"Let's roll the windows down, turn the radio up..."

Hi.

Today we got a door. It's a fairly pretty door; I like it better than the old one. It does, however, make the front entrance smell odd which, combined with the fact that I have been reading all day, is starting to give me a headache. I just felt like getting that out there.

I think I'll say what I've been up to in reverse order of events:

Like I said, today I have been reading. I finished a book called Night Watch by Terry Pratchett (Little, I finally read it and will somehow get it back to you- or get you a new one since this one has been forced to live in my room for so long). It was a good read. The plot took a bit longer to get going than most Pratchett books, but it was good once it got rolling. After I finished Night Watch, I read Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I read that book about a year or so ago and had stowed it under my bed. Then I went to a movie this Mother's Day and started to watch a preview, the whole time thinking, "This sounds a lot like Stardust by Neil Gaiman..." I even said so to Ben. The preview hit its dramatic conclusion and lo-and-behold, it was Stardust! My first thought was, "I don't remember the book being so action-packed... I'll have to reread it." So I accomplished that today. The first time I read Stardust I thought it was a decent book, but I think I liked it better the second time through. This may be because the last time I read it I had just finished a not-so-humorous book (one of those modern epic deals) and was not in the right frame of mind. But this time I had just finished a book by Pratchett, a satirical author, and therefore caught a lot more of the humor and cheeriness that was in Stardust.

But enough about books, on to other news...

Most of my friends are home from school now. It's great having them back. We've already gotten together a few times and hung out- lots of fun to be had. The other day a couple of us made stuffed animals (don't know why, but we did). The project only went to prove that I am not meant to be a master of sewing. Maybe the sewing machine didn't like me. I don't know. I have never really had a knack for sewing, same goes for cooking. Oh well.

The milk carton boat project is coming along slower than I would like. None of the group members are decisive enough to say what kind of boat we should be building. You would think coming up with an idea for a crazy boat would be easy, but it's not. We've had ideas range from a whale to the Millennium Falcon (which we are not doing, Connor and Jase). Hopefully mental lightning will strike someone soon and the perfect idea will emerge and we'll get started on construction.

Again, moving in reverse order, graduation at RCTC went rather well. The whole ordeal was kept moving, so we didn't have to sit around too terribly long or play "Pomp & Circumstance" too many times. Our performance a half hour prior to graduation went really well too. It was fun playing in a big space: it means you can play loud and sound will be too distorted for anyone to notice if you make any mistakes.

I think that's about it for the reverse order. Oh, for Mother's Day I gave Mom a trio of photographs I had photoshopped a bit on my computer. One photo was of a butterfly, the other of three tulips, and the last one was of a rose. The rose one turned out the best so I've displayed it below:


Tomorrow I go to see Pirates of the Caribbean III with my friends. I expect this movie to be the best one of the trilogy, and hopefully I won't be disappointed.

Friday I have my last round of chemo before I go to Hawaii. Though I would just as soon not have chemo, it'll be nice to get three weeks off from it afterward. I think some of my friends are coming with me to this treatment. It'll be nice to have them along, I think. Hopefully they won't get too bored: I don't think they understand how long this process really takes. My goal is not to fall asleep on them when I actually start treatment. It's really hard to stay awake sometimes, and most times I don't even bother to try: I figure it's easier to sleep and not contemplate that when that part of the treatment is done I still have 48 hours of it left. But this time I'll try to stay awake.

My general health seems pretty good right now. I've been slacking on stretching, and I really need to start doing it more. I don't have an excuse for not doing it, other than being lazy.

When I get back from Hawaii, I'm scheduled to have a CT-scan. Hopefully we'll see good things.

I've just remembered something else I've been up to: gardening. I cleaned out my garden (with the help of my aunt) and got everything that I wanted planted. Mom and I went to HyVee recently, though, and I ended up getting a few more plants: pink phlox, poppies, spiderwort, and lantana. I love these plants and will proceed with a rather disconnected paragraph commenting on each one: Garden phlox always smells so good when it blooms later in the summer. I've tried multiple times to get spiderwort to grow in my garden, but it has yet to take; maybe this will be the year. One summer I saw a huge lantana plant and have always wanted one since; it may be an annual (my goal is to eventually have a helter-skelter garden of perennials), but it's pink and yellow blooms are too gorgeous to pass up. And I don't really know why I got poppies. I think it may have something to do with my obsession with the musical Wicked and how that is connected to The Wizard of Oz, which supports a scene filled with poppies.

Speaking of musicals, I have decided that I am going to try out for RCTC's musical this coming fall. My goal is to be healthy and flexible enough that I can audition and get a decent part (which would probably be any part at all- I just want to be a part of a drama program). Rumor has it that the musical is going to be Tommy. For those of you who are not familiar with The Who, Tommy is about "a deaf, dumb, blind kid who sure plays a mean pinball." The musical itself isn't really one of those happy-go-lucky-Andrew-Lloyd-Webber-type musicals, but I think it'd be an interesting experience. Monday I was looking online for info about the musical and was checking the vocal ranges of the characters. I saw the Acid Queen part was written for altos, so I go to Youtube.com and watch "Acid Queen" from the Tommy movie. Tina Turner played the Acid Queen in the movie. My voice does not sound like Tina Turner's. Not even a little bit. So my chances of getting a supporting role depend on whether I can get my voice into mezzo soprano shape with a rock-and-roll sound and my confidence kicked up quite a few levels. Expect to see me in the background. Or the orchestra pit, if there is an orchestra pit...

I think that's all the news I have. I hope everyone has a good Memorial Day weekend.

~Cheryl