CalTech

So, CalTech went incredibly well. Really really well. In fact, my personal performance was better than it was in Ohio, which I was pleased with. Overall I don't think the medley was better than Ohio, but we still did really well, and as far as we could tell, we certainly beat the team from New Mexico. We didn't stay for awards though, so I don't know for sure, but I'm assuming. We were good. And Ari and Sandor were amazing, picking up the routine and their formations and everything in two rehearsals. They saved our butts by being amazing alternates, but the routine was good overall. I'm so pleased.

The most exciting part was five minutes before we were to compete, the zipper came off Becca's dress. We almost got it back on, but it wasn't quite working, so the best thing to do was just to sew her into it. Fortunately, someone from the New Mexico team had a sewing kit (the one time I look at mine and think: I've never needed that before, why would I need it tonight?) and so I sewed Becca into her dress. If I do say so myself, I think I did a rather good job. There were no gaps, you couldn't actually tell, and it didn't break open either! Which is what we were most afraid of happening. So, everything turned out lovely, despite rather ominous beginnings.

It was also awesome because we had an alumni cheering section! We had Janel, Matt L., Ian, Ashleigh and Jon, as well as Justin, Kristi and Ike (who are not alumni but came just to cheer for us). So that was awesome. It's always fun performing for some people you know. :) Yay for our awesome alumni!

And I just found out from Troy that we did indeed win. CCBDC dominates again. :) We are awesome. Alright, back to work....

Why I love Scripps

OK, so one more thing I forgot, but the last post was too long anyway! :)

So, last semester everyone at Scripps got an e-mail from Dean Wood, the Dean of Students here, that she wanted to learn more about the various clubs and organizations on campus, so wanted to hear back from club heads about their clubs and possibly attend a meeting or somesuch. So, I wrote her back about CCBDC, and she said she'd love to come, but we couldn't work out a time last semester. So, I sent her an e-mail Tuesday morning, asking if she still was interested in coming to a rehearsal at some point this semester, and had an e-mail back from her that afternoon saying she wanted to come Wed.! Not only that, she wanted to bring us breakfast! May I say, amazing?! She did come yesterday morning, and not only was she thoroughly impressed with us, but she did indeed bring us breakfast. And it was good stuff too! Not normal Krispy Kremes. Sooo nice! And she was so excited to be there, she's apparently started taking ballroom dance classes in Pasadena, so she's not just showing interest in our team, she's actually really excited about it. Which is really nice to have someone in the administration who really likes us, because that means more money and support for us when we need it! :) Which is always good. Anyway, that was fun, and I have to say, I don't know any other Dean who would bring students breakfast when they invite her to a rehearsal. I think that's just way cool. Yay for Dean Wood! She is amazing!

Busy busy!

So, in case you were wondering, my blisters are basically gone, which is really good because it would be really horrible to be in pain for the competition this weekend. Although, I suppose there always has to be something wrong with my feet: last night I got kicked, by a girl, and she bent my toenail back... the same one that was already missing a piece of itself. So yeah. Always something... dancer feet *sigh*.

Anyway, I've been busily doing all kinds of things, like chem lab, and Methods reading (Which, by the way, was awful! Try reading 120 pages on the scientific method, and APA format. I wanted to shoot myself.), and doing some reading on neurons that I basically skimmed because I've had all that info several times already.

We've been preparing the Bond Medley for the Caltech comp. on Sat. which has been interesting. We knew Justin was broken, so Sandor took his place, and we weren't sure PC was going to be there, so we worked with Paul a little on Tuesday night to get him semi-ready just in case. Fortunately, PC should be there since they moved the formation competition to later, which is really really nice. Considering that PC is my partner most of the time, and we have a lot of really weird moving parts, it's nice to know that my partner will be solid, and I won't have to worry so much about whether we're going the wrong direction or are out of formation. Which is really nice. But then yesterday we found out that Kaitlyn is also not going to be there on Sat. due to a family emergency, which, it is major, so it's understandable, but then we had to put another alternate in. Things are just kind of crazy. I know Ari will do a good job though, so that's good, and Sandor has done really well so far. I don't doubt it will be lesser quality than it was in Ohio, because none of us are quite back to that yet, but I certainly hope it will be worlds better than our performance at that competition last year. (Which was awful.) I hope we do well.

Besides that, we had auditions last night, which was kind of fun. 28 girls auditioned, and somewhere around fifteen guys I think. Which was crazy, we had to cut men! And of course we cut two thirds of the women, but, having that many people try out was amazing. Especially second semester. These auditions are usually smaller than first semester. Crazy! Chris had me consult with him on the girls, who we wanted on team, and... I don't know, it makes me a little uncomfortable to be judging my peers. Especially when there were girls I know and like out on the floor. But, I guess I'd rather have him have a female opinion than not. And as VP, input is what I give. Doesn't mean I like it. I actually thoroughly disliked the comment that Can made to me last semester that he remembers me as the girl who was sitting and whispering things in Chris's ear when he auditioned. Which is actually totally untrue. I had nothing to do with auditions last year, because Tara Christianson was around still. But I still dislike having a reputation that I'm some kind of slightly insidious decision making force. Especially because in the end, no matter what input I give, it's Chris's decision. I don't know, power is nice in some ways, but I'm not sure I like that aspect of it.

Anyway, so, Sandor and I are now hooked on "Scrubs," thanks to Adam and Becca. It's a TV show that's still airing actually, unlike Firefly. It's in it's fourth season right now, like Alias. But, we've started at the beginning, and in two nights are almost half way through the first season. The show is absolutely hilarious! They did a Star Wars parody that had us laughing for a good long while after the scene was over. Oh wow. Such good characters. I recommend the show to all who want to laugh.

Other than that, the Lindy Binge starts tonight, so we're headed out to Lindygroove to partake of the masses of lindy hoppers who will descend on LA to dance. It should be a lot of fun. I'm excited. Especially because the Seattle Exchange was so fun this summer! Hopefully this is just as good. I shall let you all know!

Owie Feets and Cool Stuff

So, we had gold latin yesterday, I didn't die, which is awesome. The class is amazingly huge! For a gold class, it's huge! I've never seen a gold class so big! It's like ten couples, plus two or three extra girls. Incredible! It was great because I had already done all the moves we did yesterday, I'm sure it won't continue like that, but that made the first day easy at least, which was nice. But, I wore my latin heels for the first time in a month, and they gave me nice little blisters. Now, I'm just masochistic enough to think to myself that because wearing the shoes again will make the blisters go away faster, and get my feet back into shape, I should wear them for a two hour rehearsal this morning (I actually only ended up wearing them for an hour because I was smart enough to realize they would probably hurt, so I should take other shoes, however, I had to wear them for a full hour because we didn't get a water break until after that). Not smart, at all. I have VERY unhappy feet at the moment. Mostly because if they get touched, I jump around in pain. Not good. So bad to my feet. Oh well.

I've also seen the last Firefly episodes that I hadn't yet seen! I loooove Firefly! You really all should see it if you haven't already. Although one of the last two episodes I spent time hiding in Sandor's shoulder because there's torture going on, and people in pain are just not good for me to be watching, but the rest of the show, awesome! Awesome Awesome Awesome!

So, there's also cool news in that my Physiological Psychology class (from here on out known as physio psych) has a lab, and we're going to be working with rats. Pending approval, we might get to lesion part of their brains, and then dissect the brain to find out what part we lesioned, after performing cognitive tasks of course, which is really cool! The best part is that the research has never been done before! So our class will be providing pilot data for a study to be done in the future, which is absolutely awesome! I feel kind of like I'm being used, since it's a "let's try this and see what happens, and then ask for money to do this on a larger scale," but, it's still really cool! Hopefully I can handle the lesioning and the rats themselves. We'll find out!

Rehearsals and games

So, the only routine that I was in that rehearsed all weekend was the Viennese waltz, but, I really like the music! And we finished the choreography, which was awesome. So although we will look like wedding cakes, and I am quite serious, I'm excited about the routine. It's pretty cool. Adam and I are partners, which is awesome, and I like the routine a lot. Now I just have to make sure I remember it for three days, because Chris finished the last of the choreography in the last minute of rehearsal and then wouldn't let us go through the entire thing with the music! That doesn't help memory at all! Merg.

So, since I didn't have routines that were working, I did all kinds of other things, like go to the Huntley and get books, play frizbee, play Settlers, three times this weekend (it's awesome), play Unexploded Cow, and of course, Jenga. All fabulous times with great people. It was a very fun weekend!

So, Settlers of Catan is wonderful, because you get to trade and build things, and the jokes about the game never get old. And every time you play is so different. It's awesome. Unexploded Cow is a Cheapass game which means that you supply any general pieces that you would have from other games, like die and monopoly money/chips, and they give you anything unique to the game, like cow cards and city cards. The premise of the game is that there are unexploded land mines in France, and mad cows in England, so some genius decided to use the cows to blow up the land mines, so you get some cows, and each turn one or more of them get blown up! And if you blow up your own cow, then you get to take a city card, which means you get points toward getting the pot at the end. Probably none of this is very clear, you really should play, but the point of the whole game is to end up with more money than you started with. It's pretty cool. Especially with cities named Quimper and Peregueux (I have no idea if I spelled that right, but it's awesome) and one of the cities has a "sign" in the window that says: "Les Used Meats". It's hilarious. Anyway, good times were had in the game department this weekend, although we didn't get to play Quiddler even though Misha had it with her, but, there's still a semester of time ahead of us. :)

It's so nice to be back early, I like having time to get used to being here before I have to be incredibly busy and get to work. It's really nice. Of course, the fact that we have no school tomorrow also means that I start my week with my one class on Tuesdays! Crazy. If only the classes would have been a bit more evenly spread. Oh well, I'll live.

Sad and Lonely Blog

So, I feel very unloved, because no one has responded to my e-mail of a week ago saying I could stay with them during rehearsals. Maybe I'll just sleep in the ballroom. That would show them! Or, it would just mean I'd sleep in the ballroom...

On another note, my blog is sad and lonely because no one ever comments here. I know people read it, am I just not cool enough to warrant comments? Oh well. My blog shall continue on in its lonely existance, even if you don't comment on it.

I leave very very early tomorrow to go back to Claremont, rehearsals start at noon. I'm looking forward to it, it will be really good to see everyone. But, it'll also be back to the grind of normal school routine, which I'm not necessarily looking forward to. But, classes should be interesting, so that's good. Anyway, I'll write again when I'm back and settled. Have a good weekend everyone!

Confused yet?

So, I was listening to the radio on the way up to the UW today, and on the way they said that a helicopter from the Lincoln had crashed in a rice paddy over in the tsunami devastation area, and that they were treating the two dead crewmembers for minor injuries. I was a little confused, needless to say.

It's almost as bad as when the little ticker tape at the bottom of the TV news broadcast said that ocras had been spotted in Puget Sound. I mean, okra plants (albeit spelled wrong) in the middle of the Sound would be something to talk about, but probably not as cool as orcas, which is what they really meant to say.

But I really do have to wonder about those two cewmembers who were being treated for minor injuries. If they just had minor injuries, what did they die from? And why were they treating them if they were dead? Obviously I'm missing some crucial information here. ;)

Snow!

It snowed this morning. Big, fat, sticky flakes that were very pretty, and came down for about 45 minutes. We got just under a quarter inch, which isn't much at all, but it was pretty. There's supposed to be quite a bit of snow coming in the next couple days. For now, it's melting and making a very slushy mess of the roads, which is probably going to freeze, and make driving very nasty, which means I shall once again be confined to my hilltop. I've been growing my hair out, but I definitely don't have enough to be Rapunzel yet. It's kind of too bad. But, I can live with some pretty snow for a few days, and be confined to my hill, as long as I have heat. That's what made last year so bad. We'll see how it goes this year. It's been so dry that there's no snow in the mountains. Apparently the last time it came this late was in the 1950s or so, and we got 21 inches in the area of my house! That's a lot of snow! We'll see what happens this year. As long as I can get to the airport and get to Claremont on Friday, I'm happy.

Phone Calls

Today, I called a friend of mine to talk about getting together for lunch, left the phone on, and within about 45 minutes of my own call, recieved two others! That is, I think, the greatest number of my friends who have called me in a single day. It was fun! Even if we didn't get to talk very long, because we were all at work or had things to do. But yay for friends with cell phones, wonderful tools that they are. :)

ALIAS!!

So, don't bother me tomorrow evening, because I shall be engrossed in the two-hour season premier that I have waited long months to see. I hope J.J. Abrams got his act together! Yay for ALIAS! :)

DVDs!!!

Back from Victoria, obviously. Lots to say about that, but for now, must vent.

So, we got our DVDs of Concert last year, finally! It's been eight months. I'm thoroughly excited, and went skipping around for a few minutes saying "DVDs!" feeling very victorious! So we sit down after dinner, because Kari didn't come down with Mommy and Daddy, so she hasn't seen any of it, so we're happily watching wonderful videography of Concert, until Chicago medley, when it starts skipping. And then stops altogether. So, we take it out, blow it off, I notice that there's a fingerprint in the center, but, not sure how to get that off well without scratching the DVD, we stick it back in and it seems to be working alright. Go to the menu, find the correct chapter, hit play, see Ashleigh in all her Velma glory, and it starts skipping again, earlier than it did last time. So, not sure what to do with that one, I take out the other DVD, since I ordered two (one for me and one for my parents). I look at it, there are no fingerprints, excellent, this one should work fine, yes? No, of course not. This one won't go anywhere when you choose a chapter from the menu. So I start fastforwarding through the DVD, and stop at Chicago medley, it starts skipping, and then stops. Fine. Maybe the DVD player is dirty, we've had it for a while, we'll try it on computer.

Hurry upstairs, plug all computers back in and get them up and running once more, since they've been off for a week. Tension is high as the non-fingerprinted DVD is lowered into the DVD drive. It seems to be playing fine, the menu even works! We get through Chicago with no problems, go even farther! This is wonderful! I get to see everything up through the Country Swing, and then it starts to have problems again. Decides to start skipping, then stops, then pixellates, while skipping. No good. Stop DVD, try again. This time the menu no longer works. *frustration* Take DVD out, replace it with the fingerprinted one, hoping that perhaps the fingerprint is only messing up Chicago, and we're well beyond that. Seems to work fine, start with Theatre Arts because we were almost done with the Country Swing; beautiful! Absolutely beautiful, until all four couples are onstage. Then, it stops. Just stops, crashes the program. Fine. Try other program, maybe it will work. Menu won't go to that routine, crashes program. Try all DVD playing programs on the computer, won't play, crashes them all. Try other DVD again! Nope. Fine! Done.

So, I've waited eight months, and I still can't see all of my routines. I'm incredibly frustrated, have tried everything I know to do, and none of it has worked so far. We're going to get a cleaning kit tomorrow, see what we can do. I sincerely hope all of yours have worked well. It sure would suck to get two disfunctional ones though.

But, the videography is SO much better than what we had the year before. It's astounding the difference. And dang it! I really want to see the TA! People said it made them cry! I want to see it, and I can't, because technology is stupid and it hates me. I don't understand why I have so many issues! Maybe I shall go pray to the technology god to please let my DVDs work. Please?!

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful year so far! I look forward to talking to you all soon!