The Tempest

Last week I went to possibly THE coolest dramatic performance I've ever witnessed. A bunch of students from the college up the road produced The Tempest; not only that, but they performed it "in the round." Basically the stage was in the middle of the room and the audience surrounded it. I was a little skeptical about the idea when I first heard about it, but trust me, it was the most amazing thing in the world. It made it feel completely real; it wasn't a bunch of people reenacting a story, it was like a VIP pass to spy on the original.

I must admit, I attended this play with some trepidation. Four years ago I acted in a production of The Tempest and don't have wonderful memories of it. This rendition, however, put my doubts to shame.

One thing I totally digged from this was the way the showed Caliban and Ariel. First, they were portrayed by five actors, which really brought to mind the fact that they were spirits (or sons of spirits. Whatever). Second, they were played by the same five actors, which was just plain cool. One minute they were on their hands and knees groveling on the floor and crawling over one another and the next they stood erect and attentive to their master's will, elegant and graceful. When I played Ariel all that time ago I always had a problem remembering that I was a fairy, and I was acting her! The way this was done solved that. It also kept the movement on the stage to a max, because there were four "extra" spirits up there moving about. All the motion actually made me pay more attention to the play, which might have aided my enjoyment of it...

In other news, the newest episodes of Doctor Who are incredibly amazing and you should all go watch them.

Fun Assignments. Who Knew?

This year I'm taking an American Government course, and it is quite possibly my favorite subject ever. We're reading really cool books (a bunch of texts written contemporarily with the Revolution) and last week I got to write two of the most enjoyable papers of my academic career.

They were supposed to be two papers, written in the first person, one condoning the Revolution the other condemning it. I have this terrible history of going off on tangents when I write in the first person so I was actually dreading these papers, but I found a solution. Instead of writing a letter or something, which I hear most people do, I wrote a political essay. I basically pretended I was Thomas Paine or someone back then and spent about 800 words bashing on either the British or the Revolution. I got way too into it, and after the first one I had almost convinced myself that the American Revolution was some idiotic idea thought up by upstart colonists. Luckily, the next day I wrote one in favor of the war, so my opinion's back where it belongs.

Having fun doing school is the best. Sometimes I just get into these funks where I lose all motivation and just drown under all the things I'm refusing to do. There are really only two ways to get out of those, neither of which happen very often: have fun or get it all done. Usually I have to suffer through all the work, but every blue moon or so I enjoy an assignment enough to motivate me to finish everything. I love it when school loves me.

Speaking of school, I got my SAT scores back! I am so happy! They are finally good enough to get into my dream college, so I don't need to take it again in November :) Now all I need to do is make sure my mom's okay with them and pray that the admission committee knows that I really am smarter than my scores. Keep those fingers crossed.

Random note, I just heard the word catawampus used in a sentence. There really is a first time for everything!

I can't think of a title.

I went to a super (hahaha. Get it?) Halloween party last night. It was all a party should be: I had my friends, my food, and a really fun time. It was a blast! A few of us got together and planned out corresponding superhero costumes (get the last joke? I'm so funny.) so my sister went as Black Widow, Josie as a SHIELD Agent, one friend as Superman, another as Cat Woman and I as Captain America.

Like my awesome shield?

Let me just tell you, that shield took a lot of work. Fun work, I'll admit, but a lot of work. I think that my fingerprints may have been ripped of by that ridiculous amount of duct tape. Now that it's all finished I wish I'd taken pictures of all the in between steps, but it's too late now. Suffice it to say, this started out orange and ended up beautiful. #thankyouducttape

Enough with the hashtags. Let's get to the real stuff. Pictures! 

Josie mentioned in her blog post (this one) that she was missing some pictures she took on my phone. Well, she wasn't missing much. Ha. Ha. Ha. But really, most of the pictures came out terribly grainy and unlovely, but here are the best of the bunch.

Behind-the-scenes

Do I look dorky or what?

Look at me being so strong and heroic. 

I should have my own action movie.

Truth. Honor. Patriotism.

Happy Halloween!

Sunshine Award!

Thanks, Josie, for nominating me for this Sunshine Award! I don't have much to talk about in general, so let's just get right to it! (She says, waiting months and months to post this.)

1. What fictional character are you most like? Starting out with the hard questions! I always have a hard time saying that a character is like me because I can relate to most, but that doesn't mean I'm actually similar to them. But no that I think about it, I've gotta say Kendra Sorenson from Fablehaven. Now that I've said that I can't think of the specific ways she's like me, but there are similarities! I promise!

2. If you had to change the color of your hair, what color would you pick? It could be a crazy color, or just a different natural shade. If I had to dye my hair I'd go all out. Purple or blue. Not sure if I'd color my whole head or just do it in streaks, but it would definitely be blue or purple. Or Pink. Pink is good.

3. Girls' night out with three fictional females! Who do you pick? Fun fun fun! I'd invite Pepper Potts, Elizabeth Bennet and Parker. On second thought maybe not Parker if we plan to go out in public...

4. One time you were so embarrassed that you wished the floor would swallow you? Surprisingly enough I never really grasp the awkwardness of any given awkward moment until the night after when I lie in bed agonizing over the incident. But that's a lame answer, so I'll give you this one. Two years ago a friend came into town during the local fair, so we trooped on over there for the day. After a few rides we decided to brave the horrendous line and go on the ferris wheel. WELL, we went around a few times when, coming down again, I caught sight of these two idiots standing up and rocking their cart. They had the stupidest grins on their faces. I don't really know what came over me, but I definitely didn't have time to think before taking action. "SIT DOWN, GUYS!" They were so surprised; their expressions were priceless. And, what's even more surprising, they did it, and for the next ten minutes I got to live through the rest of the ride, passing them another half dozen times. Mortifying, or what?

5. Dream role in any play, any movie, or any book you want to be made into a movie/play? Hermione Granger, hands down. I guess it wouldn't really be acting, but I've always loved her and she's a witch who flies, so what could be better?

6. Favorite historical era for fashion--Which time period had your favorite clothes? I was about to say princess, but that's not a real era, so I shan't. I'm gonna say the 50's. Not really a historical era yet, but their clothes were so cute!

7. The last movie/show you watched was...? The Season Premere of Doctor Who :) I actually went to a movie theatre that was screening the episode, and it was by far the weirdest experience of my life. Good. But weird. Everyone there was the kind of person who would go to the movie theatre for something that was showing on cable. There were tons of people in costume (one guy was a dead ringer for 11) and they put my fangirling to shame. But it was all fine when the show started. Everyone laughed during the funny parts (something all but unheard of in my experience) and, when the credits started rolling, no one stood up to leave. Literally no one. Everyone waited around to see if there'd be an extra clip at the end :) It was pretty great.

8. Would you rather work in a cafe or a library? Cafe. I love the smell of books, but I love the smell of coffee too, and in a coffee shop you can talk to people without worrying about disturbing the patrons.

9. At the moment, what is your favorite song? I don't have a favorite song at the moment...but the last favorite song I had Best Day of My Life by American Authors. It was stuck in my head for more than two weeks and somehow I still manage to enjoy listening to it.

10. If you could live in a treehouse or on a ship/boat, which would you pick? Ohh. Tough one. I think I'm gonna pick treehouse. You know, a totally decked out treehouse like in Swiss Family Robinson? Who hasn't wanted to live in one of those?

Ooops. Guess I kinda lied. Not only did I not post the other day, but I don't even have an interesting topic today! You'll just have to make due with my boring life story again. So this is basically just an average post.

I have some exciting news: I finished the yearbook! After nearly 5 months of preparation it has finally been completed. This horrible project has been stressing me out for way too long and it's finished!! I'm so happy! And not only is it done, but it looks nice too! That was one of the things that I'd been worrying about. I mean, it's fine and good to have a yearbook, but if it doesn't look nice then what's the use?

Also, I've finally (almost) got my bowling curve down. Every summer my brother gets really obsessed with bowling, so every summer we go there at least two times a week. Which, you will realize if you've ever bowled before, is three times too many.
Worse still, the reason he's so obsessed with it is because he's so dang good. For example: he gets annoyed if he get less than a 100. My average score by the end of the game is 70 if I'm lucky. So, to give myself an easy excuse for my incompetence I began my quest to find my inner bowler. I started bowling with crazy spins which more than often ended up the gutter. Until yesterday. Yesterday more than half of my shots hit pins down! My score was still pitiful, but I'm getting there!

Hmm. I know there's more stuff that happens to me, but whenever I get down here to actually write it down it either becomes unbearably uninteresting or I forget it. Sometimes I wish I had a brain. Well, I'm hoping to get back to writing snippets and stories, so I might be posting those in a while. Be on your guard :)

Promise I Won't Complain

Sorry about that drama queen episode. After that whining post yesterday everything took a turn for the better. Literally immediately. Almost. I clicked "post" and my mom called the family to dinner. 'Nuff said. 

A friend had already texted and said they'd meet us to watch the fireworks. Then, when we left, my first friend invited me and my siblings to her house where all the rest of the gang was already. What's more my mom let us! 

After that it was smooth sailing. Sat around for an hour or so just chatting and eating Cheetos, then went upstairs to watch the show. My town is reknown for its skimpy 4th of July show, but since I've never experienced anything better I am content. Fireworks are magical no matter how many. It's just so amazing to watch colors explode against the black of the mountains. My favorites are the gold ones that shoot into little of balls of shimmery pixie dust. 

As if that wasn't enough, my parents invited everyone back to our house to set off some smaller fireworks and poppers. It was super cool to watch them close up, but the noise kind of ruined the ethereal, romantic feel. 

Then I was up way too early to go prop hunting for the play at our local yard sales. When that failed my mom offered to drive into the next town over and exhaust their thrift stores, and we ending up spending the whole afternoon shopping. 

I'll be on tomorrow with some sort of interesting topic, but I've pretty much used up all my news for now. On a random note, I feel like that song "The Show" by Lenka. Oh! Also wish me luck: I'm competing in a swim meet tomorrow. Let's hope I can beat my old times :)

Slightly Less Than Pleased

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Don't be fooled by the light tone of that exclamation. It's time to switch gears so you can bear listening to me rant for a few moments.

I don't usually complain about my height. I like being short and it's never been a real problem before.

Key word being before.

My dad recently bought another truck to replace our "old" one, and said I could drive it till he got rid of the other. All I would need to do is learn to drive stick.

Not a problem.

Ish.

I can't reach the clutch. My feet literally won't stretch far enough to push it down. I'm so annoyed. Like, I would have had enough trouble already relearning how to drive, and now I can't even start! And as if that isn't mortifying enough, my dad is ordering "pedal extenders" so the pedal will reach me. It's so stupid.

I wish it would all stop there. But it doesn't. I would like to bring your attention back to the first line of this post. It's the 4th! Awesome! Holidays are at the top of my list of favorite things, after all! Family reunions, on the other hand, are included on a completely opposite list. Needless to say, it dampened my spirits a considerable amount when my dad said we'd be going to my great-aunt's house for a big 4th of July party. We were going to have tacos. Tacos on Independence day. Shameful.
Well, the day trickled by as slowly as possible, but the time finally came to hop in the car and leave. I reminded my mom of this, only to learn that she had called and canceled because of a gnarly case of the whooping cough going around here. She was scared we might be unconsciously sick and didn't want to spread the dreadful contagion throughout the family.

My spirits lifted.
Maybe now I could go to the real party, the one all my friends would be at.
But no, the sick ruse was not quite a ruse; my mom was legitimately concerned about everyone's health. There would be babies at the party. We might get them sick, despite the fact that we hadn't been in contact with the sickness first hand at all.
My consolation prize, however, was going to make up for it. My mom and dad let me invite a friend over for dinner and fireworks. But then it was my turn to mess things up. I can never talk on the phone, and in my explanation of the events I somehow indicated that we were actually sick, not just possibly maybe sick, so she wasn't able to come over.

Now my whole family's just going for a picnic and to watch the fireworks. Which should be totally cool, but I'm too much of an extraverted idiot to see that. Well, I can see it, but I'm still not happy with it. Why do I have to be so ridiculously addicted to people?? I'm tired of depending on other people for happiness, but I don't know how to stop. It takes very particular, irregular moods for me to be content with myself; otherwise I need to be with friends, or looking forward to being with friends. Why do I have to be such an extreme people person?


Now that that rant's over I find myself at a loss for words. But I'll think of something so I don't need to end on that obnoxious note. I'm sure you all have enough problems of your own without me piling mine on to boot. Let's see...
Nothing super notable has been happening in my life lately. Just same old same old awesomeness. Been to a ton of dances. Finished the homeschool yearbook (finally!!). The play's coming along nicely. Read Jane Eyre, which made it to my list of favorite books. Looking forward to going to the highschool summer program at the college I'm planning on going to. Only two weeks left! Started some new stories with a few friends, so you can expect loads more posting since I'll be getting back into The Groove.
But I haven't made it back to The Groove yet and I can't think of anything else to say, so I shall bid you adieu. Adieu!