Cell Phones

I am very unique when it comes to phones and phone numbers.  I don't talk about it much, but I am.

My first thing about them is that I prefer a simpler phone.  My current phone flips open, does not have a full keyboard or a touch screen, and for the most part doesn't do much.  Basically it calls, texts, and takes photos and videos (though the sound quality isn't very good), and is an alarm clock.  My brother J just got an iphone, and I'm completely fine with that.  My parents want me to get a smart phone, for organizational purposes, but I don't.  My parents say I'm the only person in the world who they would have to convince to get a smart phone.

Second, I don't text much.  For the longest time, I never got anyone's number, and there are still a lot of people who's number I still need.  Only in the past year have I really started to make an effort, only because I feel out of it socially if I have no numbers.  Even still, I rarely text.  Last month, I had almost twice as many incoming texts as outgoing texts, and the total number was still under 200.  There are only a few people I really text, JI, MC, CN, KR when she steals someone's phone, and sometimes AR (besides my parents saying "pick me up now").

Today was an interesting car ride home from dance.  The W to S vehicle contained me, OS, HS, ES, JN, and CR, with Mrs. R driving.  Suddenly, everyone started exchanging numbers, and I realized that the only number I had was OS's.  I got everyone's number (with mass chaos), and we talked about maybe sending a sheet around when the musical starts to have a grand collection of numbers, because we should all end up bonding anyway.  Why not?

-NM

MS

I miss you.

MS is probably one of the people who I have felt the most connected too.  She has been a great friend, although I was never a great friend to her.  I wish she never had to leave.

I met her in 5th grade, though she probably doesn't remember this.  It was during some orchestra thing where the best of the EE and OE orchestras met and did something together.  The only one I knew from OE was KM, who I had been in a show with the previous summer.  I didn't form much of an opinion of her then, but EE and OE just did not mix.

Middle School came.  Now we were going to the same school, and in a few classes together, including orchestra.  She was always someone I could talk to, but we were just friends.  Nothing more.  Between the musical and orchestra, we had a good time, but no real memories.

High School everything changed for the better.  We were seeing each other in multiple classes, and after school at the musical.  She was the only person to confront me with the name of my 9th grade crush, which shows she noticed me.  Between musical, normal school, and APWH, we formed some great memories.

That summer we saw each other for the last time, though we never said our goodbyes.  We saw Chorus Line together, and we talked about her maybe doing PAC.  She saw the PAC shows.  I don't know what her thoughts are, but I hope she can fly in this summer.

MS, if you are reading this, know that you are not forgotten.

-NM

My Life in Music

So, I've been thinking.  For a lot of people I know, there is a song out there that pretty much sums up our relationship.  I've complied a list, and included it here.  If I didn't include you, it's not that I hate you, it's just that you don't have a good song.

KR: "What makes you beautiful"
IR (and half my dance class): "Is it a crime?" from Bells are Ringing
BF: "Embraceable You" from Crazy for You
JF: "The Longest Time"
JD: "Piano Man"
KM: "Somebody that I Used to Know"
RH: "Popular" from Wicked
N, M and SS: "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" from Phantom of the Opera
AM: "I Will Survive"
KB: "What is this Feeling?" from Wicked
NG: 4'33"
BT: "Hey Jude"
J: "Get'cha Head in the Game" from High School Musical
A and V: The Maw National Anthem
V: "The Age of Not Believing" from Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Me: "Cellophane" from Chicago

Disclaimer #1: I realize that there are more guys than girls on this list.  This is not because I have no guy friends, it is just because most songs are either written by guys about girls or by girls about guys.  Very few guys write songs about other guys.

Disclaimer #2: There are a few love songs on here.  I am not madly in love with all of these people.  Just tone down the emotion a little.

I may add more to this list later, if I think of more.

-NM

IR

I know her through WDA.  You can tell she loves dance, and is quite good at it, especially ballet.  Two years ago, she switched up a level to the class I am in half way through the year, and fit in almost immediately.  She was not behind at all.  She has made friends in our class, yet it is still a big moment when she is near the level below.

She does a lot of things that are strange (yes, she was the one who introduced the impossible push up on Thursday, see WDA).  Now, for WDA, that's normal, but she is the only one who still feels any embarrassment.  A quote from today (maybe not quite exactly what she said), "I want to do another handstand against the wall, but I don't want to embarrass myself in front of people.  Not that I haven't done that a lot today."  Yet she witnesses IW, HR, and ER every time she is at WDA, and no one ever says anything bad about them.

She is one of the only students in my class who treat me as an equal.  Today, we were the first two people to arrive for class.  After lamenting how we were both sore from doing all those push ups on Thursday, and giving it a few more attempts, we had a perfectly normal conversation about a variety of topics.  This was rare.  At dance, I have been out of the class socially for as long as I can remember.  I finally feel that there is someone who I can talk to (and really, just talk).  I am making progress, and this is the first step.

-NM

P.S. She is the girl I did my moment of truth speech about.

WDA

I can't get enough of this place.  This is definitely not going to be the only time I write about it.  Today I will only focus one of its many sides.

This is one of the few places where I feel that no one is judging me.  Even in school and musical, I can still feel a hint of people thinking what I do is awkward, but here I can be whoever I want.  And everybody is a little crazy, but friendly.

Like the oldest tradition in the history of the studio: birthdays.  Miss B always seems to know when your birthday is, even if you don't remember saying anything to her.  At the end of class, there is sometimes a code word.  Normally its something crazy, like pickles.  When the code word is spoken, at the end of class, the entire class chassés around whoever's birthday it is, holding hands, and singing "Happy Birthday" so loud that you can hear it no matter where you are in the building.  At the completion of the song, you are sprinkled with imaginary fairy dust as the circle closes in on you, or at least that's what I think it is.  Whenever we have someone new to class, they always feel awkward participating in this circle (I pity the new students with September birthdays), but its just tradition.

Today was another typical day.  At one point while we were stretching in the back room getting ready for ballet class, IR mentioned her friend was a gymnast, and could this kind of push up with not only you hands in a triangle for you to go straight into, but also with you elbows going straight along the sides of your body.  After she failed to demonstrate, it was only a matter of minutes before most of our entire class was trying this push up, and no one was doing it!  I witnessed some great facial expressions from IW, JK, and Mr. A, our teacher, as they walked in and viewed us as crazy, but the best moment came from HT, who said something along the lines of, "I feel like something like this always happens".   This statement only brought memories of the time when everybody was trying to balance while one foot was flat against the wall, and several people were trying to do that again.  I was having so much fun that I almost walked into ballet class without my shoes.

When we got into class, the first thing Mr. A said, jokingly, was "All right, we're going to start with some push ups today".  In an instant everybody was again trying the impossible push up again, and no one was succeeding.  I was about to tell IR that she must be having us do the wrong push up, when Mr. A got on his hands and knees, and did a push up with his hands in a triangle and his elbows traveling along his sides.

-NM

Anything Goes

So its official.  The QVHS spring musical is going to be Anything Goes.  I will be trying out, though I don't expect a part.  In a show with a big dance number, I would hate to miss out on this.  RH and MG both seem to think that I should try out for Sir EO, but I feel that's RG's part.

Since last year I had my own impossible idea.  I have no influence over the high school show, but I thought I may have been going somewhere.  But ever since Guys and Dolls ended, the rumors started, and it was all Anything Goes after that.  I'm not sure how good of a cast we have, but Mr. V will make it work, I'm sure.

Of course, the show is billed as a tap show.  I've given a tap lesson to RS (looking for space to do another), and RS (OS's sister) has taken a lesson from me as well.  Space to tap has been a problem, though we may be getting suitable floor in our house.

Am I excited?

Not really.

The Little Mermaid comes first.  Though it will be interesting to work with some of the Millie people on a show again.

-NM

KR

So, here goes my first attempt to complement someone without making anyone else feel unimportant. No offense to anyone who really wanted to be the first one I wrote about.

I met KR during the choreography of the QVMS show.  At that time, I will admit she was one of many, but eventually she became one of my closest followers.  She always was easy to spot, as she was always with the 6th graders, and was taller than about all of them.  She was one of the "guys" in "What do I Need with Love", and was of course in the opening and closing numbers.  Because she was in 6th grade, I didn't get a chance to work with her that much, as no 6th grader really got a significant part.  However, at the cast party, she was around most of the time.  She and BF were among my most adherent followers that night.  However, for a while I never ended up seeing her that much.

Until PAC.  Of the people I had just met at Millie, she was the first to say hi.  I spent a lot of the pool party with her and others, and played cards various times when neither of us were doing anything.  For a year at PAC that was very disappointing, she brightened it up a lot.  We watched both of the Group I and II shows together, and commented on the darkness, cuteness, and bad harmonies of these performances.  I sat at a table with her at the cast party.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get her phone number (her parents won't let her text guys), so most of our contact since then has been whenever she could steal JI or MC's phone.

She is one of the most energetic people I know, and that's saying a lot.  If she were a few years older, she could socially fit right in with the high school musical, with her love of Disney, personality, and motivation.  She probably would have been well-loved during Millie, except for the social rift that separated the 6th graders from everyone else.  She has been someone I always want to see, if only because I am happy around her.

I saw her today at the St. J's anniversary picnic at WM Park.  She, JI, and I went on the trails, explored a little, went to Salamander City, and traveled back via the impossible that the SA middle school XCC team still runs.  Literally, the directional arrow just points up, but we went down.  It was nice seeing her again for the first time since PAC, and she was at her personality best.  Although she ruined her shoes she had just got, I imagine it was worth it.

-NM

Year in Review 2011-2012

I have been alive for a long time.  I don't want the best of what's already happened to go unnoticed.  To accommodate, I will give a recap of the 5 happiest days of this past year, from the start of the 2011-2012 school year to the end of the 2012 summer.

• #5: March 7th, 2012 This was my 16th birthday.  In honor of the occasion, I wore my cape to school.  It got a great reaction.  I think that RS cheered when I took it out of my backpack to put it on.  I only took it off in 3rd period, when we had a Peter the Great simulation/feast in Mrs. K's class. I had contributed these huge cinnamon rolls, and there was so much good food that I went back for several helpings.  In fact, only about half the cinnamon rolls were eaten.  I spent lunch, as usual in the chorus room, but didn't eat any lunch.  I was too stuffed.  At musical rehearsal, my mom dropped off cookies to give to the cast, and there were still too many of those.  At dance class that night, I got the traditional singing of "Happy Birthday" while the entire class chasséd around me.  I gave out the rest of the cookies, which was well received.  Fun time.  At the end of the year, Ms. M remembered the cape in her final speech about me.
• #4: August 29th, 2012 The day was pretty uneventful until that evening, when I got out of dance class.  I look at my phone, and saw a text message from my mom.  Mr. V had announced that QVMS would be doing The Little Mermaid Jr. for their fall musical.  I, like last year (see #1)  would be doing the choreography for the show and had suggested to Mr. V the idea myself.  This result was one of the first times in my life that I had begun to feel relevant. The first thing I did was text JI, and I had already told Miss B and Miss L before she could reply.  On the way home/later that evening, I texted RH, OB, KM, JD, RS, AF, SS (knowing that MS's texting had been turned off), AR, and even OS.  I am so ready to do the show.
• #3: August 8th, 2012 Our family was on vacation in Amelia Island, FL.  For the first time in two years, C, A, and JN were also down there at the same time.  That day was one of the craziest ever.  It started at the pool, where CN, AN, A, V, and myself all played a variety of games, while J and JN were golfing.  After lunch, we went on a Segway tour.  Anyone's who's done one of those knows that its not about the tour, it's about the Segway.  Then, everyone came over to our place to play Monopoly, where I just was banker.  We ate dinner with our own families, and then watched an excavation of a sea turtle nest that had already hatched.  Although most of the findings were shells, two live turtles were found buried, and let out to sea.  Afterward, we all went to go back to the beach in front of our place, and let off eight lanterns à la "Tangled".  Then was just some night beach time.  First was some game where one person did a move, then the next person did that move plus one more move, and the next person did the first two plus one more move, and so on.  It started out as a competition, but that fell by the wayside.  Then, we spontaneously started playing Duck, Duck, Goose.  It was me, J, A, V, CN, AN, and JN, and we had such a good time.  Who knew Duck, Duck, Goose was so much fun, especially when you could hardly see each other?  Then, our families separated, and we watched a little of the olympics.
• #2: April 11th, 2012   That day, me, KM, MS, and JD all went over to JD's house to work on a project for AP World.  Enough work was done, but it wasn't the work that was memorable.  At one point, JD was intimidating MS with the disappointed voice that he does so well.  I chimed in with the angriest voice I could, with reply, "Isn't it always assumed that the British want their tea?!!"  I had both MS and KM freaked out, and JD was cracking up laughing.  I had established a really scary angry voice, that I had only previously used at WAS.  When KM went to the bathroom, returned, was asked if she turned the faucet off, and replied that she was 99% sure, I saw my opportunity to use it again.  Shortly after, I went to the bathroom, checked to see if the faucet was really turned off (which it was), and came back.  I glared at KM, and said

         Me(in angry voice): [KM], you said you were 99 percent sure you turned the faucet off??!!!
         KM(fearing for her life): Did I?
         Me (still angrily): You did! You're lucky!
       
         KM took a moment to recover, and then joined JD and MS in laughing.  Literally, everyone was rolling on the floor, for the next three minutes, and it was at least five minutes before anyone was able to do any work on the actual project.  I didn't quite join in their hysterics, but anyone watching would have been completely confused.  At the end of the work session, I got their phone numbers, which I had been meaning to do for a while.  For someone who has had a hard time making friends, this was amazing.

• #1: December 3rd, 2011 This was a long anticipated day: the performance of QVMS's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. I had choreographed almost the entire thing, and was completely nervous for the performances.  I had a voice lesson that morning, but I couldn't have told you what I sang if you had asked me the next day.  When I arrived, the first thing I did was talk to SC, who had literally almost been killed a week before.  Her neck brace had just come off that day, and her status in performing was uncertain.  However, she said that she okay, and she would be performing.  For two hours I made various assistances for various things, including a physical warmup and a review of the stenogs' routine.  About ten minutes before the show started, I made a final speech to the cast, and took my place in the seats.  The place was sold out.  Just before the show started, Mr. V did something that surprised me.  He thanked all of the high schoolers who had helped with the production.  Although JM got most of the thanks, me, AH, RG, and AF all were congratulated.  Then came the opening number, which was amazing.  At the beginning, GZ opens with a brief solo, and the spotlight didn't come on her right away, bringing back memories of my own opening solo in 6th grade.  Then, the moment the cast started dancing, you could hear a definite rustle throughout the audience, as you could tell they were not expecting a dancing performance.  All in all, the first show went very smoothly, and got a great reception.  Afterwards, between this show and the evening performance, was dinner for the cast.  I was socially one of the cast, and ate dinner as their equal.  After dinner was a grand match of Stella Ella Olla (is that how you spell it?), where I beat CB in the final two to win.  The cast sang so loud that Mr. V concluded that no vocal warm up was necessary.  The cast prepared for the next show, and I snuck down to the chorus room to play piano all by myself (one does need a break from high-energy middle schoolers).  Eventually, the cast caught up with me.  Shortly after, I was wandering the hallways with EM, when I found out that the orchestra room was unlocked, and the string instruments were completely accessible.  So much for security.  When I returned to the chorus room, WV was showing everybody his piano skills.  I conquered Pirates of the Caribbean with Phantom of the Opera.  I checked with SC to see if she would be okay for the second performance, and she said she would do it. Then Mr. V came down, gave another speech, and I went to my seat.  Before the show started, I saw CK in the audience.  I realized that she used to dance at KP's and would have known GZ.  I planned on saying hi to her after the show, but I couldn't find her.  This was a big moment, as no one in my dance studio cares about musical theater.  Anyway, Mr. V thanked all the high schoolers again, and the second performance ran, though not quite as smoothly as the first.  After I talked to the cast for about 30 seconds (SC said she felt terrible), I went to my locker, where I had stashed my cape and top hat the previous day.  I put it on, greeted the cast, who loved the cape, and just felt really happy.  Everyone I talked to congratulated me on good choreography.  So many people were there, even JF, who I wasn't expecting.  I helped the cast clean up their stuff a little from backstage, and then went to the EC for the cast party.  I wore my cape the entire time, and only took off my top hat when me and CB tried to see how long it would be before anyone noticed we had switched hats.  I spent most of the party with BF and KR, and a lot of the time bowling.  I had such a good time.  I found out later that a bunch of people had gone to Eat 'n Park, thought about inviting me, but didn't want to take me away from my "fan club".  I would have said no.  For someone who has always had a hard time making friends, this was heaven.  The party ended at 10, with farewell hugs and an awkward goodbye from SC.  I walked home, still in my cape.  This was the happiest day of my entire life.  To have accomplished something, gotten praise for it, spend time with some of my best friends, and have had that much fun was more than I could have hoped for.  The goodbyes weren't that hard, because I knew I would see almost everyone, at the worst, next year.  Most people I have seen since.  I still hug BF every time I see her, and I saw several others at PAC.  I can't wait for The Little Mermaid.

That's it.  I hope I haven't bored you, but I had to sum up the past year in one post.  Not one person was present for all 5 of these things, and I loved every minute of them.  Remember, if you don't want to read, don't feel like you have to.

-NM

Introduction

After loving to view the blogs of several of my friends, I have decided to start one of my own.  I don't know if anyone will read it, but I'm going to do it anyway.

The title of this blog is "Changed For Good".  This blog is dedicated to the people, places, and events that have had an impact on my life.  I will focus on the happy moments, but I may occasionally write about a time when I am disappointed.  I not write about people I hate.

The subtitle reads "An Initial Way to Speak to You".  This is a quote from the seventh book in one of my favorite series of books.  In this book, like in the blog, it has a double meaning.  It not only refers to a primary way to speak to someone, but also to initials.  I will be using no names of people I know in this blog, only their initials.

I will not be updating the blog regularly.  Only when something happens.  If you want a post about yourself, do something nice to me.  It will rarely go unnoticed.

No one who reads this blog will likely know everyone I mention.  I guess this makes sense, as no two people are alike.

Your Writer,

NM