Thanksgiving

Overall, this Thanksgiving was as good as any other. This year Thanksgiving was at my cousin’s house, which is in the middle of nowhere in Marion, KY. Thanksgiving is at our house every other year and this year was not our year. There is only one reason that I don’t like going to my cousin’s house for Thanksgiving. I don’t get to watch the parade and see the Radio City Rockettes perform. I always look forward to watching the Rockettes perform so that I can see if I can find Ashley Ayre who is a Rockette from Owensboro. There was defiantly plenty of food at my cousin’s house. However I am kind of a picky eater so all I ate was macaroni and cheese, a little turkey, and a roll. There were plenty of deserts though and it was difficult for me to decide which ones I wanted to try. I always like seeing my mom’s side of the family because I like them a lot better than my dad’s family but it is still awkward at sometimes because they all live near each other and get to see each other all of the time. My family is the only family that lives far away so sometimes we are kind of out of the loop. After going to my cousin’s house we went to my mom’s dad’s house in Princeton, KY which is also in the middle of nowhere. We don’t really make it to Princeton a lot because of everyone’s busy schedules so it was nice to get to see them. My grandparents were also glad that we finally made it down because we hadn’t been to their house since the summer. The only thing that is going to be different this Thanksgiving is that we are not going to go shopping on Black Friday. It is kind of depressing because I enjoy fighting the crowd but there isn’t anything that I really need so I guess I will just work on a Spanish project instead. They are not the same, that is for sure. Starbucks = LOVE

Genetics update = BORING!!!

Last Friday I attended a genetics update conference with my fellow IB biology students. The conference was from was from 9-1. Everyone was really excited to go on the field trip because we were going to get to miss a day of school. However the excitement immediately died down as soon as the conference started. As a first year IB biology student we were forewarned that we may not know some of the content that was going to be discussed. However I don't think that anyone realized that we would only understand two words, phagosytosis and fortuitous. The first hour crept by except the person who was giving the lecture who was talking 90 mph. I am not exaggerating either I could barely keep up with him and I was typing notes on my computer. I am sure that the information was very interesting to most people but I am just not that interested in biology. By 10:30 I was ready for my ten minute break. The break went by really fast and before I knew it it was time to go back to the freezing auditorium. At one point I was trying to conserve my laptop battery so I put my laptop on sleep and I acted like I was taking notes. I did this so that I looked like I was paying attention so he wouldn't call on me to answer a question. Even though my biology class had come up with a plan before the conference and if Mr. Rhine called on any of us and we didn't know the answer we would say that we were from Daviess County. Luckily, no one had to use that excuse. When Mr. Rhine used the word fortuitous you would think that I had won the lottery because I was so excited because I knew what that word meant. Everyone in the row started laughing and smiling because we knew one word that Mr. Rhine had used. (By the way, thanks Mrs. Matthews!) By 12:00 I was ready for the other break and then Mr. Rhine announced that it was 90 seconds so I didn't even bother getting up. As soon as 1:00 came around everyone was so excited because we were going to lunch and that is what we had all been waiting for. Lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings was worth the four hour conference. I even got a coffee drink at Books-A-Million even though I was a little late to the bus. The conference taught me one thing and that is that I don't want to go into anything in the biology field, it is just not for me. I love Starbucks :)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a great holiday with lots of great food. Unlike most people the food isn't my favorite part of Thanksgiving. My favorite part actually comes the day after. Yes, Black Friday is my favorite thing about Thanksgiving. Every year my mom, grandma, my sister, and I all travel to Louisville the day after Thanksgiving. We aren't the crazy people standing in line at Best Buy for electronics, we let my dad do that if there is anything that we want. We are the crazy people at the mall getting the free bags at Victoria's Secret. With my dance schedule Black Friday is the only day that I have to go out and do my Christmas shopping. It is also just a fun thing that all of us can do together. Nothing beats the rush of fighting your way through crowds of people to find just one item or having to stand in line for thirty minutes waiting to check out. It isn't always the deals that makes me like Black Friday but just the high speed of things. In Owensboro everything seems to move at a slower place than larger cities but on Black Friday when I am in Louisville everyone is moving from one store to another as fast as they can. Some people may think that it is crazy but I think it is exciting. Starbucks is still amazing!!!

Work Day

This last Sunday was work day for The Nutcracker. There is always a work day three Sundays before every show. It is called work day because the parents come into the studio and help get certain props ready. They also fix any costumes that need repairs and posters are picked up to be distributed around town. Work day is also one of the longer rehearsals for all of the dancers. I had to be there from 12 -5. The day started out with meeting my arabianettes. I am an arabian and arabianettes are girls who are about seven years old. They stand in the back and move their hands for most of the dance but in the end they follow the arabians. The only thing that they have to do is lift their leg but they complained about it the entire rehearsal. Then I had to go and warm up with the company and apprentice company and we only had one studio and it was crowded. Ten minutes into warm up everyone was sweating because it was so hot with everyone crammed into one studio. Next I had to go to tap rehearsal which is probably my favorite piece in the Nutcracker because of the kick line. I have always wanted to be a Rockette but sadly I am not quite tall enough so for this one dance I get to live my dream. However, this year tap hasn't been so great because many of the younger girls are having trouble keeping up. They don't seem to be able to count to ten and they always do to many kicks. Luckily, tap looked excellent on Sunday and there wasn't any screaming but I am sure that will soon come. After tap I had to rehearse waltz and I wasn't one bit worried about it because it was the same part that I had last year. I could do waltz quartet in my sleep but I was still scared that it wasn't going to look good. My nightmares didn't come true and waltz looked amazing . After dancing all day I still had one more piece to rehears and that was snow. This year I am just a snow fairy so I don't have that large of a part in snow. However, I am the person who has been in snow the longest so I have to try and lead the younger girls. On workday I had to make sure that all of the snow fairies knew when to go on stage and that wasn't any easy task. It was very frustrating for me because when I was younger I knew when to go but it is almost like the younger girls don't care at all. The end of workday was a relief because I was exhausted. I had never sweated so much and all of the energy had been drained out of my body. I know that all the hard work will be worth it in three weeks when I dance on the stage. Starbucks= Love

AYL

This past weekend I attended the retreat for AYL. AYL stands for Academy for Young Leaders. This was the second retreat that I had attended with AYL. The retreat is always a blast and this year was certainly not a disappointment. As soon as we arrived at the Mount. St. Joseph we immediately got into groups. We have five random groups that we go to throughout the retreat and one of those groups is the group that we will be in for the rest of the year. The first group is probably the most awkward group for many reasons. One reason is that it is about 9:00 in the morning and no one is awake yet. Another reason is that not that many people know each other yet. As the retreat goes on more and more people become outgoing. A third reason is that everyone is afraid to take a large part in the first skit because they are afraid that they are going to look silly. This soon changes as the retreat progresses. Most everyone finally realizes that the sillier you look, the more fun that you will have. After the first group and the first skit the tension almost vanished. In the second group more first year members started volunteering for more things. After the second group everyone had broken out of the shell and no one was shy. The rest of the day was great except for the food. I lived on candy and brownies all weekend. The best part of the retreat is always the Olympics. However this year we had a glow party before the Olympics. A glow party is where we all dressed up in white t-shirts and signed our names one each other's shirts in highlighter. Black lights had been placed in the gym and our shirts glowed. The Olympics were also a lot of fun this year. However, it was very sad because my team lost by one point. Winning the Olympics gives you bragging rights for all year and sadly this year my group doesn´t have that. The retreat always ends with people signing a piece of paper on your back and when everyone is done you can take it off and read what everyone has written about you. I really enjoyed this years retreat and I can´t wait for the rest of the meetings. I love coffee!!!