Friday, August 24, 2007

Everything is BLOCKED at school

Upperclasswoman= me.

Goodbye ghetto bus, hello coach~<3

The year certainly has started off with a bang. Over the period of summer break, the school bum (aka me) went from no clubs, a few friends, and grades just high enough to pass; except in English. That I had to take over the summer (the irony doesn't escape anyone's attention). Suddenly- I go back to school. I make new friends almost immediately. I join Newspaper, Gymnastics, Band, Choir, and become a semi-helper person for Flight (student led worship program thing- awesome). My grades are amlost straight A's. I'm also a dorm-worker, which has all the pros of a cafeteria worker (free food, social networking) without all the cons (no sitting down/ resting, cranky boss). Since Dean Lesa isn't here anymore, I got moved to Mrs Stevenson's campus family (she's on of the two English teachers). That's a good thing, kinda. Dean Kristy (awesome) was supposed to be our campus mom, but Mrs Stevenson said she's fight for us... apparently, she's been saddled with way too many boys, and wanted some girls in her family. Anyways. Then the JUNIORS (09!) won the first competition thing (Trash Night), which is AMAZ-Z-Z-Z-ZING. The next day, someone dies. One of the seniors from last year just didn't wake up- her pace maker stopped working. She had just called the dorm the day before- I even talked to her. She had a job, an apartment, was about to go to college, dumped her lame boyfriend, had just re-committed her life to God... Yeah. The funeral was today. The school took a bunch of people to it- we didn't have school. I didn't go. I didn't know what I would say to be of any comfort. Anyone who didn't go to the funeral went up to Shelby to help any victims of flood damage. We were in their little newspaper! My group cleaned out an old couple's basement, and helped clean off their furniture. They owned a furniture store, and their house was in the alley behind it. Three young Mennonite men (about our age) were also there, helping. They were pretty good looking, and our group (which was coincidentally all girls) kept joking about/ lusting after them. There was a break for lunch, and we went to a playground. There was a merry-go-round, and seesaws, and a bouncy thing (four seats connected to a center spoke), swings, a jungle gym, slides... I immediately ran to the merry-go-round. Everyone else just watched me, like I was crazy. A few of my friends joined me, and there was a pause. Then the playground was suddenly overrun with high schoolers. I love leading a revolution~<3 Even one of the deans (Dean Michelle) joined in. She was so excited, because she hadn't been on a playground for years. I led her around, and tought her the ways of the golden days. Then we ate- they gave us lunches in paper bags and sandwiches in plastic wrap. It was wonderful. My whole table dumped their trail mix into one big pile, and we picked out what we ate and let other people pick out what they ate. I was one of two that picked out cashews. Then we went back to the playground, where a waterbottle fight ensued. Then a mass cleanup effort, and we reloaded to head back to work. The man at the store offered us ice cold Cokes while we worked. The group of boys nodded at us. We nodded back. We sang while we worked- "We are soldiers in the army, we have to fight although we have to die, we have to- hold up the bloodstained banner, we have to hold it up until we die. Well __(instert name here)__ was a soldier- they had their hands on the Gospel, bow wow wow, so one day they got old they couldn't fight anymore they said- (here the person stands up and says)- Stand up, and fight anyhow! (repeat). A few of us salvaged junk that the lady was throwing away. I got some patterns, an Othello gamer that had somehow survivived the flooding, and an old vintage-looking bottle of real Chianti. It still had wine in it, but it was kinda gross floodwater wine, so I dumped it. Then we sat and talked to the lady until it was time to go. An ice cream store had heard about what we were doing, and gave us free ice cream (under the price of $2). We left the school at 8:30am, and came back around 6pm. I was covered in grossness, smelly, dripping sweat, sore all over, over heated, probably dehydrated, and completely and utterly blissful. When we got back, my dad was waiting, He took Allison & I home, and now I'm here typing (after a long shower, of course).

More about Shay's death-
The head dean of the boys dorm came to the cafeteria during brunch, and announced that she had died. Immediately, everyone who knew her started to cry. I thought that he meant someone else, one of the students that was in the hospital for a hernia. I carried on, sicne I hadn't known the hernia-victim. Then I find out that the hernia victim is fine- one of the seniors from last year, Shay, had died. Like I said, I had just spoken with her the day before. I cried, a lot. So did everyone else. It rained. Everyone was gathered in the chapel for a small prayer meeting & a sort of place to find comfort. Two girls started to sing, "His Eye Is On The Sparrow," and I cried some more. The head girls' dean went into a hysterical fit of cleaning frenzy. Her husband, the adopted father of the dorm, took out his feelings on a playhouse he was making for some little girls. I helped him build it, salvaging plexiglass, sawing things, pounding things with hammers and holding down screws. It was satisfying. Then I took out more frustration in gymnastics- I'm a base, so I did a lot of lifting people. It was still raining when we got out & went to bed. Over all, it was a pretty gloomy day.

carefully moving on to present events...
I'm going to Meg's new house this homeleave! She's in Indiana, right on campus of the academy there. Tomorrow I have shots, church, and Nonna's. Goodnight!

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