Random Rants
I'm back from State! Well, techinically, I was back yesterday, but I was way too ecstatic to really do much online -- just checked email and visited my site quickly. There's not much to talk about except for State, so I might as well do that. Oh, and I should mention -- I'm on Spring Break! Yay!
The trip started on the bus. This was the first time the team has ever gotten to ride a bus up to any competition, and I can see why we may never do it again -- dancers in confined spaces get obnoxious. It's quite funny, actually. My coach was going insane at the front of the bus though, she took a picture of herself on her camera phone, and showed me later -- it was actually quite scary. Her eyes were all wide, and her hair was actually kind of mussed up (a change to her normal perfect appearance)...I guess you really have to see it to understand.
Anyhoo, as soon as we reached Portland, we went up to our hotel rooms and changed into our formal dresses for the banquet. The banquet was nice, the food was yummy, and the awards and activities were great as always. Allison's birthday was that day as well, so we had a cake and sung a couple times. Mmmm, cake. But the best part was when the juniors stood up at the front and did a little speech for each of the graduating seniors (me included). I cried when they started talking about the seniors (lol, at the time, Summer was talking about Coral, not me, but I cried anyways), and by the time Emeline started talking about me, I was pretty much bawling. I hate crying in public. Right after the speeches, we had a group picture, which wasn't good at all -- I had tear streaks running through my makeup, and I looked HORRIBLE. Oh well.
First day of State (Friday) was okay. In the morning we did hair and makeup, which was in between me watching Dawson's Creek and Saved by the Bell: The College Years. The hair was evil, Coach Stefanie made sure to secure in the fake ponytails with tons of bobby pins, and since my hair is the thickest of the team, she put double whatever she had been putting in my hair for past competitions -- over 20. Ugh. Oh well, it did hold...it just hurt like hell. The makeup was the same as the Sprague competition, only way prettier, because Coach Megan spent a ton of time making it perfect. The actual performance was okay, I was kind of sick during the performance, and coughed a couple times, but I smiled for the whole time, and completely exerted myself on everything. The only downside was that I fell out of my split leap. All-State winners were announced, and no one from our team won, which sucks, because although I didn't expect to win, I thought that it would be nice if one of us (the three seniors who tried out) did. However, Ben from West Albany (who's become kind of an idol to me over the past year -- he's just amazing) made the All-State team, so I was kind of happy about that. The major downside to the evening was the announcement of the teams that made it to second round. We didn't make it. This year was supposed to be the year we make second round, and we didn't. The tears started almost immediately. If someone were to ask me how I felt at the moment, I would have said: we didn't make second round, I didn't make All-State, I fell out of my split leap, and I started to hyper-ventilate after performing. Yay. What a night. I planned to party after coming back to the hotel, just to erase my mind of bad things, but I got too cold from staying downstairs with a few teammates, and came upstairs to hang out with my empty room, and blankets, and stayed up until 2am watching movies on TV. Fun. Lonely. My roommates didn't come upstairs until 2:30 in the morning, and spent another hour talking, so I didn't get a good sleep either. Growl.
Saturday was a little depressing. I was majorly bummed about not making the second round, and it was kind of the overall mood for the team as well. We went to the Coliseum at around 1pm and had our floor practice for the Grand Finale. At about 2:00, we came back to our designated dressing area, and did absolutely nothing for about 3-4 hours...I cried a little in between, wandered around, and ate carrots. Yay. Really didn't feel like being part of the team, since I was so grumpy. Finally, at about 6:00, I had to start getting ready for both drill down and Grand Finale. After about an hour and a half of hair and makeup, me, a few other dancers, and Coach Megan went to watch West Albany, and then went back down to finish getting ready right afterwards. West Albany was amazing as usual -- their theme this year was "Immortal", and they had awesome music for it. So cool. Having Ben on the team helps, lol, it kept a lot of us dancers occupied with watching. He ran into someone during the dance though, which sucked...but the dance still rocked. Drill down was meh for the beginning -- I got out midway for making a mistake on marching. Growl. But Helen, my fellow senior, original pioneer, and friend won. I mean, not just placed in the top five for drill down...she was #1 in the whole state. As soon as she won, the whole Coliseum erupted. Not just that...our team went crazy. We just attacked her after she saluted to the crowd...it was amazing. She completely deserved it too. Congrats to her, although I doubt that she will read this. After drill down, we performed Grand Finale, and went back to change. After changing, I got a few pictures of me and Ben together, lol...I had to, didn't I? We headed back to the hotel, and watched a video of our progress through the year, and went back to our rooms. Megan (coach) joined us at around midnight, and me, Emeline, Kayla, Trish and Malaina talked with her until about 2:30am or so...it was insane. And probably one of the best talks I've ever had...It was like randomness, and vent-session all in one. I can't mention everything, just because it wouldn't be appropriate, but I talked with Em about it. Also, I didn't realize how much I'm going to miss dance next year in college, and how much I'm going to miss Megan, because she is actually one of the coolest people I know. My room ended up going to bed at around 5:00. Whoo.
Sunday was a little saddening. For one thing, only about half the team was there, because the rest of the team had gone away to random places on Spring Break. For another thing, it was my last official day on the team. Sure, we're going to have some performances later this year for the school, but there will be no more practice, etc. We went over to the Clackamas Town Center to shop, and I went wild. Bought a jean jacket, corduroys, a cute tank top, sunglasses and some cute underwear, lol. Having my coaches to help me shop was fun too, since they both have the cutest fashion sense. I need to go shopping with them more often. Hahaha, I have the same tank top as my coach too...she bought it before me, without my knowledge. Oooh, and in the mall, guess who else was shopping? The West Albany team -- meaning Ben. Is it horrible to have a massive crush on a short male dancer? A male dancer that I know is gay? Argh, it's horrible really, but he's sooooo cute! And adorable. And an amazing dancer. Ah, I guess it's not so bad. I got to enjoy my shopping spree with some eye-candy too ;). Even though the weekend was a little depressing, I ended up coming home completely exhausted, and elated *points to icon* because of my new clothes and Ben-encounters. Lol...I'm so materialistic. Now I'm saddened to think about dance, just because it means the end of a four-year run for me.