Chiquita on the Fly Leaf, Breaking Benjamin, and Three Days Grace Concert

I'd just like to add in that as i type this i have a very annoying band-aid on my finger because i burned it while using a hot glue gun while doing another one of my government teacher's dumb project. It hurts.

Anyways, the concert. I wasn't even sure I was going until the last minute, but I was pumped that it worked out in the end and I was able to go. The group I went with was my boyfriend Cory, his friend Gary, Gary's girlfriend Beth, Beth friend Shelby, and another friend of Cory's, Jason. Jason works at Albert Auto right across the street from the US Cellular Center where the concert was being held, so we were able to park there and just walk across the street. We got there right at seven when the concert started, but we had to wait in a really long line. Fly Leaf was already on when we got there. I told Cory I wanted to go to the front, so we formed a line and he led the way, pushing us through the dense crowd. I was holding Cory's hand so I wouldn't get lost from him. We ended up losing the rest of the group, so Cory and I were the only one's that were able to push our way right through the crowd all the way to the third row. The crowd was easy to bully out of our way, no one even fought us, they just looked at us like we were jerks. Too bad! We'd paid our 45 dollars, we were going to be right where we wanted! It was a matter of minutes before we had squeezed our way into the front row. We had to fight to keep our spots the whole time. We were right up against the metal barracade too, so it was rough. If you pushed yourself back on the people behind you to try and make more room for yourself, the person behind you had to push on the person behind them, and it would go on like that all the way to the back of the crowd, who would push back. So then you have the weight and force of an entire rock concert crowd crushing you against a metal bar. I have bruises all over. My knee caps are unrecognizable, they're so torn up. My hips bones are bruised, and so are my ribs. I won't even talk about my arms. But it was all worth it. I was right in the center the whole time too, so I got to rock out to the lead singer right in front of me. It was beyond amazing. People were crowd surfing, and the security guys would catch them as the fell off the front. I took a coupled kicks to the face, but it's all good! I also got kicked by a high heel in the shoulder, that definitely left a mark!! Being up in front definitely has its advantages. Cory caught a drum stick and a guitar pick! He let me keep the guitar pick. Its cool. He also caught us two water bottles, which was awesome because it was so hot!! The security guards were also taking paper cups of water and pouring it in people's mouths. It was so awesome. Three Days Grace even had fire in their show. When the fire started going off, the first thing out of his mouth was "Best Concert Ever!! I love fire!" He's a volunteer firefighter in Hiawatha, haha. So yea, it was all just really amazing. I had a great time. I love rock concerts!!

Chiquita on Wanting to take a Test

I just want to read the book, do the study guide, take the test, and get on with my life. This is apparently too much to ask of my Gov II teacher. He keeps assigning all these pointless "projects" that we have to do. Its SO STUPID. I'm not learning anything. Oh wait, yes I did learn something. There's this thing in Cedar Rapids called "Fifteen in Five", its a bunch of little projects to better Cedar Rapids, theoretically. Most of them were a huge fail because of lack of funding. That's about it. We actually took notes the other day. I was pretty excited. Too bad he'd already assigned another project a few days before. What do we have to do, you ask? Think of a way to better the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area for teenagers. Flashback to seventh grade when I had the same assignment. Please shoot me. I hate high school. Rachel and I are pretending to turn Westdale into a "teen center". In our little fairy tale, the funding would come completely from fund raising organized and orchestrated by teens. Yippy do dah. When we told the teacher about our idea, he was sarcastic like "nothing I haven't heard of before". Thanks for the encouragement, asshole. He's always like that. He's one of those meathead guys that makes you feel like you're retarded, and it couldn't be more obvious that he doesn't give a damn about any of his students. If he doesn't care, then why should I? I can feel myself feeding off his negative attitude. Maybe if he wasn't such a jerk I'd want to impress him. I do have creative ideas in this mind of mine if only I was given the chance to do a project with more than the excitement equivalency of watching paint dry. And if he's so bored with seeing the same damn projects over and over again, here's an idea; ASSIGN SOMETHING NEW. God forbid he actually have to use his tiny brain to come up with something fresh for us to do. I think the reason he doesn't think of something else is that all these years of listening to himself teach has fried his imagination completely. God knows mine burns up more and more with every minute I sit at my desk in his class. What do I have to say about all this, you ask? FOUR MONTHS AND FOUR DAYS. Then I'll never have to deal with him and his stupid projects and his negative attitude ever again. I can't wait.

Chiquita on the Continuation of my Soap Opera Tragedy Teenage Girl Life

I feel like I failed to properly conclude my last entry. I forgot to explain the title, for starters. When my friend (lets give my friend a name. Bestie.) When Bestie told me about all the rumors Smordan supposedly "heard" about me, she also informed me of something that I already sort of suspected would be the case. Bestie (who was also once a very close friend of Smordan's) told me that she doesn't even know the person who Smordan is anymore. She said, "I literally do not recognize her anymore. Its like she thought up this person in her head that she wanted to be in college, and now she's just acting. It makes losing her as a friend easier to deal with, because who she is now is not the friend I once knew and loved." As we were talking, Bestie kept repeating the same word, over and over again- FAKE. She said Smordan is trying to put on this act for everyone she meets in college, and only Bestie can see how fake it all is, because she knows the real Smordan.
While Smordan was saying all these horrible things about me, she managed to utterly shock Bestie with her performance. She actually had the audacity to act like she still cares about me and is just really worried about me. If she was so worried, wouldn't she call? Wouldn't it be a relief just to hear my voice? Wouldn't she want to say Nikki, say it ain't so! Yes. If she cared, she would do all these things. But she doesn't. I don't know where all these rumors originated, but I have a feeling they took root in the Devil's mind and have since blossomed into this elaborate story of my life as a vigilante. Unfortunately, another possible orchestrator of this cherade is Smordan herself. I just have this feeling in my gut that the Devil has finally gotten to her, after all this time of Smordan swearing to God above that she will never let her mother's wrath consume her. I think it's finally happened. Its sad really, the way things worked out.
I have something else I'd like to say about all this. The Devil is an upstand CHRISTIAN woman. She sends her son to Isaac Newton Christian Academy. She has coffee with all these church women. I've struggled with religion my entire life. I'd like to consider myself a christian, but I just don't do the whole church every Sunday and Wednesday thing. I believe in God, but I don't know about the whole Christianity thing. If this is how Christian people are- I want none of it. I mean, I'm sure she's been "saved" or what have you. A woman like this gets a ticket to heaven? I just don't see how that makes any sense. Aren't Christians supposed to love and care about everyone regardless? Ok, maybe they don't have to love every single person they meet. But whatever happened to "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Yea. Christian my agnostic ass.

Chiquita on the Friend who became a Fake-o Robot Kappa

I don't normally blog about things like this, but I am just so worked up about it that I am going to blog about my soap opera tragedy teenage girl life just this once.

Once upon a time I had this friend, lets call her Smordan. It was funny how we became friends. Originally, we really didn't get along. We ended up getting close over the mutual dislike of another girl who had seriously betrayed both of our friendships. I really liked hanging out with this girl. She was stylish, she had a great taste in music. We liked the same things. She was a fun person to go to parties with. She liked to dance and be funny, not just stand there being insecure. I never really shared much of deep personal self with her, but she was just a fun friend to have.
Our friendship became complicated on my 17th birthday. I had some friends who lived in Tama, and we decided to go visit them, without telling our parents. It was my idea, but Smordan was eager for an adventure. Tama was a lot farther than we thought. It took us almost two hours to get to my friends house. Long story short, Smordan has this mom, she's crazy. Let's call her "the devil". The Devil was unreasonably strict. She acted like Smordan was doing drugs or something. She wasn't. We are good girls, it wasn't like that. Anyways, on this particular night, The Devil called and demanded that Smordan come home immediately. That was a trick we just couldn't pull off seeing as how we were so far away. So eventually the truth came out. We were busted. The Devil talked to me on the phone, and she told me to "stay away from her daughter. I was poison to her, and she hopes Smordan will eventually see me for who I am. Until that time comes, I will help her by doing everything in my power to keep her away from you." I knew how much Smordan wished she could have some freedom. How much she always said she hated her mother. So i said "She hates you you know. She tells me ten times a day every single day. She can't wait until she can go to college and finally be rid of you. When you call, she doesn't say 'its my mom' she says 'its the psycho'. So for as long as Smordan is even remotely within my reach, I will do everything in my power to keep our friendship alive."
I think that's why the Devil hates me so much, because I stood up to her. Anyways, after that night Smordan and I had to be really sneaky if we wanted to hang out. We still hung out quite a bit for a while. We sort of faded by the time Smordan went to school, but we were still on pretty good terms. I couldn't really talk to her anymore, because her mom supposedly forced her to block me from her facebook and her twitter.
Tonight I found out that she thinks I've "gone off the deep end". When I found this out, I inquired as to how I'd done this. I was told that Smordan had heard "rumors" about me. What rumors you ask? I have STD's. (yea, apparently the fact that I've been dating the same respectable gentleman for the past NINE months isn't relevent). Where did I get these STD's, you ask? Well, from slutting around Iowa City of course. (I'd just like to point out the fact that i still don't drive). Then, once I'd contracted all these STD's, I brought them back to cedar rapids and spread them to a bunch of Kennedy kids. (I've said this on my blog before, I don't have many friends at Kennedy. I don't see anyone except Rachel outside of school). When my friend who was talking to Smordan said that i don't drive, so i can't get there myself, and I really spend all my time with my boyfriend, Smordan replied, "Do you really believe that?" If you don't, ask my boyfriend. To prove to my friend that I do in fact have STD's, Smordan informed her that a nurse of some kind showed the Devil my "case file". Now. Not only did I whore myself out to all of eastern iowa, I also won't be graduating from high school. How does Smordan know this? Well, one of the kennedy counselors told the Devil, she looked me up on the school computer. (Lets ignore the fact that both the school nurse and the counselor would be fired if this was true). There's more. I got a girl kicked off the Kennedy volleyball team. (I DON'T KNOW ANYONE WHO PLAYS ON THE VOLLEYBALL TEAM). Not only that, but there were stolen goods found in my apartment. (First of all, I don't live in an apartment. I live in a duplex. Secondly, there were no stolen goods found in my house. There wasn't a search to find stolen goods in my house. There are no stolen goods in my god damn house.)

So much for taking up knitting, right? This is what I have been doing lately, according to these people. I'd just like to say that for the record, not a shred of this bs is true. As if i needed to say that. Do people really think that of me? I feel like this should hurt my feelings, but it doesn't. I just feel sorry for who ever started these rumors. They obviously have too much time on their hands. Perhaps they should get a job, because the whole house wife deal isn't really working out for them as we can all see.

Chiquita on Things I Hate.

I hate it when people touch me that aren't somehow close to me. Like this kid that sits behind me in my first hour. He touches my hair, and squeezes my shoulders, and he's just sort of annoying and I don't know where he got the idea that its ok for him to touch me.



I hate it when people smoke cigarettes around me. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. My mom just got a new car, and she told me she wasn't going to smoke in it. That vow lasted a whole three weeks. All of my clothes smell like smoke, and our house smells like smoke. Christ, our new cat Duncan even smells like smoke. Its disgusting.



I hate it when I'm really proud of something I've done, and people talk down to me about it. Example? I recently took up knitting, and I'm actually pretty good at it. I've never really had a hobby, or anything I am good at, so I was really excited when I picked it up. I told my boyfriend that he was going to be really proud of me when he saw how good I was doing. When i took it to his house to show him, he said, "knitting is the most unattractive thing i have ever seen you do." Ouch, right? Not gonna lie, I kind of wanted to cry. I just acted like I didn't care what he thought, but I was actually pretty offended.



I hate it when people say they will do something and then they don't do it. This is pretty self explanatory. If you don't really want to do it, then say you don't. Mom, do you want to take me to a Disturbed concert for my birthday? Sure Honey!!! Then not take me, not cool. Just say no, i don't like Disturbed, how about Taylor Swift?



I hate it when people spread rumors. I recently learned that there are some down right false, and rather outrageous rumors going around about me. An example being that I took part in getting some girl kicked off of the volleyball team. I won't lie to you, I'm not very involved in my highschool. I don't have that many friends at Kennedy. That being said, I don't know anyone on the volleyball team. I could name one person, and that would be more boyfriend's little sister.



I hate when I can't sleep. I'm a very restless person. My mind runs constantly, and I sometimes just can't shut it down so I can go to sleep. Take tonight for example. I had the sudden urge to do some spring cleaning of memories I no longer care about. I had an entire cardboard box full of old notes from middle school and my freshman year, a bunch of random nic-naks that at some point meant something to me. I hauled the box out of the closet, went through the whole thing, and threw out just about everything. It's after 11. Probably not the best time to do that.

I hate it when I can't think of anything to blog about. I think about it all the time, and when i come up with something, I normally write down the blog and type it up later. But then there are other times when I can't think of anything at all and I sit at the computer browsing the internet trying to come up with ideas of something to blog about. It's annoying. Consider this a shout-out to Lisa O'Neill for giving me this idea.

Chiquita on Her Bucket List

I am a firm believer in having a bucket list. Even if you don't write it down, you have one. A list, be it mental or otherwise, of the things you want to do before you die. In light of the new show that will be premiering on MTV, I thought I would put up my bucket list for all to see.

1. Meet my estranged sister.
2. See the Ocean
3. Travel to a foreign country.
4. Volunteer to help victims of natural disaster.
5. Go to a rave.
6. Make a large donation to a charity.
7. Learn to knit.
8. Be a camp counselor.
9. Tour the White House.
10. Live in New England.
11. Get my pilot's license.
12. Get my hunter's license.
13. Go skydiving (of course)
14. Make amends with people whose friendship I've lost.
15. Find love.
16. Have children.

I will probably add more to this as I think of it, but right now this is all I've got. I asked my mom what she wanted to do before she died, and she started listing all the places she wanted to go. I said, ok, so you want to travel, what else? She was quiet for a moment, and then she said, "I've done pretty much everything I've wanted to do. I've been to all the concerts, tried all the reasonable drugs, met all the people. Now I'd really just like to live long enough to see all of my grandchildren born."

Chiquita on Knitting

See the ocean. Travel to a foreign country. Go deep sea fishing. See Mayday Parade and The Maine live in concert. These are just some of the things on my bucket list. Among all these aspirations and dreams, there was something else I wanted to do before I die, and that was learn to knit. My grandmother is a little, well, unconventional. She wears nikes. Her favorite jacket is a chicago bulls jacket with a huge picture of Michael Jordan on the back. She cheats at Skip-Bo. She's just not the knitting type of grandmother. So when I decided that I wanted to learn to knit, I had to go about it in a way other than asking my grandmother. I ended up taking a random trip to Iowa City with my friend Allie to see her sister Anna. It was a random night during winter break, I think it was a tuesday. We made creme brule, and she taught us to knit. It was really fun. Then at the Viterbo Competition on the 8th (we took third by the way), a girl in the group was knitting, and i thought it would be a good idea to start knitting to pass the time at show choir competitions. The day after the Viterbo Competition, I went to the store and bought some knitting materials. I sat in front of my computer (no surprise there, I wish it had UV lights so maybe I could get a tan for once) and looked up how to cast on (aka, start) on Youtube. I came across this video. It worked out really well for me. Anna had already showed me how to do it once, so it was more to just jog my memory. After I watched that video, I found another on the knit stitch, the most simple way to knit. I remembered right away how to do it, and from there it just took off. Now I have almost a whole scarf!! I'll be working on how to knit a hat next.

Chiquita on More Show Choir, 'tis the Season!

Well, in the spirit of the show choir season, I thought it would be appropriate to add some video links of some performances over the past few years.


The first one is of Buffalo Grove at Show Choir Nationals in Nashville, Tennessee last spring break. Happiness was also at Nationals. There is one single reason why i chose to put this video up, and that is the male soloist in the beginning. He's amazing. I just love his voice. The girl is also good, but when i heard this guy, I was rather blown away.


The second video is of Happiness, our varsity group. The song is called Fix You, and its by Coldplay. I chose to put this one up here because it was really moving when you saw it live. The group worked so hard on this number. I remember many practices that were devoted solely to perfecting this song. I'd say the group did a pretty damn good job of doing that. Its definitely one of my favorite ballads by Happiness.


The next video is of a novelty, or a comical song of Happiness's Its called "Toledo Surprise". It had a ton of props, so the tech crew was really involved in this one. We worked really hard to put this together, and when it finally did come together, it was AMAZING!


This next one is a parents dance, and its a parody of Toledo Surprise. The parents in Happiness are great, and very supportive. Even if you're not their kid, they treat you like you are.


This rather interesting number is done by none other than our 42nd street rival, Xavier. The song is called "Never Dance" and i chose to share it because of the band's participation in the number. I really like when show choirs incorporate all aspects of the group onto the stage. Not going to lie though, these costumes look like ketchup and mustard.


Ok, I like pretty much every show choir season. We always put together a really great show, and we work really hard all year long to perfect, and when something is that close to perfect, how can you not love it? So I pretty much love every season, but I still have a favorite. Happiness 2007 was an unstoppable force. That being said, you should probably see the whole show. I'm not 100% sure about this, but i think this is the opener. The soloist is Anthony Rohr, and he's amazing! I just love his voice. His sister Katrina has a solo this season in the closer, and it's amazing as well! I guess it runs in the family. The next song is "That's All" by Genesis. This is probably my all time Happiness favorite. The whole thing is just bad ass. The vocals are amazing, and the coreography is perfect for the song. The wave towards the end is intense. I especially love how at certain parts they just soft of talk to each other. I just LOVE this song! The next song is the ballad, Fly Again. It's a favorite by David Phelps. The amazing soloist is Derek Boots (Who's now in the United States Army <3).The next is a novelty written by Damon Brown, our coreographer. The epic speaking solo in the beginning is David Siegel, brother of our own Happiness member, Josh Siegel. There's a story behind the part where Dave says, "...and wireless mircrophones, that don't work!" You see, this is the second show we'd done that day. It was the finals round. During the first round, Dave's microphone wasn't on/didn't work. Yea, it was a huge fail, but he made a joke out of it, and it was pretty funny actually, at least to us! Anyways, this song basically tells the story of our lives, in a really funny way. The people with the concession box things are techies. And then there's the closer. The song is called "Show Off" and the soloist is the lovely Paige Hauer. I just love the costumes in this one. The girls dresses are just great!

Chiquita on the Start of the Season

And so it begins. Hell week. The worst/best week of my year. I am a tech for both Happiness (the varsity group, if ya didn't know) and Protege (the prep group, if ya didn't know), so this week will be especially busy for me. We have practice for one group or the other every day this week, except Thursday. Why not Thursday, you ask? No, its not to give us a break, we have a concert! I'm actually pretty excited. The dessert concert will be the first time we put the whole show out there for an audience. Its a big test for us. Then on Saturday, we get up bright and early to be at Kennedy at 4am to load the bus and head to Viterbo. Protege performs at 10:30, so as soon as we get there we'll need to get the trailer unloaded and start getting things in order for the show. After we do Protege's show, we'll go to critique, then we'll be free to do whatever (sleep, socialize, etc.) until Happiness performs at 3:30pm. Then when they're done we'll head to their critique, then wait around to hear about finals! I'm sure we'll make finals, we always do. So then we'll get our time for finals, (I'm not sure how they're deciding who goes when at this competition, because we've never been there before) then we'll do our show again. After that, there might be more groups to go, so we'll watch them if there are, then we'll go to awards.
All in all, it should be a really interesting competition. The line up is good. The groups performing include: Linn-Mar “In Step”, Linn-Mar “10th Street Edition”, Brodhead “Guys & Dolls”, Chippewa Falls “Chi Hi Harmonics”, Milton “Choralation”, Cedar Rapids Kennedy “Happiness, Inc.”, Cedar Rapids Kennedy “Protégé”, Xavier “Xhilaration”, Burlington “B*JAZZled”, Madison East “Encore”, and Westside “The Amazing Technicolor Show Choir”. Word on the street is that Linn Mar's varsity group, 10th Street Edition, has improved a lot in the last couple of weeks. 10th Street Edition always has a good show, so hopefully I'll make it in time to see their's after we do our show. (They lock the doors, so if you don't get there on time, they won't let you in.) Omaha Westside looks to be our biggest competition according to predictions on showchoir.com. I've never seen them. Apparently they are really good. Happiness won't be able to see them, unless they go a few groups away from us at finals, because they go right before us during the day round. I looked them up on youtube, and I saw that they did "Someone to Fall Back On", a ballad that Protege did a couple of years ago. It was pretty good, not that I know much about vocals and things of the like. Xavier will also be there, and I've heard there show is good this year, but we'll have to see. Four days!!