Idiosyncrasy (CV Yearbook 2012)

The yearbooks came in this last week! It was so ridiculously exciting, and the whole yearbook room smelled very strongly of the ink. You could smell it from down the hall, but the longer you spent in the room, the less noticeable the stench was. This was really a unique experience for me because I have never been behind the scenes before on something like this. To see a large publication like this from from pretty much the first day of it's existence to distributing the final product, it was so worth it! One of the best parts was seeing every one's excitement as we handed them their book. That was such an accomplishment to feel like you basically made someone's day, or really their school year since they could look back on all of the wonderful memories. There weren't that many huge mistakes this year, for which we are all very grateful. Most of the mistakes are only things that the yearbook staff will notice, so it's not really that big of a deal. So now all I have to do in that class is finish my final (potential theme for next year's book). Then I get to go to camp over the summer and participate in one more year of yearbook before I miss it so much that I have a mini freak out, but that's okay and inevitable I guess.

I also had two "field trips" in a row this last week, which is crazy because I hadn't had a single one since 8th grade. The first field trip really was a field trip, and was quite an adventure sorting it all out. All of the third year spanish students at CV went to Rancho Viejo for lunch this last Wednesday. It was lots of fun, but as mentioned earlier, a hassle to get figured out the day of none less. Our trip was originally planned to be during third period, which was no problem and had been set up about a month previous to the trip. Our teacher realized the day of the trip however, that the restaurant wasn't open yet at that time of the day. So we had to re-plan everything to go during fifth period that day instead. All of the students had to run all over the school to get our teachers to sign off on the permission slip that we could miss fifth period. All day at school then, I spent hiding out in the spanish room with the other students, or for about half an hour, I was in my chem classroom taking a test that I was suddenly going to miss due to the change of plans. On top of that all, I had to stay after school that day to prepare to distribute the yearbooks the following day. This involved looking through every page of every book that we ordered, then alphabetizing all of the engraved books, and then setting up the desks and the rest of the room for distribution. Yes, you could say that it was quite the day for me!

The following day I had another "field trip". It wasn't really though because I was at school all day. In order to distribute the yearbooks, we took a day long trip to the yearbook room. This was crazy and involved a lot more yelling than many people realize. That's not a bad thing, but it is fairly frantic when you are finding the book for a person who has an engraved book. The insanity of the day was worth it though, especially since all of us "yearbookers" are good friends, or at least have a love-hate relationship at times.

The results of Musicfest? I was just two points shy of a superior with a 95 as my score. I didn't win my class, but it was such a wonderful learning experience for me. Spending a whole year learning a six page song is a lot more work than I would generally spend. I really did learn so much from learning the song, and competing/listening to the other musicians and the adjudicator. The Saturday after the competition, I had the opportunity to play my piece in a recital on a nine foot Baldwin concert grand with the three Ross boys. I felt a little bit like a tag-a-long to the three brother act, but it was still a good experience that I don't regret.

As far as my rings go, I finished my bezel cup and started the band on my copper ring. There is still no further progress on the HJL ring, but it will get done, I can assure you of that. I just need to get a move on it. And guess what, I understand chemistry right now! I also understand the information that I was so previously confused about, but just watch me post next week that I hate chemistry. I it bound to happen, I can feel it. So all in all, I have absolutely no complaints about school right now and my life is pretty great!

Prom 2012

So I have had an exciting last few weeks. They have been extremely stressful for so many reasons.

1. Prom
2. Yearbook (getting it finished)
3. My rings (yes, now I am making two)
4. Chemistry (as always)
5. Spanish college final review
6. Musicfest

So as you can see, my life has been crazy. First, prom. We had a fun group that we joined at the last minute that made the night fun. We took pictures, went to dinner at Tomato Street, walked around Riverfront Park, then went to the dance. After that we went to CV to play tennis, but we couldn't get the lights to turn on on the courts. We ditched that plan, so we were going to go to U-High and use their tennis courts, but we just went to Austin's house for root beer floats instead. While there, we had a good time talking, laughing, and watching crazy YouTube videos. Here are some pics that we took:


The Group

So as you can see, prom was pretty fun, and the group really was amazing! (sorry, I had pictures of just the girls and just the boys, but the girl's wouldn't load, so I took both of them off)
Okay, next order of business. The yearbook is basically done! I am so excited for distribution. I really hope that the pages I worked on will turn out because I worked pretty hard on them. We just have to make the prom page tomorrow, then we will be all done making it! Making the book has been a process that I will never forget, and I am excited to repeat the stressful process again next year! I know that sounds crazy, but it's true.

Now onto my rings. I am still working on that crazy one that I talked about a few posts ago. I only have one more soldering procedure left, then I just have to make sure everything is filed and sanded perfectly so I can set the stone and buff the ring. It took me about two and a half hours last week to get the prong cup soldered into the band. The first time that I tried to solder it, it definitely soldered. The problem was, the prong cup slipped at the same moment that it soldered, so I had to reheat it and try again. I set up to solder again, which took me a while, and I began to solder it back into place. However, right as the prong cup soldered to the band, the steel tweezers on the third arm that were holding the prong cup in place broke off two of the four prongs! I was so mad! First off, the prong cup was silver, so that was a bummer, and it was the only prong cup that was pre-notched for the stone that we had, so I had to get a whole new prong cup ready. This involved sawing off the end of an un-notched prong cup, filing and sanding it until it was evenly flat, and refitting the band to hold a different prong cup. Once this was all done, I finally got it soldered on. I was sooooooooooooo excited! I also started another ring. It is a ring with a custom bezel for a stone that I found on the ground in the dirt while on trek last summer. Yes, I am making a ring with a random rock that I found on the ground. The only problem is that I have to make it into a cabochon. This is basically a stone that has a completely flat back. Sounds like no big deal right? I mean, we have so many tools in the jewelry room that it has to be quite easy. Well, it would be if our lapidary wheel was working, or if we had the compounds to make it work. Since I can't use that lovely piece of machinery, I had to sand the stone flat by hand with 100 grit sand paper. Yes, it was a pain and took a few days to do, but I finally got it flat enough to do. Now I have to make the band and the bezel cup. Luckily, I have already prepped the bezel wire, so it is all ready to solder to the bezel plate once that is done. Both of the rings should be pieces that I love when they are all done. I hope all of my work is worth it. It should be since I spent so long planning them. They both have some kind of symbolic meaning as well that many people will never understand. I am excited to see the final products someday though!

As far as chemistry goes, I still hate it and don't really understand it. Not much has changed there. It is still the worst part of every day for me.

So in spanish class, we are getting ready to take the college final! Ahhhh, I am nervous! This will be the first grade that I ever get on a college transcript, so I want it to be good. Hopefully I will do well on the final, and keep my grade up above 90%. That is my goal right now. I think I can do it.

¡Me esperas suerte! (Wish me luck!)

One of the most stressful things by far has been preparing for musicfest tomorrow. I will compete with three other students in the Mozart/Haydn Sonata section. I will be playing the first movement of Haydn's Sonata in D Major. I have truly been working on this song on the piano for atleast a year now, and I am so ready to be done with it. I won't really be done with it until saturday though. I have to play in a recital with my the three other students of my teacher that are competing in musicfest this week. Once that is over though, I might actually still have to keep the song aroung. My teacher wants me to play it in a joint recital with another one of her students, Josh, later next year I think. She wants me to play the whole sonata though, so I still have to learn two movements. Hopefully I won't want to burn the book that the song is in by the time I'm done. However, I can definitely say that I have learned sooooo much from this song and the time that I have spent with my teacher preparing it.

ps. Hopefully I will get my other blog up and running soon. I finally have picture evidence of the first thing to be crossed off my senior bucket list, so I should be able to start soon. The blog is called "My Silly Senior Story". There is a link to it on the top right of this blog.