On the way to Orlando

Today's college trip is Rollins in Orlando, and it sounds like we're having lunch at Blackbean Deli beforehand. Might be afterward, but it'll be 11 or so once we're in Orlando, and I didn't eat much for breakfast. Knowing that we spent all day at FSU, it'd be nice if it wasn't afterward. Lunch might be at 8 PM then.

Back from Karen Kastle

The high school shot down the idea of letting me shadow Karen at school tomorrow, and so today was the final day. We slept in until about nine and delayed really getting ready until about ten thirty or so. To sink into the day, we watched an episode of NCIS---Karen tried to turn me onto it, but it's not my thing.

We also failed at Guitar Hero. I played drums and could not believe that I was that pathetic after being in band. It looked like I had no internal sense of rhythm.

I still have to upload the latest Karen and Alicebelle Show, which I still have to put in its final format. T'was fun seeing you, Karen!

Karen Kastle: Day II

Today went just swimmingly! It started at about ten thirty or so, as Karen is a late sleeper and I myself am always happy to spend an extra hour lying in bed, wondering what to do next with my book/fanfiction/rough draft. We did manage to pull ourselves out of the vacuum that is sleep, and roughly an hour later we were ready to start the day's activites: shopping for Karen's trip to Disney.

I did wind up buying a couple things for myself, though. At Ross's I bought this amazing sleeveless white hoodie with various blue-and-pink splotches on it. It was a complete score---I saw one just like it at Kohl's (our second stop) for about $40. I managed to get mine for about $7. Score!

Much in the idea of getting a new swimsuit that really fits (Read: without WHALES on it) I looked around the selection at Kohl's and decided to try on a tankini and a bikini that were both the same style, the bikini just for laughs.

Oddly enough, I liked it a lot better than the tankini. The tankini "fit" in the way that it wasn't choking me or just hanging on my shoulders, but just stood there draped like a ghost costume. It had no form, and, to be blunt, was rather frumpy. Not quite as ugly as the infamous Whale Suit, but still not my cup of tea.

The bikini was actually amazing. It felt comfortable, much to my surprise. I thought it would be like swimming in my underwear or something like that. Actually, it really fit, and looked really good. Even though I had a nagging thought that I should check in with Mom (Who bought the Whale Suit back in October) I put it in my shopping cart and paid for it. If I come across a pool in the near future, I am so jumping into it to finalize the purchase.

Upon arriving home, Karen and I spent most of the afternoon editing the second installment of the Karen and Alicebelle Show, which we filmed TWICE last night after stupid iMovie deleted the original film before putting it into an event. We widdled down 34 minutes of footage into about nine minutes (Actually twelve and then we widdled some more) and I'll be posting that the next time I get Internet that might support a large video upload (I'm on Mimi's computer right now---with permission, of course.)

Tomorrow, Karen doesn't have school, so we're going to be alone in the house. We have plans of Guitar Hero, and Karen wants me to show her some of the makeup that I use, as we weren't able to get to that today. If all goes well, I'll be going to school with her tomorrow. If not, we're going to pull a Wicked and have our One Short Day in the "Emerald City" (DeLand) and pack as much best friendliness into a day as humanly possible.

Any pictures that we take will be coming with the video---once I have faster Internet on my computer!

Arrival at Karen Kastle

We are expecting several days of fun and mischief in our once-every-blue-moon-get-together! :-D

Movie marathon

Today started a good two hours later than yesterday, as we didn't have a college tour to go on (Our feet still hurt). The drive from Tallahassee to DeLand was a lot better than expected, especially since we were running away from bad weather. We got to DeLand at about 1:30---much better than 3, which we had originally intended.

I watched most of Phantom in the car today, after not seeing it for about two years. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't react to it the way I thought I would. By the final scene I was trying not to laugh, I have to admit. For one I was also half-listening to Little Shop of Horrors while Madame Giry lead Raoul to the catacombs. Then I noticed when he fell into the Watery Pit of Doom, it reminded me of King Aurthur in Holy Grail. Just gallop gallop gallop WHOOPS!

Oh, and the facial expressions and some of his Captain-Obvious lines cracked me up. The finale used to be my favorite scene and if Emmy wasn't singing a reprise of "Angel of Music" I think I would have broken the silence.

In DeLand we had dinner at Bellini's as the usual Welcome-To-Florida dinner. Much to everyone's suggestion, I watched Red Eye, which was claimed to be a sort of Wait Until Dark. I think I like Wait Until Dark better, but Red Eye was pretty amazing. It was oddly connected to my misadventure in Chicago, right down to the fact that Jackson Rippner kind of looked like the person I sat next to on the way from Chicago to Louisville. I never want to fly again, I think.

But now the final movie for the night is Drop Dead Gorgeous, which is lightning the mood a fair bit. I think it might be one of the funniest movies I've seen in awhile---aside from Phantom, that is.

DISCLAIMER: I still love the show Phantom and the movie is great too.

Spring Break: Day 3

I think I want to start renting this hotel room and just live in Tallahassee. I've never met so many freakishly nice people in one place, and I absolutely loved FSU. Mike took a lot of pictures, and I took a few that I have yet to upload and go through. I'll probably edit them in the car tomorrow so as to have something else to blog: tomorrow will be mostly "Drove 5 hours. Got to DeLand. Bellini's is good."

Spring Break: Day 2

Greetings from Tallahassee! The university is beastly (touring tomorrow) and the people at the front desk are awfully friendly. They gave us a choice of 2nd or 3rd floor, and when stated that there was no real opinion, decided to give us 3rd so we wouldn't be disturbed by "noisy people above". And the waitress at Outback returned the credit card that Mom accidentally forgot. I have a feeling my social studies teacher would approve of Tallahassee for said reasons.

Spring Break: Day 1

After a somewhat-better day at school, we finished packing up our various belongings and hit the road at about 4:40. Closer to 8 eastern time (7 central time) we got to the hotel after a lovely drive of sunflower seeds and Avenue Q.

Getting ready for Florida

I just finished my clothes and putting together my bundle of DVD's. I need to finish my book at school tomorrow, and in the morning I'll sync my I-pod. After school I'll throw together the bassoon, my makeup, and my bag-o-surprises, and then we'll hopefully be on the road.

I can't wait to see you all, Florida peeps! And uber-excited to make Episode II of the infamous Karen & Alicebelle show. I'm looking at you, Karen! ;-)

About a blog

This is my 500th post! I remember being so excited when I reached my first hundred, and since then I haven't payed much attention. A couple days back, though, I noticed the post count at a ridiculous 496 and it struck me: apparently, I'm persistent. At least persistent in the way that I can blog for over a year straight without having a midlife crisis before I'm out of middle school.

In other news, my video Schwimmen! has been selected to compete at the state level of Foreign Language Festival in the German category! Mike snagged 1st in the regions competition and I got 2nd, which I thought booted me out of State...until my German teacher told me while she checked my homework (Kapitel Sieben vocabulary cards).

What I actually did last night

- Watch Tarzan on YouTube

Possibly one of the greatest animated movies ever---with music by "Rockstar Phil Collins", as they would say on Disney Channel back when it came out ten years ago (Was it really that long ago? I remember getting it on VHS in my parent's room back in Hawaii.)

I'm going to make it very clear, like I did to Aubrey, that despite how much I obsess about how amazing Kerchak was, I most certainly do NOT have a crush on an animated gorilla. And I'm like, being serious. My friends and I would know all about animated crushes, and I do not have one. Right now, at least.

Bad news? I stayed up until three watching it, as I found the first part on YouTube at about one and only planned on watching the first sequence. Don't ask why I didn't just search "Two Worlds".

Plans for tonight

Things of note that have already occurred:

- Played piano for about an hour, figuring out a lot more of Sun & Moon
- Watched Kramer vs. Kramer with Mom

Things I'll be doing until bed:

- Reading the synopsis of Carmen
- Catching up on AOL news
- HOPEFULLY writing a chapter or so in my fanfiction

Oh, and today will be my final winter post. Tomorrow will legally start "spring"!

A night on the town

Typically, it doesn't involve orthodontist appointments, picking up dog food from the vet, getting your order wrong at Panera (but only slightly wrong) and going to Youth Orchestra.

Rehearsal tonight went by oddly quickly, and most of the pieces seem to be pulling together really well. About five minutes before the actual rehearsal began, a few of my friends and I decided to have a mini-rehearsal, where we played random bits of songs we liked and did one of our favorites that we rarely get to go over---the medley for "Pirates of the Caribbean" (To include the songs "Singapore", "Hoist the Colours", and "Drink Up Me Hearties"). It was only the second time of me playing it with a group, but it went a lot better than it did the first time! I do admit to playing "Singapore" in band when there's nothing better to be done.

Tomorrow is the Recruit the 6th Graders concert with the high school. I represent the one-chair bassoon section to convince people to play the bassoon (even though I doubt they will, and either way I'd want to be able to keep the middle school bassoon next year). For my instrument demo, I'm playing a section from the Davy Jones theme. The music we're playing is stuff that I actually had to work a little bit on, which is a welcome change from the Christmas concert, where we had no percussion and thus had...limited choices, one might say.

Splash of today's roleplaying

Presenting my character Eli from Aubrey's Swords and Shields:

"Thank ya, ma’am,” Eli said, nodding and taking the seat. True, he could have just sat down there anyway—he had enough power over enough of the slums to which he could likely find and claim a chair…

His eyes surveyed the hideaway with a quick left-to-right before settling on Triston. “So,” he pondered, “I know you well enough to know you didn’t just call me up for a visit.”

Sleep: what keeps me awake

Today was the Foreign Language Fest, which was actually a lot of fun! My two events (Writing and Oral Proficiency) were right next to each other, so I was able to enjoy myself for most of the day. I met up with several of my YTHC friends at the student center for lunch (Chick-fil-A) and it was nice catching up with them. Then, I waited outside for about an hour with about eight of the other Fort Knox-ers.

My results were okay, I think. I got 2nd place in Level I Writing and 2nd place in German Videos: All Levels. Mike snagged first, but I personally liked his video better than mine so I'm not too upset. And he pointed out that maybe we should make movies together as we're (apparently) the "best" German filmmakers in the region. I do wonder if anyone else even made a video though.

We all got back to school for the final ten minutes or so, and then it was the school dance. To put it bluntly, I could have done without going to the dance. It was two and a half hours out of my afternoon (and I have three tests tomorrow!), and I spent two hours of that against a wall, being anti-social.

I understand most of the German for the chapter six test, though. There's one thing I need to look over for social studies tomorrow, and we get 15 minutes to study in science. I think I'll be good.

And now to go to bed. Sorry for not posting as Eli or Jack today, Aubrey and Maya, but maybe tomorrow.

Setting the default

Today at school could have been better. So rather than complaining, here's a picture that I set as both my MySpace and Facebook defaults of me in my element tonight:



(That's an F# I'm playing if you wanted to know)

Airport update

I missed my flight back to Kentucky, so I'm waiting in the airport for another hour until the next Louisville flight starts boarding. I'm dropping everything at three, even though boarding starts at about 3:10. Last time, they didn't make an announcement (or if they did it was in Jibberish) and NO did not page me, despite what they said (again, maybe in Jibberish?) So if I miss this flight, I think I'm going to go insane.

I'm not impressed by Chicago.

Blogging from Harrisburg Airport

My flight back to Kentucky (by way of Chicago O'Hare) is delayed, so I have about and hour at the airport. On the plus side, though, there's an outlet in the terminal and free WiFi. I'm IMing with Maya, and just catching up on my Internet rounds. There's nothing terribly exciting to report, but free WiFi makes me happier than almost anything else, and so I figured I might as well get one thing out of the way.

I'll be back in Kentucky late afternoon, though.

End of Carlisle Adventures

Dad and I just got back from the evening's activities. We went out to eat at one of his favorite local places---AliBi's, which is this really nice pub-restaurant. I had perhaps the largest burger I've ever had, and most likely one of the best.

After dinner, we headed over to the theatre at Dickinson College to see the youth theatre perform Mulan. It was really well put together! They only had 19 rehearsals before dress rehearsal week, but it was more or less flawless. Mulan herself was a freshman at one of the high schools, and had a lovely voice with a lot of vibrato that, as I know, people her age typically only dream about. Mushu was also quite adorable, and she seemed to be having a lot of fun.

To top off the evening on a sweet spot, we had a bit of ice cream. I had strawberry, which I haven't had in awhile. I was craving a change from vanilla---so this is to you, Mom! I had a flavor for once! So I believe I did you proud.

Carlisle update

I landed at about noon, and after spending a little time exploring around Hershey, Dad and I headed over to Carlisle. It's a really nice little place, awfully quiet and everything's so close together.

We had dinner at this really cute Italian place called "Vinny's Italian", much like a neighborhood version of Fazoli's. Then (after a brief stop to CBS to get some cough drops and batteries) it was to the movies to see Slumdog Millionaire. To put it in a word?

EPIC.

Off to see the Wiz---er, Dad

In ten minutes we'll be off to the airport (by way of McDonalds for a quick thing of breakfast) so I can get on my flight to go and see Dad. I need to turn the computer off, though, so to be short and sweet, I'll post when I get there! (Or several hours afterwards.)

PS- Aubrey, since there is sadly no WiFi in the middle of the sky yet I still have my word processor, you can bet your lucky stars that I'm going to write a chapter or so.

How I spent my sick day: part 4

All right, this had best be the last part of the saga. I'm sick of being sick.

I actually did wake up at six this morning with full intentions of going to school. Mike pointed out that grades were pretty much done and that I sounded horrible, so there wouldn't be much of a point going. Still, I had some German homework that I needed to turn in---rather wanted, actually, because my teacher kept telling me to stay home and not to worry about it---and some algebra.

So I went to school long enough to figure out it was a bad idea to come, turn in my homework, and get ten minutes into algebra. By then I decided to call my mom and tell her I felt like crap. Upon returning home, I spent the rest of the morning napping with the dog.

Tonight I was freaking out because I felt as if I were going to pass out again, even though I had eaten AND drank ample amounts. Before it worsened, I decided to lay down on the couch----good move, and everything turned out just swimmingly.

I just finished all the packing I can do tonight for my trip tomorrow. Since I'm going to have about four hours total of flight time, I'm going to try and get some good writing time in, since I'll have no Internet.

Now that I think about it, I'm grabbing my DS and charger. I've been into the Poke-craze again, and in Sapphire version I just got to Slateport (Don't worry if that means nothing to you.)

How I spent my sick day: part 3 (but carrying on from part 2)

Today, I believe, is the final installment for whatever cold or fake-flu I have. I'm feeling a lot better, but that didn't come without a couple bumps and bruises (literally).

To start out from last night:

- I hardly ate or drank because it hurt my stomach
- I did the dishes and cleaned my room so I wouldn't feel guilty about it
- I began feeling nauseous and was about to ask my mom to finish them for me
- Rather I just said I'm going to bed...and walked to the stove
- Stood there for a few seconds
- And blacked out
- Hitting my arm on the stove and my tailbone of the floor

I literally thought it was a dream. I had some song from Aladdin in my head (I think it was "Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me" put to the animation for "Prince Ali") and my mom sounded completely distant. I didn't open my eyes immediately, thus seeing more Genie. When she asked what I was doing, I meekly said "...washing dishes" and apparently began crying. It HURT!

So we went to the hospital despite my insistence of just letting me go to bed. We waited for three hours, watching The Biggest Loser, Law and Order SVU (Which was actually hospital related, surprise surprise) and Jay Leno. After another three hours of both treatment and MORE waiting (with an IV in my arm, despite what my mom said that there wouldn't be any needles involved) we left the hospital at 3:20 and were in bed by 3:30.

To put it short, I didn't go to school today.

But I did feel a lot better. Breakfast WAS kind of lunch, as I was asleep when one would normally eat breakfast. But I ate a Popsicle and had a root beer as my "ice and fluids" and my stomach actually didn't hurt as bad. I'm not eating as much as I normally would, but I'm not anorexic. Just not hungry.

So for part three the agenda was:

- Wake up at eleven and sign on to AIM (where I told Aubrey about my Adventures-In-Babysitting-like hospital stay)
- Eat said Popsicle and drink said rootbeer
- Listen to Julie Atherton sing various Avenue Q songs on YouTube

And currently I'm writing chapter two in my fanfiction. I think I'm going back to school tomorrow, in which I need to run to the high school and do my binder check and turn in homework that was due Monday and was gone over today but for certain reasons I wasn't able to. I also get to fill in my lunch group with the various happenings of my week ("You'll never guess what happened to me in the kitchen the other night...")

How I spent my sick day: part 2

- I watched Aristocats on YouTube (Greatest. Disney. Movie. Ever)
- Aubrey was on so I IMed her for most of the late morning-early afternoon
- I wrote about eleven "drabbles"
- I did NOT play Pokemon
- I didn't eat until almost 3 this afternoon (and have not eaten since)
- I watched the special features for Mamma Mia! and Return of the King

I still felt like crap today, so it was Sick Day II. The way I'm feeling right now is iffy, so I'm not sure what tomorrow will be like. Even if I do stay home again, I'll want to go in for German to turn in some homework, get my notebook checked, and take my vocabulary quiz. I would so totally be doing it in my sweats, though.

I really need to practice bassoon, though. I'm about to clean my room so as to hopefully get myself back in the swing of things. If I feel like crap tomorrow...eh, at least I won't feel like crap because of the sickness and because my room is a complete mess.

Musical Theatre might be off tomorrow whether I go to school or not, depending on if the feel-well-enough-to-slog-through-classes is equal to feel-well-enough-to-sing-and-dance-for-ninety-minutes. I'd probably be able to dance if I put my mind to it. I doubt I'd be doing any singing, unless they decided to make me a tenor. From all the hacking and wheezing, my voice is probably three or four full steps lower than it typically is.

I mostly want to be fine by Thursday. I have Youth Orchestra for the first time in three weeks, and don't want to miss that. It is miserable playing bassoon while you're sick, though. It's also miserable to be sick and fly, so at the latest Friday would be acceptable.

Time to clean room and do algebra homework. Oh, and to look over German vocab.

How I spent my sick day

- Trying to fall back asleep at 6
- Eventually doing so at 7
- Having to wake up at 8
- Watching 101 Dalmatians on YouTube
- Playing WarioWare
- Spending two hours playing Pokemon (Sapphire version, for all you fellow Poke-geeks)
- Watching Billy & Mandy on my DS

And I still feel like crap. Since I want to get better by Thursday or Friday, I'm staying home again tomorrow. I plan on watching special features for Mamma Mia! and Return of the King, playing another two hours or so of Pokemon, and WRITING. Aubrey has been bugging me about this fanfiction and all of these drabbles for my various roleplay characters.

Sick again

This is major suckage, as tomorrow will be the first time I'm back in German after a week of staying at the middle school. Either I'm going to be at school and feeling like crap or I'm going to miss the second-to-last German class for the quarter. Yes, this is the last week of the third quarter.

And then there's the going-to-see-Dad-in-Pennsylvania-at-the-end-of-the-week to take into account. I haven't even flown sick, and I don't especially care to.

I hate moments like these, where you have two daunting choices.

Accomplished

I got up at about 7:40 this morning so as to leave the house by 8:30. There was a post-Ice Storm yard cleanup for the Marsee's, who have been the presidents for Youth Theatre for thirty-some odd years. Since they've done so much for the theatre, some of us decided to go over and help out with the yard work. There was a lot accomplished, and halfway through we celebrated with drinks and brownies, courtesy of Mrs. Marsee.

Ginger had to go to the bet today for some sort of renewal of a shot or vaccination. She was not the most thrilled to be there, but aside from trying to refuse to go into the back office, she was rather cooperative.

Mom and I were both insanely tired when we got home, so she went to sleep and I MEANT to...but rather watched Road to El Dorado on YouTube. Not DreamWorks' best but it woke me up.

And now I just finished my playlist for a fanfiction I'm writing. Things were accomplished today.

Another show done

Tonight was the final night of Cats & Dogs. It went really well! My microphone didn't go out in the middle of "Twilight Bark" like it usually does---"Twilight Bark" was probably the closest thing to a solo I've gotten so far, as I sang REALLY loudly. And in chest voice, even on C#.

I got a CD full of pictures from "Pongo" (James)'s mom, and I'll need to look through those tomorrow. Now I'm just sitting around in my sweat pants, considering playing Pokemon. Or writing chapter two in my fanfiction. Either way, just relaxing.

The cake is a lie!

No, I'm not sure what that means. But apparently it has something to do with Portal, which is the game this song is from:



I just found the sheet music for it, and I want to record it sometime.

Helping the little guys

Who don't have major film companies backing them:



This guy wants to go viral!

Missions accomplished

Tonight I found my glasses (with Mom's help...thanks for suggesting I look on the side of the bed) and transposed the opening section of "This Is Halloween" for electric bass of request of my friend Ian.

The shows went well, and there's not much else to say besides that I need to print out said transposed music in the morning. It's almost 10 and I want to go to bed.

Tired

Check mom's blog for pictures and some video from rehearsal tonight. Link's in the sidebar.

So...tired. Going to bed.

Happy March!

I really wish this was the first day of Spring. However, if all goes right, in exactly three weeks it will be. In twelve days it's the end of the quarter, which will leave us in the final part of the school year.

This week, though, is TerraNova and 101 Dalmations/Aristocats. Then remakes of TerraNova. One step at a time, I suppose.