I know what you're thinking... "How does he call this being BOLD?" Well, I'll tell you. I've been busy being BOLD and haven't had a single second to post on here. Sorry folks. That's all I got for you there, but here, I've got a whole special super awesome post of spectacular... things. In other words, I'm gonna write a really long blog.
Let's start with my good friend, John Heald, the cruise guy that I follow like a GPS. He's doing... alright. Let's just say that on Monday morning, his ship, the Carnival Splendor, had a small engine fire (ok, a BIG one) and they were stranded out in the middle of the ocean (not in the middle, but far enough to make a difference) and to give you a cliche, they were up a creek without a paddle. For about two days they didn't have cold running water or flushing toilets. You can read more about the whole situation on www.carnival-news.com it's more official and I'm lazy and don't feel like typing it all out here. John wasn't able to post until today which was sad but I know he had things to be doing and they didn't have internet or phones or anything so instead of John posting we just got updates. Today, though, he relived all of his readers with a short update promising lots of postings on the way about everything that happened and with a firm reiteration that everyone is perfectly fine, no one got a scratch on them, and everything is being taken care of. I know it's kind of sad, but after following John for quite a while I've grown to love him and care about him, I was truly worried whenever I heard about the Splendor and I felt so bad for him and everyone else on the ship. It's all I could think about for a while, but it's all good now, just waiting for him to get some internet back on the ship and get back to posting, I miss it so!
Our next topic... Ms. Emilee Bannister! For those of you who don't know, she is my trusty, loving, caring, sweet, beautiful, (put simply) amazing girlfriend that as of last Thursday, has been my trusty, loving, caring, sweet, beautiful, (put simply) amazing girlfriend for exactly one year! Crazy! Time has flown by like a Space Mountain ride and it seems like just a couple of weeks ago I was asking her out to homecoming over BANDoGRAM. Please, don't remind me, I know I'm good :P I can't wait for the next year and whatever time to come with Emilee and I love her more than Cruise Ships... yes, I just admitted that, bahahha. In all seriousness, I love you Emilee! Also notable was her 19th (COUGAR!) birthday on Monday, so Happy Birthday! Speaking of birthdays, I'll go ahead and mention Austin's birthday and Ms. Tracee's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! November is a Bannister Birthday month, lemme tell ya! Another note, November 20th is my half-way-birthday, so whoohoo to me, only 6 more months till the big ONE-EIGHT.
Usually in my blogs, I don't tell everyday stories, but today I think I will. For those of you who love Owl City, I'd suggest you put on one of my favorites, Dental Care, to get a full experience out of this one :D Yes, that's right, I went to the Dentist today, my second time at this one. I don't know why, but I have never stayed at the same dentist for very long. We usually switch with each cleaning. I don't know why, but we do... Mom probably has some secret reason, and I'm sure it's a good one. I honestly don't mind because I like going to each different one and seeing what different equipment they use. I think that's a little weird because most people despise the dentist, but I truly don't mind it, so long as I've got a good numbing of the mouth. Well my story begins with waking up from a nap. I have to be at dentist in ten minutes (it's 15 minutes away, whoops) and so I freshen up (this is code word for doing absolutely nothing, by the way) and head out. I get there and sign in after waiting an extra three minutes because some hispanic family was complaining that they charged too much. I didn't put hispanic there for any reason, I just realized that they were speaking Espanol and not Castillan so I thought I'd add in the descriptor, no connotation at all. None. At all. Anyways, they buggered off (John Heald's british lexicon is getting to me...) and I signed in. About ten minutes later, after sitting and watching a Disney Channel show that I didn't recognize because I haven't watched Disney Channel since I wore whitey-tighties, I get called into the room. Take a right, take a left, go straight into the room. Turn TV on. "You can change the channel, I don't think you want to watch Soap Operas..." She was right, I didn't. I struggle to change the channel because the remote controller receiver thingy was behind me and it seemed to only work within a about a half inch radial space suspended randomly midair and would only, ONLY work if it was in that exact position. It was Bright House Networks programming (what the beep, who even has Bright House any more?) so I didn't know what channels I was on, getting close to, or going to get to. I finally stopped at HLN which I'm not a fan of because 1. It's the News and 2. It's an affiliate of CNN. Blech. Whatever, it was better than Soap Operas or Tyra. I leave it on and start to drift off. The one thing I don't like about this particular dentist is that I spend a majority of my time sitting in the chair pretending to enjoy the television. Last time I fell asleep in the chair waiting for someone to come and clean my teeth for 40 whoppin minutes. This time it was only about 15 minutes, but it still took forever, and I still felt dreary, thinking as I did before that they must have sleepy gas in the rooms to make patients fall asleep and they leave you there so it has time to take effect then they come back in and work on you. If this is the case, I resisted both times and stayed awake, minus a few drifts into the land of ZZZs. Finally, Dr. India (ok, that's not her name, but she's apparently from India and I don't know her name so Dr. India will work) came in, said hello, and inquired if I liked the News. I said sometimes, and she appropriately rebutted with my obvious true feelings "When you're bored..." I merely laughed and she began working. "Open." I always have a problem with this. My mouth is small and I hate dry mouth. I here the same thing over and over again like the sound of my many alarms attempting to wake me in the morning, failing just as the dentist does. "Open Wider." "Can you open a bit wider for me?" "KEEP YOUR MOUTH OPEN OR I'M GOING TO LOSE MY PATIENTS!" Get it? Patients? HAHAH ok that last one I made up, but that's probably what Dr. India was thinking. She numbed my back teeth and said she wouldn't worry about numbing my front teeth. Great. And so I waited another ten minutes. She did some drilling which actually hurt more where she numbed (hurt like POOP actually) in the back and I didn't feel a thing on the front teeth where she didn't do a bit of numbing. The interesting thing about all of this was that while I was getting my teeth worked on, HLN started shouting about The Carnival Splendor being stuck out in the ocean and being tugged back in. Well of course she had to comment on this one. Even though I was struggling to swallow, had cotton balls here there and everywhere in my mouth, and had metal pain machines operating at full blast in my mouth, I explained the whole thing to her because I knew everything about it and, although it probably sounded like a bunch of BLAHGHAGDAHGBLAHGAGBLAHGBLAHG to her, in the end she said "Oh well I will think about going on a cruise then." Yes, I think you will, Dr. India, and you will experience the greatest thing in your life, better than causing pain to people's teeth that you've numbed and still cause pain to. Grr. I finished up in there and went home to nap again. That's the end of that story. I know it was so compelling, and if you were looping Dental Care by Owl City like I said you should, you've probably listened to it 6 times by now, sorry.
On the subject of school, it's going GREAT. It's easy. It's kinda fun. It's fast. It's educative. It's school. And that, is that.
Church is splendid! I had a speaking to do a couple of weeks ago and it went superb! I had to do it in front of the whole church, which I'm terrible at public speaking and even when I read in class it's a mess of me reading like this... "The Cow HUUHUHUH jumped HUHUHUH over the HUHUHUH Moon." Those HUHs are breaths of air that always find a way of alluding me in these trying times of reading in front of the class. Somehow, though, I pulled off my whole speaking while being natural, smooth, and no huge gasps of air necessary. The little prayer to God beforehand couldn't have hurt the situation, for I know God gives me strength and courage and security, which I can't thank Him enough for. Other than that speaking, bible study is going great and so is youth group. OH YEAH! I'm apart of the Christmas play again this year with the little kiddies. It's called Good News, Christmas Cruise (by far, the best concept for a show EVER) and guess who is the Captain of the ship? Charles Zachary Powell. Yeah, that's right, I'm the El Capitan! Bahahah, it's going great so far and the kids are having fun and worshipping, which is what counts! I'll letcha know how this goes in December.
Band. Band. Oh my goodness gracious, Band. I was asked today at Bible Study where I feel like I'm most accepted, where I most fit in, and where I feel like I can be myself. The only singular word I could think of was Band. It truly is the blood to my heart and ocean to my cruise ship. Everyday single day I live it, learn it, do it, and since my last posting, so much has happened with band. Besides competitions, games, alumni night, parties, middle school band night, concert, and even a visit to a middle school, one night stands out like a McDonalds at the health convention, except not in a completely horrible way. Our last and final game of the season, aka, My last FootBall game. What a kick in the rump. It really wasn't all that bad until Allgair split up the band and had the Seniors come talk with him. That's when I started thinking "Poop, here comes my emotional side." And what a tear jerker that Jason Allgair can be! He made all of us feel so special, needed, loved, significant, spirited, and joyous to be a part of what he has created into a special part of mine, and my fellow members lives. From that moment, I couldn't stop thinking about how this would be the last time I perform on that field, the last time I get to dance in the stands, the last time I get a third quarter break and have to run back to make it back in time, the last time I warm up on the track, the last time I go meetandgreet with the other school's leadership, the last time I get to walk in the a line from the band room to the field and back, the last time I get to say YESSIR in dismissal after a fun time in the stands and get chills up my spine from it. It's all so sad, really, and I can't believe that over the last four years, I have spent more than 52 Friday in the stands - dancing, playing, talking, laughing, cheering, booing, screaming, watching, joking, jiggalowing, smiling - doing what I love the most, with the most amazing people on Planet Earth. That's a year's worth of Fridays, if you were wondering. The stands was what got me hooked on Marching Band from middle school band night, and my first experience from middle school band night, even though I didn't know it, was just the crack of the egg. Like I said, the last game was a significant day for me, and it is one that I won't forget. With this last game, and the coming of our final competition, I'm beginning to realize more and more how simply fantastic my bandmates are, and realize how people are growing up and how much I don't want to. This is most apparent in the Freshman/Rookies/Noobies that I got to work with for the first two weeks of band. Jaw-dropping is how I can put it, because the little kiddies that I got to see break out of their shell have grown into Eagles that are soaring like no other, which I hope is as exuberant as my soaring is. I just want to hug each of them and tell them my first impressions of them and how proud and impressed of all of them I am and how I've grown to love, adore, and look up to each and every one of them, seeing myself in them. They make me want to go back and do it all again, be the kid that I know I am, and make me never ever want to grow up and just stick around with them. Garsh. Enough mushy gushy. Basically, I LOVE YOU ALL and expect something at the end of the year.
Wowza, did I say this was gonna be a long blog post or what? I hope you enjoyed it, because I need to go to bed so I can wake up bright and early on Veteran's Day and do a parade for some very special people of this great nation: the people that fought to keep us free. I hope you are being bold as I try to be myself, and I will hopefully be posting soon to update you on anything I didn't touch on tonight like my friend that I'd like to be better friends with and other things.
I Love You, Jesus Loves You, and I hope to be typing to you soon! Go Bold! :)
