School and Hanging Out

I am so ready for school to be out. I only have this week and next week and then I'm done. Next week will be field day, 9th grade Lagoon day, and then everyone ditches on the last day of school anyway so next week won't really count. The thing that bugs me though is that some teachers are still piling us with homework which is quite irksome. I just want to be done with junior high for good, I'm sick of it. I feel so bad for Hannah because she has to go into junior high next year. I'll just say that junior high has been the worst three years of my life. I'm not saying that it was absolutely horrible, but I would never want to repeat it and I've done my time. I hated seventh grade, eighth grade was pretty cool, and ninth grade has been the best. I've made so many new friends this year, it's pretty crazy, especially since I had a really hard time making friends in seventh grade and eighth grade wasn't much better.

I've hung out with so many new people this year (mainly guys), and even last Saturday I hung out with people I've never hung with before, or even thought I would ever hang out with for that matter. In seventh and eighth grade, I might hang out with Sariah every other weekend or something. Now I hang out every weekend no matter what. I started hanging out with Sammy a bit at the beginning of the year. I started hanging with her every weekend starting in January when she started going out with this guy and wanted me to come with. I've hung out with tons of new people - Ben, Mikey, Broc, Riley, Davis, Taylor Davis, Jesse Lou, Jake Porter, J.C., and of course Sammy! Last Friday, I hung out Marissa, Sariah, Ethan, Taylor, Sammy, Ben, Mikey, Chloe, and a bunch of other people at Marissa's house and we had tons of fun messing around. On Saturday, Sammy wanted to hang with this guy named Jake Porter (he has a HUGE house, we got lost haha), and Broc Dover and Jesse Lou hung out with us too and it was super fun. I was surprised Jesse hung out with us since I've never really talked to him but I've always thought he was cool. Jake Porter constantly has people over at his house and a bunch of guys just came and went whenever they wanted. Me and Sammy decided we wanted to hang out at his house more often since there seems to constantly be boys there. Anyway, the point of this long paragraph is that I've had fun hanging with a bunch of new people this year, even though they're mostly boys. I can't wait to make even more friends next year.

I'm excited for the summer and to hang out with a lot of people even though I'll have to work a lot (I had to work last Saturday) and Sammy will be gone for 31 days in June and July. High school will be a blast, and I'm kind of hoping no one asks me to any dances because I don't really want to go. Even though I absolutely love boys and am boy crazy, I don't want to date or go to dances. I just like hanging out. I'm not allowing anyone to hang at my house anymore though since Uncle William, Aunt Wendy, the Twins 'n' Kenna, and Skyler moved in with us. That's twelve people in my house. If they do come over, they have to stay on my roof or something. Anyway, that's my super fun post which I typed because I was so bored. Goodbye.

Bye Bye Birdie

This past week was the school musical. In case you haven't figured it out yet, we did "Bye Bye Birdie". It is my 7th period class. Tryouts to actually be in the class are in April every year, and then the class starts second semester. Three months ago in February, we had tryouts. I tried out for a girl named Ursula. She's a super hyper, crazy, hilarious girl who is the best friend of Kim MacAfee. Ursula is absolutely in love with Conrad Birdie. I don't have time to tell the story of Bye Bye Birdie, so I'll let you guys look it up on youtube or google it or something. Anyway, I tried out for Ursula. Even though I didn't get the part (I didn't expect to), I was absolutely thrilled to make call backs. To know that Ms. Swallow might even consider me for a main part was just amazing.

The main characters had to stay after school almost every day to get their blocking and start rehearsing every scene. It's a good thing I didn't get a main part because that would've totally messed with lacrosse (it's funny how I don't get to be in things I really wanted to, but it ends up being for the better. Like if I had made musical theater the year before or madrigals, I wouldn't be able to do a lot of the stuff I want to do). We've had choreography rehearsals every Monday during 7th period and going until about 4 pm to learn all of the dances. About three weeks ago, we went to the place where we would be performing for the first time. We usually perform at Rodgers Memorial Theater every year, but we couldn't this year because they're rebuilding it somewhere else. Our school stage was out of the question, it's so terrible. However, Bountiful Jr. High let us use their stage. They saved Swallow's life I think. So we got there and started rehearsing until about 5 or 6 each day. It used to take us three hours just to get through one of the acts. The set was a pain to get on and off and took up a lot of the time too.

Wednesday before last, we started staying after school until 9 pm. A bus would take us straight from 7th period to Bountiful every day and we were served dinner at 6. We soon got to the point where we could go through the whole musical two times a day and we started wearing our costumes and using mic's. It was tiring and my spiritual nourishment from seminary suffered from it because I fell asleep in seminary more than a couple of times. I would get home around 9:30 pm and I would still have to do my homework and chores. Last Monday was our final dress rehearsal before the show started. I straightened my hair for the musical, and we all got to wear tons of make up (the boys weren't happy).

On Tuesday we had our first show. It was the parent preview and our first time performing for more than ten people. It was really fun to go out there for the first song, Telephone Hour, and see all the people in the audience. I had to force myself not to stare at them and try to find people I knew. It was so weird hearing them actually clap and laugh. I didn't even know some parts were funny, and other parts I just heard so many times that it didn't even seem funny anymore so it was really cool hearing people react other than Ms. Swallow's hyena laugh.

Wednesday was really fun. We had such a good audience and they laughed at everything. Before each of our performances, the whole cast would go outside and someone would say a prayer and then we'd all do a cheer to get us pumped. The show went well, except for the fact that some of the mic's suck and keep on breaking off or making popping noises. They really irked us. On Thursday, the girl who played Kim MacAfee (Ashley Peterson) lost her voice. I thought her voice would just be a little raspy or something. No, raspy would've been great. When she sang her first solo, How Lovely to be a Woman, she could barely sing it. Her voice just sounded so bad, she couldn't hit most of the notes, her voice kept on breaking, and she sounded like she was trying not to cry. We didn't know what to do. All of us in the cast were in the hall outside of the stage, and most of us were just pacing with our hands over our mouths because we felt so bad for her but we didn't know what to do. Ashley kept on going, and she got a very loud applause at the end of her song. It totally downed our energy, and even though we did well with our singing and acting, we weren't very energetic because we were upset that Ashley was having trouble with her voice. During intermission, we all went outside and talked for a while and then we said another prayer. Us girls then went into our changing room and started singing our favorite song Be a Man from Mulan while this girl improvised it on the piano. We then performed our best second act, we had tons of energy and decided we weren't going to let anything get to us. During the show, a girl who plays Ursula had to sing her solo for her, and another girl sang her part in a song backstage. Her voice was a bit better Friday, and she sounded good on her solos. She just changed the notes and sang them down an octave or just talked them or changed the notes altogether to make it sound good with the music. We were so proud of her. A bunch of my friends and my family, my sister's boyfriend, Grandma Carol, and John, Marjorie, and Amanda all came. I was mad because the stupid mic's were being dumb again and the main guy's mic completely turned off during the second act so you could barely hear him during one of the best songs. Oh well. Saturday we had our two last shows, one at 3 pm and another at 7. Those two were our best performances. They switched the mic's around so the main guy's wasn't so glitchy. After the 3 pm show, they fed us food and I just stayed and hung out with the cast. Then we had our last performance which went really well. We had so much energy and we did such a great job. I had tons of fun. I was pretty sad when it was over. We then stayed until 10:30 taking down the set and cleaning up everything. We then went to one of the main character's (who happens to be the daughter of a former Miss America) house to hang out since our cast party wasn't until Monday. We had a fire outside and had s'mores and hot dogs without buns, played basketball, football, and later did truth or dare where I totally lost it and got hyper and did some really crazy stuff....

I'm sad the musical is over, but at the same time I'm excited to have my life back. It was fun, I just wish it could've lasted a little longer. It was super fun and I got an awesome jacket, a DVD, and a bunch of new friends from the show. I could've lived without having to go through the boys' changing room to get on stage and seeing my guy friends with no shirts or boxers though. I don't think they minded :) Now I'm working on getting the songs out of my head. Anyway, that's my story of Bye Bye Birdie. I congratulate anyone who actually read this whole thing. I just really enjoy typing and giving details, it takes me about 2-3 hours to write in my journal. Anyway, zai jian wo de peng you!

Pictures of Musical Friends at Lagoon

This week, I've been at musical theater a lot for rehearsals because our show is next week. Last week on Wednesday, we went to the stage where we'd be performing the musical for the first time. When 7th period starts, instead of going to the choir room for musical theater, we just get our stuff and get on a bus that takes us straight to Bountiful Jr. High. We had to stay until about 5 pm each day. It was weird at first getting used to dancing and acting on the stage after only doing it in the choir room. We had to do a lot of adjusting to make everything to look okay. The boys weren't happy at first because the only way to get to stage right is through the band room which is the boys' changing room. It's kind of weird going through there. It sounds weird, but I could seriously care less if they're changing or not. As long as they're covered I don't mind. I only get off stage there at one time when they all have to all change, so I just keep my eyes straight forward and don't look around even though there are guys with their shirts off around me. I like just hanging in the girls changing room, and I'm going to bring my ipod so we can listen to music in there. We change in the choir room. Last Wednesday, we started tech. That's when we get to stay there until about 9 pm each night. On Wednesday, I left for about an hour and a half from 4:30 to 6 to go to an employee party at Lagoon with Sammy because I felt like it. So I stayed at Bountiful Jr. until 9 to 9:30 pm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. They feed us dinner around 6:30 each day, and that food tastes amazing because we are super hungry by the time dinner comes around. The only part I don't like is when we have to all sit down and takes notes on what Ms. Swallow tells us we need to work on because that takes about an hour and it's so boring and it's right before dinner so we're starving. I thought it would be not very fun and and it would tiring staying there for 7 hours, but I actually had tons of fun. The people there are so much fun to hang out with, and we're getting much better at the musical. It used to take us about 4 hours to get through the whole musical, and now it only takes us a little over 2 which is perfect. Our choreography finally looks better and people aren't forgetting their lines or cues anymore and it's looking really good. I'm excited for the musical to start in three days! It's kind of weird that the musical will be over in a week. I don't want it to end, but at the same time I'm tired of it. We will have our final dress rehearsal until 9 tomorrow (I wouldn't be surprised if it went until later), and then the parent preview on Tuesday and then five shows after that. I'm going to straighten my hair for it which is going to be a pain, but my curly hair just doesn't work.

I was pretty tired when I got home around 9:45 pm on Friday night and thought about how I had to be to work in 12 hours. I attempted to watch TV with my mom, but fell asleep. I was so not in the mood to go to work. I got there a bit late, and my ride opened less than five minutes after I got there. There were two attendants, one operator, and a supervisor there. I was attending at the white roller coaster. For half of the time, I would wait for the ride to pull in and the people to get out. Then I walk down and make sure all the seats are up and no one dropped anything on the ride. Then when the gates open, everyone gets in and I get to run down one side of the train thing and bend over and push down on everyone's restraints as I pass them. I felt kind of weird doing it at first, but I got used to it and stopped feeling weird pushing down on people's upper legs. For the other half of the time, I just stood at the entrance and checked for loose articles and hand stamps. That was so exciting. It was a bit awkward just standing there and looking at people and and pointing at my hand to indicate hand stamps and trying to smile. Towards the end of the day, a girl lost her phone so we decided to go on a hat run. A bunch of supervisors and some operators stopped the ride, told everyone it would be a 10 to 15 minute wait, and quickly ran on the tracks and on the ground around the roller coaster to look for lost items and the phone. The guests weren't happy, and it was this other 15 year old and my job to talk to the guests and keep them happy and apologize for the delay. That was fun. I decided to go walk over to a couple of different groups of people and chat with them. I was tempted to go over to the microphone and start a sing-a-long to keep everyone happy. I was relieved when the ride started again. Tons of people lost their phone on that ride, but we found most of them in between the seats or at the front of the train. I also had this guy who wanted to go on the ride with a ginormous stuffed animal that he won at a game. I told him he couldn't take it on, and he was so mad. He started cussing at me and told me how stupid that was. When he turned away I just rolled my eyes. His friend saw me and saw how annoyed I was, so he just told his friend that they should just leave and that I'm right. Thank you. I also had a lot of people who noticed the sign that said "Shoes and Shirts must be worn" so then they would laugh and say "so does that mean I can take off my pants?" That was getting so old. People don't generally go around with no pants, but they do like to go around with no shoes or shirts so that's why we have the sign. This one guy asked me if he could take off his pants since the sign said nothing about wearing no pants, so I told him to go ahead. His friends and him then started laughing hysterically. Whatever.

When I got home that night, I had some friends come over later to hang out. We mostly hung outside and climbed on my roof. Ashley was at prom with her boyfriend. Later, we watched "Sixth Sense". I've seen the whole movie, but I've never seen it all at once before. It was spiffy. After the movie was over, it was just me and two guys left so we were just talking half asleep on my sofa when I heard people at the door. I just assumed it was Ashley and didn't want to answer the door, but they kept on knocking. I was so confused when I answered the door, because there were people in dresses and a guy in a suit, but it wasn't Ashley or her boyfriend and it was dark. Then a boy said "Hi Celeste!" I stared at them for a while until I realized that it was my cousin Amanda and her friends. The guy was a boy named Kyle Mollinet who I've known since 5th grade but I've never talked to him in person before. We used to email each other all the time and talk on msn and on facebook a couple of times and I saw him in their school musical because he was a main character. It was weird to see him. Anyway, Amanda and all of her friends came just to get her younger sister from my house and then left. My two friends then left and I went to bed. The End. That's my exciting week. Btw, here are some pictures of me playing lacrosse.

stick checks

I have the ball!! and I'm running with it!!

I have the ball again :]

And again. These make me feel cool.

In the background, I'm number 13

Sitting by the heater because it was freezing

The team picture that's on our website

Lacrosse Article

Viewmont Girls Lacrosse Team Article - Salt Lake Tribune.

Someone did a story about us, I think it's pretty spiffy. Read it.

Brian Accord is the hockey coach at our school and started the lacrosse team because his daughter, Addie, played one season and thought Viewmont should have a team (they call him Acorn, it's Accord). Sam Pierson and Alli are my coaches. We were undefeated until our very last game.