Sleepy

Why does Netscape hate Blogger? I wish it didn't; the Firefox spell check is a colloquialism Nazi.

It's December 30th and I've been tired since about 6pm. It's now quarter to eleven, and I'm wondering why I haven't gone to bed yet. I think it's because, earlier, I felt like I should have been alert enough to do something, so I'm staying up until that becomes the case. There's a flaw in that logic somewhere...

Not much has been going on. Work. So exciting. I don't have to go back until Friday, though. Three cheers for having most of this week off. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, though. Tomorrow is MorPRi's party, and the next day may be spent returning to normal, but, beyond that, I have no plans. I'm bound to get into some kind of trouble.

*Yawn*

Jenilee and I tried to go shopping when I got off work today, but Southgate closed at five, just after we got there. So we went to Earls for supper. Tasty. Sadly, this meant that I did not get new work shoes, and Jenilee did not get new jeans. Boo.

This post is in danger of degenerating into nonsensical drivel. For instance, this is a thought process that just went through my head: "I should sing a song. *begins to sing Teddy Bear's Picnic* No, I should sing a seasonally-appropriate song. *begins to sing Auld Lang Syne* I wonder what the original lyrics to that song were. Old Scottish was probably an odd language. I should learn Yiddish." For some reason, I then thought it would be appropriate to only include the last sentence of that in this post. Time for bed.

The 27th

It's the day after Boxing Day, which is also my parents' wedding anniversary. My dad is hoping to go out somewhere nice for dinner tonight. I have declined to join, if only because overeating is significantly unappealing in the post-Christmas bloat.

Christmas was quite wonderful, except for one thing. I had a stubborn migraine that started on the afternoon of the 23rd and didn't go away until last night. It didn't hurt, but it did make me feel nauseated and out of whack. I actually had to call in sick to work yesterday, and I've spent most of the past few days taking many naps, since I felt better for a couple of hours after sleeping. Luckily, by last night I was feeling better, and I seem to be doing just fine today, so my 9-hour shift at work tomorrow should be entirely doable.

As for the actual Christmas part of Christmas, it was most excellent. I got a lot of clothes from my parents. Peter gave me Season 3 of Boston Legal. I think I'll have him keep it--I can't bring myself to collect more than two series at once, and I don't own seasons 1 or 2. The gifts from Andy and Simone were very unexpected. Peter and I were given a down comforter and cover. I have no idea why. Peter always insists on having his own blanket so that he can wrap himself all up in it, and an uber-warm blanket isn't really something you think of buying in preparation for moving to California. It's a very nice comforter, but I don't get it. ^_^ Also, Sheryl and I each got a sterling sliver necklace from Birks. I think that was Simone's idea. I unwrapped the gift and saw a Birks box, and thought "Oh, hey, they used an old box for wrapping." Then I opened the box and saw a Birks display box inside. I was floored. It's a very pretty necklace with two kind of warped hoops as a pendant. Sheryl's is a kind of slip-chain, which she joked that Dave can use whenever she gets out of line. ^_^ It's very weird being given nicer jewelry by your boyfriend's father than your boyfriend has ever given you...

Food was good. Christmas pudding with Creme Anglaise was delicious. Simone made more cranberry sauce than you can shake a stick at. Andy did a similar thing with vegetables. We barely put a dent in the 25-pound turkey, and I imagine that leftovers will be sitting in the fridge for some time to come. ^_^

Peter, Dave, Sheryl and Wendy (Peter's mom) headed down to Calgary yesterday morning to see their uncle, aunt and cousins on their mom's side. I was left to recover at Andy's. Waking up at 7 am to call in sick to work is not pleasant when you're nauseated and disoriented. I then proceeded to sleep until after 11, though, which helped. =) Peter et al. should be back this evening, but what with the snow and such, I'm wondering if they might not just stay down there an extra day. I don't think Dave and Sheryl have to be at work tomorrow. It was snowing pretty heavily this morning, and Wendy is a pretty cautious driver. It may still be snowing--I can't tell with everything outside being a solid wash of white.

My only complaint about this Christmas, other than the migraine, is that it did not include my mom's stuffing. It is, in fact, the best. ^_^

Christmas-y-ness

It is the night before the night before Christmas, and I am now done my Christmas shopping. Yay, me! Well, technically, I have to exchange the size on a pair of pants I bought for my mom to give me (she couldn't think of what to get me, so she told me to charge my gifts to her credit card ^_^). Silly pants. They're from work, and I own two pairs of the exact same thing (which is why I didn't try them on), so I'm thinking that this pair was just incorrectly sized or something. It does happen occasionally. *glower face*

Speaking of work, that's more or less all I've been up to the past few days. Seven-hour shifts suck, because they're the longest shift you can have with only a half-hour unpaid break. Any longer, and you get two paid fifteen-minute breaks and an unpaid hour-long break. I would much rather have a 9-hour shift than a 7-hour one. Oh, well. I'm earning considerably more money than usual, so I'm not really complaining. Yay, money!

I am greatly looking forward to Christmas, as well as Christmas dinner at Andy's place. I just wish I didn't have to work at 7:45 am on Boxing Day. Another seven-hour shift... Oh, well. I anticipate that it will be crazy enough that time will pass rather quickly. I get to be a cashier. There are a handful of people who have planned to not show up because their availability agreements say they can't work Wednesdays, but they've been scheduled anyway. Anybody who did not specifically book Boxing Day off was given a shift, regardless of their availability, and I guess that getting the extra people who can work despite their availability saying otherwise make it worth having ten or so people not show. My availability says that I can work, and I have no problem with doing so, so I figure I'm all good. Christmas dinner is planned for about 5:00, so I don't think I'll even be terribly hung-over on Boxing Day. ^_^

Ok, no more talking about work for the rest of this post. I promise.

It's kind of exciting, not having asked for much of anything for Christmas. It increases the surprise factor quite a bit. One of the the things I *did* ask for, though, was a wall clock (not digital) that doesn't tick. My mom has been saying that she can only find ones with cords, and, despite having insisted that battery-operated ones do exist, I can't remember any that I've seen that I was certain were battery-operated. I don't particularly mind the idea of a cord, though. Really, I just want a clock above my television that Peter won't insist on putting in the bathroom every time he stays over. The poor boy is very sensitive to small noises when he's trying to sleep. ^_^

But, yeah, other than a clock, the pants (and scarf) I bought myself, and (presumably) a new set of pajamas (like every year), I don't know what I might be getting. Gift cards, maybe. ^_^ I haven't even bothered to go check the presents under the tree to see if any of them are for me. I should go shake them. ^_^

I've rambled for long enough, so I'll end this post by wondering "aloud" whether we should bring Farley with us to Peter's on Christmas day: I wonder whether we should bring Farley with us to Peter's on Christmas day...

Balance

Bad news: To borrow an expression for Calvin Loewen, my 282 exam this morning raped me.
Good news: My Ed Psych exam yesterday went rather well.

Bad news: I got shampoo in my eye in the shower today, and it hurt.
Good news: My new conditioner is very nice.

Bad news: My mom says she can't think of anything to buy me for Christmas.
Good news: She has therefore given me permission to buy my own gifts with her credit card.

Bad news: It seems that, no matter where I wind up, there will be seafood on Christmas Eve.
Good news: There will be many people around on Christmas day, and we will eat Christmas pudding.

Bad news: I am very tired.
Good news: I can sleep until Friday afternoon if I want, since my exams are done and I don't work for the next couple of days.

Bad news: There are only two Ferrero Rochers left.
Good news: Nobody else is here, so I can eat them both. ^_^

Bloggish

*hugs blog* I haven't updated since classes ended, but I wish to express my love of my blog and Blogger. It is simplicity, and I am so glad of that.

It's Sunday night, and not much is going on. I have my last two exams tomorrow (Ed Psych) and Tuesday (282). I am vaguely worried. I mean, really, who *likes* writing finals. Wait, don't answer that. I don't feel like being baffled and angry right now. ^_^

My Ed Psych course has done something that I think is key in becoming an adult--made me scared of adolescence. ^_^ I'm mostly kidding, but, really, there was a time during this course when I wondered how I'd made it out of my teens alive. Ironically, I've had more troubles since leaving my teens than I had during them. I see traits of adolescence in people I know, probably because I'm now aware that they exist. It's distressing, because, for some reason, I have gotten the impression that these are negative traits. I'm not entirely sure why that is. I should maybe look into that...

My dad is on the desktop computer behind me, and it took him less than four minutes to get ticked off at something "not working." Now he wants me to fix it. Use another goddamn browser! And stop clicking everywhere over and over in frustration; it just gets things jammed up. *sullen*

Wow, that really brought my mood down. Let's see, good news to blog about... I'm getting more hours at work over the holidays, which means more money. Yay, money! It was _very_ busy today, but that's to be expected on a Sunday with less than two weeks before Christmas. Firefox's spell checker is telling me that "Yay" is not a word. It suggests say, nay, ray, lay and cay as alternatives. I'm not even sure what cay means. Dock? Bay? Beach? Something completely different? I should go fold laundry. Or sleep. I will probably do neither, though. At least not for the next few hours.

Killing Time

It is the last day of classes, and I have Choral Tech in half an hour. My completed concert program assignment is sitting next to me. Bob's letting me hand it in without penalty today, since he hasn't had time to mark them yet, anyway. That makes me wonder why they weren't due today in the first place. Oh, well. Join the Dance, the trio of Lewis Carroll poems set to music, is on my list. That makes me happy. ^_^

I have to work tonight and for some reason I really don't want to. It's only a 4 hour shift, and I could definitely use the money, but the notion of showing up to work after it gets dark is just so unappealing to me. It's like I should be tucked away for the evening or something. Stupid brain, thinking weird things like that.

This is not killing as much time as I hoped. Usually, I'm surprised by how long it takes me to write a blog post (not that they tend to be all that short), but this has only taken five minutes so far, which means I have another 15 minutes to kill before heading upstairs. My Mini Gloria conducting on Monday went well. I missed two cues, I believe, and I almost made a backwards conducting pattern, but, other than that, all good, as far as I could tell. I forgot to look nice for the occasion, so I doubt I exuded the authority I needed to. Kind of like on Saturday when I went to the dress rehearsal wearing pyjama pants and a t-shirt. I talked to one of my students from student teaching last year, asking him why a trumpet player who'd graduated wasn't in Concert Band (it was because she'd gone to Grant Mac), and he didn't realize it was me. Apparantly, he'd gotten me mixed up with someone else. Later, he asked what my first name was. I thought it was kind of funny that I was very aware of my old students being around, but one of my best didn't even realize who I was. This is what happens when you wear pyjama pants and a t-shirt instead of work clothes. ^_^

I think I'm going to lay off the caffeine over Christmas break in the hopes that my tolerance of it will diminish and I will require less to stay awake and alert. I'm beginning to suspect that coffee actually makes me sleepy, what with the still being sleepy after a triple grande latte in the morning. I went to high school with a guy who claimed that coffee made him sleepy. He thought it was a cool fact about himself. I liked him, but I cringed every time that came up. He never drank regular coffee--he always drank Starbucks. The steamed milk probably had more of an effect than the espresso, what with his system being used to pop and the like. I remember hearing once that he was falling asleep while driving because he'd had coffee. Apparantly his friends were a little worried. Especially after taking this Adolescent Development Ed Psych course, I've become very aware of teenagers' desires to be the exception to a rule. Between egocentrism and the Personal Fable and whatnot, I'm surprised more people don't demand to be special. Maybe backpacking through Europe and living in a college dorm feels special enough, though...

Ok, now it's time to go to class.

Mondayness

Three more days. Only three more days...

I'm currently skipping 282 (again) with the notion of giving myself extra time to practice for my Mini Gloria conducting final in an hour and a half. Blogging counts as practicing, right? I'm not worried about the conducting, but I am worried about the concert programming assignment. I have no information on it, which is weird because I'm almost always at Choral Tech, and I go through the old handouts when I haven't been there. The syllabus doesn't say anything about it other than what percentage of our grade it's worth. I'm fairly certain it's due today, though. I have ten songs picked out for a secular spring concert, but I have no idea if there was a theme we were supposed to follow. Even if there wasn't, I'm pretty sure I'm missing information like catalogue numbers for the pieces. Handing it in late won't be as bad as asking Bob to let me back into the room with the filing cabinets to get the rest of the information.f *feels like a disappointment*

Other than that, though, things are more or less alright. Ed Psych only has the final left, and 282 only has that and the mini-papers portfolio (I assume--I could be missing a listening quiz for all I know) and the portfolio isn't due until the 11th (I just had a mini panic attack and checked that ^_^). The Orchestration brass quintet is due Friday, and... yes, that's everything. Still, nervous about the pragramming assignment.

I haven't been sleeping well, either. I keep waking up at indecent o'clock and worrying for two hours. This morning I woke up at 5. I fell back asleep just in time to ignore my alarm for half an hour. This isn't insomnia, technically--it's called early morning waking, the most ridiculously over-specific name that could apply to this. I wish I still had some of my Imovane stash.

Let's talk about good things. Since neither of my siblings will be around this Christmas, my parents and I are all going to Peter's for Christmas dinner. There should be 8 of us there, maybe 10. This makes me very happy. I always hated not having people around at Christmas. Andy seems keen on making a Christmas pudding, and I'm not entirely sure what that is. ^_^ I expect my mom will want to bring some jellied salad. ^_^

Also, Peter and I's four-year anniversary is on Wednesday. We're celebrating on Thursday, though, because Peter has a mini-conference and I have to work on Wednesday. I am happy about this anniversary. ^_^

Blah

Today has been less than wonderful, and I am getting a tension headache. First, I was stuck in traffic for freaking ever this morning. And when I was *almost* out of Riverbend, I remembered that I forgot my music for my open score reading assignment. So I went back home and wound up getting to school just as my first class was ending. I missed the course evaluation. This made me sad, as it means I missed my chance to tell the department how crazy-full 282 is in terms of content. When Beethoven gets half a class, you know you're moving quickly.

So I practiced my score reading and Mini Gloria conducting. The Mini Gloria conducting is getting rather good, actually. I think I'll use a baton. I much prefer conducting with a baton. I was late getting to Choral Tech, though, so the sign-up list for practice conducting was already full by the time I got there, and I therefore could not practice conduct the class. After class was my open score reading "performance." I got in there and was promptly told that I learned it wrong, having learned it with the tenor line an octave higher and in the right hand. Bob made me play it in the left hand, which was about as familiar as reading Hebrew to me. I got the marks for it, but I was annoyed and ashamed.

That's really all that's happened today. Well, I guess the guys came this morning just before I left to deal with the carpet in the basement. On of our pipes had a slight dip in it, and got clogged and backed up, causing unpleasant water and black stuff to leak in the basement. My mom pulled up some of the carpet a couple days ago because it smelled, and she was about to cut it out, but my dad yelled at her. The insurance company was eventually contacted, and they're paying for everything. When I went home to get my music this morning, the wet carpet had been cut away by the contractor-company guys, and there is now a large section of concrete at the bottom of the stairs to the basement. The carpet in the whole of the basement, except my room, is going to be replaced, because the carpet company can't get us carpet that matches the dye lot of the stuff we have. Despite the fact that the whole deal was messy and gross, I don't think anything smelled bad. The only time I noticed a bad smell was when my mom busted out the bleach to wipe everything down. The air freshener she left in my bathroom to get rid of the bleach smell also reeked. I moved it out into the main room where it has more room to diffuse. My nose may have been bleeding a fair amount lately, but my sense of smell is still working fine. I have no idea what drove my mom crazy enough to pull up the carpet and go ask my dad for a knife.

Various Things About School

Monday morning. In Ed building on my laptop. Was in HUB, but Business wireless was sucking.

I desire input from people. I am having a mental debate as to the merits of various blog-type web services, namely livejournal. Blogger is small-time compared to livejournal, and I'm pining for its community networking abilities. I won't give up this blog, but I'm wondering if anybody with experience with livejournal can give me a clue as to how easy/hard/scary/boring the whole scene is.

So Peter's Convocation was on Thursday, and he actually went for the sake of his parents. ^_^ His dad gave him a really cool kind of wooden map of South America, with each country made out of a different kind of wood. I had class/rehearsal, so I couldn't go to the actual Convocation ceremony, but I was able to go out for dinner afterwards. We went to Shogun, which Peter has been going to since he was a teeny-tiny little person of the unable-to-walk-yet variety. It's a tepanyaki restaurant, and the chef who prepared the food recognized us and waxed nostalgic a bit about how long he'd known Peter. It was kind of neat. And much food was eaten. That place serves a freaking huge dinner.

In related news, Andy has invited my parents and I for Christmas. We had them over a couple of years ago, and Andy says that now it's his "turn." (Last year, Peter was in Calgary with his mom, so there was no turn to be taken.) It sounds rather nice to me, since neither of my siblings will be able to make it for Christmas (I assume--I don't actually know about Lindsay and Treleana), and I prefer to have people around for holidays. Man, I should start thinking about Christmas gifts. My Visa card is probably a little bored from lack of use lately, so it's time to rack up more debt. ^_^

Nothing else in my life is terribly interesting right now. School is in the crunch time phase. It sucks, but I'm alive and not actively contemplating being otherwise. ^_^ I have to do an arrangement of a chorale for woodwind quintet tonight/tomorrow morning. I hate stuff like that. I don't particularly care about adding the artistic aspects of arranging to my skill set, so it becomes essentially a demonstration that I understand the theory, which disappoints my somewhat idealistic prof. I really like my prof, but I don't think he realizes that this course can be applied to degree programs other than Theory and Composition, so he talks a lot about the artistic merit of arranging. I feel kind of bad stating that as a bad thing, because I really do think he's a great prof, but my world is too busy for sensitive, artistic arranging right now.

Course evaluations for the Music Department are this week. I look forward to those way too much. To quote Jane from the British version of the TV show Coupling: "I love giving opinions--I've got thousands of them!" ^_^ But I should stop rambling and go do something productive now.

Friday Reading

Courtesy of Angela. Any griping about how stupid/useless these things are should be sent directly to her. :-p

1. Would you live on another planet if it were possible? Sure.
2. Favorite country? Canada
3. What's your favorite song? I don't think I currently have a favourite. Maybe You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon. Fun. :-)
4. What is/was your favorite subject in school? Band
5. Are you good at impersonations? No. I don't even bother to try.
6. Drums or guitar? Oh, that's actually a tough one... drums, I'd say.
7. Have you ever been surfing? No. I'm waiting for a waterproof iPod so that I can listen to the Beach Boys as I fall off my board. ^_^
8. Movie at home or in a theatre? In the theatre for watching it, but having a movie on at home while doing something like folding laundry is really nice.
9. Have you ever been on a roller coaster? Yes. They're just rollercoasters.
10. Have you met anyone in real life after meeting them online? I don't think so...
11. Do you like arcades? Not particularly.
12. Have you ever had your heart broken? Not romantically.
13. Last hug? Last night, from Peter.
14. Do you have a job? What is it? I'm a denim monkey at Old Navy. It's about that exciting.
15. Explain what you think about abortion. Your body, your choice.
16. Coke or Pepsi? *shrug* Either.
17. Do you like the band Radiohead? What I've heard is good.
18. Have you ever gone to a mall? No, I've been living under a rock my whole life. WTF?
19. Are all the pigs lined up? ...? Possibly, but I doubt it.
20. Who is your newest friend? Uh... Stephanie, a girl in many of my classes that I talk to?
21. Best April Fool's joke ever? I liked hearing about the one CHED did when the weather was first measured in Celcius, and they claimed that we had also moved to metric time. ^_^
22. Lonely or lovesick? As in which would I rather be? Lovesick, because at least then there would be somebody around. Preferrably neither, though.
23. Do you know anyone who has never left their home state? I don't think so...
24. Have you ever been beat up? No.
25. Would you sell your soul to the Devil? Whih devil? Hades? The Christian devil? I don't believe in any of them, really, though, so no, I don't think so.
26. Last time you saw your mom? This morning.
27. Have you ever gone rock climbing? I've gone indoor rock climbing.
28. What is your favorite sport to watch? Uh... golf? *golf clap*
29. Have you ever peed your pants after age 8? I'm pretty sure the answer is no.
30. Do you hate someone? I used to. I don't know if I have the time/energy for it now. I don't see the people I used to hate anymore. I'll say no.
31. What do you call those little plastic things on the ends of shoelaces? I know they have a real name, something like "tags" or whatnot, but I can't remember exactly what it is...
32. Croutons or bacon bits? Mmm... croutons.
33. Burial or cremation? Probably cremation.
34. Do you have a girlfriend? I have platonic girl friends, but being female and not a lesbian, I don't have *that* kind of girlfriend.
35. Cars or planes? Cars, I guess, because a plane would be expensive to operate.
36. Why do you admire people? Lots of reasons: skill, intelligence, charisma, accomplishments...
37. Do you own a car? Yes. It is old and the roof leaks.
38. Do you use email, IM, MySpace, or phone the most? I... don't know. Facebook and e-mail? How about in person?
39. Can you whistle? Yep.
40. For a guy: short or long hair? I don't have a problem with either, but different haircuts look good on different guys.
41. Abercrombie or Hollister? *shurg* Either?
42. New York or California? New York, probably.
43. Have you ever been on TV? When I was 8, for a news story on summer camps.
44. What is your favorite number? Either 16 or 9.
45. Have you ever gone a week without showering? Probably, when I was really sick.
46. Do you believe that animals have souls? Insofar as I believe in the existence of a soul, yes.
47. How much do you weigh? I honestly don't know. I haven't weighed myself in ages.
48. Rebel or goodie-two-shoes? More the latter. What do I have to rebel against?
49. Are you good at imitating accents? Again with the no.
50. Do you wear glasses? I require corrective lenses, and I usually wear contacts.
51. Collar popped or normal? Normal.
52. Gym or music? I don't understand h0w those are dichotomous. Music, though.
53. Have you ever thrown up on a dentist? Uh, no.
54. Have you ever been drunk? Yes.
55. Have you ever been to a different country? A few.
56. What is your least favorite emoticon? There are way too many for me to choose a least favourite.
57. What name brand do you wear the most? Uh, Old Navy? American Eagle? Are those name brands?
58. Do you drink soda? Yes, but I call it "pop."
59. Would you eat sushi? Would and do. Tasty fish.
60. What is your favorite flavor in general? Cinnamon, maybe caramel.
61. Would you go skinny dipping? I'm sure there are circumstances in which I would.
62. Favorite food? Yogurt.
63. Who do you want to meet? Oh, I don't know... I'm sure there's a whole list of people, but I can't really think of one to write right now.
64. Name one person you hate, and why: N/A
65. Who do you trust? Uh, Peter... and my dog...
66. Sneakers or flip-flops? Sneakers, for the most part.
67. Do you wear deoderant? Yes.
68. Do you like taking surveys? Sure.
69. Who is your oldest friend? How long have you known them? Jenilee, whom I've known as long as we both have been alive.
70. Would you flip off the pope? HAHAHA!!! That would be so amusing. Probably not, though. Despite not being a Christian, the Pope would probably be an interesting enough guy to talk to that I wouldn't want to preclude the possibility of that happening.
71. Do you consider yourself religious? No.
72. Do you send chain letters very often? More or less never.
73. Would you die for your family? No offense, family, but probably not.
74. Do you hold grudges? Not really.
75. Hug or kiss? I enjoy both, but get more of the former.
76. Do you like cows? They go "moo." What's not to like?
77. Flip-flops or slippers? I am all about the slippers.
78. Have you ever been to college? If by college you mean "University," then yes.
79. Logic or art? Oooh, both?
80. What's the best concert you've seen? Uh, I don't know, really. Some concerts you can't really compare...
81. Have you ever cried yourself to sleep? Oh, yeah.
82. Do you like the taste of blood? ...No.
83. Who do you NOT want to meet? I don't know if there is a person I wouldn't like to meet. Lots of interesting things can be learned from meeting people.
84. Would you run from the police? I'm sure there are circumstances under which I would.
85. Do you know any foreign languages? I speak English and French. It's up to you to do decide if either of those count as "foreign."
86. Fridays or Ruby Tuesdays? What *is* a Ruby Tuesday, exactly? Don't look at me like that.
87. Do you believe in magic? I suppose not.
88. Have you ever moshed? No.
89. Where did you go to school? Edmonton?
90. What is the longest you have gone without sleeping? About 36 hours, I'd say.
91. Do you get motion sickness? Occasionally, usually in the form of a headache.
92. Would you be my friend? ...Possibly.
93. What is the last thing you said to someone? "In the Downloads folder right about there."
94. Do you have a cell phone? Yes.

And now that I've taken a "break" to go to class and drive home, I resume!

95. Hot or beautiful? Hot.
96. Have you ever been on the radio? No.
97. How do you usually dress? Casually, I guess.
98. Have you ever gotten your tongue frozen to something? An ice cube. Seriously! They melt quickly, though, so it wasn't a problem.
99. Do you want a boyfriend or girlfriend? I have a boyfriend, so I'm quite happy in that department, thanks.
100. Have you ever seen Switchfoot in concert? No. Are they the scary ones? No, wait, that's Slipknot. Who are Switchfoot?
101. Have you gone on a date? ...Yes.
102. Have you ever gone to a private school? Nope.
103. Do you like working with people? I like working in the presence of other people, but not with other people. Working with people makes me want to end a life.
104. Favorite type of sock? Uh, black?
105. Do you have any piercings? Just in my ears.
106. Do you like dogs? Very much so.
107. Do you get along with other people's parents? I suppose. I'm not exactly friends with any of them, though.
108. Would you eat human flesh for money? If everything was clean and fully-cooked, and the person was dead anyway, and it was enough money to be worth the attention, then, yeah, what the hell.
109. Have you ever seen Nine Inch Nails in concert? No, but at least I know who they are.
110. Who of your friends can tell anything to you? Uh, Peter, maybe?
111. Pancakes or waffles? Mmm... waffles.
112. Do you want to talk to anyone right now? Not particularly.
113. Would you have sex before marriage? Why or why not? Would and have. Some people don't like that, but I don't particularly care.
114. What is your dream job? That's a really good question. If I ever figure it out, I'll let you know.
115. Do you wear perfume? Hardly ever.
116. Who is the fattest person you know? Uh... there's a Drama student who was rather large...
117. How are you feeling right now? Ansty, and a little cold.
118. Do you brush and floss? Yes, but generally not together. I only floss when I have stuff stuck in my teeth.
119. Do you believe in aliens? Do I believe that life exists somewhere else in the universe? Yes. Do I believe that there are little green men abducting people and giving them anal probes? No.
120. What is your hair color? Blonde.
121. What's the most common name you know? Alex, probably.
122. What's the longest car ride/road trip you've been on? Probably driving to and from Vancouver in one day each.
123. When do you go to bed? When I manage to make myself. I'm no good at going to bed.
124. Who do you talk to most on the phone? Uh... I don't know. Joyce?
125. Do you believe in love? Sure.
126. What is your biggest weakness? Caffeine. And sugar.
127. Who is the stupidest person you know? I could nominate a few people for the category of "not that bright," but I don't know anybody really stupid, I don't think...
128. Who do you have a crush on now? Nobody. My boyfriend?
129. Do you sleep naked? No. It's not comfortable to me.
130. Love or like? As in, which do I prefer? It kind of depends on the person... Like, I guess?
131. Have you ever cut off a limb? Only of a gingerbread man.
132. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing
you thought? I hate my bangs.
133. What size shoe do you wear? Women's size 10.
134. What's your favorite car? I don't know... I'd like a Civic hybrid for my next car, if I could, though.
135. Have you ever had a crush on the same sex? No.
136. Have you ever been dumped? Kind of.
137. Best body type? On a guy? Uh, is sleek a body type?
138. Have you ever skipped school? Hell yes.
139. Would you do drugs? Sure.
140. What is your favorite male name? Uh... I don't know at this point.
141. Have you ever had a crush on more than one person at the same time? No.
142. Would you have plastic surgery? If I ever wound up with a severed finger, hell yes I'd want plastic surgery to have it put back on. I don't think I'd ever have cosmetic surgery, though.
143. Have you ever been on a boat? Yes.
144. Who is the most boring person you know? No idea.
145. What is your most missed memory? As in a memory I no longer have? Couldn't tell you.
146. Have you ever cried in public? Yep.
147. Favorite athlete? Uh... Jenilee?
148. Are you ghetto? *snerk* No.
149. Six pack or sweet? Sweet.
150. Do you believe in God? No.
151. Are you rude? I can be if I want to. I don't usually want to, though.
152. Do you think Snoop Dogg sucks? I know next to nothing about him.
153. You or your love? I don't understand this question.
154. Would you date someone you met online? Sure. I mean, I wouldn't agree to come over to their house alone without having met them in person a few times, but there's nothing about the internet that has to mean somebody is a creep.
155. Have you ever gone streaking? No.
156. Do you believe in soul mates? In a manner of speaking, yes.
157. Say something annoying. Pleeeeeaaasee???? (Well, I'd find it annoying.)
158. What is your favorite type of ice cream? Probably cookies 'n' cream.
159. What is your screen name? Uh, I use various forms of etoile_du_nord, I suppose, such as my e-mail address.
160. Would you date someone older than you? Would and am.
161. Do you memorize random facts? Yes. It's kind of annoying to me on occasion.
162. What is one bet you've won? I can't remember. Nothing big, that's for sure.
163. What kind of music do you hate? Not a big hip-hop fan, but I wouldn't say I hate it.
164. Have you ever been on a road trip? Yep.
165. Worst April Fool's joke ever? I'm sure if I remembered some from elementary school, they would be horrible, but I can't. Sorry.
166. How do you align yourself politically? I'd rather not, really, but probably more to the liberal end of things.
167. Last time you spent $100, and what for? A couple of weeks ago, when I bought a new power cord for my laptop. I didn't think it'd be that expensive.
168. Have you ever been to a concert? Oh, yeah.
169. One rumor that's been spread about you: Uh... I think in the seventh grade there was a rumour that I was dating a friend of mine. He was short, so people thought it was funny...
170. Mom or Dad? What? Uh, mom?
171. Can you cook? Yep.
172. What do you think about homosexual marriage? All for it. I'm sure that my sister and her wife love eachother very much, and I hope they're successful in conceiving a child.
173. Do you believe in life after love? Yes, but not in Cher.
174. Dogs or cats? I'm certainly more of a dog person.
175. Do you wear cologne? No.
176. Group or single dates? If you want it to be a special date, then single dates, but group dates can be fun.
177. How often do you visit your myspace/xanga/etc profile? Daily, usually, maybe twice a day.
178. Where did you get your last email from? Facebook.
179. Chocolate or vanilla? Probably vanilla.
180. Do you like the band The Shins? I am aware that they exist, but that is all...
181. Have you ever bought a car? No.
182. Have you ever been high... on life? Yeah.
183. Where did you last go on vacation? Vancouver, I guess.
184. How many ex boyfriends/girlfriends do you have? One. I am such a wild child.
185. What's your favorite album/CD? I don't know right now...
186. What is your favorite word? Spiffy is a definite contender.
187. Have you ever left the house naked? No, not even by accident.
188. One best friend or many good friends? Many good friends would be my choice, but, luckily, I don't have to choose.
189. Have you ever been asked for an autograph? Only when sales clerks use that term instead of signature for a credit card receipt. That's kind of weird, I think.
190. TV or movie? TV.
191. When you wake up, what is the first thing you think? Usually some version of "What time is it?"
192. What's your favorite movie? Hmmm... I don't know that one right now, either...
193. Who is the skinniest person you know? Kripa.
194. Do you get annoyed easily? Probably.
195. Have you ever been to a beach? Yep.
196. What was the last compliment you GAVE? I think I told my mom I liked her shirt.
197. Do you like celebrities? Uh, they're people? I guess I like some of them, but not because they're celebrities.
198. Have you ever performed on stage? Oh, yeah.
199. Who can you tell anything to? Uh, Peter, I guess?
200. Where is your favorite place to go on vacation? I really want to go to Greece.

Units of Failure

Ok, so my Ed Psych paper was due four minutes ago. Or, rather, four minutes ago was the last time it would be accepted without having marks docked. Have I been to school since Monday morning? Yeah, no. I'm currently at home screaming at the results charts in the research articles I'm using. None of these damned tables use units of measurement. The result for vandalism done by African-Americans between the ages of 14-16 is 2.6. Well, ok, I made that up, but that's what all the results look like. 2.6 what, exactly? I have spent the past three days trying to figure shit like this out. Right now, it's very tempting to just abandon the course and take an EDEL course with Bob next term for my last Ed credits. I won't, though. Instead, I'll just hand in this paper whenever I can get it done--it'll be accepted until Monday. I got above average on the midterm, so if I do as well on my final, I can get a crappy grade on the paper and still pass the course. See, this is why I can't do grad school. ^_^

Anyway, I must get some food and then return to work. Oh, and wish Jenilee a happy birthday. Happy birthday, Jenilee! =)

Squeaky and Broke, Among Others

It is Friday morning. I handed in my Orchestration assignment yesterday (though I later realized I forgot to add the Scherzando marking... oops), and now I must start in on my EDPY 404 paper. I am 95% certain that I'm writing it on externalizing disorders, like substance abuse, but if I run into serious problems while researching, that may change. We were given a list of topics to choose from, and while we could present our own topic for consideration if we wanted, that was supposed to have been done by the end of September, which it, uh, is not... ^_^ So, yeah, externalizing disorders. I'm not about to touch the adolescent sexuality topic with a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole. It's just not worth getting that annoyed to write a term paper.

The backspace key on this computer squeaks. Like, "squeak"-squeaks. It would be kind of funny if it wasn't so loud. I'm in the Ed computer lab right now because the authentication programs in the FAB lab are borked. It was kind of weird walking in there and seeing nobody there, but almost all of the computers turned on at 9am. It had kind of a horror movie vibe to it. ^_^

I am annoyed at how long it takes for my paycheques to clear. I am broke until my last one clears, I think on Tuesday of next week. *sigh* I signed up for automatic deposits when I started working at Old Navy, but it never kicked in. Maybe I should re-apply. The whole being broke thing is rather problematic with my caffeine addiction. If anybody is stuck on what to get me for Christmas, Starbucks gift cards will be loved, cherished and used frequently. ^_^

Ok, now I'm procrastinating. (Best graphical representation of procrastination I've ever seen: A pocketwatch sitting in an armchair. There was also the sound of ticking. Ah, old Sierra games. ^_^) Time to get to work.

On My Second Cup of Coffee

I'm at school, though I'm not really sure why I bothered. I slept through my first class, showed up to skip my second class, and have no intention of going to my third class. The only reason I'm here is because I don't feel like writing out my string orchestra score by hand. I had enough of hand-writing scores in Band Techniques class. And since I've never bothered to finagle myself a copy of Finale, school is the only place I can do this assignment not by hand.

My nose must have been bleeding recently, because I just rubbed it and got dried blood all over my fingers. Oh, and it's bleeding again. From both nostrils. Stupid winter. There are far too many extra things to think about during winter when it comes to overall health. I did copious amounts of laundry yesterday, and broke out the dryer sheets. Those, combined with keeping my skin moisturized and using a really good conditioner, are the only way to stop my hair from going ridiculouslly static-y for five months of the year. It felt really good to get the laundry done, though. I actually have a wardrobe to select from now. ^_^

I found out something sad and confusing this morning. I ran into Sara, a fellow trumpet player, in the elevator. I asked her how she was doing, since I hadn't really seen her in a while. She sighed and said that she really wanted to be done with lessons. Apparently, she's been really angry with Russ lately. I told her that Russ is usually pretty good about hashing that kind of stuff out, and suggested she tell him. She informed me that she had told him, and it had lead to screaming matches. That seems so... un-Russ. I mean, I've heard him talk about yelling at his kids, but I've never heard of him yelling at his students. I have no idea what he and Sara have been fighting about, nor do I know who started it or who's at fault, but it's all very disheartening. Russ taught me many useful things, and while I wasn't a star pupil, I never claimed to deserve more than what he gave me, marks-wise (I got a B+ in 425), and I think I did pretty well considering the complete upheaval my life endured while I was taking lessons. Russ may have been disappointed by the shift in priorities said upheaval caused, but he never seemed to resent it, nor did he ever insist I give more than I felt I could. I feel like I'm eulogizing some version of him here. It is sad.

Time to move on to my string orchestra assignment. First, though, I must go wash my hands. Stupid bloody nose...

Friday

I'm in the Education building because three seperate computers in FAB had problems with the Authentication program, and I gave up in disgust. *sigh*

The TA gave today's lecture in 282. It was on Stravinsky. We were talking about Rite of Spring (of course), and he mentioned the importance of rhythm. He asked a kind of throw-away question about whether we thought that rhythm was the most important, fundamental element of music. A few people nodded. This one girl who's about 27, I'd say, and who eats a bagel noisily every class and insists on using a thermos for her coffee instead of a mug, and therefore opens and closes it (noisily) every few minutes, said that even the most primitive forms of music, where neanderthals hit a rock, has rhythm. A couple other comments were made, and I raised my hand. I said that I disagree because you can't have music that is just rhythm, since rhythm is not audiar. There needs to be sound in order for it to be music. The keener in the back who talks too much and reminds me of a less intelligent Adam Burgess didn't get it and argued with me about the large role of rhythm in hitting rocks together.

*hates self*

Now, my argument may not hold water, because as much as there can't be music without sound, sound cannot exist outside of time, as far as I know. Time (more commonly referred to as rhythm) and sound (more commonly referred to as pitch) are both necessary for the existence of music, as far as I can tell. It's like thinking of a staff as a graph. I still wouldn't call rhythm the most important element of music, though. I'd probably attempt to come up with a term that includes both rhythm and pitch, like how space-time is one dimention. Pitch-rhythm.

If Stravinsky was gay, why did he have a mistress?

There's still no chai in the Ed cafeteria. This makes me sad. I've been drinking Red Rose tea lately instead. The tea is good, and I've been adding honey to it, but it's just not spicy like chai. :-(

Four-day weekend coming up!! I am soooo looking forward to actually getting stuff done. Usually my weekends go as such: Spend Saturday catching up on sleep and generally relaxing, which is required for me to survive, then spend Sunday at work. I'll still do all that this weekend, but then I'll have Monday and Tuesday to do things like organize my bank records that have been piling up in my drawer.

Concert Band rehearsal yesterday was in Con Hall because the percussion equipment had all been moved there for an upcoming Wind Ensemble concert, and on my way back to FAB afterwards, I saw an advertisement for the play What the Butler Saw, less than an hour later at Timms. I called Peter to see if he wanted to go, but he had schoolwork to do, so I decided to get dinner instead of go to the play by myself. I was hoping to go tonight, but tonight is the Wind Ensemble concert. I am so jealous of how often they're performing. Not that I'd want to perform that often with Concert Band. But I'm bored. And I sit next to the 3rd euphonium player, who I would like to nominate for having the worst sense of time in the band. And the echo-y sound in Con Hall made Symphonic Songs for Band go even more out of time than usual. I have not been enjoying rehearsal lately. So I'm going to go to the Wind Ensemble concert tonight, and hopefully the play tomorrow night. :-)

Standard Blog Post

Ok, Facebook is starting to tick me off. This morning is the third time I've logged in and not been able to do stuff. Twice, I was at school, and once I was at home, and it's frustrating. Harrumph.

The stuff that I had considered writing about currently seems very boring and self-indulgent. I spent a large portion of 282 this morning contemplating the nature of innovation, and I was going to regale you wiht my thoughts on the matter, but I dn't think that would make many people terribly happy. Or awake. That class never makes me think about dates and form and stuff like that, but instead about things only tangentally related to music history, and then I stop learning the stuff that's on the test. Stupid brain.

I suppose I could follow one of the more time-honoured traditions of blogs/journals/whatever and complain about something. I don't really have anything to complain about, though. I had a bad day yesterday because I had a series of nightmares the night before and I just felt funky all day. In the nightmares, my brother died, Peter's mom died, and Peter's dad's house burned down, among other things I can't really remember. So, yeah, bad day, but not really anything to complain about. PRi sent me chocolate on Facebook. It was tasty. :-)

Let's see... another classic of blogs/journals/whatever is angst. Angst is the Dutch word for fear. I thought that was kind of cool when I found that out from my old "penpal" Marco. I miss Marco. I still have most of the angsty crap I wrote when I was younger, both in the form of my private journal and various endeavours into fiction. Ah, memories of high school writing club. ^_^ Not feeling particularly angsty today, though. I suppose I could start fretting about next year again, bu I don't particularly want to. It is, after all, rather unpleasant.

Una mas! Love. Lurve. More agnst, often. Hehehe. I suppose I could talk about this. I do in fact love my boyfriend. I was teasing him last night about how we share the same "crushes" on fictitious characters. ^_^ First the character of Alan Shore from Boston Legal (I saw the end of the new episode last night and nearly killed myself laughing at the "Sleepover?" line), and now Peter's developped this amusing preoccupation with Heroes, and, more specifically, the character of Sylar. I laughed at him. ^_^ Yeah, the whole love front is doing just fine. :-)

And I think I've just run out of standard topics. *sings the Mini Gloria* I should really go to Ed Psych today. I haven't gone except for the midterm in about three weeks, maybe more. It's long and soporific and just the prof relaying what the textbook says in between trying to force us to have group discussions about stuff. In any case, I should stop writing because Mark is here prepping for 245, and I need to go get my Choral Tech stuff. *bobs head along to Mini Gloria*

Coldness

Facebook is being fritzy, so it's on to Blogger for now.

It's cold. I wore my long puffer coat today, and had to scrape down my car. The window was still frozen shut, though, and I didn't realize this until I was trying to order at the Starbucks drive-through. I had to open my door. At 1:30 this morning I gave up trying to warm myself up up with two quilts and went and dug out my big heavy down one. Oh, that was so much better.

Can anybody explain to me the dynamic between the heavy emphasis on programmatic music in the 20th century and the novelty of new sound? It seems weird that new sound would be neither used as its own end (listen to the shit I can do!) nor incorporated into previous conventions (like faux-new-sound pentatonic scales in symphonic poems). Is it that there's such a strong emphasis on programmatic music in the 20th century that we just apply everything to that practice, kind of like a man with a hammer? See, this is why I shouldn't be in a 9am 282 class--I'm not awake enough to realize that some of this crap just doesn't matter, and I get myself into wonderings like these. I hope there's just some big point that I've missed that will make me go "Oh, well, alright then," and leave it at that.

God, what the hell does my body DO with the large amounts of caffeine I feed it in the morning? Store it away for a rainy day? I feel more exhausted now than I did at 7:30 this morning...

Oh, btw, if anybody wants a Friends and Family 20% discount card for Old Navy, pipe up and I'll get you one. It even rips in half so that you can give a card to another person, so that people I don't even know exist can get a discount on my behalf. ^_^ It's good from November 26th to December 2nd, so there's no real rush. I may use this as an excuse to get together with people. :-)

Lastly, I give you a tale of my misfortune for your amusement: It was cold yesterday, too, and everything was icy from the freezing rain the previous night. My mom was very nice and moved my car into the garage so that it could melt before I went to work. However, the leak along the top of my windshield where the metal has rusted has bested the bathroom caulking we put on it, and it freaking rained in my car as everything melted. ^_^ The was a puddle on the driver's seat, and every time I made a turn, droplets would fall sideways. I tried to press on the upholstery on the roof of my car to get some of the water to wring out and it just got my arm wet. Luckily I had a sweater dress-type thing to wear at work that covered the various wet spots on my clothing. ^_^

w00t w00t!

It's Saturday afternoon, which means that I do have other things I should be doing (like laundry and getting my hair cut), but I am feeling the need to blog/geek about something: Yay new X-Files movie!!! It now has a release date for July 25th of next year, and I am doing a little happy dance. A toast happy dance, if you've checked my Facebook. ^_^ Hell, I'm thisclose to letting out a "squee!" ^_^ But I won't, both because I'm above that (*nervous giggle*) and because my father is sitting behind me, playing cards on the main computer, and he would probably look at me funny if I made such a noise. ^_^

There's a Girl here Wearing Devil Horns and Signs with a Tritone on Them... ^_^

I have just finished my 282 midterm and all I can say is thank God for the essay question being worth the most ponits. It was on an excerpt from Tristan und Isolde, and asked about Wagner's innovations in opera. Considering that I think I did fine, but not spectacular on the definitions, and that I'm pretty sure I bombed the listening (worth the least marks, thank God), I should pass, but thanks mostly to the essay.

Elsewise, it is Hallowe'en! Jackie and Amy are dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2. They bought part of their costumes at Old Navy on Sunday. ^_^ Their wigs rock. Everybody at Starbucks this morning was dressed up, and despite hearing talk about how today was Hallowe'en on the radio when I woke up, I was taken by surprise at the Starbucks people. One of them looked far too tired to be dressed as Tigger, though. ^_^ I am dressed as... a music student who had a midterm this morning. I'm wearing my U of A Music t-shirt and fleece pants. Very comfy, but not all that unusual or spooky. ^_^ I don't even know if I have a costume kicking around any more. Oh, well. They won't kick me out if I don't dress up for the party tonight. Hell, I'm not even sure if I'm going, though it does sound like much fun. :-)

Today is the first official day of the Mini Gloria in Choral Tech. We sightread it last class, and I was sitting next to a vocalist and I wanted her to pipe down and stop singing so brightly so that I could hear myself, so I'm already embittered towards the piece. ^_^ We get a list of cues today, though, which will be nice, and it's also always nice to know that I'm not the most inexperienced conductor in the class, so I won't seem quite so foolish when I accidentally panic and do something that more closely resembles flailing than conducting. ^_^ It's also nice that I'm not scared by mixed meter. Bring it on. :-D

Cookie Hangover

On a whim, I got a London Fog this morning instead of a latte. I am now regretting that decision as I try to not fall asleep on the keyboard and post a long string of gibberish along the lines of "7 g ei bfwwo9ifpohwepifhahf aoehf ewafoh230..."

Reality is currently of the vaguely unpleasant variety. The job at St. John's Music was full-time only, so I couldn't take it. That was disappointing. They're keeping my resume on file for if they ever need part-time help, though. My second 282 midterm is on Wednesday, the 31st, when the first one was on the 5th, and there's even more pages of music to learn for this one. I currently begrudge Romantics their excess. I'm not too worried about my Orchestration midterm tomorrow, though, as long as I remember to bring a ruler. And my Choral Tech midterm went well on Friday, though I accidentally made a mistake on the IPA spelling of beauty, writing [buti], rather than [biuti]. Meh. Like I said, *vaguely* unpleasant. ^_^

Last night, Joyce and I made Hallowe'en sugar cookies. Some of them puffed up a little bit, so there were a couple of witches on brooms that weren't recognizable as such, but most of them turned out well. That was fun. I took my half to Peter's place, where people were gathered for Sunday dinner, and they got eaten. ^_^

Other than that, not much is up. I think I will go fall asleep studying for 282. ^_^

A List of Good News Items

1. I am feeling very confidant about my Choral Tech midterm in 50 minutes. Once I've finished here, I'll go do some last-minute revision, but I'm quite certain I'll be more than fine. Especially since we can take our English diction handbook and Latin diction sheet into the exam with us.

2. I found my computer cables. Or, well, most of them. I still can't find the wall charger for my iPod. Oh, well. My cell phone is now alive again, as is my iPod (thanks to computer charging), I can now use my portable harddrive, and I have a real mouse for my laptop. They were in the corner of my room, in a big knot, between my desk and my floor lamp. I have no idea how they got there.

3. I have been offered a job by St. John's Music. They left a message for me yesterday afternoon. It's a full-time position, so I might not be able to take it, but I'm hoping they'll be ok with me working part-time. It would bear the hell out of Old Navy, in any case. ^_^ I shall call them back after my midterm.

4. I have calmed down about next year, for at least the time being. Once I fund myself looking at MFA entrance requirement at UCLA, I panicked and wondered why the hell I felt I had to do that/wanted to do that. Then I had a 282 mini-paper to write and two midterms to prep for (the other one is Orchestration on Tuesday), and the fact that there still exists a real world in the here and now coalesced around me. Having a life to live reduces the worry of what to do with your life. ^_^

5. I got above the class average on my EDPY 404 midterm. I got a 77% with a class average of 73%. Not a stellar mark on its own, but the curve is to my advantage in this case, especially with the median grade for 400-level courses being a B+. :-) Now to write a 10-page paper on externalizing disorders... ^_^

6. I am completely certain that I meet my degree requirements. Oddly enough, though, I would need another year of lessons to convocate with them seperately. Also, depending on whether I wanted a General major or a School Music major for my BMus, I'd need either another year of ensemble or a senior-level choral conducting class, respectively. But I don't care about that, because at the end of April, I am so out of here. ^_^

Metriculative

I'm at school! And I went to my first class! This shouldn't feel like an accomplishment, but over the past two days, I went to one class. I even missed rehearsal last night. Blah...

It seems that I am rekindling my blog love, or at least my love of rambling. I apologize if anybody finds this horribly boring or stupid or anything. I'd tell you not to read it if you don't like it, but that would make me feel lonely. ^_^ Peter doesn't even read my blog anymore. He says that its because it actually requires reading... So I tell him things in person. :-D

I was going to fold clothes last night, but instead I slept, so I feel reasonably good today. As you may have guessed by the fact that I've been missing class, I haven't been feeling that great lately. In addition to that, I also seem to be having a quarter-life crisis. I'm getting really scared about what I'll do next year. I'm worried about how healthy it would be for me to just head out and teach just because that's what I'm trained to do; I'm not sure that jumping in to a new place with a sudden, very demanding full-time job would be the best idea. I keep thinking about my brother saying that he was sick of taking baby steps, which is why he moved to London, but I don't think that moving to California is that much of a baby step, even if I just work retail or something. I think, ideally, I'd want a 0.7 teaching placement. Tom says there's no such thing as a part-time music teacher, and I agree totally, but less actual teaching would make it easier to set up, revitalize, or maintain a program. I could clean the room and find all the missing percussion mallets. ^_^

Part of me is whispering to go back to school in California, either as a graduate student or an undergrad. Expand on my Drama education. I have decided that I wouldn't make the best Drama teacher to a lot of students. I got a pretty average bunch in my student teaching, and I found that I had little idea of where to start with people who didn't want to be there. An oversight by somebody who doesn't have that problem. ^_^ Having finished all of my Drama requirements and then some, I feel both like I don't know nearly enough and that I haven't found a proper niche. Not that changing either of those things would necessarily give me any more direction in life than getting a BMus or a BEd. Life is stupid that way. Maybe I should go review my Ed Psych text on the formation of identity. ^_^

For now, though, I have lost nearly all of my computer/electronics cables. I can't find anything with which to charge my iPod or my cellphone, and I've misplaced my mouse and the cord for my portable hard drive. Thus, large DivX files are clogging my laptop, my cellphone is dead and I can't play WoW on my machine. I have no idea what happened to any of these things. They went missing gradually. I've done multiple searches of my room, and I am stumped. If you really need to get ahold of me, call my house or e-mail me.

The Soul, as Seen Through One's iPod

I found a meme while blog surfing where you write down the first 25 songs your iPod (or whatever you have) comes up with when you set it to shuffle. I contemplated maybe restricting my list to within my "Contemporary" playlist, at least, but using the whole library got interesting enough results. I'm surprised at the under-representation of classical music on here, as well as the over-representation of music that's been sitting in my library ever since I leant my mom my iPod years ago. Enjoy my editorial comments. ^_^

1. Chained to You – Savage Garden (Their first CD was so much better. This one's all about his divorce. And it's all pop-influenced, like they're trying to be a boy band. Blech.)

2. Gangsta’s Paradise – Coolio (You know you loved it.)

3. White Houses – Vanessa Carlton (This didnt' do well as a radio single, and the whole album got dropped from promotion. That makes me sad.)

4. Chameleon – Martin/Waters (I know some of you may want to disown me for this, but I don't know this song. It's from one of the Jazz History CDs, and I don't think I listened to it beyond my need to pass that course.)

5. Every Other Time – Some Manufactured Boy Band (I can't remember the name of the group, but it's a hilarious song about a dysfunctional teenage relationship.)

6. Take a Picture – Filter (A One-Hit Wonder. Kind of too bad.)

7. You Don’t Mess Around with Jim – Jim Croce (One of my mom's. She got upset when I remarked on how similar some of his songs were, once. *sigh*)

8. Curbside Prophet – Jason Mraz (Another one whose commercial success stalled when I didn't want it to. :-( ...)

9. Heatnoise – Bruno Deazio (From a sampler CD of electroacoustic pieces Paul Stienhuissen gave my class the year he had to teach the introductory Music Technology course. I think I've listened to this song onece.)

10. Girl with the Flaxen Hair – Jens Lindemann (Debussy, of course. The opening track on Jens' first solo album. So pretty. And the double high Cs are in tune~!)

11. Before You – Chantal Kreviaszuk (I liked this song at one point. I'm kind of over it now.)

12. Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles (Another one of my mom's, but I don't mind having it on my iPod.)

13. Criss-Cross – Thelonious Monk (Ok, so maybe people don't have to *completely* disown me. I know this one.)

14. Heart of the House – Alanis Morissette (A quaint one from her second album, which, for some reason, people think of as being quaint on the whole. People can be stupid.)

15. Show Biz Kids – Steely Dan (From a greatest hits CD, a song I don't know all that well.)

16. Duncan – Paul Simon (Don't remember ever listening to this one, though I may have, what with Peter's love of Paul's music.)

17. Trumpet Concerto no 1 in Eb – Adagio – performed by Hakan Hardenberger (I don't feel like rummaging around to find something that will tell me *which* trumpet concerto this is--it's from a CD of a bunch of them, and, yes, I've listened to it several times.)

18. The Passportal – Team Sleep (from The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack, which I bought for the Chateau track. I've never listened to this song before.)

19. What a Scene – Goo Goo Dolls (Would've been a single from Gutterflower if the album's popularity had lasted enough. Not as carefully-crafted lyrics as the songs in Dizzy Up the Girl, but very recognizably a Goo Goo Dolls CD.)

20. Track 05 (A trumpet etude of some kind. I don't recognize it off the top of my head. I thought the only etudes I had on my iPod were Small etudes and Arbans, but I don't think this is either.)

21. Sex and Candy – Marcy Playground (A guilty pleasure. :-D)

22. Moody Blues – Elvis Presley (Another of my mom's. Again, I don't mind so much.)

23. Cecilia – Simon and Garfunkle (I remember dancing with the babysitter to this song years ago. Good times.)

24. Are You Still Mad – Alanis Morissette (Also from her second album. About being the bad guy in a relationship. I'd say, overall, that this album feels guilty.)

25. Good Mother – Jann Arden (I think I originally owned this on casette. Considering that I never bothered to buy any of her other albums, I'm surprised I bought this one on CD.)

I encourage you all to play along! :-)

Musings

I went to Starbucks this morning, and instead of giving me a latte with an extra shot of espresso, they gave me a latte with artificial sweetener in it. I don't usually mind the stuff, but today it's left a funny taste in my mouth...

Also, I have a tooth ache. Calamity!

I've been playing a lot of solitaire recently. It's actually quite amusing with my tablet pc and stylus. My parents play a lot of card games on the computer. I refuse to play Freecell because of my father's addiction to it, and the way it made him... unpleasant. My mom said that playing cards was something for him to do while he smoked. This was back when he still smoked, so maybe the unpleasant wasn't so much to do with the cards. In any case, I'd say that I play solitaire for something to do while I think. It's very soothing. And, every now and then, when I get the urge to smack something because of the thoughts going through my head, I can just be extra vigourous with the stylus. ^_^

I'm watching people around me leave the lab for 282. Yeah, there's a listening quiz that I don't feel like embarassing myself horribly on. I'm quite certain I'd get exactly no marks on it. I completely forgot about it. I was too busy thinking about the next paper due on Friday and the second mid-term next week. God, I hate that class.

As happens whenever I'm away from Drama for an extended period of time, I am currently missing acting. Not that I every really focused on acting--it's just the most, uh, active activity in Drama that I can't do on my own. Some of you may remember me expressing a similar sentiment last December while I was student teaching. I'm not even taking a Drama class, so I don't even know when 383/483 (the directing courses) auditions are. I'm taking 383 next term, though, so I imagine I'll be painfully aware of them then, as I scramble to find actors who are at least the correct gender for the characters in my scripts. I did a 383 scene about a year and a half ago where I played a guy. Poor director person I was working for, being late with choosing her actors and getting stuck with whomever was available. Then again, she was a designer, so I really shouldn't feel that bad for her. ^_^ I kid, I kid...

Somebody's practicing the timpani next door. I think I'll go take a nap.

Tragedy, Feminism, Cubase and Bob

I just got out of 282, and I'm busy thinking about Tristan und Isolde. I'm not completely familiar with the story, so I'm not sure what all is said about the nature of their love, what with the (current) implication that love potion causes fake love. Thinking through it, though, it seems that the point is more the sameness of love and death. Falling in love, for the two characters, is the same thing as dying, just a slightly more protracted method. How Romantic. You know, I can't think of a real tragic love story, where it's tragedy because it's love. I have a kind of essay thing on my computer about how the Queen Mab speech from Romeo and Juliette is used to point out that love is Romeo's tragic flaw, or excess. It points this out by comparing it to more obvious tragic flaws, like lawyers who become greedy and soldiers who develop bloodlust. Yes, I wrote this for my own enjoyment. Shut up. In any case, though, this one feeble insistance is not really sufficient to bring the first half of the play into the realm of tragedy when it prefers to live in the realm of comedy. The idea of tragedy is predicated on an excess of something (for the context), and I've never seen that with love. Romeo and Juliette stops being a comedy when Mercutio dies because Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt, but there's nothing really tragic about it. With Tristan und Isolde, the notion that love and death are the same thing makes their deaths more pathetic (literally, not colloquially) than tragic, since the death isn't caused by the love if they're the same thing--the death is caused by the potion. I'll shut up about this now.

In other news, there's a masterclass tomorrow with Manon Lafrance, a new trumpet player with the Canadian Brass. I am greatly looking forward to it. Lafrance is a woman, too, which is something I don't really care about, but is still likely relevant to her situation, since I don't think she's *that* young. I can only think of three professional musicians who are female trumpet players that I've met and didn't go to school with. One was a teacher one year at MusiCamerose, one is Angela and the other is Wendy. Neither Angela nore Wendy make their living as trumpet performers. I remember Doug saying, once, when he was still at the U of A, that music is often thought of as a feminine pursuit in this day and age, what with the expressiveness and emotion and such. It's all so odd to me. I tend to think of myself as somewhat of an end product of feminism. You've convinced me that gender roles are not binding, and that I can enjoy being girly or not as I wish, and I am capable of whatever I want within the laws of physics. In most ways, this is a good position to hold. In other ways, it makes me want to yell at people "You got it done, now shut up!" I appreciate that many people overcame adversity, and, largely, they're better for it, but this isn't an adversity that every woman has to overcome, especially if they don't care about it. Now talk about playing the trumpet, or whatever it is you're good at.

(There's a guy sitting in the row in front of me in the lab working with Cubase. That was the only portion of my Music Technology class that I did poorly on. I got a 64% on the MIDI assignment and an A- in the course. Cubase did *not* like me.)

Lastly, Bob DeFreece handed in his resignation/retirement letter on Wednesday. Despite the fact that this is my last year, that kind of saddens me...

Random Things

I cannot believe that I got an 82% on my Music History mid-term. That came out to a B- and got me a comment of "Good start." I am slightly less worried now that I was before.

This afternoon is my Adolscent Development Ed Psych mid-term. This one will probably be fine, but I think that's more because a lot of this is just expanding on EDPY 200. I'm currently taking a break from panic-studying for it. Well, actually, I'm not panicking, but what else do you call studying three hours before the exam? The concept of diffused identity would sadden me if I wasn't so jaded, but, as it is, I just find it frustrating.

I am so very sleepy. I have no idea why, since I had a nice triple grande non-fat latte this morning. Maybe I should cut back on the caffeine so that it'll actually do something to me when I need it to. But then I'd be even worse off than I am right now, at least for the first while. Bah. I even made myself go to bed at midnight last night. It's not my fault I couldn't fall asleep until after 1:30. In my slow-but-steady collection of pictures for my own mood theme, I have recently acquired a picture that says "Oh, God, go to SLEEP, brain!" as well as one with the more broadly-applicable "Bad Brain!" I spend a lot of time yelling at my brain, it seems. ^_^

I'm taking myself grocery shopping after my mid-term this afternoon. I'm down to one microwave lasagna, one Easy Mac and half a bowl each of a couple of cereal. And I'm sick of only eating stuff like that. I think I'll go buy some more fruit. Maybe a flavoured cream cheese for bagels. Ooh, or some yogurt. Mmm, yogurt...

Oh, hey, Auntie Brenda's in the lab. Haven't seen her in a while. Time to go back to studying, though... -.-

A List of Changes I Have Observed

1. Breakfasts go in and out of fashion in FAB. When I was in first year, it was all about the French Toast from Eurasian Bistro. In second year, it changed to coffee and a loafer from Cookies by George. I was rather fond of that one. Bagels from Java Jive have been a constant undercurrent, the crew neck t-shirts of breakfast. Over the past while, I replaced getting breakfast from HUB with getting breakfast from Starbucks. Not that much more expensive, actually, if I'm reasonable about the caffeinated beverage I purchase. I don't know what's in fashion for breakfast right now in FAB. I wonder if breakfast sandwiches from Subway will ever catch on.

2. The introduction of exclamation!points into online language was something I kind of missed the start of. I was too stubborn about it--I liked my compoundwords. It's turned out to be a very useful application of a punctuation mark. I'm waiting for it to be adopted into search engines, much like the comma. I think the reason that inexperienced people have difficulty with the internet is that they don't know what to look for. I was sitting around the other day while my father was looking up prices on vacation packages to various beach!destinations, and he actually had a pretty good grasp on what he was doing. The exclamation!point is probably something he won't get for a while, though. The [square bracket] (yes, I know that's redundant, shut up) is a good cousin to the exclamation!point, and would probably be easily understood by people like my dad, but [brackets], unfortunately, have their own logical meaning already. It's bad enough that IMs turn math equations into a string of emoticons you didn't even know you could type.

3. My wardrobe has become more and more filled with Old Navy clothing lately. This makes sense, since I've been working there for about five months now, but it was something I was sort of hoping to avoid, for the most part. I'm actually dressed entirely in Old Navy clothing today, except for my shoes, which I wish people would stop buying so that we could stop selling them, because they're a pain to keep organized. Now, granted, my sweater is five years old and I love it to death, but I didn't decide to work at Old Navy because I liked the clothing. I'm actually rather apathetic about it. I wanted to work there because it was a big store and I'd be working with many people. If I wind up quitting sometime within the next few months, I think I'm going to do a purge of all the jeans I've purchased that I don't particularly care for. I won't feel bad about donating them, though, because I got them at either 40 or 50 percent off, for the most part, and they served an important function while I needed them.

4. The house I live in, along with every building that surrounds it for a one-mile radius, at least, is less than five years old. I remember being in my old house, which was the first thing that was *mroe* than five years old at the time, and thinking how crazy it was that everything was expanding so quickly. The housing boom in Edmonton can be attributed to a handful of things, most of which also explain housing booms across North America lately. When I lived in Blue Quill, there were the sounds of construction from the redoing of 23rd avenue behind my house. When I lived in Whitemud Hills, there was construction for the houses immediately surrounding me, then for the houses immediatly South. In my new house, there's construction all around me, and I've gotten way too many flat tires for my liking. I joke that it's not home without construction, because it's been there steadily for more or less my whole life. Each time I've moved, though, it's been farther into the middle of nowhere. I'm getting rather annoyed with it.

5. Many of my friends' blogs have been either neglected or abandonned entirely in recent months. Largely, this is due to the surge in popularity of Facebook. I find it interesting that it was Facebook that distracted people from Blogger, rather than something else. Things like MySpace and LiveJournal are centred around blogs, so despite their community aspects, they aren't that likely to lure people away from the blogs they already have. It's surprising, though, that Facebook, which, while it has a blog aspect to it, is rarely used as a blog, would *replace* Blogger. But I guess that Facebook is as much of an everything site as exists right now, especially with the addons. The supermarket of online social networking and communication. I want something a tad better, personally. Maybe if I made myself some sort of package deal with Facebook, Blogger, Livejournal and IM, I'd be happy. They should come out with that. Call it the "Never Be Alone Again" software bundle. Adapt it for cellphones.

Of a Friday

Today I learned about the Eater Egg-esque cryptograms in Robert Schumann's music and I am thoroughly delighted. I *heart* Romantic music.

I'm currently doing a little dance of "no afternoon classes today!" When I'm done Choral Tech, I'm heading to work to pick up my schedule and (finally) change my availability so that I can actually schedule appointments with my doctor (who's now working Monday afternoons only), and then I'm going to go home and veg. I haven't decided if it will be in front of the computer or in front of the tv, but it will enjoyable. :-)

My brother left last night. I was wondering where my parents were when I got out of rehearsal at 6:30, and when I called my mom's cell, they were at the airport, along with Chris' mom and stepdad. Apparantly, everybody cried except for Jim (the stepdad). I don't know if I've ever seen my dad cry before. It's an odd thought. It's also an odd thought that my dad would be so upset at Chris leaving when my dad used to go years without even remembering his birthday. I guess things have changed in the past few years, and it's not that I ever thought that my dad didn't love Chris, but... people are odd and act in self-contradictory ways.

My nose is dry and sore in spots. This is actually a good thing, since it's been running like mad the past few months, and a change hopefully means that the treatment for the mould is working. Yay, no more mould! Yay, no more chronic respiratory annoyance!

Random craving: tequila. And it's 10:30 in the morning.

Amusing fact: my dog has started to snore. It's ridiculously cute. ^_^

I'm rambling now. Stupid not getting enough sleep. More tequila!

Ugh

It's Wednesday morning and I feel like crap. I'm exhausted, even though I slept for seven hours last night and I just had a long weekend, and my chest feels really weird. I think it's from stress. Or frustration. Isn't the latter a type of the former? *sigh* Why do I live my life in a near-constant state of wanting to hit things? I don't even know what I want to hit. *another sigh*

I got back my "paper" from my Music History class today. I got an 80, which is fine. There were a lot of markings on the page, though. I don't know whether it was the TA or the prof (I'm pretty sure it was the TA), but one of them seems to have been given a grammar nazi stick and no grammar textbook. There's a long explanation about how I supposedly use the wrong subject for the second half of one of my sentences near the end of the paper, and bits of it have been flat-out reworded, and the new words don't mean the same thing as what I originally wrote. Even if I *did* phrase something incorrectly, why would anybody reword it? That's not an exercise in grammar, that's an exercise in following instructions blindly.

*falls asleep*

*wakes up*

*is frustrated*

In other news, the furnace in my house is broken. We had no heat whatsoever for a couple of days. It's working halfway now, though, and should be fixed completely tomorrow. We've had about five different people come to fix it over the past couple of weeks, and each until the latest guy has said that it needed to be dealt with by a different kind of tradesman. The current diagnosis is a low voltage short circuit, so we've currently got electricians poking at it, but since nobody could stay home today, they couldn't come to finish the job they started yesterday.

Thanksgiving was good. Saturday night was dinner at my place with my parents, my brother, Peter and myself. My brother gets on a plane to move to the UK tomorrow evening. I can't go with him to the airport because I have class and rehearsal. Sunday was dinner at Peter's dad's place. Andy and Simone, Dave and Sheryl, and Peter and I were there. There *wasn't* an insane overabundance of vegetables. ^_^ I ate waaaaaay too much on both nights. :-)

I have Choral Tech in ten minutes. Today's lecture is on concert programming. This course is so redundant. It's fun, and I love Bob, but I've taken courses on how to run a music program and how to conduct a choir. Now that I've got IPA more or less under my belt, there's not really anything new for me to learn. What with the exhaustion and the feeling like my body is trying to wrap itself in around the centre of my chest, I am so very tempted to just go home and go back to bed.

*falls asleep again*

*wakes up*

*is sad*

Slow Morning

It's Wednesday morning and I should be in 282 right now. I'm half an hour late, though, which is good enough reason to not bother, according to me. Traffic was crazy and a half this morning, so even though I left at a reasonable time, I've just now arrived at school. Oh, well. I stopped by Starbucks and got a scone and a triple latte, so I enjoyed a good sit in traffic. I wish the latte would kick in now, though.

(There's a rather creepy noise in the computer lab. It's a kind of rattling sucking sound every few seconds, like the room is trying to breathe through pneumonia. I have no idea what it is, but it's been steady since I got here.)

I don't really have much to say today, but blogging is a nice way to get my brain up and running. I should almost just go home and go back to bed. My next class is cancelled because Bob DeFreece is in Idaho, and my next class after that isn't until 1. Even that one I may be skipping to go see a visiting conductor talk to the 315 class. He's here for a while, though, and listening to him talk to the introductory conducting class might not be all that exciting. Annoyingly enough, the one thing I really should (and want to) do today, I can't. There's a review session for my first 282 midterm today at 4, but I can't go because I have to be at work for 5. Stupid work. At least I get to be a cashier today, rather than being in the fitting rooms, like I have been soooooo often lately. The review session is with the TA, too, so it would be nice to get another person talking about some of the things that I'm supposed to know, but I guess I'll have to make due with the sheet of key terms we were given, along with the textbook and the CDs, of course. God, I hate that course.

Come on, latte... Oh, I give up.

Pre-Meta

I totally missed the handing out of a 282 assignment sometime last week, so when I walked into class and people were handing them in, I was not impressed with myself. Now I'm starting to worry about my grade in that course. Note to self: don't fail. That would add another 8 months to your degree (counting summer). I've never failed a course before, though, even when I've done things like consciously skip the midterm, so I'm not *that* worried. There's just more at stake for the courses I'm taking right now, what with not having the time to take them over. Dragging myself out of bed first thing on a Monday morning to learn about sonata form and Felix Mendelssohn doesn't make for a happy me, though, so I'll have to fight the temptation to just plain not show up.

In less boring news, it occured to me the other day that Peter and I are rapidly approaching our 4-year anniversary. It's about 2 months away. That floored me. I haven't gotten to see him much over the past week or so. :-( I've had to stay at home so that my dog wasn't left alone while my parents were in Vancouver. Amusing tidbit: I had no idea why they were in Vancouver--I asked them when they came back yesterday. Turned out it was for a judges' conference. Why they had a conference for provincial judges in Vancouver is beyond me. I find it funny that my parents are gone enough that it never even occured to me to ask why they were leaving. Another amusing tidbit: My mom told me this morning that she had no idea where my dad had gone or when he'd be back. He may be back at 2pm today, having only been as far as St. Albert, or he may be in Cold Lake for the week. At least I'm not the only one oblivious to the travellings of my immediate family. ^_^

But, yeah, four years is... impressive to me. *is slightly thunderstruck*

Time to go organize the flurry of papers that are slowly but surely taking over my binder before I head to class. I lead such an exciting life... And to think, I was going to start this post talking about formalism amd meta-formalism. Which is worse according to you guys: mundane happenings or dry ponderings?

Things That Have Always Been True About Me

1. I like people. You can quibble about introversion and extroversion, and the fact that I consider people with certain characteristics to be intolerable, but I really do like people, in general. I consider them to be interesting and stimulating. Hell, if I don't have to put up with them personally, I even like the people with the intolerable characteristics. Because of the interesting.

2. I have always felt young. That doesn't mean I've always felt youthful, mind. But even lately, when I've been feeling like an old fogey who can't get her life together around the gaggles of first years, I look at people who have moved into the "real world" and it's like there's a giant, gaping chasm between me and them. I don't know if this one will continue to be true through the next decade or so of my life. I guess, ideally, I want the feeling young to go away without being replaced by the feeling old.

3. I am smart. Not to be self-important or anything. I'm certainly not the smartest person in the world or the smartest person I know. Sometimes it's fun, like in Grade 10 Enlgish class where I had two indulgent teachers and got to chatter on about my ideas. Not that I knew what I was talking about, what to call things. That's an awkward qualification of my intelligence--I am woefully uneducated about certain things. And sometimes it's not fun, like when I have to work with people who are on a different level than me and I get frustrated.

4. I am a product of my time. I am not the least bit anachronistic. The way I perceive things, what I believe about the universe and life and how I use social structures are all very much hallmarks of people from this period in history. I don't know how much of that is good and how much of it is bad. I also don't know if I'll get stuck at some point and wind up behind the times. As it stands now, though, I'm pretty happy with it.

5. I am paranoid. Not in a psychiatric this-is-a-major-problem kind of way, though. Rather, I'm a very private person. I believe that trust is a matter of choice and that anybody is capable of breaking trust. I do trust people, and I don't think there's anything of major relevance about myself that I've never told anyone in some way or another, but I hate being found or found out. It's a rational concept that I apply irrationally with the justification that it keeps life simpler for people to be kept uninformed about little things that can become a matter or putting two and two together. In some way or another.

Why I Hate Reading

(At school, have just skipped 282 for my own sanity and to practice. Was going to read the text, but it's at home, so I'm blogging before starting my Orchestration assignment. *blog*)

Every now and then I vehemently think that I *hate* reading. I don't, really. I can do research and read textbooks and blogs and whatnot just fine. I suppose the actual act of reading often gives me a neck/back cramp from leaning over what I'm reading, since I can't seem to get glasses that actually work, and it therefore also causes eye strain, but the debut of the internet (and upright computer monitors) has lessened that significantly. What I *hate* about reading is the thinking.

I can hear my brother laughing at me for that one (yes, you, putz :-p), but thinking too much, especially about one thing, drives me nuts. I tend to disappear beneath the event horizon of whatever it is I'm learning. This doesn't really happen with concrete things like photosynthesis or artithmatic, which are relevant to other things in concrete ways, but rather with abstract concepts that go as deep as people can. Studying those people as legitimate thinkers would probably be considered parapsychology. They come up with anything from epistomological drivel to bad metaphors to fantasy to the most wonderful of ideas. Being self-aware, maintaining a firm grip on reality and the larger context of these ideas is how you keep yourself from going nuts, but there's often a strong pull towards understanding by believing. Like the old idea of thinking like a monster to catch a monster. When I'm reading a textbook, I think monsters are archaic, obsession is archaic. And then I think I need a pet project because I'm bored.

Google is My BFF

It's Friday morning and I want a cup of coffee like a comfort blanket. I already had a triple grande non-fat latte this morning, though, so I should probably abstain from caffeine for a while, no matter how tired I actually feel.

I wrote a mini-paper for my Music History class this morning on the Enlightenment style of Gluck's Alceste. It was (and was supposed to be) a page long, double-spaced. I did the "research" (reading of the textbook) last night, then took 45 minutes this morning to write the paper. It'll be graded as a draft, then I'll have to revise it and submit a final copy at the end of the term. There will be five such papers throughout the term. For some reason, people were really nervous about this assignment. I was more nervous about the listening quiz on Monday, and with good reason. I wound up failing, apparently from lack of detail. It was a 6-minute quiz--I have no apologies to make for only writing a page and a half. *annoyed*

Speaking of annoyed, I seem to be spending my life in a constant state of annoyance and especially frustration lately. I've been frustrated at the unprofessional conduct of people around me (like the percussionists who Never. Stop. Playing. No matter what.). I've been frustrated at the unproductive use of class time by my profs (like my Ed Psych prof who stops for 15 seconds after each sentence he speaks, like we're writing every word down). I've been frustrated by the tedious and unchallenging nature of my life in general right now (I fold clothes and write 250-word "essays"). I think I need a pet project. Something to give my brain to do. Anybody have any suggestions on what that could be?

In any case, I'm teaching a trumpet start-up clinic on Monday, and I can't seem to find any good labelled diagram of a trumpet amidst my stuff, so I'm off to Google images.

A List of Things I'm Thinking About

1. What is that song Russ has been practicing in the studio lately? I know I recognize it, but I can't think of what it is.

2. My bangs are annoying and unflattering and I'd really like them to grow out, please.

3. My history prof is off-putting in many ways, but it's not her fault that the 272 and 273 curriculums were condensed into one class of insanity and we have to cover three major compsers in one class *after* our listening quiz.

4. Is my doctor's appointment today at 4 or 5? Should I call and check? I'm pretty sure it's at 4, and if it's at 5, then I can just go to Tim Horton's and get a coffee and read a waiting room magazine while I wait. That would be rather nice, actually.

5. For some reason, the finger nail on my right pinky finger is very prone to ripping. It doesn't usually hurt, and it always grows back perfectly normally, but once every month or two, I'll rip a good quarter of it off like I did this morning. Freaky fingernail.

6. Second year students talking about their weekend adventures with whole bottles of hard liquor make me glad that I never really did that.

7. I know that learning the IPA will be good for me, and that I'll be glad to know it, but I'm pretty sure I'll be dragged kicking and screaming to actually learn it.

8. Between my dislike of Opera and my dislike of string quartets, I'm just not compatible with Capital-C Classical music.

9. Should I go get a coffee before Choral Tech, or will I have to sing a lot, leaving the coffee to get all cold and unpleasant?

10. My life on a Monday morning is likely highly uninteresting to most people who would come across this blog. What this world needs is an anthropologist from a more "primitive" culture, who's delighted by the discovery of things we consder to be horribly mundane, and who will bring joy back into our everyday lives. Or something.

Coffee With the Interweb

In the lab at school. I went to get a coffee at Cookies by George and decided to treat myself to a cookie as well. I asked for one of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk ones, but got a plain Peanut Butter one. It was still quite tasty, though. :-)

When I arrived in the lab, I used the Netscape URL drop-down menu to access Hotmail, and it brought me into the account of a trumpet player named Ian Burgess. He hadn't quit Netscape before leaving (another reason why I don't care for Macs). I logged out and logged into my own account, and read a notice from Facebook. I cliked on the link and it brought me to my own profile page, but logged in as Ian. It took me a moment to realize that, and I was rather confused as to why I had 9 friends in common with myself. ^_^ I think I should warn Ian about this.

I have a listening/written quiz in 282 on Monday on La Serva Patrona, Don Giovanni and something a girl in my class referred to as an intermezzo, which I'll have to figure out. Even if it is only the excerpts from our anthology that we're being quized on, I find that to be worthy of a big "Blah!" I remember my first day of 170 years ago, I was so looking forward to learning the kind of stuff that would allow me to understand the jokes people were making about Berlioz, and why everybody hated playing Haydn. I guess I more or less understand that now, but I don't owe any thanks to Music History. 170 was how to write a bibliography, 281 was ten billion types of chant, and 282 is looking like it'll be every opera I've been told I should go see but didn't want to.

Enough complaining now. Time for my coffee and I to go to Choral Tech. Yay, happy class!

Crazy!

The past couple of days have been crazy. Monday, I didn't get to school or to work, due to illness. I'm quite tired of being sick. I'm wondering if the blck mould in my house has anything to do with it. My mom's been sick for a while, too. The guy's supposed to be coming today to remove more drywall; we discovered more mould behind the baseboards, and the Capital Health website says we hadn't done enough to make thigns safe. There's a print-out of a brochure on the desk next to the main computer at home.

The rest of the insanity involved school, mostly. I'm section leader in Concert Band, and supplementary trumpet player in Wind Ensemble, which meant that I had to juggle my work schedule and drop my non-mandatory course so that I can get everything done. I feel pretty good about the way I worked things out. I was ticked at first about the ensemble assignments, but I've missed playing in a band enough that I was willing to take whatever I got. I honestly only know three of the names of the trumpet section in Wind Ensemble this year. I think that has a lot to do with not having been around last year. Stupid not having been around. A couple of the other ensemble assignments were weird, too. Chelsea Mandrusiak was put on thrid trumpet in Concert Band, and that's it. She's been in Wind Ensemble for the last two years, and she played a really good audition (I was in the hall outside 1-23 at the time). She was not impressed. Mind you, this is the girl who auditioned for Julliard right out of high school, so she's not impressed with being at the U of A in any case. ^_^

The class I wound up dropping was my Drama Theory course ("From Aristotle to Artaud"). It would have been insteresting, but a huge amount of work, so when I had to lose either work or a class, dropping that class was a no-brainer. The first Concert Band rehearsal was last night. for some reason, the euphs are to the right of the tuba, not the left, so I'm sitting next to a euphonium player who was a student of mine last year and is in BMus/BEd majoring in clarinet. She's playing clarinet in WE, which finally has a sane number of clarinets, rather than the four that Deebs allowed. Anyway, there I am playing the high Bs in this chorale, and doing so quite well, if I do say so myself, and then kind of quasi-collapsing in quasi-annoyance at having to play this piece over and over again, especially when it's a piece I've played before. I really wish people who think well of me wouldn't come close enough to see otherwise. ^_^

Today, I'm going to go buy myself some new boots. :-)