad at me.
School stuff:
Honors English: Omg Ms. Whitaker is so easy. I love it but it's soooo different than AP! Ex: today we had to recite this random thing that's almost in German...it's what they spoke in England before they spoke English. When I said it, she told me "you sound like you've been reincarnated!" and I wasn't sure how to take that so I just kinda stared at her untiil she explained "it's as if it's your native tounge" or something like that and I was like "...oh." I still have no idea why she said that-my German accent sucks haha and Melissa and Corey both went before me and there's are really good. W/e. She gave everyone a 100 even though some people left words out haha. It's awesome. However, we all failed the only quiz she's given us so far, but that's because most people didn't read the page she assigned us so a ton of people got 0s. I got a 60 because I couldn't remember a couple of details but she said she might throw the quiz out since so many people failed...which is cool. And that Germlish thing was a test grade anyway so it's not too bad. Anyway, after reciting that thing today, we had "arts and crafts day" which ruled. We had to draw the lake scene from Beawulf (sp? something like that) and no one in my group could draw well so we had some interesting stuff-like my "monster" that looked like a weird blue cat hahaha. And it said there was "frowning wood" and I asked her if that just meant the wood was bent...you know like a curved frown thing...and she was like "no...FROWNING WOOD" haha so Corey drew some sad faces on the trees. The drawing is so random looking but it was fun and we spent like 45 min on it and so that was cool. Ms. Whitaker is really nice. You'd think she'd be a quiet little old lady, but she's not at all. She's funny and sarcastic but sweet at the same time. And she gives us like a week to do anything important-we got Alas, Babylon last Thursday and we have a test this Wednesday. On the first four chapters. 90 pages. She gave us 13 days to read 90 pages. Including 2 weekends, one of which is a 3 day weekend. Omg. That's awesome.
Creative writing: Umm...it's not the same as it was with Mr. Koechling. It's still a great class and Ms. Bate is really nice and a pretty cool teacher and it uses his basic outline for the course, but I'm bothered by the small details that are different. For example, we have to write our papers in Times New Roman and I know it's dumb to be bothered by but I was. And we can't W.O.M. (write on me...kids in my creative writing class sophomore year will understand) which basically means we can't write comments on someones actual paper, only on the back. Again, it's a dumb thing to be bothered by, but it was such a huge thing before that it's weird now. We also can't write negative comments about papers...umm I didn't really follow that rule today though, oops...but when someone starts out their "Who am I?" essay by stating "I'm a genius" or "I'm the smartest person in this class," I think it's okay to respond with some sarcasm and criticism. The genius boy had bad grammar and kept using the phrase " 'n stuff." Not even "and stuff." He actually wrote the 'n. *falls over* So my comment on his paper was "geniuses don't write "'n stuff."" He also wrote "I listen to music but not the retarded kind. I hate retarded stuff. I hate retarded people and retarded music and retarded *insert something else I forget*" Smartest person in the class boy wrote about the time he and a friend tied a string to a stuffed animal squirrel and put it in the road and hid somewhere and pulled the string to make cars swerve. Oh yeah. Real smart. So yeah that's kinda agrivating. Elizabeth is in there though and she's really sweet and sits next to me and Kara is there too but I haven't had a chance to talk to her much. Oh, there's this one girl though, and she has some sort of mental dissability...and while I know it sounds bad, I have to say it's annoying...she always has to say everything she's thinking, no matter how important or relevant, and it takes up a lot of class time. She seems like she'd be a good writer though, but I haven't had a chance to read her essay yet. Oh one really good thing that's different about this class though-no observation journal! I mean, it was a great idea, but it just didn't work. We all BSed far too many of those entries. Ms. Bate just has us use them in class to respond to stories she reads us and movies and topics and such and occasional homework. I guess we're watching the same movies as before too, because we watched Finding Forrester...I didn't really pay attention since it was the 3rd time I'd seen the whole thing and I'd seen pieces another time...so yeah. But it's a good movie, and she gave us a new topic to think about for a journal entry-"Why is this movie a fantasy?" which wasn't how I'd think of it so yeah it was interesting for a new perspective. I couldn't figure out a way to work in the Hanson song though, which was sad-I wanted to work in something about how no one is bothered by the song in the background because it's not a well known one so no one realizes that it's the band they all hated a few years ago.
AP Physics: Ok so it's a little harder than I expected lol. I don't remember as much from last year as I thought I did. I've got a lot of friends in there though, and like half the class hasn't had physics yet so they're lost so it means the rest of us get to slow down and go over things a little more. So that's good lol. And I've made Sheller help me a few times. I need to make fudge for that class because Ms. B keeps asking about it haha and she's awesome. I think the new kids are still kinda afraid of her though-shes very very...umm...outging? insane? weird? all that. but we love her and shes a great teacher. so that class is worth the hard work. And now, without marching band, I have plenty of time to do it!
Concert Band: Completely contrary to marching band, concert band rules this year. I mean, yeah, we've got some immature sophomores that talk all the time and are kinda annoying and all that. But I'm first chair and I'm really excited about it. We've only got 5 clarinets, 2 of which are leaving next semester, and that means that, in class, I'm the only first part. Taylor's going to play with us in concert though but that's cool because we usually play pretty well together. She's just not in our class this year because she made wind ensamble. Anyway, I get the solos, though Taylor wants one if there are multiples in the concert, but again that's okay-Taylor you can have one of those super high ones because I'm bad at them and I know they're your favorite haha-and I get a bunch of other cool parts and, other than today, I felt pretty good playing them, and Mr. Rowe has actually given me a lot of compliments. It's unusual-he usually doesn't notice anyone but the trumpets, so that made me really happy. Today I sucked lol but part of it was super super high and we were sight reading and I just died and didn't even know all the fingerings so yeah haha I lost some confidence for a day and it made me mess up another song too-luckily Taylor joined us for the end of class so I had some help. In general though, I'm really happy about that class. I thought I wouldn't like first part, but it actually just makes me pay more attention in class and I love having the solos.
I think that's mostly it...Oh well youth kickoff was last weekend and Liz might be joining us so that's cool...kickoff wasn't as exciting as usual but that's ok. I'll be glad when youth starts. I miss it. I won't get to do the senior beach trip though because of a marching competition. Oh well. Most of my youth friends won't go for the same reason so it's okay. Oh but the Haddons won't be youth leaders this year! *wails* I <3 them! I've never been on a youth trip (besides ASP and AOSP which are different) where Ms. Haddon wasn't my chaperone. So that's going to be weiiiiird. Other than that...umm...Corey's at his dad's this weekend, which is sad especially since it's a 3 day one...hopefully I'll get to see him Monday evening since he probably doesn't have scouts but I'm going out for Mom's birthday dinner that evening too so I dunno. Oh that's what I didn't mention! Corey had his Eagle ceremony last weekend and it was awesome and his speech rocked and he mentioned me and I DIDN'T CRY! Aren't you proud of me?! I was close though haha. I took a ton of pictures though and my camera kept making weird noises because the zoom jammed so I was like "ahhhh!" but I took 35 pictures hahaha. They're all super dark-guess I should've turned it off and on again after it jammed because the later ones are fine-but I ligtened them on my computer and I think they'll be okay. We went back to their house after the ceremony and had a birthday celebration for Hannah and I got some cute pictures of her with her presents hehe.
Ok I think that's it for real now. Maybe I'll go update my picture site with that Eagle stuff. Check it later if you want. I don't feel like hyperlinking this so too bad. hyperpoptart.dotphoto.com
