Exams

This week is all exams at school. That's the quick way of saying my memory is currently being put to the test on half a years' knowledge, a big order.

I'm somewhat concerned about one of the exams I already took, Advanced Social Studies. I won't go on my little rant about how I think the exam is poorly written and the class isn't well taught, because I've been informed I can't blame every bad grade I get on the teacher. I will say that this test is quite important to me, because I hope to be valedictorian and (so far) I've been getting the grades for it.

All in all, however, I think I'm pretty much prepared for the rest of my exams. I've actually studied a bit, and my hardest (the above mentioned Adv. Social Studies) is already over. The other one I've already taken is Geometry, which was incredibly easy. The nice thing about math is that there are no "best choice" type questions. It's right, or it's wrong.

Wish me luck!

A Dispatch From The Western Trip

Today, instead of a post about what's been up, I shall share a tale from the fabled Western trip.

* * *

After a long day of marching and learning, ending in an awesome halftime performance put on by all the high school bands who attended, our High School's band bailed from the game early and headed back to the hotel. We got to relax for about an hour, and then we were given the option to walk to a nearby fast-food place and get a bite to eat. I choose to go for the fast-food, figuring walking through downtown Kalamazoo - a college campus, basically - at 10 P.M. would be interesting. I was definitely right!

We walked about a mile and a half to get to a Burger King we had seen on the drive there, only to discover it was closed. The drive-thru looked like it was still open, and people we walking up to the windows and banging on them. Our band director was standing around and discussing what to do, and my friends and I were standing around talking. While talking bass guitars with my friend Nick, our little group noticed two dudes walking down the sidewalk towards us.

The reason they were noticeable was their outfits; they were both wearing full fur-suited costumes, one being a mouse and the other a lion. They came by, and we stopped them to chat. Apparently, they were headed to a party or something. We got a few cell phone pics with them, and then they headed off to whatever costumed mischief they had planned.

After deciding to walk back in the direction of the hotel and past it to find another place to eat, our group decided to just stay in the hotel. On the way back, my hair was complimented by a very stereotypical bum we passed. I agreed with him that my hair is, in fact, awesome and went on my way.

The strange off-ness about those specific incidents, especially the costumed dudes having a chat with high schoolers wandering through the city, was characteristic of the entire weekend. Everything was just a bit weird in a good way, with mascots and complimentary bums around every corner.

What's Been Up Lately

Quizbowl season has started! at the high school, it's a fall activity. We've been training for a couple of weeks, but our first real match was last Thursday. Woohoo!

I'd forgotten how time-consuming Stumble Upon can be. I had finally read through a large part of the Cracked archives, and turned to it as a possible source of entertainment. Turns out it still wastes my time as much as last year. I have found a lot of stuff that - literally - makes me laugh out loud. Mostly demotivational posters, funny test answers, that sort of thing; every one I read fills me with an urge to force those around me to listen to me reading them aloud. I've gotten good at fighting the temptations to bore others, but sometimes I'm human.

I've also been strumming away at the guitar a lot lately. Who'da thought getting an electric would increase my appreciation for the acoustic? Me either.

I've been reading actual books much more lately, which has been nice. However, I'm a bit stuck as to what to read. For some reason, I've been having a hard time getting at all interested in anything that isn't a classic. This is kind of a problem, because A) there aren't too many out there I find appealing and B) I feel a bit like a pompous jerk stating I only like classics.

Just for the record, I don't just like classics. I really love pop-culture related books, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as science fiction and fantasy. The former is actually my absolute favourite genre, but that's the kind of stuff that isn't carried by school libraries. The latter tends to be difficult for me to get into, unless there's also humour. Did I not mention that? I love the funny stuff as well.

Well, I feel I've reached the perfect ratio of length to interesting-ness. Yes, I just made a new word. Feel free to submit it to Websters, I'm sure they'll recognize it's brilliance.

2009: A Review

I realize I'm about five days late for a New Year's Post, but you're going to have to deal with my eccentric (lazy) behaviour.

Many people I've talked to about the year had mixed opinions about it. One of my mother's friends put it quite well:

"There were a lot of high points in 2009, but to go along with each one was a low. I wish it had been a more mellow year."

I personally feel it was a freaking awesome year, possibly one of the best. You'd like me to list the reasons why? Well, you're in luck!

• I successfully ran a half-marathon in August, going from totally nonathletic to quite fit in the course of 6 months.
• I lost 20 pounds - I'd always thought about how cool it would be to come back to school after summer break totally slim and fit, and this year I achieved that.
• I've learned to play both bass guitar and 6-string. I'm taking lessons for bass, and I've learned actual songs on the 6-string variety of guitar - even a few sweet solos!
• I've made a bunch of new friends in High School - my band trip to Western, often referenced, was an amazing experience for me.
  

Currently, those are the only major achievements for the year that I can think of; trust me, I did more this year than that, but those four really dominate my memory.

I hope everyone had a good 2009, and for those who didn't I hope you have a 2010 so amazing it completely makes up for it!

An Observation

Today was a long, long day - I cleaned my room. Well, I got most of it done. There's still a ton of the small things that collect dust laying in the middle of the room on the floor, as well as stacks of books occupying all flat surfaces. I rearranged just about every piece of furniture in there, and it looks great.

I even got up early to do it...if 10:30 is early. It is when I'm on vacation from school, and on weekends.

I thought of something the other day, and I'm wondering if it's just a coincidence or not. In Twilight, a series all about vampires, the main character's name is Bella. The name of the actor famous for portraying Dracula (also a vampire) in 1931 was Bela Lugosi. Is her name a homage to him? I realized the interesting coincidence while listening to the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by The Bauhaus, in which the singer cries "Bela!" over and over.

I'm going to go relax now, because it's been a very long day of productivity and my head is splitting with an allergy headache.

A Christmas In Review

Yesterday was Christmas! Woohoo! In a very self indulgent manner, allow me to run down how it went.

I was fortunate enough to get the three things I had most emphatically asked for: an electric guitar, a black sweater, and Dr. Marten boots. We'll cover those boots first, because they're the ones currently on my mind the most.


They are 14 eyelets on each side, and take about 10 minutes to put on. They're still quite stiff, and I'm told they take a bit of time to get used to walking in. My uncle said he had a pair just like them when he was younger, and my mom used to wear 8 and 10 eyelet ones.

In an attempt to break them in today, I wore them on a run. Don't worry - I didn't actually try to run. I knew that would be suicide. However, even after walking about a mile, my feet hurt something terrible. I couldn't catch up with my mom when she walked any faster than I was going. She reassured me by reminding me I had my tennis shoes in the car, but I decided not to put them on. A little pain was probably going to be a part of the breaking in process, right?

We went to Barnes & Noble to get fancy coffee after the run/walk, and I still had the boots on. I was fairly certain at that point that my heels were bleeding, but I did not care. I'm somewhat stupid when it comes to pain, especially in the name of fashion. The original punks wouldn't have cared about terrible blisters, although they weren't exactly in a state of mind to feel anything.

Warning: if you get grossed out, don't read the next paragraph.

When I came home, I took those pictures and then took the boots off. I took the right off first, although the left was the foot with the most pain. My right sock had a small spot on it that was greyish-yellowish-red, and when I took it off I saw there was a teeny tiny blister (the grey was from the leather). "Not bad," I thought. Then I took my left boot off. There was an enormous spot on that sock, and a huge blister underneath. A quarter could not have covered the entire thing. Needless to say, I now have two large band-aids on my heels.


That is my new guitar. It's a real Fender Stratocaster, and it's left handed. Apparently it used to be right-handed, but my uncle's friend, from whom he got it, flipped it. I got it about an hour after we got to my Grandparent's house, and I played it continually until we left 5 hours later. My fingertips are horribly shredded, but as you can obviously see, I don't mind my gifts causing me pain.

I started to suspect I was getting a guitar when A) my uncle wouldn't let me go into the spare bedroom to hang up my coat and B) when there was no gift from him, only a guitar case from his cat. Eventually someone pointed the latter out, and he told me to go take a look in his truck. I did. There was nothing there.

I came back in and told him I didn't see what I was looking for, when everyone started laughing and he said, "It's sitting right there." He was pointing at my chair, where it was sitting. He was actually crying, something I've never seen before.

In addition to those two, I received many thoughtful gifts. Plus, the tight black sweater I mentioned! I requested it "to wear while I listen to The Cure and The Bauhaus". It looks great with my black skinny jeans and 14 - eyelet Docs.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas, and got to spend it with family and friends.

Christmas Break!

I watched the movie Labyrinth today - man is it weird. I wanted to see it because it has David Bowie in it, and a blogger I follow has a quote from it on her blog that made it seem pretty funny.

Where to even begin? The puppets were actually very good. The visual effects were somewhat decent - especially for the 80's. However, it was so absurdly strange I cannot even describe it. I am actively forgetting it as I type.

Actually, typing this all as it comes into my mind, looking back I kind of enjoyed it. I think the few hours between my viewing of it and my typing of this mellowed it out a bit. The scenes featuring David Bowie were my favourite, of course. He was just the right mixture of creepy and charming.

Today was the last day of school until January 4th! Yay for break! Apparently a lot of classes had free days, but I had two tests and a major project to complete before I got to experience any festive-ness. Oh, and one other thing - in Health class, we had to watch a video of a live birth. The general adjective used by everyone to describe it was "Unnecessary". I agree with that, because I see no reason why they should have to show that. I suppose it is a very good argument for abstinence, the only form of birth control they're allowed to teach.

From 4th hour on, thankfully, I got to put aside learning for the rest of this year. In 4th hour we went to the library and spent the hour reading. OK, to be honest, there was more chit-chatting than actual reading going on.

5th and 6th hour were the school-wide celebration, which was a reward for raising, as a school, over 2 thousand dollars for a local charity. Each classroom had different activities going on in it, and you signed up for them the week previous. I signed up to watch Napoleon Dynamite, a film whose funniness I had forgotten. It was a blast, mostly because I got to watch it with friends.

Well, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go and strum randomly on the acoustic for a while. Happy holidays, in case I don't post again before Christmas!

It Feels Good To Be Blogging, My Friends

Hey, dear readers, how's it going? Right now I'm listening to "Rebel, Rebel" by David Bowie, a song I can kind of play on guitar. It sounds weird because it's meant for an electric and I use my mom's acoustic (restrung for my left-handedness, of course).

I'm really hoping to get an electric guitar for Christmas, and since my uncle works at the pawn shop, there's a good chance of that happening. However, he has a bit of an issue with the fact I don't mind playing a right-handed guitar upside-down, and I've gotten into multiple arguments about that with him. He's talked about how the guitar isn't "ergonomic" enough, and that will make playing harder - the weight of a guitar is more likely to mess me up than a corner digging into my ribs will. He also throws around various terms he either read somewhere out of context, or just made up completely. It's kind of infuriating, because he doesn't actually know anything about playing guitar - he only knows the stuff he needs to know to sell it for more money and take it in on pawn for less.

Anyway - on to lighter stuff. High school is going absolutely awesome! The fact all four classes pretty much mingle now has made finding people like myself a bit easier, and I'd say I've made some pretty good friends. The most beneficial thing to making friends was the fabled "Trip To Western". I don't recall if I mentioned it in any posts, but basically the marching band went to Western Michigan University for a weekend and had a ton of insane fun. None of my friends went, forcing me to pretty quickly make some new ones. Fortunately, there's no better place for forging relations than a very fancy hotel at 1 A.M. Euchre is a game made more fun simply by being played in odd places, such as a skywalk or hotel lobby next to a drunk wedding party.

I've yet to do my Christmas shopping, which is a bit concerning. I'm hoping to go with my grandpa this weekend, which is cutting it pretty close. I still have no clue what I'm getting anyone but my mom and my grandparents, but I've gotten a few suggestions. Last year, I got my grandpa to go into Hot Topic with me to get my mom's gifts - that was a riot!

I've been moving both backward and forward in time with music listening lately. I've been getting into modern alternative a bit more lately, because I know that's where I'll probably end up as a musician myself. I need to get to know the terrain a bit, learn the tricks of the trade. I've also been digging bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones, not to mention David Bowie. OK, they're not really of a time period different than I've listened to, but they were always looked over in the past. Just to add on to a lengthy paragraph, I've started to really like Nirvana. A good 25% of the stuff I've learned to play on guitar (acoustic, not my bass) is Nirvana. My only complaint is that they tuned almost all of their songs different than standard, making them unplayable.

Well, I feel a duty to give you a break after all that reading. Be prepared, however, for another post soon. I'm single, I don't have a driver's license, and I've just about read everything funny on Cracked.com, so I should be able to post more often. I think with the approaching winter that will be easier, because it's too cold for anything else to be going on. Good day to you, dear readers!

Sublymonal

Does anyone else remember those incredibly weird Sprite commercials from last year? They were centered around "Lymon", and seemed to be purposefully trippy. I'd kind of forgotten, until I was wandering around in the links at Cracked.com and found an article featuring one. I was intrigued, and headed to Youtube to do a bit of research for myself. I found this dude, who states he made his 2 - part video out of various scenes from the "Lymon Project".

I felt I should spread the weird. I'd like to provide a link to the actual "Sublymonal" website, but it gives me a 403 error whenever I try to get there. Oh well. Enjoy! (or fear!)

Happy Thanksgiving

As many of you are surely aware, today is Thanksgiving. I have had a pretty good one, all things considered.

First things first, the food this year was the best I've ever experienced. There's normally one or two things I don't like, and I've never been too much of a fan of poultry. However, everything rocked this year. I even loved the turkey, which was very tasty and completely free of nasty fat/skin/dark meat.

Since my mom and I got our own house, we've hosted the meal. Our family is very small - I'm the only kid, and actually the only one under 40. Like every other year, the attendees were my grandparents, my uncle, and my great-aunt with her boyfriend Ernie.

My grandparents got a Labrador puppy last Sunday, and they brought him along too. There was a debate as to what his name should be, with options such as Buck and Ruger being tossed around (it's hunting season, and their store is a DNR deer check station). Eventually, however, the name Buster was chosen. Buster is freaking hilarious, and gets really hyper and plays and then crashes and naps. I'll post a picture when I remember to take one, someday.

I've got a lot of things to be thankful for this year, although I don't really want to list them all. I hope everyone reading this has had a good day as well, and I'd be thankful if you have. (Get it? Thankful? And it's Thanksgiving? Never mind...)

Everybody Wang Chung Tonight

I sincerely apologize for my lack of posting, despite the fact an article in Wired said you shouldn't do that. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what's keeping me from posting. I have a large number of started posts, bu none I seem to finish. Anyhoo.


So, yesterday I had a party. It was a smashingly successful one, considering more than two people came. That's what happened at my last two, anyway. I think a major helping point was the fact I gave out invites more than two days before, this time being prepared an entire week early. I also invited a TON of people, knowing not all would show up. At the highest point of attendance, there were 9 people in my basement.


Because of the fact I have upperclassman friends, some people drove. For some reason, that absolutely blows my mind. Is that strange? I suppose in a few years, it might blow my mind that some people won't be driving.


The party was obnoxiously loud from the very beginning, because of the drum kit and my record player. I could hear the party from outside the house. Seriously, at the beginning of the party only three people were there, and the drumming started as soon as we went downstairs. To be brutally honest, it wasn't really even drumming, just noise. I have two pairs of sticks, and two different people were hitting them randomly at the same time, different tempos. My mother requested it stopped pretty early on.


We had Guitar Hero set up, as well as pool, so everyone stayed well entertained. After a while everyone got bored with the GH, and we put on some Zeppelin (specifically, Led Zeppelin IV). Trust me, with the people that were there, that is very danceable music. Actually, the dancing was rather insane. There are three support beams (pole-like objects) down there, and Cory saw them as an invitation to dance rather, ahem, wildy. When I went upstairs to get more chippage, my mom asked what on earth we were doing to make the floor vibrate.


At one point, I received a cell phone call from my friend Courtney, who was there. I saw her holding a phone, so I assumed it was her and hit ignore. I didn't check to see if it was home or mobile, which was a mistake. Eventually, I asked her to stop calling me, and she said, "What? I don't have a cellphone." It was someone else's phone she was holding, and her dad was trying to call me. I went upstairs with her to call him back, and had to explain why I ignored him 4 times.

"Oh, I thought Courtney was calling me."

"Isn't she there??"

"Um, yeah, but I figured she was fooling around with her cellphone or something..."

"She doesn't have a cellphone."

"Oh. Um..."

"Can I just talk to Courtney?"

He was calling about giving someone a ride, or something.


It was a totally awesome party, with guitar playing, pool, obnoxious drumming, and records. I had a ton of fun, and I think the same applies to everyone (hopefully!). I'm really lucky to have friends who can have fun with what they're doing, instead of complaining about what they could be doing.

Searched!

Wow - something freaky happened today. During second hour, the police brought the drug dogs to the school to sniff around and find drugs. I honestly didn't even know they were doing it - until I was pulled out of class.

The vice principal came by my class and said, "I need Drew Morgan." when I came out of the class room, he started walking and told me, "I don't mean to scare you, I know you're a good kid, but the dogs detected something in the group of lockers by yours. If you don't mind, I need to search yours." I knew I had no reason to be freaked out because there was nothing in mine, and I knew my locker partner had nothing, but still...

He pulled my locker partner out of class too, and he opened up our locker. He started pulling our bags and coats out, searching pockets and everything. He was making jokes to try and make us a bit less nervous, but it didn't really work. Neither of us could stop laughing, but it was kind of that "Oh crap" sort of laughter. He moved our books around, made jokes about what was in our lunch boxes, etc.

At one point, he opened my book bag and pulled out this little brown and dusty square of wax paper. It looked very "suspicious", and he said "What's this?" in a rather serious tone. I was trying to think of a way to reassure him it wasn't drugs when he threw it back in and said "Looks like an old muffin wrapper. Gross!"


When he looked in the pocket of my bag I put books I read for enjoyment in, he pulled out one that happened to be in there. Cory (the locker partner) busted out laughing, and I just stood there feeling mortified. I had a copy of the book Sex, Drugs, and Coco-Puffs by Chuck Klosterman in there. The cover art is a cereal bowl full of pills. I said, "Umm, it has less to do with that stuff that you'd think," as he studied it. He said he was just seeing who the author was, because he was an L.A. teacher before being vice principal and had never heard of it. That brought many a laugh in the retelling of the story, believe me.

After we passed the search, he told us to go and wait for him in the office while he conducted the rest of the searches. apparently, he calls your parents even if there's nothing found. Two by two, other people started walking in with a nervous look on their faces.

"You got searched too?"

"Yup."

"Find anything?"

"Nope."

That conversation went on a few times, until all eight people whose lockers were searched came in. One girl said they found Motrin, but she wasn't going to get in trouble for it. Even though everyone was done, the vice principal still took forever. By the time he started making calls, 2nd hour was almost over.

Each call took about 5 minutes, so passing time came and went with us still in the office. Something else happened that required his immediate attention, so he wrote us passes and said he'd call us down when he wasn't busy. We both went to our 3rd hr, Health, and got to retell the epic story a few times before my name came over the intercom. I went down, and he dialed my mom's number. She was in class, so we had to wait as someone was found to babysit her class while she talked on the phone with him. I had to sit there for a good 3 minutes making small talk before she came on the line.

Their conversation went pretty quick, although it sounded like my mom was a little annoyed at having her class interrupted. Later, I found out this was because she was somewhat nervous herself, even though the very first thing said was "Don't worry, Drew's not in trouble."


The rest of the day was pretty much spent making jokes about getting searched. Cory said he's going to bring in dog treats on Monday and keep them in our locker the rest of the year. I think he means it, too.


Now I'm prepared for Halloween; good luck scaring me more than that did!

Last Weekend

I realized that recently, I haven't been keeping all my dear readers informed of my day to day life. I also realize that I haven't been posting much at all lately, but when I do it's usually about one specific event. So, shall we get on with last weekend?


Last Friday was marching band's last game of the season (as far as I know). I walked uptown before rehearsal, and got totally soaked in the horrible rain. Everyone took shelter at a friend's house, so we chilled there until rehearsal. On rainy days, we practice in the High School gym, which stinks. It's impossible to really get any idea of where to go in there, because the yard lines aren't underfoot for reference. We went into the rain again after rehearsal, to get McDonald's (the Meal of Champions when it comes to band).


The plan was this: if it was raining after half time, the band would march back to the school and take shelter. It was raining the entire time we marched down to the field, and during the first half of our pre-game show. It stopped while we were in the stands, which was nice. It wasn't too cold out, so almost everyone took off their raincoats. It started raining again just as we marched onto the field for half time, but stopped during our second song.


Because it wasn't raining when we came off the field, our teacher told us we had the 3rd quarter to wander around and that we had to be in the stands for the 4th. During the said wandering, the skies opened up again. Everyone was running about, looking for raincoats, taking shelter under trees and umbrellas. We quickly got into parade block, hoping to be allowed to run back to the school chaotically, but we were forced to march. It was a long, long walk. When we got into the school, everyone had to hang their uniforms on the back of a chair to dry them. I was soaking underneath my uniform too, without a change of clothes. Still, it was a very fun experience.


On Saturday, I awoke to discover the fact my wallet was missing. I had left it (and my Aquafina Chapstick - Oh no!) in my uniform jacket. Well, it's not like I had any money anyway. Actually, the first thing on my schedule was going to work, to hopefully replenish said wallet. I've found I like working on Saturdays, before major evening events; it keeps me from spending the day talking about how excited I am for whatever I'm doing later.


The major event this Saturday was Courtney's Halloween party. I never actually received an invite, but since she had called me before setting the date to make sure I could make it, I figured I was invited. It went from 5 to 11 PM, which seemed like an incredibly long time for a party. she invited tons of people, and about 17 people came. Compared to my last 2 parties, where only 2 people showed up,this was pretty impressive.


It turned out the reason for the long hours was that everyone there was going on a hayride to a corn maze when it got dark. The hayride was kind of a bad idea in retrospect, considering most people weren't dressed warm enough for the 40 degree weather. It was also kind of illegal, since there were 17 people riding on an open trailer - no railings or cap - down major roads. It was just as bad on the way back, but we supposedly took a shortcut that time. I say "supposedly" because it still seemed like way too long of a ride.


The maze itself wasn't as horribly cold, because a) we weren't in the back of a moving vehicle and b) the corn blocked out some of the wind. Apparently, our group was supposed to supply it's own flashlights, but no one brought any. The people in charge of the corn maze had a few to let us borrow, but we ended up having to take the strobe lights off the back of the truck and carry them around. My group of five originally had a normal flashlight, but we ran into one of the groups with a strobe and they MADE us trade. They were getting majorly freaked out by the silence and the flashing, apparently. We took it, and turned it up as high a possible so there wasn't too much darkness between each flash. I don't think anyone in our group was scared by them, just annoyed by the whole "even more difficult to see" thing.



There were six stations throughout the maze, each with a "you are here" map on it. We also had maps, but they weren't of much use because we didn't look at them. The maze was enormous, and apparently in the shape of a stack of pumpkins. Everyone kept saying, "We're going in circles, we've already been here!" I'm sorry, how can you tell? IT'S CORN! Everything looked exactly the same to me. We only found three of the stations, and two of those we found by following other groups around.


The next day, was working a concession stand out at the gun club to try and raise money for our band's trip to Disney next year. Honestly, the concession stand isn't bringing much money in. We're a little over breaking even, but no where near where we thought we'd be. It\s kind of a boring job to do, as well.


After that was all done, Joe and I went on our annual haunted-house trip. This year, all the ones we normally go to were closed (because it was a Sunday). Instead, we went to one about an hour away, that was very professionally done. There weren't many actors, but the ones that were there would follow you around for a few rooms. At the end there was a dude with a chainsaw, which is always the thing that scares me the mot. The only way out of the room he was in was through a black-hole tunnel, one of those things where you're on a little bridge that goes through a brightly light tunnel that rotates. Joe had apparently never been in one, because he was totally freaked out by it. Both of us walked leaning to one side for about 5 minutes after it, because it really got into your head.


Overall, it was a pretty awesome weekend. Oh, and I finished this post just in time for the next weekend!

Rocky Horror Picture Show Live!

As mentioned in my previous post, there was a performance or Rocky Horror Picture Show Live! that I wished to attend. Now, the tale of said trip.

Since May, I'd known the local performing arts group was doing a theatrical version of RHPS, and I probably mentioned how excited I was about once a week. I wanted to audition for it (wouldn't I make a great Frank-N-Furter?), but it turned out you had to be 18 to get a major part, and I think 16 for a back up singer/actor.

I went with Courtney and our friend Leah, who is absolutely crazy about RHPS. Out of four showings, we could only make it to the Saturday night at 8 due to multiple band things. The theatre it was at allowed audience participation, as long as you didn't throw food items. We all got stuff together to bring, because no one wanted to pay 10 bucks for a premade pack there.

I must say: Courtney did not have fun. Th closest she came to enjoying the show was, "Well, it's better than being at home." It's a bit ironic (or is it just coincidental?), because my uncle and I were talking before the show (he went too) about how his friend used his girlfriend as an excuse not to go, saying she didn't like plays. My uncle thought the dude was lying, because "what girl doesn't want to be taken to a play?" I think RHPS is exempt from that rule, however.

I'd never been to an actual audience participation show before, and it was pretty awesome. I knew people threw stuff, but I hadn't realized everyone would be shouting things at the actors. A lot of the things they said seemed to be pre-planned, as in they say them at every showing. However, other things sounded pretty improv.

In all truth, the play was better than the movie. It had more jokes, and the audience participation was cool. I also enjoyed the fact that the character Rocky had speaking lines in the play. Actually, the Narrator was a close family friend of Leah's, and she had been in a play with the dude who played Frank Furter.

After the play, we were standing around in the lobby waiting for our ride. All the actors were in there, signing autographs and getting hugs and whatnot, and Leah wanted a picture with Frank Furter. She hadn't realized she knew him at that time, so she was deathly afraid of asking him for a picture. "You ask," she kept saying over and over again. Eventually, after listening to her say over and over how much she would regret not getting the picture, I asked him fro her. While he had his arm around her, I had difficulties with the camera phone, leading him to comment about "Poor dear must be so frightened, with this scary dude putting his arm around her for so long." Eventually I got the picture, and he wandered off for the next group of people. He was totally in character the whole time, which was slightly frightening.

Does anyone else have any cool RHPS viewing stories? From what I've heard, every showing of it is an experience.

Weekend At The Grandparents' Place

This last weekend, my mom went to Chicago to watch the marathon. I elected to stay home, because A) I had a muzzleloading shoot on Sunday and B) I wondered how it would be to stay home while she was on vacation.


This meant I spent the weekend with my grandparents, at their house half a mile down the road from us. I lived with them for 8 years (I was still living there when I started this blog), so it didn't seem like it would be too big of an issue to stay there for one weekend. I discovered that one grows used to their own house pretty quickly.


The plan was this: I'd ride my bike over to their place Saturday morning, work until the store closed (for those not in the know, they own a gun shop where I am employed), and then go into town. On Sunday, my grandpa and I would leave early for the shoot, and get home around 4.


Work went really well, and I made enough money to (hopefully) fund a viewing of Rocky Horror Picture Show Live! with my friends this weekend (trust me, I'll be posting more on that soon). I usually have fun at work, because it's easy, yet slightly challenging. Plus, the whole store atmosphere is very relaxed, and when customers come in it's usually like having a friend or acquaintance drop by for a visit.



After work, we went into town to get dinner and, apparently, go clothes shopping. I was not aware the second item was on the agenda, which was a nice surprise. The only problem was it was another school's Homecoming, so the restaurant we went to was packed with teens. It was a little awkward, especially when I recognized a few people. Still, the food was good! I got a new pair of skinny jeans as well, so you could count that as a victory.



When we left for the shoot on Sunday, I knew it would be cold, so I dressed pretty warm. Unfortunately, it's impossible to wear gloves when you're muzzle-loading, so I ended up not being able to feel my fingers for the rest of the day.


The shoot was a multi-discipline shoot, with four 50-point regular targets, a smoothbore target, a pistol target, and knife and 'hawk throwing. I included all this info because I now have a reader who knows what I'm talking about: the awesome Crush of Society guitarist Bobby! He shoots muzzleloaders as well. Anyway, I did well in all the regular targets. I managed to hit the paper all five times with the smoothbore, but kind of gave up on the pistol when I had only hit it twice out of 6 shots.


When they announced the winners, I was pleasantly surprised to discover I had taken third place in the regular aggregate. I was only four points away from first, and I had been up against a lot of very good shooters. I got a knife as my prize for that, and a mug as a thank-you for being a Junior shooter (I was the only person under 50 there).


All in all, it was an interesting experience. I had fun, but would I pass up going to Chicago again? Probably not.

Homecoming Dance

Tonight was my first High School dance. Usually before dances I am nervous and pace a lot, but I managed to keep myself occupied at work all day. My only major problem was that of my health, because all week I've been fighting with a cold/allergies. Also, last night was the homecoming football game, and I virtually destroyed my voice with cheers and cadences for band. I am not exaggerating when I say I was incredibly happy to get an entire raspy sentence out without my voice just disappearing. Fortunately, I got my voice to come back at least a little in time for the dance. Well, I was at least understandable.

When I got out of the car in front of the school at 7:30 sharp, I walked up to the giant crowd of people getting checked in by two guys I'd never met, and only seen in the halls once or twice. The one who seemed to be more talkative turned to me and asked "Do you play drums?" I told them no, I was a bassist. "Oh, we need a drummer for our band. You look like a drummer. Isn't it hard to find a drummer in this school?" We then went into a long discussion about drumming, and each of our respective bands. Keep in mind, I had no clue who these dudes were and they didn't know me. They were basing the entire conversation on looks. It turns out they were in a band with a friend of mine that also plays bass, which I found interesting.

The line to check in was about 15 minutes long, I kid you not. The air was really thick with a mix of every brand of perfume and cologne people were wearing, prompting the thought "smells like teen spirit." (yes, I'm a dork, get over it.) I went with Courtney as my date, of course, but we didn't actually arrive together. This was due to a lack of planning on my part, with us basically just saying we'd find each other once we got there. This was not a good plan. There were over 500 students in there, and I was starting to wonder if we'd even see each other at all in the entire 3 and a half hours. Thankfully we did, because I got there first and waited near the entrance for her along with my other friends who made similar foolish plans.

How can one really say much more about a dance? It was crazy! The differences between J.H. and High School continue to present themselves. At this, there were almost no people awkwardly standing to one side of the dance floor, refusing to dance. I was outside the main mosh, but I still busted a groove with everyone else. Apparently, the trick to it is being an idiot while moving your limbs in a semi-coordinated manner.

I showed up to the dance dressed all nicely,


but before long I had my tie loosened, and my shirt was untucked with the top button undone. All the dancing I did really takes it out of you! It became warmer and warmer in the room as the night wore on, which I mostly blame on extreme physical activity taking place.

Fast forward to the end of the dance. I really didn't want it to end, because it was so fun. As we walked out, the air was once again thick with the smell of teen spirit, only this time in a less perfumed manner. I turned to Courtney and stated, "This will make such a good blog post!"

First Game

So, guess what last Friday was? Our first performance for marching band! It was pretty fun, all in all.

We got out of school at 2:16, and had a rehearsal at 4. After the rehearsal, we had time to go and get a bite to eat, then head on over to the school to get into uniform. I decided to spend all the time we had in between things wandering around uptown with my friends, because the whole town is less than two square miles in size, and it was much more convenient than driving 18 miles home and back again. Isn't living in a small town fun?

All we really did in between the letting out of school and the rehearsal was head to places, such as a friends house to get black socks for the uniform and to the Marathon station to get something to drink. It was surprising just how little time we had, until you thought about the fact walking to the school campus took 5-10 minutes.

Rehearsal was a bit upsetting, because of a disagreement between I and a friend that I'd rather not get into. Fortunately, everything resolved itself, and everyone walked away a bit happier.

On the plus side, we did pretty good at rehearsal. We were trying out a new method of marching off the field we had only learned on Monday, and it worked like a charm. None of the trumpets played, because we had to save our chops for when it mattered, but I was pretty confident. I'm the youngest (read: least experienced) trumpet player, and I'm pretty good. If I could do it, everyone else could for sure.

After rehearsal we walked to McDonalds, got a quick snack, blah blah blah. We had to eat on our way back to the school, because we had to start getting dressed soon. The report time was 6, and the teacher advised we saved half an hour to get ready. All we really had to do was pull on our uniforms over our clothes, because they're made of thin material and it was going to be cold. I think the uniforms look kind of cool, actually, in a weird way. The only part I dislike are the hats.

We have to wear the bucket-style hats with plumes, and the rule is there can't be any hair showing. I have hair past my shoulders. The reason I grew it out (one of them, anyway) is the fact that I look like a freak without it. This was no exception. There was actually a row of chairs lined up with long-haired guys sitting in them, all grumbling about the fact we had to put it up as one of the girls helped us put it into a pony tail. The completed product was me with virtually no hair. No one recognized me, a few people said I looked like a girl. I took it down after Half Time, and was quite relieved. Strange, that in order for me to look like a guy I had to have my hair down instead of up and short.

Even though it was absolutely freezing cold, it was pretty fun. I'm seriously looking forward to our next game, which is Homecoming. Can't wait!

High School

Last week was my first week of High School. I was a tiny bit nervous, thanks to multiple people's warnings ("watch out for Upperclassmen!") However, this fear was totally misplaced. It was almost exactly like Jr. High, with the exception of the fact I'm no longer on top. Still, I think it's cooler to be at the bottom of High School than the top of Jr. High.

The first day was probably the worst, because I was still trying to find my way around and figure out where all my classes are. It was also a bit of a bummer that all we really did was cover the rules. I mean, by this point we should really be able to survive without being told basic common sense. After three years of the same thing at the Jr. High, and five more of a similar style in elementary, anyone who doesn't get how to avoid trouble probably has bigger issues to worry about than that.

The rest of the week started ups out with the curriculum, so it was a bit better. I wound up with a 100 question test, a 65 question test, and a two and a half page paper on the second day, and I like that. I'm definitely looking forward to having a bit more of a challenge from this point on.

All my teachers are pretty cool, so I'm lucky there. One of my friends, who has almost all the same classes, managed to compare every teacher we have currently to an awesome teacher from previous years.

Well, I actually have to be getting to school. I'm still typing theses on my mom's Jr. High classroom computer, but now I have to walk across campus to the High School. Better hurry!

(P.S.: this post is actually just an assignment from Language Arts I typed up, with a bit added to it. I think if I write all my assignments like blog posts, I'll do pretty well in class!)

Puzzling

Hey! How have all of your Labor Day weekends' been? I spent mine camping. We (me, my mom, Joe, and two other family friends) do every year, and it's always pretty fun.

We stayed at a state camp ground we hadn't been to before. It was right on Lake Huron, and the beach was only a five-minute walk. We spent most of Saturday on the beach, tanning and swimming. On Sunday, we went to an art fair in Port Austin, and played putt-putt golf (I lost).

When we were in Port Austin, we stopped at a cool little tourist store we visit every time we come up. They have tons of puzzles and stuff for sale, and I was goofing around with a Rubik's Cube that had numbers instead of colors. My mom and Joe were off somewhere else, and they called me over. Instead of putting down the cube, I carried it over to where they were.

They were standing by a little table that had a 9 square puzzle on it, and a sign that stated "finish in 5 minutes or less and keep the puzzle!". I don't mean to brag, but I am awesome at those things. My grandparents got a few for me a couple of years ago, and I solved them in about 10 minutes apiece. I handed the cube to my mom, and set to work.

I solved the puzzle in two minutes. The guy who was behind the counter gave me my free puzzle, congratulated me, blah blah blah. We left the store right after, to go to the grocery store next door and get some food for dinner. As Joe was off looking for something else, my mom was busy saying, "That was really cool, how you solved it that fast!". I responded with, "Did you steal that Rubik's Cube??". Apparently, she accidentally walked out with it. I called Joe over, and the look on his face was priceless. My mom was incredibly embarrassed, and had Joe return it to the guy.

There were many bloggable moments this weekend, but that one totally takes the cake.

Record Player Needle!

Hey everyone - guess what? I finally got a new needle for my record player! I broke the old one back while school was still in session, and even before that the speed setting on the player was broken. In essence, it's been forever since I've been able to listen to any of my records.

I had hoped to be able to find a needle for my record player while I was in Chicago; I had no idea how hard of a task that would be. See, I was under the impression there were a few different kinds of needles, but they were basically universal. Boy, was I wrong. After being rejected at a few different stores, I decided I would just try and find one online - again, a very difficult task. I discovered a nice company that "carries every needle made since 1930", and set out to find mine on there. This involved running up and down the basement stairs about five times, because I kept forgetting either the company's name or the model number. Eventually, I found the manufacturer and started browsing inventory. Of course, they didn't have my exact model. I gambled and got a look-alike, with a similar model number.

Despite the site saying it would take 1-2 days after shipping, a week later I still had no needle. I was getting upset, and relieved to see an email from the seller. Turns out the guy misread my address, and I had to spell out all the numbers for him. Fast forward 5 more days, and I got the needle! Yay!

Needless to say, I'll be spending a lot of my time hanging out in the basement, listening to the awesome sound of vinyl and playing pool and video games. Hey, it's better than playing "bejeweled" for four hours straight!