The Passion of the Trash

I've decided that I will make very, very occasional updates to this not-quite-dead LJ.

This is a little ditty I wrote at the end of April. I figured I'd copy it into my livejournal because I really don't want to be called Trash anymore (pretend that my livejournal isn't the_thrash_wh0r3, I'm not going all out of my way to change it). So, here's my official explanation of why I don't want to be called Trash anymore.

When people first started to call me Trash, I really didn’t like it very much. I mean, my name was Trash for Christ’s sake. So, I was secretly hoping that I’d be forgotten like I always was in middle school and I’d go back to Dan again. But suddenly…I was getting attention. People were saying things like..."Oh, Trashy, I love you." Nobody (except for my dear old family) had ever said that they loved me before. It was a great feeling for me. Then came Five Star. What was usually months of being neglected as another ensemble member became, “Hey look! It’s Trash!” I had made a name for myself. People knew me. People I didn’t know knew me. I always knew people that didn’t know me, but people would just come up to me and be like, “Oh my God…are you…Trash?” as if I was some sort of celebrity. All the band freshmen immediately knew me as Trash, and I got into the drama crowd very quickly, but now, it’s kind of...worn off. It’s not that I don’t like the shallow, empty attention, but it’s like...I’m more than just Trash. I don’t need Trash anymore. Trash was my training wheels on the bicycle of high school, and now, I can ride without it. For the first time ever, I’m proud to be Dan Hanson.

Um...school just ended, and now it's starting again.  I have not written a single word down about anything that's happened this summer on livejournal.  There was just too much other stuff to do.  This summer was way too fst and just not anything quite like last summer.  Last summer was just all happy and innocent and I was just so excited that I finally had friends.  This summer was just so much more real.  You know, life is just so much more serious now.  Now I'm just going to try to get through the next nine and a half months.

By the way, this is probably going to be the last entry on this LJ. Better yet, this is almost definitely going to be my last livejournal entry ever. The rest of my memories will not be posted on the internet.

--Dan

It didn't seem like I would ever be able to make it past June 10.  I didn't touch the update for three weeks, but I finally got it up to the end of school.

( May 23 - June 23, 2005Collapse )

Yes, that's right.  I am updating.  For the first time in effing forever.  I've just had such better things to do, that I haven't really gotten to updating.  Well, without further adeiu, here it is (note: it doesn't quite stretch to today.  I thought I'd deliver it in smaller chunks so it wouldn't be such a bitch to read).

( April 23 - May 22, 2005Collapse )

Well, it's been a long time...longer than ever, in fact. May was the first of my first fourteen months of livejournaling to go without an update. If I were to post an update right now, it would cover two months and one day...a shocking and tragic fact...I have written an update that covers up to Saturday, May 28. I know that I've said several times before that I'm going to end my livejournal right now. So I won't this time. I'm not going to, anyway. I was going to keep you all on the edge of your seats waiting for my full update (it's not like you have anything else to do), but I'm in a particularly thoughtful place. Tomorrow is the very last day of school. Tomorrow at 9:40, I will officially be a junior...an upper classman. I've always felt like I've been at the bottom of the high school, like I had so much more to go all the time. I feel like I'm done with part one and there are five more parts to go. The reality is that I'm halfway done with high school. In two years I'll have graduated...just two years...when two years ago I was a chunky loser of a ex-middle schooler who didn't want to do band. I've come so far, it's just so hard to imagine how much there is to go...how much is going to change. Really, I don't want things to change. They've seemed like they've been changing in the last week or so. I don't want them to change at all. I'm perfectly satisfied with everything that's been going on (well...perfectly is not true...my road has its bumps). But things are going to change a lot, just like they did last summer. You know what, I'm going to sit back and enjoy it. So, here's to not having to care. Here's to looking to today instead of next year or yesterday. Here's to summer.

--Dan Hanson

Okay, here's the deal.  I was going to update before I left for Disney, ut I just got too freaking tired and I was gone, leaving three weeks unaccounted for.  Oh no!  So, being sick here today, I will try to get all those weeks put together into two entries, one for Disney, one for before Disney.  So, here goes.

 

I had a brilliant idea.  Well, I’ll start with the background story.  It all started several Sundays ago when I started a really awesome entry about the prom.  It was such a good, detailed entry and then it suddenly deleted itself like it does every other time…the worst part was that I had wasted an hour that I could’ve been working so I wouldn’t have gotten four hours of sleep that night.   Well, I decided to write all my entries on Word and then paste them to LJ so that they don’t get deleted.  Am I brilliant?  Yes.  Dedicated?  Yes.  Normal?  No.

 

So I’ll start with how I made a new LJ system.  I start with some thoughts that I have about life, then I’ll put the previous weeks’ or however many days’ entries behind a little LJ cut so that it’s nice and organized.  Here goes…

 

[No thoughts right now]

 

Aww, wasn’t that emotional?  Well, here’s my life.

 

( Tuesday, April 5 - Sunday, April 17Collapse )

Today is livejournal day.  One year ago--365 amazing days ago--I came to this website and created the_danson.  From that day forward, I became more and more consumed in the world of livejournal.  Livejournal was the beginning of my transition into Hangout Band Room.  Until September 18, I was constantly updating and enthralled in the LJ world.  But then the stress of being a sophomore hit me, and I could no longer continue my obsession.  On November 4, my first livejournal was dead, but back with a better name on November 11 at 11:11, a very fitting point to start something new, for many reasons.  As I grew up more, my livejournal grew up more, and I had a revelation about what this livejournal really is.  It's what's here so that I remember, because I never want to forget.</span>

__trash

I only updated twice in all of March!  Livejournal just isn't that important anymore...I'll start an update, and then just not finish it and then it'll go away and then I have all these huge, two-week long updates.  I've decided from now on, that I'm gonna keep on doing that...maybe not in as much detail, but I can't stop.  I don't have a livejournal for all of you people to read.  I'm sure that not very many of you read it anymore because of these ridiculously long updates, but I keep the LJ only for me, to read as I go through life, to remember the best times.  I enjoy your little comments, so I'm going to keep this journal going online.  So, on with the update!

--Trash

( Since Wednesday, March 23Collapse )

Okay, so here's the abridged story.  I was going to update on Sunday the 13th about my week, but that went to hell for some reason or another and then my dad decided that my computer needed to be fixed for some reason...lots of Spyware had to be deleted.  More than three hundred things of Spyware were deleted, so apparently, my tortuous week without a computer was worth it.  But you can't imagine...every day, coming home, expect to hear my computer and see its happy little glow light up the the room...aoh, how I love my computer...now having a computer...is like...like Hamer not having DDR or Oehmen not having a girlfriend.  Okay, I'm done with that, here's the update.  Well, first of all, I caught up with about two hours' worth of peoples' livejournals that I haven't read...and to think how much homework I have to do...fuck.

Wednesday, March 9

This was the last update I made.  I decided to not talk about the events of the half day, so I will now.  Let's see how my memory holds up.  The four-period day was extremely dull and slow, except for writing Erica an awesome and for the most part, serious birthday card in my study.

The day was finally over and we went to Hamer's for Erica's party.  I ate a bowl of macaroni, two slices of pizza, an order of french fries from Emporer's Choice, and then, a piece of delicious cake.  Bobby chased me around and then I did several sketchy things involving Hamer's dog and a fortune cookie.  I won't go into details...I had to abruptly leave for drama.  We had a really fun rehearsal with just the leads where we went over all the lines with people reading different parts.

I can't really remember what happened after that.  It was, after all, two weeks ago.  I actually played DDR and I'm sure that I worked on some homework and perhaps watched some CSI.  That's just what I usually do.

Thursday, March 10

We had dodgeball after school.  We made a line against the wall and one by one, were mowed down...shot down...massacred...it was an execution.  There was one good part of the game where Cathy deflected a ball into the air and kept deflecting it up and up again until she finally caught it.  That made it fun.

We had another small-group drama rehearsal that night, so I skipped the beginning of umpire school for it.  The rehearsal was fun.  We fixed some stuff.  Then I arrived at umpire school at 8:10, right when break started, so I conveniently missed the most amount of class possible.  I mooched off Tuvell, and then Joe Prew and Jon Oliver told me stories about how awesome I am and how class sucks without me...tee hee...well, what can I say?  They call me Teeny because for some reason I remind them of Tom Feeney.  Oh well.

Friday, March 11

I'm trying really hard to remember what I did on this day.  There was a math test that I ran out of time for (as it turns out, all the random stuff I wrote down was right and I only lost two points, giving me an 85 which should be an 87 becuase that stupid bitch marked a wrong one right.  An 87 would be my best math test or quiz grade all year, which makes me really happy, considering how badly everyone else did [Blewitt got a 36]).

I can't think of what I did after school.  Oh!  It's all coming back to me now!  Its so important that I completely forgot.  That weekend was supposed to be homeless weekend!  In case you haven't heard of homeless weekend, it's where the people in SHYP spend the cold weekend in boxes in our parking lot.  Three days...no showers...very little food...good times...So, I awaited the call on Friday night that it was snowed out, and Megan called and it was.  She postponed it to Saturday at 1:00.

So, on Friday night I had (in order of arrival) Katie, Kristina, Rio, Hamer, and even Little Hame over.  Katie and I talked about our dramatic lives, then Krsitna joined us, then Rio joined us for a little while, but then we played Scrabble and only used dirty words.  We came up with such words as TIT, SARS, a word I made up: LUTOF, URMOM of course, XAVIER, YEEEE, WEFUKCANZ, and of course, GREMLINS which became HOLYGREMLINS which became RAPEHOLYGREMLINS.  Of course, there just wasn't enough spaces and the R was off the board.  Good times...then we played ImagineIff and we had some fun with that.  I way wicked mad won (like usual, because I'm the best [when I'm arrogant like that, please don't take me seriously...apparently people have been getting mad at me for my joking cockiness]).  So then we settled back into talking and the six of us had a really, really awesome, deep and otherwise amazing conversation and we all had a really good time.  Yay.

Saturday, March 12

Homeless weekend, was postponed again to 6:00, and later cancelled, so I played The Sims for a very long time, not to mention DDR, and then shoveling the nasty wet snow.  Okay, I have a story for you.  You know how sometimes I do really random and stupid things and its just like"...wow...that was...wow...I can't believe you're that stupid, Trash"?  Well I figured out why I do those stupid things...it's hereditary.  So, my mom was snowblowing the driveway, and in that wet, heavy snow, her snowblower stops.  So what does she do?  She sticks her hand in the show shooting thing.  When she unclogged the snow, the blades started spinning again and she's really lucky not to have lost her finger.

I was really pissed about not being able to go to the Sophomore Semi because homeless weekend got cancelled and I didn't have a ticket or a dacne contract or anything.  Poop!  But, I went to Christina's afterwards anyway...wearing my suit, of course!  Everybody was talking about how awesome it was.  Apparently Hamer pimped it up, which is crazily not like him, and John Assini stepped it up from pimp to Sexual Lord of Women.  So, I sat there sadly, which I was there...

Sunday, March 13

Here's a sign of how quickly time is flying this year.  I still write 2004 on everything, on assignments, calendars, everything!  It just hasn't hit me that it's 2005 yet.  This year has just blown by so quickly...

So, on to Sunday.  I slept fairly late and pretty much spent the day playing The Sims and DDR, with a little bit of homework thrown in at the end.  I went to SHYP and we had a great time talking about Youth Sunday.  We made fun of a lot of teachers...good times...and that was my weekend.

Monday, March 14

Fest kicked back into high gear.  We had rehearsal until 6:00.  It was fun and I love fest.  After that, I ate quickly and came right back to the eigth grade band parents meeting.  I talked about drama (it seemed like Mr. Bunten intentionally tried to skip my topic, considering his bias against it).  Then I tried to recruit a kid from umpire school.  We observed how Sam flaunted his extreme band geekiness and might have scared some people.  Then, Alison and I invented a dance for the P-Wag and stuck our nametags to the wall.

Tuesday, March 15

Tech time!  I was really dreading the two-hour bus ride to Fall River, but it went okay, kind of.  Doug had to pee.  We had fun with that.  At Durfee, we spiked the stage and got aquainted with the school.  Andover was like...a million times better, but Durfee's still about a thousand times better than RMHS.  We stopped by McDonald's on the way back and that was fun.  Laura was too tall for the playplace...hehe...and it was generally a good time.  How I love Drama Fest...but this was the point where I came home and my computer was gone.  My life could have ended right there...

Wednesday, March 16

In school, we got course selection sheets, then it was drama again, awesome again.  Plus, the week was flying by, given that I hadn't been home for more than two hours at a time over the last two days, and Mr. Bunten was taking the day off on Thursday, so no sectionals!

After drama on Wednesday, Cait came home for Spring Break and took me to the pasta party at Eric's (and Shawn's [and Steve's too, so basically, the Callan's]).  I didn't eat food, but I had soda and cookies and bread, which is food, so I mean that I didn't eat pasta.  I heard that Marianne had made some of it and I didn't want to risk getting hers...no, just kidding...I just don't like pasta.  So, the whole night was me getting hazed by Tyler.  He gave me a wedgie at one point, or maybe two, but he used brilliant strategy to give me the wedgie...I applaud him.  Then I got mini-kidnapped and shoved into Marianne's trunk, which wasn't so bad until Tyler got in with me.  Two larger people cannot fir in one little car's.  Ouch.  We all got awesome "Save the whale" shirts to wear on Friday.  They're...awesome.  So, I got a ride home in Ralphie (newly cleaned by Emily and Laura), and we decided to pursue Sean and Mike as they went to drop Mike off, so there we were: Marianne, Catie, Laura and I, speeding through the side streets of Reading chasing after Sean and Mike, who wer swerving and making tricky turns all over the place.  At one point I almost opened my door and knocked off Sean's mirror, and we eventually chased them down to Mike's house where we jumped out of Ralphie and claimed victory.  Good times...

Thursday, March 17, 2005

No sectionals!  Laura wanted me to walk her home, but instead I came to the study group for the bio test and it was awesome.  I love bio and freshmen, so it was the perfect mix.  Apparently, I don't remember everything from the DNA unit.  Oh well, that was a hard unit.  But I had fun being there, no matter how weird people thought I was.

So, I skipped umpire school for drama again.  Preston told me that he should, for lack of a better term, fire me for never showing up, even though I'm the best umpire there.  I can't miss any more classes, which sucks because I had state finals two weeks later, and if we didn't make it, I was going to go to Phantom of the Opera.  So, screw Preston.  I rule!  So, rehearsal, of course, was awesome.  Only one rehearsal left...we were so pumped for states.

Friday, March 18

Here's my schedule, just for shits and giggles:

Fall

Keyboarding

Spring

Acting II

Jr./Sr. Gym

Full-Year

Honors English 11

Honors U.S. History

Honors Spanish 4A

Pre-Calculus

Physics

Band

Chorus

Yep.  So, Friday was the end to an amazing quick week, where I barely spent anytime at home (which was good, because this was the time where I had no computer).  Then there was drama, our last rehearsal, and we packed up the trucks and boom, we were ready for states.

Although I wasn't allowed to go out, I went to Hamer's until 9:30.  We made fun prank phone calls (one to a random guy in a random town in a random state [Roger something in St. Louis, Missouri]), and we had a great plan about pretending to have been peeing for eight days after drinking Poland Spring water, but they were closed.  We also had a good plan about batteries.  I'm great at coming up with prank calls, but not so much executing them.  The Roger thing went to hell because I didn't know what to say when this random guy picked up.  Then we played some Twister, and that was the night for me.  It was time for states.

Saturday, March 19

This was the day.  I woke up reluctanly at about 5:15, had some donuts and then packed up my stuff and headed for the school.  We had a somewhat quiet bus ride there.  It was so early.  I had brought a pillow.  So, we arrived at Durfee, and then went to our rooms.  We had a major five star reunion with Dan Fabulous and Alex Johnson from St. John's, and all the Peabody people.  We saw Emily Piper, Michelle Monaco, Connie Russo, Doug (who needs no last name) and Kyle, and some other people from the past such as Dan Blundell, Curtis Salt, Evan Ardolino, Ryan Monaco and Kelly Dooley.  It was a fun reunion.  We set up the shrine and then, the shows got started.

We had lunch after that.  I love lunch.  We've formed a group of like, nine people that always hang together: Jess, Laura, Catie, Kim, Eric, Emily, Marianne, Colin and I, and then there's Mike Interrante, but that's only sometimes.

After that, we were up.  We missed Kansas from Hamilton-Wenham.  We got ready, had out jagged ice ceremony and got pumped and ready to go.  We exchanged speeches and headed down to the band room where we got ready to go on.  Tyler, attempting to give me a wedgie with Jackie's wand, broke the wand when he jabbed it into my back...hehe...so, that was it.  I gave a little speech to Marianne and Eric, and then we went on.  The show went very smoothly and was next to perfect.  There was only two things I didn't like about my performance.  I talked through a laugh after the "Sure, why not?" line and my ears fell off in Fun Forever Land.  Suddenly it was the whale scene, and when Mike Hegarty came jumping off the stage I knew we had done it.  After our last scene, we ran joyfully into the hallway.  We got the feeling.

After that was the tedious dance.  Tyler gave me a wedgie and attempted to give me several more.  At one point, I flew to the ground so forcefully that my phone came out of my pocket and was left in the cafeteria, which I realized during the awards ceremony.  Speaking of the awards ceremony, we sat there in the auditorium after the dance for about an hour and a half,  Mr. E went crazy and started singing The Star Spangled Banner, and the judges eventually came out.  So we saw the video Durfee made us, which was really, really funny.  Then we went on to awards. We started winning awards...a lot of awards.  I think the most touching one was Harry getting a techinal director award.  I got to see his face and it was priceless.  So a lot of people, especially tech, got awards.  Then, it came time to announce the shows...we all held hands.  And the first show...Kansas, Hamilton-Wenham.  Everyone was shocked.  We had not heard good things about it.  Nobody knew what to do at first, but we eventually all got up and clapped.  Sitting back down and clasping hands again...Bob's Date, Peabody.  It was hard not to be happy for Peabody, but the first thing that struck us when they said that was, "We lost."  St. John's was obviously next, and sure enough The Bacchae was called next.

We were shocked...we filed out of the auditorium, exhanging hugs with some of the Peabody kids.  We got back to the room and got our stuff and silently left.  It was hard to believe that it was over.  I looked for my cell phone for a little while before I got on the bus.  We were all wicked pissed and depressed on the bus.  Nice people were being very...not nice, but the seniors above all, were robbed.  I just couldn't believe that it was over.  Eric made sure that I wasn't being optimistic on the bus ride, and Emily would yell at me for being loud, so I spent the bus ride talking to Laura and Catie.  I actually had a fun time on the bus ride.  Apparently Tyler went crazy on the other bus, stripping off his shirt, shoes and socks.  I would've liked to see that...but anyway, we got to the school and quietly dumped our costumes off in the wood shop, then we actually decided to go to Bickford's.  No loss would stop us, neither would the fact that we got back to RMHS at about 2:00 am, after having been awake for about twenty-one hours.  So we went to Bickford's and I enjoyed myself.  Jarrod and I had some very nice talks in the car rides.  He dropped me home at about 3:30.  I talked to my parents for a second and crashed after my twenty-two and a half hour day.

Sunday, March 20

I woke up at 11:30 and played Lord of the Rings: The Third Age and finally beat it.  Then I did my homework in front of The Patriot and Gladiator.  I skipped SHYP and actually managed to get all my homework done by 11:30, where I proceded to stay up until about 2:00 thnking about how much I'm going to miss dramafest.

Monday, March 21

I was so tired all day...much to my dismay, after wroking extremely hard to get Arthur out of my history group, Ms. Gleason forced him in.  That sucked, and I knew that our project was going to hell.

We had a drama meeting after school...the last time we were all going to be together as a group.  We sat in a circle and got out all of our feelings.  I said a couple of nice things, and people made fun of me for being a band geek...hehe.  It ended with Mr. Endslow chugging a jagged ice, and then explaining that Cambridge (Rindge and Latin) invited us to do a performance there on Wednesday, the 30th.  We were so psyched that we'd get to do our show one last time.

We all decided to go to Dandi-Lyon's, but my car wouldn't start.  Doug tried to jump it, and Sean and I were really scared that he'd blow us up.  It didn't work, so Doug gave me a ride to Dandi-Lyon's.

I got home, had my trumpet lesson, watched CSI, then 24.  God, I love that show, it's so intense!  But they're running our of ideas...they're using the same stuff from previous seasons, and being the 24 expert that I am, I picked up on every one.  But the show is still awesome.  I went to bed, planning to get up and finish the load of homework I had left to finish, but I just fell right to sleep.

Tuesday, March 22

This was a great day.  There are very few feelings that are better than walking in to Rozzi's class first period and seeing a sub.  It was especially fun because her period four class was gloating about how they got to miss her, but they missed a sub.  Subs in math make for the best classes.  I got most of my English homework done which allowed me to get a 92 on the quiz.

Then there was the assembly.  It had a very interesting approach and sent a great message, but to tell the truth, I didn't really like it.  I think that people who are seriously racist won't care, people who are jokingly racist won't care, and people who aren't racist at all won't be affected.  This is where I'm really conservative in my beliefs, but I think it was stupid that all these kids got up on stage and really highlighted how they were different.  I don't like that.  I did think that Omar and Danielle had very striking points, about people hating Muslims after September 11 and people mistaking Danielle for a Metco person.  Pope defeated the purpose of the entire assembly when he said, "I sit with Indians at lunch, but some call them Sri Lankans."

I walked Laura home that afternoon and we had a lot of fun talking at her house.  But she wouldn't let me upstaris...hmm...I went to the library to get The Natural, then walked to Hamer's.  He was at the library, working on his research project.  I figured "...hmm...the rough draft is due in about two and a half weeks.  I should start my research."  So I walked back and got out seven books on Darwin and evolution.  Carrying them, they piled up to my chin, so Hamer offered to carry some.  I said no, but he took two anyway, sayin that "There was an 85% cance you would've dropped them."  Sure enough, he dropped them.  We talked for a while and I watched Little Hame play Lord of the Rings: The Third Age.  After a lot of talking I went home.

I went through my usual nightly routine: CSI and then House.  Hamer called me in the middle of House so I have a funny story.  I got up to pick up the phone and I ran, so my toe went up my pther pant leg, and I went crashing into my wall really hard, twaring my pant leg in half.  I was in a lot of pain, stupping my finger and toe.  I stayed up late reading livejournals and starting this mostruous update.

Wednesday, March 23

Today was not so great.  Rozzi was sick again, which is awesome.  Maybe she'll die.  And I took Oehmen's seat in English.  No offense to Nihar, but I love sitting next to Kristina.  I totally cheated and got a 100 on the quiz...and then history happened.  Arthur was horribly distracting, as I prediced, and I got very little work done.

I came right home and fell right to sleep...oh well.  Then I woke up and finished this update, which is where I am now.  Since I know exactly what I'll be doing tonight, I'll watch some CSI and then finish my homework and then I'll be done.

 

Woo!  That took me about two hours to write...what a crazy update, but it's almost all there.

--Trash

Sunday at 1:30 am

I'd update tonight, but I'm just too damn tired.  I woke up nineteen hours ago.  I'll go to sleep and probably end up not updating until Monday.

Monday at 4:48 pm

What do you know, it's Monday and I'm updating, just like I thought.  I've had an awesome, awesome time.

Tuesday was the snow day.  I was so happy!  I finally had an opportunity to work on the English paper, and of course, I slept in

Tuesday at 11:07 pm

So, I didn't quite finish my update yesterday.  Here goes.

...I slept in.   And of course, I went to Oehmen's instead of working on the English paper.  Sam dressed up in Erica's shirt and Kristin's coat and looked exactly like a girl and answered the door.  That poor Asian man.  Then I climbed up to the roof of Oehmen's treehouse and then fell off.  Then I went to drama.  We had tech time, so we scouted out Andover's stage.  It was magnificent.  On the bus ride home, we decided that J-Mill was having a party on Friday at nine (a kegger, by the way).  That was only the beginning...

There was lots of school and lots of talk about J-Mill's party and pretty much all of my time taken up by school and rigorous drama and the Pops rehearsal on Wednesday night.  Even Mr. Bunten was talking about J-Mill's party.

Saturday was the big day--Fest preliminaries.  I woke up at 6 and in the next sleepy hour and a half, we arrived at Andover, there was lots of dancing in the hallway, then I saw Cassie and Lauren.  People assembled the shrine, I almost knocked it down, then we did some questionable mad libs, then we saw Swampscott's Chamber Music.  It had a really cool ending and story, but was I was either unenthused or unconcious through the whole show.  Then, Newburyport's Cup o' Joe.  It was ferociously funny and awesome the whole way through.  The characters were awesome (Hamer, the cool kid and the gay ecoterrorists), but the ended was weird (as we found it later, they accidentally cut it).  Then, Andover's The Lottery.  For those of you who know the story, okay, and for those who don't, I won't go into details except that it was intense and I was really into it the whole time.  Then, Georgetown's Any Body for Tea.  It was a cool show.  It was funny, but the tech lacked a lot.  After that, we had lunch.  Good pizza, good times.  Then, Wilmington's Hard Candy.  It was really funny and well-done, but the play itself wasn't very plotful.  So then, there was Ipswich's Of Widows and Vegetables.  Thinking back to the Commedia del Arte workshop, I was not excited about this Commedia del Arte show, but within the first two minutes, I was already absolutely hooked and loving the show.  It was so well-done...ah!  Amazing!  So good, funny, and beautifully done.  After that, it was go time.  We took a break and went down to the dressing rooms.  After changing, we sat quietly in the hall...waiting...

Wednesday at 5:25 pm

I still haven't finished this update yet...okay...so here goes the rest.

...waiting...then came Stoneham, clad inn their costumes and make.  They were freaking out and jumping around and hugging all of their friends, while we watched them in silence.  When they were gone, we all sat in a circle and had the jagged ice toast.  We made some energy balls for Valerie, and took to the stage.  I sat on Gepetto's workbench with Eric on top of Marianne, and before we knew it, the show had started.  It all went very well, until the whale scene.  We were always worried about it...it had only ever worked in rehearsal once.  But on Saturday, as we all watched, terrified, with our hands clasped over our mouths, it was perfect.  The whale was done, and after a few minutes of joyous relief, Marianne and Shawn were lying on the beach.  It was perfect.  After Eric and I carried Marianne of the stage, I can't describe the feeling...we had done it.  It was amazing.  We all ran around and hugged each other, jumping for joy.  Our hosts and tech people ran in from the auditorium, screaming about a standing ovation.  Harry came jumping down the hall and we all hugged again in the crazy joy.  That's among the happiest moments in my life.  It all calmed down after we changed, had the director's meeting and talked to Mr. Endslow.  Then there was the food and dance, which really was not too much fun.  We just couldn't wait for the awards ceremony.  I walked around and talked to Omar, Jackie and Jill, then the awards ceremony finally started up.  After the really tedios introductions of the judges, they gave out all star cast and crew awards.  Shawn, Jackie and Tyler got acting ones and costumes, set design, stage managers and run crew got tech awards.  Then came the big moment...we all held hands...the judge made her announcement: "Stoneham" (cheers), then came the second one...we all held hands..."Reading"  We all stood up and cheered crazily, then kissed the plaque as Harry held it around.  Then we cleaned up and were on our bus ride home.

We went to China Moon, but didn't get there until after the kitchen closed (we hadn't gotten back to the high school until 11:30, and then on our way we had to turn around because I forgot my garment bag).  Mike gave me a ride home, then I started this update and fell right to sleep.

Monday was a really tedious day until finally, Dodgeball!  Only four people who were actually on the drama team showed up, but the cheap bastards took replacements that in some cases were better than the people they replaced, and then complained that they had a disadvantage.  They cheated, but of course, we still kicked their asses, winning the first two games for fourteen points.  In the first minute, Andrew had been hit in the head, Howie had been knocked to the floor and the rest of them (except Nick Caizza and Kevin DeBenedetto [the latter of whom should not even have been playing]) had made complete fools of themselves.  Kevin whipped it right at me and I caught it right between my legs.  That was the best part of the day.  We eventually got Nick Caiazza out, winning the game with five players standing.  In the second game, Christina got her brother out early, and we took the drama team to pieces.  The third game, however, we let our triumph get to ourselves and we got beaten, but it was still a total victory over a team that had cheated.  At the drama meeting, I was jokingly cocky, and everyone got really mad at me.  Mr. Endslow gave us all the information about semis.  We have a lot of really tough competition at B.M.C Durfee High School in Fall River, which is two hours away, but we got really pumped for it, so it should be really fun.  That night, awesome 24.

I was even more anxious for Tuesday to end so we could play dodgeball, and it only seemed to drag on longer and longer.  We were up against the Legion of Doom, essentially the wrestling team.  We were screwed.  They clobbered us in the first two games, but the third game.  Christina, Calley and Hamer were gone, Michelle was never there, and Chris Kelly accidentally missed the game, so were outmatched not only in skill, but they had ten players and we had eight.  It was a total blur of dodgeballs until it was just Lucas, Adam Mini and Oehmen against Kaldas, Pinette and some girl.  Lucas got out, then Adam Mini got Pinette, then Kaldas got him and it was just Oehmen.  He got Kaldas, and then for the dramatic finale, he got the girl.  We rushed the court and celebrated our amazing victory.  It was awesome.  I got home, played some DDR and then watched CSI and House.  It was an awesome day.

Awesome week...

--Trash