Epicosity Beyond Comprehension

Yes, I just made up that word.  But it's the best thing I can do to describe this:
It's Google Docs- for composition!  And it's free.  It's called Noteflight and it's seriously the best thing since sliced bread.  I can write and compose songs on any computer with internet- anywhere.  And it's way easier to use than Finale.

That was a 20 measure snippet of my latest project, a counterpoint duet for Connie and Jennie of "Twice Upon a Time"

I'm not going to win Script Frenzy; I've accepted this happily.  I have made great progress.  I finished my first outline EVER and it was 2.5 pages long.  WOO HOO!!!  Nothing I do is ever that short!  Anyway, I've had a major plot breakthrough.  Instead of the King and Queen sending  their daughter away to keep her safe, the bad guy kidnaps Connie, one of the twins, and accidentally looses her.  Maybe in the style of how Miss Gulch looses Toto in the Wizard of Oz.  Any ideas would be welcomed.  She ends up being raised by the Carver family until the day Jennie ventures out in the village and insanity ensues...

These are bits and pieces from their "I want" songs.  Connie's first, then they're together, (in a Distance Duet) and then Jennie.  I must say, I love Connie's melody.  It's so poignant; she's searching for where she belongs in the world.  I love it.

Anyway, good night.  I have to be at church by 7:45 tomorrow morning so I better get some sleep.  Yipes.

(wrote this post at 11:30 last night- coffee is a great thing :)
-Haili

Oh, Elli had her skating show last night.  She did "Colors of the Wind" and it was great.  I have a love-hate relationship with skating shows: I love them because they're so awesome and I like the costumes and the music; I hate them because I know that I'll never be able to do it.  I was talking to my mom about this last night.
When I told her that she said, "What do you mean, you can't skate?"
"I can't.  I don't think your skates fit me, and they hurt.  Maybe I need arch supports.  And you do not want to see me in one of those little skating outfits."
"If you skated, it would be a little skating outfit- skating is great exercise.  And my skates are formed to my feet.  You need to get them formed to yours.  And the place where we get Elli's skates has this oven thing they put the skates in and warm them up, then you put them on and mold them to your foot."
"How much does that cost?"
"It's free.  And you guys could do open skate at the Y this summer."
"We should do that then."
I've always felt like I never understood part of Elli's life, like my mom doesn't get my writing or music.  So, it would be really neat if I could at least learn to move around on the ice.  I used to hate skating because the skates hurt so bad I couldn't wear them for more than 15 minutes, let alone skate on them for more than that long.  and then we were always on the outdoor rink whenever I skated and it's hard to learn on that.  I also have flat feet like my mom, so I'm sure that doesn't help.  I still need to get inserts for my shoes.  My mom's trying to find an affordable pair.

Okay, gotta get going.

How in Keidreiy do I find these people?

So, I have this odd habit of finding people who could literally be my clones.

EXHIBIT A: Rebecca
I met a girl in my math class last semester named Rebecca.  Her favorite color is purple and she always wears these purple converse shoes.  I love purple, and my parents were going to name me Rebecca Rose.  I found out that her parents were going to name her my full name.  Weird, right?  Oh, and her favorite Disney princess is Belle (same as me) and she's even got a Belle sticker on her phone.  She's just as Disney crazy as I am and quilts, which is something I'd like to try.  She plays the violin and loves classical music.  I can play "Oh Come Little Children" on the violin and wish I could play more, and I love Vivaldi and Clementi.  And Beethoven, though my relationship with his music is more of a love-hate.  He's such a weirdo.  Seriously.  Rebecca also likes writing and if I remember right, she did Camp NaNo at some point.  She's also (legitly) ADD, something I think I have sometimes, so talking to her is so much fun because her brain moves as fast as mine.

EXHIBIT B: Mia (of Aperture Mittens, Hello World, and The Inkblots)
Ah, Mia.  (pronounced like Maya, by the way.  Will never look at Mee-a the same way again!)  Her full name is only a few letters off of mine and its very awesome.  Her initials are MMG and mine are MCG.  Kinda cool, right?  She's the one who introduced me to the insanity that is NaNoWriMo.  Yay!  She loves writing and reading and the Bible and playing violin.  She also loves photography. (see Aperture Mittens- that's her photo blog)  I would get into photography except I'm really bad with cameras.  I don't know why.  Their batteries die on me, SD cards get lost, screens break, pictures get deleted, camera gets lost... Maybe I should just avoid cameras altogether.  Anyway, Mia's awesome.  She also knows the ever-elusive Ellyn Gibbs, whom all of my friends are friends with (seriously, Melissa from elementary school knows her from church, as does Amy from the school I attend, and Mia from my college... it's weird... seriously creepy) Ellyn Gibb's book Torn Heart? Mia is the girl on the cover.  (apparently because she was the only one of Ellyn's friends with short hair- the heroine has short hair)  Cool, huh?

EXHIBIT C: McCaila (the creepiest of them all- I'm serious- she could be my long lost twin)
So about a year ago, Elli got a Make-A-Wish because her heart condition is life-changing. (stuff doesn't have to be terminal, I guess...) Anyway, we went on a Disney cruise, which was awesome.  I was hanging out in the teen area and they were having this get-to-know you game.  So they had us arrange ourselves by birthdays.  I hung out with the Decembers, and began asking, "Hey, what day's your birthday?" just to be friendly.  And the chances of a group having two people with the same birthday is something crazy- like 65%.  I was telling them my birthday, December 10th, and someone said, "Hey, she's got a December 10th birthday, too."  So I go over to say hi to this girl.  Here's our conversation:
ME: So, your birthday's December 10th?  What year?
HER: 1994.
ME: Whoa, me too!  That's crazy.  What's your name?
HER: McCaila.
ME: Me too!
HER: I spell it really weird.  (and here's where I started going bonkers)
ME: So do I!  How do you spell it?
HER: M C C A I L A
ME: M I C H A I L A.  Only like two letters off.  That's weird.
HER: Middle name?
ME: Christine
HER: Susan.
ME: That's my grandma's name!
SOME RANDOM LEADER: Okay, now arrange yourselves by shoe size.
ME and HER look at each other
ME: What size do you wear?
HER: 5 1/2
ME: Me, too!
HER: No way.
ME: Whoa.  This is getting creepy.
HER: What do you like doing?
ME: I play piano, french horn and guitar.
HER: I play piano and bass.
ME: Whoa.
Silence
ME: You like writing, right?
HER: Yep.
ME: Acting?
HER: Yep.  I directed a play and I'm writing one right now.
ME: Okay, that is downright scary.  I'm directing a play now- and I've written plays for years.
We continue to talk about Shakespeare and other random stuff.  She even looked kinda like me- brown hair, brown eyes, on the shorter side but still taller than me.  I sadly, do not have a picture of her- didn't have my camera with at the time.
The creepiest part?  I never saw her again.  I searched her on the internet, but couldn't find her.  I don't remember her last name and all I know is that she's McCaila Susan ???? from Canada who was born December 10th, 1994.

Yeah- I just searched the internet again.  I found a couple of McCailas from Canada.  Now, if I could just find her...

Opening night!!!!!

so the play opened tonight. it went pretty well, but I was really stressed out. I thought I had to pick someone up and I didn't. I forgot my shoes at home so had to go back. I got stuck in rush hour and ended up . my makeup wasn't working right my hair was falling out and I didn't know how to do my wrinkles it was stressful. anyway I'm on my mom's phone and it is not working very well so I'm going to stop now.

 IDEA: actress with multiple personality disorder who makes a person for every character

that's it for now

Story ideas already...

So I woke up this morning- actually dragged myself out of bed at 6:45 am (I usually get up an hour earlier than that, but I was up late babysitting last night and didn't get home til midnight) and somehow managed to have an idea for a story in my head.  Oh, the crazy things my tired brain comes up with.

Anyway, tentatively titled "The Time Traveler's Daughter" and going to be used for next NaNoWriMo (in November, not Camp NaNo) if I can get a plot, it's about a girl growing up in modern times who discovers that she's not from this time period.  Things that tip her off are her height (she's really short, and humans have been getting taller every generation)  her ideals, what she believes in, ect, ect. Not sure, I'll have to do research.  But it turns out that her father was trying to time travel and she was playing with it and accidentally got transported to the year 2012.  The machine may have made her younger- maybe back to a baby, I'm not sure, these are just swirling life smudges (Beauty is Blind reference!!!) in my head.  But it does wipe her memory, and she is adopted (most likely) and raised in modern times, until she starts thinking "I feel like I'm in the wrong time period" which is the thought that triggered this whole idea.  And maybe there's a romance.  And there will be 3rd person flashbacks to her grieving family in their time period and her dad trying to fix his machine to find his daughter.  And maybe her dad comes and finds her.  And there should be a bad guy- but who?  And maybe I'll actually write this in 3rd person for a change.  I'm thinking Mina for her name, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about that.  And I don't know what time period she's from.  Maybe the late 1800's?

What are your thoughts?

Opening night for the play tonight!!!  Wish me luck!  My aunt is coming up from Arizona for my sister's confirmation.

All right.  Adios!

Calista's Poem and If's Monologue

So a long time ago, I wrote a post that got deleted in which I randomly talked about a dream I had.  In it, even though we were several weeks into the play (which is performing this week!!! AHH!) my drama teacher said, "Okay, Haili, Elli, and Joe Schmo (don't remember his name) still have to do their monologues to be in the show" As in an audition monologue.  Okay, first of all, Elli's not in the play.  But do you want to know what my reaction was?  Monologue?  Wait... wait... we're good. "Give me a minute- I have it- I just have to print it off.  I don't have it memorized- I just wrote it today."
Yep... this is a monologue from "Letters from If" and I shall post it for you...wait.... I don't have my jump drive. Never mind.  I'll post it tomorrow.

Let me talk for a minute and I'll put Calista's Poem, updated, at the end of the post.  I really liked how it turned out.  So, anyway.  this is what I did today:

1. Checked my email
2. studied like a madwoman for my astronomy test (whilst muttering to myself in the corner of the computer lab about Jupiter, metallic liquid hydrogen, crater density and ion tails...hehe)
3. Got snacks and brain food (Yay snickers!! Protein and sugar!!)
4. Took said astronomy test in 20 minutes.
5. Went to high school, did music project while I waited.
6. Took "what disney princess are you" quiz and looked up activities for babysitting Thursday-(I got Cinderella, Mulan, and Belle...I can see Belle without a doubt, I guess I can see Mulan, but Cinderella????)
7. Ate lunch (stabbed a piece of weird chicken with a plastic spork so I could eat it... yum)
8. Took MCA math test segments 1 and 2- had some geometry stuff (geometry was my best math) but I haven't taken geometry since the ninth grade.  I knew that some things worked but didn't know the formulas.
9. Played scattergories in band...not sure why, but that's what we did.
10. Don't remember what I did 7th hour...
11. Play practice
12. Talked in a British accent with my friend who plays Louise, the serving maid.  Discussed how ripped Aladdin was.
13. Decided that my two eldest daughters in the play, Isabel and Marguerite, are fraternal twins.  They look enough alike... and we can't tell which is older.  they suggested that they be two months apart.  To which I replied, "Do you have any idea how much that would hurt?"  Marguerite replied, "Yeah, oops... one baby fell out early!"  I later told Beauty this and she said that they both must have fallen on their heads on the way out.  I agreed...
14. Went home, ate 2 fig newtons, and ran to piano lessons.  Recorded Musette, and continued working on "Puck" "By the Limpid Stream" "Etude: Ivan is Busy" (have you ever tried saying "Ivan" in different accents?  It's fun) and the Beethoven Sonata.
15. Got back, ate a weird dinner of canned italian food- ravioli=yum nacho cheese rotini=not so much.  Frozen yogurt for dessert... dang, I'm hungry now!!  darn it!
16. Attempted to put on my prom dress so that my mom could help me pin it up so I could wear it for formal day tomorrow.  Zipper busted to the point of no return and now we have to get a new zipper.  Ironically, as I was calling the lady I babysit for who is a seamstress to try and resolve this problem, my friend Liz called and asked if I wanted to ditch prom with her.  I told her that I already had my ticket.  I have no date, though.  Anyway, tears ensued and I'm a bit hormonal this week with stress and being a girl... which my dad did not understand one bit and threw a fit.  Oh, and my brothers tore up a book.  As an author, you can only imagine how I felt about that.
17. Tried to play Kyle Landry's version of "I Can Go the Distance" and failed miserably due to the curse of tiny hands that can't handle octaves and 4 note chords.  But you can listen to him play it:

*Cries at the beauty of this and wishes for bigger hands*

((I might post a video of me attempting this just so you can see my tiny hands.))

    18.  Tried to go to bed, but blogged and wrote poems instead... which brings me to...

THE FINAL EDITING OF "CALISTA'S POEM" by Haili G

I will never see the sun rise

I will never see it set

I will never see fireflies 

Or a spider’s sparkling net 

I will never see a rainbow 

Painted 'cross the sky 

I will never see the stars glow 

Or the twinkle in your eye. 

I will never see you smile 

I will never see your tear 

But I can hold you for a while 

As long as you are near 

And I can feel the heat

Of the rising and setting sun 

And I can hear flies’ wings in fleet

Steady as a beating drum. 

I can smell the scent of rain 

As it washes clean the earth 

And I will not complain 

About my curse from birth 

I can hear your smile crinkle 

As it spreads across your face 

And I can feel each worried wrinkle 

And I know I've found my place. 

Here with you, I can see 

I'm where I'm meant to go 

I'm all I ever wanted to be 

When I'm with you, I know.

If I Had it My Way

Last night, I said something to Elli that I believe should be a quote: "If I had it my way, life would be a musical!"  And I'd  have lots of songs.  The irony of this statement is that whenever my siblings are really annoying me because they're singing, I say "Hey, we don't live in a musical!  Stop singing!"

Haha.
Wrote another poem.  Has no name, but I'm calling it "Calista's Poem" for the time being. (for obvious reasons)

I will never see the sun rise

I will never see it set

I will never see fireflies

Or a spider’s sparkling net

I will never see a rainbow

Painted cross the sky

I will never see the stars glow

Or the twinkle in your eye.

I will never see you smile

I will never see your tear

But I can hold you for a little while

As long as you are near

But I can feel the heat

Of the rising and setting sun

And I can hear flies’ wings in beat

Steady as a drum.

I can smell the scent of rain

As it washes clean the earth

And I’m not about to complain

About my curse from birth

Just because I cannot see

Doesn’t mean that I’m deprived

I can be just as free

As a matter of fact, I’ve thrived

I can hear your smile crinkle

As it creases your face

And I can feel each worried wrinkle

And that's all I've got... it just won't end!!! END, DANG YOU!!!! END!!!!!!!!!

Got this idea last night at 10:30 and said, "Elli! Quick!  I need a piece of paper!!!"  By the time I got the paper, I was losing the idea, but I think I managed to get the jist of it.  It rhymes- most of my poems do not.  And I'm not sure I hate that- but it's hard to write more stanzas as I try to end this.

All right, gotta go.

Bad Luck Sandwich

So I find it funny and ironic that the one day of these past few days of my life that I haven't had bad luck was Friday the 13th.  Because Thursday the 12th I got a concussion.  I managed to keep myself out of trouble on Friday the 13th.  Saturday the 14th, (today) I locked my keys in the car at Burger King and had to walk to dress rehearsal.  Luckily, my school is very close to Burger King, so I didn't have to walk far.  I had to call the police after dress rehearsal and pay them $20 to break into my car since my parents don't tell me where the spare key or jumper cables are until I need them.

Anyway, as far as dress rehearsal- it went okay.  Certainly better than Cinderella of Loreland, the last play I was in- we didn't even make it through the whole play.  The main issues of my scenes were that people didn't know their lines. *Cough cough Greedo Graspo cough cough.*  The throwing scene went well- got a little tangled up in my cloak, but that's it.  (I have a cloak!!! And it's green!!! And awesome!!! And too long!!!)

Speaking of too long- that was the story of my life.  The costume shop did a shoddy job of costuming our play.  I heard that the costume shop let their apprentice do our show.  They will be getting a call from my drama teacher, let me tell you.  They just don't seem to believe that I really am 4'9".  They did make an effort to hem my skirt and I commend them for that, but we had to hem the hem in half- much like my servant girl costume.  I wear basically a nightshirt with a peasant neckline and long puffed sleeves (it's white) under a lace up vest, which is tan with green leaves and pinkish red flowers on it.  My skirt is green, and I have a green hooded cloak.  Do you know how epic cloaks make you feel?  Really epic, let me tell you.  I only get to wear it for scene 1, though, and the beginning of scene 2. *sad face* But scene 1 is really long *happy face*  So many of the princess' costumes are way too huge and don't look very princessy at all.  I feel bad for them.  They sent us a wig with a ponytail for the Beast- and a mustache/beard thing.  He looked like a bearded lady.  Graspo (my son-in-law) is upset because his costume looks like a dress.  He's had a lot of crummy costumes- I feel bad for him.  He was really upset about something today- though I'm not sure what.  He wouldn't tell me.

I have old-age makeup for this play.  I've never had it before, and it's certainly...interesting.  My hair is in one french braid down my head (my hair's real short, so we tuck the tail of the braid under the rest to hide it) and grayed.  I felt so tired today, and I joked that I could feel every one of the wrinkles on my face as tiredness.  I also got my first nose bleed- it wasn't bad- taking off my make up.  I have no idea how that happened. And yeah. That's about it.  I have to go edit a whole bunch of portfolios now.

Adios

Updates and Aladdin

So after some research, I have come to the conclusion that I did, in fact, suffer from a grade 1 (ie minor) concussion on Thursday night.  I also talked to several people and figured out how I hurt myself.  Going back to the doodles, this is what happened:

Yeah, so... it was very interesting telling my college friends I had a concussion:

ME: Yeah, so I got a concussion last night...

THEM: *concerned* How?  What happened?

ME: Well, it's a weird story, but...I got thrown by a Beast on stage and hit my head.

THEM: O...kay...

WHAT THEY'RE THINKING: What?????

:D  I told my band director and she was like "You got a concussion?" It was kinda funny.  Apparently I take too good of care of myself to get concussions, in her mind, anyway.

So, I was watching Aladdin last night- forgot how much I loved that movie- but the DVD was scratched.  So I skipped from Aladdin's first wish- to be a prince- to Jafar taking the lamp and Jasmine trapped in an hourglass.  The movie skipped the whole second act!!! The best part!!!

However, I did not miss a certain part.  When Aladdin wakes up after Jafar traps him in the cave thing and he falls and all that- he says "Oh... my head!"

and I immediately thought "Oh my gosh, Aladdin has a concussion, too!!!!! AHH!!!"  Then the poor guy meets genie and is like "Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought!"

Oh..  Okay- I just really liked that

 I should really go work on editing stage play portfolios- I have dress rehearsal today and shall be very busy.  Adios!

Acting is a Dangerous Sport...

So, today we were practicing Act I, Scene I (well, actually all of Act I...) and we got the part where I, as Madame Rondeau (the "Maurice" of this Beauty and the Beast tale) decide to take the Beast's coveted rose as a gift for my daughter after the Beast has allowed me to stay in his castle.

Anyway, before I can even get a hold of the rose, he comes storming in, crying, "Thief!  Thief!"  I throw my hands up in front of my face to protect myself, crying, "Mercy! Mercy!"  while he grabs my arms and tosses me across the stage.  It's a sort of dance move, the way we do it, so that no one gets hurt (by no one, .I mean me.  I'm the one who gets tossed to the ground.)
Well, we've gotten it to work really well- and had only been painful (for me at least) the first time we tried it, since we had to do it multiple times in order to figure it out.  Well today... (they say a picture's worth a thousand words, so since I'm in a doodley mood- here're some paint pictures I made.  Beast=brown, Me=blue, hard stage=black pain=red)

"Theif!"
"MERCY!"

"I'll show you mercy!  The mercy of the Beast!"

WHAT'S SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN:

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY:

Stage Manager's eyes bulge, people gasp
I'm thinking: Ouch.  That's not how that's supposed to work. OW!  That really did hurt!!

Anyway, I stuck it out.  A lot of people didn't quite figure out what had happened until later.  One girl was like, "Yeah, I heard something bang." To which I replied.  "Yeah, that was my head."
Then I said to him, "You do realize that when you tossed me today, I hit my head, right?"
Him: (sheepishly) "Yeah..."
Me: "We need to work on that some more..."
Him- "Yeah."
I'm thinking: "I know we need to practice... but I'm not looking forward to being tossed to the ground more times than I need to in a given day.  I have serious thrill issues...
As my drama teacher put it, "You almost killed her today.  You NEED to figure that out."

Hence we had to practice tossing me to the ground for ten minutes straight.  I'm still not sure how this is all going to work out, but I'll find out tomorrow.  I have to also work on the part where wolves are taunting me.  As long as I get to stay on my two feet, I'll be happy.  I have more of this falling and what not to look forward to tomorrow- dress rehearsal's on Saturday!!! AGGG!

I'm tired and my head's a bit woozy and I'm just slightly wacked out- or maybe that's normal.  I don't think I have a concussion, because you are dizzy and sick to your stomach when you have one- I'm experiencing those on a really low level, so I might have a very minor concussion... whatever.  I'm okay.  I think.

Ironically, this hasn't been the first time I've gotten hurt in a play.  I was "Village Woman 1" in Jack and the Magic Beans and I got wacked in the mouth by the troll's staff.  (Some kid- not the girl who played the troll, mind you, was messing around with it)
In Tom Sawyer, I don't think I got hurt- but I did get to throw shoes at Huck Finn, which was fun.  I was a school girl nicknamed "Pup" I had a regular name, but I don't remember it.
As Hermione, the spy in "Kilroy Was Here" I had to wear shoes that were WAY too small (I have tiny feet- so I asked for 5s and got a pair that said 5 but fit like 1s.  They were puny and left marks on my feet for hours afterwards.  That was how I figured out that my left foot was bigger then my right- the lines stayed longer on the left foot and the right one wasn't as squished.)  I also ran out over these steps for a dance and totally tripped (in said tiny shoes) and scraped up my leg.  It was a rehearsal, but I got up and kept dancing all the same.
In "Cinderella of Loreland" I don't think I managed to do bodily harm to myself, despite the fact that I was wearing heels...(as the Fairy Godmother) though the fairies that were supposed to follow me around (8 girls between the ages of 11 and 14) were always lost and fighting and "she's too bossy" "she won't practice" "she thinks she's so much better than us..." UGG.  Worst. Play. Ever. To be in- I could never find the fairies, so I guess my stress level was harmed.
And obviously, here in "The Enchantment of Beauty and the Beast" I have gotten hurt.  I wouldn't be surprised if I get hurt again.

I don't know if I'm just a klutz or if acting really is dangerous.  I think it's more of a combination of the two.

Holy Week and Prom

Bought a prom dress yesterday at Goodwill for $18.99.  Wasn't planning to go to prom, but I guess I kinda have to now.  I'll post pictures of it later- it's black and hot pink, colors I definitely would not have chosen, but I like them just the same.  Anyway, the real reason I'm blogging is that I wanted to share a Holy Thursday story I wrote several years ago, called Agony. It's my experiment in second person.  Hope you like it.

AGONY

      You open your eyes.  It’s pitch black.  You see the earthen ceiling of your Jerusalem home near the Mount of Olives.

      There’s no way you’ll fall asleep now.  You get up and go for a walk.

      You go up to the Mount of Olives and walk to a ledge near the Garden of Gethsemane.  You hear a man praying, crying.  You’re cold in only a linen cloth, and wet, but you can’t leave.  It’s dark and you’re tired.  You might be able to get back to sleep now if you got back in your own bed.  But no.  The man’s haunting prayer imprisons you behind the ledge.

      “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.”

      You peer up and over the side of the ledge and see a man in his early 30’s praying so hard he’s sweating.  No wait- that’s not sweat running down his face, you realize in horror, fighting an urge to hurl- it’s blood.  You can find no wound.  This man must be praying so hard he’s sweating blood.

      “Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.”

      The man pauses, and then leaves the rock he’s been praying at.  You scramble up the rocks of the ledge and follow him at a safe distance.  The rock, you see, has splatters of blood on it from the man’s sweating.  You hear him from behind some olive trees near your ledge waking up three other men.

      He says loudly, disappointed, “Simon, are you asleep?”  Immediately, all three men wake with a start, embarrassed, ashamed.  “Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?”

      Simon tries to offer some lame excuses, but the man cuts him off, repeating an apparent earlier command, “Watch and pray.  Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.”

      “But Lord…”Simon begins.

      The man again interrupts, simply saying, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  The man’s coming this way again.  Quickly you run to your ledge and jump down just in time, scraping your knees in the process.

      You hear him again say, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; still not my will but yours be done,” he cried.  You see a blinding light suddenly brighten up the dark place, but think nothing of it.  The man continues to pray.  You continue to watch.

      Suddenly, the light leaves, the man stops, discouraged.  Shoulders slumped; he again dejectedly begins to wake his disciples.  “Peter, James, John, the hour has come.”

      Whatever happened to Simon?  You wonder, but before you can figure it out, you see torches light up the night.  Soldiers.  They are lead by a man dressed similarly to Peter, James, and John.  He walks up the man, says “Rabbi,” and kisses him.

      The man pulls away, with a look that drives shame into the other man’s face.

      “Judas,” he begins.  “You betray the Son of Man with a kiss.”

      You can’t tell if it’s a statement or a question, but you don’t want to stick around.  Bright torches and soldiers can only mean one thing- Romans.  And where there are Romans, trouble follows.  And a betrayal meant there would be an arrest.

      “Who are you looking for?” the man asks.

      “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answer.

      “I AM,” said the man.

      You’re right about the arrest, but you’re surprised.  This has got to be the strangest arrest you’ve ever seen.  The man- Jesus- goes willingly.  The man you believe to be Simon/Peter won’t let him go that willingly.  He draws his sword.  You shut your eyes.  A scream of pain reaches your ears.  You peek your eyes open and see of the Romans clutching his head, blood gushing from the hand covering the space where an ear used to be.  You might throw up.  The sight of blood makes you squeamish.

      “Put the sword away, Simon Peter,” Jesus commands.  So Simon was Peter, he just had two names. 

Then you see Jesus walk up to the Roman, touch his hear, and heal him.

Suddenly you get the urge to help this man.  For once in your life you’re making something count.  You won’t be a coward!  No, not anymore!  You are not afraid!  You crawl up the ledge, your skinned knees smarting the whole time, and stand near the bloodstained rock as you watch Simon put his sword away. 

You rush in, you don’t think.  You must be getting hypothermia from the cold; you can’t think straight.  There’s no way you stand a chance against those Romans!  If Jesus could heal a severed ear surely he’d save himself.  He doesn’t need you!

You realize your cowardly fear too late, and a Roman soldier grabs you by the cloak.  You don’t want to be associated with this man.  If he were to be jailed or killed, the same might happen to you. They’d never believe your story in a million years. 

You have a family to take care of; this can’t happen to you!  You run, ripping your cloak, leaving the soldier with just an empty cloth.  An empty shell that used to shelter your now-naked body.  Feeling ashamed and exposed, you run across the rocks barefoot back home, crying.

In the distance, a cock crows once.  

By: Haili G

based off of the gospel of Matthew

Things I've learned about driving...and having a car

So, here's my list of things that I've learned about being responsible for a car and driving it around (since I have to drive to get to school and I drive all over the place and whatnot)

1. Don't leave water bottles with water in them in your car in the middle of winter, especially if it's freezing outside
2. If you hear a little beep when you open the door to leave, it means you've done something stupid, like left your lights on or left the keys in the ignition.  If you do that, you may end up needing a jump... and that's never fun when you're stranded in a parking lot without jumper cables.
3. One way streets are CONFUSING! especially when you're turning out of a store or something and don't realize that there's a one way street divided by a median, and you have no choice but to go in the opposite direction that you want to go.
4. Detours.  Enough said.
5. Don't leave chicken in your car for a week.  It smells. (and I thought I didn't like it when it was fresh!) PU!
6. Clean up after yourself.  You'll thank yourself later.
7. Lock the doors if you want to keep stuff safe- but ONLY if you have the keys IN YOUR HAND!
8. Learn to close your glovebox, especially if it has the trunk pop button inside
9. Don't overstuff said glovebox.
10. It's easier just to open the trunk with your keys, unless you're lazy and left them in the house to grab your backpack out of the trunk...
11. Remember that dress you stuck in the trunk for the NHS induction ceremony you didn't need?  It's still there.  Don't forget it (because it's awesome and you got it at goodwill)
12. Be careful when changing CDs of your audiobook.  Wait until you're stopped.  I don't care how interesting the story is.  Or the fact that it's full cast audio.  Safety first, Haili!
13. You can sing and drive at the same time.  But driving is more important.

And now that I've given you thirteen things I've learned, I'm going to recommend that you read Thirteen Reasons Why because it just popped into my head.  It's about a girl who commits suicide and leaves tapes for all the people she's left behind.  It's sad, but interesting.  Not my usual fantasy-esqe read, but good all the same.

Also, if you have time, you should watch this video

INSANE!!! How does he do it??

The beginning of this post was from ages ago... and I have no clue what happened to the post that I tried to do yesterday.  Computers like to delete stuff.  I had a dream about monologues- I'll write more about that, blind babies, and give you my reasons for doing Script Frenzy later.

Oh, update on Script Frenzy- 21 pages!  Okay, about five of them are just place holders for scenes yet to be written, but still.  I'm working on it.  (I wrote scenes 3 and 6, so scenes 1, 2, 4, and 5 are just one page things that say stuff like "SCENE 1 "A is for Alone"" I have two pages of characters.  Lots of them.

Need to do homework now.

Adios