the nerd-club (aka envirothon) team that i was on won the county competition today!! we placed first in four of the five categories (current-event-also-known-as-groundwater, wildlife, aquatics, and forestry!) forestry's my event, and we got a 76 when all the other teams got less than 55!! so that was reassuring. also, in wildlife, we had to identify birdcalls, and Birdman identified one as a blue jay. it turned out that it was a mockingbird imitating a blue jay. he argued, and we got that point! so arguing DOES work! also, we all (all three teams from our school) had lunch together in the sun outside the pavilion, just sitting on the ground and talking while we ate. Chibi-chan made brownies, Fish (the aquatics person on my team and one of my best friends in elementary school) made sugar cookies, and i made candy, so we passed everything around and talked and it was literally one of the best days i've ever had. there was just something about being able to talk and good-naturedly tease and relax around people that just seemed like a breath of fresh air to me. i zoned out and dozed off a bit laying in the grass, in the sun. and with Rachel and Kaitlyn and Chibi-chan and Manga-dealer-chan around me, i just felt... safe i guess. also, like Otaku-chan, i have a few interesting stories from today.
1) we had to identify two different trees for forestry. after deciding that one was definately a red oak, we moved on to the other. in order to identify this tree, Birdman (who is also in my group) decided to break of a leaf and stick it in his mouth. he abruptly yanked it out of his mouth, yelling 'ah, tastes like a b*expletive!!*h!'. then he spat repeatedly. we later found the tree to be a hickory, which is (thankfully) not poisonous in the least. Birdman reportedly had the taste in his mouth until lunch, when he gargled with Sprite.
2) this pales in comparison to Birdman's win/fail, but winning was pretty cool. we were called up for winning aquatics individually, then the lady that was announcing it told us 'you might as well just stay up here', then announced us the winners of the other three events.
3) oh yeah, and i think this trumps all for now. we got free t-shirts from the envirothon people, and the teacher that supervises us told us to all gather around a tree for a group picture. Birdman was not there to hear her say that, so he was walking up to where we were while we were walking away. Rover (the soil-person on my team) yelled to him 'take off your jacket and get over here!' because he had a jacket on over his shirt, but he didn't hear him. so i just told him 'Birdman, just strip and follow us'. he laughed and proceeded to jokingly over-dramatically take off his jacket. oh, and once the picture was taken, we all walked over to the 2-3 picnic tables under the pavilion that we claimed as ours, and i took off my envirothon shirt because it was hot and i just wanted to wear the shirt i already had on. Rachel was walking around taking pictures, and she tried to take one of me. i looked at her flatly and asked her if she was actually going to take a picture of me stripping. after that, one of the girls in a different team but who was also from our school (i don't have a nickname for her yet) came up behind me and started to make the sounds that often come when exaggerated-stripping occurs, like the 'mph-tss mph-tss' sounds. i don't really know how else to describe it, but it just added to the awesomeness of the day.
4) when the teacher made us take another picture after we recieved our awards (we placed 1, 2, and 3), a kid from another team from another school came up behind her and gave her moose antlers, then bunny ears. it was the icing on top of the cake of a perfect day, and it extracted genuine smiles from the tired group that we made.
oh yeah, the not-so good news. on sunday night, around 8 o'clock (after i already made the candy that i brought to envirothon), i somehow managed to put a kitchen knife through my thumb. i was chipping hard caramel out of the bottom of a baking dish (recipe was off and it dried too hard for me to use) with a knife instead of using a spatula. i went to the er, and ruined two dishtowels and about half a roll of paper towels in the ride over. the er was pretty packed, so i was there pretty late, but it was ok. when i got treated, i got three x-rays to make sure that i didn't chip the bone in my thumb or anything (i didn't), then got about 5-6 ccs of a pain medication that blocks the sodium-potassium exchange in nerve cells, thus deadening them. the only reason i know that is that i had to keep talking to the physician that sewed me up so i wouldn't be screaming and crying hysterically (the pain meds didn't work so well), and he was quite forthcoming with information. i got three stitches where the knife went in, and two where it came out. they're loose so it can drain, but i saw them when i took off the dressing last night, and they didn't look too bad. they stopped bleeding, anyway. oh, and according to the physician, i only lost about half a cup of blood in the whole thing, which isn't that bad at all, considering the average adult has about 6 pints of blood in their body. oh, and because i was so good, i got a boo-boo bear! it's just a stuffed teddy-bear with a bow around his neck, but i lubs him ^_^
sorry if the description is a bit... descriptive, but i need this as much for my memory as it is for you guys, and blood and stuff doesn't weird me out too much. if no like, no read!
byes!
Kat
aww, boo-boo bear! JEALOUS! what's his name??
ReplyDeleteBirdman is an interesting person. Today in anatomy, we were talking about teeth and how baby teeth are also called deciduous teeth. So he asked, "Then, are permanent teeth called coniferous??" It was funny (to me at least in my hyper-tired state X3).
ReplyDeleteThat kid was hilarious! I don't even know if our teacher noticed!!
And what is it with people hurting themselves? You. My brother. I've never even been to the ER for myself! (I've been there for my little sister when she had nurse-maid's elbow when she was little).
Boo-boo bear!! I got a boo-boo bunny when I had to get my finger pricked when I was younger for a blood test (I don't mind the needle stuck in my arm, but ripping the skin of my finger open was painful!!!) Though, that was nothing compared to your injury. I freak out over the small injuries more than the bigger ones.