Le Grande Update

How have I not touched this since I created it in April? I'm so lame. Basically the way things go is I get too busy to update, then when I do have the time I put it off, then when I regret not doing it when I had the time, I look back and get really intimidated by the amount of time that's passed and how much I'll have to cover, then I end up putting it off even more, until I come to a random Sunday evening when I randomly pulled out my old journal from 1999 and realize I need to be better about documenting my life.

So April, yeah? The end of the semester came and went, I suppose. Around the time of my last post on LiveJournal I was having uncertainty issues with friends, but what else is new? What was going on with school back then? Hmm... High Altitude performed my arrangement of Modern Nature, I got my first and last solo in Shrine at the last concert of the year (Hymne au Soleil, Boulanger), and I was awarded the Lippincott Student Teaching scholarship, as well as the Pell and a few other grants, making my lack of tuition waiver for my 9th semester much less of a concern. Everything seemed to be a "last" something:

Last Jazz concert. Last Shrine Rehearsal. Last Shrine concert. Last time wearing that blasted black dress and uncomfortable shoes. Last day working in the computer lab. Last "Holder Friday". Last education class final. Last time sitting on Michelle's couch. Last Jazz recording session. Last time walking to 8 AM class. Last roommie night. Last day of the last semester. Last night sleeping in my loft bed. Last piece of furniture out of the apartment. Last time cleaning up. Last time looking back on an empty apartment. Last time closing the door. Last time driving away as a resident of Flagstaff.

Now I know why it took me so long to write this entry. The night after graduation I slept on Amy's mattress, because my loft bed had been taken down and given to another girl in my complex, and Amy had gone home for a long weekend. The next day I would be heading down to Gilbert with as much of my stuff that could fit in Mom and Dad's car as possible. I bawled like a baby into my pillow. The finality of it all just hit me like it hadn't been able to until that point. Writing that last paragraph brought me back to that mattress, an emotional wreck.

Well, I seem to have glossed over some notable details of the end of my last semester in Flagstaff. During Finals week we had a jazz recording session out in the middle of nowhere at dB Sound Factory (Dave Belcher). We had a good time, and it will be one of those memories that will always stick with me when I think back to my time at NAU:










Mere days later I walked at graduation, even though I don't officially graduate until December when I'm done with student teaching. I sang the National Anthem with Melanie and Allesha, another one of those unique moments that will be preserved in memory.


As I mentioned before, the day after graduation I drove back to Gilbert with my parents and was greeted with this:


I was already an emotional wreck, and this was just another knife to the heart. Yeah, I knew this is what my room looked like, and what isn't pictured here is the rest of the treadmill taking up a sizable portion of my room, several plastic tubs filled with random assortments of crap in my closet and next to the treadmill, etc. As if the realization that you are no longer living on your own isn't enough, the space that you do have to yourself has become a storage room, and you have just become one of the many things it stores. For my sanity, something had to be done, so I spent the first few weeks of my summer at home reclaiming my sanctuary:


It's no Better Homes & Gardens, but it's amazing what new paint and the rearranging of furniture can do for the soul.

Other happenings of the beginning of my summer included purchasing my first car, a gold 1998 Saturn SL. This was my first quest of the summer. I believe it was the Monday after graduation, and I had decided that by the end of the day I would be a car owner, so that's what I did. We found a used car lot that had a deal where you could pay for half of the car up-front, then the rest of the amount is split up into 12 monthly payments. The Saturn cost $4,000 plus title and registration, so a good portion of that first half went on my credit card, and I left with a payment booklet and my own car.

Since then, oh has that baby been places. Within the next month I had driven it back to Flagstaff three times. Once for a performance with High Altitude (another saving grace for my sanity... a little bit of closure after an emotional end to my semester) and bring home a car-load more of my stuff, the second time to sing through and record some newly-composed choral music by Dr. Cloud, bring home the last of my things, clean out the apartment, and close the doors for good (until the next girls came to move in), and the third time to come up for the Four Corners choral workshop (headliner: Craig Jessop!).

Four Corners marked a major event of my summer, the severe bashing in of my left big toe. June 18th I was helping set up for the event, and Kaci Crandell and I were carrying a very heavy table out of the choir room. As I was backing out of the room I let go of the table to hold open the door, and the table leg buckled under itself, and came crashing down on my foot. The following photographs are not for the weak of stomach, but nonetheless tell the tale of the death of my toenail:

So basically the nail fell off after about 4 weeks and the new nail started growing in its place. By now the nail is about to the normal length, however the quick (or part that is physically connected to the toe) is significantly shorter, so I have to grow it out longer from the nail bed than usual so that it matches the length of the matching nail on the other foot. Oh bah, like you care, even if what I just said made any sense to you. I stopped taking pictures of my toe after that last one because soon after, I started student teaching and became preoccupied with bigger and better things!

Okay, so let's see. I've gone over my room, my car, and my toe... What else of my summer was of interest? I job searched constantly for a good month or so, to no avail, so I had to come up with creative ways to spend my time. I became a crochet maniac.





#1, a random bag, #2, a Ravenclaw scarf for the Half-Blood Prince midnight premier, and #3, my current purse that I crocheted out of used grocery bags. There's more than just these, but that's all I could find pictures of on my Facebook... ;)

What else? I dogsat for Josanne thrice over the summer break, making my summer not a complete loss in cash. I was introduced to a new local band (recently transplanted from New Mexico) called Fat Tree. I was hesitant to want to like them, but after Morena got me to come to one of their shows, I was hooked. The guys are cool and their music is too!




I also happened upon a new set of friends in Gilbert and Sunday Game Night, which totally made my life suck infinite magnitudes less than it originally did at the beginning of the summer, and actually gave my new life at home promise.






I guess that just about sums up the end of my life in Flagstaff and the beginning of my new life post-NAU! I am currently beginning my 11th week of student teaching, it has all been amazing, and I can't believe how quickly this time has flown by. I will try to update on all of that sometime soon, but right now it's time for me to get ready for bed. It's 9:15 PM and I need to be at school at 6:45 AM tomorrow! Isn't life freaking awesome?!

April Fools!

First things first, if you are interested in seeing what I've been up to before creating this blog, I suggest checking out my Livejournal (here). In the past year I've transferred all of my journal entries since like... 2004 there, so that should be interesting. I might still post there from time to time, but seeing as I've got more family and friends over here on Blogger, this might become my primary form of journaling from now on.

Now on to business.

So this year I participated in the most awesome April Fools Day prank ever. Usually I'm not a big fan of April Fools' because usually the pranks hurt or embarrass someone. This year, though, my friend Melanie dreamt up the most amazing plan that would be fun for everyone! Here's how it went down:

Dr. Holder, our associate director of Choral Studies who teaches my Teaching Methods IV class and High Altitude vocal jazz octet (and Women's Chorale, which Melanie student conducts), does not pick out his own outfits; his wife Mari does it for him. So Melanie got in contact with her on March 31st to find out what he was going to wear on the 1st: black pants, white shirt, and black & gray tie. Then the plan was put into motion. First it was just going to be our Teaching Methods class, but then we decided to let as many people as possible in on the joke to where even Dr. Copley, our administrative assistant, Susan, and about a third of Shrine showed up wearing the same outfit as Dr. Holder, or renditions thereof:

Teaching Methods IV - Holder's first class of the day:
There are only ten students in this class, one of which didn't come that day, another who didn't want to dress up, and Ben, who did dress up (even a little over-dressed with a suit jacket, because it was pretty windy outside), but had to leave right away at the end of class to get somewhere else.

This is the classic Disapproving Over-the-Glasses Stare silly photo, as requested by Dr. Holder (pictured second to the right, just over my left shoulder).

Women's Chorale comes next, but I wasn't there to take any pictures... Having only been informed by Melanie at 9:30 the night before, though, they had a fairly decent turnout of about 25% of the choir dressing up.

High Altitude (my vocal jazz ensemble):
Everyone showed up dressed! Oh happy day! Holly (far left) put her own flare in by wearing a vest. Ryan "Smallingshead" wore jeans. Boo. I pointed this out, to which he replied, "Why didn't you cut your hair, huh?" or something to that effect.

Oh, and did you notice my awesomely ugly tie? I found it at Goodwill the day before. It has a bunch of old-school floppy discs, a laptop, and a really old computer on it. I bestowed the tie upon Holder the next day when I was done with it. It now sits amongst his tie collection in his office.

Shrine of the Ages Choir:
This was just awesome. About a third of Shrine did it, after Copley sent an email out to the whole choir the night before. You can tell that Holder was just soaking up all the attention.

Everyone else in the music building who wasn't in on the joke would say things like, "There goes another Olive Garden waiter," or "You look like a Mormon." o_O

Well, even though the black pants, white shirt, and tie was pretty generic, it was a smart move on Mari's part, making it easy for as many people as possible to comply. I myself thought it would have been funny if she had picked a colored shirt so that it would be obvious that we went out of our way to get the job done... I had even briefly considered drawing on a five o'clock shadow with my eyeshadow.

It was truly a day that went down as in days of yore.

My Grand Debut

Hey folks!

Just feeling out my new blog, layout customized by yours truly! I would post something longer and more profound, but I just spent a couple hours getting the background and banner just right, so I thought I'd leave it at that for now. Besides, it's time to go to bed! I've got 8 am class tomorrow!

More to follow when I'm not so busy!