Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

On Friday afternoon I went to audition for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat produced by Small Town Theatrics in Coal City. Today, I discovered that I have been cast as 'Gad', one of Joseph's brothers. I'm very happy with my part and content with who was cast for the main characters. Here is the cast list.

Skiing

On Friday I went skiing. I had to wake up at quarter to six to get ready and go to church by six thirty. At church we embarked for Michigan, all the boys in one car and the girls in another. The trip to Swiss Valley Ski and Resort was uneventful but enjoyable. After we arrived, we had a private group lesson. First we became accustomed to being in the skis and moving in them, and then we headed over to the bunny hill/ rope pull. We walked most of the way down the hill and then our teacher demonstrated how to stop; snowplow style. Then we skied down the hill and over to the rope pull. After learning how to ski straight up the hill holding onto the rope pull, down the hill, and stop; our group proceeded to learn how to turn, which took me quite a while to 'master'. Before long, our lesson was over, and a few of us headed over to the 'real' hills. First, I went down the easiest blue square hill, which is intermediate (the resort didn't have anything between the rope pull and intermediate). Next, I went up the ski lift (surprise!), which didn't actually scare me at all, even though I kind of expected it to; then I went down another blue square hill. I didn't fall once before lunch, but I did afterwards. My first real fall was on the biggest blue square hill. I tried to turn too sharply and landed on my head. Eventually, I was convinced by my friends to try the black diamond hill, the hardest at the resort. I made sure that I was not last in line, so I couldn't chicken out, and I flew down and had a blast doing it. I ended up going down the black diamond hill at least seven times. However, when I went down a smaller black diamond hill, I didn't have such luck. First, I tried to go down the hill at an angle and stick in a snow drift to slow me down. Instead, though, I ended up going over the drift like a jump and landed in the snow not standing up. I got up and went down the rest of the hill, whereupon I wiped out on some slick snow/ice at the bottom. I ended up losing both skis, a pole, and my glasses and then I face planted into the snow. It hurt even more because I was sunburned, which I was unaware of. Nonetheless, I had fun, and even went down a few more hills after that. Now I totally want to go again. 

Wahoo!

Today Mom and I went and I (finally) obtained my drivers license! After I acquired it, Rebekah asked me to take her to Le Mouton Rouge, which I did, so I've already driven without an adult in the vehicle. I'm really excited but also nervous about not paying enough attention while driving and killing myself. I'm going to try to ease myself into it before taking a long trip by myself, even though those are the times when I'm more excited about because I was less likely to convince someone to drive me.

So, apparently the bison are actually at Buffalo Rock state park and not Starved Rock.
Today we had school and it went pretty well. Later I have rehearsal and then I'll hopefully go to the dance.

Bison

Today we went to starved rock state park. As we were driving around, we found an enclosure with two bison inside. I declared my desire to get out and see them (I mean, look for shed fiber) quite eagerly and unignorably. I don't think anyone else actually wanted to get out except maybe Grandt, but everyone except Mom ended up getting out and going to see them. Unfortunately, I didn't find pounds of fluff sitting on the ground outside the fence, or inside. Sigh. Besides, it's illegal to take anything out of state parks anyway, so I would have been stuck trying to clean, spin, and knit or crochet the fiber before we left, five minutes later, with no finished product to show for it. I decided that in lieu of actual fiber, touching it on the animal would be good enough. One of the bison was actually right up by the fence, which was chain link and didn't look sturdy enough to halt a charging bison. Most of us were standing next to the fence by this time, some people closer, some farther depending on their comfort level. I pointed out that it wouldn't really be able to hurt anyone unless it got through the fence, at which point we would all be dead anyway. For some reason, though, nobody moved closer to the fence. The one closer to us was grazing contentedly almost close enough to touch, but every once in a while it would sort of snort and jerk its head up, which made everyone jump. It's head was close enough to the fence to feel, and I was about to get up the gumption to pet it when it jerked again. Those horns aren't just for show folks. I didn't really want a puncture wound. Finally, the animal turned and started grazing parallel to the chain link. Of course, it was on an angle so there was no way I could reach it's less dangerous back or side. I was literally standing there and pleading, "Move over here a little more, come on," etc. Eventually it got close enough to touch. I poked my finger in the fence. What do you think it felt like? Actually, I couldn't tell, because I yanked my finger out of there so rapidly. Oh, well. The bison just moved it's head a little. Then, Johnathan and Rebekah decided to try their luck. Rebekah stuck her finger in a few seconds later, but she too yanked it out before she could actually feel it. Then, Johnathan decidedly put his digit through the fence, and jabbed it into the bison's ribs. Apparently, it was really soft, but the rest of us won't ever know, because the bison immediately jumped out of reach. Then, we went home.