Shimmering Reflections

Banquet was... nice? Fine? Pretty good? Something like that. Congrats to the Juniors for pulling of a Banquet that definitely trumps last years. Also for not giving me a book as a Senior gift- way to think outside the box with the sketchpad. How did you get the pumpkin seeds for Herb and Skeet to pass with the Senora?

Anyways, selfishly moving back to me and my ongoing problems... A row of beads on my dress popped off 10 minutes before my date showed up, so there was a mad scramble to get those sewn back on. Then, we got pictures and the awkward corsage thing over with, got on the highway, and promptly got off the wrong exit. No big problem since I knew the area fairly well, we got there in good time- second people there actually. More people began to arrive, and compliments were spread around like fertilizer in a cornfield. It amused me that of all the lovely things I had on, I got the most compliments for the flower I stuck in my hair. Not the brand new ridiculously high-priced dress, nor the jewelry I bought specially to match it. Nope, it was the cheap sequin flower. It barely matched the rest of me, and it wasn't even meant to be a hair piece-it came on a skirt I bought a year ago. Sigh. Such is life, I suppose. But oh well- apparently it looked nice, and that's all that counts.

Along with the compliments came the hugs and various photo ops, the fruits of which I will present you with here.

I pity the people who sit across from me at Banquet- I take bad pictures of them. But it's their fault. If they would only wait for me and my stupid slow camera before they broke their poses...

And that's all the pics that Blogger is gonna let me upload today. For some reason it just ain't working. So enjoy this for now, there'll be more later.

Intermission

Banquet goes down in 5 hours, and I'm getting pretty nervous, as well as excited. Despite being forced to get an expensive dress, destroying my nice freshly manicured thumb, the Big Seating Chart Fight of '06 and having a serious communication problem with my date, who asked late enough to leave me rather unprepared, it's gonna be a good time. 'Cause there are positives too- my dress is black (yay!), my other 9 nails are nice, I got all my jewelry and shoes for a grand total of $7.50, the Fight is 5 hours from being ended, and the missing communication is going to give us something to talk about in the car. Plus, my hair seems to be coming along well- it's being done as I type. It's gonna be awkward, awkward, awkward. But fun, hopefully. Aaaack... I think I'm going bobby pin crazy.

Day the First

So, the long-awaited D.C. posts begin... The first fact of note is that I did not sleep at all Sunday night. Nope, not a wink. When the family went to bed, I changed into my travelling clothes and worked all night/morning on a drawing for my college portfolio. (Which ended up being destroyed by my brother and my cat 7 days later. Even so, I was accepted yesterday!!! :D) Anyways, I was feeling tired but not sleepy at 3:00, which set the tone for the rest of the week somewhat. Anyways, we all congregated at school, heaped our stuff in the parking lot and sat around hugging our pillows and trying not to freeze to death.

Then we all had devotions and the bus came... Brooke and I got rather bad seats at first, with only a bunch of food seperating us from the chaperones, although that didn't really bother us, we were just sleeping anyways. Well, trying to. The bus was suprisingly quiet for the first 3 hours though. One of the coolest things about a long trip in the early morning is that you get to see the sunrise...

Everyone gave up on sleep at about 6, so things got noiser. We hit up a rest stop on the turnpike, which was really nice... Panera for breakfast. They really have classy rest stops in Ohio and Indiana. Travelers tip #1. We switched drivers in Pennsylvania, so enter Steve, and adios to Charlie, who was a rather questionable driver. Steve is about all you can ask for from a bus driver, really. I'm glad they hired him again. Pennsylvania has always been a favorite state to drive through- where else do highways curve and go up and down? So exiting. Plus, it was the destination of my first road trip, and it was the last trip for my dad's old Javelin. He had sold it to some guy in Orbisonia, PA, and was hand delivering it. I got to ride up front in the carseat the whole way, and I don't remember it at all... *sniff*.

Well, on with the subject at hand. The drive through PA was all gray trees and purple redbuds, and after several hours and about 5 runs of my Smashmouth collection we got to Shenandoah. It's gorgeous, and I wish I would have been with my family for this and not my class- not all of 'em are nature lovers, and when you hear people complaining about something like this:

It makes you kind of sad. Oh well, can't expect everyone to get the same rush out of nature as me... :P Anyways, cool pics no? Sorry, but I'm going to try to keep people pics out, to foil all the stalker types that frequent the blog. Lol. Let me know if you're foiled, so I can chalk up the victory. Time constraints force us to end this post for now, but hold your breaths... Next stop- Derek and Derek and the Luray Caverns!!!