Thanks to McCall for the awesome quote that's today's title. We were eating candy for dessert in our Family Home Evening group on Monday night, when she mentioned that she hates it when people talk about how it's dumb to bless 'refreshments' to nourish and strengthen our bodies (ha ha, I'm one of those people. Sorry, call me one of little faith, but I think it's a little much to ask for donuts, ice cream, or cake smothered in frosting to be healthy for us when, if we really wanted to be healthy, we could go eat an apple instead). Anyone, we discussed it, and she threw out the above one-liner. Much enjoyed.
Anyways, this week in short... pretty standard until yesterday. My class in the morning was canceled, but that only cleared up my schedule for more work. You see, yesterday catering was overloaded with events. A lunch for 250 people, a dinner for 56 people, and the Winter Ball for 450 people. With setup, serving/maintaining a buffet line, and cleanup, it was around-the-clock work, with those who worked the full shift going at it from 8am to 4am. No joke. As for my part, I went in at 8 until I left for choir at 1, then came back after Chinese (3:30) and stayed until 5:20. In the midst of all this I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on with my men's a capella group, the Beach Boyz. We were supposed to sing for the ball but were unsure of when or how. I was also a little anxious about us being in tune... also, while there are eight of us in the group, due to scheduling conflicts, I took us down to four just for this performance. That raised issues... anyway, I'm starting to ramble and ceasing to make sense. So at five-thirty our little group met in the gym to have a soundcheck (the people I called told us we needed one). After waiting around for forty minutes, we were told by the dj that we couldn't have one (teachers with classrooms in the same building and come in and complained about the people before us) and that we didn't really need one anyway. Sigh, forty minutes out the window. Still, after that we had a nice little rehearsal and I felt waaaay better about our upcoming performance. We sounded good, lol. Then we had a 'debriefing' where they told us that we would sing fourth in the series of performers between 8 and 8:30. They also told us that our names were on a list and that we would get in free. By now, it was a bout 6:30, so I hurried back to the hale, showered, read my scriptures (ten minute head start on my half an hour a day!), picked up a pitch pipe from Potter, then went to meet my date, Miss Jessica Jane Hagemeister. We met up and walked to the ball... where they wouldn't let me in without a ticket. More than a little frustrated, I got a hold of my contact, who made some phone calls... turns out, we all needed tickets, though they were giving us discounts. Here, I'm inserting a quick reference so you'll understand what I'm about to say:
Single ticket: $15
Couple ticket: $25
Discounted single: $13
Discounted couple: $20
Single ticket plus discounted single: $27
Ok, to explain. I had bought Jessica a normal ticket because I thought I was getting in free. Then they offered to sell me a discounted single ticket, which would have made my total more than a normal couple ticket. After a lot of frustration, an angry walk back to the hale to get cash, and some negotiating, they let me just pay five dollars more, getting the overall price of the discounted couple ticket. They also agreed to let in my singers who were only coming to sing, not eat or dance. Phew. So... in the end, it actually was an advantage to me (I saved five dollars off the regular price) but the miscommunications between the ball planners cost a lot of frustration and headache. Not the best way to start off the evening. Alas, guess that's life.
By the time we got in, it was eight o'clock and I was supposed to be backstage getting ready. I tried to get poor Jessica situated, then kept running back and forth. At long last, it was our turn, we got up onstage, and gave it our best. We sang "Faith" by George Michael and "Kiss the Girl" by Sebastien the crab. If you don't mind me saying so, I think we did pretty well. The setup was a little strained, but we worked with what we had and sounded good. Oh yeah.
Offstage, back to our table, grabbed some food (first since noon, soo hungry), and tried to eat fast so that I could dance with everyone else at our table who, due to lack of singing, was already finished. Finally, after finishing off the meal with a delicious ice cream sundae, the dance really started and my worries were over. Had a lovely time.
Stayed out late, but not too late, because... this morning (Friday) I was up at 7:20 to go attempt to earn my SCUBA certification. Fear not, gently reader, and trouble not your mind with anticipation, for as we shall soon see, our hero did prevail. *Ahem* So... up fairly early (especially for a holiday), grabbed a bite to eat, sacked a lunch, and piled into the cars to meet with our dive instructors and return to electric beach. Things went so much better this time for me, I can't even begin to describe my relief. One, I am no longer sick. Two, I knew what to expect with the weights and the level of difficulty, which I underestimated last time. Three, our skills were mostly done, so we got to spend most of our time just having fun, swimming around looking at sea turtles and trumpet fish (I actually saw both of those today!). It's incredible (but hard) learning to operate in a world that has three planes- up/down, left/right, and forward/backward. Practice helps though, and I at last had a couple of moments today where I really felt like flying, not like an awkward toddler bumbling around. Way awesome, way exhausting, so cool. We dived twice, loaded everything back up, and returned to the dive shop where we washed everything and put it all away. Finally, the much anticipated certification card (or at least a temporary paper copy) was awarded in a thrilling graduation ceremony (we all clapped for each other then took a group picture). Yours truly is now a certified scuba diver, free to rent equipment and dive at his leisure (or at least as my pocketbook allows).
Now, returned from this awesome day, I sit in front of my computer, resisting the urge to fall asleep. I hope you have understood something out of all this- I'm officially putting in a disclaimer on comprehensibilty. 'Night, y'all.
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