Things I Have Accidentally Typed Into My Program Notes So Far

• Devienne was a frequent performer and composter at the Concert Spirituel
• The second movement, slowly and stingingly
• I've been spelling the composor Eugene Bourdeau wrong for, um, two years.  Including ON MY JURY SHEET in the fall of my Junior year.  No one caught that....
• I also switched the words "quite" and "quiet" like seven times.  Seriously.

A quick succession of thoughts led to a rather sporadic decision. Quick recap? Sure:

Despite near-constant whining about how I'm always tired (yes, only two days after break), right as I finished the last paragraph of my American Lit reading LastFM started playing the song I really wanted to listen to but am too cheap to download (yes, 99 cents seems like a lot right now). So of course I had to listen to all of it, so naturally I putzed on the internet.  Today's Stuff Christians Like is about Lent, which I have never in my life given anything up for.  But the repetitive comments of "maybe next year..." caught my attention, because I'm pretty sure I've said that every single Thursday after Ash Wednesday for about the last seven years.  Reading other people repeat it made me grouchy (read: convicted me hardcore) because it's ridiculous to confine God's call for us to abandon things that keep us from him to just a handful of weeks, minus sundays.  But I moved on in the blog world, and Kate's new post A) talked about happy lists and B) made me decide to give up whining.

Yes.

Whining.

Because I am a grown up and I need to suck it up and be grateful for all the amazing wonderful things God does for me.  I'm still going to allow myself complaining, but whining and wallowing in self-pity are out, as are temper tantrums, hiding under desks or burying my head in the sand.

Also, Kate made me feel guilty about having not posted in, um, almost two months. So! To kick off my new season of sucking it up:

A Happy List, a la Jacqui Sheehan! Reviewing the good things that have happened in the last two months:

• Verizon's "New Every Two Years" actually means new every twenty months, meaning a free new cell phone when I lost mine
• My room in the Danners' has skylights. Plural. Hecks yes.
• On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I don't have class until 1.
• I'm taking real classes that aren't music. Awesome.
• Almost half my 8 AM El Comp class, as well as assorted other music majors, went for pancakes when Dennys had free Grand Slams.  We were half an hour late for our 50 minute class, beginning the tradition of latecomers bringing in breakfast for everyone.  It's pretty great.
• I went to Jubilee in Pittsburgh, and I got four new books, and I ate in the super-sketchy basement of a fantastic greek restaurant, and I got to see Erin, and I got to spend lots of time with Nicholette and meet her friends from the summer. And, Jamie Tworkowski, one of the founders of To Write Love On Her Arms--the one who wrote the story--said he wanted to be my friend.  
• I love my church. Always.  The last two weekends there were hardly any people there because of break, but it was still great. 
• Despite how terrified I am of my recital, and despite how much I still have to do... I had some really, ridiculously good practice sessions today.  And, I'm pretty sure I secured a Special Guest.... outstanding.
• Jeff got drunk and mailed me flowers for valentines day.  It was ridiculous, but it made my room smell lovely and makes a fantastic story.

I know there's been more.  I'm going to try to do this more often, friends.  <3!

Year Review in Haiku

let's see how well this works....

January
Copland rehearsals
"oh holy crap what have I done?"
too much tenor clef!

February
"Babysoon" shower
the arrival of Francis--
--who's NOT an oboe!
March
So much Percy G
also lots of Mozart
but not for long! ...oops.

April
Gillette Hall Banquet
--wait! I meant to say East hall!--
My calves looked so good 
May
Physics of Music
I am so unprepared
Chinese makes more sense
June
Not having a job
also not having a car
makes Indy boring.

(ok, so also gorgeous and in every way amazing. But sometimes a little dull.)

July
The unfortunate 
return of Yellow Shirt Days
to my schedule

August
I bought my first car
and I drove nine whole hours
to my apartment 
September
forty-five minute drive
to a rural middle school
I'm not crazy for

October
Homecoming Parade
but much more importantly
the great Fall Frolic!
November
Liberal Thanksgiving
With a few Canadians
but still delightful

December
So many cookies
but Prism Break was awesome
... one semester left.

Reasons to Love Mo Willems

Gerald is careful.  Piggie is not.

Piggie cannot help smiling.  Gerald can.

Gerald worries so that piggie does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.

I love it!  I think I need someone to worry for me so I don't have to anymore.

The last week or so of my life has been so incredibly beyond ridiculous.  I don't even know what to say about it!  I figure I should type out a test run of my Weekend In Review since I'm sure I'll be telling it to everyone I see over Christmas. (Is anyone else as frustrated by those repetitive conversations as I am?  "How's school?" "How much longer do you have left?" "And you're studying what, again?" "And have you found that special someone?" Ugh!)

So, Friday was supposed to be my last day of student teaching.  Thursday as I left school I decided to move home only half the instruments I'd dragged into school, so I left my bassoon and Houghton's oboe to take home on Friday.  I would have taken my bassoon home first but I wanted to do some Christmas shopping on my way home and didn't want to leave the one instrument I actually cared about in the car while I putzed around Borders.  This, I suppose, was mistake number one of the weekend.  

So Friday morning I wake up to cries of excitement coming from our living room.  "Snow day!!"  Rebekah was thrilled because she'd never had a snow day before (silly homeschoolers!) and while we all were a little disappointed to not be going in for our last day, everyone else was at least comfortable leaving everything they had left at school there for the rest of break.  I couldn't, however, go home without my bassoon.  Mistake number two of the weekend was deciding to wait until Monday to try to get into school to get my bassoon.  I figured surely they would have school on Monday as the last I'd heard was that the weather would be clearing up.    So, rather than leaving on Sunday like I'd originally wanted, I decided to wait until Monday morning to leave so I could get to school.

Well, of course there was a snow day Monday as well.  Of course!  But I couldn't stay in my apartment another day--our lease was up!--and I didn't want to spend the night at Sarah's (mistake number 3!) so I decided to try to get into school and get my bassoon.  The janitor was out snow blowing so he let me in, and I figured that would be the greatest obstacle of my day.  

So, naturally, just about 20 miles from the PA/Ohio border--where I've heard the roads magically became crystal clear--the snow and wind picked up like crazy and I couldn't see and I slid into not one but two cars that were on the side of the road.  I sort of bounced off the first and stopped when I hit the second.  Conveniently, both the folks I hit--who were in fact mother and son--were very friendly, as was the random stranger who pulled over to help, and the police officer.  And no one was hurt and I think my car got the worst of it, but it still left me stranded and in western PA for the night.  Ugh.  

So I puttered to a hotel just off the interstate and got a room for the night and called home to figure out what to do.   My car might have made it home but certainly not through the snow and I didn't want to risk it.  We decided it would be best for me to fly homeand thankfully my family found remarkably cheap plane tickets out of Erie, through Philadelphia... at 6 in the morning, which was less than ideal, but they were cheap!  Unfortunately, that meant I had to do something with all of the stuff in my car.  So, just a few short hours after having dragged it all down the stairs and into my car--through the snow!--I again found myself lugging half my life's possessions (the other half are at Sarah's for break) through the snow by myself.  My family thought the best plan would be to mail everything home, but in my one (and only) good choice yesterday I realized that Jenna lives somewhere nearby and I called her.  She agreed to come get my things and house them until after break, but not until after I'd already moved everything from my car into the hotel. (Again. In the snow. And the dark. By myself.)  But, thankfully, Jenna came and brought me Christmas cookies and spent the night with me and made me feel so very, very much better about my life.  But not before--oh yes, it does indeed get worse--I lost my cell phone moving my things from my car to the hotel.  Though, of course, after Jenna showed up I helped her stuff my things into her car... bringing the total number of times I've moved half my life's possessions in the dark and in the snow to three.  Ugh.  

So, to review:

• Locked my bassoon at school over a 4-day weekend thanks to two snow days
• moved all my things by myself in the snow
• Crashed my car
• moved all my things by myself in the snow...again.  And cut my finger on a box and couldn't find a bandaid anywhere at the hotel. (I forgot to mention that part earlier)
• Lost my cell phone
• moved all my things in the snow...but with Jenna's help!

But, in all fairness, things I'm still happy about:

• I'm fine (ok... a little sore. But uninjured!)
• The other drivers are fine
• I had a place to stay
• Jenna came and brought me cookies and saved my stuff and calmed me down and in general was wonderful
• I still have a way home

My life is ridiculous!  

Thanksgiving

Cliche, yes, but good for me none the less.  In keeping with the Jacqui Sheehan Happy List tradition, a special Thanksgiving Edition of Things That Make Me Happy:

• Violas!  While my violin and cello have made me happy all semester (and indeed, for as long asI 've known them), I must admit I'm quite excited to have a viola as well.  I should clarify, I suppose; yesterday Daryl agreed to play for the quartet for my recital, along with Clara and Micah.  I think it will be so much fun to rehearse with them next semester, and I'm quite excited to have people I love so much playing such a huge role in something that is so important to me.
• Though I imagine it will still change, I have music picked out for my recital and I like all of it.  The newest addition to my rep is the Handel bassoon concerto in c minor--which isn't french!  (It's the only thing I have picked right now that isn't.)  If you're as dedicated to my recital rep as I am, you can listen to decent chunks of it here, over on the left side.  It is, naturally, the concerto for bassoon--not harp, viola d'amore, or oboe.  
• I love teaching.  I'm not grouchy about going to school every morning, and that's wonderful.
• Despite not being able to go home, I do get to see a number of people I love this weekend.  I am quite excited to spend time with people who are so dear to my heart, even if we're not related.
• I'm very glad that Sarah's family is so wonderful and loving as to not only invite me over for thanksgiving but demand my presence.  They are delightful people and I am quite blessed to know them and have them looking out for me.
• I am eternally thankful for my "Houghton church."  Menno is wonderful and fantastic and filled with people I love who love God and each other like crazy.  And, they sing in harmony.  All the time!  And in different languages!  I know you shouldn't pick a church based on music, but as a musician it is pretty important to me and the worship at Menno is so honest and fulfilling that I think it's ok to say it's a pretty big factor in why I love Menno as much as I do.  It is community in a fantastic way and I love every minute of it.  My single greatest regret about college is having waited until I was a junior to start going to Menno.  I drive down--an hour and 15 minutes!--almost every weekend so I can go to church. I love it. LOVE!  
• I got to talk to Dana yesterday, which was wonderful and hadn't happened in far, far too long.  I love that girl and I'm very excited for all the fantastic things going on in her life.
• Looking ahead, I think I'll be able to visit a number of very dear friends over Christmas who I haven't been able to spend time with in a very long time--I haven't seen Jeannie since before college!  I'm very excited to hopefully spend time with her and a few others.

What are you happy about?

Twice in one week? What?! I know, you must be overjoyed.

This is the seventh weekend in a row that I've come down to Houghton. Every Wednesday, without fail, it makes me grouchy: "I'm paying rent for an apartment I'm never in!" I just want to stay home and sleep in and watch westerns. But then as the day goes on I warm up to the idea: "Tomorrow is Bagel Day and then it will be Friday and then I get to go to Houghton!" and for some reason being able to assign tasks to the days makes them go so much faster. And true, I'll be a little grouchy on the way down to Houghton, thinking about how gas is a WHOLE FRIGGING DOLLAR cheaper in Indy and how despite Speicher's gas sale on Sundays, driving the hour and fifteen minutes to Houghton and the hour and fifteen minutes back is still more expensive than staying home.
But, this is the seventh weekend in a row that I've been absolutely overjoyed to be at Houghton, at least once I got here. The first time--seven weeks ago--I told everyone quite plainly, "I won't be back for a month. I have too much to do." And then I came back the very next weekend because Bekah said she would drive. And there have been two Artist Series, and the fantastic Fall Festival, and a long weekend in between placements, and three weekends in a row of snuggling with the wonderful Laura Day (much to the frustration of Shane). There's something so wonderful about being at Houghton. I'm even happy to see the people I don't really like as much, because they're just as much a part of Houghton as the people I do like.
I just finished reading The Shack and while my feelings are mixed--I think it's maybe a little predictable and cliche, though I know it keeps getting rave reviews so I hesitate to admit it--I also admit that I tend to be very stingy with my praise and I have to admit that it did make me think and it did make me cry and I'm not sure what else I expect out of a book before I'll call it "good." Anyway, one of the themes is about God's love. The character of God keeps saying she is "especially fond" of different characters, which at one point prompts the main character to ask if there's anyone God isn't especially fond of. She replies of course not, that she is especially fond of all her children, and relates to Mack (the main character) that it's much the same as how he loves all of his children. As I finished up the book today, nestled into the overstuffed chair in the campus coffee shop with a pumpkin spice mocha, I couldn't help but look around at the other people in Java and think that I am especially fond of each of them. And as I wound my way through the music building, tucking notes into mailboxes and borrowing no less than three instruments for school, I couldn't help but think that I am especially fond of everyone in the music building--even those pesky singers who had taken over the recital hall in their funny dresses. I find that I am quite fond of just about everyone here, and it's so nice to have a place where you know you'll like everyone you bump into.