Recently, I've been very excited! This Thursday I am leaving for Florida! My dance team is competing at the NDTC (National Dance Team Championship)! I'm so excited and so is the rest of my team! We have been working very hard and we want to look our best this week. We leave very early Thursday. We don't really leave in the morning, we leave in the middle of the night. I have to wake up at 2 a.m. and be ready by about 3 or 3:30. I arrive at the airport around 4, and our flight departs around 6:05. I'll be out before the sun even comes up! I absolutely love being with my team so early! It sounds like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm serious! We are all wide awake and the nerves start kicking in. We are tired and loopy, but that doesn't stop us from being crazy! We arrive in Florida around 9:45 (their time), and from then on, we have a minute by minute schedule. It's slightly confusing, but we had a meeting today to clear everything up! I Won't say anymore because next time I blog, I will be in Florida and will tell everything that's happening! See you in Florida!
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Recently, I've had to deal with a couple of bruises on my knees. Before you call me a wimp for complaining about a couple bruises, let me tell you about them. On the bottom of both of my knees are what my dance teacher calls "basketballs." They are bright yellow, green, and blue with gross splotches of dark purple and black. I got them from dancing too much and landing really hard on my knees. I should know by now how to stop them, but sometimes it's very hard to avoid landing directly on the bruise. Since the bruises became so incredibly painful, and I mean to the point where I couldn't bend my knees all the way, I needed to learn how to heal them. Since sometimes it hurt to walk and bend my knees, I started icing them to reduce swelling and pain. The swelling on my knees was so crazy, It stuck out as much as my knee and even looked like I had two knees. The icing helped the swelling to reduce and also numbed the pain. I've been resting the bruises since Friday and I've been trying my hardest not to hit them. They look much better today, but they still gross me out. I'm a little nervous because I have practice later today, but hopefully I'll learn how not to hit them all the time
This week was the first week back to school from Christmas Break. It was difficult getting used to waking up early and having homework every night. I didn't like waking up and I always felt really tired at school. To make it worse, I was sick all week. My nose was stuffed, my throat hurt, I felt unusually tired, my stomach hurt on and off, and my voice sounded pretty messed up. Thursday was when I hit my peak of not feeling good. It was not a good day. Plus, all week, my coaches were working us extra hard because of our competition on Saturday (it paid off because we did really well). I almost didn't go to school on Friday, but my team had a party and I couldn't go to the party if I didn't go to school. Luckily, I felt a little better so going to school wasn't as bad. Waking up early Saturday morning, I was happy to find I felt much better to compete, and today, I feel even better. I'm still not used to waking up early, but soon that will change. Hopefully these next few weeks won't be as hard as this week has been.
Well, today is Christmas, and so far, it's been a pretty fun! We opened presents this morning and I love all of mine! My favorite one is I get to take private ballet lessons! I really hope Someday I will be able to be on pointe! Then. my dad made pancakes and bacon and they were so good! Since then I've been hanging around, but we did have a very good dinner. Soon, I will be packing to go to my Grandma's house! This has been a very short blog. Until next time, don't forget that I like mashed potatoe
Yesterday I competed in Huntley, IL at Huntley High School. For me and my team, this isn't any regular competition. It was the organization TDI (Team Dance Illinois), so many things we had to change in our routine because they were illegal. The best part about this competition is that Huntley Dance Force is our biggest competitor, and this was their high school. We were very nervous, but we couldn't let our nerves get to us. Once we had performed pom, our coaches said we looked good, but Huntley looked better. We were almost positive they would win. We were against another team too, but they weren't very good. Next we did kick, and one of my coaches said it was the best she ever saw it! That made me feel really proud of myself and the rest of my team. Then, we had to get ready for jazz. We were also against Huntley and another team in jazz. We performed in jazz, but we've done it better before. Next awards came, and we were pretty excited. Music played over the speakers and we danced around like a bunch of lunatics. We started a conga line and walked around the whole gym! My mom look really long videos of our crazy dancing. Then, awards started and we became jittery. Our pom division came second. They announced third place... it was the team we didn't know. Next, second place. In my head the name Studio 22 High Tek played, but the judges had a different idea. Huntley Dance Force came in second! They announced us first and we went wild! We were screaming. jumping, and hugging each other!!! We could not contain our excitement. Mostly because they have beat us all year. We ended up getting last in jazz, but I wasn't upset because jazz just isn't our strength. I had too much fun and I can't wait until the next competition!
Today I get to perform in the Hawkettes Holiday Show. The Hawkettes, my team, and all the other teams from my studio are performing. I'm so excited! We're performing all three of our dances, kick, jazz, and pom. I have to be there at 3 to rehearse and to eat dinner. The show starts at 6:30. but I don't perform until 6:50. I'm a little nervous because they're expecting 500 people to come!!! That sounds a little nerve wrecking, but I think I've performed in front of larger crowds. I have some quick changes, but I can handle it. The thought of not being ready for one of my dances is one of my fears. I'm also scared because parts of my ankle have been hurting and I don't want to make it worse and not be able to dance today. Last year at the holiday show, we were learning our jazz dance just an hour before the show started! My coach thought we would be able to finish it, and of course, she was wrong. We weren't able to finish the dance, but we stopped it part way through the dance. While we were learning the dance, the food arrived and everyone got to eat, except us. We watched everyone eating, and we were all starving. My coach kept telling our team we needed to finish the dance and she wasn't letting us go eat. Luckily, the owner came over and told her that we needed to eat dinner and stop learning the dance. I'm glad this year we already know our dances. I'm pretty excited, and I hope the show goes well!
Yesterday, I spent all day in Milwaukee for a dance competition. I left at 6 am and picked up my friend Maggie. We drove for about and hour and a half. During the drive, Maggie fell asleep and I had no one to talk to, so I listened to music the whole time. I watched the sun rise and saw the amazing colors in the sky. Also, while we were driving, we encountered some fog, and not just a little. At some points it became so foggy we couldn't see the trees next to us. We were only able to see the truck in front of us. The farthest we could see was about 10 to 20 feet in front of us. It was actually quite scary. We arrived in Milwaukee about an hour before we needed to be there. This gave me time to do my hair and makeup. Usually our competitions take place in a high school. During these competitions, we This competition, however, was very different. It was in a huge convention center and we put all of our things in a giant hallway. We were forced to change in the bathroom which was very cramped. We performed great and we felt very confident in ourselves. The competition floor was marley, which is a very thin rubber material. The floor of the convention center was cement, so dancing on the marley felt like dancing on cement, but stickier. In our jazz dance, which was first, I did many things that involved dropping directly to my knees, and some things involved dropping to only one knee. After we performed jazz, I was almost in tears because my knees hurt so bad. I couldn't bend my left knee because it hurt so bad. They were, and still are, covered in bruises. Here's a picture, and yes, I know they're kind of nasty. . Unfortunately, I had two more dances to go. My kick dance didn't hurt my knees because I didn't have to go to the ground, except for the jump splits part, but I jump into a split into the air and land flat down, so I didn't land on my knee. Pom was my main concern. I did a lot of things in pom on the ground. Luckily for me, I had time in between kick and pom to rest my knees. They still hurt pretty bad after pom. We changed for awards, but first I did the turn-a-thon. This is were I did fouettes for as long as I could. Only two other girls from my team did it. I started out very strong, but I soon realized I should have been turning slower. I got really dizzy, and wiped out. I told myself that anytime I do a turn-a-thon I will not give up and come out of my turns. I will keep turning until I fall. I didn't win, but I think I came in the top five. Plus, there were girls in high school also turning. Next up came the award ceremony. We got first in kick, but we had no competition. We got second in jazz and pom. In our jazz category, there were only two teams, but in my defense, the other team has girls in high school as about half their team. In pom there were four teams, and the same team beat us, the team with high school girls. One of the girls on my team was told by the studio owner's mom that in pom, we lost to them by less than one point! That is amazing! We didn't do as well as we wanted to, but now we need to work harder and maybe we can beat them next. The ride home was pretty fun. Maggie and I watched Over the Hedge. I got home around 6 pm, but I was very exhausted. I fell asleep very easy last night. Yesterday I had so much fun and I'm looking forward to our next competitions.
I'm in the school library and I thought I would take this opportunity to blog. I'm not really sure what this is going to be about. I will start with the topic of reading. I'm reading a book at home called Nevermind the Goldbergs. It is about a Jewish Orthodox girl who is invited to star on a new T.V. show. She is very excited, and she soon leaves for a brand new adventure. She goes alone, her parents stay in New York, where she is from. Her characters name is Shoshana Goldberg. Her religion prevents her from eating normal food, touching guys in any way, and plenty of other things. All the food she eats is kosher and she celebrates holidays no body else on the show celebrates. Her only friend on the show is Charles, who plays her dad, but she soon becomes friends with David Lee, who plays her older brother. The girl who plays her sister on the show, Evie, is really preppy and mean. All of the guys swoon over her and she knows she has power. This book is really good and I'm almost done. This has been my very short blog.
So far, Thanksgiving Break has been boring, it's also been kind of fun. To start off break, I performed at a DePaul basketball game on Saturday. It was so much fun! It was also a little scary because it was at Allstate Arena and there were lots of people. Luckily for me, I don't get nervous easily, so I was just excited. Then, on Sunday, a couple of my friends and I went into downtown Chicago. First we ate dinner at a restaurant called Ed Debevic's. I had never been there before, but it was so much fun! Our waiter's name was Reno and he was really funny, but serious almost the whole time. I could tell he was being serious on purpose, and he was good at it too. After we ate, we went by the Rock and Roll McDonald's to go wait for a bus, but this wasn't just any bus. We were about to go on a Chicago Ghost Tour! On this tour, we were led around Chicago on a bus and were taken to some of the supposedly, haunted places around the city. Some of the time we stayed on the bus, and sometimes we got off the bus to look around and take pictures. I didn't get any pictures of ghosts, but I did get a lot of pictures of orbs, which are balls of energy. There was one park that we were told by our tour guide had many people buried underneath. This freaked me out a little because we were walking around in this park. As soon as I stepped into the park, my body felt lighter, and from the moment I stepped in it to the moment I stepped out, I felt as if I was not only being watched, but also being followed. This tour was just too much fun! The next fun thing that happened was on Wednesday. Some of my friends came over and we made ice cream like we did in science. Then, we went to the basement and watched Insidious. I've already seen it before, but it still scared me just as bad. Afterward we watched some funny shows because we needed to take our minds off the movie. On Thursday, I saw Wreck It Ralph with my brother and my sister. It was such a cute movie! I absolutely loved it. Later, my cousin came over for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was very good, and we have too many leftovers. This has pretty much been my week, hopefully these last few days won't be super boring.
I just went to the premier of Breaking Dawn Part Two, and I felt the need to blog about it. I was so excited when I got there, and I could not wait any longer. The movie started, and I was so pumped. It started out really good, and it just kept getting better and better. Finally, the huge battle scene came. It started out very intense, but then main characters started dying. My first thought was, "THIS WASN'T IN THE BOOK!" I was freaking out and on the verge of tears. More people kept dying, and suddenly, it flashes back to Alice and Aro standing in the middle of the field. It turned out to be only a prediction on the future that Alice was showing to Aro because of his decision. I was completely thrown off. I didn't know what to do! Then, the happy ending came. At the end, you see a flash of all the movies and memories, and I think I started crying. The movie was amazing, and I'm glad it was. This is goodbye to The Twilight Saga. Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn Part 1, and Breaking Dawn Part 2. I bid my farewell to my favorite Saga, and I will miss the amazing memories of reading these books and seeing these movies. I no longer know what to do with myself, so therefore, my only option is to re-read the books and enjoy their magic once again.
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