Time Flies

Good morning/evening/afternoon, readers!

It seems like this past week has gone so fast...

So I've started these PSAT/SAT prep courses. I had to do two this week, since I missed the first one that took place at my school. It's all made up now, so I only have to go back once a week on Wednesdays. The first night, Monday, before the class even started, I found the teacher (I wasn't familiar with this school, so I went into the Community Education office to figure out where to go, and the teacher just happened to be there). All the way to the classroom, he was asking me questions. The first question was, "Where do you want to go to college?" I answered that I didn't know just yet. There were no follow-up questions, which I was perfectly okay with. Instead, he went right on to talk about bats. He asked me why all of the bats were dying. I was sort of taken aback by the unexpected change in topics, but I digress. I had no idea why the bats were dying. As it turns out, neither did he. So he asked me what they ate. Since I'm not an expert on bats, I figured it wouldn't hurt to wager a guess: Mosquitoes.

"Good! That's right! You're going to do well on the SAT's!"

Well that's good to hear.

Other than the interesting teacher, the class is utterly boring. Boring, but necessary, I guess.

"Jude, are you excited for the class?"

"Ummm... not especially..."

"Oh come on, Jude, you're not excited?"

"I could be more excited if you want."

Seriously, he asks that every time, because I look so tired. I get the reasoning why though. Something has to be fun about this class, why not get everyone hyped up about it whether they really are or not? I'm glad that I know people in this class though. That's always nice.

On the way home from that first class (on Monday night), I received a phone call. My cousin, McKenna! She called to ask when she should come over on Friday. I was a little confused, because I hadn't heard that she was coming over, but I was incredibly happy to hear that we were going to see her for the first time since she moved closer to us! My mom told me after I got off the phone that her visit was going to be a surprise for my sister and me and she wasn't expecting McKenna to call my phone. Well, I was happy. I love keeping secrets (my sister wasn't aware of the surprise at the time)!

Monday was a very busy day. On Monday, I did my audition for Pop Singers. If you can recall, I was initially supposed to do my audition the Friday before, but they ran out of time and had to get one extra day. Any way, I got good reactions when it came to my pre-chosen song, which I was very happy about. In the end, it all came down to tonal memory and sight-reading. That was the most painful part of the process. My memory was completely shot due to nervousness, so I had to ask the teacher to play the parts several times before I would attempt them. Plus, I felt really stupid saying "la" over and over again. Sight-reading was horrible. She gave me the starting note, which I could do, but then I forgot my starting note, which screwed up the rest of the song, which looked really easy because there weren't any humongous jumps I had to make. The following day, I got to see the results posted on the door. I did not make it this time. But the thing is, I can't really say I'm heart-broken about it. It would have been great fun to be apart of this group, but really, it just means that I don't have to get up early. Plus, there's always next year!

Sometimes in French class, we have down days and we watch 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'-- In French! I'm really tempted to rent entire seasons of it and just watch every episode (sort of like I did for the vlogbrothers on YouTube). It's really good. It's not like Twilight at all. J'adore Buffy!

On Thursday, I got to learn more about being a sound-tech Mostly about the buttons we would be paying the most attention to and what they do. We couldn't do a lot of things, mostly because there was a Zombie Workshop going on in the theater (did I mention that my school is doing a production of 'Zombie Hamlet'?).

Warning! Tangent!

My friends and I are going to try and go to 'Zombie Hamlet' the weekend of Halloween (since society has told this that we, being 15-17 year old girls/boys, are too old to go out begging for candy). We're going to dress up and it'll be a jolly good time! I think we'll do the same thing when Harry Potter comes out. I'm super excited about that too!!!

End Tangent!

Next week, when I go back, we're actually going to go down to the stage and set up microphones and other sound-collectors. Then another person will be up in the sound room shifting the sounds that the tester (also known as the person who set up the microphones) will be making from on side of the room to the other; left to ride, center to none, back to front.

There were also play-offs in Wind Ensemble last week. In case you are not familiar, this just means that you play some music for the best chair in your section It's a big deal for certain section because there are usually eight or nine people (sometimes more), so moving one chair is kind of a big deal. The farther up in chair rankings you are (with one being the absolute best), the more likely it is that you will get to play a solo in one of the pieces (that is, if it's written into your piece). For smaller sections, like the one I'm in, it's not as big of a deal because there are only two or three of you and you're playing the same sheet of music any way, so it doesn't really matter. But if you're keeping score at home, I received second chair.

I'd wanted to ride my bike all week long, but because of the crappy weather, it really wasn't an option. It rained so much! It was crazy! Finally, on Friday, I decided that I would ride my bike no matter what. I'm really glad that I decided to because it was a really nice day outside. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't toasty warm either. It was perfect. It was the kind of weather where I had to move to keep warm. I loved feeling that cool air whip my face and knuckles, making them burn pleasantly!

I rather like these extra long end-of-the-week posts. It gives me something to talk about and probably more substance for you. But if you really don't like these long posts, please tell me in the comments and I will try to keep it concise the next time around.

You can expect one more post. I'm really, really planning on it. Until then, thank you for taking the time to read this!

--Jude