Stitches (continued…)

Ya'll might not find it quite as funny as I do, but here it is. I'm the tall skinny kid, number 44 :P

Stitches

Yup, another injury... :D

This one happened in the last 3 minutes of our basketball game against our rival boys school. While fighting for a rebound, I got hit in the forehead with another guys elbow. However, I still managed to defend two shots so that they didn't score, and then start running down the court, where I got tripped and rolled about 10ft. It was only then that the ref called me off because the blood was running down into my eye... but don't worry, we still won by 20pts!

My mom got it all on video too, and I've just been watching it over and over, its pretty much the funniest 30 seconds of basketball I've ever played :D If I can get my computer to cooperate, maybe I'll post that as well.

Here's me when we got home after cleaning out the wound a little.

 There are times when dad being an emergency doctor really come in handy. He sewed me up right there in our living room :D

 Honestly though, the most painful part of the night for me was listening to his commentary as he stitched me up. It's a good thing he doesn't talk like this to his real patients!!!

Dad: "I wish I had a smaller needle to do this with."

Noah: "Whoa, that numbing stuff feels weird!"
Dad: "Oh, I could have hit a nerve. There are some really important ones around here."

Dad: "Hmm, I probably should have disinfected the needle first, hopefully this doesn't get infected!"

Dad: "Well, it's not the prettiest I've ever done, but it should hold!"

I kid you not, he actually said all those things! Anyway, turns out he did a better job than he thought, because I got the stitches out today and you can barely see the cut anymore.

Thanks again dad!!!

Ballin' (continued...)

Saturday night: Girls High Ball with Mikaela

This ball was a lot bigger occasion. Boys High and Girls High each have a formal ball for the year 13's (seniors), and its a huge deal. (I've had people tell me that for a lot of girls it the only reason they stay in school for the last year.) Usually one goes to the two balls with the same person, but Mikaela's boyfriend who took her to the Boy's High ball was out of town with the varsity rugby squad, so she asked me instead :) This was really fun for me, because otherwise I wouldn't have been allowed to go because I'm still a year 12.

This ball was a lot more formal. I bought a corsage, and wore a real tux, and they took waaayyy more pictures. We started with a "preball" at a friends house, where not only the girls and their dates, but also our parents were invited. I'm pretty sure my parents were more excited for this than I was... :D

 

The preball was actually almost my favorite part of this ball, because although people were drinking, no one was drunk yet, and I met lots of new people in a good environment.

 We left the preball in a limo, which was just plain awesome, even though we had to hop out and push to help it get over the lip of the the driveway :D

 

At the ball itself we ate a really good dinner, then went in and watched the head girl and deputy head girls do a dance with their partners, and then just danced for 3 hours.

The official ball ended at midnight, then I drove a group of us to the after party. I got changed and stayed for a little while, but everyone was drinking, and Mikaela's boyfriend had just got home and was coming over, so I went home :D

So in conclusion, both balls were really fun, and I met a lot of new and great people as well as getting to know both of my lovely dates a lot better, but there were also some major differences from Utah dances:

• I was asked to both dances over text
• We ate dinner at the dance
• neither dance even had as many people as a regular stake dance
• obviously, none of the dresses were "For the Strength of the Youth" approved
• it was assumed that you would drink alcohol in order to loosen up and be able to have fun. One girl actually said to Mikaela and I, "Can you imagine trying to do this without having anything to drink?" We both busted up laughing, because neither of us drink, and so that's exactly what we were doing.
• You weren't really expected to stay with your date. I didn't even get to meet some of my friends' dates because it seemed like they were barely ever together. And at the after parties especially, a lot of dates didn't even go to the same ones.
• There were certain choreographed dances that we had practiced at special dance practices in the weeks before, and then did with everybody on the night.

Ballin'

Last weekend was an adventure. I went to two balls!!! Both were so much fun, but also quite different from each other and from what I was used to.
Friday night: Youth Masquerade ball with Hannah

There are a lot of different Christian youth groups in town (for a lot of kids its the only way they meet people of the opposite gender) and one of the biggest ones threw a ball and invited all the other groups to come. Hannah goes to one of these groups and asked me to go with her.

 

These are all the kids and leaders from her youth group that came. I had only met Hannah once or twice before this, but we had so much fun, and I'm really glad she asked me. Technically it was meant to be as masquerade ball, but no one wore their masks. Good thing too, cause ours just looked awkward, even if Danny's matched his tie...

Danny and my friend Steven came without dates and had a really fun time as well.

This dance was probably more similar to a stake dance than anything else, except that we ate dinner first and most people had dates. It was fairly casual and small, and the music and kids were clean and nice :)