Slim?

Waiting for pizza to bake. Much hungry. Bake, pizza, bake! Can't think of anything else to do that would only take 10 minutes, and I can't hang around downstairs by the oven because my dad's got the NFL network on and the amount of crap that network pulls together to that it has stuff to air is really quite painful.

Someone with an English display name added me to their MSN list. This is rare. I think it's Scott, but I'm not sure, since I never got his e-mail address. He never got mine, either, but Lester could have given it to him. I have so many people adding me to their MSN list thinking I'm @hotmail.FR that I usually just go on auto-pilot to block anybody who adds me to their list. But I'm giving whomever this is a chance. I mean, really, who else would have an e-mail handle salim.hips?

I got a watch!!! So very, very happy! And it cost $55 dollars less than the one my mom originally bought be, so I got the difference handed to me on a spiffy little HBC giftcard. I'm thinking MAC... ^_^

Bah! Bake, you stupid disc of deliciousness!

Too Much Time on my Hands

So I woke up early this morning, which means that I have several hours to fill that I had not planned anything for. Bah.

So, I figured, hey! what's more time-consuming than worrying? Ali's apparently been doing a bit of the suicidal thing. Yay. Thank God her new advisor is making her see a "shrink," even if she's putting off going. Also, my dog's back was sore last night, and he kept shaking, and even yelped once. Less worrisome, true, but, still, it's my puppy...

I should find another Best Buy and go there today. The one in South Common didn't have ANY copies of Serenity when I was there on Wednesday. I was quite miffed. And neither the Bay at Southgate nor the one at West Ed had a watch I would consider wearing as anything other than a novelty. I was channelling my grade nine Englsih class and ranting about Mr. Hogan in my head while looking at the display cases. So I still don't have a watch that I can wear around my wrist...

Maybe I should turn on CNN or something and have something to grumble about. Oh, tangentally related, my mom has already voted in the Federal election. How the hell does that work? Advanced voting days aren't for another couple of weeks. Maybe she did some sort of absentee voting thing... My mom's weird. I suppose she will have enough to do on election day that getting down to the polling station might be a bit of a hassel, but then why not just vote on the advance days? Maybe this makes her vote "special" in some way... Like I said, my mom's weird.

I went through iTunes with a fine-toothed comb a couple of days ago to update my main pop playlist, and for a lark, I listened to MMMBop (from a Grammy Nominees CD--I did not buy a Hansen CD), and it's been stuck in my head ever since. *sigh* Although, I gotta say, I like the perspective of the line (paraphrasing) "Say you get old and lose your hair? Will you still care?"

Hmmm... Maybe I should do a "Lookback on 2005" thing here. Let's see what I can come up with.

Memorable events of 2005
(in chronological oder)

I "learned to play" the bassoon
With a hand-made reed, so I didn't _totally_ suck! It made me miss my barri sax... :-(
Chololate fondue at Suede for Valentines Day
Despite Peter having to work that evening, we had a great dinner/dessert first. It was a Monday night, and we were more or less the first people in there and had the place to ourselves, and we made pictures out of the multi-coloured mini marshmallows! ^_^
I "learned to play" the oboe
With a store-bought reed. I could play it sideways! Now let us never speak of this again...
Sarah died :-(
And everybody, Joyce especially, was very sad. I miss you, Sawah!
I spent another summer unemployed
I can't remember making the decision to do so, but it was for the best. I kept up my trumpet, though, and was prepped for my ensemble audition in September.
Eric and Jo's going-away party
Though I missed John's 20-minute 3am toast, this party was a blast. Too bad it had to end with Eric and Jo leaving...
Trip to Vancouver
Yay, Jackie and Ken! They rock, letting Peter and I stay and cooking for us! And we got to do some of the touristy stuff, and, most importantly, Peter got to go buy stock. ;-p
Kick-ass 21st birthday party
I agonized over this party, but, in the end, there were people, there were drinks and there was much fun. And Jell-o shots! Everybody loves Jell-o shots!
Went back to school full-time, including lessons
And I actually got back most of the "skillz" I'd lost during my year of part-timing. got in shape, too. All-around spiffiness.
Actually befriended Drama students ^_^
Since I wound up taking two Drama courses this past term, I *gasp* actually got to know the people in them. Lester was talking about starting up a WoW guild... ^_^
Peter and I hit the 2-year mark
*smiles happily to self*
Invented Chess
Oh, wait, no, that was a few years ago...
And, um, now...
Yeah, now I'm sitting on my couch, writing in my blog. Ohohoh! That's what I forgot to put on this list! I got my blog! Yay, blog! Dave was against the idea, but I ignored him and fought against the adversity of trendiness all the way to believing that I have something worth saying and that people all over the world find it worth reading! ^_^

Christmasy Goodness

Everybody at Christmas dinner, except me, who was taking the picture. That's the back of my Dad's head in the foreground, and clockwise from there is Peter, my brother Chris, my mom, Peter's brother Dave, Dave's girlfriend Sheryl, and Andy. My dad and Andy talked for a remarkably long time. I guess they had a lot of catching up to do or something. ^_^
Peter and I. I chose to upload this picture instead of the more entertaining but less classic close-up picutre that I took of us. ^_^
Dave and Sheryl being silly. It was a really great moment, actually. :-)
Peter with Farley. Yes, my dog is possesed. It's not all that bad, though. Whatever is possessing him is easily placated with Jerky Treats and Milk Bones.

Obviously, I got a digital camera for Christmas. It's very spiffy, a Canon SD400 Elph. It's small enough that I've been carrying it around in my pocket all night, so it should be quite happy living in my backpack. :-)

It's pretty quiet now. Peter & co. left early-ish because they're leaving at 9am for Calgary tomorrow. Andy's on his way to Banff, and he's dropping Peter and Dave off in Calgary to have Christmas with their mom and aunt and uncle and cousins. That's three Christmas dinners in a row. I mean, I was pretty full after last night, but tonight was just so much worse. I can't imagine doing this a third night. Mind you, we had a _lot_ more food tonight than last night. Turkey _and_ ham, mashed potatoes _and_ yams, brocoli _and_ brussel sprouts, stuffing _and_ dressing (well, okay, those are essentially the same thing, but I was on a roll ^_^). And for dessert we had pumpkin pie _and_ coffee cream mousse. And some 77 port (English of some kind, started with a B) and stilton. Oh, god, that was good. It was too much alcohol and richness, though, and I would up giving nearly half of mine to Peter. Then I went and took some Gravol, some migrane medication and a lot of water. ^_^

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

And all through the house
Lobsters were running
Their little tails off

Well, not really. The lobsters aren't here yet, and I'm pretty sure my dad won't let them run around once he brings them home. See, my parents have this tradition of having a seafood dinner every Christmas Eve. I'm not sure where that came from. Now, I quite like fish, but everything else you might call "seafood" tends to very much not appeal to me. It's a texture issue. So I get to run away and join Peter's mini-ish Christmas dinner. I've even prettied myself up, despite knowing that I'll look ridiculously over-dressed next to Peter. But I don't care. I feel festive. :-)

I got to play Sanata last night. I gave Wendy, Joyce and Jenilee each their gifts. That was a _lot_ of driving around, but it was fun. When I was over at Jenilee's place, we watched this weird movie called "Cursed." It was about these siblings who were bitten by a werewolf. It must have had quite the budget, because it starred Christina Ricci and Jsoshua Jackson and it was quite liberal with the special effects, but it seems also to have been quite the flop, because I'd never heard of it before. And, yeah, it kinda sucked, but it also had Milo Ventimiglia in it (playing a closeted wrestling team captain~!), so I let myself enjoy. ^_^

Ah, it seems that the lobsters are here. I think I'll go greet them.

Oooh... Mi Estomago!

Vaguely drunk. Apple cider butterbeer has been the biggest hit. Some people like it with more cream, others with less. I personally actually like the rootbeer one, but it doesn't taste like what butterbeer supposedly should taste like. Also vaguely sick to my stomach.

Ku and Kaitlyn couldn't make it, so it was just the four of us plus Jenilee and Pri4Q and Morgasm at Darriens. We had too much food. Jenilee did not come back to Peter's, so she is currently missing out on Liquid Crack. Cheryl has never played this before. It's amusing watching her fumble. ^_^

Peter and I will be having lunch with Kaitlyn tomorrow, though, so we'll still get to see her. Also, and this totally made my day: Peter's family is going to come to my place for Christmas dinner!!!!!!! It would have just been me, my parents and my brother otherwise, and just Peter, Dave and Andy for them, so we combined our merriment. ^_^

Anyway, MY turn for liquid crack!!! And I put too much Schnapps in this milk butterbeer, but it's still yummy. ^_^

*twitch*

Dave and Cheryl are downstairs making lemon tarte. Dave apparently promised Cheryl he'd make her some. I consider this a kind of trial by fire. They're whisking right now. That's the part that always made me twitch. In fact, I'm kind of twitching right now.

Otherwise, though, I'm having fun making sure the butterbeer recipes I got do in fact turn into something non-toxic. The apple one is yummy. :-) But the microwave haws been a source of trouble and amusement today. If you put the liquor in the drink and _then_ nuke it, it bubbles over and becomes incredibly hot almost instantly. Also, grapes spin around like crazy if you microwave them, but I wasn't around to see that one. :-( Oh, and the Club Soda is possesed. That was only fun in retrospect.

Post #109

Not much happening today, although I've had the feeling all day that there's something I need to be doing. Had yummy Greek food for dinner. Mmm, yummy Greek food. :-) But, yeah... otherwise, I'm kinda bored. You people don't want to read about me being bored. So, how about this:

I woke up this morning to a lion roaring outside my window. When I went outside to look at it, it lead me to a saskatoon berry bush out back, where I found a leprechaun. The leprechaun stole the lion, and I had to chase it all the way to the University. There, my Stagecraft prof told me that he needed help flying some scenery, so I had to give up on the poor lion and go be a stageweight. I quit when my nose got squished on the arbor, and went outside to drive my car home. My car wasn't there, though, so I started to head towards the buses. On my way, though, I spotted the leprechaun. I chased it all the way downtown, but it got away again. I was pretty tired by this point, so I went to take a nap in the library. I was rudely awoken by the police half an hour later when they came to clear out the homeless people, and since I was still wearing my pyjamas and cursing at them, they took me in. Conveniently enough, the leprechaun was in the next cell, and I agreed to bust us out as long as he gave me back the lion. He turned on me, of course, leaving me behind as soon as the hole I dug was big enough for him to squeeze through. When I got out, I decided that the first thing I needed was some food. I went to this panini place and had a turkey sandwhich. It was really good, actually, but it gave me food poisoning as I was walking home. I stopped at a pharmacy for Gravol and the pharmacist diagnosed me with schizophrenia and called an ambulance. Maybe I shouldn't have told him about the leprechaun. Luckily, the hospital they took me to was really close to my house, so when I was able to steal some scrubs and get out of there, it didn't take me long to get home. As I was walking down my street, though, I saw the lion standing in front of my house, roaring. I ran up and gave it a hug, and it took me back to the saskatoon berry bush. There, the leprechaun was taking a little late-afternoon nap. The lion nudged it with its nose, waking the leprechaun up. It started, but before it could do anything, the lion ate it. It got food poisoning, too, but I told it that the pharmacy wasn't a very nice place.

*does more happy dance*

I am in a ridiculously good mood. I just had my last exam (Conducting), I passed Percussion Tech despite not going to at least one third of the classes (*at least*), and I have a celebratory mug of tea and a couple of Turtles chocolates. Mmm. :-)

Also, girl from last night turns out to be Dave's new/first/whatever girlfriend, which makes me happy because now there's another girl around to complain that the toilet doesn't have a seat. ^_^ Last night was kind of awkward, though. Andy's secretary was at dinner, and didn't really say much at all, and I was worried that she was miffed that the conversation was being dominated by the four 20-somethings while she and Andy sat at opposite ends of the table, looking confused.

But right now my mug of tea tells me it's not worth worrying about. :-)

Anyway, butterscotch (or, rather, "butter ripple") Schnapps has been purchased, and I look forward to Thursday!

Allo?

Does anybody know if Pri is still alive? I can't find her phone number, and she hasn't replied to my e-mail. Morgan, you're coming Thursday, right? Could you get ahold of Pri?

(PS: Dave's got a girl over for Sunday night dinner. ^_^)

Butterbeer!

So I have decided to use Thursday's gathering as an opportunity to test out butterbeer recipes. See, Katie recently made butterbeer at school that was rootbeer-based, which surprised me, because I'd always thought of it as a kind of apple cider drink. So I went and researched recipes for it. Apparently, the official word from Rowling is that it tastes much like butterscotch. And, oddly enough, the most common kind I found online was a cream soda-based kind. So I'll have that along with a rootbeer one, a milk one and an apple cider one. The running theme seems to be butterscotch schnapps, so that's what'll be in them, unless you either hate that (I'm gonna buy some spiced rum to see how that works, with butterscotch syrup) or don't want any alcohol, in which case you just get syrup. Three cheers for chicken wings absorbing alcohol so we don't all get horribly, horribly sick! ^_^

Doug!

I'm sorry! I didn't know you were coming back for Christmas!! Here, classes go until the 23rd, so I guess I just assumed... So I guess that, gosh darn, we'll just have to have another time of merriment in order to see you. ;-)

In other news, I have just remembered the existence of the 90s dance song "The Real Thing." Anybody else remember that one? It's gonna be in my head all day now, I swear...

So I went Christmas shopping yesterday. Got gifts for Joyce and Jenilee. Realized that I'll have to do a remarkable amount of my Christmas shopping at a wine store (Peter's parents, among others). I'm making Peter come with me because, while I can tell you a good wine for a reasonable price, I have no idea what kind of wine they like.

Oh! Did I mention what I got my sister's dog for Christmas? I got him dog treats from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory! They come in a tin shaped like a bone. ^_^ It's going to be a little expensive to ship, but I couldn't resist.

Hmmm... It's been a nice, slow Friday morning here. Read paper, ate bagel, drank latte... :-) Am now petting dog. I feel much better than I did yesterday, when I ate a bunch of sweets (Jenilee gave me a bunch of Chirstmas baking) and then crashed and felt horrible. They were really good sweets, though. ^_^

ETA: Okay, so I just noticed that I have two comments from my post on the tenth that I hadn't read. Doug, apologies, you did indeed tell me you were coming back. And I guess John-if-you're-still-in-the-country has in fact left for Australia. Which is too bad, but now I feel less bad about now having an e-mail address for him (his ualberta account has been deactivated).

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

I am currently attempting to comb my hair. As I'm sure anybody with long hair knows, it doesn't comb well, especially when it's wet and underconditioned. I'm not sure where the brush around here went (I'm at Peter's). I suspect it might have belonged to Shelly, and therefore disappeared when she and Andy broke up. Boo. :-(

Anyway, I am making an official declaration! Some kind of dinner-oriented social gathering will be happening on the night of the 22nd! Kaitlyn, you'll be around in time for dinner, right? I vote Darriens, because I haven't been there in a while and BP's wings just don't compare. Afterwards, of course, y'all are invited back here for some festive tipples and whatnot. ;-) I suppose I should send out an e-mail, so I'll go do that.

Silliness ^_^

Remus Lupin
You are looking for someone sweet, intelligent, and
understanding. Although he may have big
troubles to overcome, with you by his side this
wolfman will at least have a non-judgmental,
loving romance.


Who is your Harry Potter love match? (for girls)
brought to you by Quizilla


So apparently I'm Tonks. I actually quite like Lupin in the Books, but the choice of actor for the movies I wasn't as fond of. Oh, well. Three cheers for wasting time instead of practicing for my Conducting Exam! ^_^ At least Percussion Tech this morning went reasonably well...

Happy Birthday!

Stagecraft exam this morning went well enough. I was too obsessed with understanding things in my studying, instead of just regurgitating answers. I passed, although I'm not sure I did well. I said Vitruvius was a window. If you find out the relevance of Vitruvius to stagecraft and then look at the etimological (sp?) connotations of Vitruvius, I actually made a horrendous but amusing error. I'm actually kind of proud of it. ^_^

CBC is showing Christmas specials tonight. Winnie the Pooh and Christmas, Too!, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and I'm currently watching Frosty the Snowman. I often say "Messy, messy, messy!" like the magician does, and nobody gets it.

Oh! I finally bought the text for my Percussion Tech class today! One day before the final! Yay me! ^_^ Not that I've taken it out of the bag to practice yet. I went over Erika's old notes today (good lord, she's meticulous), so hopefully I'll be okay for the written part, and then I have nearly three hours to practice for the playing portion. Yeah, I was last to sign up, and therefore I got the last spot. And then only Conducting left, next Monday.

@$#%!!!!

Studying counterweight scenery system. And I'm not happy about it. All of these diagrams from my prof have two pullies to demonstrate mechanical advantage, but I can't figure out how those work, since one end of the purchaseline/drift is fixed and that seems to not let anything move. And if neither end is fixed, and you have, for example, three pullies, how does the 25 lb arbor balance with the 75 lb flat? I understand that you can move the 75 lbs by just moving the 25lbs, but unless it's clamped in place somehow, shouldn't the flat fall? How would it be clamped? Oh, I am so confused...

Luckily, all I have to do is label a diagram, and that I can do. Who says I actually have to know how this crap works? I'm gonna be teaching junior/senior high Drama. What little scenery I have will be made out of old refrigerator boxes.

Stuffed

So today Peter and I went out for brunch as our official celebration of our 2-year anniversary, which was technically on Monday. We ordered too much food. It was soooo yummy, though. We got a cinnamon bun with cream cheese icing and maple syrup first, and then I had eggs benedict and Peter had mascarpone french toast with bananas and a side of bacon. Wow, maybe you guys don't care abo0ut that. But I'm trying to emphasize that it was a _lot_ of food. And so now I'm lounging around and trying to digest.

Andy's doing something with a rocking chair and a digital camera... It looks awkward...

Anyway, yeah, I'm at Peter's place because I have locked myself out of my car. Or, at least, I think I have. I can't find my keys, and I'm hoping they're in the centre console of my car, because otherwise I might be kind of screwed. I should call my mom to get her to bring me a spare key, but it's really all the same to me where I hang around, and since I've got my comp here with me, I figure I'll stay here for a bit. I like this place. I'd say that I wish I lived here, but I kind of do sometimes. ^_^

I Miss You!

Peter mentioned tonight how a bunch of Dave's friends meet at this guy Zach's place, and I remembered how we always had people over here. So I suggested we have a Christmas party. Then I realized that y'all are big losers, going off and having lives and whatnot, and thus not being around. So Joanne, Eric, Doug, Katilyn, Sean and Jere, I blow raspberries at you!

But for those who are around and I just don't get to see very often (Pri, Morgan, Angela, John-if-you're-still-in-the-country, I'm looking at you), give us a shout if you want to get together. I had suggested a Christmas baking potluck gathering. Sometime after the 21st would be best, since Peter's writing term papers until then (sucker!), and Kaitlyn gets in on the 22nd and it would be cool to have her around, too.

But, yeah, we'll see if anybody's interested. And I send Christmas hugs all around, even if you have gone off and left me here. ;-p

Class Clashes

So since I decided to put off taking French for yet another year, I have found myself with three credits worth of space in my Winter schedule and a strong desire to take another Drama course. See, this past term, I made the mistake of befriending the second-year Drama students, and I would like to continue to see them. Now, after consulting my degree requirements, I have found that I only need one more Drama course. This, I must say, floored me. I need either 240 or 247. They're both Oral Communications courses, but 247 is a kind of remedial stream. If you ever want to see my face turn purple, ask me about the BEd (Secondary) Drama Minor courses that are currently being phased out. *ugh* Anyway, so I need 240. I would also like to take 383, which is a directing course. I have no idea why it isn't mandatory. Drama teachers will obviously need to direct. Now, here are my problems:

1. Bear Tracks is going all Fort Knox and won't let me into either of these courses, no matter what. I'd have to beg my way in via the prof, because the courses are all full (except for one section of 240, but even that only has one spot) and the Drama deptartment doesn't keep waiting lists. Even if the classes had space, I'd have to get Connie at the Drama office to register me because for some reason I haven't yet been able to get around, I cannot seem to declare my minor. Grr. And 240 doesn't even let minors in, strictly speaking.

2. Both sections of 383 and one of the sections of 240 conflict with my existing schedule. Now, one of the 383 sections conflicts with Band Techniques, which I really shouldn't drop, so that's out of the question, but the other two sections conflict with my Music 281, aka The First Half of Music History. I really don't want to take 281. Even in the old stream, I was going to take 272 and 273 and that would be all. Now, I know that I _have_ to take 281 (and 282), but I'm not sure if I need the credit before my APT or not. I certainly have room for both after my APT, but if I have to keep 281 or not be admitted to Ed for next year, then I'm down to the other 240 class. Which is full and I'm strictly speaking not allowed to take, even though it applies directly to my degree. I'm hoping that that discrepancy is just Bear Tracks being behind on things.

So, yeah. This is a little complicated. I am left with a few options:

1. I can drop 281 and try to force myself into 383 or 240 (I think I'd go for 383, since I like the prof and I'll have a better chance of getting into 240 legitimately in a couple of years).

2. I can keep 281 and try to force myself into that one section of 240, hoping that it has the same people I've come to like.

or

3. I can suck it up, leave my schedule as it is and do Drama only through extra-curricular stuff, like acting in the 383 and 483 scenes.

I am annoyed. And sad at the prospect of loosing touch with these people. Stupid 281. I was so excited to take 170. I thought I was finally going to understand all those stupid jokes that people like Ian Munro made about Brahams and the like. But no. It was feminist musicology, Chicago Style and Folkways. And a great many naps and stories about Auntie Brenda's newphews. And even though I quite like Brenda (and she's teaching 281), I have lost faith in the Music History curriculum at the U of A. Maybe I should say fuck it all and take that new 103 course on Popular Music.

It's Over!!

School, that is. Well, except for exams, which start Monday. Yesterday was the last day of classes and today was my jury, so now I get to relax. My jury went really well. Well, the piece went really well. The etude not so much, but I hadn't really bothered to learn it, and that's more or less why Russ made me play it. Oh, well. Russ, Deebs and Diane Pearson were on the jury, and their comments were good.

So Monday was my Scene Study final. It went really well. Scott and I were going to meet 15 minutes before class started to go over our lines one last time, but we both wound up being half an hour late for class because of absolutely atrocious traffic conditions. We were supposed to go first, too. ^_^ Oh, well. My prof had nothing but praise for my performance, which floored me, but I'm ceraintly not going to object. ;-)

Then I built my box. My valiant little box. I went to assemble all of the pieces (it was actually a model set for Antigone) the Tuesday morning during my break so that the glue didn't shrink or crack or anything in the cold, but then I remembered that I had an optometrist appointment that morning, so I had to be late for class to put the damned thing together. Good lord, that appointment took a long time. But I got contact lenses that work!!!!! They're not just the spherical myopia contact lenses, and they're not the toric myopia-astigmatism lenses, either. They're aspherical lenses, which apparently correct myopia and "mask" astigmatism. I'm not sure how that works, but I can see, so I don't particularly care. ^_^

Tuesday night was my night to do my last text analysis/character bone structure for my Scene Study class. I was going to go to yoga beforehand, though, but their online schedule was wrong, so I got there half an hour late. I was disappointed. But Joyce called and she wound up giving me a kind of personal yoga lesson. That was really neat, but it took longer than I should have spent. So I conked out before finishing the project and woke up really early Wednesday morning to finish it. And I did, too! I was actually kind of surprised. I wouldn't call it my best work, but it wasn't so much a matter of thinking it out so much as it was just writing it out, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

Actually, yesterday was a really good day, despite feeling like death for a considerable chunk of it. Katie decided to go to Safeway and the liquor store and get stuff to make her version of butterbeer. It was soooo good! It sounds totally disgusting to describe it, but, trust me, it's delicious. It contains rootbeer and butter, which are microwaved to melt and warm, respectively. Add rootbeer schnapps if you wish, and stir with a cinamon stick. I've always imagined butterbeer to be kind of hot apple cider-based, but this worked. Maybe I should have a butterbeer cookoff or something, where I make a batch of everything that butterbeer could be (one rootbeer, one cider, one wine/mead-ish) and see which works best. So I inquire: what do you guys imagine butterbeer to be like? It's supposedly mildly alcoholic and warming, but that's all I can remember for sure.

But, yeah, I drank that right before Conducting class, and then I fell asleep while singing. I dind't even know I could do that. ^_^

The feeling like death part starts here. I got a flat tire. I wasn't sure what was wrong until somebody tapped on my window and told me. Apparently, I ran over a screw. I drove home from the University, going slowly, because I wasn't sure what else to do. I thought I didn't have a spare because of a flat I got about two years ago, but I later discovered that I did. But, yeah, I went home and we had the AMA come over to replace the tire. It wasn't bad. I slept through it all, actually. I was soooooo wiped by that point. No damage to the rim or axel or anything, though, so it's all good. We got the tire repaired today, and when I went to pick it up, they even gave me the screw back~!

So what does one do after waking up in the evening feeling like death? Go drinking, of course!! Well, I only had one glass of wine, but I was so overtired that it felt like a lot more. The HCGSA (History and Classics Graduate Students' Association) Christmas party was last night at Yianni's. It was actually really good once it got going. I turned in pretty early, though, because of my jury this morning. But the Chicken skewers dipped in Hummous were very yummy. ^_^

And that brings us to today. I have until Monday to do essentially what I want, although if I want to do well on my exam on Monday, I will have to want to study. The trumpet players all went to Academy after juries because Russ didn't have enough time to go to Earls. It was yummy and enjoyable. And now I may just take a nap.

Things I Learnt Today (and Yesterday)

Toan was being mugged when he was stabbed. So it's nothing to do with any kind of sordid lifestyle, thankfully, and he's doing a lot better now.

I prefer shopping with a 30% off coupon to doing homework. I bought the best argyle cardigan!

The "screaming punk" listening, which finally got to me on Thursday, is a mix CD created in celebration of the fact that Scott's then girlfriend wasn't pregnant. Now I understand why he titled it "Freedom 5000: The Way Lovers Flee Chaos." But, really, who thinks to celebrate that by making a mix CD?

Craft supplies are fucking expensive. The stuff for my model set cost nearly $50!

My jury will be OK. (If I ever bother to work properly on the etude.)

My Scene Study final, however, will be good pretty well no matter what. Good lord, that thing's taken a lot of work, but it's gonna rock. :-)

Oh, and one more thing I learnt last Friday, but forgot to mention: Peter's History student friends think I'm "hot." The word "babe" was apparently also used. I'm choosing to take this as a compliment, even if it was Pub Night. ^_^

For Kaitlyn

My Adventrues with Soy Milk

I got sick. I had a bladder infection. Annoying. I went to the Medicentre. The big Eastern European doctor lady there gave me anti-biotics. Evil antibiotics. I was not allowed to eat dairy with these anti-biotics, lest I get horribly nauseous. So I bought soy milk. Well, first I had to find it. It never occured to me that there would be a type of "milk" that you wouldn't have to refrigerate. Apart from quickly discovering that I got horribly nauseous no matter what I ate while taking the meds, I also discovered that Vanilla soy milk is not the defualt flavour of soy milk. It made a wonderful latte, but didn't go so well in cereal, especially when it was warm. But I got home so desperately wanting cereal, having not had any in a couple of days (and I subsist on cereal), and it didn't occur to me that warm, funky-flavoured soy product would taste bad. I wound up not drinking the entire carton, and when my parents got back into town (they were on a cruise at the time), and they saw it, not only did I have to explain my follies, but I to to tell them why I hadn't thrown it out: it doesn't expire until March. March! So everybody feels guilty about throwing it out. So it'll sit in my fridge at least until March, or possibly until August, to be discarded only when we move.

The trump to this whole situation, though, doesn't have anything to do with soy: the anti-biotics didn't even work.

One Week and Counting

I just got an unpleasant e-mail telling me that Toan, a guy I went to junior and senior high school with, was stabbed three times. He's had surgery and is stable, but I have no idea why anyone would want to stab Toan! He's a great guy. It did cross my mind that it might have been a hate crime or something (he's gay), but I really just don't get it. And he's having problems with the University about postponing his exams, now...

Today was a mixed bag. I slept until nine, which was nice, but I couldn't remember whether my extra lesson was at ten or eleven, so I rushed to school, which was not nice. It was at 11, and was the best lesson I've had all term, which was good, but the lownjlounge was booked for some sort of luncheon (!), so I had to eat in the crowded Zoo. We played a neat Samuel Barber piece in Wind Ensemble ("First Symphony"), but Aura needed to take back all the parts for photocopying, so I don't get to futz around with it when I'm sick of my jury piece. My Stagecraft class had exam review with the good prof, but people were confused enough by converting board feet of lumber into linear feet (IT'S NOT THAT HARD!!!) that time was wasted and we didn't get all the way through the review. I had a good rehearsal for my Scene Study project, but Scott only had 40 minutes, so it was really short. I went and saw Peter, but he was feeling funky. We decided where to go for our two year anniversary (which is offically on Monday), but we bickered about why he wouldn't go skating with me first. And I felt bad. :-(

But now I'm about to go to yoga, and I intend to actually make it there on time. Traffic seems a little more sane today than it was on Tuesday. And maybe afterwards I'll go over to Peter's and we can have some sort of Super Smash Bros drinking game to help him relax and get to sleep. ^_^

One week and counting until I can collapse.

Good to Know

1. Winter traffic sucks. Left Campus Earls at 5:40, got home at 6:30. Had hoped to just run home quickly and change before yoga, but it started at 6:30 and I was about to run out of gas, so I didn't _actually_ get home until 6:40.

2. Some pairs of slippers do in fact have a left on and a right one. And it's remarkably uncomfortable to mix them up. Especially when one of your toes is busted.

3. Drinking orange juice, especially watery orange juice, when you have a split and bleeding lip is disgusting. I didn't know my lip was bleeding, though, so I thought at first that it was just the juice, which tells you how yicky watered-down orange juice is even all by itself.

4. Starting the weekend with money doesn't necessarily mean ending the weekend with money.

5. The upcoming federal election will end in a Liberal minority government. And that makes me unhappy with Stephen Harper and Jack Layton for bothering eveybody right now.

6. All the same, voting is only good! Vote _for_ somebody, not against somebody. If there's nobody you like, nominate your own candidate to run next time, under an existing banner or as an independant.

7. No matter traffic, white Christmases are the best. Yay, snow!

Fratboys Exempt

Gah!! I finally admit that I actually like Prison Break and it does _this_! I am not happy with the having to wait until next year to find out what happens. Michael looked so hopeless... But you know what? I *heart* T-Bag. I know that's wrong on so many levels, but that characters rocks. But my point was that, since the writers/producers/whomever had this story planned out for two seasons before it was greenlighted, it is possible to find spoilers, right? Things this tense and episodic give me a rash (metaphorically speaking), so I'd like to just know what's going to happen, pleaseandthankyou.

The Net

Monday is my most insane day of the week, and more or less has been since I started University. In addition to my classes, I have my lesson and rep class on Monday. Thank God I don't have Jazz Band any more to top it off. Today was all right, though. My Scene Study class, which is usually a two-hour workout to start my day, was spent largely in HUB eating watermelon gummies (well, I had two of them, anyway). Each group had booked time in SouthLab during class hours to rehearse our final project in private with the prof, and our time wasn't until the last quarter of the class, so my partner, Scott, and I went to HUB with this guy Lester, who supplied the aforementioned watermelon gummies. Lester and I were going to buy Scott a coffee to cheer him up, since his best friend had been an ass recently and cost him upwards of $300 (long story about car getting towed... twice), but Scott didn't want coffee, so we just sat around wasting time. It was nice and non-mentally-challenging, as Monday mornings should be. The rehearsal was kinda bad because we just plain disagreed with our prof on what was literally going on in our scene, but I'm still miffed at her about that review, so I don't really care.

Then I took a nap, which I hadn't planned on doing, but it was sunny and I was tired and I woke up 55 minutes before my lesson in need of lunch and not having played yet. La Pasta is wonderful and Olwyn gave me her room when there were none left, which makes her very wonderful. :-) Half of my lesson was articulation, which, while frustrating, is productive and gave me a nice long warm-up. And I have an accompaniest for my jury!!! Sylvia Shaddick-Taylor (sp?). Since both Roger and Judy are out of town for juries... *grrr* I rehearse with Sylvia tomorrow morning.

Ohohohoh!!! And I don't have to play in the instrumental excerpt for my Conducting final!!!!!! *does happy dance*

And I didn't have to play in rep class!!! *does more happy dance*

Well, actually, I'm sitting on my bed, not moving much at all, but I'm dancing on the inside.

10-1 With 0:14 to the Half

And it's Sunday. I was going to go to the University and work on my Scene Study project, but my partner isn't feeling well. Says he's had a bad week. Now, I've seen him every day this week (except yesterday), and he's seemed fine, so I'm confused and kind of worried. But I didn't feel like working, either, so I'll just ask him what's up in class tomorrow.

Going to the Wind Sinfonia concert tonight. Looking forward to it, I guess. I have to go to the University first to get my observation form/assignment sheet for my Conducting assignment. At least it's Ray directing, so I'll have an idea of what the hell he's doing, unlike some of the ESO's guest conductors, where I'm left wondering which beat is symbolised by a "butterfly" gesture.

I've decided to drop in on a begginer's Ashtanga class at this place called Lion's Breath Yoga on Tuesday. I drive past in a lot (it's right by Peter's place), and I finally got around to checking out their website, and it looks pretty spiffy. I've noticed lately that the increase in the amount of exercise I've gotten since starting back up with lessons has been greatly benefcial, so some extra-curricular stuff might be even better.

So it's Grey Cup Sunday... My entire family is in front of the TV right now. And we're winning. Not quite the par-TAY affair it could be, but I think that sort of atmosphere might interrupt my dog's napping. Farley really is ridiculously cute.

Angryday

I'm surprised at how very busy I've been lately. I mean, I know it's the end-of-term crunch and whatnot, but I haven't worked this many hours in a day since my second year. And I find it very satisfying. :-)

But I also spent a great deal of today being rather angry. I ran into my Conducting prof right after I wrote that post yesterday, and he realized that he'd taped over the video I was supposed to watch with our Unit 3 assignments. This would suck, except he decided that I didn't have to do this one, just the next one, and he'd count the mark I got on it as the mark for both of them. Woo-hoo! However, this morning, when I got to school at 7am, I was less impressed with him. We had to do a rhearsal preparation assignment. No big deal. Four excerpts from the textbook, five weeks, two rehearsals a week, high school band. The problem was the excerpts. See, Brendan, for all that he's a really good teacher, is a choral conductor. The Rufford Park Poachers movement of Lincolnshire Posy is not something I'd give to a high school band on five weeks' notice. Nor is this Aegan Festival Overture piece, which liberally uses time signatures I grumble at, such at 11/8. The pedagogy for these excerpts overshadows any quick and dirty rehearsal process. Now, for a choir, these pieces would be rather easy to both sing and conduct. Choir is just more condusive to intuitive conducting and interpretation like that. Part of the assignment was that we had to give a brief overview of each of the excerpts and note any difficulties they present for the ensemble or conductor, and for two of them, I started my description by saying that this was not an appropriate piece for the hypothetical situation. I got kind of snarky, even, when I mentioned the bass line for the Lincolnshire bit, which is a divisi part where each player plays the same note the. whole. time. Not so much as a breath mark. I finished my overview paragraph by saying that the basses would have to be left out of a great deal of the rehearsal process so that they don't die of oxygen depravation, and I suggested giving them a crossword or "one of those hip new Sudoku puzzles."

Yeah, it was early and I was annoyed.

Then came my Scene Study class at 9. Most of it went all right. We had more or less a free class to go rehearse our final project, so my partner and I went and yelled at eachother in the dungeon/pit at the bottom of the stairwell in FAB. We got a lot of work done, some good blocking especially, so we decided not to rehearse this afternoon. Glory! But we had to back to SouthLab to pick up our theatre review assignments at the end of the two hours, and I was surprised to find that my assignment had been docked marks for being late. See, I printed off a copy of it the Monday it was due and then left it on my desk at home. Oops. I had e-mailed it to myself just in case, though, but when I told my prof, she said that it was fine and to bring it on the Wednesday. We didn't have anything structured for the first hour of that class, so I could've gone and printed her off a copy. She didn't even collect them until the end of class. I argued her into conceding and upping my mark, but I was still annoyed. Plus, I just plain got a bad mark on the assignment. She told us to look at the reviews in See Magazine and the Journal to get an idea of what she wanted, but she said my review seemed too much like I was advertising the play. I didn't even say much very good about it, so I was kind of miffed. But what really got me was that she said that I didn't mention the acting enough. Now, I commented on the one guy who did a spectacular job. I said he performed his character with "remarkable fluency." She didn't know what I meant by fluency and wanted me to use another word. I meant it in more or less every way you could reasonably construe. He had the Welsh accent down, he was smooth, etc... But, really, my prof is an actor. She wanted me to talk about the acting. The acting in this play was tertiary, though. Primary was theme, secondary was tech. Very little of the play involved the characters actually talking to eachother, so there was no playing off the other actors. And anything cool the actors could have done was teched. They actually pre-recorded lines of speech and altered them so that they sounded echo-y or emphatic or whatnot, so the actors didn't have to do it on stage. It was kind of cheap. But, no, I was supposed to talk about the acting. Bah.

*pause*

Ok, rant over.

I finished off the day by taking a nap on the old, dilapidated and wonderfully comfy couch in Peter's office. I'm going to meet up with him later. He's currently drinking with his fellow historians. Oh, and the listening for the good "screaming punk" endeavour has not yet been deliverd. It's apparently sitting in his car, so I'll hopefully get it when I meet up with him on Sunday. I'm wondering if he'd like borrow my Mahavishnu Orchestra CD or something. Or maybe my electroacoustic sampler CD. ^_^ I had a nice nap in a practice room yesterday while listening to Chopin Nocturnes... Yeah, I won't lend him that one... Maybe my CD of Holst's Planets... ^_^...

Sleepless in the Zoo

In the lab at school, wondering why I got out of bed this morning. I skipped Percussion Tech to go to the library and watch the video of my conducting assignment, but my first problem was that the library wasn't open. So I ate breakfast, worked on my Scene Study stuff and even did half an hour of articulaton practice and a run-through of my jury piece. I'm less worried about that now. Then I went to the library to discover that the video hasn't been returned by the prof yet. This thing is due tomorrow! Well, actually, it was due last Friday. Well, actually, it's "due" whenever the hell we can get it to him, but he's going on a marking spree this weekend, so I figured I'd get it to him before then. And now I can't find his e-mail address to ask him when the tape will be back in the library. I suppose I could go upstairs and knock on his office door, but it's doubtful that he's there. Between this and the fact that I'm not going to my Stagecraft class, there will be very little to my day. And I'm tired. And I can't even go nap because the lownjlounge has been taken over by the Art and Design students for their Art Auction. Grrr...

Do the Wednesday Dance!

I made trail mix! Six cups of it, so I can take little bags of it to school until the end of term. And since I actually made it, it doesn't have anything that I'd want to pick out. Some trail mixes have things like pine nuts and granola clusters that I don't think really work, so mine only has peanuts, almonds, raisins and M&Ms. Mmmm. :-)

So, ok, ok, I admit it. I actually like Prison Break. I can't believe they killed off Arbruzzi!!! But where the hell did T-Bag keep that blade? I only saw him pull it out of his mouth... For the record, though, the romance subplot between Michael and the doctor is still preposterous in my opinion, but the chemistry is enough to make me shut up and enjoy. ^_^

Conducting Assignment was today. I kept telling myself to practice for it, but it was just would not stay at the front of my mind. Remarkably, though, it went pretty well. My biggest problem was making sure I wasn't pulsing with my left hand throughout things like crescendi. We could choose between four excerpts, and one of the ones I didn't do was the weirdest arrangement of Shenandoah. It changed meter and the words were kind of displaced and nearly everbody who chose that one had problems with it. And that's why I don't want to focus on choral directing...

You know, I had such a busy day that I assumed I might have something to blog about. But I really don't. I have endeavoured to learn about *good* "screaming punk" music. I should be getting some listening by the end of the week. I'm especially curious as to how the drums get used. I'm so sick of "dance" drum beats...

HAHAHA!!!!
There's a story on the newscast I'm watching (I know, I know...) about how some people are trying to get 50 Cent's tour to stay out of Canada, and the anchor announced him as "Rapper Fifty cent, who I would be calling Fitty Cent if I had any edge whatsoever." ^_^ Ah, some people have a weird idea of edge...

*squint*

I walked into my house today to discover a trial pair of contact lenses sitting in an envelope on the counter. I was very happy. But now, looking at my computer screen, I'm not so happy. They're better than my last pair, but what I'm writing is still fuzzy. Now I have to go back to the optometrist and get another solution sorted out. *sigh*

Today was busy. I skipped Percussion Tech, even though I told myself I was going to go. But, in all fairness, I told myself that before I remembered that my lesson had been rescheduled to 9:30 this morning. So I went and warmed up and practiced my jury piece. I'm kinda worried about that. I've never been this unprepared two weeks before a jury. I don't even have an accompaniest. Russ was going to arrange Judy for all the trumpet players who wanted it, but she's out of town during juries. My lesson was 40 minutes of articulation. Russ even gave me a serious order to spend an hour a day on articulation. See, he was discussing Wynton Marsalis' warm-up routine with someone recently, and Wynton, because he's Wynton and can actually afford the time and energy to do this, spends 45 minutes a day on the syllable "ka." And now Russ' students all get tech orders that just don't go with the crunch of jury season. And, yes, for the record, I lack any speck of commitment and pride in my work. I have these unreasonable ideas of priorities and making "at least four hours of sleep per night" a big one.

Or maybe some people are workaholics and gluttons for punishment and I think they're crazy.

So after lesson, I worked on this costume design project for my Stagecraft and Design course. I wound up having to go to Varsity to buy blank paper, scissors and pencil crayons. And a 3-pack of Lindt chocolates. ^_^ And because I had bought more than $10 in stationary, I got a free Coke. That made no sense to me, but yay free Coke! So I ate my quasi-lunch and worked until Wind Ensemble. Then I skipped the first 35 minutes of my Stagecraft course to finish the project. That class sucks. Thank God it's over in two weeks.

I met with my Scene Study partner after that to work on our final scene project for the term. I was surprised to find out that he had chosen the scene we're doing as an acting exercise for both of us. But lots of good work was done, so hopefully this won't be too painful. Then I met Peter for an early dinner at Earls. Mmm, cheeseburger. :-) And now I'm watching Gilmore Girls, which I thought was going to be a rerun, but turned out not to be, which was a nice surprise. :-)

The Morning After the Night Before (Subtitle: I Think They Renamed Dennis Creevey as Nigel)

Ugh.

Saturday morning hangover. Figuratively speaking. Saw a late showing of Goblet of Fire last night, which I actually quite liked, but it ended rather late and I crashed unpleasantly and woke up only to my mom coming in to announce she had a lot of work to do at 12:30. I dislike sleeping past noon--it throws off my sleeping pattern too much and tends to give me a headache, as today. Now my mom is in the back yard angrily doing work and yelling at my dad to help her. I escaped to my room. You know, I might have helped her if she had asked me yesterday or something, and I could have been ready for it, and that way she wouldn't have gotten frustrated at working by herself and wouldn't have yelled at my dad and I to help her.

Ugh.

I would go to West Ed to see if they have my size of these boots I like, but Peter has my car. I wasn't so much with the driving last night, so he dropped me off and took my car. It should be happily sitting in the parking lot outside of Second Cup right now, so I can't even ask him to drive it over. And like hell am I going to be able to get a ride from my parents anytime soon.

I should stop being so negative. Blech.

So, yeah, good news. I liked Goblet of fire. They cut out a whole bunch of course. No Bagman, no Percy, no Winky or Dobby, no SPEW, not really even any class except for the one where Moody shows them the Unforgivable Curses. The movie was more or less exclusively about the Three Tasks, and while I think they shouldn't have drawn out the First Task like they did, and instead used the time on transition and location shots (some scene changes were a little jerky), it was well handled. Ralph Fiennes kicked ass as Voldemort. He had this way of standing... There was a bit of a heavy-handed scene in which Snape was supervising the library and kept hitting Ron and Harry in the head, but I was enjoying myself enough that I didn't care. Not much Snape at all in the movie, come to think of it. I don't know why they changed Professor Flitwick's hair. He looked so much better in the first movie. Now he looks like a miniature Hitler. Oh, but I *heart* Fred and George!! This movie actually used them!! Although no mention of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Oh, well. But they did cut things very well. The lack of Winky and Dobby was made up for quite well by using Neville for the Second Task Gillyweed and a new addition to the scene of Frank's murder, which confused most people in the theatre at first, but worked very well. Excellent casting choice there, too, I'd say.

And now I've rambled happily for long enough. :-)

Dedicated to Colbert

I'm at Joyce's house and I'm having a difficult time finding a comfortable way of sitting and typing that doesn't involve good posture. Joyce is taking a shower and suggested that I write in my blog. So here I am.

It is a blustery Friday, but warm (10 degrees!), and my one class of the day so far has been rather nice. And in an hour and a half, I have lunch with Jenilee, which is also nice. Nice all around.

Ummm, yeah...

Saw Balm in Gilead last night. Abbedam student production. I liked it. Lots of people I know were involved. Prostitues, drug addicts/pushers and an all-night diner. This the evening after The Gateway published an article about how people should go to the theatre to get some class. When was the last time she looked at a Drama notice board? Even if she missed the posters promoting the student packages that offer pizza and beer at intermission, she should certainly at least notice the running theme of classlessness in the plays being produced. And just when I was starting to appreciate the lack of pretention among theatre goers...

Even the last production of Richard III done in Edmonton had promotional posters depicting Godzilla running around Tokyo~!

Ok, I'm done now...

Drama 279 is Evil

Not quite 8:30 on Thursday. Yeah, no Percussion Tech for me this morning... I woke up my computer so that I could find something about my stagecraft final project on WebCT, but that entire course just seems to be designed to frustrate me. I've decided I'm going to go today, anyways, though. We're supposedly going to be talking about costume design. I'll bring something to read...

I get to see my optometrist in an hour and a half! Then I'll hopefully get some contact lenses that make my vision better! I've given up on my toric lenses. They're just not working for me. My old glasses whose perscription I haven't changed in about three years are better than my toric lenses. So I'm gonna get some contact lenses that correct only my myopia, hopefully a very non-drying kind, and then glasses that correct my actually quite mild astigmatism to wear when I need to. But I need to check this with my optometrist first. And I need him to order the contact lenses. Nobody stocks my perscription. Bah.

My brain is not yet awake. It's recovering. It had a malfunction of some kind yesterday afternoon, and so I've been sleeping a lot. I slept for three hours yesterday evening, and then eight more last night. While this was indeed rather relaxing, it makes it more difficult to get up and get going. Oh, well. For now I'm quite happy to be wrapped in my quilt, surfing the net. :-)

Hey, anybody know when we get that $400 kickback from the province? I thought it was supposed to be this month sometime...

New Post!

And a good Monday to you all. I've just discovered that my left pinky hurts, so maybe this won't be quite the long, rambling post it could be. Shucks.

Sadly, the extra-long weekend came to an end, and the week had the gaul to start with Monday, the worst of all days. Surprisingly, I got through it just fine. My lesson didn't phase me. Well, I mean I worked and we got stuff accomplished, but it didn't freak me out like it sometimes does. I voluntarily played in rep class. Conducting was a bit of a gong show, but I wasn't one of the people really involved. I was explaining the difference between a gong and a tam tam to Peter the other day. Technically speaking, it's pretty simple, but the classic "gong" sound is really most often a tam tam, so it's confusing to actually listen to.

Oh, good lord. The new Telus commercial for their tv cell phones with the rabbits is ridiculously cute. I don't know if rabbits are actually capable of covering their eyes with their ears, but that shot was insane. I enjoy cute, but I know objectively that that is just so saccarine that the "awww!" runs headlong into the "yikes!" and all I manage to make is a small choking sound.

I had a Music Student Moment today. I got in the car to go home and U2's "Verigo" was playing on the radio. I turned it off right away to make a phone call, but I had the weird impression that the bit of the chorus I'd heard was a remix. And as I thought about it, I realised that the bass line was a stock arpeggiating bass line, which isn't what the song uses (I'm not gonna try to describe what the bass line actually does in written English). It briefly occured to me that I didn't really care to know that much about a bad U2 song, but I was quickly distracted by the discovery that if I try to make two of my power windows close while they're closed, my headlights dim. A person in the house I was in front of actually peered out at me.

Show of hands: Whose dad talks to the televised football/hockey/curling/extreme knitting game? My dad knows all about football, you know. He actually has an old football injury. He did something to his knee in highschool and had to have surgery. It became the thing to complain about when it was no longer reasonable to expect that his hip would hurt after it was replaced.

I have a confession: I'm actually quite excited about Christmas. I know it's still a ways away, but now that Rememberance Day is over, I don't feel so guilty about browsing through the ornaments in the Bay. ^_^ I enjoy shopping for Chirstmas gifts during the rush, I enjoy fussing over hors d'oeuvres before an eggnog and rum gathering (though I don't like eggnog, but you get what I mean), and I even enjoy the large amounts of snow. The only thing I don't like about Christmas is that there are never enough people around. Christmas morning is always just my parents and I. And my dog. One or both of my siblings come over later in the day, but it's just hard to be festive when the only thing that's going on is your parents looking at you expectantly to make sure everything is going well. I would love to wake up to a place full of a dozen or two people, and we could all chat and have cranberry pancakes and open gifts without requiring formalities worthy of an initiation into a cult. I think it would have kicked ass if Andy and Shelly had done a joint Christmas morning this year, and I could attend that. But Andy and Shelly broke up last weekend and I do still live with my parents, who do actually have the best of intentions.

Ok, so I guess my pinky sucked it up, because this was in fact quite a long post. Brave little pinky. I think I may shed a tear. And y'all think I'm kidding...

Mmmmojito

It figures. The moment I go from casually surfing the internet to actually writing in my blog, my dog appears wanting immediate attention. He's like a cat or something...

So last I night I finally went and saw Frozen, a play at the Citadel. My review for my Scene Study class is due on Monday, so I really did have to see _something_ and this one looked interesting. I had to pay full (student) price for the ticket, though, because when I called yesterday afternoon, they said they only had 10 seats left and so my chances of getting a rush ticket didn't look that good.

The play was so-so. It was about a guy who raped and murdered 7 girls over 21 years (and was caught trying to get number 8), the mother of one of the girls he killed, and a psychiatrist researching whether or not people with brain damage can be held responsible for their crimes. The actor who played the rapist did an excellent Welch accent. They had a dialect specialist working with the actors. The story was kind of lacking in thematic support, though. The mother went through an interesting journey to forgiving the rapist, and the rapist had neat ways of acknowledging what he'd done that kept him from being remorseful, but the psychiatrist, who was supposed to really carry the theme of the play, just didn't have enough to work with. There was a great deal of evidence that the abuse the rapist had suffered as a child had caused brain damage, and that this was the case with many violent offenders, but no explanation was given for the crime he chose. His dad beat him, so he raped and murdered 10-year-old girls. If you ask me, having the capacity to choose the crime means you have the capacity to stop yourself. There was too much focus on the neurological aspects rather than the psychological. Plus, the psychiatrist is supposed to be a foil for the rapist. While the rapist supposedly did what he did because he couldn't help himself, the psychiatrist slept with her colleague, a married man, two days before he died in a freak car accident. Since she knew what she was doing, hers was a crime of evil. I'm not sure whether this is supposed to reinforce the notion that the rapist is innocent or whether it's supposed to make us realize at the last moment that the psychiatrist's moral compass is fucked up and she shouldn't be trusted to judge this sort of thing. Bah.

In other news, my dad is making roast chicken tonight and my brother and Peter are coming over. You know, before my dad's hip replacement, he used to be almost scared of asking Chris and Lindsay to spend time with him, but since Chris spent so much time "babysitting" dad after his surgery, my parents do this family dinner thing a lot. Now, I like my brother just fine, quite a bit, actually, but I hate family dinners. With a firey, firey passion. So tense, so formal, and so all about the food. Gah. If my mom asks Chris how his love life is, I may drown myself in my gravy. If there isn't gravy, either because there was none made or because Chris drank it all, then I'll improvise. I'm flexible that way.

Until then, though, I think I'll read a magazine and pretend that I'm in Jamaica or Aruba or someplace else sunny, sandy and with an endless supply of _real_ mojitos. The kind made with fresh mint leaves and ground sugar cane. Oh, yes...

Why Doesn't the Moon Spin as it Orbits?

I have just eaten an Oreo, and that makes me happy. :-) I also have a virtually obligation-free extra-long weekend ahead of me, and that makes me happy, too. :-)

So first we've had a quick succession of several natural disasters, and now we've got a new French Revolution. We're going to hell in a handbasket! ^_^ When I was, like, 12, I found it intriguing that the expression "May you live in interesting times" was a curse. Oh, hey, and western chain hotels in Amman, Jordan were bombed. I shouldn't watch the news while blogging. I've said that before, too.

So I was 20 minutes late for Wind Ensemble yesterday because I _had_ to finish this assignment for the class I had right after, which I felt really bad about, but as I got there, rehearsal was just letting out. Apparently, Dr. Street had just given a speech. And it doesn't even seem to have been a "get your shit together" speech. The concert on Saturday actually went pretty well. Well, Sinfonietta wasn't perfect, but that piece aggrivates me, so I don't care. ^_^

I wonder what it'd be like to work in a think tank. I think I'd like to try it. I'd also like to be a hairdresser, a London cab driver and an alchemist.

Okay, I've just deleted two attempts at writing about people's complaints about light sentences. Again with the not watching the news while blogging. So I'm going to stop blogging now. Happy Suicide Prevention Weekend!

Your Child is in a Room

Your child is in a room with many doors. These doors lead to other rooms with yet more doors, which themselves lead to other rooms with more doors in infinite possibilty. These door do not lock. Anybody can open and close these doors. Initially, you will take your child through many of these doors yourself. As time goes by, your child will begin to enter new rooms alone or with others. There is no way to completely control your child's journey through these rooms. Now get over yourself and stop fretting over what age is appropriate for a girl to begin to wear makeup.

In other news, I'm stil sick as a dog. I also still have marks from the sunburn I got at Heritage Days in August. I'm very much looking forward to having Thursday and Friday off. My dog got a haircut and looks particularly ridiculous. I *heart* Gilmore Girls. Three cheers for the return of Jess! Will touch on less interesting events later.

Good Lord

I just have to express my unimpressedness at these commercials I've just seen on the Food Network. They're for a new brand of wine called "Naked Grape." Now, without even going into how that can be wrong in terms of wine making, would you look at a selection of wines and say "Oh, 'Naked Grape,' that sounds like a quality wine." No! You'd say "Let's be 'high class' frat boys tonight!" And that's just not that large of a demographic in the world of wine consumers.

ETA: Yes, I am a wine snob. For some aspects of this, I apologize. For this aspect, I do not.

And I Say to Myself... *cough* *hack* *choke*

So I'm in my pyjama pants and my fleece hoodie (because it's nicer than my night shirt), and I'm wrapped in the white chenille blanket that reminds me of a bunch of grains of arborio rice. In addition to my feeling like crap all week, which I hope is just exhaustion (my doctor suggested that it might be that simple, which is nice because I'm sick of having blood work done every six months), I also have a cold or mild flu. I coughing crap up, I ache and my stomach dislikes me. This has not been a pleasant week.

Went and saw the ESO rehearsal with Byron Stripling on trumpet and voice and Jeff Tyzik, who is also a trumpet player, guest conducting this morning. Being a big black guy, Byron can sing pretty well, and he was apparently born with chops of steel. He told us that in his first year of university he was conscripted into playing lead in one of his prof's professional big bands. The Grant Mac kids were there, many of whom I totally don't know, and they rehearsed Sweet Georgia Brown. I giggled.

We got to talk with Byron after the rehearsal, and he talked about selling yourself as a professional musician. It was a kind of neat talk, I guess, but the guest conductor kept taking over and talking ad nauseum about stuff that Byron had just said. I decided that he was a putz, and had therefore failed in selling himself to me.

And, of course, What a Wonderful World is on the program. Yay pops concerts!

I'm looking at Dave's spiffy black 4G iPod nano here, and while it does indeed rock, I have decided I would not buy one. I want an iPod that can hold 10G of music and fit into a credit card slot in your wallet. The nano is more or less there in terms of width, but its other proportions are all wrong. Thus, I don't actually want one. Plus, I'd need one that could use an FM transmitter, which the nano can currently not.

But here I am talking like I might actually have the money to spend on a nano, and like I don't already have a perfectly good iPod at home. Well, actually, it's in the car, and it needs to be charged, but it works! No water-related accidents for me!

I can feel the Advil I took a couple of minutes ago kicking in. It makes me happy... :-)

I feel like having some comments to read this weekend, so I'm gonna ask you guys a question. How often do you get sick? And what do you usually get sick with? I have a cousin who gets a chest infection every spring. It's the weirdest thing.

I Feel... Like Crap

Ugh. I've spent most of the day asleep. I went to bed at 10 yesterday and set my alarm for 7, but didn't even try to get up when it went off. I wound up dragging myself out of bed after a while, though, and headed to the pharmacy, because when I filled a perscription last night, they gave me the wrong medication. The stuff they gave me is apparently for stomach cramps, and, while I wouldn't mind something to calm down my stomach, as it has been rather unhappy as of late, it is not what I was perscribed. I think it was a pharmacy student who did it. Oh, well. They refunded what I'd payed and didn't charge me for the stuff I was supposed to have, which surprised me, but was nice, I guess. It was a whole six bucks or something, but still...

I got myself to school around 11:10. I was hoping to be able to finish this project that was due in my Stagecraft class, but I felt way too horrible, so I e-mailed my prof and then set myself to finding Dr. Street to tell him I couldn't come to rehearsal. I couldn't find him or Sara, who I was hoping to get to sub for me, but I did get Katie to tell Dr. Street that I couldn't be there.

Since there were maids at my house doing unthinkable things like vaccuuming, I went to Peter's house to crash. I slept from noon to five-ish. Now I'm trying to gather the energy to go home. I'm also trying to decide what to do tomorrow. I have class from 9-11, but I'm also kind of supposed to go to this ESO rehearsal with this jazz trumpet player named Byron something at 10. I also have a doctor's appointment in Mill Woods at 11:30, which means that I'll have to leave the Winspear probably before the rehearsal ends, if I go. At least Conducting class is cancelled so that Brendan can go to this Music Educator's Conference, which means I can try to push my doctor's appointment back by an hour. I'll have to cancel lunch with Jenilee, though. Or, I could tell my Scene Study prof that I'm at this rehearsal, tell Al and Russ that I'm in class and just sleep in. Glorious, glorious sleep...

Rgardless, I _do_ have to go to the Wind Ensemble dress rehearsal tomorrow, even if we can't have Con Hall. I think I actually have people coming to this concert, too...

Blech

I got all of the pictures for that thing on Jo's blog, but I've having problems getting the post to look right. It puts the pictures where I didn't tell them to, won't let me add text... It's being a pain in the ass, more or less. I might post each picutre individually, but for right now, I'm curled up on the couch feeling blicky and trying to pretend that the rest of the world doesn't want me to get up and be productive. I had the written portion of my Percussion Tech midterm this morning, which went fine, but there weren't any school-related questions like on past exams. I was out of there by 8:30, and now I'm hiding at home until Wind Ensemble, which I _have_ to go to because we have a concert on Saturday. Yay...

ESO Concert

I'm not tired, so I figured I'd blog about the concert I went to tonight.

First off, there was a couple sitting next to me who didn't really know what was going on. They kept talking at a relatively high volume throughout the first half, which annoyed me, but I understood when, as we were sitting back down after intermission, they asked me what the big violin was called. I told them it was a viola, and they looked not quite happy. Then, they asked what the woman with the grey hair was playing. It was a cello, I told them, and for good measure, I told them which ones were the double basses, too. ^_^

We all know that the non-trumpet music isn't important, so I won't talk about it. The Hummel was up first, and, I gotta say, I didn't like the performance. I seemed kinda phoned in. It lacked energy and tension. I think the main reason is that the piece just wasn't challenging enough for him. I was telling Peter over the break that the trumpet world needs a Christian Loba (Lauba?). Then, after the break, was the Jolivet, and that made me happy. I've always called music like that "Post-Romantic." Stravinsky's good stuff, ie, when he's not the model of Neo-Classicism, is also in this category. It's got the intense feel of Romantic Music, but has more complexity and interest. Ole Antonsen delivered a much better performance on this piece, I think.

When I went backstage afterwards, I saw a bunch of people I knew, but no Ole Antonsen. Russ showed us to him (Ian Trace was there to, and he's dating Cathy Glasper, which floored me, since I didn't know they knew the other existed), and so I got to congratulate him, but I didn't get to talk to him about the Jolivet. Russ gave a lecture on it before the concert, but I missed it, so maybe I'll get him to give me the jist of it in lesson on Monday. That should eat up some time. ^_^

Tomorrow: I continue to lounge around! Yay!

Post #72

So I caught up on my blog reading. Ali's took the longest. She's wondering whether she's possessed by demons. Somebody needs to get that girl to a psychiatrist. Quickly. She's so obviously suffering from depression that I'm amazed that an intelligent person like her doesn't realize it. Poor Ali...

So I'm going to the Symphony tonight. Yay, Ole Antonsen! His C trumpet rocks. It was sent to him by Bud Herseth, and it even has this neat colouring to it. That thing will be worth a lot of money one day... But if anybody doesn't have anything to do tonight, student rush tickets are cheap! I was telling this History prof on Thursday night how easy it is to get backstage. If you go in through the back door, there's a guard, but if you go in through the front door, you can walk right in. It's kinda funny, actually. ^_^ But I suppose most people reading my blog know that already...

I also dug out the sweatpants I bought in highschool for lounging around this weekend. They say "jazz" on the bum. ^_^ I'd wear them more often, but my dog chewed through them a number of years ago, so there are holes in the legs.

Oh, and I took the Which Famous Leader Are You quiz that Jo had on her blog. I'm Hitler, apparently because I'm paranoid. Huh... I think I'll do that pictures thing later, too. For now, though, I'm going to go pour myself some more tea. :-)

*does happy dance of no more insane workload*

Hey, Cheney's cronie resigned. Spiffy.

Alrighty! Week of Hell is OVER!!!! And it went well, all things considered! Yesterday I had to skip my afternoon class to get my two projects finished in time to go to the bar, but I did it, and so I rewarded myself with a horrible, but free, "vodka and seven." See, last night was the graduate history students' Hallowe'en party, as a believe I mentioned, and for the event, the Iron Horse had been booked, even though there were only about 100 people there. The tickets entitled people to a free drink before 10, but it was restricte to highballs. Now, you tell me to find you a 60-40 cab-bordeau wine and I've got no problem, but I have no idea what the hell a highball is. I tried ordering a vodka and cranberry, but they wouldn't let me do that, and suggested the vodka and seven. I figured what the hell. Yeah, that was a mistake. Later, I gave Peter five bucks and got him to get me a vodka and cranberry. That was much better. Oh, and many people met, yada yada, but they were all in costume, so I totally won't be able to recognise them later. ^_^

Okay, I've decided that this weekend, I will catch up on the past, like, two weeks of blog reading. The only ones I've been able to keep up with are Kaitlyn's and Joyce's, and that's because they don't update that often. All the others I read, though, have fallen by the wayside in my mad mid-semester crunch.

*does another happy dance of no more insane workload*

Maybe Only the Seventh Level

Well, today hasn't been as bad so far as I was expecting it to be, mostly because my Score Study project and Text/Character Analysis project weren't due today after all. Friday, instead. So I hope to work on one of them tonight after the masterclass, and finish both tomorrow by dinner so that I can go to the Hallowe'en party at the Iron Horse tomorrow night. It's the gradute history and classics students' association (or whatever it's called) who's putting this on, and apparently this one Russian history prof is quite the amusing drunk. Plus, I'm not sure that I'd believe that Peter went to a Hallowe'en party at the Iron Horse unless I saw it with my own two eyes. ^_^ We'll see if I get everything done in time, though. I'm not sure if I'll have any time tonight if we go out after the masterclass. I've resigned myself to doing this masterclass without really knowing the piece I'm playing. There's just no time. Stupid no time.

Anyway, maybe I can go do some reasearch on Handel before I have to leave.

Tweak

The changes I've made to my blog aren't permanent. I don't think. It's just something to muck around with during a short break. But tell me what you think--I might keep them for at least a while.

Descent

I'm staring down the gullet of the week of hell. As far as I know, I present in my Scene Study class tomorrow, but it might be Wednesday. I still need to memorise the last two sections of my monololgue, but the last one can be fudged pretty easily. Then, on Wednesday, I have the Text Analysis/Bone Structure due for that project, as well as my Score Study project for Conducting AND the masterclass with Ole Antonsen, which I'm guaranteed to play at. Thursday is my Percussion Techniques playing mid-term, which would be easy if I'd go out and buy the goddamn book already, and I can't remember whether my Conducting Assignment is on Wednesday of Friday, although I suspect it's Wednesday. Wednesday will be the day of the Ninth Level. Anyway, off to work~!

Mmm... Cherry-Flavoured

Ok, so I promised that I'd come back today with a happier spin on things. And today actually wasn't that bad. I ate a pomegranate (sp?) at lunch! It was messy and tart and very yummy. It made my afternoon happy. :-)

I... did surprisingly little today, considering I really haven't stopped. Went to class this morning and watched presentations. Yippy. Went to see my doctor in Mill Woods, went and ate lunch, went to Conducting class and came home and worked on my monologue. Now I'm thinking about what to eat for dinner. If I wasn't so hungry, I'd go grocery shopping. I'm almost out of cereal and microwavable stuff. Mmm... student chow.

Jenilee and I have been playing phone tag since Wednesday. I'm hoping to be able to see her this weekend, but tomorrow I have rehearsal at 10 and Dave's slightly belated birthday dinner, which, yet again, I am surprised to be invited to. Oh, well. I like Dave, and I guess he doesn't think of me a his brother's annoying girlfriend, so it's all good. Plus, yay yummy food at Jack's Grill! Mmm... not student chow.

I tried taking my dog for a short walk to the mail box today and he ran all over the neighborhood, eventually stopping to accost a couple of kids with his barks, tail and tongue, at which point I was able to catch him and carry him home. I think he's slightly resentful. Maybe I'll give him one of those chewies he likes. Would that be reinforcing his behaviour, though? Or is his memory short enough that he wouldn't remember? Hmmm...

Oh, and in the mail was a photo radar ticket for my dad. I was quite delighted at the addition to my arsenal of things to bring up if my dad ever criticises my driving. ^_^

Anyway, I require food. Maybe a bagel and a package of Hallowe'en candy. Mmm...

Thursday's Child isn't Happy, Either

I've been rather absent from my blog lately. All I can say is that I've been really busy. It's the mid-term crunch, but even that is being put on the backburner in order to be able to work on my monologue. I've got three of the five parts memorised, which works out ot about three quarters of the speech, since the last section is short. I spent hours working on it this morning and then realised this evening that I'd left a part out. Bah.

Allow me a moment to rant here. I'm rather tired of people bitching about Wind Ensemble. If you're doing you're part, then plug your hole with an instrument and do it. If you're not doing your part, then don't be a hypocrite by complaining about people like you. And if you absolutely must say something, then say it in a contructive manner, rather than taking delight in being obnoxiously self-deprecating or discouraging somebody even more than they already are. I had an encounter with a second-year non-music-student who plays fifth horn in Wind Ensemble today that left me peeved and disheartened, so I felt that this needed to be said. And I'm being the bigger person and not even mentioning that she realised she'd lost her music early Friday morning right before we left for Red Deer. ^_^

But, in any case, it's been a long day and I feel blechy, so I'm going to go chillax with my man, yo. Will update again soon with more positive stuff.

I'm Wearing a Newspaper Dunce Hat!

I'm loving this Jack Thompson stuff that's been going on lately. Also, I got home and decided to have a beer and play WoW. Somewhere halfway across town I know I have a boyfriend who's smiling.

Highlights From Friday

In chronological order:

Walking through the N/U parking lot from my car to FAB at 6:40 am, it was still dark. In the distance, I saw the oddest thing: Two rabbits, sitting dead centre near the end of two side-by-side parking spaces. They were perfectly still, sitting with their ears straight up. I thought at first they were plastic garden statues or something. Then a third rabbit ran past in my peripheral vision and startled me. I was starting to think of the White Rabbit and Wonderland. I got closer to the two in the parking spaces, and one of their ears twitched and I jumped. I wandered in a circle around them, a passing girl not seeming to notice, and they still didn't move. I got within five feet of them before they actually started to leave, very slowly. It was the most surreal experience...

On the bus, Dr. Street had bought us food in case we hadn't eaten breakfast or something. He had a flat of bottled water, apples and bananas and cheesestrings. He was eating a cheesestring in bites and held it up and said "This is the cheese that makes the strings!" in the classic Dr. Street raised eyebrows lilting voice kind of way. I seemed to be the only one to find it funny, but I nearly died laughing.

Robert W. Smith has been raised in my esteem. I no longer think of him as not even being able to live up to Frank Tichelli, whom I'm sure you all know I hold in great disdain. I think he (Smith) relies on pedagogical elements too heavily for inspiration to call his music all that artistic, but he had some nice explanations for some of his music that made it seem more expressive.

After our concert of our own stuff, I was walking down the hall in RDC and ducked. I was pretty sure that something had nearly hit my head, but I couldn't tell you anything more than that. Turned out it was Mr. Speers, who I still have trouble calling Rob, swatting at me with a folder. A bunch of Ainlay alums gathered and we chatted. It was nice to see him again. Maybe I'll impose on him to do my rehearsal observation there, if he'll let me.

A bunch of us went to Moxie's after the concert because BP's was being evil. The waitress kicked ass! Calvin kept ordering iced tea refills, and said that he'd probably go through six glasses, so when he finished his fourth, the waitress brought him two pints for the last two. He and Todd Carson, who apparently dated Alicia again until a couple of months ago, had both ordered the X-Treme burger, and were making eachother finish everything on their plate, and with their drinks (Todd had two HUGE 710 ml Coronas), they each nearly died. It was amusing. ^_^ And the waitress gave all 13 of us seperate cheques! BP's wouldn't even let us order off the regular menu. And, of course, I had to have one of their sugar-rimmed "margaritas," which are really just Kool-Aid for university students. Chelsea Marndrusiak (sp?) had a Molson Kick, the beer with caffeine, and was rather jittery later, but I think that was just placebo effect. She said it tasted like normal beer, though, which makes me slightly curious to try it. And it came in an aluminum bottle...

We decided to leave at 6:30 so that we could stay for the U of L and U of C concerts, but the U of L one ran long and we didn't have time to stay for the U of C one. Mrs. Burns, whom nobody calls just Rita, was in the row in front of me in the audience, and I got to say hi to her, too. She thought I was in second year. If that were the case it would seem less unpleasant that I have two more years to go after this one. The U of L was a large group, weighing in at about 77 people. It was unweildly. And not that great. It was about at the level I'd like to see a good highschool band at. All of their music was very simple. 4/8/16-bar phrases with no independant lines. It was quite something having the melody always played by the trumpets, flutes, clarinets, trombones AND saxophones (or close to that) with a band that size. They also looked pretty bad. This one trumpet player had his shirt untucked and unbuttoned down to mid-chest and no bowtie. One of the percussionist's idea of concert dress was grey (not faded black, grey) pants and a black wifebeater-style tanktop. Even Peter wears proper concert dress, and he is, in his own words "more or less tghe limit case."

The bus rides to and from Red Deer were actually very nice. I had two seats to myself, so I was able to lay down and doze. It took me quite a while, but I've found the best way to sleep on a tour bus: On your back with your head towards the aisle, kind of sitting cross-legged against the wall, with your hands under your head. Seriously. I listened to Jens Lindeman and remembered that I am indeed a music student.

And then that night, I dreamt that Prison Break was with the brothers from Malcom in the Middle. Very bizarre...

Meta Offspring

Ugh, no more work for now.

The section of my speech I've been working on for the past two days is giving me problems. It's only 153 words, but it's proving more than a little difficult. This is only the second fifth of the speech, though, so I can't fall behind now. Maybe I'll take it on the bus tomorrow.

Yay tomorrow. Or not. Getting up at 5 am doesn't exactly make me happy. Nor does having a concert halfway through the term. I know that a whole term can be a little long to work on some stuff, but we always seem to be under the gun in Wind Ensemble. I always either hear people say that people need to get their act together, or that it's too much to ask. Now, I know the disparity in skill level in Wind Ensemble is greater than would be best, but such a system should allow the lower-level players to learn from the higher-level players rather than bear the brunt of annoyance for not having the experience that negates the need for a slower learning curve. *sigh*

But I'll get to browse the tradefair. Maybe buy myself a nicer baton. Yay GST rebate cheques! Maybe invest in a nice cloth for my valves. My stupid valves. Russ told me to start washing them every day. Bah. See if there's a repair clinic I can attend. Maybe if I manage to not be in Wind Ensemble in my... oh, God, my sixth year, I'll just attend the conference as a normal student attender person. That would actually be nice, and it wouldn't entail performing or missing a theory mid-term.

There was the funniest thing that happened in rehearsal today, though! Ryan Laslop, Court's younger brother, is in first-year on percussion, and has even taken over Court's old job. Anyway, there's this one piece that has a lot of pitch changes in the tympani, and Ryan was having trouble keeping up with them. Dr. Street was checking that he'd be able to play this one important part, and he spoke the rhythm to him. In response, Ryan said "I can't get the bump-bump, but I can make the digga-digga." Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious. Katie even wrote it down. If I've misquoted him, Katie, feel free to correct me. It was just funny to see a remarkably good-looking, built guy in a tight (MSA) t-shirt, complete with pit stains from moving equipment around, say, in all seriousness, bump-bump and digga-digga.

Aah! I'm watching the beginning of CSI, and the credits are still rolling, and there's a person named Meta! I totally want to name my daughter Meta!! ^_^

Binderbinder!!!

I found my binder!!! It was indeed in SouthLab. I was so relieved that I wanted to cry.

I am at home right now. I have this nice three-hour break between Percussion Techniques and Wind Ensemble, and I enjoy coming home during it when I can. I can read the comics, which I never have time to do when I'm trying to get to my 8am class, I can take a nap, I can play with my dog... It's very nice to have a sunny morning to yourself.

Since my parents were in Jasper until Sunday, we didn't do the turkey thing, but my dad did cook salmon and fettucini alfredo last night for the three of us, Chris and Peter. My mom bought half and half for my dad to use in the alfredo sauce, but he went back to Safeway and bought whipping cream. I think maybe I should have a salad for lunch... and dinner...

I _so_ want to hear that recording of Regis Philbin and Donald Trump singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! To this day, whenever I think of that song, I think of the California Raisins version from A Claymation Christmas. That's on my tape of Christmas specials from, like, 1990 that I watch every year, along with the Peanuts Christmas Special, the classic (claymated?) Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, Mickey's Christmas Carol, and even the Garfield special. And all of the old commercials are great! "Hey Remmington--Shave This!"

And now for something we hope you'll really like.

A List of my Weaknesses
(Or at least the ones I'm willing to share with the world)

BBQ chips
My dog
The big gushy chair in the lownjlounge
Indulging Joyce (j/k)
Sleeping in
Coffee
Nice clothes
Hair Dye (although not lately)
Caramel
Metaphysical witticisms (not that I'm sure what those are)

Things

Thing 1: I saw a headline on msn.ca today that talked about "interval training" and I honestly thought for a minute they were talking about aural skills.

Thing 2: I can't find my binder. That binder has _everything_ in it except lessons and Wind Ensemble. I think it's either in the Media Room or in South Lab, because it certainly isn't anywhere else. Double plus ungood.

Thing 3: My dog wants attention, but his arthritis is acting up, so he doesn't like having his back touched, which kind of limits petting him. Poor Farley. I don't know where my mom keeps his doggy anti-inflamatories...

Thing 4: You know that pink frying pan I mentioned in an earlier post? Well, I was flipping through a Bay flyer today and found that frying pan along with a whole line of pink kitchen stuff by KitchenAid. Food processor, blender, kettle, measuring cups, knife, whisk and spatula... And that's not to mention all the other stuff on the page, such as a pink Dirt Devil vacuum broom, pens, various devices for holding your keys and tags and even a sports towel. Oh, and, of course, one of those rubber bracelet things. And polo shirts modeled by Celine Dion and her husband. And a matress. That isn't pink. And I've still left several items out. I officially declare this nuts.

Thing 5: Now that it is past noon, I'm going shopping! Three cheers for being a consumer! ;-p

Post #60

Yay long weekend! It didn't hit me that it was the weekend until Peter called last night and asked me what I'd like to do, but, man, what a glorious moment when I realized. ^_^ We went and saw Serenity again. I caught a lot more of the exposition this time. I was rather confused about the Reevers after seeing it last week. Peter saw all but one episode of the series during the week, and he wanted to help avoid the "fanboy effect" by contributing to second weekend numbers.

I read the Lucky monologue I have to memorize in class yesterday. I got applause! I was rather surprised. But, apparently, I only have two weeks before I have to perform it. Check it out here, about four fifths of the way down the page.

I'm not quite sure what to do tonight. My parents are in Jasper, Jenilee's in Vermillion, Peter's at work... I don't have a lesson for more than a week, so I don't need to panick about that. Yesterday was so insane that I really just want to do nothing, but I can't think of any nothing to do. Maybe I should head out to the middle east and dig people out from the earthquake rubble. I'm not sure they'd like me, though...

On a side note, does anybody ever use the Italian 6 conducting pattern? I can just feel my teeth vibrate when I think of how sharp beginner players would go if you did that...

Watching the news while blogging does not seem to be a good idea, because I waste all of my rants on the television. I've been working on this post for quite a while, and I've had the TV on for far too long. Maybe I'll give up on both and go find myself a book to read...

I don't care about Martha Stewart sailing in a hollowed-out pumpkin!!!!!

Mostly Splendiferous (quaquaquaqua)

So yesterday was mostly splendiferous. My scene study class did a neat little acting exercise where you ork with another person and come up with a close relationship like sisters or friends or whatnot, and then you each think of something you need to tell the other. Your partner doesn't know what that is, though, and the exercise involves sitting in silence in chairs facing eachother for a couple of minutes, playing the moment of trying to tell them. My partner and I were friends, and after the silence bit, my prof told me to say my thing first, which was that I had accepted a great job offer in New York and would be leaving next month. My friend just kinda sat there stoically and eventually said that she hoped we could stay in touch. It was kind of weird. Then my prof told her to tell her thing, and she told me that she'd pushed her mom down the stairs and killed her. She'd been laying there for about 13 hours, apparently. I... wasn't sure what to say. It was quite the exercise. I eventually gave in a dropped the line "I think it's time for me to take you to *your* new house," but I waited until the moment was over first. ^_^ And then our group for our next scene analysis project got together, and we decided that, instead of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, we would do Waiting for Godot, which, as some of you know, is more or less my favourite play in the world. I was very happy. There four of us, though, so I'm not sure if we'll be allowed to do the second act, where Lucky is mute, but I wouldn't even mind tackling his insane monologue in the first act, since I've got about a quarter of it memorised already and know the rest in bits and pieces. We'll see what my prof says. Or, alternately put, But not so fast.

By conducting class yesterday afternoon, though, I was getting tired. This girl kept standing too close to me and bumping me over, and this 40-something woman seemed to find it amusing that she couldn't remember any of her glossary terms when we were having the glossary competition game-thingy, which meant we lost horribly. I have no sympathy for people who have forgotten how to learn. This woman always makes such a big deal about how she can't think in any of the ways the prof suggests, and I just want to tell her that she'll either have to learn to do so, come up with some ways of her own, or fail the class, and that none of those involve so much complaining. Grrr...

But I felt better after mooching some of Peter's pizza and french onion soup from Academy. ^_^ Oh, that reminds me of a question I want to aks you guys, but I'll save that until the end of the post. Then, as I was about to head home, I ran into Ashley and Audrey, who had beed left behind by their ride to jazz band, so I gave them a lift. They said they owed me, and I shall remember that. *maniacle laugh*

And then I went home and slept for three hours. Glorious, glorious sleep. And afterwards, I didn't feel like stabbing anybody. *proud smile* So I went to the bar. ^_^

I met Peter and a couple of his history friends at Scholar's to celebrate the completion of his presentation on Oliver Cromwell. The hockey game was on. We won! But, man, was that place loud. You should have seen me jump when they scored right after I got there. See, I was sitting under a tv, so I wasn't really watching the game, except kind of on the tv across the room, so mostly Peter and I just chatted while his friends cheered. And I mooched some of his fries. ^_^

Anyway, enough of this rather long post, and on to my question. I was asked this question a couple of days ago, and it caught me completely off guard, and I have since been asking people I know for their answers: If you could change one thing about your life right now, without breaking the laws of physics or anything insane like that, what would it be? My first thought was that I'd like more money, but when I thought about what I'd do with more money, I decided that a more appropriate answer would be that I'd like to move out. You guys?