From Frightened to Frightening

I had my Georgetown University admissions interview. And believe me, I was scared out of my pants. I met my interviewer at a Croissant Brioche, a cafe in the Rice Village area. Having arrived fifteen minutes early, I was flipping out until she finally got there six minutes late. Some of my qualms were subdued by the fact that she seemed equally nervous--evidently, it was her first time as an interviewer. She was pretty darn rad, and I'm not just saying that out of fear that Georgetown will Google me and read my blog. She was a Physics major, which happens to be the field that I want to go into, and is now a medical student. She considered going into the Air Force, enjoys how straightforward the subject of Physics is, and did a super job of coercing me into loving the idea of Georgetown.

So basically, she'll write me a nice, elegant letter of recommendation if she likes me, or not write one if she thinks I'm dull and vapid. Georgetown will take into account the recommendation, as well as my essays and test scores, and give me a response around mid-December. Because I applied Early Action, if I don't get in this round, I can always apply again Regular Decision for another chance. Go Hoyas.

Croissant Brioche, the place where my interview took place

Before the interview, my mother and I were stalling for time, so we stopped by Crave Cupcakes. I got a Nutella cupcake, and my mother got chocolate with vanilla icing. Best overpriced pastries in the world.

Both of the cupcakes in their pristine condition

My mother's partially-eaten cupcake

And then, I went home, put on heavy makeup, and handed out candy to children in a very creepy fashion. I was also blaring assorted "creepy" music for the neighborhood, including Bach's "Toccata and Fugue", "Transylvania Mania" from Young Frankenstein, the soundtrack to The Corpse Bride, and "Mad World" from Donnie Darko.

Myself, dressed as some ambiguous form of undead (probably a vampire or Morticia Adams), and my brother, dressed as a plastic army man

I have really creepy friends.

I was finally able to go to the haunted "house", albeit thirty minutes before the whole ordeal came to a close. It was great. I mean, I haven't actually been to a haunted house before, but I thought it was good. There were a couple small children in my group, and they were frightened, anyhow.

However, knowing a majority of the cast, I became preoccupied with figuring out who was under the makeup, rather than the frightening effect it was supposed to have. It just goes to show, humans are frightened only of what they don't know. Woah, moral lesson!

Anyway, I figured I kinda ruined the effect when I waved at a 'creepy vampire', and said, "Hi, Elisabeth!"

(Once again, the only reason I brought that up is that I automatically feel more important when I tell people that I associate with her)

I wasn't allowed to bring my camera into the haunted "house", but I snagged this picture outside. It may or may not be photo-shopped.


And this is me after the haunted house. Once again, it may or may not be photo-shopped.

Two Stinkin' Chairs

Today, I had my region audition for choir--one of the rounds of the All-State process. And I busted my butt off for this audition, practicing for an hour or so a day for the past few months.

I didn't make it. By two chairs.

The top twenty make the top choir. The top eighteen move on to the next audition. I was number twenty two. Blehhhhhhhhh.

Honestly, I think I would be less upset if I got in the thirties or forties. Actually, I actually went up if I compare my results from last round to this round. But come on, I missed it by two stinkin' chairs.

And, on top of that, my voice teacher thinks I should see an ear/nose/throat doctor.

Thus, I'm going to go get some Chinese food. And I'll probably go to the haunted house. Brghhhhhhhhhhh

The Eve of the Eve of All Hallow's Eve

It's the Friday before Halloween... which means that students have permission to dress up like skankizoids, wear strange clothes from Hot Topic, and completely unleash their passion for Harry Potter. It also means that students (myself) are allowed to carry around giant cameras and take pictures of other students. Even though I didn't dress up, I love Halloween. Highlights?

Ke$ha

Draco Malfoy and Hera

Amy Juergens

Shaggy and a Zombie Referee--Zoinks!

A peppermint fairy... eating an eyeball?

Greek Gods and Goddesses: Dionysus, Aphrodite, Hera, Zeus, Artemis

A Honeymooner... and a creeper

Po.

The theater department is actually having a haunted house (or rather, haunted hallway behind the auditorium) tonight and tomorrow night from 6-11 pm, that gets progressively scarier as the night goes on. I'll probably go tomorrow, assuming I'm sane after my region choir audition. That, my friend, is scary.

By the way, this is Elisabeth. The only reason why I'm posting this picture is she brought up the fact that I unknowingly post pictures of her quite frequently. She'll be in the haunted house as well--when I was stalking her awhile ago, I overheard her saying that she'll be a sexy vampire. Unless she already is one...

Ain't no party like an AP Cal pancake party!

Because about one third of my AP Cal BC class was on a museum field trip for Academic Decathalon, a few of us decided to spite them by hosting a pancake party in their absence. It was probably the most fun I've ever had in a math class... and those integrals get pretty darn exciting.

Anyway, we used about three boxes of batter (one of which was completely vegan), and had enough pancakes for two Calculus classes. So we shared. Because we're good Samaritans and whatnot.

Yes. Be very jealous. Especially if you're in Academic Decathlon.





In other news, I found this amongst my father's belongings. For those who live under a rock, Aggies (people from Texas A&M) are notoriously dense. There's all sorts of humorous Aggie paraphernalia, including Aggie socks (marked "left" and "right"), countless Aggie joke books, and this "calculator".

What the SHUNT?

Tell me the word "shunt" doesn't sound like an expletive.

Today in AP Physics, my (incredibly aloof) teacher was explaining to us about galvanometers and how they can be used as ammeters, ohmmeters, or voltmeters by popping a shunt into a DC circuit. At which point, the girl that sits next to me and I started saying things like "What the shunt!" or "mother-shunter".

We were later told to "pick your node". Not nearly as funny as "shunt", but it was worth a giggle or two.

By the way, do not look up "shunt" on urban dictionary unless you want to be mentally scarred forever. You're going to go look it up now, aren't you. Well, don't say I didn't warn you...

P.S. I'll give you ten bonus points for each time you incorporate "shunt" into practical conversation, regardless of if you use the original definition, or as an expletive.

New Camera--finally!

Yesterday, my family was cleaning out my grandfather's house, and because I don't enjoy manual labor, I seized the opportunity to play with my new camera.

Firelight

We just finished Frankenstein in English. In honor of this, I'm posting a Saturday Night Live digital short.



It's ridiculously true-to-book (sarcasm).

Oh say, can you sing?

Our high school football team was 8-0 this season, the best record we've had since 1970-something. But we lost. By a point. It was super depressing. I would go into details, but I'm grieving.

Another thing I'm grieving about: the national anthem. It was probably the worst performance of the national anthem I've heard, including videos on youtube. The entire thing was in chest voice, she forgot the lyrics (multiple times), and was crying by the end. I couldn't imagine being in that position.

Here's a little video to put the performance into perspective.

What's the point?

I mentioned in a previous post that I was getting a new camera because my current point-and-shoot is poop. Well, it looks like I'm getting a different camera: a Canon Rebel T2i instead of the Nikon d3100.

Anyway, my father and I went to Rice University to meet a graduate student that was selling his Canon Rebel t2i, causing me to lose three valuable hours of my day. We liked the camera, and tried to buy it, but we couldn't withdraw enough cash (he insisted on being paid this way) to pay for it, so we ended up not getting it. We may go back Saturday and buy it, if he hasn't sold it. So right now, I'm a little peeved at ATM machines and stressed about school.

But there's humor in this story: my dad parked where the grad student (who speaks a minimal amount of English) told him to, and ended up getting ticketed. Except the ticket had no fine, and was kinda pointless. Click to see the pointlessness in its full glory.


For such a great school, they really have some stupid methods of law enforcement.

First Acceptance Letter - Tulane

Hello, my kittens.

I haven't posted in a while... I know, I'm a lazy bum. But this is a major event--and I had to blog about it.

Tulane University

I've been accepted to Tulane University, a private university in New Orleans (pictured above)--the letter came in a big fancy envelope that was difficult to open and everything! I'll admit that I expected to be accepted, but I was surprised when they offered me an $80,000 scholarship. They seem to be a pretty generous school, though.

Proof?

Dear Katherine:

On behalf of the faculty and administration, I proudly offer to you admission to Tulane University for the fall, 2011 term.

Based on your extraordinary academic and personal qualifications, I am delighted to inform you that the admissions committee has selected you as a Founder's Scholar.

Congratulations! As a recipient of this prestigious academic merit scholarship, you will receive $20,000 annually, totaling $80,000 over four years...

...yadda yadda... Tulane is great... yadda yadda yadda...

I look forward to seeing you on campus soon,

Sincerely,

Earl Retif
Vice President
Enrollment Management

Tulane is more-or-less a safety school, but it's definitely still an option. New Orleans is adorable, I love Tulane's spirit of community service, and when I visited, it was wonderful. But it is fairly close to home, and I want a school that's more science-oriented.

In other news, I have to schedule an interview with a Georgetown alumni. I hate interviews--I come across as much more intelligent in an essay. I just get so gosh-darn nervous!

Here's my response to learning about the interview:

Gag me with a spoon.

This Friday is homecoming, and in honor of this, students are allowed to "dress up" at school. It's quite fun.

Today was "80's Day". I wore a tacky 80's prom dress. If someone posts pictures, I'll try to repost them on here. But I'm really kicking myself because I didn't plan ahead--if I put more thought into it, I would have dressed in 1780 or 1880 (or maybe 2080) fashion. Or dressed like the characters in George Orwell's 1984. Or dressed as an egg, because that's what I was during the 1980s. Bu)t instead, I was lame, and dressed predictably.

But tomorrow is a new day. The theme is "Nerd Day", and I fully intend to dress as a box of nerds (the candy). That's right, I push the boundaries.

I'll update later on other homecoming week ensembles.

I really need to sneeze.

You know that feeling when you get when you're about to sneeze? Yeah, I've had that since Friday. It's frustrating the bejeebers out of me.

Here's a summary of my weekend:

• Got home Friday, tried to study for the SAT, but passed out on my bed at about 8:00 pm
• Took the SAT, came home, crashed, ate Mexican food, watched Saturday Night Live, then crashed again
• Went to church, volunteered at the fire department open house, read silly novels, fell asleep
• Woke up, ate a toaster strudel, dawdled around on the internet, had lunch with my dad and his physicist friend, shopped for a camera, came home, dawdled on the the internet more

And now I'm blogging... when I should be finishing my homework.

I'm looking to buy a Nikon d3100, so expect pictures of a higher caliber.

This is what it looks like, just in case you were wondering.

Fried or scrambled?

Today, I've had a Beowulf test, derivative test, Frankenstein quiz, trebuchet launching, aggregate expenditure test, and una prueba de los partes del cuerpo, and I'm functioning on less than an hour of sleep. My brain has been thoroughly fried and scrambled, and spell check is flagging practically every word I type.

And I have the SAT tomorrow. Blehhhhh.

In other news, the shirts that I designed for choir came in today, and they're super rad. I'll post pictures as soon as I get a new camera.

Fall Concert

chTonight was the annual Friendswood High School Choir Fall Concert. Hoorah.

Initially, I wasn't planning on doing a post about this, but I had a request to put a picture from it on my blog, so I'm doing this instead of the 80 lbs of homework that I should be doing.

There's your picture. Are you happy now?

In all actuality, I totally don't mind putting specific pictures, giving mini shout-outs, or blogging about something that you request. If you want to see yourself, someone else, or a specific topic, just let me know or leave a comment.

Oh, yes--the concert. I figured I would just give my opinions on the choirs, regardless of whether you care or not.

• Treble Choir- This is the freshman choir; they sang Ricevete by Mozart (arr. by Liebergen) and The Storm is Passing Over by Tindley (arr. by Baker). They were pretty good... for a freshman choir. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it was immature. Ricevete was okay, but they seemed pretty timid, and the song sounded so... lifeless. At the end of the piece, one girl decided to be the "hero" of the choir and belt her note--that was fairly distracting. The choir seemed to enjoy The Storm is Passing Over more, and it showed. It was still pretty dull, but it sounded so much more put-together and mature.
  
• Concert Men's Choir- This is the choir for guys who are in their first year in choir and/or didn't make the cut for our mixed choir. There aren't many people in there, which is sad. They sang The Vagabond by Laura Farnell and This Train (arr. by Emerson). The Vagabond was cute, I guess. During this piece, I mainly paid attention to the one animated person in the choir. I loved This Train--you could pick out certain people, definitely, but it was pretty good.
  
• Varsity Women's Choir- We have two women choirs that combine for concerts to form the Varsity Women--during the first period class, I'm an aid, so I know all of the pieces by heart. J'entends Le Moulin, their first piece, seemed sloppy. But I think this is due to combining two choirs that have very little practice with each other. Their second piece, Heart, We Will Forget Him was technically stronger, but it sounded so timid. However, there are over 60 girls in that choir, and while it shouldn't have sounded so weak with that many people, the director probably told them to back down.
  
• Combined District Women's Choir- The girls that auditioned to be in the Region choir sang a piece by Z. Randall Stroope called Psalm 23. In the performance, my main thoughts were about blending, and it's hard to judge the performance of the judge while surrounded by earth mother Alto II's, but it seemed fairly solid to me. The choir thought it was hilarious when someone blurted out, "WOW!" immediately after the director lowered her hands.
  
• Campus Singers- This is our mixed choir, the most elite and theoretically the best of the choirs. The Region audition process is mandatory for the members of the choir, and thus, we sung some of our audition pieces: Daemon Irrepit Callidus by Orban and Sure On This Shining Night by Morten Lauridsen. In class rehearsals, we had issues getting the end of Daemon to "ring" (echo off the walls), and I didn't think it improved much. Otherwise, I felt like our performance was fairly solid--it seemed more emotional and cohesive than in rehearsals. Of course, I was one of the performers, so my opinion is probably not the most accurate.
  

Shopping with the Gal Pals (Weekend: Part 4)

I was shopping pretty much all day Saturday. My best good friend, Cristine, and I went to a garage sale, then ate at La Madeleine, went consignment shopping with our friend Sarah (who drives a convertible), helped Cristine find a homecoming dress at Ross, and finally hit up the mall. I love being a girl.

I ended up buying a $2 bag from a garage sale, a set of crayfish napkin rings, rad gold lipstick, and a necklace with a dead fish pendant. Am I hard core, or what?

I have foxy friends.

Classy. Reeeeeal classy.

Oh, whaddup, convertible?

Yes.

Class of 2011. Yeshhhhh.

Mambo Italiano (Weekend: Part 3)

Every year, the choir has a pre-game Spaghetti dinner. This year, the entire choir sung a song called (fittingly) Mambo Italiano. It probably has the strangest lyrics ever. For instance:

• "Shake a baby, shake a baby. 'Cause I love a when you take a me."
• "Go, go, Joe. Shake a like a Giovianno."
• "Try an enchilada with a fisha baccala."
• "Hey mambo--no more the mozzarella."

And here are the photos:

This is my father. He's kinda cool.

They're pretty.

She's used to me taking super flattering pictures of her. It's okay.

Man choir. My brother is the one not wearing the right shirt.

We like to mambo.