Fall 2005

First Day of Eighth Grade

I started 8th grade on August 31st. Because the 7th graders had the school to themselves for the morning, I didn't need to be there until about 12:30. So Mom took me to lunch and then she took a few "first day" photos [left]. This year I want to grow my hair out. (I need more hair to balance the weight of my size 10 shoes :-)

Besides Language Arts, Social Studies, Geometry, and Science, my first semester includes P.E. and Symphonic (8th grade) Band. On top of that, I'm playing trumpet in the Jazz Band, which meets one hour before school each day, and for Fall Quarter, I'm also on the Kamiakin tennis team.

Tennis Team, September-October

Tennis practice, which met four days a week after school for 1 1/2 hours, began a week after school started. After a few weeks, the coach paired me with a partner, Tristan Stewart, and assigned us the #1 varsity doubles team slot. (There were only enough singles slots for the top four players.) We played matches every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon through the end of October. Given that I'd never played tennis before except for two week-long summer camps, I think Tristan and I did pretty well in finishing with 5 wins and 5 losses. And at the end of the season, Coach Sambrano presented me with the Coach's Award. Not bad for my first school sports team!

Halloween Party, October

Because I maintained a GPA higher than 3.5 last year, I was invited to be a potential member of the National Honor Society, which is pretty cool. Besides having good grades, to become a member (next spring) I have to do at least 5 hours of community service a quarter, which basically means working unpaid for just about anyone except my family. An opportunity came up to fill those hours by helping at the Cascade Ridge neighborhood Halloween party.

So on Sunday, October 30th, I worked 5 hours helping to set up for the party, overseeing games for kids (and there were lots of them!) [left], and cleaning up. I was on my feet the whole 5 hours, and I was pretty tired when I was done, but some of it was fun, there was lots of good food to eat, and I earned all of the necessary Honor Society hours for this quarter.

This year I accompanied Sofia on her first trip to a pumpkin farm.

Braces, November

On November 30th, I finally got braces. (I've been seeing an orthodontist and having stuff done to my mouth since March 2001.)

I was a little nervous about how I would look and whether it would hurt, but mostly I was worried about whether I would be able to play the trumpet as well. The procedure took about 2 hours, and as soon as I got out to the car, I tried blowing through my trumpet mouthpiece.

Good news! It wasn't nearly as difficult as I feared. With just a little time, I think my sound will be the same as it was before.

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