"If you ever feel loved or needed...

18 March 2006 - 1:15 AM

...just remember that you're one of the lucky ones."
^Straylight Run has some pretty good songs.

So let's see... I haven't written since Monday...

Tuesday
Shitty. Haha. I don't even remember the school day, because my school days this week have kinda just blended into a large blur of slacking off. I tried to dive, but my earplugs weren't working out that great. So then I switched to the other kind of earplug, which fell out when I hit the water, letting the water flow into my eardrum. Weak. After a bit, my coach was pretty much like, "get the fuck out, your diving is wayyy off." It hella sucked.

Wednesday
Once again, the school day was lost. I opted to take the day off from diving. I suppose I just slept all day, considering I have no idea what happened after that.

Thursday
It was pretty fun. After school, Sarah, Mitch, Courtney, and I decided to go out for some lunch. We went to Chapalas, a Mexican restaurant that's pretty close to my house, and had a hell of a time. I took everybody home after that, and then had to get ready for diving practice. Somewhere over the preceding day or two, I thought of using my molding earplugs and covering the edges with New Skin, a liquid bandage, so that it would be airtight. It worked well for the most part - I had to reapply more New Skin mid-practice because it wasn't applied in all places. While I waited for it to dry, a veteran diver showed me a good workout for my approach on the board. I had to put a removable earplug in the other ear to help even out the pressure change at the bottom of the pool. While the plugs keep water out for the most part, they still don't help with extreme pressure changes underwater.

When I got home, I fell right to sleep, since I had been up since 3:00 AM, doing homework, and got home and showered by 8:30 PM. I woke up in the morning at 4:00 AM and didn't have enough time to do much homework, so I went back to sleep after doing half of my Chemistry homework.

Friday
What a day. What a fucking day. I was in the shittiest, most depressed, most pessimistic mood at the beginning of the day. First, I hadn't done any homework - I hadn't done the Chemistry homework that was going to be due; I hadn't read the History chapter that we were going to be tested on; I hadn't read any more of the seemingly endless number of essays for English that the teacher so ignorantly assigned, as if she doesn't realize that her course isn't our only class; I hadn't done the 50-question review assigment for PreCalculus that was supposed to prepare me for the chapter test to come; I hadn't even done my French homework, the easiest thing in the world, and I hadn't studied for the vocabulary quiz in that class. To top it all off, I knew that I'd be cutting my weekend short - about as short as the drive from the school to my house - so that I could catch up on homework and do my English project, which was going to be due on Monday. I was in such a shitty mood that I decided not to take the trash out and I skipped my weekly face shaving. I'll have to take care of that tomorrow.

I hoped to get some homework done in first period, Computer Service and Support, also known as Tech. About halfway through the class period, the whole class had to help out the teacher with moving and stacking computer components on pallets that were to be picked up shortly after. I got to see the storage room under the ramp at the school, which was pretty cool, but I also didn't get to finish much homework at all. When I got to second period, I also realized that we had a timed writing today. I felt a bit nervous about that, because I didn't do well on the one from last week. But, as I read over the essay to be responded to a couple of times, I believe I understood the purpose of the piece, and I think my essay is a lot better than last week's. <--First sign of good news~ The second sign of good news was that our book project was getting pushed back a week, which took loads of stress off my back for the weekend.

The next sign of good news was that Dallas had obtained a copy of the quiz for History today. At lunch, we looked it over and found the super-cool answers... Little did we know that we would also be taking an Alabama literacy test after the reading quiz. I don't know if the literacy test will count for a grade. I wouldn't be surprised, becuase it's Mr. Deming, and he subconsciously wants me not to get an A in his class. Then, in PreCalc, the test turned out well. Because it was multiple choice, it couldn't have been easier. Once again, a load off my back. It was probably the lightest load, considering I have over a 104% in that class. Then, in Chemistry, we received little homework, and I actually finished that before school ended. In sixth period, the substitute teacher permitted students to listen to their music players. Sweetness.

After school, the schedule with the car pretty much went to shit. My dad ended up taking my mom to work and then dropping me off at UNLV at about 4:10 - 50 minutes early. It was alright, because it gave me time to make sure my earplug was in and sealed. even though we practiced from 5:00 to 6:00, there were about 40 divers there, which left time to just sit around. Then competition started. The diving competitions went in three heats - I was in the last one. So pretty much, if you saw my away message or my Myspace bulletin about going to UNLV for the competition, be glad that you didn't go, because I probably didn't start competing until 8:30. While I waited for my heat, I played around with my PSP and discovered that the campus does, in fact, have a wireless internet connection. However, I need to talk to a student to find out the password for the connection. After that, I'll be just fine with waiting to dive.

Despite my ear, I did relatively well in competition. Here's where I describe how diving is scored ~ Dives are scored by three judges on a scale of 1-10, 1 being bad, 10 being godly. I've never seen a 10, or a 9, for that matter, given. Anyway, every dive has its own degree of difficulty, or DD. The scores from the judges are added up and multiplied by the DD, and then all six scores from each dive are added up. ~ I believe that because of my ear, my lineup of dives had the lowest DD that I've ever had, including last year's competitions. Surprisingly though, I think I got the highest total score that I've ever received in a duel meet. It was satisfying. Even though I'm the only diver from my school, the school that I was against today had no divers, so naturally, I won. I think that overall, from both regions that competed tonight, I took third place. It would've been fourth if Shea had been diving, but he won't dive until at least next Friday.

After the meet, I caught a ride home with some kids from Cimarron Memorial High School. We decided to grab a bite to eat. We ate at In-N-Out, because we can. It was pretty fun hanging out with them for awhile. I, of course, showed them my Pablo Francisco: Bits and Pieces video on my PSP. Having brought my portable speakers, it was easier to hear. I finally go dropped off around 11:30, after more than seven hours of diving-related activity.

So, as you see, my day started out extremely shitty, but ended up being really good. It is now hopeful that I will get a good night's sleep, and not wake up until 3:00 tomorrow after noon. Goodnight, thanks for being patient with my blog entries, and thanks for reading.

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwneoha