lucky cha cha cha!

so what else has changed?

senior year was awesome. i got over the awkwardness of freshman year, the solitude of sophomore year, and the difficulties of junior year. all was perfect.

i feel like i shouldn't go class by class anymore, that's just boring to read. what exciting things happened this year...

well, one of the coolest things i got to do was take trips to new york city with my school's quiz bowl team. my best friend is on the team and they were competing on a television show (on a channel that i don't even get, tear). we went three times, (if i remember correctly) in december, february, and march. freezing, but totally awesome.

it's kind of weird, i remember sitting in the march taping and seeing that the airdate for the episodes they were taping that day were in june, weeks after our graduation. i nudged my friend and said, 'wow, june. that's so far away.'

now it's july?!???

anyway, they kicked ass. and us audience members did a lot of clapping. A. LOT. OF. CLAPPING. we walked out of that studio every day thinking, 'I NEVER WANT TO CLAP AGAIN.' yes, in all caps.
of course, though, we were happy and enthusiastic for our awesome team! we made it to third in the state! not bad at all, especially considering they lost in the first round last year.

funny story, one time we were in the waiting room singing "WE WENT TO THE MOON IN 1969! NOT 1968 BUT THE YEAR AFTER!" (props if you know where that's from) and laughing to each other, saying, "imagine if that were really one of the questions!" we get into the taping and one of the questions was actually, "who was the first man to walk on the moon?" i looked at my friend and she looked at me and we shrugged, thinking "close enough!" and lol'd.

the march taping was actually the championships, so all the best teams were there for a long day of answering trivia questions. oddly enough, none of the "best" teams had that many fans (all busy studying at school, duh) so we were often called in to sit in the audience and... CLAP! i swear, we watched at least three games that day and even sat out one or two to recover. we got home at about 8 o'clock that night and were expected to go home, do our homework, and show up at school the next day, but it was all totally worth it.

i think the best part about it was being able to miss school to chill out and have a good time. i'd say "have a good time in the city," but we spent most of our time in the studio (as our chaperones couldn't be held liable for us, etc). we did get to go out a bit, i.e. to mcdonald's and charley's for some noms or wandering around to find the bus. ah, i'll never forget watching, half-horrified yet half-amused, as a group of guys tried to cross the street and almost got run over by an onslaught of furiously honking cabs. good times.

in between our city adventures, we sat and chilled in the studio's waiting room. we played ghost, ate chicken mcnuggets, even played tetris when my friend and i brought our gameboys! being too good at tetris sucks, by the way. nobody wants to play against you. one of the show's interns actually passed by and saw us playing and challenged me to a few rounds. one of his superiors passed by and he sheepishly asked if he was allowed to be doing this. she responded,

"look, man, let me tell you something. really, as long as you get the job done, you can do whatever the hell you want."

wise words. and i still beat him. several times. it was cool.