classic epic times

The past week, but especially yesterday, was a classic example of Bethie's-family-craziness. 

Several awesome rehearsals of R + J.  Various situations at school (math class is doing a chapter on probability, which I have always failed at.)  Culinary class.....biology....one day I stayed at school about 9 hours, never came home after class because I had rehearsal after. 

Yesterday was even more frenzied than usual. Robotics 9--5, as usual on Saturdays. Grueling. We had to scoot out directly at 5 instead of lingering, owing to the fact that me dad had to get to a jam session at 6. He and some friends have had a couple of practice sessions and are doing some really fun stuff, rock, a little bluegrass, etc.   They've been recording, and are considering performing somewhere, maybe at parties or that sort. Fun times. So anyway we had to pack up dad's keyboard, into the van. 

Here we pick up a thread of another story:  I was still trying to decide whether or not I could get to Dallan's birthday festivities that evening.  There had been various problems with the schedule colliding with my dad's, and other things, and as of Saturday afternoon I wasn't going. However I started feeling worse and worse about it, and we worked out the situation. 

Promptly upon coming home from robotics I had to deal with the mother-hen situation: We still have only one chick; I think the other eggs are being laggardly.  The hen led the 

peep down out of the nestbox while I was gone, and I had to put them both into a separate cage, warm straw etc.   From thence we ran back inside. 

5:45 pm, carting the keyboard out to the car. We got into the front hall just as the doorbell rang.   We were positive it would be our talkative neighbor, who always pops by to discuss things with my dad JUST as we are either trying to rush out the door, or when he's chopping wood, or you name it. My dad, at the other end of the keyboard, said 'Keep going!' as I backed down the hall towards the door: as in, 'we're coming at our own swift pace'. Meanwhile I laughed hilariously and silently: such a typical scene, trying to send people off in different directions at the same time, pack the car, deal with the critters, and now there's somebody at the door.  :P   Well we got to the door, opened it, and got a happy surprise: it was a different neighbor from down the street (used to be a student of my dad's) and his girlfriend (who I know from dance and so forth)--great people both-- who'd taken us up on our offer to come say hi to the goats whenever they were in the area, and also to contribute to the local theatre :)  ...evidently there had been a battleaxe (unsharpened) from a metel-working place around here, and they thought it might be helpful to my theatrical endeavors. Needless to say, I was very happy with this!  Our house seems to accumulate props.... 

Happy reunion and they helped get the keyboard out to the car, then we went back to the goat cage as I figured out the transportation situation with daddy. Had a good time swapping country stories: tales of poultry-transportation, feral emus, and alpaca-snobbery ;P

They left shortly to continue their walk, as I hustled back inside to continue getting ready. I had decided that I had to go a bit late. But lo, we swiftly get a phone call from Eva.....the whole plan for the evening had been vague in the extreme, and whilst I knew we were meeting at the Chinese buffet in town, she thought it was at Dallan's place. Of course it was dark and silent when she got there, hence the call to me. Well she was about five minutes away from my house so we arranged a ride-share :)  

Rendezvoused at the restaurant. Lotsa fun. Half-dozen of us awesome people :)  After eating we progressed to the bowling alley. It was just down the street so we walked, lovely clear night. Definitely epic times, all of us either skipping, running, or playing follow-the-leader most of the way :D  Provided a nice spectacle for the passers-by.

 

Bowling was lotsa fun, I did really badly (had beginner's luck the first time I guess :P  ) but I still had a fabulous time  as I am not really competitive, hehe.   

I had not planned to go to the movie afterwards with the others as it would be very late and I wasn't too interested in what they were planning to see. However as the evening progressed I had such a good time that I did not want it to end ^^  and then they decided on Sherlock Holmes which 

I'd heard was very good.   Called dad and negotiated. Cell phone issues to the max.   

Jubilation on my part when I at last convinced him that it would be okay if I got home after midnight, etc.   In happy mood we set off (by car, this time) to the movie theatre.  I haven't been to a movie for months....happy times....I don't think I've ever gone with friends, come to that. 

Raced in there just after 10 PM for the showing of Sherlock Holmes. 

Here we are outside the cinema:  sadly our group had pared down by that time. Back to the four peeps that did crazy stuff last fall  :D

And now to the movie review, which will be brief.   I've only read one Sherlock Holmes book, and if you're keen on movies being true to books you may not like this film. I however enjoyed it no end. Definitely PG-13, heh. Some violence but I 

dunno, that never bothers me ^_^ 

Really visually enjoyable film: 1800s London....some stunning scenes at the docks, etc.   The pace was, I thought, perfectly judg

ed. Classic thrilling climax and really good ending.   AND the score was fabulous.   Go look it up right now please. Actually I should put it on my playlist.... I think it's my theme song at this point.....perfectly sums up the brilliant insanity which characterizes me  :D   >:)  You notice Sherlock Holmes wasn't very modest either.....And there was some great Irish music for parts.....The Dubliners I think.....woohoo...

In short, look into this movie, use judgement; if you're going to see it, it deserves to be seen in the theatre. 

Got home around 12:30, then it was off to early church service around 7 AM .....so fun, hehe  

Improvisational theatre class/meeting thingee this afternoon, lots of fun theatre games :D

I have had a splendid weekend.....NOW it's on to conquer the next week....

Lexan, hay, rehearsals, oh and let's not forget Gaelic Storm!

Recent exploits include drilling through a 1/4 " steel plate, dealing in nuts and bolts, cutting Lexan on a saw and getting Lexan dust all in my hair and clothes (Lexan is really tough clear plastic/polycarbonate.....we LOVE Lexan! :P) , and being very possibly the most energetic person at folk dance the other night......two hours of dancing and by the end I was still bouncing with adrenaline.....throwing jumps and hops in where there were not supposed to be jumps and hops....at the very end the teacher put on the music for a really fast Israeli dance and WHAM came another adrenaline rush......about half a  dozen of us teens who had performed it last year went off doing it......good times :D

But of course I spent all day Saturday at robotics, and also Monday: when other people enjoyed their three-day weekend, I had a one-day weekend......declared Monday night after getting home from an 8-hour robotics day, "Time for a weekend!"

Came home and had to deal with hay for the goats, this involved a lot of hay getting down my back. One of the goats had got out in the day while we were away, and mum and neighbor heroically dealt with the crisis. 

Rehearsal today: I am frantically trying to balance robotics with theatre. I desperately want to be in the play, but the rehearsal dates are lining up poorly with the final few weeks of robotics.... :(  

Then we have a baby chick out in the henhouse, I was lax about egg-collection and the hens got broody. We will shortly be overflowing with baby chickens and I'll be trying to palm them off on people. 

we survived the first two weeks!

Yesh my friends, it has been a long time. There's been a lot of stuff going on! But s'all good :)

We shall write this post under several heads! I think we need a table of contents! 

1. School

2. Robotics

3. Theatre

4. Whatever I feel like :P

So! School is going well. We had an awful lot of math homework all week, and I managed to not do any biology until Wednesday night, the day before bio class, hehe. 

On Monday night I declared, "Time for a weekend!" after getting home at a late hour. This sentiment was echoed by dad and friends. We had a consensus that Tuesday January 12th should have been a weekend!

We had a math test today, which I think I did rather well on (for me, in math, that means 80% or so). 

In culinary we had an event: catered a lunch for the teachers, Mexican food....very stressful but fun. 

I then proceeded to stay at school because it wasn't much longer til rehearsal. 

Which brings me to theatre, even though it's not in order. 

Romeo and Juliet progresses well, I have fun waiting about as I'm not in many scenes. Good times. Gotta love theatre. 

Robotics progresses even better. The kickoff was on Saturday last, and we have embarked on the exhausting 6 weeks of madness. We have a robot that drives, although it is last year's stripped-down bot with this year's controls, and we have a working device to kick soccer balls (part of this year's game). 

Yesterday I got to solder some electrical wires, and I've been hammering nails and driving screws to build a mock-up of the field. In short, departing from my ordinary course of business :)      

And we have a three-day weekend coming up.....I think this is a happy factor :) 

I am just now realizing how tired I am....sorry this post isn't very interesting! I love you all....leave a comment....leave a chat message.....  :D

Perhaps pedantic

 A quick note from the frozen North! Except it's not frozen.....we've had rather warm weather. Warm and very, very damp. 


My weekend proved harassing: lots and lots of math. Saturday afternoon I went to the second performance of Mary Poppins.....came home and did about 6 hours of math. Went to bed around 11 PM (late for me) but could not get to sleep: at 1 AM I decided that I was hungry and a carrot, some goat cheese on bread, and a cup of hot cocoa would be just the thing. And of course I had to check Facebook while I was up, went back to bed and set my alarm for 6:30 next morning, so as to get the math out of the way early.  On less than 6 hours of sleep I continued through the day, and by evening was slightly high from lack of sleep, and inclined to become enthused at the smallest provocation. In this mood I attended the last (for that weekend) performance of Mary Poppins. 

The show was fabulous, by far the best of the three that I saw. By the first scene I could tell it was going to be a good show, the energy was high, the audience was awesome. I remained positively bouncing with excitement the whole time and started a standing ovation at the end :D 

One of our little errands earlier in the day had been to go to Staples and buy a flash drive, to replace the one which went missing before Christmas. That was a lengthy process and I am now the embarrassed owner of a PINK 4GB flash drive. There was an interesting sequence of events that led to our getting it much cheaper than the identical black one. At least it is a dark, metallic pink, not bubble-gum. Ergh.   It needs a name now.....I think it may be a he.....

Another little highlight of my weekend involved chasing an escaped goat through the mud while Siamsa (Lord of the Dance soundtrack) played in the background.   I had neglected to fasten the gate while getting hay for the goats and of course Fiona made off across the yard at top speed. I slid in the chicken-yard mud and almost miraculously avoided getting any mud on my trenchcoat. Twas truly epic. 

I am feeling more nerdy every day. How embarrassing to decide, in what may be my last year of high school, that I actually sort of like math and might want to be a computer programmer! A little late, don't you think, considering that I barely knew how to use a computer at age 11? 

I haunt the counseling center at CHS, hunting down interviews with officials, trying to iron out the National Merit situation. Note: if you ever qualify for National Merit, do NOT pass it up for any reason! You will regret it and spend your life hanging around sketchy hallways attempting to schedule alternative means: like retaking the SAT.....      

And it would be very handy if I could decide whether I want to be a writer, theatre geek, or computer programmer, or event planner. 

Math was AWESOME today, the teacher is splendid, the energy is high. Conic sections! woot! 

AND my programming book finally came in at the library :D 

A quick note: a beloved follower commented on my use of brackets.....hehe, long story! It began with my messy handwriting and the fact that parentheses look like a C, sort of. Hence I made the switch to brackets and it carried over into typing [as you can observe in this painfully obvious example]. 

I promise, sometime soon we will have a Trenchcoats United award......   >:)   Meanwhile, the name is Copyright!! :P

Did YOU wear your trenchcoat with pride today?

Bethany wants to say goodbye

I feel like I'm making the preparations for my own funeral: putting all my earthly affairs in order, saying a last goodbye to friends, explaining that I will be in a better (?) world. Explanation: school starts Monday. 

I got behind on my math yesterday, so today I have 6 lessons to work through. Please cue loud music and adrenaline. 

Last night I went to the opening night performance of the local AAA Theatre's show Mary Poppins.  Very impressive and a fun show. Am going to the matinée show today, and the evening performance tomorrow. 

This week I have a number of things: goat 4-H club, and on Saturday is the robotics kick-off, at an unholy hour of the morning. And oh yes, I was just reminded that there is still that blasted biology quarterly test to study for and take. :(   Hopefully rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet will start also. 

I shan't be able to resist posting from time to time, because my blog is my journal more or less, but it probably won't be often. So farewell folks, it's been good knowing you  :)

*exits stage left humming 'Chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cheroo'*