Why things always happen while I'm painting my toenails

No, they don't really. But this makes a great title for a post about random stuff.

1. Aiden

He's possibly the cutest little boy you could ever meet. He's five, has big blue eyes and a shock of gorgeous red hair. He's so serious about violin, but he sometimes wiggles around on the ground like a little worm and giggles.

Today, he looked like he was pretty tired, but I kept gently encouraging him to keep playing. I was kneeling on the floor to be on his level, and just as he finished the last note, this look that I've never seen before came onto his face. "Great job, Aiden, you did it!" His eyes grew round and watery, and he looked this combination between shock and utter horror. Suddenly, I hear his father's voice say, "Oh no, Buddy!" I look down, and watch a large puddle of yellow liquid pool around poor Aiden's feet!

What followed was a lot of scrubbing and comforting poor Aiden, who was crying from embarrassment.

2.Play Practice

Jonas, you are possibly the randomest (is that a word, or just teen slang?)/funniest person in the school. :) Explanation: School Play

Jonas: Are you refusing me?

Kasia: I have a phone, you know! And guess what, it rings only once a week, on Sundays, which is when my mother calls! And...

Random Jonas interruption: (grabs phone) Ring ring, it's your mother calling!

Well, I suppose one had to be there, but it was pretty darn funny :)

3. Nightwish

My friend Jeff introduced me to an incredible band called Nightwish. They are absolutely phenominal! They're a Finnish band that doesn't stick to one genre of music but branches out and does everything from an 18 minute long musical to Celtic fiddle metal. They are beautiful, exquisite, and just plain musical!

Here we have The Last of the Islanders: Celtic Fiddle Metal

4. I was lying. Yes, things do happen when I paint my toenails. This time it was the phone and the doorbell ringing at the same time.

Hair Havoc

First of all, I was going to talk about music as well as hair in this post, so my original Title was Hair Havoc and a Little Singing. I don't have time for the music part, but I'd like to say that I accidentally almost titled this post Hair Havoc and a Little Sinning *chuckle chuckle chuckle*

Second of all, for this post to make sense, I would suggest you click on the link below and read the post titled Hair in my other blog first.

Third, I'd like to make a comment about my latest haircut.

So, I got a haircut last Thursday, and I must say, to be completely honest, I love it. However, it certainly didn't start out that way. I walked in to the hairdressing place, I said hi to my hairdresser, and she said, "Ok, today we're dying your hair." (Time for panic attack.) She then pulled out a bowl full of PLATINUM BLONDE (!) coloured chemicals and started putting my hair up in what felt like an alien headdress. Thankfully the potential platinum disaster turned out to be only a bunch of streaky little highlights, which apparently looks great when you chop half the hair off a person's head with what looks like butcher scissors (hurrah for short hair!). Rub in a ton of hair-gel, and VOILA, one sexy spiky haircut for a girl who's never dyed her hair.

However, the point of this is not to brag, although that might be a bit of an interior motive. My haircut just got me thinking about what we as a society value. I have gotten multiple compliments on my hair every day this week, sometimes more than once by the same person, sometimes more than once by the same person more than once a day. And yet Grace, Grace raises $7500 dollars for cancer by doing something that most girls would dread, but does she get as many compliments from our peers? No. So, what's more important, then? Shaving your head in memory of your friend, or getting highlights? Evidently it's the highlights. And I think that there's something dead wrong with that.

Death (Delete delete delete)

I've been meaning to post these guys for awhile now, but haven't had the occasion to put them up.  This used to be a post about how my March Break was a failure, but I hate whining, so I deleted it.

Anyway, this was an art project done back in November.  The assignment was to take something natural, something God-made, and slowly morph it into something man-made.  A lot of people were doing fast animals turning into vehicles, but I wanted mine to be reflective of the situation that I was in.  I don't know why, but I decided to choose fire.  My brainstorming went something like this...Fire... how did man corrupt fire?  Man used fire to create things, great things, terrible, but great.  Man uses fire to create weapons that kill and disease... fireball... nuclear weapon... death... skull...  Fire Turning into Nuclear Hazard sign.

I'm not such a huge fan of the first one, and the photo that I took for it is blurry, but I really like the fourth one.

Life in general

The generic greeting from one person to another is "How are you?" The generic answer is "Fine."

I have a problem with both.

See, around my school it can be a bit of a sketchy question to ask, as not only did we deal with the death of Geoffrey this year, one of the most-gone-to churches just lost a member of their youth group to (surprise, surprise) cancer.  He was the same age as Geoff, strangely enough.

The second problem that I have is how the hell I'm supposed to answer the question.  Generally when it's asked, I'm not in the depths of despair, so I could say "fine" with a clear conscious.  But am I really fine?  The answer is no.  So, I could say, "Well, actually, my life feels like crap because I think that I have depression resulting from my friend's premature death from cancer."  However, when a person says something other than the generic answer, it gets people unnerved.  So, then comes a lot of uncomfortable questions.  *Sigh*

~~

I am suddenly REALLY hungry.

Masquerade...

Masquerade,

Paper faces on parade,

Masquerade!

Hide your face so the world will never find you.

Ahh, a masquerade ball.  I always wanted to go to one of those, and last night my dream was fulfilled.  Sort of.

It was the theme for our Valentine's day banquet, and let me say that it was really well done, in a school dance sort of way.  There was red carpet (only a few meters of it), a clown for entertainment during dinner (my elementary school's old vice principal on a unicycle), karaoke (only country songs and High School Musical), and food (which not many people ate.)  However, these things made it all the more enjoyable, as we were able to laugh hilariously when people attempted to sing country karaoke, ate the chocolates that were thrown to us from the unicycle, and  gazed with suspicion on the large screen showing an unusual visualizer during the dancing part (buildings getting knocked down and such.  Odd.).

I wore my mask practically the entire night, even after others took theirs off.  

Worries

So, my big Orchestra concert is coming up soon, and to tell you the truth, I'm getting a wee bit nervous.  Ok, scratch that, I'm close to panicking.

My Orchestra is a bit weird: not enough players in one section, almost too many in another, kids who can barely play the music, and players like my friend Dylan, who has been accepted to audition at the top music school in North America.  We always pull off every concert, but for some reason, this time, it's getting scary.  We've got a really young violin section this year, who just isn't pulling their weight on some of the pieces.  We've never been this far behind scheduleon rehearsing pieces before, and some of the pieces are sounding butchered.  One soloist (my friend Lindsay) was in tears last time.  I'm worried.

No House: musings on life and Harry Potter

My home-page when I turn on the internet is a site called The Leaky Cauldron.  Leaky is "The Most Trusted Name in Potter."  It is the site to go to for all the news, theories, discussions and interviews with the makers of the films and books, as well as a super fun place.  PotterCast, the weekly pod-cast is absolutely hilarious.  I've been part of the Leaky community for a long time, but something changed this week.  Now when you join Leaky, you have to choose one of the four Hogwarts houses to be a part of.  There is 

Gryffindor: where dwell the brave of heart.  Their daring nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart.

Hufflepuff: where they are just and loyal.  Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil.

Ravenclaw: where those of wit and learning will always find their kind.

Slytherin: where those cunning folks use any means to achieve their ends.

And here's the thing, I still haven't chosen my house yet.  It's not a big deal or anything, but I feel somewhat isolated.  I feel like I'm not ready to chose a house yet.  I've taken every possible test on the internet, and I keep coming up with different answers, so I can't pinpoint my house that way; the only test I would trust would be one written by Jo Rowling herself.  I can't just close my eyes and pick one, because your house defines you as a person.  And I can't even pick a house and changed it later, as one can only pick a house once.  

I'm not entirely sure why this means so much to me, and to people outside the HP fandom it probably sounds quite stupid.  Maybe it's because I feel like I don't know who I am yet.  Maybe I don't want to chose how other people see me.  Or maybe, I believe, like Dumbledore, that we Sort too early.

I get a Spare, Hallelujah, I get a Spare

Ok, so yesterday's news is pretty darn awesome too.  But here's the thing, I just got next semester's schedule, and, no kidding, I have never seen a better schedule EVER!  First of all, this is the first time I've ever taken a spare, so I love looking at the piece of paper and seeing big blank spots everywhere.  Second of all, I've  got four great courses... Bible with my fav teacher, English (yes!), Media, and the only hard one, Bio.  Here's the best part, though.  Our courses move around daily, so here's what I have...

Monday: Lunch + Spare= Extra long lunch period

Tuesday: Spare Last Period= I can go home early

Wednesday: Spare First Period= I don't have to be at school until 10:30!

Thursday: Extended lunch period again

Friday: Home early!

BEST THING EVER!

(Comment: four months later: It actually wasn't as great as I thought.  But why ruin the euphoria?  Oops... too late.)

Indescribable Part 2

My friend Meagan was the first to play and have her lesson.  While the clinician was talking to her, I noticed my violin teacher nudge my friend's mom and look out the window.  I assumed that she was looked at my bird, so I turned to take a peek.  Just then, he sprang off his perch on the top of the building across the courtyard  and swooped down across the open space.  I stared at his as he rushed toward our building and had a moment panic when I was sure that he was going to crash.  However, just as it seemed that he was plunging to his death, he extended his wings out to their fullest and soared up on a breeze, right across our windows.

It was possibly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  He was magnificent.  He had such a huge wingspan, full of red and golden feathers that reflected the sun.  Of course, everyone let out a collective gasp, and Meagan shouted "Sarah, it's your bird!"  

But the best part is that he didn't go away.  He landed on the broad ledge right outside the window, strutted around, peeked in the window, and ruffled his golden feathers.  Everyone stopped to look at him, oohing and ahhing.  I had this feeling of warm pride well up inside. "Ha!  I told you so!  I told you he was incredible!"  And then came the best part of all.  My music bag was leaning up against the glass, so I lost sight of him for a few moments.  Suddenly, a cocked head stuck out from behind the bag, and looked around with eyes the colour of butterscotch as if to say "Hey, this room is usually empty right about now!"  Then, with real intelligence in his face, he turned and looked me straight in the eyes.  He just stood there looking at me.  And then, he flew away.