I Have A New Blog!

This will probably be my shortest post ever...and I'm not lying this time :)...I have a new blog! It will not replace this one by any means, it's a supplement, you could say, to my blogging activities. It will be exclusively consisting of recaps/news/info/etc. about "Dancing With The Stars" and "American Idol" ("Idol" starts in January, "DWTS" is on right now). If you love either of these shows, or even if you've HEARD of either of these shows, boogie on over to http://dwts-idol-blog.blogspot.com and read like the wind, Bullseye! I hope you enjoy it, and be sure to spread the word, I should like it to be all well-known and such. :D And I will get a regular about-my-life post up soon. Cheese out! :)

I Wrote In My Blog, And I Liked It!

(I did, however, plan it, and it was my intention. Sorry, Katy Perry... :D)

Well, I have been a rather unsatisfactory blogger. It's been almost two months since I last posted...and I still have a long (and continually growing) list of stuff to regale you folks about. (Thankfully I actually put that list at the end of my post last time, so I can actually remember it.) Never mind that I have to add my crazy eight-day vacation to that list...which means catching up will take even longer. Oh well. OK...since we've got so little to write, and so much time...OK, scratch that, reverse it (love that quote...even if the movie is a bit awkward... :) )...let's vamoose into Blog-land!

• When we last left our...hero? (OK, it's just me... :D), I had just gone to two AMAZING concerts...which, since I am a poor pre-college student struggling to pay the bills...no, really...I will not likely be able to attend in such frequency in the near-future. (Stupid money!) But there was another concert to come...a concert so exciting, so breathtaking, it changed the world as we know it...well, not really, but let's just go with that. :) My last choir concert was on May 12th (aagh, how can I still remember this???), and it was a wonderful way to help end the year. All the choirs were excellent, Rhonda and Leighton were delightful in their duties as co-presidents, Chamber and A Cappella-ness went well ("Hoya! Hoya, Hoya!" :D), and I got an award!!! It was just a fun night, and I couldn't have had a better last concert (well...maybe we could have sung a jazz song or two in Chamber...). Go Mrs. Jones! And everyone in the Choral Union! You rock! :D
• What be next? Baccalaureate! It was on the Sunday before graduation (more on that...ahem, event...in a second), and it was a beautiful experience. The speakers were terrific...I'll be darned if I can remember all the student ones by name, but they were awesome--and Mrs. Andelora, holy crap, she was inspiring, funny, and random all at the same time! Whoever picked her to be the faculty speaker deserves a cookie. :) And we Chamber seniors sang "Lean On Me," and we had oodles of fun. And the other musical numbers were quite terrific...Katie, Tyler, Cedar, Pasiaka, great jobs! Especially Katie, since you're likely the only one I just mentioned who reads my blog... :D ...and your arrangement was amazing! I actually like that song now! :) So Baccalaureate was great...and I took lots of pictures with my fellow senior peoples. I would put some of them on here...but seeing as 99 percent of you who read this are on Facebook (sorry, Kailei! You should really get one soon, you know...), I'll just leave you to look at them on there, if you haven't already. :)
• And then came the last day of high school, that Wednesday...so swift, and so crazy! It felt so weird...but it was wonderful. I mean, we got to end it with Mr. Baser...how more awesome could it get? :) It essentially consisted of three classes (last 2 days at Mesa High are half days) where we quite honestly did nothing but gad about and be merry...A Cappella was just yearbook signing and socializing-ness, English (with Mr. Olson!!!) was taking our "final" (I think...it was hilariously easy, by the way...like we would get an actual final after taking stupid AP tests... :D) and talking about randomness, and Government was a party. Not a bad way to end one's high school career, no? :) Afterwards, I went to Senor Root's to find out my final grade...a B, since I was lazy with my periodico assignments and whatnot, but got a good grade on the final...and chat with him, Shannon, and TJ, and I visited Miss LeBaron and Miss Bertolet too. So now I am done with high school! Or am I???? (For once, that second part is actually true...see next bullet for the somewhat obnoxious explanation that you totally saw coming. :o)
• Graduation stuff was the next day...but not exactly. You remember the whole I-needed-a-PE-credit-and-we-were-furiously-lobbying-the-school-and/or-district-so-I-could-walk thing? Well, about that...that process kind of disintegrated. It was a combination of many things...I wasn't able to hurriedly find a way to earn the credit, the district ultimately said it was the school's decision, and Mr. Souder (a little oddly, but expectedly) refused to give me a waiver thing so I could walk in graduation. So here I am still finishing my classes...in the late beginning of August. And that meant that I was standing on the field...without a cap and gown. (Although I did get to wear them for Baccalaureate. Yay!) Once again, it rained...though thankfully this year, the aforementioned principal Mr. Souder was cool enough to carry on (:D) with the ceremonies anyway. The good news...we got to sing "The Irish Blessing" as Chamber, and I saw the student speakers and the start of Mr. Souder's (truncated) remarks. The bad news...once again, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was cancelled, and when Mrs. Jones let us go early, I decided to leave so I wouldn't catch pneumonia or a cold or something. :) So I didn't get to see the names of my friends called...but that's OK, it was an interesting experience, and a big lesson to me that I should stay on top of things. A lesson that I seem to be continually...and painfully...learning--possibly more on that later.
• Let me peruse my list again...wow, I'm getting there! Let me breeze through a few things I don't need to type endlessly about...my online classes (Bowling and Nutrition...they are SEPARATE classes, that would be weird if they were combined, though... :D) are annoying, I have procrastinated a bit and thus have to get my rear in gear at the moment...but they are doable. (Well, sort of...I'm kind of pushing it with Nutrition.) Moving on...getting ready for BYU is kind of not doing so well right now...it's a little thing called money...but hopefully, everything will work out. Yay for prayer! :) What else can I quickly-ish mention? "Dancing With The Stars"...AKA one of my favorite reality shows EVER...ended quite wonderfully. Shawn Johnson (the awesome 17-year-old gold medal-winning gymnast, who is kind of a celebrity crush of mine at the moment... :D) won!!! She was a terrific dancer, and having the celebrity I WANTED to win (sorry, but Gilles was nice, but not as good, and Melissa was slightly less amazing than Shawn...I still love you, Melissa! :D) for a change was quite an improvement. And if you have not watched Shawn's freestyle yet...do it now!!! It was one of the best dances I have ever seen...EVER!!! As for "American Idol"--the show I just started watching this season and which I now love, despite its many shortcomings--the finale was both good and bad. The bad involved Allison Iraheta, also known as one of the most AMAZING 17-year-olds ever...she's younger than me and she has a voice that makes the stars dance, and then rock out in joy!...getting FOURTH freaking place behind the two contestants who must not be named (cough cough Danny and Adam cough cough...), one of whom (the first one) committed the musical sin that I like to call "Nightmare On" (known in some circles as "Dream On," that Aerosmith song I actually like)...but no matter. Kris won!!! I was a little to late to the "Kris is cool" party, mostly because I was a huge fan of Allison and Megan (sorry, but Megan is quite the bees' knees in my opinion...), not to mention bummed that Alexis Grace got ELEVENTH place (hey, that rhymes!)...I never even voted for her, she left too early!...but I realized Kris can actually sing, and most of the time, the songs he picked were very good. Here's to Allison...and Kris...and Megan...and Alexis...having great careers! Oh my goodness, I can't wait for Allison's CD in the fall!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Well, now that I've confused all of you who don't watch either of those shows...let me finish up my list (minus vacation) really quick...I'm almost done! I shall try to be (ha!) concise...solo at Ward Talent Show? Went well. I sang "Like A Star," by the very lovely and talented British songstress Corinne Bailey Rae (check her out now, she's excellent), and my sister's friend played piano for me. I felt good about it. Unfortunately, the video situation is still a bit boogery...the video my little brother took has the sound cutting out a bit because he was trying to straighten the camera, and the one my Young Men's leader took inexplicably is two keys higher. (I sound like I'm on helium...ironically, that was what we did at the Ward Talent Show last year for Priests' Quorum... :D) I'll get a video of some sort up soon, though. (On Facebook...again, sorry, Kailei!) And my sister sang a KICKING version of "Ordinary Day" (which was accompanied by yours truly)...sadly, the video for that does not exist. Don't worry, she'll sing other awesome stuff, and you can see her beautiful voice in action!!! Random subject change...I also went on splits with the missionaries. Twice. Quite an interesting experience...we didn't get to do too much teaching, but we visited a few people. Oh, and got stopped by the police. :D (Aaron Favreau was driving, and his dad's car's license plate was not properly illuminated...it went fine, though...the officer was LDS and noticed the missionaries, and told us where he served and just gave Aaron a very friendly warning. :) )
• And the last bullet in this mammothly long blog post belongs to...my insanely fun trip to Michigan for my second (and last) Future Problem Solving International Conference. This year, we stayed in much nicer dorms...the room wasn't creepy, and we had BATHROOMS (albeit shared with the next dorm over, but that's OK, we knew them)!!! (Unfortunately, we also had the most annoying bunk beds ever...the steps up sucked, and they were very high.) Also this time around, I was much more social and outgoing...well, mostly...I met a terrific pianist from Georgia, Min-ji! She accompanied me at the Variety Show when I sang "Gravity"...there was a LOT of people...but I sang my best and it went very well. (Again, the video situation is a little iffy. I'll get it up soon, but the sound on my dad's camera was somewhat awkward...the cinematography, though? Excellent. :D) Go Min-ji! This year, I also actually went to the choir rehearsals, and so I got to sing in the choir...with people from New Zealand, Australia, England, and Kentucky! (At least, I think there was someone from Kentucky. Not sure... :D) I have videos for those, too, that I will put up someday...we sang "Celebration" (yep, it's the one you're thinking of...it was a blast!), and two other songs. And I also met someone from Ohio, her name is Jessica. (I just can't stay away from the ladies...OK, I'm SO kidding... :D) We went to Noodles and Co. again...I love that restaurant, too bad it's not in AZ...or most of the West...and had lots of fun. And walking. And...Michigan-ness? Oh, by the way, we went to a random museum (the Public Museum was its name) that had NO discernable theme or rhyme/reason at all, but was very informative in the Michigan department, and the inexplicable but cool things of interest department also. Pictures are on my Facebook. Perhaps I will post a few here at my leisure in the future. :) As for the winning any awards at all thing...Arizona (our team, the awesome 5th grader who did Individual Problem Solving, and the other two Arizona teams there) went bust, but we all had lots of fun, so it totally worked out for the best. :) Random fun quote: "Truthfully, it is broke."-Random Australian girl overheard as we were walking back from Closing Ceremonies. :D

I think that's about it for now. I caught up...sort of!!! I hope none of you died of exhaustion while reading this or something...that would be quite grotesque and sad...and I will post about my vacation in a timely manner. (Then again, my definition of a "timely manner" kind of sucks. :D) For now, all I have to say is...Cheese out! :)

It's Been A Long, Long Time Coming...

Recognize the song reference? (By the way, none of you even bothered to guess the last post's one. It's "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face," from "My Fair Lady." Way for all of you to miss out on a cookie and/or hug. :D) Anyways, that's not my purpose in blogging here tonight...it's to actually update this thing after 2 1/2 months of languishing in the land of non-blogging-ness.

Why have I taken so long to update, when I always bother other people about updating their blogs? I'm a hypocrite, I guess. Life must have gotten in the way, and the past week or so where I've really, really been wanting to update my blog, I haven't gotten around to it. Well, now I finally am, and while I will likely have to split this recounting-of-two-and-a-half-months-of-my-slightly-psychotic-and-quite-random-life (and accompanying rambling, of course) into multiple posts and it will almost certainly be out of order, even with bullet points, I'll try to do this in a calm and orderly fashion. Spontaneous shriek! OK, well now that I blew the calm thing, let's do this somewhat orderly...maybe?

• We shall go back in time...to April. There are probably a host of little but great things I could have blogged about, but since I waited too long to do so, I will probably have to stick to the big things that I, you know, actually remember. What happened in April...well, All-State, of course. It happened the 23rd through the 25th (I'm so out of it or something right now I had to look up the bloomin' date), and it was a certifiable blast. The music (which I somehow memorized--there could be no other explanation but Heavenly Father's help) was beyond amazing--especially "Take Me To The Water," which is most likely the most fun song I have ever sung in Choir. (Even more fun...OK, not more fun than our jazz songs, but it definitely gives them a run for their money. It is a little jazzy, after all.) And the director...has there EVER been a bad All-State director? He was Mr. Rogers (yes, that's his name), the person who directed All-State Jazz (not the one I was in) last year, and he was terrific--fun, really into the music, and just a joy to have be in charge of us and our wild and exciting music-making-ness. That weekend was an experience I will never forget, and the concert was an emotional and musical 'high' for sure. Oh, and I actually loved the U of A campus...if I had seen it before I applied for colleges, I think it would have actually been my second choice instead of NAU. I just liked it better, and their School of Music offers Jazz Studies to boot. And to think I thought Tucson would be a bland, dumpy town... :)
• Prom! Methinks that comes next, and I'm sure I just obliterated most of the things that happened in early April, but oh well, that's what I get for being procrastinatory, I guess. It was the first Saturday in May...and for my first and only Prom, it was wonderful! I went with Katie Turner...I asked her the Monday before. Sorry for my shamelessness, but it's a long story as to why I asked her so late (mostly because I put it off...sorry, Katie! I need to work on that...), but anyways, I used an alarm clock...we put it on a plate with the numbers from two little number-puzzle things (you know, the ones with 1 to 15, where you have to put them in order) spread around on it for decoration, and it had a note that said (if I can remember right): "I know the clock is ticking until Saturday, but it's TIME for me ask you something...Will you go to Prom with me?" It said on the back of the note to look at the clock instructions, and hidden in them was my name. Despite the fact I basically gave her a week to prepare (aagh, I'm a horrible person! :( ), she said yes, and we had a terrific time at dinner--Marc Johnson's grandparents' house was the place and the food was very yummy--and the dance. (We didn't go to the day activity, since she had to go to school...it was on Senior Ditch Day, of course...and since it was swimming at the lake and I hate swimming and/or lakes, I passed on it since she wasn't going anyway.) Random conversation, hapless attempts at dancing, and viewing the interesting exhibits (the dance was at the Tempe Historical Society museum) occurred, to great glee by all. :) My group was great, I had a great time, and Katie was an amazing date! Definitely quite a fun night.
• OK, rewind, I just remembered two things! Well, actually half rewind, half move forward. Anyways...I went to two amazing concerts both before and after Prom, one on April...30th? I think that's right, and one on May 4th. (I'm being specific with the dates here so you can kind of get a sense of where these events occurred, and so this isn't a jumble of madness. Not that it already isn't... :D) The first one was by an EXCELLENT jazz songstress, the talented Tierney Sutton (and her killer band, of course). It was a mind-boggling concert. Because it was in a small studio theater (thus, all the tickets cost the same and the Tempe Center for the Arts website lets you actually pick your physical seats, like most airlines, methinks) and I bought my ticket fairly early, I was lucky enough to get a FRONT-ROW SEAT. That + the intimateness of the studio theater (by the way, the Tempe Center for the Arts is a beautiful facility thing. It's new, shiny, and I loved it) + Tierney Sutton being a witty and warm live performer + her AMAZING voice and AMAZING band = pure musical transcendence. It was quite simply, wow. My other concert was for Vienna Teng, a singer/songwriter who plays piano and sings. That sounds kind of simple, and it doesn't really describe her accurately...but anyways, I thought it might not be as great as Tierney Sutton's was, but I was most certainly proven wrong...I basically was smiling and (mentally) dancing in joy and/or awe the whole time. If you haven't heard of her, check her out NOW, and once you presumably fall in love with her music, you HAVE to see her live. It's even better than she is on record. Her personality in concert is very friendly, and she was very witty (sorry for using that word again...but she was... :) ) and her band...I should very much like to hug them very many times. They all played like elevendy billion instruments each, and they worked so well together it was astounding. And on top of that, the opening act, a singer-cellist (yes, you read that right) called Ben Sollee, rocked the house--he plays his cello like a guitar, almost, and has a soulful, awesome voice. He even joined Vienna and the band on a few songs...including the encore-ness, where they played a Simon & Garfunkel song called "Keep The Customer Satisfied"...it was a toe-tapper, and if they ever record it, I will dance in joy. What was amazing is Ben Sollee, the awesome cello singer guy, had never played it with them before--and he blended in with them perfectly. They sang harmony and everything, and it was a perfect way to end a pretty much perfect concert. Crap, I'm rambling too much about this! (It's good music-ness, what do you expect? :D) Well, before I end this bullet, there is a story involved...after the concert, Vienna and the band were signing things and taking pictures, and naturally I got in line. Well, I had borrowed my mom's friend's camera because mine is currently MIA (why can't my siblings take care of other people's things? WHY?!?!?), and the battery was low, I knew--so low, in fact (this part I didn't know), that once I got to Vienna and her peeps, it ran out of battery and stopped working. So there I was, sitting next to a talented somewhat-major recording artist, while she was trying to get my camera to work. It was hilarious, embarrassing, awesome, and weird all at the same time. Finally, a really nice guy standing nearby stepped in, and he offered to take the picture with his cell-phone camera (he had a Blackberry or something, so it was a GOOD cell-phone camera...unlike mine...) and send it to me. Thank goodness...though I had to email him and everything afterwards, because my stupid cell didn't have a signal there and I never got the picture message with, you know, the picture in it. It was a random experience...and if you want to see the picture, look on my Facebook, since I don't think it's on this computer and it's getting really late. :)

Well, I need to stop for now, because it's after 1 in the morning, I'm sure your attention span (however long or short it is) is running thin, and I've rambled enough for now. Let me try to list the things I still need to blog about, so I can remember: last choir concert, Baccalaureate, last day of high school, Graduation (which I didn't get to walk in), BYU-ness, online classes starting, Dancing With The Stars & American Idol highs and lows, FPS IC in Michigan, my solo at the Ward Talent Show, splits with missionaries, and other things I think of. Whew! I have a ways to go, do I not? Well, I hope you enjoyed this chipping away at me rambling about my life. (And by the way, the song quote...yay, I kept you in suspense...was from "A Change Is Gonna Come," a soul classic that you might have heard around. If you actually guessed it, tell me and I'll give you something! Why? Because I can. :D) Well, anyways, all I have left to say is...cheese out! :)

The Smiles, The Frowns, The Ups, The Downs...

Hello, reader...of this blog, of this blog imported onto Facebook (though I don't anyone ever reads it there), of my ramblings, etc. I have not posted for about a month--and I have been meaning to, so here we are today. Once again, I think I'm going to use the bullets again--they really helped last time, I rambled SLIGHTLY less. Or at least I covered pretty much everything. Something like that...so here goes...and anyone who can name that (slightly altered) musical reference, gets a cookie! Or a hug! Or some...thing... :D

• On March 5 was my sister's choir concert! As usual, she did terrific...I am still so proud of her for doing amazingly in Treble Clefs! (In one year, she already made a higher choir than I did...yep, she's awesome!) What made her concert even better was that Emily (my friend from Shadow Mountain...the girl whose number I got at All-State auditions last year, lol...) and her brother were able to come watch the concert. And we got to hang out at Iceberg's...oh goodness, living in the past there...NIELSEN'S....afterwards! Some pictures:

I like the ones in front of the auditorium much better. (They were on an actual, functioning camera, rather than my dorky cell phone one.) And here's the ones that prove I'm incapable of keeping my eyes open in pictures where I'm smiling:

I have no idea why I looked like a cheerful stoner there. They didn't spike my custard with liquor, did they? OK, just kidding...but honestly, those pictures are kind of ridiculous...except for Emily, she looks amazing, happy, and her eyes are open! :)

• Well, let's see if I can remember everything...hey, by the way, that's the first time I've put pictures on a blog post! Yay for blog milestones...anyways, I'm going to go out of order. I can't remember what came next, whether it was the chicken or the egg. Anyways, this weekend was Conference--I loved it! The talks were wonderful (I will do my traditional 'awesome quotes' post soon...), the music was terrific and very inviting of the Spirit, and I saw Gabe Lopes in the Institute Choir on the Sat. Afternoon session! (While watching it on Sunday after the last session, on the Internet because I missed the first half...more on that in a second.) I wish Conference came more often...but Church every week is just as wonderful! :)
• OK, the reason I missed the first half (exactly, I got back home almost right when the second half started), was because I was singing the National Anthem at Relay for Life at Red Mountain...alone! Holy craziness, it was a weird but delightful experience, and it went really well. My cousin Natalie asked me about two weeks ago to sing the Anthem...she's on the committee for the Relay (my uncle is the Relay Chair), and apparently the person who was going to sing it dropped out. So she asked me! I forgot to send an email out seeing if anyone else could do it until less than a week before Saturday, and everyone was busy, so I ended up singing it alone...in front of a HUGE crowd of people (I'm horrible at estimating numbers, but it could have been a...thousand? I don't know, it was just a LOT of people). I started off kind of low...lol, it sounded weird...and nervous, but I got into it and it ended great! Yay for new experiences! And afterwards, I shook hands with the Mayor and a State Senator, Chuck Gray (he's my uncle's friend, we've been to his house to randomly eat pie..on Pie Night, of course...twice). (Neither of them saw me sing, they came late. And I was hopelessly awkward. But it was still cool. What's funny is a few Relays ago, I was helping and I got to shake hands with the LAST Mayor. Weird... :D)
• What else? Oh, I made All-State! Yes...I got 14th chair, which must have been an error or something, I've never got that high before. (Oh, lol, that sentence sounded awkward...the last part, anyway...hee hee, I need to think before I type. Wait, that wouldn't be any fun... :D) Anyways, I am excited to be in All-State for a third and final year...the music is INSANELY hard as usual (holy fast, very classical German song and song with weird arrows, to name a few), but also as usual, is incredibly amazing. I can't wait...well, I can, because I still need to get my music learned and memorized. So I can wait. :) And Emily made it too, again! She's terrific! Go Emily! :D
• I've really gotten into American Idol. This is my first season watching it (I held off on the first seven, partly because "Dancing With The Stars" is my true reality-show love), and even though half the time I sit wondering why the heck I'm watching, there are great moments on there. Allison is amazing! She's my favorite contestant right now (the only one I vote for, in fact...by the way, it's weird to be able to vote unlimited-ly..."DWTS" has a limit, and it's kind of less time-consuming that way), and she boggles my mind--her voice is so powerful and she has so much talent--and on top of that, as I've probably said like elevendy billion times already (at least on Facebook), she's YOUNGER than me! Wow...I hope she wins. And I hope Megan Joy (who I really liked, even if not a lot of others didn't...her voice was kind of inconsistent, but I really liked her tone when she sung well) gets a CD out soon! I might get tickets for the Idol Tour this year just to see her and Allison...
• Jazz, Baby, Jazz was SO wonderful this year...I hope BYU has something like that (I'm sure they probably do) when I get into the jazz program in the future, because I love jazz and love performing it! We were very loopy and hyper backstage...there was dancing, random whispered comments of "they're so amazing," "I like cheese," etc. about whoever was singing at that moment, and other polite but crazy shenanigans. My solo went well...I felt better about it than last year, mostly because I was slightly more confident this time around. (Last year, looking back, I felt like my solo was too non-assertive and awkward. Still good, but not what I wanted it to be completely.) Everyone did so terrific! Thank you, everyone, for giving their best and doing amazingly! It was a wonderful experience.
• Speaking of wonderful experiences related to Choir...we (A Cappella) got the chance on the 13th to sing with the mind-bogglingly amazing Shrine of the Ages Choir from NAU. It was an unforgettable night...we did very well on our set (I was surprised, it was the best we had ever sung those songs), and Shrine...there are no words. Well, there are a few, but in short, it was just, wow. We sang in the Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix...can you say "amazing acoustics"? Mr. A (choir teacher from last year who went up to NAU for his Masters) got to conduct "Water Night"...ohh, Whitacre.... :) And we got to sing "Homeland" with them...that was the best part. I had a weird, transcendental (?), out-of-body-like experience towards the end of the song...it was the part where we were supposed to sing VERY powerfully, and my voice suddenly started soaring, kind of on its own. It was the strongest I had ever sung (I was more than belting, it was going crazy), and I wasn't even pushing AT ALL. My voice just started flying freely--it was completely and utterly amazing! It literally took my breath away...even though there was about 600 less people (no joke), I liked it even better than the combined MPS Choirs-ness at the District Festival singing "Homeland" in October.
• I've recently had the chance to do two fun school projects--in English and Government. For AP English, as some of you may be familiar with, we had our "Hell Project" where we got to put 10 people in Dante's version of Hell from "The Inferno." My partner and I thought of some doozies...the Jonas Brothers, Joe Arpaio, etc., as well as some fun punishments. Obviously, I know that Heavenly Father is the judge, and I would never in reality want to put ANYONE--even those I may severely dislike and disagree with--in Hell, or Spirit Prison, or anything. But for the purposes of this project only, it was fun. As for AP Gov, we had to do presentations on a Cabinet department--and my partner was Zach Carpenter. We did our PowerPoint the night before...and somehow got it done while completely goofing off almost the whole time. It was a blast, and we made our presentation a good balance of all the info we needed, and I don't know how this worked out, but pretty much twice as much random comments, unflattering photos of Hillary Clinton (we had Dept. of State--I like her, but it's SO fun to make fun of her playfully), etc. I loved it, and apparently the class did, too...we were all pretty much laughing the whole time. Yay for PowerPoints with humor! :)
• OK, I will try to wrap this obscenely long post up soon...what else has been good and wonderful lately? Life? Music? Well, I'll probably think of something I missed in a second, but let's shift to "the downs" part of my life lately...you know how I've blogged somewhat about my online PE classes? And how I needed to get on those? Well, we have this annoying family-wide flaw where if we don't set a date or time to do something, and if I don't remind my parents enough, we don't do it. That's what happened in this case...I registered (successfully) for Bowling and Health and Nutrition through Distance Learning back in January, and I reminded my parents every so often that we needed to go to the District office to pick up my materials and start the class...and we never did. Well, a few weeks ago, I went on the website to make sure I could still start...and it turned out, that day was the deadline for picking up materials. I was, of course, looking at that after the office closed, so I was worried. Fast forward to today...my mom called the Distance Learning office, and we received horrible news--since I was past the deadline, as per their policy, I can't start my classes until the summer. The lady even said there was nothing we could do...which means as of now, I can't graduate, unless we're somehow able to work something out. I am REALLY freaked out and stressed about this, but I know that everything will work out and that I just need to have faith and put my trust in the Lord. It's all up to Him and His will and power now. Be sure to keep me in your prayers, if you can. (I feel self-centered asking that, sorry...)
• To end on a happier note...I love life. I've realized that lately...no matter how crazy/stressful/AAGH-y it is, there's always something about our time on this Earth to love. We should try to enjoy every minute of it, even if that minute may be painful or annoying. That makes everything much more fun, and truly joyful! :)
  

Well, that got more deep than I expected. Or maybe not. Anyways, I won't mince words and I'll just end this beast of a post. If you've actually read the whole thing, congratulations for getting through it all! :) Cheese out! :D

Oh Yeah, That Whole Blogging Thing... :D

Well, I have totally not posted anything on this wonderful blog for a while. Like two months. Ouch. And while I usually try (operative word: TRY) to make my blog posts short, this one by default may be a little long. Maybe I'll try a list of things I have done? Since if I just start talking about all of them, it might get a bit long. Er. Than the monster it is likely to be... :D

Actually, this will be a semi-timeline? Who knows what will happen.

• In January (the 8th-10th, to be specific), I had All-State Jazz! To say it was an AMAZING experience would be quite the understatement. The clinician--Kerry Marsh (who I already had kind of heard of because his arrangements are terrific) was so fun and exciting, and the songs we sang were awesome beyond belief (they were much more fun to sing after I passed the memory checks, lol...). And the people were quite delightful! If any of you who were in it read this blog, go you guys! I will not forget that weekend. And yay Jenny for doing a great job in All-State Show! And crap, I still need to somehow get the CD...I want it badly! :)
• Um...I'm probably skipping something important/fun, but at the end of January I went up to awesomely amazing Utah to audition for the School of Music at BYU. Leading up to the trip was kind of stressful...I had to work out a HUGE error that almost kept me from auditioning. But it all worked out, because as one of our Regionals songs said (more on that below), "the Lord God is awesome!" I had a great experience auditioning...my aural skills test score was surprisingly good, and even though I forgot the words at the start of one of my songs in the singing audition, it worked out great and I sang my heart out! And BYU is stinking beautiful, I can't wait to go there! That said...I did not get accepted to the School of Music. The Lord must be giving me time to grow...but that's OK, because in case you were not aware, I GOT ACCEPTED TO BYU!!!!! (The main school, not the music school.) I am so excited and I can't wait! But holy cow, I will be going to college... Oh, and by the way, I would like to thank my cousin Mollie (and her husband Ben) again for a great time staying with them when I went up to Provo. We got to play XBox and everything! Yep, they're great! :D
• Oh, before that, like Friday (the 31st), literally hours before I got on the plane to Provo, I auditioned for Regionals. That went pretty well...seeing as I got 1st chair Bass! I was really shocked and surprised, but totally excited! Regionals was a terrific experience--the clinician, Dr. Durocher from the Land of the Artichokes (Scottsdale Community College, lol) was beyond amazing. She was fun, inspiring, talented, delightful...it was my favorite Regionals (well, tied with 9th grade...except then I was really shy, and this time I talked to people a lot and everything) and I loved every minute of it. (And I got to go shop for the director's gift with the other 1st chairs, which was uber fun. And really weird because I never have done that before. They were all really nice and delightful people--go Joy, Kyle, and Lizzie!)
• We (meaning Chamber) didn't get to go to Jazz/Mad...the district was dorky (they thought it would be unsafe to go in the snow...which there was not that much of) and even when other, more sensible people in the district tried to get buses for us at the last minute, they were all booked for the All-Star Game (which I actually watched part of on Saturday, the fun shooting and dunking competitions--ironic). Oh well...I had a great weekend anyway (I was actually free to do stuff...which is a rarity lately), and we MIGHT get to go on another trip to make up for it. Coolness! :D
• Well, I hope I didn't forget anything...though I'm sure I did. Oh wait, other random things: I gave a talk, which went surprisingly well. I feel much better about my public-speaking skills (at least my church-y ones), and I actually bore my testimony for the first time in a while today in church. Yay for Brandon actually not sounding like an awkward monkey when he speaks in public! :D
• I sang a solo at the Choir Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser on Thursday! The sound was funky (and not in the cool, jazzy way), but it went well and I loved it! (The song I sang, "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles, is amazing and so fun to sing.) And great job to everyone who sang/played/etc...like for example, the amazing person who accompanied me, Rachel Ellsworth! She is a piano prodigy, basically. So yeah, everyone did great, and it went well, and it was a nice night. Yummy spaghetti! :)
• I went to a journalism workshop at ASU (for the third, and last year...tear? well, not that sad, but still...). I didn't win anything this year (the past two years, I got 2nd, then 1st place--which meant I got an iPod Shuffle...which my mom's friend has now because i got a huge real iPod...and a camera!), but it was OK, I had a great time (Catherine Anaya was there again! And the lady from Telemundo, Patricia Batres! I semi-met her last year. They're like Arizona journalism celebrities, lol... :D), and someone won from Mesa High, who I had never met before but is really nice and down-to-earth. Go Rosemarie!
• Again, I hope I didn't forget anything. Coming up for me...All-State auditions (stressful but exciting!), auditions for the School of Music at NAU (why am I doing this???? I'm planning to go to BYU, but oh well, it will be a good experience, I guess), and other sundry frivolities that have escaped my mind. (Yep, I totally just sounded like an uptight, free-spirited British person. That would be such a fun person to be, I just thought! Lol...)

Well, I hope you didn't fall asleep/die/storm off in a huff at how long this was. Thanks for my reading my blog/Facebook importing thingy that makes it a note/whatever this is. Have fun and cheese out! :D