Hello and welcome again! I have to apologize for the late post again. This time, I don't have an excuse. So the story leaves off a week ago, on Wednesday. It was yet another productive day of music. Leigh was in DC, so Caleb took the whole morning to work on our performance. We had a full morning, so Caleb let us go at lunch, reminding us of the voluntary music lesson the next day. That was the last day of classes for the rest of the week. We embraced our freedom with varying levels of maturity. A few of us found our way to the front drive, where we started throwing around a football. The practice turned intense, and Alec ended up breaking something in his hand. With all the injuries we've been taking, I'm surprised I haven't broken anything yet. So we put the ball away and Wednesday came to an end. Some of the villas were dark early, and some were lit up and alive until the wee hours of the morning. Either way, almost all of us showed up at music the next day.
Now, we knew that Thursday held more than just music: it was also the day when our SAT scores would be released. The class started at ten, so most of us came early and congregated in the dining room, sharing our scores. Just like before, the consensus was universal: we had done worse than we expected. We're still not sure why the test felt so easy or why we got such low scores, but most of us were disappointed. After the initial surprise wore off, we did realize that they were decent scores, and most importantly, that everyone had improved since their last test. We had to put our concerns aside for a while once Caleb arrived and got started on our music. We ran through our more vocal songs, namely the "Hallelujah" chorus and Blue Moon. It went really well, and we were all glad we came and a little resentful of those who stayed behind.
Shortly after class, Chris and Seth left, driving to Chris's house for the rest of the week. The villas were desolate. I swear we saw a tumbleweed. Michael and I usually don't spend much time together, but the silence forced us to either collaborate or listen. We chose the first, exploring the surrounding woods, looking for something fun to do. We found some junked cars from the 1950s and salvaged their logos, then explored the woods for a while. It was surprisingly uneventful. When we got back to the villas, we discovered that the girls were holed up in their house, plotting some sort of secret.
Michael is probably the most responsible guy at Mandala. Two of the indications of this are the prowess and frequency of his cooking. So when he proposed that we cook something up, I knew it would be good. He called it the "monster cookie", and we wrote up a list to get at the store. We soon had a mound of supplies and the largest bowl we could find in front of us. The next twenty minutes were a bit of a blur. I can remember a lot of oats, some comically oversized lumps of peanut butter, and the feeling that my hands would never be clean again. Anyway, twenty minutes later, we slid two trays of goulash into the oven and started counting the calories that went into it. We estimated that they held about twelve thousand in total. It was a good decision.
The next day, we met again for breakfast. He made dutch babies and helped me make pancakes. I broke out my Vermont maple syrup, Alec contributed some smoothies to the table, and we all enjoyed a relaxed morning. I had just turned nineteen, and Anna and Elizabeth surprised me with a birthday cake. I spent the rest of the day doing this and that, exploring with the guys, visiting antique shops with the girls, and generally feeling very loved. We finished off the night with movies and college applications.
Saturday was my chance to sleep in, and I took full advantage of it. We all worked on our list of things for college, and then had a relaxed night. Anna Harvey's sister celebrated her birthday that day, and a few of the fellows joined her party. By all accounts, it was a great time.
People started to come back from their trips on Sunday. About half of us went to Tobin's house and came back just in time to greet Seth and Chris. Our fellows trickled in over the rest of the evening, and a sense of life returned to the villas. It was a good evening. I'm really not going to cope well with the end of this program. We settled back to our houses, talked about the SAT with those who had just come back, and got ready for class the next day.
These last few days have been a hectic mix of physics, writing, and music, as a bunch of deadlines get nearer. We're performing in about three weeks, and the performance still has potential to go very poorly. We had to change the venue this week; we lost our time at the Sunrise Theater, and so we've fallen back to the church. Everyone practiced hard this afternoon. I'm pretty hopeful! I know we can make it shine, and we all want it to.
Until next week,
Barnabas Holleran
No comments:
Post a Comment