This is where I wanna be right now

Yeah, wouldn't that be nice. But, instead, I'm going to Alto Music to get a new mouthpiece. Wooh!

Planet Earth

I really have nothing much to do, so I will take this time to introduce you to something amazing that I discovered. My dad had seen a preview for this incredible T.V. show, I guess, called Planet Earth. So he decided to buy it on DVD. It is a 6 disk set that will absolutely blow you away. Now, this isn't the kind of movie you generally see with friends because you won't get the full experience. For those of you who think you've seen the world, think again. For those of you who think you have all the knowledge of our living environment, humble yourself down and watch this series. Going disk by disk, Planet Earth takes you on a fantastic journey through the most amazing, untouched, unbelievable, heart-wrenching, awe-inspiring natural places on earth, and all the creatures that inhabit it. For example, Disk 1. Disk 1 covers the poles, mountains and fresh water. Yeah, ho-hum, yawn.....so you would think. But I have never in my life, and probably will never see the incredibly beautiful, awesome places and features on this disk. From the desolate, barren icey beauty of the poles, to strikingly beautiful, looming mountain ranges, to expanses of fresh water, teeming with life of all kinds. It almost brought tears to my eyes, and I was immediately thankful for this incredible planet we live on. It also hit me how important it is to protect what we have: which is more beautiful and more valuable than you can ever imagine.
The wildlife on these disks are majestic. From the comical behavior of mountain monkeys, to the uncharted beauty of the snow leopard, these creatures far surpass anything humans could create.
If my jumbled rambling hasn't convinced you, maybe the eloquent, organized summary of this documentary will:
" This stunning television experience captures rare action, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures. From the highest mountains to the deepest rivers, Planet Earth takes you to places you've never been to experience sights and sounds never before captured on film. Prepare to be overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of Planet Earth"
This isn't your average Discovery Channel special. It is truly an unparalleled experience. Every human inhabitant of this planet should take the time to watch this. Not only is it enjoyable to watch, but it is an excellent learning experience both in Earth and Life science. I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend that you take a week or so to sit down and watch this from Disk 1 to Disk 6. As the subtitle rightly states "Planet Earth: as you've never seen it before."

Sweet, Sweet Serenity

So, I actually have time to blog, so I'll take advantage of it. I had a great time at the carnival on...what day was it? Oh yeah, Saturday. I went with Jess and Marc-Anthony and her parents. We went on Cliff-Hanger-great ride, and yelled at some Mexicans: I have the right, and technically so does MA. So we passed on some of that right to Jess. We ate lots, went on kiddie rides and watched a spectacular fireworks show to conclude the night with a bang....literally. Sunday I had a BBQ with my grandparents which was great. Monday...well, lets see. I went on a run, had breakfast and discovered that they had a teen battle of the books! GUGGENHEIM!!!!! So me and my sister and kerianne are gonna do this. ( CALL ME JESS) Speaking of kerianne, I went to the library with the little rascal and we looked at really entertaining teen magazines and disturbed library goers. Then we went swimming at Kerianne's house and watched the Breakfast Club, which I reallllllly wanna finish watching. Then Tuesday...oh wait. that's today. Well, it's really hot, for those of you wimps who have stayed in air-conditioning all day. And since my pool is being worked on, me and my brother and my sister set up a sprinkler (retro, i know) and we set up obstacle courses. Really fun. And then I took a nap cause it was just so hot. It wasn't intentional, but I have that kind of time cause.....it's summerrr!! Then I did some yard work, and now I'm here! So that concludes the update of my summer life. Keep checking in, sil vous plait!

Band Picture!!!!

Summer Beauty

I haven't had much time to blog, I've been so active, wrapped up in summer's glory. But I just have to say, it's wonderful to, instead of saying "I have to finish a math packet" before bed, saying "I have to catch a firefly." It still hasn't set in that it's summer vacation: which is a good thing. It still just feels like its a really long weekend. I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me. Keep checking in!

IT'S FINALLY OVERRRRRR!!

It's over. it is alllllll over. I'm having too much fun to blog long (me and my sister were doing a rain dance) so I'll just say this: its been wonderful being with everyone and I hope you have a wonderful summer. Hope to see everyone!

Oh Lordy!

With summer approaching, it's nearly impossible to focus on anything academic. For most, this is no big deal: all their tests were sent out with a bang with the completion of the language proficiency today. However, for the select few that foolishly accepted a seat in the Earth Science class (a 10th grade course, may i remind you) have the daunting, three-hour, ESRT-saturated New York State Earth Science regents exam to take bright and early tomorrow morning. What I said to my dad was no lie: all parts of my brain save science have been turned off until September of next year (i shudder at the thought): math, social studies, english, french, fine motor skills, you name it. Now don't think for a second that merely because the science realm of my brain has not shut off yet that I've been studying non-stop. The sleep-inducing, over powering heat doesn't contribute to my concentration. Every 10/15 minutes I'm up again. First to eat, then to read the diary of Anne Frank (by choice, as opposed to force) then to watch T.V.... you get the idea. So hopefully, by the grace of God, I will have the brain power, will power and sheer conscienceness to take and (cross your fingers) do well on the regents tomorrow. But, that's going to require more study time. If I calculated the time I spent studying/reviewing/looking over science stuff....well, I don't think you'd want to. But, as we all need something to look forward to (I find this greatly contributes to positive thinking and wellness of mind and body) as soon as the regents are over, we can shut off our brains, and we have nothing looming over our heads. No voice telling us we really should be studying even during the minutes before bed. No over-anxious Mrs. Koenig reinforcing the nerve-wracking thought that this goes on our high school transcripts. No piles of textbooks and papers and ESRTS and practice regents stacked a mile high in bedrooms. Until next year, that is......

Happy Father's Day!!

Yup! I love my daddy, and you should too. That's about it!

A Day in Repose

It sure is swell to have nothing, I repeat, nothing to do afterschool. That may come as a shock, depending on what kind of person you are, but when you've had a schedule like mine, a breather is pretty nice. I came home, ate, watched T.V., went outside, you know. And now it is absolutely gorgeous out. I've been reading The Diary of Anne Frank. As in, her actual diary, not the play or an adaptation. I feel myself connecting to her in so many ways. It's so inspiring to read her thoughts, insights, point of view. It's really an eye opener to her world. How she lived day in and day out in hiding, never being able to be warmed by the sun, or feel the rain. But yet, she had the maturity and compassion to step out of herself and realize that the plight of others was much worse than hers. Again, truly inspiring. She has a wonderful, intelligent writing style that abounds with personality. I wish I could have met her and became her friend.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We have a women's choir party, and we get our yearbooks to sign.
p.s. I got a 95 on the math final! p.p.s scratch the NOTHING to do part. I actually have to finish the practice regents.

Hershey Park cont.

Okay, so based on my personal agenda, not the comments of certain people (ahem..jk!) I will keep this one short.

As we were making our way to the park, we passed the actual factories, where rich smells of pure chocolate taunted us relentlessly. More tantalizing still was our first glimpse of the park: the Hershey Arena, rolller coasters glittering in the sunlight, and a flock of swarming people. Not to mention sweet little flower gardens and cool patches of shade. We still had about a 15 minute drive from where we got our first glimpse to the parking lot. And the day progressed much like this: me and jess had a difficult time deciding what to do first. We ended up going to the water park section of the park, where we met up with meghan, emily, emily and jacklyn, and stood by the splash-down ride in hopes of getting ....well, splashed! We were lucky the first time and got drenched (no bathing suit, btw.) Then we got insanely delicious ice cream, people watched (again, don't have time to go into it, or you would be in for a trea. jess knows what im talking about) By then it was almost time to check in, so we started back. But Mr. M told us about this bizzare ride where you got splashed while you were in the air on a roller coaster-type contraption. We didn't go on the ride, but we did stand under the sprays and got thorougly soaked. Then we rode the carousel, checked in, went on Comet, which was tons of fun (we went on twice, despite jess's fear) then we went on an insane water ride. It was in a tube, and we went down man-made rapids. Coolest ride ever. We were so wet, and laughing and choking and dripping, and it was amazing. And then, for the remainding hour of the day, we shopped: we bought chocolate, jewlery, kettle corn, soda, stuffed animals, and key chains. And then, tired and wet, we headed back to our chaperone and boarded the buses. And as the sun set behind a beautiful green hillside, we curled up for our four hour journey home. Jess and I set up a cozy corner and made the synthetic bus seats a small little haven. With the breeze blowing in the open windows, and the sky steadily darkening, revealing small twinking light from shopping plazas, we almost didn't want to get off the bus at 11:00 pm that night......


so that was our trip in a very large nutshell. It was a blast and I loved every part of it. Not to mention I loved (and still do, and always will) Jessica. Now...well, lets see. What do I have to do...right! Get the science packet from someone, and basically study until my head explodes for this math final tomorrow.
butttt at least I have things to look forward to. Take Friday for an example: we have a women's choir party AND we get to spend an hour and a half signing year books. And if nothing else, we have a little over a week left of school. But more reminiscing once the year is actually over.

Pictures!

So......Hershey Park

Before the activities get under way, a heads up: this can, and will be an ongoing blog. There's too much to say in one sitting. So, Hershey Park began Thursday night. It really did. The excitement was too much for me not to mention anything. Dance flew by. Me and Cheyenne and Stephanie were talking about it, and being all excited: during crunches, in the air, the whole time. And as soon as I got home, it was basically dinner, shower and getting ready: I had a bag to pack, clothes to pick out, shorts to find, money to sweet-talk out of my dad, and sunscreen to get. So, by the time everything was ready, it was about 10:00, which, in hindsight, was not the best time to go to bed for a 5:30 wake up call. Lucky for me the adrenaline produced by my excitement was a natural exhaustion reliever. Bright and early, before anyone in the house, I woke up Friday morning, extremely excited and abnormally awake. (if that made any sense whatsoever) After throwing things in my bag and shoving down some Cocoa Puffs, while charging my ipod, I grabbed my trumpet and I was finally out of the house. Arriving at the middle school heightened my excitement: most were too charged up to be tired, and it increased the excitement in the room. I met up with Jess and our group (which wasn't that great, but it didn't really matter. we didn't have to stay with them.) After a highly disregarded attempt by Mrs. Hanson to maintain order, mutes and whatnot were handed out, and we piled onto public transportation buses; only slightly superior to your standard school bus. Me and Jess examined the content of our bus and became increasingly dreary of the outcome of the bus ride, as one after another piled on: harry, connor, anthony, sam, jeremy etc. But, as we rode into the sun climbing higher in the sky, all conciousness was abandoned and we just sat back to enjoy the ride. Well.....I shouldn't necessarily say "sat." We kneeled and lay and stood and jumped and fell...you get the point. 4 hours goes by remarkably fast when you're with your best friend, pillows, ipods and food. Oh gosh. Speaking of food. We had 3 bags of assorted chips each, AND two bottles of Propel each. Needless to say, we were labled as pigs, by ourselves and Courtney. But we agreed not to call each other fat until we had consumed half the chocolate content of the park. So we listened to both our ipods, we ate, we talked and talked.....and talked and talked, and laughed and saw really cool things: mostly beautiful lush valleys, and sweet little farms.... and a sign for Minnesota, apparently. So we (me, courtney, jess) formed the hypothesis that we were either going to Minnesota, the Arctic circle or Pangea. (its on video) However, the neatest thing in my humble opinion, was the line of wind turbines gracefully adorning a large hill. These devices were huge, not to mention magestic...for a hunk of metal, I suppose. So, the bus ride proceeded on in a relaxed, enjoyable manner- eating and music and whatnot. In fact, it was quite easy to forget that we were not going there just for the park. As the sun climbed steadily higher in the gorgeous, almost-summer sky, promises of a steaming hot day hung in the air. Our first stop was at a modern, very large church, situated rather oddly in the middle of a small, upscale residential neighborhood. We parked our buses, which we were quite ashamed of once we saw the caravan of coach buses. As we stepped of the bus, we were hit with a wall of hot air: and this was not even the heat of the day. So all of us filed into the (thank the Lord) air-conditioned church. Immediately, a horde of girls stormed the bathroom, me and Jess included. Then we took advantage of the plush couches until we were called into the practice room. I would like to say that it was all business when we stepped in there, but I would be lying: everyone was hyped up, which translates into restlessness and wandering minds. But, after being frowned upon by the coach bus riders, adorned in their superios concert dress, us, in our t-shirts and shorts, were able to get a semi-productive rehersal in before stepping into the large, resounding auditorium. There really was no stress: our minds weren't even fully on the competition- we had visions of roller coasters and ice cream swirling through our heads. It was very comforting to look out in the audience from atop the carpeted risers and see our band and orchestra comrades sitting there. (brian, sam, kerianne, meghan, katy, cate =) ) So we warmed up, and then we launched into our program of a resounding 2 songs. Steal Away was a little timid and slightly off, and the judges spoke into the little....whatever they are. A little intimidating, but not enough so to keep us from being on pitch in Charlottetown =) And just like that, the chorus portion was over. We loaded back on the buses, without the slighest notion of the frustration of what was to come (at least for Jess and I) The bus driver is supposed to know where hes going, right? Not ours. Not one bus seemed to know what was going on. We passed a sign that said Hershey Park 9 miles, only to turn around at a gas station!! And it gets worse. We passed the highschool that the band and orchestra was performing, not once, but twice! ( just a side note: the highschool looked like a barn, and it was situated next to a destroyed middle school) So we FINALLY reached our destination, and we had to get our intruments and run in. I only wish my rhodie ( sam barker) was a little more effective =) It was refreshing to be in an air conditioned school, and I was happy to discover that I had good high chops that day. And good thing too, cause we did get to the high part in our warm-up piece. The auditorium we were in was amazing. There were sound panels all over the ceiling and walls, and the bass drum was huge. So we played our program (again, two songs) which went very well. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we did not have the frame of mind to process our performance: we were on a one track mind-set- Hershey Park. Beleive it or not, it had gotten even hotter by the time we had gotten back of the buses. Which could only be expected: it was past 1:00. I was so warm, but me and Jess were so excited. So exctited, in fact, that we didn't entirely mind when the buses took a bizzare, unecesscarly route which didn't coencide with the roadsides: we just basically laughed at their stupidity. And we were on our way all the same......to be continued.


Stay tuned! We haven't even gotten to the park yet =)

HERSHEY PARKKKKK!!

I am soo excited! Tomorrow is going to be amazing, not to be an over optimist. I, honestly, cannot wait to wake up at 5:30. That's not sarcasm. And then I can't wait to get there, and sit on the bus with jess, food and our ipods. I can't wait to perform, I can't wait to go to the park, I can't wait to see the park, I can't wait to scale the rides, and scream "Ms. Moreno rocks," I can't wait to buy disgustingly unhealthy food and 12 pounds of chocolate, I can't wait to buy useless, forget-about-them souvenirs, and I REALLY can't wait to miss school. Wow! I just completely pumped myself up! So all I have to get through is dance, a shower, dinner, and sleep...and maybe homework.

Goooooood Morning!

I'm in a wonderful mood: the weather is beautiful, I did well on my science AND math tests, the social studies state tests are over, my dad just got home (hi daddy!) annnnnndddddd.....WE'RE GOING TO HERSHEY PARK ON FRIDAY! It just doesn't get any better than that, at least, it hasn't for a very long time. And so, my outlook is positive, but I don't have much to say.

I don't know why it made me as upset as it did. Maybe there's more to it, and what was said tapped into a deeper, perhaps more truthful store of emotions.

Je deteste le francais

Yeah, it really is getting on my nerves. I mean, an entire packet of useless, repetative phrases? Wait! I take that back. TWO packets of useless, repetative phrases, one of which Harry made completely hard-core. I squandered my time in class talking and such, and now I have to pay for it....its horrible! I give up. And now I have to face (bum bum bummmmm)........science!!!!!!!And Mr Rauschenbach with his " the Regents are easy" speech. Thanks for the inspiring words, really. Much appreciated. And now I must go read Christian's new born blog. More later?

A Tribute to My Chemical Romance

I was watching My Chemical Romance interviews/videos, like always, and I just felt such an overwhelming love for this INSANE band. They're just amazing. Each member is so easy to love. Mikey, well hes a nerd, but who doesn't love a nerd? Gerard, with his blonde hair and really small teeth, crazy kid. Ray with his 'fro and high voice. He's a nerd too, but his mad guitar skills can't be mocked. Bob, well he loves cats and has a fauxhawk....what's not to love? And finally, we have Frank. Incredibly stupid, really funny, and extremely adorable. So if you ever have a chance (this doesn't apply to you, Kerianne) go on You Tube and type in anything from My Chemical Romance interviews, to MCR videos, to on the spot interviews with MCR (amazing),to Gerard's shaving accident (scarring) .....you get the idea.

Isn't he a doll?

8th Grade Formal 2007

What a night! It wasn't exactly what I had imagined, but it was fun nonetheless. A rather minimal amount of drama, which is always a plus. To think that that was our last dance in Middle School =( The decorations were sweet, and everyone looked incredible, but none so amazing as the four bombshells that arrived straight from the McClelland Manor =) The 8 hours spent on getting ready were well worth the memories, amazing hair, and lack of school. There were many hot, sweaty 8th graders mashed together with eardrum-bursting loud music and formal attire: it made for a memorable night. And in the morning, it was NYSSMA full speed ahead. I arrived at 10:45, just in time for my brother to warm up and make his 10:55 time. He was very confident and did well: 25/28. We had some time in between (me, my mom, and my brother) so we took a trip to Woodbury Commons to look for a gift for a party my sister is going to tomorrow. So we went to the Swarovski crystal store. For those of you who have never been, it is an alternate reality. There are sweet little buildings, each housing extremely high-end stores (i.e. Dooney and Bourke, Jimmy Choo, Godiva chocolate, Dolce and Gabbana, you get the idea) This Swarovski crystal place had crystals the size of footballs. Everything shined. Then we went to Chanel, which was a slap in the face. The dress on display, hand-made and adorned with gems, it was priced at $26,665.00. And there were people in the store.....buying stuff!!! It was crazy. I think the least expensive item in there were shorts for like $250. Then we went back to Monroe-Woodbury high school at 12:15. Eric didn't come, so I went at 12:40 (I was supposed to go at 12:50) The judge was young and kind, a good combination. I actually wasn't terribly mervous. My scales went well, my solo went well, my sight-reading bombed. But I came out with a smile, and waited for the results. Meanwhile, in the practice room, I met up with a lot of musicians (Elise, Molly, Emily, Julia, Cate etc.) and read Animal Farm (great book) All we had to do now was wait for my sister to go at 2:15. In the interim, Mr. Muelbauer nicely brought me my score. I got a 24/28 (excellent), and some mixed comments. I liked the good ones! Once my sister went, we left. Everyone was hungry, but we did some shopping, then went to Wendy's while the brief thunderstorm raged around us. On the way home, I fell asleep to Billy Joel, and we got home at about 6:40. A long day, which the heat did not help. So its nice to have the off my shoulders. And I am still reveling in formal memories.