so Springstowne won cities today.

i feel so proud! haha. that's ten, count 'em, ten years in a row! WHOO. got to see Springstowne people, Bethel/Hogan people, handed out medals.
and, of course, say hi to Trave, Guiducci, and McNally. and their children!
freaking Gaby is so big now! she walks! the first thing i said to Mr. Trave upon seeing her was, "Whoa, SHE HAS LEGS NOW!" Highlight of the Day right there.

seriously, she was like a newborn when i was in the eighth grade. where does the time go? HAHA.

here's how the day went.

English: Kim sang a wonderful rendition of I'm Yours for minutes, accompanied by Arielle and Justin on their ukeleles. THEN Ms. Hill, the devil she is, comes up to Kim and decides to teach her how to hula dance. you know, 'cause there were ukeleles and stuff, which automatically makes everything Hawaiian.
Ms. Hill: "Kim! You gotta move your hips! C'mon!"
Steven: "I think this is sexual harassment!"
yeah, we basically did nothing today. it was a good day.

Yazz: Concert week! whoo. Walang Rizza, so me and Hannah were basically like the only flutes. Smish liked the balance, though.
"Hm, I should have two flutes more often. Ha ha ha."

Humanities: hella studied for the test. then it comes along, and, lo and behold, there are questions on it that i don't know! wtf?! Hill tests, are, in a sense, easier than Garrison tests because Garrison throws all this random, nitpicky-ass fill-in-the-blank stuff that often has more than one correct answer.
oh, and the answer to that one question better be "Hercules," not "Antioch." come on now. it makes sense! Hercules is within 30 miles of Vallejo. it seems to be named after Herculaneum, which is a cultural center that rivaled Pergammon. so how can it be wrong?

Math: fell asleep, but woke up in time to...uh...go back to sleep. we just did parabolas today, i know that crap. it's okay. snore.

Science: picked frog dissection groups. i'm with Samantha (aka SD, HAHA) and Hannah. probably gonna blog about how it went tomorrow! hooray for cutting open animals!

Filipino: attempt at teaching us actual language-related things today. not that we really learned much. XP Steven: "I'm smarter HIGH than he is straight!" Me: "I'm smarter ASLEEP than he is...period."

Flectionals (flute sectionals): worked on Boys and Satiric III, like we've been doing the whole week. we hella slow down on Boys and rush on Satiric. i can feel it. hopefully we can get our internal metronomes all worked out before Saturday.

by the time we got around to Satiric II, Salancy had left early, still walang Rizza, and Kevin ditched us to practice pic for 'that one Sousa march' in the storage room. (good luck, btw. i hope you made it to whatever you were auditioning for!) so yeah, i was the only first flute left. Smish said he liked my solos, though(!) and wanted to work with me on flute-related things (tone development? FUTURE SOLOS? who knows?) in the coming weeks. :D Highlight of the Day #2 right there.

well, that was my day. how's yours?

that's some dope songwriting, though.

He said, 'Son, why you got to sing that tune?'
Catch a Dylan song or an eclipse of the moon
Let an angel sing and make you swoon
Then you will see...you will see

Then he said:
'Here's a riddle for you,
Find the answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I.'

- The Riddle, Five for Fighting

-----

So tell the martyrs to wait at the gate
This is an actual case of the truth, at least,
That's what they call it these days.
So tell your brothers and sisters to wait
'Cause love is nothing to waste, and I swore
Never your heart shall I break.

- Sugar Skulls, Envy on the Coast

-----

My life flows on in endless song
Above Earth's lamentations
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
Since love is lord of heaven and Earth
How can I keep from singing?

- How Can I Keep From Singing, Enya / Libera

-----

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
The Roman Cavalry Choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
And for some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world.

- Viva la Vida, Coldplay

-----

I've grown accustomed to the tune
You whistle night and noon
Your smiles, your frowns
Your ups, your downs
Are second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in

I was serenely independent and content
Before we met
And surely I can always be that way again
And yet
I've grown accustomed to your looks
Accustomed to your voice
Accustomed to your face.

- Accustomed to Your Face, Rex Harrison / Dean Martin / Nat King Cole / hella people

you know what i've noticed? when i'm wearing my iPod earphones, half the time i'm not even listening to anything. XD so people ask me what i'm listening to, and i say, "uh...nothing."
then they look at me, in this odd manner that makes me want to turn on my iPod for the sake of being able to tell them something.

but then again, i like to think that i shall one day exist outside the socially accepted norms of today's society, and, therefore, people's expectations for me will be completely different from their expectations of the rest of the population. in other words: one day, i'm gonna be SPECIAL. :D

Housewives, walang saxophone, and SWINE FLU. (long blog)

EDIT EDIT: it's Cassi, not Cassie. thank you Samantha M. i'm just on a roll with spelling names wrong, aren't i?

EDIT: MYLES and Rhea started going out on Tuesday, not Monday. sorry Mr. Myles, i spelled your name wrong in the blog. nevertheless, i still continue to be like wtf.

haven't posted in a while due to CST testing and general laziness. but this week was quite interesting.

Sunday - watched Desperate Housewives with Steven over AIM.
this is all you need to know about what happened:
Orson = fruitcake.
Mike = finna get killed by weird guy Dave.
Gaby = gardening club, but with less gardening and more martinis.
Tom = Gaby's friend with a small f.
Lynette = Gaby's Friend with a big F.
Susan = freaking IDIOT. HAHA. cooking spaghettii without a lid on the pot. AND THEN she drives home with a basketful of weapons in her car, and gets arrested. HELLA STUPID.

[i hope Mike dies. muahahahaha. i hate Mike.]

Monday - science test. it was actually kinda okay. Ms. Hill was being nice to us for some odd reason. found out that Rhea and Miles were going out. i was like wtf.
i decided it would be a good idea to send Smith the quotes on my myspace blog via email. he loled. i hope. o_o

so like, jazz band today was hella bad 'cause i didn't have my sax (it's getting its cork fixed). and then i am informed that Chris and Cassie will be switching off on Manteca and Copycat, and they need a second alto for Day by Day. Jeycy didn't want to do it,
which means...

IF MY SAX HADN'T BEEN IN THE SHOP, I WOULD HAVE BEEN IN JAZZ BAND FOR COMP ON SATURDAY. FREAKING BS. ARGGGGHHHH. <---most frustrating moment of the week right there. in the end, Cassie got Day by Day, which is cool 'cause she's really good. but i'm still like ARGH.

Tuesday - history test. aced that shit. EPIC WIN, I LOVE FRANCE. Ms. Hill seems to be getting on Samantha's case because apparently she forgot to stop at the end of part 1 or whatever.
"And when you see the stop sign at the bottom of the paper, SAMANTHA, that means to STOP."
...she did that like every day.

i didn't have to go to jazz band that day, which is good 'cause i hate sitting there without a sax knowing i could have played. >.> besides, playing flute and transposing Eflat stuff into C sucks.

Wednesday - life sciences, which was like basically the same thing as the stuff on Monday, but easier. we sang "Happy Birthday" to Ms. Hill when she walked into the classroom. HAHA.

Ms. Hill opens door. everyone starts clapping.
Everybody (singing): "Happy happy birthday, from all of us to you, we wish it was our birthday, so we could party too!"
Ms. Hill and everybody: "HEY!"
Ms. Hill: "Ha ha, I bet you didn't think i was going to come in on the 'hey,' did you? Now, whose birthday is it?"
Everybody: "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY! YAAAY!"
everyone claps some more.
Ms. Hill is like wtf because she basically just sang Happy Birthday to herself. sucka.

end of testing; no jazz band again today. hooray!

Thursday - today i was getting desperate because i thought that the Hawaiian dinner tickets were due Friday. i started soliciting to Manansala and Ms. Marte. Ms. Marte was like wtf, and Manansala was like "I have to wait for my salary."

most of my teachers made some reference or other to the recent swine flu outbreak.

Smish: "IT'S JUST THE FLU. Jeez."

that guy who was subbing for Garrison: "I think the media is just overreacting."
(btw, he totally looked like an older version of Orson from Desperate Housewives. minus the fruity lavender cardigan, of course. HAHA.)

Marte: "You will be quizzed on this tomorrow!"

Manansala: "I don't believe in this...swine flu."
(whatever, Manansala. i don't believe in you. suckaaa.)

oh yeah, and today Manansala made us start on this hella long assignment to describe 141 different nouns in his damn alphabet book. this is all just 'cause he doesn't have enough assignments to send out progress reports. now, Mr. Manansala, whose fault is that?! making us work extra hard to make up for YOUR slacking.

Friday - almost got an unexcused tardy for Hill's (thanks in part to BAND and Ms. Marte's potluck), but i didn't due to an unusual turn of events. THANK GOD. Ms. Hill was being freaking nice today the whole week. like, she practically gave us the answers on Animal Farm test B. i hate it when she does stuff like that, because then i almost like being in her class. and i'm sure Munir agrees with me. wtf.

okay, so, i tried transposing in band yesterday, and was fairly successful. but today i gave up and played flute with Jeycy in the back room.

in Marte, we had a pretty good potluck, except for the fact that SOME PEOPLE (cough Danilo and Samantha cough) forgot to bring their drinks. and we started watching this National Geographic movie that showed what happened to food when you swallowed it. pretty disgusting.
Munir: "Wtf is that?! Is that in your throat? It looks like a jellyfish!"
Samantha's running commentary on the movie was HILARIOUS, btw.

in Filipino, me, Steven, and Maricris attempted part two of the Manansala project. UNSUCCESSFUL. that man is ridiculous.



and that was pretty much my week. i know i missed hella stuff, but i can't remember right now. so just tell me or whatever and i'll post it up here. band comp tomorrow @ San Jose! so if you don't have anything else to do...show up! HAHA.

Dixon. part 2 of 2: six reasons why Hometown Buffet hates the Jesse Bethel Jaguar Band.

it's a tradition for the band to go to Hometown Buffet post-comp once a year. here's why they hate us.

1. we eat too much.
2. we are loud and obnoxious and messy.
3. there are too many of us.
4. the majority of us pays in cash.
5. another one of our traditions involves clapping and cheering as soon as Smish takes his first bite. can you picture that? you have this 110-person MOB bumrushing their way into a restuarant, and once they have their food and have settled themselves into their seats, they then suddenly burst into hella loud applause for no apparent reason. dude, if i was one of the regular customers, i'd be pissed. and confused. "WHY ARE THEY CLAPPING?"

6. two words: JEYCY DIAZ.

it all started when i 'accidentally' spilled my drink on Munir.
then all hell broke loose.

by 'all hell,' i mean 'Jeycy started laughing and WOULDN'T FUCKING SHUT UP for the next half hour.' omfg. it was ridiculous. there were a few instances where she would almost calm down, but then FREAKING RHEA had to hit her head on the table like some kinda clumsy little goober, which made Jeycy laugh even harder. and louder.

people started to stare. TC, in an attempt to make Jeycy shut up, pointed to a guy in a Norman Rockwell painting on the wall and said, "Jeycy, look at this guy! Look how sad he is! Doesn't this make you sad?" Jeycy said, "HE LOOKS HIGH!" and resumed laughing.

Emma was up next. she was going to perform a magic trick to scare Jeycy into silence. hiding a little half and half container in her fist, she covered her eye and pretended to stab it with a fork. as her fork punctured the little half and half packet thing, the white liquid would spill out, looking like (as Smith put it) "eye pus." unfortunately, it was hilarious. so it didn't work. TC took a video of it; maybe he'll put it on youtube one day.

and to top it all off, the damn light above our table was making everybody hella hot. everybody was hella red and flushed, especially Munir, who resembled a doll with his little red cheeks. HAHA. yeah, uh, i don't really remember what made Jeycy stop laughing, but she did. thank God. and then we went home. yay.

the quote of the day was from Emma the Magician. "Hey, Mr. Smith, my eye itches. Can I have a fork?"

Dixon. part 1 of 2: an Epic Win and an Epic Fail.

hello all. well, yesterday the band had our first spring comp, and we like totally kicked ass (except for sightreading). here is a recap, including an explantion of this blog's title.

we arrived at Dixon HS at about 11:30. the school was freaking DESERTED. nobody there. Smish told us to be dressed and warming up in twenty minutes, so we did that.
performed at 1:00. it was beautiful. really nice blend and balance, flutes were in tune (!), hooray for Ashlyn and Deidre's solos. we went out of the theater feeling oh so good about ourselves. concert = EPIC WIN.

then we went off to do the sightreading part of the competition. i thought the sightreading judge dude was a jerk. he made fun of Smish, so i was like, "Hey, Mr. Smith, you should fight him!"
well, we did hella bad on sightreading. there was this whole section that the flutes EVERYBODY got lost on. we didn't even manage to hit the last note! props to Smish for trying to keep us together, though. he's a trooper. if i was him, i would have burst into tears by the second page. seriously.
sightreading = EPIC FAIL.

last but not least was jazz. Jeycy and i were watching them this time, but maybe we'll be playing with them next year. beautiful, but i thought the Day by Day sax soli was a little dirty. next time guys, next time. solos were really nice. go Caesare and Ben and Jesson and Rizza! jazz = another epic win. except for that soli. haha.

see what happened following the concert on part 2! whoohoo!

today i drove a car.

had my first Driver's Training today; 2nd and 3rd sessions are tomorrow and Thursday. tomorrow's gonna be hella busy 'cause it's sectionals after school, then Driver's Training all over the place, then back to school for jazz band @ the Open House. nyaahhh.

stuff of note:

-Hill: i freaking forgot all about the fact that i was presenting minutes today, until right after the bell rang. HAHA. i was writting it down in such a hurry that i put the wrong date on them. whooops.
well, we finally started watching Animal Farm. Mariko was appalled at how ugly Old Major was. lol. i love the animals' British accents, especially Boxer and Pincher. those Cockneys. hahaha.

-played Jeopardy sorta in Garrison's class. DIDN'T KNOW HALF THE STUFF ON THERE. and i pronounced Goethe's name wrong. Garrison was pronouncing it like "GERT-THETH," or something, and i'm like, "Where the fuck did you get the 'R' and the 'T' from?"

-voted for certain people at lunch. yaaaahh.

-failed failed FAILED the Miller quiz due to some stupid mistakes. dammit. yeah, i don't wanna retake it because the last thing i need following a disastrous episode in math class is MORE MATH. i don't like math, have you noticed?

-Manansala seat change today. like Steven said, now we have a little 'network going on.' XD
-after school, i went and showed my concert clothes to Smish. he eyed my concert top suspiciously. then he was like, "Isn't that a little short to be wearing when you're in the front row?" like some kinda overprotective father. and then i showed him the concert pants and he was like, ^.^'

"Oh, just kidding. You're in."

and then...THEN I WENT DRIVING! i first practiced with my dad in Wayside's parking lot, then went off to Seafood City and American Canyon with Barbara the driving instructor. dude, it's hella fun. i was hella speeding in residential areas, though. hopefully i don't end up killing anyone, God forbid. okay, i gotta do homework now. bye.

hey guess what?

I GOT MY PERMIT TODAY! yeaaaah. hahaha. i missed six, and i don't really care 'cause it's better than having to take it all over again. i now understand why adults loathe the DMV so much. prime example of American bureaucracy right there. lolololol. edit: oh yeah, i saw Samantha M at the DMV, also getting her permit. "epic Samantha M win." hahaha.

anyways:

English: never really got around to correcting that Arthur test, 'cause Ms. Hill was too busy talking about Arielle's hella good competency, everyone else's sucky competencies, and the North Carolina Tarheels. RAH RAH RAH CAROLINA LINA! oh, and she also noted that Rachel is a "sickly little thing," and that we should "send her some fruits and vegetables." watch out for those in the mail, Rachel.

Band: i just got a #3 reed, so i'm like litterally suffocating during warm ups. =_=' it's waaaay stiffer than my old one, but i can get a good sound out of it provided that i use enough air. that shit's HELLA hard, though. and i know you're thinking "That's what she said," so SHUT UP. don't need none of yah innuendo on mah blog. thank you.
oh yeah, this is for Samantha M: R = -3. J = 5. 5 + (-3) = 2. i don't think they'll ever figure it out, lol.

Humanities: Garrison droned about how to take a test, while i did more important things, like my math homework.

Math: I noticed the 'party chart' on the board. 3rd period has WAY more freaking squares than we do. ha. we're never going to have a party.

Science: hey, did you know that Ms. Marte sells jewelry? HAHA. well, now you do.

Filipino: we watched the ultra-scary Feng Shui. or, as Manansala calls it, "FUNG SUI." he said it means "arrangement." well, YOU'RE WRONG, sucka. it's about this lady named Kris Aquino who finds a magic mirror thing on the bus that brings her good luck....or not? dun dun dun. we didn't get to watch much because Manansala was too busy asking people where they went on vacation.

yeah. oh, and yesterday's detention @ Werris was the BEST THING EVER. hahahaha. freaking Steven and Axl and JP are HILARIOUS. some exerpts:

"That's not even sock. That's like, an extra layer of skin."
"I hate pomeranians!"

Ms. Werris: "Axl, you pimp out your puppies! You're a puppy pimp!"
JP: "Yeah, and if they come home without making any money, he slaps them! He like puts them in a cage and forces them to mate!"
Steven laughs.
Axl: "Shut up, Steven, you're the one who put your dog in the trash can!"

Axl: "Ms. Werris, are you a Jew?"
Ms. Werris: "Well, there have been Jews in my family."
Axl: "Wait, so you're like Jewish AND Catholic? What is that, Jatholic?"
Ms Werris: "No, my grandparents were Jews, but they converted--
Axl: "Ms. Werris, are you a Protestant or a Communist?"

and, my favorite:
"Ms. Werris, what kind of music do you listen to? I bet you listen to BEETHOVEN. or THE SPICE GIRLS. or...WINSTON CHURCHILL."

who knew detention could be such fun?