My Good Old Hyperventilating Partner

Hey yo. Nuthin' much happening. I had to work non-stop all day for 5 periods. I had to build the Theatre of Marcellus with a partner that was assigned to us, and finish it today. It was a testy time. My partner (which i will graciously, for this time call Phillips) was going into depression. Phillips 1) thought our model was horrible. 2) thought we didn't have enough time to finish it. and 3) hated the project from the start. He worked in a kindof raincloud, every now and again muttering about how we're going to fail, how this will affect his grades, and how he'll never get into Phillips (his dream school.)

I'm an optimist, so obviously i would think that he was just being dumpy and needed to get some sun. and sleep.

his mood didn't improve when we saw our competition. There are two groups constructing the Theatre of Marcellus, and the other group was basically finished with theirs.

It. Was. Gorgeous.

Beautifully constructed, killer detail, laser precision. Awwww, that's good. So, now my bubble of confidence got popped and we were both now stuck in despair. i didn't think we'd fail. Never. No, i was worried that we would blow over and come second-best to the other group.

Mr. Zee the art teacher came and bailed us out slightly, helping us with our paper mache a little. Still, now with all the layers of paint on it, i think it looks a lot like a chocolate cake. Especially with a bit of white paint sponged on at the front as frosting. Which made me hungry. Which made me even more miserable.

It was a long five periods.

My math teacher came in and investigated about half-way through. She took one look at our work and said with a half skeptical half appalled voice:

"It's big."

She stared at it for a few moments, then echoed it again. She was right of course. It's probably about 7 times bigger than the competition. It took both me and Phillips to lug it up the stairs to the art room, and down again. I was hoping that the largeness would make it more impressive, more eye-catching, better. But *sigh* i guess we're going to have to win her over with our chocolate-cake paint job, eh?

Well, the good news is that my math teacher promised us that we'll have the rest of the week to finish it. She kindof understands. She understands that a) she's given us THE hardest structure to build with all the stupid domes and loops and angles...b) we have never been looking forward to this from the start. so she was sympathetic. she told Phillips to chill and stop hyperventilating.

Not Likely.