The Last Semester

At the beginning of the semester, on my way to my first class ever in the Clark, I learned where the Kimball was. (It's on the opposite end of campus from where I thought it was...)

A week before school ends I finally stepped foot in the Spori for the first time. (The entire trip lasted about thirty seconds, and I saw about a quarter of the first floor.)

The beginning of the last week of classes/finals, I lost my icard. (I didn't realise I'd lost it until four days later.)

The penultimate day of the semester I learned where the Austin building was. (For that matter, I think I discovered where the Benson was, since I passed it going into the Austin.) I also accidentally wore flipflops on campus, and purposely parked in the parking lot despite not having a permit. Donuts have been the major food consumed throughout the day.

For the first time in our undergraduate career I had next to nothing to do during finals week, while Husband Man had a TON to do. (Normally it's the other way around.)

36 hours from now we will both be graduated from college.

We're feeling pretty awesome.
(That's a lie--Husband Man wants to strangle one of his teachers. But other than that...)

Another Semester Bites the Dust

WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!

I finished my semester! I did it! AND I finished strong!

AAAAND I think I might have pulled all A's!!

I'm super proud of myself.

Plus this Saturday night/Sunday morning is Husband Man's last night shift of the year (and hopefully ever, but he's studying IT and so you never know what hours they'll make him work in a real job).

And then we're both home-free for three weeks!! Since Husband Man had to work Thanksgiving break, he made other people work Christmas week and gave himself tons of time off.

I'm so excited!! One more semester and we'll be gradumacated! Except for Husband- I mean, he'll graduate, but then he'll take another semester of classes in anticipation for the Master's program he's hoping to get into for next year.

It's so funny-- I'm sitting here brainlessly watching Say Yes to the Dress on youtube and for a moment I thought, Uh-oh, I should make sure I get my homework done so Dan doesn't have to get after me...

Oh, wait! Hahaha!

Pretty sure I'm sleeping in tomorrow. And working on my story.

Happy finals, everyone!

(Haha... "happy" finals... hahahahaha)

WOOHOO!!

If anyone knows anything about me, they know that I'm totally done with college and school. I'm still chugging away at it, however, and I'm reaching the end. Husband Man and I are planning on graduating in April.

And I know for a fact that I'll be graduating, because this last Wednesday I stopped by the lead adviser of the Performing Arts and sat down with her for hopefully the last time and figured out what I have to take next semester.

And guess what?

I only have 5 credits of required classes to take next semester.

And it gets better.

Here's the full story:
I go in and sit down with her. When I talked to her last semester, we got everything mapped out and I had about 8 credits to take my final semester. However, to keep from having to take more classes, I wanted to switch to the newest catalog, because it said that my Music History classes could double for World History classes. That wasn't the only change that came with the catalog, however-

It changed the number of total credits that I needed for the degree to 120, and I already have 119 (not including this current semester's credits).

It removed the requirement of a minor/clusters. That meant that I could drop my music cluster without consequence, and the classes I had already accumulated for that cluster were added to the electives for my degree. Those extra classes actually completed my degree, and my adviser turned to me and said in a quiet voice, "You don't have to take any more music classes. ...Did you hear what I just said??" She was just as excited as I am! I've completed my degree! And I don't have to take 7:45AM class if I don't want to!

But I can't graduate quite yet, because I have one last foundation (our gen-ed) class to take. And since that class is required and I'm going to be here anyways, I decided to keep my creative writing cluster since I only had one class left to complete that. I also want to continue organ lessons. That's 6 credits total.

THIS. IS. AWESOME.

I'm seriously considering taking some fun classes. Classes I want to take. The crazy thing is, who ever heard of a music major who got to take extraneous classes? My adviser recommended a basic cooking class, and I'm also considering a basic baking class or another religion class or a sewing class... Or I could take nothing at all besides those 6 credits and just stay part-time. I haven't checked with the financial office, but so long as my adviser is correct I can even still get financial aid- I get half if I take 6 credits, three-quarters if I take 9, and the full thing for 12 credits.

If there's a train wreck coming, I'm ignoring it until it gets here. I'm so excited that my last semester could possibly be fun. It's MY semester.

Take that, college!

Homework Ate My Life

You want a blog post? You want a blog post?

This is all you're getting. Sorry.

Oh, ok, fine. Stop pouting. Here-

My siblings are awesome.

This is me all the time.

Oh my- I've resorted to putting internet cat pictures on the blog. I'd better go drag Husband Man out of bed so we can go to the dentist. (That's his most favoritest place on the earth by the way, I'm sure he will just pop out of bed when I mention it.)

I really need to leave now before something else bad happens.

There is a little bit about what's going on if you go here (and maybe here if you're extra bored) and I have a post almost completed of random funny conversations we've had, but otherwise... yes. Night shifts and homework. And the dentist. The end.

The Seven Week Break Begins

Last Friday I finished my last few assignments and was officially done with the semester! Woohoo! I've never been so happy- so free!

That evening we went to late-night $5 buffet at Pizza Pie Cafe and stuffed ourselves silly with delicious pizza and pasta to celebrate. Later, when we were getting ready for bed, my very full tummy started to hurt. Thinking maybe it was just an overload of delicious food I crawled into bed and went to sleep.

Three hours later I was leaning over the toilet puking up the wonderful pizza that had been my dinner. To be fair, I felt considerably better so I had some water and went back to sleep. An hour-ish later I was puking up that water, although I didn't feel better afterwards this time. I crawled back into bed and attempted to wake up the Husband Man. He mumble some sort of apology and scooted closer to me, but didn't really wake up. I was on my own.

I threw up two or three more times, the last one after Husband Man woke up in the morning. By that point I had relocated to the couch because it was closer to the bathroom. I spent my entire Saturday lying on the couch, weak as a newborn. That wasn't fun.

One of the ladies that I visit teach had the flu, she and her husband had it at the same time, and she called me Thursday morning to ask if I'd watch her baby so she could have a nap. I'm sort of thinking that I was exposed to it then- especially since I talked to another lady in the ward who watched their baby too and she had the flu as well.

So Monday I'm starting to feel better, and then yesterday I got a cold sore, and then today Husband Man doesn't feel good. So the break is starting off fantastic!

I haven't gotten my grades yet--teachers haven't posted them--except for one teacher who posted and I guess I got a C- which really makes me upset but whatever. I know I have another C for sure, that's just how the class is, and I have a couple of B's and then a couple of A's. Overall, given the fact that I didn't want to do anything this semester, I think I'm alright with that. I just hope there aren't anymore surprise grades (unless they're good surprises).

Yeah. That's how it is now. I'm starting a list of fun things that I'm dead set on doing over break so that we don't have a repeat of last August where I just sat around the house and we didn't do anything fun. Once we're not sick we're going to party it up! (When Husband Man isn't at work anyways. But he's got a leadership position so he's getting lots of experience!)

It's Monday, Monday...

Oh yes. Monday. We meet again.

I have a sectional today (which means I'll be in school from 7:45AM-6:30PM straight), a science test tomorrow, a paper due Wednesday morning and a concert Wednesday night, and a project and another paper due on Friday.

There's a little over a month left of this semester and my brain started summer vacation this morning. (Husband Man wouldn't let me go with it.)

A week ago I registered for the second-to-last semester of my college career. After pitching a momentary hissy fit when I realised that two classes I wanted to take were offered at the same time and I couldn't push one back to the last semester, I decided that I didn't care about percussion methods and now my earliest class this fall is at 10:15AM (which has NEVER HAPPENED) and I'm only registered for 14 credits (which has also NEVER HAPPENED).

A couple of days ago I learned that any ice cream that has a peanut butter swirl is NOT worth getting. (At least not the store brands. Blech.)

Yesterday I learned that Husband Man is head of the IT department over the summer break in August (or something like that, he's in charge of stuff). That's right. My husband is awesome.

But you know what's not awesome? Monday.

Not an Organist

You might remember this post where I played the organ in devotional for the first time, right? And that went really well, right? Well, I knew that after that performance I would probably get asked to play devo for the rest of the time I was here, once a semester. Sure enough, (sooner than I thought,) I was asked to play. The hymns weren't too difficult, but I didn't know any of them at all and I had just one week to prepare them.

Oh boy.

I paced myself, didn't overplay them, didn't let myself get frustrated, but when I played them for my organ teacher last Friday, they were horrible. We both panicked. I didn't know what to do. I knew I could play these hymns, but I kept messing up left and right (and foot). We agreed that the weekend should be enough time to tidy up the hymns.

Come masterclass on Monday, I played for the other organists and... it didn't go so well. I was embarrassed, but I was trying so hard to play them as well as I knew I could. They weren't perfect, sure, but I kept messing up passages that I knew I could play. It became a consistency issue- I knew I could play the hymns but I couldn't play it well even twice in a row, and each hymn has 3-4 verses. (And the one, "I Believe in Christ", was the same three lines repeated twice for one verse!) The organ teacher still seemed optimistic, and asked me to review them and try to pick up the speed a little before devo on Tuesday.

So on Tuesday I go to the building that devo is in, and meet both teachers so that I can review the hymns one last time before I debuted them. They weren't any better. It was still frustrating and upsetting, but strangely by this point I was calm. After I played them the organ teacher came over to me, and I knew that what I had been able to prepare wasn't enough.

I looked right at him and said, "If you want someone else to play today I'm not offended. I completely understand." He nodded, and said, "I think if you had another week then they would be great. But... we only have an hour..."

So my organ teacher had to play the hymns, and I only did prelude and postlude. I felt so horrible because she had to play impromptu and it's all my fault... but I feel like I did my best...

So, these things happen. I know I'm not the greatest organist to ever walk the earth- I'm nowhere close to that! But I felt like I was being honest with myself, and that is what is important to me. I did what I could, and just wasn't at the skill level required for the situation. Husband Man told me later that he was proud of me because I didn't insist on playing them even when I knew I couldn't.

It was a good learning experience, however, as I did pick up a few practice techniques that can help me in the future. The organ instructor told me that I would probably be asked later in the semester, when I would have more time to prepare, but honestly I feel kind of crappy about playing the hymns. I'm focusing on my other pieces for my lesson right now, and maybe I'll try the hymns again after Memorial Day weekend.

[Sorry about the depressing post! Would knowing about impending posts make things better? Of course it would! I have a really funny story about me playing organ at last semester's convocation that involves me literally choking over the organ. Also, this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, AND my birthday! And Husband Man says he has lots of things planned, since my family was going to come and then couldn't because of work and my cousin's graduation.

That's not enough to counter my depressing post? Here, have a picture of a kitty.

This is a good interpretation of Husband Man after school is over for the day and I make him wait while I make him dinner.]

Idaho: The Windy State

This last Monday dawned bright and early. I dragged myself out of bed and peered groggily through the blinds to see the sun lighting the outside world. I got ready for my grueling school day of non-stop 7:45AM to 5:30PM classes, pulled a light jacket out of the closet, and donned my backpack. After family prayer with Husband Man, we stepped outside of the house to walk to campus.

The entire 10-minute walk we were buffeted about with headlong winds that threatened to force us to walk backwards instead of forwards. My carefully-brushed hair was blown all around my face. My eyes squinted against the dry gales. I thought I would never make to campus.

The same wind guided me home, but in true SE Idaho fashion still blew me almost face on despite the fact that I was walking in the opposite direction as that morning.

The same wind walked me to and from school for FOUR DAYS. I stopped styling my hair. I almost gave up going to my Doctrine and Covenants class because walking uphill with an unrelenting headlong wind seemed impossible.

I hate the wind. With a passion. The wind makes me hate Idaho, which makes me hate going to school. Even the sunshine doesn't make it better. Today it's not quite as strong, but that's not saying much.

As for school, Husband Man and I are doing all right. We've gotten to the point where we feel that school is our life, and there's nothing beyond that. We are trapped in a black hole of papers and books and reading and research. Husband Man dropped an extra class so he wouldn't have 18 credits, so he's holding up. My workload isn't too bad, thank heavens... but by the end of this semester I'll have done five semesters in a year and a half. I'm so ready for the seven-week break! I'm so ready to be graduated! But alas, no graduation for us until next April...

Let's see... I haven't killed any of the plants...

Oh! My grandpa is getting baptised tomorrow! I'm super excited for that! He asked me to play the piano for it. We're going back to Utah tomorrow so we can be there. I'm happy that he's getting baptised, and I'm happy that I get to get out of Idaho for a day! Woohoo!

(Honestly, my life isn't this depressing.... but it is pretty mundane! Haha)

Finals Horrors

Ok, for some reason I haven't been able to keep track of my homework this semester. This often happens to me at least a few times during the semester... but this semester I've been forgetting EVERYTHING! Arrgh!

The most recent one was last night. I stayed up until 1:30AM finishing my final draft of a music literature paper. When I came to class this morning I learned that the paper wasn't due until Friday, and everyone else in the class, excluding me and one other person, knew that.

I almost broke down crying. I could have spent that time last night doing one of my forty million projects that's due tomorrow.

Pretty sure I'm eating as much ice cream as I want tonight.

Registering for Classes

It's that time of year again, when students drag themselves out of bed at midnight or six in the morning or whenever registration opens now so that they can arrange their schedules for next semester. While today is not my registration day (mine is Wednesday) I do have the wisdom to try and arrange my schedule beforehand anyways so I can find out before six in the morning that my creative writing class and my music history class are only offered at the same time.


Have I mentioned that I go in every semester to see my advisor about the classes I need to take between now and when I graduate? My advisor told me that she wishes everyone did that, because it means that I'm going to graduate on time since I know what's going on. That's always a plus.


This last visit was pretty awesome, however. I've stated before that I've had to take 18 credits in the past, as well as this semester. (It sucks! Don't do it! Save yourself!) Well, after arranging my schedule for the rest of my college career, here is what I have discovered:
I have three semesters left.
I have about 39-ish credits to take.
I should never have to have 18 credits or anything close to 18 credits ever again.
I actually might graduate in a year.
My last semester could possibly be only 6-8 credits.


Let me tell you, while arranging my schedule for registering for next semester... 15 credits never looked so good. I could almost do a dance while looking over this stuff! It makes me so happy!! Maybe I'll take a weight lifting class so I can make myself exercise. Maybe I'll make it so I have no classes on Thursdays and Tuesdays. This is so wonderful!!


Poor Husband Man registers today, and he told me that he has to have 18 credits next semester. I just patted him on the back and told him I'd make him lots of cookies.

The New (Winter) Semester, Part Two

So I went in for my first lesson this last Thursday.


I asked the Lord for help and that the spirit would be there, that I would know what should be said and not let my feelings control the conversation. As a result, it sort of ended in a different way than I thought it would, or maybe even wanted it to.


The lesson ran as it normally might, and to my surprise he was completely ok with trying to run the lesson in the way that I wanted. He didn't pull out solos, but helped me with one of my symphony pieces. He didn't insist that I do his warmup, but tried to mix it with the one that I like better.


At the end of the lesson, I asked him about an trumpet mouthpiece that I had that was good for jazz, but I don't play jazz. He said he might buy it from me. Then I mentioned to him that I was concerned about taking lessons, that I wouldn't have enough time to dedicate to practicing. I explained to him about my Monday and Wednesday schedules, and told him that maybe I wasn't dedicated enough to try and practice another hour on top of my 10 hour school day. He said he understood my situation, and with two-hour rehearsals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday he felt that since I was taking nonmajor lessons that as long as I put an hour in on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday then he would accept that.


I felt hugely relieved, and so grateful that he was willing to use the lessons for what I wanted and willing to be flexible with my practicing. There was one harsh moment, when I said that I had trouble remembering to practice on Saturday (it's Saturday, for pete's sake- who cares about school on Saturday??) and he told me that that concerned him and there was some growing up to do. I felt uncomfortable with that, but I didn't say anything. I don't feel it was a bad decision to let it slide. I guess in my mind, if it and other instances need to be addressed, then the opportunity will arise in due time.


I suppose I overreacted just a little, but I was really unhappy with how things turned out. I feel like I can manage what I've been given now, I think.

 In other news, the new tv didn't fit in our old entertainment center. Husband Man was sad (it was like two inches too wide). It brought back horrible memories of dissembling that entertainment center and the desk at DI so that we could fit it in the Malibu. Fortunately this time we knew someone who had a truck, so a short trip to DI and a phone call helped us replace it.

 We feel really lucky because this entertainment center is nicer than the other one. It's made out of real wood I think, not particle board, and I sort of like that it's bigger. Husband Man was also so excited about the tv that he ordered a few two dollar hdmi cables so that he could hook his laptop up to the tv. He was like a kid at Christmas all over again! It was so fun to watch him hook it all up!


We also discovered that my laptop has no hdmi slot, so my lappy can't hook up to the tv. The sound has also started to go on it- it has this stall noise it makes, and it's really annoying. We're starting to seriously consider getting rid of it and finding a new one somewhere... I don't think I can stand to watch it suffer Ok, I can stand to watch it suffer. I just don't think I can deal with its slow, painful death anymore. Anyone want a used laptop? Computer parts?

The New (Winter) Semester

(Although, can we really call it winter? I'm not complaining too much because I haven't felt like I was going to freeze to death walking to campus, but at the same time I feel badly for the farmers because of the lack of snow/cold....)


This semester has started off rough. I originally signed up for 15 credits, which was completely manageable this year because two of my classes are gen-eds. I was willing to take 16, which meant adding one ensemble, but I wasn't sure what my trumpet professor was thinking. I finally went in on the first day of the semester and asked to talk to him for a few minutes. He welcomed me into his office and we sat down and chatted. I expressed my concern that I hadn't played in a while, and he said there was room in the ensembles if I wanted to play. I also said that if I chose to work on lessons, I wanted to possibly work on orchestral excerpts. In response to that, he suggested that he felt I didn't trust him as an instructor. To be honest, I sort of don't... After all, he was the one who suggested things like getting tons of trumpets and equipment now even if it means going into debt-- to me, who is blessedly NOT in debt with school payments, that is not a wise decision.


Anyways, I went back the next day to play for him. I told him that I didn't want to take lessons, I had decided not to. When I finished the audition he said, "I think I'm going to put you in Symphony Orchestra." I was pretty excited! I never thought I was going to be in that again! Yay!


"I'm also going to put you in Chamber Brass." What? Um... but... ok...


"And I'm going to insist that you do lessons so that we can work on your orchestral sound." Orchestral sound? I've played in a symphony orchestra for four semesters. I think I'm starting to get that you don't play Beethoven the same way you play Mahler...


In ten minutes I went from 15 manageable credits, to 16 manageable credits, to 17 ok credits, to 18 I'm-going-to-die credits. Symphony Orchestra=great. Chamber Brass=all right. Lessons=No go. He requires 6 hours of practice a week for non-major lessons.


I'm going to tell you right now that after going to class back-to-back from 7:45 to 4:30 or 5:30 on Monday and Wednesday means those days are not an option for practice. I don't care if he accuses me of not being dedicated. I'm not. That's why I'm not a performance major.


It sort of feels like he's trying to push against the LDS cultural norm, trying to keep me from resigning myself to "just being a wife and a mother." I respect that. But I feel like I know what's best for me, not him. And I know I'm not the only woman in the studio who is experiencing the same pressure.


So I've decided to confront him, and politely decline taking lessons. I don't even care if I lose the $200 they've already charged me out of my account. I was supposed to go talk to him at my first lesson last Thursday, but he's been sick and hasn't shown up since last Wednesday. I honestly just can't do lessons if it means dedicating another six hours of my week, and it seems like every time I go into his office, whether it's for a lesson or to talk, there's tension and sort of this neutral tolerance in the air... I can't deal with that for a semester.


So the apprehension of speaking to him about it is driving me insane. I've been trying to incorporate the Lord and the spirit into this, trying to think about it in a rational mind and not go all crazy upset. I've shed too many tears of frustration and upset-ness to just let this go... I'm hoping that both of us can deal with the impending conversation fairly and with open minds and hearts, and that if nothing else, we at least leave not hating each other, even if we can't make each other understand our side or point of view.


And I'm hoping that I don't back out at the last second, or get trampled by his reasoning. I need to have a life... I can't have another semester like last fall. I need to stand up for myself... I need to do what's best for me (for once in my life). Wish me luck...

Move-In Mayhem

A few days before every semester the population of our college town doubles triples and everyone (mostly single college students) starts moving into their places of residence. Because our school has three semesters, this means that this happens three times a year. Because most students only go to school here for two of those three semesters, this also means that there is roughly the same amount of people moving in every semester.


And because this madness happens all at once, our poor little college town turns into a huge black hole for about three-four days.


Trying to think ahead of the impending doom, Husband Man and I trekked to around town today, trying to get everything done in one fell swoop and thinking that the majority of students would move in tomorrow.


We were wrong. So horribly wrong.


At first, we thought that we really had succeeded. The bookstore on campus wasn't nearly as crazy as it has been in the past. And Albertsons was kind of ok too. However...


Walmart was PACKED. It was disgusting. I wanted to tear my hair out over things like waiting for a woman who was waiting for her daughter to make up her mind whether she wanted spaghettios or not so that they could move so that I could have spaghettios. (And spaghettios were only the third thing I went to pick up.) I stood in one of their fridges trying to find a carton of eggs that weren't broken. I had to dodge and weave around people to get anywhere, and cut people off if I wanted to get in another aisle. On top of all the millions of people milling around our not-supersized Walmart (which I DON'T understand), there was stuff EVERYWHERE, because we all know that every single college student in this town has to have a plastic 3-drawer thingy-whatever in their room, and four ladels, and every kind of chips available with corresponding salsa. And a shower curtain. Or six. Plus there was a huge stand for football necessities, which was completely unnecessary and just created a roadblock for people trying to buy frozen food.


On top of it all, the DI was closed, and our teachers still weren't on campus. So even though we planned ahead, and tried our hardest, we still have to leave the house AGAIN. Also, even though the roads aren't horrible, there are still crazy drivers out. They don't watch for pedestrians, and they have a hard time watching for other cars. Black hole, I'm telling you!!

Every semester I want to just hole up in my apartment and distance myself from the mayhem... but it just doesn't matter. There's no way you can ever plan this in advance. You have no choice. You are stuck trying to avoid injury, mental and emotional trauma, and certain doom before your semester even begins.

Liberation!

 Husband had a nap and was very cold after he woke up. He's my goober!

I am pleased to say that I am DONE WITH THIS SEMESTER!! I survived! Additionally, I managed A's and B's in all my classes!

For only having 15 credits, this semester was surprisingly harder than last semester, in which I took 17 or 18 credits. Strange? I think yes.

One thing I never did was talk to my trumpet professor. I'm hoping that we can chat at the beginning of next semester... and that things can be mended, or at least an understanding of what happened at auditions can be reached. I know, I should have done it earlier...

Since we have a graduation date of April 2013, I am looking at the classes I have left to take, and it seems like I might actually make it to graduation without going crazy like I did this semester.  I can take no more than 15 credits and be completely fine, and I don't think I'll have an overload of ridiculous, time-consuming classes like I did this time. (Knock on wood and all that superstitious stuff.) It even looks like I can go part-time for a semester and take some fun classes, like archery or something! Woohoo!


I believe I'm going to celebrate the end of the semester by gorging myself at Pizza Pie Cafe's "happy hour" where the buffet is $5. And then I believe I'm going to sit on the couch and turn into a couch potato. Or do something that I want to do.


It's a good day.

Finals Week

The best: I don't have juries! Woohoo!


The good: I only have three days left of the semester!


The neutral: I still have three days left of the semester...


The bad: I haven't even thought of studying for some of my finals yet... still have too much homework...


The ugly: My finals consist of roughly seven tests, a presentation, and two projects. That's only for fifteen credits.


The greatest: IT'S CHRISTMAS! And I get to see family again soon!!

Who Let The Music Nerd Out?

I would write you a blog post about something interesting, but I'm busy working on a paper about the uses of parody technique between Tomas Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina in the "Kyrie" of their respective masses. Victoria used his motet "O Magnum Mysterium" and Palestrina his motet "Tu Es Petrus". 

So while you're waiting in high anticipation for the next exciting installment of the ongoing saga that is the life of two Yockeyites, you could always YouTube those two motets. They are BEAUTIFUL. (Think of a motet as an unaccompanied choral piece. Don't like choral pieces? Listen to these anyways. They're great for doing homework or relaxing. Actually... maybe I should try listening to one of those the next time I have a bubble bath. A bubble bath, a bowl of ice cream, and soft motets playing in the background... Yes, that sounds about right.)


If you want something a little fuller, or if you're a goober and entirely against choral pieces, you could listen to Ralph Vaun Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis". That is one of my most FAVORITE pieces ever, next to Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings". Those are a few instrumental songs that are rich in texture, and fantastic to listen to when you're relaxing and staring at Christmas lights.


Wait... Christmas lights... Now that I think about it, you probably could care less about classical music, unless it's classical Christmas tunes. Well, fine. At least bookmark the songs I mentioned and listen to them after the holidays. I promise, they're worth your while! If you want a really good Christmas song, I love the "Carol of the Bells" that the Cincinnati Pops does on the album "Christmas with the Pops". Something about the chord qualities and the juxtaposition of minor and major... and the super awesome horn lines and bass lines. I love hearing that song every time!


Uh oh- Husband Man is coming back and is going to chide me for continuing to procrastinate my music paper. Look up those songs! All of them!

Hoooomework

I really really really really REALLY want to post about our day in San Diego after Husband Man's sister's wedding, but I have homework coming out my ears.

On another thought, I've been thinking of starting a Photography Friday, where I post a picture of something that makes me smile. It's a way to keep me thinking positive when I'm being smothered with assignments and projects and papers. The only catch? I actually have to start paying attention to things and taking pictures of them...

And for your listening pleasure, here is a hilarious two minute clip from the Mnozil Brass. Enjoy.

College: The Extra Semester

So I've been trying to cram all my on-campus classes in before the end of next year so that I can take the rest of them online and still get my degree. Stressful? I think so. Especially when a bunch of your classes are all at the same time.


The interesting and really exciting part? Husband Man went in two days ago to talk to his adviser and make sure that his classes were all lined up so he can register for next semester, and when I was creeping over his shoulder while he was reviewing what they had talked about, I saw that he had three semesters of classes lined out.


"Hey," I said- "I thought you only had two semesters left."


"Apparently not," he replied.


"....So that means I have an extra semester?"


"Yep."


WOOHOO!! I've never been so excited for an extra semester of school in my entire life!! If he gets his big internship, then he'll be here the first part of 2013 which means not only will I have an extra chance to take all my on-campus classes, but I'll be able to take the gen-ed's that I was going to take online.


Even more exciting? We might graduate together! That would be AWESOME!!


Even though I didn't sleep that great last night, and even though I have an incredibly long day ahead of me, I'm super excited for this turn of events. SUPER EXCITED!!


(PS- If anyone knows how I can turn my brain off at night, it would be helpful. Every time I rolled over (which was a lot) my brain was like "You need to do this! And this! And don't forget this! And this! And by the way I'm going to play the same movie soundtrack over and over again relentlessly! Woo!")


NaNoWriMo word count: Close to giving up

Confessional:

Sometimes I think about dropping out of college.

I don't think of it only when I'm struggling with homework... I've thought about it in moments of mostly sanity too. I'll think, What if I dropped out of college? Or what if I just gave up and took all the classes I wanted and didn't try to struggle to finish the entire degree? 

Besides, it's not like I know what I want to do after it's over...

Random Thursday Post

Warning! Contains tacos. Please continue at your own risk.

So last night we went to bed a whole half an hour earlier than we usually do! And not only that, but I didn't hear almost any of the alarms this morning, and so I didn't wake up until 8! So that means I didn't go to my first class today, but I got lots and lots of sleep! Yay!


It's been a lot easier to deal with today, probably because I woke up at 8, got up at about 8:20, and my next class wasn't until 9:45. So I wasn't rushed, I ate breakfast and read my scriptures and got ready and even put makeup on! Woohoo! And tomorrow is Friday and I"m done with all my stuff a half hour earlier than usual because I didn't have an organ lesson! Friday Friday Friday!!


Plus, I wanted a taco. I thought about them for two hours. Tacos sounded so tasty, (and that word in general is fun to say,) so my constant ramble of tacos for two hours must have made the Husband Man hungry for tacos because we stopped at a taco place on the way home. It was very tasty. Tacos tacos tacos tacos tacos tacos tacos....


PLUS, when I finished the only homework assignment I brought with me to work on today while I was sitting in the Husband Man's office for two hours waiting for him to get done with work, I sneakily worked on my story for a few minutes when he wasn't looking! So that means I actually accomplished something for NaNoWriMo! And now I'm writing a blog post instead of doing homework! Yay!


I think I'm high on sleep.


NaNoWriMo Word Count: 42 words (4959 behind)
(Maybe I shouldn't do the words behind counter... It's already depressing. Maybe I'll get a bunch of stuff written this weekend while Husband Man goes shooting without me...)