School & education related.

Ethereal

I can’t believe that the school ball is over. After months of planning and plotting of the annual school ball, I must say that I felt really, really proud that the ball committee this year far outdid last year’s. Since our school is one of the biggest secondary schools in the country, with well over two thousand students, one of the few venues that can hold about the thousand senior students and partners that attend the ball is Sky City. But one of the downsides to having such a large venue is the challenge of having to decorate it. Since the ball room itself is huge and therefore impossible to entirely decorate, we had to mainly focus on the foyer. My proudest feat has to be the 2x Thai Airlines’ cargo nets which I draped with white chiffon and wired up with fairylights, then hung from the balcony, dipping into the foyer. It took houuuurs. Now everything just seems like a denouement, there’s only grad dinner to look forward to in December, and then 7th form and college is over.

Anyway, the rest of the photos are up on facebook. I’m really ridiculously ill with the flu (don’t even say “swine”), but have to go into school tomorrow for rehearsals and a music concert tomorrow night… joy.

I can’t believe how much we’ve all grown up, us four have been in the same form class since 3rd form… 5 years ago, until now. Wowzers.

My handiwork in the foyer – draped chiffon with fairylights on two Thai Airlines’ cargo nets.

Please put me above the weather

Well, the highs of turning 18 rather ran out when I ended up in bed for a whole week with an awful cold – thus being “under the weather” – awful awful pun, I know. Only went to school on Thursday and Friday this week, and it’s sad that the only facepalm/headdesk – aka vaguely funny – moment of the week consists of the first ten minutes of 4th period American History. I think I summed up my week rather sadly when I wrote:

“Arrived at history class late today due to jazz combo at lunch time, only to discover Cara had taken my seat in the back row next to Joel. So I grumped and sat in Ben’s (empty) seat in front of Joel. Turns out Joel says he actually wants to sit next to me. So I tilted my head, gesturing at Cara’s seat next to Ben’s (in which I was seated), and he moved forward next to me. None of this was helped by Michael turning around from the front of class, observing, then laughing as he remarked “Ha, Cara you got ditched!”. Seriously.”

My week sucked. However, the only (ironically) redeeming feature is that it is now pouring with rain. Yay.

“Hearing my name creep outta your lips”

Wow, I’ve only had 3 hours of sleep in the past 30+ hours, so I’ll try and keep this snappy. Today was monumental in three ways –

1/ My AS Music exam is over! I have such an awful habit of leaving studying to the last minute – and stayed up until 4am freaking out about it. The moment of either doom or relief dawned upon me at 9am. 2 hours and 16 pages later I exited with a shaky hand and was left wondering just how “average” my result will be. Considering I screwed up my recital performance component, I’ll need about 97% in the written exam today to get an A grade overall.

2/ I’m proud to say that the U15b Girls Hockey team that I help coach (and ref and drive around to games and let my old uniform to) had a great win tonight over Epsom Girls Grammar School. I can’t remember if the final score was 2-nil or 3-nil or whatever; regardless, it was a happy evening, despite getting lost in the dark on the way home from the ‘away’ venue.

3/ Being ‘with’ someone has taken on a new meaning. It’s not about spending (or in some cases wasting) so much time on one another that everything else suffers; not about the sleepless, tearful nights trying to convince someone of trivial matters in arguments I don’t remember – and don’t want to remember – anymore. I’m happy now, my guy is an add-on to my life, not a sacrifice, we complement, not subtract.

Completely irrelevantly though, a friend I haven’t caught up with in ages just sent me a song he recorded – it’s fucking amazing, I might play bass for him (title line is one of my fave lines from it).

Last ten days of 17

I can’t believe I’m almost turning 18! In barely ten days’ time I will legally be an adult, be able to buy alcohol, go to pubs, clubs, R18 movies, etc!

It’s a really exciting prospect, yet at the same time scares the crap out of me. Considering the amount of things that have changed since even my last blog post (staggeringly busy, no time to blog, gah!), it’s amazing to think back on the transitions and growths that I’ve experienced in the past 17 years… at the moment I just keep thinking “holy crap!”. My friends joke and say that I’ll “finally be the age that everyone things [I] am” – because I’ve been sneaking into (mostly mates’) gigs in town for years, and have been awaiting the day when I can actually flash my drivers license at the bouncer!

Today’s been the hardest day of my week – it started bright and early at a little past 6am, and saw me go from running warmup laps around the hockey turf which I didn’t actually feel warm after; to attending two classes; leaving school for “year 13s’ half day Wednesday”, only to return for a 3-hour-long seminar by an Australian speaker, Darren Pereira; then I had two hours’ of concert band practise – yet another 12 hour day doing school-related things! In addition to all the stress of my AS Music exam on Tuesday, and internal mock exams all this week and next week, I got informed today that next Friday, on the eve of my birthday party, not only will I have to set up art at school for the annual 1st XI Hockey fundraiser, but then I have to race over to another school, play jazz for a charity gig, and rush back home in time for my own birthday party. How sad is that?! I’m furious at the music teacher – he has asked the stage band/jazz combo whether or not we’d like to do the gig, and most people weren’t keen, especially since half of them were coming to my birthday; but this just makes my already tight schedule even worse.

The thought of my birthday/arty is the only thing that’s getting me through these couple of strenuous weeks – the highlight is, though, I get to countdown to my 18th birthday with all my friends and family :D.

Shiver, stop shivering

It’s turned awfully cold over the past couple of days, which is unfortunately a great reflection of the current mood of my life.

School is getting more demanding, as is music; the hockey season starts this week and our first game is tomorrow – and it’s not going to be easy. I don’t remember how I managed to wake up at 6am all season last year for training, and then for music practise, but it’s only the second week of term and it’s already difficult. On top of that, I’m currently dealing with a breakup, and it’s not been easy… at a mental war with myself over whether or not to go back and try it again; but as is obvious, I have little time, and everything is taking its toll on me.

In other matters, every year, I am reminded of what an issue having numerous, eclectic friends that have nothing to do with each other is. This is an especially prominent feature in the planning of my annual birthday parties – who to invite, and who to perhaps invite as a buddy so they don’t get bored. I’m friends with people from so many social groups – the bogans, the indie kids, school band geeks, the normal “mainstream” people, etc etc. What also doesn’t help is that I have a relatively small, cosy house, and being in New Zealand, the month of May is at the start of winter, which means it gets dark and cold at around 5 instead of 9-10pm. What a hassle. But it’s one that I will have to go through again this year, especially since it’s my 18th and all… it should be good.