JnK: Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?

The past week has been pretty much wonderful for me. I've experienced quite a few firsts...

Southwestern Youth Musical Festival:
The Pains:
-All the expectations and pressure after preparing over a month for this event wasn't overwhelming, but it got me pretty nervous. Nervous to the point where I messed up, but I played a fast piece so it was bound to happen anyways.
-Stupid warm-up rooms where you could only practice for 10 mins. Luckily I snagged one for like 40 mins lol, but there was one that smelled like fart. It was really bad, and the rooms were small without any apparant ventilation systems.
-No A/C in the auditioning room! Poor judges.

The Pleasures:
-1st place! woo!


Catalina Island

All of the below was a first-time thing for me.

Snorkeling

The Pains:
-I snorkeled at Lover's Cove/Marine Preserve, which was an extremely pebbly landscape. My feet and legs hurt after being battered with stones whenever I was standing among the waves.
-Flippers are SO difficult to walk in. The only way to walk successfully is to do so backwards without lifting your feet much.
-If you've ever swam in the ocean, you'll know how bad it is to choke or inhale sea water.

The Pleasures:
-Catalina is pleasantly notorious for its abundant fish. The waters were teeming with fish where I snorkeled, though it's really hard to catch them (or even touch them) so unless you're a ninja or something you could only observe and swim with them.
-Since sound doesn't travel to well underwater, you can shout (or mumble) like a raving lunatic and nobody could hear you!

Kayaking
The Pains:
-Your arms get tired after half an hour. :P

The Pleasures:
-It's quite thrilling when some mildly large waves sneak up on you. Combined with the fact that the ocean floor is like 295739057 feet below you and the water is quite chilly, it's exciting when your kayak bobs uncontrollably.
-I kayaked up to Lover's Cove where the water was pretty clear, so I saw kelp and fish around the kayak. :D But that made the deep ocean seem deeper because kelp can grows fast and tall...

Fishing

The Pains:
-Accidentally getting your finger/hand hooked.
-Using fresh bait. You know the squid that we dissected in OSS? Yeah, the bait I used was exactly the same. I had to cut chunks of the meat and attach a tentacle to the end of the hook so I can lace up the hook to hide it (fish get cautious when they see a hook). The end result for me was grimy, ink-encrusted fingers and...

The Pleasures:
-...I CAUGHT A FASH! It was small, but I caught something!
woo! (I let it go afterwards, but my dad brought a calico bass that he caught home to eat. It was pretty nasty.)

I also attended 2 tours in Catalina; the Undersea Tour and the Flying Fish Tour.
If you google these you'll find more info, but from my experience they're both worth it.
The Undersea Tour was quite engaging not only because you see so much fish, but the kelp beds are simply amazing. They're like underwater exotic forests!
The Flying Fish Tour took place during the night. The boat took us out to sea, and a special light frightened the flying fish, which caused them to...fly. Well, they don't really fly, but they skim over the waves. We only saw a handful, but what was awesome was that I saw a pelican gobble up one fish, and a sea lion nom another. I didn't see the entire action because it happened really fast, but for the sea lion dinner I saw huge splashing and churning of water.

I have to say that Catalina is my new favorite place, because of the environment. There is very little pollution, as they do not allow a lot of cars, so most people walk, bike, or drive around in golf carts. The ocean provides a lot of activities, and the mountains offer great hiking, though I haven't done anything inland this time.

I definitely want to go back!

In other news...
>I'm starting Sarasate's Spanish Dances and Beethoven's lovely "Spring" Sonata.
>I can do 10 pushups effortlessly! Easy for you, but an accomplishment for me. 8D
>Finally finished this a month ago for my grandmother's b-day. Comment if you want to criticize?: