Excessive Happiness

Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Posted 11:41 PM by Dezi Rollins, LSSP | 0 Thoughts

Well, I am all packed and ready to go! My parents and I are heading out to Lake Charles, Louisiana for my cousin's wedding. We leave in the morning, and will return on Sunday, so there will not be any posts until then. (I know, everyone who reads this site will be devastated. Both of you). I am looking forward to seeing my family, as it is very rare when the entire family is together. The last time that all of us were together was Thanksgiving of 2001, when we celebrated my grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary.

This has been a good week so far. My class is going really well. Because of the wedding, I must miss class on Friday, so I took the test for Friday today, and I feel like I did very well on it. Something that was kind of annoying while I was studying, is that the tornado siren went off, and it is apparently close to the building I was in. No, there was no tornado, just a routine once a month testing of the siren. It was extremely loud, though.

Yesterday I was out in Fort Worth, helping out at the Fort Worth ISD Summer Challenge camp. I am not really sure how to describe it, except that the kids are in groups and they work on leadership skills, and also communication among the group members as they work to achieve various tasks. For three days, they are at the Lockheed-Martin recreational facility, and for the other two days, they are doing the ropes course at Texas Christian University. I spent yesterday out at Lockheed-Martin, and let me tell you, it was an experience! Our group consisted of eight 6th and 7th grade boys. (6th and 7th grades go this week, and in two weeks, 8th and 9th grade go). The kids are recommended from different FWISD schools by diagnosticians and psychologists, who feel that these kids need to learn cooperation and teamwork skills.

Anywho, we had a group of 8 boys. We were outside for most of the day. Now, to get the full effect, you have to understand something about me. I am not an outdoor person. I am very heat sensitive and sunburn very easily. I am all for staying inside where it is air conditioned. At any rate, I slapped on sunscreen and drank lots of water, and really enjoyed myself. I do have a couple of funny stories about the boys from the camp. They weren't really sure how to respond to me, since I was not wearing a staff shirt, yet I was not getting ordered around like the kids. I wound up talking with this one kid during lunch, and he apparently decided that I was really cool. Then I couldn't get rid of him! After lunch, we went to arts and crafts, where she told them that they were going to be doing jewelry making. (Which elicited groans from all of them, until she showed them what she meant). The project involved making things with string and beads, which they did enjoy. One of the boys made me a bracelet of silver and purple beads. Another boy gave me a bar of soap that he had made yesterday. (He and this other boy had made soap together, and they had an extra bar). I asked him if he was giving me soap because I smelled bad, he replied,"No, you don't stink, you smell good!" Which, considering I had been outside all day, and probably smelled like I'd been in a barn, I highly doubted, but I was amused by that comment. After arts and crafts, it was time to go, and the boy who gave me the bracelet and the boy who gave me the soap were trying to talk me into cutting class and coming out to the camp again the next day. Which, I did not do. What I did do, however, was take a shower the instant I got home. I felt very much rejuvenated when I got out of the shower.

Yesterday was a very important one for the band. We have been searching for a new conductor, and had a couple applicants come out to rehearsal, do a few songs with us, then had an interview with the board of officers and section leaders, followed by a question and answer session with the full band. Last night was the night we voted on the new conductor. It was a unanimous vote, so that's good. As my secretarial duty, I spent a long time making professional looking-ballots. (Okay, okay, so I spent ten minutes making them, and fiften minutes cutting them on the paper cutter). We notified the person we elected, and he has acccepted the position. He and our current director will alternate conducting duties at our next concert, which is July 4th, at the City of Carrollton's Independence Day shindig. I am very excited about this, and I feel that our new director will continue to push us, as our current director has.

Well, this not-so-little girl needs her beauty sleep for the long trek tomorrow. Before signing off, I want to give a shout to my father. Today is his birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!

Monday, June 02, 2003

Posted 3:32 PM by Dezi Rollins, LSSP | 0 Thoughts

Hello, world! Welcome to a new month! Rum pa pum pum!! I had fun playing the drums!! Sunday was so much fun!! I had such a great time, and nobody booed or threw Bibles at me, so I must have performed okay. I am definitely looking forward to playing again with the same group in a couple of weeks.

Saturday, I attended the graduation ceremony for The Colony High School. My good friend Heather's sister was graduating, and much to my surprise, I recognized a few of the other faces there. I know of several people that have graduated this spring, either from college or high school and would like to take a moment to acknowledge them and to offer my highest congratulations:

Holly Martin
Nathan Robinson
Benjamin Griffin
Lauren Walton
Joe Posenecker
Tiffany Carmichael
Karla Gaebler
Mary Trimble
Tamara Carroll

Congratulations to all of these young men and women for all their hard work, and best of luck to you in the future!

Speaking of education, I started another semester today. I am taking one summer course, entitled: Behavioral Interventions in Health and Medicine. Doesn't it sound fun? Okay, maybe not, but based on today's lecture, I believe that it will be an interesting course.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week!