Memories from a production of forgiving hearts.

Ah, high school. A place where many friends and memories are made, hopefully to last for a lifetime. While I could recount many specials friends and times with them, something I will always remember that includes many of these people and memories is the FBS production of the play A Heart To Forgive.

It was back in 2010. The high school met together in Mr. Vee's room to listen to Mrs. Reinert's plea for actors and actresses for the upcoming play. After glancing through the script, I can remember shrugging and raising my hand to have a major part. After several run-throughs of various scenes with different people, I was paired up with Justin Kaspersky reading through a new scene. Naturally, when we turned the page, we found out that it was the typical "I have loved you since the day I met you and we need to get married right away" dialogue. After that complete and total humiliation in front of the high school, the names and parts were posted the next hour. Of course, I was to be married to Justin Kaspersky, playing Peter, and I also had a child. Sigh.

After the initial torture of memorizing lines and scenes sitting at a circle of desks in Mrs. Reinert's room, we finally headed to the auditorium to start acting. Then, the fun began.

Everybody each had their own special part in making this play so fabulous. Justin's voice would either crack and squeak or murmur and mumble. Scott could not put inflection in his tone to save his life. Morgan was entirely too spry for an eighty-year-old. Phillip couldn't remember which era he was in. And Luke played the part of a lowlife drunk way too well.

These people made my life better.

People think we put every waking moment into this play. I can tell you right now that that is a false statement. Most of the time, when it wasn't a scene that any given person was in, they would just go backstage and join the dogpile, which consisted of various bodies, cell phones, scripts, and cameras, as depicted below.

Another major necessity of this play was food. I remember one day sneaking into the kitchen with Laura to pop some popcorn and sneak it into the auditorium for snacking. Unfortunately, we burned it. Which obviously gave us away.

Another thing I remember getting in trouble for was laughing too much. This often occurred when Luke would crawl under the pews and find his way to Laura and I. We of course celebrated the arrival of our dear friend with pictures.

Dearest Laura. One of my closest friends throughout high school. Our first play together was a smashing success, and I still have many memories that we share from this production. She hates this picture because she thinks it makes her look like Miss Piggy from the Muppets, but I love it.

Many great memories were made spending time with Morgan Price. Acting as my Nana, I got to spend a lot of quality time pretending to knit with her. That girl is hilarious. She could always make me laugh, whether or not she meant to. Thanks to this play, I got to know her better and found a terrific friend.

Another person that ended up being surprisingly funny was Phillip Timmons. Acting as my drunk stepfather-in-law, I ended up spending time with Phillip, which I haven't done since we were extremely young and running around in Miss Nancy's chicken houses on Memorial Day picnics and the like. We ended up becoming closer during his senior year, and we've kept in touch ever since. One of my favorite play memories of Phillip was during the actual night of the production, while confessing to accidently killing his wife, he forgot which era he was acting in and started raving about how he couldn't call anybody for help. Probably one of the worst times to get the audience tittering, considering it was the part where the salvation message was being portrayed. The picture below was taken during our makeup session together.

And of course, someone who I've been close to for quite a while now and became extremely close to during this play was my play kid, who, over the years, ended up turning into my best friend. Scott and I have so many memories associated with this crazy play. One of my favorites was during the dress rehearsal. I miscounted the scenes and forgot to enter at the right time., so I tried to improvise by sneaking around and entering through the door, pretending I had gone shopping. Scott tried to help out my mistake by running over and welcoming me home, but he ended up tripping on the table leg and sprawling out on the stage with his microphone hitting him in the head. Not one of our better acting moments, but definitely one I still chuckle at today.

After months of long hard practices, on the night of April 21st, 2011 at 7:00 P.M., it was curtain call for all the actors and actresses. During the entire performance, we were all holding our breaths waiting for something to go wrong, but nothing ever did. In fact, we were a hit. I can remember someone telling me that a few people even got saved. I'm glad even to this day that we could help lead someone to Christ. That makes this play even more memorable.

Memories made by volleying a ball.

There may not be many of us left, but the Lady Falcons remember. All the hours of suicides and cross-court setting in the brutal August sun. Lincoln logs and the 'W' drill. Overhand serves and backwards setting. AndaCondos and perfecting spikes. Tracks mown into the field and midnight leaf runs. Oh yes. The Lady Falcons remember it well.

Volleyball season.

I joined the Lady Falcons the summer of my freshman year. Jacelyn and I were the only two ninth grade girls, making us co-captains of the JV team and backups for the varsity. Before the first week of practices were over, however, I made an enemy. The worst person to have as your enemy on a volleyball team is, by far, your own coach. I affectionately remember being chased across the parking lot and knocked flat to the ground by an ice-cold waterfall from the cooler, with Catrina waving her red sweatshirt in the background. Pastor Condos is forevermore affectionately known to me as 'Sir Pastor Torro'.

Sir Torro had a temper indeed. For one thing, every single girl learned very quickly not to say the word "sucks" and to also ALWAYS keep her hands together when bumping. Kaitlyn Riley learned that lesson very well when her hands were literally tied together for a week by her own Silly Bandz. 

Certain other team members with louder mouths who could not refrain from using banned words were forced to do humiliating push-ups in front of everybody.

Our coach's favorite punishment for anything done wrong was not laps, benching from games, public humiliation, suicides, or the like. No. Around August and September, the fields in the back of the church property are six feet tall with corn. Our coach found great pleasure in sending us girls through that corn to the edge of the church property, plucking off a leaf from a particular tree, and running back to return it to our master. These inhumane dashes became affectionately known to all as 'leaf runs', which Jacelyn turned into a lovely Facebook Flair piece.

However, all that hard physical work paid off. At one point, Pastor Binkley's soccer guys challenged us to a sprinting relay race, thinking the easy win would boost their egos and pride. We easily beat them by almost three people. Ha.

All our hard work finally paid off in the end. At the end of the season, our first round of playoffs was against our eternal archenemy: Chesapeake Christian. After hours of sweating, shouting, and diving all over the place, the matches were tied 2-2, so a fifteen-point fifth game was needed to win. After even more intense sweating, shouting, and diving all over the place, the score was tied at 15. With each team giving it their best, the score kept switching sides up until eighteen. Then, by the amazing serve of Catrina June Case, the Lady Falcons won the first round of playoffs against their top rival. That was by far the most intense game of my life.

Spending seven hours together each day in school and then three hours after in practice brought the Lady Falcons very close together. At one game against Denton, the team wasn't doing very well. At all. The soccer team came in and certain members decided to not only cheer for the other team, but also ask for some of the girls' numbers afterward. Needless to say, we were not happy. So at the next soccer game, the Lady Falcons stayed after school to decorate T-shirts and makes banners and posters - cheering for their rival, Salisbury Christian. At the game, we acted like loyal SCS fans, complete with cheering and facepaint supplied by their very own coach, who was in on the prank. Granted, the aftereffects weren't very pleasant, but we made our point very clear and were respected in the end.

 Being on this team with these girls for so long has been one of my greatest memories of high school. There is so much more I could tell about each of these girls and times spent with them, but unfortunately, I am running out of time and space. I want to thank each of the girls on these team for being such a great friend, and I am so sorry that I couldn't enjoy one more year with you. I hope our friendships will last for a lifetime.

Life with a tiny person of four years of age.

P.S. I apologize ahead of time for not posting the actual video to the page. Blogger is quite slow.

Ahhh. Life with a toddler. Fortunately, most people in this room have experienced this kind of life, and to those people, I give you props. It is not an easy thing to accomplish if one desires to retain his or her sanity. Jonathon and Jacelyn, I am jealous of you, but you should also be jealous of me. See? Even Shelby is mocking your lack of a tiny person in your life. In a jesting manner, of course.

In actuality, she is mocking Jimmy's "gustingness". Don't be offended.

One thing about Shelby is her distinct personality. Living with Julia and I, she has decided that she is a miniature teenager. With our very opposite personalities, Julia and I have managed to teach her some very different things. The classic mirror shot popular among teenage girls was learned from Julia.

Shelby also prefers Julia's musical tastes above mine. Though Owl City's "Gold" was a close second, when asked, Shelby declared she would much rather sing some Taylor Swift for her moment of fame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLg92gAYpEs&feature=youtu.be

Fortunately, my baby sister learned some habits from me as well. For example, not all pictures have to be perfect. A hint of craziness and making people wonder if you've got it all together mentally isn't such a terrible thing.

She has also developed an intense love for Christmas. I'll take credit for that one, with it being my favorite holiday and all. Wrapping gifts and decorating gingerbread houses are her two favorite holiday activities.

She's also pretty honest and has very definite opinions that she isn't afraid to share.

P.S. I didn't coach her on this at all. This is what just popped out of her smart little mouth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGFVTQUrR8o&feature=youtu.be

But Shelby is definitely not a clone of her sisters. She has her own distinct personality indeed, clearly seen below.

She also attempts to gain sympathy when she feels she has been wronged by using a classic pout, which almost always ends up making people laugh.

She also has her very own touch of craziness, not taught or inherited by anybody but herself.

In conclusion, though this child drives me up the wall and completely crazy, I love her to death and would do anything for her. How could anyone resist such a precious little face?

A birthday post of the happy sort.

All right. This blog is going to be crazy random, simply because I haven't the slightest clue what to blog about specifically and I must have something interesting to write about so that I don't fall asleep right here and now.

Yeah. Kinda like that.

Anyway. This particular blog is going to be about birthdays, because mine is tomorrow and +Jourdan Diskin's is today. In case you weren't aware. Blah blah blah, happy birthday to us, now let the festivities begin!

Fact. Most people celebrate their birthdays in August. I don't know why. Probably because winter birthdays are downers. Boo to cold weather.

More than half of the cards sent in the United States every year are for birthdays. Over two billion birthday cards. Waste of paper. Everybody knows they're just a way to conceal birthday money.

Birthday parties were originally invented because the ancient people believed that evil spirits were attracted to people on their birthdays. That's why birthday parties today consist of wishes, noisemakers, laughter, and various people always hugging you. No evil spirits there.

In conclusion, happy birthday to Jourdan and myself and have a good Friday. Wear plaid.