Ahhh lack of people contact on Sundays drives me crazy! How do people DO this?

B-I-Z-A-R-R-E

A Bizarro Cartoon for a Bizarre Day:

Ahh where to begin. This weekend has been a strange one for quite a few reasons:

1. Both Lucy-Ana & Erin are away so I have the whole place to myself.

2. I had no commitments for today [Saturday].

3. It is Homecoming & I am actually here for the first time. I don't think I have ever seen so many completely hammered people over such a long period of time; for over 24 hours now there's been a crowd of anywhere from 20-200 people hanging out infront of Jon Pilon's house (or in his yard, or on his roof smoking up for that matter...). I don't imagine he's there but it's still very strange to see.

4. I got an e-mail from David, whom I haven't heard from in almost 6 months. He's planning on coming back to school in January for those who're about to ask.

5. I went out for coffee/steamed milk with a guy I barely know and is two years younger than I am, on a whim. And noooo it wasn't a date. Still odd for me to do that.

6. I actually made *two* blanks into *two* good reeds in less than an hour. This has never happened before.

7. Despite having close to 300 pages of reading to do, I didn't even touch my books today...highly strange for me as usually the guilt would overcome my desires to have a clean apartment.

8. I listened to two sermons today by a Catholic friar. I am coming to the conclusion that there are so many un-informed conclusions that Protestants and Catholics have made about each other that unless we make an effort to understand where another person is coming from, we'll never be able to reach conclusions of Truth.

9. George Verwer (Operation Mobilization founder) and I are Facebook friends. He asks: "Boxers or briefs?"... how bizarre...

This has been quite an uncharacteristic weekend and it is only Saturday. Tomorrow I will be at RidgeView in the morning, should attack some of those 300 pages in the afternoon, and then head off to Stratford for our second last rehearsal. With me being busier that means all the strangeness will stop right? Guess you'll just have to wait and see!

International Feel Old Day

So today seemed to be a "feelin' old" day for many people across the board. I ran into a few too many unemployed grads today (it is Homecoming weekend). Theoretically one would think that this would make me feel younger because I'm still in school, but, instead I think about how I will be in that same spot in a mere three more years. I've also clued on a deeper level that many of my music friends are younger than my next "little" sister. This whole hang-out-with-people-your-own-age thing is so not happening right now & it is very different let me tell you.

The correlation between a pessimistic attitude and getting little work done is truly astounding; I was at the music building for close to four hours and made so little headway in the practice room it's not even funny. I got relatively little in general accomplished today. Tomorrow I *will* make up for this. I'll let ya know how it goes.

Sweet Deal!

So today I found out, via Facebook, that one of my elementary school friends has become a Christian! YAY!!! This is the message I got:

hey heather, havnt talked tou u since like public school or high school! i know u are religious. well now i follow jesus and try my best to do his work if u can imagine lol

It excites me SO much that Jesus is working in my hometown after having convinced myself in my early teen years that He wasn't. Praise be to God!

On a separate note, I had some more lobbying fun today; the London Free Press was running an online poll. They were asking, "In your view, does London need a new performing-arts centre." When I initially logged on in the morning, the results were 64% No and 36% Yes. Naturally, this irked many a people and it almost seems as if every music group in London forwarded the link to every musician in London (I got *several* e-mails about this). The link is down now because it's no longer Thursday, but as of 11:45pm, the results were 64% Yes & 36% No, with 1227 votes cast. I realize that this poll is highly non-scientific and will likely not mean much to the "right" people, but I think it is a step in the right direction...

Symphony Hamilton was ok last night. It's a Sibelius Celebration with Sibelius's Symphony No. 2, Violin Concerto, & Finlandia. It is definitely much more different of a group than I've ever played with as the average age of the players is probably well into the 50s or 60s. This changes the characteristics of the sound as well as the social aspect of the group quite a bit. I am looking forward to something new though :)

Please pray for me about where I should plan on spending Thanksgiving... I have a few options & I'd like to make the best choice...

Remember When...?

Remember the day I was at school for around 7:30am and then got home just after midnight?... I will try posting sometime tomorrow... FYI, I am alive though ;)

Who knew Mondays could go well?

Today felt like a very laid back sort of day. Usually this would make me somewhat concerned as if I'm forgetting to do something important, but I think, for the first time this school year, I might actually have a schedule down... for Mondays at least. Here are some nice things that I got to enjoy today:

• I woke up a few minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off this morning for no other reason than that I was well-rested. I *love* when this happens.
• While I wasn't able to get a word in during my accounting class, I generally understood what was going on and felt like I had a good grasp of the concepts. And this was in spite of having not finished the necessary readings...
• After accounting class I was able to meet up with Kate, a second year Christian music student, and chat for a bit. I got to meet up with another student as well later on in the day for more Christian-music chat. I think I definitely have my "mentoring" hat on these days. :P
• It was sooooooo beautiful & warm out today that I was able to wear a skirt. This excites me for two reasons: 1) I love skirts, especially how they swoosh when you're walking and 2) I discovered on Saturday that one of my two pairs of jeans have developed a hole in them rendering them unwearable in public anymore. Theoretically I will be able to make a trip to the shopping stores this weekend but we'll have to see how the homework/practising situation works out.
• I got a lot accomplished during my personal practise time today. The Stravinsky no longer gives me the heebie jeebies every time I look at it. I might actually be starting to, *gasp, like it... including the rondo :)
• While I was practising today, Andrew (Congo Andrew) called from work. It's been so long since he's called me that I couldn't even pin down who it was at first! LOL. Haha poor Andrew; I remember who you are just not what you sound like I guess. :P
• I think some of the boys from the House of Magic (being the Christian guys' house of course) will be coming over for dinner tomorrow after orchestra. Jordan, Steven, Paul, & Mark are all such a riot when they're by themselves so it will be fun to see how they all interact together. :)
• Tomorrow I'm also going out for breakfast with Brent, one of the pastors from RidgeView. At lunch I'll be going out for a celebratory meal with some staff in the music office; people there are very grateful for the increased publicity and interest in getting better performing facilities on campus by the BoG & administration.

Well I'm going to tackle some more finance readings. I've found out that typing my notes on the computer, rather than writing them out, makes the readings more fun. Probably just because it's different. But whatever floats your boat I guess.

You can visit this when you get bored: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8f8drk5Urw&mode=related&search=

It has entertained me multiple times :P

Sugar = Bad

I've known for quite some time now that sugar gives me headaches, but does it stop me from eating sugary delights? No. This becomes an especially large problem when potlucks or large meals out with people roll around. Between the McDonald's Coke (I know Andrew, it causes cancer) I had coming back from Stratford yesterday, the potluck desserts from last night, and the cookies I had at Duncan & Jessica's today, I have one whopper of a headache. The stresses of trying to plan out my time well are also not helping. Thankfully I have many understanding people in my life.

I am very thankful for my 'day of rest' today. God reminded me about how I am influencing others around me at school & how He is happy and pleased with my efforts. Not to say that some of them aren't futile, but still it is often an overlooked thing, at least for me, to remember that God is happy we call Him Lord & strive to share Him; He's not always the judgemental figure we often make Him out to be.

I think the best way for me to start this crazy week would be a nice big sleep, so I'm off to bed an hour early to aid in this endeavour. Ttyl!