Man things have been busy around here! I guess I might as well go in order. I think I left off right before graduation day, which was last Thursday. It was the first time in the history of the school where graduation wasn’t scorching hot. Our school wears all black gowns and caps, so needless to say it can get very warm with little effort from the weather. This year we had a nice cloud cover and breeze (although that didn’t help us keep our cords on). I was happy that my cousin and good friend who I’ve known for 7 years (he’s also a teacher at another school) were able to make it to my graduation along with my parents. Right after graduation, I went and got my diploma and then proceeded straight to a friend’s graduation party.
After the party, I headed over to grad nite, which has always been hosted at our school. They use the gym, lunch area, and surrounding walkway. Of course, to make sure no one “escaped’ they put up fences around the whole area and posted security guards. I can honestly say that was probably the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. The moment I walked in, I saw the gym had been split into three sections by 10 foot high walls. There was a massive dance area, followed by an arcade/video game section with pool and ping pong tables, and lastly a casino. They even had a barred dealer area where you cashed out chips. Outside were caricaturists, unlimited coffee and smoothies provided by Maui Wowi, a ton of food including a chocolate fountain, a massive 20′ highx80′ long obstacle course, an inflatable laser tag arena, and a massive palm tree climbing tower. They also had a tattoo and hair styling center outside next some other carnival games where you could win candy. Below is a photo of my “shamu underwater” hairdo. Some friends I was with told the person to make it like Elvis, but also a mohawk. I didn’t quite understand it, but you can see for yourself and let me know what you think in the comments.
Oh, I forgot to mention something else; in case anyone got tired, they had a room set up playing movies with a ton of pillows to sleep. I’ll admit I spent 20 minutes in there relaxing around 2am. I think my favorite part was the inflatable obstacle course, but I didn’t like getting burned by the synthetic material every time I went down the 20′ slide. I must have raced people at least 15 times, about the same number of pina colada’s (non-alcoholic) that I had. I got home around 5:30am and proceeded to sleep for approximately 3 hours; my friends tell me they slept until 4pm that day. I got up Friday morning and spent the entire day cleaning for my graduation party the next day.
On Saturday, I had my graduation party, where we hired taqueros (authentic taco makers who grill in your back yard) who made some awesome carne asada tacos. There must have been about 30 people at the party, all from San Diego or Temecula. I take that back, there was one person who I was very happy was able to make it. My ROTC Instructor from Freshman through Junior year came from LA because he lost his job here due to budget cuts. Being an former Navy SEAL, he always has plenty of stories to tell me and my friends; this visit was no exception. The following day we went on a hike on a mountain called Mt. Woodson in the area and caught up on what had happened in ROTC and life in general. Unexpectedly, I received quite a bit of money at the party which will be stored in my starving student fund for next year.
Moving on to Sunday…I believe most of you are now aware of the fact that I work at church every Sunday, and Saturdays when I can, as an A/V Tech. On Sunday, I started at church at 8:30am, went on the hike with my ROTC Instructor at 12:00 and was back at church again at 3:00pm for a special event. A very talented singer who is in our normal group of weekend singers, Kenny Turner, has a band but had never produced a CD. As a gospel singer, in the past 20 years he has performed on stage with artists including Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey, and Michael Bolton. The church staff offered to put on a live concert to produce a soundtrack and DVD for him to sell. It was a hit! We had a full house and after recording the clap track, he and his band blew us all away, literally. We were flying new speakers to test them out and it was a good thing we did because our normal ones would have been killed right away. My job that night was putting lyrics on the screen for both the band and audience. Because we were recording for sale, we had 5 cameras rolling at all times and put extra mics on the instruments to mix later. It was a great success and I’ll be sure to let you know when the CD is ready.
I’m almost done now, so just sit tight for a minute. Last summer I started as a webmaster for a local flight school who puts out some great pilots. After scrambling to put in job applications, I was pleased to find out that they would be taking me on full time again this summer. There’s always something to be done, so I should stay plenty busy throughout the summer and even doing updates during the school year at ERAU. Even though I have this job, I’m still hoping the Apple Store will call me in for an interview 🙂 Lastly, I received my course list this week which includes 17 credits: Military Forces, Leadership Lab (AFROTC), Intro to Engineering, Intro to Computing for Engineers, Honors Seminar, Calculus, Physics, and College Success. Mondays seem like a pretty heavy day, but luckily Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are light enough for me to catch up on work.
