I apologize. I told myself that I would post every week but it's been almost two weeks. I have been very busy and now, I'm exhausted. Running on, like, 6 or 7 hours of sleep per night for the last two weeks has not been fun. Tuesday the 15th, we had a rehearsal at night that was supposed to go from 5:30-7:30. It ran over and I didn't get home until way after 8 PM. On top of that, I had to finish my stupid essay on The Catcher in the Rye.

Aside from that massive essay, last week was rather uneventful excluding lots of homework, a Thursday night Choral Concert, Sunday's CC concert, and my bio retest (which she STILL hasn't graded. I mean, how hard could it be? Run the paper through the scantron thing and voila!). I learned some very profound things on Sunday; for instance, "every woman needs a black bra; not necessarily black panties, but a black bra. You don't need to show anyone, but why do you think Victoria's Secret sells all those colors?" This very wise statement was said by a woman who is young at heart and has aged rather gracefully. Anyhow, I am now officially done with all my concerts for this [school] year.

This week, we had the cheerleading tryout practices Monday through Wednesday and tryouts were yesterday. Not that many people came. There were a decent number at the meeting last Wednesday but only 12 came to practice (I guess the rest chickened out or were otherwise engaged).  This is not going to be a good year... I can tell. I sense a rant coming along.

Ok, to begin, everyone made it onto the cheerleading squad because there were only 12 people trying out... doesn't that tell you something? 12 people. That's 3 stunt groups without fronts. There should have been cuts but then we'd only have like 8 or 9 people on the squad.

Today, I was complaining about the tryouts to anyone who would listen to me. Things that (mostly) everyone needs to work on (some way more than others):

- Motions: omg, THUMBS=BAD and TIGHT arms (weight lifting, anyone?).
- Jumps: a jump should lift you up off the ground into the air and be more than 12 inches apart! My goodness!
- Projecting voices without sounding strangled (cheering is not yelling).
- Dancing: so much for being better than the dance team (lol). One girl didn't know the dance that well so she couldn't do it to the music. Also, tight motions! Sheesh!
- Tumbling: one girl couldn't even do a FORWARD ROLL because she was TOO AFRAID... I guess we'll work on that. Others can barely do round offs. They look like they're spazzing in the air or something (stay tight, tight, tight!).
- Facials: of course we wear fake smiles. We're cheerleaders. Be happy. Or at least try to look happy.

This morning, we got a paper that told us our average score for the tryouts plus our strengths and weaknesses. I got a 60/67 ("great job!") so that's like a 90%. Not too bad (more like really, really good! I'm happy). My strengths: "spirit" (are you kidding me? I wasn't very spirited that day but I must have seemed spirited compared to everyone else), "eye contact" (I looked straight ahead at the wall), "motions" (yes! I'm not a hypocrite!). My weaknesses: I need to keep my toes pointed and my back up when I jump (that's it? I was surprised).

When we start stunting, we'll need to work really hard. (Practice!) The whole squad needs conditioning (including myself... I know what I need to work on *cringe*). Don't get me started on the people—I should shut up now. Anyway, I resolve to remain positive and better myself. I will help others improve for the good of the group. I shall be nice and keep my big, fat, stupid mouth shut whenever I'm not on this blog. I hope that whoever is reading this is not too offended. I tend to tell things like I see it. Realist... that's me.

Whoa, long rant. In any case, this week was especially busy because of cheerleading, two tests and a quiz on Tuesday, a test and a math project due Wednesday, and a test and a huge western civ. project due Thursday. We've been working on a "skeleton essay" in English and it's actually harder than a real essay. Our English teacher thinks it's great. Ooo, fun. Not. Plus, she keeps changing the rules on us. ("Stereotyping is a good topic! Wait, no! It's not! Don't write about stereotyping!") I have at least four tests and quizzes next week and that essay to finish, as well as studying for the finals... the end of the year sucks. A lot.

Au revoir mes amies et bonne chance en vos examens.

Hey Angel! I totally understand what you are going through with the cheerleading even though it had been YEARS since I tried out. I thought I was pretty good, but I didn't even make the squad. There were soooo many people that tried out and they only had 5 spaces available. They ended up giving the spaces to 4 SENIORS that probably would not have had a chance in a regular tryout if the selections weren't based on the judges feeling sorry for them for only being on the squad for one year! For one thing, NONE of them could stick any of their moves and forget about rhythm because there was no rhythm with those girls! And one was a total COW!! (nothing against big girls, since I am one myself, but back then I was a total hater!) Needless to say the squad didn't look so hot when it came time to cheer, so I felt better knowing that I wasn't on such a failing team!! But alas, that was AGES ago and even though I didn't make it, I still think I could have done so much better!