Graduation!!

At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, the senior class met in the school gym. We got organized into our rows and soon departed to walk over the to Expo Center together. We entered in at the back and talked while we waited for the audience to arrive. At 10 a.m., four at a time, we walked down the center aisle while we felt like celebrities as our pictures were taken by people on the sides.

Sitting on the third row by two of my good friends, Ashley and Nicole, I discovered that the ceremony wasn't going to be perfect by any means! Jason, who led the pledge, forgot to cue the boy to remove their hats; a beach ball was passed in the boys' section during an administrator's speech; an air horn in the audience had to be confiscated by an officer . . .
The students' speeches were good and funny. The administrators' speeches . . . well . . . one in particular dragged on and on and on about positively nothing at all . . .
The A Cappella choir and orchestra were able to perform and we sang "Call of the Champions." Unfortunately, sound positively died in that huge room and we hadn't practiced for two weeks and, according to us whom had heard much much better from ourselves, it didn't sound too great. Ah well. What ever goes as planned?



It was neat to walk up and "receive our diplomas" (or rather the covers that hold them). But best of all, the best part of graduation was . . . GRADUATING!! WE'RE DONE!





Umm ... I'm not sure how I feel about this picture. Why am I leaning so much? --and NO, it's not because of the reason you want to say!


After graduation, Brant and I walked back over to the school to get our cars and drive home. Mom went to Grandma's for a little while and Dad and I went over after a while too. At 2:30 we met Brant's family and sister and nephew for lunch at Market Street Grill. After hearing about how marvelously wonderful this restaurant is, I finally got to try it. I wasn't disappointed. :) Scallops, shrimp, clams, halibut, and potatoes can't be beat! (unless of course salmon is in there!) We took some pictures around the area while waiting for the Whiteheads.

Don't worry, I took off my cords and medal for lunch. :)

After lunch, I went home and took a nap in order to "sleep-up" for the graduation party that night. Brant came over at about 10 p.m. and we had strawberry shortcake (aren't you jealous?) and started "Night At the Museum." We didn't finish it, however, because my mom called us from the party where she was volunteering and said to come, everybody's here. So we stopped it and came!

When we got there, we talked to my mom and right after I had addressed her as "Mom," she started talking to Brant about "Dad" which really confused the other guy working in the room, haha. He goes, "Are you brother and sister?" "Haha, no. Do we look that much alike?" So for the duration of the night, I made sure Brant realized we were brother and sister. Personally, I really wouldn't mind that, but he didn't like that idea at all, lol.

While there, we went through the inflatable obstacle course, skinned our knees in it, beat each other up in it, watched Lance Nielsen give a magic show and get balloon from him, had a prize drawing--at which I won a BYU bookbag (yuck!) and a U of U blanket (YES!). They accidentally mixed up the blanket and bag and I happened to get the mess-up. Yeah! I'll just have to give away that bookbag... After that a hypnotist came and made kids do funny things that they would never normally do. A few were acting, you could tell, but there were a few who really ... ya didn't know. And afterward, one of them said he only remembered "hot and cold and something about a shoe." He was very interesting to watch, haha.

After that, it was pretty much over and we grabbed bagels and headed home. By the time I curled up and read part of a conference talk, it was getting light outside and it was weird to think that I was bedding down at the time I usually get up: 5:50 a.m. I slept with a humidifier and a Clariton, however, so I actually slept a little bit tonight, which was an exception from what has been the usual. I awoke to my seminary teacher calling me and informing me I'd left my quote book in his room. "Hey Emily, this is Bro. Smith." "Hey!" "Hey, um, are you sick?" "Yeah, I've always got somethin'." "Did you just wake up?" "Haha, yeah." "Emily! It's 2:30 in the afternoon!" "I know! We had an all-night party!" hahaha

But now that it's all over, Emily must find a summer job. Hmm . . .

My last week as a senior

Jordan Seminary had a banquet for all seminary seniors on Wednesday and it was fun to take pictures and talk with everyone. We had a testimony meeting afterward that was really so good.

Thursday was Senior Awards Night. I really didn't want to go sit for hours and listen to other people get awards, but after calls and getting called to the office to be told I should come and my mother virutally forcing me to, I went. I was honored again for being a Sterling Scholar and then I got a scholarship that I didn't know I'd get. So that was cool! I actually have interviews for another scholarship on Monday. This scholarship is worth ten times as much as the one I was awarded on Thursday! Jeez, I hope I do well!

Friday was spent reading Sense and Sensibility, having one last [really good] testimony meeting in seminary, informing my calculus class of the wonders of magnetic resonance imaging, and finishing the dress aforementioned. It took a long time because of confusing instructions, messing up, and perfectionistic Emily habits. Now all I need to do is make the top of the zipper look presentable and I'll have my new dress. :) Yummy! After school Brant and I abused each other senseless with a combination of pinning each other down, throwing pine cones, scraping those pine cones on each other's skin, and kneeling on each other's sternums and ribs. Yeah, you thought I was kidding when I said "abusive." Now you know betta. We're feisty. After that and some talking, we went to Ashley's BBQ and had fun eating hamburgers, singing all sorts of songs, selling "pictures with Brant for $5" (because let's face it, who doesn't want to be in a picture with him?), and running, jumping, and kicking our way to 7-11 to get slurpies.

Saturday was Senior Dinner Dance in all its glory. I drove with Ashley, Rachel, Kelsey, and Kayla (SWEET!) and after we picked our table--along with Stephen, Chase, Stephen's friend (don't know her name! -but she was cute and nice)--we took pictures!

When the dinner dance actually commenced, the dinner consisted of salad, zuccini (mm!), chicken, pasta, and your choice of marinara or alfredo sauce with lemonade. After dinner, the dance started and I'm happy to say that I have friends who take care with what they wear and how they dance. :) -Makes it easier for me to be good.

We all had a lot of fun and a little ways into the dance they showed a slideshow. When the dance ended, people took more pictures and cried, but I just ... didn't. I don't know, but I usually don't allow things to surprise me if I know they're coming. I prepare myself. I knew this goodbye was coming and I prepared myself accordingly so when the time came, it wasn't a shock to the emotions.

Pneumonia, my old friend

Pneumonia came around for another visit, but at an inconvenient time. It took residence the week before and week of AP tests and while my mom was gone. From the beginning of May until the the 14th, Mommy was in Texas with Rach helping her move from Austin to Dallas and so Em was a little lonely. Luckily she had a very good friend that took care of her. Dad took care of the cooking and the getting-me-to-bed-early portion, and Brant took care of the read-me-stories, make-me-peanut-butter-sandwiches, coerce-me-into-calling-the-doctor, come-with-me-to-the-doctor, bring-me-my-homework portion.

With regard to the come-with-me-to-the-doctor part, it turned out kinda bad. Since neither my mom nor dad could come with me to my appointment, he volunteered. Obviously this was a little strange for the doctor to come in to. I went to the Saturday, on-call doctor that was a woman and when she saw Brant talking with me in the exam room and especially when she knew I was only 18 and on birth control, she didn't like me very much. That must've looked awful! Heck, I wouldn't have had any respect for me either if I'd have been in her place! Too bad she didn't know that neither of my parents could come and that I'm on birth control for hormone regulation and breakouts! Anyway, it was a mild fiasco getting my x-ray at LDS Hospital but we survived and Dr. Hilyer diagnosed me with exactly what I had predicted. :) . . . :(

Pneumonia came during AP testing most likely because of AP testing. I took two tests out of my three courses. I decided that biology would put the ol' immune system over the edge so it was just English and Calculus for Em. I think I could've done better on the English one, but I actually don't care as much about either as I thought I would, haha. I really wanted to do well on the Calculus test and I think I did my best. Not that my best is a 5, but then I'm no math prodigy. I was very sick for the calc test and during the English test the people in the next room were being boisterously LOUD throughout. Plus the synthesis essay was just DUMB. They had us write about whether or not the penny should be taken out of circulation and gave us dumb, dumb documents. Ugh. Freak. Who cares.

You think that after AP tests, your life gets easy and school starts to die down. Not quite. We learned another chapter and had to do a math presentation in calculus. I did mine on MRIs, and understanding how they work and incorporate vector calculus took some time considering I know virutally nothing of physics. I also had to write a research paper for biology. So I compared and contrasted x-rays, CT scanners, and MRIs. :) CAT scans were a cinch after MRIs, haha. The chemistry involved in both is so neat, though! In English, however, we did take a break and watched Jane Eyre and I must say it was really funny seeing people's reactions who had never read the book. Their predictions were ridiculously off!

Choir Tour!

Well heavens to Betsy I have no blogged in SO LONG. I am sorry, but when you get behind, you just fall farther and farther until you have an enormous amount to blog so you just don't do any of it!

Choir tour was a blast and a half. We stayed in the Embassy Suites in San Diego and basically the breakfasts that I ate every morning there were the only good meals I had the entire trip! Everywhere we went, the food was over-charged and under-tasted. :)

Anyway, when we stepped off the plane, we rode a bus straight to Disneyland! Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, and Indiana Jones were among the favorites. Naturally. Since I have only been to Disneyland once, and that was 13 years ago, I was fascinated and loved it. The rides there are so different from Lagoon--they all have themes and the scenery is so elaborate!































The second day was spent at the San Diego Zoo. This is another place I've only been once, long ago. The animals actually moved! It was huge and it was fun to ride in the little bucket thing that takes you way up and over the entire zoo.
After the zoo, we had a workshop at Mesa College with a professor. I'll be honest with you, I really didn't like it. Besides not really loving his teaching method, I had to accompany on this awful keyboard that ... just ... ugh!
Thankfully it was only an hour or so and then we went to dinner (yuck) and the BEACH! Mission Beach, actually, and the ocean was warmer than I thought it'd be. This was one of my favorite parts of choir tour. We played in the water, Mason and I made a sand castle, Brant and Eric (eek!) chased me around the beach threatening to throw me in the ocean, and Jeff and I taking funny pictures of us and Dave Featherstone. I didn't know this, but some of the couples in our group wandered off down the beach and had themselves "beach kisses." I was actually asked later if I'd gotten one, but replied a not-so-regretful "no." Afterward, we went back to the hotel and apparently no one had gotten enough water, so we all jumped in either the hot tub, pool, or sauna. There were 35 people in a tiny hot tub so I definitely didn't go in there, the pool was too cold, so into the sauna went I and I stayed in that blessid 135 degree atmosphere for 45 minutes. I didn't start sweating (or "glistening") until I'd been in for at least 30. Yes, my body thermostat is off.

Day three we went to SeaWorld San Diego. Now this I had been to more recently, though in San Antonio. And honestly I liked the Texas version better! Well, you know how SeaWorld is. You watch the shows and look at marine animals. And if you're me, you get deathly ill off of the food. Unfortunately, my stomach suckings had not ceased by the time we got to the cathedral we were to perform at that night. Our performance was good, though, because the acoustics were amazing. Afterward, we had the opportunity to go outside and take pictures in the garden/courtyard thing in the middle. (It was an old, beautiful church.) So I contented myself doing that, but almost didn't make it to the bus, my stomach was killing me so much. I'd actually had stomach problems since the night before we left for the trip, but this was the worst.
We drove to Seaport Village where band and A Cappella ate and shopped. My mind was on my tummy and the person I knew could calm me down was Mason. While everyone ate, we strolled the shore and talked and then returned and went in and out of little shops, looking, but not buying. After a while I didn't feel so bad so we split a chicken sandwich right before we were supposed to board our bus.

The fourth and last day of tour we watched Goofy Movie while driving to Hollywood. I can't say as any of us loved it--Hollywood, that is. The Walk of Fame was covered with vile people, I heard, but thankfully didn't see, and Kodak Theatre was disappointing because I couldn't buy anything. :) I also hated the fact that we were there on Sunday so everything just kind of felt off. There was a group that went to Wicked that day too, which was naturally wonderful, but like I said, that day just wasn't that great in general. On our flight back, it was cool to look out the window and take off over the ocean and then turn back around toward the shore. I've always wanted to fly in the evening when the sun is just going down, and that fact that it was over the ocean made it GORGEOUS! A while into the flight, however, a friend of both of ours basically molested Brant. I remembered a time when I didn't say anything to someone who'd done that to me so I decided to clear up any misconceptions he had that that was okay and I chewed him out. I don't do this often, but it was needed so he got it and he behaved himself the rest of the time. And since then he's never so much as touched Brant in front of me. With girls, however, I understand that they sometimes lose control and just have to touch him, so I don't chew them out as much. ;) After Wicked we flew home. There was a frustrating little ordeal with the luggage, but we got it straightened out. And the next three days were spent feeling dead! Every choir or band person walked down the halls of Jordan like a zombie for a few days, but we obviously got back eventually.