that will be $9 sir... out of $10?.... okay $1 is your change..$9 and $1 is $10 have a good day
yeah so that's what was saying to the customers down at the coffee roasters all day from 9am to 3pm. boy there was quite a rush in like the last half hour and there were like a million people wanting coffee.

but hey i bet your wondering about finals. well friday i had the american history final. i wrote these two awesome essays. we'll just have to see what happens. and i also presented my holocaust project on "the devil's arithmetic" (which is a good book by the way) and that went very well. i drew these two great drawings. i think it's one of the better displays that i have done during my school years. hopefully, the rest will be as good or even better than that one.

it's getting kind of late here. man it's been an entire week since i watched schindler's list. i could watch that move again it was so good, such a compelling and powerful story. i think everyone should watch it sometime in their lifetimes.

well after the final in history, we had like an entire hour left to mess around "quietly" so we arm wrestled and listened to our cd players. i have weak arms so i'm not to great at arm wrestling but listening to music was good fun. dom let me listen to this strange german music stuff. like german disco-trippy music. it was....erm....very.....unique.

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the first day of finals
i suppose you're wondering how my day went? lol. it was the first day of finals (4 more days to go) and we had to take it in the power tech room which was not air conditioned. so it got a bit stuffy in there. at least he had a few fans going and that was a big help. the finals were for periods 1/2 which meant that i took my fcs, power tech, and art finals. the art one was probably the easiest along with the power tech one. but the fcs one was probably more difficult and i'm afraid i didn't do as well on that one than the others.

we had a like a half hour left over (we were in power tech for finals from 8:00 am to 11:00 am) so matt and i went to the back of the room to test paper airplanes. that was fun even though all my crazy designs are never aerodynamic in any sense of the word. there was also this huge, hairy black spider and matt killed it with his shoe. man that thing looked pretty poisonous to me! lol.

after that we went to our advisement period for an hour until lunch. advisement wasn't very productive. i think we were supposed to be studying but we did everything but that. just signed yearbooks and whatnot. and then it was off to lunch. nothing much just sat with a bunch of different people than i usually did. i sat with david, laura, and a bunch of others. it was fun.

you know tomorrow is my american history final. oh joy lol. i studied for it and it took like an hour but i seem to know everything on the review list so that's just dandy. i'm sure i'll do alright tomorrow. and also i'm playing for my band final to bring my grade up on it. i got an 86 on the final (with "the curve" which is something that i don't understand lol) and playing helps bring it up. so all i have to do is play 3 scales and sight-read something. and it's possible that i could bring it up to an 'a'. that would be good because i don't want my gpa to go down from it's 3.9876 (practically a 4.0 except i got a 'b' on the stupid math final earlier in the year). and i am going to work my butt off next year. i am taking a lot of stuff. i have so much stuff to do, i don't have time for gym class so i'm taking that after school. wow. so that's all for now. i will leave another message tomorrow.

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the past few days
i haven't left a message here for a while so i figured i would because i have some time to spare. the past few days have gone pretty fast i believe. yeah i think it's been like a week since my last message. a lot has happened but i think i'll just focus on the exciting stuff. oh yeah sure exciting.

well thursday night, i decided to pop on down to our school's talent show to see some real talented people lol. some of the dance routines were pretty crappy. one of the songs had audio trouble and the mic kept cutting out. geez. well i thought that this group called The City Girls was the best dance group out there. they should have at least placed 3rd or 2nd. but nooooo. it was a strange turnout. one of the guitar instrumentals ended up taking first and 2nd went to a song that someone sang, and 3rd went to a group that played "one" by metallica. so sort of a bittersweet ending i suppose.

then the next night, i decided to head down to the faculty vs. students football game. i hadn't originally planned on going but i had nothing else to do. so i went. that was really fun to watch. and i found a few people to hang out with and that was nice. see everyone was like "oh yeah i don't think i'm going" or "i have plans tonight" and then it turns out they all showed up. lol. it was a great time. i think the faculty won the game. david, matt, and i went over to visit teresa and some of the girls and it was so funny because they were taking all of the balloons down off of the stands and breathing the helium that was in them. boy teresa sure did sound funny lol.

it turns out, the game had to be stopped right after half-time (half-time was like an hour long lol) because of a severe thunderstorm heading our way. and kristin, david, kassie, and i were all sitting up on the main bleachers when all of a sudden, it started to just pour down rain. and thunder and lightning. it was like someone turned the faucet on. and we were stuck up on the bleachers underneath this little overhang on the announcment box at the very top of the bleachers. so that was interesting. and then we had to run down through the rain to take shelter by the snack bar.

well now i'm angry at the stupid national guard that was there ("come support our troops blah blah blah") because they had this hummer. and while i was walking back to the car with david, kristin, and kassie, the hummer had to leave. and it came up right behind us and people had to jump out of the way. and i tried to jump over this huge mud puddle and i did but i slipped and well yeah. i didn't exactly fall. but mud sprayed all over my pants and my NEW SHOES. yes that's right. the new blue suede ones. grrrrrrrrr.

so then saturday i had to work. i am working on saturdays now. oh boy. so that was a lot of work. well maybe not that much. i had to take a package down to the post office to mail, take care of some of the customers' orders, and fill all these 3 lb bags of coffee for some restaurant out in winchester. oh and make the usual sample packets and whatnot.

that night, i watched schindler's list. wow. that's all i can really seem to say about it. it had to have been the most intense, realistic, and gruesome of all holocaust movies i have ever seen. but what a great work. it seemed like a work of art that could move. the emotions portrayed were so real. it had some disturbing moments in it, some that i could hardly even stand (and i like never get emotional about movies anyway). oh man. i think everyone should watch this movie to get a good view on the holocaust and one man's brave struggle to save as many of the jews as he could.

i decided to watch it because we're learning about the holocaust in english. and we read a little out of the diary of ann frank. it's a great book emotion wise i think. it's a sad ending though, it is complete in a way and yet it still seems like the distant thunder is yet to come. and it did. the ending that was never written. it's too bad that she was killed in the death camps. the ending that many jews, unfortunately, had to suffer. may it never happen again.

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zigman's latest
i haven't left a message here in a little while so i figured i'd leave one for you all. the band final is coming up tomorrow. i hope i do well. i studied at least. okay maybe not for an hour more like 10 minutes. and then i had to clean the turtle tank which was absolutely spectacular work lol. and then i talked on the phone with laura for like a half an hour or so. and now i am on here. but before all this occured, i was dog sitting, this guy comes out of this field and tells me that i have to pick up after the freakin dog because it was his private property. geez. that was probably the most vile and disgusting thing i've ever done. yuck! lol. i have to do that twice a day till thursday. oh boy. i guess it's worth the 50 dollars. today i also tested the bridge project for power tech class. our bridge (mine and sarah's) held 47 ibs! that's like way more than i thought it would hold. that means our efficiency on the bridge was 1072 or something over a thousand. that's great. that means we get an 'a' on the project. i wished we could've done it differently (in fact if i could go back and do things differently, i probably would). it's a good thing i got a good grade on it at least. we're reading the diary of ann frank in english (which i read in like 4th grade lol) and that always makes me think of keeping some diary of some sort. not even a public blog like this but a private one. i don't think i would have the time to but oh well. it's good that i have this. i think we should all feel thankful for what we have. even if it sucks. i mean you could be far worse than you are right now i guess. oh and i watched the first hour of the matrix last night. it was pretty far out. to think that it's a pretty deep thought to think that all that we think we think are actually made-up thoughts that make us think things we think we thought but actually not real thoughts at all. whoa.



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new shoes
whew i needed new shoes. and so i went and got some lol. it was that easy. they're blue suede vans and they are so comfortable. the heels on my other shoes had blown out and all that was left was the plastic part which rubbed against my foot. and that hurt. i gotta figure out a new way of tying these new ones because the laces are a little long.

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new conflicts
man everyone is bugging me to join field band. boy is it getting annoying. and i might do it. i think i want to. but it would be really hard to. i would have to work it all out family and job-wise. and it would mean less time to do school work and i want to put as much work into everything (job, school, and field band, and other activities). i would have to work super hard to maintain this level of activity. to join also requires mandatory practices during the summer which i may not be able to attend. also, games and competitions are usually on weekends and this means less time to do school work and job work. i would like be working my pants off 24/7 and field band has to be a commitment. so i'll sleep on it tonight and i might sign up tomorrow. the odds are against me though but perhaps i will overcome them by the 'morrow. it would be nice if everyone would stop bugging me though...

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after the first day
well i finished my first day of work yesterday. whew! what a bunch of work. it was an interesting experience. and i worked for 6 straight hours and made $36. not too shabby. and the fact that i like never spend any of my money means that i will be rich soon lol. i think i'll invest in something on the stock market. then i could make more money! lol. i wonder what i should buy first...

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grass stains...
i just got finished mowing the lawn. man it was getting really deep. now i think our yard is about as short as our neighbors. that's a good thing lol! it bugs me when their yard is shorter. well today i got my design on the freakin silk screen thing and i'll be ready to print tomorrow. the first screen had something on it which caused it to streak and it messed up the designs. someone must have messed up back in the dark room. oh well. at least all is ready now. i'm looking forward to friday. friday we play kickball in american history and then in english we have this pizza party. and after school is cathy's birthday party. so hopefully all of friday goes well. and today the stupid school got my schedule messed up. i was scheduled for a career planning session and they thought it was day 2 and it was actually day 3 and i had band. so i had to miss band for that. and then my i.e.p. conference was also scheduled at the exact same time. so they really messed up. so i turned out missing the i.e.p. conference because it wasn't mandatory and the career planning center said that they would reschedule my session some other time. so after a lot of walking fast i just ended up going to band after all. geez...

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my day as it was
well today was not very eventful. i'll be getting my pictures from 6 flags back on thursday. what a while to wait now. lol. we're screen printing in power tech so that is pretty fun. my design will come out ok i hope. it's all pretty neat. i wish i had my own silkscreen thing at home. then i could make all sorts of designs and put them on t-shirts.

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back from the band trip! possibly the longest post ever...
we left home at around 2:00 pm from school. all of our instruments went on the band truck which also pulled this trailer full of our luggage. and we got to take snacks and cd players and cds on the bus with us in bookbags. the first hours on the bus went great. it was a lotta fun. and then after about 3 hours we reached the king of prussia mall. this is about 2 hours from our hotel. and we stopped at the mall for about 2 hours. well i'll tell ya that was the biggest mall i had ever been in yet. it seemed like we walked for miles in that place. it's one of the bigger malls of pennsylvania. and we also ate dinner there. we were delayed 30 minutes leaving because tyler swope (whom we call "swopey") and jonathan got the wrong time to report back at jc pennies. so that made us a little late.
and then we reached the hotel around 9 i think. and here's the twist. the hotel we stayed at (the comfort inn) was under complete construction! the outside "hallway" was still under construction and it was just dry wall and the floor was wooden planks that had cracks between them that you could see the floor below you on (we stayed on the 2nd floor). and to top it off, it was pouring rain and the parking lot was not paved and was a complete mud pit. there was also debris and stuff like cynder blocks and wooden beams laying around. there was not ceiling in the "hallways" there was just the tresses and metal and wiring showing. the rooms were just fine except that in one room the bathroom door was broken in 2 pieces. lol. and markie got locked in the bathroom accidently because the lock jammed lol. i roomed with my friends ronnie, derek, and markie. we had a blast playing all thse games on markie's x box. the room was small but at least it was well furnished. we were supposed to go to bed at 11 pm. we stayed up to around 2:00 am and we finally had to go to bed when there was an angry knock on the door. we were making too much noise lol. well the reason the hotel conditions were poor is because of the comfort inn reservations. mr. forney (our band director) made the reservations through comfort inn headquarters. the headquarters put us near where our adjudication would be held. they had no information that the hotel was under renovation. lol. so it was a poor lack of communication that cost us some moral but otherwise, we were happy to be resting. also, the band truck and trailer had previously broken down way back home so they had to rent a penske truck in the nick of time even though they were late in getting to the hotel with all of our luggage and instruments. lol.
and the next morning we had to wake up around 6 am. markie set the alarm but it didn't really wake any of us up at 6 and we ended up waking up around 7 am. that gave us 1 hour to get all of our stuff ready to leave (we were switching hotels after we would come back from 6 flags. so we're all scrambling to get ready. we leave at 8 am for adjudication which was held at this school about 40 minutes east. and i could see the atlantic ocean when we went over this bridge. well after that the driver realized we had taken a wrong turn and we had headed like 5 miles in the wrong direction so we turned around and stopped at the highscool that we were supposed to play at. only one more problem. we were at the wrong school! so we turned and went right across the street to the elementary school and that was where we played. we had to warm up in the cafeteria and we played for the judges in the gym of the school because they didn't have an auditorium. so that's the saga of all of that.
we left after like 20 minutes because all we had to do was play like 3 pieces that we had been working on. man weeks of practice all come down to just 20 minutes of crucial time. we played pretty good i thought. so we rushed back 40 minutes to the comfort inn and got all of our stuff packed and left. we would not be returning there but to a different motel. we headed for 6 flags great adventure theme park and that was like 30 minutes west. we got there and we all had a great time that day. i won't go into great detail. i didn't go on any rides because i am not a ride person. and i have a very sensitive inner ear. so after a ride i would feel lightheaded and dizzy for about 10 to 15 minutes. that is not a good sensation! so i didn't go on any rides. i've always had that problem anyhow. all i had to do was watch everyone's stuff when they went on rides lol. that was ok with me. and we just spent the day there until 4:00 pm when it was a check up time with your chaperones (we lost ronnie once in the park for 2 hours! lol). and then after that we had until 6:45 pm to be back there to the bandstand for awards. i won't go into great detail about that but we played hacky sack there and we also won 1st place in 2 categories with a rating of "superior" and a special award for our outstanding trombone section. a friend of mine named allison also won an award for this solo she had. so we did a good job after all! i bought this big hat with these donkey ears and that was a riot among the friends when we had to leave because the park closed at 8:30 pm. pictures all around!
we left the park around 9:00 pm because of heavy traffic. around 10 pm something we got to this ramada inn. it was WAY better. it had coffee and carpeting and big rooms. we stayed up late that night. i also visited laura and teresa in their room and we talked for a long time. and then i went back and played all these games on the game cube. we had traded caleb (a friend of a friend) our x box power cord for their gamecube and all their multi player gamecube games with 4 controllers. what a deal. so we had a blast that night. and then ronnie went to sleep and derek and markie and i played poker. we played 5 card stud, texas ultimate, and blackjack. man i was cleaning them out. we bet like things we found in our hotel rooms like napkins and coasters and coffee packets and stuff. lol. not for keeps though. but it was a great time.
the next day we woke up around 7:30 am and then had a free continental breakfast in the restaurant at 8:00 am (all you can eat eggs, potatoes, and cranberry juice). boy did that taste good. we needed the nourishment. and then we all had a few hours to kill so i visited laura and teresa and played on the x box. and then it was time to leave for home at 10 am. so that was pretty much the trip. the bus ride home was interesting because derek fell asleep and mama earl (which is brandon "earl"'s mom who was a chaperone) took this marker and wrote mama in big letters along with a heart on his leg. and adam who sat near me took the marker and scribbled a few lines. then ronnie took a pen and wrote something i forget what and then i took the pen and wrote 'poop' in big letters lol. then i attempted to tie his shoelaces together and then to his bookbag. but that didn't go very well because i didn't tie it tight enough. and then he woke up and then well lol. the marker rubs off with spit and the pen and he untied the shoestrings easily. lol. so that was my weekend.