First Week plus

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.

OMG College in a couple days

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

Love and Music and Being Behind

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.

Person of the Week

#55.

Chris Cunningham. This is a little overdue, but last week (Monday) Chris helped Liz and I just writing music, and he's actually an inspiration to me now because he picked up on the style so quick. He also understands music so well without ever taking theory or anything. It's really interesting. Plus he can play piano (keyboard) and it's really neat.

NY Times

So lately, I've been reading the New York Times. haha. It's definitely not something you'd expect me out of anyone to do, but I'm actually rather enjoying it. I obviously like the opinion section the best, second is the political section. I honestly haven't even looked into any other section. haha. But the news is so interesting. I've also been clicking on a couple of links my one friend has been posting on his facebook. Those are also interesting. As such, I will make him my person of the week (Go Jason!) hehe. I'm not sure if it's making me smarter- reading the news- but it's sure interesting. And it makes me also realize the economic status of this country and the doings of the president.

Another thing I've been spending lots of time doing is reading about musicals. Since I want my career to be focused on musicals, it's something of interest to me to read as much as I can about those that write them, the musicals that sell and why they sell, and a bunch of other stuff. It's interesting how little I know about the musical world.

Speaking of musicals, I'm writing a really fascinating one right now. Ask me about it- you won't regret it. :D

Person of the Week 53

So I haven't had a person of the week in a whole long time, so Liz Pegg is going to be person of the week :D She has hung out with a lot lately, has yet to be potw, and she's going to disney world. haha. But basically, I like her a lot.

Yay Person of the Week :D

So Jackie Howell is person of the week. She has helped me with my story and with poetry class for this past week and a half. And now my story is amazing with her few suggestions. Thanks Jackie!

Can we call it crazy?

I seriously might be insane for taking 22 credit hours this semester. Even more so for putting so much onto two days/one day. Next semester, I'm limiting myself to 18 or 19 credit hours. I'm still going to be taking so many classes that don't really count towards anything, but that's okay. I'm a single major now, so I'm going to have to take so many classes that don't really count. And I'm find with that. I'm going to learn so much from all of this, at least that's what I'm hoping, and so it doesn't really matter too too much that I'm wasting a lot of time.

In other news, my Rent trip with Luke was great. Sorry I didn't blog about it. Last weekend was amazing too. We did a lot of DO stuff: Friday was DO FUMA game night, Saturday was glee club concert+ matt's recital (he's amazing), and Sunday was the Musical Friends and Spotlight recital.

This week has gone by really fast. It is already Thursday. I've been trying to hang out with Luke a lot more. I'm not going to see him for a very, very long time. And that really upsets me, because just when I finally have someone else in my life who I can seriously say is almost as close to me as Jay, he has to go and leave me all by myself this summer, too. Lamesauce. But that's exactly why I'm trying to hang out with him. Last night, I really wanted to go on a walk with him and talk to him. We ended up going for a short walk with Shanna and Emily, which was nice, but obviously you can't confess your soul when there are other people around. So whatev. Maybe he doesn't deserve to know, anyways :-P But seriously, though, I'm going to miss him. This semester was probably the worst decision I've ever made, and to top it all off, I never got to see Luke. I remember like Jan/Feb, I was literally going crazy over missing people: Luke and Jay. First semester I was okay with not being with Jay because I had Luke, and then I began depending on Luke, so when he was gone, I was literally not okay. I've gotten better, but I'm such a needy, dependent person, so it's hard.

News: I'm going to see Jay this weekend! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

I need a person of the week. Tyler Swaffar is going to be PotW because he is going to drive me to Jay's!

So Alex is Awesome.

I have this friend named Alex. He's wayyyy cool. Everyone calls him "Cooch", but I just call him Alex. He sits at the Proctor's table all the time with me and we watch videos and listen to "nam nam nam nam nam nam nam" a lot. Or well, maybe twice. And he loves hockey. More than anything, he loves Miami hockey. We're in the frozen four right now. Right now he's sitting at the Proctor's table talking to Ryan about some song he heard the other day. This kid has every single song you could possibly think of. Including pokemon. Which he still has to give me. *pout*. Umm...He took me to a couple crazy cool parties this weekend, which were the ones I described in a previous post.

I think that's all I have to say about Alex. He's pretty sweet.

potw48

Abby Hils, for being the most upbeat and fun person ever!

Spring Break so Far

I've been at Katie's house since around 6:15pm on Friday, March 6th. That night we watched a movie: Shakespeare in Love. I actually really liked it. Then Saturday, we went to Katie's work, where I did a lot of facebooking and napping and listening to music. Yay for music :D And napping :D. We then went shopping with Katie's mommy, where we went first to Sam's club and bought the entire store, then went to Bigg's and bought the entire store there as well. Katie is from a family of 6 kids, so they apparently go through a lot of food in a week. I can only imagine. While out shopping, we bought Australia, which Katie and I took two nights to watch, due to its very, very long length. Butt it was very, very good and I approve of it muchly.

Sunday we went to church. She's catholic, so it was very lent-oriented (meaning that all the songs were very depressing). After church we all ate lots of snack food. It was crazy. Like, our family would never all snack together. Then we went to Katie's aunt's house for like three hours. She has like a mini farm, but only like sheep, horses, and lots of land kind of farm. Oh, and chickens that lay green eggs. So that was fun. Then we had dinner, which was chicken and it was wayyyy good. Monday, I woke up around 11, then Katie and I went shopping (but didn't get much since they tax clothing in Ohio (weird)). Then we came back and finished watching What about Bob, since we started it yesterday at her aunt's house. We also attempted to exercise, meaning Katie exercised while I stretched. I fail at this whole getting into shape thing. Last night we watched the disney version of the Three Musketeer's, which I actually really liked.

And now we're at Panara's. Yay. I miss internet a lot because Katie's house doesn't have it. Though, I guess, we're getting along mostly fine without it.

Katie's younger sisters, Marianne and Megan, are going to be my persons of the week. Because they're awesome.

Bicentenial Ball with a PotW(45)

Caitlin Carlin is my person of the week because she and I hung out until 1 in the morning on Thursday night at the proctor's table mad libbing and at shriver eating. It was way fun. She's back on campus now (after having lived off campus for a couple weeks with her parents so she could focus on studying for exams she missed last semester due to mono). So now I see her all the time at the Proctor's table, and it is exciting.

Jay got here around 6 on Friday, and so we went to the amazing Gala (combined choir) concert. It was phenomenal. I loved all the pieces, 'cept for the one I missed because I had to go to the bathroom. After the concert, we went uptown to buy some food off TBS (Tau Beta Sigma) for their membership candidate fundraiser.

When we got back to the dorm, we ended up watching The Island with our quadmates, and then going to bed. The movie was good, but I dunno, I doubt I'd watch it again.

The ball was amazing. Everyone was so beautiful and the music was good. Well, most of the music was good. I'm happy that Jay enjoyed himself, even if he only likes Swing music.

I think that's it. :D

I hate not blogging.

I miss blogging. I wish I had time now to blog, but I have class in twenty minutes. Just an update for you, though- I love college and DO and everything. Jay's coming here this weekend. And my roomies and I are hanging out bunches more. :D Ballroom dancing tonight :D Be excited.

I guess I could use a new person of the week. Emily Huber is an excellent choice for PotW 44, because we got her to go to her first party this weekend :D (Which is excellent, even though I don't think she liked it). The experience can now be checked off her list and nothing bad even happened. :D haha. I dunno, I think I'm weird, but I really like going to parties to observe people. I'm not much of a socialite nor do I drink, so I guess that's the only thing I can do. And it's really, really fun. Most sober people don't appreciate parties, especially the way I do, and I'm not sure if that means there's something wrong with me or something wrong with all other nondrinkers, but I like my way.

Well, now I only have 14 minutes until class (though really the building is only like a five minute or less walk, so I'm not panicking or anything). I'll try to blog more later!

WtoP

So, person of the week. I think I'm gonna pick Andy Gazzerro because he went to the a capella concert with me Saturday and it was amazing. Plus he wrote an amazing song for our quartet.

Just a quickie.

PotW: Erin Semple. I really don't need to explain. She's gorgeous, fun, and like, perfect. We're doing the lake quartet together and it's just so much fun to be apart of. Plus we're both doing Steel Band- the best band ever!

So Luke and I have decided to do some reading. We went to the library, here's what I got:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov- The book we're reading for my fiction workshop class refers to this a ton, and I feel very ill informed by not reading this.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë- Luke didn't like this book, but I've heard it's something that everyone should read, so we'll see.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens- It's something I always hear about, but have never read. It's not my usual style of reading, but again, we'll see.

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams- Something everyone in Bethel Park should've read, and yet I have gone throughout life without.

I'm not sure which to read first....:-\ I also want to read Grapes of Wrath- Luke owns it, so I'll just borrow it off him sometime. He grabbed five books, but he'll probably finish before I read my four, so it's okay.

In Procrastination Attempts.

Okay, so class update.

ENG 372- Man, I really like this class. I feel like everyone and everything is up to my level. Even though I don't like Shakespeare, I've decided I like this class. To read Shakespeare, I first read the Sparknotes and then read the play. Then watch the movie. It's a highly effective method, and I approve.

ENG 320- I love my teacher in this class. Seriously, he's like the coolest person ever. He sits very unconformatively in his chair, kind of like Batboy did before he was trained to sit properly. He has a great accent, Alisha says it's Southern, but it isn't a rich southern. The class really makes me want to write.

ENG 123- Well, I have Howe- I had him last semester. He's been sick so far, so we haven't done much, which sucks because I really want to discuss some poetry!

JRN 101H- I'm not sure how I feel about this class so far. I mean, I'm learning a ton of things just through the videos we're watching, and I'm highly intrigued, but other than that, we haven't done much yet.

PHY 131- This is really just a repeat of high school physics, only simpler. haha. Which is nice, 'cept it makes me not want to work.

ALL OF MY MUSIC CLASSES- They're pretty much great. I'm loving my new music theory class and everyone in it, I love sightsinging, and piano is the best class ever. I'm going ot start taking lessons soon, which is exciting, plus Steel Band pretty much rocks my socks.

LAKE: I'm doing a quartet with a couple of my friends; Luke on piano, Kori on violin, Erin on clarinet, and obviously I'm on flute. It's random, we write our own music, and I'm excited.

DO: DO is going very smoothly. We have to do interviews with all of the actives; I've had two so far, 7 more scheduled for this week, and so that leaves me with 3 more to go: Ashley, Emily Moses, and Kayla. We're doing a fundraiser next week: Breakfast at the CPA :D Monica, Kori, and I have to plan a menu, then wake up extremely early and go get the food and sell it :D Yay. haha. We're doing a couple of other fundraisers, all for a sweet music department related service project. We're also doing a concert, called All the Single Ladies :D (there are four of us that aren't single). So maybe we should be different? Whatevs. It's just all happening so fast that I'm afraid I'll miss something. The hardest part is studying for the exam, definitely. Way too much to study for, not enough time. We're also planning a PM Party, which'll be way fun.

PotW is Jenni Patton, because she's in two of my classes this semester, and she rocks. :D I don't know if she's been person of the week before, since I don't keep a list up anymore, so if she has, I'm sorry, I'll change it if someone informs me.

Note before College

I'm at college right now. It's pretty exciting. I had a lovely weekend with Lukeboy. In fact, he's PotW 40, because he's prettty amazing and let me stay at his house for like, ever. He took me to Oxford to eat with Lara and Caitlin, which was extra-ly special. He also took me to his nearest mall- 45 minutes on the highway away. haha. We also just sat around and played a little piano. As usual his family was amazing and nice, even when they were making fun of me for being a picky eater.

Let me add to the list of movies I've seen this break:

1. Finding Neverland
2. Meet the Parents
3. I am Legend
4. August Rush.

I have already seen Meet the Parents and August Rush before break, but it's always exciting to re-watch movies, right? I don't know what to think of I am Legend. It was kind of slow, very creepy, and I never knew what was going on. Finding Neverland was beautiful; I really liked all of it, 'cept well, the divorce. But obviously that had nothing to do with the new woman, because they were already sleeping in separate rooms.

So books I've read this break:

1. Twilight
2. New Moon
3. Eclipse
4. Breaking Dawn
5. Pride and Prejudice

So I didn't get too much reading done, but the reading I did get done was important to me for several reasons: I really needed to formulate an accurate opinion on Twilight because I really talked down about it without reading it. Now I still am not exactly in love with it, but I can see why girls are addicted to it. Pride and Prejudice was a disappointment. I mean, it wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but it seemed to drag on and on and on. It was very frustrating.

So now classes start tomorrow. I have to get my Physics book still, and I'm really hoping that Shriver has it. Thankfully, though, I have my book for theory already and for sightsinging and for piano. So that's exciting. But I left my piano book at home, so I might have to borrow one until my mom can ship it. I also have to work, so we'll see how that goes. It's supposed to be the sucky shift- 9am-1pm. :-\ It's the slow shift because the dining hall is closed to meal plans from 10:30-12:30 for who knows why.

I think that's all I have to say.
Recap:

YAY for luke being PotW (an even number at that, and divisible by 8...be happy :D)
YAY for more lists
YAY for school starting.

New Years

So, my resolutions from last year are as follows:

1. Write More
2. More Cultured
3. Look Good/ Feel Good
4. See more friends and family.
5. Look Pretty
6. Give more to the community
7. Take more pictures
8. Get a new job

Here's the link to the descriptions of each if you're interested.

1. I think I did more writing this year than last. I mean, I only kept up with the daily writing for one month (January), but then I also got halfway through Nano. I've also had three english classes, so obviously that's a lot of work there- though only one was writing poetry/fiction, but even so.

2. Let's see, I've read a lot more, I've watched a ton of standard, classic movies, I participated in the election, I've learned to swing dance, and I have gained a ton of new music. Plus how to play the piano. I think that counts as definitely becoming more cultured.

3. I had trouble with this at first, at least, in the whole exercise/fitness aspect. I did start college out by going to the gym, but that stopped wayy too soon. Thankfully Jay cut off my supply of endless ice cream, or I'd be fat right now. I haven't gained any weight. Or well, I did, but I've lost it off again because I still weight 117 lbs. So that's good.

4. Well, this was supposed to be towards my high school friends, whom I didn't see ever. That didn't change, but now that I'm in college, I see my friends all the time. And when I come home, I see family (my aunt and uncle are even living in my room now), and Jay and Kerry Jo/Alex. So that's fun fun fun.

5. I definitely girlied up my wardrobe. I got my hair cut, and it's adorable. I think this goal was defnitely sucessful, even if I don't look like a runway model.

6. This one didn't really happen at all.

7. I am not one to take pictures, I usually just let people take them, especially now that we have facebook. So this one didn't really happen either.

8. I still have the same job I started with last year, though now I have ones at college too.

So as you can see, some were really successful, and some were really not. I think it's good to have a lot of goals, and then just to see how it goes. I seemed to succeed better in college, even without thinking or remembering my resolutions. Does that mean back in January of last year I knew what college was going to be like, subconsciously? Probably not, haha. It's hard to think of a New Year's resolution for this year. I definitely want to keep doing/succeeding in most of the above, but I like just doing it on my own. Not as like a requirement for the year.

1-I definitely want to volunteer more. Since I'm in DO (or well, going through the process next semester of getting into it) I will be doing volunteering things through them, but hopefully I'll be able to do even more volunteering. I think that I want to do Big Brother/Big Sister.

2-I also don't want to spend ANY money that I don't have to. I chose a very expensive college to go to, and so once I leave, I'll be in an incredibly high amount of debt. Every penny counts. This resolution is going to be hard for me, though, because I love spending money.

3-I want to start making lists. Lists of favorites, least favorites, things to do, and whatever else I can think of. Just to get my brain jogging. I stole this from Kerry Jo, but that's because it was a good one!

4-I really, REALLY need to work on my vocabulary. I get dictionary.com's word of the day sent to my email that I never check anymore. I'm thinking I'll go out to the mall and buy those word of the day calendars and just look off that every day.

5-I want to walk at least an hour every other day. I'd say MWF at 4 is the best time, because that's when all of my friends will be in symphony band and I won't have them to distract me as I walk. My biggest problem this year is that I had so many people to distract me.

6-I want to keep working on last year's resolutions. I think this'll best be done just by letting the year take me wherever it may lead.

7-One thing I really want to do is work harder on my practicing skills. I tend to stray from practicing (flute, piano, writing...) and I really want to work on focusing myself so that I can practice. My schedule doesn't allow me much time to practice, but I want to find some time anyways.

8-I want to expand myself. I always cower in fear towards things and I want to stop that. If someone offers me a food to try, I want to try it. I can't really think of most of my fears at the moment, but I want to stop being so afraid.


I'm not sure if this is the final list, but this is what I came up with.


My PotW is going to be Alex Ott, because I love her and she hasn't been it yet (like how did that happen?)

Kelli.

Kelli Novitzke is my person of the week because we rocked our final duet! <3

Blah

Katie has been my PotW for almost a month now, so I need to pick someone new. I think since I'm going along with the roomie thing, I'll pick Shanna, because we've survived botany together this entire semester!