Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Ferries and Phantoms

No it is not a mis-spelling. I went on a ferry on Monday with my friend Jackie to visit her sister JoAnna. Last year I was in Jo's wedding and have seen her only twice since.

I actually left home Sunday afternoon to catch the evening service in Oak Harbor before staying overnight with Jackie. Things got off to a rather amusing start. I wasn't sure of when their service started and when I first drove by the building at about 5:30 - the parking lot was empty. So...I continued on to swing by Jackie's. Hmm...they're not home either. So...I continue down the road to the beach where I take a few pics and read my Bible for about half hour. I had a wonderful time there! I was by myself most of the time.



One couple did show up a bit later, but they didn't disturb the 'quiet' of the shore. I check the time and head back to the church and get there about 6:20. Oh boy! Parking lot is full! I sneak in and sit in the very back bench. (BTW: I was not the last one to arrive!) After the service, another friend from the church, Jen, comes up to me and says: "What are you doing here?" Jokingly I reply "Oh, just visiting". She goes on to tell me about the next day's schedule wherein she and Jackie are going to see the new Star Wars movie. I'm a bit puzzled. I had set up the visit to Jo's place a week ago, how in the world would she have time to see the movie as well? Up walks Jackie and I hear an echo: "What are you doing here?" My reply: "Uh...You told me to come Sunday night...so I could stay over...so we could catch an early ferry..." By this time she had a look of shock on her face. Have you guessed it yet? Yup! She forgot! this was o.k. because Jo is fine with spur-of-the-moment plans and the girls could easily go another day to watch the movie. Isn't it wonderful that everyone cleared their plans for me! :P The rest of the night was great and shockingly enough, Jackie and I didn't talk the night through!

The next morning Jackie and I were up and on our way to catch the ferry at 6:50. I think the ferry we took was the 7:30 one. What CD does Jackie have in the car for us to listen to? "Phantom of the Opera" I love Andrew Lloyd Webber's music from that play! Jackie is the same way except very much more so! We listened to it and sang along when we could. At the same time Jackie is describing the movie to me and saying that I HAVE to see it!
We meet Jo for breakfast before walking a little bit around Port Angeles. A very little bit as Jo is 8 months pregnant. We then head over to her place where we catch up on news and listen to music and...watch Phantom of the Opera! We all had a wonderful time but it did have to come to an end. Jack and I had to catch the 6:45 Port Townsend ferry out of there.



We listened to Phantom of the Opera soundtrack again on the way to the ferry. We went out on the deck still singing the music from the movie. We did stop when ever someone came by though. But we weren't vigilant enough! We were in a corner of the boat in the front, outside, basically hanging over the rail singing. There is a room in the front center of the boat where you can watch where the boat is going w/o having the wind in your face. Jackie and I did not know that there was someone in that room, in our "blind spot" listening to us sing. We were singing the song "Phantom of the Opera" the duet between the Phantom and the girl. If you don't know the song it goes really high at the end. I had all of the notes until the very end where the last not has to be an E flat above high C. Very high! I did squeak it out on the second try. I did not hold it very long as people were coming by. Jackie and I decided to take a walk around the boat. Just as we were finishing our circle, we come across an older man in the aforesaid room, who asked us to sing the song from Phantom again and that he really enjoyed it!! Jackie and I just about died!!! But he was not laughing; he was perfectly serious. We talked for a little bit longer about Phantom he told us he had seen the play in some opera house, but we did not sing that song again!!

The time is late and I shall have to finish this post another time. This computer is wanted by my brother who has a paper due.

I'll be back!!

Friday, May 20, 2005

Results

I got it done!!!

There were a few nerve racking moments-well make that alot of nerve-racking moments, but everything came out in the end!! I went skating on the Friday before testing after work. I went with cousin Elliott and we almost had the ice to ourselves. I had a good practice then and Saturday morning as well. After the Sat morning session I went home and stressed out while crocheting and baking. At about 4 Mom, Kylee and I headed back to the rink.

I got on the ice was at about 10 till 5. It was the warm-up for that level testing. "Preliminary moves in the field" The only thing was, I was the only one out there! The other 2 girls who were also taking the same test hadn't shown up yet. (One of them did manage to show up before the time to test) I was first up. My stomach was in knots but I put forward a calm, cool, & collected front and made my way across the ice to the judges box. (With testing you 'check in' first) Arms out, wrists up like a 'lady'. You have to skate like that to make it seem as if you know what your doing. :) As I finished the first element of forward and backward cross-overs in a figure-eight pattern, I was a little short of breath. The rest of the test went o.k. with only 2 flub-ups that I was worried about. For those of you who know a little about skating, one was on my inside spirals and the other on my outside 3 turns. But come to find out my worries were almost groundless! To pass the test 2 of the 3 judges have to give me a passing score, and that is what happened! YES!!

After that part of the test was done I went on the other test that I was there for. "Pre-preliminary freestyle" This time on the warmup there were about 8 skaters out there on the ice. I started to go through my jump: walz jump - landed, salchow - landed, toe-loop - fell, >>shock<< This one is an easy jump for me and I hadn't fallen in months on it! I did get back up and do 2 more just to assure myself that I knew how to do it! I went through the rest of the elements without mishap. (half flip, half lutz, and a 1 foot spin) In the actuall test I passed without any really big problems. The spin was a little short-only 4 revolutions and I traveled a bit with it. Overall though all of the judges passed me on this test as well! Yay!!

All told, I had a great time and now Elliott and I, Lord willing, will be working on a program (yeah, an actual program!) There is a spring/summer program that is not on a Sunday! I will be posting the progress of this program and also what the exact date of the program is.

Thank you all for your interest!!

Monday, May 09, 2005

Ice-skating Testing

Hey everyone! I have my times of testing! I'll be on Saturday at 5:00 and at 5:52 give or take a few minuets. If anyone wants to show up don't warn me or I will be quaking in my boots! JK :)

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Work! Work! Work!

Always working! Always waiting for Friday to come...Friday afternoon that is-5 o'clock to be exact. If any of the people who read these sparce posts I am able to come up with wonder why I don't write very much, here is my excuse: Work. I know, I know, it's a pretty lame excuse, but it works! It seems the past few weeks I haven't been able to leave work, mentally that is, at the end of the day. My work-load for some reason seems to have gotten bigger. Please don't get me wrong by these complaints. I like my job. The people are really great to work with! How many people are blessed with christian bosses and a majority of chritians working in your office? Why should I be stressed?
BTW: It isn't only my job that sometimes has me in a tizzy. No a week from today I will be taking my ice-skating testing! Because of my work schedule I am unable to practice more than once a week. I am really feeling my lack of practice and sometimes wonder if I have bit off more than I can chew!

Enough griping! I have been doing well overall, and have even managed to squeeze in a little fun into the schedule. I have attended my oldest bro. softball for the past 3 weeks and so far he hasn't lost any games. In fact a few of the games they have ten-runned the other team! I say that I have attended the games, but I actually get to see very little of them. I take care of my niece during the games and so get to watch very little.

My older bro. in Germany made my day yesterday. He called me at work! Maybe that doesn't sound like much but I had a grin on my face for about 2 hours after he called and then it finally faded to a smile. I did have one grimace that day when a customer with a very "fresh" perfume, had me finding out what he wanted really fast, and retreating to the back to send one of my co-workers up to help him. He didn't like the price that we gave him and left. But not soon enough! To dispell the lingering odor, and not having anything else to use, I opened a very large black marking pen which did the job very nicely.

I shall endeavor to keep this blog up better in the future, just so people know I'm still alive, and that things are happening in my life too!

Sara & Beka, this post was to keep you happy! :)