Backstage Techies

As you (should) know, during any kind of performance onstage, there are backstage techies involved with that production. I'm one of those techies. There's sound crew, light crew, set run, all kinds of funky jobs to do in the dark.

My first tech job at the high school was for the Junior's fashion show fundraiser. Since it was a fashion show, and there were many models coming up and down the runway, I got the job of catwalk spotlight right. My best friend Colin was working catwalk spotlight left, so we got to be SPOT BUDDIES.

I got to call someone my spot buddy. Pretty cool.

Hold the phone- most of you think that catwalk means the runway that the models strut up and down on. The catwalk is actually this tiny little strip up in the ceiling of the theatre. There are two completely vertical ladders on either end of the auditorium that lead up to the catwalk, and once you're up there, it's basically this long narrow pathway with lights, spotlights, chords, headsets, and all sorts of fun stuff. There are two spotlights up in the catwalk, one right and one left. That's basically all you need to know.

Pros and Cons of Spotlight Operator for the fashion show....


PROS

• I felt very important.
• (Well that's because I kind of was important... I mean, I'm lighting up a person. So that's pretty cool.)
• I finally learned how to use the spotlight.
• It feels like you can control the SUN. When I turn on my spotlight, I'm always like, "...and then god said, let there be light!!"
• A few of us were talking over headset during the show. I remember, many of the models weren't even strutting. They were just kinda strolling out, and then awkwardly strolling their way back behind the curtain. We were cheering them on from the catwalk, like "WORK IT! GET YOUR HIPS INTO IT!" 

CONS

• Not gonna lie here... the show itself wasn't great. (At all.)
• Transporting stuff in and out of the catwalk is a nightmare, at least, in my experience. I tried bringing my phone, a water bottle, and some string to play with, but my black techie pants didn't have any pockets. So, I had to go up the ladder to the catwalk with my bra overloaded with junk. I'm just glad that no one saw me in my black low-cut shirt with a water bottle and string sticking out of my cleavage, on the verge of falling out. (I know. I'm classy.)
  

This is taken from the catwalk. There's a little opening with a wire net thing, so we don't fall into the audience, and to our deaths. It's a little hard to see, but that giant black thing with the levers is the spotlight. Welcome to the catwalk... now imagine being in that kind of a space in pitch darkness during a show. :)

 For the Musical this year, Legally Blonde, I was assigned to be one of several mic dressers. As far as I'm concerned, everyone who wants to eventually end up having a big, important technical role in a show has to start at the bottom of technical backstage jobs, which I consider to be mic dressing.

I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just stay in my little comfort zone here and just keep going with these pros and cons lists.

PROS

• You have to deal with actors.
• It's a fairly quick job, so once everyone has a mic on, all you have to do is keep track of mic changes. You also have to be ready to go backstage with mic tape or band-aids if someone's mic is falling off. During the rest of the show, it's actually very laid back.
• 98% of the time, Alexis, the head mic dresser, brings you food and cocoa. 
• We get to yell at actors if they take off their own mic at the end of a show. (Unless they're one of those cool actors who we trust, and knows how to do it properly.)

CONS

• You have to deal with actors.
  To expand on the above, dealing with actors can be a good thing and a bad thing. It's mostly a bad thing though.
  
  Some actors are really nice and respectful, and don't care that you have to drop a mic down their shirt and tuck it in their pocket, or clip it to their bra. Some actors just talk casually to their other actor friends while they're both getting mics on, like they're at a salon or something.  (That actually isn't a bad thing, because they're just letting us do our job.)
  
  However, some actors forget to come get their mic on, and we end up hunting them down. Some actors forget when to come backstage to get their mic taken off (if there's a mic change in the show.) And then we end up hunting them down. Some actors get awkward when we're taping the mic to their face. Some actors get really awkward when I'm clipping a mic to their bra.
  
  Exhibit A:
  
  "I got it; I can do it by myself."
  *struggles with mic, and can't get the clip right*
  "Need help?"
  "Yeah."
  "That's what I'm here for."
  
• You don't really get to see the show. You can hear the show perfectly fine from backstage, but you don't get to see it. 
• No one seems to have that much respect for us, except for those few cool actors I mentioned above. 
• You have to go through this conversation too many times:
  "Oh, sorry, I can't... I have to work on the musical."
  "You're in the musical?!?!"
  "Well.. I'm not in it, I work backstage for it..."
  "Oh, cool. What do you do?"
  "...I'm a mic dresser."
  "A what?!"
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Bass Flute? Excuse me?

Oh yes. Such a thing exists, you ignorant little peasants. :)
But... but HOW CAN IT BE?!
Don't question it.

A friend of mine says that the bass flute is an oxymoron, basically because when people think of flutes, they think that they are all very high-pitched and squeaky. Hm. Fair enough, I guess.

SO. Why am I rambling on about bass flutes to you? How is this at all relevant to you, Sonja? Well. I got the chance to try out all the flutes today during my weekly flute lesson. My flute teacher has a piccolo, an open-holed concert C flute, a closed-holed concert C flute, an alto flute, and a bass flute.

Before I explain to you what all that means and what they look like, let me introduce you to my flute, the one I've had since fifth grade. :) Her name is Cindy.

 She is a closed-holed concert C flute. 

Yeah that's my hula hoop there, too.
[Fun fact: I learned how to hula hoop two years ago.]

He likes to stay in the loop with what's going on with Cindy, ya know? 

AH. That was actually an unintentional pun!!

 

This is part of the district audition piece that we're working on.

This is what we endure, my friends.
The music is SO PRETTY, but my fingers can't move that fast... whatever, I'm gonna make them move that fast whether they like it or not. As of today, it's just a matter of speeding the notes up, and working on tone quality. Auditions are coming soon!!

Finally, before my flute lesson today, my mom actually recognized Cindy. She texted me saying "I'll pick u and Cindy up @ 3:50." So she gets her full name for once, and I get a lowercase u. Sweet.

Alright, so now you've met Cindy. Let's move on to the delightful world of flutes.

Let's play one of my favorite games: NAME THAT INSTRUMENT. :) This is a piccolo, and it's so teeny tiny and adorable. Every band, if they have any piccolos at all, should only have one. It's absolutely impossible to tune two (or, god forbid even more than that) piccolos, and even if you manage to, it doesn't last for more than a minute at the very most.

So how do you get two piccolos in tune?
You shoot one.

 

Don't laugh at her face, because it's impossible to look attractive when playing pretty much any instrument that involves your mouth. This is why all the girls fall in love for the guitar players and percussionists, and not us winds and brass players. They can sing a song at the same time, or kiss you, or whatever you love birds do.  Makes sense doesn't it? Nah, I don't care. I've already got someone on my mind. :)

ANYWHO. Name that instrument!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the alto flute.

It looks really cool because the headpiece is turned over and flopping all over the place, and most people are like, "WOAH I didn't know they made head pieces like that!!" Well, they do. Pretty snazzy stuff goin' on in here tonight. I really love the alto flute because it doesn't play ridiculously low for a flute; it can sometimes sound almost like a soprano flute. Kind of a best of both worlds Hannah Montana thing going on. It's low C is so rich and beautiful. Also, most alto flutes come with two head pieces: one that is curved around like the ones above, and then one that's stick straight out, making the flute even longer.

I can't. I just can't.

If any of you have a few thousands dollars partying in your pockets, feel free to just buy me an alto flute. I'll love you forever.

Last flute, the one that really shocks people the most, is the bass flute. I love this picture because it shows you the comparison in size. From top to bottom: Bass, alto, B flat open-hole concert flute, C open-hole concert flute, I'm not sure what the difference is between this one and the one before it, and the piccolo.

I'm not an expert, but the second to the bottom really throws me off.
Whatever.
They all make pretty music.

 

Woah there.
This is a bunch of different flutes, similar to the one above. But SONJA! What are those crazy head pieces?? They're like freaking TRIANGLES.
Mesmerizing, isn't it?
From left to right, I believe, is a concert flute, alto flute, bass flute, a bass flute with a funky head piece, a sub contrabass flute, and then the rest are all some sort of contrabass flute. 

Why would you want a funky triangular head piece?

Imagine this. You're holding this massive bass flute and it sticks out a foot next to you. Unless you have that kind of space all the time, it's a lot easier to just use the contrabass flute and balance it on the floor with the little rod sticking out the bottom.

I didn't get to try a contrabass, but I'd like to some day.

By the way, my symphony band audition was two weeks ago, on Thursday at 3:35 PM exactly. I performed the G major scale and E flat major scale, both two octaves of course. The chromatic scale, three octaves, some sight reading, and my prepared piece. It went pretty well, and I got into symphony band :) Ninth chair!

Don't mean to brag, but I'm pretty proud of myself. 

Now I get to stress about the junior district auditions.

The Highlight of my Thanksgiving Weekend

Highs and Lows, shall we?
Personal favorite of mine, if I do say so myself.

LOWS

• I missed out on visiting my dad's side of the family this year, since it's my moms turn to host Thanksgiving. It was a fun crowd, I just miss my cousins and my aunt and uncle. :(
• I'm never a huge fan of everything that makes up your typical Thanksgiving dinner. It's all slimy and mushy and gooey, and apparently, people like all of it. Turkey? It's good, sure, but it's soft and squishy. Gravy? Gooey. Corn pudding? Mushy. Stuffing? Mushy. Pie? Mushy. Mashed potatoes? Mashed and mushy. Makes me wonder if someone has invented the Thanksgiving-on-the-go smoothie yet. Is that a thing now?
• We, the marching band, had a football game Thanksgiving morning and we performed the field show and played our usual pep songs. Great. BUT that means we miss the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and sleeping in.
• I had to actually tidy up my room before people came. Hehe. Tidy. Funny words.

HIGHS

• Sam, my oldest brother in college, came home. :) And he brought his girlfriend! She looks just like me. A little odd, but what the hay. She's wicked smaht. 
• We broke out the video games in the basement for the first time in way too long. I finally got to redeem myself as Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  Best game ever? Oh yes. That's my childhood right there.
• I challenged my mom to make something CRUNCHY to serve at the table this year.
  RULES:
  1) It can't be chips and dip, you cheater. Dip is gooey.
  2) It can't be a dessert.
  3) It can't be an appetizer.
  She accepted this challenge and made some sort of crunchy corn salad. Huh.
• On the same note of the marching band, there is also a high side to that story. The opposing team's band put on a field show for us too, and they played a few pop songs, but the one that I completely fangirled during was Americano by Lady Gaga. Everyone else was all, "Woah this is a cool song!" "Yeah, but what song exactly?" "Huh.. I don't know.." And there I am flipping out in my band uniform off to the side, like "I KNOW! I KNOW WHAT SONG THIS IS!" whisper-yelling. I'm just so cool. I know my Gaga. ;) 
• I BEAT SAM AT CHESS.
• On Saturday, my dad, my brother Ben, my brother went up to Maine to spend the day with our grandparents on my dads side. During the day, Dad was playing one of his original songs on the keyboard. We were all trying to come up with names for the song. My suggestion was "Midnight." It was a very peaceful and calm sounding song, but Ben had a different name suggestion. This name suggestion is actually THE highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend, topping all the other highlights on this lovely high list. His suggestion was:
  "Black Horse Walking Through The Desert With A Possibly Dyslexic Cowboy"

 Love it.

~SWH

LGBTQ, GSA, IAWIA, All Them Acronyms

How am I doing? Fine. Fabulous.
But, surprisingly enough, I haven't posted a single thing on here about LGBTQ, GSA, or IAWIA.
And I have quite a lot to say about this topic.
I know a lot of you have strong beliefs on topics such as homosexuality, but I still encourage you to read this because I promise you, you'll learn something new.
Sorry lovelies, but this one ain't gonna be short and sweet and "to the point."
So here we go.

I'd like to talk about the three acronyms I've listed in the lovely purple title above, my personal experience throughout all of this, and I, hopefully, will educate you out there so you can better understand our community. Onward. :)

LGBTQ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Questioning. I found this poster just to clarify all the different sexual orientations out there. (Art credits: "Queer Definitions" elfabella.deviantart.com)

 

This poster doesn't cover everything, though. But I do hope that it helps you understand the different sexualities that exist not only in humans, but in approximately 1,500 different species on this planet. This covers L, G, and B. Don't ask why Pansexual and Asexual aren't in the acronym, because I really don't know. They're just not as common, and most people aren't aware that such sexualities exist. (I didn't even know that there was such thing as bi-sexual until the 7th grade.) 

Another that isn't on there is Questioning. It is simply someone who is unsure of whether or not they're gay, straight, or any other sexuality. They're simply confused and unsure, and in transition. They're trying to get to grips with who they are. That's an awful time, I can tell you that. Some of the worst months I've ever lived. But it gets better~ I'll elaborate more about my experience later on below.

However, Transgender isn't a sexuality. It's a matter of what gender you are, hence the "gender" in the name. (That's why it wasn't on the pretty purple poster. The pretty purple poster focused on sexualities only.) One who is transgender just doesn't feel like their personality fits their gender. They don't feel comfortable in their physical body. Some transgenders get surgery on the chest and down below, while some get only one or the other; it's all a matter of what feels right and comfortable. I think everyone should feel comfortable and confident in their own skin. I know two transgenders: one who was born a boy and turned into a beautiful woman, and another who was born a girl and has slowly been turning into a handsome young man. I don't know if "turning into" is the right verb to use here, but essentially, they changed genders.

 

I also found this. ("Transgender: Society v. Self" blackfaebird.deviantart.com) It shows how one can go from boy to girl, girl to boy, and I love how this photo-manipulation foreshadows confusion and self-doubt.

So now you know what LGBTQ stands for. You've learned something new today. ;) Props, hun, but we're not through. This little pixie has much more to say.

GSA stands for Gay-Straight Alliance. Many schools have GSA clubs after school, open for anyone to come and join. It's a safe place to be openly gay, openly whatever, or just plain OPEN. Shouldn't school in general be a safe place to be openly yourself? It should. But it isn't. I want to live to see the day that everyone can comfortably be who they are without having to worry about a thing, whether it's at school or work. Hakuna matata.

GSA is a magical place.

During Ally Week, which is a week dedicated to showing that you're an ally, and wearing different colors of the rainbow each day, during all the lunch periods, there was a station where anyone could walk up and write on a sticky note why they're an ally. Monday was red, tuesday was yellow, wednesday was green, thursday was blue, and BI-DAY FRIDAY was pink and purple. :) So for every day, we had appropriately colored sticky notes. After people wrote on the sticky notes, we put them up on cute little poster boards. We also gave out little rainbow ribbon pins for people to either wear on their shirts or on their backpacks to show the world that they're an ally.

One day, during the first lunch period of the day, my friends running the table used the wrong color sticky notes for that day. So cute~

"So we forgot that we were supposed to use the yellow stickies and grabbed the blue... awks.. WE'RE SORRY. -C + S"

Adorable.

Colin's BornThisWayFoundation bracelet.

Be Kind :)

What's it doing on my soap dispenser?

Nah, that's not important.

 

Aren't I just adorable, decked out in my blue tank top and denim shirt, with my rainbow pin?

I've got my pride.

So that's GSA. :) The happy place at school. Now you have to learn the last acronym: IAWIA. I kind of made this acronym up. It stands for the Facebook Page I made called I Am Who I Am. Originally, it was named "GayMarriageAllTheWay" but I felt like that was a bit too focused. A lot of my gay friends didn't like the page because they didn't want their Facebook friends to see that they were gay. They were afraid that if they were "caught" liking this page, then they would be considered gay. So I broadened the horizons. :) It looks a little something like this:

I've been saying that I'll talk about my personal experience. Here goes nothing.

In eighth grade, last year, I started to get very confused and I was questioning myself in many different ways. Everything was just a big blur through eighth grade. There was one girl who opened my eyes to the possibility of me being bi. She told me during band one day, like it was just small talk. "I don't know if I told you, but I'm bi." So then I thought long and hard about it for the rest of the year. And it wasn't just her, it was a lot of girls. I could see myself dating them, and I could see myself holding their hand.

Maybe this was just a normal girl thing that everyone goes through. I did a bit of research on girl crushes and phases, and Jenna Marbles does a good job explaining normal girl-crushes. The kind she describe in the video aren't the kind that I have. I have many small crushes on my friends, some bigger than others.

Caution: Jenna throws around some naughty language here and there.

After a very confusing and odd year, I made a very daring move. Mid-June, about a week away from the last day of school, (and also my dad's birthday,) I posted this on Facebook:

 

I know, I know, it sounds stupid, a silly little eighth grader who's all confused and runs to Facebook for help. I wasn't seeking attention, or to be the next "hot topic" all over peoples' news feeds. No, I have my reasons. I wanted to come out to everyone at once, and that be that. I just wanted to get it over with. My friend Ally, who was coming out a couple months earlier, she just nudged it into the conversation with everyone like I mentioned above. I didn't want to do that, going around and talking about it to everyone I see. Then I'll forget who I've told, who doesn't know, etc. It would just get confusing. So this was my way of opening myself up to the world.

Also, I came out to my parents about a week earlier. Their reactions were... okay. I don't really know. They just shrugged their shoulders and said something like "That's okay." I wasn't expecting much, but I'm just so thankful that my parents are supportive of me. It took my brothers a bit longer to put the pieces together; at least, that's what I gathered. So I nudged that into the conversation with both, like saying something like, "You guys are lucky- you have girlfriends. I wish I had one."

Back to my daring Facebook post. You might be wondering what kind of comments followed. I'll show you for myself. All sixty-four comments. 

 The very first comment was my dad. I think I told him that I was going to get it out all at once right before I went to bed. 

As you can see, a lot of my friends are really supportive. 

It was a great thing to wake up to the next morning. :)

Matt, a friend of my brother, chimed in as well. 

Somehow, the bi-sexuality popped up again on September 4th, when Anna commented. 

It all came flooding back that day. 

I remember reading all the comments on my phone in the car, as we drove home from the orthodontist. 

It was raining that day. 

At first, Charlie, Anna, and Matt were just discussing their beliefs. 

It seemed like no big deal at first. 

Then, things got out of hand. 

Religious beliefs were argued at 1:30 in the morning. 

I didn't see any of this until later that day.

 I was speechless in the car on my phone. 

I didn't know what to think of all of this. 

It was so overwhelming that they were dedicating this much time and thought into this heated discussion. 

 

 

Every few minutes, someone else would post a carefully crafted, and sometimes sassy comeback to the last comment. 

Between those minutes, I was hoping that no one would write back. 

I just wanted it to end already. 

You've got people liking others' comments, and supporting them.

 

 They were getting very angry with each other.
I expected some small debates and maybe a little hate in the comments the day I posted it, but nothing as long as this.

  Hours passed by, and they were still arguing.

 

I started crying after Michael's comment. 

I know for a fact that someone like him never reads any of my statuses. 

It made me realize how many people must have seen this in their news feeds, and how viral it was.

It made me wonder how many people were hopelessly sitting behind their phones or computers, following the heated argument with me.
It made me think about how many people must have seen this, and decided to just stay out of it.

My parents told me that if I wanted to, I could take down the whole post altogether.
I didn't want to do that. 

It needed to stay there, no matter how heated the arguments got.

 

Finally, Matt took some control.
Things started calming down.
I decided to step in, to remind them of who was reading all of it, and who was uncontrollably sobbing to herself throughout the whole thing.

I tried to be sincere.

 

A couple other sprinkles of support at the very end completed the entire thing.
I just hope that it doesn't come back again. First in June, then September.
But if it does, I'll let it run it's course.
I'm not deleting it.

I'm mature enough to respect others' opinions, even if I don't agree with them. 

 

Sorry that was so long, but there wasn't much I could do about it. It ran it's course.
Anyway, I have just a couple other quick things to show you before we're through here.
First, a beautiful song that Matt, the yellow one, the one up in those comments, shared with me. I really like the message of this song, and I'd love it if you gave it a chance.

One last thing that my best guy friend shared with me. He uses some naughty words, but he gets his point across very clear. It's not very long, and it really opens your eyes to what we're actually dealing with here. 

So that's me.
Thanks for listening.
I'm bi-sexual (at the very least.)

And I'm damn well proud of it.

~SWH

Sins, Rules, Heaven and Hell

It is 10:54 PM on a Sunday, when the typical 14-year-old should be getting her beauty sleep for school tomorrow. Instead, here I am, typing this in my bed, with the Doctor Who soundtrack playing. Typical me.

So Sonja, why are you being ever so scandalous and writing to us at this hour of the night? Well, earlier today, I was dragged to confirmation class at my church. I have to go every other Sunday from six to eight at night. It's a group of about thirteen kids, consisting of freshmen and eighth graders, along with the vicar and a couple of other teachers. (The vicar is basically someone who is training to become a pastor/priest.) Confirmation class lasts for two years for each "student." The freshmen are in their second year of class, and the eighth graders are in their first year. Basically, we sit down and have dinner, then we discuss different topics each week. This week's topic? Sins.

Oh joy.

I'm not sure if this will end up in some sort of rant, but I feel the need to let all of this out so I can sleep peacefully later on tonight, instead of sleep restlessly in anger. Anger sleep is not fun. I always wake up with the worst possible bed heads on those following mornings. Anywho, let's begin, shall we? Got some late night deep thinking to do. (She typed, as she cranked up the Doctor Who soundtrack, season three. Love it.)

The first discussion topic: What is a sin? Good job on the teacher's part. This sparked quite a lot of answers. Personally, I define a sin as anything that is wrong, or bad. However, those are two painfully vague words, which leads me to the question, what defines right and wrong? While the rest of the class was giving their own definitions of what a sin is, I sat their and fidgeted with my cat hat and thought about this. Do we simply rely on the bible to tell us what is bad and what is good, right and wrong? Perhaps some people do. I know I don't. Whether you're religious or not, how do you know what is good and bad? I've concluded that while each and every one of us grew up, our parents have been teaching us to believe that certain things are considered good, and others considered bad. For example: stealing your brother's lollipop? No Sonja, that's bad. Don't do that. Give the lollipop back and apologize? Good job, Sonja. You did the right thing. High-five!




Slow down. Why did I get a high-five for returning my brother's lollipop? Because my parents believe that doing so is the "right" thing to do. I'm sure the majority of your parents believe the same. But, this makes me wonder where the idea of good and bad came from, and how man slowly discovered time after time the "right" answers. There is no right without wrong, no good without bad, no happy without sad.

This is a bit too much for my head to handle right now. But I want you to think about that, what I just said up there.

On to the rest of the confirmation class. Shouldn't take much longer. Soon after everyone defined what a sin is, we all started talking about what actions are sins, what aren't, why, which ones will send you to hell, which ones won't, the ten commandments, all that chatter.




What I truly don't understand is why sinning even matters at all. I just don't get it. If I'm sinning pretty much all the time, just like the rest of us, am I supposed to feel ashamed and guilty all of the time because of my constant "wrongdoing?" So, because I'm not doing something, like spreading the message of god, should I always feel guilty for spending my time doing my World History homework instead? For crying out loud, I'm doing the best I can. I'm only human. I'm trying to be a good person, you know... but according to Brian and the Vicar, we, humans as a whole, are sinning almost all of the time. But here's the weird part: we are always given forgiveness when we ask for it. Or at least, we're given the illusion that this god forgives us for being human and doing so much. So why does sinning matter if we know we're always going to be forgiven, no matter what? He loves us unconditionally, as I've been taught to believe.

Brian, one of the teachers in the class, said something along the lines of, "You are always sinning. You can never live a sinless life, and everything that you do is most likely a sin. You're sinning by not ridding the world of injustice right now." Fabulous. What are you saying, Brian? Are we all supposed to hop out of our seats, jump out the windows, turn into Spiderman and just run into the city streets, saving the day? That kind of action is for Spiderman, not us. I bet he never sins. See why I want to be Spiderman?? Nah, I don't want to be Spiderman because he probably never sins, but because he's half spider. End of discussion there.

On a different topic, the class started arguing that if someone commits murder, they should and will go to hell. They all bickered on about it, and I just sat there and observed. Why does this matter? I believe that once you're gone, you're gone. That's it. Simple. You don't go to heaven or hell. Don't get me started on the whole "where does your soul go?" discussion. That's for another late night religious blog post.

Sorry if this is offensive to any of you, but you know what, this is my blog, not yours. I don't even know what to believe anymore. I am leaning towards the evolution story. I don't think I believe in Jesus, God, or any of the stories in the bible.

So tonight was just one big religious messy explosion inside my head, and I had to contain all of these thoughts until I got home from the class and finished my homework. Why didn't I spit any of this out during class? I don't know. I was afraid? I was too busy thinking about all of this? I wasn't in the mood to discuss the true evolution story? Point is, all of it is finally out of my system.

It's exactly 12:00 AM, Monday morning, November 19th. I've gotten all of that off my chest, now it's time for a lovely peaceful sleep. Good night ;) ~SWH

Aunt Flo

WARNING: The following post contains me ranting on "that time of month." Hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge. Girls, this is for you, and guys...? I'm not saying you can't read it; you can. I felt obligated to put this little warning before I continued onward.

You've had your warning, so ready or not, here I go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First of all, let me just begin by saying I can't believe I was actually looking forward to this. Honestly, I was. Truth is? It SUCKS. Sorry for all you girls out there who haven't experienced this yet, this is probably but just be glad that you don't have to deal with this. You're lucky, trust me!

What I'm not going to do is tell you lies. I'll try not to be too harsh, though, and exaggerate things. 

My dad and I went to CVS for some pads a few months ago, and he wanted to get all the different kinds. Ladies, we all know what they are. The thin liners, the normal ones, and the big-a** nighty time ones. I have a thing or two to say about the nighty time ones. They're freaking HUGE! I swear. The first time I tried one, my dad told me I'd get used to it, but how can I? It's literally like having a second vagina on top of your own. I can NOT get used to that! When you sit down with them on, you can feel it going all the way up, in the front and back, because it's just that long. Talk about unpleasant. The only decent position I've found to sleep in with one of them on is on your stomach. That's it. Everything else feels just SO unnatural. I'll just go ahead and say this: I've been experiencing this for a few months now, and no, dad, I haven't gotten used to the nighty time ones, for the record.

Let's do a cute little pros and cons list, shall we? I'm sure all of you are dying to see the pros list. I'll go ahead and start with the cons for that very reason. :)

CONS

• No white pants for the week, unless you want to be that girl at school who didn't know why she was sent to the nurses office. Bonus points if the old substitute nurse gets to deliver the news for you.
• You feel like you shouldn't sit cross-legged, even if the package says "extra protection." 
• You always underestimate the power of your pad. Ladies, we all know this is true. You've seen those girls in the pad commercials who are like pretty little birds flying around like nothing's going on down there in that jungle, right? Even in girly magazines they have that fake worry-free face on. Yeah. None of us, no matter how fantastic the pad is, ever feel like that fake pansy girl in the pad ads. Maybe for tampons, but pads? Forget it.
• It's just so inconvenient! I miss the days when I looked forward to going to the bathroom, because afterwards, my hands would smell like pears from the scented soap.
• It restricts you from certain activities, such as swimming. I almost want to see what it would look like if someone went into a pool, and out of no where, they get their first period. Poor little girl. Lesson learned? That will be a killer story for their future daughter.
• Symptoms/side affects. I think we all know at least one girl who, when it's her time of month, is really easy to tell if it's happening. They'll snap at you for the dumbest things, they break out, they cake on make up, and you really don't want to get them mad. 
• You always feel like, no matter what you do, you're sitting in a lake. 
• You are paranoid that whenever you bend over, it goes through your pants.  

PROS

•  If you can pull off the right face, you could get excused from gym class!
• If your friends are good at telling when it's going on, they'll usually go easy on you for the week. 
• I know I sound like a mom, but at least you know that you're growing up..? Yeah I'll stop now.
• You're giving all your other pants besides the white ones a fighting chance to prove themselves to your legs. 
• You have an easy pass to the Nurse's whenever you want. Just give the teacher "the look" and they'll let you go! It's magical. 
• You can finally relate to the rest of your girl friends.
• If your symptoms include being.. well.. let's just say rude, then you can blame it 100% on your silly old period. 'Nuff said.
• Playing the awkward game at some party? Whip out this topic for the kill, especially if they're a dude. :) Because, you know, guys love to hear awkward period stories that they can never relate to. It fascinates them to a whole new level.
• You will soon enough become a master a speed-changing yourself, meaning changing them pads in and out. You will also become a master at rapidly "breaking in" the new pad in a matter of seconds. 
• If you have something valuable or something you want to hide, just bury it in a giant pile of tampons, pads, and, if it's really valuable, break out the fake blood. We were at camp one time, and my friend hid her phone in this pouch stuffed with tampons. :)

Here's Menstrual Ms. Pacman for you:

You're welcome.

-SWH

Holy Musical B@man!

Calling all thespians! Even if you don't love theatre, this musical is just down right hilarious. Holy Musical B@man, by Starkid, is the funniest musical I've ever seen, and I don't even know that much about Batman to begin with.

Why do I love this so much? The songs are incredibly catchy, it's adorable and hilarious all at once, and if you're not a thespian, it just might be the musical that will convert you into a thespian. Pippin, several times in a row, converted me. Now it's your turn! Join us! (Leave your fields to flower! Join us! Leave your cheese to sour!) Sorry, that was the opener for Pippin. I just couldn't help myself.

We're a lovely crowd of people; we don't bite. Are you ready? You're about to watch the best musical ever. It's for everybody, except for children 10 and up, because of the swears. They even swear in one of the songs... I felt obligated to throw that out there before you watch this.

P.S. My favorite character is Calendar Man. You'll see him in Act 1 part 7.

Ready set go. I've put all the videos in chronological order, so all you gotta do is sit back with a sense of humor, and enjoy the show.

Quiet in the house!

Did you love Act 1? Part 7 is my favorite. It's adorable. You're going to love Act 2 even more. I think Act 2 has the better songs. 

Watch!

 

Thou Art Translated!

"Thou art translated!" My friend Jillian said to me one day in band class, before warming up. She was just quoting shakespeare that we were performing in English class, but it actually made me think. In this context, "Thou art translated" means "You have changed."

I have changed. What an understatement that is. I'll show you change.

7th Grade:

I remember being shy, at least when I wasn't around my small group of friends. I appreciated drama, because I could imagine how much work it took to put together a show, but I never really got into it. For instance, I would see shows at the high school, but I wouldn't see them more than once, or flip through the program to see who played what part.

I also had long, brown hair back then. I rarely let my hair down. When I say rarely, I mean rarely. Perhaps rarely is the wrong word to use... more like barely. I absolutely hated having my hair down, and I only recall having it down for only one day of the entire school year. That was the day when we presented our English projects infront of the class.

I didn't draw anime-style like I do now, and I didn't watch any animes. I don't think I knew what an anime even was back in the day. Also, in terms of clothing choice, those were the days when I thought I had to dress up like everybody else for people to like me. That meant, back then, mostly things from Aeropostale and other name brands like that. I wanted to blend in. I wouldn't dare wear neon skinny jeans, or god forbid fingerless gloves.

I focused a lot on my schoolwork, which isn't a bad thing, now that I look back, but I regret not spending my time doing other things. Other exciting, wonderful things.

I was, however, still in love with writing, but not as much as I am now. I did write short stories, that were three typed pages long at the very most. I was a proud member of the creative writing club, like I am now.

Last but not least, the school band was a chore for me. I dreaded the band classes, and I kept my eyes glued to the clock, waiting for 1:14 PM to come rolling around the corner.

See? An Aeropostale sweatshirt, and my hair is way too neatly combed back with a headband, and tied into a ponytail. Talk about basic.

This was one of the only pictures I could find of myself during seventh grade with my hair down. The only reason it looks decent is because I just got out of the shower. Wondering what those blond streaks are? Highlights. Let the record show that my natural hair color is, in fact, dark brown.

For those of you who know me, and maybe haven't seen me in a few years, you may be thinking that the pictures above are accurate to this date. You, my friend, are wrong. I have "translated" into something much different. How have I translated? Besides physical appearances? I will show you. 

8th Grade:

The first major change is, of course, my hair. The summer between 7th and 8th grade, I got a pixie cut. To clarify, it was boy short. I wanted any excuse to dye my hair red. I think red, or auburn, is a beautiful hair color. So, in october, when I dressed up like Pebble Flintstone, I played with the dark red hair dye in the bathroom. That lasted until the new year. Although I loved the change, it just wasn't bold enough. So I went to the brightest and still natural-looking shade there was in CVS. Take a look for yourself. 

I loved to stand out. 

I told you red was gorgeous, and I don't care if it looks natural or not.

Remember back in seventh grade, how I wanted to fit in, just like any other girl? Not anymore. I love to stand out. With hair, and with my clothing choices, too. I wear what I please, not because one of the popular girls in my school is wearing it too. I have a pear of yellow skinny jeans, bright yellow shorts, and all kinds of different things. I even have a white dress with limes and oranges and lemons all over it! It's not all about bright colors, necessarily, but the point is, I'm not afraid to wear what I want now. 

I'm also not afraid to go swimming in my clothes. This was taken at my birthday party this year. 

We were sprawled out on a big rock by the pool afterwards. Let me tell you that if you've never swam in your clothes before, you haven't lived yet. It's incredibly fun. 

And the sun was in my eyes. 

Now. Onto the rest of how I have changed.

Drama. I'm obsessed now. I'm proud to call myself a thespian, one who loves musicals, theatre, drama, everything about performing arts, basically. I played a blue monster in the one act plays, and I'm taking intro to Tech Theatre for one of my electives in High School next year. What's Tech Theatre? Everything behind the scenes. Lighting, sound, set design, costume design, make up, all kinds of things. The list never ends. I know make up isn't tech, but it's part of the crew. What I'm saying is that there are so many ways to get involved, and taking intro to Tech Theatre is one of the ways. 

For English class, we were performing scenes from William Shakespeare's A Mid-Summer Night's Dream. When our class went into the junior high auditorium, also known as the Dragonfly theatre, my friend Colin and I immediately ran for seat 107 in the front row. We both knew that in Guys and Dolls, the musical for this year at the Junior High, they all pointed at seat 107 at one part of the musical. It was the very center, and it was the best seat in the entire house. After fighting over the seat, we ran on stage and began acting like horses. Why? Because we could. Then we started re-enacting scenes from Into The Woods, which we were watching in drama class. Burnadette Peters, you're an idol to me now. 

On the last day of school, we had a big assembly in the high school auditorium. So, after the assembly was over, my thespian friends and I raced to the Proscenium Circus office to get scripts. We already had the fall play scripts, which unfortunately, I won't be able to audition for. You should've seen us running out of the office to catch our busses waiting outside. We had a huge script for Legally Blonde, the musical, and a small script for the Mystery Plays, for the festival. I quote my friend Sarah, "Festival is all your Halloweens, Christmases, birthdays, Gaga's birthdays, Jewish holidays you don't celebrate, all squished into one event!!" Anyway, we were running, clutching a huge stack of paper to our chests. On our way out, we grabbed as many PC mints as we could. They are really just mint lifesavers, but we call them PC mints. I only got two, but that didn't matter. 

I draw anime-style now. Thanks to my good friends Ally and Julia for teaching me continuously! There really isn't much to say about it, so I'll let a few of my "masterpieces" do the talking.

Remember April Heels? I consider her a character of mine. Here she is! I envy everything she does/have. She's my dream self. In this drawing, she's carrying bags of Copic markers, which are markers that do not smudge or leave streaks.

B@man! Watch Holy Musical B@man on youtube, and you'll probably appreciate this drawing even more. Yes, it is spelled with an @ sign.  

Saki Morimi, from Eden of the East, my favorite anime. You'll see a photo of her below. 

To my good friend Colin. ;) Thanks for reading and supporting me so much in my writing. You're a genius, and I can't wait to see you in intro to Tech Theatre next year in high school!! 

You may have noticed that these are signed "YC" or "YellowChello." Why? There is a wonderful website called DeviantArt.com, where artists can publish their work for other friends and millions of other artists to see. It's a wonderful world on that website. There are painters, photographers, drawers, digital artists, all kinds of art belongs on this website. My username is YellowChello. Yellow is my favorite color, and Chello just rhymes. Yes, I've already figured out that I misspelled Chello, but it doesn't matter. 

Ally also introduced me to watching anime. Anime is a type of TV show, and I don't really know exactly what categorizes as anime and what doesn't. I will say, however, that my three favorite animes are Eden of the East, Hetalia, and D. Gray-Man. All of them can be found on Netflix if you're curious.

I loved it so much that for about two weeks, I kept writing Eden of the East in Japanese on my arm, with golden metallic sharpies. 

One day, at Ally's home, I got the chance to try on her black wig. I loved it, because I was that much closer to looking like Akira Takizawa, my favorite anime character. He's from Eden of the East. 

How'd I do? I know, I'm an awful cos-player. (A cos-player is one who dresses up like a character, such as Akira Takizawa.)

Saturday morning, 10:30, and I'm wearing a wig. No big deal. 

Akira Takizawa and Saki Morimi.

I said that I focused a lot on my schoolwork in seventh grade. My grades, however, have been worse than eighth grade, and not just because it's harder than seventh grade, but because in April, I started to write a story. At first, I didn't know how long this story was going, or even how it was going to end. I just started and "wrote by ear" from there. I'm calling it a book, now, because as of today, I've written forty-four typed pages of this story. I've entitled it Sly Serendipity, but that might change as I continue to write. 

My good friend Colin, who I drew above, has been more than supportive of my story writing. I did name a character after him, but even in the chapters that he isn't in, he's been a big fan the entire time. To clarify, there is no "main" character in this story, even though his character does play a pretty big role in the story. He gets first "dibs" for the e-mail list, whenever I finish a chapter. He gives me small but great ideas, and half the time he doesn't even know it. 

I'll often text him to keep him in the loop with what I'm writing next, or new ideas that I have. I'll show you guys a few of the texts, just to give you an idea of how supportive he was, and why he deserves such a great shout out like this. ;) 

When I say "U give great W.O.W." I'm referring to his character in the story.

When I say a number, like 16, I'm referring to Chapter 16. Just to clarify. 

The reason he said "GLORY GLORY BUD UP BA!" is because it's from a Pippin song called Glory, and we both love it, and we both wake up to it every morning. As an added bonus, we sing Pippin songs while pathetically "running" around the track during gym. 

Yep... that's my secret shelf. Shh!!

For the record, when I'm at my dads house, I balance that same stuffed bear on my head for concentration. Yes, it helps. 

To finish this long post up, I'm a proud band geek. Band isn't a chore for me, in fact, quite the opposite! I love band! I couldn't be more excited about the high school marching band, and the tall floofy hats, and the uniforms, and the field show for football games, and it's going to be AMAZING. 

There's even a page on Facebook called "Memes for Obsessed Band Kids" and guess who likes that page? ME. Here are a couple. 

I shake my head in disappointment... it's a soprano saxophone. 

Color guard are those people in the marching band who wave around flags.

So.

I have changed, in just two years, from seventh to eighth grade. 

I'm going to be a freshman next year.

And, in case you were wondering, I love myself just the way I am. 

Jazz hands and all.