Friday, June 10, 2005

Oh. My. Gosh.


Shut. Up.

I think I'm in love.

'Nuff said.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

California, Here I Come

I know I promised a post with pictures from my birthday party and all that rot, but life's been cah-razy lately so I haven't had much time for simple pleasures like bloggin'.

list 'o' recent events

- I got an A+ on my last Beaman final.
- Jared N. and Jenell D. stayed at my house until 4:00 AM the night of my party. We just sat on my couch and chatted and made horribly pathetic jokes.
- I pulled my first all-nighter working on my scary research paper for Mr. Beaman's class.
- I sang a solo at Wrap Up and made friend and family cry (tears of happiness).
- I ran for choir president or vice president and lost both.
- I went on a retreat with my Czech team and had an awesome time. We did a ropes course up there and I, being as afraid of heights as I am, was a little freaked out. Thankfully my team was there to support me and we all worked together to get through our fears. I think we all learned a lot about ourselves; I know I did.
- I got an A+ on a Principles of Technology test I thought I would fail.
- I got an A on that scary research paper for Beaman and he wants me to present my paper to the Young Historians conference next spring. Almost every time I see him lately he says, "Great paper, Lynsey!" Now I don' have to worry about this last final so much! Yay!
- I got another haircut! This one is shorter, but sorta similar to the one I got before. After this weekend I'll post a bunch of pictures and you can see my new "do."

I'll bet you're probably asking yourself, "Self, what is Lynsey going to do to celebrate all of the cool things that have happened to her lately?" Well, dear reader, the answer is simple: I'm goin' to Disneyland! Yep, that's right, in twenty-four hours I'll be in the magic kingdom having a blast with all of my choir buds. We only have about half a day's worth of actual music competition, and then we spend the rest of the time just playing in Disneyland. Awesome. That's all I have to say about that.

I'll try to post pictures and stories from Disneyland shortly after I return, but now I need to go pack...hehe...

Saturday, April 23, 2005

< / blogging hiatus >

Since I'm waiting for my flat iron to heat up, I guess I have some time to post.

April 3-4 I went to the FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) state conference, in Jantzen Beach. I had two events I was signed up for: Desktop Publishing and Business Communications. I arrived on Sunday with my friend Rachel Ames, we got into our room okay, and went to the standard boring opening session complete with a scary rendition of the national anthem and a long-winded keynote speaker. After opening session I headed back to my room to hang out and wait for my Desktop Publishing partner to arrive so we could go take our group test. For a while I was worried she wouldn't get there in time, but she made it and we pretty much got our test done as quickly as possible.

When I got back to my room I changed from my business attire and got ready to go to the dance. After waiting with Rachel for the rest of people from Reynolds who were going to the dance, we headed downstairs to get our respective "grooves" on. The music was dumb (and sometimes nasty), it was hot, and some creepy guy tried to dance with me, but I persevered (and ignored the creepy guy). I stayed for about an hour, then went back upstairs to shower and just hang out, then the bad news arrived. After months of preparing and practicing, our Entrepreneurship teams didn't make it to the second round. It was really sad and a lot of people from the teams were upset, including Rachael.

The next morning Rachael and I slept in a bit and went for breakfast at Starbucks. At first I considered skipping taking the Business Communications test in order to stay with Rachael and try to cheer her up, but I finally decided that I would just get the test over with and then spend the rest of the day cheering up Rachael. I didn't think I would do very well on my test because everyone takes that test, and it's hard to place in it. I pretty much took the test and forgot about it.

After I got back from open testing I went with Rachael and the rest of our roommates to the Mongolian Grill for lunch and stopped by Target (I got the cutest shirt!) before heading back to the hotel. the rest of the afternoon was spent in the hot tub, watching Monty Python, and pretty much just screwing around. At dinnertime all of RHS FBLA went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. We played dumb games, at tiny/less-than-fulfilling pizza, and crawled around in those plastic tunnel things. Ah to be six years old again....

Though the conference was ending the next day with a long, boring closing ceremony, I decided to go home early so I wouldn't have to miss Mr. Beaman's class. It seemed like a pretty good Idea until I found out what happened the next day. There I was sitting in Mr. Beaman's class participating in a discussion about whether we should've dropped the atomic bombs in Japan during WWII when Anna Fenton says to me, "Oh, Lynsey, Andrew (Rolfe) sent me a text message saying you got first in your event."
(Me) "Huh!? Which One?"
"He didn't say."
"Uhh...okay..."

After history I hurried over to math class, trying to think of some at the conference whose cell phone number I had so I could call and find out what really happened. I ended up getting Jessica Vining's number from Jenell and was practically screaming into my cell phone so she could hear me. She told be that I'd gotten first in Business Communications and fourth in Desktop Publishing! I qualified to compete in the national conference in Orlando, Florida! Add that to my trip to Disneyland for choir in May and Czech in July and these next few months are gonna be an absolute blast!

Other stuff has been going on too. the Harrison's now have a family plan from Verizon, so as my birthday present for this year I got a cool new camera phone (which are only slightly against school policy). Speaking of my birthday, it's next Thursday! I'm gonna be seventeen, cah-razy. I'm gonna have a big, awesome party on the 7th of May (since prom is once again on the weekend on I would normally have my party). It should be lotsa fun.

Oh yeah, Jenell ran for class counsel again this year and lost again, boo. The sad thing is, there were apparently some people who voted more than once, one of the new counsel members probably got elected because it was funny, and there are five people on the counsel, and Jenell had the sixth highest number of votes. Thankfully, my best friend rocks and she's not too upset about it. I love that girl!

Well, I guess my flat iron is plenty hot now since I've been working on this for over a half-hour. Heh heh...

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

I Guess It All Evens Out...

Case 1: I got sick over spring break - I played Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door lots and went to Eric Little's birthday party
Case 2: I didn't make it into Bach Fest - I got an A on my Beaman final!
Case 3: My sickness caused me to lose my voice and not be able to sing - I'm in Expressions again next year without having to try out and we're learning the song Kiss the Girl for when we go to sing for the elementary and middle schools (*heart*).
Case 4: I had to go back to school after break - I got 100% on my AP Writing 122 test!

Good Times...

Monday, March 07, 2005

BF Doesn't Always Stand for "Best Friend"...

Sometimes it stands for brain fart. Yeah, district solo and ensemble contest...Lynsey had a major brain fart. My first piece, Sebben Crudele was really quite tragic. I started the very beginning of the song in the wrong place. So sad. Anyway, it went okay after that; I got a 91/100, (a.k.a. a 1). No state contest for me, but there's always next year. In other news, this summer sounds like it's going to be an absolute kick in the pants! (I love that phrase!)

Last Saturday (March 5th) I auditioned for the Oregon Bach Festival. For those of you who don't know what that is, just think of it as a choir camp where we sing music by pretty much only one composer. My audition went quite well (no brain farts!), so I'm really hoping I'll be accepted (only 80 students will make it out of all of the people who audition!). If I am accepted I'll be down in Eugene at U of O (where the event takes place) from June 25th to July 5th, yay! But that's just the beginning....

That's right, not only do I have the opportunity to be involved in awesome choir stuff, but I'm officially going to the Czech Republic on a mission trip with GSCC from July 11th to the 29th.

We'll be working with a youth group from Bohumin to help run a week-long conversational-English camp in the eastern part of the country. I'm already excited about going! Hopefully there will be internet access from the camp (which will probably be more like a big, old hotel) so I can post about what's going on every once in a while. But in case I don't have internet access, here's our itinerary:

July 11th: Leave the states from PDX
July 12th: Arrive in Prague
July 13th-14th: Training
July 15th: Travel to camp (by train)
July 16th - 23rd: Camp
July 24th-25th: Follow-up
July 26th-27th: Travel to Auschwitz/Prague
July 28th: Sight-seeing in Prague
July 29th: Fly home!


After I get home, I have less than a week before Nathan leaves for England, then only a month of freedom before school starts back up again. Joy!

Okay, so now I need to go write a rough draft for Writing 122 and study for my History 202 final. Fuuun...

Friday, February 18, 2005

It's a Jungle Out There

Homework and perfectionism are stealing my soul...

Anyway, I've been promising pictures for a while, so here goes...some fun memories from recent months displayed in all their photo-tacular glory. Pictures! Joy!



In November I got a Nintendo Gamecube. This is it before I took it out of the box.



More Gamecube! Now with awesome out-of-the-box action! It's so shiny and silvery...



In December I went to my first dance. I went to get ready at Katie Judd's house, because getting ready with other people is always better. This is a picture of Mrs. Judd doing Katie's hair.



After we were all ready, the group headed over to Elizabeth Rossmiller's house to meet up before heading over to Tad's Chicken and Dumplings for dinner. This is Josh...yay!



Ahh the group we went with...I really wish I knew everyone's names...



This is Jenell and Me! (Jenell is the gorgeous one standing next to me!)



Our "official" group picture. I think it turned out really nice. Don't ya just love my dress!?



After the dance our group headed back to Liz's house for a little post-dance fun. *wink*...ok...we watched the Little Mermaid...



Eric, Jennie, and Katie! Three of my favorite people ever!



Awwww...(Sadie in a ball = cute factor 10)



There's nothin' like cuddlin' up with those you love. (Sadie + Allie cuddling on my bed = cute factor 20)



When Nathan came home for Christmas break, he spent time hanging out with old friends. (Nathan + Rick + Scotty cuddled up on the couch = cuteness factor 50)



A picture from long ago, taken at my Grandma's house. Yes, that's me and Nathan. (Little Nathan + Little Lynsey cuddled up in chair = cuteness factor 100^infinity)



More recently (as in last Monday), I participated in a vocal solo contest for high schoolers. I sang two songs, Sebben Crudele and Bel Piacere, both in Italian. The judge really seemed to like my voice when she was working with me after I sang, but I had no idea how much...



The judge gave me a 97 out of 100, which translated into 1+ (to get a 1 means "A truly outstanding performance with very few technical errors and exemplifying musical expression..." But the true icing on the cake was how my score compared to the other people from my school who competed...I got the highest score of all of them. Some people forgot words, or were sick, or had mean judges, or just plain had a bad singing day, and I ended up with the highest score! It's very exciting, but kinda sad, because the real competition doesn't start until next Saturday. The 26th is the day they decide who goes to state. I hope I make it!

Even more more recently (as in yesterday), I was exposed to one of the most disgusting and repulsive things I have ever encountered. It was 1st period, Mr. Beaman's class. We were discussing progressivism and the various things it accomplished. Coming in at accomplishment #13, along with other social legislation, was the 1906 passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, brought on by the uproar created by Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle. To really understand the increased standards that this book incited, we read excerpts from The Jungle.

There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white--it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one...

Now, obviously this book is practically a century old, so you may be saying to yourself, "Self, why is Lynsey freaking out about things that happened in meat processing plants almost a century?" Well, the answer is that the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act don't prohibit the presence of such undesirable items as nails or rat feces in our food, they limit it. Just think about that; it's absolutely disgusting. It's revelations like this that push a girl to the brink of a vegetarian diet. Excuse me whilst I go throw up...

And now, the most recently (as in this very morning), I went on a very fun/sad field trip. All of the students in Mr. Beaman's history classes (including AP U.S. History and the regular history classes) were invited to a field trip at the Portland Expo Center commemorating the internment of West Coast Japanese-American's by the U.S. Government. Since we were all to meet at the Expo Center MAX stop at 10:00 A.M., I went online to figured out how long it would take to ride the MAX from Gresham Station to our destination. Sadly, it turned out we had to leave early....like...by 8:30 in the morning. Since I was giving the intrepid Jared Nishikawa a ride to the MAX in exchange for super karate-awesome protection against MAX psychos, this meant I had to leave the house before 8:00 in the morning on a Saturday. But aside from this unfortunate reality, good times were had by all. We only got lost twice-ish, and had fun making fun of the name of the store "Dress Barn", pondering the real meaning of the word "mart", and trying to figure out why every announcement over the MAX intercom was repeated in Spanish except "the doors are closing" (I decided it's because the Tri-Met secretly hates Spanish-speaking MAX patrons and wants them to be crushed by the MAX doors when they least expect it.) So, though the only people who actually showed up to the trip were myself, Jared, Courtney Hucke, and Mr. Beaman (Sad isn't it? ), good times were had by all.

So, will that tide you guys over for a while?

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Delayed Reaction

Frenzied activity in my day-to-day lliving is not condusive to regular blogging. Grr...

A lot has been going on, and it looks as though the rest of the school year will fall out that way as well. School, the usual homework, and my extra-curricular activities all keep me nice and busy regularly, with some nice monster projects and Beaman finals to make life "interesting". What can I say? C'est la vie.

I finally got my winter ball pictures back today, so I'll try to post them at some point. Of course, the last time I tried to use my scanner it was being mean, so who knows how that little endeavor will work out.

I *heart* Zelda.

*swoon*