Picture day!

Today was one of those days... I woke up, went outside, got fifty feet, then turned around and went back for my camera, because WOW what a sunrise!!!! It was the beginning of one of the best days I've had in a really long time!

First, I pretty much aced my German test. Well, I think I did, anyway. I definitely didn't fail it, at least. And I left a little early so I could stop and get a donut and hot chocolate on the way there. It was wonderful. :)

Then I had every intention of going home to study and get all my homework done so I could be ahead of the game... but then I remembered, dangit, I had to be at the student club fair thingy at eleven. Since German class ended at 10:15, it didn't make much sense to walk the ten-ish minutes home so I could sit around for half an hour and come back, so I hung around the Wood Center. I ran into Natay, one of the sort-of members of juggling club, who introduced me to her Australian friend Hannah, who's crazier than me on massive amounts of caffeine! Well... at least AS crazy, anyway. I made the mistake of calling her a Brit and she flipped out, so of course, now I call her a Brit just to tease her. (Better than calling her a Kiwi, I guess.) Then we heard someone playing the piano and meandered over to investigate. Well, I meandered. Hannah took off running for it.

Turns out the guy playing the piano was a friend of Hannah's and Natay's. His name is Caleb, and he was absolutely AMAZING on the piano. He's one of those guys who just plays what he feels like, so you pick a key, and he'll make up a song right then and there. I was thoroughly impressed. Also, thoroughly jealous.

At eleven, I headed over to the club fair, where I was to sit at the Icebox table and ask people to come edit for us. Also, we were doing a little bit of a fundraiser, where we would write extemporaneous poetry. People picked a length (50 cents a line) and some words they wanted included, and we scribbled out poems until the person came back five minutes later and picked their favorite. Then we wrote it out all nice and pretty on a card and gave it to them. The catch was, I was the only person there for a little while, so I got to solo-write four poems about an elephant and a huckleberry. Then Jessa and Cindy showed up and gave me leave to wander around the fair.


First, of course, I found the medieval club. The ladies in charge about flipped out when I told them I could play all kinds of recorder and that I could juggle and teach other people how. I suggested maybe combining a medieval guild meeting with a juggling practice one day a week or something, and they basically begged me to join the medieval club. I asked if I could be a jester knight, and the lady (who was head of the Punster's Guild) said, "Of course! You can be a jester night and day!" Haaaa!


Natay and Hannah were still around, as was Amanda, a friend of mine from a class last semester. I hung out with them for most of the rest of the fair. It was the most fun I've had in ages! They're really energetic, and I felt like I could actually let my hair down (figuratively, since my hair's still pretty short) and stop trying to act like a responsible adult for a little while. We stole each other's hats and chased each other around, and Natay and Hannah did the limbo. I used to be really good at the limbo when I was like ten, but since then, I've gotten two feet taller, a lot less flexible, and a lot more self-conscious, so I just took pictures.


Hannah won every time, but after the first time, she passed the prizes on to other people and just played for fun. Then we met up with another guy, Josh. We all wandered around and played with the toys at the science club's booth and nicked cookies from the film club's booth and played with Natay's devil sticks, which aren't technically devil sticks, but lunar sticks, not that anyone really makes the distinction. Usually.



Josh was fun to meet. He seems to be one of those lady's men that is infuriating because he flirts with everyone, so girls get crushes on him and then hate him because they can't tell whether he likes them or is just being nice because he's a nice guy. I laugh at those girls, because seriously, if he's interested, he'll make a move. If he's not, he won't. Don't hate him because you're thinking too hard! Relax and have fun! Sheesh!

Okay, sorry for that momentary soapbox moment. Anyway, yeah. Nice guy.


We also ran into Jeremy, from my English History class this semester and also German last semester, and Adrian, who's the student body vice president. He knows like everyone on campus by name. The first time he met me, I just stopped by to ask him what time Club Council meeting was. Since then, he's never once forgotten my name, and he always smiles and says hello. Actually, I've only ever once seen him when he wasn't smiling. Wonderful guy. He's studying political science, and if he ever runs for a government position I can vote for, I will definitely vote for him. He's that awesome.

Adrian was wandering around reminding the Club Council representatives about the council meeting tomorrow, but of course, he stopped and chatted and took interest in what was going on and played with the exhibits. While he was at the science club's booth, I picked up the air cannon and shot him, and we started playing around with that. Unfortunately, it was a pretty decrepit air cannon, not even strong enough to knock a beach ball off the table from two feet away.


I was actually almost sad when the fair ended. I helped Cindy carry the Icebox stuff back up to her office and walked home. Since I still had my camera, I went ahead and took a picture of how deep the snow is.


I also got a fantastic scenery shot on the way home! Did I ever mention that Alaska's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been?


And of course, to top off my wonderful day, I had juggling practice tonight. Rob didn't show up, but nevertheless, we had SIX people there!


Natay showed up with Hannah and Caleb (piano guy, who also turns out to be a fantastic juggler), and Casey came, of course. Then, since there were five of us playing around and having a great time, people actually stopped to watch, and eventually, another guy joined us and asked to learn. Casey was a great teacher, and he befriended the guy, whose name was Ben. We were expecting him to try for five minutes and give up, but he stuck around for 45 minutes before leaving, and then only because the Wood Center was closing. He said he would come back Friday, and I think he actually might, because he stayed so long!

I worked with Casey and Natay on stealing today, hoping to get some really cool routines in for our next show, which IS going to happen! After we tried a little bit of leapfrog stealing, I tried doing two-headed juggling with Natay. Then we positioned Casey in between us and had him juggle three while we juggled three over his pattern. It was pretty hard, because our pattern was large enough that it was pretty inaccurate. In fact, my throws kept landing on Casey's head. Good thing we weren't using the two-pound balls! A bit of practice, though, and I bet it would look really cool!

This post has been brought to you by the word catarolysis.

(PS - If you look through these pictures, you may notice that there are three other people wearing hats like mine! I actually fit in here! :D)