"If saw the sun fall down, I'd pick it up and make a crown - one that was a perfect fit for you."

14 May 2006 - 5:16 PM

That's a pretty good quote from "If", off The Red Hot Chili Peppers' new album, Stadium Arcadium
Okay, so I failed at that 'writing more frequently' thing.

Monday
Dive practice was pretty pointless because I tried to get an inward double somersault, but couldn't get it completely around, so I didn't even end up putting it on my dive list for this week. The only thing I accomplished was getting my front 1½ with ½ twist to go higher.

Tuesday
~cough~

Wednesday
AP Chemistry test today!
Wish I had studied more. I left about half of my free-response stuff blank. After the test, Chris, Dallas, and I went to Palermo's and got some pizza. When we came back, Biscuit asked us where we were coming from, and when we told her that we had just picked up lunch after our AP test, she... told us not to do it anymore. Haha! It's so great to be us, because if we were any other kids, she would've taken us to the dean's office for truancy, probably. We went back to 6th period and watched more of The Patriot, which we had been watching since Monday.

My ride to dive practice was on the other side of town, so she couldn't pick me up. I spent about 45 minutes to an hour trying to find another ride, because this was going to be the last day of practice before regionals. Finally, a friend from Cimarron picked me up and we got to practice on time.

Thursday
Pretty uneventful school day, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't have dive practice because the girls' regional competition was today.

Friday
We had a quiz in Precalc, which I did fair on. I got 30/32. I'll see which question I missed on Monday. As for the French quiz, I'm pretty sure I bombed that. I probably got 12 or 13 out of 20 right. I should really start studying for those things. We did a lab in Chemistry, but ended up running out of time. We'll have to start all over again on Monday or something. In History, we did this thing that was supposed to tell you what political party you belonged to depending on your answers. My answers turned out 6 to 4, making me a Republican. Then, we decided which kinds of debates we wanted to do in class. Anybody who participates will get extra credit, and seeing as I need extra credit in that class, I tried to shimmy my way into one of them. I volunteered for the debate on same-sex marriage, and I'm on the side that says it should be permissible. We're supposed to do a little research on it and have the debates this upcoming Friday. It should be pretty good.

Today was the men's regional diving competition at UNLV's Buchanan Natatorium. I didn't have any friends to give me rides, so I had one of the other divers pick me up. He ran a little late, but it was ok. When we got there, everybody got kinda bummed, because they knew that the two best divers in the region had just shown up, haha. With 15 minutes less warmup time than they had, we still took the top two places in the competition.

Afterward, the divers just had fun while waiting for the scores to get organized. We did synchronized 1½ somersaults with a full twist off both 1-meter and 3-meter. Then, I tried a front 2½ pike off 3-meter, which I had never tried before. I wish I had held on a little longer, because I came out a bit early. Then, I tried that continuous spin off 3-meter again. I got further through, and landed more on my head after 3½ spins. The crowd was going wild by now, with all of these divers just having as much fun as they could with the boards. We tried some inward 2½ tucks off 3-meter and then Mike told me to try a front 1½ with 2 twists. I had never even attempted that many twists before, but decided to go for it anyway. I put my earplugs in, hurdled, and tried my hardest. When I came out, before I hit the water, I saw everybody who was standing under the board. Needless to say, I smacked a couple of things. By this time, people were scared for my physical well-being, and asked me to stop. Haha! It was probably a good idea, because the burn scar on my right arm was purple from smacking so much.

Awards were handed out, and then we took pictures on the boards of all the divers and the winners and everything, and then I decided to do one very last dive for the night. It was a gainer in the 'method' position, meaning once I got into the air, I grabbed my ankles and pulled them behind my back, making a huge arch with my back. I ended up over-flipping it, so at the end, I let go of my legs and landed on my ass, which sent a splash up large enough to get water on a majority of the crowd that was standing on deck.

On the way home, Shea and I decided to fly our balloons out the window for pride purposes. They ended up catching lots of wind and banging against the car, and soon, they detatched from the strings and flew off.

When I got home, I showered and went to sleep. Even though I was in a good mood about being eligible for state competition, I was still pretty disappointed that there were absolutely no spectators at the meet for Durango. It makes me wonder if anybody will care to watch me next week.

Saturday
My brothers wanted to go to Mother's Day lunch today instead of Sunday, so we had dim sum at about noon. Afterward, I went with my sister to her house to get some family pictures off her computer so that I could make a collage for my mom for Mother's Day. After I took my mom to work, I worked on the collage for about three hours, which left it about half done with 21 pictures on it. Then, I picked people up and started on the way to meet Erica, Melissa, Alexa, and Mareena at the Las Vegas Drive-In to see Just My Luck and Take the Lead. We... got lost on the way there, to say the least. I ended up going too far down Lake Mead, then going back up, getting to the street I was supposed to be on, then going the wrong way again, and then I couldn't turn back and go in the right direction because there was some kind of rollover in the desert with a truck (that must have really sucked), and then I found myself in a random neighborhood, mind you, in the ghetto. I was tired to dicking around, so I finally decided to pull over and asked for directions. Luckily, there was a huge mass of black people hanging out, having a barbecue - haha! I pulled up to a few people and asked where I could find the Las Vegas Drive-In. One guy was like, "What!?!" as if I were a threat to him. Fortunately, another one of the guys was willing to help. He told me how to get around the accident and then make my way there. I was grateful, yet still a bit intimidated, so I ended up saying thanks and bye as I was driving away.

Finally, we found the place, and then we bought our entry ticket and drove in. Too bad the guy directed me to the wrong movie. When I got back up to the front, Erica and her friends had shown up, and were going in the right direction. I followed them and parked beside them, backwards, because we ended up opening the back door of the Explorer and lying down. It was a good idea to bring pillows and blankets, because Niki and Chris went up on top of the car for the first movie while everybody else was chilling in the car. Between movies, we were going to go to the concession stand, but ended up not doing so because Erica's car wouldn't start up. We had to go around to about 6 or 7 people before we found some jumper cables. We got the car started up, but then she turned it off, and we were fucked again. We decided not to go to concessions, and just watched the second movie. It was a bit more awkward among everybody during the second movie, as Niki was the only one up top, while Erica and one friend sat on the bumper, Chris and another friend sat on the ground, and Melissa and I were the only ones left to lie down in the car. I understand that people didn't want to be too intrusive, as Melissa and I were lying with each other, but I honestly felt really bad that they weren't comfortable in making themselves comfortable.

After the movies, we jumped Erica's car up again and went our separate ways. I dropped the guys off at home, then came back to work on that collage some more. I worked pretty fast, and finished the other half in about two hours. I was about to set the collage mat into the frame that I had my dad buy when I noticed it was scratched. Now, even though I couldn't find the receipt and couldn't ask for it because my dad was asleep, I had to go back up to Wal-Mart and exchange it. I got one that seemed fine, but when I got home again, I found that the top left corner was chipped off on the plastic cover. I was done fucking with it at this point, and it wasn't very visible after it was lain in the black frame, so I just put the collage mat in anyway. As I was setting it in, my mom came home. I finished setting it while my mom stood curiously at my door, waiting for me to open it, and then just in time, I gave it to her for Mother's Day. That was a pretty close call. She really liked it. Here's a picture of it.

Sunday
I went with my dad to get a suit fitted for my trip to Presidential Classroom. It ended up costing about $350 for a suit, shirt, matching tie, cuff links, and handkerchief, and a belt. Then it was another $10 for me to buy some dress socks at Wal-Mart. I should still buy some dress shoes.



So there's my week. After a few bumps and worries, I finally made my way to the state diving competition again.
Schoolwork is lightening up a little, as half of my classes - the AP classes - are finished with preparing us for the exams because we've taken them already.
And, I'm sorry to be kissing and telling, but it looks like I may finally be nearing a relationship after being single for 6 months.

Things are starting to look up =)

Take it easy, but strike hard.
Vaniah Schwenoha