amazing 4th year TRIP!

I got back from the 4th year trip last night. It was amazing...I guess that's the only way to put it. There were parts that were really fun but a lot of it was more challenging-ly enjoyable than just fun.

First we had a five hour car ride (or in my case, bus ride) which was just that: a bus ride. I don't really have anything else to say about it. Once we got there, the girls in my bus got to sleep in the really nice cabin while everyone else slept in bunk beds. It was nice to get some sleep because if I were in a room with 15 other people I would have stayed up a lot later.

Anyway, after a pretty good lunch (some people complained about the lack of steak...we all have our preferences:)), we went to the ropes course.

One of the first things that the guide said as an introduction to the next two days was about "comfort bubbles/zones". She asked us to try to really expand our bubbles. I think mine definitely grew...maybe even doubled...during this trip.

I am not good with heights. I started on the ropes course at the easiest one. It was a cable stretched out between two trees...maybe a story high? with a rope about three feet above it to hold on to. You just had to shuffle across...you even had a harness! But I took one look down and felt like I was about to cry. I did it though! I'm really proud of myself there. I got across and shouted "Booyah, Grandma" like the guides told us to. I even did another "rig" where you walked on something that looked a lot like a bridge but it was 1. high off the ground 2. wobbly 3. there was a gap that you had to jump over. I was holding my "harness-rope" for dear life.

After that, we got to go swimming...in a lake. I have an extremely irrational fear of large bodies of water where I can't see the bottom, but I stretched out my bubble even more by swimming! Only downside--I smelled like lake water even after a shower. :)

After a spider the size of a half-dollar coin (no joke.) and bear inside, we went sleep...and got up the next day for an hour ride (I slept through most of it..mostly because I stole Sydney's pillow) to get to the rafting place.

I have, like I said, always had the irrational fear of great, natural bodies of water. It didn't help when the guides showed us a video of what to do if you fell out of the raft. The worst part was "If you do this, it could be fatal, don't do this or you'll die"..etc. About then I started to REALLY freak out. I guess because I had sat out on things like this and felt like I had missed a lot. So I went. With one complete meltdown behind me, I had tons of fun on the rapids. It was amazing. I am so glad that I did that. Thank you so much, Toni, Matthew, and Rachel for making this happen!!!!!!!!!!!

No regrets.

Watching the other side

I just went to one of my friends dance recitals. It was good, she was good and all that jazz...:)

But it was kind of hard to watch because the school that was putting on the recital has an amazing program and amazing dancers in that program. I was sitting there going "Wow I wish I could do, look like or dance like that!" I think the only word I can use for that is jealousy. Yes, I admit it, I was jealous of the dancers out on the stage. Jealous of their technique, the choreography and their amazing stage presences. I just hope that one day I'll look like that and feel as good dancing as I think they do.

:0 sigh...

Well, the recital's over. It went as well as a recital can ever go--with (in this case) one big problem..mess-up...etc.

The Jazz and "little kids" shows went pretty much perfectly as far as I can tell but right before the Ballet performance started (the first dance--also my first dance-- was onstage in their first pose) three of the 12 year old dancers somehow got locked in the dressing room. Besides not having three dancers until the dressing room was unlocked, many peoples' costumes (like my second one) were locked inside. Great, right? No stress, nothing to worry about. Eventually, my second dance rolled around and the dressing room still wasn't open. There was a class right before our dance that had blue costumes that looked similar to ours so me and one other girl who had her costume in the locked dressing room, too borrowed costumes from the "blue class" and quickly changed (my friend said that the two people with the different costumes got to be the "soloists" yay! Immediate promotion! something good came out of this! :). Who would have thought that as soon as our music came on, I could hear the screams of joy when the dressing room was unlocked-- seriously. As soon as our dance started. Oh well...I got to wear my costume in the finale and the three dancers who were locked in there got to dance (their dance was moved to the end of the show.) All was well. :)

Recital??!!!

I have my end of year dance recital tomorrow. I'm really excited...but I wish that this year hadn't gone so fast. Usually, for my recitals, it's mostly wait, dance, wait, wait, wait, but this year, since I'm in 6 classes (two ballet, four jazz)There are about three dances for every one I'm in, instead of being in one out of ten. Anyway, it should be fun.

The Jazz recital is "Peter Pan" this year. I am a lost boy, "Indian" and "poison". The poison dance is amazing. I really like it...but by the end of it, we're in a circle, and you can hear everyone panting...it's almost louder than the music :0. In the Indian dance, our song is "I don't want to work, I want to bang on the drums all day" and we dance with drumsticks. We sound pretty good if I do say so myself. There is this lift in the Lost Boys dance that I really hope works. I'm supposed to be thrown up in the air by two of my friends, but so far I haven't gotten up very high....I guess I just hope that it works.

Stage makeup: I'm always worried that I'm wearing too much or not enough. Everyone I talk to seems to do it differently. Oi!

This is my first year on pointe in the recital. I am not so much nervous as I am anxious and hoping (fingers WAAAYY crossed) that my two blisters will heal more and not hurt as much as they did today during the dress rehearsal. Also, I think that my pointe shoes are too small- not by much but enough for my big toes to be really sore while I have the shoes on. I didn't really have a choice because when I got these pointe shoes (they're just broken in) the size up was too big.

Wow! It feels really good to rant! Probably will again soon!

Final TechSmog

How might you use something you learned this week to change the world for the better?

I think for one thing, the things we've learned this week definitely help us communicate smarter & better (that sounds kind of weird...is the grammar right?) and be more savvy on the internet. Because communication is so important to "improving the world", things like blogger and twitter will help make it easier to communicate.

I could use my blog and twitter account to express my views and connect with people who share those views. Reading other blogs on reader could keep me easily informed and always learning more.

Twitter could (and probably will) keep me in touch with friends and family. I really appreciate that because I'm really bad about returning emails and letters.

Thank you so much, Matthew!

Thelma the Brave

Once upon a time there was a girl named Thelma. She was very unhappy. Her father was a farmer and her mother slept all day so Thelma had to do all of her chores. It was not a fun life. More often than not, Thelma, her seven brothers, her weentsy inteseey little sister, her father and her mother only had fruit to eat with the occasional veggie or dead rat thrown in. They had to make do.

One day, Thelma woke up in a horrible mood. Her head was aching and her back was sore. Her eyes seemed to droop and her legs felt almost numb. She was sick and tired of all this hard work! She was only six years old, for heavens sake, she shouldn't be doing the work of a grown woman for such a huge family. It was not fair! Tears started to stream down Thelma's cheeks. No! She was not going to cry and wallow in her own self pity! Thelma smiled. That was a good one! She walked over to her bare desk and selected a worn sheet of paper to quickly write it down before she forgot it. That phrase would go really well in one of her poems. She wiped her face on the edge of her worn and too small skirt she moseyed to the kitchen to start breakfast before any of her family woke up. (And when they did that, they were always hungry.)

After Thelma had made breakfast, she felt a little better. Then her little bitty sister Alice cried. No, more like she screamed. Thelma ran as fast as she could to her parent's room so that she could calm Alice before she woke them up. Alice had always loved the kitchen, so that is where Thelma brought her, knowing that Alice would busy herself with the spices while she ate her breakfast. After Thelma finished her breakfast, she was so exhausted that she laid her head on the worn wooden table and quickly fell asleep to Alice's indistinct mumblings.

Thelma jolted awake. The house and kitchen were completely silent. Thelma jumped up and ran to her parents room. They were gone. To her brothers'. They were gone too. Her whole family had suddenly disappeared! Thelma was all alone.


.....Make up the rest for yourself.....

Leaving my Mark

If I had to write (or say) only one phrase in...... I would write.......
1. A piece of acid-free paper..."There is always a reason to dance."
2. Journal stored in a attic "Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."
3. In stone...."Humans are wrong and Humans are right and a real person accepts that both will happen and fixes their mistakes."
4. Blog....Try watching So You Think You Can Dance
5. In water....(I wouldn't write anything....If it was a hot day I would spray water at myself and those around me. Our footprints would leave the mark :))
6. Graffiti ....Fun is relaxing
7. Magazine and/or Newspaper...
8. Speak out loud....Do what you can to make you and your world better.