Hoo-ha Nerdfighters!

Hey everyone, I'm still here. I just finally have a moment to sit and type an actual blog post. Life has been busy back at the 'Burg, and it's taken a while to finally get settled in, but I think that aspect of dorm life is going pretty good. I hope the people who read this haven't missed me too much!

Well, I survived my week of being the only person here. I actually had very little time to sit and be like, "Oh woe is me... I'm alone with no one to hang out with." The first two days were spent in training for ITS, unpacking, enjoying the cable channels on TV, practicing for my band audition and studying for the PRAXIS. Ted and Kellee both invited me to come hang out with them, but it never worked out. Thursday and Friday were like Monday and Tuesday, sans the PRAXIS studying and swapping the ITS training for training at the library. Friday night Rachel V. moved in and tonight Lourey moved in. Leah moves back in tomorrow. She moved her stuff in on Sunday, but then she left again to be with her fiance, Travis.

Sunday Rachel V., Bryan and I also went in to Waterloo. We went to Target and Barnes and Noble. We had lots of fun adding "in my pants" to the ends of book titles. It made us very giggley and we got a couple of weird looks from a lot of people. One of the better ones was "The Secret Life of Lobsters [in my pants]" and "What They are Teaching our Kids in Public School [in my pants]." It was pretty awesome. I bought the book The Last Unicorn (heeheehee... in my pants) by Peter S. Beagle. I remember seeing the old 80's movie so I figured the book would be something nice to eventually read. Then we had drinks at the Starbucks there and I had a strawberry and creme smoothie, and I accidentally sliced my thumb on the plastic rim of the dome top to my cup. It hurt and Rachel laughed at me. :-P

Tomorrow is the opening convocation which starts the school year. Classes start on Wednesday. Rachel and I got our books yesterday. For spending over $300 in the bookstore I got a free Wartburg orange highlighter pen. Which makes the outrageous prices they charged for my book okay? Not really, but whatever. Since I'm taking conducting this year I had to buy a baton. It kind of felt like I was selecting a wand, like in the Harry Potter books. I suppose I'll put a picture of it up here eventually.

Did I ever mention that we got a goldfish last March? As part of a floor program? Everyone on our floor last year got a goldfish, they had to provide the bowl etc, but the goldfish was free, and whatever room kept the goldfish alive would win a prize. Leah and I named our goldfish Monteverdi after a composer in the Renaissance who we were studying in music history at the time. Well, Monteverdi is still alive, so we still have a goldfish in our room. (For the record, Monteverdi was the longest living goldfish on our floor, but we never got our prize. How lame is that?) It's kind of fun to have just one fish. He likes to come up to the glass if you ever get close, because he thinks he's going to get fed. Rachel V. has a Beta Fish that she named Benedick after her favorite character in Much Ado about Nothing.

I just have an ivy plant named Charlie the II (because Charlie the I died...) and Jessica's mom gave me this mossy carpet-like pant that I named Marv.

I worked at ITS today and it was really really busy. There are so many people who don't know how to connect to the internet at all. Or they are lazy and want ITS to just do it all. Either way we were hopping today. Between the phone ringing and people taking messages and setting up appointments, or trying to troubleshoot over the phone and people walking in and simply saying "my computer doesn't work" (which tells us a whole lot...) Hopefully by the end of September it'll settle down a bit.

I have my band audition tomorrow at 3:03 pm. I'm kind of nervous but I feel rather prepared. I'm actually not sure what band I really want to be in. Because I think symphonic band is more fun than the higher band, wind ensemble, just because there is less pressure. But wind ensemble gets to travel and is the more "prestigious" of the two bands. There's a certain sense of "awe" tacked onto people who make wind ensemble. But in wind ensemble I wouldn't get to play piccolo. No flutes graduated last year and the piccolo was already spread thin amongst the people who want to play it. I love playing piccolo. I really really do. (If I could major in piccolo performance, I would.) And it would be really hard and really sad to have to sit and not play it. Or play like, only one piece. If I was lucky. In symphonic band, I'd have a pretty good shot of being the only player or one of two. That's okay. It's when you get past 3 players that it gets ridiculous.

...Also, the pressure I feel my flute teacher puts on me to make wind ensemble makes me want to go and do the opposite just to spite her. Not making wind ensemble last year was kind of a big deal because they were going to Japan. But I ended up going to New York instead and I think I enjoyed that so much better. I'm totally over that. I wouldn't have traded New York for anything.

I've been going on a run almost every morning. And the mornings I've missed, I've gone on long walks so it alternates nicely. The route I take when I run has telephone poles alongside it, which work as excellent visual markers/goals. So each day I can run to the next pole and go farther and farther. I'm starting to tell that I am beginning to build up my endurance, little-by-little. It's kind of a nice feeling! :-)

Last night, there was this terrible racket in our building around 4 am. Rachel V. heard it too. Neither of us know who or what it was. It woke me up, it was so loud! It was a really loud banging and crashing noise that sounded over irregular intervals. It sounded like someone was trying to break down a door somewhere. Part of me wanted to get out of bed and tell who-ever it was off for being so freaking loud at 4 in the morning, but I didn't know WHO was out there or what was going on. I was about to call security but it finally stopped and I went back to sleep. This morning nothing in the hallways looked damaged, so I have NO idea what it was. Our building has a mandatory meeting with our RA Wednesday night, with everyone there so maybe I'll ask to see if anyone else knows what happened.

Bleh. I also have my junior recital to prepare for.


Have I mentioned how busy this year is going to be?

Absolutely crazy. But I plan to work my butt off. I'm not ready, but that's okay.




And I'm still looking for a car to buy.