Pi Girl

I’m a little late with this post, but I wanted to make sure I got it in. The Star-Gazette reported that the kids may have broken the record for reading aloud for the longest time. They have to wait for Guiness to certify the results but that could take weeks.

The kids read for 128 hours. Which is insane and so very cool. Michelle and I went over to SHS to check out the scene last Saturday and we listened to an hour of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The set-up was very well thought-out. The reading area had these big chairs, lots of light, a bookshelf, a whiteboard that showed stats on what was read so far and how many hours read. There was also a woodstove fire going on. A nice cozy place to read. Or sleep, as I suspect many of the kids were ready to do. The first reader we saw yawned a LOT during her shift. Since the kids were living on the stage, they had tents, a computer lab, tv, mattresses on the stage and a ping pong table.

The families of the kids were all about supporting them during the readathon. One parent brought his energetic dog who ran everywhere in the theater. Another brought a cat in. The cat was not all that interested in staying in its owner’s arms so they went into the tent. Where the dog circled around several times to sniff out the cat. Then as we were leaving, another parent was bringing in her cat. These kids were not going to get bored.

Anyway, they reached their goal and I think it’s awesome. They raised $250 for a literacy program yet to be named. When the program is named, I’ll send money too in support of their cause.

There’s a group of kids at Southside High School who are trying to get into the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest time of reading aloud. According to this Star-Gazette article, they are going to read for more than 117 hours. They have t-shirts, cameras, witnesses, spectators, the works.

When I first heard about the project, I thought, you go kids. That’s a cool project and very ambitious. Then, I read that they are using the stunt to raise awareness for literacy because 20% of adults in Chemung County read below a fifth-grade level. So, now they’ve got a goal and a cause. If I can, I’ll try to stop by to catch the action.

It also reminds me I’m way behind on community service acts. I was supposed to get 3 done by November 14th, and that just did not happen. I’ve got a list going, just haven’t done anything yet.

I tried to give blood again, but they kicked me out again. Michelle says I should count it because they did take her blood and she would not have gotten up at 9 am on a Saturday if I wasn’t going. I’m tempted; if I go through this whole 6 month period without once being able to give blood, I’ll count it. Otherwise, I want my blood donated, damn it!

Contest was most interesting this time around. Mostly because I spent 2 days ready to throw up and then afterwards, I didn’t know what to do with myself because it was over. I probably should have taken more photos of actual people at contest, but I didn’t. Not even of Affinity and that was stupid because I could have used those for the website.

Anyway, I mentioned that Affinity got 11th place, but I should also mention that Crystal Chords got 9th place in the chorus contest. Our outfits were the talk of the town on Saturday. We even went to dinner dressed like that. Scary.

I started to write this as a summary of events but I kept saying “so-and-so rocked” so I’ll say, here’s a list of people who completely rock!

- Desra, who stole the show Wednesday night at Sing with the Queens by out-divaing the Diva of all Divas, Jackie Jenson.

- the Minor Chords, especially with Jessica on bass. Totally worth the painful hour and a half of sitting through the membership meeting.

- the Crystal Chords, with their flashing flip-flop pins and loud screaming and biased opinions of how the contest should have gone.

- Stacy from After Hours, whose jokes at the Parade and the Showcase I’m still re-telling people because they were freakin’ hilarious. She was awesome as the MC at the Showcase. tee hee hee … when she sings, she has no accent.

- Sandy, Diana, Mechtild, Nancy, Karen, Greg and Chip, for making me laugh all weekend. And giving me alcohol. And making me laugh harder.

- Vocal Point, for singing with us Saturday night. That was so much fun and I’d love to do it again. Oh, and it was fun bonding over lost luggage in the Syracuse airport. Good times.

- Mom, for coming down to see me sing. And putting up with the barbershopping corniness.

- My girls, Anne, Donna and Michelle for letting me sing with you! And for helping me deal with my stupid nerves. You can feel my boobs anytime. (and for anyone who wants that in-joke explained to them, you can contact me privately)

I’ve already mentioned the disaster coming into Jax.  I probably should have realized then that service is NOT Jax’s middle name.  Every single meal we ate, the service was horrible.  Nice people, good food, slower than slow service.  Not good when travelling with New Yorkers who need their coffee NOW.

Other than service, it’s a nice city.  They do Jaguars on parade.  I got photos of 3 of them.  Also, I did not know that Jax is named for Andrew Jackson - thankfully, there was a nice statue of him that told me so.

The airport was interesting.  When we arrived to get on our flight back home, I had to go through an extra security machine I had never seen before.  You walk into this teleport type thing and stand while the machine hits you with bursts of air.  The security guard told us the machine was “sniffing (us) for bombs and explosives.” Fortunately, she was in a pleasant mood when I busted out laughing, as I had never heard that one before.  Must be that Jacksonville friendliness.

The hotel was also very nice.  Except for that slowness thing.  Oh, and the elevators weren’t too happy about moving so many people.  At one point, I thought it was going to collapse because  everytime we stopped at a floor (which was every floor, and I was on floor 14) the car would shake violently.  A little scary, but they got it fixed.  We stayed at the Omni Hotel, where whenever I called the front desk, I was greeted with “Hello, Miss Cassidy, how can I help you?” I liked that. And I really liked the water from Zephyr Hills. (I am very picky about my water and won’t drink just any water.)

So yeah, visit Jacksonville. I just don’t recommend that you stop by if you need to be anywhere at a certain time, because it won’t happen.

Did I forget to mention the photo gallery?

So, I got to spend a few days in Tally with Janice and this time, I got to see more than just the Florida State campus. It was so much fun to just relax and hang out. And Tally definitely has more culture options than Elmira. But then, most any city has more culture options than Elmira. Thoughts and highlights include:

- The state capitol was a hoot. We found a woman at a podium on the steps and learned she was part of a project to read the entire Bible all at once. This group takes turns because it takes about 80 hours all at once. I asked how far they were, but the person talking to me had just arrived for their shift and couldn’t tell me.

- The state capitol is accessible. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, or maybe I’m just used to heightened security wherever I go now. But once we got past the metal detector, we pretty much got to wander the whole building and not once person noticed us. We went to the top of the building to see the sights. We visited the chambers where the house and senate holds their sessions. We read a wall of Florida facts. Did you know that the Florida state stage play is “Cross and Sword”?

- I really, really wish I had a photo of the capitol building from down the street. With the domed old capitol building and the courthouse (I think) on either side, it looked more phallic than the Washington monument.

- I ate Cuban! I ate Mexican! Well, I can do that here (mmm … Garcia’s) but the waiters aren’t as cute. I smoked hookah! It was fun, I had grape, jasmine and mint. Probably should have done my research before trying it, but when am I going to get a chance like that again?

- My favorite building was the Dept of Education.  Very tall building with a huge banner reading, “Just read, Florida!”  I’m guessing their other slogan efforts didn’t go over so well, and now they’re just desperate.

For more photos, visit the photo gallery.

I promise I’ll blog in the next few days about Tally and Jacksonville and contest. Between flying, driving, not sleeping, losing my luggage, getting my luggage back and then finally sleeping, I’m a little out of it. And what do you know, my vacation is over and it’s back to work for me. yea.

So, we didn’t make the final cut. We got 11th out of 20 quartets.

But, at least we get to wear our blue sparkly dresses. 11th place means we’re the mike testers for the final round of competition.

I started to update about Tallahassee and then I got busy ’cause I’m at CONTEST!

So yeah, Affinity sings at 2:00 tomorrow. Please send your prayers our way. Because I’m super nervous right now and freaking out. But it makes me feel better to know that queens get nervous too.

Look back at around 7ish to get the update.

Yea! I’m in Florida! Woo hoo!

Desra and I spent a very long day yesterday travelling across the East Coast to get here.  First by car, then by plane, then by plane again and finally by car. 

By the way, don’t ever use EZ Rent a Car to rent your car.  We called them when we arrived at the airport like the instructions told us to.  And they said they wouldn’t give us a ride because they’d be closed by the time we go there!  Say what?

So, I panicked and then realized, oh yeah, I’m in an airport with, like, a zillion car rental companies available to rent from.  I went to Enterprise first because I’ve rented there before and enjoyed the service.  The girl was so sympathetic and gave me a good deal that was only $30 more than I would have paid at that other place that was so mad cheap for crappy service.  And the car guy gave me a new Mitsubishi Lancer to drive.  And he was nice to me.  And a bit of a smart ass.  Tee hee hee. 

Interesting, all the cars available to rent (and by all I mean, all the cars, even non-Enterprise ones) were white.  I hope that’s just a Florida thing and doesn’t make me a target with the obvious white rental car. 

Well, I’m off to see the sights of Tallahassee. 

Last night was my last rehearsal with the Crystal Chords before competition next week. There’s still one more rehearsal, but I’m taking off early for some much-needed vacation time in Florida before I see them again in Jacksonville.

And because Michelle had the same bright idea as me and will also be gone next week, Affinity has been practicing our packages for the chorus the last 2 weeks. The chorus is probably the scariest audience we’ll ever have to face and if we can get through the songs for them, we’ll be fine on stage. And when we’re on that stage, we know the Crystal Chords will be the loudest, most supportive audience members in the auditorium.

So at the end of rehearsal last night, the chorus presented us with flowers and wished us well in the competition. And they bought flip flop pins that light up so we’ll be able to spot them easily from the stage. My favorite part was when some of the chorus members came up with this awesome chant that I thought was absolutely fabulous. I can’t do it any justice in print, but I promise it’s cool.

For you music readers out there, think of a 4 beat rhythm and the following in a sixteenth-note pattern on beats 1 and 3.

A-F-F-I   N-I-T-Y

A-F-F-I   N-I-T-Y

I love the Crystal Chords.

9 days to go. Woot!