So I kind of feel that my life is ridiculously busy since the school year is coming to a close. With finals in two weeks, I am kind of freaking out, since this means that I have to look back on an entire semester of chemistry and basically re-learn all of the information that I learned. I have a review packet that we have been "working on in class", but needless to say, it might not be quite finished yet.
This also means that I have to finish my two rings in jewelry. That will be an absolutely ridiculous endeavor, but if I can finish these two rings then I will have at least some kind of accomplished feeling because they both had some crazy thing involved with making them. I have all of the soldering procedures done on the copper ring with the custom bezel, which is super exciting because I could finish that ring in one day with no problem at all. The other extremely complicated ring might take me a little longer since I have to do a lot more work with the prongs before it can be completed. That ring however, has solder on the ring right now with the first stage of sweat soldering done. This means that the solder is melted to the band, but the other piece of metal hasn't been put on yet. The other metal (the wire work) is actually sitting in the band where it will go right now, and I will remelt the solder to complete the sweat soldering process tomorrow in class. After this is done, all of the soldering processes will be done for that ring. Once this is done, I will have to carefully bend the prongs to the correct distances from each other and notch them so that the stone will fit. I also will have to do some basic filing and sanding to clean up the ring a little bit, but no more huge things need to be done besides the prongs. Once the two rings are all cleaned up, I will hand buff them with the flexible shaft and set the stones. Then I will have two rings that I can say I put a whole lot of effort into making two beautiful pieces of artwork. Pictures will be posted of the final products, don't worry too much about that!
So, I know that after my rant above, you are all probably really tired of hearing about jewelry. But guess what, I'm not done with that subject yet. I just have a different viewpoint this time: my new job. Yes, I got the job working at Tracy Jewelers which I started yesterday. I worked from nine thirty in the morning until about five ten in the evening. It was loads of fun, and everyone there is great. I am basically the "jack of all trades" in there, so I do any odd job that they need me for. I will get to do a little bit of jewelry work back in the lab, answer phones and greet people as they come into the store, clean jewelry, file "jobs", and any other random jobs that they have for me to do. I really do enjoy it so far though, and it should be a great situation to be in for a while.
Along with the new job, I now have six piano students and might have up to five more potential students! I know for sure that I should have one more girl starting because she won the "month of piano lessons" from the silent auction that was part of the fundraiser for camp this year. Her little sister asked their mom if the lessons were for her, and she said no, but that she might be able to work something out. So there are two potential students, plus a friend of mine just had her teacher dropped her. She told me that she would like to have me teach her, but I doubt that it will ever happen. And on top of it all, a few of my mom's co-workers were interested in having me teach their kids lessons. I guess I will have to wait and find out though, but it looks like I might have one busy summer!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
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!
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!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Prom 2012
So I have had an exciting last few weeks. They have been extremely stressful for so many reasons.
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.
- Prom
- Yearbook (getting it finished)
- My rings (yes, now I am making two)
- Chemistry (as always)
- Spanish college final review
- Musicfest
 |
| The Group |
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.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Car Problems and More
This last week has been full of some pretty interesting things! I'm pretty sure that I got about ten hours less than usual of sleep this week because of babysitting, the stake dance, and shopping for stuff for my prom dress. We finally got all fabric, so now the hard work begins. I am sooooooooo grateful that my mom is an expert seamstress! I will definitely post pictures of the dress once it is done!
So the adventures of babysitting. I got to babysit some of my favorite kids this last Friday! Sometimes, I wish that they were actually mine, but that would be a little weird. I really love them that much though. Eight year old Olivia asked to do my hair when I was babysitting them. She did my hair in "two pigtails". Here is a picture of her with me after (I insisted that we take a picture). Sorry, I am making a weird face and it is low quality from my phone again.
Isn't she cute though?! Wow my cheeks are red! It's just the lighting, right? Oh well, I still had a fun night with those four cute kids! Olivia's younger sister was especially cute. She broke her leg fairly recently, so she has a cast on one leg that goes from her toes almost to her hip. She was so adorable! She had me sign her cast, and whenever we left one room to go to another, she had me carry her. I saw her at church today, and she said, "Victoria!" so I picked her up and started talking to her. It was so cute because she said, "You are coming over to my house for lunch today, right?" I had to tell her no, but I would come over some other time. Her mom just laughed and told her that I needed to eat lunch with my family. It was so stinking cute though! I really do love all those kids a bunch!
Next subject on the line up: the stake dance. It was fairly fun. Not the best that I have ever been to, but it was still okay. I got to spend time with my wonderful friend, Dallas. I love her so stinking much! We have had way too much fun together in the past. She is a ton of fun, and I look forward to spending any time with her that I can. Also at the dance, Ashleigh and Connor were there, and I always love seeing them. However, they left pretty quickly without even saying goodbye, which was a huge bummer. They are both way too fun to be around at dances. I'm pretty sure that I know why they left, but I still think that it would have been more fun if they had stayed. The dance also included many weird faces and dance moves by myself, Dallas, Aaron, Connor, Ashton, and Landon just to name a few. I could tell you what all they did, but that might take a little too long. But those are some of the more memorable things from that night. Oh, there were some really funny dancing moments with Mitchell too by the way. Oh, in case you haven't noticed, I generally don't include last names in any of my posts. But the best part of the dance was the transportation to and from. My lovely car's speedometer stopped working last Friday. So, my car says that I am going zero miles per hour all of the time. The joke has become that I can go as fast as I want because I will still be going zero mph. Here is another joke that has come out of it is this:
Thursday night I spent the later part of the evening looking at prom dresses, and most of Saturday morning getting fabric and finding patterns. Once all was said and done, we bought five different fabrics! It is going to be so fun though! I am definitely excited for it!
So the adventures of babysitting. I got to babysit some of my favorite kids this last Friday! Sometimes, I wish that they were actually mine, but that would be a little weird. I really love them that much though. Eight year old Olivia asked to do my hair when I was babysitting them. She did my hair in "two pigtails". Here is a picture of her with me after (I insisted that we take a picture). Sorry, I am making a weird face and it is low quality from my phone again.
Isn't she cute though?! Wow my cheeks are red! It's just the lighting, right? Oh well, I still had a fun night with those four cute kids! Olivia's younger sister was especially cute. She broke her leg fairly recently, so she has a cast on one leg that goes from her toes almost to her hip. She was so adorable! She had me sign her cast, and whenever we left one room to go to another, she had me carry her. I saw her at church today, and she said, "Victoria!" so I picked her up and started talking to her. It was so cute because she said, "You are coming over to my house for lunch today, right?" I had to tell her no, but I would come over some other time. Her mom just laughed and told her that I needed to eat lunch with my family. It was so stinking cute though! I really do love all those kids a bunch!
Next subject on the line up: the stake dance. It was fairly fun. Not the best that I have ever been to, but it was still okay. I got to spend time with my wonderful friend, Dallas. I love her so stinking much! We have had way too much fun together in the past. She is a ton of fun, and I look forward to spending any time with her that I can. Also at the dance, Ashleigh and Connor were there, and I always love seeing them. However, they left pretty quickly without even saying goodbye, which was a huge bummer. They are both way too fun to be around at dances. I'm pretty sure that I know why they left, but I still think that it would have been more fun if they had stayed. The dance also included many weird faces and dance moves by myself, Dallas, Aaron, Connor, Ashton, and Landon just to name a few. I could tell you what all they did, but that might take a little too long. But those are some of the more memorable things from that night. Oh, there were some really funny dancing moments with Mitchell too by the way. Oh, in case you haven't noticed, I generally don't include last names in any of my posts. But the best part of the dance was the transportation to and from. My lovely car's speedometer stopped working last Friday. So, my car says that I am going zero miles per hour all of the time. The joke has become that I can go as fast as I want because I will still be going zero mph. Here is another joke that has come out of it is this:
Police Officer: "Ma'am, do you have any idea how fast you were going?"Yeah, so I have no idea when we will get it fixed, but I will just have to live with it until then. Luckily, I haven't been pulled over for speeding, and I hope that I can keep it that way. I still love my car, and I have especially enjoyed the sun roof as the weather has gotten nicer.
Me: "Actually officer, I have absolutely no idea how fast I am going. Can you please enlighten me?"
Police Officer: "Why didn't you know your speed? Perhaps YOU can enlighten ME."
Me: "Well you see officer, my speedometer hasn't exactly been 'up to par' lately."
Police Officer: "Can you explain?"
Me: "MY SPEEDOMETER IS STUCK AT ZERO! HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO REALLY KNOW HOW FAST I'M GOING!"
Police Officer: "Oh... I don't know what to say. Just be more careful from now on."
Me: "I will do my best officer. Goodnight."
Police Officer: "Goodnight."
Thursday night I spent the later part of the evening looking at prom dresses, and most of Saturday morning getting fabric and finding patterns. Once all was said and done, we bought five different fabrics! It is going to be so fun though! I am definitely excited for it!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Pretzels, Parties, and Perfect Weather
So, my sisters decided that they wanted to make homemade pretzels today. We usually make some kind of sweet goodie on Sunday afternoons, but we have been banned from any excess sugar lately because we are all still sick! Pretzels was an awesome idea on my sisters part, and definitely worth it. It was lots of fun, and ended up being a little bit of a "who can make the coolest pretzel" contest. We had some pretty good ones, and even some one that we had to just say that they needed a little work because they wouldn't exactly cook just right, if you know what I mean. I got this one idea when the competition got fierce, and I started executing that plan. It was so funny because as I finished making that pretzel, my sister Julia was just finishing one that was exactly the same. We both came up with the idea on our own accord! Here is what my pretzels looked like:
Sorry the picture quality isn't that good, I just used my phone's camera. The braided circle is the one that Julia and I came up with at the same time. It turned out pretty well I think. Needless to say, It was a fun Sunday afternoon.
While on my phone getting off the pictures of the pretzels for this post, I came across some really funny pictures that I forgot were there. Here is one of them:
Most people will have absolutely no idea what in the world this is a picture of. Well I know, and I think that it's absolutely hilarious, there are even a few other people with pictures of the same thing floating around Spokane somewhere. This is my friend McKay on top of a wall, about 8-9 or maybe even 10 feet off the ground waiting to ambush Matt (my prom date by the way) at his surprise 18th birthday party. And yes, he is holding a Nerf gun. It scared me so badly when I all of a sudden saw his head pop up over the wall as he pulled himself up from the other side. We were all a little concerned for his safety, but I can tell you that he did receive no harm. I also had the chance to go to another party more recently than that one. My friend, MaKormick, turned 16, so his parents paid for us to all go bowling for his party. I just happened to get the prize for the lowest score of the night...yeah. Oh well! The party was lots of fun even though I proved that I fail at bowling.
Now back to a real life update! We have had absolutely beautiful weather her this weekend. The sun has been shining, and we have had 65-80ish degree weather here in the past few days! I have definitely enjoyed getting to open the sunroof of my car, and spend more time outside. The feeling of that warm sunlight enveloping my body is just the best thing I have felt in a long time, since for months all I had was grey cloudy skies and crisp cold air of Spokane's Winter. Looking forward to blue skies ahead for the next few months!
Sorry the picture quality isn't that good, I just used my phone's camera. The braided circle is the one that Julia and I came up with at the same time. It turned out pretty well I think. Needless to say, It was a fun Sunday afternoon.
While on my phone getting off the pictures of the pretzels for this post, I came across some really funny pictures that I forgot were there. Here is one of them:
Most people will have absolutely no idea what in the world this is a picture of. Well I know, and I think that it's absolutely hilarious, there are even a few other people with pictures of the same thing floating around Spokane somewhere. This is my friend McKay on top of a wall, about 8-9 or maybe even 10 feet off the ground waiting to ambush Matt (my prom date by the way) at his surprise 18th birthday party. And yes, he is holding a Nerf gun. It scared me so badly when I all of a sudden saw his head pop up over the wall as he pulled himself up from the other side. We were all a little concerned for his safety, but I can tell you that he did receive no harm. I also had the chance to go to another party more recently than that one. My friend, MaKormick, turned 16, so his parents paid for us to all go bowling for his party. I just happened to get the prize for the lowest score of the night...yeah. Oh well! The party was lots of fun even though I proved that I fail at bowling.
Now back to a real life update! We have had absolutely beautiful weather her this weekend. The sun has been shining, and we have had 65-80ish degree weather here in the past few days! I have definitely enjoyed getting to open the sunroof of my car, and spend more time outside. The feeling of that warm sunlight enveloping my body is just the best thing I have felt in a long time, since for months all I had was grey cloudy skies and crisp cold air of Spokane's Winter. Looking forward to blue skies ahead for the next few months!
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