Wednesday, November 17, 2010

This song makes me so happy.

i have a tonnnnn of work to do in the next couple of days, so i'm gonna need everything imaginable to keep going. this song helps.

sometimes it is difficult to live or function without coffee. yesterday i got coffee before cave ecology and drank it on the way.
before: zombie-fied. after a drink: bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!
i'll be an addict by the time i'm 25. oh wait. maybe i already am one.
i am asking for a coffee maker for christmas, so i can have it by the time my 8am-five-days-a-week class comes around next semester. efffffff.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

They did the mash

Ancora Imparo.

Still I am learning.

last night I drank a major coffee at about 8... this was probably a mistake because I was up until 2am. However, I did manage to get 1,000 words written about the first movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. This behemoth of a paper is due in two weeks (thirteen days now...). After last night I feel a little better about things, but I will have to say that during my extremely short Thanksgiving break (I am not going to be able to come home on the weekend before like I thought) I will be spending copious amounts of time at my grandmother's shiny new mac.

Sometimes you learn at the worst possible moments. I should have started this paper a long time ago, but I didn't. I was lazy and I procrastinated and the next two weeks, including my time with my family, is going to be hell because I have to pound this thing out. I have been kicking myself mentally pretty continuously since last week when I realized the due date was pretty damn close. Hopefully I'll have something substantial to show to Dr. S at the end of this week and that will help me bash this out before the 29th.

I also realized that I don't really care that much about facebook anymore. I have only checked it a few times throughout the day recently, unlike the hours I used to spend on it in the first two years of college. Maybe that's because up until now my workload had been heavy but not insurmountable... right now it feels a teensy bit insurmountable. But I won't think about that because I have a Positive Outlook and will be taking things One Day At A Time.

Over the weekend I was listening to the radio and The Monster Mash came on. My dad and I listened to this on a cassette tape all the time when I was little, along with the movie. It brought back all kinds of memories and I guess I didn't realize how much I missed home until now. I probably am going to be spending next summer on campus taking classes and working on my honor's thesis. And that means ALL summer. Thankfully I have a house so it won't be dorm room hell... but still. I cherish those summers at home. Sometimes I hate growing up.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Time yet for a hundred visions and revisions

Because it is a fantastic piece of work to be read and devoured and read again:

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

And this one, because it's my favorite:

Evening Hawk

I feel a teensy bit hipster because I laid in bed last night reading my anthology of Robert Penn Warren's poetry. Like, let me just drink my Pabst and read poetry til 3am.
But guess what.
I don't care about you people. Because he's a fantastic writer and I LIKE READING IT.
so there.



Registered for classes this morning! Spring semester is official!

Symphonic Band
Applied Trumpet
Choral Music in the Schools
Choral/Instrumental Conducting
Technology for Music Educators
Teaching and Learning in the High School
Poverty, Development and Education: Seeking Responses - Creating Heroes

That last one is an honors course. And the last two are being taught by w. It looks like I'm going to be seeing a lot of him next semester, because the high school class is five days a week at EIGHT O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. Everyone keeps telling me I need to get used to the early morning thing if I'm going to be a teacher, but when I'm a teacher I'm not going to have to write research papers or listening journals or study for cave ecology tests. I will be going to be at 10pm every night. Watch me.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

In which I re-capitulate my lack of creativity

well damn. I guess that whole blogging-every-other-day thing really worked out, huh?

so the day after I blogged last (because I can't remember anything unless it's in my phone calendar) was the Grand Opening of Promise Neighborhood. Basically it's an approach to getting students out of poverty and succeeding in life by changing everything through the community - housing, community rapport, education, local business - it's quite an endeavor. And w is in charge. Well, he and a team, but I think he's in charge. So they had the Grand Opening which was basically like a little family fun fair thing at the Promise Neighborhood school. It turned into a not-so-little thing; I heard that at one point there were more than five hundred people there? whoa. It was a very fun experience to be able to interact with some kids that will probably be directly affected by this once it gets on its feet. I didn't exactly plan to spend my entire day there (11am to 6pm) but because I am such a selfless and loving person blah blah blah... no, really, I actually didn't want to leave.

I've decided that I am no longer going to bore you with the petty details of my life, especially because frankly most of the time I don't give a damn about them either. Hopefully highlights will be sufficient.

The beginning of last week really sucked because I got some news in a not-so-enjoyable way that is going to affect my next year and a half at school. I won't get into it now because the person it involves has asked me not to tell anyone. So I get the supreme joy of keeping a very difficult and painful secret until the time comes when more people know.

Sav's friend from high school, A, and his friend from the air force came to stay with us wednesday night. It's not what it sounds like - at least not yet in the story. They were traveling between Pennsylvania and New Mexico and needed a place to stay for the night. And hey, what's our house good for besides a place to drink beer and sleep? I might preface this by saying that A and I have been talking for a little while. He texted me one day (at 5am on a sunday morning, specifically) saying that he wanted to get to know me better. So he and I have been talking. Not sure if this is the same as talking or "talking". But nontheless, we've gotten to know each other since the first time he stayed with us the night before running a marathon at Wright-Patt. Sooo this was the SECOND time I've seen him in person. Skype doesn't do shit. Let's just say it was an enjoyable night in which lots of PBR was consumed and we all slept later than we intended to the next day.

This past weekend. Halloween. Most of the time I don't get really worked up about this holiday because I don't see the point besides a chance for girls to dress like slutty nuns. But Sav got into it and so we did the stereotypical costume party on saturday night. What a shitshow. I was a greek goddess, which actually was really nice because I could wear something other than pants and be okay with it. (This is coming from the girl that actually hasn't worn a dress since she stepped on to this college campus - except once, for a formal dance, and only for about three hours... but that's another story.) So basically the next day was a void of lolling in bed until two, walking around pretending to do something important and going to an entirely-too-long church service where I had to play both trumpet and handbells. I don't want to think about vodka for a long, long time.

Another thing that has been on my mind lately, and this is going to sound maybe a little strange. But you have to realize that I am a music education major, and this is my LIFE. I am just a teensy bit fascinated with and have a secret interest in conducting. I'm in the intro conducting class this semester. And it just makes sense. I find it very odd that I want to throw up before stepping in front of our little class ensemble - but as soon as I am in front of them, I am no longer shaking like a chihuahua who's just seen her own reflection. The prof, Dr. J, is so knowledgeable and just so damn good that it makes me want to do better. We've had a few discussions about conducting. He's fabulous. I think if I weren't a teacher (and weren't 5' 3"), I'd want to do that.

I miss reading books and writing. I've been struggling through Into The Wild for about two weeks now - it's fantastic but I just have so many other bloody things to do.

Speaking of - I've spent way too much time on this computer and must escape the vaccuum that is the mac lab.