No naturalistic fallacy here

Well I survived yet another crazy day. I am extremely thankful though that I have no UWOSO or Wind Ensemble Rehearsals this week (= 8 more free hours!) although I do have a performance with Symphony Hamilton this Friday & Sunday... It should be a pretty neat concert if you're in the area. The vocal soloist has one of the *hugest* voices I've ever heard live; tres cool. If you've ever wanted to support my musical endeavours but aren't really keen on classical music, this would be a good concert as it is all Christmas music!

Tonight I went to hear the McMillan studio recital. It donned on me today (as I was falling asleep taking a nap on the practice room floor.....) that with so many of my friends graduating this year, these studio recitals are possibly the last time I will hear many of them perform. One of the classmates I heard tonight was Dave Keyes (who actually is victory lapping with me but whatever...). It was really neat to hear just how much his voice has come along since the last time I heard him.

I did my recording session for the London Music Scholarship Foundation today. It went soooooooo smoothly I couldn't have asked for much better. Rudin (my accompanist) and I did two takes of each of the two movements I had prepared and were quite satisfied with what we got and so called it an early night. Yippee! The LMSF, for those of you that don't know, is a 3-round scholarship competition. The first round requires recording 10min of music onto CD for judging. If they like what you've done, you become one of the ten (ish) lucky people to advance to round 2, held sometime in the spring, where you perform 10min of another piece of music. Then if you make it to lucky round 3, you're guaranteed at least $1000, but can win upwards of $4000 depending on how well you place. The competition for it is quite vast in that it is open to any returning student at Western so time shall tell how this all works out.

Ok bedtime for bonzo.

Busy weekend, but not filled with homework!

Often times when things get busy, many people stop properly preparing their food and resort to fast food. This weekend I took it to the next level and now, only at 11pm on Sunday, do I realize that for the last two days I've only had two sit-down meals, one of which was pizza, and the other that consisted of reheated soup & leftover quiche, courtesy of Lucy-Ana (i.e. I didn't even make it). Even though I "saved so much time" by not preparing meals I still got a minimal amount of work & practicing done. What did I do with my time, you ask? Clean (I could no longer use the burners in the kitchen for fear of setting things on fire...), laundry (including ironing -- yay formal wear :)), going to RidgeView (it takes a good chunk out of Sunday), concerting this afternoon with the UWOSO, and going to Tandy's bridal shower. I think I shall head to bed now and try to get up in 6hrs to prep for my accounting lecture at 9:30; oh the joys of fourth year. I am looking soooooooo forward to May :D

Productivity Continues

Today was a pretty good day. Many laughs were had and I got quite a bit accomplished. Yay :)

My day started out with a nice surprise in that when I called the Woodford's to say hello, Andrew answered. I found this pretty confusing seeing as it was still fairly early for me, I thought he was still in Mexico, and he picked up on the last ring just as I was about to hang up to avoid my favourite, the answering machine. We had a nice chat though & I was able to chat with Judy (his mom) later in the day (extra special too as I think she was in the process of cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for like 10+ people).

After my hour-long bus ride downtown (most of it spent on the phone... ah the conveniences of cell phones) I successfully mastered the Canadian Tire bridal registry thinger and then jaunted over to H&M. I've never been to an H&M in Canada (and didn't really know we had one in London) but remember really liking it from way back during a high school band trip to the US. Turns out they were quasi-celebrating Black Friday and I was able to pick up a really nice sweater for $12 and a sweet tweed skirt for cheap as well (see Joia's blog on the right for an explanation of Black Friday).

This afternoon I hit the finance books and made good sense of a whole chapter of my text. I was supposed to meet up with a classmate so we could help each other through it, but it turns out I thought we were meeting at 2:30 and he thought 1:30. We did cross paths around 3 though only to learn that we had also mis-communicated which chapter we were studying. Nevertheless, we had a good chat about future plans & plan to meet sometime this coming week.

Today's practise time went pretty well (score!). My reed work as of late has been pretty stellar and it is boosting my satisfaction pertaining to my playing quite a bit.

Paul and I went out to see August Rush after dinner tonight. It was a pretty clean movie and kinda cute for musical people. If you're one of those musicians, though, who cringes at actors faking musical talent, beware -- there is a whole lot of it in this movie. The basic premise is about a boy who hears music everywhere and is very good at writing it down. Check out http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com/ if you're really interested in the plot line; I'm positive that the website does a better job than I me in describing it.

Tomorrow holds an accounting-filled morning and a dress rehearsal for the orchestra concert (held Sunday... check out www.music.uwo.ca for more details). Catch ya on the flip side.

Finally a productive day.

Today I was able to practice, make reeds, study finance, cook a meal, AND do some house cleaning. How wonderful it feels to head to bed actually having completed almost all I set out to do (I really wanted to fit in some accounting problems in there too, but alas, it wasn't possible). I'm feeling considerably more healthy today too so all in all I'm in a much better place than last night!

I also got a fair amount of time to think today; I think it comes with being more relaxed and walking back and forth from home to campus a half-dozen times today. I think I am ready to start dating again even though I still catch myself in moments of "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo, you're only going to get hurt again!" moments. I think it's got to be one of those feelings that almost everyone will deal with after having a more serious relationship not work out. On November 10th, I read Philippians 3:13 - Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. The commentary keeps spinning around and provides me hope;

The world will tell you that the dominating influence in your life is your past. If you came from a difficult home life, that will determine the direction of your life. If your culture was treated unfairly, that will dictate the condition of your life today. If you were hurt or abused or if your youth was spent in rebellion, the remainder of your life will be spent struggling with your past. The world is preoccupied with the past because it faces an uncertain future.

Christians, on the other hand, live in freedom because Christ has overcome our past. The "old things" have been done away with and "new things" have come (2 Cor. 5:17). God has so totally forgiven the Christian's sin that He chooses not to remember it (Isa. 43:25). Christians do not forget the past, but we are not controlled or motivated by it. The Christian looks to the future with hope.

The people of the world focus on what they are overcoming. Christians focus on what they are becoming. Christians know that the Holy Spirit is conforming them into the image of Christ. Christians know that ultimately they will stand before Christ to give an account of their actions and will spend an eternity in the presence of God. Christians know that eventually every injustice will be addressed and every hurt comforted. They know that Satan, and death itself, will finally be brought to an end. The Christian's future is so full and rich and exciting that it supersedes whatever happened in the past.

If you are preoccupied with your past, ask God to open your eyes to the incredible future that awaits you and begin, like Paul, to press on to what is ahead.

I hope that within the next few days, I'll have a clearer picture of what God has been showing me since first reading this on Nov. 10 so that I'll be able to share it with all of you. Until then though, I'd appreciate your continued prayer and support.

Speaking of Marriage...

Suzanne Lumbsden (a friend of mine from high school who is now at Guelph) went out for her 10-month anniversary last night and came back engaged! I am so happy for her and Andrew. They will make a tremendous pair serving the Lord.

OK, now I must go be productive.

Bridal Showers & Unproductivity, oh my!

Well today I rsvp-ed for my first bridal shower on Sunday. Mike & Tandy are an *awesome* couple that I met through Campus for Christ last summer. I'm starting to feel old; my friends are getting MARRIED!!

Today was a fairly unproductive day all around. I'm still recovering from the lost sleep from the weekend & stress of doing poorly in school. Please continue to pray that I would keep my mind focused on what truly matters in life at this time.

GTs in the O-dot

So we all had a *wonderful* time this past weekend with the Wind Ensemble's Eastern Ontario tour. It was really great to have conversations with people that I see every week but have never been able to learn their name or anything much about them.

Here are some pictures from our time:

The Peace Tower at the Parliament Building at night.

One of the 10 Shawarma-serving places we came across over a 30-minute walk on Thursday night. I had *no* idea that there were more Shawarma places than Tim Horton's, by like 3:1, in Ottawa. Bus No. 1 had many many references to shawarmas for the entire trip that kept me quite entertained. Still undecided is whether it has two or three syllables.

Psalm 139 (part of Canada's "official" Psalm) still hangs in Parliament.

Paul & I chillin' (quite literally... the wind was SO cold) by the Rideau Canal.

I apologize for no long exciting text-filled posts but I'm really fighting off a cold and (likely stress-induced) tummy pains so I'm going to hit the sac early.

Next Post on Sunday...

Well my computer is back and running better than ever. Yay :) Unfortunately, tomorrow is my crazy day though & then Thursday morning at 7am I'm leaving for a weekend tour of Eastern Ontario with the Wind Ensemble from school... looks like I'll be leaving y'all hanging for the mundane events of my life for a wee bit longer.

Computer Joys

Just wanted to let you all know that I am alive... My computer just is not... Paul & I took it into the repair man on Saturday and it should be back in my hot little hands on Monday or Tuesday. More exciting posts then I promise.

Yuck.

Bad day. Bad exam. Bad night.

Still praising the Lord anyways; oh the awesomeness of it all!

Light at the end of the tunnel

I could probably use this title for almost every Thursday night post; Wednesday and Thursdays are CrAzYy!!!

I seemingly got quite a bit accomplished today for getting things in order to do the internship, however, this meant not practising enough (3 hours tops :( ) and not yet opening my accounting textbook. Tomorrow I have to play receptionist in the music faculty office from 8-3 so I will get a good solid chunk of studying time in there (no one really ever calls on Fridays...) for my exam at 5:30. I've got 25% of this exam in the bag, with another 50% fairly in the bag, and 25% still out in the fields; totally accomplishable in 7hrs of office duty!

In other exciting news, L'Histoire rehearsal didn't suck today in that I learned how to accurately count to five for the first time. Yay me :)

I'm very thankful for all the Christians God has placed alongside me in the music faculty. I truly don't think I could ever make it through with out the regular reminders to focus on the eternal aspects of life. Yay team.

Well I'm off to get an early sleep & spend some extended time with the Lord I think.

A Whole New World

A third elementary school classmate of mine passed away yesterday. Douglas Scott (we called him Douggie) was shot to death after responding to a report of a suspected impaired driver in Kimmirut, Nunavut. Ever the news junky, I thought it bizarre that a twenty year-old RCMP officer had passed away but as I continued reading I discovered that not only was he from Brockville, but he and I were classmates from JK-grade 7 along with 18ish other kids (yay country schools). You can read the story here: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8301392802922772670. Everyone seems to be in shock; it's so weird to loose yet another friend to a freak accident in less than a year.

After a horrendous finance lecture today, I've concluded that in order for me to understand a topic I find mildly interesting, I *really* need a prof who speaks in full sentences. This class is so disheartening, words cannot describe it. Poor Josh asked me how my day was going as I was preparing to go to orchestra an hour early (yes I'm that out of it these days :D) and I kind of almost started crying for about 10 minutes. Good times. Seeing as I didn't even bring my books with me to school in the afternoon, I had a whole hour to kill and he suggested that I spend some downtime with the Lord. Smart boy... not too many ways you can say that to an upset woman without getting smacked in the face! :P Anyhow, I did take his advice and came across Psalm 30. I thought it was pretty awesome in this Message version so here it is for all you to be inspired too:

Psalm 30

I give you all the credit, God— you got me out of that mess,
you didn't let my foes gloat.
God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down-and-out.

All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
Thank him to his face!
He gets angry once in a while, but across
a lifetime there is only love.
The nights of crying your eyes out
give way to days of laughter.

When things were going great
I crowed, "I've got it made.
I'm God's favorite.
He made me king of the mountain."
Then you looked the other way
and I fell to pieces.

I called out to you, God;
I laid my case before you:
"Can you sell me for a profit when I'm dead?
auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?
When I'm 'dust to dust' my songs
and stories of you won't sell.
So listen! and be kind!
Help me out of this!"

You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I'm about to burst with song;
I can't keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can't thank you enough.

I decided that some comfort food was in order after my fantabulous day and so decided to make apple crisp tonight. Unfortunately I started preparing the recipe for Apple Cockaigne not noticing for quite some time that this was not what I had intended to make. Nevertheless, it turned out quite tasty... probably the considerable larger amounts of sugar, butter, and cinnamon!



Still tickin' away!

Lessons

Some days God chooses to teach you more about yourself than others, or perhaps it is rather we're more aware of it on some days. Nevertheless, today seemed to be one of those days. I learned that I "pfft" at way too many things way too fast. Even if I don't believe it in my heart, my head blows things off too quickly and in the ever-so-respectful way of verbally saying "pfft" aloud. Good times. Another good lesson of the day is to wear long sleeves whilst cooking; I got spat on by my dinner-in-the-making at least four times. Boo. God gave us mothers to teach us these things; if only I listened AND applied... Another lesson is that I can keep up with these business students if I pay attention in class. This might come to no surprise to many of you but for whatever reason I did not realize that I've been daydreaming for 90% of business lectures this year. Today went particularly well in accounting class and, I dare say, I had a good enough grasp on the topic of inventory that I could explain concepts to people who didn't understand.

I had lunch today with Rick Marcus & his wife. 'Twas good to have some *excellent* food and receive some encouragement and confirmation in ways the Lord has been revealing himself to me in the last little bit.

I took some time while studying accounting today in the library to pray for things tied to the Reinhardt Bonnke crusades. It was a pretty good prayer time; one of those where you feel like shouting "Yes Lord!" aloud at the end. I'm not sure if it means anything yet, but the first sentence that I had to read in my article after praying was, "As one accountant [William J. Vatter] so aptly noted, the credit manager's idea of heaven would probably be a place where everyone (eventually) paid his or her debts." There is so much work to be done in North America with people's concepts of heaven. Ironic statement though, eh?

I'm not a big fan of declaring a need for prayer online but I'd certainly appreciate being lifted up at this time; I need to make sure that I turn to Jesus first for comfort & encouragement at this busy and vital part of my life and I think of been a wee bit lax in this area for the last few weeks. Thanks in advance =)

Today's exciting stories brought to you by... you!

The Hamilton concert had a really good turnout and everything seemed to go pretty swell. My stupid reed required about 10 tip-undercuts and even then wasn't overly responsive with the dozens of low B-flats at pppppppppp, but hey, no one even raised an eyebrow...

I also went through my agenda today to double check for conflicts with the five ensembles I'm now playing with, and fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) did not find any. I did discover that I'm going to be having two particularly tricky days in the spring though:

Sunday, March 30 - UWOSO concert at 3pm; Stratford Civic Orchestra rehearsal at 7pm
Sunday, April 27 - Symphony Hamilton concert at 3pm; SCO Dress rehearsal at 7pm

That's pretty much all that my day consisted of, so sorry for the lack of exciting stories.

Perhaps some of you have some you could share? Who *is* reading this blog? Leave a comment; I'd like to know :)

Heather finally plays somewhere pretty!

Tomorrow I'm doing a concert with Symphony Hamilton at the Royal Botannical Gardens in Burlington. Check out the prettiness! http://www.rbc.ca/

For ticket information visit http://www.symphonyhamilton.ca/

With any luck I'll see some people I recognize in the audience for once :P

A funny haha

In case you somehow haven't heard yet, the road collapsed at Dundas and Wellington Wednesday morning. This is the busiest intersection in London with many major office buildings located nearby.

A fellow blogger thought that this shot (with the mayor's hand over her forehead) might be appropriately titled, "Ahhh! I could have had a performance hall!" It made me laugh pretty hard =-)

Friday, A Day of Rest.

With Lucy and Erin gone, and no classes today, I finally got a nice chunk of very needed down-time. I went to school around noon (sooooooooo late for me :D) and had a few good chats before meeting up with Josh Wood & Katie Bestvater to watch a Reinhardt Bonnke (sp?) video at his house. This video clip was a short testimony of the Christ for All Nations crusades in Africa. I'm still kind of speechless from the whole experience; it *really* hit at something in my heart. If you've never heard of All Nations (I hadn't before this week), they're a team of 135 people who've had a role in leading over fourty million people to Christ . He spoke of one crusade where they saw 1.3 million people come to know the Lord in one night! Isn't that CRAZY!?! This isn't the video I watched, but here's a short glimpse of what I saw...



This is definitely a movement I'm a) surprised I've never heard of, b) want to learn more about and c) be kept up-to-date on. The group has a cheesily-done website but surprisingly not a lot of material is on there nor can you find anything about it on Wikipedia. The first group of websites that come up when you search his name make him out to be an impostor/fake/scary man. I'm still open-minded about this ministry though; Christian leaders are *so* often attacked.

[ a fitting video suggested for watching after the above]


On a lighter note, Kayla brought Erin a gourd with googly-eyes for Thanksgiving and over the last few weeks we've added to the display with a pumpkin, some squash, acorns, & candles. I haven't posted a picture in a while so here ya go!


I finally got a chance to do some cooking / baking today and for the record, this is what a ziplock bag looks like after you set it down on a hot element and then forget about it for about two minutes:

I am so going to make the most excellent of housewives someday :-P

Time

I am coming to the conclusion that I will never have enough time this year for all that I need to be doing. It is so frustrating to say that I cannot do something adequately because I didn't have enough time to prepare. I *hate* this. I heart how people's most encouraging words after something like that are "well it only gets worse." Yay team. North American society sucks sometimes. Boo.

Not impressed.

I got my Finance midterm back and let's just say the mark isn't too hot. I am hoping to more than make up for it with the final exam but alas I just looked up my exam schedule and lo-and-behold my Finance final is on the first day of exams! This means not a lot of time with no business of classes & rehearsals for which to study with. Here's hoping that my performance jury (still TBA) falls on that day and I can petition to move my finance exam. Arg. God help me.

Sarcastic lucky me too that my accounting final is a mere 69 hours after the finance exam. Oh joy. This sucks.

The word seems to be out that I'm looking for an internship as I've had quite a few contacts thrown my way today. The San Francisco Opera is looking like a possibility although a) it's way far away from home (wherever home is...) b) finances could be interesting as the cost of living is significantly higher & I'd need a work visa c) I really do not deal so well with hot weather d) it's far away (I know this is the same as (a) but I have great anxiety about moving away from good ol' Londontown). At my summer program this past summer, I did meet one of the bassoonists from the L.A. area and he suggested I consider it which is news to me as most people highly suggest that you stick with the Eastern US and perhaps the mid-West. So many opportunities, so little time to find the 'best' decision.

This weekend is going to be a lonely weekend so anticipate longer blogs; Lucy's going home to teach as per normal, Erin is at the American Musicological Society conference in Quebec City, & almost anyone else left in the music faculty has gone up to the Ontario Music Educators' Association conference in Bracebridge. I'm planning to spend a significant chunk of my time in front of my finance and accounting textbooks (accounting test coming up on Friday :-S). Here's to trying to force more information into your brain that it just doesn't want!