Yearbook Signing

So, it's that classic time of year where everybody is trying to get everybody to sign everybody's yearbook.

This year, it seemed as if somebody screwed up, because the yearbooks were supposed to come out last Friday, but they only came out yesterday.  With the seniors leaving today, this created a mass scramble to get their signatures, but I did get everybody who I wanted.

I finally realized something this year.  

There are two kinds of people in this world:  

1. People who ask, "Can I sign your yearbook?" 
2. People who ask, "Can you sign my yearbook?".

The first kind is the popular crowd.  The people who want to be noticed.  They want to firmly implant themselves in the memories of others.  They fear that they are going to be forgotten, and need to make sure this is not so.

The second kind is completely different.  They are the people who don't necessarily care whether they are noticed or not.  What they do care is that they don't forget all the good times high school has to offer.  They want to remember.

It is very easy to predict which people will fall under which category.

The people who ask "Can I sign your yearbook?" are the outgoing.  The people who feel the need to make an entrance whenever they walk into a room.  The people you can't help but notice.  The people who everyone wants to say they know.

The people who ask "Can you sign my yearbook?" are often the more passive.  The people who sit back and watch.  The people who have to be asked to join the circle.  The ones who maybe stay at home during the parties and dances.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying one side is better than the other.  Certainly, each side has its good points and bad points.  I'm just saying that there is a division.  A predictable, noticeable division.

-NM

Spring Orchestra Concert 2013

Sorry, I couldn't come up with a creative title for this one.

Anyway, this concert was one of the better orchestra concerts that I've been in.  Although we didn't nearly have the great group we had two years ago, we still managed to do some good songs, and I think we pulled them off well.

The Holberg Suite we pulled off remarkably well, especially with SG playing 2nd Violin some of the time.  Mr. N made it clear to the audience that that piece was standard repertoire, and that we pulled it off very well.

The other three strings pieces all went nearly flawlessly.  No major mistakes or notable events (which makes a boring post, I know), and the dynamic contrast was really good, except maybe for Mountain Chase.  We even got a pretty big applause before the end of Emperor Waltz, which was really not expected!

The Les Misérables medley went really well, though we didn't get the reaction from the audience that I'd hoped we'd get.  There were places where both the band and orchestra had screw-ups, but nothing major went wrong, and the piece was pretty impressive as a whole.

The band didn't quite blow us out of the water as they did in the Winter Concert, and that is due to the Orchestra getting better, not the band getting worse.  The songs they did were very good, though seemed a little long at times, but definitely well-rehearsed.

RS's solo was the highlight of the night though.  She is incredible.  Mr. N gave a nice speech about her beforehand, and she surpassed the expectations he set for her.  Phenomenal.

Overall, it was a good concert.  The people who went were glad they went.  The people who didn't go really missed out.

-NM

WDA Spring Dance Show 2013

The moment that we've all been waiting for.

After a solid week of rehearsal, the performance finally arrives Saturday night.  Anticipation is high, and everyone is excited to go on stage.

The first show was noted by quite a few blunders that we know we're going to look back at in years to come with pride.  First, in one of the dances with the little girls, one of the girls started crying because she didn't know the steps, and then another girls came over to her and consoled her.  Very touching.  Then, in The Audition, part of the music got replayed, and RE and Mr. A had to improv for about a minute and a half, which they did well.  Then, in the tap piece, we were about eight counts ahead of the music at one point.  But other than that, the show went really well.  KR and MC came, which was very nice of them, and I'm extremely grateful.

During the Sunday Matinee, we all danced well, but the people running the sound board weren't on their game.  Several times in the first act, the music started before the dancers were ready, and then they would have to stop and restart.  But after that, the show went remarkably well, including the tap number.  CM came, which was really nice of her, and seemed to really enjoy the show.

Before the Sunday Evening, I skipped the warm up and took a nap.  I was really tired at that point, and DM even agreed that it was probably just as beneficial as a warm up would have been.  However, the last show, even though we lost RB to 42nd Street rehearsal, was probably our best.  Nothing major went wrong, and we all danced pretty well.  The gaps were filled well, and I doubt the average audience member would have even noticed someone was missing.

Overall, I'm very glad that I did the show, and happy with the way it turned out.  And it's sad to think that I only have one more.  Being a junior, and watching RE graduate, it's going to be a saddening time next year.  But that's not for another year.  I have plenty of time to live in the moment.

-NM

A Tale of Two Tech Weeks

Part One: Musical

Leading up to the show, the rehearsal get significantly more intense.  These rehearsals are every day, and last several hours at a time.  They're run throughs of the show, which can seem to drag on and on, with all the times that you're not doing anything, and other people are.  At first, there's no tech, and you're still imagining a lot of things.

At least you know when these rehearsals are well in advance.

But then, the tech finally gets added on.  The rehearsals are grueling, and last even longer, because it's necessary to set all the lights and sound and such.  And on top of that, the directors are still giving corrections, which means that there is even more to worry about.

The worst part is the amount of time they take.  You basically have to eat dinner as soon as you get home from school, try to squeeze homework in whenever you can, and rehearse late into the night.

Fortunately, the school is close to where I live, and it only takes a few minutes to get home, normally a little before 11:00.

Part Two: Spring Dance Show

Leading up to the show, the rehearsal get significantly more intense.  These rehearsals are every day, and last several hours at a time.  They're run throughs of the show, which can seem to drag on and on, with all the times that you're not doing anything, and other people are.  At first, there's no tech, and you're still imagining a lot of things.

And a lot of these rehearsals are last minute decisions, announced the day before.

But then, the tech finally gets added on.  The rehearsals are grueling, and last even longer, because it's necessary to set all the lights and sound and such.  And on top of that, the instructors are still giving corrections, which means that there is even more to worry about.

The worst part is the amount of time they take.  You basically have to eat dinner as soon as you get home from school, try to squeeze homework in whenever you can, and rehearse late into the night.  

Unfortunately, the theater is no where near where I live, and there's still a very long drive to get back home, normally a little after 11:00

In summary...

I'm in high school.  My fellow cast members complain all the time about how hard tech week is.  They fear that time of year throughout the entire rehearsal process.

I take dance class.  Almost no one complains about how hard our tech week is.  It's just an extension of the rehearsal process, and they appreciate the fellowship.

I take two tech weeks.  Neither is more grueling than the other.  Both are worth it.

-NM

Spring Chorus Concert 2013

In the rehearsal yesterday, we realized that there were only eight tenors in chorus.  This looked like a bad sign, but it turned out that we all did pretty well.

Despite the crowd, I think we sang great.  The two classical pieces went down well, and Mr. B made it clear to the audience how difficult they were.  It was nice to have that sort of appreciation.  The "Turtle Dove" blend into "Soon I Will Be Done" was smooth, and worked well.

As far as ensemble songs, we were good.  We definitely sounded better than we did during our last gig.  Although we did do everything we did then, we did some new stuff too, which all carried well with the audience.  Peze Kafé especially, considering that we put it together completely in the past few weeks.  We put on a good show.

The rest of the concert went really well.  The guys did well in both "Kde Su Kravy Moje" and "Homeward Bound".  The senior plaque distribution, although it took a long time, was relatively quick.    I congratulate both SF and RG on their awards.  And then we ended with "Battle Hymn of the Republic", which was great.

And then the encore, with my brief solo.  I'd like to say it went smoothly.  It didn't, I forgot some of my words and stopped singing briefly, but that was okay for the song we did, since it was comedic anyway.  The jokes definitely carried with the audience, and that was good enough.

Good concert overall.  Would have been nice if more people would have showed up.

-NM

GOTR

Today was my second GOTR race with V, and my third 5k with her as her "running buddy".  After the first two, there was no doubt that I was going to run the third with her.

There were several differences between this race and the one we ran in December.  The first is that this one was exclusive to GOTR participants and their friends and family.  That was a nice touch.  The other was that this race, we knew, was going to have more hills, not being located downtown.  That would make it a little harder.

My family was very happy that I did this for V.  I wouldn't have it any other way at this point.  In my mind, I was doing it unless some rehearsal came up and conflicted.

The race was extremely crowded.  It's amazing how big the GOTR program is.  So many people were running the race.  A lot of people couldn't even finish a 5k.  To see so many young people doing this was incredible.

Then it began.  The beginning was rough.  The first mile was almost completely uphill.  This was not fun.  For me, or for V.  Or for everybody else who ran the race.  The second mile was almost all downhill.  This was a lot more fun.  The third and final mile was in the sun, with the heat blaring down at you.  This was exhausting, especially at the end of the race.

Overall, it was probably one of the hardest 5ks I have ever run, including when I did cross country.  And the fact that V made it through without stopping once was just impressive.  We were both satisfied with her time, even though it wasn't nearly as fast as our last finish, and not nearly as fast as we would have finished in March.  She had fun, I had fun, and I'm glad I did it.

-NM

Catch-Up Time

I really apologize for posting so little lately.  It's the end of the school year, a lot of stuff is going on, and, basically, things haven't improved all that much from when I wrote Free Time?.  I have so much that I could write whole posts about, but I need to consolidate.

AP Calculus Exam went well (Not allowed to elaborate further).

We got nominations for eight GK Awards!  Including RH for Best Actress, PH for Best Supporting Actor, and KM for Best Supporting Actress!  I feel so proud of the cast, especially those three.  Even if we don't win anything, it will still be worth knowing that our show did so well, despite everything.

Except that I can't go.  My Saturday dance recital is the same day.  Now, I can almost predict what you're going to say, that I should just miss one dance recital and perform downtown.  This is not the solution.  In fact, I am tired of people asking me whether I regret my decision to do my dance show.  I have no regrets.

Speaking of the dance show, we had another weekend of rehearsals.  It's actually starting to come together.  The questions is: Will it finish coming together by showtime?

AP Physics Exam went well (Not allowed to elaborate further).

Saw the 6th grade chorus concert.  It was good, but they didn't do enough.  They only did one medley, and the group looked talented enough that they could have done more repertoire.

Miss L's father died.  My mom, A, V, and I (a pronoun) went to the visitation.  May he be with God.

Visited CWRU.  Definitely a possibility, though very different from GCC.

Didn't go to prom.  Had dinner at KR's house.

And, I think that's enough catch-up for now.

-NM

5/10/13

Friday was an interesting day.  I did a lot.

After school, I hurried over to the middle school to watch ES, PR, and BF's show, All Dolled Up.  ES wrote the script and directed, PR wrote the music, and BF did the choreography.  The actual performance was Saturday night, but there was a late dance rehearsal added at the same time, so I had to go to dress rehearsal instead.

The show itself had its good points, as well as its not so good points.  For starters, all of the leads were very good at their parts.  The show was well-cast, and you could tell there was a lot of talent on the stage.  In addition, the script itself was very well done.  At different times throughout the show, you sympathized with almost every main character, hated almost every main character, and cracked up laughing at the humor in every thing.

As for the not-so-good parts, it was clearly an issue of time.  BF even said after the runthrough, "I think if we could have had a tech week rather than a tech day we would have been able to make it fabulous by this time."  I'm sure that it was better on the night of the show, having worked out more of the kinks.  But it wasn't completely awful to begin with.

Then, I rushed home, ate a quick dinner, and got ready for Mr. QV.  This event is really the only school spirit event that people actually care about.  It is a pageant style competition that features many senior guys competing for the title of "Mr. QV", and Prom King.

Each competitor makes, which is normally a parody on some TV show, song, or movie.  Following that is the talent section, where each competitor does some sort of act, mostly music related.  Then is the mystery section, which turned out to be an audience-seeking scavenger hunt.  Then the classic question and answer section.

I won't go into the details, as most of my reading audience was there, but it was well done.  Entertaining to watch, and every body was very into it.  In the end, JP got 3rd, RG got 2nd, and JR won.  I completely agree with the judges decisions.

It was a fun day.  Two shows, both entertaining, and just the fact that it was Friday.  The only drawback was that I had a hard time getting to sleep after all the excitement.

-NM

WDA (Cont.)

Today was one day of dance that I will remember for a long time.

For the past few weeks, RE has been choreographing a number to present as a farewell to Miss B and Miss L.  The idea was that she would choreograph the number without either of them knowing it, and then all of a sudden the entire class would have a nice surprise for them.

I wasn't in it.  The first few rehearsals overlapped with Anything Goes.

Today was the day that they were going to present it to Miss B.  During Pilates class, they worked on it more, and made some last-minute corrections, while Miss A ran a brief Pilates class in the corner with the four of us who weren't in it.  Right before they went to present it to Miss B, we saw the number.  It was contemporary, well-done, and had feeling behind it.  It featured individuals as well as the entire group.  Miss A loved it.  GE got emotional.  We wondered how Miss B would react.

When Miss B came in, you could tell she was excited.  The number began.  I looked over at her about halfway through, and there was a tear in her eye.

After the number, she began to express her gratitude.  She kept crying the entire time.  Pretty soon, the entire class was in tears.  I would have cried too, had I been in the number.

It didn't matter that I wasn't in the number.  Today, I witnessed something special at WDA.  Whether Miss L will react in a similar fashion, only time will tell, but today was truly a moment that I will cherish.

I've only been in a few situations like this before, and this is my first one at dance.  This is one of my favorites.

-NM

Easter 2013

So, yesterday was my Easter.  Sometime a while back, the Catholics decided to change the method they used to calculate the date, and then all the Protestant religions broke off from the Catholics, so most of the world celebrates Easter on a different date.  But yesterday was when the Orthodox still celebrate.

Our family left for sunrise service at 5:45, arrived at 6:30.  The service was beautiful.  I can't possibly describe it online, but it was wonderful.  You realize that at many bigger churches, something like this would never have been possible, but it happened here.  Even though it was early in the morning, we were all glad we went.

I sang in the choir.  Let's just say that three hours of tenor does something to your voice.

Afterwards, my mom, A, V, and I (a pronoun) went to have brunch.  We had a pleasant time.

We got home, I finally memorized the Pathetique 2nd movement that I have to perform in a recital next week.

Baba and Jedo came over, with the intent of going to J's game after.  We talked for a while.  It was nice.

Dance rehearsal went well.

Dinner was at a friend's house.  It was nice.

All in all, it was a very good day.

-NM