6:14 p.m. 2003-12-13
The Shrew says: The Drama of the Ping Pong Ball Launcher
Ugh.. stupid flu. I spent the majority of today on my parents' bed, watching whatever was on TV. My nose feels like it could explode at any given second, and I just ache all over. Oh well.
Natalee really ticked me off a few days ago. First of all, over the course of three weeks, all she did to help with our ping pong ball launcher was brainstorm with me on the first day we started working on it, and give me a few blocks of wood to build it with. My dad helped me build a pretty wicked launcher a week before it was due, and then, on Tuesday, the day before we had to turn it in, Natalee and I were practicing in the gym to see how far it would go. I had given it to her earlier so she could calibrate it ahead of time. When I came into the gym, we hit the 2 meter and the four meter, but were just a little short of the 7. We made a few slight adjustments, pulled the spoon back that would launch it, and...
Snap.
A millisecond later I was holding two broken halves of our spoon, too shocked to do anything except stare at them. Natalee sat there, her face void of expression. All I remember is vaguely hearing someone walk over to us and say,
"That sucks."
Thanks for informing me of that.
So over the course of 7 hours, I went home, sobbed my heart out, then scoured WalMart, Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond with Mom for another spoon. We didn't find anything as great as the pasta-strainer type thing we'd had before, but we weren't totally out of luck. We bought dozens of spoons, plastic, metal, wooden, and after trying each one out, decided to go with the wooden one.
I would like to state right now that my daddy saved my life that night.
I was a wreck. I thought for sure we'd never find anything that would work, and Dad kept his cool the whole time, actually managing to laugh and have fun with it, even though all the while he kept telling me how he wanted to kill Natalee (who had to work at Chic-fil-A from 4-10:30, and therefore didn't help at all). By 10:30, we had created a beautiful launcher that could fling 7 meters. Ecstatic, I hugged and kissed my daddy and ran upstairs to get ready for bed. I had left an away message up on AIM that simply said "ARGH!!!!!" and when I checked to see if anyone had sent me a message, an even bigger grin lit up my face.
Wags: Hey
Wags: Ahh frustration, ping pong ball launcher I'm guessing. I'll see ya later.
I frantically got the launcher in on time on Wednesday, and tried to remain calm until Thursday, when we had to launch. When the big day came, I was petrified, and Natalee wasn't showing any signs of emotion at all.
Here's how the accuracy part of the project works: there is an 80 cm by 80 cm target in the middle of the gym, covered in flour so the physics teacher, Mr. Massey, can se where the ball landed. If your launcher chucks a ball into the dead center of the target, you get 50 points plus 3 bonus. If you hit the ring just out side of that, you get 50 points, then 40 points, then 30, 20, 10, then 0. For the 2 meter, we got straight 30's. For 4, we got two 30's and a 20, and for the 7 meter, we got a 20, a 10, and a 30. Which means that, after averaging the whole thing out, we got 22 points out of a possible 50. Not bad at all when you add in the automatic 50 points you get for having a launcher, and 50 more points for the lab report- a 122/150. I was very satisfied.
Now here's the part that ticks me off- after we launched, Natalee- who may I remind you did close to nothing- stood in a corner of the gym, pouting for the rest of the period. Eventually Mr. Massey approached her.
"What's that look for?" he asked.
"I just thought we were going to do so much better than that!"
"You weren't even that bad."
"Are there any projects that we can do on our own? I want to do the next one individually."
She then went on to say that since she broke our first one (at first she actually had the nerve to try and blame me for doing that too), I wouldn't let her touch the second one, which was true. Then she said that I got nervous and as a result screwed the whole thing up. It was basically a blatant attempt to point the finger at anyone she could besides her
Pardon me.... ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The NERVE of that girl!! Never, ever, in my entire life, have I been treated like that by ANYONE!!! Natalee is getting an F in Physics, and so I thought that an 81% would thrill her. I was so mad that I proceeded to tell every one of my friends that crossed my path that if Natalee wanted the next one to be individual, I hoped she'd get the grade she deserved- a huge, glaring F.
Okay, time to calm down now.. don't want my fever to get any higher. I know Natalee will reap the seeds she sows, and I'm not going to do a thing about it, except maybe scream at her if she has the audacity to try and convince me on Monday that the whole thing was my fault. I didn't see her yesterday- our show choir performed its Christmas concert for all the elementary schools in our town. I came home at 2:00 with a fever of 101, and crashed the rest of the night.
I feel better now. I needed to get that off of my chest. Well I'm gonna head off now. Catch ya later :-)
