A Payson Develops a Sense of Loss

The show is finally over. Guys and Dolls is kaput. All the free time on my hands may send me into shock. I played the guitar for the first time in two months today. Of course, I could only play for about two minutes, cause my calluses had disappeared and my fingers were tired and it just plain hurt. I also played piano for about an hour, but not Guys and Dolls stuff. Just Debussey sight-reading. It was glorious.

The final show went fabulously. The only snag was that one of the sax's light went out, but it was between numbers, and I passed him a bulb to replace it, because the bulbs are under the grand, but the fixture was too hot, so I just passed him an entirely new light set-up, and he managed to get the whole thing up and running by the time Havana started. Which is good, because the band teacher plays cowbells instead of her sax during that song, so he's doing double duty. He actually used to play maracas, but the band teacher took them away because she thought he was being overenthusiastic. This is coming from the woman who badly bangs the cowbells for the entire song while her facial expression resembles that of a child who has just discovered Christmas. Or Hanukka, if you want to roll that way.

When we got to the pit party, and it was just the two random saxes and Joanne and Cammie and I, we overcame the general awkwardness by dissolving into hysterics over the cowbells. When Ida showed up to the party at her house, she was incredibly confused by how much we were laughing.

We spent a good amount of time gossiping. (Why is Harry so grumpy? Nobody knows, but Morgan thinks his looks would be much improved if we attacked his hair with a weed-wacker. Why the hell is Emily still all over Spencer? He's out and proud, but they still hook up, even though she has a boyfriend. What fabulous flutist has a bit of a thing for a different fabulous flutist? The world may never know.) Anita and Richard tickled each other extensively. Cammie and I interrupted each other constantly. I begin to understand why Vicky thinks she talks a lot.

Also, there are photocopies of Eccentrius's face on the floor of the band room. I, for one, am simply thankful that he didn't go the traditional route and photocopy his ass. Or arse, as Joanne and her mum would say.

A final conversation with Harry:

Tea: I put your music with your bag.

Harry: Huh?

Tea: You left it in the pit.

Harry: Yeah

Tea: By the way good job on the second act

Harry: Yeah

Biographical Poem

We had to write these for health class. Our teacher, Ms. Martie, is a recent college graduate and she's trying to use 'fun' curriculum. However, I'm pretty sure the curriculum was designed for elementary school students. Not that I'm complaining- last class, all we did was draw giant flowers that had our similarities in the middle and our differences on the petals. I was labeled "Math geek," since other people in the group had my standard plays piano, plays guitar, likes art, loves science, hates sports, and rarely watches TV.

Tea, Tea is her name

Tall, unique, yet entirely the same,

Loves her sisters, Genie and Shelby,

Feels emotions, sad and happy,

Needs her food and gives birthday presents,

Shares the planet with foxes and pheasants,

Fears the bloodsucking violent mosquitoes,

Likes to see movies and concerts and shows...

The last two lines are about my town and last name, but I figured that I ought to take them out. I'm so fabulously creative, no?

Also, speaking of our town, as you may or may not know, we have our own magazine. Well, I can't find the article online, but Dino is on the cover (along with 9 other students, including his older brother). I may have to bring it in and show it around a bit. Were you aware that he's a rising star of Paperclip High School? And his academic record is such that we should already know of him?

Whoever was researching clearly didn't realize the sheer number of students at PHS with academic records just as good as Dino's.

Homework

I am back in my home, sweet home, and I am oh so very happy.

It's nice to be able to take a shower with water pressure that is just right, and to use my own computer, and play my own guitar. Just like Nyx asked me to, I tried to call her as soon as I got home. However, something horrific happened to her phone line (a tree hit it, or something) so I ended up just walking down there, only to discover that she wasn't actually home. It was rather disappointing.

In other news, I managed to get lost at the train station. It was the same one that Mario and I had to wait in for an hour that one time when we missed our train. When I tried to leave the station to find my Dad, I ended up on one street on the wrong side of the station. When I saw that his car wasn't there, I went down two more escalators to a different street. When we wasn't there either, I went back inside, through the tunnel underneath the tracks, and then lugged my rolling suitcase up two flights of stairs before finding the third and final street, where my father was waiting.

It was fun.

Sweet Dreams

This one is a swashbuckling adventure starring Mario and Tea. It was, to say the least, extremely exciting.

So, my family and I were on vacation at this gorgeous hotel in northern New England. It was a standard Victorian style, fairly old, but in perfect repair. I was walking in the back with my Dad my dog, around a pond and some trees, when poor Rufus (I don't really think puppies need code names) was hit in the head with a football, producing a big purple bruise on his nose. Dad, overprotective parent that he is, started yelling at whomever had thrown it that Rufus had a tumor in his nose, and the football was going to cause serious problems, blah blah blah, which seemed utterly ridiculous to me, but nevertheless Dad picked up Rufus and took him inside.

Then, Mario came running over, apologizing profusely. I, suave woman that I am, took a step towards him and tripped, catching myself on his arm. Taking my clumsiness as distress over my horribly injured dog, he attempted to comfort me. I believe my thought process at the time was that I didn't need the comfort, but if I could cling to his arm for a while longer, I certainly wasn't going to complain.

So, Mario and I walked back into the house and headed towards my room. On the way, we passed my mother and aunt, who were feverishly discussing something in the kitchen. They told us that people had been stealing stuff, so to hide our valuables. I went up the stairs to my room, and Mario took off to some other floor, where his was presumably located. There, I stashed my money under my mattress and tried to think of somewhere to put my guitar. I took it out to the hallway, still searching, and saw Steven, Amelia's friend who had done Castles in the Sand with us on Saturday.

"Steven!" I said. "You need to hide my guitar!"

"Okay, whatever," he replied, his typical response.

Then, I went looking for Mario again, but couldn't find him until I heard some loud noises outside the window.

There was scaffolding running up the side of the house, and on it, Mario was fighting, swords and all, with Smee from Captain Hook.

Then my alarm went off and I woke up.

Interpretations, please?

Dialogo

A Literal Translation of my latest spanish dialogue:

Narrator (N): For many years, the Marquis had the wish to kill the servant who had torn the fan of his wife.

Marquis (M): Today, I am happy that I can finally complete my goal.

N: The servant didn't know that his life was soon going to end.

Servant (S): You're blocking where I need to walk in order to obtain my serving platter.

M: You tore the fan of my wife many years ago.

S: I only tripped. I don't thing that I have culpability.

N: Like a lightning-bolt, the Marquis took the serving platter and began to fight with the servant

*the boy playing the waiter grabbed the platter and began hitting the boy playing the waiter over the head with it. Needless to say, I, the narrator, was laughing*

S: I hope that I win this important fight and that you lose.

M: You are an arrogant man and I recommend that you surrender.

N: The fight continued for some minutes, but at the end, the Marquis didn't vacillate and killed the servant.

M: Finally, I am capable of avenging myself of the servant!

N: Then, the Marquis left from the scene of the murder and went to his house.

Condesita (C) *played by Avon*: Hello, my good looking spouse. How are you? My god! You have blood on your hands! You have tripped?

M: I spoke to a man that I abhor. Now, he is not in the life.

C: I hope that you did not kill a man when you were at the embassy today.

Son (S): Dad, you killed the servant? I have wishes to see the body!

C: I hope nobody finds the body of the dead.

N: All the people of the family had a lot of fear. The Marquis recommended that the family flee the country.

C: We should change our names and flee the country.

S: Let's form a group of the freestyle rap music!

C: What a good idea, son.

N: Then, the family moved to Detroit and participated in many rap competitions.

M: My family, we have won many competitions and tomorrow is the big championship. How would you like to celebrate?

S: I want to go to the zoo in order to see the elephants.

N: While they were at the zoo, an elephant ate the family *(at this point, I was laughing so hard I had to stop and attempt to gather myself before spitting out comió)

C: We are in the stomach of the elephant and the championship is tomorrow. What are we going to do?

N: The family hoped that they could go to the competition, but they didn't leave from the stomach for ten years, and finally, they went out.

M: How good that now we are not in the stomach of an elephant.

S: Yes, I have much hunger because I have not eaten for ten years. I want sweets.

C: Good, son. Let's go to the store in order to obtain sweets that you can eat.

S: The sweets are very pleasing to me and I abhor the elephants.

M: Yes, never are we going to go to the zoo another time.

C: It is evident that the rap doesn't function for our family. We need to form a team of badminton!

THE END

The other presentations included one in which the Condesita is sitting with her husband (the Marquis) and her daughter, when the man she is having an affair with appears (handily gripping a rose between his teeth to denote his status as a Don Juan). The Condesita decides she likes the other man better, so the Dad kills himself dramatically and the daughter cries unconvincingly.

In another, the narrator came armed with a guitar. Archie wore a blonde wig to play the Condesita, and he and his hubby started a basketball team with ten of their eleven children. the eleventh wants to be a singer, so delivers most of his lines in song while the narrator plays guitar (yo amoooo tiiii, etc.). Unable to cope with his athletic parents' disapproval, the boy steals their money and runs. His parents don't hesitate to buy firearms and follow him, and the boy booby traps the path behind him. His father falls in a booby trap and dies (dramatically, of course), so Archie takes it upon himself to shoot the son, who also dies (dramatically, of course).

In another, Dino (short for dinosaur) plays the Marquis and must choose between John (he has a female twin) and Sonny (also a guy). Sonny spends the entire time devising devious tricks to get Dino to leave John, but in the end, Dino announces that he really just loves John, and hugs him.

It was all very silly.

Vacation

I don't have school this week, and while the respite has been utterly blissful, I have been somewhat neglecting of this blog. Instead, I've been reading a lot (Speaker for the Dead, Epic, Saga, Sovay, and a couple more that were so horrific I won't mention them here). I've also been practicing guitar a lot. I got this gorgeous slim-body acoustic electric for my birthday, so now I have to learn to play it a little better. So far, I've got my A, D, E, C, and G chords down, and I'm working on F, A minor, D minor, and an E dominant seventh. For piano, I've just begun the final page of Beethoven's Pastorale Sonata, and it is, of course, the hardest part of the piece. This is quite an accomplishment, considering the face that the piece is 25 minutes long when performed at tempo. It takes me FOREVER to practice, but I love it.

Great Homework Accomplishments

Among the Overachievers of my hometown, Sunday is Homework Day. Friday and Saturday are the brief blissful moments of freedom before the torrent of work. Last night, however, I had three friends sleep over, and we were up until one, and I then spent about six hours tossing and turning. This led to me feeling very tired today. On the upside, exhaustion tends to interfere with my memory. Although I did homework for about three hours this afternoon, I am so tired that I am incapable of remembering the wasted time. All I can remember is watching X-men this evening, which was extremely enjoyable.

In other news, I cut my finger on a bread knife, so am currently incapable of playing the guitar at all, and also can't practice any of my piano songs without modifying the fingerings to be able to play better, which destroys the whole building-muscle-memory purpose of practicing, so I spent a little bit of time composing and used the hours I would have spent at the piano to catch up on America's Next Top Model. My pick for the Next Top Model is Teyona. I loved her hope/change picture from this week.

Speaking of hope and change, Maureen Dowd's column in the Week in Review today was ridiculous. I realize that she loves Obama, but he isn't a superhuman shrink/president/unnaturally perceptive man. He's a human being, and he won't be able to magically see through every layer of European policy. He's the best we've got, but he isn't perfect, and I feel like she just doesn't see that. Unless the column was irony that I'm to tired to understand, which is distinctly possible.

Speaking of tire . . . goodnight!