The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship and an End of an Honorable Year

That was easily the best Monday that I've had in a long time, maybe ever :) I'll let you ruminate on that for a while as I catch you up on April :D So, April 1st (Sunday) was the last day of Conference, which I enjoyed heartily and took copious notes on. April 7th (Saturday) was my 18th Birthday Party, which had, at most, 22 attendees (The population of people at my party, graphed with time, is in the shape of a bell curve). We played Ultimate Frisbee, and had Hamburgers and Hotdogs, and had 2 tv's set up for 8-man Halo on Halo on Halo. Check out my facebook timeline for 60+ photos, and a description of what went down. April 10th (Tuesday) was the AP Government Movie Night, where we watched 12 Angry Men. Durfey bought Costco Pizza, we had some little waters, and watched some dudes debate about a young boys life, because we were on the Judicial section. I love hanging out with all the people in that class, we're talkative and have fun while learning about government. (Also, the way in which we left the school was exactly like how the 12 Angry Men left the courthouse, which was awesome). April 12th (Thursday) was the State Theatre performance of Little Shop of Horrors. I stayed at school, and went to Orchestra rehearsal rather than go on the bus at noon with the theater group, but I got there around 4:30, and we performed at 5. My keyboards had issues: The clavinova couldn't get enough power from the single wall socket we had, the chord attached to the electric piano shorted, so I had to swap everything, reset the amp, and play the rest of the show with just one piano. I adjusted fine though, and found an acceptable organ and electric piano setting so it all worked out. April 13th (Friday) was Alex Owen's birthday...that was kinda sad xD April 14th (Saturday) was busy. In the morning, I took some of the practice AP English Language Test: Mr. Drake came late, and forgot the Multiple Choice section. I really enjoyed two of the three essay prompts though: One allowed me to use Nigeria to analyze cleavages in society, and the other was a DBQ about Space Exploration. The rest of the day was Senior Ball, and I asked Marie Johnson to go with me. We were in a group with Trello Prince and Rilley Mckenna, Robert Jensen and some Sophomore, Brayden Weir and his girly girl, and Cameron Pickle and Maddie Simon (Hint Hint, Nudge Nudge). I got home from the test, and got to Lazerquest on time, while Marie barely got there before we went in because she took the ACT. Most of them hadn't been there before, so I lead the way, though my score wouldn't show it. That was fun, and we went to Roxberry to relax for a few. I dropped Marie off, and went home to get dressed. I picked her up, and met the group at Asian Star (we had an adventure finding parking, we had to go all the way to the parking garage at the cinemark and walk back to Asian Star xD). We got a "Teenager Special" which was several large dishes in the middle of the table, and all of it was delicious. We got a ride from Robert back to my car, and I drove us to Rio Tinto Stadium, where the school had reserved the observation deck in the tower for the dance. That was actually a decent dance, if only for the fact that I was determined for it to be a good dance :) During it, I didn't bring enough money for both photos, so we just got a group, I taught Marie how to waltz during a slow song that didn't even have 3/4 time, and in general had fun. The sunset through the windows across the valley was gorgeous. When the dance was over, we made our way back to Cameron Pickle's house, where we had ice cream and watched The Waterboy (because we didn't want to think about it). Cameron's home theater was below his garage, and had tons of lovesacks, which at first were slightly awkward, but were later nice for cuddling (I didn't, at first, because I didn't really want to hint that I liked her like that, but eventually from pressure by Maddie and Rilley, and the fact that being closer on the lovesack was more comfortable than not, we cuddled). I took Marie home 45 minutes after curfew (we called before, and they said that it was okay). It was a very good date. April 26th (Thursday) was the Region Orchestra Festival where the orchestra played two songs at Skyline high School. We played well, and the only real eventful thing was while we were on the bus to Skyline, the space heater below Emi started to smoke, and spew antifreeze all over the bus' floor. It was an experience, and the other bus had to come back and get us while the driver fixed it. April 27th (Friday) was all about Hamlet. I studied my new copy of Hamlet in English, I went to the Hamlet party after school, and then saw the performance of Hamlet at the school at 7. I Really, Really enjoyed it, it's my favorite play (I don't think I've ever had a favorite before now, maybe Into the Woods...). They cut the 4 hour play into an hour and a half, keeping all the best parts, and transitioning really well between it all. My favorite revision was when Shelby Saxton (Hamlet) delivered the To Be or Not To Be speech directly to Ophelia, grasping a knife as he did so: It felt very direct, and not like a random monologue into the wind. Another change that at first I did not like, but accepted in the end: The player king was not a good actor, and his players were worse. Clayton performed him, but he was designed to do so. The reason that it didn't work at first was that Hamlet's monologue ("What is he to Hecuba, that he should shed a tear for her sake?") afterwards didn't make sense, because the Player King delivered it poorly. However, it works out in the end, as Hamlet lectures the players on how to act before they give their play. It worked again, as the good acting of bad acting was an excuse to shorten the play inside of a play quite a bit. Teagan was Gertrude. April 28th (Saturday) was yet another busy Saturday. Saturday Morning was State Solo and Ensemble for the Percussion Ensemble at ... some obscure high school that I forgot for the moment...We had a lot of fun and experiences there - Buying 3 3-foot long subs for lunch, "Ew, it tastes like cinnamin poop stain!", and forgetting two of the scores for our music so that we didn't get judged xD regardless, we played well, Celebration got a 1. I was very surprised with that, because those were the worst timpani that I had ever played on: 1. 3 of them couldn't reach the notes I needed. 2. 2 had to be held to keep the note that I needed. 3. The pedals wouldn't stay. 4. They bottom two timpani rattled. 5. The heads were out of tune. ...Meh. And, of course, we played frisbee :D Though I had planned to get my chores done, etc. afterwards, there was an Ultimate Frisbee game at Southwood at 7 that night, with a bonfire at Jenna Lewis' afterwards. I debated on going, and finally did. The games were fun, though I was always on the losing team. At the most, there eventually 45 people there (!). Eventually, I got tired, and wandered over to some of the non-playing, talking groups. Bethany pulled me into the game again, before she went to Trello, and I noticed Maddie walking over to the hill, alone. I smiled, and ran over, taking the opportunity when it presented itself...I'm very glad that I did :) We sat down together on the hill, watching the ultimate frisbee game, and shared our feelings about Kenny (for her) and Teagan (for me) and about Senior year, and College, and... well, we hit it off really well :) We kept talking until we went to Jenna's bonfire party, where we talked some more, swung on the swings, freaked out when brandon lit a firecracker and talked round the fire. Even after we had left, we kept texting, late into the morning...and immediately before and after church...and while I was at grandma's and... Oh! April 29th (Sunday) My family went to Grandma J's for Dinner and a Family Gathering. We had lots of jokes to be shared, hugs to be given, and smiles to be had. They sung happy birthday to me, and I had rootbeer ^^ ...even after grandma's :) April 30th (Monday) after me and Maddie had been texting all day, and after school off an on, she finished with dance and asked if I wanted to get a bite to eat with her. So, at like, 7:30, after I had eaten, we went to Leatherby's. We talked in the car, talked in the restaurant, had some fun, shared fries and ice cream, watched this kid do some awesome dancing, and she drove me home after ^^ This feels like the start of a beautiful friendship :)