working out for Disney

[Songbird76]

This is what the senior page of the yearbook looks like.


My senior will. They are mostly inside jokes....like, Tiffany complained that I was always in a good mood and asked if I had ever had a crappy day because she had never seen me without a smile on my face. Jacob had a habit of wearing wrinkled clothing on speech trips....his mom was the coach and Mindy and I always had to iron his clothes and comb his hair in the morning or he'd just roll out of bed and go to the tournament like that. Dustin was a good friend of mine whose jokes were always dirty, etc. The killer suitcase was a backpack I brought along on speech trips that had toys, coloring books, etc to occupy ourselves between rounds. There was always a huddle of kids from other schools who came to play with my toys. And my bestie, Shasta, called my purse the killer purse, because I always had EVERYTHING...sewing kit, bandaids, pain relievers, safety pins, etc. So we called my backpack the killer suitcase. I passed it on when I graduated. And Jessica was a total sweetheart who I tutored sometimes and helped when she needed it. She had dyslexia and really had a hard time, but she tried sooooo hard, and I always felt bad for her, because she was so insecure and felt dumb. But she was the most popular girl in our class and everyone really liked her and she was never mean to anyone, which is rare for popular kids. And Mindy....ah Mindy. That friendship didn't end well, but she told me she wanted to be more like me, because she admired my patience and tactfulness...she had a tendency to be blunt to the point of rudeness. All of it was tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be mean at all, and everyone I named knew that.




And I was voted best car, and most likely to succeed. I guess we did have school pictures from the hired photographer our senior year...that's not one of my senior pictures that my mom took,

 

[Sans Souci]

Oh wow...we didn't have cap and gown photos, nor school pictures in senior year. Our Senior pictures were used for the yearbook. There was always a special section for the senior class. The whole yearbook was black and white, except for the senior pictures, which were color. You picked whichever one you wanted in the yearbook and handed it in, and that's what they used. Everyone else got the standard school picture with the photographer they hired, and those pictures were usually not the best. Then we also wrote "Senior wills" where we left things to underclassmen. "I leave my memories of the speech and debate trip to so and so, and pass on the tradition of annoying this teacher to so and so." There was a girl who wrote a very mean senior will when I was a freshman that bullied me. I had made All-state music as a freshman, which most freshmen don't make, and this sophomore girl was jealous and had been using her friends to threaten to beat me up if I didn't stop trying to outsing her since I was in elementary school. I got solos and she didn't, I made special choirs and she didn't, I scored higher than her at solo and ensemble festival...she was just jealous that I was a better singer. She tried to sabbotage me at homecoming my freshman year where the teacher didn't want to make a decision between the two of us to sing the national anthem. She had seniority, but I was more reliable and a better singer, so the teacher decided we'd do it together. But there was no arrangement, and she didn't want to sing with me, so it was decided that I'd improvise a harmony part and she'd sing melody. No problem. But then she just didn't show up. We were supposed to meet outside the announcer's box before the game and she didn't go, so I had to sing it myself. Then she didn't show up for All-state auditions, so the teacher replaced her at Honor choir, which she had only given the spot to her because she had seniority, with me. So the girl really hated me. Her friend's senior will was something like "I'm willing my singing voice to ---- so that she can kick a certain person's ###, because she's not nearly as good as she thinks she is." and other such comments. My brother was in yearbook, and it was shown to me, but the school refused to print it and she had to change it. I'm glad they didn't just do away with senior wills, because the tradition was pretty fun usually. It was nice to look up your friends' to see if they "left" you anything. It would have been a shame to get rid of the whole thing because of one person writing something nasty. I suppose in bigger schools, there's no room for such a thing, but there were only around 30 kids per class in my school, so we got our own yearbook section.

And yeah, those professional photo packages are really expensive. We didn't have $1000 to spend on pictures. We only had to pay for the film, travel expenses, and developing.

I am sorry that happened to you. What you've described is relational aggression. That is so dumb about her hating you because of her actions of not showing up for events. It is exceptionally dumb to think sabotaging you by not showing up to sing the National Anthem. You had the floor to yourself and everyone heard you--not her. Imagine being so stupid that you think you can shirk commitments without facing consequences. She must have thought her voice was amazing and she was irreplaceable.

 

[Sans Souci]

I have my physical cap and gown pic somewhere. It was a big deal for the girls and nails because you placed your hand over your cap in front of you (vs wearing it), which in turn showed off your nails. You can see the drape pic is what we selected as my yearbook photo. I didn't like the standard black drape and opted for a 2-tone thing my mom put together. We didn't do wills, but you can see the write up I put together for our yearbook. It was all reviewed to ensure nothing mean or too tasteless went in, but someone obviously didn't proofread their typing when entering mine. I'm still bothered that they typed in "LUCH" vs luck. I'm sure people snuck in some mean and nasty things since most people took up every space and used acronyms and codewords. Oh, and they didn't cut off my hair in the pic. I just cut off the screenshot since there's some personal info at the top of my wording. The copy they uploaded for the digital archives also appears to have something dirty on my chin...meaning the page of the yearbook they scanned was dirty. Oh well. I know the pics weren't cheap since every senior did a sitting with a pro-photographer in their studio offsite during the summer leading up to senior year. I know there were some families that just took the pics and declined to buy anything due to the costs...which had to have still cost something because it was actual film back and hand development back then.

View attachment 775311

That's awful with that girl. Great that your brother and the others tied to the yearbook stopped it from going in, but how nasty and petty. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time jealousy and insecurity created a high school drama mess. I feel like the teacher could have helped with some of this. Teachers in these areas area usually well aware of the issue potential and personalities in the mix that can make things worse. They really should have made a decision and had a clear cut plan from the beginning. Was there any punishment for the girl being a no show? While there was no seniority involved, I dealt with a girl who was the choir darling in middle school. She wasn't bad, but I never felt she deserved the special treatment. When we got to high school, we both made all of the select choirs, but she immediately grew bitter when I got a soprano solo and she got nothing. It intensified when I made region that fall, which seemed silly since those were impartial judges from districts over an hour away that had no clue who either one of us was beyond our assigned number. She left the school before All State rolled around. Our director at least did a good job of divvying up solos so that none of the upper classmen go ugly. I could see the one girl K is dealing with in choir doing something like what you experienced. She's talented, but she has a horrible attitude and loves spreading lies about everyone. While she's a senior, it's only her first year in choir. She's been given solos because of that talent, which is great and for the most part deserved, but she's completely disrespectful to the officers and refuses to follow etiquette and dress code...which has hurt the choir in recent competitions. Just last week, she thought the sopranos were messing up, so she audibly shhh'd them numerous times during a competition piece in front of a panel of judges and very visibly expressed her anger and frustration with hand, arm and facial gestures/expressions. She reprimanded some of the girls even though it's not her position to do so, and it turned out that she just couldn't hear things because she's on the back row and these girls are three rows in front of her/beneath her. K said that this is the first year the choir failed to get top marks and it's due in part to this girl. K had to report her in the fall because she wore brown Birkenstock sandals to a formal performance where everyone was supposed to be in black closed toe dress shoes. That's worse than the girl that showed up in black Converse high tops with white soles.

OMG, that girl sounds obnoxious. Shushing people while they are performing, because you think they are messing up is next level brattiness. Meanwhile she's wearing shoes like she's going to Woodstock, instead of a formal performance. Then she's signaling her dissatisfaction through facial expressions and hand gestures. Rudeness.

 

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

Checking in with yesterday and today's workouts.

Yesterday, Callie came into eat and then she left. I went about my day. Then I heard what I thought was someone walking a small, yappy dog, but the barking never faded away. Then I realized it was not a dog and I was worried Callie was fighting wild life. I ran downstairs to check it out and my husband was already in the yard looking around, because he thought Callie was in trouble, too. It was this little :



A raccoon stuck in the tree. Callie was about to go in her house, but she backed out and sat on a chair to keep an eye on it. It was barking to get down. I was worried about it having rabies, but it was walking back and forth on a branch pretty effortlessly. Then, there was a squirrel living in a little hole in the trunk and it kept coming out to attack the raccoon. My husband thinks the raccoon chased the squirrel up the tree because it was hungry. So, I went to look up animal control, thinking my high taxes would support a county-run animal control. Nope. I would have to call a private firm to get it down. Well, I am not spending money on a raccoon. I kept checking on it, and about a half-hour later, it started making its way down the tree. It slunk back into the wooded area beside our property. Even if I had called someone, it would have been gone by the time they got here. All's well that ends well.

 

[Songbird76]

I am sorry that happened to you. What you've described is relational aggression. That is so dumb about her hating you because of her actions of not showing up for events. It is exceptionally dumb to think sabotaging you by not showing up to sing the National Anthem. You had the floor to yourself and everyone heard you--not her. Imagine being so stupid that you think you can shirk commitments without facing consequences. She must have thought her voice was amazing and she was irreplaceable.

Oh she hated me long before that. We went to the same church and they looked down on us because my parents were divorced, and she just took a dislike to me. There were 3 kids in that family. She was in my brother's year, her brother was in my year, and then one more girl a couple of years younger than me. Not one of them graduated from high school. Every one of them dropped out. She dropped out to get married at 16 or 17. But none of them were the brightest. When I was in 7th grade, the first week of school, we were practicing new choir music, and we were given a break to get a drink, and her friend came up to me and told me if I didn't stop trying to outsing Val, she would beat me up. I said I wasn't trying to outsing her, I was just singing....if I was outsinging her, it was because I was a better singer. She told me to meet her after school. I went to my brother, because he is huge, and they were his classmates. I don't know what he said to her, but needless to say, I didn't stick around after 3pm. And then for solo ensemble festival, my duet with my friend Amy got a superior rating. Our teacher (that was the really amazing one) told us when we were practicing that we should always sing together, because we sounded so good together. Val did a solo and got an ok rating. She thought she was really good, and then kept being shown that she wasn't as good as she thought she was, while I was getting superior ratings and solos, etc. So it was years in the making before the national anthem incident. She just thought that if she didn't show up, I wouldn't be able to do it, because I was supposed to sing the harmony part I had created. It apparently never occured to her that I could also sing the melody, so it backfired on her, because I sang it, did well, and no one heard her voice, and she looked irresponsible. Win-win for me. I was only doing the harmony because she said she couldn't thing of a harmony herself, so she HAD to sing melody. But she thought I wouldn't be able to do it if she wasn't there, or that I'd mess up because I hadn't practiced the melody.

 

[Songbird76]

OMG, that girl sounds obnoxious. Shushing people while they are performing, because you think they are messing up is next level brattiness. Meanwhile she's wearing shoes like she's going to Woodstock, instead of a formal performance. Then she's signaling her dissatisfaction through facial expressions and hand gestures. Rudeness.

This! And also obviously ignorance...you are not supposed to show that mistakes have been made. Pretend it was MEANT to be like that. The amazing teacher used to tell us, "If I drop dead on this stage, you keep going! Act like nothing is wrong!"

 

[StarWarsGirl]

This! And also obviously ignorance...you are not supposed to show that mistakes have been made. Pretend it was MEANT to be like that. The amazing teacher used to tell us, "If I drop dead on this stage, you keep going! Act like nothing is wrong!"

You don't even do that in rehearsals. If you think something is wrong, you either go over it in sectionals or ask the director to go to that part.

I sang tenor in high school, and the tenors were off all the time. I never would have indicated they were off during a performance. Called them out regularly in class, though.

 

[Sans Souci]

Oh she hated me long before that. We went to the same church and they looked down on us because my parents were divorced, and she just took a dislike to me. There were 3 kids in that family. She was in my brother's year, her brother was in my year, and then one more girl a couple of years younger than me. Not one of them graduated from high school. Every one of them dropped out. She dropped out to get married at 16 or 17. But none of them were the brightest. When I was in 7th grade, the first week of school, we were practicing new choir music, and we were given a break to get a drink, and her friend came up to me and told me if I didn't stop trying to outsing Val, she would beat me up. I said I wasn't trying to outsing her, I was just singing....if I was outsinging her, it was because I was a better singer. She told me to meet her after school. I went to my brother, because he is huge, and they were his classmates. I don't know what he said to her, but needless to say, I didn't stick around after 3pm. And then for solo ensemble festival, my duet with my friend Amy got a superior rating. Our teacher (that was the really amazing one) told us when we were practicing that we should always sing together, because we sounded so good together. Val did a solo and got an ok rating. She thought she was really good, and then kept being shown that she wasn't as good as she thought she was, while I was getting superior ratings and solos, etc. So it was years in the making before the national anthem incident. She just thought that if she didn't show up, I wouldn't be able to do it, because I was supposed to sing the harmony part I had created. It apparently never occured to her that I could also sing the melody, so it backfired on her, because I sang it, did well, and no one heard her voice, and she looked irresponsible. Win-win for me. I was only doing the harmony because she said she couldn't thing of a harmony herself, so she HAD to sing melody. But she thought I wouldn't be able to do it if she wasn't there, or that I'd mess up because I hadn't practiced the melody.

She couldn't even tell you to your face, she had to have her friend do it. She was never going to beat you up, she couldn't even confront you. I remember I was in 6th grade at my locker and these two 8th graders came over to me and started talking to me about my clothes. They were asking me about my shoes, skirt, and where I got them. All of the sudden one of them said, "Did you just give my friend a dirty look?" I was like "?". Because I hadn't been giving anyone attitude, I was just responding to them as I was gathering my books for my next class. They were just ridiculous for the next month or so and luckily, I only saw them in the hallways. I did get angry after a while and told them to leave me the (bleep) alone. They stopped after that. But they were calling me things like a snob, a , stuck up, etc. I have no idea why they were calling me these things. I was called a snob a lot in Junior High, but I honestly feel like it was because I didn't mix with other kids. I was a very shy kid and I just had a lot of stuff going on at home that kept me preoccupied.

 

[Sans Souci]

This! And also obviously ignorance...you are not supposed to show that mistakes have been made. Pretend it was MEANT to be like that. The amazing teacher used to tell us, "If I drop dead on this stage, you keep going! Act like nothing is wrong!"

I wondering why she didn't get reprimanded by the director. She caused them to lose points with her ridiculous behavior. Being talented should not absolve you from the fall out of poor behavior.

 

[Sans Souci]

Hello-

Checking in with a glutes workout. I might be sore tomorrow. There is an exercise that is usually pretty difficult for me to do. You put one foot on a chair or bench behind you and lunge with the other leg. This is used to be so hard-just using my body weight. Today I had 15 lb weights in each hand. I know it doesn't sound like much, but considering I used to struggle executing this move without any weights, I think it's progress.

I made lemon curd, then I put it in a lemon tiramisu for tomorrow. The recipe called for dipping the lady fingers in limoncello. I used a limoncello I made a few years ago and kept in the freezer. I hope it's ok. I did dip a leftover lady finger in it to taste it and it was ROUGH. Wow. I hope the creamy filling and letting it sit in the fridge over night temper it a bit.

 

[Songbird76]

You don't even do that in rehearsals. If you think something is wrong, you either go over it in sectionals or ask the director to go to that part.

I sang tenor in high school, and the tenors were off all the time. I never would have indicated they were off during a performance. Called them out regularly in class, though.

Right? I can sight read music...I make mistakes sometimes, but in general, If I have my starting note, I can figure most of it out. But if I notice someone is not singing something correctly (There's one gal who kind of makes up her own parts how she THINKS it should go, and then continues to sing it and doesn't stop to listen to how it actually goes), I'll ask the director if we can hear that measure, or the interval between those notes, because "we" aren't getting it. I never call anyone out personally or give them dirty looks. And there's one who stands next to me who knows I can read it, so if she's struggling with a part, she'll just ask me how it goes, and then she'll ask me to make a recording of it and send it to our voice part app group so she can practice at home. But I don't ever just call people out and tell them they are doing it wrong. And you NEVER do that in a performance, for sure!!

 

[Songbird76]

She couldn't even tell you to your face, she had to have her friend do it. She was never going to beat you up, she couldn't even confront you. I remember I was in 6th grade at my locker and these two 8th graders came over to me and started talking to me about my clothes. They were asking me about my shoes, skirt, and where I got them. All of the sudden one of them said, "Did you just give my friend a dirty look?" I was like "?". Because I hadn't been giving anyone attitude, I was just responding to them as I was gathering my books for my next class. They were just ridiculous for the next month or so and luckily, I only saw them in the hallways. I did get angry after a while and told them to leave me the (bleep) alone. They stopped after that. But they were calling me things like a snob, a , stuck up, etc. I have no idea why they were calling me these things. I was called a snob a lot in Junior High, but I honestly feel like it was because I didn't mix with other kids. I was a very shy kid and I just had a lot of stuff going on at home that kept me preoccupied.

I'm so sorry that happened to you! Did you even know the girls? I know where I grew up was kind of not representative of the rest of the US. We lived in such a small town and went to the same school with the same kids from kindergarten through high school, so everyone knew everyone. You even knew the kids who weren't in your class. I remember being in 7th grade, and it was my 2nd day in the new school, (Jr. Sr. high) and you had to walk through the senior hall to get to the music room. It was on the opposite end of the school from all the other classrooms. So I was walking through there, and this senior guy said hi to me, and I froze. I blushed, and I probably looked like a complete idiot and I think I squeaked out a "hi" before speeding up and hotfooting it out of there. No idea what he thought, but we had been told by our school counselor that everyone at the new school hated our whole class and that the seniors had vowed to give every 7th grader a swirly and that the teachers were going to pretend not to see it. I was convinced this guy was going to shove my head in a toilet because I was a 7th grader.

 

[Songbird76]

Happy Easter! I'm hoping I'll be able to get outside and walk for a while. The weather has been very unpredictable lately. It seems fine, so you get ready to go out and then suddenly it's pouring, and it lasts for 2 minutes, so you wait and decide to go in an hour, but it's over in 2 minutes, and then you've wasted an hour when you COULD have gone out, but you didn't trust it. It's just been hard to get out. I've ridden my bike to work or home in the rain several times in the last few weeks. One day, it was dry, so I started out on my way to work and had to stop 3 streets further to put on my rain poncho because it started raining. By the time I got to work, it was pouring. So I'm hoping it will be ok today and I can get a good walk in.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Right? I can sight read music...I make mistakes sometimes, but in general, If I have my starting note, I can figure most of it out. But if I notice someone is not singing something correctly (There's one gal who kind of makes up her own parts how she THINKS it should go, and then continues to sing it and doesn't stop to listen to how it actually goes), I'll ask the director if we can hear that measure, or the interval between those notes, because "we" aren't getting it. I never call anyone out personally or give them dirty looks. And there's one who stands next to me who knows I can read it, so if she's struggling with a part, she'll just ask me how it goes, and then she'll ask me to make a recording of it and send it to our voice part app group so she can practice at home. But I don't ever just call people out and tell them they are doing it wrong. And you NEVER do that in a performance, for sure!!

I remember one specific time in sectionals in high school, all of the guys were singing something wrong. I play piano, I can read music easily. I could tell that they were wrong. They did not believe me even though I was playing it on a piano for them. I had to get our (male) director to play it for them before they were finally like "Oh, that's what it is." They were salty because the director sent me there to keep them on track.

But that was during rehearsals. Would never have called them out during a performance.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

This is what the senior page of the yearbook looks like.
View attachment 775408

My senior will. They are mostly inside jokes....like, Tiffany complained that I was always in a good mood and asked if I had ever had a crappy day because she had never seen me without a smile on my face. Jacob had a habit of wearing wrinkled clothing on speech trips....his mom was the coach and Mindy and I always had to iron his clothes and comb his hair in the morning or he'd just roll out of bed and go to the tournament like that. Dustin was a good friend of mine whose jokes were always dirty, etc. The killer suitcase was a backpack I brought along on speech trips that had toys, coloring books, etc to occupy ourselves between rounds. There was always a huddle of kids from other schools who came to play with my toys. And my bestie, Shasta, called my purse the killer purse, because I always had EVERYTHING...sewing kit, bandaids, pain relievers, safety pins, etc. So we called my backpack the killer suitcase. I passed it on when I graduated. And Jessica was a total sweetheart who I tutored sometimes and helped when she needed it. She had dyslexia and really had a hard time, but she tried sooooo hard, and I always felt bad for her, because she was so insecure and felt dumb. But she was the most popular girl in our class and everyone really liked her and she was never mean to anyone, which is rare for popular kids. And Mindy....ah Mindy. That friendship didn't end well, but she told me she wanted to be more like me, because she admired my patience and tactfulness...she had a tendency to be blunt to the point of rudeness. All of it was tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be mean at all, and everyone I named knew that.

View attachment 775409


And I was voted best car, and most likely to succeed. I guess we did have school pictures from the hired photographer our senior year...that's not one of my senior pictures that my mom took,
View attachment 775410

This is GREAT!!!! I love how everyone has different picture settings. It's also nice that they had your superlatives in with your yearbook pictures. Ours weren't done until shortly before graduation and came out in the final senior edition of our school paper. I remember being angry because some really trashy things went on behind the scenes. Everyone thought I was a shoe in for most talented girl, but the girl that won was offering all kinds of "favors" to get the votes. She was one of a number of dancers in our grade. She and I were in several of the same competition dance classes at the same studio, but she was hardly the most talented in the bunch. I think I was the only one that didn't bother with cheer because I didn't have the time or inclination. She was one of the ones that wasn't good enough to make the varsity squad until either junior or senior year. So, I'd say her best "talent" was whatever she did to "earn" the votes. Your will is also written in a way that makes sense. Even if I didn't know the backstories, I'd get it. I know what most of my little blurb stands for, but I really had to jog my memory on several things ... both initials and acronyms.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

OMG, that girl sounds obnoxious. Shushing people while they are performing, because you think they are messing up is next level brattiness. Meanwhile she's wearing shoes like she's going to Woodstock, instead of a formal performance. Then she's signaling her dissatisfaction through facial expressions and hand gestures. Rudeness.

I don't know if the choral director has ever taught them stage etiquette, but a lot of her behavior would be classified as grounds for disqualification or points deductions in some competitions. If she were part of more elite groups outside of school (at least when I was growing up), her school performance/competition behavior could hurt her there as well. I love my Birkenstocks as much as the next person, but they're not appropriate stage attire if the director calls for black formal dress and black dress shoes. I also know it's human to want to react to something wrong on stage, but unless someone is having a medical issue or there's an emergency like a fire, you act your way through it like nothing is wrong.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

This! And also obviously ignorance...you are not supposed to show that mistakes have been made. Pretend it was MEANT to be like that. The amazing teacher used to tell us, "If I drop dead on this stage, you keep going! Act like nothing is wrong!"

It was a year before I started with the symphony, but apparently the timpani player had a heart attack in the middle of the performance. Everything came to a halt. We also had a school performance several year where a part of the school was on fire. That cleared the theater. Still, those are the only times I can think of where I've ever thought it fully appropriate that a problem was being given greater attention than the performance.

I remember one specific time in sectionals in high school, all of the guys were singing something wrong. I play piano, I can read music easily. I could tell that they were wrong. They did not believe me even though I was playing it on a piano for them. I had to get our (male) director to play it for them before they were finally like "Oh, that's what it is." They were salty because the director sent me there to keep them on track.

But that was during rehearsals. Would never have called them out during a performance.

I'm good with this during a rehearsal. After all, this is why we rehearse. This is where we find our issues.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We had a nice long weekend. Since I had Friday off and wouldn't be standing/walking at my desk, I decided to take my chances and walk the greenbelts. I got in about 4.25 miles and picked a route that would give me a decent uphill climb on the way back. I was hoping to do an even longer walk on Saturday, but I had to take a different approach. Sam wanted to go up to the track. We walked 3/4 of a mile to the school, I walked the track 4x (while Sam got in work) which is the equivalent of 1 mile, we walked the 3/4 of a mile home, and then I went back out to walk some more on my own. I had a couple of scary dog encounters that cut things short, but I still got in a little over 4 miles. I didn't do much yesterday, but I did put together an egg hunt for the girls (they insisted) and was on my feet a lot while cooking and prepping.

Everyone down here is hoping that the weather forecast improves for next Monday. My parents are currently planning to fly into town and we have reservations in a parking lot about 3 hours away to watch the eclipse. I'm really hoping it pans out. I bought a solar filter for the camera and was hoping to have a picnic lunch while we tailgate with a bunch of other people. I guess we'll see what mother nature decides!

 

[Sans Souci]

I'm so sorry that happened to you! Did you even know the girls? I know where I grew up was kind of not representative of the rest of the US. We lived in such a small town and went to the same school with the same kids from kindergarten through high school, so everyone knew everyone. You even knew the kids who weren't in your class. I remember being in 7th grade, and it was my 2nd day in the new school, (Jr. Sr. high) and you had to walk through the senior hall to get to the music room. It was on the opposite end of the school from all the other classrooms. So I was walking through there, and this senior guy said hi to me, and I froze. I blushed, and I probably looked like a complete idiot and I think I squeaked out a "hi" before speeding up and hotfooting it out of there. No idea what he thought, but we had been told by our school counselor that everyone at the new school hated our whole class and that the seniors had vowed to give every 7th grader a swirly and that the teachers were going to pretend not to see it. I was convinced this guy was going to shove my head in a toilet because I was a 7th grader.

I didn't. I was just changing my books for class and these two just flanked me. They would do this in between classes if they saw me. Then they would say such trashy things to me. I sometimes wonder why they chose me? I was tall for my age back then, so I don't know if that was it.

Was the school counselor messing around with you guys? That seems like an odd thing to tell kids.

 

[Sans Souci]

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We had a nice long weekend. Since I had Friday off and wouldn't be standing/walking at my desk, I decided to take my chances and walk the greenbelts. I got in about 4.25 miles and picked a route that would give me a decent uphill climb on the way back. I was hoping to do an even longer walk on Saturday, but I had to take a different approach. Sam wanted to go up to the track. We walked 3/4 of a mile to the school, I walked the track 4x (while Sam got in work) which is the equivalent of 1 mile, we walked the 3/4 of a mile home, and then I went back out to walk some more on my own. I had a couple of scary dog encounters that cut things short, but I still got in a little over 4 miles. I didn't do much yesterday, but I did put together an egg hunt for the girls (they insisted) and was on my feet a lot while cooking and prepping.

Everyone down here is hoping that the weather forecast improves for next Monday. My parents are currently planning to fly into town and we have reservations in a parking lot about 3 hours away to watch the eclipse. I'm really hoping it pans out. I bought a solar filter for the camera and was hoping to have a picnic lunch while we tailgate with a bunch of other people. I guess we'll see what mother nature decides!

Oh, wow. That's really cool you are going to view the eclipse. I hope the weather holds for you all. I got to see an eclipse in 1999 in England. It's a really unique experience. It got a noticeably cooler and the birds went quiet. It's really wild.