FINALS PROGRESS: 1/3 COMPLETED and some mo' reflectin'

Finals are one-third over! Well, technically, only 1/4 done, because this semester I only have 4 classes that didn't already take their finals early. So, one down today, one more tomorrow, and TWO on Friday. Gah. But one is English, so it shouldn't be that hard. My teacher even said so herself. [Speaking of my English teacher, she used to look a little like Anna Wintour. Then she got a haircut and now looks a little like Julie Andrews. Just sayin'.]

It was a great way to end a fantastic year of Concert Orchestra (aka the "freshman" orchestra, even though some genius freshies have auditioned into the higher orchestra). But, before fun and games comes work. Lots of it. Sort of. We sorted this huge amount of music into their respective "score orders": score meaning the conductor's version of the piece (which has every single part of every single instrument on it), and then the parts of the instruments themselves, which go in this order: violin I, violin II, sometimes violin III/treble viola, viola, sometimes viola II and III, cello, and bass. And then all of the other instruments after that, like piano, percussion, and woodwinds. Then each massive stack of music went into their respective folder/boxes, and were stored away in this huge shelf/drawer thing in the music library (which is a tiny room filled with those sliding shelves).

And then! We (as in the collective we, but really it was just a bunch of kids--others mulled around elsewhere, like by the piano, just sitting around, or actually studying. but of course, few people chose the latter option.) started a game of ninja. Which is basically a bunch of kids (or whoever) standing around in a sort-of circle and try, in an organized fashion, to tag the hand of another person, thereby getting him/her "out". It's hilariously fun and every person under the age of thirty should play it. Youtube it if you still don't know what I'm talking about.

Then came a few rounds of "WAH!", which is even harder to explain than ninja, so, when searching on Youtube for these curious kids' games, just look for a bunch of people standing in a circle, raising their arms and saying "WAH!". The point is SPEED. Go as fast as you can without messing up.

And yet another curious circle game! Called "zoo", I think. It also is a go-as-fast-as-humanly-possible-and-don't-mess-up-or-hesitate game. Since I don't think it's on Youtube, I'm going to try to explain it. For the record.

1) To start with, you slap your hands on your thighs TWICE and clap them ONCE. Repeat this rhythm throughout the entire game, when you're not doing something.

2) Now, to DO something: each person chooses an animal, and each person has to choose a different animal. Each animal has its own sign/symbol/shape that you make with your arms and hands. REMEMBER YOUR ANIMAL'S SYMBOL/SHAPE/SIGN.

3) Then, to start: slap slap clap, slap slap clap, and someone does: slap slap [their animal sign], slap slap [someone else's animal sign]. The slap-slaps MUST go between the signs. 

4) Then: the person who has the animal with the sign that the first person signed second (the action that is highlighted) must do the slap slap [their animal sign], slap slap [someone else's animal sign].

5) Everyone else must keep doing the slap slap clap rhythm while one person is doing the signs.

6) The signs go around the circle in that order, but you don't have to choose the animal sign that the person sitting next to you has. You can choose any animal, and the person who chose that animal has the responsibility to pick up the pattern and do the signs. 

7) If you miss, you're out (well, duh).

8) Get as fast as you can!

Was that coherent at all? Blargh, must go study for finals. But one more thing! Our orchestra "final" was one of those quizzes that tell you to read the directions first before doing anything. The instructions that followed that first one were all strange, and involved drawing or standing up and saying something or doing something else. You know what the last instruction was? "Now that you have carefully read all of the instructions, go back and only do 1 and 2. Sit back and see how everyone else does." AHAHAHAAHAHHAHA! The people who actually did do all of the stuff felt bad about it, and we all laughed it off. Then, our orchestra teacher (who is probably not coming back next year- :'-( boohoo sadface) told us that we must step back and think about what we are getting ourselves into before we make decisions about important things to do. We can't just jump right into something without even knowing what the big picture is about! And we have to learn to say no to certain things, even if they are good things that we want to do. You have to pause and think about what's really going on here, and whether or not you'll be able to do it. I think that that would stop a lot of arguments from even starting, especially in ye olde "cyber world", where so many people type up angry comments or emails and just hit send without actually thinking about what they are saying. 

And those are my two cents for today. Good day.