Nerdy day!

Today in 20th Century Music I learned:

That Dr. Survilla is not the exiled princess of Belarus. Which is kind of disappointing... However she did have a point, that if she WERE hiding from the government of Belarus, teaching music history at a college in Iowa is not where she would hide.... Especially since you can easily find her through an internet search. However, her MOTHER is the current president in exile. And she told us some espionage stories that happened to her mother. So that's pretty cool at least.

Then I learned about Javanese Gamelan music.

The other thing I learned is that Stephen Sondheim TOTALLY stole from Claude Debussy!!! Listen to Nocturnes: No. 1, Nuages, which is a symphonic poem about clouds crossing the sky at night. The first eight seconds are TOTALLY used in Sweeney Todd! ("Swing your razor high, Sweeney, hold it to the sky....") Sorry I couldn't find a better recording. (There is also some debate whether it sounds like like Beauty and the Beast... In that case, Alan Menken is guilty of stealing from Debussy too...) In class we were all like "Woooo! Musical borrowing! Bach did it, so it's okay!" (I promise, it's not just me that is uber-dorky... It's the rest of my music history class too!)

Then today at lunch we made up a rap/beatbox-type song using phrases said by all the Wartburg music professors. It's really catchy and very hilarious! :-) What's even more funny is right before we started thinking up this song, we were talking abut how dorky our professors where when they were in grad school. :-)

Then in band, we got two new pieces of music, and one is absolutely gorgeous! It's called "Love and Piece, A Father's Wish" and I absolutely love it. I was getting chills while we sight-read through it.... It will sound so amazing after we polish it up! :-) *warm fuzzies*

Sometimes I love life... A lot....

I am a dork. And there are no words....

Wartburg Pachelbel Rant

Here's the video I made of Rob from Battle of the Unsigned Artists last night. Sorry the video is so wobbly... I filmed it on my little digital camera, so the quality isn't the best... And yes, that's me singing along... I never claim to be any good, but I really don't care. It was a fun time!

Rob Paravonian FTW!

So tonight was Battle of the Unsigned Artists..... And it was amazing! You have no idea....... The bands were good and Rob Paravonian was BRILLIANT! I mean, we're talking music major Nerdfighter uber-glee!




We had fun getting ready for the concert.... We all went very very punk!





































POSE! :-)


















Nerdfighters FTW!


















Waiting for the show to start....



AND THEN! AFTER THE SHOW!!!!!!




















Yes! That is me, along with along with my Wartburg friends and my sister, with Rob Paravonian! All wearing our made-of-awesome t-shirts that I had made especially for this concert. They say "Punk music is a joke, It's really just Baroque!." (Front row: Roger, Rachel V. Back row: Rachel D., Leah, Mary, Rob, me.)

The back of the shirts...

















"Johann! They're all named Johann!"


Afterwards, Rob asked me to send the pictures to him via Myspace, which I just did... :-) I love life!

I have videos from the concert, but Google video isn't working right now... But they will be up eventually!

If you weren't there... You missed out!

Music is life....

Today in conducting class we discussed the director's role when participating in honor choirs/bands/festivals and the different expectations that surround those situations. We talked about expenses/fees, music selection, interacting with the group--whether yelling is acceptable, and who the festival should really be about--the conductor or the students.

We talked about all of this for quite some time. At lunch, Bryan said he found it really really boring, but I thought it was one of the most important discussions I've had in all my classes. I mean, on the surface, we're talking about potentially getting paid to go and conduct some group for a day. (I say potentially because sometimes it's a volunteer position... because some schools don't have lot of money to pay for a guest conductor to come.) You get up there, you wave your arms. You bow. The end.

But really, that's not it. (I wanted to discuss it more with Bryan, but it wouldn't have included the Rachels, and that wasn't very polite.) I think what we were really discussing in class was the influence we have on children, and their continued interest in music. Personally, I've been to some honor bands where the music we were making gave me chills the whole time it was so amazing. I've also been to some where the director has made people cry, after reaming on them so hard for missing notes. Taking respect by force is not the way to go. Yes, the conductor is in charge, but yelling and other forms of intimidation should not be used to get the ensemble to perform a certain way. That doesn't mean that feelings of frustration aren't going to arise, conductors are human too, but what is REALLY going to be achieved by rounding on the the offending instrument/voice part/person in anger? There are better ways to handle things.

....................

I am realizing more and more with each class period that the things I say in rehearsal, how I act in lessons, how I handle concerts, even the manner in which I answer questions, will have an impact on my future students. I remember what it felt like to see that honor band director yelling at the clarinet section... I remember what it felt like when my first high school band director yelled at the band. And I don't want to forget that ever... Because I don't want to be like that! How can you make kids play with excitement and passion when they are forced to play through fear and intimidation?

......................

We also talked about ego, which was interesting. Dr. Torkelson labeled it as one of the "dark sides" of conducting. We compared the idea of a conductor who came out, bowed, and then acknowledged the ensemble, versus a conductor who acknowledged the group first and then recognized the audience in some small manner. Our class was unified in agreeing that the second example was better. Both Dr. Hancock and Dr. Torkelson stressed that the conductor is there to help make music with the group, as a whole. It's not about the conductor, it's about the students.

After this discussion, which lasted about 45 minutes of the hour and five minute class period, my name was drawn to conduct. I was kind of wondering when it would be my turn, so it was nice to get it finished. So I "rehearsed" the choir with what I had prepared... I was nervous, but it wasn't dibilitating. I had to think really hard not to use verbal fillers, and to not bury my head in the score and to talk loud enough. It felt like there were a hundred things going on at once and I was only conducting a 16+ member choir, singing a 4 voice hymn!

I got some really good constructive criticisms and general pointers...

1. I need to work on making eye contact with each person in the room, not just looking up from the score, and looking at the group.

2. I need to start trusting my ear to tell me whether the pitches I'm hearing are right or wrong.

3. I need to avoid saying "I want to..." I know this sounds hypocritical to what I just wrote about earlier, but I think everyone has this habit to some degree. I just need to start saying "We" instead of "I."

4. I need to stop showing my frustration with myself in my face, since that could be misinterpreted as directed towards the group.

And the best part? These are all things that I can totally work on and fix... And it's relevant to conducting! HALLELUJAH!

Some good points:

1. Allison said she liked my personality, and thought it was good that I laughed during the lesson because it lightened the mood and kept it friendly. Dr. Torkelson added to this and said that he thought my personality was one of my strongest suits.

2. AJ said I did a good job keeping my directions short and clear. (Which is kind of funny, because his conducting turn took 35 minutes.)

3. Rachel F. said I did a good job modifying my prep beat each time until the whole group came in at the same time.

Doc told me that I was very confident and that he could tell that I was very well prepared. Which is nice, because I felt like I had no clue what I was doing so I worked to at least have SOME clue what I was doing. :-) And it showed!

In addition to the constructive criticisms I received, I want to work on breathing with my prep beats and practicing conducting pick-up notes.

I love this class.... :-)



Have you ever had the feeling deep down in your heart that you knew what you where meant to do? Like, you couldn't imagine yourself doing anything else in the world? This feeling... It's almost indescribable... It's like this warm, rock-solid certainty that fills you with a renewed passion to learn...

Well, if you haven't I feel sorry for you. This is what I felt like all through conducting class.

And it's one of the best feelings in the world. :-)

Otaku...

Okay, I feel like posting this... I've already proclaimed to the world my utter dorkiness, so what's one more post? :-)

Something I've never been able to do well, is draw manga. That style has eluded me and now I am bound and determined to figure out how to do it! I want to be able to draw Ouran characters at will, so right now I am hard at work practicing.... Here are my doodles so far... No traces, just looking from one picture to the other. They're all photographs, because I don't have a scanner, so I'm sorry about the quality... But I've included the picture I copied as well, so you can compare the two. Oh, and sorry about the lines... I just did all the drawings in my little notepad.

I've only started working on one character, Kyoya Ootori. (Who is actually one of my favorites... I haven't figured out why yet...) But I plan to work being able to draw all the characters.














1st attempt. (Sorry about the glare.)
-From the cover of the 2nd book.















2nd attempt.
-From the inside cover character descriptions.











3rd attempt. (Okay, so the smiles are different, but I think this is the best one yet.)
-From one of the story panels.

It would probably also help my drawings if I wasn't using a .7 mechanical pencil... It makes the lines really thick. Also, I might start drawing from the anime stills.... Manga has lots and lots of lines! Like, looking at some of the character's hairstyles! :-O Lines everywhere!

Here's his picture from the anime:













:-P So much simpler...... I really do make things harder for myself...... Oh, well...


Anyway, it's time for me to start loading the car! I'm off to Rachel V.'s house! :-)

Fun and frustrations...

Okay, so it's been a while since I've updated. Sorry! It's not that I'm insanely busy, I just get caught up with so many other things, and then I get so much that I want to write about that I keep putting it off because I'm lazy and don't want to write that much... :-P It's kind of a vicious circle.

Last weekend the Rachels and I went to Waterloo to get a break from campus. We originally intended to go see Sweeney Todd, BUT is hasn't come to this area yet. (Lame? I think so.) We went to Best Buy, and then to Barnes and Noble. I loooooooove Barnes and Noble! :-) I immediately went to the manga section to see if they had any more Ouran High School Host Club books, but alas, there were none. We had fun browsing the shelves, and adding "in my pants" to various book titles. (If you haven't done it, it's probably the most hilarious thing regarding innuendos, I've ever come across.) We spent 10 minutes pondering the cover choice for the book The Picture of Dorian Gray, which has a picture of Franz Liszt on it... (Which, consequetially, also looks like a young version of Severus Snape... I wonder if JK Rowling knows this?) Then I discovered that the Ouran manga is in the Teen section, and not with the rest of the manga. :-P I already have books 1-3, but Barnes and Noble only had 1, 2 and 6. I bought six anyway, and I'll eventually read it when I get books 4 and 5.

After Barnes and Noble, we went to Target for a while, to kill time... Then we went to see In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Which ended up being, like, the worst movie of ALL TIME! I swear, it was like they took the scripts for The Swordsmen and for Faron, combined them, added wizards, ninjas, and orc-things, all with an obviously bigger budget. It was so ridiculous! I mean, the trailer looked cool, which is why I convinced both Rachels to go with me... But, oh my gosh... I'm not even sure I would recommend this movie for rental... It was cheese-tastsic! I've never laughed so hard at battle scenes... People were dying on screen and I couldn't stop laughing! I mean, I know it's not real, but still, I don't normally do that...

Two other things that made this movie cheesy:

1. Accents. Someone in that movie needs to get on the consistency bus or SOMETHING! I mean, you have John Rhys Davies and Jason Statham who are both English actors... Except that Davies kept his accent, and Statham didn't.... Then you have Burt Reynolds, and Matthew Lillard who are American, but tried to speak with some form of "British" accent, which was lame and THEN you have Leelee Sobieski, and Kristanna Loken, who are American, and kept their normal accents, but spoke in "powerful rounded tones." It was so ridiculous.

2. I don't know how intentional these shots were, but there was this one shot that TOTALLY was taken form Lord of the Rings! We saw that and were all like "Whaaaa-aat the crap?" The shot was the 5 main characters running along a snowy mountainous ridge, and the camera was above them and it panned out and over the characters as they ran along. The other shot involved the bad guy, who was a wizard, running around in a long black leather trench coat... And then he did all sorts of flippy-floaty things, like the Matrix. At least he wasn't wearing sunglasses.

I really really want to see Sweeney Todd!!!! Ahhh!!!

This weekend, Rachel D. and I are going home with Rachel V. It'll be a nice break from campus. Rachel V. needs to go home to get a formal dress for the masquerade ball that Wartburg Players is putting on as fund-raiser. We're going to see 27 Dresses.... And hopefully Sweeney Todd! Yay!

I also want to go see the new VeggieTales movie! I love the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything! :-D

Rob Pavaronian is coming to Wartburg next week! I am so EXCITED! It will be amazing!

And now for the nitty-gritty.....


Wartburg Players will no longer be doing The Importance of Being Ernest. Why you might ask?

1. Because the director is bent on touring with the show during tour week and hardly anyone will be able to tour because of their involvement with other touring ensembles (AKA Wartburg Choir, Castle Singers etc.)

2. SOMEHOW one of the plays performances coincides with the spring Symphonic Band concert.

The first reason affects like, almost EVERYONE who wants to try out. The second one effects me and Lourey. Lourey is stage manager or something for the play, so she has to get out of the band concert.... (Which makes me sad, because she's a senior and that will be her last WCCB concert to play in, ever....) And there's no way I'd miss a band concert. But still. It's so lame. I was so excited to try out for the play!!! I really really was!

So do you know what he is going to do instead? A 3 person play, with people he chooses to be in it.

Lame. Lamelamelamelamelame!

WAY to SCREW ANYONE who wants to try out for a future Wartburg Players production. Yes, this is just my opinion, but I don't like what the director is doing. He always complains that NO ONE comes and auditions... Well, there's 3 reasons for this: His casting is often biased. (AKA he picks plays with specific people in mind for specific parts. I mean, I understand you have to do this to some degree, especially with a smaller college... but...... I don't know....) Auditions are usually not advertised campus-wide, and he does things like CHANGE THE PLAY!

GAH!

....Sorry.... This whole topic makes me pretty angry.... (If you couldn't tell...) I was really looking forward to getting the chance to try out for the play again. And The Importance of Being Ernest looked like it was going to be a very smart and witty show.



....I'm going to lunch. I'm so glad it's Friday.

Winter semester of school here I come!

Hello everyone!

Here's my schedule for Winter Semester:




Monday-Wednesday-Friday

7:45-8:50-- Educational Psychology
9:00-10:05-- Conducting II
2:00-3:00-- Work at ITS (Monday/Wednesday Only)
1:00-Whenever/3:00-- Work at the Library (Friday Only)
2:30-3:10--Cello/Bass methods, 2nd 7 weeks

Tuesday-Thursday:

9:35-11:15-- 20th Century Music
1:00-3:00-- Work at the Library (Tuesday Only)
1:00-2:40-- Oboe/Bassoon methods, 1st 7 weeks (Thursday Only)

I have band on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and sometimes, Friday from 3:50 to 4:40, and flute choir on Tuesdays at the same time.

What's nice is that the only class I have that is writing intensive is Ed Psych, which also requires 25 hours of field experience. I was really surprised when I found out that 20th Century Music is not writing intensive. What a relief! This semester is TOTALLY different from the fall and I'm glad... I just hope I don't eat those words after I have oboe/bassoon for the first time tomorrow. But really, I think I actually will have time to try out for the spring play! :-D Wartburg is doing The Importance of Being Ernest, by Oscar Wilde. Rachel V. is going to bring the movie from home and we are going to watch it all together.

I made it back alright on Sunday. I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking. Our room still isn't 100% put together yet... I haven't set up the miniature Stonehenge, or my Pirates of the Caribbean box light, both Christmas presents. :-) I just need to clean off the coffee table and find a place to hang the light where it can reach an outlet, because the chord is kind of short. Or I suppose I could find a extension chord... And I still need to take down some Christmas decorations...

Conducting II is the best class ever. I've learned more in 2 days then I did in a whole semester of Conducting I. I need to practice my beat pattern, but I can now move my arm in such a way that I am experiencing less tension in my body. Which is good, because the last thing I want is tendinitis! I'm definitely nervous about doing some of the coursework, but I comfort myself with the knowledge that the teachers in this class actually WANT me to succeed and they have stressed that they will always tell us what we are doing RIGHT in addition to points where we can improve. I know this class has high standards, so I feel self-induced pressure to work hard and do well. Yay! :-)

Last night I finished the huge bag of conversation hearts that I bought last Saturday. I really want to go out and buy some more, but there's already so much candy in our room! There's about 7 candy canes from Christmas, a bowl of Hershey's Kisses, a bag of candy left over from gingerbread house-making, a bag of heart-shaped gobstoppers, the candy I got in my Christmas stocking, half of a chocolate bar I got for Christmas and my Chocolate bunny from last Easter! PLUS, we still have our singing skull-bowl left over from Hallowe'en filled with Now 'n Later candies and bubble gum. (We called him "Marley" over Christmas to include him in the festivities.) But still... I want conversation hearts... they are my favorite!

Tonight it is chicken tenders in the Mensa! I really hope that they go back to the good kind... Last time they had chicken tenders, they looked like fish sticks, and actually contained no chicken. I took one apart and checked. It was all flavored breading. The 7 of us at the table went and left nasty, unsatisfied comments in the suggestion box and I heard later that the line for the suggestion box surpassed the line to dispose of dishes and trays as well as the actual line for the chicken.

Leah and I are going to go exercise tonight in the new PEC or... The "W" as they are calling it... (For "wellness and WOW" is what the letter I got said... *gag*) Although I think "Monstrosity" would be more appropriate, since it's so freakin expensive. It's not completed yet, but I've heard it's pretty close. It has a rock climbing wall and everything! I've never done one before, but a couple friends have told me that they will be working there, so I'm thinking I might go and try it out sometime.

So I ordered some Ouran Host Club manga off of Amazon and I was able to pick it up on Monday. (Manga is the name for Japanese comic books.... For the people who read this and may not know what that means.) I ordered the first three books and I love them. They are so cute! And hilariously funny! It took a while to get used to reading them, because although they've been translated from Japanese, they original format hasn't been changed so you have to read it from "back to front" and the speech bubbles go from right to left. (The actual words do go left to right, just so you know.) There are also a lot of sound effect words that get drawn across the panel and most of them are translations from Japanese, so it takes a bit for me to figure out what they are representing. I have figured out that whenever "Bip Bip Bip" is shown in succession over a character it means that person's heart is pounding because they are in love. Haha... Anyway, it's cool and this can be added to the list of why I am a dork. :-) Sometime this year the anime will be released in the US. It'll be interesting to hear it in English and to see what the translations are like, after watching all the the subtitled episodes.

I had my first flute lesson of the semester today. It was quite painful. I literally spent the entire hour lesson playing scales. I played all my major scales, and both harmonic and melodic scales. In addition to this I had to play all major arpeggios, and all minor, diminished 7th and dominant 7th arpeggios. I'm pretty sure that my teacher now thinks that I am the worst at music theory... But I have never been good at playing things just pictured/thought of in my head! It doesn't matter if I can see a keyboard or a staff with notes on it in my head. I'm just not very good at translating that into a physical reality. It's the same thing with spelling words out loud. I do much better if I write them out first instead of just spelling them verbally. There's no way I can get around learning all this stuff though... My professor wants me to be able to eventually play that all in 10 minutes. Bleh. This means that I am going to have to spend a significant amount of time writing out all these melodic scales and all these different arpeggios so I can visually learn them and eventually memorize them. Fun? No.

This weekend we are going to go and see the movie Sweeney Todd. I am really excited! I've heard it's very very different from the stage show, which I saw in high school, so I'm prepared. (But don't tell me anything about it!) Leah and I are pretty much the only ones in our suite, and amongst our friends, that haven't seen it yet. :-P

Well, that's all for now! I'm off to discover how good dinner is this time!

2007 revisited...

January:
I realized that I'd have to buckle down and work hard on my academics.
Saw The Fray in concert.
I went and saw The Light in the Piazza with Jessica and Leah.
Struggled with being single.
"You can't talk to me that way! I'm Herbert Hoover!" "And I'm Woodrow Wilson! Go to bed!" -Arsenic and Old Lace. :-)
Went home and saw the premiere of Faron: The Prophesy.
About 8 people told me that I "need a boy"

February:
Found out that a friend liked me.
I worked on overcoming jealousy and loneliness.
I saw Phantom of the Opera with my Dad and Mary.
Hated Valentine's Day.
Remained single.
Jessica and Scott came and visited and we saw 7th Day Slumber.
Found out what shows we would be seeing on the New York Trip.
I contracted Influenza and was out of commission for a week.
Enjoyed a random thunderstorm.
Got a rose from Laura. "For no reason." :-)
Found out a friend no longer liked me and got really really angry.

March:
I scratched the cornea of my right eye and almost had to go to the emergency room.
I became okay with being single.
I visited my friends at Bethel.
I came to the realization that I cannot be the "mother" of anyone or be the "boss" of other people's lives.
Got our goldfish, and named him Monteverdi after a Renaissance composer.
Took Leah to the emergency room after she hurt her knee.
Leah became engaged to her boyfriend Travis.
Saw Camelot with Lourey and Rachel.

April:
Saw Godspell with Rachel V.
Saw Cantus perform.
Survived finals.
Sneaked into the FAC and spent the night there with Leah.
I got a haircut.
Had a dream about Daleks driving mini-vans.

May:
Went to New York and met tons of famous people! (Including Raul Esparza, who was on Pushing Up Daisies, David Hyde Pierce from Frasier, and Hadley Frasier, who was in an episode of Doctor Who.)
Rachel V. got food poisoning from McDonald's in New York.
Saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Started working at Sukups, making steel ladders.

June:
Hung out with Jessica as much as possible.
Was introduced to Flight of the Concords.
Watched the 2007 Tony Awards.
Dealt with anger over being single.

July:
Celebrated the 4th with Jessica.
FREAKED OUT OVER THE SEASON FINALE TO DOCTOR WHO!
Jessica left for China. :-(
Had an awesome dream about The Doctor.
Got mad about the selection of the Doctor's next companion.
Was denied the training to drive a forklift.
Secretly learned how to drive a forklift.
Saw Harry Potter 5 and thought it was rather lame and made a list of the lameness.
Flipped out because a cousin posted a "spoiler" the 7th Harry Potter book on my MSN. But it turned out to be fake, so I stayed up for 5 hours in a state of hysterics for nothing. I hope something like that never happens ever again.
READ HARRY POTTER 7 ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT! :-D
Was introduced to Brotherhood 2.0
Went and visited Rachel V. and had a super awesome spectacular time!
Got food poisoning from McDonald's.

August:
Turned in my last day to work at Sukups.
Went to my first rodeo.
Received band audition music.
Went to the Iowa State Fair and filmed everything on a stick.
I bought a futon.
I moved back to Wartburg and survived ITS Boot Camp.
I studied really hard and took, and PASSED the PRAXIS!
Survived a week of being alone in my suite.

September:
Caught up with everyone moving back in.
Practiced for band auditions.
Auditioned for band and made 6th chair symphonic.
Had fun at Band Bonding, and tried to sleep out side with Rachel D. but got eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Put my blog on hiatus.
Selected music for my Junior Recital.
Celebrated my 21st birthday!

October:
CELEBRATED OUTFLY! :-D
Helped Leah memorize music for her recital preview.
Had insomnia.
Played for and passed my preview.
Found a dress to wear for my recital.
Found out that a HP character was a homosexual.
Had 6 cavities filled over fall break.
Wrote many papers, totaling about 35 pages.
Began the Doctor Who collaborative fanfiction story, with Rachel V. and I deciding the "rules" and Lourey starting it off with the prologue.

November:
Attended Leah's junior recital.
Practiced for my recital.
Played for my recital.
Got an A- on the Music History Test of DOOM.
Began rehearsals for Christmas with Wartburg.
Began to write first chapter in our Doctor Who collaborative fanfiction story.
Had a very short Thanksgiving break, but still got to spend time with Jessica.
Began to study for finals.
Had first Christmas with Wartburg performance in Des Moines.

December:
Finished the last of the Christmas with Wartburg performances and SURVIVED!
Celebrated Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day.
Cleaned the drain in our suite.
Continued to study for finals.
Celebrated Christmas with my roomates and other close friends. :-)
Took finals... Which included a presentation of a band concert program, a listening test, an arrangement of a music work and a 8 page paper on Romantic Opera.
Took my blog off hiatus.
Made peanut brittle, sugar cookies and gingerbread houses!
Had insomnia again.
My suitemate, Margie, became engaged to her boyfriend Jon.
Hung out with Jessica.
Watched all 26 episodes of Ouran High School Host Club.
Watched the fantastic Doctor Who Christmas Special!
Celebrated Christmas and New Years!




There you have it! A short recap of my year! Nothing too spectacular, but I survived and am excited for the adventures to come!

Long day... semi-pleasing results...

There world. I caucused. Are you happy? It was boring and kind of lame. I forgot to bring a book. I drew pictures on my younger brother with my pen instead. Jessica came too, but she was in a different precinct, so we just texted each other back and forth. I'm glad it's over. Now we will no longer get campaign calls at 7:30 in the freaking morning.

This morning for the second time this break I got up before 7 am. This was because I had to go meet Leah and try on bridesmaid dresses! :-) I was in a pretty deep sleep by 6:30 am, so when my alarm went of I practically FLEW out of bed and was flailing around looking for the fire... And then I realized that it was my alarm clock and I turned it off and sat there for about 10 minutes trying to catch my breath. What a way to begin the day, huh?

I was supposed to meet Leah at 8:30, so I left and drove through McDonalds on my way. At the stop-light there were about three people standing in the median jumping up and down and holding signs for Barak Obama and waving them at passing cars. With the temperature being a toasty 2 degrees Fahrenheit... That's just insane. Really! Seeing those people out in the cold waving Obama signs is not going to change my mind about who I want to caucus for, it's just going to make me think that those people are idiots! :-P

Trying on dresses was fun, except that the heater at the dress shop had broken! And so the building was litterally FREEZING COLD! Which was not very fun when you have to try on dress after dress after dress. We ended up choosing the first dress I tried on, but I tried on a bunch of other dresses just for fun. It only took about an hour and a half to get through everyone and to take measurements for the dresses, and we all went out to Panera Bread for lunch! :-) I was craving that, so it was amazing! We stayed 2 hours after our meal and just joked around and talked. It was a good time!

This is the dress that we chose. (Leah said we were allowed to get any kind of dress from this particular designer, as long as it had a princess train and came in her color, cornflower.)























I love it! It really doesn't button... That would be insane, but I don't care. I think it's gorgeous! For some reason the website doesn't allow you to see the front, but it's a A-line dress, and it has some boning in the bodice to make it more fitted. I loooooooooove this dress!!!!! :-D

After we ate and talked at Panera, Leah and I stopped at West Music and then headed back home. We sang to the tape "Wee-Sings Sing-Alongs" almost the whole way and it was very nostalgic and happy!

I got back home and Jessica came over for dinner. It was tater-tot casserole! My absolute favorite! :-D

After that we caucused and came back and had ice cream and watched Ouran High School Host Club, during which Jessica called me a spazzmobile because SHE was hogging all the quilt and I was cold and I wanted some. Except at first I sat on TOP of the quilt and then tried to get under it. :-P She got tired of me wiggling around trying to get situated. In response to her calling me a spazzmobile I called her a dunefield... Which what Leah called me earlier today when I commented that the drifting snow in the cornfields looked like dunes... :-P

Yeah... We're weird... But it's okay. In fact, it's pretty hilarious!

I'm sleepy so I'm actually going to go to bed early!







Bleh! Stupid Huckabee! I didn't want you to win the caucuses! At least Hilary didn't come first on the Democratic side.





I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S THURSDAY ALREADY!!!! I MOVE BACK TO WARTBURG ON SUNDAY! INSAAAAAANE!!!!! AHHH!

Hello 2008!

Well, 2008 is here and I'm still alive. I mean, I love how we celebrate the new year each December 31st, but to me the new year never feels different from the previous one. There's no *BOOM* at midnight as the year switches... Nobody goes... "Whoa... Here comes 2008... Better watch out! It's a doosie!" :-P It's nice to have a set "starting over point" in the calendar, but really... In the end, it's just another day etc. etc. etc.

But I did have a nice New Year Eve... Jessica and I went and saw National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. WHICH IS AN AMAZING MOVIE! Omigosh! We both loved it! Super, super brilliant! Go see it now, if you haven't! I think what I love about this movie is that it makes it seem like, with the right "ordinary" equipment (iPod, palm pilot etc.) the right knowledge and some lucky contacts, ANYONE could do the things in this movie. You can't help but watch the movie and ask yourself why YOU didn't think of that. Or sit there and wonder if that would *really* work in "real life." (Breaking into Buckingham Palace for instance... Not that I would. Really.) The movie is a spectacular ride! Really, GO SEE IT!

After the movie, there was a bit of a freak-out when we discovered that through a lack of communication between Jessica's parents, Jessica's younger brother Jake was home with some of his friends without any supervision. We expected the worst, but it turned out okay and Jake left with his friends around 10:45 pm.

Something that was amusing... On the way home from the movie, in between freak-outs, Jessica and I headed to my house so I could pick up some stuff for our party and I asked her if I should drive separate so she wouldn't have to take me home late at night. (Because she's not really a night person and I figured I could let her get to bed whenever we were done doing whatever.) And Jessica just looks at me and says "Oh, you're spending the night. I forgot to tell you. I asked my mom, but I forgot to ask you." At this I laughed and agreed that that would be fun.

While Jake and his friends were there Jessica and I ate shrimp in the kitchen and watched America's Next Top Model. (VH1 was having a marathon.) We ran out of cocktail sauce so we had to make more... That was fun! :-) At 11:00 we watched the ball drop in New York City and then moved to the bigger TV in the living room and continued watching America's Next Top Model, discussing who we liked, and why.

For our midnight toast Jessica had sparkling grape juice, (since she is still underage) and I bought..... Strawberry Hill. (Bwahahahaha....) For real, it's like the cheapest wine you can buy. It was $1.97 at Walmart. It's talked about so much in Brotherhood 2.0 that I felt obligated, as a Nerdfighter, to purchase it. At least once. (While I was at Walmart earlier that day, I called Rachel V. about it and we both agreed that I should buy it. You can watch a video from Brotherhood 2.0 about it HERE. It's rated PG-13 just to warn you...) And yes.... It was very very bad, but I too found myself having some difficulty stopping.... But I only had 2 small wine glasses of it. Don't worry. I did NOT drink the whole thing! Strawberry Hill... Is very watery and weird tasting. Like in the video, it is one of those things that taste so bad you can't believe it, so you have to have some more to re-convince yourself of the icky-ness.

After midnight we watched 2 more episodes of America's Next Top Model. Then we went to bed. I don't know when Jessica got up, but I woke up around 10:45 and it smelled like French toast! :-) It actually was cinnamon rolls that Jessica's mom had made, but still, they were really good.

Jessica and I spent the rest of the day watching movies. It was amazing. We were bums all day! :-D We watched Heartbreak Kid, starring Ben Stiller, which was dumb... (And kind of weird...) :-P Then we watched Ratatouille which was uber cute! (I'd already seen it this summer, but Jessica hadn't because she was in China.) After that it was around 3 pm so we had some lunch. Then we watched The Devil Wears Prada, which was good, but also little weird. Then we watched some America's Next Top model. (Surprise, surprise!) Mixed in with America's Funniest Home Videos. (Hee...) Next, we watched Superman Returns, and then Rat Race.

Jessica took me home around 11:30 pm. It was really fun spending over 24 hours with her.... We haven't done that ages.... Just doing nothing at all... Watching TV in our pajamas until we had lunch. :-) Good times, good times!

I want to type a re-cap of my year in 2007, but I need to get to bed. It's 2:00 am!