One Acts

At my school, about two months after the All School Musical, my school does something called "One Acts." One Acts are plays with onl y one act in them. They are usually about 30-40 minutes each. This year my school is doing 3 student directed one acts: "The Velveteen Rabbit", "The Auditioners", and "Man Woman Flower".

For the auditions we had to perform a monolouge. The girls had to learn a monolouge that was a rant about how two minutes was not long enough for an audition. It was great. I memorized the monolouge and I know i rocked auditions on tuesday.

The cast list was posted today and I got the part of the Velveteen Rabbit in "The Velveteen Rabbit." I'm super excited. My friend Luke is playing the kid that owns the Rabbit as well, so that's going to be fun. I can't wait until we start rehearsal two mondays from now (Spring break is next week....). It's gonna rock!

Peace out,
Jay~Jay.

Shadows

So today is Groundhog's Day. Exciting right? I find the concept of this holiday to be quite interesting. I have always been mystified by the story of the groundhog's ability to predict the arrival of spring.

It never made sense to me. You'd think taht if the groundhog saw his shadow it would mean spring would be early. Because him seeing his shadow means that there is sun. By not seeing his shadow, one would think that would mean more winter.

But as the story goes, when the groundhog comes out of his hole and sees his shadow, he gets scared and runs back into this hole to hide for six weeks. I think it's actually a cute story. I just find it funny how big it's become.

Nearly every state has its own groundhog that is pampered for the day.

I just think it's interesting. I kind of like celebrating the small holidays, like today.

So Happy Groundhog's Day everyone!!!

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

Are You Ready for Some Football??

Today millions upon millions of Americans will tune in to watch the biggest sporting event of the year. The Superbowl. I forget what number Superbowl this one will be, but I know it's in the forties.

This year's Superbowl comes with a miraculous story because for the first time ever, The Arizona Cardinals have made it there. How? Two words: Kurt Warner. The quaterback who several years ago came out of nowhere, he was a bagger at a grocery store, and led the Rams to a Superbowl victory. And a couple years later led his team to the Superbowl again, was injured and the coaches said he wouldn't be able to play.....but he did.

That's pretty amazing. Especially considering he is pretty old for a football player. He's in his upper thirties. He's not very muscularly built either. He had some trouble a few years ago while he was still playing for the Rams. He was injured, and the Rams let him go. The biggest mistake they've ever made.

This year Warner was signed to the worst team in the league, The Arizona Cardinals. Ironic in a way because this team came from the city he used to play for, his former team, the Rams play there now.

So now Kurt Warner has led this team to victory. All the way up to the Superbowl to face the Pittsburg Steelers.

I don't really know who to cheer for. I want to see Kurt Warner win another Superbowl. He's a great guy and he might not play after this year. It would be great to see him win another one. If he wins this Superbowl, he'll end his career with a phenomenal story.

But I like the Steelers also. They're a good team. After my home team began to suck terribly, I needed a new team to cheer for. The Steelers is the perfect team to cheer for.

So I think this Superbowl will be interesting.

I'm also curious to see what the commercials will be like. Anheuser Busch used to have the best commericals. during the Superbowl, I can't even begin to fathom how much money they put into the Superbowl every year. But now that they have been taken over by Inbev, I don't know if that will necessarily be the case.

That will be interesting to see.

So what team are you rooting for?

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

Something New

So today something happened that I've wanted for a few years now.

I got contacts.

Ever since I first had to get glasses I wanted contacts. I had to get glasses when I was 14 which is a time when appearance matters. I had gone for 14 years without having to wear glasses, the thought of wearing them made me cringe. I had perfect vision for 12 years. Neither of my parents wear glasses.

My eyes were damaged when I was sick. The pressure behind my eyes caused the damage. Even with glasses or contacts I don't have perfect vision, but at least I can read things that are a distance away from me.

Wearing the contacts makes me feel like my old self in a way. Before I was sick and I could see clearly without help. Every time I put on glasses, it reminds me of when I was sick. It's a constant reminder of the permnant effect of that illness.

But now I can see without having something on my face. That makes me happy. When I drive I can actually wear sunglasses. That's good because I hate driving and having the sun in my eyes without something shielding my eyes. (The visor doesn't really work for me because I'm kinda short....).

Yesterday I finished my column. I put my picture on it and everything. It looks great. The issue is supposed to come out Feb. 13, we'll see if that actually happens though. This year's staff is not very good at hitting deadlines and getting the newspaper to the printer on time. So we'll see what happens. I'll let you know when it comes out.

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

And the Winner is......

So last week I posted the column I wrote for journalism. Yesterday my class found out who's column was chosen to go into this issue of the school paper.

As it turns out, the staff of the newspaper didn't plan very well and they somehow calculated taht they had space for an extra J1 column. Well, they didn't. So only one column out of the seven J1 columns were chosen to go into this issue.

My teacher said that all of the columns were good and that they will all go into the paper sometime this semester. So that's good news for everyone.

But the column that aws chosen to go into Febuary's issue of the paper was.....Mine.

I'm excited. I know that not everyone reads the school newspaper. A lot of people just skim it and skip over a lot of things. But it doesn't matter to me. There will still be some people that read it and that's all that matters to me. l

Well that's all I have for now.

Peace Out,
Jay~Jay

Stalked

As time has gone on, the world has become even more of a scary place. Watching the news, you see some of the craziest stories of things that happen in your city. Sometimes these things are miles away, sometimes they're right at your backdoor.

Everyday, things happen that rarely happened in the past. Granted, a long time ago, the media wasn't what it used to be, but these events are still happening with more frequency.

Today when I was walking my dog around my small neighborhood, I felt like I was being followed.

Now you have to understand that the city I live in is extremely safe. The police in our city are extremely strict on speed. If you speed through my city, you will get caught. But that's because our police force has nothing better to do than look for cars racing down the roads.

My neighborhood is really small and has only one entrance. I walked my dog around my subdivision twice today. The first time, I was turning right on a street and this white car had its blinker on to turn left onto the street I just turned off of.

Well the car was stopped completely and there were no cars coming, I was well out of its way, but the man didn't go. Not until I passed by his car did he turn.

At first I didn't really think anything of it, I figured he was just making sure my dog didn't dart out into the street and he would hit it.

I continued walking.

I was walking down a completely different street as before, away from the entrance of the subdivision when I hear I car approaching. I turn my head to look at the car as I always do and I notice that it's the same car as before.

I watch as the car starts to slow down. It slows down as it passes me. A part of me is screaming that something isn't right, and the other part of me says that he's just slowing down because we're on a hill and the road curves at the bottom of the hill.

So I just stop. The car rolls pass me and reaches the bottom of the hill.....where it stops.

A van drives by me and I turn around and start walking in the other direction. There was no way I was going to continue in the direction the car went. I kept looking over my shoulder and saw that the car had pulled over to the side of the road to let the van through. That scares the stuff out me.

I cut down a road that will take me to my house quicker. It was the same road that i had turned off of when I first saw the car.

When I reached the end of the road, I contemplated turning left instead of right. If I turned left, I could take a road that would loop around to my street. My friend lives on the road that loops around. So i figured if I saw the car again, I could run to my friend's house.

Well as I reached the end of the road there was a woman and a little girl walking a big white dog. They were going in the direction that was the quickest way to get to my house. So I followed near them.

I kept looking over my shoulder. And I saw the car turn onto the street. When I saw the car coming in our direction I walked on the grass, instead of the road. Well the car pulls up onto the curb, right behind me. The car was only a few feet away from me.

It pulls onto the curb and the lights go out.

Well, at that point I guess the bigger dog noticed my dog and they looked at each other and the woman was telling her dog no and to get back.

So I looked up at her and said "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but this car is really starting to freak me out."

She nodded her head and said "Oh, okay. No problem." I was really close to my house. I started to walk a lot faster, and I was looking over my shoulder. One time when I looked back I saw the car pull up further on the curb and stop.

I turned and walked as fast as I could until i reached my house.

When I was telling my brother what had happened he asks me "Was this car white?" (I hadn't told him the color of the car yet). I told him that it was. He then said "I saw that car drive by here."

It was creepy. I really want to go for a walk again tomorrow. Because I like walking, but I definitely don't want that to happen again.

I might ask my friend if he wants to walk with me. He's really good at keeping stalkers away. He kept the Pringle Guy (this creepy stalker senior guy at my school who looks like the Pringle guy) away from my Megan last semester at lunch. We'll see I guess.

I could have just been paranoid. But a car passing by three times in my subdivion is really unusual. Maybe the person was just trying to scare me because he saw that I was a bit weary of him the first time I passed. Who knows?

All I know is that if something like this ever happens to me again, I'm taking a picture of the license plate and sending it to my mom, going straight home and if I am approached, I'm taking a picture of the person and then running to the nearest house screaming "Fire".

The saying "That will never happen to me" should never be uttered. By anyone. Because anything can happen, at anytime to anyone.

So be prepared for anything.

Peace out,
Jay~Jay

Not So Failed Experience

According to my Journalism teacher, you want your column to make a difference. So for my column I tried to understand how excluded kids nad students feel. My plan failed completely, but I think I ended up with a decent column.



Not So Failed Experience


We’ve all heard the saying “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”, but how many of us have actually tried to do it? Well I can say from personal experience, that it’s not as easy as you might think.



Originally, for this column I had planned to spend an entire school day in complete isolation. I wanted to compare my experience and my emotions that day with how kids who are excluded on a daily basis feel.



I talked to all my friends and a few of my teachers and they had agreed to ignore me for that day. It was as simple as that.


When “Ignore Jessica Day” came around, everything went without a hitch. My friends refused to talk to me, my teachers never called on me in class, and a deep loneliness filled me. The experience really allowed me to understand what it felt like to be rejected by my classmates.
Well, that was what I had thought would happen. In reality, my plan had failed almost from the very beginning.


When I arrived at school, I was completely ready to endure my day of isolation,


Okay, I thought to myself, don’t talk to anyone for the entire day….oh, except for the question I need to ask Elise about an assignment. Oh, and I need to get my iPod back from Geri, Megan needs help with the chemistry homework, and maybe I can sneak in a word with Casey about the book I’m reading.


With all these thoughts swirling around in my head, it’s no wonder my “fool-proof” plan was destined to fail. Yet still I tried.


My friends talked among themselves and I pretended like I wasn’t listening. I suppressed my frequent urges to speak and gesture to them. Not being able to talk to my friends was extremely difficult for me.


However, when class started, we had to work in pairs, making “Ignore Jessica Day” that much more challenging.


By the time third hour arrived, my day felt just like any other. “Ignore Jessica Day” had crashed and burned.


In fourth hour, I realized something: you can’t know how someone feels, unless you are in the same situation as they are. My fake simulation of ostracism could never evoke the same emotions as real isolation.


It had been extremely hard for me not to talk to my friends, but that was because they were people I frequently talked to. Kids who are excluded and ignored all the time may not have people they talk to a lot. How do they deal with not having someone to share their thoughts with?


Do they have someone to help them with their homework? To discuss a good book with?


At the end of the 2nd semester, students sign each other’s yearbooks.


“Kim, I can’t imagine not having you as a friend. You’re the best! Love you! Love, Sam.”


Who writes in their yearbooks? And if someone does, how do they sign it? Do they write something special or sincere?


I can only guess at the emotions stirring inside of them. Maybe they don’t mind being left out, maybe they hate it. Maybe they don’t even notice that they’re being excluded.
How do we know?


As I said earlier, it’s extremely difficult to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. We all wear different sizes, the shoes might not fit. But who’s to say we can’t reach out and walk the mile alongside them?

The only bad thing about my column is in order to get the message, you have to read the whole thing though. Not all high schoolers have the attention span to do that. But whatever.

My column might not get picked though. My school's newspaper staff (Journalism II kids) pick the two columns. And my column is a lot different than anything they write. They might not like it. Or maybe they'll like it because it's different. Who knows? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I'll let you guys know what happens with it. Let me know what you think.

Peace out,

Jay~Jay