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
