A Sigh of Relief

I can't believe it, but I survived the last few weeks!! It was close, and at time I wasn't sure I would, but with a LOT of help I made it!! *pauses to rejoyce* Anyway. K, so here's what has been happening.

BANQUET
As I wrote in my last post, banquet was last week Friday. I also wrote that I'd been working on the video every spare moment, and even the ones that WEREN'T spare for that matter. At the time of the writing, I'd already spent over 50 hours in the time since I'd begun the crazy project on May 2. Since that time, I put in upwards of 40 MORE hours in a week. I worked until 3 a.m. last monday, pulled an all nighter on wednesday, and on thursday was again up working until 3 am.

The reason for this insanity was that I still wasn't DONE as of thursday about 10 pm, when I realized I had no idea how to put a movie to music. I called up faithful coach P, who makes the science o movies, and asked if he had any ideas. He said it was rly hard 2 do over the phone, so said that i should just come over. So Paula and I headed down the road to phil's house. We ended up working on it, as I said, until 3 in the morning. He helped an incredibly large amount. I never would have been able to figure out the music without him. Bri also stayed up and kept us company until about 2, when he turned in. The hours were reminiscent of a late Mission Possible night, with a LOT of laughs, frusterated sighs, and random conversations about nothing. It was fun, but we were all VERY tired!! Keep in mind that Phil had no tie to the video whatsoever...he graduated like, 4 years ago, he isn't related to the seniors, he's not a teacher yet...no obligation at all. THAT my friends, is an excellent example of going above and beyond!! If you see Phil anytime soon, say a huuuuuge thank you, he def. deserves it!!

So anyway, I ended up sleeping at Paula's house thursday night...friday morning really I guess...because her and phil ganged up on me, saying seeings how I'd been going on 5 hours of sleep from TUESDAY night, I shouldn't drive. I left her house around 6:30 the next morning, as I had to go home and get to school by 7:30 to get the video approved. I almost fell asleep on the way home that MORNING...not good!! I was only a couple minutes late, and the video passed scruitiny with flying colors. I was really happy with that.

That being said, I still had a few things to work out, namely a beginning and end!! I also had to figure out some sound issues. The problem was, the computer was CRAMMED full of video, so it took like, half an hour to make even little changes. I worked frantically all morning, and ended up staying until about 1:15 in the afternoon, despite the fact that juniors and seniors were dismissed at noon. I could NOT get the sound to work, and one part, the part of the senior guys playing ball, kept getting choppy and then screwed up the rest of the movie. I was SO scared, and I could NOT get it to work!!

After I left, I still had to bring the computer to mr kolkman out at Watermark and take a shower before my 2 o'clock hair appt. Needless to say, I ended up running about an hour late for the rest of the afternoon. I came flying home from the appointment at about 4:25. I had to pick Sarah up at her house, drop her off at paula's, and get to johns house by 5:15...oh, and I had to get READY in there somewhere!! I got sarah, and after we started on our way, she realized she'd forgotten Amos's boutinier, so around we went to get it.

We arrived at Paula's house at about 5:15. Amos was waiting to bring Sarah back to his house for pictures. I was completely spazzing out at that point. I HATED my hair, I didn't have my dress or anything on, I was obviously going to be QUITE late to pick John up and I HATE being late. Paula and Christy weren't even at the house yet, so I went flying in to get ready. I managed to remembe the call john and let him know I was going to be late. I was also really bummed out that there was NO way there was going to be time for Paula, Sarah, Amos and I to take pictures together at Paula's house as planned.

Somehow, though, I managed to get ready in about 15 minutes and was at John's house by 6 o'clock. This was, needless to say, QUITE late. On my way I found his voicemail that he'd left around 5:40, questioning my whereabouts and if I'd gotten lost. I was CRACKING up when I heard the part about lost...John obviously knows me all too well. We still had to get back to MY end of town and take pictures at my house and get to Watermark by 6:30-ish. Due to this, we were only at John's long enough to say a FAST hi and bye to mrs. sikma, and were zooming on our way again.

At my house, we hopped out of the car and took some pictures. John gave me my coursage, and he got his boutinier, unfortunately we couldn't get it to be pinned quite straight, which, of course, bugged me for the rest of the night:-) That done, we posed by the trees and stuff...a couple of the pictures turned pretty good. A few minutes later I crammed my dress BACK into the car and we made it to the country club.

The parking lot was CRAMMED full, but I found a spot and managed to park without hitting anyone or any cars. Everyone was standing around in the lot, so we took some pictures, then headed inside. I immediately made a beeline to the video table, where my laptop was gone, replaced with another. My frantic questioning revealed that Mr Kolkman was transferring the movie onto his computer, which had more memory or something and would theoretically work better. Note that it was TRANSFERRING...meaning it hadn't yet finished!! and plus we didn't know if it would fix the skipping problem of before. Obviously I was rather nervous about the whole chain of events. Everyone tried to reassure me...it didn't really help.

We took more pictures, with poor John often ending up the photographer. We were also dragging the camcorder around for Gordon, so when and if I get around to making his movie he can have banquet on there, too. Dinner started with devotions a little after 7. Bob and Maria were master and mistress of ceremonies, and their speech was hilarious. Dinner was buffet style, and we had potatoes, salad, rolls, chicken or steak (or both, lol Mr DV), carrots and green beans, and prolly something else that I can't remember. It was all actually really good. There weren't any dandalion leaves in the salad, and the meat was tender, not like shoe leather. Oh, I remember, there was fettaccini, and John didn't know how to eat it...it was hilarious!!

Dinner was followed by a break in which about 40 bazillion more pictures were taken. Everyone looked sooooo beautiful (or handsome I suppose). It was awesome that Doug was able to be there. CAL was there with their dates, all looking awesome. A bunch of us Juniors took one of infamous feet pictures, because you can't break tradition!! John was beginning to tire of being the cameraman, so to spice things up he began taking "artistic" shots for me. The weather was wonderful, which was an added bonus. They corraled us back inside to begin the program half of the night.

Games were one of the first things that happened. They had a MadGab like game, where they had the phrases typed on a sheet of paper and the tables had to figure it out. That would have worked if everyone hadn't cheated and looked when they weren't supposed to. They also had things to do written in balloons, and people had to come up and act them out. Steve had to act out the ABC's, a table had to sing Old McDonald, which Heather DeVisser promptly volunteered her table for, whether they wanted to or not, and the teacher table had to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little star, with Little T and Mr DV belting it out. Those were actually pretty funny.

Mrs. Byl gave a speech on giving a speech that was interspersed with memories of both junior and senior speech class. It was actually pretty funny for those who were involved in the classes. Highlights included Phil V. rocking the podium and of course his bear story, Christy's "dating is better than courting" mistake, Darci's tendacy to speak moreandmorequicklyasshegotfurtherintoherspeech, Brad and Ryan's timing mistake, and Scott's hovercraft among other things. Case followed her, giving his famed wooden shoe speech, which I had Paula Lou tape for Gordon.

During the speeches, I was frantically making last minute fixes on the video...nothing like last second, hmm? I forgot to turn the volume down at first, so mrs byl got an introduction of a VERY loud splooshing sound effect....i felt kind of dumb:-) Unfortunately the speeches were done WAY too soon and it was the moment of truth. I was SOOOOO scared...i hit the wrong thing to start it, but after a bit of confusion, the video took off. It was almost as bad as watching Xzavior at Science O...i was biting my fake nails and everything!! As the basketball part approached, I quite literally couldn't breath. It passed without mishap, and I was about ready to start jumping up and down!! Paula and I exchanged thumbs up...I was SOOOOO happy!! The music worked wonderfully. The sound of people talking was about 2 seconds delayed, so that was a bit confusing, but since there wasn't much talking it was ok. All in all, the OVER 90 HOURS spent on the video paid off...everyone really liked it.

After that I could FINALLY relax and breath again. Senior gifts ended the evening. Some of them were kind of dumb, but mostly they turned out really cool. My favorite was Joe's. Joe was Student Council President this year, so his gift was a hat with 2 bills that said "I'm their leader, which way did they go?" It was hilarious, and totally perfect for him. Dan and Dan got gifts in keeping with their car troublemaking. Kristin Blok got candy for being such a sweetheart. Doug got a pizza hat for all the student council pizza he's served over the last few years. I know the gift comittee worked really hard, and their work def. payed off!!

More pictures were taken as people left and the decorations were cleaned up. Everyone pitched in, and stuff was ready to go in less than half an hour. People went their separate ways after that. Some went to the Bazen cottage in grand haven for the night. Others went out to the grand haven beach, only to find the pier closed. Several were planning on going mini golfing, but since banquet ran late that didn't work out. I had been planning on going out to Holland, but a last minute curfew from one person, and revoked permission from another's maja ruined those plans. We ended up sitting in the parking lot for like, 45 minutes before deciding to go to my house. On the way, we stopped at 7/11 for slurpees and icecream. We must have looked hilarious...all in our formal dresses getting slurpees.

So we ended up at my house for about 20 minutes before I had to bring John home. We said goodnight, and he was only a couple minutes late. I was comPLETELY exhausted by that point. I seriously was allllll over the road on the way home cuz i kept closing my eyes by mistake. I def. shouldn't've been driving!! Thankfully I made it home. The girls were sleeping at my house, and they were still full of energy. I summoned enough juice to find them sleepingbags and pillows, get my PJ's on, and get ready for bed. They were still laughing, looking at pictures, watching the 15-ish minutes of tape, and having a good time when I fell asleep about 2 minutes later.

I hope John had fun...he looked kind of bored toward the end. I guess it'd be hard, not knowing a lot of the people. Thankfully John is very much a "people person" and didn't seem to have that much of a problem. Plus he did know Sarah and Amos and Paula, who were instructed to entertain him. He did complain that Amos wouldn't tell him jokes at one point, but Paula was better at it apparently. He also hit it off really well with Scuba Steve, probably because of the whole Gordon connection. John was an awesome cameraman, despite his random urges to be "artistic". All in all he was a great sport, and he made up for the drama surrounding my date before he came along. He def. fit the "stable friend" criteria I needed. Thank you John...ur awesome!!!

Weddings
I had to attend two weddings on Saturday, Janna and NL from the blogs and Lauren from the heart clinic. I woke up around 11, half the girls were gone by that time, and showered and got ready to go for the first wedding, at 1. I had gotten a really cute dress at a GARAGE sale a few weeks ago, but it had spagetti straps. Thankfully the weather was like, 900 degrees so it was fine.

I made it to the Heritage Church on time and found a seat with the Sikmas. It was very happy that I had someone to sit with. I ran into Chuck, also of the blogs, on my way in. I think Mark was there too, but I wasn't sure which "seating engineer" he was. Mrs Jurries was VERY nice, taking time to ask if I was Erika and to make sure I had someone to sit with. It made me feel very welcomed, and I really appreciated it!! David, the adorable little sikmavich was there, and guess what? HE had an orange plaid suitcoat!! We def. shoulda had John wear that for banquet, lol. Anyway. Then Ben, the oldest(?) sikmavich came shortly after me, so I got to sit squished between him and John. My dress was kind of poofy, so it was a bit awkward when we sat down after a song and Ben was ON my dress...i was laughing my head off actually. He prolly thought I was mildly insane. Also, on yet another tangent, he and John have very nice singing voices. Pete's voice was sadly missed, though.

ANYWAY!! The wedding was very nice. James, yet again of the blogs, got the be the leading note/singer guy, so he got to blow on this little kazoo thingie, giving the first note of the songs. I thought that was a nice touch. Janna, of course, was a glowing bride, and NL looked equally happy, though in a different way obviously. Rev. Lanning did the service, and he did a good job, as well.

I was in a bit of a hurry at the final amen, so I went zooming through the greeting line thingie, shaking hands with random people I'd never even heard of, let alone SEEN or MET in my life!! I got to congratulate NL and Janna. NL still wants to know where the "....and stuff" is in this blog; I told him I'm working on it. Janna was a sweetheart, thanking me for coming and stuff.

John had left stuff in my car from the night before, so we went out and got that, and I grabbed the gift. If you know Janna at all, you know she HATES chickflick/sappy movies. I went out and bought her A Walk to Remember for her present...I figure she needs to broaden her horizons. The dessert line beckoned, but it turns out Heritage is a VERY large church and the dessert was in the farthest reaches of the building!! I was getting nervous, as my next wedding was at 3. I grabbed some cheesecake, a little cream puff thing, and a couple other promising items and left.

Lauren, one of the secretaries at the heart clinic, was the bride at the next wedding. I JUST made it in before she came down the aisle it seemed like!! Her wedding was very different then what I'm used to...it was a Catholic wedding with like, a priest and everything. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL though. Lauren was crying on the way down the aisle, causing a chain reaction with the groom and her dad...it was so cute. Her dress was gorgeous, the music was pretty...the only distraction was when one of the unity candles started to drip rather dramatically, causing mild uproar and pandemonium. Once this was fixed, however, all was fine. The church was REALLY nice, as well.

Lauren's reception was a couple hours after the ceremony, so I went home in between. I arrived at Blyfield where her reception was in good time and hung out there for quite some time. Blyfield, incidentally, is the same place where banquet was last year, and they served the SAME dandelion leaf salad!! I was CRACKING up when I noticed that just for Bri!! The food was REALLY good though. The noise level in the place was QUITE loud, which didn't help the monster headache I had, but it was all good none the less.

The best man gave a hilarious speech, ending in a "roses are red" poem to matt and Lauren that I wish I could remembe now!! It was awesome. The maid of honor had been friend with Lauren since 2nd grade, so you can well imagine the history that was between the two. Her speech was the first thing to make me cry all day...it was just really sweet. The bond between them was apparent in her final words "...and a phrase Lauren and I made up ages ago 'love you still always will, don't forget!'" I hope the friends I have now will be as close to me when I get married as those two are!!

Lauren, it turns out, has a VERY hot brother!! Mary and I spent the whole night trying to get a good picture of him, but EVERYTIME someone would step in front of the camera at the last second!! It got to be funny after awhile, actually. I took a bunch of other pictures as well, with everyone from the heart clinic. Lauren and Matt's song was so perfect, "Makin' Memories of Us" by some guy that I can't remember the name of...Keith Urban maybe? Anyway, they just looked so "right" dancing together that it made me almost cry again. Wherever the heck the right guy for me is, I hope and pray that we are as happy together as Lauren and Matt, and Steve and Janna for that matter, were that day.

My Birthday
My birthday was yesterday...the 29th. I forced myself out of bed at 8:40 and ended spending a bunch of time doing "catch up" homework. 3 hours of that was FST *grimaces*. I had to work at 3, and let me remind you that i bag and carryout groceries, and that it was 95 degrees, over 100 with the heat index, plus super high humidity. NOT ideal working conditions!! We were, however, getting paid time-and-a-half, so I wasn't overly happy when I got sent home 45 minutes early. This did, however, give me a chance to get ready for the rest of my night.

Everyone was meeting at the pool at 7, just like the good old days. Good ole Sam was early...or late really...he showed up at MY house at 6:45, claiming I'd told him 6:30. We fed him, and then he and I headed up to the pool to meet everyone else. We were dismayed to find that it had thundered, and the rule is u can't swim the 30 minutes from the last thunder. This went on until like, 8:15 before we could swim, which was kind of a bummer, but whatever. Maggie even came, so that was really cool too.

We got cold finally, and headed out to BW's to watch the Pistons game. I haven't gotten to watch a game in ages, so I was excited. Sarah and I got cheesecake...it was VERY good...very expensive, too unfortunately. Anyway, the Pistons SUCKED!! They were up by 4 at one point, but managed to lose by ELEVEN!!! I was pretty sure Sam was gonna have a stroke right there...he was NOT happy, none of us were at that point.

On a happieir note, I've gotten lots of good presents already. I got a digital camera from my mom and dad, which is AWESOME!! Linz cleaned my room for me on Friday after I left and before I got home...that was as good as the camera actually...my room hasn't been this clean prolly since I moved in!! I'm still trying to find stuff that she moved, but its still a great present!! I also got candy, nailpolish, lip gloss, a book, some gift cards, and a photo album from various friends and stuff.

I had a lot of fun at night though. It made up for doing homework and working all day at any rate. I don't feel 17, and its crazy how fast time keeps zooming by!! It seems like I JUST turned 15 and 16!!

In Conclusion
That was like, the worlds longest blog post!! If you made it to this...I'm impressed. Mostly it was for Gordon and Scarlett, both of whom requested to know the goings on of life recently, so here you go guys. I don't feel like proof reading this right now, so sorry for any glaring errors. Hopefully I didn't bore anyone to death...if I did I'm most sorry!! I promise I'll start going back to random blogging that doesn't revolve around me soon!!