The A-Word, and The Sadie Hawkin's Dance, and The Far West.

Turns out I have had quite the weekend adventure, my friends. I tell you what. First of all, it was the end of third term. THANK THE HEAVENS ABOVE. I have one term left of high school, and quite honestly, I'm ready for that. At semester change, towards the end of last year, I started flipping out. I went through all these crazy emotional stages of denial, feeling like I didn't have a future. All sorts of good stuff. Now, I'm about ready to be done. I still have good things I need to accomplish and fun memories to make, but overall, theatre is about the only thing that's keeping me from checking out completely.

But yeah, I just feel this huge sense of relief this weekend having made it through all that third term nonsense. I felt so ridiculously busy that I had no idea how I would make it out with all my limbs/brain cells. However, I feel like I've at least kept all my limbs. So, moving on down the line, here! I was pretty much raining around screamin' sunshine and poopin' rainbows, you know? And Region One Acts were hosted at Davis on Friday.

Let's just talk about the fact that theatre kids are weird. They're weird all over. But honestly... I know I'm biased, but I feel like theatre kids from other schools are just. Horrifying. They run around acting out EVERYTHING, from things that juuusssst happened to scenes from the Bible... and they all touch each other in yucky ways and makeout all over the place with weird makeup and costumes. I wish I was kidding. I saw sketchy sights no one should ever have to see. Why would you touch someone's bum in not only the light of day, but the light of the theatre! You were OFFSTAGE. And... they're so forward. And have weird neards (neck beards). Needless to say, I'm real grateful I have friends that shower before they come to act.

Saturday was quite the day. We had Region individual events at Weber High School. First of all, can I just tell you that this looks like a labrynth of classrooms. I was half expecting a minotaur at any given moment to pop out and give a monologue! But we might've kicked butt. Might've gotten straight superiors. Might've medalled. Might've seen waaaay too many kids looking for words to memorize around the LOOMING FACT that they just wanted to kiss each other. High school tensions... :/

But I got to do a scene called "The A-Word" with Patrick. It was gorgeous, I can't lie. Knowing Patrick has been a huge highlight of senior year for me. You might remember me meeting him back at Camp Zarahemla, OH so many years ago. You probably WOULDN'T remember, since I suck at blogging, that we also did a scene for Shakespeare at the beginning of this year. And experienced a lip-lock encounter in blocking our scene that resulted in my attempted murder several times throughout the year. (His girlfriend and her friends threw candy AT me, not TO me, in the Homecoming Parade! Tried to knock me right of my cruiser!) Anyway. Thanks to our terrific meshing of Crocs, awkward, and Much Ado About Nothing, we ended up competing down at the Shakespearean Festival. I guess what I'm getting at is, Pat and I are no strangers to crazy kids in fun rounds.

It's going to sound like I have terrible theatre etiquette, but when Patrick named this kid with a shirt half-unbuttoned performing a .... "tension"-charged scene... Tall-Dark-N-Handsome and got ridiculously excited when he started changing his shirt in the scene... I just had to put my head down. And silently SHAKE with laughter. It did NOT help matters when the lad kept turning around and smiling at me. NOoooooothankkkyooou, sir!
Moral of the story? I love Pat. I am grateful for him and for the time we had together this weekend. I am also terrified because his cute girlfriend will probably NOT be pleased about the fact that State Drama is the same day as Prom.

Next item of fun business was the Sadie Hawkin's Dance. Yes, yes, yes. A million cliche jokes. Let them play out in your mind. I've neither the finger strength nor the time to make them, my friends. I took my friend Drew. He is probably the most talented, strangest kid I know. I love every second of our friendship.

Everyone came over and had dinner at my house. We all brought potluck and no one was allowed to plot about what they were bringing. And oddly enough, it worked out perfectly. Guarantee if we'd have tried to actually coordinated, it would have been a fail. My group was maybe hilarious and wore animal shirts. I, however, am a procrastinator, and by the time I reached Walmart... all that was left was a 38 Wide REALTECH WOODSGEAR hunting sweatshirt. But, oh, how we made that sweatshirt look work.
You should also know that Drew kept threatening to make out with me all night long. He was kidding, but. For outsiders, the threat probably looked very valid:
On a whim of mine, after leaving my house for dinner, my car made a trip to Layton Park, where we planned to employ our camoflauge to watch. Just... to watch.
You probably would have NO idea I was in this picture if I hadn't told you, right?! SUCH good Walmart technology... Really.
At this point in the night, we noticed some ducks trying to get intimate. I about DIED. I wanted out of there so fast. Drew, on the other hand, kept yelling encouragement. He is a CREEP. I love it. Don't believe me? Okay, here's a typical shot of his night:
And! Since it was in all probability, my last high school dance (I don't plan on Prom), I made sure to party it up with my beautiful friends.
And the rest are just happy snapshots I hope you enjoy as much as I do.




It was a fantasic night, but I feel like I have to mention that it was somewhat colored by a major effort to have a good time. I don't mean that Drew wasn't a fun date - he was. He is very easy to have a good time with. However, Landon Cook, a darling SBO, was in our group. He is quite obviously kept abreast (hahahaha. Abreast.) of happenings. I thought it was sort of odd when Coach Bishop showed up with his two little boys. I had also thought it was odd when I got to the dance after Layton Park and was shuffled aside by a sprinting police officer yelling, "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" But I mean. I kind of just assumed that it was kids fighting or maybe a drugbust. Never in my wildest dreams did I picture a shooting. In KAYSVILLE. This is Kaysville, people!

However, that's exactly what Landon Cook informed me of - a shooting at the Far West Motel, off of Main Street. No one knew the details, and it kept changing from 7-11 to the Far West, and the numbers were anywhere from 1-3 people killed. I was horrified. I just felt. Weird. We were on lock-down, but it wasn't officially announced since the dance didn't end until 10 p.m. anyway. You just couldn't go outside. But the possibility of not being able to leave at ten did make me nervous. Now, don't get me wrong. You know me. I hardly showed an external hint that I was freaked out. I partied twice as hard, if anything - I didn't want to be a bad date. But I can't act like I didn't think that we were the perfect target. Davis High is like an absolute fishbowl. A glass box. And there we were, loud and attracting attention. I just felt weird. I tried to help out - I even danced with one of Coach Bishop's little sons on a slow song (ahhh, yeah! Hitting it up with the elementary school boys) so he could go around and do some checking.

But I'll be honest - and call me a self-absorbed teenager, but I just. Wanted. My. Phone. I'd left it home so I wouldn't be a bad date, but all I wanted to do was touch base with people. I knew I'd see my mom later, but I also knew that she'd be worrying like crazy. And the next sentence I'm about to say might be good reason to condemn me as a bad date, the thing I try so hard to avoid, but, I also just wanted to call my best friend Cody. I don't know why. It's illogical. He lives 60 miles away half the time - there's really not much he could physically do about anything I call him for. But whenever something goes wrong, he's the first person I call. When I lock my keys in a running car in my own garage, I call him before I even dial my mom. It's a knee-jerk reaction. Even if he can't make it go away or can't tangibly do anything... just having him know, or hearing his voice, it just makes it better, you know? He just grounds me and calms me down when I know I'm being ridiculous.

Luckily, when the dance ended at 10, they'd taken us off of lockdown. We all got to leave, but we were informed formally by the DJ of the incident and strongly advised (begged, I'd say) to stay off the streets and not to linger by our cars. The murderer was on the loose and police were searching for him. There were helicopters in the air, police from everywhere absolutely CRAWLING the streets, and searchers with dogs and flashlights. I felt so weird and discombobulated. Just confused, really. It didn't look like our town.

When I dropped Drew off so he could change, we took a couple pictures for his mom and tried to answer her questions. We knew more than she did. Emily took forever to change and come pick me up again, so I got what I wanted. I had texts from my friend Courtney - she's Cody's sister, coincidentally - and we got to talk a little since I had time to reply before leaving my phone again. They were searching Cody and Courtney's ward, so I was majorly relieved Cody's family was all down with him in Provo for a reception. I got to talk to Cody for a while, and I got to hug my mom. I got what I needed.

Maddy lived a little by where they were searching, so even though we were all laughing at her house afterwards with our dates, speaking for myself at least, there was just a hint of the somber. I was tired from Region, and overloaded on cookies, but mostly, I was just astounded that someone could take another person's life. Willingly, and consciously, and in Kaysville. I was absolutely beat and ready to go home at midnight. Weird thoughts kept running through my mind, and I kept thinking how the man was shot. 7:45 p.m. We'd been driving back from the park, past the hotel. It'd felt weird. We'd all made a comment. Right around 7:45 p.m. It didn't feel real. It still mostly doesn't?

And now here I sit, on a Sunday, in my house - safe, and with my family. They've caught the suspect - he killed his father. Their family was torn apart by meth and domestic violence. I'm sitting on the couch and my parents are laughing together after a good day at church. My sister and her husband are on their way, my other sister and her fiance are snuggled up on the couch. Cody is home - I'm surprised, but so glad, and he's coming to visit. I'm about to have Sunday dinner with my family. I could not be any more grateful to have the life I do, the blessings I have, and the family that is sitting around me.

What a weekend, am I right? Oh, man. I am a lucky, lucky girl.