citizenship credit

euphonium concert...

i attended the senior euphonium concert at the bryan fine arts building on friday evening around 8:30. after not knowing what a euphonium was until 5 minutes after walking in the door i can honestly say that i am not a fan of the euphonium or the music that it produces. I did however like on piece which had the same tune to music from a movie i saw once so i could hum along with it. The performer didn't mess up so i guess all in all it was a good concert. Kudos!

citizenship credit

Relay for Life!

I attended relay for life on friday night into early friday morning. The experience is a close one to me because my family has always been very involved in benefits with cancer because lost my grandmother in the battle of life from breast cancer and my great grandfathers to lung and heart cancer. The benefit was held on the intermural fields and every organization participating in it had their own tent with their own reality show theme. All night the organizations sold food items or had games to raise money for the American Cancer Society. During the time that i was at Relay for Life i got to enjoy the inside of Kappa Sigma prison where it was one dollar to put someone in jail, two dollars to bail a person out, and three dollars to bail yourself out. I had no money with me so i was in there for 45 minutes after being bailed out 4 times and put right back in 5 times. The event was fun and a great success.

Review of Cheddars Casual Cafe

Delicious Food, Great Service, and Classy Atmosphere

Cheddars Casual Café, a friendly all American dining establishments located in the Eastern region of the United States. Of the 79 Cheddars, I ate at one of the five located in the state of Tennessee. Also to mention that I am a waitress at the one in Kingsport I decided to experience the one in Johnson City a mere twenty minutes from my house to give them a good critique of that restaurant.
After visiting Cheddars Casual Café in Johnson City, Tennessee, I was pleasantly surprised and very appreciative of how the establishment was run. When I entered, friendly and polite hostesses greeted me, and my party was swiftly seated. The atmosphere of the restaurant is of the highest class. The decorating is superb and the beautiful fish tank separating the bar from the rest of the dining area makes it one of the most ornate cafes I have ever been to. I also enjoyed how the non-smoking section was properly placed away from the smoking section so that my dining experience was not affected. Some restaurants have very little space apart from the two sections, and it almost defeats the purpose to even have them. I am glad Cheddar’s is not one of them.
After being seated, there was no more than fifteen seconds that past by after the hostess sat us that our waiter arrived to set down our beverage napkins to signify to managers and other staff that our table had been greeted. He was very polite and took our drink order right away. Within minutes our table of four had received our drinks, and we then notified our waiter that we wished to order an appetizer. He quickly wrote down our request and told us that if we were ready to order he could take that as well. He also notified us that he would put our appetizer in and then wait to put out order in, so we didn’t get our food while still eating our appetizer.
Our appetizer came in an appropriate amount of time, and we were all very pleased to see the mound of chips and then queso with complimentary beef upon request. We devoured our appetizer, which my family likes to call the “appe-teaser”, since it is just a teaser to your stomach before your food arrives.
I received my order promptly and everything was as I requested it. I ordered the beer battered chicken tender platter to share with my mom, including two side dishes of fries and fresh broccoli. My father received his meal of chicken ceaser pasta salad, which I must say looked the best at the table. Lastly my brother received his dinner salmon topped with a bourbon glaze and a loaded baked potato. After ensuring the waiter that everything looked delicious and that we had the proper side dishes and dipping sauces, he topped our drinks and let us enjoy our meal.
The food was of high standard and in large servings for the amount of money my family paid. It had been expertly prepared and served, not at all below par. My entire family was pleased with the taste of their meals. Even when I found my sweetened tea to be too sweet, the problem was quickly, corrected and without additional charge. I was grateful for all of the employees’ assistance and courtesy.
Cheddar’s is a great place to have excellent food at a low price. The atmosphere is casual, yet stylish. No one will feel out of place eating there. It provides a family oriented environment with a unique flair. I will continue being a customer of this restaurant and I hope that the atmosphere and good food never changes.

Rough Draft for Paper

I was pleasantly surprised and very appreciative of how the establishment was run. When I entered, friendly and polite hostesses greeted me and my party was swiftly seated. We also found the menu to be very wide-ranging with many dishes to choose from and quite inexpensive prices. The atmosphere of the restaurant is of the highest class. The decorating is superb and the beautiful fish tank separating the bar from the rest of the dining area makes it one of the most ornate cafes I have ever been to. I also enjoyed how the non-smoking section was properly placed away from the smoking section so that my dining experience was not affected. Some restaurants have very little space apart from the two sections, and it almost defeats the purpose to even have them. I am glad Cheddar’s is not one of them. I received my order promptly and everything was as I requested it. The food was of high standard and in large servings for the amount of money my family paid. It had been expertly prepared and served, not at all below par. My entire family was pleased with the taste of their meals. Even when I found my sweetened tea to be too sweet, the problem was quickly, corrected and without additional charge. I was grateful for all of the employees’ assistance and courtesy. Cheddar’s is a great place to have excellent food at a low price. The atmosphere is casual, yet stylish. No one will feel out of place eating there. It provides a family oriented environment with a unique flair. I will continue being a customer of this restaurant and I hope that the atmosphere and good food never changes.

The Triumph of Hope over Self-Interest Annotation

I think that this was a very good annotation, and it got my mind thinking about everything that happens in America dealing with the wealthy and the poor. I think that the research that went into this annotation was also very well researched and used to its advantage. I like the part where they take a famous person that people idolize and use one of her songs to stress a point in this annotation. And i also like the part about the high school cafeteria because it is so true, that the United States really thinks that way. I really enjoyed reading this annotation, and i feel like i learned a lot from it.

reviews

Sounds Delicious!
Forrest describes every item on the menu with vivid detail, especially when its describing the items on the menu. She goes into great detail about all the ingrediants and if they are kosher or organic, which is very helpful when reading this review. She knew what she was talking about and wrote her review with helpful knowledge and critiques. After reading her review i am thinking that a flatbread sounds pretty good right now! :)

Reviews

Harry Potter..

I have always and will continue to be a fan of Harry Potter, so I didn't favor this review, but it was very precise and well documented. Outhier's review was thorough and well constructed. He knew the movies, books, actors, actresses, and the general gist of everything needed to write a good review. His writing was not originally set for our age group I don't believe because his comparisons were hard to follow. He knew what he was talking about and portrayed his feelings in the review without saying "I" or "I believe".

Johnny Depp and Cookie Master

Cookie Master was an interesting profile that gave me knowlege on a person that holds a job title that I never thought could actually exist. The job title is being a fortune cookie writer and the person who holds that job is Mr. Donald Lau. I didn't know that there was a job that only involved someone writing the fortunes on the slips of paper for the cookie but i was wrong. I think that the profile was well written and explained all about the life and history of Mr. Lau.

Johnny Depp is one of my personal favorites. So by reading this profile i really enjoyed learning more about him than i already knew. I think that his profile was portrayed very well and in great detail so the reader could connect with his story. There were many interesting points in the profile and it captivated my attention early which is hard for any writer to do! Haha

Dawson's Creek

In this evaluation i think that it defines the pro's of the television show dawsons creek. I liked the evaluation and it made the series seem like it was good for children of our age to be watching it since it is the time and problems that teenagers of our generation are focusing on. America is growing up and television shows need to grow with with it. I don't think that we can have to problems in America like we do and not face them and teach the children of this day and age how to face them and solve them.

citizenship credit

On March 19, 2009, I attended the philanthropic event for Kappa Delta Sorority called Shamrock and Bowl. It was a campus-wide event, but mainly it was set up for the greek community. Kappa Delta had over 20,000 wings donated for the event that night called War of the Wings. Each participant paid five dollars to eat all the wings they could eat, and then as a team it was $40 for all night bowling and to be entered into the bowling tournament. The winner of the tournament was awarded free chick-fil-a for a year. All night was fun filled with bowling and wing eating, and in the end I found out that Kappa Delta raised over $12,000 to be donated to Prevent Child Abuse of America.

Memoir Topic #3....Bid Day!

Coming to college should be the most exciting day in a young womans life, but i would have to disagree with that general assumption. I believe that bid day or joining a sorority, is absolutely the most exciting/amazing day in a young woman's life! Waiting with 200 other girls waiting to find out which sorority they have been accepted too, very nerve racking, but very worth it. You hold that bid card in your hand which feels like an eternity to everyone, it felt like it was burning a hole in my hand because i was so anxious to see which sorority i would get to be a part of. I was antsy to see which 70 new sisters were going to be mine. Whenever they told us that we could open our bid cards, i couldn't hardly wait! I tore into mine without hesitation and i glanced at the name that i thought had been a mistake. I doubled checked, and then plastered a big, fake smile on my face to let noone in that auditorium see the disappointment in my face. I had gotten my "back-up sorority", the one that i had chosen just in case i didn't get the one that i really wanted. I held the tears back as i called my mom telling her that i got Kappa Delta, and her reassuring voice on the other end of the phone mixed with a little bit of comfort was the one thing that started the tears to swell up in my eyes. She said that there must have been a mistake but there was also i reason that i got this one, and to just make the best of the situation like i had always been taught my whole life. I listened to her advice and told her that i would call her later and that i was just going to act excited and see where it led me. Bid day is always slightly awkward because you don't really know that many people and you are meeting 70 girls at once, plus the 30 that you just ran out the doors with into the arms of your new loving sisters. I spend bid day as the shy girl, which is never what i had been considered so there was obviously something wrong. I decided that my mom was right, that there was some reason that i had been put in this sorority and i was going to stick it out and love my new sisters with all my heart. Looking back now i know why i was put in this sorority. To form a family away from mine that is going to look over and protect me while i'm away at college. To give me not only life long friends, but lifelong sisters that are going to love me and not judge me no matter what. And to find my best friends, not the ones that i'm going to spend endless nights crying with, or the ones that i'm going to laugh and have fun with, but the ones that i'm going to share my deepest secrets with, the ones that i know are going to be in my wedding someday and i cannot wait for the future with all of these ladies. I have enjoyed every minute that i have put into this sorority and i continue to grow as a person the more that i am around all of my sisters. This was the best decision of my life!

Memoir Topic #2....State Tournament!

We went to state for volleyball my sophomore year of high school. I was one of 3 sophomores on the varsity team that consisted only of graduating seniors. I knew that it was going to be a good year whenever we made it through the districts in first place, and were headed to regionals for the first time in 4 years. We completed substate where i played the whole time, and when we won and realized that we were going to go to state, i think my demeanor was the only one that stood out, because i was in complete shock. State was held in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and it was to be held all week with pool play, and then tournament play. We did pretty well in pool play, and we were 2nd in our pool, and 4th in the tournament standings. We headed into the tournament to play Ooltewah which was going to be tough because they were also the 2nd in their pool. We played a hard fought battle against them but in the end it just wasn't enough to beat them. After we lost to Ooltewah, it seemed like the end of the world because we were graduating seven seniors from the team, and one of the sophomores was moving back to Brazil, which left us with two members on our varsity team. We watched the final game of the tournament against five time state champion Brentwood and Collierville High School. We had beat Collierville before in pool play so we were pulling for them to win because if they did, even though we lost, we could say that we have beat the state champion team before! They ended up losing and Brentwood became a six time state champion team just to give them more bragging rights. To boost the team spirits, our coach took us to olive garden and payed for the teams dinner and then took us to the haunted prison thirty miles out of the way from murfreesboro,which would make us seven hours off schedule to be home since we were supposed to go home right after we lost. We ended up getting back to Kingsport at three in the morning and we all stayed at our coaches house that night and carpooled to school the next morning, unshowered and very tired from a hard nights sleep on the floor. Ending the week with the perfect team in our eyes, and loving all the last weeks we got to spend with those seven beloved seniors that were graduating.

Memoir Topic #1...Summer Day!

One summer in my hometown of Marietta, Georgia, my brother, his friend, and I built a pyramid of furniture underneath the basketball goal of our home. We stacked it so high that when we lowered the goal that we could all touch the rim and look like we were the ultimate basketball stars! I had never gotten to hang out with my brother or his friends before and after all 9 years of begging he finally let me join them this one night. I loved to play basketball because i was a tomboy and i was also a daddy's girl, and anything that my dad liked to do, i enjoyed it as well.
This was the last summer that i would spend in Marietta come to find out and that had been my home for so long and i realized that i was leaving all of my friends and the people that i thought of as my family behind. So many memories that i had grown up with. The black on the driveway from where our air conditioner man's van blew up in our driveway. The basketball goal that i had helped my dad put up just off the side of our driveway and underneath it the footprints that were imprinted in the cement just for a sensational memory. Or the woods where i had built a fort at the age of 5, where i would go when i would tell my mom i was running away for the day, when she would faithfully find me sitting there on my blue stool with a smile on my face and convince me to come back home.
This summer had to be epic since it was going to be my last summer at home, so when my brother asked me if i wanted to be apart of the furniture building and goofy picture taking, i wasn't hesitant to say yes. I infact knew that this would be one for the books and quickly joined them. We took pictures like we were Shaq and everytime that i still look back on those pictures, i remember that night forever as the night that i spent with the boys.

Mick Jagger Wants Me...

After reading the memoir about the girl who has a teenage fantasy about Mick Jagger, it takes me back to when I was a little girl, and I thought that I was actually going to marry a Backstreet Boy! The girl in the story changes her everyday life just in hopes of meeting someone from the Rolling Stones. She is not longer an innocent girl and she stays out and parties all the time for just a glance at someone entering or exiting the recording studio. Her fantasies keep her hopes and dreams alive and for so many teenage girls reading that story, it brings back feeling of their fantasies as a child. It is a very real experience.
She snaps back to reality after seeing Keith Richards, and she realizes that all of her fantasies are not real in some sense and that what she has dreamed of, such as Mick Jagger meeting her at a dinner party and him falling in love with her was probably never going to happen. I think that she was throwing her life away partying and waiting every weekend that she could oustide of the tiny studio in hopes of a glance. It goes to show that not all of your hopes and dreams can come true.
After reading this story, I love the feeling that I got thinking of all of my childhood fantasies. Thinking about the day that I would get to be a cast member on Saved by the Bell, and to this day I still watch that show and think about what my character would be like if I were on there. I think that having a fantasy or some dream is something to look forward to, but I also think that she was a little too obsessed and kind of turned her life upside down.

Us and Them

I liked the story "Us and Them", because I feel like people get judged by one thing and then are never given a second chance to redeem themselves. The saying is true, your first impression is the only impression of you that sticks in a persons mind. The story to me made this young boy realize what he was taking for granted in his life and what others were missing out on. It was also in his point of view and some opinions of others and he thought his views were correct. By the Tomkeys not owning a television they didn't have to keep up with the Jones' and try and live up to the social standard. They were content with the simple things that they had and the time that they got to spend with each other.
I think that people in America are too dependent on television, and what celebrities are doing with their lives, and are trying to compete and always be number one or have the best of everything. If we got rid of the social standard, I think that America might not be in so much debt. If we just lived by our needs and not always having to "have" our wants then we wouldn't waste so much money on material things.
In my life I know that I depend on material things. My wants list trumps my needs list indefinitely. I would like to think that my parents raised me to not want everything that I see in a store, but the way that society is, I know that I do infact want more than just my needs. I want the newest cell phone, or a flat screen television, or a new car because mine isn't as good as my friends. I think that more people should live like the Tomkeys, and read, write, or only spend family time to pass the time, instead of watching television, or getting on the computer and shutting yourself from the world around you.