Just for the record, all these state tests are wearing on my nerves. Today was the first day of them. I take this as a bad sign. Today was horrible. Kinda. Just annoying, really. Case in point...

Testing schedule is really wonky. Instead of having six periods of 55 minutes plus a half hour lunch, we have four 90 minute periods in which to test on things of little relevance. Today was first, second, lunch, third, fourth. The whole lunch after second was the first thing to throw me off, since I generally have it fourth or fifth. (Kinda depends on the choir teacher's mood)

Anyway.

First period was Chem. (Not too horrible, but having Chem first thing in the morning isn't a fun thing to do. I apparently don't sleep in a toaster, therefore I don't pop out of bed in the morning...I wake up fully around 8:30. Coincidentally, that's when 1st period normally ends.) McDowell decided to have us do an activity that involved acetic acid and two chemicals called crystal violet and orange IV. When those two chemicals are added to different dilutions of any acid, they change colors, depending on the hydrogen concentration. We ended up with a rainbow of test tubes. It was unbelievably cool. I took pictures.

Second (History) was when the trouble started. First, on the way down, Chloe purposefully ignored one of her friends as we passed him in the hallway, hi-fiving the guy right behind him instead. Laura got all ticked off and told her to go back an apologize. So we trecked back to the drama room to find him. Which we did. But Chloe sure took a heck of a long time talking, so Laura and I ducked out and hid around the corner to jump out at her when she came out. That plan backfired when she went out the OTHER door and left us standing there waiting until the bell rang.

Oh right. Seven minute passing periods on testing schedule, and no minute bell. Translation: we were late to a class that had a very unforgiving teacher, and we were standing halfway across the campus. We definitely booked it. We got there about three minutes later. Thankfully, it was one of those days when Loftis showed up late. He walked in about 30 seconds after we sat down. We then let Chloe have it. Bah.

Then, I completely forgot we had a test. Meaning, I didn't do the outline or notecards for the chapter, let alone actually READ the thing. I definitely was walking blind, other than the little bit of reading I got done off of Chloe's outline after the activity first period. I didn't fail too badly...Then we got lectured about "Why there wasn't a WW3" and all about the Cold War and stuff. Loftis apparently never tires of this era...he's been finding ways to work it into pretty much every chapter since the beginning of the school year. From 8000 BC up to now, he's found some similarity between the Romans trying to take over some country, and how Hitler and Mussolini killed millions of people on a whim. He also entertained us with stories about how he made it through college by keeping a wad of notecards in his pocket and studying them every time he had five free minutes. It didn't keep me from doing Sudoku after the test instead of other homework, but it did answer a lot of questions as to why he's such a social outcast. The sad thing is, he doesn't even realize it. Hmm.

Lunch was next. Laura, Chloe and I decided that we wanted to go to Taco Bell at lunch, instead of waiting through the outrageous lines that happen when we have combined lunches. So as soon as the bell rang, we ran out of the classroom and up to the drama room to find the guy Chloe was hoping would drive us. He didn't want to go, so I just went back to the library (back the way we had just come) and got a cookie from the vending machine. Then back (again) to the choir room this time and met Laura. Into the choir room, back to the library, back to the choir room, past it to I-wing to try to find a place to sit, back to the choir room. Then the bell rang.

Third was the only class that I actually had testing in. 30 questions on stuff that I learned in second grade. I finished in about twenty minutes. And sat there for the last hour with nothing to do but to play tetris and read my book. Oy.

Choir was last, which I thought would be good, but it wasn't. Baggett had us stand up or sit down in sections to work on parts. Except he ALWAYS wanted to work with the altos. We stood for a full 45 minutes while everyone else sat more than they stood. It was lame.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Maybe.