I know I never post anymore. I use my DeviantArt for most of my musings these days. But this post is going to be entirely about me! People who know me know I never have in my life EVER obsessed over fashion. Expensive, name-brand fashion for that matter. I have always been perfectly content shopping at Ross, because I dont really care what I'm wearing. As long as its comfy, I'm good. And that still applies, but now things have ever so slightly changed. I hold fast to shunning American brands, but am opening my arms to Japanese brands. One in particular, actually. Who is this fiend? ONLY the most fabulous perveyor of gorgeous, expensive clothing that I have ever seen. The brand: BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. What kind of clothes do they sell? Lolita. No no no, not the perverted kind. The adorable, beautiful, innocent, expensive fashion kind! Their website is: www.babyssb.co.jp/ Now I've always known lolita, and liked it, but only admired it from afar. Over the past few months, however, I began to look at more and more lolita and finally decided I wanted it for myself! So what did I do? Well, fell hopelessly in love with BABY's line of course. Then I did something I never do, and never saw myself doing. I forked over 20790yen for a dress. Convert that, if you wish. But it's not hard to guess thats a lot of money. But I was more than anxious to submit that order! There are a lot of brands out there, all lovely, but BABY really has made the whole fashion worth while for me. Now, there are several different types of lolita. I'm categorized as a Gothic Lolita, as well as a Kurololi. This means I wear mostly BlackxWhite or BlackxBlack coordinates. I've always loved Gothic loli, and preferred it over any other type. In fact, I HATED sweet lolita. I couldnt understand why it was so appealing! Sweet lolita entails lots of strawberry prints, cakes, flowers, and sweets. The colors used most dominantly are pink and blue, with red and yellow being slightly more minor. To give everyone a better idea, I shall provide visuals:

An adorable sweet lolita:


Screw that, bring on the goth!


Visuals are nice, arent they? Lol, ANYWAYS, I havent gotten to the best part yet! Now Lolita, like all of my other Japanese-originated hobbies, has a HUGE world-wide community. The USA is the largest lolita community outside of Japan, but only because of our country's sheer size. Lolitas cover every corner of the Earth. Companies know this, so international expansion is only natural. Last year, BABY opened their first over-seas store in Paris, France. This isnt due to the French lolita community, but due to the fact that lolita is a fashion solely inspired by the French Rococo era. Not that you need to know the details, but it's a fact. Anyways, after that store opened, it was only a matter of time before BABY expanded to yet another country. And out of all the places in the world that they could have chosen, just where will they be breaking ground next you may ask? By my excitement, you have to know its the US. But thats only half of it. Out of the entire continental US, 48 suitable states, which do you now think they chose? ~~~~~~~~~CORRECT! California has been officially announced to be the future home of the first ever BABY US store. Not only that, the first Japanese lolita brand to EVER open a store in America. Now when you think of fashion and California, you immediately think of LA. And why not? It's the land of the posh and rich. But for once in who knows what lifetime, it will NOT be the center of the universe. In fact, not even close. BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT, my holy grail of fashion, will be opening their store in San Francisco! NOT the east coast, not the mid-west, not Southern California, but right here in Northern Cali, in a city within my reach. SO. The opening has been set for sometime in Spring 09, after being pushed back already more than once. So I'm beyond excited already, and am glad I have some time to build my wardrobe and have something excellent to wear for the grand opening! I have to hold back the squees and giggles, at the thought of the so many lolitas gathering in one place. Of course, there are gathering all the time, but I don't think there will be one quite like this. And I am ecstatic at the prospect.

Don't worry, it's okay to dissaprove. I'm so used to people not really understanding my hobbies, that I'm perfectly fine with anything anyone has to say at this point. I COMPLETELY understand how this all looks to other people. But I love it, and it makes me happy, so I'm okay with what other people think :3 It honestly doesnt matter to me. I live in my own world, "beat to my own drum," as my mother actually says. In fact, I'd really like to hear your feedback! I honestly want to know what you think.

~*~*~*~

EXTRA: I *highly* recommend you see this shoot. Real lolitas in action, doing what lolitas do best! Look gorgeous, and take gorgeous pictures in gorgeous places! In this case, the Palace of Versailles! http://gurololi.livejournal.com/120515.html

Chu <3!
Insane-Chan

Arrgh. I am just so excited about studying abroad @_@!! It probably wont be for another two years [after I've transferred], but stilll. It's SO hard to work with people my age who are studying abroad in the states, while I just want to see their country with my own eyes. I have another year and a half where I'm at now, then a semester at Univsersity, followed by Fall/Winter in [planning] Northern England as an exchange student. Or so I'm hoping. All God willing. Please pray that I make it! At this point, I'm willing to do just about anything for this. Studying abroad has been a dream of mine for so long, and I am prepared to throw down anything for it!

Despite hopw exausted I turned out to be, I managed to get up and take a shower at 9am. I promised Mike I'd pick him up early, and I was determined to do so. But Lance and Andrew showed no signs of getting up, so I left by myself. Me and Mike headed straight for the dealers room, and I immediately bought my AC Cloud action figure. I also walked away with an awesome L shirt [which I am currently wearing]. Then I tried to find the line for the An Cafe Q+A, but it didnt seem to exist yet and none of the staff could even tell me where the conference would be. Cameron then found me and we headed back to dealers hall. I lent Mike some cash so that he could buy the FLCL cat he really wanted, it was so adorable >w< Rob soon arrived, and I separated from the group to join the then very existant line. I found Kiley and Sheng, and sat down with them in line. Jenny then arrives very upset that she couldnt snag an An Cafe magazine since they had already sold out :( But we made the best of it, and she felt better after eating some Nachos lol. We had a few hours to wait, but we made the best of it. We joked about our "men" [aka, our favorite band members] while looking through the magazines. It also turns out that we were all crushing on this asian staff member that was helping control the line. He was super cute, and eventually someone openly admitted to liking him and we were all like, "OMG us too xD!" In line, we asked about the camera rule. A staff member said that we had to keep them in our bags [yeah, heard that one before], but we asked him to double check. He did, and then told us that they werent allowed what so ever. So we got that part out of the way, and had Sheng's brother take all our cameras. After we were finally let in, we all sat down and it was announced that no flash photography was allowed. The entire auditorium screamed. Again, they had changed the rules!! This time, cameras WERE allowed, but no flash. This meant tons of fangirls were ready to kill and maim the staff. We were allowed to send out one designated member to retrieve the cameras, and so Sheng ran out for all of us. An Cafe walked in and we all did what he did best-screamed like fangirls should. The Q+A panel commenced, and omg xD The members are just all so aborable! Not just their faces, but their mannerisms. It was amazing. Some funny questions were asked, such as which anime characters the members would cosplay. Takuya said Mario, I dont remember Teruki, a fan shouted "Sailormoon!" and Miku chose that one lol xD I dont remember the others either. And Miku's a Yu-Gi-Oh fan! Could that be any more adorable!? Gah, I thought I would die. Kanon likes D.Gray Man and admitted to being a former cosplayer! Miku also accidentally said the "F" word without realizing it. When the crowed freaked out, a translator whispered in his ear and Miku also freaked out saying that he didnt mean to say it! xD Lol, it was so hilarious. The panel was soon over way too quickly, and we left. We all headed back to dealers room to grab some things before it closed, but I was out of cash. So I went down to the atm, got some money, went back up, and the dealers room was closed D: Waugh! I REALLY wanted this Kingdom Hearts Poster too. Since it was closed, I walked around til I found Mike&Cam and we tore Lance away from his anon group. I met Kiley and Jenny out front, we said good bye, and Lance, Cameron, Mike, and Andrew and us all walked back to the car. Before walked out of the convention center, Cam and I said good bye by hugging a pillar. Mike snapped a pic of course. I then walked down the two blocks to my car hugging my Cloud Action figure ;_; I'm sad it's all over, but I had a blast! Actually it's weird though..usually I'm super depressed after Fanime, but this year I'm just glad I was able to go and have so much fun. I'm happy with what I came away with, and am excited for next year! Till we meet again in 2009 Fanime!

Merchandise I adopted:
FFVII Aerith action figure
FFVII Cloud w/motorcycle action figure
FFVII AC Cloud action figure
Sweet Lolita Parasol
4 buttons
1 keychain
L T-shirt

I ish happy :3

ichan

Didnt start off the best. We didnt wake up until 11:40, already over an hour behind schedule. We rushed out, I wasn't able to finish my costume, and didn't arrive until closer to 1pm. But we did get there in time for Nescaflowne, which was awesome, and Mike saw it for the first time. After that, I dropped by the ATM and we headed over to the dealers room. I didnt buy anything today, but plan to tomorrow. At 3pm, I went over to get in line for a ticket for An Cafe. I ended up getting in line behind the same girls I met at Joanns! CRAZY! We also made friends with another few girls behind us. So we were able to talk and hang out for the next 4 hours in line ^^ Not only do 2 of the girls live in Roseville, but they'll be attending the same college as well! We've all made plans to attend the Q+A together tomorrow afternoon. Early on in the line, staff told us that no photography would be allowed, so any cameras would need to be put in bags. Sounded fair enough. Then, after 4 hours, we get up to the door and they told us that NO cameras what-so-ever would be allowed and that we would need to put them away [wtf, WHERE!?] and go to the back of the line. I was so pissed off, and I refused to go the back. [for reference, the line was over 3 very big city blocks long, it was HUGE] So one of my friends' dads talked to the ppl, and were were let in. Once inside the auditorium, we set down our things and headed to the floor. Ramen and Rice began the concert with a few of my personal favorites, Sakura Kiss, the Howls Moving Castle Theme, and Ready Steady Go. It was sweet. Then, An Cafe appeared! It was madness on the floor. People were pushing, shoving, crushing, and bleh. I was okay until they pushed so hard we were thrown on the floor. A huge guy was on top of my legs, and on the torso of another girl. I tried pushing him up so that he wouldn't crush her, since he appeared too large to get up. Eventually he did, and were both helped up. I listened to the rest of the song, and then decided to have a seat with my friends. We moshed from afar, and gave Miku "heart hands." I didnt think he'd see us from so far away, but he did it back to us 8D! We all had a HUGE fangirl moment after that. I did brave the floor one more time for one of my favorite songs by then, "Escapism," but headed back up afterwards. After the concert was over I went back to the con and we watched anime until 12:30am before coming back home. Now it is definetely sleep time :3 Good Night!

This day started out SO wrong. My costume, the ones that I had spent the retire night working on, began falling apart as soon as got it on. I was irritable, tired, and stressed and that was definitely not how I wanted to start the day. On top of that, my phone died in the morning and I had no charger for it. So we swung my Cameron's, he got me one, and as soon as we arrived I headed over the Hilton lobby to charge my phone while making sewing repairs on my costume. That worked exactly the opposite to how I wanted it to. The charger didnt work, and I did have any of my sewing needles! On the verge of tears, I went over artists alley and borrowed one. I then spent the next 1+ hour n the bathroom trying desperately to make repairs. It got done, but the top would slide down a lot :P

While searching for my party, I ran into Rob. Then Mike came over! Yey. He brought Cameron with him who I then departed with. At about 3:30 I decided I couldnt stand to be in the costume any longer so I suggested to Cam that we left and so we did. We came back, changed regenerated, and headed back to the con. When we got back, we headed straight for the dealers room. I bought this parasol I had been eyeing since Friday. It is so cute :3 (its EGL!)

After browsing some more, we set out on a quest to find Lance. Cameron began to get really pissed, and even I began to fume as I realized what had been happening. Lance had been spending the entire con rallying and rip roaring for the Annons (anti-scientology) and not anything else. I had been driving him and stuff, but he spent the first 2 days with them. So Cam set him straight. I believe we headed to the arcade hall after that, and I danced Motteke to CaramellDansen xD We went back to dealers, and I bought a Cloud with Motorcycle action figure. We then headed off to Jack in the Box down the street and ate. After we came back, Cam wanted to get in line for hentai. But 3 hours ahead of time? I didnt think so. So I went to watch Shippuden with Mike and Rob. Right after that, we all went over and watched Anime Hell. It was so funny and random lol.

Lance and I woke up a little late, at 9:30 (and hour and half past the planned time). But we got out around 10 or 10:30, picked up Mike and headed for the con.

We got there at 11:30, but the only thing open at that time was artists alley. After chatting with some of Lance's Annonymous ppl, we all headed over. Mike was ecstatic and both of us ended up buying buttons. He bought one that said, "Fanime con virgin" (very fitting), and I bought 3 that are "^_^"; "T_T"; and "X_X" Lance found another one of his peeps, and Mike and I eventually broke up with them. Him and I headed over to the game room and pwned at DDR. It was so funny lol, Mike kept on calling Rob and telling him how awesome everything was. We then got in line for the Dealers room, and as fate would have it, my cousin Tara was right behind us! Lol. WE got into the dealers room and Mike continued to freak out. He wasnt able to buy anything tho. However, I got away with an Aeris action figure and key chain. Then we wandered around a bit more, watched Vampire Hunter D, ate pizza at Pizza my heart (yum!) andwent back. I went to a dollfie panel for an hour, then met up with them again. We then went back to the dealers room until it closed, and left an hour later.

We went to Camerons house, played Guitar Hero and Ate, than came back. I started to work on Shino at around 10pm, and worked on it ALL NIGHT without sleeping at all. So now were getting ready to leave :3

So at about 2am this morning, I finally went to bed. I got up 4 hours later, and worked on a few things. I had to work 9:30-2, so I didnt have much time to prepare things before then. The first few hours of work were fine, but that last hour lasted FOREVER 0_0 I was seriously suffering. I txted Lance about it, and he just said "too bad" :P [no sympathy]

After I got off work, I rushed to the bank to get some funds, then headed home to pack everything. Mike arrived at my house a little after 3, so we finally got on the road [after making 2 quick stops] at about 3:40; just a little behind schedule.

We arrived at the convention center around 6:30, and met up with Cameron, David, and Vih. David had actually stood in line for us, so I got to jump to the front and get my badge :3 But Lance still hadnt arrived, and no one could get a hold of him. He arrived a little before 7, so we all headed out to the theater down the street to see Indiana Jones. It was a freaky weird movie. Now I didnt expect to drive anyone but Cameron, Mike, and Lance. But there were actually two others. That meant 6 ppl, 5 seats. So Vih sat on Lance, and they all squished together in the back. That was interesting xD We all ended up going over to Cameron's house, watched a few of their vidoes on youtube, and then headed home around 12am.

Lance is currently trying on all my wigs. He just invented "Pretty Vicious" (cowboy bebop) xD Scary.

In two hours, I'll be frolicing off campus, out of work, and filling my car with my stuffs for Fanime :D I'm so excited!

Work will be slow until then..D:

So I went to Joannes today to start shopping for cosplay ^^ I ended up only leaving with a pattern I probably wont use, and some lace. BUT I was on the phone while I was there, looking at patterns and mentioned something about making my staff to my friend. Then these two girls sitting behind my looking at pattern books were like, "We can make staffs!" Turns out, theyre cosplayers! 0_0 AND they're going to Fanime! Which is awesome. I've never met another cosplayer in my area, so it was amazing to actually find two. It was fun ^^

Today was also the official last day of scool. So some of our international students are leaving T^T including Keiko. She's transfering to a school in Oregon. I wrote her a note that said, "Bye, Keiko! Have fun in Oregon! Ganbatte!" I wrote the ganbatte in Hiragana..but I guess I messed up a little xD;; oops. lol, but Keiko and I got a picture together and now its on my myspace so you can go check it out!

Because today was the last day, tomorrow is graduation! I'm the official photographer for our office, so I have to arrive early and take pictures of all our international students that are leaving. I'm sad, and excited. Hopefully it all goes well and I get tons of great pictures!

THEN after that its Tanisha's wedding. So I'll be on my way to that. I cant believe shes getting married 0_0 seriously. But it's going to be fun and she's going to be beautiful as a bride!

Okayokayokay. I havent updated in FOREVER but will begin soon because..tis FANIME SEASON >D

AMISH FEMINISTS!! USING CORN NUNCHAKU SSS!!! THEY CANNOT ENTER A BARN LEST BY AN AMISH PRIEST. BROCCOLI AMONIA.

So right now I'm talking to my friend Gracie. We're talking about anime and cosplay [usually our main topics] and I dunno, just the funniest things are being said. Well, maybe they're only funny to me. And maybe their funny because I'm at the same time reading on cosplay.com in the forum "WTF? Stares." Which believe me, is an amazing thread and everyone should look at it. Right now.

Anyways, so lets start off with the first great quote of the night..[which may be only funny to us but thats still means they're funny!]

"*-BISHES: Better than MUFFINS-*"

Me: Yay! Crisis adverted!
Grace:yes!
Grace: do I get a muffin?
Me: A chocolate chip muffin :3
Grace: Ya! do I get Tamaki-sama or Kyoya-san with it???? [AN: Host Club Characters!]
Me: Lol Ladies Choice!
Grace: both of them!! XD
Me: Yes! XD
Me:Buy one get one half off
Me: Wait let me rephrase that..
Me: Buy one get one [with clothes] half off
Grace: Hm...yummy, screw the muffin,I want THAT
*Insert above quote here*

So yea, thats was awesome.

Then there was..

Grace: You know you're a cosplayer when: you step on a sewing pin and you hardly notice
Me:.."but when you do finally notice you have a pin in your foot, you exclaim: Hey! I need that!" and stick it in your cosplay."

So that was funny because I wasnt supposed to reply to that..but I did. And know what? Its SO true! Cosplaying is the craziest hobby ever and I love it XD

So thats all folks. Toodles~

i-Chan :3

So yesterday was a very special day. As you all may know, our group of friends from school are very close. We've been eating lunch together since we were freshman. And we take it very seriously too. But now that we've all graduated, we're all going our different ways. Luckily, the furthest anyone is going is Southern California. But that still means no hanging out until Christmas. So yetserday we all piled onto Kirsten's boat and went tubing at the lake! it was a lot of fun and I'm glad that it worked out ^^ All the boys stopped shaving over the summer lol so they almost had beards! They say that they shaved them that morning. I was brave enough to take my camera with me so that I could get some good shots too. And I did! Everyone looked so cute soaking wet and crammed onto a taco tube lol. We got started around 2 [when we finally rallied everyone up from different docks] and left at 7. The count was as follows: Me, Micah, Sam, Nate, Brandon, Kelsi, Brandy, Kelsey, Kirstin, Lauren, aaand Abby [she actually couldnt come but she was with us in spirit]. So I guess..we'll meet again in December?

I am SO writing a book about us.

i-Chan :3

So its definetely been a while but..o well!

So on Sunday I went to Lauren's house to watch the meteor showers ^^ You can see the sky really well over there so I headed over along with Brandon and Cameron. We got there like at 5, so the sun was still shining. But Brandon brought his amazing poker set! So they taught me and we played for nothing but bragging rights. It started off fine..but turned into who had the most green chips XD lol I won! Then when the sun sorta started setting [2 hours of nonsense poker later..] we decided to head outside for a game of hide-and-seek. Yea..college freshman. lol. It got dark fast tho. And the "it" person was given a large rubber band gun [courtesy of brandon] to shoot the victims of poor ninja skills. That was interesting. Cameron totally unloaded on me once. I got revenge on Lauren tho! XD Anyways, so after we did that we got blankets and pillows and squishy boyfriends [inside joke] and all went and laid down on the pastures to look for meteors! We had the most random conversations ever. Like..Cameron was lying down behind the three of us, and he turned around so and layed on his stomache so that his head was behind Brandons. Now what Cameron said was, "Im close enough to flick yer head!" But what *I* heard was.."I'm close enough to LICK yer head!" XD It was the funniest thing ever. And Cameron kept on saying that to everyone! Here's how the next conversation went. Just switch every "flick" with "Lick" and you'll get the version I heard.

Cameron: "I'm gonna flick you, Lauren!"
Lauren: "I dont want you to flick me!"
Brandon: "I'll flick you for him."
Lauren: "I dont want you to flick me either!"
Brandon: "I flick softer than he does!"
Lauren: "Wtf? I dont care!!"

XD So yea.. LICK. Gross.

i-Chan :3

~*CONS*~

Guess what~!? Fanime is in 6 days! OMG! I wait all year for this to come around and its almost here! Hurray! It officially kicks off on Friday in San Jose. So my plan is to drive down after my finals that day from school and hopefully get there before 4. I've never driven so far by myself before..O_O Will I make it? I've raised plenty of money this year, too. So I'm totally pumped for the dealers room ^_^ I think I'll buy some Final Fantasy[mostly Vincent Valentine] stuffs, Host Club, Kaleido Star, Juvenile Orion, and other random merchandise.

~*COSPLAY*~

I did A LOT of driving around town today! Running errands and such. All of which were for cosplay. I have TWO planned out for Fanime next weekend. The first one that I knew from the beginning I was doing is Aeris of FFVII :3 I've always loved her character and am SO pysched to by cosplaying her! I want to make her costume as accurate as possible, but with my sewing skills, we'll see what happens. I bought the fabric for her outfit today though, and got my expensive twill for her jacket 40% off! Yesh! I ran down to Sally's beauty supply too and bough the hair extensions I needed for really cheap. Its a little lighter than my hair, but perfect for hers. I havent gotten her shoes yet tho..oopsees. I totally forgot! I really cant wait to be here on pose with some hot Clouds lol [no..not the ones that float in the sky]. My dollfie will be cosplaying, too! He'll by my mini-Cloud ! I havent even gotten the materials for his outfit tho. Yikes. I got his blonde wig in yesterday tho. Its his fourth fur wig! I never realized just how many wigs he had until now. He has six in total! My mom LOVES the fur wigs. Everytime I get new ones she just squeels over how cute they are. He does pull them off pretty darn good. Anyways, so thats Aeris.

My second cosplay is Yuki[Kurosu]Cross from the manga *Vampire Knight* I never intended on cosplaying her until last month when I really became a fan of the manga. Then I found a group attending Fanime and a great costume online shortly after. So now I'll be Yuki Cross-Day class member on Friday and Sunday of Fanime. I bought her wig from amphigory.com and its really great! The color is MUCH darker than I imagined it would be, but thats alright. It still works. I bought a styrofoam head to set it on today too. Now I can style it the way I want. The ends of it curls up in the back *gag* so I'll be pooring some steamy hot water on it later to straighten it out. After work today I ran over to Target and bought some socksies too. It took me forever to find some that would work. Cuz Yuki has like..those uber long thigh socks. I ended up with some knee-highs but my legs are so short that it doesnt matter. I still need HER shoes also! Argh! I am so behind! But whatever.

Friday Night at 6 is the Vampire Knight Twilight shoot [time of day, not book]~its gonna be sweet. I'll be biiten by Zero for sure! Least I hope so ;) No wait, jk. Zero is fine an all, but who I really want to get a pic with is Kaname *^.^* The Sat is the Final Fantasy gathering. Yay. This is so exciting!

~*CONFUSION*~

Actually, this'll have to wait. It'll damper my currently cheery mood lol.

i-Chan :3

WOW! Its been forever! I never got to updating-not even after Musicale! Gosh! I am such an idiot! Forgive me? :3 Ok so anyways, I might as well pick up from where I left off. Alright. Friday at Musicale was just..SO many things happened. Good and bad. But we'll go in chronological order. I got up bright n' early and my mom drove me to Sam and Hannah's who gave me a ride that morning. It was fun! Hannah was a sweet heart and bought me starbucks! Yum! Anywho, so we got there and went straight into our forver-long rehearsals. A few hours later we ate lunch and then changed into our gowns for our ajudication 0_0!! Holy Mucho! We were are super nervous, since we had been working so hard on this song [Conversion of Saul] but we were ready to preform it in front of all the judges and choirs who sat in the pews [the judges were actually at a separate table right in front of the stage oy!] We warmed up in the practice room then when we were called in, bowed our heads in a word of prayer. We straightened our backs and walked out in single file. We started off with our Moses Hogan peace-My souls been anchored in the Lord. Monte Vista had sung another song by him that day which was actually quite cool. Then as soon as we finished that number, Mrs. Robinson [lol! Can you imagine! Our music director is named Mrs. Robinson! Do you get it?] explained the story behind Saul. I was shaking! The bases start off the song and they were either very eager or very nervous..cuz half of them started on 3. But thats okay, they made it sound good. We sang our hearts out. And that stage..lemme tell you. Its HUGE! And the entire thing is made out of wood. So in that parts of the song where we stomp, it sounded like an atomic bomb going off! It was such an adrenaline rush! The judges loved it, and it was so great. Then we had more rehearsals and then command performances were announced. We won one for Saul! YEA! HALLELUJAH! Us and one other choir were awarded full-choir commands and a few other soloists and small ensembles [quartets] were as well. We were walking out of the auditorium for dinner when we realzed something was terrible wrong. The boys from our school were all huddles around a pew, and as it turns out, a boy from our school names Chris, who had just gotten out of the hospital [where he'd been since July] was having more pain spikes due to his severe pancreatitus. It was awful. They called an ambulance, and his friends were utterly distraught. So we stood there huddles in a circle outside, praying for him. The ambulance came and as he was pulled away on the stretcher, I felt compassion as other students from other choirs bowed their heads in prayer for him.

That night was the concert. I couldnt believe it-My mom, sister, grandma [mother's side], dad, and his parents all came! It was so great! I was so happy! First came command performances and so we went up and sang Saul. When I sat down with the others choirs afterwards, the girl I was next to [she was from Monte Vista] was like, "Omg! That was so cool! Like..I was kinda not paying attention but then you all stomped and I practically jumped out of my seat!" lol she was so nice. Then we all sang our combimed numbers with the rest of the choirs. Afterwards when everyone was mingling, I went up and thanked our director [cuz he was the best!] for making my last musicale one of the most amazing experiences of my life. He hugged me and asked me about my future plans. So a big thanks to Azusa's mens choir director! You rock! So then my grandma came up and gave me a boquet of white roses [my fav!] and we all went out for dessert! Thus, bringing Musicale to an end. Although I'll have graduated, I plan to attend the concert next year. Hopefully my parents will too! Yea!

i-Chan :3

Hey everyone!

Today is Thursday [yay I know my days of the week!]. Thursday and Friday, we have no school. Whaaaat??? Yes, yes I know. Its an inservice day because choir has Musicale ^_^ And over half the student body is a part of our school's choir. So, it just made more sense to cancel school those two days. ANWYAYS. Let me explain what Musicale is first. Basically, its a choral event where High School Choirs from all over Northern California come together for 2 days and sing a group of pre-selected songs, directed by a famous conductor. This year we are being conducted by the director of Azusa Pacific's mens choir. He's so cool! I like him! He's old, but he brings a lot of energy to the stage! Its wonderful! Last year we had this mean guy..he refered to the altos and basses as "merely fillers." :P Poop head. But this year is so much better. Which is great, seeing as its my last year ;_; Ok, so we've got that down. Nows the best part...its also a competition. Each choir picks two songs to sing for ajudications [judging]. Soloists can also enter individually. Whoever is the "best" gets to sing their piece on Friday night at the HUGE concert in front of thousands of people. Pretty sweet. Getting a command performance is a great honor! And then all the choirs go up and sing the other pre-selected music together. Its really quite cool. Now to begin my day...

I woke up bright n' early this morning at 5:45AM, took a shower, then dyed my hair~Oooo! I am now a dark dark chocolate brown. It looks good, and I really like it. I was getting compliments all day. lol uh-oh I didnt mean for that to sound conceited. Anywho, then I left at 7:40, picked up my sunglasses which I had left at work, got starbucks and gas, then was finally on my way. Traffic was awful! But I eventually made it there. We started around 9AM and rehearsed til 12 when we had lunch!

The ajudications began! We dont go til tomorrow tho, so we sat and watched while evaluating.

Now about our ajudication piece...We do have have two, but theres that one that we've been really, REALLY working hard at and all love dearly. Its called the "Conversion of Saul." This is in the bible. You know the disciple, Paul? Okay, so before he was Paul, he was called Saul. After the stoning of Stephen, Saul went on a rampage, murdering Christians and throwing them into jail. Men, women, and children. He went to the Pharisees and asked for permission to go to Damascus to destroy all the Christians living there. Suddenly, while on the road to Damascus, a bright light came down from heaven on Saul and the Lord spoke to him saying, "Why do you persecute me?" then God also says, "Fall down on your knees, turn HATRED into LOVE. Turn DARKNESS into LIGHT. Bow down Saul, Bow down Saul." But that text is at the end of the song. The song beings with the hatred and muder part lol. In the beginning, we're supposed to represent the screaming and angry crowds that Saul is leading. But in song form. EIGHT-PART song form. 8!! Eight different parts going on at the same time. FREAKIN SWEET. I stepped up to first alto for it, which Im happy with cuz its a really cool part. The beginning text of the song is in latin. It goes:

"CAEDITE VEXATE LIGATE VINCULIS CONDEMNATE VEXATE!"

which translates to:

"MURDER! HARASS! BIND INTO CHAINS! PROSECUTE! HARASS!"

Then we all bring out the pedal tone which represents the light coming down and sing the "Why do you's" and it just AMAZING! 8D! OO! And even better! While we're doing the latin text, we STOMP. We get to stomp and yell "Caedite!" and do that a couple times. Its so much fun!! And the stage we're singing it on tomorrow for our ajudication is made out of wood. O Yay! That means when the 30 of us stomp, its gonna wake the dead. I'm so excited! I cannot wait!

There's also this room in the bulding that no one really uses nor cares for. Most dont even know its there. But it has the BEST accustics ever! Its just incredible! We've been using it as a warm up room for the past couple years. Today after we finished dinner, 7 of us went in there and sang this gospel piece called, "My souls been anchored in the Lord." And we had this amazing, strong, loud tone just from 7 of us! We sounded like a full choir lol. Im not trying to brag, Im just saying that the accustics are THAT good. So thats that. To hear a sample of Saul [its only bits and pieces], go to www.zrandallstroope.com I think, and you'll find a quick sample there ^.^ *Squee* Im so excited! I cant wait! Can you tell? Lord please give us strength, courage, and humble ourselves in You, Lord.

i-Chan :3

So last night, my mom took me to see the play "Fiddler on the Roof" at the Magic Circle Theater down the street. I'd seen the movie beofore, and liked it, but this was the first time I'd seen it with live actors. And I LOVED it. The singing was just amazing-especially in referral to Tevie. He did such a great job! I think my favorite songs were "Tradition" [the opening number], and "If I were a rich man." Which, I must add, is 1000x better than gwen stefani's lame re-write. I didnt quite care for the actress who played the Martchmaker, and neither did my mother. But Motel was perfect and the actor who played Pechik...a dream come true! ^.^ For being preformed on such a small stage, the whole thing was actually very good! And the 3 hours actually passed very quickly!

There was a 20 minute intermission, and at that exact time Lance decided to text me. So we staretd texting back and forth and then the play was starting again. So, as much as I hated to do it, I actually texted during the show >.< It was bad of me. but I stopped, I promise!

So I will say that all in all, I emensely enjoyed the show and would gladly go again! 7/10.

~i-Chan

So Saturday was the school homecoming formal. But a lot of us didnt go, and instead decided to do something else. Kelsey and Lauren went to Nates and watched movies. But I wanted to do something else and so Micah and I ultimately decided to go see a movie. We made Lance come with us, too. He's new, and really shy. But he also likes anime and comics n stuff so he's cool. So Micah picked Lance up and then I met the two of them at In-N-Out for Food! The BEST food! Lance had never been before soand wasnt sure what to get. And we were all, 'Well..there's only three things to choose from." O yea! Abd Micah wore his Vash Jacket! He bought a Black Vash jacket and its sweet! So he told me to dress like that too and I did the best I could given the small variety of my wardrobe. So I wore as much as I could and chains and silver jewelry and stuff. Things that the others would NEVER let us two wear in public lol cuz we embarrass them. ANYWAYS, so we ate outside and talked Marvel Comics the majority of the time and that was sweet. Long live Spiderman, Tobey Maquire and Kurt Wagner! Yes! Soooo we ate and then after I got lost, we met up at the theater. There arent really any movies out right now, but we settled on Pursuit of Happiness, which I did want to see. It was a good movie! I liked!

Then afterwards, we ended up standing in the parking lot for half an hour just talking and goofing off. Which is where lance said THE quote of the day. Cuz see..we were taking pics with out phones of eachother to set as eachothers # ID and so Lance and Micah took pics of me at the same time. Then they were looking at them and I guess Micah had his camera's flash on, and Lance took a pic right when Micah's flash was going off and sooo then Lance is all:

"Aah, I took the pic when Micah was flashing you."

XXDD Omg. I just started LAUGHING. Micah kinda looked away and tried to contain his lughter and Lance was just embarrassed. So he's all, "Well..I mean..You know!" XD But it was too late. Anyways, so I set that as my msn sn and since no one else knows the story..its going to be very interesting to see how they react. ^-^; LOL.

i-Chan :3

Sooo this past week was spirit week. Now this is going to take a lot of explaining so..go pee now. Basically, its the week before the winter homecoming game. And throughout the week, many voices are lost. So each day of the week we have a rally to show our school spirit. The thing is, its a competition between the 4 classes. So its also a class spirit deal. This has become a HUGE deal at our school and its so much fun! Each day is given a theme, and you are to dress accordingly. But I'll get back to that later. So lets do some more explaining. During each rally, each class has to produce a "strut" and a skit. The strut is a song sung, usually a parody from a something, and is re-written to the theme of the day, or to represent the class thats singing it. For example, if Sophomores were doing one on "under the Sea" day, they might sing it to the tune on the little mermaid song, but the lyrics would probably be like, "Being A Sophomore, being a Sophomore, what would you rather be?" You know, something corny like that. And then you also do a skit, usually associated with the day's theme as well. Now, the teachers are the judges, so you want to do something that incorporates them into it also. We also do class vs class games. Like 4-way tug-o-war..now that was fun. Then there's "THE WALL." Each class is given a wall from the hallway to decorate in the manner of the main theme. Tho, seniors actually get a hallway to do. Last year, when the main theme was 50'S, the hallway to the girls bathroom and Chem lab became a 50's Diner. XD It was sweet. Not thats a HUGE deal and each class is given the duration of spriit week to work on it.

Now the last weeks day themes!

Tues: ARMED FORCES DAY.
So our overall main theme this year was Armed Forces. And each class was a given a division to dress as. Seniors were Air Force. That was sweet! I wore aviators glasses, my grandpas official air force jacket, and the white shirt and blue jeans. The Sophomores were Army...they had a kid dressed like tank! It was really actually..CUTE. Haha.

Wed: THRIFT STORE FASHION DAY.
So yep. Everyone headed to the good will and salvation army and bought the funkiest vlothes they could find. I wore this crazy poko-dotted shirt with argile socks and bright red high heels that I used for a cosplay earlier that month. Senior skit was a fashion show. Lol.

Thurs: GAME BOARD DAY.
Hwo my gosh it was amazing. Seniors were all scrabble pieces. And that was part of our skit too. Which was also amazing. We had students play a teacher, and our skit was that the teachers were all playing in a scrabble game show. I was with the Mr. Thomas group [Mr. T played by this sort of Jock kid that everyone loves lol]. Each "teacher" spelled out a word [using us, the students] that represented them. So we spelled out this huge long Physics formula that has no numbers, only letters. Then the letters [us] sang a song. We sang, "She blinded me with science." It was great.

Fri: BLUE AND WHITE DAY.
So yea, those are our school colors. And you pretty much wear AS MUCH of it as you can.

So that concludes spirit week. Im still exausted!

Fri was a 1/2 day, and since us choir students had to sing the National Anthem at thr game later that night, a lot of us went to Nates house where we played Halo and DDR for a good 3 hours. HECK. YES.

i-Chan :3