Tatlo

The people demand updates. And by people, I mean one person hahaha!

So, this is finals week. Shit. I'm freaking out, despite my mantras of calming down. The good news is that I finished the Red Bull project, developed the pictures, and finished the notes. The bad news is; I still have finals.

To recap this eventful week...where to start...

Wednesday

I spent the morning debating whether or not to drive to Towson for 5 minutes, and drive back home. I decided to skip on on class. It wasn't worth the drive or the gas. I didn't miss anything; we would be working on our Red Bull projects. I get to MC and it's utter chaos. I catch up with some people and I run into Dawn. She goes from stressed to happy to see me to irritated. She tells me that there's already a fiasco with the programs. My name was initially in it, and she was hoping people wouldn't catch on til much later. Jess was doing the final check before sending it to MC Copies, and crossed my name out. Dawn flipped out and it was already too late to stop the printing. Daniela and I spent the rest of the afternoon running from the PAC to the music building, back to the pack. I decided that it was smarter to just hang out in the PAC. I sat around the audience watching the reggae band practice. That's when things began to fall apart. Dawn was flipping out, because people lost or forgot their music (jeeze, what else is new). Amadou called up saying that he wouldn't make it to the concert. He had good reason to miss it; his wife had to be rushed to the ER earlier and it was a bad situation. People were late to practice, and the initial rehearsal began 2 hours late. This was the first time I've seen Dawn flip out on Diana. In my 4 years of being world ensemble, I've never seen that!

Andrew and Juhi joined me in the audience, and we watch Dawn kick Andy out of two pieces AND take his solo away! She has never done this in the history of WE. I tried taking pictures and doing homework while rehearsal fell apart. I know I say this every year, but I honestly thought that Dawn was going to call off the concert this year. It seriously has NEVER been this bad! People were late, disappearing left and right. Sehe made phone calls cursing at people. I don't understand why people don't take this seriously. I run to the back and hide out, so I don't feel the wrath of Dawn. On a side note, we had this idea of filming each other for a day. It'll be called "The Real World: Montgomery College". We wanted real drama, and someone suggested that I film during concert day. I also wanted to document it with pictures, but I'm sure I would've gotten my ass handed to me if I had captured some pictures of Dawn flipping out. Not to mention on video!

Anyways, I hang out in the green room for a while until Flora and I go on a mission to find someone who can corn row. After a good half hour hanging out, I was told that the girls have to move their stuff to the upstairs dressing room. I walk to the stage to take more pictures instead. Walking back I run into Carla, who was freaking out on the phone. I stood stil for a moment, staring at her to see if she would catch on. She looks up and spots me, starts screaming, and hangs up on the person. She kept telling me over and over how I really made her day. I move my stuff upstairs to the green room and hang out with the girls. Flora had another crisis; she had no idea what she was going to wear, and her clothes were wrinkled. Carla and I set out the outfit she should wear, and seeing as how Flora doesn't have much experience ironing, I took over. She set the iron too high, and it began to melt parts of the skirt. On top of the ironing, Dawn summoned me and explained that the hired photographer had to bail. I was now in charge of taking photos. I had the most obscure view, but I took some decent pictures. Here's where things got even more interesting; the show had just started and the orchestra was doing a piece. Everyone was in place, ready to go except...the clarinet player. Everyone ran around searching for this guy named Ben. I've seen him around, and he's really slow. By the time Jess and I found him, we were already 5 minutes into the show. He comes in looking confused, and we tell him that he was supposed to be on stage 5 minutes ago. He doesn't seem to comprehend the seriousness of hte situation. Dawn is still running around screaming, and I tell her that we found him. He walks by as she's still flipping out, and yells at him. He says that he still has to get his clarinet upstairs. Basically we started a good 10 minutes late. The show went well; the girls and I got to be silly on stage and back. Even Dawn joined in on the sillyness. I saw the final set up for the show, and I noticed that Latin band had three songs in a row. That meant three songs in a row that I would be dancing and singing in heels! Ugh...I survived the show, but I immediately kicked off my shoes as soon as the curtain closed. My feet were killing me. This was going to be her last WE for a year, so I told her that all will be well and chill. It's amazing how much exposure we're receiving, and how legit it's become. When I joined, it was just an after school club. We had the worst stage to perform on, but we always drew in a huge crowd. Now it's escalated to an actual class, we get to perform in the main concert stage (very prestegious), we're getting invited to perform at other schools and events, have a program with Wheaton high school, AND *drumroll* we're being turned into a tv show on MC tv!

We did the traditional drum circle after the show. It was a huge jam session. Dawn laughed as we raided the instrument closets. We danced for a good hour, and then it was time to clear out. I said my goodbyes to Dawn, and told her to enjoy her sabatical. Basically I had to say goodbyes to a lot of people. I found out that 3 of my friends are transfering to the Baltimore area; I swear Baltimore is the new Rockville. David is going to MICA. I told him that he's a lucky bastard, but at hte same time he's going to have a hell of a time paying back student loans. They gave him a $25, 000 scholarship, but it won't even cover half of the tuition, room and board (if he stays up there), and supplies. I was told that it was good that I didn't go to MICA. From the two people that I've met who were alumnus of MICA, it didn't seem like life was panning out for them. What would that had said about me. Plus I was told all the freaks of the art freaks go there. I eat sleep, breathe, LIVE art, but they take it to the extremes. They take porno and argue how it's artistic. This girl in my drawing II class told me that she went there for a seminar for a class at Towson, and this guy presented his project; himself masterbating to his art. Yeah...awesome... Juhi got accepted to the Peabody Institute, which is amazing. She gets to pursue her love of music. Rob will be doing the same at UMBC. He'll be joining Kevin, Sarah, and Javi. Flora is going to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and Andrew is going to the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC. This will give us an even better reason to initiate our road trip ideas. After the after party, Carla, Ava, and I went to McYucks to hang out a little longer. We played catch up, and they told me about their love lifes and their problems. I think the highlight of the night was "I LOOK LIKE A MAN!!!" That was from Ava, ahahaha!

I've been in hiding after the concert. I needed to get back into the warkaholic mode, and start studying for finals. I couldn't believe that this is already finals week. I can't believe that I am about to finish my first semester at Towson. I was invited to some house parties over the weekend, but there's no way I was going to make it. It's not a smart idea to party when it's finals week. I'm also praying to God that I get this job at Home Depot. It'll be much better than working at Cold Stone. Although I was supposed to be a cake decorator, sales have been down in that department, and I've wasted too much time waiting. Anyways, the time is now 6:11 pm. Time to get back to studying.