music for the season

Watermelon Music is a fun place to be. I wandered in there the other day with friends (we were waiting for a movie to start) and instantly found two books of arrangements of musicals, my typical Watermelon fare. Then, after buying them, I realized they have holiday music on sale, including clarinet music with accompaniment. It's addicting to learn a new instrument... so much to explore, so much to try. I was good and stuck to my two musicals (today, Billy Joel's Movin' Out and Nunsense), but now I know where the clarinet arrangements are... :P Of course, with the musicians we have at church, it's quite likely that now that E has found his clarinet, we can just play straight out of the hymnal as a clarinet duo, playing the alto and soprano lines. Either way, I'm looking forward to playing the clarinet more often in church. It's been simpler for me to learn than other instruments like brass or flutes. I just need to branch out from pieces written in B flat... :P

yays and boos.

Yay! Dinner with a friend.

Boo! Late to rehearsal.

Yay! nifty new shoes in the mail.

Boo! Friends backing out of going to see a movie.

Yay! finding a new musical I haven't played thru yet.

Boo! Not getting any homework done.

Yay! People reading and responding to my blog.

Boo! Spending Friday night working on homework and cleaning the house.

Yay! Being alive.

I will leave this on the positive note, because today, for the very first day in a long time, I was happy to be living my own life and not someone else's. Yay!

vent about singing

Last night at rehearsal I was told that my voice is loud (high?) enough to shatter windows. I'm not sure whether to take this as a compliment or an insult... I'm fairly sensitive about my voice. I am always trying to make it better, which means experimenting with different sounds and the use / removal of vibrato. I started out as an alto in high school, sang second soprano for awhile and then became a soprano I in college, which I remain. I love love love singing high notes... there's a certain indescribable feeling that one feels when hitting them. But I've been told more than once recently that people hear me without a microphone as well as they hear others who are miked. In fact, one friend could hear me singing while they were in the bathroom at church... The main problem, of course, is that I cannot hear myself sing. However, I'm trying to listen and learn by what I hear from the speakers when I am miked. If you know me and have heard me sing, I would love pointers as to how to get the nicest sound. I fully believe I have the ability to be a good singer; I just need to keep practicing. So, don't be shy. Give me a comment.

footing the bill

It's interesting how the check gets split between a man and a woman. If you're with a friend, you either split the check or take turns footing the bill, if you see them on a regular enough basis that noone forgets who was last. If you're with a man, however, things get more complicated. If you want to stay friends and no more, you have to pay your half of the bill, always, like clockwork, so you don't owe him anything. If you like him as more than a friend, you still have to pay your half of the bill if you're going out as friends. If you tried to get him to pay and he wasn't going to, you've just embarrassed yourself by telling him implicitly you thought the meal was a date, when he very well could have thought it was just an outing with friends. So you don't dare not paying then. In fact, there are only two situations where he will pay. First, if he insists on paying, you don't have to pay unless (see situation one) you don't want anything more. Second, if you actually are going out, he should be paying for you at least part of the time. See how complicated this becomes? You have to worry about what he's thinking and guess his thoughts in almost all situations, which can be tricky. And these are just relationship rules for eating out... Life is so difficult!

school, illness and baby, but baby isn't sick

aaaaah! I'm behind one day in the month of writing, so today I'll have to put up two articles (hopefully on different subjects?). Since it was school and illness that kept me from writing yesterday, maybe I'll make them the subjects. School, when I can make it there, is going well. I love my classes this semester, and just when I think I can't load more studying on, I get a reprieve. For instance, one of my classes this week had no homework, as one class was cancelled and we're watching and discussing a movie in the other. This happened just as the rest of my classes were almost catching up with me and me not being able to do them all. Now I am happily catching up.

Illness is never interesting until you get to be 80 and then it becomes a game every week: Who's The Elderly Person with the MOST Aches and Pains??? I would certainly lose, because although I have felt under the weather sporadically recently, I have developed no cold, no flu and definitely no pigs-can-fly illness either. And now that I write this down (where is wood when I need to knock on it??), I shall develop all three. Such is life.

In other news, I have been holding a baby without breaking it successfully! I keep thinking that if I hold it too long it will squirm, and if it squirms I will drop it... but considering that it's only 6 pounds, it's pretty simple to engulf it in my arms and not let it go anywhere. We'll see what happens when it gets bigger.

Back to school again: I have figured out my schedule for studying for my three exams, but I have yet to figure out a good way to stick writing my paper in there. And preparing for trial (fake trial for class, not a real one yet). (Although I do love to tell people, "I am getting ready for my closing arguments today"....) Anybody have some good time-management tips for me?

Blog 1 of 2 ended. Blog 2 to come.

gender bias in the bands

Is it just me or are bands always made up of men? Rock bands, I mean (although marching bands have similar stats, it seems). Woman singing, men back her up. Man sings, men back HIM up. Seriously, when is the last time you saw a professional group with a girl drummer? What is up with that? At least girls have gotten over the guitar glass ceiling, and they often play piano as well. But usually, they do that if they're the ones singing. They're not so likely to do it as backup. What do we need to do to change this? Enroll your daughter in music lessons today... drums, guitar, bass, piano, doesn't matter. We need musically literate women to do something other than sing.

NaBloPoMo

It's National Blog Posting Month and just because the first letters of NBPM are my initials, I've decided to participate. So plan on hearing from me a lot this month... hopefully every day, something small but thoughtful is my goal. Thought for the day: costume pics after Halloween make up what percent of Facebook posts? That's right, 98.99999999 percent...

Remembering the Saints

Jack: you helped raise me, just like everyone in DLC's choir did. You were a role model, singing every Sunday and supporting Mary in her work and everything she did. You were someone to look up to, a good person to model my own life after. We miss you very much.

Don: you were taken from this world far too young. We will never forget your crazy skillz on the guitar, the bass, the harmonica... Whenever I sing "God of Wonders" or "Better is One Day" or "Shifting Sand" I remember you. You were kind and funny and helpful, and we miss you very much.

Readers: Don and Jack both died this year, joining the hosts of saints that have gone before us. Who do you remember this All Saints' Day?

The Ghost of Halloweens Past?

When I think about Halloween, I think about costumes and people. I think about what I've been and who I've shared it with.

I think about homemade costumes that were perfect (the big fat mouse, thx Mom, and the angel) and some that were not (Polychrome, daughter of the Rainbow who turned out to look more like a bag lady than anything else) (sorry, Mom). Then there was the year I was Pippi Longstocking with help from friends and a wire hanger that yes, I strung through my hair. And how many times I've been a black cat (3 or 4, I can't remember now).

But more than the costumes, I remember the people I spent those Halloweens with. How we toured each of each others' neighborhoods, how we traded candies at the end of the night so we each got what we really wanted, how I tried to leapfrog over a bike divider pole and ate asphalt near my friends's house. How I am so close to those memories-- physically, only two blocks away-- and yet so far, in time and in location both (that friend is moving back to the Bay very soon). Of course, I'm making new memories every year, and I'm enjoying new friends and their costumes and friendship just as I have celebrated every year with older ones. I just hope this Halloween will be one I can look back on and be happy with, another memory on the totem pole of life. That's all.

Murphy I curse you!

One pair of white pants.
Two coffee stains.
One spring roll tofu stain.
Three small stains on the pants, one great step for Murphy's Law.

churchy times

Church was nice tonight. I'm not happy with my life yet but it's certainly getting there. I went expecting to play the piano but since E was there I ended up singing a song instead. I now love Be Thou My Vision in a new way... yay for jazzed up piano accompaniments. And friendly people. The music was good, the message was interesting, I met two new people and enjoyed some homemade cookies. All in all, a good week at Crossings.

living life and trying to love it

I have to admit, although I've been thru some rough times recently, I am really enjoying how my life is going right now: things are gelling, goals seem closer and happiness seems like it's just a carrot-on-a-stick length away from me. Old friends, new friends, music, school, classmates, professors, music, activities, music, and music are all agreeing with me. Even my house, which normally feels like a disaster zone, is liveable and, dare I say, neat?

I have not blogged on here for awhile because I have been busy blogging for school credit at femlegaltheory.blogspot.com, which is a pretty awesome website where those of us in the class share thoughts, insights and weblinks about exciting and interesting feminist philosophies. And of course, school and friends and family takes up the rest of my life. I'll try to be more present on here though if anyone is actually reading it.

Despite not being where I wanted to be in life by this point in time in life, I have to say that I have had an excellent week and a half. Game nights and weddings and yogurt, oh my. Hanging out and movies and lunches, oh my. And so on and so forth. Sure, there are parts of my life that I would still trade away with any of my friends'... but if I traded my whole life away I'd miss out on some truly amazing friendships and a very supportive family. So what if I don't have *everything* I think will make me happy? I have a lot, and I am not working for McDonald's or a mine in Minnesota (we just watched Fast Food Women and North Country in Fem Legal Theory). So life? Not all that bad.

I think every day is a new adventure, and one of the things I've been doing recently is trying to record which adventures make me happiest. I discovered this summer that swing dancing makes me happy, so I've been trying to go once a week since the discovery. Taboo (a game) makes me happy too. So does drawing funny looking cartoon people. Hanging out with friends at Yoloberry. Eating Ethiopian food. Writing songs and singing them. Listening to live standup comedy. It's all good, and I'm trying to repeat the stuff that makes me glad to be alive. Everything else, I put into the background, and just do what is absolutely necessary to be done. We don't have long to live on this earth, and I want to use that short time to do stuff that makes for good memories in the long run. Stuff that makes me happy, stuff that makes me proud of myself, nothing I would change if I went back into the past. It's not easy, but it's my goal. What about you, readers? What makes you happy? I'd love to hear it.

Books!

Well, I just got home from the local library booksale, as of an hour or two ago, and I'm well pleased with what I found:
1. an organ magazine with tunes from the Romantic era set for organ that I can play at church;
2. two Anne of Green Gables books, the good ones (the early ones!) and
3. more language learning books than I care to admit that I've bought.

The prize treasure of the foreign language book is a devotional book entitled "Actos de Fe" (whoops, almost wrote "feo" which would mean something quite different!), with a different and short devotional for every day of the year... in Spanish! :) I already have a devotional (for lawyers) but it's going to run out sooner since it goes in weeks and not days, and who says I can't do two? Praising God should be endless... or so said my devotional for last week.

I also found and have already read a little children's book in Spanish about a man who sells hats, and the trouble that befalls him when he falls asleep under a tree full of monkeys. Muy amusante...

The last (but not only) treasure was a cookbook half in Chinese, half English. I found at least one vegetarian recipe, so will have to try that. I am so very excited at the prospect of reading these books... and yes, I will get my legal reading finished too. Who says I can't take breaks? It's summer!!!

So, for all of you who have that book on the shelf that you just haven't managed to make time for, I encourage you to read it. A little bit of it. A page of it. Just read!

Plant Update

So this morning after Dad bought a box for me Mom and I planted my new stuff. We had potting soil, a watering can, a source of water and a front porch to use, so it went pretty smoothly. It's fun putting the potting soil in and then scooping out the hole JUST the right size and then coddling the plant out of its box and into its new home. We talked through the process JUST loud enough that the neighborhood kids became interested in what we were doing, so much so that when one of their moms came cycling around the corner and asked what they were doing, one little boy said, "Planting!" They were not... they were just playing quietly across the street. So I knew then that they were watching, and learning, a little. Our houses have no back yards and the plants are taken care of by the homeowner's association for the most part, so some of these kids may never have had a gardening experience before. Of course I enjoyed the process even if we hadn't had them watching listening and learning... now I have a reason to bop around my front yard every day and talk to the neighbors. Garden, and sweep.... and garden, and sweep... And I have chives and strawberries and lemon balm. And I noticed I have enough room in the front to add at least two if not three more boxes, if I can keep the first box alive that is.... we'll see.

plants are life in so many ways

Bought plants today. There's this amazing herb I had never heard of before called lemon balm... it's an herb but it tastes just like lemon, only mintier. I plan to use it to make homemade pesto for pasta. I'm really excited about it. It's now my favorite herb (less than 8 hours after finding out about it and buying some). I also got strawberries and garlic chives. I know, bad breath, but it tastes so goooood. I have officially gone vegetarian (my third try, mind you), so if you have some good recipes, I'm searching for something, anything I can eat other than omelettes and polenta. Plants are awesome. I'm currently enjoying some O2 fresh from the beautiful trees outside the door right this minute. Yay for air.

happy to live in this world

Life is like a coloring book. You find out all the cool colors and how you can use them and at first, you color EVERYWHERE and it's outside the lines and it doesn't match the picture and it's messy. But then you learn where the lines are and how to keep it contained and you put the picture together in a creative yet controlled fashion. And that's when you truly become an adult... when you get the colors to work together to create a wonderful picture, and that wonderful picture is your life, with different parts of it fitting neatly into the entire whole.

Music joke of the day (thank you, Grandma!): A doctor is talking to his patient. He is holding a box filled with musical notes. He clears his throat and says, "Well, the surgery was a tremendous success. As you can see here, we have completely removed the song that was stuck in your head."

taking care of business

Well, I have to say (and I may regret this Thursday) I do feel ready for our Business final. Kudos to all my friends who I have studied with and my family as well. In an interesting way, talking through the class with my parents tonight somewhat simulated the exam itself.

I spent an uneventful half hour with my mother, where she quizzed me on case names and rules. She tag-teamed with my dad, and I thought I'd do the same thing with him, but he interrupted me by saying he didn't think it would be good to talk about this stuff with him because he is singularly disillusioned with the state of business law in the country (hope I'm not misquoting him here). I told him he was wrong and that this is the very meat of what we've been learning, and we spent an intense half hour of me going systematically through my knowledge and explaining where he was right about the state of things and where he was wrong, where the law is actually improving things right before our eyes, and where it has some room for improvement. Telling him where the law is a little unreasonable and where it's making strides to improving all our lives. And I have to say, debating policy issues with someone who's been out there, who has experienced life and businesses in a very real and personal way, is completely different from debating theory in a classroom or a study session with friends. And yet the two of us were both happy at the end of our debate. My dad was impressed that I was able to keep up my end of the conversation so well with so many illustrative examples. He was also impressed at the changes in the law that I informed him about, reasons to hope in the midst of corruption. And I was happy that I had not only kept up in the conversation, but was able to explain exactly what the law is and how things are progressing in the law to create such hope.

All in all, I feel like I went through my own miniature version of the exam tonight in the discussions with my parents: first, the cerebral issue spotting and second, the emotion-filled policy question. I just hope it goes as well on the real exam. But however I do on paper, I feel like I really did learn something-- a few things-- this semester. And that feels good.

Jesus DOES love me! yay.

Well, like I said the other day, I'm getting a little better at spotting God's hand (Hand?) in my life. Case in point was today.

I found out today that I will be recieving a grant, and not a measly one at that, to work at Legal Services of NorCal this summer. This means I will be working for 12-13 weeks at a legal non-profit helping those who cannot afford legal services. The crazy thing about all this is that I'm interested in immigration work, and when I told that to the first person I talked to at LSNC, the very first person, before even sending my resume and getting an interview, when I told that to her she told me that she had an immigration project that needed part time help with over the summer. I mean, is that amazing or what? The very first person I talk to on my very first job inquiry has the exact job I was looking for, to a T. And now I have a grant PAYING me to do the exact job I was looking for, to a T.

So I can't help but wonder... is God rewarding me for doing what I said I would do when I applied to law school, doing public interest nonprofit work? Because it seems to me this was all so amazingly easy, so simple, that He had to have stuck His oar in a little to roll those snake eyes just for me (if you'll let me mix my metaphors). How else could the first phone call I made have turned out to be the last one necessary? No, I firmly believe that He is pleased with me choosing non-profit work and wanted to make my search easier because of that. And btw, thank all of you for your prayers about this... obviously, they worked.

I am so excited for summer to begin, I almost don't mind that I only get four days off. Wheeee!

the value of friendship

Now, I know that I vowed at the beginning of this finals period to *not* hang out with friends outside of study group friends and a study atmosphere. But every once in awhile in life, you have to break the rules that define your life, and so when L emailed to say, hey, we hadn't been to lunch in awhile, I decided to take her up on it as a study break. We all need those, right?

L is one of those friends of mine that despite seeing each other a couple times a month, we never quite seem to be caught up. Part of that is that we've known each other since preschool, and not having spent the entirety of our lives together we are constantly sharing what happened between Davis Parent Nursery School days and... the present. We talk about shared experiences ("do you remember when...?"), shared friendships ("so what are they doing now?"), shared ideologies and of course, our lives these days. And despite having not only lunch together but coffee right afterwards, we never, ever catch up. And perhaps that's a good thing, because it means the next time we talk we'll still have things to talk about. We'll always have things to talk about. And that's truly valuable, in this life where most things go by way too fast.

the end of it all

It's getting to that point of the year. Yes, it's the point where the reading assignments dwindle down to the point where I'm writing "end of year" on the pages instead of "end Week 5" or "end Week 10". It's the point of year where I spend time exclusively with school friends, affectionately known as "study partners" or "study groups", instead of balancing my life with church friends, show friends, family etc. And it's the point of year where I end up working on review at home without going to classes anymore. There are ups and downs, and of course it's an extremely stressful point of the year, but yet there's a certain satisfaction I derive from the focus. Things fall into neat categories: this week I spend on Wills, the next week I focus on another class. It's not entirely a process I detest or dread. It's the culmination of little bits of knowledge finally turning into spheres of overall knowledge and grasp of entire subjects. I know, I'm a nerd, and I'll still probably never do as well as I did first year when everything was fresh and passion-filled, but I have to admit -- I don't hate finals. That's all.

Muppet fun at school

Our group presentation in Evidence yesterday was a mild success. I'm proud enough of our stuff that I'm going to post the lyrics here so y'all can have a laugh too. We were so worried the class wouldn't understand the lyrics, but after the first joke they laughed hard and long, so I was pleased with our performance. If you don't think that discussing evidentiary privileges to the tune of Muppets songs (a true tribute to Jim Henson!) is interesting / hilarious, well, then, skip this part:

(to the tune of C is for Cookie) P is for privilege, that’s good enough for meP is for privilege, that’s good enough for meP is for privilege, that’s good enough for meOh, privilege privilege privilege starts with P... EVERYBODY NOW!!! (repeat) (yes, they did sing along)

(to the tune of the Muppet Show introduction) It’s time to meet your lawyer, it’s time to meet your priest, it’s time to meet your doctor on the privilege show tonight.It’s time to meet your hubby, it’s time to meet your wife, it’s time for confidential communications on the privilege show tonight.

(to the tune of It's not easy being green) It’s not easy keeping secrets, I want to tell my doctor exactly what’s wrong with me,When I think it could be nicer, just keeping it between us. That rash on my (pause) back.

(to the tune of Mahna Mahna, wife-husband evidentiary privelege) Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, I killed the neighbor.

(to the tune of Movin right along) We don’t really care about the truth of the matter, the client can chatter, but the lawyer has to remain silent

(to the tune of Rubber Duckie) Father O’Malley you’re the one. You make confession lots of fun. Father O’Malley I know you’ll never tell on me.

(to the tune of Rainbow Connection) Why are there so many privileges before us? Doctor-patient, Lawyer-client, Spousal, Penitent-Priest, Psycho-Therapist patient, Reporter-Source, Accountant-client, Accused privileges, right against self incrimination, informant’s, surveillance, executive privilege

it's of course funnier live, but I'm proud of our unique presentation. According to the professor, in the three or so years he has been requiring group presentations, we were the first to use music in our presentation (thus the unique part of it). After all this singing, we also had a class-wide game of Jeopardy. I enjoyed playing the theme song for that on the keyboard including a major chord for when they got it right and a diminished chord for when they... didn't.

Life is good. I wish every legal presentation could include musical jokes... do you think I could take my keyboard into court with me???

Easter tidings of joy

We sang "Now the Green Blade Rises" in church this morning. It's an Easter hymn but set in a minor mode with a fairly haunting melody. When I was a kid, there was a TV show I only watched once that sported an introduction with a similarly haunting tune. I wished for years after that that I could remember the tune and recreate it, but never could. "Now the Green Blade Rises" is actually the closest song to it, and for that reason I've always liked it. Nice to sing it in church this morning.

My Easter has been quite satisfying, and if I didn't get all the homework done that I should, well, that's why I finish my reading before finals start. It was really the perfect day, filled with friends, family, church, chocolate and other things that don't alliterate so I won't list them here. I have been ditching church a lot recently, so if possible, church actually meant something more to me today than it usually does every Holy Week, because I was listening intently and with a fresh mind.

I love going to a church that simultaneously hosts nearly every adult who helped raise me as a kid plus people my own age too. I love that I know every other person there, even on Easter when the Easter-Christmas Christians show up. I love that I used to be the kid hunting the eggs on the lawn and that I used to be the kid hiding the eggs for the littler kids and that now I'm a choir member and occasionally play for a service too. There's a certain familiarity with one's home church that never disappears. And yet Easter is especially wonderful these days because my grandparents live so close that they were a part of it too for me this year. All in all, it's been a really nice day. Reality can reach out its hand and slap me in the face tomorrow morning when I start briefing. For now, I'm just rejoicing with a billion other people that Jesus saves, and that means me too.

God's hand

Well, in little and big ways, these days I can usually feel the presence of God within my life. Some days He provides me with a DVD at a thrift store that I had thought about getting the week previous. Sometimes He provides me with the perfect job. Tonight, He gently chided me for ditching out on the Palm Sunday service by making every entree at the potluck tonight contain cheese.

A little background: I gave up chocolate last year for Lent, I gave up cheese this Lent, and I was planning to go to the potluck but ditch out on the service afterwards. So... God smiled and presented me with the simple conundrum: I could eat the free food and break my promise to Him in front of all my friends who know I'm giving up cheese for Lent, or I could make my sacrifice a little more meaningful by declining to eat at all. I'm happy to say that I chose the latter. Oh, how I love Easter... Now excuse me, I'm going to go eat some parmesan-less spaghetti.

This afternoon I'm playing as a substitute for our organist for children's choir. Please keep her and her husband in your prayers; his cancer is giving him a rough time of it right now.

That's it for now. More later.

frickety-freakout

OK, so someone I don't know was knocking on my door agin tonight. What the frick is up in these condos? So many people I don't know ringing my doorbell at all times of the night....

Tonight it was some strange old dude, so I didn't answer the door until a younger guy that I had met before rang the doorbell instead. Turns out the older dude was the father of the resident of the upstairs condo (and the younger guy one of her friends). So I didn't need to freak out tonight (although I did, and understandably so after last night's activities). He was just delivering the new key, since they changed the locks on the garage door after the incident. So now, finally, I'm going back to homework instead of feeling unsafe in my own home.

a little more excitement than I need

It's such a beautiful day outside, I can hardly believe all the drama that went down here last night. The birds in the tree must have baby birdlings because when I sat down outside they made a big ruckus until I folded myself up and went reluctantly inside. It's bright and sunny and cheerful and I can't believe it's the same world as it was last night.

I first found out something was wrong last night when the neighbors rang my bell and talked loudly outside. I didn't know who was out there or what the ruckus was about (sorry to use that word twice, but I'm in a ruckus mood), and it frightened me enough to call my mom, who told me to call the police. I dialed 911 and the operator informed me that the ruckus had already been reported by my upstairs neighbors, and that there was a fire in my garage. It was out by the time I ventured out, and bit by bit after the fire trucks and police arrived I found out the story.

Evidently there is a man who scams people in Davis a lot. What he does is, he finds people who need to sublet an apartment. He moves in and doesn't pay rent and refuses to leave until they officially evict him. Evidently this happened to my naive upstairs neighbors (both girls) and when they told him to leave, he decided that what they really meant by "leave" was "go downstairs, use our key to open our garage and start a fire with your magazine", which was exactly what he did. The police encouraged him to leave, which he did, but only after about 10 cops showed up on my front lawn. I share the garage with them, so this is how the fire in my garage started. Nothing and nobody were harmed, so, I guess in the end everything turned out all right. They didn't arrest him because evidently the elements of arson include destruction of someone else's property, and since the magazine belonged to him he didn't technically commit that crime. I feel like he was trespassing or burglarizing our property, but the police didn't agree. So he's out there right now, probably looking for the next apartment to scam.

The whole thing shook me up a lot and, needless to say, I didn't sleep too well last night. But it's all over now and the fresh air and bright sun is helping me forget it all. I'm simply glad nobody was hurt, and that life will go back to its happy normalcy of boring routine mundanity. Who says a mundane life is unhappy? I'm beginning to appreciate it after having it momentarily shattered.

Happy weekend

I'm happy at how my break went. Particularly, how this weekend went. I got a fair amount of homework done, just like I'd hoped. But in addition to that, I went swing dancing on Friday, garage saleing Saturday morning and played games with friends Saturday night.

Swing dancing was amazing. The first two times I went, there were not enough men and they were, for the most part, too young or too old. And in either direction, it's just inappropriate. The ones that seemed the right age were all too weird, too short, or had some other fatal flaw. But this Friday night? It was amazing! I danced with several different guys and most of them seemed quite normal. I didn't have to ask anyone to dance, not once, and amazingly enough, I remembered enough steps that I only stepped on a couple feet. I have to tell you, it feels very flattering to be asked to dance.

Garage saleing proved fruitful... I found a whole boxful of country CDs and bought five of them for 8 dollars, which I thought was a good deal. Then across the street from that sale was another sale, where they were giving away a porch lounge chair for free. I had only just decided I needed one of those last week, and here it was! Life is funny that way sometimes.

The only low point at the game night at E's was that U brought a huge chunk of cheese, which I am giving up for Lent. This is the second time he's done this! Last year we were watching Harry Potter as a group, and I was giving up chocolate for Lent. So what did U do? He brought a huge chunk of chocolate. Maybe for Lent next year I can give up dating... then perhaps he'll bring a chunk of eligible bachelor. :P

show tunes never die

There's something magical about buying a book full of music. Today I bopped into Watermelon Music, as I have a tendency to do every couple months or so, and found my usual two musicals, one book of church music and, new for me, a how-to guitar learning book. We'll see if that results in anything... I really want to learn the guitar, but right before finals is probably not the best time to start that. Maybe over the summer. We'll see.

Anyway, I love playing through arrangements of musicals. I have about thirty of these, and my favorite thing to do recently is flip through the books to the songs that truly express how I'm feeling, any given day. Sometimes I sing along, sometimes I don't. But it's a nice positive way to express myself, even if I'm a bit down.

So this time around I bought "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" and "Hans Christian Anderson". There are inevitable memories that bubble to the surface when I buy musicals... memories of shows past, present and sometimes even future, if I'm buying a show to familiarize myself with the music before playing or seeing it performed. Today was no different. My friends (you know who you are) and I used to spend endless hours in junior high and high school singing through certain musicals, of which "How To" was a top hit and a favorite. We all swooned when the cute boy sang "I Believe In You", we loved chanting the "coffee break" song and we certainly weren't going to be secretary toys for any man to play with. It is a great musical, and quite possibly the first musical I saw professionally performed, at the B Street Theater in Sac.

Less known by me is "Hans Christian Anderson". I have only seen it once, when DMTC's YPT did it when I was about eleven years old. Yet playing through the music contains with it an odd familiarity. Could I have learned the songs, the tunes, so well that playing them now I still remember them? Just from seeing the show that one time? Only four of the six or seven songs in the book seem familiar, but given the fact that I haven't seen it for years, wasn't in the show and haven't seen it since, it was an eery type of deja vu to tinkle the tunes out on my beautiful upright here at home.

It's funny. I have been collecting arrangements of musical theater shows since junior high, when I first became able to play them. I don't need them anymore. A good fake book and a good keyboard, and I'll play anything but Sondheim and make it snazzy. But there's something in having those notes in front of me, of playing through all the well-known tunes from a show, that I'm addicted to. I love making up arrangements, but to have a book containing a show... to pick a show from a stack of books... it's just satisfaction for me. I can't really explain why, but I love it. Maybe it's because it's easier to sing along if I'm not making up the accompaniment. Maybe it's because the fake books never have all the good songs. Maybe it's because I like taking other people's arrangements and adding to them. Whatever it is, I love going through the broadway shows at Watermelon looking for that one musical I don't own yet... and even more than finding it, I love sitting it down at my Packard and plunking through it. Whatever it is, it makes me happy. And that, in this world, is no small thing.

pausing to breathe and enjoy the flowers

I sometimes forget how lucky I am. Then an hour long walk around my beautiful neighborhood with a friend reminds me that I live in a lovely part of Davis and that I have lovely friends with which to enjoy it. Life is good, people. I'm enjoying this whole study as much as I can while still keeping a social life spring break thing. I'm glad I didn't go away, because it means I can spend more time studying, but I'm also glad I have time to spend with friends that usually eats away at study time. Now, I can do both. Even though finals are a blink and several outlines away from arriving, I don't feel stressed. Thank goodness for spring break.

Mom Day

I had a Mom day today. She graciously accepted my request to help me pick out frames for glasses thsi morning, and additionally suggested we hit some of the thrift stores in Woodland, which we love to do from time to time.... it's a hobby of ours. So we got an early start this morning (9:45) (what? that's early on a Saturday!!!) and spent some quality time at the glasses frame place picking out frames for yours truly. I was very happy with our picks: I got a pair of glasses with these intricate burgundy-colored frames in a very 70s retro hornrim shape with little gold flecks at the edges. I also got a pair of sunglasses in a deep pink / purple color with little palm trees and faux diamonds (yay for bling!) that were really big on my face and made me feel more like Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde than my first pink suit did. To top the morning off, I got to practice my Farsi with the pleasant glasses fitter, who was Persian. Amazingly, I understood everything he said.... in those two phrases he responded to me with.

Then we were off to Woodland for My Sister's Closet shopping, Pacos, and more thrift store shopping. My mom is great, for those of you who don't know her. She always points out "you don't need that" or "it's too small" or something like that, for like 90% of the stuff I try on, so when she approves of a sale I always know it's perfect! She treated at Paco's just as we were running out of steam.... the food gave us more energy so after that, we trudged through the big thrift store downtown. We also located the office where I'm interviewing on Monday, so I'll know where to go and how to get there.

All in all, this was a productive and fun day of shopping, and we got back in plenty of time for me to study some too. I love it when days are balanced like that: social time v alone time, fun time v study time. (Ok, ok, some studying is fun too.... but you know what I mean!) And Mom's even brave enough that when I told her about the chicken / onion / rice stew I made for dinner tonight she offered to eat some of it tomorrow night! :) So... looking forward to that.

that's all.

Since when did 10:30 AM become noon?

So I was on my way home from class this morning, my last class before spring break, and I had a craving for McD's coffee. For some reason, it tastes better to me than any other coffee I've ever had. I don't like supporting the company for political reasons, but the coffee is amazing. Plus, it was the morning and I was thinking I'd get some breakfast too. So I pull up there and place my order... remember, this is 10:45 AM here... and the dude says they're not serving breakfast anymore!!! They start serving lunch at noon. I couldn't believe it. I really thought he just didn't like me, and was arbitrarily changing the rules. But B says that a lot of fast food restaurants do that. It doesn't make sense. It's.... morning. Isn't breakfast supposed to be served in the.... morning? Rrrr. Chalk one up to the annoying things in life that make no sense. But you know? It was probably better that way, because I got home, B and I decided to make our own hash browns and since we baked them instead of frying them in cheap, deadly oils, it was probably healthier and less expensive than Mickey D's would have been anyway. And scrambled eggs too. Take that, lousy fast food chains!

yay me family is famous

So here I was tonight, bored with the television programs on yet needing that comforting noise in the background to really get some good studying in, channel surfing. On any normal day I would check the major stations and give up, but a little sprite must have been controlling the remote (as opposed to those little birds that always let the cat out of the bag? toooo many mixed metaphors...), because I flipped straight through the public access channels I Never Check and checked them all. And there he was: my father. I thought at first that I'd somehow flipped the channel straight through to watching my parents at home (I always kind of figured that day would come, what with all these webcams these days... watch your family! watch your friends!) because there he was, my dad, on TV.

It took me a moment to place what I was watching, but I finally realized that he was giving his report from the Bicycle Commission at the City Council meeting. He's the head of the Bicycle Commission, which I think is pretty cool since I always thought of him as The Bike Guy anyway, and now he officially owns that title. My mother had told me earlier that this was going to happen tonight, but it never once occurred to me that it would be televised. I guess most of these public meetings are, probably by law even. So, I yelled to my roommate that my DAD IS ON TV and we watched the end of his speech regarding bike lanes in Downtown Davis. Pretty funny stuff. Yay.

I can only think of three times that I myself have been on TV: once in high school, directing the Madrigal choir on Good Day Sacramento or some such show, once in college during Christmas Fest at St. Olaf first year when they taped it and once some random time in Davis when a camera crew interviewed me for something about the Davis Public Library. But as far as I can remember my parents have not been on television. So, I thought this was pretty cool. I vote for going through the archives and adding "Dad talking to City Council" to the DVDs on the shelf. What say?

a summer day... in winter

It's a beautiful day today. Just crisp enough outdoors that the heater on indoors makes me lethargic. A little homework here, a couple job prospects there, and the day hasn't been a complete waste. I feel like cooking but there are too many leftovers for that... need to finish them up soon.

About the most exciting thing this week is getting a new prescription which usually means, getting new glasses. I'm thinking about tortoiseshell or something daring like that... my current frames are no frames at all, which is more subtle than the ones I'm considering this time around. It's always fun to go shopping, especially when insurance foots the bill.

I think I'll make guacamole.

I am Persian... like the cat... meow

Everyone look up Maz Jobrani on YouTube. I'll post links later if you're too lazy to find him yourself (as I am). We had a wonderful evening listening and laughing. He's totally changed his material since I saw him the last time he was in Sacramento, so it was even more hilarious and fun than I had expected. For anyone that knows anything about Persian food, language or culture, it was really funny... and for those of you that don't, it was still funny. He's very talented; he made quite a few off-the-cuff comments reacting to us, our audience, right there on the spot. The comedy was mostly about the Persian life and culture, but he did a slam dunk job making fun of the rest of us as well. All in all a really great evening... I laughed so hard I cried a little.

a good friend of mine just gave birth to her first child. I'm amazed at the whole process and so very happy for her. read about it here: lunargoat@blogspot.com.

the o-per-a

So, I went to Sac Opera's The Marriage of Figaro on Friday night. They did a spectactular job; the sets were beautiful, the costumes were beautiful and (most importantly) the voices were beautiful. But unfortunately for me, my contacts were not strong enough to read the supertitles without squinting. By the end it just wasn't worth it. Plus we were in the second tier and they all looked like tiny specks down there. But at least we could hear well. The friend that came along with me had never seen an opera before, so that was fun. "They don't have microphones!" was the comment. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to dress up, go out to dinner and visit the Sac Community Center. The quality was high enough that I recommend to you all that you should see an opera there. The next one is "La Boheme", another classic.

happiness is a productive day

More good things....

At 8 PM tonight I received from UPS the third piece of the new suit I just bought for the upcoming interview season. The bad part is that I am heavier than before and thus needed a new suit. The good part is that it's a wonderful, classic cut navy suit with both trousers and a skirt. It's beautiful, it was on sale and it's Ann Taylor, my all-time favorite for work clothes. Now I just have to decide whether black pumps will work or whether I need to buy some blue ones. A good friend of mine told me recently that navy blue connotes honesty... I like that idea.

Additionally, today was a really good, productive day, the type of day that makes me really happy to be alive. I worked out, I went grocery shopping and I studied for more than five hours. I have an appointment with my career counselor tomorrow morning for the first time since I decided on a specialty in law, and an appointment with my professor to discuss my last midterm exam. And tomorrow night marks the second Spanish Conversation Table that I organized at church (if you're in town and speak a little, it's at 6 PM at Davis Lutheran), which went swimmingly last month so I'm hoping it'll be just as good this time around too. Life is just good.

they're not ivories but I'm still tickled

Lots of good stuff happening for me this week.

I got a new keyboard. This is because I was embarrassed to have to play my old Korg at gigs and can only borrow my friend's keyboard for so long... plus hers didn't have a sustain pedal, so what's the point? It's beautiful. It's a Yamaha with 88 weighted keys, and we're ordering an X stand to go under it and a three-pedal set JUST LIKE a piano!! I didn't even know those existed. Technology has definitely improved since the last time I went keyboard shopping (for a keyboard for Woodland Christian when I was their organist). And it has a built-in music stand and it sounds so much like a piano that my mom wasn't sure which one I was playing after we bought it and set it up. I spent the entire first night of owning it playing it. It's only new for awhile, right?? I'm probably only really going to use the piano sound, but I was quite entertained by the harpsichord and the xylaphone sounds and of course, playing Phantom on the organ setting.

Anyway, this beauty is going to make playing for gigs like fundraisers and dinner parties soooo much simpler. It is heavier than some of the other keyboards out there, but those keyboards aren't professional; one of them I tried felt and sounded more like a kid's Tinker Toy than anything real that I could perform on. And besides which, isn't that what all you men are for? Carrying keyboards, opening doors and whatnot?

Suffice it to say that I am delighted with the acquisition and am looking forward greatly to the next time I get to play for a function. Me, my keyboard and a fake book... what else do I need for true happiness??? :)

a productive day

I love the feeling that comes from a full, happy day filled with work and school and working out and friends and family. From finding out that I'm getting a new keyboard to talking with friends I haven't seen for a month. From getting homework done but spending time with people too. I don't have much more than that to report, but simply... life isn't all that bad, most of the time.

Disappointment and disillusionment

Disappointments happen at all stages of life. That job we didn't get, that grade that wasn't high enough, the guy who says he'll call but never does. What do we do to deal with disappointment? Sometimes we cry, and have an emotional release. Sometimes we pray to God and ask him to help us cope with it. Sometimes we take a nap, watch a TV show, anything to distract ourselves from the pain.

What do you do when you're disappointed?

humdrum, daily life

I love holidays. One less class, one more day to do my homework for the week. It's good all over. The only bad thing is, I've been shopping online at Target and want to spend money when I should be saving money. If I can just get myself to hold off until I visit R&R agin, I'll spend less. Yay for thrift stores in college towns, where rich college students get rid of clothes for one of a myriad of reasons, but usually not because they're old or worn out.

I've got to study lots today since yesterday was a bust. And go grocery shopping. Where did all the milk go??? I'm going to try my roommate's recommendation that whole milk helps you lose weight. Any excuse to drink whole milk is fine by me. Hmm, I think I'm breaking that promise about not blogging about humdrum boring mundane life. I shall stop here.

Mr Hatch ends

We had a pleasant end to the three week run. I'm glad it's over, but also glad that I did it. I have never had such a participatory role in creating music for a show. It was fun to test my skills at arranging music everyone knows and, additionally, creating an accompaniment for the music that Jeni made up in her head. The show was short and adorable and I feel like that desire I had to play a show while still in school finally came to realisation, without even sacrificing much of my studies because of it. So I'm happy. Happy to have made friends, to have created and performed music and also happy that it's over and I can give myself over fully to the studying I need to do. Have a happy holiday, people.

To See (Lance) or Not to See

Well, after much prolongued discussion with my mom about when to head down to the races, we drove into downtown Davis about 20 minutes before the whole Tour de California started. Arriving at Steve's, we were given our complimentary Davis pins and cowbells, and tried to stay away from the cold and the wind and the wet. One of the volunteers was amusing herself by shouting from time to time, "There they are!" and of course, I looked every time. Fool me five times, I'll ring my cowbell at you! Finally, there they were, there they were.... and they were gone. I looked for Lance but all I was thinking of vaguely was the yellow jacket he always wears... oh yea, the yellow jersey from the Tour de France... oh yea, this is California not France... darnit. So I was stuck looking at about 20 riders wearing yellow realizing that he might not even be wearing that color. Then there they were agin! And.... once again... Lance? No Lance? No idea. Oh well. It was cold but fun, I loved all the carnival booths selling donuts and hot chocolate. I can't remember a time that downtown Davis was that full, not even at Picnic in the Park over the summer. And of course, the Davis Rule was not broken... I see someone I know every time I venture out of my apartment, and today was no different; we ran into two couples who used to go to Davis Lutheran. All in all, a wonderful if cold and wet morning. Hope they keep it like this next year!

new blog! and Mr Hatch

Ok here: it's been awhile since I had a public blog... I've been for the most part flying under the radar by blogging in LiveJournal, but seriously, I don't think my thoughts or my life need that much censorship... so here I am agin on Blogspot.com. Hope y'all enjoy these thoughts. I promise if I'm boring or weird I'll try to keep that to myself, and only share the good stuff. ;)

The biggest news of my life right now I guess is that "Somebody Loves You Mr Hatch" is closing this weekend. We had a great three week run including three school performances, and I think it's fair to say all involved enjoyed the process and the final product. I've been a bit of a Mr Hatch myself, because I have made more friends and had a better time with this show than any other DMTC show I played for before. I guess I just needed law school to loosen me up and give me some confidence to talk to people... or I just don't care anymore what people think about me. Whatever it is, we have an awesome cast and I love them to death. Especially the director: her thoughts and my piano knowledge basically created a musical score out of thin air, which is more than delightful, it's plain amazing. :) If you're in Davis, I encourage you to come to the show tomorrow at 2:15... brownies and lemonade are included in the ticket price!!!