bend with me

soundtrack:
u can't touch this - mc hammer
if i had a million dollars - barenaked ladies
help - the beatles
andante largamente, on the waterfront - leonard bernstein
sway - michael buble

THE WEEKEND!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

my friday went pretty fast, which was much appreciated. we're catching up from the snow day in my classes, so it wasn't much new material. my piano lesson went well... i think my main issue is taking ownership of the music and the instrument. sometimes i feel/act like i'm not really a piano player, and therefore i don't do the technical things i should. but dr. d showed me some things yesterday that really helped my playing, and so now i just have to tell myself that yes, i actually am a piano player and should take it seriously. lauren and i went out last night to a friend's house for a party. it was really fun, mostly because everyone was crazy and blasting music and dancing and singing and it was insane. when we went home... let's just say that there's something in lauren's trunk that will be a decoration in our apartment next year :D

ooh! i got a package from my mom yesterday. she always knows exactly what will make me smile... she put in a bag of Gardetto's (my favorite snack in the world) and a can of easy cheese (long story...). she also found some cute sweaters for me. she also put in some other little stuff, like music stickers and a magazine about the Lost Symbol and a pair of socks she knitted for me. and my grandma sent me some valentine's candy and some really cool pictures - some from SIG at oberlin that i had forgotten about, and a few pictures of her and my grandfather when they lived in texas. it really brightened my day, and it was a great ending to my week!

so i slept in until like 2 today... it was a late night last night... and went to practice for a while. it didn't go very well, because somehow i managed to wake up with a split lip, so that affects my playing. then savannah called and asked for some help in digging out her van. it was parked on the side of the street and with our recent snow, it got buried. after a while we finally got it out. didn't help that she was parked on a hill.

tonight was a springfield symphony concert. i invited diko to come along. there were two tickets left, and nobody had claimed them, so i took them off my boss's hands. diko had never been to the springfield symphony, so i thought she'd appreciate it. she always talks to me about wanting to learn music and how in awe she is of my "talents". it was really good - they played a new piece by a current composer, and it had an American theme. i was really impressed. if i could compose, i would compose music like that. the second piece were leonard bernstien's chichester psalms, which added the springfield chorale. the singing and the orchestra together was just so impressive. bernstein set i think five psalms in total into this piece, and they were all sung in hebrew. they also had a boy soloist. i thought he was okay... he's only in eighth grade so you can't expect him to be professional or anything, but for his age i guess he was pretty good. and the third piece was a collection of old american songs by aaron copeland. these were nice - whimsical and laid-back and sometimes funny. it was a nice relaxing end to the concert. i love going to the symphony and other events like that around here... it just energizes me so much.

anyway... that's what my past few days have been. i'm sure you're really excited to hear all the trivial nonsense of my life, eh?

traction

wow, so it's not just me that's feeling this way. i was feeling kind of...wierd...this afternoon (for reasons i will get into later) and thought it was just one of my moods. but now i noticed that three of my friends have posted depressing blogs. guess it's that time of year... close to valentines day, where everyone (including me) notices that they are single and they don't like it. I've been single for...holy shit... more than two years now. dammmmmmnit. why is it so hard for people to find a significant other? i have way more single friends than i do dating ones. why is that?? i really would love to date someone, but it's seriously like i don't exist to the male population. i realize that i don't have long blonde hair and big boobs and am not a size 3. but really. can i not find one person in this world who doesn't mind short hair and a not-so-skinny body and a sense of humor over gorgeous looks?!

i'm so sick of it.

everyone says "oh, it'll happen" blah blah blah and "he'll come along when you're not looking" blah blah blah. but how many adults do you know that married their high school/college sweetheart? well, i've got two years to go... time is ticking down, i'm looking at my watch and wondering where my knight in shining armor is. and that's just it - it's not like i have high standards, that i want an amazing perfect guy - i just want someone who will trust me and support me and laugh with me and love me.

anyway...
enough of another crappy little rant about relationships.

another reason i am writing is because of my butt. i realize this may sound strange. but recently all my injuries/pain have come from here!

first, i didn't have that great of a time sledding. it was all icy hard packed snow, so when i was riding seated i hit every damn bump. my body doesn't appreciate it as much as when i was younger.

second, i just got over my paddling event and repercussions. like i said in my last post, i went to a party last weekend and it took a turn for the worse (lol) and someone came up with a paddle and somebody decided it'd be a good idea to bare-ass paddle each other. so naturally, stupid me rose to the occasion. oh, the pain. no matter what happens, or how drunk you are, or how brave you may think you are, do not ever get paddled. ever. EVARRRRR.

third. i get to thank wittenberg for this one. i had just finished eating lunch with my friends and was coming down the stairs from the cdr. rachel had no sooner said "these stairs are slippery" - and i completely BIFF it, landing directly on my left buttbone and go bouncing down the stairs. it hurt so badly it brought tears to my eyes, and for those of you that know me, i really don't cry a lot. so since about 12:15 this afternoon i have had to deal with a giant knot/bruise. i seriously had to stand up in my instrumental music class because it was so unbearable to sit in those wooden desks. gahhhhhhhhhh. if it weren't awkward, i'd show you my very colorful ass. my friends have taken to calling me traction, because apparently i have none.

sigh.

on the upside, because of our snow day on wednesday, i only have dr. kazez's classes one day (tomorrow) this week.

siiiiiiiigh.

soundtrack:
into the ocean - blue october
this love - maroon 5
jesus on the radio - guster
breathe in - frou frou
the moldy peaches - jorge regula
the fray - how to save a life
vincent persichetti - o god unseen, op. 160

master of codes

soooooooooooo wittenberg has a snow day today! these people down in southern ohio have a system for snow - level one through level three. it's at a level two right now, meaning you're not supposed to be on the roads unless absolutely necessary. and just my luck, i had to get up to take a quiz this morning. it was terrible - the new snow is covering the ice that was melting, so all that refroze and made things slick, plus the snow. but really, i'm not complaining. i love snow, and now that i don't have to be out in it - ! my three other classes (well two classes and band) were cancelled today, so i have literally layed in my room since like 12. lol. i have a few things homework-wise to catch up on. and i also am going to sort through the music on my computer and organize it better, along with putting some more cd's on here too. i realized last night that there are like 5 cds i own that i've never even listened to. mostly classical music, but hey, i'm a music nerd, it's alright. kind of hoping tomorrow school will be cancelled; they said if it gets to a level three emergency tomorrow they'll cancel classes. but unless we get more snow (we're only supposed to get a little) i doubt it will happen. do you remember when in elementary school we put our clothes on inside out to bring good luck for a snow day? my roommate reminded me of that last night and i'm contemplating it!

oooh! good news! i got three out of four "pass with distinctions" on my trumpet jury from last semester. if you don't know what a jury is, basically music majors (or anyone taking lessons) has to prepare a piece (for instrumentalists it's only one - vocalists have between 4 and 8 i believe). and you go in and play your prepared piece. people work their asses off because it's the culmination of the entire semester of work. in mine they also asked me to play some scales. it's kind of like a final for lessons. anyway, i went in there last semester just really excited to play my piece - it's an arrangement of a trumpet solo for Someone To Watch Over Me by Gershwin. lauren, since she's a jazz singer, came in to sing with me also. my trumpet teacher showed me the evaluations yesterday and 80% of them were good. i know there are still things i need to work on. and at the bottom of the evaluation sheet the profs put either pass, pass with distinction or fail. and three out of four of the professors that listened to me gave me a pass with distinction!! huzzah!!! i know it might not seem like a lot... but i have been working hard on trumpet because i'm kind of behind. i didn't start playing until the 8th grade, while there are people who have played since 4th or 5th grade... so some of the technical stuff is still a challenge for me. i'm not trying to make excuses, really. i'm just saying that i've had to work harder, and i finally got something to show for it.

speaking of things to show for it - i am the only one (besides olivia because i don't know what she got) who got above a C on our recent music theory test. somehow i pulled a 92% out of my ass. :D

and another funny thing - i am being fought over by two professors to be their faculty aide next year :P it's between dr. kazez and dr. jones. dr. k drives me nuts sometimes because his teaching style... doesn't mesh with mine. but i really do like him as a person, i think he's got a hilarious sense of humor. and recently he asked me if i would be his faculty aide next year. it's contingent on whether his current aide gets the r.a. position she wants (but i'm 99% sure she'll get it) so i won't find out until march if he wants me to work for him or not. and the other one, dr. jones, is the band director and in charge of the instrumental side of music education. he's pretty cool, pretty chill. i've had him for i think three classes now. he's probably sick of lauren, rachel and i by now, haha. we're the only music ed. majors that aren't seniors, and since all the seniors are student teaching this semester, they aren't taking classes. so it's just the three of us goobers in all these classes! but he needs someone to take over the manager position for symphonic band next year, because the other music ed. major, ben, is a senior and won't be here next year. so he needs someone else, obviously. dr. jones called dibs. i'm going to have to tell them to fight over me! i already agreed to kazez, but i have an obligation to jones. so we'll see how it goes. i might even be able to do both, because jones's is only a couple of hours a week. eh, we'll see.

i got to see a really amazing pianst last night. he was a colleague of dr. d's, they went to graduate school at USC together. he was absolutely amazing. played bach, brahms, grieg, liszt, and gershwin. i now feel totally incompetent. i am so lucky to be here where i can be exposed to such talents like that guy. man oh man.

24 days till i'm home for spring break!

soundtrack:

wierd fishes/arpeggi - radiohead
lovestoned - justin timberlake
the end of all you'll know - scott matthews
daughters of texas - united states army band

i said well that's one thing we've got

okay well i always forget about this darn blog...

the rest of january consisted of getting back into school stuff and all the things that come along with it - losing sleep, staying up late to do homework, practicing all the time, having no social life...

the last weekend in january i went to the OMEA (ohio music educators association) statewide conference. it was so exciting, to say the least. last year, although it was not bad, it was just a lot of technical business stuff that i am not quite as interested in. but this year - this year, oh my gosh. the first night the "headliner" was Canadian Brass. holy. crap. i feel like a 5th grade trumpet player! they are a brass quintet, among the best in the world. and they played a concert for us. there was a really good mix of some baroque music along with stuff like the beatles and peter schickle. it was such a good concert. and for an encore they played a compilation of saints go marchin' in and the halleluia chorus that they will be playing for the Queen. that's right, the QUEEN OF ENGLAND. damn.
anyway, we stayed in an alright hotel that was connected to the cincinnati convention center. there were all kinds of workshops and seminars and concerts you could go to. i chose to go to one about band rehearsals. i thought it was going to be really boring, but -! it was AWESOME! this prof from youngstown state talked about how conductors can help their students interpret music and find the emotion and heart in a piece of music. it was so inspiring. a lot of what he was saying is totally up my alley, all my personal philosophy stuff. very optimistic and exciting and it was so wonderful. i left and i was like "alright, where's my band, i want to work now". lol. lauren and i went to the cincinnati conservatory of music's jazz ensemble, which was totally rocking. they're among the top music schools also. friday night was spent in the hotel room (and elevator) causing shenanigans.



it was kind of embarassing, actually, because rachel had the bright idea to ride the escalator in one part of the hotel. so we did. and we rode it down in front of the entire hotel bar. like, this bar was full of people. and we are just standing there on the escalator in our pj's. how professional. lolz. anyway...
saturday morning we went to a session on music advocacy and fighting to keep music in schools and part of the curriculum. they gave us some really good resources that referenced how music improves so many aspects of life, not to mention pure intrinsic value. so that was a good thing to end the conference on.

other than that, my life is quite average, haha. i go to class, go to work, eat, work on homework, practice, repeat...however, this weekend was just one big bad life choice ;) lmao. i went to a party last night at my friend's house. it was fine to begin with... but then it turned into a topless party... then a pants optional party... then a paddling party... and then let's just say that it is slightly difficult to sit down today :O i have a nice red stripe somewhere i really shouldn't!!! buuuuuut we won't get into too many details!

we had a superbowl party in my room today. quite fun. rachel kept yelling at the television and savannah kept yelling at her computer lab. i have pizza and wings in my fridge for lunch tomorrow though! :)



i promise i am trying to update this more... i just always forget about it for some reason. ugh. anyway...

yay monday!!!!!!!!! >>

soundtrack:

touch it/technologic live - daft punk
light lift me up - dmb
fool on the hill - the beatles
i did it - dmb
i want to hold your hand - the beatles
breadfan - ehspmb
some of these days - kevin spacey, beyond the sea soundtrack
breakfast at tiffany's - deep blue something