About Me: A-Z

This is a really cool thing that Hayley was doing over at her blog Fish Flakes (she said I could use it too), and I think it's a fun way to learn some random facts about me, your blog author. Feel free to use this on your blog too!

A. Age: Fifteen- I turn sixteen in February!

B. Bed size: Twin, and happy with it. I actually don't really like sleeping in large beds.

C. Chore that you hate: I really do not like loading and unloading the dishwasher, but especially loading it. 

D. Dogs: I am allergic to dogs, so I can't have any. I'm even allergic to hypoallergenic dogs- how about that? It's OK though because I don't like them that much anyway. I've known some nice dogs but when I was little I got chased by this horrid little dog at the beach and it pretty much scarred me for life.

E. Essential start to your day: A hot shower. if I don't get my shower, I am not happy. At all. At camp though, an early morning swim in the lake works too :)

F. Favorite Color: I like purples and grays and blacks best, and I like some greens but not all of them.

G. Gold or Silver? Definitely silver. I only wear silver jewelry, I do NOT wear gold. I just don't like it as much. Plus, well, my trumpet is plated with pure silver so....that's just awesome. 

H. Height: 5'0''. I'm a shorty :)

I. Instruments you play: Long list time.... trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, trombone, clarinet, regular percussion, mallet/vibes percussion, piano, and mandolin.

J. Job title: High school sophomore.....plus I babysit.

K. Kids: I really like to work with them so that's a big reason why I want to be a teacher, and I figure that I'll have some of my own someday too :)

L. Live: Maine, in the USA!

M. Mother's name: On blogger my mom goes by her initials - bwk.

N. Nicknames: My brother likes to annoy me to no end and call me Sal.... Oliva calls me Salamander, and I'm also nicknamed Shortie because I am literally the shortest person in our entire 86 member band.

O. Overnight hospital stays: I've never had to stay the whole night at the hospital, but I was brought in at like one or two (actually I'm not quite sure because I was soooo out out it) in the morning once and stayed until like four-ish because of a giant asthma attack I had at camp. Not fun.

P. Pet peeves: I hate it when people talk when I talk and don't listen to what I'm trying to say. Grr.

Q. Quote from a movie tv show: I can't think of a specific one right off the bat but I really enjoy the Sue Sylvester quotes on Glee :)

R. Right or Left handed: Right handed, but I can do most things competently with my left as well.

S. Siblings: One younger brother who is in 7th grade this year.

T. Time you wake up: On school days I am up between 5:30 and 5:40 in the morning - at least that's when my very jazzy alarm goes off and I usually get out of bed. Usually... On Saturdays and Sunday's I get up between seven and eight.

U. Underwear?: Yes, I wear it. Duh.....

V. Vegetable you hate: I like and will eat pretty much all vegetables, there are only two that I really hate which are eggplant and cauliflower, and I'm pretty sure that eggplant is a fruit... :/

W. What makes you run late? : Well, I hate running late so so much that I'm usually extremely early to everything, but if I'm late to something it's usually because I had a rehearsal or a doctor's appointment.

X. X-rays you've had: Um, in 6th grade I had x-rays done on my shoulder to see if I had fractured a growth plate, in 8th grade I had to have two done on my foot to check if my toe was actually broken (it was), and last year I had a couple of chest x-rays done, one was routine for my asthma doctor, and one because they thought I had fractured a rib.

Y. Yummy food that you make: I can make lots of yummy food, but I have a VERY yummy secret recipe for potato pancakes that my family raves about.

Z. Zoo Animal: I enjoy the crocodiles and the alligators :)

Hunger Games Fever

First, I must ask you all a question.

What do you think of the book, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins?

Personally, I absolutely LOVE this book (actually all three in the trilogy) and if you haven't read at least the first one GO AND READ IT. NOW.

Now, if you know the Hunger Games, you'll know that the main character is Katniss Everdeen. Now, I like to think that I am somewhat like Katniss. Maybe I am and maybe I'm not.....but I really like her character.
This week was spirit week at school which has been a lot of fun, and today was book/movie character day, and I decided to be Katniss. It was a lot of fun walking around with a bow and arrow and a mockingjay pin and everyone being like "OMG YOU'RE KATNISS I LOVE YOU". The outfit was really simple too, I just wore black leggings, and an extra large nice black t-shirt that was belted at the waist, plus a cutout picture of the mockingjay pin plus a bow and arrow. It was pretty sweet.

Also, we've been writing a Hunger Games fanfiction in English which is a lot of fun and makes me love the book even more. Go Hunger Games!

Show Day

Yesterday was our first marching band show of the season. Squee!!!! Very, very exciting.

We started off with a three hour practice at our own field, all rocking our band pants, and marching band shirts. If you can actually rock band pants....which I don't think is possible. 

Because they look very similar to this:

Ugly, right?

They don't look bad with the rest on the uniform, but during practice when we're not in full uniform....ugh. Who wants polyester bib pants?

Anyway, we had a long hard practice before loading up the buses and heading to the show, which was an hour and a half away.

We had about 20 minutes of down time before our warm-ups which unfortunately was spent in a ridiculously long bathroom line, but that was made better by seeing a bunch of my good friends from band camp. (YAY!)

After rushing back to the buses, we grabbed our uniforms - formal red and white jackets, black gloves and black aussie hats with large plumes. All of these were added to our black drill shoes and black bib pants. We got our instruments and headed to our warm-up area where we did block and some horn warm-ups before lining up for the show.

We went on a 7:15 so it was still fairly light, but there was enough evening dew on the grass to make it slippery, but no one fell during the performance. Our show was AWESOME. It went quite smoothly for a first show which means that by finals.....it will be epic. And with three stars across the board for an excellent start and once again having the best rating of any band there, it was a good show.

After, we went back home and went straight to Friendly's for our traditional late-night show-night dinner. 

Very good times....can't wait for next weekend!

This September

One half month down. It feels a lot longer than that. 

It's kind of funny how fast you can slip into new routines, or at least I can. This week I've been moving around the school quickly, going to all my classes, feeling like I've been in each of them for a lot longer than I actually have. I already simply love some of my classes but there are some that I'm like 'oh snore' during. 

Although it's felt really long, each day seems to go by really slowly, I realized just how much I have actually done just this first part of the month.

I wonder what I'll be working on next...

Here are some goals:

I think I can do that....don't you? Do you have anything YOU want to do THIS SEPTEMBER?

On The Field

The countdown has begun! Our first marching band show is on Saturday and those of us in the band are cramming sectionals, individual practice before the weekend and trying to get better and better so that we can come out with a smashing good performance on Saturday night. In fact we have a full ensemble practice tonight and I can guarantee that it will be an intense one. When it comes to regular practices, the toughest one are the ones before the first show and the ones in the week leading up to finals.
I'm pretty sure I can expect a lot of yelling tonight.

Anyway, as the season is well underway by now, I thought that I might go into a little more detail about the show itself and give you the original music so that you can see how it's put together. There's only one word to describe this year's show, and that word is EPIC.

We open with 'The Chase' from National Treasure. The first ten measures are done at a hold and are extremely loud. It's very big, very showy and very awesome.

We then move into the next part of the opener - 'Interrogation'. This part is very driving. It's fast and it builds in a very intense way from light woodwinds to a huge horn chorale.

The middle and ending of the opener, plus the ballad, and the closer to the drum solo are all parts of the song 'Ben'. This song features two ballad-like areas and also some really intense, driving, fast parts from the main theme.

From 'Ben' we move into drum solo and after that finishes, we're off and running with 'Titan Spirit', our final song from Remember The Titans. Whereas a lot of the National Treasure music was intense and minor pitched, 'Titan Spirit' is in a major key and has a lot of really cool little sports themes and the way we're doing it on the field even features a big football 'HUH!' from the band. It's fun.

So, that's our show, just arranged for our band.
It is So. So. Epic.

Creativity

Well? How do you like it?

I spent a good long time this afternoon redesigning Treble Clef, and I must say, I am very pleased with the results. 

I was most pleased with the header. It was very fun to make and I love the way it turned out.

Please vote on the poll on the side to say what you think. I hope you like it as much I do. :)

On other creative topics, I've finished the first verse of Hallelujah for trumpet, piano, cello, and violin (recording to come soon) and have made a significant start in my Trumpet Sonata No. 1 (Prelude). I can tell that it will be great.

I also took some lovely moon pictures last night at a flashlight September 11th memorial. It was stunning, all the lights and the full moon rising above. It is time for light- we've been in darkness for too long.

What have YOU done that's

creative?

NEVER FORGET

Ten Years



Ago.

On September 10th 2001, the American population went about their daily lives. Nineteen seemingly innocent people prepared for an attack. Two of these people were in my very own city. Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari ate their last dinner at the Pizza Hut, took money out of the Key Bank, and spent the night at the Comfort Inn. I shudder to think that these people, about to commit the greatest terrorist attack on the United States, were only a few miles away from me on that night.

September

11, 2001

The next morning, September 11, they boarded their flight from the Portland International Jetport and flew down to Logan Airport where they boarded American Airlines flight 11. This flight left at 7:59am The other seventeen terrorists did the same on their respective flights.

United Airlines flight 175 left Logan airport at 8:14am.

Six minutes later, at 8:20, American Airlines flight 77 left Dulles Airport in Washington, DC.

At 8:42am United Airlines flight 93 took off from Newark, New Jersey.

At 8:46am the north tower of the World Trade Center was struck by flight 11. The tower would crumble at 10:28.

Flight 175 hit the south tower at 9:02am. It would collapse at 9:59.

At 9:37am flight 77 slammed into the west side of the Pentagon.

At 10:03am, the flight 93 passengers make the ultimate sacrifice, take over the plane, and crash it into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Thousands lost their lives on this day, so many more lost their loved ones.

September 11, 2001.

Never

Forget.

Rainy Day Here To Stay

Welcome to fall, the season of rain. Cold rain. Here in Maine, in terms of precipitation, we have the season of snow, followed by the season of light warm rain and mud, and then the season of storms, and finally the season of cold hard rain.

It certainly is feeling quite fall-like at this time. There's a definite chill in the air, a crisp edge to the wind and the cold soaking feeling of the rain. None the less, I love fall. LOVE. IT. I enjoy these rainy days, I like curling up with a blanket and a steaming cup of cocoa while the rain pours down. In fact, that's what I would LIKE to be doing right now, but t will still be quite a few hours before that will happen. About 3 and a half actually. Instead I'm sitting in my chem offlab (otherwise known as my very infrequent study hall) typing up this post and freezing because this school is so darn temperamental in its temperature. When it's hot outside, it's scorching inside, when it's cold outside, it's like an igloo inside. 

I really just want to go home.

Really.

This study hall is stupid.

And boring.

Get.

Me.

Out.

Of.

Here.

Please?

My other classes this morning were not so bad. Real Life was OK, and APUSH was actually really good and fun! I am liking the class a LOT more than I thought I would. French will be tedious as my last block, and this study hall is torturous. 

Hate study hall. Hate it. 

You know what? This post was supposed to be about loving fall, and rainy days and it turned into a tirade against study hall.

I apologize. 

But maybe I should just end this post, and wish a was at home with some hot chocolate and stop boring you to death?

That sounds good....