Defying Destiny

Books

2011-08-01T20:55:00.002-04:00

She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb- Book about a girl who's life falls slowly apart, and only through rebirth and trial and error does she finally seem to understand the meaning behind it all. I'm not sure I'd recommend this to people, since it was slightly overwhelming/underwhelming.

Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy- Good book. Really good language. Slightly sketchy plot, but otherwise really good. Great relationships, great understanding of the human mind and life. Definitely would recommend this to people.

The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen- Good and bad. Probably wouldn't recommend it, either, due to its mundane-ness, but the language is pretty intriguing, and the characters are definitely characters.

The Good Psychologist

2011-06-03T14:46:00.003-04:00

The Good Psychologist by Noam Shpancer was a very interesting read. Similar to The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell, this book really causes you to stop and think about each metaphor and each approach at life while reading it. The psychologist (unnamed in the novel) goes between his complicated life with Nina, another psychologist who had his child for herself and her husband; his teachings with an intelligent student ready to be married, a rebellious student who takes an interest in the psychologist's personal state, and a Christian who fails to grasp the concept of any faith other than religious faith; and his client who is a stripper with stage fright and a daughter that she wants to get back from her ex-husband. It's a really complicated novel, a very interesting novel, and a very well written novel. My biggest complaint would be the plot and overall flow of the story, being so disconnected and unending. It seemed rather to be a summary of this psychologist (the author, not the protagonist)'s world view in a sort of story form. Very interesting read, though I wouldn't read it again.

Madison

2011-06-03T08:12:00.003-04:00

Madison is absolutely wonderful. I have already fallen in love with the city, with my apartment, and with everything you can do around here! I also love waking up early in the morning here. I know I am saying this as it is currently summer and not winter, but I am still hopeful that the winter won't kill me. I'll post pictures as soon as I get access to them (from my mom).

Monday- The drive was long, but it surprisingly wasn't as long as I thought it would be. I slept some of the way, which always helps. And driving the uhaul wasn't the worst thing in the world. After we arrived, we had some problems getting someone to get us into the apartment because it was Memorial Day. But eventually this really cool guy named Tyler who has a band, and he helped us move in. My roommate seems normal, which is always good. He has a lot less stuff than I do. Duh. We went to this neat little Asian restaurant for dinner and then to this awesome Walmart with an escalator for carts!

Tuesday- After sleeping in until 10:30 (Monday was a really long day!), we went to the library, and I got a new library card, then to Copps for a grocery rewards card, bought lunch there, and then decided we needed a nap. So we went back to my apartment and slept and read and spent most of the day being lazy. I went back to Copps to get breakfast foods since I only like cheerios and eggs.

Wednesday- We went downtown Wednesday, which involved driving around trying impossibly to find a place to park. But State Street was pretty awesome, and we had wonderful (and huge) gyros (pronounced geetos?) at a place called Panthenon Gyro's. Then we got smoothies at a cart stand, and grapes at a local market. I'd say we did some good food shopping! haha. Afterwards, we went home and I spent the rest of the night unpacking.

Thursday- I finally completely finished unpacking Thursday morning (after waking up at 5:30am). Then we went to the post office to pick up a package, where I got a super adorable dress! We came back home for lunch before going back out to the zoo and the Botanical Gardens. Then my mom dropped me off for dinner with some new Epic employees. We had a blast at dinner at Madison's before moving onto Old Fashion for some great cheese curds (and alcohol for the of-agers), then went to Genna's Lounge for a chill time, though I had my mom pick me up around 9:30 because I thought I wouldn't be able to get into Genna's, so she was already on her way. Too bad, though I'm glad 'cause I had to get her to the airport this morning at 6.

I start on Monday! I'm so excited.

New Life!

2011-05-27T03:49:00.002-04:00

So I'm going to be moving to Madison in 3 days! I'm super pumped. So much to do in so little time. Once I get there, though, there's so much fun stuff to check out!

Shopping- They've got so much shopping in Madison. Now, I can't afford anything, but I really wanna check out the malls, the shopping centers, and State Street. One place I really want to check out is Hobby Lobby, because I want to learn how to sew! I always see people in the most adorable dresses and skirts, but every time I look online, they're way too expensive for me.

Dining- Wisconsin is known for its cheese and drinking. While I can't drink yet, I want to check out the food! So many different places to eat downtown. And a lot of them are bars- go figure.

Parks- There are thousands of parks in Wisconsin. I want to find one that would be perfect for a Saturday picnic! There are also lakes, but I have yet to figure out how to get on the lake! I would love to go on a cute sailing trip.

Library- They've got a great library system, and I wanna get a library card as soon as I get to Madison. I also want to check out the book stores, including the one I visited during my interview called A Room of One's Own (I'm assuming based on Virginia Woolf's book?).

Farmer's Market- And other grocery things, but there seem to be a huge amount of farmer's markets in Madison. There'll be one the Saturday after I get there, and I'm excited to get some fresh produce! I've never actually bought anything at a farmer's market. :)

Theater- They're going to have Idina Menzel in November! But until then, I want to check out the free things going on in the theater this summer, as well as the Concerts at the Park, the Carnival, and a bunch of things that happen only in the summer! It's time to take advantage of my wonderful new city!

Chicago- Things that interest me in Chicago: Glee Live- I know that it's coming up in a week, but if I can, I'd like to check it out! I doubt it, but it's a dream :) Otherwise, I really want to go to Six Flags. Chicago also has some really awesome theater.

I'll also be taking piano lessons, so I'd like to see if there's a community center or somewhere to practice, since the school closes its practice rooms at 4pm during the summer! The school offers a ton of stuff that I want to check out, like dancing lessons and sailing lessons. Definitely taking advantage of that.

I'm just all out excited to be moving to a new place! Wish me luck :)

Graduated

2011-05-19T11:22:00.002-04:00

So I'm off into the real world after graduating college. :) I'll be in Wisconsin working as a Quality Assurance employee for a healthcare software company. I'm really excited. I'm also taking piano lessons from the college, and hopefully going to add some music classes once I get into the swing of things. My goal is to become a music theorist, or a composer, or just a lover of music (which I already am!).

Television

2011-05-19T11:15:00.002-04:00

So I've ignored this blog for way too long. Mostly because I met a new love in my life- Netflix. I've watched many shows (and all of their seasons) due to this addictive website.

Bones- By far my favorite TV show, maybe more than Glee. It's now one of two (This and Glee) shows that I watch in real time (or well, hulu the day after).

Psych- I LOVE this show. It's hysterical.

Californication- I didn't really like this show. I watched the first season, and then stopped.

Weeds- This was a really good show, despite it's controversial topic.

Lie to Me- Started out as a really, really good show, but then got way too predictable.

Numbers- This show is great. Almost finished with it.

I've learned that I'm a much better TV person than movie person. I am not very good at predicting endings like Erin is, but I enjoy getting know people this personally as I watch them grow over 5 or 6 years of working together.

Finals Week

2010-12-14T02:03:00.002-05:00

Wow. I'm really sorry, dear blog, that I have neglected you. As usual for finals week, I am trying to procrastinate on all of the things I should be doing.

Here's an update on the classes:

ENG 369- This class, South Asian Lit, is crazy. We talk about topics for so much longer than necessary, repeating things that have already been said. I know it isn't Dr. Jay's fault, but I feel like this class could have gotten so much more done had we been efficient about it. As for the final, it's written and just needs turned in. By noon tomorrow. :-\ I'm expecting a B+ or an A- in this class.

ENG/DST 169-Intro to Disability Studies. Taking a 100 level course in the midst of 3/400 level classes is rough. It's too easy to judge it in comparison. For a 100 level class, if I remember correctly, it seemed pretty fair, though after the first two weeks, I felt as though we just repeated concepts in different ways. As for the final, I have 2/15 questions done and it's due Wednesday at 4. Considering I've only missed points due to attendance, I'm expecting an A in this class.

MUS 303- Electronic Music. Wow, this class has opened my eyes to things I never would have dreamed I'd be doing. If only I wasn't so slammed with everything this semester, I could have gotten really cool projects out of it. For my final, I'm making a radio play, though I only have about half of it done and it was due today. Since I got sick on Saturday (where I had reserved 9 hours in the studio), he's letting me turn it in on Wednesday at noon, which is really, REALLY nice of him. I'm expecting a B+ or an A- in this class.

ENG 339- Early Romantic Lit. Toughest class of my literary-class life by far. Very interesting, and now I can't stop thinking about the concepts I learned in this class. I did pretty decent on everything, either an A or a B in this class depending on what he thinks of my final essay, since I currently have a 90% without 60% of my grade calculated...haha.

ENG 460- I loved the books we read in capstone class, and I really wish I hadn't been doing a thesis on top of this class, or I would've loved the idea of writing 40 pages of something. I have gotten some really good stories out of my writing for this class, though, one of which is similar to other stories I have written, and the others are very different. I'm expecting a B+/A- in this class, as I did really well on the participating side/reading the books side, but as for the Creative part of the class, I think I've fallen slightly behind.

MUS 371- Music Composition. I need to get sibelius on my computer, for I wasn't able to do any outside work for this class, which meant that I had to do all of my work in class. I don't know what grade I'll get, since I currently don't have a single grade. Our final was just a portfolio of what we've done so far.

MUS 100- Steel Band. So much fun this semester, though much harder. I played on every song, and it was wonderful. Since I didn't miss, and performed well, I'm expecting an A.

Thesis- Wow, I never realized how hard it was to write a BOOK! If Jody hadn't been coaching me the entire time, I would have given up long, long ago. It scares me that soon I'll have to start writing on my own and not have others help me. I am expecting a B+ (the + is a little bit of hoping) in this class, since I turned in one awful section, and didn't do the readings as in depth as I should have.

UA stuff- I learned so much helping teach the two classes -Music Theory and Freshman Composition (your basic freshman english). I'm so glad I did the program, even though it added to my super huge load. All I need to do is turn in my papers, and I'm gold.

So expected GPA= 3.52-3.74. Much lower than my GPA as of now, but considering it was the hardest semester I've ever had, I guess I should expect as much.

Well, back to work!

The Life of a Senior

2010-10-09T20:24:00.002-04:00

It's been the craziest semester of my life. I don't think I've even updated everyone on everything I am doing. I am taking 5 English classes and 3 music classes this semester- all of which are requiring way more time than any class I took the past two years. Three of the English classes are reading intensive- requiring me to read about a book a week, which means that I'm reading about three books a week just in those classes alone. Then my capstone requires a book every two weeks, as well as writings and postings. My thesis was reading before, but now it's all writing. The last English class requires me to do a lot of researching and projecting, which is a ton of work for someone to do in a 100 level class. My music classes, two of which are composition and one which is steel band, require a ton of outside work to bring into class- steel band being practicing because I'm on every song.

I just registered for the GRE today, which was slightly painful considering the lack of funds in my bank. I'm still working 30 hours a week on top of everything. Then there's making signs constantly for DO, as well as writing critiques for Prism, creating a haunting Po Halloween reading for STD, advertising for Steel Band, and going to the library sessions on computer software. I also spent a huge deal of time for the Career Fair, in which I might get a job from this amazing company called Epic.

Oh, did I mention I'm teaching two classes? One is English, where I do a lot of grading and talking in class with discussions. The other is Music Theory, where I help with group work and have very meaningful discussions with Dr. Boge about teaching and theories and psychology.

I spend a lot of my free time with my friend, Erin Haley, doing homework, running around, and dancing. She has helped me a lot this semester from not going insane. This weekend we went to Fear Fest at King's Island, and then today we went to a corn maze. We have watched Sherlock Holmes, Letters to Juliet, and The Proposal this week, all of which have been lovely. We are studying for the GRE together, as well as struggling through our Romantic Lit class. Basically we're awesome.

Otherwise, I have had dinner with Erin Semple about once a week, and then I see Timothy Lucas sporadically throughout the week. I don't really see anyone else or have time for any other friends with my busy schedule. It's really sad. But hopefully next semester will be better, since I'll only be taking 16 credit hours. It'll be a wonderful time.

Summer

2010-08-14T08:57:00.001-04:00

So summer is over. I start my student manager training on Monday. So much has happened this summer, and yet nothing has happened this summer. I have a ton of stuff I need to do during the school year to make up for the stuff I didn't do this summer, but I work best under pressure, so we'll see how that goes. :) I'm really sorry for not updating this (not that anyone reads it), but I'm heading into my last year of college, and I have a TON of stuff to do (since I'm skipping a year).

Summer

2010-06-30T08:21:00.003-04:00

So it's been a long time since I've posted on this blog or my other one. I just wanted to say how busy I am this summer, and how wonderful that business has been. I absolutely love my job, my internship, and my literary magazine work.

Check out my other blog!

The Ever So Daunting Grades

2010-05-14T00:51:00.003-04:00

Short Story- A
This was definitely expected. I did well in the class.

Contemporary Fiction- A+
I got a litttle giddy at the + sign, since I had done so well in the class (most teachers don't put + either way).

Literary Marketplace- A-
I knew this was coming because of our group project. Too bad, I loved the class.

Fiction Workshop- A+
Another little giddy + sign!

International Studies- B+
For a ITS major class, I was very proud to get a B+ (I got all As on the papers, Bs on the exams).

Latin- A-
For doing absolutely nothing for this class, I'm very happy with this grade.

Choraliers- A
Yay to this awesome amazing class!

Sightsinging- A
I actually got a 99% in this class, so I wish I had the cute little + to prove it.

Piano- A-
I wish I had more time for this class this year, since Carolyn is such a good teacher.

Analysis- A
Boge loved my paper! YAY!

For taking on so much (25 credit hours on top of work and everything else I do), I'd say that this was pretty good. :D I'm still an A-/B+ student, from high school through college. Most people change. I guess I don't.

Semester GPA- 3.83
Overall GPA- 3.77

Summer in Ohio

2010-05-10T08:41:00.002-04:00

So I started this blog about a month ago because I fell in love with the title. haha. So just in case you don't know, I'll be spending my summer in Ohio, and it's going to be wonderful. Well, at least, wonderfulish. I don't know how much I'll update this blog, since the point of the other blog is to tell about my life during the summer, but I'm sure I'll have some things to say. :D

So check it out! :D

Finals Week Schedule

2010-05-02T19:28:00.002-04:00

Here's what I'm doing for finals week:

Monday:

9:30 Turn in last English paper
9:45 Meeting to force add class
10:00 Meeting to discuss paper due Thursday
12:30 ITS exam
2:00 UPS store to return books
3:00 Work until 8pm
study for Latin final
11:30-? Last karaoke

Tuesday:

8:00 Sightsinging exam
10:00 Meeting to discuss UA
11:00 Meeting to get excess credit hours
12:30 LAT exam
3:00 Work until 8pm
practice piano and work on theory paper
~10:00 hang out with Abby and Erin

Wednesday:
8:00 Work until 3pm
3:30 collect key for apartment and pay for summer rent
4:00 meeting with Carolyn to practice piano for her
finish theory paper and practice piano

Thursday:

10:12 Piano Proficiency
11:00 Work until 3pm
3:00 Theory Paper Presentation
5:00 move things into apartment
~10:00 Mara's birthday party/Eric's birthday party

Friday:
move into the apartment
chill with friends
miss the triple

The Road

2010-04-15T06:28:00.003-04:00

This book was an assignment for my Contemporary Fiction class. But after reading it, it seemed to be more than just an assignment. It was a life changing novel that held me in its pages throughout the entire story. If you've never read the book, I really recommend adding it to your summer reading.

The story is about a man and his son traveling through a desolated America struggling to survive.We are left to guess what happened to the world, the boy being born after the disaster occurred. There are no chapters, punctuation is missing, and the text is very simple, because in a world with no rules, who needs these? The dialogue is quiet, yet frightening, and the characters are simple and strong. The son, who starts the book at what we can only guess is 7 or 8, matures so much throughout the story as he goes through all these horrifying situations. The father's only reason for survival is his son, as he doesn't even seem to care about his own self except that he has to be alive to take care of his son.

These are the only characters throughout the entire book, except for a few other loners who have survived this long in the ashes. Some of these loners are considered the "bad guys," leaving behind the morals of the pre-disastrous world in order to survive, but others are good, and the boy keeps the morality within his father by helping these survivors. It is a touching tale of how these two characters must keep each other alive, the father keeping his son breathing and the son keeping the father from crossing the line.

I'm not kidding, if you have not read this book, then you are to stop what you are doing and pick it up right now. You will fall in love with the characters, the words, the style, and the idea behind this story. It is simple, yet profound, and I can't think of any other way to describe it. It is definitely the best book I have read all year, if not my college career and beyond.

It's been a while

2010-03-29T21:08:00.000-04:00

It has been too long, but I have been so busy. I am currently working on so many projects that my bed has books all over it. haha. But I'm still having fun. And doing everything I absolutely love. :D

Last Day of Break...To Do List

2010-03-13T11:27:00.003-05:00

So I spent much of break doing various things. I have read some books, I have applied for some internships, and I have filled out some scholarships. I did some of my homework, and I wrote two stories. However, there is so much left to do.

International Studies- I need to finish reading for this class. There's a lot left to read and it's all boring compared to my other books, which is why I have been putting it off. I also need to practice mapping out Europe for our geography test.

Fiction Workshop- I need to edit a few of my stories. We're going to start submitting them, and it's important that they are in good shape.

Literary Marketplace- I have most of my research compiled, but I have no idea how to conclude my findings. I also have to read some stuff online.

Latin- I haven't even started to translate for this class. Oops.

Short Story- I left my book at school, so when I get back I need to do some fast studying because we have an in class essay on Tuesday that I need to be prepared for. I also present on Thursday, where I will have to make a powerpoint. I already have the outline printed for everyone in the class, so that's good.

Theory- I haven't started on any of the research for this class. I feel like this research paper is superfluous and I'm not going to be able to get it finished. At least not finished well. I'll probably have to have a lot of help from Dr. Boge.

Packing- I have all of my stuff spread throughout my room. Oops. I need to start getting everything together.

Magazine Project- I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but I'm working with American Greetings on a research project for greeting cards, trying to see what makes them attractive, etc. I spent 3 hours shopping on Thursday for this, so I just need to collect all of my data and write everything out. We'll see how that goes. I might need to stop by Walmart up at school if I need to see the cards again.

Call Cincinnati Campaign- They called me inquiring a time for an interview (I applied for their internship). I was really thrown off by the call though, and told them I would need to call them back once I could figure out transportation to Cinci. So we'll see how that goes.

I think that's about it. Yay for having a short to do list!

Writings

2010-03-12T23:31:00.002-05:00

So I had to write a 20 page story for my fiction workshop. I ended up writing two of them.

One is about a girl who is like me, crazy, and decides to do too much at school. She is having a hard time keeping in contact with people at home, including her boyfriend, who seems to be unmotivated compared to her. She goes through all the conformity of college, including alcohol. It's really something that should be a novel instead of only a 20 page story, but it's a good 20 page introduction to a story, I think.

The second story is about a guy from Pittsburgh (reading Flannery O'Connor made me want to write something local), who loses his grandfather. His grandfather was his connection to the city, showing him everything. Without his grandfather, he was lonely. He went through high school and college as a loner until he found his girlfriend, Natalie. It's a really cute story. Just ask to read it.

:D

Meaningless Musings

2010-03-11T00:04:00.003-05:00

So today I spent much time chillaxing in my kitchen, searching through billions of webpages for internships and short story contests. I did end up applying to one internship that interested me and was accepting nonBusiness Majors (something that seemed impossible. Everyone wants a Marketing major.) I also found a couple contests that I'm going to apply for, once I touch up a few of my stories.

Things I read today:

Mystery and Manners- Flannery O'Connor is an amazing speaker, this being a compacted collection of her speeches throughout her life. I feel like I learned a lot about writing, even if I'm not from the South or religious.

Bearing a Cross- This is a short (though I wouldn't consider it very short) story from my one teacher (who will soon be my thesis advisor). I thought I should start reading works by him to get a sense of who he is as a writer. I don't want to write like him, but I want to see where he's coming from when he starts to give me advice on my writing.

Other than that, I didn't do anything today. Wasted another day. Tomorrow I will bring a book with me to the high school while Moria observes the stage band. After that, I'm going to practice piano at the high school (hopefully I'll have retained something from practicing at Luke's). Then we're going to eat n park and the mall. At the mall I will begin my card buying journey for my American Greetings Project (yes, I'm working with American Greetings EEK! haha). I will also be working on my magazine project, which includes looking at how magazines are displayed. Then I will go to the public library and work on my magazine project, my latin homework, and my short story in class essay. Hopefully I'll get something done.

My Senior Thesis

2010-03-10T23:31:00.002-05:00

So I realized that I haven't explained my thesis yet on this blog. I will be working with my favorite English faculty member, Jody Bates, next semester in an independent study for Departmental Honors. My thesis will consist of a research and creative aspect.

My topic will be autism. Remember that awful story I posted forever ago? Well, ever since then I have wanted to actually write that story. Though, now I have a lot more knowledge with two years of an English degree under my belt and a lot more writing experience. I have also learned the importance of reading in terms of shaping my writing. Therein lies the research aspect.

I am going to research autism, autism and other mental disorders in fiction, the first person narrative, and an unreliable narrator. I'm going to do the last three by reading fiction, and the first by strict research. The outcome of this research will be an analytical paper rationalizing my creative work, which will be a novella of an autism girl.

This topic is important to me for many reason. I'm not autistic, but I know that I learn and think differently than other people. I also realize how few books are out there about autism. I've obviously been reading a few since I decided on my project, such as Curious Incident and Wild Ride, and Nicholas Spark's Dear John had two characters of various autistic levels. These and others will be included in the research aspect of my thesis. I am really deeply touched by this topic and am really looking forward to working with it.

Now, I don't want to leave my minor out of the summary of my college career. I've decided that my character, whoever she may be, will have musical talents. This is going to be the drive of the story, in some way. I don't want to be too conclusive on the plot, yet, since I haven't started writing it.

Anyways, there you go. I hope now that you are enlightened, you will look forward to it being completed and want to buy a copy of the novella as it comes to bookstores near you! (Because it's going to be a huge hit, duh!)

And the culturing continues

2010-03-10T00:24:00.003-05:00

Dear John- This was a beautiful movie, though I felt a lot differently than I did about the book (obviously). It was a lot more noticeable that they had only been together for two weeks before departing, making the relationship, in my eyes, kind of naive. I know it's a theme of Nicholas Sparks, but it really made it unrealistic for me. However, I still cried a lot during the movie. I might reread the book since I haven't read it in a very, very long time.

James Baldwin: A Biography- After reading this man's entire biography, I have changed my views completely on writing and everything. I wish I would have finished it before finishing my 20 page story for 420, but I am not writing a new 20 page story. That took me forever. haha. But I learned so much about the struggles of this man, and I absolutely fell in love with him.

Currently working on: Reading Silence and the Scorpion for International Studies and Mystery and Manners (Flannery O'Connor) for my own knowledge and attempt at not being ignorant.

Also in the plans is Alice in Wonderland.

Henry and Mudge; U.S.!

2010-03-08T16:31:00.003-05:00

So I've been slow to get anything done this break, but here are some things I've done:

Went to see Henry and Mudge: This musical, for children, by Kerrigan and Lowdermilk, was absolutely amazing. The mic cut out halfway through the show for Henry, but even so, it was really, really good. Even Jocelyn thought it was cute. It was really nice to see the interaction of a boy and his dog, as well as his adapting to the changes in his life.

Read U.S.!: This novel, or collection by Chris Bachelder was really interesting. I was more intrigued with the way it was delivered than the story itself, but I just loved how Bachelder expanded his story through a bunch of phone calls, letters, and narratives. I definitely want to try something like this some time.

Currently I'm learning so much about James Baldwin. It's really interesting, though I wish I didn't have so much else to do!

Last Semester, This Semester

2010-03-08T11:46:00.003-05:00

I have changed so much since January. It's incredible how different this semester has been.

Last semester, I complained about absolutely everything. Now, even though I'm doing a lot more and am always a lot tired, I don't complain as much. I am very appreciative of my life and everything I've been doing. I love that I can succeed this semester with everything I'm doing. Instead of complaining about it, I'm proud of it.

Last semester, I didn't want to go uptown. I was scared of all the people that go to clubs drunk and looking for an easy girl. This semester, I go uptown for karaoke Monday nights, and then I usually go uptown Thursday nights to dance. I love it so much. I've been uptown on a Wednesday night, too, and that was great because there were only drunk people. I don't go to parties as much, though. Last semester, there were parties every Friday and Saturday night, but this year, there aren't. :-\

Last semester, I was only friends with band people. This semester, I have some student manager friends who have no association with the music department. I am also becoming friends with some people from the English department. I love the new people I've met. It's really nice to be outside of the music department for the first time in my life (first it was in high school and now it was taking over my college experience).

Last semester, I struggled with time management. Actually, this is a more of freshman year problem. Last semester in the beginning I struggled, but I finally found a way to balance everything I was doing. This semester, because of all I learned about balancing my time last semester, I have spent so much more time doing fun things because my time is managed so well. I love it.

Last semester, I listened to musicals, and that was it. This semester, I'm listening to everything, from "real people" music, to 90s music, and just a bunch of everything. It's really exciting to expand my music knowledge past the small scope of musicals.

Last semester, I was a sophomore. This semester, I'm a junior. It's really obvious in my classes and what I'm doing that I really am a junior. I even have a junior mentality that I'm getting near the end and have to think about the future. Now, if only other things would accept me and let me do something this summer!

Lots to Recap

2010-03-06T20:17:00.002-05:00

So I've been ultra busy this week. This is going to be random.

DO- The new DOs were initiated last weekend, which was pretty exciting. My little is Rachel Boden, who is this awesome (and ridiculous) girl that plays clarinet. We karaoke every Monday night together, so we were glad to be paired up. :D

My Grades- So a lot of my midterm grades are in.

Sightsinging: 99%. Missed one note because there was a natural sign to cancel out a previous flat and it confused me. :-\

Choraliers: A. Because I show up and sing. :D

Music Theory: I'm assuming A, though we haven't gotten any grades back.

Piano: 86%. I didn't practice. I don't really have time to practice. Oops.

International Studies: 85%. So far all we've had is one test. I got an 85 on it. Pretty self explanatory.

Latin: 85ish. I got an 81 on our midterm, and high 80s and low 90s on all the quizzes.

Contemporary Fiction- I won't know until we get back from break. We just turned in our midterm stuff. I'm hoping for an A, though.

Literary Marketplace- 100%. We have a big project over break, though.

Fiction Workshop- A. So far we've just been writing and writing and writing.

Short Story- I've got a 90%. We've only gotten one grade so far in that class, though. Next week, I'll have a midterm grade, a journal grade, a presentation grade, and a paper grade. Whoa.

So now we're on spring break. Yay. I have a lot of work to do. Sorry, I'm ending this. I'm distracted.

A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards

2010-02-27T00:49:00.002-05:00

This is a beautiful story by Ann Bauer. It is about a mother dealing with her parents, her husband, her children, and her friends. It is about her son, Edward, who is different from all other children, smarter, but vacant. It is about her coping with this and her fighting til the end to find a way for him to be normal in the world. It is about crime and illegalities that occur in order for this to be. Because of her struggles for her son, she must deal with all of the relationships she has outside of that in correlation. She loses her connection to her husband, she deals with her two advanced children, also brilliant. It also goes into depth in the life of her uncle, who also suffered this vacancy, though it was more a depression than an overworking mind.

Ann Bauer's language is captivating. Her metaphors are realistic, but visual. Her structure is sound. She combines two stories into one without distraction and with purpose. Everything works beautifully.

If I could change one thing, I would change her relationship with Jack, especially at the end of the book. I can't reveal what happens, but I was really disappointed and unsatisfied at this. It wasn't necessary, and it added depression into the story that was excessive.

I'm really glad to have read this story. I read it in the beginnings of my thesis, which is about a child with autism, and I'm doing research on disorders within fiction. I really learned a lot from this book, especially about the parents and siblings of a child who is different.

Out of Order Writing

2010-02-24T12:42:00.002-05:00

http://outoforderwriting.blogspot.com/

So some of my stuff will be read in Cinci. I won't be there, because I don't have transportation, but it's still pretty neat.

Death stands on a hill
Lines of tombs surround a tree
Air flooding the sea.

The sun in the rock
Sparkling its way to earth
Caught in its demise.

Pink goes good with green
Swirling around yellow dots
Friendship found through twist

(The pink goes good with green is from wicked. duh).

We basically walked around a gallery and looked at paintings and sculptures. It was rather interesting. We then had to write haikus of what we saw.

Two Short Story Collections

2010-02-19T21:43:00.003-05:00

So Contemporary Fiction gives me a chance to read things I would have never thought about. We've now read two collections of short stories, one by Aimee Bender and another by Denis Johnson.

The Girl with the Flammable Skirt is a wonderful collection of fantasy/absurd stories about human connection and loneliness. At first I hated it, but I loved the last few stories, and they really tied the whole collection together.

Jesus' Son was a very interesting collection about a single man's life of drugs, sex, and violence. I really liked it, but I can't think of anything contemporary about it. We don't start discussing it until Monday, though, so I'm sure I'll find out then.

Some Stories I've Been Writing

2010-02-19T15:31:00.002-05:00

So we have to write a lot of stories for my 420 class. So here's a quick summary of some of the things I've written. These titles aren't really the titles, because I can't title anything. haha.

1. A Pink Marble- Basically about two friends, one rich girl, one poor guy, who have a play off in marbles. The boy wins with his lucky pink marble, even though the guys told him not to use it or the girls would make fun of the boys.

2. Fling- It's about a girl who ends up sleeping with a guy she doesn't know because she's angry with the world.

3. Talking Bacon- This is for my other English class. It's basically something absurd, and I love it.

4. Late Perfectionist- A girl is always late to her orchestra class, but in all other ways she's pretty much a perfectionist. Another "flaw" she has is that she likes her writing to be rough and random, instead of neat and orderly like the rest of her life.

5. Settlement- A girl (all of my stories are girls, it seems haha) gets pregnant and together with her best friend has to decide whether they should stop traveling like they've done their whole lives.

6. The Paint Stain- This story is really cute about an older sister who took care of her younger brother until he died of an unmentioned disease.

7. Kevin and Kyle- About the differences between twins and other's perceptions of how twins should be.

8. Defining Color- A girl with a tiny bit of synesthesia has her first day of school.

These are all the stories I can think of right now. I might have written more, and none of these are by any means complete or finished. They're all amazing, though :D

In these changes, fear and surprise.

2010-02-16T00:42:00.003-05:00

So I wrote a story, and it's decent.

I met a boy, he's pretty decent himself.

I read a book, and it was really weird.

School was canceled due to snow- that was exciting.

I'm not sure if it's cancelled or canceled, because different spell checks say different things.

I had an excellent interview on Saturday for Scholar Leaders.

I didn't get SOUL.

My roommates are absolutely wonderful.

Life is beautiful.

Olympics

2010-02-12T22:11:00.002-05:00

The Opening Ceremony of the Olympics is really moving. Everyone there has already accomplished their dreams of making it to the top event of their sport, hoping to achieve the goal of a medal. It's incredibly emotional for me, because it's something not everyong achieves, so watching others accomplish this really inspires me. Watching the guy snowboard into the stadium, watching those carrying the torch or their countries flags, watching the people singing. It's so beautiful.

Books I've Read So Far

2010-02-10T01:04:00.003-05:00

Virgin Suicides- This is an incredible book. It's really interesting (perhaps more as a writer), and very sympathetic.

City of Glass- I'm not a big fan of this book. It could definitely use some work connecting its sketches of style together. It's a great throw away book to work your new ideas into, but nothing I would ever want to be published.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time- This book was absolutely excellent. It gave me a lot of ideas for things, as well as had me questioning a lot of things. So we'll see where that takes me.

I've also read a ton of short stories for both fiction workshop class and my short story class. Those don't count as books, but I'm also doing a lot of reading in that sense.

Burned Butts, Narnia, and Writings

2010-02-09T22:29:00.002-05:00

So, I absolutely love Miami University. I'm sure most of you already knew that, but I really wanted to reiterate it again. These past couple of days have been full of snow (since Thursday or Friday), and it's been really beautiful. Miami is a campus full of fields and trees, so the snow creates a glistening feel of Narnia. The magic each flake holds as it falls to campus reminds me why I'm here. I know I'm only going to be here another year, but I am already regretting leaving this campus. Everything about this place is inspiring.

We went sledding tonight down Peffer Hill (though I don't know how it's spelled). At first I was scared- the hill was soo steep!, but then after going down the second time, I fell in love. The first time I went down, I went with Madi and we ended up rolling together...oops. But then I went by myself and that was good. The time I went with Kristin, though, I ended up falling onto the snow and sliding down on my bare back (really my butt/back), and it's all red now. Oops! haha. I loved going down with my triple though, because all three of us are awesome! It was absolutely amazing how much fun it was to just be a kid again. Another thing I love about Miami University. The trays work perfectly as sleds, too, because they're small and slippy. I had trouble staying on it, but that's cool. haha.

So this semester, I'm an English major. It's an excellent feeling. Plus, I'm starting to talk to other English majors. There's this girl Kaylyn, in my 231 and 321 (I know, confusing, right?) classes, and I really like her. She's doing a thesis this summer, and it sounds absolutely thrilling. I'm starting a writing community thing, which'll be very nice. I'm also writing a lot more, or at least having a lot more ideas. I can't wait for next semester when I'm working on my thesis as well as other writing projects. :D

24 houra

2010-02-05T20:00:00.002-05:00

We all live the same 24 hours, so no one can possibly be busier than anyone else. While I may work 30 hours a week, I'm losing out on time that I could be watching a movie or learning, so while a movie may be considered "less busy", if it takes up the same amount of time, I don't see the difference.

Thoughts?

J.D.Salinger

2010-01-31T09:50:00.002-05:00

It's weird to think that J.D.Salinger has died, because it's weird to think that he had been alive at all during my time period. I knew that Catcher in the Rye was written in the 50s, and that Salinger had been about 30 when he wrote it. It never occurred to me, though, that being so young when he wrote his masterpiece, he would still be alive today. Of course, I was probably told in my high school class that his date of birth-date of death was (1919-present), but it never occurred to me that he was living and breathing, just like the rest of us.

Weird.

(PS. I was going to post this on Friday, and then I forgot about it. So enjoy!)

Classes and such

2010-01-30T09:44:00.002-05:00

So after three weeks of classes, I've decided I basically love my life.

Contemporary Fiction: We read Virgin Suicides. I absolutely love it. The writing style is excellent, which is great, because I really want to try writing in 1st person plural (in fact, I am, because we have to write responses via the "Sincerest Form of Flattery", so I will be able to try out his style). I love how there are so many people in class with good comments, and I am really hoping that one day I'll be able to comment as well as they do.

International Studies: I feel really stupid when I'm in this class. I'm mostly an idealist when it comes to the world (yay for being liberal!), so it's hard to face the harsh realities of this class. We talk about current events a lot, which I'm finding really hard to keep up with. I'm not sure if I would say I'm struggling in the class though because so far all we've done is take notes. But we'll see.

Literary Marketplace: I love this class! We discuss a lot of problems in the publishing world, or at least new changing factors that may or may not be problems. It's really interesting. On Monday we'll be talking about self publishing, and the book for it is really complex. I never realized how much went into publishing a book.

Fiction Workshop: I wasn't too sure about this class at first, but now I love it. I'm actually writing, which I really need to do. I'm also doing a lot of reading. It's really low key, too, since the teacher is more like a guide instead of a teacher. I thought that would be a problem, but I think it's a great way to lead a workshop.

Choraliers: I still need a dress for this, and Shanna didn't realize this, so she didn't have her mom send it. Now we have a concert on the 6th and I don't have a dress. Oops. haha. Other than that, I love singing. We're not the best group, but we're definitely having fun and I'm learning a lot.

Sightsinging: I've been to this class twice so far out of 6. hahaha. I plan on actually going this Thursday! haha. It's so hard to wake up for an 8am that you already know you'll get an A in and doesn't take attendance.

Piano: This class is getting to be legit hard! It's craziness. But I absolutely love Carolyn and think that she's going to do a great job of teaching me enough to pass the class. I wish I had more time to practice piano, though. I do have free time, but I can never convince myself to use it to practice piano rather than sit here doing nothing.

Latin: We had our first quiz today. I think i did alright, but I hate how I actually have to work for this class. I never had to work for Latin 201, so it's hard to realize that to pass this class, I'm going to have to do a lot of work.

Short Story: I really love the handouts we get on the authors of the short stories we read. They're really helpful in understanding the writer's and their intentions, as well as how their works were perceived during their time period. I really want to know if I'll be able to do this for myself once I'm out of this class.

Analysis: Theory is a lot of work. But it's good work. I wish I knew more about post tonal music, though, because currently my knowledge is completely zero. All I know is that it sounds funny and makes no sense. haha. I guess that's what this class is for!

Steel Band: I love Steel Band. So far we've worked on two of my four songs. And I absolutely love them. We're learning Joseph's Tune by rote, which means he teaches us by telling us the notes and rhythms, mostly. I love it. Another tune we've played is Jump Up, and it's sooo much fun and sounds soooo cool. :D

Voice Lessons: I'll be starting voice lessons this week. They'll be Wednesday from 11:15-11:45. It kind of makes me nervous, because I can't sing that well. Lara said she isn't really good at private lessons, so this is going to be a work in progress for the both of us.

Work: I absolutely LOVE my job. Everytime I go in, there's someone else working, and it's great. By someone else, I mean another student manager. Student managers are probably my favorite people ever. We went dancing Thursday night, and everyone just had a blast. Even one of our managers showed up! haha.

Social Life: I'm hanging out with people a lot more. It's really nice. I went to karaoke on Monday (as I always do on Mondays), which meant that I was able to see a ton of my friends. Rachel Boden is my favorite karaoke person. She dances just like I do, and it's absolutely wonderful. On Tuesday I was able to eat breakfast with a bunch of lovelies before my piano class. That was an excellent choice. Wednesday Erin and I had an excellent dinner, because we always have excellent dinners and we're amazing people. Thursday night I went out with a bunch of student managers (or well, there were like five of us), which again, was awesome. Friday I spent my breakfast time with my two wonderful roomies, then the afternoon talking to my most amazing Emily, and then spent about two hours that night just sitting and talking with Abby. We watched TV, mostly, but it was good.

So basically, my life is awesome. :D

Things to do

2010-01-24T22:02:00.002-05:00

So over the weekends I have to do homework for both Monday and Tuesday, because there is simply no time on Monday night to do homework.

Contemporary Fiction: Read Virgin Suicides
International Studies: Read Chapter about History and begin new book.
Literary Marketplace: Read online postings, edit personal statement.
Fiction Workshop: Write a story inspired by glass exhibit.
Choraliers: Memorize Music.
Steel Band: Practice Jump Up
Peer Mentor: List of faults and solutions, plus introduction meeting.
Piano: Practice chord progressions, scales, and vocal piece.
Latin: Read 1st book of Virgil, translate lines.
Short story: Bartleby and online story. Journal responses.
Theory: Research annotated bibliography.

This all has to be done tonight.
Oops.

A Good Pic

2010-01-22T19:04:00.001-05:00

My Disastrous Attempt to Donate

2010-01-22T18:45:00.002-05:00

So if you know me at all, you know that I've had problems donating. So I go to donate today, and I'm filling out the form. Now, this is a different company- Central Blood Bank is only a Pittsburgh thing.

So anyways, I got a shot 4 weeks ago, and Central Blood Bank told me it was going to be okay after 4 weeks, whereas the question on Community Blood Bank's asks for 8 weeks. So I get there and I'm like "Central Blood Bank says I'm okay" and they're like "Well, we're different." And so I start crying, because I really thought I was going to be able to donate. They let me call my mom and see if she knew what the shot was, so I finally got the information, but not after crying. haha. I think I scared her. She looked up my vaccine and found out that it was okay. So the tears went away. Then I did the whole health test thing, and I passed almost everything.

I've been anemic on and off since before college, so I was expecting that I might not be able to donate due to my iron count, but since I was still in the sensitive condition from just crying, I was still really upset when my blood didn't drop in the little bottle. She ran another test, through a different thing, and then put 38% on my paper, saying I could donate. Now, 38% is the lowest you can have of hemocrit (iron) to be able to donate. I JUST passed (or she lied and through my blood out after I donated).

So anyways, I donated, and since I weigh over 120, I can donate the full amount :D (Though Community Blood Bank lets you donate the whole amount anyways, but Central you don't a smaller amount under 120). My donation went well, and I felt fine afterward (usually I'm faint.)

So yay!

PS, this is what my finals week looks like

2010-01-20T17:56:00.002-05:00

Contemporary Fiction: paper
Literary Marketplace: reflection
Fiction Workshop: two edited stories (that we wrote previously)
Short Story: paper
Theory Analysis: project (that we spent whole semester on)
Choraliers: performance
Steel Band: performance
Sightsinging: final during last week of classes.

Piano: Two part final
International Studies: Final Monday at 12:30.
Latin: Final Tuesday at 12:30.

I'm really excited. haha. Two legit papers and three finals. :D

The past couple of days

2010-01-20T17:34:00.004-05:00

So Friday was really nice. I worked from 7-11, then had international studies, then worked again until 5. Afterward, I stayed at home, slept, then did some homework. When Emily and Kristin came home, we partied in our room to awesome music. They had people come over, and we played games.

Saturday was pretty much the same. I worked, slept, and then went out. I had dinner with my roomies and Rachel Boden at Harris, and that was good.

Sunday...I worked, played broomball with DOFUMA, then went to Christine's recital. After that, I had a couple hours to do homework...though I didn't do any. Oops. haha. I had a broomball game for sopranos (Delta Omicron), before I had my work meeting. We won the game at 0-9, and I scored the last goal! WOOO! haha. The work meeting went really well, and I got 30 hours a week for the next four weeks. Hopefully I won't kill myself. haha.

Monday was MLK day, so I worked (time and a half yay!), then I had DO. I had dinner first with Kori and Lara, and that was nice because I love them both! The DO meeting went really well, though I wish I had all of the dates for stuff. I hate calendars. haha.
This is my last week. haha. Thankfully my almost-three day weekends will be nice, because I'll get a lot of working done during those times.

We also had a broomball game for sopranos on Monday, at 11:40, and we lost. Oh well. We did get one point! haha. Then I went to karaoke and danced my heart away to Rachel Boden. haha.

Tuesday was just crazy. I have a feeling I'm going to absolutely despise Tuesdays/Thursdays.

Today was nice. I worked for an hour and a half, and then for another twenty minutes. :D haha. I also had two of my favorite classes, where we talked a lot.

I did my laundry, took a nap, and am now blogging. haha. I've been in my room for 3 hours, and not a single bit of homework is done. Oops. I have a feeling I'm going to be up late tonight. haha.

Thursday

2010-01-14T22:24:00.002-05:00

So today was nothing less than awful. After my dream, I rushed off to sightsinging only to find out how hungry I really was. So my teacher let me go get breakfast before class started, and I came back awkwardly, then broke my coat with my scarf, so I sat through class with my zipper broken. GAH! So now my coat is ruined and I only have my fancy pink one to wear, which is supposed to be for nice things. Then I was late to piano. I played the chord progression fine, but had the fingerings all wrong for the vocal score, which upset me, because they worked in my mind.

Latin wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be. We only had to translate like two lines when she called on us, and I only messed up one word, which I translated correctly, but awkwardly. I think I'll be fine in that class, but the pace is definitely going to pick up.

Short story was a little be awkward, because I disagreed with everyone. Perhaps I can't interpret a story correctly, but at least I'm strong willed in my opinion? If anyone else would like to tell me the point of Rip Van Winkle by Irving, I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on it.

Choraliers was nice. We got to do massages, which I love! I miss those the most from high school, I think. I also miss a lot of the warm ups we did. :( It's going to take a lot to get used to the new way of doing things.

Theory was nice, but I was falling asleep. I really think that dream took a lot out of me. haha. Not to mention my course load. :-\ We learned a lot about how she wants us to do the research project, and we have to have a lot done by Tuesday. 20 sources! That's slightly ridiculous, but I mean, I guess it's a 300 level course, so it's sort of expected.

Then I went to work, which was really a nice break from everything else. Every single student manager was working 'cept for three (two sundial and one from the food court), so we had plenty of people covering. We need a lot of student managers due to the fact that only 5 full timers are employed anymore for the evenings. Either way, I ended up only taking attendance, getting people through testing, taking temps, and talking. A lot of talking. Oh, and I got a CD from a coworker. haa.

I had my interview for DO with Corey Stevens. It was nice. :D

Now it's bedtime. I work at 7am. Yay!

2010-01-14T07:10:00.002-05:00

I just had a really intense dream about my mother being scammed. I'm really upset about it, because I thought my mother would have been smarter than that. It was the stupidest scam ever, too. Some lady came up to my car (which I was currently struggling to park haha). She said that there was reported an accident, and so we had to enter into some computer system she had that we owed them money, and my mom put into the system (even though there wasn't an accident!) her credit card number and social and everything, took my mom's cell phone, ruined my phone, and all this other stuff, so we couldn't even call 911. It was ridiculous, and I'm just so upset about it.

Hump Day

2010-01-14T00:48:00.002-05:00

So today was pretty lax. I woke up at 8:30 after a rough night of sleeping. I had woken up at 3am feeling really sick, ready to throw up. I spent the next ten minutes in the bathroom/hallway trying to figure out how to handle the situation, when I finally decided just to go back to bed. I woke up this morning fine, though, as well as went to bed fine.

Contemporary fiction was interesting today. We debated about a lot of things on whether contemporary fiction is "literary" or not, based on an article written by B.R.Myers. I thought the discussion was very thought-provoking, but it really emphasized my lack of knowledge in the contemporary world. People were talking about books and authors I had never heard of, and so I tried to write some of them down so that I could get them out of the library and read them, though my reading list is already way too long. I talked to Jody after class about my personal statement for my next class, Literary Marketplace, and I think that went rather :-\, because it made me more confused about what to write. Yet, when I started fixing it up, it sort of made sense to me. At least, I'm hoping it did. haha.

I then had lunch with Jenni, my Creative Writing buddy, and we discussed our classes and stuff, but more importantly, we discussed starting a writing community. We really feel like it is important to have a community to share our writing skills and passions. We decided to wait for a couple more people's interests before choosing a time, but we decided it should last an hour. The first half hour will be prompt writing (though, if you're already working on something, you're free to do that) and the second half hour will be reading aloud and critiquing/giving suggestions. We might eventually try to do poetry slams and guest speakers to make it much more interesting of a group.

I had Literary Marketplace after that, and we focused on the dying market of bookstores/kindles/etc and what we thought of all of it. We'll be continuing our discussion next week, but I think it was really interesting. I'm not sure what to think of the kindle, but I don't think it's a bad thing. I never thought of writing as a field to make money in, so for people to get really upset that they're losing money in this technology craze kind of bothers me, because it isn't about the money. The only thing I'm upset about is losing the feeling you get when you curl up with a good book.

After that class, I worked on my short story homework, which took me an hour and a half because I kept dozing off! haha. Then I worked with this girl named Kara from my latin class on some latin homework. I'm kind of nervous for tomorrow, but slightly less so because I had someone to work with. Then I took my baby, Margot (my laptop), to IT services to get the sound fixed, where they proceeded to give me a laptop to borrow, where the sound doesn't work! gah.

I had dinner with Erin Semple, Jamie Slone, Corey Stevens, Abby Hils, Kori Hill, and Kelli Novitzke. It was an excellent dinner, full of laughs, theivery, and deceit. haha. I really love how social my first week has been, and I'm really hoping to keep this going throughout the year, even when my coursework gets the best of me.

Then we met with the prospective members to start them on their journey through learning about our chapter. I'm really excited for this DO class. I feel like they will bring so much to the chapter.

:D

Second Day of 2010 Classes

2010-01-12T22:05:00.002-05:00

So my second day was today. Here goes it:

I woke up at 8:15 with much dread toward the early time. After getting ready, I went to Sightsinging. We went right into the material, working on intervals and naturalizing (is that what it's called I don't remember? haha) notes into our range. I pretty much spent the whole class waking up. Kelli, Kori Hill, Andy Gazzerro, Jamie Slone, and I then ate a beautiful breakfast together. I had my delicious hashbrowns and fruit loops (you can tell I'm very exploratory when it comes to food). We went to the Proctor's Table afterwards, and I slept until my next class.

Piano was great. I love my new teacher, Carolyn, and her uppity teaching style. She is really nice and helpful. I have this class with Kelli, and we're like the only non-vocalists in the entire class. Oh well. I had to run to Latin after piano, though, because we didn't get out until 11:05.

Latin is going to be crazy. My teacher is really nice, but she really knows Virgil, so she's expecting a lot from us. We already have to translate 31 lines for Thursday, and I think we translated on average 20 lines last semester. This has me a bit freaked out, so we'll see how it goes. There are a lot of people in my class from last semester, though, and I think the familiarity will help, as well as knowing there are people struggling through the same things I am. And we also have a TA that I know (Chris Dobbs), so that might be helpful as well.

I got out of Latin early, so I went to the packaging center to get my latin books and flute. I then carried a bubble wrapped flute to the CPA, since I threw the box away as soon as I got it. haha. I went to my next class, which is The Short Story. This class is going to be pretty interesting. We're reading one of my favorite short stories "Young Goodman Brown". I can't remember when I read this, but I feel like it was freshman year of high school. I just loved how symbolic it was, even though it was ridiculously overly symbolic. I can't wait to read it again. haha. We're also doing author projects, which'll be a lot of work. I'm excited, though, because I really like short stories.

I had Choraliers, which was similar to yesterday, and then I had theory. Theory this year is actually Atonal Research and Analysis. It's going to be a ton of work. We're going to be working on research, learning about atonal theory, and applying it in a big final project. So that's going to be intense. I spent all of class starving, though, so I don't remember much else. Oh, 'cept that I love Dr. Boge a ton!

Luke and I got food at Shriv, because I couldn't wait 15 more minutes for a dining hall to open, and then I went to my prism meeting. It was just the meeting for the blog committee, and I'm really excited for it. I'm making the website this week, and we're going to start running it next week, but basically we'll be asking a current event question weekly, and in response we want short stories, poems, and essays based around the current event. We might even take art work, but we didn't really discuss it. We're also going to do a bunch of other things, and I'm just really excited for it.

The Steel Band meeting was really great. CT is letting me do Steel Band without registering for the class, which'll be really nice, since then I won't have to pay for the extra credit hours. The meeting was really informative and productive too, and I mentioned that we should have section leaders, and he really liked the idea. I'm excited, because I was scared last semester to ask people for help, which made me very under prepared for the class.

I came back to the dorm with a half hour to spare, so I showered and got into nice comfy pjs. Then I had my Peer Mentor Meeting. It was really nice. I love Abby Trout, as usual, and we got a lot accomplished. I am now apart of the committee that plans the first 8 weeks of the program for next year. I'm really excited, because I have a lot of ideas. I pretty much led the group through a quick discussion of when we should meet and when. We also talked about what to have prepared for the next meeting, which I suggested ~5 activities to plan during the 8 weeks and the first 3 days, and 5 problems with this year and possible solutions to the problems. I think the committee'll be really nice.

Now I'm sitting here writing this, avoiding all the homework I have. haha.

I have only two semesters left after this. Only 3 lit classes (eww), a capstone, my thesis, an independent study, and honors English class left for my major. Only two composition classes and two elective composition classes left for my minor. Only two classes left for my thematic sequence.

Wow. I'm almost there.

The First Day

2010-01-12T01:28:00.002-05:00

So my first day of being a junior!

I woke up at 8:15, got dressed into a really cute outfit, and then ate a healthy breakfast called fruit loops. haha. I organized my bag, sat around for a bit, and decided I couldn't wait anymore, and left for class. My first class was really nice- we were there for about 20 minutes. It was with my favorite teacher, Jody Bates. The class is called Contemporary Fiction, and we have to read 8 books for the class (I originally thought it was 13...I tend to exaggerate haha). Our responses on the books, though, are not about theme, character, etc, but instead a story based on the styles we perceive from the books, and then a memo explaining our choices. I'm really excited for this exercise, because I have never been able to understand how to take something I've read and write something in a similar style. I might have to go to office hours to understand this, though, which kind of scares me, since I've never been to office hours before.

After that class ended, I walked with Madi Peterson, a girl I work with, to Shriver, and we talked, which was really nice. I stood in line for twenty minutes to have my daily hashbrown, though I usually have two, and the worker there, who knows me since I work there, asked me if I was cutting back. Since I had already eaten, I wasn't hungry. haha. I bought a bottle of water, then sat in a comfy chair until it was time for my next class, reading Elbow Room and the introduction to my international studies book.

My second class of the day was International Studies. I really like the teacher and the dynamic of the class. There are 23 of us in the class, though I'm pretty sure plenty of people are dropping since it's a major section. We had to mention our favorite place to visit. I picked two places, NYC (obviously) and Switzerland. It was way before this blog's time, but I went to Europe when I was in 7th grade. Switzerland inspired me to write, and I actually really want to go back so that I can write again like I did then.

My third class of the day was forunately in the same building as the previous, which meant no walking anywhere. It was again with Jody, and the class is called Literary Marketplace. It should be called "Life after Miami for a Creative Writing Major". We have a facebook group! haha. I'm really excited for all I'm going to learn in this class, but I'm worried about my grade. I have to write a personal statement by next week. I think I'm going to talk to him about it after class on Wednesday.

I then had a three hour break in which I played on the computer, sat at the Proctor's Table, and finished my International Studies homework. I saw Armond, Brandi, Lara, Abby, JohnGrice, and pleny of other lovely people during this timeframe, and I was really excited. I miss people so much! I told JohnGrice about dropping steel band, and he mourned with me, though I don't think he actually cares. haha.

My next class was my fiction workshop. I'm not sure what to think about this class yet, because Keith Banner doesn't seem the teacher type (he even said he "doesn't really do the whole teaching thing"), and we're doing visual art-inspired stories, which I'm not a big fan of writing. But I guess I'll take what I can get.

Between these two classes, I went to the library and saw some more lovelies- my big, to name one. Then I went to my room before going to Harris to eat. I had about five dinners worth of food at Harris. Oops. I ate with my two wonderful roomies, Erin Semple, Sean O'Neill, Sarah Blaha, and Kori Hill. It was definitely exciting.

Choraliers was really exciting. I walked in with Kelli, since we both were a little nervous over showing up as new students, but there were a lot of new students, so it really wasn't that awful. I sat with Erin and Amy, two of my fellow student managers. I realize how bad I am at harmony-sightreading, because I just want to follow the melody (I mean, hey, I play flute, sang soprano in high school, and play melody lead pan in steel band, give me a break!). So I really need to work on the music, which I'll hopefully be able to do alone at some point, once we get the music to keep.

After Choraliers, I went back to my room and did some homework (sort of.) I finished my contemporary fiction homework for Wednesday, and it actually really interested me. I hate contemporary fiction, and so did the writer of the essay. haha. Abby showed up at around 11:15 so we could go to Karaoke, but when we got to Brick Street, they had a special guest and it actually cost money, so we didn't go. Boo. We hung out at her apartment instead and talked. Yay!

Now I'm sitting here, anxious for tomorrow. :D

The Perfect Shirt, Favorite Pair of Jeans

2010-01-11T01:21:00.004-05:00

Everyone has that favorite shirt,
that shirt you find at some random store.
It's perfect for you.
The colors match your eyes, the style is just right.
So you wear the shirt all the time,
straight out of the wash.
It stretches in places, rips in others,
but you can't seem to give it up.
The colors start fading through so many washes,
and soon the shirt doesn't fit anymore.
Reluctantly, after years of wearing it,
you finally give it up.
Sometimes you still think about it,
sometimes you look through your dresser for it,
but eventually you find a new favorite shirt,
and it finishes its journey trapped in your memory,
or perhaps even forgotten.

---

I used to have this pair of jeans,
the perfect pair for me.
They were made of cotton and stretched to fit,
dark, very stylish.
I couldn't stop wearing them,
it was hard to wear anything else.
I abandoned the rest of my wardrobe,
focusing all my upcoming outfits on them.
After years of wear and tare,
they faded and ripped.
They were growing too short for me,
and I began to despise them.
I still loved them, how could I not,
with all the joyous memories they brought me.
I sold them at our next garage sale,
reluctant to see them go,
but glad to move on.
I found a new pair of jeans to favor,
and life went on, as it always does.

---

When we first started dating,
when your hand first touched mine,
the stars aligned, and everything was a perfect fit.
I fell in love with you,
couldn't imagine my life without you.
I spent most of my time with you,
forgot anything important.
As time went on, things weren't quite right.
We began to fade, a misfit pair.
I couldn't fathom it ending, though
so I held on until I couldn't anymore.
Reluctantly, I had to let you go.
I know as with everything else,
I will eventually move on, and you,
you'll become just another memory
in my long list of favorites.

Shy

2010-01-08T22:53:00.004-05:00

Before my eyes caught sight of him,
I could sense he was there.
A tingling ran through me, down my back.
A light blush through my cheeks and ears.
I turned around and there he was,
just as I expected he would be.
I had to look up to see his face,
if only I had the courage.
He laughed, and I reddened.
I made some silly excuse to leave,
and as usual, ran off with my insecurities.

The Snow

2010-01-08T01:53:00.003-05:00

Fluffy white individuals find their way to the ground,
dancing in circles,
covering the earth with their wetness.

The slush creates panic and accident,
the streets are bare and cold;
the snowflakes continue on.

Each one tells a story, a different path and pattern
though from a distance
they all look the same.

Different reactions are created from snow,
snow delays, excitement,
freezing cold, shoveling, and driving.

So forgetting their woes, the happy take advantage
sledding, flying down the hill.
Snowballs, snowfights, and snowmen, smiling.

No Washington

2010-01-07T13:54:00.001-05:00

So I won't be able to go to Washington anymore. Instead of leaving Thursday night, they're now leaving Thursday during the day, and I've got 8 classes on Thursday, four of which are after noon, so I won't be able to go. This makes me really upset.

600 words, no I

2010-01-07T12:33:00.001-05:00

So I did a prompt the other day where we could only use the word I twice in 600 words in a first person story. It was actually really hard to write, but I was impressed when I finished. I'm going to try to do a better one, since the one I wrote was very elementary, just trying to get through the challenge. But it was interesting to see different ways you have to phrase things to not use I. Oh, and you can't use it in the first paragraph, either. Or the title.

Equal Love

2010-01-07T11:39:00.003-05:00

This collection of short stories by Peter Ho Davies wasn't as good as Michael Byers, at least in my opinion. It was really about love between families and parents and children, basically about love. But the endings of each short story seemed to be missing something, or perhaps I was just lost in their meaning. Peter Ho Davies also works at University of Michigan (can you see a pattern in my reading here? haha), and he's a great writer, I just felt like it was lacking something, though I odn't know what. Most of his stories seemed very ADD/stream of conscience with a slight direction. And he writes second person very well, I thought. Each individual story was really touching, and I feel like I got a lot out of reading it. So I guess this is my third book of the year. :D Getting off to a good start.

100+ Challenge

2010-01-06T14:43:00.003-05:00

So I've decided to take on this challenge: http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/2010/01/2010-reading-challenge-100-reading.html

Basically, read 100 books in a year. So far I've read 2:

"The Fiction Class" by Susan Breen
"The Coast of Good Intentions" by Michael Byers

So I've got 98 more to go! Since I have like, 13 books for one class, I think I'll be at least able to get half way this year...haha.

Last Week of Break in Oxford

2010-01-06T13:16:00.003-05:00

So I've decided to come back to school a week early to work during sorority week. It's been really nice so far. I moved in on Monday, started working on Tuesday. In the meantime, I've been reading. I've already read "The Fiction Class". It was a really good book, and it came with writing exercises too! I think I'll eventually do some of them, but right now, I'm really trying to focus on reading. I also read, "The Coast of Good Intentions". It's by Michael Byers, a teacher at Michigan, a place I'm really interested in going to grad school for an MFA. The book is a collection of stories, and all of them were really interesting. It was really about these characters, all in the dullest stages of their lives, and finally finding peace within those stages. At least, that's how I read it. The last story has a line saying, "it was a small life and, he thought, a good one." I think this really describes the entire collection. Throughout the collection, there are stories of old and young, women and men, first and third person, going through divorce, death, and sorrow. It's really interesting, and I would recommend it to anyone.

That's really all I have to say. :D

Things I'm nervous about next semester

2010-01-03T22:56:00.003-05:00

1. Going to Washington DC for the March for Life.
I'm pro-choice, but I decided to go to this, because it would be a good experience for me, and something I will never get to do outside of college. I will have to keep my thoughts to myself for this one day, but it will be worth it when I get to see a group of people fighting for something they love, even if it isn't what I believe. I think it will be easier for me than a lot of other people who are pro-choice because I am personally pro-life. I do not support anyone in abortion nor will I advise anyone for it, but I don't criticize or judge those who do it, hence why I'm pro-choice. So this trip makes me nervous, due to my views.

2. Taking 25 credit hours.
This is a ridiculous about of credits, which makes me really nervous. Thankfully, a lot of my classes are easy, but it is still a ton of time taken out of my day, as well as time taken away from possibly working. I will have to bust out my great time management skills to accomplish this heavy task. But I'm slightly excited for it, because I'm always up for a challenge.

3. Doing something this summer
I applied for ULIP (Urban Leadership Internship Program), and I get the results January 25th. I will be applying for SOUL as well, which the application is due January 15th, and that's during the week get back. I have one person writing a letter of recommendation for me, and I'm trying to find another person. I just don't know who to ask. I might ask my RA, though. In fact, I should email her while I'm thinking about it. Either way, I'm nervous I'm not going to have anything for this summer. This is my last summer to prove myself, and I'm afraid I'll be working at taco bell again.

4. Writing
I need to have at least two very well put together short stories for next fall (for applying to grad school), which means I really need to get writing. I don't think I have anything right now that would be good enough if I just edited it, so I need two new stories (about 30 pages is the average requirement). I'm not sure I can do it.

So as you can see, while next semester is going to be amazingly exciting, I'm still really nervous about it. Time is running out. Wish me luck!

Crazy Dream

2010-01-03T10:10:00.003-05:00

I just had a crazy dream where I was walking somewhere (not in Pittsburgh or Oxford), and I saw this fountain that was absolutely crazy broken. It was this square fountain inside a square of townhouses. I knocked on this one red house and they said to call the police. The kids said something about how it wasn't them. My conversation on the phone went something like "Hi, I'm somewhere I don't know and these kids said they didn't, well, they had this face that was like they were lying, but I don't know, actually it wasn't the kids, but this fountain is spouting like crazy and I'm at 5356 (I can't remmber the street name)..." and then I remembered it was the red house two houses down, "no wait I lied I'm at 5653 (don't ask why two houses down is that much of a difference haha)"

Needless to say, I had trouble saying anything in my dream haha.

First Two Days

2010-01-02T22:55:00.002-05:00

So this is the second day of the year. Yesterday went really well. I worked from 9-5, which involved a lot of New Years cleaning, but it was really nice, since there weren't that many customers. Then I went out to dinner with Moria, Blair, and KZ. I wore my new pink peacoat, and I felt so cute :D We obviously went to Eat N Park. Then I went to the Celebration of Trees, where my mom, my great aunt, my little sister and I saw a bunch of different trees. Afterwards, I went home and played on the computer.

Compliment on Day 1: "You look incredibly cute in that pink jacket."

Today, my plans to hang out with my aunt were canceled, because she wasn't feeling well. So I slept in a little later. Then I went shopping with Kerry Jo. We super shopped. I got a sweater dress, a yellow t-shirt, a pink indie style shirt, two book bag purses, a scarf-hat-glove set, a book, pink leggings, and a pair of shoes. My total was less than $50. :D

Compliment on Day 2: "You're really good bargain shopper."

I really like these compliments, because they make me smile at things I'm good at, liking wearing pink and shopping. haha. I'm writing them in a really cute book, and I'm hoping to keep them up :D

Don't Reach for the Stars

2010-01-02T03:08:00.004-05:00

I was right in front of the golden star.
Finally I was about to touch
pure perfection.
As I approached, it flew away.
I spent my whole life reaching for the stars,
Put all my effort into being the best.
The best at being the best.
Yet, when I finally achieved everything
when I was finally there,
the star ran.
My struggles were for nothing,
the pain, the triumphs, the hope.
All for nothing.
Some star.
Maybe I'll try reaching for something a little
closer to home.

2010-01-01T00:08:00.002-05:00

Today hurts.
It hurts, and I can't hold back anymore.
My heart saw everyone,
their love was so innocent and pure.
Their New Year's kiss- perfect.
And I could do nothing.
How am I supposed to move on,
when everyone keeps reminding me
of how happy I used to be?

New Year's

2009-12-29T23:48:00.002-05:00

So it's time to figure out how to make my life better. First, I need to figure out what's wrong with it in order to make it better. Some of my resolutions don't fit with my problems, and some of my problems are unsolvable, so it doesn't really match up, but you get the picture.

Problems
1. Loneliness. One thing I've been going through ever since being single is this awful feeling of loneliness. I feel like I can't be loved, and that no one actually cares for me.

2. Time Management. Last semester, I really struggled with time management in the beginning. I got a hang of it later on, but I really struggled to begin with.

3. Family. I feel very disconnected with my family.

4. Friends. I also feel very disconnected with my friends.

5. Remembering my ID card/phone. I really need to figure out a way to fix this.

6. Practicing. I will be in voice lessons, flute lessons, piano class, and steel band next semester.

7. Pessimism. I need to learn to be optimistic.

Resolutions
1. Email friends and family every single day. Pick one person a day to email just to say "hey how's it going?" If I don't know their email address, facebook, phone, or any other way of contacting them will be just fine. This will work best if I do it at the same time every day, so I think I will do it every night just before going to bed.

2. Make weekly lunch plans. I am able to have lunch on Wednesdays with someone, so each week I will try to find someone available for that time to eat with. It might end up being the same person each week, but I really want to fill in that time for really getting to know people. In order to successfully do this, I want to be able to contact them on Sunday to ask if they want to, then remind them Tuesday night.

3. Organize daily. Keep my room clean. I will start by cleaning it when I get back to school. Then, every night before I go to bed, my room must be cleaned. If I keep up with this daily, it shouldn't turn into a problem. In fact, I have a list of things to do before I go to bed that I'm going to post on my desk that I will have to (mentally) check off every single night. Obviously, this doesn't apply to nights I sleep over people's houses, but then that means double work the next night.

4. Compliment myself daily. I will keep a daily notebook where I will write one new compliment to myself each day. I don't want to designate a specific time for this, since I could come up with something at a different point each day, but I will add to my nightly check list to make sure I did this at some point during the day. I really hope to have 365 happy thoughts about myself at the end of the year...

5. Practice at least an hour every day total, with the exception of Thursdays, which is my busiest day. I tried practicing an hour on flute, a half hour on piano every day last semester, and it was just way too much, and I ended up not practicing at all. I have time where I can practice an hour a day if I really focus and put my energy into it. To practice better, though, I'm going to take time on Thursday to write a practice checklist for the week, and focus on that.

6. Keep up the good work I've been doing with my planner. It's really helped me this semester keep track of everything I do. Since I work a lot and my schedule is very flexible, I really need to work on keeping it all organized. I did a VERY good job last semester, so my resolution is to keep doing a good job :D

7. Get closer to people. There are so many people that I know, but there are so few people that I actually know very well. I really want to take the time to get to know everyone a lot better. I'm really not sure the best way to do this, so I'm not sure it's possible. I just need to hope that the year brings me closer to people.

8. Find time to write. This isn't going to happen, but it's really nice to dream. *sigh*

Here's my Nightly Checklist:

*Shower
*Brush teeth
*Do dishes
*Put dirty clothes in hamper
*Put shoes in shoe rack
*Put ID in bag
*Organize books for next day
*Put aside clothes for the next day
*Email/facebook someone special
*Daily compliment?

I have so many things I want to do to better myself, that it's really hard to keep it to just resolutions. I hope I can find new ways throughout the year to better myself. Of course I will blog about them, but at the moment, I'll do what I can.

Grades

2009-12-29T23:19:00.002-05:00

So grades:

Theatre 101....A+
Theater 103....A
English 354....A
Piano Class.....A
Sightsinging....A
Theory Class...A
Lessons...........A
Steel Band......A
Econ 201H.....C+

So semester wasn't a waste, but it brought my GPA down, because of the Econ class. Oh well. I got an A in every other class, so I'd say I did pretty well. And econ was an honors class, so hopefully that'll be taken into account if my GPA ever does turn out to be important. haha.

Time to be the best

2009-12-28T10:16:00.003-05:00

We spend our whole lives searching
to be the best, the strongest,
to understand our purpose.
Different skills, abilities, and strengths
lead us to the end
with success and happiness.

Everyone wants to get there faster,
be the best- the fastest.
Time is the most important,
it's a race to the top of the hill.
Climb the ladder, one step at a time,
jump a few steps to win.

But you miss out on the importance in life.
You have to see the world,
take time to take it all in.
It's a huge world out there,
so much to learn and so much to gain.
Take life one step at a time,
take it inch by inch.
To gain the skills to be number one,
you've got to slow down and learn
master and reflect.

You can be the best that you can be,
if you just take your time.

Far Away to Happiness

2009-12-27T21:57:00.002-05:00

When the world is full of sunlight,
how can I possibly ignore the radiant happiness?
But then,
how can I ignore the pain, anger, and sorrow?
Happiness means so much,
but requires so much to obtain it.
It requires being stronger than the past and the memories
it requires ignoring previous happiness,
ignoring the reasons everything went wrong.
It requires remaking yourself,
starting again,
beginning a new life.
I can't think back to when everything was perfect,
I'll remember how far away that is.
I can only think of now,
here with what's left of me.

Wednesday

2009-12-16T16:51:00.002-05:00

So, hi. haha. I've calmed down a little bit over my A-. I'm just really upset because I was honestly expecting an A. No part of me thought I would be getting an A-. Perhaps I have too much confidence in myself. I'm really hoping that next semester I'll really think about that and not think I'm doing better than I actually am.

So today, I really didn't do anything. I took my Latin exam, then went to the proctor's table and did nothing for four hours until I had my theory final. After my theory final, I went with Luke to see how he did on his juries. He obviously did well, but his teacher got on him about not being focused and for accompanying too many people. And to be fair, she's right. If he didn't accompany 10 people, he would have been able to practice more on his own things.

Now I'm waiting to go to Bagel and Deli, and then it's off to econ review session. I'm not exactly prepared for the review session, yet, though. :( And definitely not prepared for the exam. It might be an all-nighter for me for this one. I haven't even looked at piano yet. Grrrr.

Latin

2009-12-16T16:27:00.003-05:00

So I got an A- in latin. :( I really thought I got an A in the class, and I really deserved an A. I got an A on all of the quizzes, and for the three exams, A, A-, and B+. You would think that would equal out to an A in the class, with all of the weight for an A. Plus I participate a TON! :-\ Guess she only went by the exams?

It's now Wed morning.

2009-12-16T08:55:00.002-05:00

So my jury went alright. It was a little bit nerve racking, and I was a whole lot nervous, so I messed up a lot. But whatevs. I'm going to the office today to check out my comments. After my jury I worked, then went to Karaoke. I go to Karaoke every Monday night, 'cept that I never sing. haha. Tuesday morning I worked (yay all this working I'm doing during finals week...oops). After work, we had a group meeting for econ, and it helped me a lot for the second half of the test, but I still have no idea what I'm doing about the first part. Oh well. I came back to my room to study for latin, but that never happened. So instead I took a nap, then listened to the Cheezies before finally going to Charles Roth's place to play video games until 1am. haha. And now I have my latin exam at 10. I have an A in the class, so hopefully the final won't kill that.

Monday :D

2009-12-14T13:01:00.002-05:00

So, last night was beautiful. Luke and I went for a two hour drive, and then about a half hour walk back, which involved taco bell, laying in the middle of the street, getting gas, and stopping to go to the bathroom. But what it mostly involved was MUSIC :D I love singing, but we all know I'm not that great. Now, Timothy Lucas can really sing. He didn't used to, but now it's like epically good. I'm excited to hear more of it. :D

Today, I woke up at 9 and began finishing my english stuff. I got my journal completed last night, so all I had was my paper. I was finished by 10:30 (I wrote 6 pages in an hour and a half?), and so I went to Scott for breakfast. Yay! After that, I went to the CPA and signed lots of people's cards, who went to things I ushered. I get to sign a lot of things since I usher most things. It's really nice.

Then, I practiced through my entire piece with Luke, which went quite well, despite a few spots where I messed up. After that, I filled out my jury forms. Then I went to the physics department to petition my science class from this summer. At first he seemed against it, because it was an algebra based course, but then he read my petition letter and agreed to sign it. So all I need to do is get my advisor's signature and all is well. :D

I finished my final for theatre lab today, which involved writing down a log of everything I did. So I feel a little iffy on that because I only have 34.5 hours, and I think the average is 40-50. I was sick, so I hope she won't hold that against me.

Jury in two and a half hours. :-\

The start of Finals Week

2009-12-13T19:12:00.003-05:00

So finals week started on Saturday. I would like to say I'm having a really successful finals week.

Saturday-
work 8-4
caroling 4-7
concert 7:30-9
homework 10-11
sleep 11pm-9am

I got a lot done at work on Saturday, and I'm really happy I did, because I had a ton to do. I took my test, I helped Josh take his test, and I got to help out at grill. I had fun because there were a lot of people there, and that always makes for a good time. Plus Josh made me some really good noodles. Afterwards, I tried to go to the library to find Christmas movies, but they only had VHS, which we don't have. so Then I went caroling with Delta Omicron, which turned out to be really, really fun. Afterwards was the A cappella concert, which is always the best concert of the year. Cheezies were amazing as always, but what really surprised me were the Remants. They're getting increasingly amazing as the year goes on. Their ability to blend is astounding, and I can't wait to hear them again. Then I did a little bit of homework, which really means I facebooked haha. I then proceeded to sleep for nearly 10 hours. I woke up a couple times, around 5:30 and 7:30, but really, I slept almost solid, and now I feel a lot better.

Sunday:
work 10-4
practice 4-5:30
homework 5:30-7:15
blogging

Today I worked from 10-4, and I got all of discipline caught completely up. I also organized the file cabinet, which needed done badly. I then checked the finals week schedule and everything else that needed done. Another successful day at work. Afterwards, I practiced. I'm still really bad at the song for my jury, but I'm getting a lot better on scales. It's going to be pretty awkward when I play for my jury, because I'm still not even good enough to be a music freshman, but I'm a lot better than last year, so I hope my improvement shows. I practiced piano for like ten minutes, because I'm really not too worried about my piano final. The only section I'm going to do badly on is the sightreading/transposing, and what can I do about that? haha. I then worked on my journal for English, and I got it all done besides one entry, which I'm working on at home (well, my dorm- i'm at the library), because it's going to be the most in depth one. Now all I have to do is write my 6page essay and I'm done with English class.

Yet to come:
Going out with Luke :D
My jury
Econ exam
Latin Exam
theory exam
piano final

2009-12-09T23:10:00.001-05:00

:'(

Crunch Time

2009-12-07T00:39:00.002-05:00

So we're in our last week of school. I'm pretty much done with everything. And that's way exciting. Steel Band is done and out of the way, which is really nice. I have nothing left to do in English, Music Theory, Sightsinging, Theatre Lab or Econ for the rest of the week. I have my Hedda Gabler critique to do for theatre class, two more translations of latin, and practicing for piano and flute. Of course, I do have lots of finals. My finals week looks as follows:

Monday: Jury at 3:50pm.
Tuesday: Sightsinging 8am-10am.
Wednesday: Latin 10:15am-12:15pm.
English Paper and journals due by 12:30pm
Music Theory 3pm-5pm
Thursday: Econ Death Exam 8am-10am.
Piano "jury" 4:40pm.

My work schedule looks like:

Saturday: 8am-4pm
Sunday 8am-4pm
Monday 6:30pm-cl
Tuesday 11am-3pm

I'm not too worried about any of my finals besides Econ. I really need to work hard to get anything decent in that class. I'm also nervous for my jury. And I'm really excited to be taking 302 next semester instead of 202.

Break :D

2009-11-28T17:48:00.002-05:00

So this was thanksgiving break this week/weekend. I got home at about 11:30ish on Tuesday night. I didn't really do anything Tuesday afterwards.

Wednesday, I woke up around 9. Then I played on the computer until about noon, leaving my room only to eat and go to the bathroom. At about noon I did my homework. I read M. Butterfly and Angels in America, part 1. Both of these plays were really good. I've seen the 6 hour Angels in America movie, though, so I really liked reading the play and imagining the movie in the back of my head. After I did that, I went over Kerry Jo's, where we ate Chinese food. I had chicken wings, without sauce, and a lot (a lot) of fried rice. It's just soooo good (why do I like it? haha). Then we played with Corina, who is the cutest little girl in the entire world (related to Kjo somehow). We also watched Glee, and I got Kjo really into the show, because I tend to do that (I also got her into LB: Search for New Elle Woods) haha. Then we taught Corina my name, which is actually really hard for children to learn, because of the ndr sound. But she finally got it and that was super fun.

Thursday was Turkey Day (and my mom's birthday). I spent my morning watching the parade. Then I spent my afternoon watching an entire season of Avatar (I don't even know if that's spelled right). It's like pokemon, only the boy (avatar) is all the pokemon in one. haha. Then we ate dinner. All the while, I searched MFA programs and things. It was really interesting.

Friday I worked. For twelve hours. End day.

Saturday. I worked, then took a nap, then did homework. At about 6:30, I went to dinner with Blair and my mommy. Now I'm watching Pokemon. :D

Classes

2009-11-17T21:53:00.003-05:00

So I'm in like, ten classes.

Econ 201- Econ is by far my hardest class. I really wish I could've gotten an A in this class, but I'm going to be happy if I get a B or a B+ to be honest. I have a B- right now, but we'll see if I can improve.

Lat 201- I think I'm going to get an A in this class. I've gotten an A on everything so far except three quizzes, and she drops three quiz grades...how convenient. So as long as I keep everything up, I'll be fine. :D

Eng 354- My teacher loves me in this class. She thinks I have such great insight. :D So I have an A+ in this class so far. And that's really nice, since it's the only class I have for my major this semester.

Mus 201- Wow. I'm in a lot of 201 classes. haha. But I've got a 100% in this class so far, so I'm not worried. haha. Yay music theory :D

Mus 251- Sightsinging= 100%. Which is exciting, because I don't even go to class that often.

The 101- I have no idea what I have in this class. Half of my grade is due thursday and next tuesday for our group presentation, but I'm really thinking we're going to do well, so I'd say I've got an A in this class :D

Mus 260- I've gotten a 97 and a 92 on my two exams for piano class, so as long as I do as well on the final, I should be fine. :D

Mus 142- I honestly have no idea how well I'm doing in lessons. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing really well, and then others I feel like I'm completely failing. So I really don't know.

The 103- Theatre lab is all based on how everyone else does. So I'm thinking that I'll get an A, but I'm really not sure.

So basically, my only class that will really affect my GPA (assuming I do well in all my other classes) is Econ. If I get a B in econ, and an A- in lessons, then my GPA will still be able to rise to a 3.77, but if I do any worse than that in either, my GPA is going to lower. I could get an A in lessons and that would mean I could possibly get a B- in econ before dropping my GPA, but I'd still prefer to not get a B-, since I've never gotten anything that low before. So hopefully my GPA will be rising this semester (it really needs to...it's so much lower than my high school GPA :().

If I get straight As for the next four semesters of college (including this one), I could move my GPA up to a 3.9, which would get me a summa cum laude on the old system and a magna cum laude on the new system (I don't know which system applies to me). I'd be very happy with that. :D Unforunately, Econ is going to ruin that (lame Econ).

2009-11-13T07:59:00.001-05:00

These are the classes I have. haha. I also have Choraliers Monday from 7:00-8:15 and Steel Band from 7:45-9:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

La la la la la

2009-11-11T23:44:00.002-05:00

So I got into Choraliers. I'm really excited to be singing again. I'm second soprano, so hopefully I'll be able to sit by my friends who are not that part :D I'm just all around excited. :D

Black on Barbed Wire

2009-11-07T22:51:00.000-05:00

Little black feet pace along

the barbed wire fence.

The only thing scarier than death

is the crack of a whip.

Stepping between the pointed edges,

Swiftly, cautiously running;

The thin wire shakes under his weight;

he pushes on.

The sweat running down his back

burning his sores,

streaming between old and new cuts;

a New Life awaits.

Dreams begin to become a reality.

But the fence, with the barbed wire

stretches outward indefinitely.

The little black feet tire,

and become clumsy on the thin wire.

Shaking, he cries for help,

silently he misses a step

and falls toward despair.

2009-11-02T07:12:00.001-05:00

So I woke up happy today. haha.

When did life get so busy?!

2009-10-29T22:53:00.002-04:00

So it seems like I go from one week of absolutely nothing to the next week doing so much. Last week I had a ton of free time, napped every day, and took time for myself. This week, there hasn't been a wink of that. I promised myself not to pick up as many shifts for work, but instead I ended up working so many more. I'm going to working some Thursdays and Fridays this month- usually my days off, on top of all the other days I work. I just can't seem to convince myself during our meeting that working too much is killing me. Oh well. Someone remind me next semester when I'm taking five hundred classes? So then I have a concert tomorrow. My first ever Hall Auditorium concert! I'm kind of psyched. I wish people were coming to see it though. It seems like everyone's busy. Blah. Stupid boring busy people. Then I also had to hang up posters for that, so that took up a lot of my free time. Then, on top of all that, I practiced piano for two hours every day for our test this week. I'm pretty sure I got a B on it, but since I got an A on the last test, I really shouldn't worry about it. It's a one credit course, and I've got more important things to worry about. I'm at least happy to get a B, since I was expecting a C. I've been dealing with scheduling and figuring things out for next semester. I'm applying for this urban internship thing, which is really exciting, because I can stay in Ohio, make money, and learn a ton about the real world, both on the internship and service side of things within an urban community. I got an A on my English exam. It's funny that I call this English class, since it's the first time I've only had one English all throughout college. Next semester I'm going to have three or four. And it's going to be way exciting. I still have a lot of my major classes to take, because of this semester and the fact that I'm only taking one. Blahhh! I don't even know what this semester is doing for me. I'm taking two Miami Plan courses, one English, five music, and two theatre classes. Theatre and music aren't really required, so I'm sort of wasting most of my time this semester, as I've done with past semesters. But I love everything I'm doing, so it's probably not going to change. haha. Next semester is crazy. I'm going to be taking 3-4 English classes, 2-3 of which with the same teacher, 3-4 Music Classes (since music theory has changed to 8am, i'll be taking that). Steel band, since I love playing sooo much. Then sightsinging. I'm not sure if I'm taking piano next semester or not, because I'm not sure if it will fit into my schedule. I really feel like I can't give it up, though, because I love being able to play way too much! Where is this even going? Blahhhhh. I'm procrastinating, if you can't tell. haha. I'll be hopefully taking Geography next semester. That and Latin will be my toughest classes. So yay! So at most, I'll be taking 25 credit hours (12 English, 6 Music, 3 Latin, 3 Geography, and 1 for the Urban Leadership Internship), but hopefully I'll figure out what to take and what not to take and how to work all this out. Because 25 credits is not going to work. I failed at life with 22. So blah. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. It's funny that I can do 25 credit hours without having a class (besides steel band) after 3:30 and only one class on Fridays from 8-8:50. So maybe since I won't be taking lessons, 25 credits isn't actually that big of a deal. I don't actually do homework during the day, so it sounds completely doable. But I'm going to get back to my homework. Bye!

National Day of Writing

2009-10-20T00:12:00.002-04:00

So today is the national day of writing. I thought I'd honor it to reflect myself as a writer.

One thing I've been doing lately is writing before Econ class. I wake up the same time every day (7:43). I have econ at 9:05 mwf, and sightsinging at 8 tr. So I catch the 8:11 bus on MWF and have a nice relaxing wake up ride for twenty minutes before arriving at the business building (it's a 10 minute walk, but I think the ride really helps me to collect my thoughts, plus it's cold outside). Then I write for a half hour before econ class. This is really the only time in my day that I have to write, so I've been trying to take complete advantage of it. I've been writing a lot of poetry and some play scenes, but not anything musical, for which I'm slightly disappointed. I think it's great, though, that I'm at least doing something and not expecting to be a great musical writer without practice. My poems are very songlike, though they have no music behind them. They're also very musical-theatre esque in their topics and styles.

I'm not really sure what else to say. That's the only kind of writing I do, really. I write a ton of response things for classes, but I don't feel as if I'm getting any better at those. Perhaps I should work on it...

DO Elections

2009-10-12T07:55:00.003-04:00

So we held Delta Omicron officer elections last night. I was running against Kristin for Director of Publicity and she was voted into the position. She turned it down, however, because she really wanted historian (another position she was running for). So they had to revote to see if they wanted me to be the position. Being the only person running, I was still turned down for the position. And that really, really hurt. I have no idea why a group love so much hates me or thinks I would do a really bad job at this position, but it really really hurts. I really thought I'd be a great addition to board, and I had so many ideas to bring the group closer, but I got completely shot down. I really wish I had been there for the discussion. Anything they would've said bad about me, I would've tried to explain to them. I honestly didn't realize I was that bad of a person that running by myself I still wouldn't get a position.

I have gotten turned down for almost everything in my entire life. Just in college, I have gotten turned out of Chorale, Symphony Band, being a Soul, an RA, Scholar Leaders, an honors student, and now this. I honestly have no idea what my flaws are that would keep me out of absolutely everything. I know I'm hard on myself, but I really don't think I'm that bad of a person. And I wish someone would tell me what I'm doing wrong. I really want to fix myself to where people like me. I really really do. Because I like people so much. Especially since I love everyone in DO more than I love a lot of people. And no one understands how much DO was the reason I came back to school even though I had no money.

The worst part was I was running against nobody. If I had been running against another, better person in DO, I would've completely understood. But I was running uncontested and I still lost. That shows how much the organization really doesn't like me or think I could contribute. When have I EVER not pulled my weight at anything? I always give everything my absolute all, and I would've done even more with this position. It's all I've wanted since school started. I took two hours to write my letter of intent so that I could sound perfect for the position. I have so much time next semester for it, since I won't be taking lessons, and yet they still think I'm bad for the job.

I know no one reads this, but if you happen to find this, please tell me what makes me such a bad person, so that I can really fix this problem. Because it really hurts.

Unfairness of Life

2009-10-09T08:20:00.003-04:00

I really wish I knew why life was so unfair to me. I try really hard to be good at life, and it always seems to backfire. Most people can do so many things and are really good at so many things, and then there's me, who isn't good at anything. I don't ask for much. I just hate that I can't be good at something. I mean, I get decent grades, I play flute at a middle school level now, and I know a few more musicals than I used to. But it seems like so many other people know so much more than I do. I have this new friend, Reina, who knows so much about jazz music and she can play the piano like none other. Plus she's doing like five hundred activities and helping the environment and going to the march this weekend. It's fantastic, and I am highly jealous. We all know about Luke and his ease at life. I met a girl the other day who has 22 credit hours, works 2 jobs- one at a hospital and one at a crisis center for over 60 hours working a week, and she still gets straight As. Why can't I do that? Why am I so limited in what I can do? Why am I learning so little compared to everyone else? What is everyone else doing right that I'm doing wrong?

College is perfect

2009-09-27T10:57:00.003-04:00

So college is pretty much perfect. I'm always busy, I'm always trying to get better, and everything is always fun. :D Most of all, I can see the difference between me last year and me this year. Last year, for example, I skipped classes and listened to Luke play the piano all the time, and could never walk home by myself. Now, I have yet to miss class, I never have time to just listen to Luke play, nor am I ever even in the mood, and I'm almost completely fine with walking home by myself. I have more responsibility at work and for once I'm okay with that. I practice flute a lot more, even though it's a lot more frustrating. I also practice piano a lot more. I actually listen to music this year, though not as much as over the summer. I have friends and I don't feel like our relationship/friendship is questionable. I get invited to small get-togethers instead of just big parties. The upperclassmen seem to not look at me just as a little girl. At this rate, I feel fully confident that I will be ready for the real world by next year. I think I'm mostly (mostly being the key word) with being single, even though I miss Jay more than anything. I'm not sure if I've told you guys this, but I'm going to graduate in three years. I don't have the money to go here for four years. So I'm really excited for that. Next year I'm going to be living off campus with Luke, too.

So basically, life is great. :D

Overwelmed

2009-09-11T01:00:00.002-04:00

So, as you have probably guessed, I'm doing a lot this semester. Go figure. Well, I have this really cool group project for Theatre Class that will involve meeting with my group once or twice a week for the next two months, working on putting on a play. We're doing Stuff Happens, this super political play about the Iraq war. So I have a TON of stuff to do for that. We legit have to plan everything for the play, do a paper on the literary analysis of the play, get costumes, lighting, sets, everything. It's going to be pretty intense. But I'm excited for it. If only it fit in my schedule. I will make it fit, though. And a lot of things will be done. I'm the one that's going to be doing a lot of extra group work, since I'm just that kind of person.

I'm also the leader of my Econ group. I love econ. I love my teacher. And I love that I've already had the class before. haha. Ryan Cook, someone from MB, is in it, so it's always reassuring to know people. There's just so much that I love about everything.

My latin class is actually pretty hard. Not because the material is hard, but just that you have to memorize endings like it's your job. And I don't really have time in my schedule for it, so I'm really hoping to improve things. I'm really trying to learn latin, because it would help so much with my writing. And since being a writer is still the number one goal of my life, I think that it's important.

Speaking of my writing, I really never have time to write. I practice everything else except for my writing. And that's really got to change. So I'm going to spend some quality time with some form of writing sometime soon. And it'll be glorious.

As for my job, I love student managing. It's absolutely the greatest. I had 24 hours of work this week and only 16 next. My schedule changes up. It's great. I love all of the other student managers, but I wish I ever got to see them. We seem to only pass each other, since we don't really work together. It's slightly depressing.

I'm seeing so much less of my friends this year. During band camp week, I saw a lot of everyone, but now it seems like I only see people if they're in a class with me. It's because I don't sit at the Proctor's table anymore. I just simply don't have the time. I'm actually off Tuesday, though, so that will definitely consist of some Proctor's Table time, though I know that I should be practicing, writing, or reading. Ah the life of ...I'm not even a double major. haha. Fail.

But I do love everything about college. Life is wonderful here- it truly is. <3

I had so much more to blog about, but now I forget.

Ahh, I'm home.

2009-09-03T07:34:00.003-04:00

You're probably sick of hearing me say how much I love college, but nothing could ever be more true. Here's my schedule today:

8:00-8:50am Sightsinging and Dictation
8:50-9:30 Breakfast with my sister and friend, Kelli
9:30-10:45 Theatre Class
12:45-11:15 Lunch!
11:15-12:15 Flute Class
12:15-1:15 practice/warm up
1:15-2:05pm Lesson :)
2:05-4:25 practice Steel Band
4:25-5:15 piano class.
5:15-6:00 Dinner
6:00-7:00 ∆O Info Session :)
7:00-7:45 You're Fired for Lara's Bday party
8:15-9:15 Steel Band!
9:15-? Out with my BIG :D :D
?-? Study for my latin quiz!

My schedule is slightly exciting. haha. Friday I have econ, latin, and theory, but we don't really have econ homework or theory homework, so I only have to worry about latin. :-\

First Week plus

2009-08-29T09:25:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I've been at college for two weeks now. The first week was filled with working and band parties (plus the band barbeque), but the second week is full of classes. I'm taking 20 credit hours, which is a lot less than 22, but it still feels crazy.

I'm taking music theory and eartraining as always, but I feel like they're two different classes and one thing I was really looking forward to was it being the same class with Davis just five days a week. Ugh. But I guess I'll strive for that next semester. I do love Boge, though. And I absolutely love my class. It's Alex, Ryan, Luke and I all hanging out in a small corner in the back. It's glorious. Sightsinging with Davis might actually kill me, since I'm completely lost already. But I'm going to talk to him after class on Tuesday to ask him if there's any way he could help me.

Lessons/Studio is going to be insane. For studio, I have to know scales, our exercise book, an unaccompanied piece, and a flute choir song piece. I'm really excited for the unaccompanied piece, though, because I feel like part of the studio, unlike last year. For studio, I'm working on this really pretty madrigal. I'm also working on scales and arpeggios. Then I have an etude I'm working on, which is nice, 'cause I actually like my etudes. One thing I need to get better at is my sound. Ugh. And sightreading. I'm really hoping to sightread more this semester.

My piano class is really small. There are only 10 of us, but only 6 of us were there on Thursday because Marching Band had a game to be at. It was really nice. I love playing the piano so much. Again, sightreading sucks! :-\

My theatre class is going to be so fun. I have to read two plays this weekend, though, and that won't be fun. haha. But, I love the people in the class, I absolutely love my teacher, and I'm going to love doing the THE 103 requirement along with it (it's our theatre lab :D).

My English class is going to be interesting. One thing I hate about the english department is that the classes are so big. Especially with the new budget cuts. So our class has 40 people in it and it's supposed to be a small discussion group based off American writings between the two world wars. I have to re-read The Great Gatsby this weekend, which is really exciting, because I love that book. I also really like my teacher. She's little and cute. haha. She's also my academic advisor.

Econ class is really interesting. I love my teacher and I love the way the class works. He picks someone to pick on for a bit and asks them about economics, then comments on people's likes and ums and yeahs (though, we haven't had any um tallies on the board yet, like and yeah are at like 50 haha). The girls say all the likes and the boys say all the yeahs. I haven't gotten the book yet, but I think I'm just going to share with Ryan, because I really don't have much money.

Latin class is going to be my hardest. I'm actually getting tutoring help from the Undergrad Assistant this weekend and hopefully for the rest of the semester. I'm just really nervous. I need a language requirement, but I'm so bad with languages. I like English. It works for me :D

Student Managing takes up pretty much my entire life. I love everyone I've met so far, though. There are 12 of us, and we're all pretty much amazing. The work we do is great, because I don't have to stand in the same area for four hours, and the full timers actually talk to me. Also, the students come to me for questions! YAY! I don't always know the answer, but I'm learning fast.

I have three songs for steel band. Which means I don't meet that often but I still get to be in band! For this week, I have to be there Tuesday from 7:45-8:15, then Thursday from like 8:15-9:15 (the class is an hour and a half long, so they do a song per half hour). So yay! Plus, I lost my mallets at Scott Hall. haha. Someone else in Steel Band found them for me :D And now we're friends! haha. Actually, I should make him PotW :D haha. I don't know what number we're on, though.

This whole peer mentoring program is going crazy, but I love it. I've had dinner with John, lunch with David, and another dinner with Maggie. Then yesterday I took five people out of my ten person group to Bagel and Deli. Maggie, David, Allison, Liz, and Dylan. I love all of them :D So yay!

My musical theatre learning has gone down soooo much. I haven't learned a new musical in ages. I haven't listened to music as much (stupid school time). :-\

The Proctor's table is back up! I haven't had a chance to sit at it for a long period of time, but trust me, I will. haha. I love everyone so much :D I love college. College is absolutely amazing. I love the atmosphere, the people, the classes, the everything. I'm so glad to be back here.

The Worst Night of My Life

2009-08-15T14:22:00.001-04:00

So Jay broke up with me last night. He still loves me, but he wants to be single and free. I guess one day I'll be okay with that.

OMG College in a couple days

2009-08-13T18:26:00.003-04:00

So I realize I haven't really blogged that much this month. I've just been tired. Today I saw Jon Hall and had an absolute blast. I even gave him a song to audition with. Hopefully he uses it. That would make my life. It's, obviously, that Run Away with Me song. He's auditioning for Musical Theatre major (I told him to go to the University of Michigan, but we'll see where he actually goes...haha). But he's also really good at acting, and he's going to be auditioning for acting as a back up, so this song is perfect for acting. So, I'm really excited for him. I also gave him my Bare CDs, which means I have to burn new ones for myself...haha. So I'm making Jon Hall my PotW :D

I'm going to be so busy at college this year. Like mega busy. I made a huge list of everything I'm going to be doing at college, and so far I have a list of 90 things. (WHOA!) haha. But some of it is like "Facebooking", so it isn't completely legit. But still, I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff. Sleeping is NOT one of the things on the list. haha. But I have 20 credits, doing like, 7 activities, working (hopefully) 20 hours, and having sooo much fun. It's pretty much going to be perfect. :D

NYC Trip

2009-08-11T09:51:00.003-04:00

Okay, so here's a rough timeline of my NYC Trip:

Monday:
Train 7:20am-4:58pm.
Get to hotel and get situated 5pm-7:00pm
Dinner at Pizza Place 7pm-8pm
Walk to downtown 8pm-9pm
Bobby Cronin Concert 9:30pm-~midnight

Tuesday: (wake up: 8am)
Greenwich Village, SOHO, Little Italy (lunch), and Chinatown 9am-2pm
Staten Island Ferry 2pm-3pm
Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Public Library 4pm-5:30pm
Dinner at AppleBees 5:30pm-6:15pm
Next to Normal 7pm-10pm
Therapy/Broadway Sessions 11pm-1am

Wednesday: (wake up: 8am)
Rush Little Mermaid 9:15am-10:15am
Find another show to rush/lotto 10:15am-12pm
Lotto 9 to 5 12pm-12:45pm
Find lunch 1pm-2pm
Empire State Building 2pm-2:30pm
Back to hotel 3pm-4:15pm
Dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner 4:45pm-6pm
Times Square/Theatre District Window Shopping 6pm-7:30pm
Wicked 8pm-10:30pm

Thursday: (wake up: 9am)
Central Park 9:45am-11:30am
Radio City Music Hall 11:45am
Broadway in the Park 12:00pm-1:45pm
Rockefeller Center and lunch 2pm-2:30pm
Developmental Reading at York Theatre 3pm-6pm
Dinner at Goodburger 6pm-6:30pm
Finding ways to waste time 6:30pm-7:30pm
Jersey Boys 8pm-10:30pm

Friday: (wake up: 8:30am)
Train 10:50am-7:45pm

Now, that's the timeline. Here's a description of some of the well-rounded trip...

Theatre Experiences: 9
Bobby Cronin CD Recording: This was absolutely amazing. I had been emailing Natalie Weiss and Ben Cameron about this for a while, and I absolutely loved it. Bobby Cronin, first off, is a composing genius, but more than that, he LOVES music. He played piano for some of the songs, and was literally out of his seat for half of them, loving everything about his music. The performers blew me away. Everything was so perfect. Natalie Weiss did a new song that was really good; Anne Brummel obviously did The Understudy which I loved even more after seeing it live; Kate Paskaldjfaoiwjeawej (Pazakis) blew me away with her voice. Katie Thompson's voice is so...I don't even know how to describe it. Alex Brightman definitely surprised me with how much voice he has in such a little person.

Next to Normal: Definitely the best show I have ever seen. The CD recording doesn't even begin to describe the emotions going on in this show. I was confused about Henry/Natalie's relationship until I saw the show, I was confused about the psychiatrists, I was confused about everything, and now it all makes sense. Everyone was absolutely adorable and fun and perfect for their roles. Alice Ripley blew me away. I wasn't a big fan of her voice on the CD, but it works sooo perfectly for her role. Natalie's piano playing makes so much more sense now that it's more than just one song, plus it helps build her relationship with Henry. I bawled the second Natalie canceled the dance to take her mom to the psychiatrist, because the whole show, she emphasized her dislike of her family, and yet she still loves her mother 100%. I also cried when Robert (Dan) couldn't take it anymore. Guys, I'm not even kidding, GO SEE THIS SHOW. It's absolutely perfect (perfect for you).

Broadway Sessions: Therapy is a 21 and over gay bar, but I emailed the owner, Tom, before our trip and he said we were allowed in. Yay! So, we got a reserved table with free (nonalcoholic) drinks really close to the stage. Everyone was so nice and Ben Cameron ("Ben D") hugged us like 20 billion times. He was just as excited as we were. haha. But literally, the show was hysterical. I couldn't stop laughing. Bets Malone was probably my favorite, but they were all great! If I'm ever in NYC, I definitely want to come back to this.

Rush/Lotto: We attempted to rush/lotto a Wednesday matinee show. We completely failed. But the experience was great. We stood in line for the Little Mermaid, talking to the people in front of us and behind us, just to find out they had no seats available that day. Too bad, but I loved talking to people in line. I think that's what it's all about. We then tried In the Heights, but they don't have a Wednesday matinee, so we went to the Information Center to see what did. We eventually decided upon trying Chicago, but when we went there, they were out of student rush tickets. We could do standing room for $30, but we were exhausted from Tuesday's walking, so there was no way we could stand for a whole show. We decided just to do lotto for 9 to 5. We got there at like 11:55, put our ticket in the bag, and waited until 12:30 for the names to be announced. We talked to the guy directing it, which was cool, because we found out he had never won a lotto before even though he's tried like 20 times. Plus, he is in no way associated with 9 to 5, but a completely different company. We also talked to a girl who lives in NYC and so she sees shows like every day. She won the lotto, we didn't. All in all, 38 people who weren't us won. :-\ Oh well.

Ellen's Stardust Diner: Waiters sing to you. Like, it's amazing. It's a very antique diner setting, with cute 50s outfits on everyone. They all sang great songs plus waited on people. haha. Our waiter, Nick, was amazing. They were all amazing. I didn't want to leave. The food was good, too, even though the portions were a little small. The milkshake was good, too, though it was WAY expensive. haha. If I could sing, I wouldn't care about getting on Broadway; I'd want to work here! haha.

Wicked: Wicked is my favorite show. It isn't the best show out there, but it's my favorite. And the Gershwin Theatre is a dream come true. Everything was absolutely, stunningly GORGEOUS. The stairway, the timeclock dragon, the set, the people...everything. I honestly could live in the Gershwin Theatre. haha. But seriously, I thought the show was amazing. I wasn't too sure about Alli's performance, especially her interpretation of younger Galinda, but she was still absolutely phenomenal. A lot of people don't like Dee, but other than her distracting hand gestures, I thought she was great. Everyone in this show was great. There are soo many quotable lines from this musical that aren't in the songs, so I'm really glad I got to refresh my memory on some of them, though I really should relook over the script I have to keep it all straight.

Broadway in the Park at Bryant Park: This was great. So, every Thursday, a couple Broadway shows get together and perform ~3 songs from their rep to advertise their shows. We got to see the Marvelous Wonderettes, The Fantasticks, Lion King, Next to Normal, and Burn the floor. I loved the Marvelous Wonderettess- a great juxebox musical from (I think) 50s music...or 60s...or possibly both...haha. They sang five short songs, all of which were soooo cute. I thought all of the girls on stage were adorable. The Lion King was next, and the two people on stage (Simba and Nala, though I couldn't tell you the people's names) were great. Absolutely great. I want to see the Lion King again. haha. The Fantastiks, though a great story line, doesn't interest me musically, but I still think all of the people on stage were talented. Next to Normal was obviously amazing. They used an understudy for Alice's role of Diana. Her voice was smooth, and while amazing, didn't work as well as Alice's. I don't know what this show would be like without Alice. Burn the Floor was great. They were sooo amazing at dancing...and it didn't even seem to affect them physically at all; as if all that movement were natural! I loved their hair, too, because most of them had it dyed. Pink/purple, blue undertones, or red. Loved it so much!

Developmental Reading at the York Theatre: Finding this was impossible. It was in a church! How was I supposed to know that?! haha. But we found it. The reading, Once Upon a Pasttime, wasn't too amazing, but it definitely had strong qualities that I could see turning into something really good. Definitely not Broadway worthy, but not un-offBroadway worthy. haha. But the idea of a reading is sooo coool. They have their scripts in their hands, but it's obviously been rehearsed. They had a narrator to describe the action/scenes that couldn't be displayed without props or whatnot. Definitely something that I'd be willing to go to again.

Jersey Boys: Worst theatre experience I've ever had, but absolutely phenomenal show. The people around us were loud, annoying, tall, and talkative. It made for a really bad experience, but otherwise, the show was amazing. The scenes were really cute and little, the drummer (either they have more than one or he changes shirts wayyy too often in the show) was AWESOME, the characters were perfect- I don't even know how people act that well! Or sing that well. The singing was honestly amazing. The plot moved quickly, but they were covering years of material, so that makes sense. I'm not sure what was fact or fiction, but I believed all of it. I can see why it won Best Musical in 2006.

Repeat Stars:
Ben Cameron- Bobby Cronin's CD recording and Broadway Sessions
Alex Brightman- Bobby Cronin's CD recording and Wicked (Boq)
Bets Malone- Broadway Sessions and Broadway in the Park (Marvelous Wonderettes)

I really need to get ready for work, so this is all I have for now. Keep a look out for more!

Caroline, Or Change

2009-07-31T02:12:00.004-04:00

I haven't really blogged about many of the shows I've been listening to because I've listened to SOOO MANY. But I really wanted to point out this one. It is really, really good. The music is a mix of blues/classical/spiritual/Klezmer and a bunch of other styles hardly used in musicals. You can go to Wikipedia for the plot, since I don't feel like explain it all, but it's soooo good. I had my doubts, even though everyone told me otherwise, but it's absolutely astounding.

College Friends and Activities

2009-07-18T14:37:00.003-04:00

Brandi- We're going for 6am walk/runs every morning (she's going to make me get up, so it's really gonna happen...haha hopefully.) I really need to get in shape. I feel awful. It isn't good for me.
-We're also going to practice piano as much as possible. We both have this huge desire to learn piano. And she's good with the songs and the sightreading and stuff while I understand the scales and chord progressions better. Well, did. I'll definitely have to get into practicing again. haha. That's what the week before college starts is for!

Kim- We're doing zumba together, Mondays and Wednesdays? I don't know when, but we're doing it twice a week. It's going to be so much fun. If anyone wants to join, please come! It's going to be incredible. I think we're also going to take afternoon walks together? I love the idea of taking walks, haha.

Rob- Rob Murrison is going to take me to poetry things. Basically a bunch of English stuff. I'm really excited for this, because I really want to get ingrained into the English department. He's a senior, so he has so much more knowledge in the English department, and so I'm really hoping to learn a lot from him.

Timothy Lucas- We're still doing ice creaming Wednesdays and Sundays. haha. At least, I hope so, 'cause that's my plan. We're also walking together. I really hope we can do a ton of other things together, too. I love my best friend <3

The Quad- I think that we should, as a quad (or whatever we have haha), do Sunday brunches (I'm going to try to, with my work schedule, not work Sunday mornings. I'm not sure how the work scheduling works, but I really don't want to work Sunday mornings. haha.)

Jackie- She told me about this a long time ago, so I don't know if it's still happening, but we're going to do a workshop club. I'd really be all for it, so I really hope it's going to happen.

Armond- He's going to teach me jazz. I mean, he says he is. We'll see if it actually happens, but I'd be in love if he did.

Luke Tyler- He might be able to give me private piano lessons. I would be thrilled if he could. Neither of us know our schedules yet, so we won't be able to figure it out until college starts, but I'm hoping it happens.

I'm also going to do the ∆O Broomball team. I love broomball and I love DO. I also want to do the DO FUMA broomball.

Erin Semple, Kori Hill, Luke and I are still going to try writing our song for our quartet. All of us are so busy, but we all have such passion for music, so we're definitely trying for this. Again, we can't figure out a time until all of us know our schedules, and since none of us know anything yet, we won't be able to figure this out until college starts.

Steel Band- I'm still going to be doing Steel Band :D T-R really late at night. haha.

Matt Levy- Matt works for the recording system at Miami- he records the senior recitals and such. He's going to help me go through recording songs that I write for my musical (or just songs I write) so that I can create a CD and submit it to contests and festivals. I'm forever grateful for this, because he really doesn't have to do this. But I guess that means I need to start writing! haha.

I still don't know my class schedule, but once I get it figured out, I'll tell all of you! There are some classes I definitely know, and then even more that I don't know...

This is basically what I have so far...though there are things listed after this (as in Steel Band and working Monday nights), but it doesn't fit on my computer screen to take a picture of it.

Sondhiem

2009-07-18T13:18:00.003-04:00

So, I've listened to quite a few Sondhiem musicals this summer; A Sunday in the Park with George, Gypsy, Company, Into the Woods, and (well, already knew) Sweeney Todd. And I know so many people are in love with Sondhiem, but like, none of these musicals are my favorites. I thought SitPwG was not good. Gypsy has a good plot, but that's about it. I don't really like company, and Into the Woods just as way too much going on. I really don't like Sweeney Todd. He's won more Tony's than any other composer, though, so he's obviously got something going for him. So I'm going to take it into note that my opinions are obviously not the same as the majority. haha. I still think he's a talented composer, just not my type.

BAH Overload.

2009-07-18T10:27:00.004-04:00

<*>Taboo
<*>Shrek
<*>My Fair Lady
<*>Light in the Piazza
Next to Normal (again <3)>Footloose
some of Hair
<*>Gypsy (this time I listened to the London cast)
Fiddler on the Roof (yay I actually love this music.

<*> means haven't listened to before.

I'm like in love with all these shows. I thought Taboo was good, Shrek was reallllly good, My Fair Lady and Light in the Piazza were both beautiful. Footloose, I love the plot. Same with Gypsy. One thing I really want to do is go back to a lot of these musicals. As you can see, I've relistened to Jon and Jen (though, really, that was because Jay came over and put it on), but since I actually really like that musical, I didn't complain. haha.

I feel like I'm not going to get to listen to all of these by the end of summer. I realize summer is sttill four weeks, but I still have sooo much music to listen to. I keep getting shows and listening to those instead of the ones I got previously and I also have different versions of some shows. Currently, I'm listening to the New Broadway Cast of A Chorus Line (previously I listened to the OBC). I have three versions of In the heights, two versions of Hair, and just a bunch of stuff.

There are so many more musicals I want, though. Like, my new obsession is Caroline, or Change. I love the plot soooo much, but I want the music! I want it! I love original musicals that aren't based on something. But there are so few of those. Maybe that's why I love Next to Normal so much. haha.

So many musicals...

2009-07-16T22:29:00.004-04:00

My recent playlist (starting with what I listened to first to current)

Into the Woods.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Gypsy.
Jekyll and Hyde.
Crazy for You.
Wicked. (I know already know it, I can listen to it again)
Billy Elliot.
CURRENTLY GOING THROUGH: Taboo.

I'm really trying to get into this. Fell asleep during Jekyll and Hyde, though, so the musical kept playing like 10 times, so my playcount on iTunes is off (as if it isn't already completely wrong as it is). I really only listened to probably 80% of it once, not 100% of it 10 times...haha.

Musicals Update

2009-07-15T11:22:00.002-04:00

Annie Get Your Gun- I listened to this because I was told that it might be the HS Musical? haha. I really like the songs. haha.

Chess- Not really interested in this musical? The music wasn't even that good...but if someone really likes it, tell me and I'll give it a second listen!

Jersey Boys- OMG I'm so excited for this show! The music is, well, duh, amazing (I mean, it's music I already know! haha)

Billy Elliot- I actually like this music. haha. I was really against it because it swept the Tony's and I really liked Next to Normal, but the music is actually really good. haha.

I've also relistened to Anything Goes, which was really good the second time around. I finished Sunday in the Park with George, and I'm not going to lie, I didn't like it at all.

Some stuff I bought

2009-07-15T11:13:00.002-04:00

Week of Hanging out with AWESOME people

2009-07-15T11:07:00.002-04:00

Monday night, Kim and I had a sleepover. Yay :D Then we went to eat n park for brunch and shopping (ugh, I hate shopping I need to STOP!) Then I went to the mall with Kerry Jo, where I proceeded to spend money at Wet Seal (oops), but I'm going to wear everything a lot, so hopefully that'll make it all better. Today, I'm going out with Blair and Kelly Zimba to brunch, which will be really fun. Then I'm going to see Harry Potter with the fam :D At some point, I'm hopefully hanging out with Jay Benze today. haha. Then I work Thursday-Sunday pretty much non stop, so yeah. haha.

Musicals

2009-07-11T12:01:00.002-04:00

Musicals I've listened to Today:

Drowsy Chaperone: I actually really like this show. I mean, honestly I don't know what it's about, but I like the songs. Most of them are very catchy, and I really like that in a musical.

Little Mermaid: I like this a lot. I love Flounder the best, 'cause he can sing like omgwhoa.

Sundays in the Park with George: I'm still listening to this (these musicals take like an hour and a half to go through....haha...it takes a while to get through them, and I have soooo many to listen to!)

I've been listening to a lot of musicals lately, and I really like it. I'm learning a lot of different musicals, though I really am only going through them once, so I'm not really learning, learning them. So hopefully I'll be able to go in depth with some of them. Unfortunately, I still spend a lot of time listening to the same musicals, namely Next to Normal, Bare, [tos], Legally Blonde, and anything Kerrigan and Lowdermilk.

Movies

2009-07-11T00:10:00.003-04:00

So I've seen a couple movies lately.

Confessions of a Shopaholic: This was SOOOO cute. Seriously, breath of fresh air cute. And really funny. You'll love it.

My Sister's Keeper: This is a beautiful story. It was full of flashbacks where the plot was slow, but there was a plot, and it was good.

Marley and Me: I didn't particularly like this as a movie, since it really just outlined a normal life of a family, but the dog was adorable and so were the kids.

Poetic Song (without music)

2009-07-08T09:02:00.002-04:00

Empty Water Bottle

My song starts in two minutes,
and my throat is burning.
You know, that tingling feeling you feel
when your throat starts its yearning.
I search the dressing room,
below my mirror and the closet top.
I found my bottle of water,
But to my dismay, there wasn't a drop.
And I have to sing in two minutes,
and my throat is as dry as sand.
I need a water fountain,
or I won't be able to stand.
So I search the darkened hallways,
and I finally find a bathroom sink.
I sigh with relief, turn the faucet on
only to see the water was PINK! Ugh
Now with less than a minute to go,
and no water for my throat,
I know there's no turning back now,
I have to hit every single note!
While my throat is dry,
when no sound wants to come out,
I'll get on that stage, give them everything!
Belting and belting and attempting to shout!
I walk up to the curtain,
thirty seconds to go.
My manager quickly hands me a glad,
and wishes me luck for my show.

:D

Love and Music and Being Behind

2009-07-08T08:49:00.003-04:00

So I have like a thousand new musicals to listen to. I have this friend, her name is Reann. We met at Kennywood when Luke was here (she was Kim's friend). And we're both seriously obsessed with musicals. So we've been trading musicals. And so I have a ton more to listen to. Right now, though, I'm listening to John and Jen, a musical Jay gave me. I love small shows with like two poeple. I love the last five years. And [title of show] only has four chairs and a keyboard, so if you want to consider Larry a person (he's the keyboard player, there's five, but really there's only four.

Btw, Reann is person of the week (56?).

I have like fifty million musicals now to learn! Haha. But I also like listening to the music I already know. And I know a lot of musicals. haha. Plus I like spending time away from musicals. So I'm not sure what to do. But I guess I have to try my best to balance it all out plus work and hanging out with Jay. haha. If I don't listen to every show, I guess I'll live, but it was my summer goal, so I still want to try and listen to as many as possible.

Natalie Weiss and New York

2009-07-06T21:19:00.002-04:00

So it is official. I'm going to New York. Aug 3-7. Now, I emailed Natalie Weiss and told her I was going to New York sometime in August and wondered if she was doing anything and she is! She's doing a Bobby Cronin cd concert August 3rd. So we're going to that? and that's wayyyyy exciting.

Poetry

2009-07-06T20:14:00.001-04:00

I'm really bad at writing poetry, but since poetry is the first thing to learn when writing a song, I realize I need to practice. BIG time. So I'm writing a bunch of silly "songs" (poems) to warm up. Keep an eye out!

Smart Shopper:

2009-07-01T23:41:00.004-04:00

So I bought this phone today! Only $20 :D I love it lotses.

I also bought:
scarf ($10- originally $25)
bag ($14- originally $32)
headband ($4)
black sweater ($13- originally $30)

Add $15 Kohl's gift card.
Total: $27
:D

So total for the day: LESS THAN $50 :D