Day 13:Disapointments and blah...and my weekend, or selected part of it.

I woke up Friday morning with the thought of a good day. I was to play Banjo and go out and hang out with Elizabeth and such, but no.

We were to have Jazz Combo today and start our first session of our traditional Jazz, but no, the kids in the class ruined it for me. The 2 tenor sax players were playing really loud and obnoxious, then the guitar player also played loud, but of the same song then another, then Mr.A told them to stop and it's become a volume contest and where the other members of the band were because everyone was to be there, but they forgot and he told us to put away our instruments. Then he scolded us and the other combo had a meeting and we were told to leave. I was sad.

Then the rest of the day was just not so great. Then I went to go drink Koolaid at my friends and that was a high point. Later Elizabeth called me telling me she made plans earlier to go to a block party, and that I could go, but my mom would not be happy about me coming home late. Later they changed their plans to go Swing Dancing, but I still couldn't go so I watched Twilight with my older brother instead. It was still lame, that day that is.

Lets NOT talk about Saturday, shall we?

Today was fun. I got to go rafting down the South Fork of the American River. It was awesome and my boat only flipped once and that was at the end. I got to go down a rapid at the beginning for the lulz. I want to go do it again. It was great. I really bonded with my friends today and it was my first time rafting too. All I need to do now is sleep in a tent and go camping and I'm complete with my current set of goals.

There was so much I wanted to change about this weekend and few things that I don't want to be changed.

Day 12: Drumline, Heroes and Subs

"War makes heroes, but who makes war." A wise saying told to me by a Vietnamese man who fought in Vietnam during he war on our side. Those words rang in my head as an old student of Mr.A's walked into the band room during Wind Ensemble. There's a story to every hero and this man's story is as familiar to me as the bed that I sleep in. He's a Navy man, trained with the SEALS to drive them in covert mission. This moment when Mr.A saw him brought a tear to his eye. A rare occasion indeed, but I find it touching. I can only wonder how he will reacts to all of the others that have gone into the military and the looming thought of never coming home again.

Today was day 2 of subs. I had all of the same subs again and received the business card of my favorite sub in the world, Mrs. Reyna. I had the same annoying sub in French and Mr.Smith as a sub in english. Yes, I wore my "The Smiths" shirt just for that class. That is all.

I finally got the last drum head replaced on my Quads and playing with 4 drums instead of 3 is hard and all of the sticking was insane, but it's really fun and it sounds cool. I learned the rest of the old pieces from years past today and the parts are intense and we marched a bit today. I suggested the idea of marching to the office and I was being backed up by the rest of the line, but our leader Tyler had a case of "cold feet" and cowered out of it and told us we could not even though we could have easily overpowered him. Sadly enough we played a song walking back that he wanted to stop, but we all joined in and he joined in. We stuck it to the man.

This has been a short entry I'm noticing. Time for me to practice banjo chords.

Day 11:Substitute

Today has been long and I sorta slept in too. So much stuff in one day. Lets start from the beginning.

I woke up late-ish. That was a given though.

We received a new piece in Jazz and we dove right into it. Greasy Brown Paper Sack. What an interesting name, but it's incredibly slow and Bluesy. Then we ran through Splanky. Which was fun like always.

Now this is where my day takes a turn for the odd, but normal because of my "oh so lovely" school district.

My 2nd, 5th and 7th periods all had subs, now that's almost half of my classes, if Mr.A wasn't there, that would have been almost all. I like having subs because you get colorful people that are either fresh out of college(or are getting their credential) or more elderly people who are sorta retired, but want to stay active in their lives or you get the special cases(like my favorite sub) who just does it and makes a living and is "the best".

My 2nd period sub is an old friend of my "China-Rican" friend Jose's grandpa and we sat in the commons and did absolutely nothing. My 5th period sub was strict to the nth degree and would hardly allow us to talk. She was somewhat annoying, or so I found her out to be. My 7th period sub was also interesting in the sense that he looked like a hipster and that his name was Mr. Smith. I couldn't help but make remarks about the band "The Smiths" or Morrisey around him.

Take a look at the picture of me leaning against the sign, would you like to know why? It's because I missed the bus in order to take this picture. Thus proving how dedicated I am to this cause.

My afternoon to now has been filled with 2 cans of Arizona Sweet Tea and my Venture Crew meeting. I still can't find my shirt for it and I've looked everywhere for it. We had a booth for BSA at the fair over the weekend and we had this group of people that I've been acquainted with since Junior High, but I never expected for them to be a part of this. I'm still suprised by it, but of the group that went only one of them showed up. Still pretty cool that one did along with 2 other recruits that showed up. We're going rafting this weekend and we have a crew member named Billy organizing a rafting trip this Sunday and he explained rafting in one gigantic innuendo without him being aware of it and as always our crew member Amy was oblivious to it, it's usually either her, or Libby, another crew member.

I'm done for the day. Till tomorrow my friends.

Day 10:Sleep...and An Art Project

I'm a man of my slumber, I enjoy sleeping, but it's not like I can sleep in. It's a problem I've always had, but the sleep that I do get I relish to the fullest extent because I enjoy dreaming, even if I can't ever remember if I did. My latter part of my school day was filled with sleep, or more like the verge of such.

I hate sleeping at school. I feel bad when I do it, but sometimes I can't help myself. I've never actually slept at school, but I have come close to it on several occasions and this school year has been no exception. It occurs usually in my 7th period and seldom in my 6th. I don't understand why. I think it could be a number of factors that cause it. One could be the fact that I have 6 periods before lunch and last year I only had to deal with 5 and even then I never really considered my 0 period to be a class in the morning. Another one that could be is that I have a P.E. class. The first one in about 3 years...and it's weight training...and I'm the weakest guy and that everyday is hard on me and i come out of there exhausted just to keep up with the rest of my class. Another could be that I go to sleep late(seeing as in how I'm blogging at 10:38 p.m.) and I wake up at 5:30. I'm going to wake up at 6 tomorrow instead, just for me to get some extra rest.

A week ago I had long time friend of mine decide to use my image as an art piece for her AP Art class. I saw the finished product today and I'm blown away that she went through with it. I've decided to buy from her and put it on my wall in my room. I decided a while ago that before I graduated I wanted 3 things 1: Have a song written about me 2:Have a Facebook page dedicated to me 3:Have someone use me as an art piece. All 3 have been completed. I can now graduate without any regrets.

I just realized that i have 160 days of school left. It's barely day 10. This is going by too fast.

Day 9:The First Day of Blah and FOOD

Barely day 9 and I'm starting to feel the slump of school. It was uneventful for once for the most part, but this blog is about my day so I will tell you the highlights, or kinda little things that stick out for the most part.

I woke up at 6, half an hour late because my alarm clock was set that late. I had to speed shower and I had no time to eat. Jazz band was good, just thought I should throw that out there.

I'm going to complain a bit about how I have 6 classes before lunch, then my last 2 classes. I get very hungry in that period time, so lunch seems so far away for me so thanks to my friend Emily who so kindly gave me food, tided me over to lunch were I bought pizza, then I accompanied my friend Kristen(who is a boy) to the lunch line and it turns out that I have free lunch and I had more food. Oh food, how I enjoy thee.

That was the highlight of school today. But after school was amazing. It was spent with my gal pal, Elizabeth. It was awesome...but on a somber note...

171 DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Day 8: The Fair

School was short, but the day felt like forever and the night brief.

On half days we have short classes that are all 30 minutes long with 5 minute long classes. In Econ we watched a movie(continued the saint). Weight training was short, but I had to go to the office to drop something off that on my way back did things get "musical". There were 3 minutes left and I walked by the band room that I heard Mr.A playing music so I went in and listened. Class ended and I had his class to begin and I know the next step in music. It's a band called The Imagined Village and the song we listened to was called "Cold Haily Windy Night". It has everything you want and more. French was easy like always, it's the one academic class that I am really sure of myself and sure of. In Choir we listened to examples of the 4 main vocal types. It's pretty interesting listening to girls who can talk lower than me. In English we had our first quiz and I got an 11 out of 12. I forgot to label the parts of speech to the 3 words in the quiz. I did get the extra credit though. I'd tell you about my time in Theory that day, but it was uneventful and we were scorned so lets not.

That same day I spent 9 hours at the fair, granted that 3 of those hours were spent at a BSA booth giving out candy and talking about Venturing. The next few hours were spent with my friends and Elizabeth and her friends wandering about the fair. I was happy that her friends and my friends were able to mix quite well. Generally, I don't like my friends mixing. Some of my friends are mot made to mix with each other. The day ended with me and Elizabeth walking about the fair by ourselves and riding the Farris Wheel. There is something about that view from the Farris Wheel that night, over looking the bright lights and sounds of the fair that burned that moment into my head. I then rode the Carousel as my last ride of the day.

Here's a picture to show you...

Day 7:Soreness and The Second Day of Block Schedule.

I am sore. I've never felt this sore in my entire life. My legs are sore, my shoulders are sore and my abdomen is sore. It stinks. This is what happens when you have an entire hour and a half of it and you're the weakest and twiggiest guy there who can only lift the bar, it is horrible. I'm sorry that I'm ranting about it, but it really is annoying.

I can to a realization this morning in Jazz band, I have all of my nonacademic classes yesterday and all of my academic classes today. Which is why today has dragged on for the longest time.

We were given more information from Mr.A about this mysterious Australian Jazz band we are to play with. They're from a high school and they're music is sophisticated and advanced. The most puzzling part is that they have 2 violinists. They play gypsy jazz. There is a challenge that has been made and it will be accepted. To combat this, we have me, a banjo player who is part of the traditional jazz combo. We're also having a dinner with them before we play with.

We watched more of the Saint in Econ and received our rarely to be used Econ books. I think I'm going to enjoy Econ and Gov't with Mr. Johnson. I can smell 4.0 in my future...


Wind Ensemble went by okish. We're a large group(more than I wanted to ever have). We wounded like an ok high school band and Mr.A like always wants a lot out of us because our minds are all in April right now, but he admitted to asking too much from us. I've never felt like he truely has, but today I sorta felt that he was.

French was good. Like always it was easy and I love the class. I was working with my always by coincidence partner/friend-who-sits-next-to-me Monica. I remember when I first met her last year. My friend Vince called her "Cutie Pie" whenever he saw her even though he never knew her and when I told him that I had French with her he was jealous.(Oh how I miss Vince. Why must you have had to move!?) Then when I first began to talk to her she was so quiet and mousy, then she slowly began to open up to me, Erin and Chris. Now here we are, the four french buddies.

Now the real killer of the day was 7th period with Mr. van Eyken. It wasn't a boring class, it was more like being in that class felt like Eons past by me with ever second that passed. My canadien friend was reading "Persepolis". That was cool though.

On a bright more, musical note(no pun intended) Drumline was AMAZING. I have passed down my tiny bass drum to my friend Jose the snare drummer's little sister Natalie. I am now playing Quads, even though one of the heads were broken and that we have no ones to put onto the shell.

My life is amazing. Thank you life.

Day 6: Block part 1

Today was the first day of block schedule, or the first time I've experienced it.

Now I'm all for being healthy and being in shape, but when you have to do it for a grade and for a class where you are the weakest guy, it makes it hard to survive. Today in the wonderful, wonderful, class that is Weight Training, we worked all period which isn't that, but not when you have an hour and a half for class. We did sets of all of the different workouts we've learned, I'm incredibly sore right now. I hate it.

The latter part of my day was easier by far.  4th and 6th period(which are the last 2 classes out of the 3 I had today) was a breeze. I had 2 music classes and then in Music Theory today I figured out that every other Wednesday I get to see Mr.A for 4 hours. One for Jazz and an hour and a half each for Theory and Choir. We were given new textbooks for Theory. We have the same book that's being used at Julliard right now. On a creepy note, I smelled the book and smelled like magic.

With a schedule like this, how can I not love school. Now if I could only get rid of Weight Training...

Day 5: Zest, Dragonfruit and Canadiens

My last day before my first day of Block Schedule.

To start off with the musical aspect of my day we read all the way through our first Jazz chart and we're doing really well and I'm being put in a "Traditional Jazz" combo as the Banjo player. In Wind Ensemble we read our first piece, it was "With Bugle, Drums and Fife", a grade 3 in our modern day standards, but considered a grade 2 when it was first written. I played my Bassoon for the first time since it came back from the shop and they put on new cork and it was hard to assemble and disassemble. We read it pretty well for it being the first time reading as a group. Lets see how far we can get before we play at the Kennedy Center in April.

I seem to have noticed that there is an underground newspaper group going by the name Zest in memory of the once proud newspaper of my school formerly called "The Orange Peel". It's quite humorous for being a page long with interesting articles that seem to be not serious, but have attracted the attention from a growing number of youths. I came into possession of the paper from my friend named Simon. He was given it from a student a class earlier who in turn received in from another. From some sources, I've been able to gather is that it is in fact being written by students at school and that it's being written by 3 people, but other sources say that it could be more. I'll have to wait to hear about more this paper when I receive it again.

Today during lunch I had some powder stuff that you put in water bottles and it was Dragon fruit. It was quite the interesting flavor. Quite exotic, but tart and refreshing. I will have to find more of it to drink...

I made a friend today in my 7th period. She is a Canadien, from Toronto who moved here from there with her mother. I miss took her for a foreign exchange student like the other in my class from Georgia(the country that is.) She speaks French and says that if I ever need help, she could help me. I now have a tutor for French, but I think I won't be needing it much though.

Day 4:Catfish, Coffee and Buses

So today was the first Monday. It was a long day, so I'll tell you it me being able to vent, kinda.

Ever think about how cruel humans are? Well I found out today that we are. You know that there may not be any hope for humanity when people sneak into a school(on a Weekend mind you) and kill catfish. Yes, Catfish are caught and and eaten all of the time, but when people go out and beat them and put herbicide into their tanks. How low have we stooped to when people from my own school as it is speculated or anyone else is? I am sickened with people today. I think we should hunt them down and bring them to justice!

Do you like coffee? Well it turns out that 64% of all people in the US drink the stuff. I think you(my dedicated reader) probably drink it. Today in Wind Ensemble we had someone from We Care Coffee Company come in during class and tell us about fund raising. He bought his dog and talked about the products we could sell. You can buy human-edible doggie treat mix. I want to buy some and eat it, just for the lulz. But seriously, you should go o their website and buy some so support me. Do it.

I had a bus adventure today. I traveled with my best friend Simon to the local Community College so he could sign up for an online class so he can take it instead of at school. We took the bus from our school over there. We stopped at the Mall and went on foot to the college. We saw our friend Tommy and his new girlfriend Rachael on the way. It was an interesting experience. It was nice to see  a friend from Pioneer, proving we could all be friends. We went to get him registered and it turns out that he has to go back to our school and get it ok'ed by our counselor because things are complicated an annoying. We bought Jamba Juice on the way to the bus stop and we had to wait a while for the bus. We saw our friend Bronte at Jamba Juice. The whole adventure we had this one, really long "bro moment". We really bonded and talked about our lives and our experiences, even though we're both 17, or closer to 18 than 17 really.

What more adventures lie in store for our beloved hero? Well stay tuned to find out... that was cliche.

Day 3:Improve

Today was the first time I've ever played a Bass Trombone and only yesterday was I ever told that I have to play it. I'm pretty mediocre at the Trombone and I'm pretty shaky playing high notes, but today was different. When I first began playing it, it felt right. I didn't have to struggle with notes. I could play low notes well and this is my volume, "On or Off". We played for the first time in Jazz today, we just played and improved in 2 keys and we all had turns and I did well both times. the second time though when we played in the Key of F, that I did really well. Mr. A told me that soloing on the low notes was the perfect thing to do on the Bass Trombone. I think this is going to be a wonderful year.

Day 2:Adjustment

Today was Day 2. I guess this and tomorrow are my only real days of adjustment to this new schedule of ours.Wednesdays are our short days instead of Mondays and having a day that is long is odd at the beginning because it usually never works like that. I guess what I'm trying to say is that things are different and that I need to adjust. We get out earlier on the longer days by 2 minutes than we did last year. I still hate the fact that lunch is 35 minutes long. I want to get an Off-Campus pass, but the length of Lunch doesn't even make it worth it. Oh well. I guess I'll find a way to adjust.

Day 1:Beginning of the End

Today was the first day of school, the last first day I'll ever have at Woodland High School. I'm not sure what to feel seeing new faces at an old familiar scene.

I have some interesting teachers, but half of my schedule consists of Music classes and the other half is made up of my French class and my 3 important classes needed to actually graduate.

I can only help wonder how everything will be like in December and in June at the end of the year...