Busy Semester Ahead

Wow. My life is already so complicated!!! I am swimming constantly, now part of the theatre production A Chorus Line, of which the directors think they are the most important and are going all Nazi on our schedules. Im also still in the Ballroom Dancing club, and my partner Annie and I finally figured out how to do this spinning and using our force to pick her up off the ground thing. whew! everyone clapped when we finally got it :D

The swim meet was a lot of fun, and was way more pleasurable since we didn't have to travel at all! Most of my friends came and saw me swim so that made me EXTREMELY happy! Coach told me he was really happy that I did about the same times as the last meet before Hawaii, because he rationed that we should all be hurting because he was so hard on us during the vacation, and so the fact that I was doing the same while everyone else did worse (even John!) was really exciting for him. Im still kind of frustrated by it.

So I was waiting for that night, which was Saturday, because the team was planning on having some "get together" and I thought it was a party. I mean, they were all talking about buying drinks. Then I found out through someones slip of the tongue that it was innitiation into the swim team....oh boy haha

It wasn't that bad at all actually. I think the guys forgot, so we got off rather easily. They split us up guys and girls, and we went to Aaron's and John's rooms. They gave us five shirts and we had to make up jerseys for ourselves. Not knowing what else to do, someone suggested we play tic-tac-toe on the front, and so we all played a game of that! And then on the back we had to have nicknames that everyones else picked, and of course they were stupid and made no sense lol

Then they gave each of us a spoonful of ground cinnamon and we had to try and eat all of it. I knew something was supposed to happen with this, but what it was I couldn't quite remember. So I slowly put it to my mouth, a fraction of a second after everyone else, and I only inhaled half of it before I started coughing. It was like a desert in your mouth!!!! But the really cool part, even though you could hardly breath, was that a jet of cinnamon powder would shoot out evertime you coughed! and Matt threw up into the trash can that was placed in front of us. I just waited patiently and told my brain to activate the glands in my mouth, and slowly I was able to spit it all out.

Now, this is Ground Cinnamon, which means it doesn't have any sugar, and tastes pretty bitter. It also stings your lips a lot. But it was still pretty cool. Then we had to go to Heffron Hall and take a picture with the bust that was there. You'll probably see it when it surfaces on Facebook sometime.

After that we went to go join the girls in the other village. The older girls on the team had obtained a wide, shallow tub of pond water, and had thrown objects like olives, nail polish containers, necklaces and such, so that they had to competitively bob for the objects much like one bobs for apples. The cool thing was that the winners got a $25 gift card to some restaurant or other!

And after that we partied, people playing drinking games that I admit was kind of fun to watch. Especially when everyone gets tipsy. I did try a sip of this blueberry flavored beer, and it tasted good, until it went into your stomach. eww. so gross.

John Fox gets so excited and emotional when he's drunk! He smiles, shows emotion on his face, talks more, and actually stood up on the coffee table and started dancing!!!!! It was a lot of fun and it was also cool because there was a group of us (5) that were sober so then we didn't feel left out. Plus we acted drunk anyways for fun :D


So last night, my good friend Pat Luke professed his love to me. I kind of knew this was coming sooner or later, but that of course didn't make it any easier. He is SO nice, and I get along with him SO well. The only problem is that I'm not attracted to him. Its sad too because I kind of want to be. He would be such a great person to date, but its just not there! Call me shallow or a jerk, but thats just how it is. I feel like Im passing up something here that I shouldn't, but we all make mistakes right? tell me Im right!

and yea, that's about it! Its snowing a ton right now, and is supposed to be super cold this week, but I love it! I can't get enough of the snow and if u bundle up enough, nothing is too cold! Bring it MN!

Love ya,

Neil

In the Loop

After all that work, all that pretending to be able to tap dance, trying my hardest to sing well, noticing at some parts that i was shaking (but not enough for others to see), trying my hardest to be creative and not just copying the person before me when deliviering lines, I did get a part.

It was also really super hard to watch my friends not make it. Even the one who's been doing theatre since she's been six.All I could do was hug her and feel really guilty that I had what she wanted.

I looked up "Roy" in the playbook. Just don't think I'm a star yet. I have two words. One and No.

Everyone's told me tho that once you get into the loop of theatre, it's much easier the second time to get cast.

Hide-n-Seek, Classes, and the return of a Plague

The first night back, I went with the Theatre people to play Hide-n-seek in the Theatre. Technically we aren't supposed to do that, but nobody enforces it :D
It was a lot of fun, as the theatre has SO many hiding places! We even hid in the elevator for one round and just kept going up and down all the floors. hehe. Someone figured it out when they heard the elevator laughing.

So far, I have had my Artscore class, and my Argumentative and Research Writing class. In a nutshell, Artscore is to help us appreciate art more, and ARW is a class to help us learn to write better papers. The artscore teacher is AMAZING! She reminds me of somebody's cool grandma that never decided to grow up. We played a game in her class called name that art, in which we had to list different types of artwork. AP Art History in High School finally paid off!! I won for my creativity and extensive range of artwork :D. English class is alright. I have a really big vibe that she is an NF, and she seemed nervous so im gonna go with an INF. She also wore these amazing stiletto boots that could have killed someone if she wanted them too.

I really didn't want to mention this person again but their name has been brought up against me 3 times in the past two days! Also known as the Moper,and now the Plague, Bryan Moore is still popping up. People invited him to the Hide-n-seek thing, but he didnt show up. When I went to get my mail, I saw him getting his out of his box. Run away! The final straw was in english class, someone had left a piece of paper on the seat in front of me. It was really a small cut out square. I turned it over, and by golly there was a picture of Bryan Moore staring back at me! gaaaahhh! The teachers use these to identify us but really why was it in MY classroom at MY desk?!? Fate is playing cruel tricks on me!

Hawaii So Far

Ok so they don't have internet here unless you have an ethernet cord. So I steal my roommate Eric's while he is not here.

I absolutely love Hawaii! My only complaint is that I don't have a fan to sleep with. The rest is absolutely amazing. I get to see multiple rainbows every day. You don't understand how beautiful they are. I lose my breath every time I see one. Sometimes theres two rainbows right next to eachother too!

We have practice usually twice a day, but some days we have off, so some things we did were: spend a day at Waikiki beach. Then we went to Sandy Beach. Great name right?, then we went to Pearl Harbor, and the North Shore, and today we climbed Diamond Head.

I have to go soon, so I will get some pictures up for you guys. btw my tan is back! I don't feel naked anymore!!!

I would definitely want to go to school here, but I don't know if that's possible or not. Also, like coach predicted, I am getting sick of some people on the team. Eric wont stop talking in a little boys voice, and Carla acts like the youngest, when she is actually 22. But, I am now really great friends with Nikki, and she is awesome!

Getting to Paradise

There’s just something about airports that make you want to leave them immediately. The stress, the desire to leave, what be it, no one thinks of having fun in an airport. Even if you are going to Hawaii.

Before we even got to the airport, my mom realized that I only had 20 minutes of time to get to my layover flight. So we drove up to Carlsbad early, to try and get me an earlier flight. When we got there, the woman (who was SUPER nice!) got us the earlier flight so I had more time for the layover one. She then told us our layover time, but it was 4 hours off!

We told her this was wrong, and she informed us that United (the airline) decided to take upon itself to move me because they thought I couldn’t make it in time. !!!!!
It was ridiculous. The best she could do was put me on standby to the flight I used to be booked on, and hope for the best.

Much to say, they canceled the earlier flight to LA, so that I had to take the later one, no thanks to the rain that seemed determined to meet me on my way into San Diego and out. I was in the last seat at the end, 11A. Two other women came to the back with seat numbers 11B and 11C. No such seats existed! The plane was not full so there was no problem. Being in the exact FURTHEST POSSIBLE seat from the door, I got out of the plane and ran as fast as I could for my next flight. Running past the departure tv’s, I read on the screen that they had already boarded. I still ran there in the hopes that there still was a chance. They had NOT already boarded, but were in fact just starting. I went up to the people at the counter, and they said that I was indeed on standby, and to wait to see if there were extra seats. Of course there were not. I wanted so bad to run past security and get on that plane. Was it really so hard?

I felt better when a girl next to me started talking to me and told me that she had been there in the airport since 7 am just trying to get to Hawaii. At least I had a companion. We waited until the plane left, and then I got food. I read Beedle the Bard and my new book, Uglies, until they started boarding people.

I once again was all the way in the back, just not the very back this time. This family, a father, mother, and baby child came, and the man was like, “you’re sitting in my seat.” I had made sure that I was in my correct seat, so I said “No, I don’t think so.” He showed me his ticket, and I pulled out mine, and they were both the same seat number!

A steward happened to be right there, and took both of our tickets. I guess she saw that he had a family, because when she came back she told me to get up. I was gonna be like there is no way in HELL that you’re taking me off this plane, but she just said follow me, until we were out of hearing distance from the man. “you’re going to be flying First Class today. Merry Christmas!”

It didn’t register for a minute, but when it did I was smiling ear to ear! Wahooo! Finally some payback for all the crappy stuff that had happened! I walked up to seat 3F, and sat down. There was so much more room! I sat down, with only one other person in the aisle section with me. Right when I sat down, A steward came up and asked me if I wanted a drink immediately!

When she came back, it was an actual glass (made of glass, to clarify) and had a lime in it. I noticed that there was a lot more pockets to put your stuff in, and also no tray tables attached to the backs of each seat.

Then, the TV came on and the usual “if the plane divebombs…” but then there were commercials for Hilo Hatties. It made me laugh that they were still showing commercials that had obviously been filmed from the 1980s! It made me wonder if the first class cabin was that out of tune with reality that the conservative styles back then don’t exist anymore. I hope they aren’t. The movie they played (really bad, it was about some dreamer who becomes friends with this kid who continues to bully him) was also set in the 1980’s in England! Weird…
Then, they handed to everyone a little bowl of nuts. The nuts were all micro waved, and I must say nuts taste way better when warm. There were Cashews, Macadamia, Pecans, and Almonds. A bit after that, they started handing out these towels. They gave me one, and it was wet and warm, with antibacterial on it. Then they told us we were going to have dinner, so take out our trays. I was thinking, where the hell are the trays?
The people next to me had obviously been through the weird and foreign customs of first class before, and pulled the trays out of a slit in the arm. It was amazing!
Then they gave us salad, a roll, and a brownie. I was angry because they said we were going to have chicken! Also, the stewards kept offering me wine like every ten seconds. Everyone else drank wine pretty much. I tried to eat the salad, but once again the taste of eating grass came from the salad and almost made me gag. I ate the bread and the brownie, both of which were very good. THEN they came out with the main course! The chicken was good, the mashed potatoes passable, but the cooked carrots tasted like how I’d imagine eating your fingers would taste.
One thing I found shocking was that they gave us actual stainless-steel utensils! I hope the terrorists never figure out that the flight attendants literally hand you knives if you buy first class…
Then they offered coffee and tea to everyone. This definitely is first class! For all it’s weird / stupid customs, like making me take the hot towel, and talking to me when I have my headphones on, because they somehow think I can hear them, it is pretty cool. It is a lot better than sitting next to that little girl who was probably crying and not getting any dinner!

RIP Gregory Weiner

I was shocked to find out today that my good swimming buddy Greg Weiner died today. It is absolutely shocking. He's like the second person I know to have died. Ever.

I always wanted to go hang out with him again. Now I guess thats not gonna happen. At 18 years old?!? That's crazy!


Sorry you're gone man,

God I Love Calvin & Hobbes

My absolute favorite comic strip. Ever.