Performance Week!

Wellwellwell it's been a while!  

I'm not dead yet.... :D

College Algebra/trig has been going well....so far it's just been 'review'  :P   But it's a good class...very small actually. The teacher is INSANE but very awesome :) and I've got a whole page of quotes from algebra...some from students but mostly Ms. Kimes  :)  It tells you something that she's got a little note on her filing cabinet: 'C___ High School,  ___ Kimes   Evil Cackle'   :D

Rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet are also going...well...ish. INTENSE.  Things got fast and furious about Tuesday of last week, with long rehearsals and lack of sleep.   Wednesday night I came home from a late rehearsal, did math, and around 10 PM I came to the realization that 'Oh crud we really should have competed for the Woodie Flowers award.'  (Robotics stuff: in honor of one of FIRST's founders, Woodie Flowers, it celebrates the mentor [robotics coach-type] who best embodies the spirit of FIRST.)  Well as usual our whole team was too busy building the robot to write an essay, and nobody actually thought of it except ME the DAY BEFORE the essay was due.   And of course I was finishing up Chairman's Award essay and stuff. 

One of our mentors has worked harder than anyone for the past 8 years or so, the team wouldn't exist without him.   Nobody from our team has ever been nominated for WF. I decided that if he can give hours of time, work practically a second job (that's what robotics is :P ) I can stay up and write an essay....

Thankfully there was a word limit, so it only took me about two hours. Writing an essay at midnight is a really exhilarating experience, as was getting up for school next day, Thursday. Rehearsal as usual.

There was a happy moment when I was curled up on the floor backstage trying to catch 40 winks when somebody shouted onstage, and I panicked, thinking it might be me needed, and sat up and banged my head on this pile of heavy metal thingees. Promptly cracked up. Later I managed to stand up directly under another hard boxy thing....fun times :)

 Friday our rehearsal started as usual at 3:30 in the afternoon. Cue-to-cue: the tech people are working on lighting. Actors say a line, stop. Wait. Wait some more. Skip to the end of the scene and wait some more.  Took hours to get through the first act. We were there til 11 Pm.   

It was also the first time run crew (shlepping sets and props and furniture) was actually working with servants (moving more shtuffs for scenes). 

As a Capulet servant, I (with 4-ish other servants) move these four potted trees on and offstage a LOT. Like after every third scene. We only started doing this in the past few days. Oh, and we're still acting in a couple scenes.  

Those confounded trees haunt my every waking thought. Before Friday's rehearsal I had been on top of things, and printed out a list of every scene and what had to be moved on stage. (We are now on the third revision of this important list.)

Run crew and fellow servants love me. There are a total of three people on run crew which is NOT enough. It got really exciting when the four trees blossomed to six, spread amongst us four servants (has to be servants because it's in the scene). 

And there's this miserable bench that I and another girl have to get on and offstage. There was one time when she wasn't there and I raced out onstage to grab it, to cheers from the techies in the audience....a great moment :) 

There was an issue getting home, so I got to hang round the theatre later than almost anybody else. My dad was working late on the robot and did not get home til 1:30 that morning. 

I dreamed all night about rehearsal, and those bloody trees! XD

Saturday proved even more interesting, with a second revision of the master-list, which has made run crew adore me :P   

 This time it was my turn to miss my cue with that blasted bench. Twice. The first time because I thought I had more time than I did, and was marshalling the troops for the next tree-moving bit. ARGH. Then I was all primed to make sure I didn't miss the next bench-scene, and took a SECOND to try and find tree-people, and BAM missed the entrance. Apologies all round, franticness. 

After about 1 pm I rushed cross-town to robotics scrimmage; big pre-competition thingee before the robot is boxed up Tuesday night. We did pretty well, except for a tip-over which resulted in something coming loose, and also the treads came off one wheel....thank goodness for epoxy! 

Stayed there til 7 when my mom came and rescued me from the deadly-dullness of standing-around-not-being-able-to-help-much (as was most of the team, it was just programming issues at that point.) 

My dad was really suffering, he couldn't help much either and was holed up trying not to fall asleep....commented that it was almost like being stuck in an airport at 1 AM.   He got home pretty early thankfully: 9:30. 

I went to bed at 8:30 and got about 12 hours of sleep...off to rehearsal at 1 this afternoon to find it had been cancelled :( I was really wanting to run through again with crew, those trees....Director was beyond enthused about my scene list and general preparedness, commented on my responsible-ness =D  which made me happy. 

ADRENALINE

Just a quick and over-capitalized note from Bethie-the-Insane! :D

Today got back our math tests from last Friday (finals week....fun times). We graded them in class, as well as turning in our calculator project (have I actually not posted on that? The assignment was to use a graphing calculator to draw a picture of a cartoon character, using equations.....fun but lotsa work).   

Me calc proj. (Charlie Brown :)  turned out well.....glad to be done. AND the math test was AWESOME!!!!!!     I thought I did rather poorly on it.....but NO.........

WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!! 

COLLEGE ALGEBRA, HERE I COME!!!!!!

Came out of class and could not stop smiling XD  

Oh, and rehearsals are AWESOME :)  Three weeks til the show, yowp!   Tried on half of one of my two costumes yesterday, so puurtyy!  hehehehe    Blue tapestry-sort bodice. All the costumes are really awesome. It's so fun to be part of a huge production like this!!!!  We had a hysterically funny and awesome rehearsal yesterday, people running around with costumes, we've got a set onstage, balcony etc. and during the balcony scene bit they've got Romeo climbing part way up to talk to Juliet, and it was a really long scene.......the people watching from the wings were treated to the sight of the guy playing Capulet coming quietly up onstage with a long pole used in a later scene.....with Directorial approval, he later said.....well Romeo did not respond well to being poked whilst ten feet above the stage.........he just escaped falling off laughing......while the rest of the cast went into hysterics, more or less.....good times XD  

and with this, dear friends, I leave you......off to rehearsal! :P

we're done!

Ooog...where to start!

The show went very very very well.

Friday night's rehearsal (all 4 hours of it) went....that's all I can say, it went.....we had to deal with the fact that we had left it until 24 hours before the show to figure out the whole sword-fight deal. Finally decided to go with the sword-versus-pistol deal. I was in bed by 11 but was still awake at 1 AM :/

Yesterday morning, without enough sleep, I had to deal with various situations before dress rehearsal. I was able to locate a back-up for tech, as our techie was, sadly, laid low by illness. Hammered through lighting, stage crew, audio that morning: all without our main actor. Insurmountable problems prevented his being there. I had to deal with locking up the Grange afterwards and had such good times doing that. The dratted hasp on the shed door where the main key is kept is sticky in the extreme: I wound up punching it with my arm and elbow which got some attractive scratches. Note to self: always try kicking an obstacle before punching it.

Laid low at home for the duration of the afternoon. The show went perfectly, that's all I can say. I was horribly afraid I'd mess up my first lines (I had the first lines in the whole thing) but I didn't. After the dancing scene (Scene 2) I was so thrilled that it had gone well, and Dallan and I were so busy high-fiving each other after his next scene that he almost forgot to go back onstage :P

No slip-ups, no lines forgotten. All in all a very satisfactory performance. props returned safely to original donors, Grange tidied, etc.

After the show a lot of people (older, mostly :) commented on how they recognized the Django Reinhardt music we played between the scenes and in the dance scene, and were so excited to hear stuff from way back then :) which I find incredibly exciting!

I am fairly exhausted. Now it's on to Thanksgiving, and finishing up NaNo, I think I won't be able to do it :'(

As far as video: my dad video-taped it, I'm not sure what the quality is yet. I'll be editing that in the next week or two, leave a comment or email me if you might like a copy, or a copy of the movie Road to Freedom. Please note that I may need to charge shipping, I can't afford it otherwise :(

Duct tape was the motif of the whole thing. I was taping audio cables and extension cords to the floor, dancers were putting tape on the bottoms of their shoes to avoid slipping on the wood floor, I was repairing a rapier-hilt with discreet amounts, after the show I was packing up and found myself carrying a mammoth role of duct-tape. I've never used it much but I am now a fan :)

a pearl necklace comes flying through the air...Dallan drops me on my head...yes folks, it's rehearsal

[EDIT Jan. 2011:]
This post is, without fail, every single week in my stats as a top-visited page. For some reason people have been reading this page more consistently than any other. WHY??!  Is there a link to it? Are you just attracted to the name? Or what? Please leave a comment, folks, this is keeping me up at night. =D
[/EDIT]


Wow what a rehearsal! awkgk

Got up at an early hour to take a test at the local community college, which I completely dominated. BEAST. With claws. And sharp teeth.

Rehearsal went okay...it was just really really crazy, more than usual.
There is one scene that I hate and loathe with a deadly passion. It's where Dallan and I are sitting on one side of the stage doing a mime bit, "in love", and he's giving me a necklace, and I'm all "Aww shucks how sweet" except it's all silent cause Adam is trying to come on and say his line. It's a painful scene to do because it is SO HARD not to crack up....at various times he has appeared to be choking me with the necklace. Today we had a different necklace (fake pearls, those poppit things--but it is too short) and it actually was kind of strangling me, which did not improve the general situation of gasping with laughter, seeing the audience cracking up, seeing Dallan go to pieces, being aware that Adam was losing it. Augh. Then D was supposed to be gazing romantically at me and he was hamming it up: his chin on both hands, big cheesy grin, ahahaHAHAHA teehee *sniff* *gasp* sorry.

Adam: It's hard to concentrate, there's munchkins running on and off stage all the time! [Eva had brought her brothers along to practice their parts]

Then Dallan and I were practicing our swing dance and trying to put some more fancy stuff into it. We were trying to recall all the fun 'tricks' that we;d learned. We couldn't. "Let's dial 911--Phillip" was the general agreement. [He was our dancing instructor]. But we didn't; muddled through it and stuck in a rather snazzy bit that involves Dallan picking me up [over the threshold thing] and then dropping me into the splits, which is oh so much fun in my evil high heels. There was an interesting moment when he came very close to dropping me on my head.

Then there was the issue (which I did not want to address) of the absence of any form of swords for the sword-duel. I think we have that straightened out.

Also the no-curtain; dealing with sound effects; trying not to laugh.

There was the truly epic time when Brandon and I were onstage saying our lines and a pearl necklace came flying through the air towards us, from backstage. (It was, in fact, the same fake pearl necklace that had been choking me earlier.) Eva, doing Director down front, calmly said, "Continue. I'm going to go back there and kill them."

A few times back we were trying to work with the mics (which have now been dispensed with) and Dallan is backstage and I hear a scratch-scratch noise coming through the amps. (I thought it was Dallan touching the mic but turns out it was his dad scraping some paint. ) Eva says, "Okay the scritchy-scratch noise, not so much". GASP hahaha

Then there was the fake cigarette and the question of when, if ever, it should be brought out in the "Splendid....nomnomnom....evil grin" scene (haha, only the actors know what I'm talking about :) There was the consideration that it was better if it were not 'burning' a hole in Dallan's pocket in the meantime :D

The issue of finding a trenchcoat for Vivian [me] in the first scene.....also a hat....

Brandon grabs Dallan around the neck and drags him over to me [as per my anguished demand] to practice the dance again.

Adam: If must be done, tis better tis were quickly (or something like that) as we deliberate going through it one more time.


huykcg! Can't believe we only have two more rehearsals! panic!

good times :)

NaNoWriMo is my chief concern right now. My current word count is 3847 which is considerably less than my suggested count for today :( I really hope I can get caught up....I sit in front of my laptop, I'm like the Earl of Sandwich who so loved his card-games that he had people bring him bread and cheese at his table. 

The excellent Kendra has an excellent post here, on the controversial subject of Twilight. Yet another subject on which our brains run along the same un-worn grooves...

Culinary class on Tuesday was a débacle. We had a substitute teacher. Attempted to make mayonnaise from scratch. There was confusion over amounts, recipes etc. Our major problem was the fact that we pasteurized the eggs a little too long and they became soft-boiled eggs. What a day.

After culinary class on Wednesday I decided that the lovely sunny day ought not to be wasted. Schoolwork finished, I arranged to hang out with Dallan in town. We meandered [I like that word] all over, from Central Park to the riverfront, to farmers' market, etc. Bought eggs and tomatoes at market; talked in British accents for a while; discussed rehearsal, naturally. 

Rehearsal was fabulous:  people wore their costumes and it was amazing what a difference it made to their acting, they were hamming up up, it was awesome. 

Yesterday was very packed, first culinary class, then off to biology at the other end of town, yoga class which was splendid, home for a wee space of time then to goat 4-H club. We're meeting round this year, at peoples' houses. 

I knew there was going to be an incident of some sort: It was dark, raining, we got a late start, the directions were not epic. We went right past the house the first time. There was a fellow out in the [steep] driveway directing traffic. I came in late, was immediately plunged into a huge group of people, half of whom I didn't know and half of the people I do know weren't there. I was in a chair at the corner of the table, squeezed in behind the first row, lacking an agenda and jotting notes on my goat-glossary balanced on my hand. Things improved as the evening went along. Haha, specially when we went out to see their goat-barn and I was able to proffer the use of a flashlight which I had prudently packed in my jeans-pocket. 

Today culinary class was awesome: we didn't have a test after all, and we baked pies. Yum. 

Time for another blog make-over! 

Vote in the polls! Oh yes: my NaNo heroine's name is now Carissa, but her best friend does Not seem like a Megan.  :(  And the hero is boring. And the plot is nebulous at best. Meh. 

I'm still happy, folks! Good times! 

life in the land of the mixing console

Oh, good times. Yesterday we had a splendid dance rehearsal as evidenced by the accompanying pics. Perfected some snazzy tricks. Talked music. Tried to fit all seven of us onto one tiny flattened cardboard box [very interesting]. Felicity did a nice impression of a faun. Phillip did his very best "cat hacking up a furball". Dallan managed to flip me over his back without landing us both on the ground [as I did when attempting it with the hapless Felicity last week].

After that I discussed audio; came home and meandered upstairs to my dad's stacks of speakers and other stuff and..."What's this? A mixing board?!" It's an old Fostex x-26 muli-track tape recorder but I'm pretty sure it can be rigged to be a mixing board of sorts. I spent the evening curled up on the couch with it in one hand and the manual in the other, trying to get my brain around the concepts of "AUX" and "LINE/MIC" and busses and so forth. I'M A TECHIE!!! Oh yeah. Spent a looong time in Wikipedia today trying to figure things out.

The day's score has been a hot mix of '30s French jazz/swing [Django Reinhardt's "Minor Swing" for example] which I am sifting through for the play. We decided that Beatles, happy as they are to dance to, were too much of an anachronism. This is going to be one enjoyable performance.

We have plans for some sort of duet during scene change, there's a couple of duels [we do not think too much about the fact that duels were definitely out in the '30s], there's a sketchy spy in a trenchcoat, a beautiful German spy queen [haha] as played by me, there's two happy-go-lucky good-hearted [if blundering] British lads. Oh 'tis epic. All you folks in the area, come to the performance! The 21st of November: we shall trot the boards at the Western Star Grange....

I just realized that Friday's post was my 100th....appropriately titled "The times they're gettin weird". :)

You will find a new poll in the right sidebar. Also I finally got around to doing some much-needed rearrangement and house-keeping on ole bloggie! Check out the awesomeness. Also my new playlist! Hehe, gives you a sample of what my iPod set to "Shuffle" sounds like :)

better today...

A very good rehearsal today: the acting was tolerable, the voices were tolerably loud, the memorization was tolerable. It has not been tolerable at the last rehearsals. I think we'll be in good shape by the show....Friday and Saturday, the 13th and 14th of November. Is anyone else concerned that opening night is on Friday the 13th???

I've got a nasty feeling that there will not be a large turn-out other than our families and the Grange members. I will have to send out copious email and Facebook notices!!

In culinary today we opened our books to the assigned pages and...."KNIVES!! *evil chuckle*" All about knives [for culinary purposes, of COURSE.....]. Ironically I had only this morning been doing a risky bit of knife-work [cutting a loaf of hard home-made bread on its edge] and nicked myself. Haha, terribly funny.

Sliced potatoes for fries. We had our rulers out as per instruction, the dratted things have to be just so.

After rehearsal the Fabulous Three [heh] headed into town. Eva had to get off to ballet but Dallan and I wandered about town for a bit. Endless jokes. Headed to the library; off to the farmers' market [which is a good distance, if you know my town].
We decided that I am the Queen of Weird, he is the King of Funny/jokes/etc, Laurel is the Queen of Dancing [been doing folk dance for about 13 years] etc etc etc.
Good times. But I am very, very disappointed that only one person commented on my last, intense post. If I have the wherewithal to be freaky-insane for a day, YOU have the wherewithal to comment! :)

exhausted o_O

I can't do better than quote Josiah's FB status: WHAT A DAY!

So after market it was time for a spot [more like a few hours] of hauling and stacking firewood. Home for a minute and off to two hours of dance rehearsal at the Grange. For a miracle everyone was able to make it.
We blocked out the swing dance scene; learned some more fancy high-flying steps; tried to figure out important stuff like rehearsal dates, order of which pairs of dancers are in front at which time; ran to and fro [me]; exercised our thumbs afterward trying to deal with the question of rides home.
Then it was [for me] off for more wood-hauling. I am wooped, to quote Eva.

Am dealing with the unpleasant fact that there are only 4 more Saturdays for rehearsal before the performance. We really need to get our act together; I have to start tightening up on rehearsals; I think I need a megaphone.

I took this little beauty the other day.



















Ugh I am so tired.... had to cancel my happy Saturday night plans to WORK. Ugh. And I was done by 6 so it would have worked anyway. Meh.

But at least rehearsal is going pretty well....

Rehearsal yesterday was a debacle I must admit, at least for the first half hour or so. We attempted to figure out the choreography for the swing dance scene so as to be prepared for dance practice on Saturday; I really did not relish the prospect of trying to decide things under the interested gaze of a dozen bored dancers.

Eva's impersonation of the "dozen bored dancers" drew an immoderate amount of hilarity from me.

Then came this bit of enjoyment.

Script:

[Oliver Holmes (no reference to the author) enters]

OLIVER HOLMES: Here now, Charles. I would like to show you a few works of art I have just received from Paris. Charming little pieces they are. [Exits with CHARLIE]

You see we had to get Charlie offstage. Well it was really awkward. The audience does not want to watch any more swing dancing and here's Charlie exiting already leaving them no recourse.

Me: Okay, folks, here's the plan. We're going to cut out the "charming little pieces".

More discussion ensues, with me trying to hold back hilarity, especially whenever I look at Eva. I give up and rush to the door. Standing on the front steps of the Grange, laughing wildly, I think that things are in a pretty pass when the co-director is in hysterics offstage while the rest of the cast looks on worriedly and Eva tries to keep things going inside. Good grief.

Things went better after that. Finally Dallan, Eva and I went into town to chill for a while before we dispersed to our various activities [goat 4-H club for me, ballet class for Eva].

Beautiful classic fall weather, crisp but sunny.

Today I subsisted on raw tofu and pumpkin pie alone. Yum-yum. Drooled over a MacBook at biology class.

too much Facebook...

Sorry I haven't been posting lately!! FB is taking all my computer time :(

Today I had a Spanish class after culinary, a homeschool class in someone's home. Eh. Then raced over to rehearsal at the Grange where I creeped Eva out by how much I know about her schedule, plans for the weekend, etc. I have a tendency to do that to people. They start slowly backing away from me. "I am the human BlackBerry," I joke, as we plan our next rehearsal. As the other two distract me by sundry exploits with frozen bottles of water: "The BlackBerry's hard drive is overheating! It can't multitask!"

My current FB status: Bethany is looking forward to a nice evening. Risotto [with farmers' market chantarelles] on the stove--check, fire in the woodstove--check, biology homework completely [as of yesterday] pwned for the WEEK--check, new Artemis Fowl book from the library--check, geekiness--check.

Fall is here. I was just warm enough last night. At farmers' mkt today there was a notable presence of woolly hats, jackets, wellingtons, and a general air of brisk heartiness.
I wore a lovely pair of mismatched woolly long socks to school today and my feet were toasty.

Tomorrow at bio class we've got a field-trip [all of 50 feet, I think!] out to the pond to collect samples of pond-water which will then be allowed to percolate for a week, prior to excited inspection by us with microscopes. It's always fun to chase a swift-moving Volvox across the screen.

Oh wow--Blogger found about a dozen "mispelled" words in this post!
And OH YES......WHO knows about Pogo Possum???? Grandma, is it you????

That chair in front of the woodstove is beckoning me....cheers, folks!

Sorry I haven't posted! :(

I'm sorry, stuff has been going on but I've just not had the inclination to write..... :(

Two new followers have joined: Camellia Dayla [I'd link, but her blogs are private] and smorgan!!!! Thank you!!!!

So Friday at school we had an assembly. I was all unknowing until I got into the office before class with a form to deposit, and there's suddenly this ruckus at the bottom of the stairs--drums, a couple of band players. [Those of you who go to school are terribly familiar with this, but I thought you homeschoolers might get a kick out of it.] Worrying about whether my class was rescheduled [and the TEST!], I floated along on the press of people into the gym. Half-hour pep rally, CHS-ers certainly have a lot of school spirit.

The test [actually it was two tests] went well. Woot!

Good day at school, in other words. I saw a whole bunch of people that I know, which is fun. Happy reunions.

On Friday night our first swing dance rehearsal went very well.

[Here's me, on the far left, in the middle of an apparently violent "pretzel" or equivalent bit of awesomeness]

Saturday I worked most of the day, doing chores around the house [ugh] and yardwork [UGH!] and cutting up Italian prunes for drying.

Sunday was the epicness that is RenFaire. We went to early church service [very early!] and then picked up Eva and Dallan. Twas a perfect day for faire-going: actually a little too perfect, I got a nasty sunburn.

We got out to the faire site a bit before noon. Lovely area, a valley in the foothills, on a grass-field.

Here's Eva Dallan and myself

L.-R.: Eva [note the necklace she just bought], Sophie [she's the only one whose face is not in shadow, hehe], Dallan [WHY is he wearing a tophat?! and talking on the phone?!], Phillip [in epic red shirt] and behind the camera is Bethany in Scottish attire. We were standing on this really steep slope, trying to get cell-phone reception to arrange rides home and such.

Here's some more of the people we hung out with--I think we're examining a knife right there.

I'm afraid I was very remiss about taking photos :(

We didn't actually do much of anything the entire 6 hours we were there but we were never bored. Did a bit of shopping--I got a fabulous ring and chain-mail-ish necklace. Tug-of-war. Did not watch the joust. Got sunburned, in my case. And really dusty. My clothes smelled like renfaire when I came home: a mixture of wood-smoke and sun.

We had a fabulous time.

Went to folk dance afterwards which was also great, although I did not have time to go home and consequently was extremely hot in my layers of wool!

Yesterday I sort of crashed, was pretty exhausted since I hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. Rehearsal today, among other stuff.

My posts seem to be getting less interesting and humorous.....sorry! :( But I've been having a good time, it just doesn't show in my writing.

cheese, culinary class, and cargo pants

Life has been a bit scattered-and-random lately. On Monday night I was too discouraged to write, my parents had just decided I couldn't take the theatre class that I'd been so looking forward to :(

Yesterday I perked back up again. We made omelettes in culinary arts and that was fun. My group went the whole nine yards and made a nice ham-and-green-pepper sauce, which was awesome, but we were the last ones cleaning up. :)

Off to rehearsal at 4, at the Grange. That went. That's all I can say, it went.
We are still ironing out details. Eva and Dallan came over to my house afterwards and we had fun getting a costume for Eva for RenFaire, and discussing Faire in general. Played with the goats and went walking. Dallan stayed to dinner and we watched a recording of what I still consider the best play I ever wrote/acted in, Anne of Green Gables. 'Twas epic.

Today it's 73 F and raining a bit. I am feeling vaguely influenzal, hopefully that won't develop, I am NOT going to be sick before renfaire!! I'm still hungry though! I think it might just be allergies.

I submitted my [rather epic] film Road to Freedom to the local film festival, in the Young Filmmakers' category. Woot! First film fest! I've got a contact there, who liked my submission to the Fast Film Project last spring and encouraged me to go for the big one. fingers crossed....

Tomorrow is the first of our weekly bio. classes. There's about 6 students, all homeschooled, mostly a bit younger than me and all shy/quiet [I think--I don't know them all]. It'll be interesting. Kingdom Phylum Class Order.....

H School [henceforth abb. HS or CHS] is also interesting. The fashions are [gotta say it again, sorry] so interesting!! Ninety percent of the population is clad in denim below the waist, of course. But even that ranges from my conservative boot-cut Levi's from Montana [*heart*!] to skinny grey jeans to black holey concoctions. A lot of the styles are things I'd never wear, and would cringe at in the stores, but I don't know: people look good in anything. Maybe I just like looking at people. I've always thought that artificially-colored hair is rather awful but I've seen some girls with blonde hair dyed with a couple of pastel colors just at the sides, and it actually is kind of nice. [Ahem...don't freak out please, I'm not planning on dyeing my hair.]

So that covers "culinary class" but what about "cheese" and "cargo pants"? Well I was just thinking about how much I like cheese, is all. And cargo pants is what I'm wearing right now [POCKETSES!!! Love em!].
Yeah--pockets. Starting with the filming this spring I have started to carry stuff in my pockets all the time. Big ole knife [except not at school, which kills me] clipped onto the side, pencil, iPod sometimes, rubber band, string [little random tail-end, and a lovely ball of high-quality waxed stuff], needle-nosed tweezers for splinters, lighter [two, on my birthday. SO handy for lighting candles, and it means you're never without a fire-source. Just don't try to light a bunch of birthday candles and expect that the lighter will be cool enough to put back in your pocket.] um yeah, where was I....audio cables sometimes, converter, watch [that's when it's not attached, ninja-like, to my belt loop], band-aids, paper, and for the sake of this discussion I just added two paper-clips, a second lighter as I think my main one is running out of steam, and three aaa batteries. Nice, huh?

One time I found one of my mood-rings in my pocket and had NO idea how it got there. Then of course I couldn't find it again.

Jewelry is another variable. I never used to wear anything, ever. Now I wear a cross, or an amber pendent which I got in Germany, or a string of jade beads which my dad brought back from Thailand. There are a few other assorted things, nothing very valuable, but nice. Right now it's this cool wood-bead-and-stones thing. I like it.

Oh yes, I've got the most fabulous costume for renfaire!!!! Scottish-inspired. There's this nice green plaid jumper-sort of dress, over a black skirt and white puffy-sleeved shirt. Add a knife, wide black piece-of-awesomeness belt, and I'll be good to go. Except there are no pockets....

*bounce-and-squeal!* Wednesday Market today!!!! Yay!

Welcome back to Rochelle Blue!! Fare-thee-well to J. William!!!

Oh yes, I just remembered that I mentioned I'd do a special each Wednesday, Reader Wednesdays. Ths time I want your thoughts on fashion [ordinary clothing, not Haute Coture which is too weird]. Leave a comment!!!

Also I recalled the role-play which I started and did not continue with: It will come back, I'm just not sure when. :)

Internet Exploder, walnut-chucking, and other fun stuff

Yesterday was busy, to put it mildly. Started off in the morning with Co-op Sale Day, and a few other bits of business. Then back home, over to my grandmother's where I taught her how to leave a comment on my blog, and back here bearing fruit to take to rehearsal.


Rehearsal was at 4. Rehearsal went well. Rehearsal disintegrated into mass sword practice around 5. [We had our Guest Instructor, Phillip, present specifically for Instructing us in sword-play, requisite for one scene of the play.]


Us four [Dallan, Phillip, Eva and myself] stayed late--very late--doing various fun stuff. A frisbee was involved for a lot of the time. And we chucked walnuts at tree-trunks, endeavoring to crack them [actually I watched that part--I am very unskilled at any sport involving a ball, disk or anything of that sort. Although I just yesterday learned how to throw a frisbee and was told I didn't do badly. Woot!]

There was a flurry of telephoning. My cell-phone [actually it's more "the family phone"] was with my dad at work, so all four of us were forced to rely upon Phillip's phone.

Dallan: I need to call my parents. Eva: I'd better call my mom. Bethany: And I'll need it too!

At one point the last cookie was in debate. Dallan and Eva dashed inside: question marks from the others: Bethie, who heard it all: "They converged upon the last snicker-doodle."


Back into the Grange where we listened to music for the swing-dancing scene, and did some card tricks. Eva regaled us with a story of how she got lost, ran out of gasoline, and was broke with no cell-phone. Dallan served lemonade, marketed as "strong" but dismissed by me as "wussy" [I am infamous in my tolerance of sour stuff]. We discussed Converse as a shoe, coolness factor, and good idea [subsequent on seeing Phillip's new pair], and ran around barefoot on the grass outside.

I, of course, told of my little jaunt to the Grange last Saturday, on foot, and how when I got there I heard a pounding coming from inside and wondered what it was coming from: this was enlarged upon by the others: "Are you sure it wasn't a pounding coming from inside your head?" "Bethany, what were you doing the night before? Was there any sort of a party?"

The Hazlenut Incident was mentioned and related to Phillip by we three who had of course been present.
There was some arm-wrestling: epic fail, on my part. But I'm getting better.


About 6:45 Eva, being a dutiful young woman, felt it incumbent on her to depart, to help with the peach-canning at home. There was more sword-fighting [we use non-lethal weapons, by the way. Solid chunks of aluminum]. There was a foray across the road to look at the sheep. There was one pleasing little incident involving the electric sheep-fence.


More discussion of fake blood for the stage ["Zesty mint flavor!"]. A good way to simulate a knock to the jaw: take a mouthful of Tic-Tacs and a little fake blood [must be Zesty Mint flavor] and presto, there you have a nice mouthful of broken teeth.


The remaining half-gallon or so of lemonade was polished off by the two lads, who declared themselves "Blub!" This reminded me of a Pogo Possum cartoon and I promptly mentioned the name. They started backing away from me uneasily. Pogo Possum is known only to the few, the weird, the awesome.


Plans were made for the epic party coming this Saturday.


Pretty soon Dallan opined that we had best begin heading our separate ways. This proved less easy that it sounded, and involved a lot of use of the cell-phone. It turned up that Phillip did not have a ride home, and Dallan's parents were less than eager to head all the way into town again. I broached the matter to my parents and they pounced happily upon it, since we are moving various lead-like bits of furniture preparatory for a new floor, and a strong-arm was in demand. Finally got everyone home around 8:30, and stopped in at the Co-op again, as I had neglected to buy a nice goat-milk Brie earlier in the day.
Fun stuff!

Oh yeah, Internet Exploder [I did not make that awesome name up :)]! IE is....how do I say this nicely?.....yeah. You know what I mean. It sometimes treats webpages like pop-ups---opens about 2 million copies of a page and freezes up....nasty...I'm trying to switch to Firefox but that's having issues too....ugh.