Fun... and pain...

Thursday: I hurried through school in the morning, then we left for Irish dance, where we worked on a Caeli dance almost the whole time. It was really fun, but really tiring at the same time. And we're so bad at Caelis the first few times we're laughing so hard we can't dance... heheh. We went to the C's for lunch and a little bit of sewing (also to shower and/or clean up!), then loaded my guitar and anything we'd need for Oasis in the C's van and went to DAA (Dubai American Academy) for Seussical the Musical it was a good/cute musical, some quoteables and enjoyable to watch. Sarah and Philip H. were playing in the orchestra for it. THEN we all moved stuff in the cars around so the cello and violin wouldn't have to go to Oasis but my guitar would and all these things until finally we were loaded in the H's car and went to Oasis.
No real comments on warming up, apart from Mitch broke another guitar string, Eli forgot his guitar strap, my volume was being touchy... better than last week, though, and it was a lot quieter than usual (huzzah! Thank you Mitch for turning down your guitar!). I'm learning that when I'm playing with Submerge I need to bring extra pens, straps, picks... anything others could use.
Since Lisa/Mrs. W is going to have Baby Luke any day now, we have a guest speaker doing a series called Jesus of Nazereth, based on parts from John Stott's Basic Christianity. Notes up soon.


Friday: I read for a while after Church, there's a new book series in the library (yay, finally, something other than romance or kiddie books, this is a teen fantasy series!)... it's called The Door Within... parts already have been kinda cheesy, but it's not too bad. Volleyball went pretty well today. My thumb has been hurting for some unidentifiable reason (now I'm wearing one of Cait's wrist braces, the one that has support for the thumb), so that was a pain (haha) to play with, but I got quite a few good serves and some good hits. Afterwards all the Submergeites up for December had to leave for practice, but those of us left (Elisabeth, Kenneth, Isaac, Hannah, Cait, Steph, Daniel and I) walked down to the beach and talked there about school, paintball, and anything else that came to mind. We wanted to go to the Haunted House (abandoned house people have vandalized... it's fun to play in, albeit creepy), but we didn't know when we were leaving so we were talking in the courtyard of the C.'s neighborhood for a while before we left.

Saturday: In the morning I caught up on a lot of things, then got the swords out for going to the desert... but it got canceled cuz not enough people were available to come. Instead, we Christmas decorated and went out to eat with the H's. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had Hot Pot - they bring in all sorts of food and you cook/boil it yourself in a big pot in the middle of the table. We kids ate in a separate room, and Philip and Sarah helped us know what to do (The H's are Chinese-American). It was very yummy, and very fun... although I got rather frustrated trying to figure out "Click Click Bang Bang" (still not there yet, almost, though!).

Sunday: PAINTBALLLLLLL!!!!!!!! I had to do some school in the morning, but then we left for the Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club. It took a while to get organized and into gear, then we had an overview of rules and got out onto the field. Becky and I teamed up with Mike and Karl for the first game, hiding behind a car and shooting from there. All three got out so I was left alone, and Mr. S. was yelling at me to move around and shoot more, so for the last few minutes I moved out to another place to hide behind. Second game was getting one person across to the other base (first was elimination - get everyone on the other team out). I hid behind a pile of tires, and Becky was behind a big spool-like thing. Mr. T was shooting at us, shot Becky in the knee, then suddenly came out and surrendered. The third came was capture the flag, and again, I stayed on defense and didn't get hit. The fourth game Becky and I were hiding behind the big spool again and this other guy on the other team was on the other side and stuck his gun around and made me surrender. Becky ran off and shot him from a ways away.
At this point I STILL hadn't gotten hit and was really wondering what it felt like... the final game was a Ramble, though, basically a free for all. I didn't get hit for the first 5 minutes, then suddenly I got hit on my thigh followed by my thumb. I went back to base, then came back out and joined Karl behind a thing and shot from there for a while. Someone was in a bunker and was a really good shot and got my arm and almost simultaneously, someone else got my back... then Mitch shot my head, and I went to the base to get cleaned up, then went back out and shot Mitch and Steph.
It was fun, albeit a little painful, not as bad as I thought though. I have a headache now, and 2 bruises, the other hits didn't really develop anything... and none of my bruises are the really cool ring kind (pity, I wanted one).

I read an article on blogging by Agent Tim this week. It was called "A Young Man Among Sharks" and you can find it here. I also read Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I didn't really get how the ending worked, it kinda confused me and made me not like it.
And I finished The Door Within. Apart from having 2-3 (or a few more) rather cheesy parts, it was a good book... kind of an allegory, and a really neat allegory at that - basically the people in The Realm are the souls of the people on earth... kinda... so when a person on earth believes in the Realm, their person in the Realm is basically saved. Interesting idea, I didn't explain it very well, though.

I recorded some of my oboe playing... it would have been better to record it up here, but the microphone wasn't working, so I went to the downstairs computer to do it, thus getting an AWFUL echo. So it's a really bad recording, and I know I talk REALLY quietly on camera or on recordings, so you might want to turn it up a little at first. Ignore the fuzziness and the echo, try to focus on the louder sound... You can listen to it here. I apologize for the fact that you have to download it, i don't know where else to upload it. Oh, and on the last one, forgive the squeakyness and octave switches... if you play a reed instrument you probably know how hard it is to get those high notes...

Other notes: I updated my Writing/Photography/Graphics/Art Blog
My shins are basically better from shin splints! I'll just have to be careful where I dance from now on.

Quotes of the week:
Shehan: Ooow, my knee!!!
Pastor W.: Hey, I got some old rusty scissors that are blunt in the house, we could amputate it for you!

Sarah: Stephen can look at the car door handle and say what kind of car that is.
Me: I can't even tell anything past the maker by looking at the whole car...
Hannah: *points at car going by* I know! That's a Toyota Land Cruiser make 55334959!

Mrs. H: So you put it in the pot and cook it, then you can take a bite and see if you like it.
Philip: Hey mom, can we cook it, take a bite, and put it back?

Cait: What... is that?
Philip: It's the cross section of the vertebrae of a cow.
Cait: eew. And what's that?
Philip: The eyeball of a gullible.


You are Loved,
Kyleian