Bus Ride @ MindSay

so i had that tournament today. it was pretty fun. i didn't really play, but its good getting out and being with your friends.

the bus ride was my favorite part, probably. i sat as close to the back of the bus as i could, since that's where jon was. i was more like at the front, but oh well. 

it was funny, i'd be like looking at the back of the bus, then jon would catch my eye and just start smiling and laughing at me. i'd get all giggly and blushy and embarassed, so i'd hunch down a little more. when i'd do that, he'd sit up more and try to keep eye contact. then he and alex would talk and stuff and i'd act normal for a while, then it'd happen again.

so we beat smith valley, and lost to to tonopah. i only played for four minutes in the last quarter of the last game, me and mika both. it was pretty maddening but oh well.

me and chelsea had a really good talk the way back. we're both in the same boat, liking someone older and stuff like that. when we actually talk, we confide a lot in eachother.

then when i got off the bus, i just was kinda looking around for my ride and stuff, dawdling a little, hoping i could talk or smile at him one last time. maybe get him to add me or something. he and alex got off a little later, i was still just hanging out on the curb and stuff, and then jon had to go home so he walked away.

then i started walking to try to find my ride, and alex saw me. he pointed at me (with his foot) and called to jon saying 'here she is. you gonna do it?' jon kept saying 'monday, i'll do it on monday!' and stuff and then got into his truck.

so i think he might ask me out.

but idk what to do! i like being single, and it'd be kinda disrespectful to sam i think

i just don't know

i like him an all, but i think i'll say that i want to get to know him better first

omg he's soo cute though! and i love his smile. and he's great at basketball.

ok had to get that out there.

night.

While searching for new art prints to decorate my new home, I came across this lovely scene painted by George W. Joy (1844-1925), The Bayswater Omnibus.  There's something so lovely, so reminiscent of my own bus rides yet so unlike because it's a depiction from another time period, that makes me feel at peace.  I saw a large print of this painting at a local frame shop and knew it had to go in my livingroom where I can see it everyday.  I'm very paticular about what I choose to be on my walls.  I go for antique yet timeless images, elegant yet ordinary...  Joy's painting reminds me of the conversation pieces that the painter Tissot is well know for.  These are the closest things we can get to real snapshots of Victorian life.  Like Tissot, Joy pays particuliar attention to the details of clothing, even the adverts above the passengers seem so vivid, so yesterday...

However, I have to wait til next week to buy this print.  For now I'm sharing it here with all of you -- posting it on my blog is the closest thing I can get to posting it on the livingroom wall for now.

Day 1 (tuesday february 27^th, 2007)

Ok so this was the day we left. Nothing really exciting, we drove to Sault Ste. Marie, which is 8 hours. We stopped in Wawa for some lunch. ANd thne when we got to he hotel (The Best Western) we found out it had a pool (with a slidde that goes outside and then back in!) and a gym, and it was really big and confusing to get around in if you were on the second floor. Apparently there was also an under ground tunnel to the bowling alley which was right behind it.

Once we got there we had about an hour and a half to do whatever we wanted, so Annie and I went to the subway that was just down the street for supper, and then we came back and we just kind of explored the hotel. At 7 we left on the bus to go to a near by school so we can have a group practise.

Did I mention, 38 kids and 1 (or soemtimes 2) couch(es) from each school, so you can imagine what the practise and bus ride was like.

Then after the practise we all went back, me anne and cassidy went across the street for some DQ and then back to the hotel for a swim.

Day 2 (wednesday february 28^th, 2007)

We had to be up and out of the Sault by 7:30 am. So annie and i got up ealry to claim good seats on the bus (the 4 that are around the card table). So we got to the bus at like 7 and got the seats, well we saved 2 for cassidy and mike...who decided to not scome to the bus until 7:25....so they lost their seats that we saved to these other guys (John and mitch) which me and anne weren't happy about. And then to top it off, the guys had to sit in the SUV cuz there were more people going on to brampton then the bus could fit, and this was not a comfy SUV to sit in apparently. So the guys were pissed, me and Anne had a fun day just the 2 of us. We played some card games (we played War at 1 point, it took us an hour to finish the game!), we also painted our nails our school colours. But were then imformed that we may not be allowed to weigh in at brampton, so we tryed to chip it off....that didnt work well.

So then after another 8 hours opf driving we made it to brampton...we had an hour until weigh-ins so Annie and I ran through the mall looking for nail polish remover, which is harder to find then you would expect. And i dont think we were even suppsoed to leave the hotel ...haha.

So when we went to weigh-in, both annie and I were only .1 kg over, so we went to the washroom, wewighed-in again and werre fine :). So we got to leave early along with Brig, Ester, Steph, Rob and Eric. The only 1s who had to cut was Cassidy and Mike haha. So Mr.P gave the 7 of us a ride to the hotel and were told to be back in our rooms by 10. So Anne and i went to the mall, ate, shopped (I bought a jean mini skirt, I was dared to lol) and then Mike and Cassidy saw us and decided to scre me. So we walked around a bit with them...and then decided to go back to the hotel, so we did. Mike left us and anne decided she wanted to shave her legs before we went swimming. So me and Cass just sat and watched t.v.

But then we went swimming. It was interesting, cuz a bunch of the guys (more like all of them) were having wars, where 1 tall guy is on the bottom supporting a strong guy on his shoulders, and the guy on top trys to take down the guy on the bottom, quite funny to watch. And at soem points a guy would go underwater and then suddenly Im on their shoulders beign told to take someone down, haha great fun.

Day 3 (Thursday March 1^st, 2007)

We had to be up and ready for 7 :| for the tournamnet.

So we got there and it was at the Powerade Center. Which is acctualy a pick hockey arena with like 4 rinks. They had 10 mats (2 rows of 5) placed where the ice would usualy be. And then our city chose a spot to sit and you were told that basically you were on your own to warm up. And then an announcer explained how the tounrment was going to work.

They used the scoreboard to show what bout number it was up to, so if your number was 45, and the score board said 50 you should be down in this specific spot warming up and waiting to be taken to a mat. Down at this spot they had another score board saying what number was being taken to the mat, so if your number was 45 and it said 44, it was best to be near it to hear your anme called and then be taken to a mat.

The way you knew your bout number was the bracket sheets that were in the lobby. Very confusing for girls because in town we always did Round Robin, not bracket system. Anyways, there were over 30 girls in my weight category (yay! in town there was never anyone for me to wreslte).

So I got to wreslte 3 times. I lost my first match, won my second and then lost my thrid. If i would've won my first I would have been able to get a fourth or better, if I would have won my third I would've got sixth or fifth. I was kind of pissed about my last match, I got pinned and I could've avoided it. But whatever my couch told me that it was good that (being a rookie) I won 1 match in OFSAA.

So then the tournament ended at 8. SO we went back to the hotel, and then went to the mall for food because there were NO resurtrants around us :(.

Day 4 (friday March 2^nd, 2007)

Ok so this was day 2 of the tournment. This was to find out who would make top 6 in every weight category.

At 4 o'clock they start what is called the walk of the Champions. Where the top 6 walk out and they give awards to people and whatever. Then they started the matches for 5^th & 6^th place, 4^th & 3^rd and 1^st & 2^nd. They did it with 6 mats set up (2 rows of 3) and they did they boys 3 placing on 1 side and the girls on the other side. the gold metal matches were in the middle.

3 people from thunder bay placed. John, Dan and Brig (brigs from westgate :)) got 2^nd and this guy Tyson got 3^rd. So that was awsome.

So then the tournment ended around 8ish. And we had to drive back to The Sault...So we stopped at a grocery store to buy some food to last us the next 8 hours. And theres this tradition that when you lose 2 matches in a row, its called JubJubed, you have to buy the bus a tub of JubJubs. So that was another reason to go to the grocery store, and there were alot of people who needed to buy. But not me thankfully :).

So then we drove, and every couple hours we would stop at a Tim Hortons for the bus driver to get coffee. For the first bit everyone was hyper, and then we'd calm down and play a movie (did I mention? there was a DVD player on the bus and 3 T.V. screens to watch it on, we watched like 8 movies on the way to brampton). I think the bus ride home would have been funner than going to brampton haha....

Day 5 (Saturday March 3^rd, 2007)

And then at like 2 am we stopped at another Tim Hortons (it was snowing there!) and i needed to walk around, so me and brig decided to play in the snow, and we did just that. We ran into snow banks, made snowangels, threw snowballs, skated on the ice. And then i decided to do a front flip into the snow, that was fun. We did this stuff like 3 times. We'd run into Tim's after awhile and Id give somebody a hug (hehe) and then go outside again. Needless to say I was happy when I got back on the bus.

I didnt get to sleep until like 3 am.

And then we got to the Sault at 4:15 am :|. So we all kind of dragged our tired asses off of the bus, grabbed our bags and then were given a motel room key and passed out on the beds until about 10 or 11. Me and Anne decided to go to Mcdonalds and Tim Hortons at 10:30 because we weren't leaving till 12. So we walked there (it was just down the street) and we saw quite a few wreslters coming back from the same place we were headed.

So then we had our breakfast, walked back to the motel and packed the few things we'd taken out of our bag. And then went down to the bus and sat on there for an hour. Cassidy and mike came early to the bus this time. But Mr. P told them they had to sit in the SUV, so they were semipissed. We drove till the A&W in Wawa, and then when we got there we had lunch, and Mr.P told me and annie that we might have to sit in the van for the rest of the way to home (4 hours). But then another couch put 2 smaller kids in it so we were alright :).

Oh this girl Alynne cornrowed this guy Todds Afro just for fun, he looked pretty gangster afterwards. It was funny seeing his hair when they combed it lol.

Otherwise the rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, we saw a lynx at the side of the road. And watched 2 more movies.

We got home at aboput 8 so that was good

Overall it was a fun trip, and a good learing experience. And i hope I make it next year!

So that was it, now ican blog about other things that are on my mind soon,

Miller

ps- want to see the pictures from the trip? go here and look around.

Today, I went to the University of Houston's campus to work through some red tape.  I got an email that said the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid needed some extra information from me, but it didn't specify what it needed.  I decided to take the bus because 1) I hate driving on the freeway. 2) Gas prices are out of control and 3) I didn't want to pay for parking once I got there. 

The bus ride there was okay, but the bus had to let me off about a half mile away from the campus. It would have been fine except that it was hotter than Africa today! Why did I have to wear those "cute" sandals? My frustration continued when I realized I didn't know where any building was!  I couldn't remember! I spent five years of my life on that damn campus and I couldn't find diddly! At one point I ended up making a full circle in the heat before I finally found the building I needed.  Once I got where I needed to be, I was of course told that I needed to go to another building to see an Academic Advisor and get some papers signed.  Once I got there, I was told I had to make an appointment and the first available was on Thursday at 10:00 AM. *sigh*

As I walked back to the bus stop, I noticed that it looked like it was going to rain. Of course I didn't bring my umbrella.  At least I made it to the bus stop before the torrential rains fell. On the way back, I sat with a woman and her four children.  One was her husband's from his previous marriage, the other was her daughter from her previous marriage and there were two boys that she and her husband had together. She had just come back from MD Anderson because she had to get radiation treatment. She was originally from Fort Worth and she gets treatment once a year in Houston. She was nice and her two boys were sweet.  Both of them told me they wanted to move to Houston and be in my class! LOL!

Basically, I got nothing done at the University today and I get to do it all over again on Thursday. At least I don't have to feel bad about not going to the gym today.  In other news...

The Chocolate Trifecta will bring the city of Houston to its knees in FOUR DAYS!

I can't wait!!!!!!!!!

....i do not like riding the bus at all...espically when i have to transfer at century after passing the street i live on, because if they drop me off at my street it will, "take too much time." So...i guess i "live" for those rare days when i'm picked up from school or when some other kids who ride the bus don't ride, so then there will be enough time for me to be dropped off before getting to century...