Spring 2008

Braces Off, March

On Monday, March 3rd, I reached the first milestone of this spring: getting my braces off. They went on November 30, 2005, so they straightened my teeth and ripped at my cheeks for a little over two years. The whole orthodontic process began in April 2001, a 7-year endeavor from you-know-where.

I have to readjust my trumpet ambiture again, but my playing is already better than before I got my braces off.

Little Women (and Men), March

After six weeks of intense rehearsal (at least four days a week), the musical Little Women opened at Studio East in Kirkland on March 14th. I played John Brooke, Laurie Lawrence's tutor and Meg March's eventual husband. The show was double-cast and ran three weekends, each cast doing two shows a weekend. However, I missed the last weekend because I was in Hawaii (see below).

The entire adventure had an interesting beginning. Two of my close friends, Claire and Alanna, are very involved in Studio East. They had talked to me in October about auditioning, but I didn't think it was something I really wanted to do. However, the night before auditions I let slip that perhaps I was interested, and they convinced me to audition the next day with an hour and a half of preparation. Crazy... And I got called back! I didn't get the music for callbacks until the day of, so I had about a half hour to prepare for them. Two days later I was playing video games when I got a call from Lani, the director: "Would you like to play John Brooke?" Obviously, I said yes, and boy am I glad I did.

Doing the show was a blast: wearing (some of) the costumes, working together during rehearsals, doing the sword fight scene, hearing the audience laugh or applaud... (Kissing Meg on-stage, however, took some getting used to.) Best of all, I met some really cool people. I hope to do it again.

Hawaii, March

A second milestone this spring was that I visited Hawaii for the first time.

I spent 10 days with my dad, stepmom, and brother swimming, snorkeling, and boogie boarding right out the back door of our Napili condo on Maui. This condo was the definition of "beachfront." The beach was literally 7 feet from our back door.

One of my most memorable experiences was the snorkeling we did there. We'd be sitting around and one of us would say, "I want to go snorkeling." We'd whip on the flippers and masks and swim to the reef that was about 40 feet out from our beach. It was bursting with tropical fish in colors and shapes that I could not have imagined. The coolest thing, however, was when we swam over a coral drop-off and turned and looked downward to see a 3-foot green sea turtle swim 5 feet underneath us, watching us as he went. So cool.

We also drove to different parts of the island and went sightseeing. We spent a day in Lahaina, the main tourist town of Maui. When I'm traveling, though, I prefer to avoid those spots. Another day we drove up over the northwestern corner of the island. We eventually came to a one-lane dirt road along the side of the hills right on the coast. That made me a little nervous because we had to watch for cars coming toward us along the road on the other side of chasms, so that we could find a good place to pull up onto the hill. Fun stuff. We went to a touristy luau, which reminded me of the one that Lilo's sister works at in Lilo and Stitch.

On our last day on Maui, the swell was fairly large on our side of the island, and the shorebreakers got pretty big. So, of course, I whipped out the boogie board that someone had given us at the beginning of our trip and headed for the water. That was huge fun for about an hour and a half, until I got beached by a large wave, stood up, wiped my eyes, and looked up at a wave taller than I was. After I got pounded into the beach, I stood up to see my board floating toward me in two pieces!

All in all, the Hawaii trip was a lot of fun and I definitely need to go back.

UW Campus, April

On Friday, April 25th, Mom took Sofia and me out of school so we could go to the Washington Weekend at the University of Washington. At the College of Engineering Open House we visited the departments of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Aeronautical Engineering, including the Kirsten Wind Tunnel. We saw a lot of cool stuff. My favorite exhibit was the UW Formula SAE race car, which ME students build every year to compete with schools from around the world. (Sofia's favorite experience was eating a doughnut and ice cream bar.)

Seeing all the students walking around campus on a sunny Friday sort of made me look forward to getting to college myself.

Birthday, April

Yet another milestone: on April 26th I turned 16. All right!

Mom and Dad gave me an awesome birthday. It was a car-themed party, of course.

First Dane, Jake, David, Taylor, Kevin, and Emily joined me to go to K1 Speed in Redmond for two rounds of go-karting [left]. Dane had the fastest lap in the qualifying round, but I whipped his butt in the championship race, meaning I won the event. Just as it should be.

Then we returned to Dad's house, where Anita and Anna (and eventually Alanna) also showed up. We ate pizza for dinner outside, and Sofia joined us at the table, completely relaxed and comfortable, as if there was nothing unusual about a 4-year-old hanging with a bunch of 16-year-olds. She cracks me up.

Next Mom brought out a cake with a '57 Chevy on it, and, as mom says, I had "plenty of hot air to blow out the candles." Sheesh...

People gave me some awesome gifts. For my Corolla, Dad and Suzy gave me hubcaps [right], and friends gave me air fresheners and a heart-embroidered steering wheel cover (they're pretty funny kids...). I got CDs, a couple of DVDs, video games, a Mad Magazine Star Wars book, two shirts, some shorts, and a really nice silver chain necklace. Mom also gave me a new Dell computer (Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, 8MB L2 cache, 2.4GHz). I felt very well treated!

The weather was great, so we played some basketball, badminton, and other games outside before we finally went in. Dad and Suzy had lots of food for us, and the party lasted all evening. The girls left about 11:00, but some guys stayed for pancakes the next morning. It was a good birthday all in all.

Driver's License, May

Wednesday, May 7th, was this spring's biggest milestone: I got my driver's license!

Mom picked me up and drove me to the Licensing Office right after school. Although the DMV examiner looked a bit grouchy, I completed the test with 94 out of 100 points (2 points off while backing around a corner and 4 points off for, of all things, being too cautious). I was so happy to pass, even the incredible inefficiency of the DMV operations couldn't dampen my excitement.

When I got home, I hung around for a little bit and then headed off in my '95 Corolla—my first solo drive. Mom made me come back to get this shot [right].

Later, Dad and Suzy took me to Olive Garden for a celebratory dinner.

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