Run For Your Lives

 We are such a happy family as we pose in our rambunctious and strategic grass skirts and flower Leis. Weirdly, our hearts were racing in anticipation for the carnage that was soon to ensue.  This anticipated carnage was finally here, and we were pumped.  After Mom bought the grass skirts, I was saying "There is no way I'm wearing a grass skirt!", but during the race they proved very useful in throwing off the zombies.  They would grab the skirts and rip them off instead of the flags.  It was humorous for other people to see us running with large parts of plastic grass missing from our festive skirts.  Hey, someone needs to bring some excitement to the depressing apocalypse.

 We're all a family... for now.  Ideas of zombie avoidance were fluttering throughout the air at the starting line.  The only part we saw prior to the start was a large gauntlet of zombies which instantly pumped up our adrenaline.  The gates opened with smoke and the race began!  The first few minutes were peaceful, but the trail involved running through a cold creek followed by sand.  At this point, everyone was whining about how hard this was going to be and this was before any zombies!  The first zombies were easily dodged by most people considering they were just alone and didn't really run, but further from the start large open fields were littered with tons of zombies.  The makeup was very intricate, but it was hard to appreciate it when you were "Running for your life".

 The survivor in action!  Mom commented "Wow Mark, you really were sprinting!  Both of your feet were off the ground".  He lived, utilizing the other people to his advantage.  Hey, one of the Zombieland rules says "Keep the dumbs close at hand," and he did.

 I made it!  Dead, but after running through gauntlet after gauntlet of zombies with obstacles in between.  I crawled through rocky rivers, ran through mud, dodged electricity, climbed ropes, and climbed the overhead ladder, and all of this while running from zombies.  If you lived through this, I applaud you and your luck!  Especially towards the end, after I was dead, I was completely astonished at how difficult the course had become!  The gauntlets were horribly congested with brain hungry zombies.  Hopefully I was good bait to those still alive because the zombies still went after me.

 Here's an action shot of me climbing out from underneath the electrified fence with a mud pit underneath.  My uncle, who was spectating, saw one man grab the fence with both hands to get down! He was certainly "in shock!"  This cruel obstacle got Mom, who was very afraid about wetting herself after her friends past experiences with electrified obstacle courses.  Luckily she didn't, but she still said it hurt for a while afterwards.

 Nature's amazing Sundog set the mood for our completion of the apocalyptic race, despite our deaths.  It must be a sign about the end of the world!

 "Ouch, I got shocked!  And I'm really really dead!"

 We made it!  Most of us dead, but dad triumphantly survived.  Joe had a ton of scrapes on his legs from a close encounter with a thorn bush while dodging one of the unforgiving zombies.  Apparently the zombie still took his flag even though he couldn't move.  Joe made some easy food for him.

After changing into our fresh clothes, we sat around listening to a nice band while celebrating the end of the world with the rest of the racers and the zombies who chased them.  Here we our with the final results: Joe died, Sam died, Mom died, and Dad lived.  The guy on the left looked quite hungry for out brains, but luckily he didn't attack.  He must still have a little bit of a soul.

Les Miserables

     Just last week the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert came in the mail from the infamous Netflix.  I decided that I would watch and understand the whole thing in anticipation for the show's stop here in Chicago.  After I watched the concert, I had mixed feelings.  At first, I thought "This is really lengthy."  After I finished the whole thing though, I realized that it was actually really good.  I thought the music was boring, but that's because every word someone says is sung.  That got a little old, but it was still impressive.  My favorite songs, as the case usually is with musicals, are the songs that involve an entire ensemble such as "Red and Black" and "One Day More".  I cannot wait to see this show when it comes to Chicago because I'm sure that when stage movements and acting are added, it will take on a completely different level of impressiveness.  This is the world's most famous musical for a reason.  

Relay Pictures

Relaying for Life

     It's been two days, and the effects of the overnight endeavor are still within me.  They include sleepiness.  I feel lethargic, but what I'm feeling right now is nothing to compare to Sunday, two days after.  Relay for Life is an annual event that spans over two days from 6 pm the first day to 6 am the next day.  At least one person from your team is supposed to be walking at all times, but usually that doesn't happen like it did with my group.  See, at around midnight, people didn't want to get up and walk anymore because they were too comfortable on their nice lawn chairs.  Here's my philosophy, if people can battle for years with cancer and go through absolute hell then we can easily keep one person walking the track all night.  It's just a complete lack of effort and consideration which caused this discrepancy.  Now, my views of the event were much stronger than most of my teammates so I would willingly get up and walk.  I always had a friend from another team that would walk with me, so I never hesitated to ditch my lame group to walk around the track.  Plus, I had more energy than my whole group!  It must be because I exercise, but I doubt that's why.  Some people even slept, which is completely wrong in my book because that makes the night just like any other.
     It was a fun event, but my group disappointed me.  They were a fun group to be with, but they didn't seem to understand what Relay for Life was.  A lot of them just saw it as a social gathering when it is, in fact, a community service endeavor!  You don't give to your community by sleeping or just sitting in a circle.  You give to the community by putting the effort forth to show that you care about other people, and that involved being consciously responsible for someone walking at all times.  The ceremonies were very inspirational and well done, and I truly enjoyed having the survivors and care givers honored in the way they were.  It was very impressive, but otherwise I enjoyed the peace and quiet associated with walking.
     The most amazing thing I saw at Relay for Life was Kathy, Mrs. Staines' sister with Cerebral Palsy.  Mrs. Staines is my neighbor who cuts my family's hair, and their family is very into Relay for Life, especially Kathy.  Her goal was to get 101 laps, one more than last year's 100.  When I saw her going around the track, she was always being pushed by someone until I saw her one time pushing herself.  Now, her limbs are bent up and are very small and she can barely talk, but she was still pushing herself backwards around the track in her wheel chair.  That defined perseverance to me, so I decided to push her for a lap to help her reach her 100.  All of my friends were amazed at how kind I was!  It's strange how they wouldn't do the same, but I don't do things like that for other people that often.  It was this moment at this place that I decided to help someone.  After I pushed her for a lap, I gave her to one of her teammates who ran her around a few times, but almost all of her team left her.  This surprised me because I would think that a completely healthy person should last longer than her, but apparently not.  Most of the time I saw her, I saw her pushing herself until the last two hours where people were running with her around and around the track, ensuring that she reaches 101 laps.  That was amazing to me that she made it, and it's also amazing to know that I helped make one of those laps possible.
     I've never been hit with cancer in my family, and I'm very thankful, but I feel ignorant to not know how if feels to experience such a battle.  I look at these people and feel sad for their losses, but I truly don't know how they feel.  Sometimes I wonder if they wish for other people to feel their pain, but I know that idea is absurd.  I hope that I never have to experience cancer firsthand, and I hope that the small amount of money I raised helps someone in the future overcome their battle triumphantly!  We can find a cure, we have hope!  

In Wartime

http://www.halleonard.com/viewaudio.do?itemId=48007093&fileName=http://s3.amazonaws.com/halleonard-audio/48007094.mp3

That Awkward Moment When Your Mind Turns Off

     Marching band has been the event of the day for the past two days with Fundamentals Camp.  Now, during this camp, Corps placement is evaluated.  Today, part of this corps placement involved a memorization test of the music.  This "Fundies" camp also contained a lot of structured improvement through group discussions about effort, attitude and equality.  So, Mrs. Binder walks over to the trombone section.  She was my middle school band teacher and was very proud of me, my hard work, and my accomplishments.  Unfortunately, today was a bad day for me.  I decided to take a leap of faith and go to the play test second.  The first thing Mrs. Binder says to me is "Congratulations on making CYSO!", so I replied with thanks.  She then instructs me how the play test will work.  She counts me off, and already I knew that my mind was wandering.  I wasn't focused!  The notes didn't come out, and I just stopped.  She counted me off again and I got a little further, but I just stopped again.  My mind just stopped working and I had to ask for a re test!
     It was hard to cope with my weird problem of failure.  I knew Mrs. Binder was disappointed in me, and for some reason it made me feel uneasy.  Her assumptions were that I didn't work on the music and therefore was unprepared.  This was the cause of my discomfort, but then I looked towards the effort versus achievement conversation Mr. Lauff had with us.  He talked about how achievement is easily measurable, but effort is not.  Effort is much harder to put forth than it is to achieve something good.  Mrs. Binder assumed from my lack of achievement in the playing test that I didn't put in effort, but this assumption was completely wrong.  I practiced the night before, and worked during sectionals to make sure I knew the part.  I played the entire march by memory the moment before my test with Mrs. Binder, but for some reason my mind just turned off at the worst possible time.  Tomorrow, I hope that Mrs. Binder can watch my Box Drill which I hope will go very very well.  Afterwards I want to let her know about what happened yesterday just so she knows that I didn't put in the work.  Only I can know the effort I put in.  Only me.

It's Been a While

     For some strange reason, my urge to document my daily life on this blog to improve my writing ability has ceased for the past week.  Maybe it's because of the monotony of writing that has caused the blog to lose it's charm, but this should not be an excuse because I vowed to keep blogging and improving my vocabulary in hopes for a more successful future.  To all three or so of you who actually read this, keep enjoying.  I hope to be back into a more regular schedule.  

This is Sugar, my uncle's new dog-in-law.  This past weekend, my uncle and his wife came up here to see Chicago, my kind of town.  My mom opened up the house to let them stay, and they brought up my grandma as well.  It seems that traveling families don't just bring themselves, but they rather bring an array of other things from children to animals.  They had to bring their dog, Sugar.  The only concern was that Becca, my greyhound, wouldn't get along with Sugar because of her temperament to other dogs that are not awkward greyhounds.  When Sugar and Becca went on their first walk, Becca was instantly a complete bully.  She tried multiple times to simply bite Sugar, but Sugar was able to keep completely composed.  Upon arrival back at the house, Sugar was exploring like Columbus supposedly did.  She was running around from person to person, sniffing everything in her nose's reach.  This put Becca on edge.  See, Becca has her own routine that she follows with obsessive compulsive behavior.  Sugar broke every single rule Becca had established for herself, and they put her in a cantankerous mood for the whole weekend.  Luckily she calmed down a little more towards Sunday, but for the most part, Becca was distraught.  

 Part of the fun that comes with visitors is the games.  See, Joe would never want to play a game with his family, but if his grandmother comes, he's all over it.  When my uncle and his wife were in Chicago, the rest of us went about our normal lives.  I had my SAT on Saturday morning which was an experience that I'm glad I had.  Hopefully it can open some doors for me in the future.  When everyone was done with work, it was time for play.  Joe, Mom, Grandma and I decided to play cards while the two dogs were running around outside.  We played Rummy and B.S.  Grandma, despite her complete oblivion to the game, still manages to win.  She won B.S. and then she won our succeeding game of Clue!  She barely even knows the rules, but she still manages to win.  She's that way all the time though.  Whenever we play Apples to Apples, Grandma always wins even when she doesn't know what half the adjectives mean.  

The last event of the weekend was the magical Kite Festival.  We used to go to the Kite Festival when we were younger.  I've always been mesmerized with kites, especially the massive ones that just flow smoothly in the wind.  It was surreal at first, but the feeling quickly ended and was replaced with musicality because I had to perform with my steel band!  It's always fun to play the steel pans in a band, and this time was any different.  I cannot wait for steel band next year.  Hopefully I'll make the better group.  Steel band was a really fun time this year, and the time commitment wasn't horrific either.