... to figure skate in the olympics.
... to go to the movies in a formal dress.
... to spend a whole day reading.
... to travel.
... to own a farm.
... to re-live my childhood.
... to write a wildly successful novel.
... to build playgrounds in honduras.
... to live in NYC.
... a puppy.
... to see a movie that makes me sob.
... to remember the names of every person that i meet.
... an eyebrow piercing.
... to never be concerned with what other people think.
... to own my own company.
... to play trombone on broadway.
... to marry once.
... to be a photographer.
... to to be in the peace corps.
... to teach.
... to direct movies.
... hair that reaches my thighs.
... to play baseball.
... to kiss a stranger.
... to dance in the rain.
... to ride in a limosine.
... to drive a limosine.
... to own a christmas tree farm.
... to work in a bridal shop.
... to learn how knit.
... to play professional piano.
... to live in a tiny country town.
... to remember the good things.
... to forget the bad.
... to laugh, hard.
... to love, a lot.
... to live

I decided that 21 deserved a totally new look. And since I'm too self-conscious to change my physical appearance, I've created an all new livejournal look. I hope you approve! Scratch that, I care not if you approve. I don't need your approval!

What a great weekend! Friday night was contra-dancing and as they say it was a "sweaty good time!" Kind of like square dancing and line dancing combined in a way. Anyway, I had a ball, but got so utterly dizzy because some of the people there have been going for over 15 years and they really know what they're doing. They like to get in as much spinning as possible. I sure made a fool out of myself, but I didn't care.

Last Night was pc game night - yahtzee (a personal favorite), twister, and the amazing labyrinth (I've never met another soul who knew this game outside of my family until last night)! Then Rebecca, Kevin and I had a very late dinner at Applebees because I had a coupon for a free appetizer.

Today, I was so productive - I got an extrodinary amount of work done before five. And now I should, and shall, be going to bed.

I am at work. I will be at work for possibly the next three hours. And I am bored. The woman who usually covers the front desk in the music office has taken a personal day, so I valiently offered to sit here until 4. (well, the money's not horrible either). Hopefully (somewhere, something in Mr. Mell's brain just twitched), it will be quiet.

But hello there! I know how much you all must have missed me. I mean, I place myself in your shoes, and wow! I'm just devastated by my lack of updatage. I suspect that you'll find a way to forgive me. Somehow.

This semester has been relatively uneventful. My recital in January went extremely well; I don't think I could have asked for better. I also think it's safe to say that I'm getting close to being completely over my nerves. I was relatively stable throughout the entire concert, which was just a huge success fo me! For any who are interested, the Recital Program will be reprised on either Sunday, May 22 or Sunday, May 29 at the First Presbyterian Church of Stroudsburg at an undetermined time in the afternoon. Consider this your first invitation of many :)

My 21st birthday was basically just amazing. My mom, grandma, aunt and I went into NYC for Friday night into Saturday (my birthday). We stayed in a hotel right in Midtown with a really cool view of the city from our 39th floor room. Dinner Friday night was at this great bar/restaurant called Chumleys in Greenwich Village. It used to be a speakeasy, so it's a neat building to begin with -- and now that I'm a burger person, I can say with confidence that it was the best burger I've ever eaten! On Saturday, we had brunch and walked around the City -- one of my favorite things to do in NYC, second only to seeing a Broadway show! My dad and brothers met us for dinner at an italian place called Fruitti del Mare, where I officially tasted by first legal alcoholic beverage!

Speaking of birthdays, my mom celebrates hers on Tuesday (and shhhh! don't tell -- but I'm surprising her by driving home to be there. I'm even skipping a class to do so! eek!). My brothers and I went in together to get her this really pretty necklace with her birthstone and our birthstones on it. I hope it doesn't make her feel too old! I personally think she looks amazing. I'm so excited, but I'm ususally pretty predictable about when I make my random appearances at home, so she may even have a feeling that I'm coming. I'm trying to drop inconspicuous hints that would suggest otherwise. "you know I have a class tuesday night" when she tried to call me during it. "I have something to put it the mail for you too!" when she talked about sending me cookies. But even through all my careful diversion, she is still my mom, and I think she know's pretty well how I think.

So that's every exciting detail of my life to date. I sure hope you appreciate this. It took me an age.

XOXOXOX

Although I have never had a gentleman friend to share the day with, St. Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. So I would like to take this opportunity to wish every one of of you a Happy Valentine's Day!!

XOXOX

I feel that it is necessary to report that yesterday I played an awesome jury. Arguably my best performance on trombone at this school. Of course, it was nice that I was only asked a simple Gb major scale instead of the usual Ab harmonic (however, I had that scale in the bag anyway). The most important part of the entire experience is that I had no shakiness as caused by nerves. This is a huge deal. Ever since I can rememeber I've shook like crazy when I had to play in public. I guess it is about time that I get over this silly nerves thing, with my recital less than a month and a half away...

Amanda tagged me and thus I'm supposed to list five weird habits that I have. However, I'm going to change that to five unusual/mildly interesting facts about me. Normally I wouldn't do this, so Amanda... this should be considered a token of our friendship.

1. I am never so happy as when I am wearing jeans.

2. I eat uncooked/frozen ravioli.

3. I have given up riding the elevator and eating fried foods for at least one month.

4. I collect individual sugar packets.

5. I habitually mix up the F and G on leger lines below the treble staff.

Sorry folks, that's the best I could do :-P

Anyway, I realize that it's been quite some time since my last post. I guess from that you can discern that it's been a busy semester. Thankfully it is now winding down. I have but two finals, one jury, and one project between me and one month of relaxation.

My parents and Nate and Jake were up for my concert last night. It was a really great night. The last piece on our program was "Russian Christmas Music." We had antiphonal brass out in the audience and the ending was really magnificent. Our guest conductor was Colonal Arnald Gabriel; he was fantastic. I'm quite certain I've never enjoyed playing under any other conductor more. (In fact, I renamed my car after him. It was already called Gabriel, I just added the "colonel" - call me creepy). News from my family:
Nathaniel just got his licence and made district orchestra (he was bummed about band, but said that "russian christmas" brought him back to his happy place :D). Jacob is very seriously considering switching to oboe. In fact, he just brought home the instrument from school yesterday. I'm so excited to play duets with him!


Okay, dinner's on. I'm out.

Since it's already long past my bedtime and there's no hope of salvaging a good nights rest, I thought I'd bring you a little update.

The semester has been going well. I'm just loving living with Rebecca we have been collaborating almost every night and creating fabulous dinners! Tomorrow night, I am make spaghetti and white clam sauce! I am mad excited! I've probably been eating much better now since Rebecca cooks veggies with every meal. Hey, so who knew that I liked taco salad, catalina dressing, and chili, huh?

I do have some sad news though. My very most favorite spot in all of Ithaca College has disappeared. Last semester, I discovered the fifth floor of the library, where most of the fiction books are housed, but more importantly it's the quiet study floor. There was this whole open area with probably eight or so scattered comfy chairs and a couple computers. I used to go up there to chill, or read, or do homework when I had an open hour during the day. This year my "spot" has beenturned into the collaborative work space. As a part of the senior gift last year, they stuck in a bunch of little rooms where people can work on projects and stuff. Theoretically a good idea, but how often will it be used as such? Probably not much. I'll just have to find a new "spot" on campus. Can't be that hard...

Life is continuing as usual.
One day soon, perhaps I'll update you on my classes.
They're just classes though,
And I probably should sleep.

Finals week is pretty much wrapping up for me. It seems that I shall never get to play my A-flat minor scale correctly for my jury. This semester at least i think it was obvious that I knew it. I played all the way up perfectly hit the high A-flat and then turned around to come back down and couldn't seem to get the first few notes out correctly. I knew in my mind what to play, but the positions kept coming out all wrong. After about six(ish) false starts I finally got past it and played the rest perfectly coming back down. That seems like an obvious case of nerves right... right. The rest of the jury was decent. I haven't gotten my comment sheets back (what's the deal with that??) so I don't know exactly what the faculty thought. And though it wasn't exactly the mind-blowing performance that I had hoped, I think I'm proving myself.

My music education for children project came out well. The assignment was to display (either creatively or through a conventional paper) 20 things that I learned from class. I decided to make a sample "bulletin board of a student teacher", that was covered with things that I supposed a teacher would want to remember. I had a fake webpage of theorists and methodologists, a newspaper column, a couple of post it notes, a to do list, and some papers from this students music ed for children class. Yes, little italian chef man did make an appearance. I just randomly pasted him at the bottom. Yes he really served no purpose. That was the best part. My professor really liked the project when I turned it in, so I think that's a good sign.

I am going home in two days. Wow.

Apparently, sometime between last night and this morning, someone trashed the faculty bulletin boards on one of the halls in the music school. Things were ripped off and in general disarray. It's so horrible, since some of the stuff ripped off is irreplaceble.

And it was at work!! Yeah, at dinner tonight most of the people who showed up were drunk out of their minds. It was interesting...

And then I went swimming with Susan! She's re-teaching myself how to do the breaststroke. Sure I learned it once long ago, but knowledge unused grows dim. It feels amazing to have gotten some real exercise.

And now I am going to finish up my history listening guides. Excuse me whilst I screen a call.... Oh well, not for me :) Yes, it's Friday night, the last day of classes and I'm doing homework. It's really the only way. Tomorrow shall be devoted to my Music Education for Children project and Sunday shall be devoted to studying for my history exam. I just keep telling myself: one week from now this will all be over. At least there's that light. But first, I shall go scout out something wholly unhealthy for me to munch on...

[EDIT] Is it strange that there's nothing I'd rather eat right now than frozen ravioli?