yum

This is how good the food was at boot camp. Kind of makes me wish it wasn't over.
(Pictures courtesy of Kimiko ;-)

boot camp

Feeling pain means you're alive, right? Then I guess I'm still alive. The last three days of spring break I was back in town for what my Yosakoi coach called 'Yosakoi boot camp'. And it was - nine hours of practice each day plus stretching and yoga. But it was well worth the effort...after the entire weekend, I am more familiar with the dances we will be doing in Japan this summer. We practiced everything from large stage formations to parade style where we dance in rows down the street, to individual auditions in front of a video camera (not my favourite.) We tried new formations, and even did some yoga to develop flexibility. We took measurement for the tabi shoes we'll be wearing to dance in Japan. And when we weren't dancing, we enjoyed some amazing food prepared by the mom of one of our captains - we had awesome rice, salad, sandwiches and on the last night we had shrimp and scallop pasta and fruit pizza.

It was tiring, and I definitely felt some muscles I didn't even know I had. But it was a great time to hang out with friends and get ready for spring performances and the Japan festival. It was definitely worth coming to camp, especially since in three months, we'll be here.

new layout

"But the name," said Kevin, leaning forward. "Is it real?"
"The name?" Archie shrugged. "Every name is real. That's the nature of names. When she first showed up, she called herself Pocket Mouse. Then Mudpie. Then - what? - Hullygully, I believe. Now..."
"Stargirl." The word came out whispery; my throat was dry.
Archie looked at me. "Whatever strikes her fancy. Maybe that's how names ought to be, heh? Why be stuck with just one your whole life?"
- Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl

That's kind of how I feel about my blogger layout. Maybe I was bored. Maybe I have blogging ADD. Or maybe I'm really so indecisive about picking a favourite colour that I thought it wasn't fair to the other colours that green got to be my layout for so long. Regardless, it's something I get restless about, as with other things like writing stories, styles of clothes, or the arrangement of furniture in my room. Every once in a while it feels good to scrap everything and start over.

if

"You mean," said Lucy rather faintly, "that it would have turned out all right - somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?"
"To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan. "No. Nobody is ever told that."
- C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

Have you ever wondered what might happen if you could hear everything people ever said about you? Or thought that life would be simpler if everyone in it came with an instruction manual? What if you knew what you were going to be when you grew up from gradeschool on? What if the person you were going to marry had a little red heart floating over their head that said "I'm the one!" and light-up maps showed us where we would live and travel?

What if we could know what might have happened if we'd made a phone call to a particular person, or said something differently during a conversation? It might take a lot of the adventure and spontanaeity out of life to know this stuff, and it might save a lot of confusion and embarassment. But what if a book showed up on your doorstep that contained all that information. Would you open it?

Would you really want to know?

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you know you've put off blogging too long when...

...you come home for Spring Break and your mom tells you "One thing you have to do while you're home is update your blog. It's been the same thing for too long!"

I guess it has.

So I am finally home for a week of relaxing (read: job-hunting, shopping and cleaning out my room) before the final stretch of school (six more weeks sans finals week) kicks in. I can't believe how fast the year has gone by! It's even scarier to realize that in three of my five classes, I have only one more test to determine what my final grade will be.

On a lighter note, spring seems to be coming early. The weather has been almost unseasonably warm lately, and buds are beginning to appear on trees - some lacy green, some almost yellow, and some bright red. And daffodils are opening, too. Grass is beginning to poke up from last year's brown remains, practically singing that soon there'll be a big green carpet to run barefoot in. I love this time of year.

when i grow up

Sometimes when I start thinking about what job I'm going to have after college, a little hut in the Himalayas with nothing but a cozy fireplace, a shelf full of books and maybe a yak or two for company starts to look mighty inviting. I've spent a good portion of this week trying to think of a job that I could wake up every day and be excited about in six months, in ten years, and ten years after that. I haven't come up with anything yet. So, here's a list of things I've been seriously (and not-so-seriously) considering before next fall, when I'll have to decide whether or not to apply to the school of journalism here. Here's your chance to pitch your say this way...what should I be when I grow up?

it seems I have been tagged

Sonnjea B. of the consistently humorous blog Koji's Kitchen tagged me to play the iPod game. Since, like her, I do not own an iPod, I will also have an iMaginary list of songs. (Since my computer got reformatted, I don't even have a MediaPlayer library. I'm picking songs at random from my CD case...how sad is this?) Anyway, here are ten songs picked at random from my CD collection. Now you know how strange my tastes really are:

1. Enya, Orinoco Flow
2. London Symphony Orchestra, Duel of the Fates (from Star Wars)
3. Charlotte Church, Carrickfergus
4. Bryan Adams, Here I Am
5. Coldplay, White Shadows
6. Ravi Bal, Captain Bhangra De
7. Jaci Velasquez, Crystal Clear
8. Hollywood Film Chroal, Learning to Fly (from Peter Pan)
9. Angel of Music from Phantom of the Opera
10. Oasis, Some Might Say

I, however, am not going to play by the rules and tag five people. If anybody feels the urge to look up the last ten songs on their actual iPod and reply in the comments, feel free.

war stories

A few weeks ago Washington Post columnist (and Pulitzer prize winner) David Finkel stopped by our News and Feature Writing class to talk about a story he was writing. He was shadowing a soldier who was preparing to deploy to Iraq.

Last week the story, 11 Days Till Baghdad appeared in the Post - it was interesting, but also gut-wrenching to read. The things that soldiers have to be prepared to witness and to do themselves aren't tasks most people like to think about. The story really brought home a local impact of the war. If you have some time, it's an informative, if sombering read.

just when we thought winter was over

And then it snowed. I almost left my window open last night...it was in the 50's. This morning I woke up to a blanket of snow almost 3 inches deep. By afternoon it was almost all gone and the gutters were gushing with melted snow. As pretty as it was, I'm ready for spring...