Update

Peterpatch was tonnes of fun! It is a *really* beautiful area. We went through this little town called Omemee. If you're ever in the area, you should do it. It is such a cute tiny town! I really enjoyed visiting with my mom and grandpa. They are fantastic people. I hope you all get to meet them someday and laugh at our similarities.

The bird excitement has died down for a bit (*ba doo doo csheeeee*). I think the bird(s) died over the weekend and the fan is working fine now although I didn't dare have it on when I was actually in the bathroom.

I am slowly getting my epic travels all sorted out. I now know how I'm getting to KW on Sunday (thanks to my sista!), not sure how I'm getting to Domaine (still sorting out the details), or from Domaine to somewhere (potentially Ottawa for Canada Day -- Paul said I should come), have dates picked out for Edmonton (July 16-23).

I've actually practiced this week on a regular basis and it hasn't been to horrifying of a sound (the face fatigue however, is slightly nerve racking, but there's still time). My professor will be the guest teacher for the first week, so this is good news. :)

Well I'm about to head "home" to start up some dinner.

Quick Update

Paul & I are about to drive his brother back to Hamilton, so I only have time for a quick update:

• Paul came home from Basic Training yesterday. He is very tanned but otherwise still the same :)
  
• Paul took care of the bird. It was messy but he is now my hero :)
• I will be taking a trip out to Peterborough to see my Grandpa's new place on Wednesday. I won't have e-mail access for a few days.
• Sunday I will be leaving for my summer program in Waterwoo. I'm not sure what the internet access will be like there.
• Tonight we're heading out to the Victoria Day fireworks at the conservation area. Should be fun times
• I'm *actually* going to practice / make reeds today!

Ciao for now!

Update

IT'S STILL ALIVE!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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Ewwww Ewwww Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww


I turned the light on to brush my teeth and get ready for bed when some major wing flappage started. Thank goodness there's no more chirping, but ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
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Where's a guy when you need him? Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
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The day Heather made a big house-keeping error :S

So this story clearly needs some more explanation. I was upstairs, youtubing away, when I heard this chirping noise coming from the bathroom. I went to check it out and concluded that it was probably just a cricket stuck in the pipes leading to the ceiling fan. I decided to leave it but after a few hours of chirping, something needed to be done. I thought maybe if I turned the fan on it would open up the vent to the outside and it would be able to jump out the top. Just in case it didn't have enough stamina to move against the air flow (or it was a bird), I decided to flip the switch on just for a few seconds. So I did. And the chirping became much faster and louder (I suspect what I now knew was a bird moved down the piping closer to the ceiling rather than up towards the roof). I thought I'd give it another round just in case it'd work better a second time only this time, I heard a pretty solid thunk prior to an increased frequency of chirping. By this point I was a little grossed out by the idea of killing a bird and having blood dripping from the ceiling fan so I decided to call it quits. I did some housework (yay no more smelly white blanket!) and then decided to have another go at the fan... I know... in hindsight this was a BAD choice... Anyhoo, to shorten up this epic story, the chirping was ended by a few thunks caused by the fan and now I have to figure out how to get this bird out before it smells. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

A late Mother's Day Post

I'm not sure if I posted this video before, but it's still fun.




And yes I'm not in bed at 1:22am...

A Day of Adventures

Finally somethings worth writing about.

This afternoon I went out for lunch with a friend from school and had a lot of those really deep-thinking moments where someone shares something and you're like, "Hmmm, I need to think about that some more." The conversation was really quite most welcome as I do have a lot of thinking time these days and it never hurts to be given new ideas to think about. Anyhoo we went out for lunch and then stopped by his work for a few moments where we met some NHL player. My apologies to the men in the crowd who do care, but honestly, I don't remember his name. Nevertheless, a fairly monumentus event compared to cleaning stories.

This evening I went over to Mike & Tandy's (see December-ish blogs for background on who they are) to play Wii and watch the Office. I was fairly surprised at my impeccable *cough *cough, horrible skills with the Wii. I didn't think I'd fair so poorly seeing as I've logged more than a few hours with the N64, however, be forewarned all you Wii-players in waiting, it is considerably different. The Office episode was *fantastic*; definitely one of the better ones in recent times. Tandy made some *fantastic* home-made pretzels which took the experience to a whole new level of awesomeness. Good times were had by all :) It really was nice to see some of my C4C friends even though it felt like we had years apart.

Well I think I'm off to do more thinking and sleeping. Man do I love sleeping :)

A Quiet Day

Sadly no one attempted to steal a chocolate bar today. I think this was largely due to the staff-people on campus ratio of about 1:4. My five hour shift was spent doing fun, time-consuming activities such as cleaning the microwave, stocking the ice cream freezer (which is a very cold job but also very fun because it takes up a lot of time that might have had to have been spent dusting), cleaning the inside and outside of the cooler doors, and re-stacking the lottery papers. Unfortunately all of these activities still left for about 2 1/2 hours of circulating the store whilst trying to look industrious -- not one of my fortes. Anyhow, it another day another dollar and really it could have been much worse.

Tonight's movie of choice was Tristan and Isolde (2006). Considering the strength of the storyline (merci Wagner for his great opera from which this rendition of the tale is based) and acting I am surprised that it didn't receive better reviews. The background music left much to be desired but that's the only thing that seemed to stick out to me (in the composer's defense though, as if someone could score Tristan and Isolde for 2006 and be considered anything above adequate). Anyhoo, all in all a good movie but, surprise, surprise, I think it will always be better as an opera to me.

Well I think I've successfully made myself stay up late enough... I was feeling like it was around 10pm around 4:30 (yes I'm still sick), so I've really been putting this sleeping business off as long as possible. Ciao.

Stop-Loss

I went and watched this movie, Stop-Loss, tonight with a few of the music students still kicking around and it scared me. If you like being creeped out by US military stories, by all means, knock yourself out. As for me, I am going to keep thanking God placing me in the True North. :S...

Tomorrow I have to work fairly early and seeing as I still have this random May cold, I'm going to head to bed. With any luck someone will try to steal a chocolate bar tomorrow and I'll be able to tell you all about it.

May: A Great Month To Be Sick

With all the cleaning I've been doing lately, I think I've made myself sick. A lot of the more recent endeavours have involved the cleaning of mold, mildew, and (likely years worth of) dust. Unfortunately this has translated into a sore throat and overall tuckered out feeling. On the plus side, I can't remember the last time I had a sore throat like this -- I've had a relatively long healthy streak, for me! I also don't have to force myself to practice/play this time of year despite being sick, so all in all, being ill is a-ok as long as it doesn't last toooooo long. :)

Most of my day was spent at work today sorting out 100s if not 1000s of drink bottles by their expiry dates. I was so thankful that I didn't have to spend too much time interacting with people with my scruffy voice and all.

Yesterday, via some Facebook stalking, I discovered that a few of my orchestra performances are online. I posted one of them on the right-hand side. Too fathom that >6000 people have listened to this performance and most people seem to think we did a good job is just plain interesting (it was a rather interesting performance; 3:10 case in point -- silly violins...). Anyhoo, fun times for all of you who wonder what type of music I play all day long.

I'm afraid there's nothing else interesting enough to report. If you're looking for an awesome story though, check out a friend of a friend's blog -- Yay for babies!!

Awwwwws & Ewwwwwwws

For the last eight months, when I thought of the word 'Sun', I thought of Sun Microsystems - a major corporate sponsor for the library computer labs. This morning however I was reminded what most people probably think of when they hear 'sun' -- that bright thing outside that provides light and warmth. I don't think it'd be unfair to say that I spent more time in computer labs at school than I did experiencing direct sunlight. When I woke up this morning though, I did just that -- basked in the warm sun for a good half hour (thank you Mr. Housebuilder for creating that window!!!!!). It was fantastic. If you haven't spent much time in the sun in the mornings, find that East-facing window and have a splendid time with it. It truly gave me quite the uplifting start to my day.

So what did I do today? Well I approached the 80% completion mark I think for paring down my belongs into a more reasonable amount, cleaned the microwave (let's just leave it at ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww), finished my taxes (dododo I know this was "supposed" to be done by 30 April), talked to mum & dad on the phone, went over to the Pianohaus (a house full of piano technicians) and watched Get Shorty (I think that's what it was called anyways... a 1995 film with John Travolta in it). It doesn't look like much but I swear the cleaning & tossing of things took a long time.

As you can see, nothing terribly exciting going on these days. I'll see what fun situations I might be able to create for myself tomorrow for the sole purpose of entertaining my blog readers... should be fun!

P.S. My reed knife is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome now. A novel idea this getting-your-knife-sharpened-to-do-fine-reed-adjustments. Who woulda thought?

It could have been worse

You know when you have one of those moments doing some hidiously crappy chore like washing 40 windows at work, or cleaning up after someone else for the umpteenth time, that you just have to remind yourself that it could be worse? Well bookmark this blog because whenever you need a reminder that it could be worse, check out this new television show online:



Also tres cool that they use Resphigi's The Birds in the opening scene as background music (I played that this year). Throw in Haydn's Trumpet Concert, also played this year, in the first 3 minutes and you get one very interested music student watching your show. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Oh the places you'll go

Today I got up at an obscenely early hour (in terms of "summer vacation time") and went up to T.O. to see a recital put on by The Angry Organist. Prior to the recital however, I successfully navigated the TTC system en seul to visit the Bata Shoe Museum (a major accomplishment for a directionally-challenged individual like me). I've heard from many people that it is an excellent museum and I have to say, I was not disappointed. If you get a chance, it is only $6 for students , pretty interesting, and very easy to find.

The recital would have made everyone of you smile from beginning to end. No joke :) . The first thing to smile about was that his name was flashing on the church's info board prior to the concert -- nothing like seeing an organist's name in blinky flashing lights to turn a frown upsidedown :P. The next thing that would make you smile would probably be noticing that the organ console was caged in by bars. Kayla, Osbert's mum, & I all debated as to why it would be caged in: so he wouldn't fall off the stage; so he'd know where "his place" was) but when his dad arrived, he settled it once and for all: it was to protect the organist from objects being thrown at him. Always count on daddios for moral support :). Item number three of interest might be me quasi clapping enthusiastically when Osbert came out only to realize that you don't apparently do this at organ concerts. Item number four belongs to the introductory prayer prior to the concert. I don't remember exactly what was said but it was something along the lines of "make your glory known to all who listen through the melodies of this piece." Normally this would've been fairly appropriate, however, the programme consisted entirely of 12-tone serialistic music. It made Kayla and I laugh out loud a little... I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud at a prayer... Don't worry though, I'm fairly certain no one else (except for Osbert's parents maybe) heard me. Anyhoo, as for the actually performance of the recital, I was fairly impressed. Anyone who can make it through a performance of a difficult piece and portray a sense of confidence is good in my books (well nearly anyone...it applies here though for sure). I took some videos and photos but it will be at least July before I am able to post any of that stuff up anywhere (and likely it will just be Facebook -- got to keep the man a mystery!).

After the recital I took a tour of the Great James workshop and had my knife sharpened. While the process was fairly interesting and he was very good at explaining each of the stages I imagine it'd be a similar experience to watch a close friend get operated on (not to be too overdramatic or anything)! I spend sooooooooo much time with that knife! For those of you that have ever seen someone work on your instrument, you know what I mean. Anyhoo, I came away having made a new friend, the Great James, and a super sharp reed knife. Yay :D

Tonight I watched My Dog Skip. What a moving movie. Aha! Punny! (sorry, but I have been hanging out with Osbert, a king of puns, today). If Starsky were here with me tonight no doubt we'd be having some snuggle time!

Tomorrow I am helping guide hundreds of high school students around the faculty for some sort of festival going on here. Should be tonnes of fun if anyone wants to volunteer some hours.

I think that's all I have to report. Ttyl

Ah yes, as a P.S., I have decided to drop the summer school courses & participate in the summer playing programmes. I'll put up the concert schedule as it becomes available.

Decisions, Decisions

Now that I have gone through almost all of my possessions at least once to toss things that I can do without, I must prepare for a Round Two -- there's still too much stuff to move. I am forseeing this next round as one that will cause a wee bit more stress :(

To add to the list of decisions to make this week, I was asked today if I'd consider going to a summer program May 26-June 14 that I was originally not accepted to (someone else canceled). The main problem I have with it is that I'm already planning on going to Domain from June 15-29 -- June 15th as in the day after this program would finish -- i.e. I have to somehow get from Waterloo to St. Irenee, Quebec (almost to New Brunswick) in less than 24 hours (fyi it takes 11 1/2 hrs to drive according to Mapquest). Another conflict is that I'm supposed to move my stuff out of the boys house (where I am now) into my new house on June 1. I'm sure it won't be a problem to leave my moving out of here until the end of June/early July because no one is living here at all for the summer, however, this means I'm going to live out of a suitcase for a month and then move. Ewwww.

Well I'm off to watch I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Guess I need to enjoy this free time while I have it.

C.S. Lewis

Seeing as I've had nothing non-ranting to post in the last few days, I'll take the opportunity to share a C. S. Lewis quote I've enjoyed for some time now:

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with little hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.

Well I'm off to somewhere I've been avoiding for months...yay...

Mmmmm

I forgot something I wanted to tell the whole world!
Tonight I *baked* a sweet potato and it was excellent. If you have never baked a sweet potato, I highly recommend it -- so fully of gooey goodness I say! I also had halibut for the first time ever and it was also fantastic. This whole trying-new-foods kick that I've been on since around Reading Week has yielded some very positive results. I urge you all to buy something you think you won't like the next time you're at the grocery store. It is a cheap and fun (and healthy if you play your cards right) way to amuse yourself when you cook for one.

To Toss or Not To Toss

'Tis the question of the day. I've officially eliminated 3 boxes worth of stuff today with something like 30 boxes remaining to be reviewed. It is really tricky to part with perfectly good stuff knowing that a) there's nothing wrong with it and b) there is a potential that I might use it at some point down the road. I just need to remind myself that It truly is worth not having to move things around three or four times (over the course of the next few years) before I actually use it. For instance, there never will be a Venetian Blind Convention no matter how prepared I may be for it. Also, the likelihood that I will live in a place where the window is the same size as my past bedroom is fairly low (or so people tell me... maybe they just secretly want to steal one of my 3 Venetian blinds out of the dumpster).

I picked up a grad composite today from the Music Building office -- it's official: I now have a photo to be seen by music students for years to come on the Faculty Graduate hall (which is now more than one hall btw). I've thought a lot more about this photo than the average person does I'm sure. Call me vain but I can't shake the idea that this is the photo that people will see in twenty years to remember me by. I've looked at old composites and laughed at how people looked so cool (especially the '80s -- What were you thinking girl with poofy bangs!?!?!). The girls that always look the best seem to be the low-maintenance ones. Sans the glasses, I think I accomplished this. I hope I accomplished this.

I read on someone's Facebook post something along the lines of "Friendship and love can be the same thing. But when you love every friend, and try to love every person, where does that leave romantic love?" Thoughts about this have invaded much of my recent thinking time. What is the difference between friendship and love? Some food for thought indeed.

Tomorrow is the final concert of the season with the Stratford orchestra wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

I'm concerned how unexciting my blogs are going to be in the weeks and months to come as I'm no longer carrying out the activities of five normal people at the same time -- I know my busyness fascinates many of you. That being said, at least one thing should be improving: theoretically my grammar should improve with the increased amount of time to devote to blogging. Yay for making more sense :)

Anyhoo, I'm all out of ideas for now. Ttyl