X.Quiz.It Iona

George N. Parks and the UMass Drum Major Academy - Post #257

2008-08-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

So, I just spent five days at the University of Massachusetts learning to be a drum major from the amazing and wonder George N. Parks. It was literally one of the best weeks of my life. I learned to conduct every time signature that exists, practicing to Pirates, Marc Anthony, Al Jarreau, and Hook. I learned to lead a parade routine to the dreaded Florentiner March. I learned to march better than I ever have in my life, from him, from my squad leader, from my squad, and from teaching and fixing my squad. I learned to stay cool in a competition. I learned to spin and throw a mace. I learned how to salute. I learned how to lead a band that doesn't want to be led. I learned to make the most of my life. I made amazing, amazing friends.

My squad was made up of the squad leader, a veteran (someone who'd been there last year) senior named Matt, another veteran senior named Siobhan (sha-VAUN), a senior named Mike, a junior named Jen, me, and a sophomore named Derek. Matt was an amazing leader whose awkward sense of humor and general outgoing personality really taught us a lot and brought us together as a team. Siobhan had a very maternal personality, and kept everyone calm and on track when we were a little too hyper. Mike was a big quiet guy, but a terrific parade leader and a shyly cheerful addition to the group. Jen was also pretty quiet, but equally cheerful and reassuring to have around, as we were about the same skill level. Derek was a hilariously outgoing kid with a bright personality and an addictive smile. Together, we were unstoppable. Then there was Derek's flamboyant, amazing, Brazilian friend Natan who was in Rachel's squad and spoke Portuguese, my shy but wonderful roommate Shannon who traded goldfish and boyfriend stories with me at five thirty in the morning, and the quirky and bubbly Michelle who spoke Korean and had an adorable laugh.

There was a parade routine and some form fixing we had to do in competition. Everyone had to run it. The first day Matt and Siobhan went, and we did okay. In out little group of four, we came in third. Nick and Rachel were in squads 29 and 31 so they were with us in that group of four, and came in 2nd and 4th. It was okay, but after that Matt had us out (via text message) at the parking lot practicing at 7:30 in the morning, half an hour before everyone else started showing up and an hour before we actually had to be there.

The second day Mike and Derek went. Mike was great, loud and commanding, and Derek was doing great too, until during the random commands section he called a left turn harch and I, of course, went right. Determined not to show it, I kept going, straining my ears to hear his mark time harch and detail halt. Then...

"Iona, about face!"
"One, two!"
"Iona, march time harch! Forward harch!"
-I march back over.-
"Iona, marck time harch! Detail halt!"
"One, two!"

Then he called us to parade arms and we did this awesome staggered salute we'd practiced, and what do you know. For obvious extra work and staying cool under disaster, our squad placed first of four! We were elated.

Day three, of course, was mine and Jen's time to go. I felt like I did terribly, I was so nervous, marching on the wrong foot and forgetting to call mark time when I did the hand command...terrible. But when it came to it, we ended up first again! Jen and I jumped into each other's arms screaming in excitement. We ran into a circle, just our squad, and did our chant. "SQUAD THIRTY! ONE SQUAD! ONE MIND!" It felt amazing.

All the groups of four squads do a dumb cheer or something to get pumped after a competition, so we did the hokey pokey in a circle, but then I had an idea, and I was too hyper not to say it. Ther is a giant bizarre metal statue in the middle of the area we practice on that is affectionately referred to as the "giant purple pants" and because of me, squads 29, 30, 31, and 32 jumped around right underneath it chanting "PARTY IN THE PANTS" at the top of our lungs. Yeah. That kind of ridiculous excitement, all week long.

So many dumb jokes...Halloweentown and oompa loompa harch and detail, present cake and you spin me right round baby right rough like a rolloff baby and arm pizza and doilies and our Italian superhero...in five days, we made such great friends.

We also heard some amazing speeches, Enjoy Life Club and the DCI snare champion and Christmas and a blind drum major, and we were laughing and crying and there is just something about George N. Parks that makes you want to go out and change the world just to make him proud of you. He is definitely one of my heroes now. It's impossible to describe.

I learned to fix a squad. "Ready, form check, interval, alignment, RUNBACK! ch, chch ch, chch ch, chch ch..." I learned about syncopated rhythms and staying positive and making a band believe. I did better than I have ever done in a marchoff (I made it to the first salute!!). i did zero pushups in Medusa. I screamed and cheered for doing pushups, at a movie of the UMass marching band, at mace throws and people saluting. I fell into bed every night exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I am so going back next year.

--Iona

...erm. Hello. - Post #256

2008-07-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

So...it's only been four months since my last post. I've only gotten confirmed, been to a Jonas brother's concert, seen Rent on Broadway, been to Atlanta for the robotics Nations, played in the pit for the Wiz, made the year mark with Tom, saved and attended the ring dance, went to the senior prom, held a robotics invitational, went to the music department banquet, watched my boyfriend graduate, went to Bermuda with the band, and went to Ireland with my family. That's like nothing, right? Yeah...

I don't know why I stopped posting. Somewhere between not having the energy and being caught up in the whirlwind of everything going on. Laziness and craziness. That's it. I've stopped posting before, but not for four months...so I figure you'll hear from me now. Every once in a while anyways. For now, Rachel and Catherine are here. Maybe I'll do a recap post of the past four months. They certainly have been good ones.

--Iona

Robotics Regionals- Post #255

2008-03-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Thursday

I woke up extra early, straightened my hair, and ran to Dunkin Donuts for a bagel before my mom dropped me off at school. I wandered around the hallways, got a phonecall (oops, still in school) from Tom telling me to get Nathan (his millipede) out of his locker, then ran around the school with Danica trying to find the rest of our team. That's right, it was day one of the UTC CT Regionals for FIRST Robotics.

Tom was already at the civic center in Hartford with Dave and Mr. Van Fleet. The rest of us hopped on a bus at seven fifteen and kissed the school goodbye. Me and Danica and Julie waved at people in cars (one waved back), watched the faces Mitch made when he lip syncs to his iPod, and determined that people think you're talking about them if you stare at the, look away, and laugh.

We qued up outside the front doors until they were ceremoniously opened and a flood of pumped, nerdy teenager poured through. We all headed for the pits, and were stopped for the first time that day with the reminder, "No pit without safety glasses." Within five minutes they felt completely natural, and within an hour we slipped them on and off entering and exiting the pits without even thinking about it.

Today was all just practice rounds, so it wasn't that busy (aka you could still see the staircases in the stands). However, today was the day of the faceoff for coach. Me, Tim, and John rotated the matches so Mr. Cormier could decide who he wanted to be coach for the competition.

John was up first. I don't remember individual matches because generally I'm panicing, but I talked to Mitch and Tom afterwards and they said John was okay, but he kind of just agreed with everything Tom said instead of giving them any new information. I decided to step it up a little.

I remembered from my brief period coaching at the scrimmage how difficult it was to see down at the far end of the field, so I went to talk to Andy. As robocoach, he is stationed on the other end of the field. However, after his fifteen seconds of hybrid mode are up, he has nothing to do. We came up with a series of hand signals to communicate his easy view of the robot down where we had trouble seeing it. Mostly we used "keep going" and "you're clear" but there was also something came out to "woah, hold on, traffic jam" and "crap, you're broken, forget about the ball and just get some laps done."

I relayed these signals to Tom and Mitch, as well as kept them updated on the time, and things seemed to go okay. Tim was up next. I told him everything I'd thought of. I don't know why. I guess I should have kept them to myself or something but it still didn't really feel like we were competing. He did just as well.

From what I can remember, it went like that for pretty much the entire day. Oh yeah. and I broke the robot every single time I coached. Cursed? We shall see...

Tim sang the entire bus ride home.

Friday

Friday I got another sandwich from Dunkin Donuts, got to school early again, and met up with Tom and the gang for the bus ride back to Hartford. I was resigned to failing the coach position because Mr. Cormier didn't mention it the ride up. Then, when we got to the civic center, he told Tim to go out on the field for the coaches meeting. I knew it was over.

Or was it? When we were sitting in the stands watching the first match, I was talking to Dave and he asked if I was going next. Confusion... I told him I thought Tim had gotten it, but he said no, Mr. Cormier wanted one more rotation before he decided. Wow. Nerves. This was the real deal, we were into the qualifying rounds! Panic time.

I ran my match again and then at lunch talked to Mitch and Andy. They both said they wanted me to be coach, and went to talk to Mr. Cormier. And I got it! According to my mom, who talked to him in the stands, it was to get balance in the team. Tom was his rock, the one who was calm and collected in every situation, and I was the energetic one who got everyone pumped.

And man, by the end of the day that was true. Through wins and losses, I got terrifying and psyched and better at plugging the control board in and feeding Tom and Mitch information. At the end of the qualifying matched, we were ranked fifteen out of sixty two. Wow. Last year we were twenty-five. That was a rush like no other. And, through all those matches, we only got one penalty for breaking the plane.

After the competition Friday, team 1991 held a social at the American School for the Deaf. It took us a while to get in because we had to wait for Mr. Cormier, but it was fun. They had a room for food, one for DDR, and a gym for basketball, scooters, or dancing. It was cool to just hang out after all the stress of the competition.

The ride home was amazing. Most people were sleeping, the loud ones were still at the party, and it was just me and Tom listening to his iPod at the back of the bus. And the streetlights were pretty. =] Saturday

Saturday was terror. I woke up late, rushed to get ready for Tom picking me up, and forgot to eat breakfast. We got a ride to the civic center with Jeremiah's dad, and I slept most of the way.

When we got there, it was chaos. Today was the big day - selection and finals.I was terrified. The top eight teams from the qualifying rounds get to pick two other teams to join with them for their final alliance. We were picked by the eighth seated team, and our first match was against the first seated team. Oh dear.

We didn't eat lunch. Instead, we sat on the floor huddled around one of Mr. Ellis' model fields, trying to find some loophole that could help us win. Anything. I was panicking quietly, but it was cool. Even though I was on an alliance with eleven guys, they still all listened, which was awesome.

Then...showtime. The first match was AMAZING! We lost (of course) but it almost felt like a win. We were ahead the whole first half because Andy got the ball of the overpass, in our possession, and across the line in hybrid mode while one of our teammates crossed a whole four lines. We hurdled, and even hit the Uberbots' ball back once so they had to go all the way around to get it again. The final score was 74 them, 70 us. Amazing.

Our second match wasn't as good, there was a weird glitch that froze everyone's hybrid mode and then they practically doubled our score. Ouch. But we went down fighting, and we playing hard.

Back at the pits, there was a sudden change. Our match was going to be replayed because of the hybrid glitch! We were pumped for a second chance, but things didn't go well. We got stuck on the overpass when the Uberbots ran into us in hybrid, then got penalties for another team getting us down, then our radio flew off when we knocked against the Uberbots so our robot was disabled. We lost by an even wider margin.

We stayed after to help clean up the field, which was cool, and then bring home the carpet to store in the house next to the school. The guys were all macho and whatnot, which was pretty entertaining. =] Then it was home and sleep.

All in all, though, it was a good competition. I had a great time coaching with great teammates, we did an amazing job, and we befriended some great teams and people we were allied with.

I can't wait for Atlanta.

--Iona

Why I haven't been posting - Post #254

2008-03-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

CAPTs, CAPTs, CAPTs, tests, school is terrible right now.

Today's schedule, for example:

Period 7: Social Studies - current events quiz
Period 1: CAPTs
Period 2: CAPTs continued
Period 3: Symphonic Band - Opening Nights & John Williams practical quiz
Period 4: Spanish - chapter four test, part one
Period 5: Chemistry - periodic trends quiz
Period 6: Chemistry - quiz continued

Honestly, what are we supposed to be getting from this? For more on my disgust at standardized testing in general, check my newspaper article for the Electronic Eagle, our online student newspaper no one knows about.

Ughhh. I'm going to try and get some sleep before another day of this stuff. Enjoy having a real life.

--Iona

One day until regionals... - Post #253

2008-03-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

Being myself, I tend to be involved with the nerdier of extra curricular activities. Marching band, concert band, jazz band, pit band, every type of band, newspaper, and of course robotics.

The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition is an annual competition for high schools around the country, and the world. Every year, a new game is developed, then revealed in an internet broadcast known as the “kickoff.” For the next six weeks, teams try to plan, design, and build a robot to compete in the game. When this build season is up, the robots are packed up and shipped off until the regional, where the teams uncrate their robot and compete against teams in their area. If they do well, they proceed to the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

Robotics has been on my mind a lot lately because this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is the UTC Connecticut Regional at the Hartford Civic Center. It’s exciting…and terrifying. I logged around 110 hours in the six week building season. All that effort, all those long nights spent searching for the right drill bit or sanding again and again and again, they are all about this one weekend. If we do well, it’s a feeling of pride and satisfaction. If not, it’s bitter disappointment and a struggle to keep a brave face.

Robotics gets a bad rap from a lot of people who don’t know what they’re talking about. After all, building robots and being a fan of futuristic ideas has always been a characteristic of the stereotypical nerd or geek. However, this competition is so much more.

To put it in the words of Dave Lavery, NASA executive for solar system exploration, in his speech at the 2007 Kickoff,

“Over the course of the next six weeks you'll spend 4.2 million brain hours taking apart the problem we are going to give you. 4.2 million brain hours having fun, being passionate, thinking about what you want to do, having a great experience, focusing on something important. 4.2 million hours of brain power. Changing the culture of the United States. Changing the culture of the world. 4.2 million hours of brain power, doing something that has meaning. 4.2 million hours of brain power, and not a single one will be wasted on an irrelevant question like what the hell is Paris Hilton doing right now.”

Needless to say, his words were met with overwhelming applause.

But really, he’s right. FIRST is so much more than geeks building robots. I look at what it’s done for me, and I can see it. Not only did it give me the chance to connect with a guy I liked and have since been dating for almost a year, but it gave me confidence. I can walk into a workshop and feel reasonably confident using the machines. Drills, saws, even simple things like Allen wrenches and screwdrivers. It may seem silly to have this intense pride about knowing these things, but where else would I get this? There are no machines at my house. I have no room in my schedule to take a woodshop class. I have confidence in an entirely new area that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

It also makes talking to people a lot easier. These games the robots compete in aren’t individual. You’re on a team (called an alliance) of three robots, competing against another alliance of three. In the minutes before your match starts, you and your alliance partners have to be able to express clearly your strategies for the game, so everyone can be on the same page and the alliance can really work together as a team. This need for interaction can break even the shyest person out of their shell. Even when you’re building the robot in the beginning, a lot of times if you want to help you have to speak out and say so. Robotics pushes you to learn how to make yourself heard. This skill is important everywhere in life.

As a bonus, the people at the competitions are great. Obviously, robotics is not a club people join to try and raise their social status, so all the people at competitions are genuine, open-minded, and as a whole a great deal of fun to be around. In between matches there is dancing, trading team buttons (I have about forty from last year), and just making friends. Even through scoping out the competition, talking to other teams is sure to lead to an interesting conversation. Last year, a girl from the Uberbots even made me a pair of earrings, just because we’d talked and I mentioned how much I liked hers. FIRST runs on something called “gracious professionalism.” This idea of keeping malice and rudeness out of the competition has resulted in an almost totally friendly setting. The only enemy is the disappointment of loss.

There are four people on the robotics drive team. The driver handles the joystick that moves the robot around on the field. The switch operator handles the switches that, this year, raise or lower the arm and open or close the claw. The robocoach controls the robot with four commands during a fifteen second semi-autonomous mode at the beginning of the match. The coach communicates with all three team members and watches the field to give commands that keep everyone on the same page.

This year, the drive team was going to be Dave Van Fleet as driver, Mitch as switch operator, Andrew Frederickson as robocoach, and Tom Cosgrove as coach, but the SATs got moved to the day of the competition because of a snow day so now Dave can’t go. Mr. Cormier, the lead mentor of the team, moved Tom up to driver, and now the position of coach is open.

He says the spot is down to Tim Wilson, John Martin, and me. We’ll “try out” one last time in the practice rounds before the competition Thursday morning. I’m terrified. I want to be on the drive team so much. I’m just afraid that I’ll make a mistake and cost us the competition.

Tom was going to be the perfect coach. He’s compatible with…well, everybody, he sees everything and has an amazing reaction time, he knows the game, and he posses the incredible ability to stay calm under any circumstances. He would have been perfect.

I don’t have any of that, except maybe the ability to get along with people and the hours I put in. Tim knows the game well and is a senior, but he doesn’t get along with Mitch, he gets angry easily, and he didn’t put in that many hours. John knows the game and put in the hours, but he doesn’t get along with the rest of the team that well and doesn’t vocalize his ideas that clearly. When you have three seconds to get your point across, that becomes important. I don’t know what Mr. Cormier is going to do.

Ideally, I would make the drive team and somehow find inside me the ability to be the perfect coach. I’d coordinate hand signals with Andy across the field, keep Mitch and Tom in line, and help our alliance to victory. We’d place in the top eight for the qualifying rounds, get to pick out two alliance partners for the final, and go on to win the competition.

I’m afraid to hope that much though, because if it doesn’t (and it probably won’t) the feeling of disappointment will be too heartbreaking. It’s easier to aim low and take everything positive as a mildly pleasant surprise.

Every year, probably forty people join Team Max 1071, Wolcott High School’s FIRST robotics team. Maybe fifteen or twenty people end up at the competition. What some may call the “nerd elite,” the are the people who pour their heart into a competition that is encourage strong minds and strong morals, as apposed to just physical strength like most competitions do. I’m proud to be one of them. FIRST robotics is one group, no matter it’s nerdiness, that I will never be ashamed to say I am a part of. It’s not just a competition. It’s a way of looking at life that we will carry into the future, a dream of a world where people can get along through gracious professionalism and join their minds together to think through the planet’s problems. It’s excitement and determination and joy, but it’s also hope.

If that is nerdy, I don’t want to be cool.

--Iona

30 Hour Famine - Post #252

2008-02-10T13:46:00.000-08:00

I did the sermon today at church, for the kid's service following the 30 Hour Famine. Dad wanted me to put it up here...

Let us pray. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and don't lean on your own understanding. In all things acknowledge him, and he shall direct your way. Amen.

As many of you know, this weekend the members of the STAR and J2A classes gave up their Friday and Saturday to fast for a program called World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. The motto? Be seen, be heard, be hungry. We were sponsored to spend 30 hours without food, raising money to combat world hunger and, in the process, understand a little more of what hunger really is.

How many of us know what it feels like to be truly hungry? I know I don’t. In fact, when Ms. Sewell asked me to give a sermon on world hunger, my first thought was, what am I going to say? How can I talk about something I can’t imagine?

I wasn’t alone. When I went to school Friday and told my friends why I wasn’t eating, they all asked the same questions. Why are you doing this? Why don’t you just eat, and find another way to get the people money?

I don’t know why everyone else who participated decided to fast, but by the end of the 30 hours I knew why I did.

It’s a reminder. It’s a reminder that there are people out there who have no food, that there are people who struggle daily just to stay alive. 29,000 children die every day from preventable diseases, one of which is malnutrition. 29,000. That’s about three quarters of Southington’s population. Every day. These are kids just like the ones we have in this church, living, breathing human beings who aren’t going to get a chance at life simply because they don’t have food.

It’s a wake-up call. When I started the 30 hours, I expected to be hungry. I mean, it is called the 30 hour famine. But what I didn’t expect was the strong desire, before I was hungry, to eat. I wanted food. And that led me to thinking. How often do I eat when I don’t need to, or even eat so much that I feel sick? People often take food for granted, especially children and teenagers who don’t have to provide for themselves yet. The 30 hour famine made me realize what a mistake that is, how much of a gift the energy and comfort of three meals a day really is.

Finally, it’s a motivation to act. We are so lucky to be here together, comfortable, full of food and warm under a roof, that often we forget about those less fortunate than ourselves. We are all children of God, no matter our age or where we live, and it is our responsibility to take care of our brothers and sisters. We have one life, one shot to leave this world a little better than it was when we came into it. Have compassion. Think of the times in your own life when all you needed was someone to help you make it through. Be someone else’s hero.

“Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.” If that’s not as easy as the Bible gets, then I must be reading it wrong. It seems like pretty clear instructions to me. We have the resources and the ability to help change lives, save lives. All we need now is the willpower.

Maybe it’s starting small, like helping the new kid who needs someone to sit with on the bus or the woman who could use a hand with her groceries. Maybe it’s donating your old coats to help someone stay warm this winter. Maybe it’s fasting for 30 hours to try and help even one child get food.

It’s not always easy. Sometimes it’s the frustration of giving up something we have grown accustomed to. Sometimes it’s the fear of stepping out of our comfort zones. Whatever the obstacle, the results will be worth it. I’m only fifteen, but I’ve seen enough people help others to know. The glow on their faces when they see they’ve made a difference speaks more than words. Goodness rewards itself.

I believe in this church. It’s a strong community that’s bringing up a generation of kids willing to donate their Fridays and Saturdays to helping people they’ve never met. That’s something special. So the next time you have to choose between what is right and what is easy, have courage and take the extra step. Donate to a soup kitchen, volunteer to rebuild a broken home, work without looking for a reward. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to do something good. We can change the world, little bit by little bit. It starts right here.

Amen.

Tom came to listen to me read it, which made me happy. =)

The robot's going well. We finished early enough this year that we have enough to take it all apart again and improve (aka fix) everything. Support for the arm, fixing all my wholes, redoing the electronics fifty bajillion times. But it's good. The scrimmage is this Saturday, so we'll see how we really measure up against the other teams.

I've somehow picked up a good five to ten nicknames between band and robotics... Fiona, Smartona, Hiona, Ioboe, Iona Bologna, Iona Used Car, Iona Piece of Broccoli, Plumber, and today I was Minion Number One. Deary me.

I have a billion concert band and jazz band songs to practice, so I'm off for now. Eat happy. <3

--Iona

Theme For English 10 - Post #251

2008-02-07T18:52:00.000-08:00

After reading Langston Hugh's "Theme For English B," our assignment was the same as his (and the only one I've considered worthwhile this year):

"Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you---
Then, it will be true."

Mitch wrote a three page history of his life (single spaced), Jess wrote about the Jonas Brothers, and Bri restarted at least twice. I sat down, and this is what happened.

My middle school yearbook is two years old
Already the pages are wrinkled
And the binding – two staples – is loose
Inside, I see myself in the photos of yesteryear
Forced smiles for group pictures
China teeth in a face of stone
That is what I looked like, but it isn’t me

Flip to the back of the book (careful of the covers)
Five pages of scribbled pen
Like knots, they hold together last goodbyes
Signatures under hasty notes
Have a good summer and I’ll see you next year

But, disorganized mess they are, these are the pages
The ones I turn to to remember
Or to forget
They hold a truth that I hold dear

I am the nerd, the dork, the smart one
Always have been, likely will be
These pages crawl with notes that say so

I trace the names that wrote those words
I know them, but not well
And likewise, they don’t know me
The impression I left was two arms, two legs
One brain, larger than most
And that is how it will remain

But the ones I love seem clueless of that fact
My mind factors little in their memories
Instead, they write of laughter
Of inside jokes and shared struggles
Of moments in time that brought us together

I am the nerd, the dork, the smart one
I’ve been despised for doing what I love
Instead of what is accepted
And sometimes it is hard

But when I doubt myself and forget who I am
I turn again to my middle school yearbook
Flip to the back (careful of the covers)
And with the words of my truest friends
Remember

--Iona

Busy busy busy - Post #250

2008-02-03T16:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, so, I've been kind of INSANELY busy for a while. Let's see...

Robotics is really going well. Last year I was stuck painting the robot's crate, but this year I've built the control board, built and helped wire the electronics panel, and soldered. =) Not to mention drilled a billion holes, used the lathes, made metal waves on a stone grinder, cut everything... It's been a much more eventful season than last year, and it's not even close to over yet. Thirteen days until our first scrimmage!!

What else has been going on... We went to the annual Mardi Gras party at Shawn's church again this year. It was amazing. A bunch of us went dressed up as the Spice Girls, as you can see above. Veronica was Scary Spice in a giant afro wig, Bri was Baby Spice in pigtails and pink, I was Ginger Spice in a red dress and wicked curls, Jess was Posh Spice in black and a pout, Rachel was Sporty Spice in a high ponytail and bright green pants, and Jackie was the manager in a shiny gold dress and jeans.

Shawn's dad is a great DJ. He not only has some hilarious remixes (Jump On It + Who Let the Dogs Out + Last Dance = amazingly funny), but he also randomly starts dancing, which is pretty great.

Other than that, there hasn't been too much to write about. Life's been busy, but pretty repetitive. School is busy but monotonous, chem is chaotic and challenging, and more often than not we're too pressured with studying to find time to hang out. It's pretty awful.

On the other hand, I really really want to make a music video. It's been ages. So I'll probably try and figure something out for that soon. =)

Until then, I'm off to avoid football. Night. =)

--Iona

Trial and Error - Post #249

2007-12-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

I can't imagine life without difficulties. Who can? Issues develop in the form of friends, family, school, jobs, everything. Each goal is masked by challenges, each happiness by tears. But life wouldn't be the same any other way.

Maybe that's the problem with society today. Everyone's trying to get rid of all the little difficulties, just get the shortcut to what you want. Don't exercise to lose weight, just have this pill. Don't read the book, just SparkNote it. Stupidity is not the enemy of the thinking man, but laziness.

It is said that parents of bright children should, while accepting their intelligence, shift the focus and praise instead to hard work and effort. It doesn't matter what you have. It's what you do with it. No one gets a free ride. Cheaters will receive their due, as will those who put into life all they have to offer.

Ehm. I was just thinking that not being able to chew for a couple days makes eating seem miraculous, having fitful, painful nights of sleep make a good rest blissful, and having a face the size of Texas makes even a bruised normal face a gift. I just think too much. =)

I don't want to go back to school. And I miss Tom. =(

--Iona

My 72 Hours Are Up - Post #248

2007-12-29T08:08:00.001-08:00

So, I got two of my wisdom teeth pulled the day after Christmas. The two bottom ones are now history. Thank goodness. I'm definitely not looking forward to getting the two top ones out in three year's time. So, to sum up the past three days...

The fear was really the worst part of the actual operation. I mean, you're in a room with this one big chair, some machines, a heck of a lot of wires, and these two ladies telling you it's going to be okay and asking you questions about your life in a not-so-subtle attempt to distract you. Who wouldn't panic?

So they sit you down in the chair, hook your arm up to a blood pressure thing, stick your finger in another thing, stick three more sensors on to your arms with suction cup things, and hook it all up to a machine that reads your pulse (mine got over 200). They hooked me up to laughing gas before they put the IV in because I was so scared. It was weird. You feel kind of fuzzy. I thought I kept a straight head, but looking back I really didn't. It keeps you from being able to get scared. That's the only way to describe it.

They most weirdly reassuring part? Someone in there, or a product of my gassed up mind, sounded like Ms. Temme, and that really made me feel better. Like, "It's okay, I trust her, she knows what she's doing, she's smart." Apparently, when I was coming around, I told this to my dad like eight times (hence his comment on the previous post). I am such a head case. Really.

I don't remember waking up, driving home, much of that day at all, really. I can remember crying into my dad's chest in the kitchen because my lip was so numb and swollen I had to pull it open with my finger to try and swallow a painkiller.

I could hardly speak. I couldn't eat. My face was swollen and bruised, and my lips were dry and cracked beyond belief. I drooled blood all over the place, my nights were a tormented blur of pain, heat pads, and calling out for my parents. I couldn't stand too quickly without passing out.

I passed the time watching Bleach (Jess's anime...156 episodes...after four days I'm on 56. That's 28 hours of Japanese. o.O), coloring (yes, in coloring books, it's pretty calming), and trying to sleep.

I moved from water, to milkshakes, to pudding, to mashed potato, to being able to chew a little macaroni. It should be easier to get better from here.

I'm going to go watch more Bleach, I think. Only 100 episodes to go... =P

--Iona

Christmas: Merry vs. Scary - Post #247

2007-12-25T14:12:00.000-08:00

Ah. Okay. Some catching up.

Thursday was crazy, the second to last day before vacation crammed as expected with five tests in seven periods. The band concert that night went well, though. My oboe solo in And To All A Good Night wasn't awful, and even got complemented by Matt Bellemare (that's really something). Then jazz band was AWESOME, especially We Three Kings. I played that one on my own, without Dan or Tyler. I had to practice for literally hours to get it, but I did! And in my own opinion, it sounded pretty fabulous.

It was a good Friday, because in chemistry we sang chem carols (The Chemistry Teacher is Coming to Town, I'm Dreaming of a White Precipitate, you get the idea) and plated the inside of test tubes silver. We got little furry moles wearing safety goggles for singing with such enthusiasm. She said we were the most energetic class she'd ever done it with. =)

After school we had the band party. We all watched my halftime show video, and everyone seemed to like it, then we ate massive amounts of pizza and watched the latest Harry Potter. Ari gave me a Christmas present, a Pirates of the Caribbean Mickey Mouse pin that I wore on my jeans all day. =)

That night was Rachel's third annual Christmas party. Yay! She was my Secret Santa, and got me an oboe shirt from the MAC championships, a Myrtle Beach shirt from when she went there over April vacation, frog socks, and a pen dude. Cat got me a present too - Christmas socks, lotion, candy cane Hershey Kisses (so weird, yet so awesome), a picture frame, an etch-a-sketch, so much awesome random stuff. =P

then Saturday was the Cosgrove's Christmas party, so I went with Tom to that and got to meet some of his family. They're really smart. It was a lot of food and CatchPhrase. They do this cute grab-bag thing with strings and a blanket, and I got to do it too, even though I didn't bring anything. I got a photo keychain and some chocolate and popcorn. It was fun.

After the party, Tom and I left and he gave me my Christmas present, a gorgeous silver heart necklace that I love to pieces and kind of haven't taken off yet. =) It's perfect.

The day after, I went with Tom to Tim's to watch Serenity with Diana, Bellemare, and their friends Koz and Olga. That was fun. The movie was good, and we got to make fun if the guys for completely missing the fact that one of the girls was crazy about one of the guys. Afterwards I have Tom his present, which he seemed to like, and said goodbye, as he is going to Florida for the rest of vacation. =(

Yesterday I play the second Harry Potter game with Calum for about two hours, then acolyted and read at the Christmas Eve service at church. Pepere came back to the house for a while, then it was time to sleep.

this morning, we woke up and opened stockings on the parentals' bed as always. I got some cool stuff, three coloring books, colored pencils and crayons, a shower radio, the Wicked soundtrack, PotC3 movie and calender, new goggles, some Bath & Body stuff, lots of chocolate, a Santa hat, and a clementine. How Arthur Dent.

As for regular presents, I got an iPod Classic (it's gorgeous), some ringtones for my phone, a sheet saying we ordered the Twilight bracelet (<3), an Indian bracelet, and an iTunes giftcard. Calum got a Wii, so there's been fun with that as well.

Pepere, Uncle JD, Janica, Aurora, and MaryJo came for dessert as well, so that was good.

So...the whole "scary" thing...I'm getting two of my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow morning. just thinking about it gives me a stomach ache. I've been doing research. Mine aren't impacted, which is good, but now I'm really scared I'll get dry socket, which is when the holes get infected. It's apparently one of the most painful things possible. I guess it's good to get it done now, when I don't have to be in school and Tom is in Florida and can't see me looking like a chipmunk, but I'm still scared. I want to get a pill or something before I get an IV, so that the needle doesn't scare me, then get knocked out, and then have lots and lots of pain medication. Ughh. I'm scared.

My own personal plan is this. You know how when you have a stomach ache in the middle of the day it really hurts and all you want to do is go to sleep so you don't have to deal with it anymore? I'm getting my teeth pulled at nine tomorrow morning, right after I wake up, so I'm going to get as little sleep tonight as I get manage. That way, it should be easier to fall asleep when I get home. I kind of wish I was getting all four over and done with, but whatever.

Seven o'clock. Five hours left that I can eat, fourteen until they're pulled. Okay. I can't do this.

Looking for distractions.

--Iona

Ten Year of Dad's Christmas Letters - Post #246

2007-12-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

Iona is 5 and has started school, sheis in kindergarten (= primary 1) at Frisbee Elementary School. She has a great teacher and is really enjoying it. Her day is so crammed full of things to do and learning opportunities that she is exhausted by the time she gets home. Her number skills are coming on well as is her handwriting and she is starting to read. By the time you get this she will have lost her first tooth. Outside school she goes to gymnastics and storytime at the library.

Iona is now 6 and in first grade. She has been blessed with another wonderful teacher. She is reading everything and loves to bring home books to read to Calum. Along with Mishy, she has joined the Brownies. She enjoys singing in the kids choir at church and is actually tuneful now on her violin. She is now swimming in the deep end much to her parents angst. Along with Calum she loves to kick her Dad off the computer and play Freddi Fish or on the PBS web site.

Iona is now 7 and enjoying second grade at Frisbee School here in Wolcott. Both she and Calum seem to have more active lives than their parents. They both played soccer this autumn, with Justin helping out with a bit of coaching and Iona has just started basketball. Iona’s violin playing is progressing well and she has played in a couple of concerts at her music school and at church. On top of this she takes swimming lessons, just completed a drawing class and is a Brownie.

Iona (aged 10) has taken up piano as well as violin, though she is even better at playing her parents is now in her final year in elementary school and thriving on the opportunities that affords.

Iona has taken the major step this year of moving up to Middle School (for three years before four years of high school). She loves it and all her teachers seem to be enjoying her. She is definitely more challenged there and also has the opportunity for more activities such as the writing and computer clubs that she joined. She has joined the school band in which she is playing the oboe. She plays the piano at home having taken a break from the violin. Outside school, she has joined a local swimming team. This has proved a huge success and Iona really enjoys competing against herself and trying to improve her times. This summer Iona seemed to spend more time away from us than she did with us. As well as spending a week at summer camp she also spent a week on Cape Code with a friend and her family.

Iona is 12 and in her second of three years at Tyrell Middle School. This year she has become involved with a number of extracurricular clubs including Writing, Social Studies, and Character Counts Clubs. Iona swims and swims and swims with the Southington YMCA Stingrays. This had been a very literary year for her. As well having a poem published in a multi-state anthology, she was selected to be one of two student judges for this year’s Nutmeg Children’s Book Award (www.biblio.org/nutmegaward). This involves her having to read and review about 140 books over the next year. You can keep up to date with Iona’s happening by check out her blog: iownapieceofbroccoli.blogspot.com.

Iona is in her last year at middle school (she’s 13). She’s been playing the oboe for the last couple of years, but wanted to be able to be in the High School marching band which has no oboes. We were preparing ourselves for the torture of starting a new instrument when a new solution was found. She’ll play oboe in the orchestra and base drum in the band (one go at We Will Rock You convinced her!). The easiest way to keep up with Iona is to read her blog (address below). It beats mine which is generally work related and Calum’s which focuses on toilet humour (if he actually writes!). Outside school Iona is doing a lot of swimming, including a solid week this summer, it was rather depressing when I tried to race her recently and lost hopelessly!

This is Iona’s freshman year at Wolcott High School (she’s 14) and she is loving it. She always seems to be doing something there after school. Up to now it has mainly been Marching Band where she plays the bass drum, but it could also be orchestra (oboe), or robotics, or who knows what else! She’s also swimming at the YMCA and preparing for a pilgrimage with her church group next summer to Cumbrae, Scotland.

My how things have changed...

--Iona

AHHHHHHH!!!!!! - Post #245

2007-12-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

I DID IT!!!! AHHHHH!!!!

A recap may be necessary, due to a recent lack of postage.

--Flashback--
We see a girl, nervously attending her first jazz band meeting. She's new on the saxophone, only had it for two weeks, and doesn't have a clue why she's trying this except that she's crazy about a certain drummer over thataways. But we all know that.

Anywho, they're practicing out on the stage, and as she sits under the lights and struggles through the songs reading off Scaryman's music, she feels the magic of jazz sweep over her like the warmth of the sun on a cool morning. She feels alive. Here is a challenge, something she can work at and improve in, the challenge school just isn't giving her. Here is something to believe in.

Cut to a week later. She struggling, but loving it. She's putting in the time and the work, and she's improving, if only a little. Her teacher says she's crazy to try jazz band after three weeks, but she says she just likes it, doesn't hope to get anywhere. Still, when Mr. Duffman announces there will be tryouts, she's crushed. There's no way she can beat the other second alto, and no way she'd want to. He's a senior. She has no chance.

But still, she does her best, going over and over the two assigned pieces until her lips are dry and chapped and her fingers numb and sore. Her eyes tear with frustration. Where is the sudden rush of talent that comes in the movies? The sudden fast forward to excellence, to success? Curse reality!

The day comes. The audition. Her, the senior alto, and little Jerry. Of course, she has to play first. First, it's just with the rhythm section - the drums, bass, and guitar. Essentially a solo. Her mouth goes dry and her palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy (heh, moving on), and she struggles through. It's not perfect, shaky, bad tone, and she messes up a lot, but she makes it through. Then again, with Mr. Scaryman, the first alto. This is better, she's good backing up someone else.

Things could be made slightly better by the manila folder and pencil sign her drummer holds up from his corner of the room. "U ROCK."

Then the senior alto goes, blows them all away as expected, and Jerry, who's hardly been playing long enough to count, but who gives an amazing show for the amount of time he had.

Then the announcement from the Mr. Duffman. "I'm going to take Mr. Scaryman, Ms. Tenor Sax, and Mr. Bass out into the piano room to deliberate. I'll tell you this much." A glance straight at the girl. "I do not like to double up on parts. But there are a lot of options. I'll be back."

They leave. Time passes slowly. She's resigned herself to failure, but is okay with that. She put forth a noble effort, most would say. Perhaps a little too ambitious.

They get called in. Mr. Scaryman, Ms. Tenor Sax, and Mr. Bass are gone. Mr. Duffman looks seriously over the top of his glasses, and tells them the story. The senior sax's tone was amazing, in fact, he overpowered Mr. Scaryman. Because of his talent for saxophone, he is going to pick up baritone saxophone for the winter concert, then be granted first alto for the spring, a very challenging but impressive position. he is satisfied. Little Jerry will be playing clarinet, his native instrument, on two pieces in the winter, and has a shot at the baritone in the spring.

He turns on the girl. She doesn't dare to hope, but the words somehow some out of his mouth. She will be playing second alto for the winter concert, and the spring one as well. It will take work, but she balances Mr. Scaryman and later the senior alto adequately.

She leaves the room in a daze, is hardly able to tell her drummer, bounces back into the band room (getting a disturbed half-smile from Mr. Scaryman), and is on a cloud. She can't believe it. She did it.

---End Flashback---

Um. Yeah. I can't believe it either. Like...holy crap. I did it. This is going to take SO much work, but I did it.

Jazz band...

<3

--Iona

We're Missing You - Post #244

2007-11-21T18:11:00.000-08:00

Ending #1: Pastor Terry and Mr. Wysong are leaving us.

We had their goodbye party at church and I cried. A lot. Through our whole presentation. We're going to miss them so much.

Pastor Terry who, under the formal appearance, could throw out comebacks like no one else, who threatened us with an hour long sermon if we didn't shut up and go to sleep at Camp Washington, who led us through so many hard times and happy times, who understood that we need to laugh as much as we need to pray.

Mr. Wysong, with his big happy smile, who told the same story over and over about the fish that eats too much and floats upside down looking like its dead, who got all excited about the wheel-less lawnmower called a FlyMo we saw in Scotland, who was always, always there for us. I don't know what St. Paul's will do without them. I don't know what I'll do.

Ending #2: The marching season is over.

It ended the same way it's gone - we did our little cheer thing and Tim and Tyler yelled "Boom headshot" and we all got to do pushups. Anticlimactic? A tad. But that's how life works, I guess.

There was a final marchoff between the four marchoff winners. I couldn't watch, I peeked up between commands. First off was Dan...then Dori and Tom...no wait! Tom walked off by mistake, he was still in. The Brea... Tom won! Humble guy he is, just stood there smiling slightly as we got absolutely tackled by half the band. I don't think it's possible to not like Tom. He's one of the few in the band who doesn't rag on people, doesn't get mad, doesn't make you feel like crap. I'm so, so glad he won.

But I'm gonna miss these guys. All the seniors...Tom, Tim, Brea, Dan, Katie, Cat, Andrea, Tyler, Ray, all of them. I can't imagine what it will be like when they're gone. Then there's the people who are tired of all the crap...Jess, Tyler, Shawn, Caruso...who don't think they'll come back next year. Who's left? Things aren't going to be the same. Ever.

They say every ending is just a new beginning, but not for me. I don't like endings. Too much sadness. I miss everyone already. =(

--Iona

Without Music, Life Would Bb - Post #243

2007-11-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

Life's been pretty busy, hence the lack of posts. Sorry about that. Between band, chemistry, Tom, and friends, I find myself with less and less time to post. I'll work on that.

Band is awesome. We went to watch the Musical Arts Conference, a big marching band competition, and it was amazing. My favorite was a high school band who had a drumline in kilts and white shoes (the rest of the band had black shoes and normal uniforms) and were doing their show. Then their movement shifted about ten people in kilts who had previously been randomly scattered around the section to the front. They but down their instruments (a saxophone, a flute, a trombone...) and picked up bagpipes. The whole band stopped playing and were doing an awesome formation in the background while the drumline and bagpipes did their piece. It was brilliant.

UConn played too, and they were amazing. Their band is GIGANTIC! I want to be in a college band so badly! I really hope I get to. I can't even imagine...

So that was a fun trip. Rachel and Tom and so much music merchandise, I spent a good five minutes wishing I was rich. I got a music charm bracelet and a button that says Treble Maker (Rachel's said Musicians Duet Better). It was great. Freezing? Very. But definitely great.

Marching band is going well, but we only have two practices until Thanksgiving, and we still haven't run the whole show!! We finished Part Three with music finally, and we (we = the snares) did amazingly. As soon and Tyler remembers he's on the hash for the last set, we'll be perfect. I adore my section. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't. It makes band so much better.

We started getting our Christmas music for concert band, which is good. I missed my oboe. It's fun...when I play. Darn oboe gets so much rest! That's what happens when you play such a...umm..."unique" instrument.

And finally...I joined jazz band! Or, more correctly, I'm attempting to join jazz band. Whether or not Mr. Duffy will let me stay is yet to be seen. The style of music is so different, and I've only been playing the instrument for about two months, so it's quite a challenge and I'm not sure if I can pull it off, but it's worth a shot. I love having so much music to practice.

And there's a lot of people I like in jazz band. Tom's there, obviously, which instantly makes it amazing, but then there's CJ and Tyler (my marching section), Jerry (the freshman clarinet who's learning to play the baritone saxaphone, and it's almost as big as he is), Dan Cameron is way nicer than I thought he was (he got me all my music), Adam (he's just always nice, and amazing to watch play piano), and Andy (who is just Andy, and thus helpful). I really want to do this. It seems so awesome.

Tom won a marchoff! it was only maybe the third one this year, and he won, and I was very happy. It's his last year and I don't think he's ever won one before, and he won, and I was happy, and Tim and Tyler started dancing.

Without music, life would most definitely Bb.

--Iona

The Golden Compass - Post #242

2007-11-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

The book by Phillip Pullman was good, though I never read the third book in the series, and now The Golden Compass is coming out as a movie! Definitely going to see this one, so matter how low it's rated. The website has this cool quiz to see what daemon you would have. I like mine a lot. Go take it and let me know what you got. =)

--Iona

I'm Still Here - Post #241

2007-11-05T18:39:00.000-08:00

Yeah, it's been a while. And I totally missed my third anniversary of blogging - as of October 17th I've been here for three years. Weird stuff, huh?

Basically, life's been pretty busy, so I've been crashing at the end of the day and honestly, who wants to read a crashy blog post? They're all depressing and whatnot.

So...life. Basically, band and chemistry are my favorite classes. Band...I mean, music, Tom, Rachel, Gizzy the freshman flute, Dani the freshman clarinet and her senior pit player Andrea, my beat boxing snare buddies CJ and Tyler, and then all the folks from last year. We have fun.

Chemistry is AMAZING. Ms. Temme, though very strict and opinionated, is an amazing teacher. I love having a teacher who I actually respect, who actually teaches, and who is actually intimidating. They're pretty rare. We're doing awesome labs in there too, all sorts of mixing chemicals and burning things and changing colors. We learned a bunch of elements and decided that 'Oxygen Magnesium!' serves the same purpose as 'Omigod!' (With abbreviations OMg and OMG.)

She also does a thing called seminar where she calls a person in the class, gives them one of the homework problems, and has them defend it. If they get it right, that's an 85. Then they get a second question related to the first that they haven't had time to prepare for. If they get that right as well, they get full credit - a 96. It's quite terrifying, but I prefer it so much rather than the monotony of some of my classes. (These will remain unnamed.)

What else? I'm learning saxophone with relative ease, though switching between it and oboe is a chore. Oboe is going well also. The piece I'm attempting to learn to play is probably the most challenging so far. It's what I would have played if I was good enough to try out for CMEAs.

Halloween was okay this year - hanging out at Jackie's with a billion people. Bill made me laugh. That what the picture's from.

Basically, I'm posting tonight because tomorrow is Election Day, so no school. It's a massive relief and I'm actually in a pretty good mood. I'm also updating ionabrockie.com, so take a look. I like it. Heh, after almost a year I still need to figure out what to do with it!! I want something impressive. But what?

I'm probably going to go back to doing that now, along with singing to my iTunes (Code Monkey and Omigod You Guys) but I swear I'll post more often. =) See you soon!

--Iona

A Whole New World - Post #240

2007-10-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, hasn't it? Life's been weird, no other way to describe it. Today was UMass. I liked it. I feel much better about my snare-related ability now, in comparison, and about the kids in my line. CJ and Tyler are great, they really are. Especially considering one's an egotistic drama queen and the other's a immature freshman, if we were to stick with stereotypes anyways. They're both pretty cool kids.

I got an amazing sweatshirt, and I got to see Tom all day. =) I mean really, these are the good things in life. He's coming to church with me tomorrow...I really hope he's not bored. Visiting other people's churches is always awkward.

So I'm sitting here, avoiding all the things I have to do to get ready for tomorrow, talking to Tom's friend online about saxophones (I have one now), playing Spider Solitaire (I'm awful but it's pretty amusing), and listening to music (The Songs That Saved My Life by Kill Hannah). I'm thirsty. =P

Going to go edit these things now. More tomorrow maybe. Bye!

--Iona

And One For Scott - Post #239

2007-09-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

You're not a poor imitation of a godfather. =) How many people's godfathers can use a computer, let alone check up on their godkid's blog? Or comment. Besides, I don't really know what godkids are supposed to do anyways. =) So thanks for dropping by. The support is greatly appreciated. I think I'm writing an article for the school newspaper about the grades vs. love learning thing. Thanks, I'm glad you like the picture. Editing them entertains me, as does reading. And don't worry about the math - one step at a time, and anything is easy to deal with.

Game tonight! Should be good. It's really hot out right now, not looking forward to wearing the helmets. I should go finish getting ready, sorry for the shortness. =)

Paramore = love.

--Iona

I Fell In Love, In Love With You Suddenly - Post #238

2007-09-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Today was weird. A lot of it was depressing, and some bits were happy. Tom was very out of it when I saw him this morning, then completely MIA for band class. I found out later he went home sick first period. And in one little way it was good. I'm terrified to talk to him on the phone. I'm afraid I won't hear him or I'll say something dumb or I won't know what to say at all. But not seeing him in school made me call him. And I didn't die. it was still really short, but I think I'll try and call him more. I'd love to be able to talk to him on the phone for ages and ages, but I'm scared to. No idea why. It's just so much easier in person.

I love my brother to pieces. There was a spider crawling on my wall and he came and caught it for me. =)

Band tonight was amazing. And weird. And unproductive. We videotaped the cadence (it's on YouTube) and that was fun. But we didn't get much done. Oh well. =)

--Iona

Life, and Stuff - Post #237

2007-09-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

It's rather hard to post when you're overloaded with homework and the only free time you have is at night, when the day has collapsed on you and you're depressed whether or not it was an amazing day.

Band is a struggle. Everyone's all grr and snare is harder and I have issues when I can't get things right.

School is a struggle. Math...I'm behind in my notes and homework because I'm redoing them. I can't take her notes anymore. They don't help anything at all. I'm behind in chem (BAD) because of math, and I've got a massive English project to do. It's so hard to stay motivated in school when it revolves around grading and grading is subjective anyways, so what's the point? My dad was right. School should be about motivating you to want to continue learning for the rest of your life, not making you lose hope in ever enjoying facts ever again.

Life is a struggle. I miss Rachel being happy. My mom's one messed up little chickadee. I miss my dad. I still like Tom far too much to be healthy.

Things to look forward to? I'm so ready to go back to swim team, even if I can only do it once a week. I need to get back into shape. I need to hurt. I need to be physically exhausted. I need to feel like crap and have Kevin believe in me again. I need to believe in myself. Right now that's out of the question.

You are the one, the one that lies close to me.
Whispers, "Hello, I miss you quite terribly."
I fell in love, in love with you suddenly.
Now there's nowhere else I could be, but
Here in your arms.

Gabi gave me that CD today, so no need to steal in from Danica. I blared it from my CD player and forgot everything.

--Iona

I'm An Idiot - Post #236

2007-09-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Had a mild heart attack tonight when I wrote a song and sent it to Tom. Luckily, Danica was there for me.

Me: im hyperventilating
Danica: don't
Danica: calm
Danica: deep breath

And so was Sarah.

Me: im dead
Sarah: CLEAR

So here it is. Hope you like it.

There’s a whisper of rain on the ground
And every time I hear that sound
I think of all the things I’ve found
Since I found you
I’m wishing I could see your face
But you’re somewhere in another place
A distance of heart and space
I just can’t get through

I thought that they were all the same
An old story with a brand new name
And then out of the dark you came
Now my world is shaking
My heart was always on the run
Never thought that I would be the one
But to my little planet you’re the sun
My reality’s breaking

When I’m with you it’s all so clear
I wish you were here

I’ll run into your arms, with you I am strong
Like everything’s okay
Hold on to me tight, hold me through the night
Hear me when I say
I think I love you, is that okay?

And now every morning starts anew
I wake up knowing I’ll see you
It’s so perfect it just can’t be true
I’m living a dream now
So softly you hold my hand
I’m falling for you like quicksand
And I slowly I understand
That sometime, somehow

When I’m with you there’s nothing to fear
I wish you were here

I’ll run into your arms, with you I am strong
Like everything’s okay
Hold on to me tight, hold me through the night
Hear me when I say
I think I love you, is that okay?

I’ll run into your arms, with you I am strong
Like everything’s okay
Hold on to me tight, hold me through the night
Hear me when I say
I think I love you, is that okay?
If I told you I loved you, what would you say?
I think I love you, is that okay?

--Iona

Clam Jam - Post #235

2007-09-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

The robotics team was "volunteering" at the Clam Jam today. Basically, Nick, Jess, Zack, Mr. Cormier, Paige, Claire, Tim, Tom and me hung out down there, made sure the kids in the bouncy house and with the hula hoops and jumpropes and things, and fooled around. Claire, Paige, and I got our faces painted. Why? Don't know, but the sparkles won't come off.

We played volleyball with a giant inflatable soccer ball, did the cotton-eyed Joe, colored on the tablecloth, took photos, ate food, generally just fooled around. It was a nice morning.

Now I have history, geometry, and chemistry homework. I've started everything, but nothing's done.

I really like the band Paramore. Not only do they have a great female singer who isn't a ditz and can really sing, but she's pretty in a normal sort of way.

I don't understand this math.

Oh. Nevermind, I'm just an airhead.

I think I'll go outside. There's a chance I'll get to do something fun tonight, but it's growing slimmer by the second.

Dad, I need two pictures off my camera by Friday. Is that possible? The email didn't work.

--Iona

Keep on Keeping On - Post #234

2007-09-08T13:22:00.001-07:00

It's been a while, huh? School's started, and it's okay. English is the same as last year, S.S. has some current events for a nice change, math is tedious, Spanish is pretty typical, chemistry with the infamous Temme should be a ride. But I do have symphonic band as a class, which really makes my day.

Band's going pretty crazily. I feel pretty confident playing snare now, and I have Tommy - Part One memorized, but the fieldwork is rough. Playing and marching is just as hard as ever, and though the beginning of drill went fine, when we practiced on the back field today I felt rather lost. Then again, it was boiling hot and 9 in the morning. That might count for something.

I added that map up there just now, and I've already got somebody from California. That's pretty cool. I want somewhere radical, like Zimbabwe. But California's a start. =)

I lost the CD to install a program on my phone, so I'm trying to get photos off it by sending them in a "Pix Message" to my email address. No sign on if it's worked yet. I doubt it.

I have so much to do...and I don't feel like doing ANY of it. Don't come, Monday...

--Iona

Eh. - Post #233

2007-08-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

I is missing Vinnie. I is feeling lonely and depressive and Tom is sleeping over his cousin's house and Jason is emo and Ryan's blog is all Danica flirty and Danica's blog is all Bill flirty and life is not too smiley when you can't even leave a comment anywhere. School is okay. English is a small class and our same old teacher, math is tedious and the teacher has a monotone, band is amazing, Spanish has a sweet teacher but annoying kids, chemistry has a sub for now, and social studies looks promising but it's not my favorite subject. I like getting rides home with Tom and seeing him in the morning and in band. I just miss hanging out with him.

I wants a hug.

So I'll sit here at half past twelve, pawing my way through digg.com like I have been as of late, talking to Bellemare, and generally feeling lousy.

Sleep.

--Iona

Pictures of You, Pictures of Me- Post #232

2007-08-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

Indescribable, incomprehensible, indefinable, idealistic, illusory, insouciant, intricate, infamous, illustrious, ineffable Iona.

I am definitely ready for school to start. Well, as soon as I finish Great Expectations, find and do my Chem packet, get school supplies, and refill my entire wardrobe. Then I'm ready.

The past couple of days have been so...blah. Rain. Cold. Boredom. Schoolwork, no one to talk to, nothing to do. Even the drum sectional was canceled. Tom came over for a little while, and that was nice, but only while it lasted.

Hurry up and get all this over with so you can get on with your life...

Half of me says hole yourself up in your room tomorrow and read all of Great Expectations. The other half says you probably could, but no way do you have enough self control to do that these days.

So I've been editing a couple photos. Well, three. They're all here. I'm actually kind of proud of some parts of these. Anyways, here we go...

This one I dubbed Dream the Rainbow, because there's a really faint rainbow aura. I'm proud of that, and of getting the sketchy flowers and butterflies in the back to be tie-dyed. The picture is of the day I got my hair cut.

This one is what it says, A Moment to Remember. The whole thing is just a brush I downloaded. I'm just proud that I figured out how to change the color of the flower without the photo outline, and for getting the photo in there. The picture was taken by my dad of Tom and me when we walked to a waterfall.

I actually really, really like this one. It's me now mixed with me in 2001, so aged 9, mixed with my own homemade night sky, mixed with some words and accents. And I think it suits. I don't know. It made me happy.

Hmm. The HSM2 songs, in order from worst to best (says me)...

10. You Are the Music in Me (Sharpay Version) - Whether this was supposed to sound odd or not, this song...is just a mixture of overdone, creepy, and depressing. And Zac Efron's high notes are twitch-worthy. Just a little.
9. Work This Out - The drumming on the pots and pans is a little to wanna-be Tarzan. And the pay day bit is just odd.
8. Fabulous - Not last only because it is mildly entertaining and slightly mock-worthy.
7. What Time Is It - Good rhythm and all, but a little to close to last movie's hit "We're All in This Together." Just overdone, I suppose.
6. Bet On It - Like the tune and the energy and everything. Still a little do-gooder, and Efron's dance moves are questionable, but nevertheless an enjoyable one.
5. All For One - Danceable. And Miley Cyrus randomly shows up. Another, slightly less generic What Time is It full cast dance party song.
4. I Don't Dance - Hahaha, I so enjoy this song. And the line "You never know" just sounds cool.
3. Everyday - Feel good song. Original enough to be memorable.
2. Gotta Go My Own Way - I completely cried at this song. Stupid? Probably. Pathetic? Almost definitely. But when he sings "Why do you have to go?" it's so harmonically heartbreaking...
1. You Are the Music in Me - Way cute. I like how is starts out soft with Kelsi singing, then Kelsi and Gabriella, then Gabriella and Troy, then a good chunk of the cast at the end. The transition is sweet.

Huh. It's 12:17, so I'll probably head off to bed. Night all.

--Iona

"I can't hear you, my ears are full of melted brain." - Post #231

2007-08-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Picture from Jackie's birthday party. Good times, good times...

Anyways, it's official. As of late, I cry waaaaay too easily. Basically, at:

The new Avril Lavigne video, for her song When You're Gone. I cried the second time I saw it, too. Especially the part with the old guy and the army man's wife...watch it on YouTube, then try and tell me it doesn't pull at your heartstrings.

Trying to decide between Work Camp and Drum Major Academy this summer. Work Camp means building a house for people who need it, singing with other crazy awesome church people, and generally feeling awesome. DMA means learning to be a drum major, a chance at helping run the WHS marching band, and generally being musical. Both are something I've wanted to do really badly for a long time. But there still might not be a problem, I don't know the dates yet. Crossed fingers.

High School Musical 2. At two parts in it, too. Sad? Probably. There's definitely something wrong with me.

This weekend should be fun. =) Shawn's party was tonight, the fair with Tom and THE INVASION tomorrow!! Then Danielle's coming down from New Hampshire Sunday, so the fair all day then and fireworks at night with Tom if I'm really lucky. And hey, I found two four leaf clovers in the yard today. There's a use for Great Expectations after all. It makes a great press for preserving clovers. =)

Random good mood? Totally. No idea where this came from. Oh yeah. It's 2:12 am, I spent all night drinking Mountain Dew at Shawn's, I'm seeing Tom tomorrow, and I'm watching Hannah Montana. Duh. =P

Growing old is mandatory. Growing out of Disney Channel is optional. And inadvisable. This show makes me smile.

Okay, I'm tired, and I have one and a half books to read tomorrow. Darn that summer reading. =) Night all.

--Iona

It's clean! Almost... - Post #230

2007-08-06T11:06:00.001-07:00

Cleaned my room...as Danica should well know. I'm basically done, the stuff I still have to find a home for all fits on my bed, so my floor is clean. It feels amazing. =)

I realized I still have all my colored pencils from 3rd grade when Steve Fornier and I used to compete for whose collection was bigger. Take a look...basically..

color name - number of pencils (number of different shades of that name)

bronze yellow – 1
tan – 4 (2)
light brown – 7 (3)
brown – 4
dark brown – 1
maroon – 1
raspberry (red-violet) – 1
magenta – 4 (2)
pink – 4 (3)
peach – 4 (2)
salmon – 1
mahogany – 5 (2)
red – 6 (2)
red-orange – 9
orange – 7
yellow orange – 4 (2)
golden yellow – 5
yellow – 6
lemon yellow – 1 retired color
yellow-green – 9
jade green – 4 (2)
green – 6
pine green – 1
green-blue – 1 retired color
aqua green – 4
turquoise – 1
sky blue – 9
light blue – 4
blue – 7
violet – 6
black – 6
gray – 5
slate – 1
coal grey – 1
white – 6

total Crayola– 146

+46 assorted brands

total - 192

Basically, I have no life. I do have 35 bugbites and possibly an unhealthy obsession with counting? Odd. I also have a TY Beanie Baby duck sitting on my windowsill. from a collection of junk On one of our walks Danica and I passed a house with a large pile of junk in the front yard next to a big piece of cardboard with the word "FREE" scribbled onto it.

And I covered a calender picture with photos and purple marker, so now I actually like it. This may continue in the months ahead. I actually bought a calender for next year with the sole intention of covering it in pictures. The ocean scenes will made a better background than the Olympic athletes in my current one, so I won't have to color over them in marker.

I added more to my bulletin board and now it's amazing. Click on it for the closeup! Some points of interest up there - it's like Eye Spy - my skelebando, three water balls from three years of Dan's birthday parties, UMASS Band Day sticker, a pinwheel, a peacock, a Lisa Frank sticker, my name, a cd, Danny Phantom, a four-leaf clover...yeah. Cool stuff. =)

Band camp tomorrow! Hope for sum.

--Iona

Vinnie's Front Porch - Post #229

2007-08-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

Little ditty, about Vinnie’s front porch
Three kids just trying to avoid the summer sun’s scorch
Vinnie likes movies, Iona’s got a crush
Danica’s just trying to forget the one that she loved

Sitting on that front porch, on three lawn chairs
Speculating ‘bout the mystery house and what it’s doing there
Vinnie say, "Please decease!” and they laugh like they’re okay
That’s what this porch is for, an escape from the fray

Say uh, oh yeah, things go wrong
But we’ll still have that porch, these friends, and this song
Say uh, oh yeah, things go wrong
But we’ll still have that porch, these friends, and this song.
We sing on.

They sit back, try and think of some new names.
They come up with some weird ones, but at least they’re happy.
Donatello “Donnie” Jeeves Ferguson-Pesce,
Margaret Philipa and Joyce Bernadette.
Donnie say uh,

Oh yeah, things go wrong
But we’ll still have that porch, these friends, and this song
Say uh, oh yeah, you know things go wrong
But we’ll still have that porch, these friends, and this song.

Gotta make it stop, make it go
Let it all out, and we’ll help you glow
Holding on to these days as long as we can
Vinnie goes away real soon, no more porch for us then.

Say uh, oh yeah, things go wrong
But we’ll still have that porch, these friends, and this song
Say uh, oh yeah, you know things go wrong
But we’ll still have that porch, these friends, and this song.

Little ditty, about Vinnie’s front porch
Three kids just trying to avoid the summer sun’s scorch

To John Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane".

I can't believe I just did that.

--Iona

Funny Little Place Called Home - Post #228

2007-07-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

I'm home. And kind of brain-muddled. It was a long night, one of those ones where you think a lot and remember that the thinking-hangover is the reason you avoided it in the first place.

I guess I kind of feel sad about something, and I'm not sure what. It's like a combination of worry and loneliness and missing and hey, let's throw confusion in there just to make it flow. I'm not quite sure what's wrong. Like I said, a byproduct of thinking.

What an unsatisfactory post.

--Iona

As Far As These Things Go - Post #227

2007-07-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

I’ve never been a huge fan of professional sports. Actually, I’ve never been much of a fan at all. Sure, I’ve been to a few baseball games, and I go to all the school football games (heh…not to watch the football), but follow it? Not my cup of tea.

This soccer shindig, though, was good fun. It was the Heart of Midlothian FC (Football Club) vs. FC Barcelona. There’s something about the clashing tones of obnoxious guys singing in a goal-induced high that's rather nice. In an out-of-key sort of way. And all the guys get excited when their team scores, jumping out of their seats or yelling at the referee, or just singing one of many songs about the team, the sport, the players...

I, needless to say, have a bit of a headache.

The game was good too. Hearts lost 3-1, but the goals were good and anyways, I've always found soccer a mildly interesting sport to follow, probably because I played it when I was little. I wasn't good, I never scored, mostly played defense and commented on the game in my head ("They were the last like of defense between the attackers and the castle walls..."). Hm. I never claimed to be a normal kid. But I did enjoy it, and you're always more interested in watching things you've tried yourself. So that's good.

Dinner was amazing tonight - broccoli and cauliflower in a cheese sauce and rhubarb crumble...I've never been a fan of rhubarb (except its spelling, which is amusing), it's quite tart, but the ice cream and crumble balanced it perfectly.

Packing tonight, home tomorrow. It'll be a 29-hour day. Exhausting. Out of the house at nine, flight around noon, home at maybe one or two local time, a good few hours to get through customs and baggage, then the agonizing last lap - two hours home from the airport. Home between six and eight.

Until then...iPod land and A Little Princess. Good book. I read it at Christmas too, the last time we visited. Hopefully I'll get to raid the airport bookstores before our flight. Most of my mini-library is from pre-flight shopping. Good stuff. =)

Erg. Travel. I'm going to read.

See you all SOON!!!

--Iona

And Eeyore was like, "Whateva." - Post #226

2007-07-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

The title...you hear interesting things listening to your grandparents' radio stations.

Yesterday Nick and Yvette, my dad's older brother and his wife, came down to visit with their kids, Julia and Catherine. Caitlin, my dad's older sister's daughter, came too. this kids are adorable. We took them to the park and the farm, and they loved everything. Catherine tried her first ice cream (she's just a baby) and Julia (she's three) looked at a tortoise sleeping in its shell, turned to her mother and said sadly, "it's not working." I love kids. =)

Calum is definitely still just a big kid. We got out my grandparents' old toys for the girls to play with, and he was right there using the toy blocks with them. Then at the playground he could hardly resist joining in climbing on the climbing frame with the little kids. It's a tough spot to be stuck at, between a kid and a teenagerish sort of adulty thing.

Going to a Hearts game today...I like the shirt, it's nice. Calum is teaching Papa how to play a game on the computer (or trying to), so I must depart. At least it's sunny again today.

In other news, band camp Auguest 7th - August 10th. Excited? I am. it's going to be really really really weird with no seniors though. I'll miss Ryan and Bellemare. They were nice. no idea what it is we're supposed to be doing, but hey. It's band. I've missed it.

HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miss you all lots & lots.

--Iona

Translate into English - Post #225

2007-07-26T06:52:00.001-07:00

I read everywhere. Buses are no exception.

Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific!
In vain do I ponder thy nature specific--
Precariously poised in the ether capacious,
Closely resembling a gem carbonaceous;
Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific,
In vain do I ponder thy nature specific!

It may help if you sing it to the tune of the alphabet song, which is also...

The answer lies here.

That comes from Papa, who is also accustomed to singing the version from Alice in Wonderland...something about bats and tea trays.

Home in three days...I'm looking forward to it, but there's just so much to do. Summer work, reorganizing my room, I officially ruined all my good clothes between Cumbrae and Hope so I need some for school, stupid stupid wisdom teeth...I swear, I'd stay here forever if it weren't for the people I'd miss.

Tonight we're going to Anne's (my aunt). Yay? The summer school's play is tonight and I'm not there to see it. =/ Rachel is an "ancestor" (it's Mulan). So good luck to all you guys.

Going to the Heart's shop for new football jersey (in layman's term: going to a fan shop for my dad's favorite soccer team to get their new shirt thing), then to that internet cafe so my dad can use his laptop for work stuff, then to Anne's. I think. So I hope everyone's having fun wherever you are. If you're reading this, I beseech you, leave me a comment. Please? Just curious. I get "Oh, so-and-so read your blog and says..." from my mom every so often, so i know you're out there...

Miss you all.

--Iona

Hope - Post #224

2007-07-26T02:52:00.000-07:00

So, all the way back to Monday... That night was pretty great. Anne (my aunt) came over with two of my cousins, Matthew (18 and almost as tall as my dad, when did this happen??) and Mollie (13 and the same friendly kid I’ve always gotten along with). Caitlin, the third in their family (16 and horse obsessed, a bit like if Rachel rode English) is still up in Wales where she works on a farm. Anyways, Mollie and I went on this here ancient computer so she could show me “bebo.com”, allegedly myspace but better, and we hung around until the guys (Dad, Matthew, and Papa) got back from their trip to the pub.

Then I took an amazingly long shower (essentially, no line of pilgrims yelling at you to hurry up and get out is brilliant), and went to bed at about ten. Crashed instantly. When you’ve been awake until two in the morning for an entire week, sleep is very much your friend.

I slept in, too, until quarter past eleven, when Calum and this trumpeter he’s been working with over here started their lesson. Love my brother, love trumpet, but I love sleep. I got up anyways. Calum is going to be good one day if he sticks with it, he’s already decent and getting towards out-passing the kids in concert band. Marching band needs more trumpets.

Argg I miss people.

Anyways, the man stayed for lunch. I love eating here; my grandmother’s food is so natural, you eat and feel good, not like going to a fast food place or even a high-scale restaurant where the portions are the size of your face. Soup and bread and cheese and salad and water and the feeling of health.

Hopefully after the lunch table discussion my dad will come around…honestly, it’s only an hour and a half once a week…half an hour oboe lesson, half an hour snare lesson, half an hour saxophone lesson.

Oboe - I love my oboe. I love the parts it gets, the mixture of melody and harmony, I love the feel of the instrument and of being my own section, I’ve been playing it for four years and I’m sure not going to give up now.

Snare - To help with drum line. I love snares, and I want more than anything to play one…just once…

Saxophone - I have this insane dream of playing in a college marching band. Crazy. But the section that is guaranteed to make cuts is percussion, and I’m definitely not good enough. Saxophone might help be get where I want to be…

Then we went up to Hope Bothy for Tuesday - Wednesday. Lots of memories from that place. I skimmed through the logbooks and found things I'd written back when I was five and ten. And now I'm fifteen. Random 5-year jumps? Cool.

Calum and I climbed Bucket Hill (what I'm standing on in the picture) for the...third time? Second time just the two of us. I kind of dragged him up, the lazy slug. Love that kid. =) He played in the river like he was still eight years old, and I sat in front of the fireplace and thought. It's amazingly relaxing, no electricity, no computer, no phone, just you and your thoughts. I love it to death. And maybe my shoes and soaking wet and covered in "essence of sheep" but hey, that's the price of peace. I'm not complaining. =)

When we got home last night, Dad and I went to see the newest Harry Potter movie. I cried. Much of it was skippy and bad and you wouldn't understand it if you hadn't read the books, but the patronuses scene was great, their fight in the Department of Mysteries was very well done, Luna and Umbridge were brilliantly cast, there was one scene with Fred and George comforting a little boy who'd been put through the punishment (basically torture) of having to writes lines that got carved into the back of his hand, and that was touching...and wow, a run on sentence but who's looking? The scene that made me cry was harry lying on the floor of the department of Mysteries in the last battle, fighting Voldemort inside his head, and having a flashback of all the good times he and his friends and family had had, through clips from the past movies. It made me really, really miss everybody back home, worse then ever before. So, I'm thinking of you guys. Miss you all. =)

We're off somewhere, a museum I think. Must go! As Christa says, hugs and hearts.

--Iona

<3, The End - Post #223

2007-07-25T09:37:00.001-07:00

I have two posts saved on my grandparents' computer about what we've been doing the last couple days, but I'll put them up later. Their internet is so uselessly slow that my dad and I have retreated to a mildly shady internet cafe for some attempt at seeing the rest of the world. I was just going to comment back...but my comment was so long, it ran out of room and I'm just going to turn it into a post instead.

You guys are amazing. Like, amazingly amazing. That probably just made my day. I miss every single one of you bunches. Big bunches.

Bill - Yay adventure! And sure, the very nature of life is ironic. The math packet is nowhere near big, so stop complaining...I haven't done that. Oops. Blah, if things fall as they're supposed to I'll be in band period three. =/ I'll miss youuu. Come haunt Danica sometime and say hi. And tell your sister hi from me too. =)

Danica - Pshh, I've missed your rambling. And it's raining here too. And I have to walk...ew. As for Tom, he does now, and that's the real one. =) I miss Vinnie's front porch!! Gahh, what are we going to do without him next year...weird thought. Great Expectations is one gigantic book...even my granfather said it's useless...which really makes me want to go read it, right? Gahh. Will you be at your mom's on the 29th, 30th-ish sort of area? That's when I get back.

Tom - =) Of course I'll bring you back something. That's just a given. However much you miss me, I'm pretty sure I miss you more. Aw, I'm sure Montana is fun...not much to do here (I mean honestly, I've snuck out to an internet cafe...that should say something). Except it's managing to rain and be sunny at the same time...weird. If I was permanently purple...that would be strange. And ironic. And I think I'd probably look in the mirror and scare myself. That purple kid was a little creepy, let me tell you... Ahhhh, I have a story for you when I get a chance to talk to you...it made me laugh... haha. See? I haven't lost your ring. =) I miss you...you're right. Words don't do it justice. <3

Mommy! - I know, I kept having flashbacks of the paintings on the walls and Bucket Hill and all. Calum and I climbed it again - I swear it gets taller every year. I read all my old entries and took pictures - I'll put them up some other time. And I heard more little-Iona stories than I'll ever need, including one from Papa where I said something at 4 in the morning along the lines of, "Papa and Granny and Caitlin and Mollie all sleeping together, let's get up and play!" I, of course, have no memory of the incident. Miss you & Siraya a lot... Can't wait to come home. =) Hope you're keeping busy. Love you, love you, love you...

Thanks guys. You make me smile. =) I'll be home the 29th.

--Iona

J2A Pilgrimage 2007 (everything my dad forgot) - Post #222

2007-07-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

That’s a pretty fun number. Anyways, long time no type…

I’ve been on a week-long pilgrimage with my church, as most of you know. I won’t bother you with all the details of the trip - I’ve been journaling the whole time and have no desire to rewrite all the facts, but if you’d like them they’re up at my dad’s blog (I wrote one of the posts, you’ll see) so check it out if you’re bored. The address is therapservices.net/blog/Justin. I think, anyways. If not, play with Google and you’ll find it.

The trip…wow. So different from what I expected. No big God-related revelations, but more little things in ways I never would have expected.

Like getting to know these kids. I don’t go to school in Southington like they do, so I only know their sleep-deprived, irritated, Sunday morning church school selves. This trip I randomly got to know them, especially Amanda, Michele, and Jason.

Amanda and I had always been “Hi, it’s Sunday morning, I’m tired,” and all that in church school, but I’d never really gotten to know her. I guess she always seemed different from the people I normally talk to, so I assumed we’d have nothing in common. Well, you know what happens when you assume. Turns out she is one of the sweetest, funniest. most genuine people I know, is amazing when it comes to giving you insanely purple-mascara, pink-eyeliner, white-eyeshadow eyes, has a knack for dying hair, makes amazing faces, and can pull off the fuzzy-blue-tiara look in the middle of a city. Nice to know. =)

Michele I’ve always talked to, but it was usually about church stuff like serving on the alter or playing music for a service. We got to talk a lot more this week and I learned more about who she was as a person, and I think vice versa as well. It was pretty interesting…we’ll pin it as a “God sighting” and let it go. She, too, can pull of the fuzzy blue tiara look, as well as playing a very nice Londonderry Air. Stop being so talented. =/

Jason and I pretty much never spoke before, so the fact that we talked at all was something in itself, but turns out he’s pretty entertaining, and is there to help you if you need him. I was trying to find Tom something, and he was definitely helpful, even though he still didn’t give me an idea of what to get… So yes. And he found a dragon.

What else about the trip? I realized how insanely much I depend on my friends and my family. I miss everybody loads…my mom, Siraya (believe it or not), Rachel and Bri, Danica and Vinnie and Vinnie’s front porch, Tom… Next time I think I’ll just drag them all along.

Bill, if you’re reading this, you better be in our chemistry class next year, okay? Actually, you better be in it even if you’re not reading this.

What else…Bailey!! Massive 3 year old St. Bernard and a huge softie. I miss that puppy. I got to brush him…he’s like a horse…but he was always there to hug if you needed him. He belonged to the warden, Helen, of the cathedral we stayed at on the Isle on Cumbrae. She was very nice, we liked her a lot. She was out pretty much every night with her weedwhacker or her pruning shears, keep the cathedral looking it’s best.

Macaroni pies = amazing. It’s macaroni and cheese. In a pie.

If I think of anything else later, I’ll just post again. Ah, the amazingness of blogs. So what else is new? What am I missing at home? I read the last Harry Potter, and apparently some people hate it? I loved it to pieces. Someone can tell…I think it was Sarah Sherman, that hah, I win because I was right and she was wrong. I finished it sitting on the floor of the airport as the kids we sent back home were waiting in a line I wasn’t allowed to be in. And I cried. On the floor of the airport. Bahaha, what a dork, no? Ah, well. What can you do? I liked that she explained the other point of view in that…part. And the section at the end. And one of the parts I cried at was stupid, it was happy crying, the part right after that Slytherin Padma speaks. She only speaks once, so you should know what I’m talking about. I’m trying not to spoil anything here. =)

Rawr, this computer is driving me crazy. Now that the pilgrimage is over and all the church kids are on the plane home, I’m at my grandparents’ house. I’ll be here for the next week. Upside? I love my grandparents to pieces and now I can use a computer. Downside? I miss the constant entertainment of my friends and this computer is driving me nuts. The internet’s about as good as the food on the plane ride over. Not very. Right now it won’t let me on at all, so I’m typing this post in a Word document. Ew.

I want to play Spit with someone. The card game? Emily creamed me at it when we played. Calum’s no fun in comparison. I wonder if Tom knows how to play…I’ll have to ask him when he gets back. It’s 5:33 pm here, 12:33 pm in Wolcott/Southington, and I think 10:33 in Montana, but I could be wrong. I’m going to play pinball for a little while. If I can get the internet up for a minute, I’m definitely grabbing a few of those stupid surveys to fill out. They usually kill time.

Haha, wow, first game score is 3,267,250. Not bad, not bad. It made me want to listen to The Who, but my iPod is lacking in that department. Arg. I want to write my story, but I’m still stuck. I wrote one paragraph of a prologue that I liked, and that’s it. What?? That’s it?? Gahh. Too much to worry about. Postcards, presents for people, plane ride home, Rachel’s birthday, Tom coming home (!!!), Block Island with church, wisdom teeth (that one gets some stars ***), Brianne and Katie’s birthdays, then school starts…aaaaah. And that means I have three books to read somewhere in there, none of which look any good.

Gah, stupid internet won’t load.

OMGDANICA!! I got free hugs. From free hugs people! I got umm…six. Yeah. Soo we’re definitely doing that some day.

I’m off to…do whatever it is Ionas do. I already reading (another) book today…so that’s out…I wonder if my iPod has any battery? Must check.

Much love, miss you all terribly. You know who you are.

--Iona

P.S. Woah, my dad fixed it. Temporarily, I’m sure, and it’s still slow. But it’s fixed. I miss Wifi…and Jason’s laptop…

A Life Like a Fairytale - Post #221

2007-07-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

Or better. There wasn't a single Disney princess with a guy better than mine. =) So, yeah, last night was basically the best ever. As in, I'm still smiling/about to cry. It's going to be a long 21 days.

In other news, I'm leaving for Scotland tomorrow!! Excited. =) I'm going to miss everybody bunches, but hanging with my church groupies will be amazing, then seeing the family afterwards. Here's the schedule:

~Saturday July 14th - Leave, 10:50 pm flight from Newark.
~Sunday July 15th to Thursday July 20th - the Isle of Cumbrae with the pilgrimage kids
~Friday July 21st to Sunday July 23rd - Edinburgh with the pilgrimage kids
~Monday July 24th to Friday July 28th - Edinburgh, etc. with the family
~Saturday July 29th - Fly home

So, yeah, I'm excited. Kind of nervous too, of course. Planes and all. Dangerous stuff. But I love Scotland! I'm going to go now, because I'm happy and don't want to write anything stupid as a result (too late). Have a great rest of July!

--Iona

I Always Wanted a Nickname... - Post #220

2007-07-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

There's Ari and Vinnie displaying a very far away Danica sitting on the front steps of The Mystery House, this huge expensive-looking house that looks completely abandoned, and thus is probably Area 51 version 2.0. =)

I've decided that a picture at the top of a post makes for a happier looking blog. So pictures are headed your way, folks. =P

I, as you may not have noticed, am now Joyce Bernadette Cosgrove-Brockie, Danica is Margaret Philipa Beckerman-Ackett, Vinnie is Donatello "Donnie with an ie" Jeeves Ferguson-Pesce. Because if I'm getting stuck with a dorky name, so is everyone else.

Danica's last name was supposed to me Beckett-Ackerman, for William Beckett of The Academy Is, but I can't talk and Vinnie liked the mistake better. The end.

Then Tom came over and we hung out and watched MythBusters and it was pretty nifty if I do say so myself.

Now I'm ridiculously bored. And this is really short but I'm posting it anyways!

--Iona / Joyce / whoever I am these days

The Bandos in Hershey Park - Post #219

2007-07-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hershey trip, written rather quickly because I'm lazy and watching YouTube videos and because Vinnie was complaining.

We got to the school at 6:30, and I found Rachel, Jackie, and Tom outside the coach bus. Tom and I sat behind Rachel and Jackie and in front of Jess and Nick. On the ride there, we played BS with Rachel and Jackie, stopped for ice cream (or breakfast) at a McDonald’s, slept, and generally made idiots of ourselves.

When we got to the park it was super hot. I lost Rachel, Jackie, and Chelsea when I waited for Tom to be done meeting with his chaperon, Rachel’s dad. Unfortunately, Nick lost Jess and Erin and we couldn’t travel in groups of less than two (and he was looking depressed and besides, it was his birthday), so for about to hours we wandered around with him looking for them. That was boring, but Tom was there so that made it fun. =)

We finally found them, and it was weird. They went off on their own little way and Tom and I went to get lunch. We sat in the back of an air conditioned room eating chicken and fries and talking about random stuff. Some time later we turned to go, but realized it had started pouring and we didn’t even notice.

When the rain died off we went on the Scrambler and the Carousel, then it was time to meet up for check-in. Rachel was rather irritated that we hadn’t been with them, so we stayed with them afterwards, going on the Wildcat, a wooden roller coaster, and the Sky Coasters, a slow hanging seat that carried you around the park.

Then we rode to the hotel and got our rooms. We went swimming in the hotel pool for about fifteen minutes, then had to get out because of another storm. I went with Tom to hang out in his room with Jess, Nick, Erin, and Bellemare and to help Jess straighten Bellemare’s hair. Curfew was at eleven, so I hung with Jackie, Rachel, and Ari and watched TV until we all fell asleep.

The next day we got up, Ari took a shower, and Rachel and I played cards until we realized we were late for breakfast. We hurried down there and were the second to last room there. I ate quickly with the three of them and then sat with Tom for a little while because he had saved me a seat. Then he went to pack the drums on the bus and I went back to the room to hang out and take insane pictures with Rachel, Jackie, Ari, and Chelsea. He came up afterwards and we talked about how the girl on MTV’s Made was an idiot for leaving her old friends when she got a makeover.

That day we performed in a tent. It was boiling hot under the stage lights, but still a lot of fun. We make jokes and laughed up on stage, and really enjoy playing the music. Then we sat through the chorus’s performance, which was pretty cool. There was some fuss on the bus about Jackie’s lost bag, but we found it and it was okay.

After all that drama we hung out with Rachel, her dad, Jackie, Ari, and Chelsea the whole day. Somehow I rode every ride they chose. The Great Bear did a loop and had no floor. You sat in a seat and hung your legs down. I cheated and closed my eyes the whole time. I figured out halfway through that it wasn’t bad, because it didn’t hurt. It was easier than swim practice. With your eyes closed, the only way you noticed loops was the shift in gravity. The Storm Runner was crazy. It shot you out like a gun, went almost vertically up then right back down, and did two corkscrew turns. All I could hear at the second before the drop was Tom saying, “Iona, don’t open your eyes!” The Lightning Racers had two coasters that raced and was probably my favorite. Tom and I went in one and Rachel, Jackie, and Chelsea in the other, and we waved to them whenever the coasters passed. We lost, and when we were pulling in, a little boy waiting in line said, “Aw, come on Thunder, you could’ve done better!” It was mildly found it hysterical. The Mighty Mouse made me think we were going to be thrown out on the tight, sharp turns, and I flew up on every bump because the lap bar didn't go down far enough. The Claw was fun because I made Rachel sit across from me and we made faces at each other the whole time, whenever our stomachs jumped. On the pirate ship, a little boy in front of us said the high parts made his “tummy tickle” which, again, made us crack up. We got lunch at a buffet set up for the group.

Then it started pouring, and we lost the girls in the rain. I dragged Tom out to run in it and, as a result, got him soaking wet. We went into a few stores, and he left to go to the bathroom. We met up with everyone and walked out to the bus. I was kind of sad that I didn’t get a chance to buy an oboe Christmas ornament we’d seen the day before and was saying so when he pulled one out of his pocket and handed it to me. Apparently he’d snuck out to the store when he said he’d gone to the bathroom and bought it for me. Amazing, right?

That night at the hotel Tom came up to hang with Rachel, Jackie, and I. We watched A Cinderella Story and he laughed so hard when one of the evil stepsisters said “fish” that he almost fell off the bed. Then Jackie thought the commercial that said ‘Boatloads of Fun’ said ‘Buttloads of Fun’ so we wound up with ‘Buttloads of Fish’.

After curfew when Tom went downstairs, the four of us rambled about nothing in the dark then finally fell asleep.

We woke up terrified because Jackie’s phone alarm was way louder than we expected. She and Rachel showered, then we watched a prom queen episode of Made until we realized we were late for breakfast. Rachel’s dad fooled us into thinking we were the first ones there when, in fact, we had been moved to another room. We went in and I sat down with Tom, who had saved me a seat again. We watched a dance-off between Dan Cameron, Dave Van Fleet, Geoff McCallum, and Matt Bellemare vs. Caitlin Caffery and three other girls. The guys did it to 25 or 6 to 4 and the girls to a Britney Spears compilation remix. The guys walked into the crowd to give autographs halfway through the song, which was mildly entertaining, and they ended up winning.

Then we left to go to chocolate world. That meant a 3D show where we got wet (Tom and I realized we should have listened to Douglas Adams and brought towels), then free chocolate, then a ride through the chocolate making process with giant singing cows, then free chocolate, then shopping. I bought chocolate for the people at home, including a giant box of Kissables, which I adore. Then we got pizza for lunch and left.

On the way home everyone was exhausted, especially Tom, who called a butterfly a butterfry and found it hilarious. It was a lot like that the whole ride home, being stupid with everybody and playing BS with Nick and Jess.

We stopped at a Wendy’s for dinner, then we were back at the school and the trip was over. It was so much fun, three amazing days with the bandos being free and having fun. I wish it had been a longer trip, but hey. There's always next year.

--Joyce

These Late Night Posts Are going Nowhere - Post #218

2007-06-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

So maybe eleven at night isn't too late. It's still late enough for my brain to be in it's other little world. I kind of like it here. It's nice. Dreams are a possibility, and they haven't been like that in the real world for a while.

I want to do something massive. But I don't know what. My oboe is being hopeless, my videos restrained by lack of massive computer and green screen (not to mention a program I, let alone the screen, am compatible with), and I've had writer's block for longer than I'd like to think about.

And I just totally creamed a bunch of people at online pictionary (that was the icing on my dorkcake), and now I'm talking to a kid from band online and he's making me laugh. I think I think it's funny only because I'm really really tired. It's a nice feeling. So I don't think I'll go to bed. It's only quarter past midnight, and I happen to be enjoying myself.

In the mean time...check out ionabrockie.com if you haven't yet. New layout. And now my YouTube account page matches it. Just search "Iona Brockie" on YouTube and you'll find it.

Kind of curious because there's a chance the...what...three people who comment on this thing will maybe answer this. If you had to describe me in one word, what would it be? Ideally, I'd want an answer from everyone I knew...it's like a study on how different people in your life see you, and maybe also how you present yourself to them.

Okay, not it's one o'clock and I'm sleeping. Nighty night.

--Iona

My Name's Not Joyce / Hello Summer / Not-So-Random Happiness - Post #217

2007-06-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

Summer's here and the time is right, for dancing in the street...

Or the basement. But, y'know, whatever.

So far this summer's been amazing. Hanging out with Rachel and Jackie and Bri and Jess for their recital, then Rachel and Cat for the ceremonial burning of schoolwork and loads of movies, then with Mitch on his truck, then with Dan and his trampoline, then with Danica and Vinnie and his front porch, and with Tom everywhere in the middle. A girl could get used to living like this.

Summer...I like being outside and swimming and ice cream and sunglasses and flip flops and relaxing. I like being free, having permission to be mildly disobedient (completely ruining the point, but no matter), having time, having choices, having fun.

I like having friends you don't need a reason to laugh with, a guy who doesn't need a reason to compliment you, a life where you don't need a reason to smile. I like having things to look forward to...a party at Sarah's with the crew tomorrow, hanging with Tom Sunday or Monday, Vinnie's front porch Tuesday, Hershey Park with the bandos Wednesday to Friday, then in the long run the trip to Scotland with the church group and family, Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer coming out, Block Island with the church group, seeing Invasion with what Vinnie has dubbed "The Porch Gang" or something close to it (namely, him, Danica, and me, and Tom because he has it in his phone), and then we're into August and school's coming close to starting. How insane is that?

I bought a bunch of stuff to decorate my locker next year. Weird? Probably. Random? I have an excuse... I was in Target with my mom getting a chair for the baby and they had a bunch of scrapbook stuff on sale for a dollar each...so tempting. So now I have four things in the same shades of green, blue, brown, and cream because they all came from the same set. Scrapbooking and locker decorating have a lot in common. I want to go sneak into the school, get the measurements of my locker, and just stick on whole sheet of paper up that's cut to fit the inside of the door, around the lock and everything. Just a huge white sheet with magnets on the back. Then glue all the cool sheets onto it, and stick stuff onto it after, or have magnets that just attach right through it. Magnets are strong. I have a squishy blue one that says "Inspire." I like it. But I'm in the sort of mood to like everything right now.

I was thinking about things I want to do before I die. Not the obvious ones, the whole get married, have kids, be happy deal, but special things. I want to take ballroom dancing lessons. I want to play in an orchestra with people who love music and who want to be there. I want to march in a college band. I want to take my friends to Scotland, to my second home, and show them the other half of my heart. I want to finish a story. I want to ride in a convertible in a snowstorm with the top down. I want to star in a music video, not just be behind the camera. I want to graduate first in my class, gosh darnit. I want to make a speech that changes the way people think about things. I want to be on the drive team for robotics...and more than that, I want to drive, not just be the coach or the human player like the girls usually are. I want to stay up for 24 hours straight. I want to run into the ocean in the middle of winter. I want to fall asleep under the stars without a tent. I want a logo for my music videos, an animated one. I want to climb Ben Nevis. I want to see Mount Everest. I want to have a whipped cream fight. I want to play with a pool of cornstarch and water. I want to paint myself silver. I want to wear a skirt and sneakers. I want an extravegant dress for no reason in particular.

I like wanting. I don't have to get it, it's just fun to have something to strive for.

I saw the HUGEST rainbow today. It disappeared in the middle, but I saw both ends really clearly, and I actually saw where one ended! Ironically enough, it was in a rain gutter thing. Like the one my shoe was headed towards before Danica decided she didn't like guilt. And then I had Toblerone chocolate, which is heavenly, and decided life was being amazing.

I'm lucky. So very incredibly amazingly lucky. I'm going to sleep now, always to dream, sometimes to remember. I hope it's something fun, something happy.

I love you guys.

--Iona

Racing Through the City, Windows Down - Post #216

2007-06-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

So, new banner up there. Kind of proud of that. What do you think?

So...news...Friday was the biology final. Not bad, it was a fair assessment, even if it was repetitive. Then I was making a fish face at Rachel and Bill and Mr. J cought me and laughed at me...and I got "the look"...ah well.

Then I went home, and Tom stopped by on his way home from work, and we just sat on my picnic table and drank iced tea for like an hour. And it was nice. It made me smile. Then I went to Jackie's and jumped on the trampoline with Rachel and Bri, and then we all went to the movies with Tom and Brandon and Shawn, and then back to Jackie's with Bri, Rachel, and Jess to sleep. Or try to, anyways.

Then today I went home and argued with my dad, who wants to break up the aforementioned picnic table because it's old and icky. I said no. Way too many memories attached to that thing. Scraping snow off it every winter, sitting on top of it instead of on the benches every fall, using it to hold the pool stuff every summer. It's been there ever since I can remember. I don't like change like that.

So tomorrow I'm spending father's day sanding all the old paint off and the wood down to see if I can get it to look good again. I'll miss it if it's gone.

Then...I went to Andrew's pool party, hung out with Neils and Tina and Tam and Christa and Sarah and Andrew and Josh and Justin and Catherine and Zack and the lizard. Hehe. Love that lizard. And I got a hug from Bill, because his mom told him to. XD I went over there so I could explode, but hugs are less damaging to the eardrum, I suppose. So yeah, too much food, too many inflatable bananas, and a cannonball gone wrong that led to REALLY sore legs. And Christa and I rewerote "This is Why I'm Hot" to "That's a Giant Goose." That goose is pretty fake. That goose is pretty cool. That's a giant, that's a giant, that's a giant goose.

Then I stole Cat and we went to Rachel, Jackie, Bri, and Jess's recital. Boogie Wonderland was awesome, followed by...probably Rachel and Jess's improv to Black Betty and Jackie and Jess's It's Raining Men.

Then Cat and I went to Rachel's to hang, but got there before she did and actually had a normal conversation with her brother. It was kind of like, "Wow, he can actually see us?" Hehe.

So we watched Legally Blonde and talked about nothing and ate rocky road ice cream and stayed there until we were starting to fall asleep.

So now I'm here...equally tired, but kind of happy, kind of sad. Contemplative. The past, the future. All from a picnic table. Violin to piano to oboe to what? Dance to soccer to swimming to what? Explorer to photographer to author to what? Everything I did and dreamed of doing has changed. And there's no going back. Not really. You can try, but nothing's ever the same as it once was. "Your clothes never wear as well the next day, and your hair never falls in quite the same way, but you never seem to run out of things to say...this is the story of a girl..."

Put the story on hold. I'll finish it tomorrow. I'm sleepy.

Night all.

--Iona

Finals and a New Video - Post #215

2007-06-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

The latest from Iona X.Quiz.It Productions. Or something. Lots of videos of Vinnie and Danica from hanging out on his porch for a couple days.

So...first off, English final. Lots of work, over 200 questions and two essays. The vocab was easy, the editing & revising was kind of tricky, and the essays were weird.

Then Social Studies...only three wrong on the multiple choice, not bad, not bad, but my DBQ was insanely repetitive.

Math...no comment.

Band I did amazingly, except for I couldn't get my high A out. Mr. Duffy gave me a 100 anyways, and we hung out in the copy room listening to various assorted iPods and organizing the cart for the rest of the two hours.

Four down, two to go; biology tomorrow and Spanish Monday. Then it's all over. Finally.

But the summer's looking good already. Andrew's party and Rachel, Jackie, Bri, and Jess's recital Saturday, performance in church with Michele Sunday (wait, that's a BAD thing), seeing Tom on Monday, and seeing Rachel and Cat on Tuesday. Party, yo. Hehe.

Off to go study my brains out for biology. Ciao.

--Iona

Nostalgia - Post #214

2007-06-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

My mom just dropped off a bag of my old stuff in my room. Since I don't have anything better to do, here's what's in it...

1. A small model of a carousel house on a gold and wood stand that plays this soft little tune when you wind it up, and moves up and down.
2. A toy stuffed badger.
3. A really old grey elephant with red and blue ears and feet that I think used to be...my dad's maybe? And it had a name, I know it did...must find out.
4. A purple beanie baby rabbit that, if I remember correctly, was named Flopsy... 5. A funny looking brown bear beanie baby.
6. My old stuffed dog...chocolate brown and the softest thing you will ever hug. 7. A stuffed duck from Veronica (she used to call me Quacky) wearing a toy bear's American Idols Live Tour 2004 shirt from when i went with Danielle.
8. A little picture in a green frame of the little elephant and the kid from The Jungle Book (what was that kid's name??) that used to hang on my wall.
9. My oldest stuffed dog, a beagle with a long nose that I named Mattimeo after the mouse in the Redwall books.
10. A stuffed koala that used to hug a tree until I cut it off because it didn't look real enough for my little-kid games.
11. A little brown dog with long ears and a necklace as a collar that says "joy" on one foot...I called him Daddy Coaster because my dad won him for me after we went on my first roller coaster. Creative kid, no?
12. A stuffed dalmatian I named Jasper after the rocks that look all spotty, because I got him as a birthday present from this girl Rachel who played on my soccer team at a mining party.
13. A very floppy chicken beanie baby.
14. An elmo beanie baby my brother gave me, possibly from Sesame Place.
15. A pale blue elephant beanie baby.
16. A plate with the "Owl and the Pussy-Cat" poem on it that used to hang on the wall above my bed.
17. A really sad looking Russ beanie baby dog.
18. Haha, a Siamese cat beanie baby Katie gave me because I loved it to death. 19. A badger beanie baby that I can remember feeding pepper flakes in Carlucci's. 20. A very yellow cat beanie baby...haha, why do I still remember the personalities I had for all these things? This one was a brat.
21. A Zoe beanie baby to go with the Elmo one...she was always my favorite.
22. A white mouse beanie baby...my goodness, I had millions of these things.
23. A pug beanie baby with a crinkly face.
24. A cross stitch of my name that used to hang on my wall where there's now a mirror.
25. An "Outstanding Reader Award" plaque from elementary school...I thought it was the best ever...
26. A little wooden train with four carts that spell my name.
27. A Lisa Frank autograph book from Frisbee...so second grade or earlier.

That was fun. Off to look for a song to put Vinnie and Danica too...later all!

-Iona-

We'll Ride This Wave Until the Shore - Post #213

2007-06-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

Cuz when it crashes our dreams will be no more...

Wheeee. I am so insanely bipolar sometimes, I swear. But this weekend has been AMAZING. Just what I needed. =)

Friday was a dentist appointment where I pretty much watched What I Like About You on the tv thing, so that was all right. Then I went to dryland where I did 10 Kevin-approved pushups in a row!! Whee!! Miss Weakness is moving up mildly in the world. Then we did wallsits, which are fun, because you're sharing the pain with everyone you're doing them with. And Kevin fell down twice which, after we made sure he was okay, was very very funny.

Then there was a storm and the pool had to close so they canceled practice, so I went home and chilled and got ready to go to Danica's. That was fun. =) I hadn't seen Julie since robotics ended, Ari since forever (the bus totally doesn't count, I sleep on that thing), Danica is amazingly Danica, and Bill is entertainment incarnate. We went to see Pirates 3, I picked up on everything I missed the first time, and whenever Bill poked me in the arm I exploded.

Then we went back to Danica's and did weird personality quizzes in the basement and there was a medicine ball! And I managed to keep her from calling Tom (miraculously) at two in the morning, which is around where we fell asleep.

I left there at around 7:45 to be at the high school for 8:15. I volunteered as a one-on-one at the Wolcott Special Games. It was awesome. I hung out with Shawn and Tina and Vinnie and got paired with this adorable frail little guy named Dennis who got two 2nd place ribbons, a 1st place ribbon, and a medal. I felt so insanely proud. And it was fun - I love helping people with disabilities because for once in my life I feel like I know what I'm doing. Well, sort of anyways. It's so great, because they're generally such cheerful, genuine people. I got a kiss on the cheek from one guy because I let him take a picture with me.

And then randomly, half way through the day, I was walking with Tina and Dennis and talking about Tom, and THERE HE WAS! I screamed. It was the sweetest thing ever, he'd been driving home from work past the high school, seen the commotion on the turf, remembered I was there, and dropped by to say hi. I was so touched. =) Haha, so maybe I'm a tad obsessive. It was still an insanely sweet thing to do. And I saw his car, which is white and shiny and gorgeous. =D

That ended with me and Tina flipping through the DJs CD books for twenty minutes looking for the cotton-eyed joe, FINALLY finding it, and ending up dancing when everybody but maybe ten people on clean-up were gone. It was amazing. And I can hop fences. =)

And now I'm going swimming! Because Dad has deemed the pool worthy of human touch. Yay. Haha. Okay. Iona...out.

--Iona

Argggggggg - Post #212

2007-05-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

What type of Fae are you?

Well, that sums it up nicely now doesn't it? Huh. Creepy. "Unstable." That's a good word. Yeah, so, following in the footsteps of Bill and Danica in posting this here quiz thing...and as far as I'm concerned it seems pretty darn accurate. Unstable...hah. Maybe I'll skip school tomorrow, because I really don't feel like going. What a waste of time.

--Iona

The Yo-Yo They Call Growing Up - Post #211

2007-05-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

I swear, my mood bounces more than [insert creative analogy here]. Take today, for example. This morning I was insanely happy solely because somebody was in a good mood. That led to me happily writing a note through Spanish and English, acting insanely weird in Social Studies, playing hand games in math, and passing around the oboe during the fire drill in band.

Then we went to a study hall and started doing the piles of math homework, and it was severely depressing. I hate the pressure between hurrying up to get it done before the bell rings and going through and learning it all. That bad mood pretty much lasted all through sixth period, the second firedrill, and seventh period.

Then I got cheered up again at dismissal, because someone let me borrow a really cool collection of stories by this author...goes by the name of Cosgrove? Really good. Keep an eye out for him.

Then I came home and crashed, I was so tired. Boredom = mildly out of it again...ick.

Then I went to swim practice. Oh dear. We warmed up with the usual 150 swim, 150 kick, 150 drill, 150 swim, then boom, we were into it. (For the record, descending means that every 100 yards gets faster until the last 100 yards is all out, as fast as you can.) It was one 500 descending, two 400s descending, two 300s descending, and one 100 all out. I didn't swim all last week, but Kevin still had me lead the lane. I think he knows more about how to make me swim faster than I do. It's all mental; the only thing keeping you from going faster is your will to push past the pain and fatigue. It's crazy.

And then after practice he pulled me aside and did one of his mini speeches that are near the top of the list of reasons why he's such an amazing coach. He told me his goal for me was to move me up a lane for the fall season, so I'd be swimming with a group of girls who currently I have no chance of keeping up with. For that last 100 all out, they were hitting times like 1:08 and 1:10. I got around a 1:23. But the fact that Kevin has this confidence in me makes me feel like there's a chance I can do it. I don't think I'd push myself half as hard as I do if he wasn't my coach. He knows, when you're about to break down, whether he needs to be tough or kind. It's amazing, and he's one of my heroes for being able to do that.

Erg, homework to do and people to talk to, so I'm out. Ciao everybody.

--Iona

Ow, There's a Muscle There? - Post #210

2007-05-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

Who's mother emails them telling them they need to write a new blog post? Gah, my parents need to be a little less computer savvy. Go back to your tape decks. You don't need to see our identification.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm a little tired.

Okay, so the title...swim practice yesterday. There's no practice on weekends, the pool was closed Monday and Tuesday for a chemical imbalance and Wednesday for that storm (there was thunder, which was yay, but not a huge ground shaking one, which was antiyay), and Thursday I couldn't go because I had my brother's band concert. Eh, totally more fun anyways. Cuz someone fun was there, and then I accidentally stalked him to CC's. Note: the cake chunks in birthday cake ice cream get stuck in your straw if you have it in a milkshake. And the ice cream is blue...but where was I?

Right. So Friday was the first time I'd swam in six days. And according to someone sometime, it only takes four days to get out of shape. AND Friday was the first day of dryland. Dryland is any workout not in the pool, so Kevin and Kristin had us doing pushups, situps, lunges (owwww), and six inches for forty-five minutes before practice. Then there was the normal hour and a half of practice, and Kevin worked us just as hard as usual.

I was so tired I forgot to flip turn and swam straight into a wall.

And then I had a dream last night that Kevin designated my lane the "probation" lane, from which you could get moved up into the safe lanes or dropped down into Kristen's, never to return.

I love Kristin, she's an amazing coach, but I'm addicted to Kevin's workouts. It's a fair enough dream. I'm the slowest person in his three lanes, probably the only one who's not genetically an athlete. I don't want to leave. I want to stay, and I want to get better. It's just hard when everyone else is that one step above you.

99% of the time I'm okay with being last. The only time is hits me is at the start of the season, when I've been in school for ages and am used to being top. There's a certain type of ego you have to have to swim. You have to be humble enough to accept that there's people in front of you, and stuck-up enough to strive to be in their position, to keep you going when it feels like your body's about to give up on you.

Wow, I get really off track. ANYWAYS, when I woke up this morning, every muscle Kevin worked, or even thought about working, was stiff and sore. And I loved it. That's the feeling you miss in the off-season, the pain in your thighs ever time you stand up, the ache of your shoulders when you lift your arms, the total inability to bend down and pick something up without wincing. It feels amazing.

So...the coaches decided to break their "no weekend practices" rule, and we have practice today from 12 to 1...that means I have to leave in about 15 minutes. Eh. It's going to hurt. Gah...totally wearing my pajama pants there. No question.

Okay, swim meets. What are they, when are they, where are they. We swim dual meets, which means two teams get together and swim the typical YMCA events, but nobody wins. The swimmers are competing to get their own best times, and the other people in the pool are just there for motivation and to give the parents and other people who show up something to watch. They're long and boring and (for the swimmers) extremely stressful. This summer season we have four.

June 8th - Away vs. Farmington Valley Tsunamis
June 22nd - Away vs. Northwest Lasers
June 6th - Home vs. Waterbury Barracudas
July 13th - Home vs. Wallingford Dolphins

Then July 27th and 28th are championships in Middletown, where every team goes and we actually race for points. And somebody wins. (Not us. =]) It's a small season, because the main one's in the fall, but I have no doubts it will be just as eventful, painful, and stressful.

Gotta love swim team. =)

--Iona

Call it dumb, call it luck, call it love - Post #209

2007-05-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Or whatever you call it...

Haha, I don't know why I'm blogging this at all except that I'm so happy and need to let it out somehow.

I'm fifteen, and I know I don't know what love is yet...but I can't help but think this is some form of it. Not go-out-and-get-married love, but somewhere between friendship love and love love is a sunny porch where I'm going to sit for as long as I possibly can.

I like sunshine.

Ahhhhhhhhhh. I was worried, and I was worried because I was worried, but people were right. Some things are just easy. Because they feel right. The puzzle, the rock...the metaphors I don't feel like revisiting. Moving on. On and up.

Too happy to think constructively...chills and smiles and sunshine. Sunny sunny sunshine.

Even dreams couldn't be better than this.

--Iona

Notes on Friends (which will probably deviate off somewhere else) - Post #208

2007-05-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

My friends are better than yours. Example one, I get this scrawled in chalk on my front steps,

"Iona, come hang out. -Danica"

Doesn't that just say it all?

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I think I've realized that my friends make me happy because they give me hope. Rachel gives me hope for forgiveness and understanding, Danica gives me hope for staying strong and being reckless, Dan gives me hope for remembering the past and communication, and Tom gives me hope that maybe I'm not a total loser after all. And that's not even close to everybody. That's just some junk off the top of my head.

Happiness is a fickle thing, I feel like a yo-yo bouncing between happy and sad, hyper and exhausted. There is no middle ground. Half of me says I'm crazy, half of my says welcome to high school.

There's another part snorting, "Ha, welcome to life."

When I was a kid I used to have this thing for rocks. I would bring home loads from the beach, to the complete dismay of my parents. There were the typical pretty white ones, shiny ones, ones with funny patterns. But there were always several that looked completely dull and ordinary.

Those were the ones I liked the most. They were ones that, when I picked them up, seemed to fit into my hand like a puzzle piece, right into the curve of the palm of my hand.

I think friends are like that. They just...fit. They feel right. Like they should be there.

There's friends and there's friends. My head is exploding right now, trying to figure out how to do this. Like I've been a friend and a sister and a daughter for so long that I know how to be one. I'm like an expert in the role. There's a way to be and a way to act, and it's good. But this is so new...and totally unexpected. No one was surprised but me.

And I like it. It's probably the best rock I've ever found. Like a diamond, in a pile of quartz. And it fits in my hand perfectly. But sometimes I find myself looking down at it with the sinking feeling that someone's going to realize I found it, decide it's too nice for such an accident to happen like me picking it up, and it'll be gone before I even get to look at it properly.

Hmm, almost as bad as the toy store metaphor, no?

I've been cleaning all afternoon, blaring my music, and it's making me feel restless. Four days, 22 hours, 30 minutes until the summer season of swim team starts and I can get rid of all this energy. I can't wait.

Things to look forward to...
Friday ~ Seussical with Tom & whoever else goes, and Andy's going to sign the book he leant me and I lost because I already replaced it for him
Saturday ~ Americares in the morning, then Dan's party, then Burn's night with the church crew which means SCOTTISH DANCING
Sunday ~ sleeping over at the church from Saturday
Monday ~ swim practice starts
Tuesday ~ I feel dead but totally happy, more swim practice
Wednesday ~ practice, then leave early for the walkathon with the Hershey Park kids
Friday ~ PA invitational with the robodorks
Saturday ~ invitational continued

So yeah. It's going to be wicked awesome unless something goes wrong. -crossed fingers- And all that jazz.

Peace, my homeslices.

--Iona

In the Land of Women - Post #207

2007-04-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hmm, this is a sort-of review of In the Land of Women, sort-of putting my thoughts in order post, but either way, I'm going to talk about the movie (we just went to see it), so if you're planning on going I'd probably skip this.

In the Land of Women is about a guy who gets dumped by his girlfriend and goes to stay with his grandmother to get away from it all.

But in the end, I didn't think it was about that guy at all.

It was about the women he met in the neighborhood he moved into.

It was about Paige, the elementary school kid who was called both "impudent" and "precocious," who researched her fears and, after going out with her older sister and her friend, sleepily got out of the car and asked if he would marry her.

It was about Lucy, the high schooler with a boyfriend she's unsure about, with a rocky relationship with her mother, a love for painting, unresolved worries from her own childhood, and a lot of confusion she has no outlet for.

It was about Sarah, Paige and Lucy's mom, who feels like her life is no longer her own, whose husband is cheating on her, who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer, and who just wants to feel like she's where she's supposed to be in life.

It was about Phyllis, the man's grandmother who insists that she is dying, and has given up on living life at all.

My friends didn't like the movie because the guy didn't end up with any of the main characters, but I think I did anyways. It got me thinking, which is a movie quality I respect, if not necessarily enjoy.

I realized about half way through that I related to Lucy the most, but also pretty strongly to Paige. I think that's where I'm stuck, teetering between the age of the high schooler and the mindset of the fifth grader. I'm not sure what I think of that. I'll decide later. It was an interesting movie, and I'm definitely glad I went to see it. It was about women dealing with hardships and problems, and finding love.

For Paige, love was having the man say yes when she sleepily asked him to marry her.

For Lucy, love was realizing that she didn't have to be in a relationship with someone who made her nervous, and that there was someone out there who liked her for who she was.

For Sarah, love was realizing that you don't have to sacrifice yourself to make everyone happy, and for finally getting a love letter.

For Phyllis, love was getting cared for by her grandson, accepting that her time really was coming to an end, and realizing that she could live on though his happiness.

I think. but what do I know, right? I liked it. =)

--Iona

Happiness - Post #206

2007-04-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

So, April vacation continues, an interesting attempt at juggling numerous games of bowling (I got a 93!! Sadly, that's my all time record) and projects (S.S. Renaissance booth down, English movie and biology essay to go). Somehow, though, there's lots of dull moments that involve me thinking about nothing in particular, and the world knows how badly that ends.

So what have I realized? My happiness depends on really random and totally insignificant things. I think that I would have a better day if every light we drove by was green, every line was short, every person I knew in the hallway said hi to me, and my oboe reed worked well, than if I won the lottery. That's just the way I work. The water bottle getting stuck falling out of the vending machine is depressing, realizing there's still an m&m left in the bottom of the bag is amazing. Today, for example, I got an orange fuzzy frog out of one of the claw games and the bowling alley, and then found out one of the trombone players in band commented my robotics video, and I am currently rather happy as a result. Trouble is, I really can't figure out what this says about me.

As far as I can tell, it just explains my random mood swings, and why I'm always so hyper at marching band and robotics and swim team (well, the latter may just the endorphins, Wikipedia says, "Workouts that are most likely to produce endorphins include running, swimming, cross-country skiing, long distance rowing, bicycling, aerobics, or playing a sport such as basketball, soccer, or football." and I just love that place, so we're going to accept that as fact). When I'm at band and robotics, so many little things are making me happy. The people, doing something new, having fun, just generally...ah. That's making me miss them.

The rest of the April vacation schedule is pretty much Rachel and Alyssa coming over to work on the English project. Of course, we never scheduled the trip to the movies Friday or those past four trips to the bowling alley, so I don't doubt that we'll find something to do.

Haha. All right. I'm going to go make use of this sudden good mood, and maybe actually get something productive done.

Pshhh. That's a good one.

--Iona

April Vacation - Post #205

2007-04-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

So April vacation is here. Hooray, etc. Yeah.

Friday we went to the movies to see Disturbia, and pretty much half of our grade was there. Weird. The movie wasn't really scary, it kind of amused me. Rachel was grabbing one arm and Bri the other so I really couldn't move. Then me, Nick, Rachel, and Sarah took our picture with the poster for the third Pirates movie.

Girls scream a LOT in movie theaters, my goodness.

Then today I went to Mitch's and helped him with the truck he's rebuilding. Lots of sanding, and I learned what a fender is.

In middle school driving and college and life all seems so far away, but in high school it kind of smacks you in the face. So what did I learn? I like trucks. They're so...I don't know. They're kind of exciting. They represent a lot of things that I think are pretty great. Well, at least in my head they do. Adventure and taking chances and putting effort into something and trying new things...I swear I have my reasons.

Then we went bowling, and I had a Yoo-hoo to keep me from being all depressed because I am a horrible, horrible bowler. My highest score ever was a 71. Grr. Not cool.

I have decided that I am managing to be a stalker, pathetic, bipolar, and obsessive all at the same time, and should not be trusted to be left alone with my own thoughts. I will have to preocupy myself 24/7, which will be difficult during church tomorrow. Lots of time to dwell there.

Distractiondistractiondistraction.

It's 11:10 pm, and I have nothing to distract me...

--Iona

Chocolate and DDR - Post #204

2007-04-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

Perhaps not the best combination? I don't think so...

The service yesterday at the cathedral was better than expected. I laughed a lot. Oops. Rachelle started laughing because the organist was conducting with his head, and that made Jordan laughed until he started crying, which cracked me up...

Incense makes me cough.

Then I was hanging out with Michele and Rachelle afterwards and we got really hyper and pretty much fell down a flight of stairs...

And then Ms. D and Mr. Marquis were making us crack up, so that was entertaining...

Like I said, I love my church. They're so full of life, more than anything else. I don't know...some churches I've been to just feel old, like they're only there because they have to be. I like my church because they're all about living and experiencing the most you can. They all deserve hugs.

So...Easter. Every year, my parents hide baskets and give my brother and I clues that lead to the next clues and so on until we find said baskets. This year, we got all the clues out front, and a Scrabble tile was hidden in each spot. Then we had to unscramble the location. And people wonder why we do well in school...

My Clues
1. I'm Lost where can I be found?
Inside the Lost DVD case.
2. Take notes (high ones).
Under some papers on the high end of my brother's keyboard.
3. A ripple on the ocean?
In the microwave. (Now that's just a bad pun...)
4. A small chap with a cute name (nice personality too) would feel right at home here.
Behind my thimble shelf...REALLY long story.
5. This one is a cracker.
Inside the Ritz crackers box.
6. Initially between B and E.
On the CD rack. (abCDe...yeah)
7. No dogs here but something else that sounds like it makes the same noise.
On top of the subwoofer in the basement...more bad puns.

Then Calum had his clues, and when we combined and unscrambled the letters (with some help from an anagram sight online that gave us "dad" and "trunk") to read "TRUNK OF DADS CAR." So we ran outside, ran back inside to get the keys, ran outside again, and found a new PS2 (we broke the old one last week) and candy...yay.

A word for the wise - no matter how much you love them both, playing DDR with a stomach full of chocolate is just a bad idea.

Then my grandfather came over and we had fish and ham (ew) and scalloped potatoes (AMAZING) and shrimp (they have tails...double ew) and pineapple and carrots and all that good stuff. And now I'm sitting here avoiding my social studies essay and studying for bio, contemplating going downstairs to play more DDR. I was doing the reel on heavy, and I died on pretty much every song. I love 'It's a Wonderful Night' but for the life of me, I can't seem to survive it.

Weekends are good. Then I can survive Monday and Tuesday because Tuesday night the robodorks are going to see the guys from MythBusters talk somewhere...yay. I love those kids, and I miss them now that the season's over. The same thing happened with marching band...which I'm still going through withdrawal for.

But, I mean, it's totally normal to randomly skip down the hall humming Nightmare Before Christmas four months after your show...right?

Happy Easter folks.

--Iona

Strange Night - Post #203

2007-04-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well, my dad just shattered the window on the back of my mom's car, so I'm on baby duty... I like her. She's cute. She smiles with you kiss on the cheek and gurgles when she's happy.

I guess I didn't sleep that well last night, because I had a bunch of really short, really weird little dreams. Here's what I remember...

Dream #1: A Warning of Danger
It was a landscape similar to the villages in Lord of the Rings when they're setting up the signal fires. It was up the mountains, lots of grass, windy. I'm at the top of the hill and a messenger comes running up to say we have to flee, because there's people coming to kill us.

Dream #2: Broken Disguise
I had on a dress, a lot like the blue one I wore to the swim team banquet except it was black and shimmered rainbow...like those funny beads that change color in the light. And Andy was there, and he told me that it was actually a camouflage suit and all I had to do was press a button on my watch and scan somebody, and then I could turn into them. I tried it, but it didn't work.

Dream #3: Walking on Air
I was walking up high in the air through this floating city at night, singing the baby a lullaby about how much fun she was going to have growing up. The townspeople working around me stopped to listen as I passed by, smiling and getting lost in their own memories.

Dream #4: Aw, No Band
I was at my locker and Erin called to tell me that she was canceling the drum sectional because Tim and Tom had hijacked a space shuttle and were flying it to Canada.

Dream #5: Unfair Field Trip
I was on a bus with a bunch of people trying to break into an airport because Ms. Rapa was taking some people on a field trip to New Zealand but we didn't get to go. Then Rachel started singing and most of the bus joined in, so I went to sleep.

Those so make sense, and you know it. =P

Today's pretty low-key. Kind of dull. I have church tonight from fourish to tenish...it's the easter vigil and my mother's getting received, so we have to be there early. The actual service is two hours long. I may fall asleep. =P

--Iona

Now that she's back in the blogosphere - Post #203

2007-04-06T19:01:00.000-07:00

With lines of text running through her hair, hey, hey...

Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky
As lucky can be

Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off when
I shake 'ands with you
Or blow me a kiss
And that's lucky too

Now as the ladder of life
'As been strung
You may think a sweep's
On the bottommost rung

Though I spends me time
In the ashes and smoke
In this 'ole wide world
There's no 'appier bloke

Up where the smoke is
All billered and curled
'Tween pavement and stars
Is the chimney sweep world

When the's 'ardly no day
Nor 'ardly no night
There's things 'alf in shadow
And 'alf way in light
On the roof tops of London
Coo, what a sight!

I choose me bristles with pride
Yes, I do
A broom for the shaft
And a broom for the flume

Though I'm covered with soot
From me 'ead to me toes
A sweep knows 'e's welcome
Wherever 'e goes

Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
When you're with a sweep
You're in glad company

No where is there
A more 'appier crew
Than them wot sings
"Chim chim cher-ee
Chim cher-oo!"
On the chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee
Chim cher-oo!

So today was fun. Sanding with Mitch was entertaining, his truck's going to look awesome when it's finished. And I got one really good picture of him sitting on it and -gasp- actually smiling. It's funny to see him so dedicated to something, but in a good way? I'm not sure.

I don't think I've ever loved my church group more than I did tonight. When I first got there at 4:30, we practiced for our service that night. It was hilarious. We fooled around a lot, but still got everything done. The guys there are pretty much amazing, and the girls feel like I've known them forever. I don't know why.

Then we ate pizza, and fooled around more, and prayed a bit, and fooled around more, right up until the service actually started.

And then we were amazing.

The we processed in in darkness to a girl in the back of the church sing "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know" a cappella, with Emily, Mike, and Chris carry a huge black cross and Jason, Eric, Amanda and me carrying candles. That was horror-movie-creepy. The crowd voices were eerie, Zack's Jesus voice coming out of the ceiling was perfect, and the monologues were amazing.

It was weird. People really seemed to match their monologues. Emily's, a mother whose young son died of a fever, and Mike's, a young man about to propose to his girlfriend, gave me chills.

At the end of the service, I walk down the totally dark aisle holding a single lit candle, the only light in the church, while really creepy music plays. It's thunder and rain and long violin half notes. I knew it was going to be spooky...but not as surreal as it really was. I couldn't even see anybody, just the candle. I knew there were people all around me, but I still felt like I was on my own...

That's why I like my church. That don't tell you what to believe. They make you feel, and then help you to figure out what you think.

If I had a penny for every time I've been confused about my beliefs or my religion, I'd be beyond rich...but the way my church and my church group especially make me feel...I think that's what I believe in. If that makes sense...

Probably the best, most fun, most interesting, and most thoughtful Good Friday I've ever had. So thanks.

--Iona

Cuz That's What Friends Are For- Post #202

2007-04-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

Today's agenda: Mitch's in like half an hour, then church for practice, lunch, and the spooky service with my church group. That should be interesting. It's going to look good, provided we don't mess up and my acting ends up bad, but not atrocious.

So until I leave, I'm going to rave about how amazingly amazing Rachel is...in list format! This is exciting. =)

10 Reasons Why Rachel is Amazingly Amazing
1. She can follow my random trains of thought.
2. She understands when I say things like, "He can't be mad at you for being mad at me if I'm not mad at you for it."
3. She will hate my guts and still invite me over to play DDR.
4. She tells me when she's mad.
5. When she laughs really hard, she cries.
6. She's a bando.
7. Most of the time she knows what I'm thinking.
8. I can tell her anything.
9. We should get married, we've got the communication thing down pat. =D
10. I can call her when she's singing to the radio, and she'll actually finish singing the song in my ear before she says hello.

In other news...I have a DDR mat but the PlayStation broke. Everyone may cry now. I've had the song "Practically Perfect" stuck in my head since the show...especially the part where the kids sing.

"You're practically perfect
In every way
You're practically perfect
We hope you'll stay"

So...yeah. It's cold outside, but it's sunny, so it's all good. I feel weird. Talk about mood swings, right?

--Iona

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Post #201

2007-04-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

The Mary Poppins trip was completely and totally worth it. I was kind of worried at first, because no one was going that I'm really close with. I mean, there were some of my friends, like Erin and Ari and Alyssa, but the people I generally hang out with all opted out.

But it ended up being insanely fun. We left at 1:00ish, and I sat with Alyssa on the bus ride there. That was fun. We were watching Happy Feet, and the penguins were cute but we kept getting distracted and thus have no idea how it ended.

When we got to New York, we went to a workshop of stage fighting. THAT was entertaining. It was trust exercises with Steve and pretending to get into a fight with Erin. Slapping people is fun.

A couple groups got called up to perform their fights. Tyler and Brendon were by far the best. They kept yelling some titles from Seussical in their fight...hilarious. Then Mr. Duffy made Erin go up, and since I was her partner I had to go make a fool of myself as well. Brilliant...

Then we got back on the bus and drove to some shrimp place to eat. That was fun - Alysaa and I spent a good minute mildly flipping out because we're both allergic to shrimp. I ate with her, Steve, and Tom (from the bass line in band), and it was fun. I actually have no idea what we talked about. I don't think much of it made sense. Oh well. I was amused.

Then we went to see Mary Poppins. It was insane. All the sets moved on their own, and whenever two pieces crossed, when they moved away from each other, there would be something behind them that wasn't there before. The kids playing Jane and Michael were adorable, Bert and Mary Poppins were perfect...it was pretty awesome.

I'd forgotten how much I adored the chimney sweeps. Chim Chim Che-ree and Stepping Time are by far the greatest songs in the whole play (and the movie, for that matter), but the play's remix of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious that included a giant banner with the spelling falling down and the whole cast singing how to spell it was impressive and amusing.

The bus ride home was the best. I think I spent the first half keeping Alyssa and Tom awake, and the second half sleeping. Ironic, right?

We got home at half past one. My dad picked me up. I think I walked up the stairs and fell into bed. I did mean to go to school today, but no one woke me up. I think I got up at 11:30. Oops. Oh well. =)

--Iona

Belated Birthdays - Post #200

2007-03-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

So it's about half a month late. I don't care. I'm still marking the date as my birthday.

It was pretty insanely fun - I went to school to be streamered by Rachel, got cards from loads of people, and had my locker decorated (said decorations are now on my wall). That was entertaining.

That night Rachel, Mitch, Cat, and I all went to CC's for ice cream. I love those kids, they make life so much more fun.

I got a new phone, and it's amazing and I love it. It's pink - I recently discovered I have a thing for pink technology. I want a pink flash drive. =P

I got an INSANE new DDR mat, which doesn't slip about and that actually works. Ooo, and it plugs into the PlayStation so no more searching for batteries. =)

I got a thimble shelf, which is actually almost full. I love thimbles. They're the one thing that are in practically every gift shop but that no one notices. Well, until you start collecting them, that is.

I got a website! Yes, ionabrockie.com now exists. There's not too much up there, because it's a lot harder than I thought and I'm currently running low on patience.

My brother's godmother sent me a Hearts of Midlothian Football Club jersey...aka a soccer top. And I love it.

And all that fun stuff. =)

Sorry for the delay - I wanted this post to be at least mildly cheerful, and the days following my birthday were spent in an inexplicable bad mood. Weird, right? But we're good now.

And lookit, I moved the dash on my signature. I decided I like this better.

--Iona

Yin Jr. & Yang Jr. - Post #199

2007-03-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

So Erin gave me my first ever pair of snare sticks today as an early birthday present!!! And I love them!! When I got my first drum mallets from Mr. Duffy, I called them Yin and Yang, those these are Yin Jr. and Yang Jr.

I love them. They're smooth and smell like wood polish. And they don't hurt that much when you tap them on your knees, as compared to my old bass drum mallets.

CAPTs tomorrow...what a birthday present, right? I don't really mind. They make the day go by faster. Sort of. Hanging out in the gym in the morning, then CAPTs, then social studies (watching Kingdom of Heaven), math (some new lesson that gave me a headache today), band (yay for band & lunch block band...well actually there's only like three people in that lunch but whatever), and bio. Which is just bio.

Birthdays can be fun...

Ooo, and I have pit practice after school. Mr. Duffy said the oboe part was small, which I expected, but he said I could play axillary percussion while I rested, which was a pleasant surprise. So that should be fun. I don't know who else is going though, besides Katie Kennedy and Rachel the Great.

So yes. Band is good. We enjoy band. And talking in the third person.

Tomorrow...birthday...post #200...lots of fun stuff planned. Not really. Parties are too much effort. I'm making brownies though. Yay.

-Iona-

And These Are the Reasons That We Love (Regionals 2007) - Post #198

2007-03-19T17:33:00.001-07:00

To put it bluntly, we lost. To be a little more specific, we lost, but it was one of the most amazing weekends of my life.

Thursday we went to school like normal, but met in the gym lobby instead of going to class. We loaded up a bus and drove to the Hartford convention center. Bus rides are always fun.

Then we unloaded and set up our pit and bleacher area. We put flags and pins everywhere. It was insane. Everyone was wearing safety glasses and being a dork and it was pretty much amazing.

One of the biggest things was trading buttons. All the teams had buttons with their logo, so we would go around and swap them for some of ours. My pants were soon covered. It was hysterical.

It was also cool, because one the first things that happened when we got there was to be approached by our awesome Uberbots friends Nicole and Shauna, from the scrimmage. And then another Ubderbots girl, whose nut earrings I had complemented, found me and presented me with a pair of my own...I love them to death, I wore them all weekend! She made them herself and they're awesome.

Thursday was all practice rounds so it was mostly button collecting and going out to cheer. At the end of the day, we took a bus ride home, and that was amazing. I have an entire video from that which I die laughing at every time I watch it.

Friday there was no school, so we had to carpool instead of taking a bus, but it was still really fun. I rode in Bellemare's car with Claire and Tom and it was greatly amusing.

We did amazingly all of Friday, even winning one of our matches 130-20. I may have hugged every person on our team at that point. I was also assignment to show a few people around the event. Corky Mazurek the state representative, another representative from the office of the Lieutenant Governor (I think), our principal Mr. Eberle, and our assistant principal Mr. LePage all came. And then Justin and I had to present for the Chairman's award, which was interesting because no one told me about it before hand. Getting to talk about how great our team is was fun.

We decided to stay over at a hotel because the weather was so bad, and that was AMAZING. The rooms were huge, pretty much suites, like little apartments. It was insane. Julie, Claire, Amber, Jess and I were calling the guy's room, playing spoons, watching Mythbusters, and eating Marpoles and mutated Teddy Gram knockoffs until two thirty in the morning. It was insane.

Saturday was pretty ugly competition wise. We'd proven ourselves a target Friday, so we had a defensive robot on us in every match and had great difficulty scoring. We ended up placing 23rd out of 49, and not making it to the finals, but it was still an awesome experience. I got so much closer to everybody on the team, even the kids older than me. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

-Iona-

Post #197 - Notes on Oboes

2007-03-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

In observing THIS video. Note Number One: This is what an oboe is supposed to sound like. Note Number Two: No, most normal people don't sway around like that. Note Number Three: It is impossible not to look like an idiot with the oboe's embrochure. Sweet. I want to go practice more now. And I'll upload sound files of me playing and watch as your ears melt. Over the course of the next week, if you see me jumping around like an idiot (well, more so than usual) please stop me before I hurt myself. Greatly appreciated. This weekend was pretty fun. Friday was amazing. Rachel, Cat, and I went to the mall to buy presents for Ari and Mitch. We found something amazing for Ari pretty easily. Then we bought half the dollar store for Mitch, and were in Claire's looking for a 'Grow Your Own Girlfriend' for him, when we realized we were in Claire's shopping for Mitch. Ah. Then the fire alarms went off in the mall and Rachel's dad couldn't get in because there was a cop car and I had no coat...and then we went to Mitch's and the rest of the night was insane and amazing and all. Then Saturday was Ari's birthday and that was fun, because there was a chocolate fountain and fun people and purple shiny stringy stuff is not a good idea. Just for future reference. And Dan is an issue. Certainly, he has issues, but he has definitely moved on to being an issue. Hmph. Will figure that one out at a later date. Today was dull...and it's 8:00 pm and I still have to write my S.S. DBQ. Guess I should go do that then. -Iona-

Post #196 - Countdown...

2007-03-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

Three days until Ariel's birthday.
Seven days until Pi Day.
Eight days until robotics regionals.
Nine days until Sarah's birthday.
Thirteen days until my birthday.
Sixteen days until my English journal is due.
Twenty days until the swim team banquet.

Quite the list, huh? Today started off pretty badly...more lists, because I feel like it.

1. CAPTs: 1 hour, 10 minutes, to read a story and write four essays. The story wasn't half bad. The writing stunk.
2. English: Dreary.
3. S.S.: Movie...okay, but got to be tedious.
4. Math: I'm slow, so everyone else finished the assignment and I felt sad.

Then there was band...and that cheered me up immensely, because we played "Lennon", which has a real name I don't remember, and is a bunch of John Lennon's stuff, and I have like three solos. I can't play any of them, but I feel special all the same. And, I'm the ony one in concert band who plays melody during 'We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" which is just hilarious fun. And I almost have my solos in Yesterday right. An then I play when no one else does in Here There and Everywhere...but it's not a solo, so I wasn't expecting it. That was odd. I can play the first half of Got to Get You Into My Life at least... I'm really bad at A Hard Day's Night, which may be a bad thing...I might have melody. I pretty much clap for all of Give Peace a Chance, and I completely messed up my solo in Imagine. So Mr. Duffy might cut the song (there is no evidence to prove this...but I do suspect...) but it's been fun while it lasted.

Now to stretch the next three posts over thirteen days...can she do it??? I'm tired, does it show? And I'm doing polynomial long division and it's giving me a headache.

-Iona-

Better Than Expected - Post #194

2007-03-03T10:11:00.000-08:00

For such an off week, this weekend's been going a lot better than expected. My mom's up at a training thing for fostering, so Calum and I are home all day. I assumed this would be extremely boring, but it turns out the quiet was something I needed. We're good at giving each other space when we need it. Coexisting's nver really been much of a problem.

My mom left us a note on the table for when we woke up. Calum's was pretty much that he could go outside if he was careful, because she's terrified he'll break a leg being a guy while she's not home. Mine was to clean my room, because it's starting to look like a tornado passed through. The part that made me laugh? His started with, "Good morning Calum!" and mine started with, "Good afternoon, Iona!" She knows us too well.

And then my grandmother called, my dad's mom who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with some news I'm still mulling over. She found a box of letters that her aunt had written home when she was in university. The interesting part? These letters start in 1917, right around the beginning of World War I.

There's something thrilling about that. My grandmother knows me well, and offered me a copy as soon as she finished reading them. I can't wait to see them. I've never felt that connected to the past. History's never been a strong suit, and I don't know too much about my ancestors or any of that. I really want to read these, want to see them...it's hard to explain. I'm proud of them too, insanely proud, and I don't know why.

Maybe it's the way my grandmother spoke about them. She was so excited, so passionate. She said, "My aunt wrote about how she hated moonlit nights, and I got confused because I thought, 'Well, that doesn't sound like my aunt.' But then I realized, moonlit nights were the nights when bombs were dropped on England, and she would worry about the safety of her family back home until she heard from them the next day."

There's only going to be a couple more posts this month, because I'm going to try and hit 200 on my birthday again this year. Next year I'll be over 300; these days I have way too much to say.

What else? I've taken a lot more pictures than normal this year, probably because I've pretty much seized the 'family camera' and know one's requested it returned yet.

I just found four little dolls I used to play with when I was little and TOTALLY forgot about. They were in a box in the top of my closet...oh my goodness, I haven't thought about those things in ages. I can still remember my favorite one, a little girl with buck teeth, messy short brown hair, and a pink and yellow flowery dress. And her friend, a little girl with equally messy brown hair, a shy, nervous little face, and a blue checkered dress. And the little boys, one with a lopsided smile and blue and yellow overalls, and one with his mouth open yelling and red overalls. And all in caps for the boys and bonnets for the girls... It's really been a while, hasn't it? That's a bit scary.

Going to go finish cleaning. Ciao!

-Iona-

Iffy Day, Iffy Week - Post #193

2007-02-27T16:49:00.000-08:00

Championships were iffy too. I didn't do as well as I should have, and it was only partially my fault. That stunk. I hate the feeling of disappointing other people - and it was after pretty much the best pep talk of my life - so that wasn't great. But I'm going to do the summer season, because I am completely a work in progress.

But going to Friendly's afterwards with Josh, Andrew, Neils, Emily, and Cal was fun.
Today was very uppy-downy. Let's see...

1. UP ~ It was snowing, ever so lightly when I walked. And I was catching snowflakes on my tongue and they were landing on my nose and stuff.
2. UP ~ Danica AND Vinny AND Ari were ALL on the bus this morning. So there was talking. And it was...interesting. Though Danica needs to replace her ear batteries.
3. UP ~ Weight room for gym...this means jump rope and an insight into the lives of...well, different people. Which is different. And confusing, but interesting.
4. DOWN ~ Whatever we're doing in Spanish. I'd explain it...but I don't even understand that much. Predikanomative. (Quoth the Andrew.)
5. DOWN ~ English...I did really badly on that test on Romeo and Juliet, and for stupid reasons, too.
6. UP ~ Mrs. Norton came to visit!!! And her baby is adorable (and tiny!) and she looks fantastic (and tiny!) and they both look so happy. And that made me happy too.
7. DOWN ~ We still don't do anything in concert band, because the people in there don't want to be there, and I love it more than anything else, and there's a class that loves it too (symphonic band) but I can't be in it because I have algebra then...
8. UP ~ Erin, Ryan, Jess, and Mike skipped lunch and played with up today, and totally killed our brainless drummers out, and we PLAYED and it still sounded awful because we don't PRACTICE, but it was so much better...with just four people!
9. DOWN ~ That made me feel worse than ever.
10. UP ~ The Mary Poppins trip got moved to April 4th, so now I'm not missing Pi Day. This counts as a lot of ups.
11. UP ~ We had a robotics meeting after school, and I'd missed those people so much, because they are all amazing. And they were even more amazing than normal today. Why do all the good things have to end? But we have a meeting tomorrow afternoon.
12. UP ~ Dave Van Fleet is a bando. I didn't even realize how much I missed bandos until I talked to him today.

I make that eight ups and four downs. Hmmm...

I know I had more to say, but I don't know what it was. I've got the band version of Wicked in my head, I'm thinking too much, and I'm missing people I hardly know. Huh. How odd.

-Iona-

Best. Day. Ever. - Post #192

2007-02-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning, got ready, ran through Dunkin Donuts, and were at the school for 6:20. I went up into the RC, traded Mitch a donut for his spare FIRST robotics T-shirt (not a team T-shirt, but eh, close enough), helped load the cars, and rode with Julie, Claire, Foti, Justin, and his mom and sister to Suffield High School. I may have fallen asleep on the way.

We unloaded the stuff, and the upperclassmen were fixing up the robots. I was feeling a little eh, because I didn't have anything to do, when along comes highlight numero uno. I saw Jason, a junior at Southington who goes to my church. I knew he'd be there, but he didn't expect to see me, so that was fun. We talked to him and his friend for a while.

Then we went out to watch the practice rounds. They started out extremely awfully. Numero Tres (Max 3 from two years ago, reincarnated in Spanish, for some reason, so more kids could get a chance to drive) was doing pretty badly, which we kind of expected, but we were having issues with Max as well. The autonomous mode wasn't working and we weren't scoring that much. We all started to feel pretty disappointed.

But it got better. We realized that yeah, our autonomous wasn't quite up and running yet, but neither was anyone else's. And the scoring just took practice time. With an awesome combination of Dave and Mark behind Max, we scored four tube next to each other all on our own! That's sixteen points! We were pretty excited.

Then it was time for lunch. It was pizza and soda, and was awesome because by that point we were all starving. I ate and talked and listened and it was really fun. Dorks make good story tellers.

Then...the games began. And the fun started.

I spent most of the qualifying rounds sitting at the top of the stands with Julie, Brian, and Dave Costa, watching the teams compete. This was very amusing, because Dave knew every song the DJ was playing, so whenever we weren't up he would sing. Badly. And Brian, who appears to be this punk skater kid in a hoodie and baseball cap, would dance and sing along.

We did pretty well in the qualifying rounds. In each of the three matches we were up in, it was Max in one alliance against Numero Tres in the other. And Max always won. There was one particularly interesting point where Numero Tres (in the hands of Mitch of course), actually ran into Max and flipped it. Our own robot! But we still won.

In one of the break times the DJ started playing the Cotton-Eyed Joe. Claire shot me a look, and we both sprinted down to the floor. So much hopping...that song is really long.

Then they played the Cha Cha Slide, and Amber and Paige joined us. But Paige spilled her chips all over the floor. Come the 'how low can you go', Amber and I, with the same idea, both went right to the floor and scooped them all up. Brilliant, we are.

And then the Macerena...by that time, we had Foti, Justin, Brian, and even Tom, pushed down by Jess with the brief instructions 'make him dance'. It was amazing.

Then somebody pulled the fire alarm, and it was out into the parking lot for everybody. That was actually pretty fun. It was a bunch of us Max kids, a couple from Uberbots, and Jason and his friend. The girl from Uberbots had the most amazing earring, made of real little metal nuts and bolt, that she had made herself! I was amazed.

Then we went back inside, and the four quarterfinals teams were picked. The top four teams get to each pick two other teams to be in their alliance. Since our team was insecond place, we got to pick a team. Andy was our representative, and he went up and called out the Uberbots and Gaelhawks. Lots of cheering, lots of fun. But it still got better.

Claire and I were watching two of the other teams compete, and kind of dancing to the music in our seats, when Amber leaned over and said, "Hey, if you guys stand up and dance, I will too." So we did. We danced on the top row of the stands with every danger of falling down. It was pretty awful dancing as well, definitely under the category of dorkish. Soon, though, we noticed that three girls from the Uberbots team, in bleachers on the other side of the gym, were dancing too, and every time we changed our dance, they did too. So, when we got stuck for a new move, we made faces and them, and they would think of something.

Between two of the rounds, they ran over and joined us in the stands. Now we were dorks together. We kept dancing, thinking up new and worse dance moves as the games went on, and screaming and cheering like crazy together when our alliance was up.

It was round about then that we saw some guys on the Gaelhawks standing and dancing, also on the other side of the gym. We plotted for a moment, then screamed together, "Hey Gaelhawks!" When they looked our way, we motioned for them to come over. However, they did the motion too, thinking it was another dance. Oops. We did it again, and that time they got it, coming down and joined us all in the stands. There was maybe four kids from the Uberbots, five from the Gaelhawks, then Amber, Claire, me, Justin, and Foti.

It was amazing. We requested the chicken dance from the DJ to get Dave Costa to dance, then got a girl Andy knew to teach us the electric slide. We were even at the point where, when they announced our alliance, we had a mini dance for each team.

And we made it into the finals. We had everyone dancing then, even Julie and Tim and Jess. But, rather anti-climatically, we lost.

I know some people took it harder than others. Justin was pretty disappointed, and we were all a little let down, but I was amazed we even got that far. Second place! Can you believe it? And we got the spirit award a little green crowned alien with tribal paint that Paige lovingly dubbed Rose.

It was an amazing day. I don't know...I felt so much a part of everything when I saw our robot on the field, saw it working better than I'd ever imagined. I can't describe it, other than that it was unbelievable. I love FIRST, it's such a great competition. The teams thing...I didn't understand it before, but it brings you together with other kids from all over the place. It really does. I know we're keeping an eye out for the Uberbots girls at regionals.

The ride back was fun. It was Amber, Andy, Justin, Brian, Foti, Julie, and me in Dave Costa's car, singing badly to random songs (including the entire Bohemian Rhapsody), and driving Mark in the car behind us insane.

When we got back to the school, it was dark, and for some reason, after we unloaded the robots and tools into the school, Brian had the brilliant idea of sliding down the huge, ice covered hill behind the school, sledless, on his stomach. Wow. That, of course, started an entire chain of sliding, pushing, climbing, and screaming. It was hysterical. I've never been so happy to get completely covered in snow and bruises. That is a pretty painful hill when it wanted to be.

So it was an amazing day. I'll leave you with a few quotes from the Chief Delphi website:

~Tic Tac Toe On Steroids
~I believe you have the right to develop your own opinion. I would suggest it be based on actual experience and facts.
~Hmmm... I'm pretty sure that twig isn't legal, since the tree it came from started fabrication before kickoff....
~FIRST is not about building robots, it is about building people; the robots are just a good way to get the people there.
~Computers have a nasty habit of doing exactly what you tell them to do instead of what you want them to do.
~Band geek + FIRST geeks = uberparty!

And that last one just says it all, doesn't it? Bwaha.

-Iona-

Some Serious Problem Indicators - Post #191

2007-02-17T02:42:00.000-08:00

Okay, maybe they're not so serious. But I have decided that I am quite possibly the weakest person on the planet because these are the people it took to stuff me into a Twinkie costume:

Rachel - superhuman strong
Mitch - stronger than he looks, apparently
Brianne - was laughing too hard to be of much help
two of Rachel's cousins - acted as a human straitjacket

And here was me thinking a church function was going to make for a quiet but mildly amusing Friday night. Eh. Shawn was an awesome DJ though. And we cotton-eyed joe-ed, and YMCA-ed, and macarena-ed with the best of them. So that was fun.

Swim team news - 5 days, 18 hours, 11 minutes until championships. Eek! It's going to be fun this year, though. I've got Emily and Josh. It's nice, because for a change I don't have to provide any effort in finding someone to talk to or hang out with at practice. Emily and Josh are just kind of...automatic. And I adore them for that.

I FINALLY remembered to try something I'd been dying too - so now I know I can do one and a half laps (with flip turn) without taking a breath. I know I can get two, I'm just kind of out of it. I got so much water up my nose on the flip turn trying to hold my breath. I just couldn't stick it out.

And then, at the end of practice, I did a 50 freestyle off the block in two breaths, in a pretty off time, but in two breaths!!! I found that excited. I have no worries about drowning now.

It's 6:09 in the morning, and I'm about to leave for the robotics scrimmage. I'm equal parts nervous and excited. It's either going to be amazing or horrible. That's the way robotics works. I don't have a safety net here...except Mitch, who doesn't count.

Ack.

-Iona-

I'm an Idiot - Post #190

2007-02-08T15:26:00.000-08:00

Because, as usual, I have the complete and utter inability to keep my priorities straight. I got so caught up in the wonder that is robotics that swimming and school and everything else pretty much bombed as a result.

But I'm fixing that. It's 6:27 now, and guess where I'm not?

To be fair, I'm not at swimming either, but that's because Cal broke his braces and my mom had to take him to go take him to get them fixed. But I'm not at robotics. And I think, in an insanely twisted sort of way, I'm happy about that.

Let's make a list of what I did wrong so I can remember never to do it again.

1. Dropped schoolwork. I didn't study as much as I needed to, so my test grades dropped. I didn't do my math homework since my math teacher doesn't check it every day, so I did awfully on a homework check. And, generally, I was up until all hours of the night trying to get something, anything, done.
2. Dropped swimming. I didn't go to practice for over two weeks in a row, and I missed two swim meets. I'm so slow now, and we've got a meet on Saturday and championships the Saturday after. I'll pay for it then, when I haven't hit my best times at all this year. And while most of the time that is the worst feeling ever, trust me when I say it'll be reason for not skipping practice next year. That, and you feel really horrible when you let down the coaches who've been putting everything they've got into your success...and you haven't.
3. Dropped sleep. I have discovered that I do not function on no sleep. At all. I have been generally mad at everyone, exhausted, and irritated for most of the school day for a long time now. That has to stop.

But I guess I'm pretty insanely lucky, because it's the very start of the marking period, so I have time to fix this mess, my math, English, and S.S. teachers all just offered extra credit assignments, and I've got a weekend coming up to straighten this all out. I'm going to do the summer season of swim team and see how much I can make up to my coaches and to myself, and sleep? I'm really looking forward to that one.

The things that have saved my like (or my sanity)
1. The really awesome people at robotics.
2. Anyone who patted my head for good luck today.
3. My friends and my coaches, for pushing me back onto what matters (even if they didn't know they were).
4. My mom, for not lecturing me about messing this all up, and letting me fix myself...myself.
5. My dad, for bringing me home surprise chocolate for no apparent reason when I REALLY need it. This guy has a sixth sense or something.

And I guess this blog, too. Danica was right. Writing all this stuff out really helps put stuff into perspective.

So I'll go to robotics tomorrow night...after my homework and swim practice. And I'm okay with that.

-Iona-

p.s. In addition to all that, I am also incredibly lucky because I have left and recovered three things at the high school in the past week. They are:

My digital camera
Left in: the woodshop
Left: Saturday afternoon
Recovered: Sunday morning
How: it was on the same table I left it on

My iPod
Left in: Mr. J's room, of all places
Left: right after school, when Rachel and I were making up a lab
Recovered: that night
How: Justin, a kid at robotics, works as a part-time janitor, so he got one of the janitors to open the classroom door for me to get it.

My marching helmet, a belt, and my dad's kilt shirt
Left in: the auditorium, on the side of the stage
Left: yesterday morning
Recovered: this morning
How: Mr. Duffy gave me his key at the end of band to go get them, and Alison found the light switch for me

I am stupid, I am lucky, and I owe SO many people a huge favor...

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End - Post #189

2007-02-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Julie, for two CDs of AWESOME music, a lot of which I know but haven't heard in ages. The title, for example, is a line from Closing Time by Third Eye Blind. This song makes me sad. And it reminds me of band a LOT.

Band...tomorrow, if all goes well, we're going to the middle school to talk about marching band. I can't wait. Andy might let us do a mini march-off or something. I'm so rusty...I remembered turns and flanks, but couldn't remember that a two-counting turn standing still was a face for the life of me. And I miss my drum. And my bando friends. And next year's not going to be the same without the seniors, who are actually super nice. It's sad.

I've decided that hugs and high fives are two of the greatest things in the world. There's not enough of them. We need more.

The woodshop smelled awful today. Between sanding the Bondo off the crate, and Mark burning whatever he was cutting, you could hardly breathe. Not fun. But on the bright side, Julie and I got a lot of compliments on our marvelous crate. And it's getting there, if slowly. Until then, we'll listen to the music of yesteryear and create swirly vortexes of doom on the side.

What a weird mood. I need sleep, I think.

I went to Kate's birthday party yesterday, married Rachel, got three hours of sleep, laughed until I cried, and went to Dunkin' Donuts in plaid pajama pants. not necessarily in that order. I also met Taylor, who's a friend of Tina and Claire's, and is pretty insanely awesome for an eighth grader. She also makes me feel very old. Weird.

I've been busy adoring my sister. I love her to death; feeding her, holding her, trying to figure out how to make her stop crying. And she smiled today. Apperently, that's a really good sign for more reasons than that it makes her look even more adorable. Even if it does.

-Iona-

O.M.G. SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!! - Post #188

2007-02-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

Please excuse my use of the ever-popular politically incorrect abbreviation in the title there. I couldn't help myself. It's snowing! Really, really snowing! That means the world's not ending, spring will mean something, and life makes sense again. Well...that's what it means for me. But since when have I been in step with everybody?

Here is the amazing version of Pirates we're playing in band. I guarentee every true bando has been humming this for the past four days. I know I have.

Robotics today was...interesting. Very high ups: pina colada slushies, new paint, power sanders, putty knives, fun people, haunted sinks, and the sound Julie made when she realized she could stick her slushie umbrella into the rigged locker she'd just broken into. And, of course, the snow. Also, though, very low lows, like making a blue paint mess everywhere, chasing after Paige, feeling useless, and the general worries that accompany robotics. Mostly about being horrible at life in general.

114 days, 4 minutes, 21 seconds until the marching band is in the Memorial Day Parade.

45 days, 3 minutes, 27 seconds until my birthday.

I'm sleeping for a long time. Good night!!!

NYLSC: One Million Dollars and a Waah!! - Post #187

2007-01-31T13:38:00.000-08:00

So, I'm on my way to beating last year's number of posts. It's going to be hard, seeing how much writing I wrote last, but I figure I only need 9 posts a month. And this is January #10.

I spent Thurday - Sunday last week at the National Youth Leadership State Conference (NYLSC) in Boston, Massachusetts's. It was four days of working in groups to develop skills in areas such as presentation, project planning, team building, leadership techniques, active listening, feedback, appreciating diversity, goal setting, self awareness, group dynamics, decision making, and conflict resolution. I figure:

the high school psychology class
+ my church school class
+ summer camp
------------------------------------
NYLSC

Yeah, that's about it. It was insanely fun. I couldn't believe how many friends I made, or how much I actually (believe it or not) learned. A lot of it, yes, were things to do with the curriculum, but it was also stuff like how to deal with people you've never met and need to instantly organize, how people of certain personalities respond to pressure, and the difference between a real leader and someone who just likes to think they're one. I was in the Atlantic group, and we played this Waaaah!!! game which I won't go into detail about here (too sacred, heehee), but another few groups had this two way chant that eventually formed to that song, 'Jump on it'...

Great Lakes Leader: Great, great, great, great!
Great Lakes: Great, great, great lakes! Jump on it, jump on it!
Mississippi: Sit down, sit down!
Great Lakes: Stand up! What what!

Yes, we were all named after bodies of water.

I miss everybody just thinking about it. There was a mime at the talent show we held one night, and we all knew he was climbing something, but then he stopped with his hands above his head and just swayed there. The entire group was silent for about two seconds, totally confused, and then burst out in a roar of laughter when we saw he was hanging from the top of the rope. He was awesome.

Then back here, things have been pretty awesome too. I got an account on YouTube and haven't regretted it yet; finally the kids in my grade can see where my videos have been going, and generally the feedback has been pretty good. Hooray! I added the link on the side over there.

Tonight there's robotics again. Last night Justin spray painted his hair blue so I'd help him write the competition essay. Pshhh. Stuff like that.

-Iona-

Happy Tuesday - Post #186

2007-01-23T12:21:00.000-08:00

Today was, for various assorted reasons, a pretty excellent day. Midterms, for one thing, were actually a plus today. I had Spanish, which wasn't too bad. I have Mrs. Devaney, so she helped us a lot if we were stuck. I got full credit on the oral section as well, so that's all good. I like speaking the language, as opposed to doing hours of bookwork.

We also got two midterm grades back today, English and S.S. I did better on both of those than I'd hoped, so that was very excited. I did better on my English exam than I have in that class all year. I think I just have some serious focus issues. I'm awful at homework; there's a time and place for schoolwork and that's (believe it or not) school. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what my subconscious thinks. I'm no psychologist.

Then, loads of people were really awesome today. I love awesome people. They're just so...awesome.

I feel like working on my story, which is amazing, because I haven't wanted to for weeks. Maybe it's midterms. They drain all the creativity right out of you.

Oh, yeah, kind of different look (due to the new blogger template upgrades), new links (go see!), new pictures (because I felt like it), new name (finally thought of one I liked), and not so new obsession with parenthesis (I've been doing this forever...but then again, you already know that, don't know?).

-Iona-

Eeeeeeeh - Post #185

2007-01-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

I hate being sick. And I have horrible timing. I mean, today was just one two hour midterm, then leaving school early to go bowling with people...

Instead, that's one more thing for me to worry about, and I'm missing bowling, swim practice, and robotics. Ack.

I have I said how much I hate being sick? Probably. I hate how it can keep you up all night, haunt your dreams in the two seconds of sleep you manage to catch, then leave you feeling completely drained. And I hate feeling weak.

So now I'm lying in bed with my laptop. Thank goodness for mobile computers. Every time I try and stand up, by head spins and I feel worse, so I'm stuck here waiting for it to go away.

There's another awful thing about being sick - the waiting. My parents aren't ones to fish out medicine for sicknesses we can last out ourselves, they never have been, so my brother and I are usually left to stick it out. Except, of course, this time he's not sick.

It's like being a baby again. I've had a glass of water and a cup of tea so far, and I'm completely useless. Ahhhhhh, I need to do something. Badly.

It's 9:50, so Shawn and Rachel and Mitch and Brianne are done with the biology midterm and are probably on their way to the bowling alley. Ironically enough, I could probably walk there in about half an hour if I had my strength. but, again, I don't.

Eeeeeeh. I feel awful and I wish I was somewhere else.

-Iona-

Angels and Flies - Post #184

2007-01-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

I've got kind of a lot to say today, which is weird, because not much has happened. And, by the way, we're going with headers today. And they're bold, even if it's hard to see.

Snow
It's snowing!!! I'm so excited. I love it when it snows. It's so...pure. Before it hits the ground, it's just perfect. It's white, and it falls so slowly and sweetly it's almost like it is defying gravity. And it takes so much of the worry away about global warming and doom for all of mankind...because doom couldn't make your heart feel that full.

Psychology
I might want to take that instead of AP Biology. I'm fascinated by it, and it will probably help me more in the long run. And, I don't know. I can't just leave band behind like that. Maybe I'll talk to Mr. Duffy. I mean, I had oboe separation anxiety this summer, when I wasn't allowed to take it on the road trip (oboe+hotel=bad), what would I do if I never got a chance to play it? Ever?

Swim Team
What a paradox swim team is...it's so hard, but success means pain and fatigue, so in a way pain and fatigue mean happiness. And that's not just because of my musical influence right now (more later). That's the truth.

Kevin had me doing 75s with a bunch of fast people today. I mean, Michael was right in from of me. yes, the kid is what, twelve? Thirteen? But his 50 free time is 28 seconds on an off day. I've never been able to break 31 seconds. Ever.

It was 75s freestyle on a minute, which is a bit (hah - understatement) of a challenge seeing as how my hundred free time is...maybe 1:14? I don't remember. I'm rambling, but this is good. I needed to.

I like swim team. I don't know what I'm going to do without it, when I graduate. I'm not good enough for the professional college teams. I'm hardly good enough for my team now, but that's okay because it's a YMCA and loving your sport counts for something there. And I do love it, in a really twisted sort of way. I love having to break down every barrier of doubt and fear, of having to push through total pain and exhaustion, of craving oxygen more than anything and stuff going the extra two strokes to finish because that might be enough...to beat yourself. To be better. And then you do it all again.

And I love having no qualms about walking around in a swim suit anymore. I think it's funny, how habitual it's become...

Sing
I swear I have a reason for being this delirious in my post. I'm not usually so scatterbrained, so foggy...or so clear. I don't think I'm happy...I'm kind of peaceful maybe. And I like it.

Anyways, just listen to this, or this if you don't mind not understanding the words. I have to buy the songs, both of them. They're so beautiful and pure, so much like the snow...they make me happy.

Speaking of Happy
Our first poetry assignment for English after midterms are done is to write a catalog poem of the things that make us happy. I'm not to sure about this. I struggled with those paragraphs, I'm so bad with structure...what if my poems get torn apart too? I don't really know what I'd do. And how do I fit everything that makes me happy into a poem? So, as usual, I'll think it out here.

What Makes Me Happy?
Instantly I think of marching band. That had to be one of the happiest times of my life. But what about it made me happy? It was that feeling of belonging, of being part of something bigger than me. It was when someone's cell phone rang and they just opened it and closed it, totally hanging up on the person, because this was more important. It was being on the football field under the lights at night, and moving with everyone as one to follow commands. It was playing the drumline cadence, how it kept the steady heartbeat of the whole band in the thrill of its rhythm.

Then I think of swim team. It's waking up in the morning after a really tough practice and feeling your muscles ache. Knowing you did well. It's a rare compliment from a coach who caught that you were giving it your all, even when you thought no one noticed. It's shaving that second you were aiming for off your time. It's being cheered for, seeing a pile of people at the end of your lane and knowing that they're there for you, because they believe in you and want you to do well.

It's a baby's breath, knowing that something so small and fragile is alive, can love, can cry, can feel.

It's that inky black silhouettes of bare trees against a fiery sunset.

It's the perfect harmony, that little snatch of tune that makes your heart sing out in response, that send shivers down your spine.

It's the imperfect harmony, of friends singing so our of tune we almost match, delirious with happiness and basking in the light of our friendship.

It's walking to the bus stop in the morning, moonlight sparkling off the grass like a thousand tiny photographers snapping pictures as you walk down the concrete runway.

It's being hugged out of the blue and told you're missed by someone you thought never minded.

It's marshmallows burnt to a crisp because they caught on fire while you were laughing at a joke...but somehow they still taste fantastic.

It's being appreciated.

It's making an old poet, one who had written more about love than you had ever experience, have eyes bright with happy tears and knowing you put them there.

It's catching a glimpse of a smile on a face in a hallway that, for inexplicable reasons, you were waiting all day to see.

And that's not the half of it.

-Iona-

P.S. The title is from the song...that's not what it really says, it's actually 'Angels in flight', but I don't know. I'm kind of attatched to what I thought it was at first. So that's the title.

Stepping Out - Post #183

2007-01-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

Good song, weird guy, interesting lyrics, amazing tune. Hear it. The video's unimportant.

So...life? I have a new foster sister. She's adorable, only four weeks old, but difficult. She's a baby. I know much much about babies? Pretty much zip. So when my dad is on the phone on a business call and I'M the one who has to figure out why she's crying...harder than it looks. I've fallen in love with pacifiers, baby bottles, and those mobiles that play music, because guaranteed one of them will stop her crying.

And its doubly hard, because she's so pretty, and you know she'll never have the same chance as everyone else, that she won't grow up thinking or acting like everyone else. She's so young, and yet already her disabilities mean that hope for her in many aspects is lost.

At least she's with us now, and not in a hospital. At least she has people to hug her and kiss her and make sure she's happy, and pay attention to what she wants when she cries.

It's rotten, because somehow I still manage to gripe and complain about all the little things that I think are rotten. Today, for example. Things that stink:

Midterms Do teachers enjoy trying to make our poor brains explode? Honestly, I've never felt so overloaded by study guides, practice tests, review sheets, and other hopeless photocopied papers that are only evidence that we didn't learn things well enough the first time.

You know what? Teach me the information well the second time. Verbally review it before the test, let me read the chapters, and let me go. I guarantee I'll do better than if you cram all this half-learned junk down my throat.

Schedules A teacher came into our biology class today with dittos for AP biology. And now I want to take it, really badly. I'm so sick of classes where we don't learn anything, where the teachers are even less passionate about their subjects than the students, where time is wasted and information and opinions treated like garbage. It's a school, for goodness sake. Ever consider that maybe some of us are there to learn?

Maybe it's a false hope, but AP classes seem to promise something different, something better. A challenge, more so than seeing how little studying you can do to still get an A on a test, or how far you can continue to work in an environment completely lacking enthusiasm before you, too, fall into a complete state of scholarly depression.

However, to take AP biology, you have to first take chemistry...or you can take them at the same time. I would have to drop Spanish or band...

Spanish is pretty bad right now. We get way too off track, have to essentially teach ourselves the information before the test, and waste so much time (realized yet that this is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves?). And, its an honors class. So no hope there. But a lot of colleges require languages, and especially look for people who have all four years old high school in one. Not to mention, Spanish is a rapidly growing language. Honestly, I love learning languages. I love words, and what word parts mean. My favorite word part is ped. It means foot. Bipedalism started it (bi=two, ped=foot), then pedicure, pedestrian, pedal... I want to learn Spanish, just not at the intensity (or lack thereof) that we are now.

Band isn't much better. We don't play a lot, there is no enthusiasm whatsoever, and it's extremely disorganized. I mean, I could still play in marching band with the bass drum, and maybe Mr. Duffy would let me still participate in the concerts if I got the sheet music beforehand. I'd miss playing in a group, and I'd miss Mr. Duffy, because he really knows what he's talking about. It's not him, except maybe the disorganization (but that seems to be a quality of all band teachers. Ms. Skreb was a bit like that too). It's the other kids. They just don't care. How odd..."and my weakness is / that I care too much." I would swear it's true if it wasn't so cliché. Symphonic band might be different, might be better. Most of the bandos (the true bandos, concert kids just don't count) are in there. They have class when I have algebra though. Maybe that's better. If I have to drop a band class, I'd rather it be concert. I don't want to know what I'm missing...if I end up deciding to miss it.

My dad is the best. I think he really gets what I'm talking about, and where I'm coming from.

My dad: "I don't think there's any point in taking a class in which you don't do anything."
Me: "Then I'm dropping English, and Spanish, and-"
My dad: "UNLESS it's a requirement."

Hmph. Says you. I don't know...I'm really thinking about it. I talked to Mr. J, and he said it might mean a struggle with the school to fit in all the lab periods, I'd have no free time, I'd have no studies...

Only two things are holding me back.

1. The hope of getting into symphonic band, and the hope that it will be better.
2. I still don't know what I want to do.

I don't know what I want as a job, or even what I want to do in college. I like everything. I was so set on something with writing, until this year. English was a disappointment, and math, science, and robotics were fantastic.

The only thing that hasn't changed is wanting to help the physically and mentally disabled. But...how?

Oops. Sorry. That was WAY more rant that I intended it to be. But...I think I know a little more now. Even if that means accepting that Spanish, however pointless the class is in relation to what I wish it was, is here to stay.

I don't know.

-Iona-

Somewhere I Belong - Post #182

2007-01-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

I happen to like that song. Loads of people don't like Linkin Park at all, but I think they're pretty awesome when you're in a certain mood. I'm not sure what kind of a mood, but whatever it is...it exists.

And isn't that what everyone wants? I feel so happy right now that I think I've found it.

I belong at swim team. I didn't go at all last week so I was dying today, I felt like I had to muscles at all. But Kevin kept working me anyways, really hard. At the end, though, when we raced, I didn't do as well as I should have, and I was sad. Not for myself - I don't mind if I do badly, but because he had put that extra effort into keeping me going and I had let him down.

And amazingly, he noticed that. He saw that I was sad, and actually understood why. I'm amazing, because

a. he's a guy. Enough said.
b. there's probably 50 to 70 swimmers at any odd practice, so loads of people to keep an eye on.
c. I'm not that fast a swimmer, so I don't stand out or anything.

When we were leaving, he said he noticed that I was working hard the first 19, and just had trouble with the last one when everyone else stepped it up. He said he'd been the same way when he was a swimmer, and that we'd work on keeping the speed going tomorrow.

It's amazing - my spirits were totally lifted. He's a great coach. A lot of people don't understand when we say he's the reason we go to practice. We want him to inspire us, to push us to our fullest potential, and we want to make him proud.

Then, there was robotics. I've gotten really into it, I've been there every day at least an hour for the past eight days. I think, slowly, I'm starting to belong there too. Mostly it's Mitch's fault. He's awesome when you need to fit in somewhere, and he's okay if you stick to him like glue. Apperently we argue like an old married couple. Jess might help me file for divorce. :)

Check out the Team Max website, you can look at my page there too. I'm so excited about the Atlanta trip. Actually, I'm just excited. I love staying at the high school. I think I spend more time there than at home. Well, maybe not yet. but that would be awesome.

I'm such a dork. XD

-Iona-

Robotics + Me = Headache - Post #181

2007-01-09T18:21:00.000-08:00

All right. About...maybe four lists today? Well, tonight, seeing as how it's past 9:00. But still.

List numero uno. Things learned directly from robotics today:
- The black button is on, the red button is off.
- Clamps means you don't have to hold five things at once.
- If you wiggle the wood while you're cutting it, bad things will happen.
- To turn the saw, press the little metal bar.
- Press down on the drill if you want it to do more than sit and smoke.

Things I figured out myself in robotics today:
- There may be something to that guys-are-better-at-cutting-stuff stereotype.
- The better cutter you are, the less sawdust you will get on your clothes.
- Wood falls. Eventually you won't jump at the sound.
- Pencils and permanent markers are your friends.
- Get to the pizza before the twenty guys do if you plan on eating anything.
- Everyone makes mistakes: especially freshman.
- Juice from strange Chinese fruits is better than it sounds.

Reasons robotics is awesome:
- I'm doing really cool stuff I've never done before...especially making wood circles. That amused me greatly.
- The tons of awesome gadgets floating around in the physics room. Literally floating. That magnetic top was insane.
- Cool people. Especially my few fellow freshmen and the other bandos.
- Something to do. I would rather be anywhere but at home bored.

Reasons I'm bad at robotics:
- I'm completely out of my element. All the other freshmen are guys, I hardly know most of the upperclassmen, and without Rachel I feel like I'm missing an arm. Not to mention I don't know anything about robots, tools, trigonometry, or talking to people. I'm especially bad at that last one.
- It clashes with everything else. Swim team and school...but I want to do it. So, I'm kind of stuck. Ew.

So I don't know. It combined such drastic differences. I did have fun though; I would had to to stay there for six hours. That was a total of thirteen hours at school today. 7:00 am - 8:00 pm. My record is 15, from the marching season. Me and Erin and maybe Jess too, I don't remember, stayed from 7:00 am - 10:00 pm, the football game. I wonder if I'll beat that.

I think (though I'm not sure) that I'm staying after again tomorrow. But is it something to look forward to? I'm still not sure. I think it is what you make it. It's just hard when you don't have someone you know really well to back you up. Hence today being the first annual Rachel Appreciation Day.

Strength & energy.

-Iona-

Walk it Off - Post #180

2007-01-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

Everything that comes is only here for a while. For the good or the bad, nothing's here to stay. So yes, I'm a total dork and am very excited that the Robotics kickoff was this morning. The game looks awesome, there's a brainstorming session tomorrow, and I can't wait. It's like the Nutmeg committee, sort of, not really, but on the other end of the school field. Science and math are so not my things. So what am I doing here? You mean besides having the time of my life? Eh. Today wasn't all great though. I got sick at the swim meet and had to leave basically right after warmups. It was some combination of the heat, the nerves, and the post-robotics euphoria. Besides that, though, I'm in a decent mood. Maybe I'll go edit a music video. Yeah, I like that idea. Then sleep. -Iona-

The Girls in Blue - Post #179

2007-01-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

You go to practice just like any day
Grab your goggles and you’re on your way
But hold up – here’s something new
Coach is saying something pretty cool
“You’re looking good, yeah you’re looking fast
I see how hard you kick when you swim past
Here’s your prize for fighting through the pain
I’m moving you up; you’re swimming in the next lane."

One lane higher, one lane better
Might look faster but it’s sure not wetter
Forget the grass they say is greener
In the other lane, the water’s cleaner
Until, of course, you try to swim
And see what a big mess it’s in

It’s a fight for the top where the top fights back
And you’re swimming like you’re faced with a shark attack
But you won’t get anywhere, you won’t get through
Because you’re swimming with the girls in blue

You switch your lane, and you’re feeling good
But in a minute you start thinking you misunderstood
Because hold up – they’re speeding by
Standing in their wake, you just want to cry
Don’t say a word when they don’t want to hear it
Don’t think too much when you’ll just start to fear it
On the outside looking in
You’re racing yourself, so how do you win?

One speed up is one point down
Looking like a wet cat, feeling like a clown
Wishing for your yesterdays
Ignoring that it’s so cliché
Forget where you’re going and where you’ve been
Just focus on the water where you’re trying to swim

Wow. I'm actually in a really good mood, but I was kind of annoyed with the girls who swim for the SHS team at practice. Since they all wear their school team suit, and it's blue, I ended up with this weird thing in my head during our really long sets. Gotta love swim team.

Eventually I'll fix the HTML and get the lines straight. I swear they were when I wrote it in Word. Too tired now.

Eventually I'll get to the other idea that was floating around: 101 Ways to Look Like You Took a Shower. Douse yourself with someone's Gatorade then wear chlorine perfume to disguise the fruit scent, etc. All ways of sneaking past those evil lifeguards.

Yawn. Bed. -Iona-

Someone Up There Gets Me – Post #178

2007-01-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

So, I spent this Christmas vacation (Dec. 22nd to Jan 2nd) in Scotland with my parents and Calum. We stayed with my dad’s parents in their sort of apartment, sort of house in Edinburgh. I love it. It is this particular scent…like tea and dust, I guess. My grandfather is probably the one person who appreciates my extremely poor sense of humor and laughs at the right times, and is full of amazing stories about his, my dad’s, and my childhood. My grandmother has both the enthusiasm and talent to help me with whatever ridiculous task I’ve decided to complete next, be it learning a song on the harp, making a rag doll at nine at night, or keeping a vacation diary. They’re great.

What is Scotland? Scotland is streets that smell like all the spices they use in the old beer factories, eating chips (thick cut French fries) with salt and sauce out of brown paper on a freezing cold night while walking down a dark city street, using public transportation or walking so often a car ride seems like a privilege, flapjacks and rock buns and Christmas cake, having to look through baby pictures WITH a guy you only see once every two years or so, going to pantomimes and watching them make fun of the people who come in late, the thick haar that chills your very bones, real honey that is so thick you have to take it out of the jar with a spoon, home grown raspberries frozen from the summer and saved just for you, and a book called Something to Do with all your little bookmarks from last visit, over a year ago.

There’s nothing quite like it.

Christmas presents: PILES of books, some really cool notebooks, DDR Extreme 2, Movie Edit Pro 11, stripy socks, a patch with Jack’s head on it, two little coin purses, two shirts, and some things that smell good, among other things.

Merry Christmas, and happy new year!

-Iona-

The Nightmare Before Halftime - Post #177

2006-12-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

All right, you have to admit that's pretty awesome. I didn't set it on autoplay, because I figured that might drive the world crazy, but here it is: our halftime show! On my blog! Huzzah!

So. Overtired.

And YES this counts as a full post. Because I am a minor genius for figuring out how to get it up here when the 'Post to Blogger' button wouldn't cooperate due to the safety settings.

-Iona-

Boom !- Post #176

2006-12-17T11:16:00.000-08:00

Different, right? I changed the layout of the blog from the basic black with green headings and white lettering to this; shades of green and white headings and pale blue (maybe robin's egg?) lettering. Why? I needed a change.

It's a combination of being too busy and not being busy enough. I miss band, and I'm throwing most of my leftover energy into swim team. Not that it's getting me anywhere, but I finally understood what Coach Kevin was trying to get me to do with my arms, so that's something. I feel like a dork (well...more so than normal) when I do it, and it kills my shoulders, but that's okay. I really don't mind.

I've started living out of my planner. It's really sad; for every day there's all my homework, things we're doing that day, and what I'm doing that night. Then all around the edges, there's more stuff. Most of it is the progress report grades teachers have let us see so far, but then there's piles of quotes.

~"Can you read this for the court?" "No. Socrates was teaching me to read, but you kinda disrupted that."
~"Nick, why are you wearing gloves?" "Because every other time I've failed a test, I'm not wearing gloves."
~"90% of what I say is either a joke or a flat out lie."
~"Memorization is not learning. I think memorization is crap."
~"I always thought it was Bohemian Rap City."

And that's not the half of it. I like making lists, though. It helps me get my thoughts in order. Writing things down. Why else would I use blogger? It's like a form of meditation that doesn't make you feel sleepy.

Today's been all right, actually. I got up early with my mom to go to the 8 o'clock church service, then there was church school from 9 to 10. That was pretty fun. Emily, Michele, and I won a prize decoding Christmas song titles. Mine was a mini crossword puzzle book. Emily and I were really hyper, for some reason. Maybe it was the cupcake. It had insanely good frosting.

Then my dad drove us over to the YMCA for swim practice. Three 300s warmup, 7 200s freestyle where he worked on our strokes, a 200 freestyle all out off the blocks (2:47), and a 100 warmdown. Warmdown? Man, I'm even starting to talk like him.

I stretched in English last week and went into a streamline. It scared me to death, but Josh thought it was funny.

I still have an English essay and two math assignments to do, so I don't really know why I'm writing this. Meditation, I guess. I like writing. Is that so hard to believe? And who doesn't love talking about themselves?

Until next time.

-Iona-

Give Me a Second Here - Post #175

2006-12-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Wow. Only twenty-five until 200. Maybe I'll hit my birthday like I did on 100. That would be weird. One hundred posts a year for the rest of my life. That's...6500, plus the 200 I'll already have...6700 posts. Hmph.

I was thinking, as I tend to do when there's nothing more interesting. I was thinking, and somehow I ended up with the decision that if God is like Mr. J, the Biology teacher, then all the reasons for war can, well, not be explained, but be understood, if you believe in God.

Short detour here, and if you're smart (which you probably are), you'll pick up on the double meaning quickly.

Our biology class is incapable of silencing themselves when the bell rings so we can get to the point and maybe actually learn something. Mr. J has gotten into a habit of making us quiet ourselves down, to the point where it can be fifteen minutes before the end of class when we actually begin.

But why?

He's trying to teach us something. He wants us to quiet ourselves down, and to learn that being quiet when the bell rings is what we're supposed to do. He wants us to figure that out on our own.

It's a little more than that, though. He believes we have the ability to quiet ourselves down, and is willing to wait for us. He is stubborn, yes, incredibly, but also patient.

See it yet? Switch Mr. J with God, our class with people in general, and talking when the bell rings with war, and you've got it.

So I thought of this, and I liked it. It made me happy. I kept finding new comparisons between the two, and they just seemed to go on...and on...

You know how when people shush the ones talking, it just creates more noise? That's kind of like a war for peace. Pretty hypocritical.

I don't know. I mean, how do you get the class to quiet down? Everyone individually has to make that a conscious decision. If someone tries to start up a conversation again, it's going to prompt someone just on the edge of silence to respond. Same with war. EVERYONE has to be on the side of piece. One fight and it all breaks loose again.

I don't know if our class will every quiet down when the bell rings, and I don't know if our world will ever be free of war. But in both cases, the people who understand that refraining from speaking or fighting themselves is one step closer to everyone being quiet or peaceful, well, they understand a lot.

"That's what I think," said Pooh.

-Iona-

Code Monkey Like You - Post #174

2006-12-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

Saturday: Really, really bad swim meet, but Emily kept me company.
Sunday: Kind of fun day doing church stuff, then shopping with Rachel and Christa.
Monday: Very uppy-downy sort of day.

Highs lately were Rachel convincing me to get a shirt I really liked, those caramel cream things, those funny green blocks you use for flower arranging, Code Monkey, it being a day 4 today, and some very cool people.

Lows were bandish sorts of things, most of my classes, swim team, and some not so cool people.

Go listen to Code Monkey. Then come back and tell me it isn't amazing. You won't be able to. It's free to download if you can find the link, according to Jonathan Coulton himself when he was interviewed on NPR.

I need a vacation. Erin's making me want to go to camp with her this summer...I wish. That would be insane.

Here is a very, very, very funny comic about bassoons.

Eh. Life is iffy.

-Iona-

To Make a Movie - Post #173

2006-12-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

Today was pretty awful. So much boredom, and feeling useless, and feeling out of place...it was pretty bad. But swim team made it better.

I was going third to last out of eight in our lane on the 150s freestyle, but first on the 150s odd...whee! And Emily and Josh were there...and Tina...and it was fun. Coach Kevin swam two and a quarter laps underwater...steamlined....only kicking...no breathing...crazy, but awesome. Then, I was in the front lobby after practice talking to Emily and my mom, and he did that tap - on - the - shoulder - then - go - the - other - way thing. That was out of nowhere, but it made me laugh.

Then I came home and found some new songs I want to make music videos of my friends too...One Original Thing by Cheyenne Kimball, Bring It All Back Now by S Club 7, Coming Back for More by Ashlee Simpson, and One Girl Revolution by Superchick. See what kind of dorky songs you get while surfing YouTube? But if you've ever seen any of my videos, you'll get why I like these songs. Or maybe I'll explain it to you. I'm in that kind of a mood.

One Original Thing
First of all, I just love the idea of this song. It's kind of cool - looking for something to set you apart and make you special. Isn't that what everyone really wants? The song has a great beat. It's upbeat without being too pushy, which is really what you need to keep the clips from getting too lengthy. Then, of course, there's the fact that I can picture my crazy friends doing stuff to fit the lyrics of this song.

Bring It All Back Now
Some older kids did a dance to this song in the Frisbee talent show when I was really, really little (a.k.a. second grade or younger), so it kind of makes the song more fun. It's so...I don't know, happy and cheerful and dancey. I like it. Go away.

Coming Back for More
I love the opening tune to this song. It's so...I don't know. This whole describing thing is making me hyper!!! Beware. This is song is so much about being crazy about a guy, but I could take it for being obsessed with life in general as well. Cuz we're cool like that.

One Girl Revolution
Oh, come, on, you have to see how insanely fun this music video would be. I get all excited just thinking about it...that would be really fun to make. Music...lyrics...rhythm...so much fun.

I'm kind of tired, and we have a swim meet tomorrow, then Sunday is church, swim practice, and the movies with church, so I'm off to bed...ciao!

-Iona-

Ring Around the Moon - Post #172

2006-12-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

There's a ring around the moon. I ran outside to see how the Christmas tree looked from the window, and I saw it. It scared me to death. It mas huge, looking like a planet was about to crash into Earth. I immediately did two things. 1. Stopped looking at it, to prevent hysterics and all. 2. Went inside and googled it. According to Nasa's website, this is actually quite a common phenomenon. The article says: "...it is an atmospheric effect. The ring around the Moon is caused by the reflection of Moonlight (which of course is reflected sunlight) from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. The shape of the ice crystals results in a focusing of the light into a ring. Since the ice crystals typically have the same shape, namely a hexagonal shape, the Moon ring is always the same size." I wonder why they capitalize the 'm' in moon? So, now I know WHY there's a ring around the moon. It doesn't make it any less freaky (comets and meteors kind of scare me too), but at least now I know why. I tried to take a picture of the ring, but my camera didn't like it much, so here's one I found online as well. The blue sky is offline, the black one I just took. It's creepier when you're outside with your toes freezing and it's huge and right above your head and too big to take in all at one glance. That, I believe, qualifies as scary. -Iona-

Never Far Behind - Post #171

2006-11-29T18:46:00.000-08:00

"I know this really isn't you. I know your heart is somewhere else,
And I'll do anything I can to help you break out of this spell."

I had a dream once, that I was flying over my front lawn. I knew I was dreaming, and I wanted to soar through the sky while I still could, but I knew that if I tried, I would wake up. Life's been a lot like that lately. Do you risk losing what you've got for something that might not even be worth the chance? I don't know.

"I see you following the crowd. I know you're trying to fit in,
But if you're gonna find yourself, you gotta start from deep, deep within."

I'm trying to do so many things at once, and still excel at everything, but I know it's not going to work. I don't want to give anything up, because each makes me happy in its own way. I'm riding the ups and downs of excitement and worry, but eventually I'm going to miss one thing, and poof! Domino effect. There goes life.

"Hold on to what you believe."

Kevin upped practices to seven times a week. He says I'm underwater too long off my start and every wall, my freestyle pull is too short, my backstroke pull isn't fast enough, I need to kick more, I breathe too much, my dives are too deep, and I move on the blocks. Josh can beat me without even trying, my arms feel weaker every day, and I'm going to be missing practice a lot because of weddings and Scotland this Christmas and whatnot. Not good, not good, not good.

"I will always be your friend. I know who you are inside.
I am with you till the end, never far behind."

I decided to do pit orchestra for the school play and robotics. I really want to do both of them, but I just don't know if I have the time. I love playing oboe, getting new music, and being a part of something that's bigger than I am, so I really want to do the play, but robotics is something brand new, the likes of which I've never tried before, so I don't want to give that up either.

"I am standing in the distance. You can take your time."

I'm making the eighth grade open house video for Ms. Rapa. It's kind of hard to find the time to edit it, and pouring through the files and trying to make everything fit just right is both mentally and emotionally exhausting. That sounds kind of weird, but you put a lot into editing a video, and it takes a lot out of you in return. This is more people than any of my videos have ever been shown to before, so I need it to be my best work yet. But that's kind of hard.

"And I will be here waiting, never far behind."

I would definitely be a miserable wreck right now if people weren't so awesome. And really, that's why you do things. Over the events you experience and everything you do, you have the greatest time, and find out the best parts of people that you never saw before. They make you laugh, and cry, and want to hug the world. I can't give anything up, because I don't want to stop seeing that. It's what keeps me going.

"Yeah, never far behind."

-Iona-

"Never Far Behind" by Aly & AJ

Linked - Post #170

2006-11-25T06:51:00.000-08:00

Before watching this, I beg you to consider a two things. 1. We have but three flutes, three clarinets, and one piccolo as our high woodwinds. 2. It was hailing. Seriously. It was. And then the day after...sunshine, a slight breeze...that made me laugh. So we sound pretty icky at some points where the rain got particularly nasty, but it was more fun, I'll guarantee it. So...here it is. The Nightmare Before Christmas, performed by the Wolcott High School marching eagles. Remember about the hail. (I'm serious.) I'm the one carrying the little bass drum. -Iona-

What’s this? It’s halftime! – Post #169

2006-11-23T10:02:00.000-08:00

I love everyone. I love my fellow basses, the whole drumline…the whole band!

Happy Thanksgiving.

I actually woke up this morning, thought, “Halftime show!!!!!” got dressed, ate breakfast, then realized, “Hey…it’s Thankgiving.”

It was (actually, still is, I just got home) POURING rain. Actually, it’s doubtful that it’s rain at all, but hail…very probably. Anyways, freezing cold. I almost blew away. But that’s okay. Like Tim said, “We’re freezing cold, but everyone’s happy anyways.” I love band.

I lost the feeling in my fingers, cheeks, and nose. It was great. The drums sounded awful because the heads were all wet and cold, but our marching looked FANTASTIC. I just watched the tape my dad took. We actually didn’t sound half bad.

I take back everything I said last night. I don’t want it to be over! I can’t wait until May to march in the Memorial Day parade.

I’m seriously considering putting the marching video on YouTube. If I do…I’ll post the link here.

Happy Thanksgiving, happy band, happy me…

Off for turkey and cannolis (yum)! Much love.

-Iona-

Titles - Post #168

2006-11-22T09:44:00.000-08:00

So, I added a title and moved my picture code under description, mostly because I'm tired of seeing the image code when I link to it. I don't really know where the title came from, but it's there until I can think of a better one.

I'm sick. I have a sore throat, my voice sounds scratchy, my nose is constantly running, and I may or may not have a fever. I can't play my oboe for more than five minutes without coughing, I wince when I laugh, and my social studies teacher seems to think I'm sleep deprived. There's a pretty good chance it's from freezing cold band practices and my choice of clothing, but that's all right. Rachel gave me The Wedding Singer Soundtrack, I figured out how to play the chorus of Right in Front of Your Eyes (before the key change) on my oboe, and I have m&ms. I actually am really happy. So tomorrow's the big game...the big halftime show...it's supposed to pour. I can't wait. It's going to be really fun. I think I'm glad that band is almost over. Don’t get me wrong, I love it to death, but much more and I might have stopped that. And I never want that to stop. I’m glad band’s over because I don’t want to not love it while it lasts.

Sorry, I am kind of tired.

-Iona-

Bobby - Post #167

2006-11-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

Don’t frown. You never know who’s falling in love with your smile.

I don’t understand why cutting band practice an hour short is a reward. I, for one, enjoy being outside in the freezing cold with an aching back and numb nose. I’m not kidding. I love it to death.

Our show is going to be FANTASTIC! I don’t care who complains. I love it. I understand it. I can do it. We will be brilliant!

There was a kitten wandering around outside for the past couple days. It’s adorable, orange and white with the sweetest face. I named it Bobby. We really don’t know if it’s a guy or a girl, but we’ve been referring to it as ‘she.’ It just sounds so much nicer than ‘it’.

We were feeding her cold chicken when my neighbor managed to catch her. She terrified of people and she put up a fight, but he said if we left her outside, the cold might kill her in the next few days. He also said she was probably an abandoned stray, about two months old. I don’t care, so long as she’s safe. I would have taken her in myself had my dad not been so allergic.

There’s a half dozen clothes hangers, a pound of dirt, and a half-built chariot in my room right now. Social Studies projects…they’ll kill you, I swear. Eh, but they’re fun enough.

I have yet to finish a level of hard minesweeper. I think it hates me. Shame.

I started writing another story. I like it a lot; the names are coming to me easily this time. I’m taking that as a good sign. A lot of traits of people I know keep popping up. I’m still trying to figure out whether or not this is intentional.

We had a swim meet Saturday. That was fun. I cut my 50 free time down to 31.73 (don’t laugh, I know I’m slow), and dropped another second off my 100 back. And I didn’t practice that week. I think it’s going to be a pretty productive season.

-Iona-

“This is better than Kodak, it’s totally YouTube.” - Post #166

2006-11-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

I love band…I swear I don’t make this stuff up.

Thursday’s practice we did sectionals, and we went out on the stage under the lights, and people were being really funny, and despite that fact that I messed up a lot, everyone else still sounded amazing. I love my drum. And band. And bandos. Whee!!!

Bright points as of late:

-Dropping a second on my 100 free at swim practice. -Making up a gym class in the weight room with cool people. -Tai chi in social studies. -Mathematical elves and Christmas lights on posters. -Band in general.

Not so bright points:

-Going to swim the 200 free on Saturday’s meet…eep! -Messing up at band. -Rewriting math vocabulary.

At tonight’s practice I was demoted a lane, due to skipping so many practices for band, but that was all right. I ended up being able to race Emily in the next lane when we were doing 25s off the blocks. Andrew was having a panic attack about the meet, Josh was all, “I am anchor. Hear me roar,” and I was very jumpy.

Our caps came in, but Paulina said they’re reordering them because they say ‘Stingray’ instead of ‘Stingrays’ and the words aren’t outlined in white like they were supposed to be. The caps now are red, with ‘Stingray’ in blue block capitals. They look a lot like the ones from five years ago, the year before I joined. I have one of those somewhere, Danielle gave it to me…

Then Saturday was the swim meet. It was awful. I was six seconds over on my 200 free, and one over on my 100 back. This is what happens when you miss practice to go to band. Kevin was really nice, about it though. He promised more long distance at practice…joy. I need it, though.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Gabi, Christa, Kristen, and Alicia showed up, which was awesome, except for the whole simultaneous-talking that scared me out of my mind. Psychos. :)

I started working on a bulletin board for my room. I have one, but it was messy and icky. I cleared it all off, and now it’s kind of empty but it looks cool. I just need more pictures to put on it…

-Iona-

And tell yourself, "You'll be the death of me." - Post #165

2006-11-03T19:04:00.000-08:00

That’s Remedy by Seether. I was very annoyed because I couldn’t remember how it went in Social Studies today. I came home and listened to it several times, and I’m a lot better now.

Hogwarts needs a marching band.

It’s getting to the point where someone came hum a measure of any Nightmare song, and I’ll be singing along with them almost instantly, whether in my head or out loud.

I’m making a music video to The New Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh for Social Studies (if you haven’t read The Tao of Pooh, please don’t shoot me any disturbed looks), and ignoring the stupid skippy-ness of my graphics card/camera, I’m actually rather fond of it. Making music videos is a lot like therapy. Get it done right and it’ll make you feel awesome, but do it too long and you’ll just end up even more depressed.

Right now I’m on the border between ecstatic and depressed, so I’m giving it a rest for the night. Maybe I’ll print out some of the un-blurry pictures from the Powder-puff football game for my locker. I have a lot of pictures from eighth grade in there now, so I can replace some of those.

The only thing I’ve written so far this year for English deemed ‘good’ was for Harrison Bergeron, and was relating the story to the personality stuff we’re learning in health. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and whatnot. Why do I remember this stuff off the top of my head? It’s a lot more interesting than health in the past, with food pyramids and whatnot.

I really want to take psychology, though. It seems, to clueless me, a lot like the best part of English as a class; the discussions that pull apart the story and see why things happened the way they did, and unravel the hidden meaning beneath everything. Instead of a story, though, you’re dealing with actual people.

Tomorrow requires:

1. Organizing the piles and piles of papers in my room. 2. Finishing the English essay 3. Doing the Social Studies video 4. Helping run the auction at church

Eh. I want sleep.

-Iona-

Skele-bando - Post #164

2006-10-31T14:33:00.000-08:00

This was a Spanish project: decorate a little skeleton off a Halloween garland for Day of the Dead. I give you...Skele-bando! Actually, his name is Tiomerina, but that's a little hard to pronounce, let alone remember. Deciding to make him a bando was easy. I wanted something that was possible, different, fun, and worth keeping. I'm good with making almost anything, so long as I have a reference. My uniform's home, and there's Pearl bass drums all over the internet, so that was no problem. The only other bando in Spanish is Rachel, and she's doing Jack Sparrow, so that wasn't an issue either. As for fun and worth keeping...if it has to do with band, I'm in. I'm just a little weird that way... This next picture is of the uniform. The first thing I did was the overalls. Technically, they're supposed to be dark grey, but I didn't have any felt that color, so they're black. They're held on by a fold in the felt on one side and hot glue on the other. On top of the overalls is the jacket. That's maroon felt with black felt shoulder tip thingies, a tinfoil stripe, and two fabric paint stripes. The WHS is in fabric paint too. The hat is tinfoil, with a tinfoil eagle on the front and a bent red feather for the plume. The mallets are tinfoil with blac sharpie handle and wooden yellow beads for the heads. I'm most proud of the jacket. With the tinfoil stripe it really looks a lot like ours. Here we have the bass drum itself. It, as I said before, is based off my memory of the drum and the photos I found online. The body of the drum is part of a paper cup painted white. The faces are index card circles taped on. The black edging and Pearl logo are black sharpie. The 'metal' bars around the outside are rolled up tinfoil, as are the hinges that attatch the drum to the index card harness. Lots and lots of hot glue. The drum stays on the skele-bando by tucking the shoulder straps between the felt shoulders and the head. And here's the skele-bando in relation to my hand, for size reference, etc. Isn't he pretty? The only issues: 1. No gauntlets. He's a drummer, you silly, he doesn't wear gauntlets! I considered putting them on anyways, but ended up staying true to the way we really dress. 2. No shoes. I was so, so tempted to make a pair of band shoes, with the rolled heels and bright green insides, but decided against that too. It was complicated, would have been messy, and I do have a life, you know... 3. No collar. There should be a black collar on the jacket, but this skeleton had no neck, so there wasn't room. I felt the black shoulders up there were more than enough to make up for it. That's about it. I'm off to go stuff my face with candy, most likely. Happy Halloween! -Iona-

Rip Out the Wings of a Butterfly - Post #163

2006-10-29T18:41:00.000-08:00

I can’t figure out why I like this song so much. It’s extremely weird, among other things, and yet it’s one of the few songs on my iPod I don’t skip over when flipping through. Hmph. Weird.

So, Saturday was Alicia’s Halloween party, and it was weird. Fun? Extremely. Crazy? Very much so. But so, so weird.

I’ve been to Alicia’s house once before, but I was six, so I didn’t remember it. And I was dressed up in swishy sleeves. And I consumed a large amount of sugar. And people wouldn’t stop making me laugh.

It was kind of a lot like a dream.

I was trying to empty an entire giant pixie stick into my mouth when Andrew made me laugh. I ended up inhaling most of the pixie stick laughing. It stuck to the sides of my throat, so I couldn’t swallow or breathe. That was pretty scary. I ended up grabbing a soda out of Rachel’s hand and drinking that to try and clear my throat, which worked-ish. Man, did it hurt, though. I felt like I’d swallowed a fireball. That was weird, one of those, ‘did that just happen?’ sorts of things.

Somehow everyone ended up outside, and that’s when I officially lost my mind. Sarah was tripolar, Rachel was psychotic, Christa was nuts, Gabi was squeaky, and Bill was probably the only one not bright red from laughter-based oxygen deprivation. After that…well, broken doorknobs, Princess Bride quotes, sugar, and laughing until my sides killed ensued.

Despite the fact that I now believe some people may think I have officially gone off the deep end, it was really, really, really fun. Really.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Rachel slept over afterwards. We watched the latest Lost episode, ate ice cream and carrots, watched the Princess Bride, then acted out scenes from it until one in the morning/midnight. Stupid confusing time change. That was nuts. Then, every time we were about to fall asleep, she would sing, “Now get out of the dumpster,” we would both crack up, and then we would talk for another half hour.

So now it’s 9:34 pm, and I’m waiting for my S.S. homework to print and I’m tired, but I’m happy because there’s band practice tomorrow. :)

-Iona-

The First Snow of the Season, And We’re Running a Lap - Post #162

2006-10-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty busy lately, mostly with band. The title comes from something one of the saxes said during practice. We were about 80% sure that yes, indeed, it was snowing. Rain just doesn’t fall like that.

Then, of course, there was the trip to see The Wedding Singer in New York. That was a lot of fun. When we got to New York, we went to the South Street Seaport first, a mall by the water. Since it was a Wednesday morning, we almost had the run of the building.

Somehow, when we got there, the first place a bunch of us ended up was the Halloween store. I have a great picture that Brianne took of me, Rachel, Jackie, Alyssa, Maria, Nick, Andy, and Dave wearing the most insane sunglasses off the rack. Rachel, Brianne, Jackie, and I also found an interactive advertising screen projected onto the floor by the food court. That was fun: stomping to pop popcorn kernels, playing soccer and football, getting the marbles into the black hole, saving Superman… Rachel also found this great Nightmare Before Christmas hat in Claire’s. Since that is this year’s show, she, Jackie, and I all got one. I adore it.

Waiting for the bus outside the store was actually very amusing. Nick, Ryan, and Andy were very entertaining, then all the bandos somehow ended up singing…

Then we drove to the theater. Waiting outside to go in, we got to get Constantine’s autograph. Rachel was pretty ecstatic about that, but I was happier to have him wave at my camera. :)

The show itself was awesome. I want to see it again…and I really need to buy the soundtrack from…I don’t know, somewhere. I would definitely recommend seeing it. It was funny, and happy, and sad, and everyone in it was fantastic. We got to get autographs afterwards, and they were all really nice!

We stopped at the Danbury mall on the way home, and Rachel ended up talking to this guy who was an amazing DDR player. He was thus referred to as ‘DDR boy’ for the rest of the night…

So that was fun.

Then there’s the whole drill issue. We just got it, I’m just learning it, and…well, it’s both terrifying, confusing, and insanely fun. Well, that’s what I think anyways. I’m going to be scared out of my mind when we have to do it for real, though.

Yesterday Erin organized a sectional, so I stayed after, as did Jess (with muffins), Tim (reluctantly), Tom (the trombone Tom), Andy (for drill), and Dory (why?). It was pretty amusing, with highlights including Jess’ lemon muffins, playing the cadence down the hallway and possibly scaring Ms. Vilag, learning Crazy Train on the piano, sitting in the band room in the dark, and figuring out Tequila and Thriller on oboe.

At 5:30ish, people started arriving for the game, and it was crazy from then on. Packing that many people with that many instruments and that much energy into one room is not a good idea…

It was a fun game. We played Part of Your World on the field at halftime, and since Tom was sick and Erin was singing, it was only the two new bass drummers playing…heh. Whoops. We did all right, though.

I’m very hyper right now, so please excuse me if this made little sense.

-Iona-

Brr, It's Cold in Here - Post #161

2006-10-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

And other such corny and cliche-ic titles...

This weekend was pretty amusing. Friday was the football game. It was freezing cold and super windy, but that really just made it more fun…says me. :)

The band wore the uniforms, minus hats and gauntlets, with our raincoats. It was pretty neat. They have mini cape things on the back of them that blew in the wind.

We were marching onto the field for the Star Spangled Banner and the band somehow ended up on either side of the opposing football team. The drumline, of course, was stuck behind them, and they were big and rather scary. Erin and I were in hysterics.

They went away soon, luckily, and we played the song. There was a huge gust of wind at one point that caught on my bass drum and almost blew me away, but that’s okay. It was kind of funny…

We were freezing cold in the stands, but also extremely hyper. There were leaves flying through the air towards us, and they were really kind of pretty… I had forgotten gloves, however, which did make the situation a little uncomfortable.

The band left after the first quarter (we were that cold!), but Rachel and I stayed for the rest of the game. To our amusement – and everyone else’s confusion – when our team finally scored, we both started humming Notre Dame… Much fun!

Erin leant me the Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack, so I’ve been listening to that all weekend and can almost sing all of ‘This is Halloween’ by heart. Almost.

Then yesterday I went to the Music of the Knight in Southington. Their theme was Midnight in Transylvania. Some other cool ones were a pirate and circus…very awesome. Taking a whole group of people next year…ones that will understand why the bass drums being out of step drove me nuts.

It’s bit weird how impossible math homework makes you insanely happy that 129/43 is 3, and not 67.8694869… yeah. Weird stuff.

-Iona-

Squee! - Post #160

2006-10-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

That is what Stephanie would say, were she here. I don’t know…another swimming post!

Good Stuff:

- The new team suits look AWESOME!! The girls’ are black with splashes of blue and white and red. The guys’ are black with a curved stripe of the splash pattern down each side. I adore them. We’re going to look awesome.

- The girls’ locker room showers got redone at the Y! They are no longer rusty, dark, broken and buggy! Hooray! I’ve never seen a group of kids so excited about a bathroom before. XD

Bad Stuff:

- The terms ‘150’ and ‘all out’ should never be paired. Ever. The end.

- Only swimming one day this week meant being totally out of shape (30 days to get in it, 4 to get out!), and dying on the easy sets, but that’s okay.

- Coach Kevin has this new thing where he’ll say, “Okay, leave on the 10.***” We look up…and the hand us on the ten! Ack, must swim!!!

There’s a post-practice hyperness off of the adrenaline that is great for doing homework, being random, or spinning in circles. I adore it.

Not involving swimming, we got tattoos in Spanish today, I’m obsessed with the Nightmare Before Christmas songs, there’s a football game tomorrow, and word problems make me laugh.

Off to do homework. Whee!

-Iona-

***This means leave when the second hand on the big racing clock reaches the ten.

Two Years, And Counting!!! - Post #159

2006-10-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...blog. Two years! Hooray! Calum: Happy blogiversary! Yay! Iona: XD Woohoo, etc. Talk about nuts. Since seventh grade, when I started...one of my closest friends haa moved away, I've gotten closer to so many more, I've taken up video editing and marching band, I've flown internationally with just my little brother, I've seen the Grand Canyon and rolled down a sand dune, I've laughed and cried and had a blast. These two years have been awesome. All the people I didn't know in seventh grade...I'd just met Rachel, believe it or not, then she was in all my classes for three years straight and now you have the results...I'd just met Cat, I hadn't even given marching band a thought, and now that's a huge part of my life. I can't believe I've done this for two whole years. I've posted, on average, at least once a week. That's nuts. Where will I be this time next year? I wonder what classes I'll have, what the band will be playing, who will have joined the swim team...or even if we've convinced the school to start one for Wolcott. Life rocks. The end. -Iona-

You’ve Got to Swim It to Win It – Post #158

2006-10-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

WOW!!! Only three days until my two year blogging anniversary! TWO YEARS!!! Where did the time go? Seventh grade…to ninth grade…and beyond! I hope…

Anyways, swim practice on Wednesday was fun. Coach Kristen wasn’t there, so Coach Kevin was running the show. I loved our lane; it was just me, Josh from school, Emily from forever, and this kid Nick who’s swam in the summer but never the fall before. We had a pretty good workout, all seventy-fives free, drill, pull, kick, and odd. Stupid pull-buoys… Anyways!!

I was having a good day too. I went first almost all of the time. Well, I went third on pull, but my arms are weak. Ew. My ego was finally restored after Josh creamed me the first day he joined the team. I was happy.

So, it was about 6:15 (practice ends at 6:30) and Coach Kevin says to our lane, “Okay, I want a 50 free and a 50 odd, all out. This is it for today, so give it everything you’ve got.” We do, and as we’re sweating and panting on the wall, he walks over and says calmly, “Now I want two 25s underwater.” We look at him like he’s nuts.

“But you said…”

“I had to get you guys to work. Now, I want to see if you can do these. Let’s go.”

I did, of course. I hate underwaters, because I can do them, so I do, because my stupid brain is too stubborn to let me breathe.

We had Coach Kevin for practice on Friday too. That time, it was me, Emily, and Adam in the lane. We were doing practice with lane three, which was Tina, Amanda, and that girl whose name I always forget.

Coach Kevin was working on our backstroke, on turning our shoulders so our reach was longer and our stroke was fuller. I could feel myself going faster. My best time for the 50 back is a 36.89 from championships last year. I know Tina swam a 35.90 at practice, which drove me nuts, but I don’t know how I was going. I’m dying to break 36 seconds though.

About half way through practice, Coach Kevin said we were doing our last set, then we were doing something fun. Tina asked, “Fun fun or Kevin fun?” It was great… Kevin said it would be fun fun.

For the second half of practice, we split into two teams and did relays! It was fun fun. :) And…I was an anchor. That means I was the fastest person on my team and swam last. I’m not actually that fast, but all the older swimmers are swimming for Southington High right now. The anchor would have been Tina’s sister Tam, but she went to Lake Compounce instead of practice.

It was really fun. My team won freestyle and breaststroke (how on earth did that happen??), and Tina’s won backstroke (no surprise, she’s insane) and butterfly. Then, Coach Kevin came out and said, “Now it’s time for Kevin fun.” Groans…

We had to swim kicking on our backs holding a rod up parallel with our shoulders. It was impossible; you would sink as soon as you pushed off. It was still pretty amusing, though.

When we were in the locker room, Emily was telling me, “I had decided not to breathe, but they I got to the middle of the lap, and I realized that was stupid.”

Actually, people have said a lot of really weird stuff today. That thing with Christmas and low tide had to have been the best, though…

Ew, off to do a Social Studies project, lab report, and study for Spanish and S.S. Hope everyone is having more fun!

-Iona-