Tuesday, October 13, 2009

a cassette tape



a cassette tape? what is that? do they still make those? for those of you that don't know, they were around several years ago. way before cd's. back in ancient times. anyway, here is the story of the cassette tape.


have you ever gotten credit for doing something that you didn't actually do? i don't know why i was thinking about this, but at the risk that one of my highschool teachers actually reads this blog, i am still going to expose the truth.


i was in a craft class in 10th grade. one of our projects for the semester was to carve an object out of a bar of soap. sounds easy enough right? wrong. i bought a family size pack of Dove soap, and could not create anything that looked recognizable. i was frustrated, upset, angry. all because of a stupid bar of soap. okay 10 stupid bars. practially in tears, i gave up.


then my hero came along. my dad. he wanted to see if it was really as hard as it looked. well my dad is a freak of nature guys. he can do ANYTHING. i mean it. on his first bar of soap, he created the most beautiful carving of a cassette tape that i have ever seen. it was incredible. i have never seen a bar of soap cassette carving look as good. this was the real deal. it looked identical to a cassette tape. except that it was white. and was made out of soap. it was magnificent. it had all the detail, the indents in the right place. amazing. i bet it would even work if you tried to play it. that is how astounding it was.


so he happened to finish the cassette tape the night before my project was due. ironic, is it not? so we thought, eh, what the heck. i will just turn it in. that will be the end of that. we will never reveal the truth.


so i went to class the next day. looking around at everyone elses carvings, i realized that a lot of people struggled too. i looked down at my project. placed in a real tape case. labeled and everything like the real thing. my name as the bands name. should i feel guilty for it being so awesome? probably. oh well. it was just a stupid project that once turned in, would never be brought up again. right? wrong.


the next week my teacher got up in the middle of class and announced that he had to talk to us about someones soap carving. oh crap. he caught me. he knows i am not this good at soap carving! i am in so much trouble. how will this look on my transripts for college? i was having a panic attack.


"someone in this class far exceeded the expectations of the assignment. i am so proud to announce that i will be featuring their soap carving in the district art fair. i would also like to ask them if i can keep their project and put it in display in the hall. congrats chloe!"


heh heh. "wow. i am speechless. not really sure what to say. i am sure my dad will be honor- i mean so proud of me."


so yeah. he passed the tape around and everyone kept asking me how i did it. i must have magical hands or something. thats what she said. just kidding but not really. yeah. so anyway, i never told anyone about that but my family. my dad was so happy.


i didn't know whether to feel guilty or proud. seeing my dad that happy made cheating completely worth it though.


moral of the story kids?


cheating is okay if your parents help you do it.

15 comments:

Jules AF said...

You're going to hell for this.

Elise said...

That is the funniest story. Sounds like something my dad would have done for me. I think the last time he did that for me was in elementary school for a shark diorama I had to do.

blueskiesandrain said...

umm yeah and if they're actually good at it! my mum used to help me with my art work all the time but i still got a C. soooo....heh.

grant + brittany said...

this is hilarious. my dad has totally done my homework before.

well i worked on the video all day yesterday and didn't finish it until last night. so when i posted it i changed the date to yesterday in like the middle of the day. so maybe that has something to do with it? anyway yes you need to watch it with sound because the song choice is almost the best part. i know it might be weird for me to say... "go watch my movie again later" but it took forever! anyway so pookie boo huh? that is too funny!

Tolman Family said...

Sounds familiar, I may have turned in some pictures of Lake Powell I may or may not have taken myself and turned them in and got rave reviews on...

Sam said...

i love it. i had a somewhat similar occurrence in high school. i had to make a pillow in FACS. i chose a panda, which was like the hardest one. but it was the cutest so why not? well, i had never sewn a thing is why not. i struggled so much and brought it home to finish. my mom looked at it and was appalled (she made my clothes as a child). so she snatched it up and undid the sewing and fixed it up brand new. and it looked great! so i turned it in. and got 100% plus extra credit. Thanks mom!

Matt said...

Chloe, I don't know what you are talking about. I don't remember a cassette carving, however, I am missing a few cassette tapes cases.

I put a cassette tape in the car the other day and it started bubbling, hmmm?

It was a honor being the best craft person in the high school, since I didn't ever take an art class when I was in High School, I don't have a problem doing a project for you. haha

McKenna said...

Hilarious.

Unknown said...

haha oh my gosh i can so relate. first because i always used to cry in art class. i got SO frustrated if mine wasn't perfect/the best.

ALSO, in 8th grade, i had a huge poetry assignment that i just could not do for some reason, so my dad (being a professional songwriter) offered to help. he ended up doing the whole thing, and i got a c minus. he was very offended!! moral of my story is... don't cheat, even with your parents...

michael. mindy. dane. said...

I totally had the same assignment in college. I tried a million times, and ended up doing a freaking ghost. My teacher actually chuckled when she held it up in front of the class. I thought I'd done a pretty good job, but you should have seen some of the other ones. They were amazing. I went in thinking I was ahead of the game and walked out feeling like a total idiot. I should have cheated.

derek and kimber said...

haha, well here is how I see it.. You made your dad feel good... sometimes we have to do things like that to help the parentals out, ya know? :-)

oh and I think they worked together a LONG time ago.

photography by Mikki said...

Chloe, you are a seriously great writer! I could read your stories all day long and keep laughing. Oh my, I can just see you sitting in class being so proud of your soap:)

Christie said...

You probably should never tell your kids this story. They'll expect great things from you, and will be mighty disappointed when you have to send them to your dad for help.

Unknown said...

That is an awesome story. I would have my best friend "help" with my art homework.

anna said...

i'm dying laughing! that is awesome. did your dad win at districts?