HAWAII part deaux

I've been back from Hawaii for more than a month, I turned 18, I started my last semester of high school, I've been busy trying to convert my friends and family to British '80s alternative (which has been really successful with most people, but in Justin's own words, "Miriam. No one cares about The Smiths anymore except....YOU! and they're probably really stupid just because you listen to them!" someday he will appreciate the classics.) now I am finally getting around to posting the rest of the pics from our trip (while listening to the 1980s Throwback Thursday playlist on Spotify)! this is where a lot of the good stuff starts happening.

DAY 3 (finally!): my dad still had part of his conference in the morning, so mom, the boys, and I hiked Diamond Head. it wasn't a really strenuous hike because most of it was paved, and if a Japanese tourist could hike that thing in platform shoes, then anyone could. it was very windy and on the way back, I lost my hair tie. but it had a gorgeous view.

typical shot with tourists

after the very strenuous hike, we went back to the apartment, the boys watched TV, and Mom and I went shopping. then we had to pick up Dad from the conference, and our next stop was Pearl Harbor! I feel like I was the only one really excited about this because I'm a history enthusiast. my very favorite unit (ok, maybe besides Europe) in AP world history was the World Wars unit. since there are many Japanese tourists in Hawaii as earlier stated, I didn't expect a lot of them to be at Pearl Harbor because....they were the ones who bombed it. but then again, we were the Americans at the Japanese World War II museums in Tokyo. there were more American tourists (including one of Justin's friends), but there were also plenty of our Japanese friends. it was very windy so we weren't able to go on the model of the U.S. Arizona, but we were able to go inside a submarine from WWII! our favorite audio tour guides made a return (a highlight from England and New York ), and it was so interesting to see how they lived and fought. Justin asked why the ship didn't have any windows. I told him it's a submarine, they are underwater and there isn't much to see. when we were finished with the submarine, we exchanged our audio tour guide for another audio tour guide, this time in the submarine museum. by this time, Mom and the boys were getting a bit impatient, but Dad and I wanted to spend as much time as we could learning about submarine warfare. 

 return of the audio tour guides

 listening to their guided tour

 outside the USS Bowfin

 (I edited this so it looks good)

DAY 4: a day full of snorkeling, safety videos, driving, wind, teriyaki burgers, discovering unknown facts about my father, more driving, more safety videos, sea kayaking, getting lost, almost getting shipwrecked, abandoning the group, sitting on the beach, getting sand in places that shouldn't have sand in them, and more! 

nothing will do justice for how awesome Hanama Bay was. we don't have any cool underwater cameras, so you will just have to trust us and believe me when I saw we saw a lot of fish. when I was little, my parents got me a picture book about different kinds of fish, and I recognized at least half of them from that book. it was amazing. if you look at the ocean from the surface, you can't see anything. no one would think there are any fish in there. but when you actually go snorkeling in it, it is like a whole new world. I probably said that in my part 1 post, but holy crap there was SO MUCH MORE FISH here than at Shark's Cove. it got really windy and the currents were getting strong after a little bit, so we only spent like..an hour ish(?) snorkeling, but it was beautiful.

we drove for a bit, stopped at some lookouts, enjoyed the scenery, listened to Crowded House, and then we found a really good teriyaki burger place called Teddy's. all week I'd wanted a juicy, delicious teriyaki burger with pineapple on it, but for some reason, there was nothing in Waikiki that offered anything like that. I was so happy to finally get my burger. most of us ordered the same thing, except my dad ordered some Swiss burger with mushrooms on it. I asked why he didn't get the traditional Hawaiian one, and he said, "I don't like pineapple." well, this was a shock to all of us, especially my mom. she couldn't believe she had been married to him for 21 years but had no idea that he didn't like pineapple. you learn new things every day!

our next phase of our adventure was the sea kayaking phase. we went to some kayak shop in Kailua Bay (which is where Obama likes to visit on holiday), and watched a really long safety video that claimed that it would only take 15-30 minutes to kayak to the island we were trying to reach. Mom and I shared a kayak, Dad and Justin shared another one, and Wesley had one all to himself. some really kind Japanese man launched us from the beach, and we started paddling towards the island. however, the wind was a lot stronger than we expected, and we spent 15 minutes going in circles. well, at least Mom and I did. somehow, the boys were able to fight the strong winds and actually make headway. after a near encounter with seasickness and more spinning around in circles, Mom and I decided to turn around. and in less than one minute, the wind just blew us straight back to shore. at least a half mile from where we were originally launched. Mom and I had our cameras, so the boys weren't able to take any pictures on the island. we were on the beach for about an hour watching kite surfers do tricks and (of course) staring at the ocean! when the boys returned from their island adventure, they made fun of us and said we were sissies and we gave up, but we had such a good time watching kite surfers and it would've taken us an hour to get to that stupid island!

 kite surfers

 shaka

 I peed while this was taken

after getting teased by all the boys, we headed back, just in time to watch the sunset. I'd been in Hawaii for 5 (counting the day we arrived) days, and had never seen a Hawaiian sunset. it was either raining, or we were stuck inside doing something else. but mom and I took a walk to the beach and got some amazing pictures. but even these pictures don't do any justice for how beautiful it is. you have to go there yourself and see it with your own eyes!

DAY 5 (FINALLY): I like to erase the morning part from my brain. basically, my parents were freaking out trying to pack this place up, Justin was singing "Need You Tonight" by INXS nonstop, we lost a key, Wesley wasn't feeling great, and it took forever to find our car. it would be a day full of driving and hiking and eating shrimp and driving and driving and going to the airport. sounds great, right? I love gorgeous scenery, but I don't like getting stuck in a car all day. our hike was gorgeous until it started raining on us. the shrimp was amazing, until the wind came and it started raining. and our last lookout place? that just pretty much sucked, because it was raining on us and we all got muddy. 

 no one wanted to be in this picture

 I didn't want to take this picture

 Justin didn't want to be in this picture (he did have underwear on in this one. he was probably unhappy about being in the car all day instead)

 Laie point

we arrived at the airport sometime in the evening. we had about an hour and a half before our flight came. we were obviously not dressed for Utah weather, so some people (Dad) changed in the parking lot, some changed in the car, and the sensible ones (Mom and I) changed in the airport bathroom and wiped off all the mud we got from hiking in the rain. this flight was one of the most depressing flights I'd ever been on. first of all, it was a red-eye and the AC was on full power all night. second of all, Mom wasn't being very courteous and wanted to read a book, so all the lights were off except for her seat, and this wasn't a nice subtle light. this light would blink on and off every 5 seconds. but the worst was the seat quality. I've been on several long flights, many longer than this one. I've endured through many discomforts, but these seats were literally filled with rocks. I did sleep for maybe 2 hours (a new record for an airplane!), but I woke up with the worst numb bum I'd ever experienced. my back hurt, my neck hurt, and I was really sad that I was actually on my way back to Salt Lake and I wouldn't be in paradise anymore. getting off that plane was a relief, but it was very depressing. as soon as we walked outside to the shuttle, it was snowing. all I had on was a light jacket, yoga pants, and Converse. not the warmest option. our van was buried in snow, and we had to just stand outside and freeze while Dad scraped the snow off. (what a saint. also the only one to have gloves with him.) we were all so jet lagged, we slept the entire drive back to Provo. it took a while to get used to the crappy weather, and I still want to go back. I always will. as much as I loved England and New York and all the other places I've been, I have never been so sad to leave a vacation. the weather was perfect, the scenery was gorgeous, and I was able to get a tan. it was the best way to ever spend winter vacation, and I better save my money because I don't know if I can handle another Christmas break in Provo after this!

HAWAII (part 1 of who knows how many)

hello, hello! I hope everyone's Christmas break is excellent! I know mine definitely was. it's not over yet, but it was definitely the best one in my (almost) 18 years of living. it was also the warmest. so 10 years ago, I never really thought of "vacation" meaning anything except California or Bear Lake. but when my dad told us he was going to a conference in Hawaii, I decided that Disneyland wasn't my dream vacation anymore (after all, I had already been there over 50 times because I was blessed to have been born in California). all I wanted was to go to Hawaii. it was the first place on my travel bucketlist.

10 years later, I was finally able to cross it off. my dad had another conference there, and instead of being selfish and just bringing Mom like the last 4 times, he would bring the whole family! so this was our big Christmas present/senior trip.

I fell in love the moment we got off the airplane. the air was humid, there was Japanese tourists everywhere (Justin even asked if Hawaii used the same money as America, or if they used yen), it felt like Tokyo, but the air smelled of the ocean and fresh flowers instead of subway station. I was extremely jet lagged, so the rest of the day was just spent eating dinner and sleeping. sorry if you had to suffer through the boring part. here's the exciting part where we actually do stuff.

DAY 1: my dad left early in the morning for his conference. so it was just mom, the boys, and I. without a detailed schedule filled with museums, restaurants, lookouts, and historical sites that we needed to be at certain times, we just had a relaxing day at the beach. both my brothers headed straight for the water, but I just enjoyed sitting in the sand and looking at the ocean, hoping that I would get as tan as I was in the tennis season (minus the embarrassing tanlines). I just sat there while my mom rented 3 boogie boards and a surfboard. I enjoyed the boogie board, but the waves weren't as big as I had expected. so I went back to my spot and just looked at the ocean (keep in mind that I have ADD and sitting still is something that can be physically and mentally painful at times. apparently it isn't if you're looking at the ocean). once we got the surfboard. my mom would sit on the boogie board and push one of my brothers on the surfboard while I stayed at the beach with the other brother. finally, it was my turn to try the surfboard. my parents love surfing and I was hoping that I would be the same way. however, the second I paddled out on that board, I felt exhausted. when a wave came, my mom launched me on it, and it felt good, until I wiped out and cut my foot on some coral. but I wanted to try again, and this time I was more successful, but I almost nailed a Japanese tourist. I tried again, but I was feeling really seasick and if I was out there another second, I was going to throw up all over the ocean, so I paddled back to shore and gave the board to Justin. after a few hours, all of us were really hungry so we went back to the apartment to rinse all the sand off and found a substandard sandwich place. after lunch, the boys decided they didn't want to get any more sandy, and Justin cut his foot and Wesley had a horrible rash all over his chest, so they chilled in the apartment while Mom and I walked around Waikiki, went window shopping, enjoyed the fresh air, and went back to the beach to do what? LOOK AT THE OCEAN, OF COURSE! it was a very relaxing, beautiful day.

 Waikiki beach at 8 am

DAY 2: my dad had to go to his conference for most of the day, so again, it was just Mom and us kiddos. first, we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation, which, according to my mom, it's pretty boring except it has great pineapple ice cream. we got there a half hour before it officially opened, so we just walked around, took some cliche touristy pictures, fed some fish, and chased the wild chickens. our ice cream was absolutely delicious.

 I'm the oldest in this family....

the next phase of our adventure was Shark's Cove. it had the most beautiful, clear water I had ever seen and you could even see fish. however, it was extremely rocky and just walking around in the water got annoying, so Mom got out the snorkel gear and we went snorkeling! the first breath underwater felt really weird, and it took a minute to get comfortable, but I loved it. I thought I could see a lot of fish when I wasn't underwater, but that was nothing compared to what I saw underwater. (also, I don't even want to think about how many people saw me peeing in the ocean.) we spent a good hour there, and then drove further up the North Shore to Sunset Beach. holy crap, these waves were huge! Mom told us not to get too close to the surfers and we couldn't get in very far, but we could body surf close to the shore. it was surprisingly really fun getting knocked over by huge waves. I made a mistake and wore my worst swimsuit that day and had a few embarrassing malfunctions. oh, and there was sand in every place imaginable and as fun as it was getting thrashed around on the beach, we had to leave before Mom lost a contact, I lost my swimsuit, or before one of my brothers got swallowed in the sea.

 shark's cove

 if you look closely, you can see Wes's banged up chest

 Sunset beach

before we moved to the next part of our adventure, the first thing we had to do was get all the sand out of our swimsuits. however, this was a lot more difficult than I expected because the only showers are public ones. since we had to move rather fast. Mom was the only one who could wash her hair. I was left with the leave-in conditioner and my hair was an absolute wreck for the rest of the day. we found some bathroom to change in. however, Justin forgot his undies and there was no store nearby that we could acquire a pair, so he was stuck in his sandy swimsuit for the rest of the day. after getting food, not finding underwear, and doing my makeup in the only public restroom in Lai'e, we moved on to the final part of our day: the Polynesian Culture Center!

I loved this place. for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, the PCC is a place where each of the Polynesian "islands" puts on a performance that tells about their island, and we learn about the different cultures. there is also a movie theater, a boat ride, several different places to eat, and many different gift shops. my favorite "island" was Samoa. the guys were really funny and showed us how to break a coconut and make coconut milk, and one of them even climbed a coconut tree. my favorite part was the fire dancers. I was expecting the guy to burn himself, but that never happened. I was amazed. I wish I could do that but sadly, I would end up in the Burn Center of some hospital. I also enjoyed the Aotearoa (New Zealand) performance and playing with the poi balls (and whacking Wesley in the face while doing so), and the Hawaiian hula dancers. contrary to popular tourist belief, "hula" is not where you wear grass skirts and coconut bras and shake your hips. that is from Tahiti. Hula is actually where you are fully clothed and dance and sing about nature.

after we watched all the performances, we got seated for the luau and Dad finally joined us. it was amazing. there were so many meats to choose from, and if anyone knows me well, they know I LOVE MEAT. I decided to try everything. my favorite was the pork from the big pig. we feasted while we were entertained by more dancing, singing, and more fire dancers. at the end, anyone who wanted to could go up and learn how to dance. everyone in our family but Justin went up and danced. I don't know how I looked up there, nor do I want to, but it was really fun.

finally, we got to see the big show: Ha: The Breath of Life. this was a 1.5 hour performance complete with music, grass skirts, singing, cool outfits, chest pounding, and you guessed it-- MORE FIRE DANCERS! this was the best part. there was more fire, and they did even more tricks, and didn't burn their bums! we weren't allowed to take pictures or videos, so all I can say is GO SEE IT YOURSELF. It is amazing! 

 cute flowers in the PCC bathroom

 Justin, apparently still upset about not having any underwear

 the canoe pageant (really Justin? GET OVER IT. we know you are still in your swimsuit and have sand in your bum)

our very photogenic family

well, that's the first 2 days. I know, so many pictures! so that's why I am choosing to end this here. but tune in next time to see Pearl Harbor, more beaches, failed sea kayaking adventures, more Waikiki sunsets, waterfalls, and more pictures of our lovely photogenic family! also, find out if Justin ever found some underwear! ok for real. the Beatles are on spotify and it's hard to type this and explain to Wesley that they were really high on LSD while they wrote a good majority of their songs, so that's why they are so weird sounding, but so amazing as well. 

SADIES went 80s

ah yes. another typical dance blog post. but this was my last Sadie Hawkins, and my second to last Girls Choice dance. I'm getting old. but (don't tell the others), this date is definitely one of THREE that is tied for my favorite. (I don't have a favorite; all of my top 3 take the cake for different reasons.)

I decided to ask one of my oldest friends way back from elementary school. I have no pictures of how I asked, but I left a jar of Swedish fish on his door, and cut out pieces of paper with letters of my name and hid them in there. I said, "of all the fish in the sea, you are the SWEDISH one. come to Sadies with me?"

well, a few weeks later, the doorbell rings, and I'm in my sweats, and my brothers tell me it's for me. I see a group of German exchange students at my door, they ask, "are you Miriam?" and I say "yes" and then they start singing. and I'm so confused as to what's going on, but they say "Zane", "dance", "Sadies"..... and then at the end they say "and he will say YES" and I just look at them speechless, and finally I can say, "thank you SO MUCH" and they say in their thick accents "it was our pleasure!" and they run off.

the theme, as stated in the title, was the 1980's. I'm not one of those people who claims to be "born in the wrong generation", but the 80's is definitely my favorite decade of the past. I love the music, the movies, the outfits, and the hair. but I knew that most people would dress as your typical 80's workout people, and I wanted to do something different. so I texted Zane and asked if he would want to go as Marty McFly from Back to the Future and I would go as his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker. he thought it was a great idea, and as you will be able to see in a few paragraphs, we pulled it off really well.

our group split for the day date, so while 3 couples were doing yoga, me and 5 other couples all met at our friend Dathyl's house, and she drove us around in a 12 passenger van on an adventure to go on a space mission! getting to the place was the real adventure. in Pleasant Grove, there are 2 different "space mission" centers: one is an old elementary school, and the other is some private school that is in this really nice neighborhood. well, we showed up at the old elementary school, and the guy inside told us we were at the wrong place, and that he would call the other one and tell us that we would be on our way. so, he did, and we got lost again, but eventually we found it. on the door of the school, it said "Happy Birthday Liam", and I think it was my date who said, "hey guys, it's Liam's birthday" and I said "NO WAY!" and kept that in mind in case we were to run into a younger boy there. then, the lady in charge (who was probably a year younger than us) gave us assignments, and we went into this big room for a space station simulation. we all had different positions: Captain, Officer, Science Dude, Communications Officer, Engineer, Security Dude who Shoots People with Guns, Operations Officer, and Operations Power Dude (me). My job was to send codes to the Engineer to fix the ship, and to control the engine power, missile power, and all that stuff. it was a very vital position! somehow in the middle of the mission, Zane figured out how to hack the real computer (not just the simulation) and started printing out random things. when our mission ended, the girl in charge came in, and Zane handed her some fake credit that he printed off and she was SO CONFUSED, and finally said, "I cannot accept that, I only accept chocolate milk". so he opens that one painting program that everyone played on as a kid, "painted" the words "CHOCOLATE MILK", printed it out, and handed it to her. she looked even more confused and asked how the heck he did that, and we all just laughed so hard. she gave us a really bad score for creativity (BUT REALLY MY DATE HACKED HER SYSTEM SO WE DESERVED MORE).
well, as we were walking out, we indeed saw a group of little boys running around. so I asked, "which one of you is Liam?" and one boy yells "ME! ME!" so our whole group yells, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIAM!" we either really scared him or made his day!

exactly 2 hours later, after my mom curled and teased and sprayed and blew dry and sprayed my hair, I picked Zane up again, only a few minutes after he finished running around town acquiring his costume. but dang we looked good. we got our pictures taken at Mckenna's dad's studio with the funky blue background, and we all looked so good. (but Zane and I looked the best. everyone was close though.)

 this is how Marty and Jennifer were posed in the movie. however, the real life height ratio between Zane and I made it hard to look exactly like Marty and Jennifer. but we were pretty dang close.

 front row: Madisen and Sam (the glam rockers), and Lindsey and Josh (Charlie and Maverick from Top Gun). second row: Isaac and Ali, Nate and Raya, Sophie and Ben (they are wearing Sophie's parent's student government sweaters from the 80's!). third row: Joel and Cami, Levi and Dathyl, Brady and Mckenna, me and Zane

 front steps: me, Raya, Madisen. next 4: Ali, Sophie, Cami, and Lindsey. the 2 in the back: Mckenna and Dathyl

after we took those lovely pictures, we went to Mckenna's house for dinner. we had the best Cafe Rio style burritos, and dang those were so so good. I could've eaten 20 of those. we were finished by 8:00, which is when the dance started. but usually, people don't start making appearances until 9. but our group was determined to be the first ones at the dance. so, we were. this was definitely my favorite theme. Timpview played it old school and held it in the old south gym and there were balloons everywhere. the decorations were amazing. glow sticks were handed out at the door. Zane picked up every glow stick that was on the floor and put it on my wrist. he said, "I want you to have more of these than any of us!" well, it worked and I came home with about 23 glowsticks! the music was so good, and everyone looked so good. it did get pretty hot inside, so every other song, we just stepped outside to take a breather, but once a good 80's jam came on, we would run back in and start dancing! we owned that dance floor! we got into it more than anyone else, and I probably embarrassed him by singing (sorry, yelling) out all the words to every song, but I didn't care. we were having the time of our lives. and everyone knew who we were dressed up as, so more points for us!

after being at the dance for a record of 2 hours, we went to Lindsey's grandparents and ate pazookies. if you haven't had a pazookie before in your life, then you are missing out big time. they are cookies baked in mini pie tins topped with ice cream and hot fudge. we also enjoyed deep conversations about car washes, top ramen, hairstylists, and many other things. it was definitely a date I would never forget!

the time I was a cheerleader

first off, I'd just like to say that I've been very busy. I'm starting college applications, I'm a senior in high school, I'm involved in a lot of things, but everyone else is also very busy and I don't think anyone even reads this anymore, so why do I start with this really dumb forward?

when I was around 8 years old, my best friend told me she wanted to be a cheerleader, and without thinking, I said, "that's really dumb." and she asked me why and I said, "all you do is do flips and stuff and cheer at sports." I didn't want to tell her the real reason I thought it was dumb was because she could do a back handspring, and I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried. so, in my little 8 year old brain, if I couldn't do it, it was dumb. my mom was a gymnast in her younger years, and she thought that because I was her only girl, I was her only hope of carrying on the tradition. so when I was 5 years old, I got enrolled in a gymnastics class. and I SUCKED. I wasn't flexible, I fell all the time, and my grandma even came to watch a lesson, and she told my mom, "you're wasting your money on this." so, after a year, my mom pulled me out of gymnastics, and all I really knew how to do was turn a cartwheel. so I knew, at a very young age, that I would never be able to make it as a cheerleader.

fast forward to 8th grade, when all my friends decided that they were going to try out for cheer in 9th grade. now this was around the time when I started to actually enjoy playing tennis, so my plans were to defy everyone and join the tennis team instead of the cheer squad. but part of me wanted so desperately to fit in with all my friends, so I began listing all the reasons to why I would be a good cheerleader: I was cute, short, full of energy, I had a loud voice, and I would look so good in a cheer uniform. I would get to go to every football game and everyone would be watching me. I told my best friend that I wanted to be a cheerleader (the same one I tried to convince that cheer was dumb), and she said, "well, you better start taking real tumbling classes, and you better actually learn how to do a back handspring." and then I decided to be rational and I realized I am a horrible dancer, I can't move in sync with anyone, and sadly, I cannot do a back handspring. my freshman year, I didn't end up trying for any athletic teams because my dad's sabbatical in Japan interfered with my first term. but when I went to my first football game, I watched my friends cheering and I thought, I really just want to go down there. just once. I have school spirit. I'm not a gymnast, I'm not a dancer, but I can get the student section pumped up. I learned all the cheers from being in the student section, but as I became more involved in tennis and other things, my desire to be a cheerleader diminished.

until Halloween.

last year, I dressed up as Ron Burgundy, and everyone thought it was super funny. the year before, I was a Duck Dynasty guy and even brought a fake duck that my grandpa uses for hunting, and covered it in fake blood and everything. that was also memorable. but this year, I didn't have any ideas, and since I was a senior, I thought that dressing up was starting to get lame anyway. but then, I remembered that I lost a bet on the first day of school and I was supposed to wear my old ugly tennis outfit from sophomore year on the first day. but I chickened out, didn't do it, and who knows where that uniform went after that. So I thought, well it's Halloween, no one will question me if I wear it on that day! but I knew I wouldn't be able to find it. so I asked my best friend on the tennis team if she still had hers, and she said she only had the skirt, but if I wanted, I could wear it with her old cheer top from freshman year, and go as a cheerleader with an ugly skirt. (she actually ran into me at the gas station that night, and she had the clothes IN HER CAR so in our weird gas station rendezvous I came back with my Halloween costume.) Halloween was on a Saturday, so that Friday at school, I wore the cheer outfit and a lot of people told me I looked good (even though I didn't), but it just wasn't Ron Burgundy or Duck Dynasty. then, I got a brilliant idea.

the next day (which was actually Halloween) was the first round of the playoffs for football. I figured if I show up to the game in the cheer outfit, people would think it's funny and just think I was dressing up for Halloween or showing a bunch of school spirit. but when no one would expect, I would hop over the fence and onto the field and join the cheerleaders and see how long I could get away with it before I got kicked off.

during the second quarter, good things started happening in the game, and it was my moment. I told the student section to move out of the way, hopped the fence, and stood by the cheerleaders. my really good friend Lindsey who also happens to be cheer captain, just starts laughing, hands me her pom poms, and says, "Stand up on my box while I take your picture! and you can lead a few cheers!" everyone looked confused (mostly because the cheerleaders dressed as zombies for Halloween and I just looked like a normal one in an ugly tennis skirt), but then they started laughing and cheering for me. so I led a few cheers from the cheer captain's box, front and center. I didn't care that I couldn't move my arms in sync with the other cheerleaders or that my pompom was in the wrong hand. it was so fun. I couldn't believe that I had the impulse to do it, and that I followed that impulse. so I decided to make the most out of it. after a few minutes, cheer captain needed her box back, so I just stood off to the side next to the JV squad and was completely off sync, but it was so funny to see all my friends walk into the game, look at me, look confused, and then start laughing. I didn't care. in that moment, I wasn't a tennis player or a senior in the student section. I was a Timpview cheerleader.

well, after like 20 minutes, the cheer coach finally notices that something isn't right, and someone let an impostor onto the field. she walks up to me and tells me that I stole a freshman's pompoms and when she comes back, I need to go back to the stands, and asked me why I was even down there. well, since I wasn't a real cheerleader, and it was my senior year so it was really the last time I could really do whatever I wanted, I said, "I'm cheering! It's Halloween! Only this one time!" and she is not amused and tells me not to go down there ever again because it's some liability thing, and I guess I sassed her some more, but as soon as the freshman came back, I returned her pompoms, and she looked very confused, but I didn't want to explain to her, so I just went back to the stands.

well, everyone was just laughing. I was greeted with, "you are my hero!" "you're a freaking legend!" "I could never have the confidence to do that!" and "you looked so good down there!"
and I felt good. people asked why I did it, and I said, "well, I just......wanted to do it. it's my senior year, and maybe it was kinda a senior prank." I knew I looked totally stupid down there, but I was having a good time, and I'm just glad that the cheerleaders didn't kick me off or tell me I was doing a bad job. so maybe the next time I get an impulse like that, I shouldn't act on it. but I'm just glad I could live to say I did it once. and it was indeed, the best Halloween ever. one week later, I'm still getting praised for it.