(a quick summary of the past two months)

What a busy time in my life. I don't really know where to start. Hm... I guess I could just tell you about my adventures in school-hopping first.

At the beginning of this school year, I was enrolled in ORCA, but I was getting very weary of the system and longed to be in Grants Pass High where I could be around wonderful friends of mine while taking the sort of fun classes I wanted to take. So I petitioned for a district transfer, and the Three Rivers School district denied me. Twice. And so, I decided to give Hidden Valley a try; I still have some ties to that school through their Swing Choir which I participated in last year.

After a trimester of public school classes (a.k.a. worksheets, homework, worksheets, homework, etc.) I bailed out of that school and have been enrolled in Logos Academy since. Next year I'll try again to get into GPHS; the odds will be in my favor considering there's a new law passed which allows students in Oregon to go to any school they want.

As for my acting career, I was totally surprised and thrilled to have gotten the role of Captain Von Trapp back at the beginning of the summer. I've been working with the cast and crew over the past few months and have been loving every minute of it. There are so many funny, talented people here! It's been great expanding my social circles and getting some footing in the school I long to be in (GP). The performances went alright generally. There have been a ton of ridiculous things happening throughout the production, but I would have to say that the worst was our third performance on a Saturday night. The sound crew had forgotten (either that or some technical bug happened) to shut off my stage microphone after I walked offstage. Now everyone knows me as the guy who said, "My eyebrows look sad in that picture." and "Does this suit make me look fat?" Totally hilarious.

I auditioned for Cinderella a couple of weeks ago, but they haven't called me for any part in it. Oh well. I am certain I impressed their judges with my monologue (Sam's Monologue from the Two Towers) and song (On the Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady). Trouble is, I requested to not work on Sundays. I guess that turned them off. Well, it's better to obey God than it is to obey any mortal director, eh?

It's now Winter Break, and I'm going to get ahead in my classes this week. I also have a goal to study the Preach My Gospel book along with my scripture study. One of my friends from working in the Sound of Music, Jennifer Lynde, has found great interest in the church. Either that, or she has found great interest in me. Or both. Anywho, I hope we can get the missionaries to teach her the discussions over the break. The parties I've been to so far have been so fun; yesterday I went to Devon's house for a game night, the Schmidt house for music and cookies with Jennifer, one of the Harmon girl's wedding receptions, and Matt Savard's Christmas party. It was the bomb! Matt's Spanish teacher got out his Latin guitar and played us some AMAZING Christmas songs, which we all sang along to. Later all of the Sounds Unlimited kids and a couple of the other guys decided to play some theater games. We played Taxi and Park Bench, entertaining the adults who were at the party. Once they had all left, Matt, Christian, Gabe, and I played a bit of SSBB. Christian is one of the coolest guys! He plays guitar great, knows a bunch of songs I do, and both of us are generally religious. (Since when was being religious popular for a teenage guy? It's AWESOME!) I feel like I made some great friends.