::heavy sigh:: So sorry I haven't posted in two days. Everything has been absolutely nuts! Here is my story:

THURSDAY

The usual daily slog. I think I aced my Calculus test, which was nice. And we got most of the P.E. period off, so I hung out in the science building, rereading Men at Arms, which I had in my backpack to lend to Mackenzie, who is currently reading Guards! Guards!. I had Pyramids in my locker, but I couldn't be bothered to go get it.

After school, Chungy and I went to work on Artemis, the JETS robot, because she was due Friday. Ye gods. We did oodles of work, then went home. Meh. Unfortunately, we kept finding more and more problems. All was evil. We eventually went home, semiconfident that we could finish fixing her in our day off from school. Once at home, I read The Last Hero, which was highly entertaining, yet slightly disappointing. In reminded me of Jingo in the sense of how it seemed to radiate "Look at my nice established characters doing nice established things". It didn't really have the spark of some of the other novels. Meh. I still really enjoyed it, though. Lots of Rincewind-ness and Carrot-ness. ::nods:: And the Kidby illustrations were lots of fun.

Then I went to sleep.

FRIDAY

I woke up, bright-n'-shiny early, to go to JETS. Again, I went around doing odd jobs and adding absurd amounts of stuff to the JETS website. Chungy provided a much-needed distraction by showing us a bunch of really groovy movie trailers during our occasional breaks. We got pizza for lunch, which will be ranked among my Top 5 pizzas in the entire universe. Percy, this was some good pizza. A few hours of work later, Elizabeth B. and I had to leave a still malfunctioning Artemis so that we could be on time for the SMU production of "Six Characters in Search of an Author", which had gotten glowing reviews. We could only hope that the other girls would be able to finish Artemis in time for the 7:30 check-in deadline. Rather depressing that I spent from 9AM to 6:30 PM at school on a day off.

Anyway, "Six Characters..." was possibly the strangest play I'd ever seen. This is a great achievement, considering that the last play I saw to compare it to was Jesuit's "Night of the Dunce", which was seriously strange. Afterwards, I went to sleep. Competition tomorrow, doncha know.

SATURDAY

Competition day. We loaded up the Loh-mobile with tools (both practical and intimidating) and drove off to Loos (also pronounced "Loh's"), where I immediately began to spaz when I discovered I was to be the first driver for Hockaday. I hadn't even touched the controls that year! We had absolutely no time to practice driving this year. Fortunately, the girls who had stayed late on Friday informed me that she more or less worked, which was slightly encouraging. Then I started spazzing again when I saw in the program that they had butchered our team limericks and haiku and completely deleted our acronym things. Also, they wrote down that our robot's name was Athena, which was the name two years ago. Meh.

Hockaday was going to drive in the second round of the competition, so Mackenzie (my spotter) and I stood "on deck", flailing slightly, waiting to go on. I heard the name "Hockaday" over the loudspeaker, and managed to work out that they were telling us we had won the Seine Twine competition. SCORE! Because Mack and I were the only ones nearby and she was holding the robot, I got to go forward and accept the award, on behalf of the school. I couldn't stop smiling. I handed the trophy up to Iana, who was in the front row of the stands. I started to feel better about the day.

Inevitably, the robot was still malfunctioning when I went up to compete. Our arm refused to go down, and in its hyperextended state we couldn't go anywhere because we would run into the other robot. Meh. It wasn't until we had two seconds left that I realized our remote control had gotten messed up, and that I could have easily fixed it had I noticed it earlier. Major irritation. I was just glad that my parents hadn't arrived yet to see me helplessly standing out there like a moron.

Time passed, and Artemis continued to fail. It really didn't bother me, however, because I had already resigned myself to the fact that we weren't going to go to state that year. I just wished that we had two more days to fix and test everything. Of course, there's always next year.

There were a few moments of joy when the DJ person played "Back in the USSR" and "Rocky Raccoon", two Beatles songs from the White Album. Of course, Highland Park had to choose that moment to start bagpiping, and most of Rocky Raccoon was drowned out in the sound of squealing pigs in pain. If there's one thing I hate, it's bagpipes. I think someone told the DJ to take the White Album out of the CD sorter, because it was never heard from again.

Anyway, happiness ensued when I saw a familiar figure walking through the stands towards where our team was stationed. NANCY! I ran up to her and glomped her, refusing to let go, insisting that she go down to the competition level and see Chungy and the rest of the gang. Much more glomping ensued, and I frogmarched her back up to the stands, where she was glomped some more. We all missed our Nancy.

Next up was lunch break. Because Artemis was in need of some major repairs, most of the people stayed at Loos, while Christine, Megan, Iana, and I went out to Subway to get sandwiches for everyone. We piled into the Christinemobile and went off in search of a nearby Subway. Keep in mind that Christine has a notoriously bad sense of direction. We started off at 11:30. By 12:10, we were back where we started, still without a Subway in sight. We decided to instead go to a Subway that Christine knew existed, at the corner of Preston and Royal. Iana said that we should call in an order in advance, to save time, so I took out my trusty cellphone, dialed 411, and asked for the Subway on Preston and Royal. I told the Subway lady our order, lapsing into my disturbingly polite phone manners instilled in me at birth, and was about to hang up when she asked me if I knew where their Subway was located. I said yes, right next to Gazebo Burgers. She had no idea what I was talking about. It turns out, the stupid 411 lady gave me the number for the Subway on Preston and SpringSomething, which was halfway across town from the Subway we were currently driving to.

Because the Preston/SpringSomething location was closer to the competition, we decided to turn around and head over there. After a series of strange driving directions (involving mention of a "Camel" road), we were off. I fed Christine directions until we finally arrived at Subway (it was actually "Campbell" Road), and told the attendant people that we were here for the huge to-go order. I expected them to be ready, as we had given them at least 20 minutes. No, they hadn't even started. I refused to get irritated; I've been trying to behave in a much more easygoing manner as of late, and I wasn't going to give up just because of a bunch of incompetent sandwich makers. We waited about 10 minutes, then Christine and Megan went off to get drinks at a grocery store a few blocks away while we were waiting for the sandwiches. Iana and I waited about 5 more minutes, paid for the sandwiches, and went outside to wait for Christine and Megan.

We waited.

And waited.

By the time 1 o'clock rolled around, the time lunch break was supposed to be over, we decided the other girls were going to kill us. We decided that they would chop off our heads, stick them on pikes, and display them around the JETS lab as warnings for slow deliverypersons. At 1:05, Christine and Megan finally showed up, apologizing profusely for taking so long. We high-tailed it back to Loos, eating on the way, in time for Caroline to run out, flailing, shouting that they needed me to be spotter. Right NOW. I dashed down to the competition level, giving my half-eaten sub to Caroline and my blazer to Mr. Gans, and found Rachel and Jo "on deck" with Artemis, looking suddenly very relieved to see me. Of course, Caroline neglected to mention that I was to be spotter in the round AFTER this one, and that I had about 10 minutes before it was time. Meh. I got a new sandwich, as Caroline had thrown mine away, and waited for it to be my turn on deck. Of course, a part kept falling off, and Jo wasn't able to manipulate the robot as much as she needed. We lost the round. Again. We fixed the mount thing, and I went off to drive. Of course, we got the most warped track of all, the green track, and our skid got stuck. We remained immobile for the rest of the round, despite my frantic driving attempts. Meh. I was just ready for the thing to be over. Finally, the rounds were finished, and the winners were crowned. I was incredibly irritated when there was no t-shirt award this year; I was certain that we had a good chance at winning. I had put too much time into the t-shirt logo for it to go unrecognized.

Anyway, BEST 2001 was finally over. I was actually a bit relieved to know that I wouldn't have to go to the State Competition on November 16th, the same day as a "Ten Little Indians" performance and the premiere of Harry Potter. We all got in our various vehicles, unloaded the lot at Hockaday, and went off to Chili's for dinner. Amusing moments include infamous employee "Swift" appearing on the scene just as I was telling my story about Swift hitting on me the last time I had been to Chili's. I hid under the table until he went away. Fortunately, he didn't see me.

After Chili's, we went to the Cinemark. Half the girls went to see "K Pax", and half the girl went to see "From Hell". I saw "From Hell", and I regretted my decision. It was stupid and predictable, in my opinion. I was especially irritated to see the other girls gushing about how much they enjoyed "K Pax". Meh. I've got to see that movie. Anyway, after that we all went to my house. We told more funny stories, then went out to the Garage/Apartment/Guest House thing to watch movies. I grabbed my RENT boot, which I hadn't watched yet, and we all got psyched up to watch it. Unfortunately, the cameraperson must have been a bit restless, because the video was incredibly shaky. Also, the sound was pretty lame and you couldn't understand a word. Halfway into the first song, we voted to watch something else. This turned out to be "Alien" which we all merrily MST3Ked in its 80's lameness. Highly entertaining. Afterwards, most of us went to sleep, and a few stayed up to watch Dracula 2000. I chose sleep.

SUNDAY

In the morning, we had bagels and watched "Nightmare Before Christmas", which used to be one of my all-time favourite movies. It was so much fun to see it again, even though a few of the other girls thought it was stupid. By then, it was time for some girls to leave, so we rewatched the beginning of Dracula 2000 as my friends tapered off. Eventually, everyone had gone, and I went off to clean the mess and take a much-needed shower.

And that's my story. So yeah. Sorry for the lack of posting. Does this make up for it?