CONGRATS!!!!!!!

Congrats to the EHS Class of 2007!!! You guys have been great and I'm really gonna miss you : (

Even though your graduation was FREEZING cold, it was the most fun I've had at a graduation yet. Between trying to turn/hold pages of the pianists, Sarah making me laugh, making faces at Katie Chase, Benson making faces at me everytime the music stand almost hit my face (this happened 3 times), everyone sounding terrible (as usual) and everyone waiting to see what Wilson was going to do ("I love you Mom!"), it was a lot of fun. Very cold, but a lot of fun.

On a different note entirely, I finished my World Lit papers yesterday. And I dropped them off @ Caulfield's house (she lives on my block....how weird is that?!). Today I went in and sorted through all the uniforms with my mom. Benson did bring us donuts (to make it feel like a jazz band morning) and my mom bought me white hot chocolate. And Benson did tell me that he found where Jenna and I tried to hide the evil Christmas tree costumes. They're back in their proper place now, ready to torture the DMs for another year.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO BE A SENIOR!!!!!!! I'm totally freaking out about it. It doesn't seem like the first major portion of my life has passed me by. And there's no way that I'm entering my 12th year of education. Or supposed education. Especially since I feel like I'm just beginning to get to know so many of my classmates. And it feels like freshman year band camp was just yesterday. I still remember being really scared of it all until I found Sarah F. "Hey- weren't you the girl who sat second chair to me in the elementary school band?". Hahahaha--honestly, I didn't mean to sound condescending, but other than Jeremy, she was the only person I knew (okay, so I barely knew her). Since then I've met many more people, made many more friends, probably made many more enemies and I've gotten to know so many more people this year it's incredible. And I can't believe I've only got one more year left with all of you! My experiences at EHS have been amazing and I love every single person (okay, well maybe not love love, but you get the idea). Band has been probably the most wonderful experience of them all. It's been great meeting so many new people through that, and I'm gonna miss the people that are dropping out (though I really can't blame them). I can't wait for Florida Trip '08!! And I can't wait to start bossing people around at the Freshman Intros and Band Camp. So, I guess I can't wait for my senior year to start, and despite IB, I've got the feeling it's going to be the best of them all.

So to the seniors who are leaving us-congrats. You survived. Especially the IB DP students. You guys were the lab rats that paved the way. I know I'm going to miss you guys (especially the band kids), and I hope to see you around town (and I know that there are band kids coming back to band camp). Best wishes on the rest of your life!

And to the Class of 2008- Let our senior year begin!

Just A Few More Days

Yesterday I took my final regents exam for the rest of my LIFE!!!! It was the Us History & Gov't exam. It wasn't too bad. The multiple choice questions were harder than I thought they were going to be. I got really confused on two different questions. I though I did ok on the thematic essay and the DBQ wasn't too hard. I really didn't include much outside detail though. They pretty much gave you all the possible information you could have used.

Last night I watched Ocean's Eleven with my family. I enjoyed it. Even though I'm the type of person who usually enjoys the films that get "B"s from the critics. I had a massive headache though, so I went to bed early. Which didn't help because I couldn't fall asleep. I'm still trying to decide if it was due to braindrain from the exam, or the lack of caffeine. Either way, feeling tired while having a headache is not cool. And not being able to go to sleep isn't cool either. Thankfully, I finally fell asleep.

I slept in till around 10:15 this morning, practiced the clarinet, walked the dog, ate lunch, and did nothing. It's been a very enjoyable day. I still have one paper to write for English and putting that off one more day was great. I think I'm going to pull a Tricia on this one.

And I'm excited because we're having Chinese for dinner. Normally this wouldn't be a cause for excitement, but I've been wanting Chinese for a while now and I was having random cravings during the exam yesterday.

Benson still hasn't sent me the music files for our field band show that I'm supposed to send to all the drum majors and anyone else who wants them. If you're interested in either the really bad midi files or the really bad live recording of the show, let me know and if he ever gets around to sending them to me, I'll get them to you.

Ummm....well....that's it I guess. Rather boring entry, but so is my life (occasionally)

So Close

One more week of this horror then school is officially OVER!!! And that's very exciting news.

Then I realize that thanks to IB I have homework over the summer, so school will never truly be done.

This past week I haven't done a whole lot. I've been in a cleaning frenzy, which is very funny if anyone has ever seen my locker (or my room when I wasn't expecting company).

Thursday and Friday were a colossal waste of my time. AKA I had the English Regents exam. 6 hours of my life to see if I know how to write. As I told several people "I'm an IB student. I shouldn't be subject to the New York State Board of Regent's mockery of the educational system!" Caufield said that if we got all 6s on our essays that she'd take us out to dinner. Oh darn. Looks like I won't get to go out to dinner with my teacher, since there's no way I got 6s on everything. The listening essay was on "The Power of Books" which was followed by the "graph" essay about "Lessening the Danger of Volcanoes". I really started to zone out on the volcano essay. I even noticed that the word "canoe" is in the word "volcanoes". Which got me wondering, why does canoe sound like "can-new". Should it be "can-no"? If anyone has an answer to that question, I'd love for you to tell me. Afterwards I had to drop off a check to Benson (we got paid for Colonial Days), and that was an interesting experience. I got to watch him try to take off his toe. The repair guys were there and Benson went over to ask one of them something and tripped over the edge of a bari sax case. Honestly, it was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen! I thought he was going to land flat on his face. Instead, he tore his toenail up with a lot of blood. At least I realized that there was a first aid kit in the uniform closet. Later on the repair guys were really funny to talk to. Apparently when they were in high school they were in marching band. One of them was as trumpet player and the other was a clarinetist.

The next day we had the paired passage about "Lessons Learned" followed by a critical lens on "heroism". And I totally messed up the critical lens. I used Janie from "Their Eyes Were Watching God" during the hurricane scene (which I didn't remember too well, except for something about a cow and Teacake getting bit by a rabid dog) and Alba from "The House of the Spirits" with that whole torture thing.

Thursday night I went to CACCB rehearsal. Not much to say about that.

Saturday was the Laurel Festival Parade. It's always too long and too hot, but I LOVE THE PEOPLE!!!!! There's a group that we call the "Corning Crazies" who are totally obsessed with us. They're amazing. We won (of course). And during one part a little girl ran up to me and gave me 75 cents! I totally freaked out and had no clue what to do. Later my parents told me it was some sort of a tradition that they give 75 cents to someone. I guess Guy got it once and Borsz got it one time. However, I am the only drum major in EHS history to have ever gotten tipped during a parade!!!!

Today I went to church and was still very tired from the parade. Later we gave my dad some Father's Day gifts. And I had a CACCB concert where I ended up sight reading the second part (even though I was sitting in the first section). Apparently the plan is that I'll switch parts every single performance to cover for whoever isn't there. Which means I'll be sight reading every single concert. Yahoo! Later I finished writing my World Lit 2 piece. I did a detailed study regarding the significance of the bed in "The Pickup". Okay, so it was a paper I wrote earlier this year and I just edited it.

The plans for tomorrow: do some cram practicing for my lesson (that I am totally unprepared for) and study some History for the exam on Tuesday. I've got the grad Band rehearsal followed by the second attempt at a recording session. Then I go to a clarinet lesson and come back for that IB thingy.

Random news: I finished writing the book on drum majoring. No joke-Benson actually had me write down what the expectations and duties of a drum major are. Like anyone is actually going to pay attention to them anyways, but it's a good effort.

After this week I'll be done with the last exam! And I have one more paper to write then I'm finished for this school year (well, I have to play at Graduation).

That's Life

Well, the school year is basically over. I've got the English exam (bleck) and the US History exam and that's it. I can't wait to get those exams out of the way so I can start relaxing and enjoying my summer. What little of a summer I'm going to have:

In the midst of studying for the 2 exams, I've got 2 World lit papers I need to write by graduation. Next Saturday I have the Wellsboro parade and next Monday graduation band rehearsal and the recording session afterwards.

After graduation, I've got about 3 weeks until Freshmen Intros start. They're only one hour each week, but they signify to me to beginning of the end of summer (and the beginning of my senior year!!) And then August hits with my final band camp! Somehwerei n there I also have to work on compositions for IB Music (wind ensemble, clarinet choir and woodwind quintet) and the comparitive music paper thing as well (the baile folklorico of Mexico vs. Aaron Copland's Rodeo) and I have to work on my extended essay ("To what extent did Aaron Copland's music create the American Sound"). So even though I'm "taking the summer off" and not working like everyone else I've still got lots to do, unfortunately. And I'm going to be doing a lot of work with the band when band camp starts.

And I really can't ignore the fact that the Colonial Days parade was yesterday. It's the hardest parade for EHS, mainly because the students still feel it's rigged. Whether or not that's the case, I don't know. All I know is that it's incredibly disappointing to keep trying hard year after year and never win, so I could sense that we didn't try as hard as we could have. However, Jenna and I had the worst of it, since we had to walk from the end of the parade all the way back to the park for the award ceremony afterwards. And we still had to have our uniforms. We tied for second place with Bath. One interesting fact is that one of the music judges (area #2) actually scored us a point higher than WHS!!! Even though we ended up 11 points behind WHS, perhaps there is a change coming?? Hahaha, I don't know, nor do I really care. I've got one more year left and whatever happens is going to happen.

That's Life - Lou Rawls (originally by Frank Sinatra)

That's life, that's what all the people say.
You're riding high in April,
Shot down in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune,
When I'm back on top, back on top in June.

I said that's life, and as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks,
Stompin' on a dream
But I don't let it, let it get me down,
'Cause this fine ol' world it keeps spinning around

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself, flat on my face,
I pick myself up and get back in the race.

That's life I tell ya, I can't deny it,
I thought of quitting baby,
But my heart just ain't gonna buy it.
And if I didn't think it was worth one single try,
I'd jump right on a big bird and then I'd fly

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself laying flat on my face,
I just pick myself up and get back in the race

That's life
That's life and I can't deny it
Many times I thought of cutting out
But my heart won't buy it
But if there's nothing shakin' come this here July
I'm gonna roll myself up in a big ball and fly away from here

Not much to write

There's nothing to actually write about. Go figure. The one time I've got time to write, I've got nothing to write about. Let's see...

1) I've been watching a ton of old Disney movies. True classics. Very entertaining.

2) I realized that at one point in The Lion King, Scar says "eh". This solidifies the idea that since Benson is an evil genius, he is just like Scar.

3) I watched The Queen last night. I thought it was fantastic. The portrayl of the Queen was great.

4) My clarinet teacher wants me to listen to funk music. So my mom got me a Chicago CD (this is after she got me an Earth, Wind & Fire CD).

5) We went shopping at Wally World and I got 2 new pairs of sandals and a pair of new sneaks.

6) Tonight we're watching Happy Feet

7) I'm trying to guess how many people are going to go down due to heat stroke during tomorrow's parade. Hopefully I won't be one of them.

8) I was the only girl in Sunday School class today. Which made things very weird, especially when we got to discussing King Solomon and his many wives. Teenage boys are disgusting.....

9) I like ice cream. A lot. We went to Hokey Pokey (or as Holden calls it Hockey Pokey) today after picking up more prom pictures (that will be up by tomorrow evening).

10) There's a number 10 because everything has to be even.

Update (very long)

Friday May 11- We went to Hokey Pokeys for Math class. It was really, REALLY nice. Later that evening I did my Music homework (which I found out today that when I went in afterschool to find out from Benson what the assignment was since I didn't pay attention he told me the wrong amount of measures to transpose so I ended up doing more work than I needed to). Then Mom put my hair in rags.

Saturday May 12- Hung out around the house with my hair in rags. Jen stopped by to pick something up and laughed at me. Later that evening, I went to Sarah Jane's house for pictures, then Spencers for dinner then up to the prom. Tricia (our driver) was late getting to Sarah's, and then we had to wait about 20 min for a table. Tricia and I ended up sharing out meals with each other, in a really weird way. And of course, Tricia ate all the free bread she could get (since that girl can't eat anything else). We then loaded everybody up and headed to the prom. We hung out there for quite a while. Tricia and I walked around taking pictures for yearbook. Well, Tricia took pictures while I made various lists (best dancers, worst dancer, most awkward couple, funniest guy, etc) to keep ourselves entertained. After that we went to Campbell to take Geoff home (Tricia's date) and then we headed to Zoe's house in Addison. Tricia's gas tank read empty. And then we got lost. Lost in the middle of nowhere, past midnight and no idea how much gas we actually had left. That was a lot of fun. When we finally got to Zoe's (after about an hour), Tricia and I hit the sack asap. The next morning we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast before everyone headed out around noon.

Sunday May 13- I was attempting to function on 6 hours of sleep. Some of those hours were spent getting attacked by Zoe's dog Sophie, who thought it would be fun to trying to burrow into my sleeping bag. So I came home, took a shower, started watching "Man of the Year" with my mom and then headed off to Youth Orchestra. I was told that I needed to play out (actually, I was just lost, something to do with lack of sleep) and make boring parts exciting (as House would say "How can you make the sky green? You can't make the uninteresting interesting"). But that's just Kelley for you.

**NOTE: The above portioned I had saved from a while ago, and I just found time tonight to write an update. So, I don't really remember anything from the last week that happened. Which is terrible news, I'm sure.***

This past weekend was the last weekend of Youth Orchestra. We had a rehearsal Friday (18th) night, followed by a 3 hours rehearsal the next day. On Sunday we had a rehearsal and then the concert. The best part would have to be when Kelley told me that I was "sitting in a black vortex of death". Something to do with not being able to hear me play, I think. Maybe he was trying to be funny. Which didn't work. One of his EFA students told me that he's the same way in school. I pity her. I'd hate to have a band director who has trouble telling jokes. (Benson just tells really bad or inappropriate jokes, but he is able to tell them) The concert went really well. I didn't screw up on my solos which is always a plus. On Saturday (I know, I'm skipping around), I wrote my TOK essay. And it wasn't that great. I didn't actually come to any point. But that's the point of TOK, right??

Since then, I've gotten either a cold or hayfever. Either way, I'm walking around school with a tissue box again. And it's terrible that I can't breathe, because that means no clarinet (not good) and my voice is iffy which makes drum majoring (yelling out commands) hard. And I'm not showing any signs of improvement. I need to get better by the parade since being sick and trying to lead the band isn't number one on my priority list.

Oh yeah, the Band Banquet was Tuesday night. It was a lot of fun. The slideshow was long. And Benson didn't really use discretion in his choice of background music. In other words, he's an idiot. Not a new revelation. The amazing band officers gave out some great awards. Goben got the "high eFfort" award for alwaysing having to play high Fs in his music/solos. Ashley got the lieteniate award for being the most amazing #2 person in any section. Katie C (flute) and Frankie (tuba) got "looks most like their instrument". Phil (not Jeremy) got "deer in the headlights" award. John Zack can't walk, so he got the "happy feet" award. Drumline got an awa4rd for having to do the most push-ups at band camp. And the Trojettes got the award for the most improvement "Improvement- that's the way we do it in America". Chris L got an award for "most likely to return to band camp for the rest of his life". Then there were other boring, serious awards. Drum majors got special recognition for (allegedly) helping make the transition between band directors smooth. Chris L got the Band Boosters award (money). Then the seniors got their cords and their parting gift was their old folder. I'm going to miss them so much! (Okay, so I say that every year, but every year it's true....it's like I don't get to know people until they're seniors)

We've been trying different experiments with the band in the morning to see how loud people can play with or without their sections and number two people. It's been pretty interesting. Most of the sections are getting better each time. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I could just be entirely delusional.

I'm sick and tired of IB!!! And of supposedly having assignments but not having teachers (Conway has an excuse, his wife had the twins). Caulfield will be back tomorrow, so that will be refreshing to have an English teacher again. Meanwhile, in Spanish we actually have to work. Hurd's class is the same as always. In Music we've divided into 3 groups: SL kids doing whatever; HC is working with Beth and Ashley on their compositions; Marty and I are with Benson (go figure).

Side commentary/complaining: IT WAS SOOOOO HOT TODAY!!!!! And we had to go outside for gym! On the turf! I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion.

My final thought: Where would civilization be without Kleenex?

Busy/Lazy

I love the irony in the fact that life can be so busy that I become unbelievably lazy. And in the course of that, I was too lazy to write about how busy I was. So here's what happened the last 2 weeks:

May 1-5: The week of freaking out about the IB Math SL exam and the band concert coming up. I was at school around 7 every morning (except for Thursday) for either Jazz Band or Math review. Not exactly the way I wanted to start my days. Everything else was pretty much the same. Benson was a little bit on the edge more than usual, which is directly linked to the fact the last band concert was coming up.

On Sunday, May 6th, I had one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I was stuck helping the preschoolers during church. They are demons!! They run into the wall for fun!! That would be why I never want to have kids.

May 7th- Got there early for Jazz Band. Spent the day freaking out about the Math SL exam that I took in the afternoon. Out of the 15 problems, I could only do 5 full problems. I got parts of the others. Then I went to a clarinet lesson. I had to eat my dinner (Subway) on the car ride back. Then I got to school aroun 6:30 and my mom brought me my clothes to change for the concert. The concert went well. During the last concert band piece (Pirates of the Caribbean), the members of Jazz Band were hanging out in the hallway. Gronski and Goben started having a sword fight with their folders. Marty grabbed Ashley and almost squeezed her to death. It was great. Then I managed to survive the terrible experience of having to do an improv solo on the alto sax. And stand up. After that the wind ensemble went. I had a coughing fit at the beginning of October, so there was a bit of silence when Kristina had to take a breath and it was only the first clarinets playing (and one of them was dying from lack of oxygen). After 2 different pieces where I had solos, Benson forgot to have me stand up. He also forgot some other people, but this was the second concert in a row that he's forgotten me. Eleanor and I went and yelled at him afterwards. "This is the second concert in a row you've forgotten me!" "You want to go for three?"

The next morning we had to be at school at 7:15 for the second part of the Math SL exam. Which I bombed. We got back around the beginning of 4th period. Sarah F and I went to the bandroom and ended up helping Chris L and Benson sort through all the music and put it away. He had found random pieces of music in the office (from when Borsz was still there)- Scenes from The Louve and Campbell River Sketches. Weird.

This week has taken forever. We've been getting the SL kids ready for their exam in IB Music. We've been doing nothing in Spanish/Math. Caulfield has us doing busy work in English. Hurd is going on rants in HOA (nothing new there). Gym class stinks. And we've gotten into parade season in Band. The drumline is having trouble keeping the tempo. The low brass is dragging. (Chris has been out for IB exams). I'm tending to lost my voice after yelling the whole period. And people do not know how to get into rows of 5. Ah yes. Parade season @ EHS. I will say that I was very impressed that our band could actually memorize the music in 3 days and not sound terrible. Can't wait to see what happens when we take it outside. Minus the whole thing with me trying to walk backwards and not run into the color guard. I'm probably going to end up taking someone out by accident.

Tomorrow is the prom. I'm going to be soooo glad when all the prom drama is over!!!