Dubstep

So I've really been into dubstep lately. Don't like it, you can deal.

It's chill and nasty rolled into one package, AND it pisses off my new neighbors. What more could I ask for?

BTW...by order of the Department of Residence, I was ordered to move to the skank hallway before I left for spring break. One could imagine I was pretty severely PO'ed about this, due mostly to my intense aversion to the people living in said hallway. Plus, it smells like beer and teen spirit over here...not a fan.

However, my new roommate Ali is a different story.

We went to middle school and high school together, graduated in the same class, in fact. Never talked to her in my life until we found out we had to move in together, and to be completely honest I didn't know what to expect. But after getting to know her a bit, I've come to a conclusion that she's actually cool! Here are some fun facts..

~We're both Bieber haters. I doodled profanities on some Bieber "trading cards" and stuck them on our door sign...home sweet home.

~We like similar music (DUBSTEPPPPP)

~We like to party.

~Zero skank tolerance. DEF a plus.

So yeah. Gonna work out? I think so.

On a totally different note, guess who's playing the woodwind book for UNI's production of the musical Urinetown?

Yahhhhhhhhhhh.

I've actually known about this for a while, and pretty much everyone up here knows it too...but I'm just really excited about it. I mean, today it hit me - this is my first show playing the entire woodwind book by myself, AND the first time I've been the first call player, not a sub. I mean I've subbed in the CR Municipal band several times before, and in the pit at TCR (Theatre Cedar Rapids), and other various paying jobs fit for an aspiring studio musician in her senior year of high school...but this is different. It's like a rite of passage, a whole new chapter in my musical life...I'm on my way. My career has begun, and I am shit-your-pants excited =D

Over spring break, I went to South Dakota with my fam. It was legit.

Let me start off by saying how lucky we are to have things as cool as the Black Hills in this country. I mean, what the hell. They're gorgeous!! I know they're famous for Black Hills gold, but that's not even the half of it...you go there, and the rocks are all infused with a mineral called Mica, which is shiny and peels apart in sheets. My mom is obsessed with it, she nearly peed from excitement when she realized it was everywhere. Of course, I'm not blaming her - it's sooooooo pretty. It makes the cliffs glisten, when they would otherwise be dull and ordinary...

Then there are the Badlands. Imagine being perched on a steppe in the middle of a seemingly endless landscape, not unlike the one pictured in The Lion King. Tan, as far as the eye can see. Gohhohohohohhhh. I bet there are dead people somewhere in those valleys...but lets not go thur.

Also, you'll never realize just how cool Mt. Rushmore is until you've stood in its shadow.

I think one of my favorite parts of the whole trip was the National Music Museum, though. It's like a music historian's Mecca; I definitely felt as though I was making some kind of pilgrimage in going there.

Hell, I've always been inexplicably fascinated by the evolution of musical instruments. I think I saw examples of every different key system that had ever been invented on the clarinet, and every ancestor and/or variety of the clarinet in history. They had an extensive collection of saxes, which included several oddities such as the straight alto, the saxello, curved sopranos, and an incredibly ornately engraved tenor made entirely out of silver. Perhaps the most awe-inspiring was the group of 5 saxes, soprano - bass, that were among the first manufactured by Adolphe Sax himself. The bass in that group was part of Sax's personal collection.

Mom was particularly infatuated with the Theremin, an early electronic instrument that uses electromagnetic fields to create sound. She played the audio clip over and over again...how many times can someone listen to Saint-Saëns' "The Swan" played on the Theremin?!! Guess that's Dawny for ya. Such a loveable kook.

Needless to say, the trip was neato.

BUT, I'm super glad to be back at UNI. As much as I love my family, I missed my friends more than I realized. So with a new room, a new roomie, and a renewed sense of community, Imma finish out the semester with a bang :)

HEALTH UPDATE:

I ate so much at home that I pretty much have to start all over again on my weight loss. Whoops.

XOXO <3

Oh Good God.

Holy tits, there's a new one. I believe it to be far worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jtVtSTr070

Someone...please help this girl. She just...needs help. Lots of it.

What What (In The Butt)

So. It's Spring Break.

I'm back home in Crapids, and when I say "home", I mean I'm pretty much staying at what I like to call Hotel Asia.

My family has moved to yet another house, which my mom promises to be our last move. It's pretty cool, smaller than the Park Ave. house, but quite a bit bigger than the little piss-colored palace on Lakeside Rd. that we moved from. I have my own room in the basement, which normally I would be staying in right now, but is instead currently inhabited by 2 foreign exchange students.

Nadia is from Thailand, and is here in America for one year through the Youth For Understanding program. She has been through 3 other host families, and has had problems. Since she's friends with Kozo, our YFU student from Okinawa who has been with us since the beginning of the school year, my family decided to take her in once they moved to the new house, because they would be able to give her my room (since Kozo would already have his own room here). She's been doing a lot better, and seems to fit right in with my family. And for the past week or so, Chisa (a girl from Koyo high school in Okinawa) has been here through the Koyo-Washington exchange. She'll be here until Saturday, when the Koyo kids leave, and is currently staying in my room with Nadia.

The best and most entertaining part of all this is watching Lucy leave in the morning, driving 3 Asians to school in her crappy 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, which my half-Lebanese cousins Emma and Nina have cleverly named "Janass". Lucy and the Asians...kinda sounds like a band name. Haaaaaaaa...

So I'm left sleeping on the couch in the living room. No big deal...I mean sure, I'd like to have my bed back someday. Another 3 months or so and I'll be golden...but until then, glad to lend my part of the house to someone who needs it while I'm away :)

I've been having a ball over the past few days, with my peeps from WHS. It's funny, no matter how much time has passed or what each of us has gone through, we can still get together and it'll be like nothing has changed.

Eileen...certifiably crazy, outwardly innocent, unique to say the least. She's the one who keeps the night going by wanting to have some kind of adventure - a walk to the park at 1AM, prank calling people, throwing things (or herself) at Carly, the list goes on. Despite her being a bona-fide nutcase at times, she's one I can count on to be there for me through anything, and to put a smile on my face when all I want to do is cry. You mess with her, you mess with me. Or any of us for that matter!

Carly...she's one of those people who was meant to be a grandma. Naturally, I mean that in the nicest way possible! She reads all the time, loves animals almost religiously, regularly makes a point to go to the chiropractor, and can knit literally anything you can think of. Her and Eileen have been friends since elementary school. She keeps it real, and doesn't sugar-coat things, which is way cool. And even though she plays it safe in nearly all aspects of life, we love her for it :)

Rosslyn...ohhh boy. I've known her since 2nd grade, and we've always had a love-hate relationship. I used to bully her at recess, which later came back to bite me in the ass our freshman year at Wash! After that though, we just decided to be friends, which turned out to be one of the better decisions I've made. She's a fierce friend, very opinionated, which really helped me get through some tough times in my life when I didn't know what to do or say. She's also really supportive, and helps keep my emotional outbursts in check (in a good way, of course). Thankfully, she also does the same for Eileen when things get just a little out of hand :P

Jake...we went from being strangely awkward in middle school (he was BFF's with this kid who hated me, Dan Williams, who is now a huge pothead), to being hangout buddies. He started chilling with us because he was friends with Rosslyn, and he dated Eileen for a while. He's pretty hilarious! Doesn't take crap from anyone, but he knows how to have fun...a happy medium. He'll make the perfect cranky old man someday xD

Erika...ahhhh, Erika. The one who introduced me to the word "tits". We went to middle school together, never really talked until the last part of last year though. She used to hang out with this one chick, Stacey Moore, who shaved half her head our Junior year...but that's beside the point! Erika is a CHARACTER. One of the most artistic people I've ever met, also one of the funniest. She loves cats, old people, tits, and LOTR. And I don't blame her, those are all spectacular things. We have such similar senses of humor, so she's always a blast to hang around with!

Oh yes...these people are the best kind of people.

When the rest of my friends were caught up in high drama, that's when I started hanging around this bunch, sometime during Junior year. Within our little group, drama seems to disappear. We can all just..be. It's awesome.

So we've hung out pretty much every night since Saturday, when we had a surprise birthday party for Eileen. We're going to see Black Swan tomorrow night at Collins Rd Theaters, because Erika works there and it's hella cheaper than any other theater in town. Can't wait :)

Coincidentally, I have to admit - as much as I love school, it's been nice to have a bit of a break from it. I now understand why they have spring break, and I've come to realize how important it is. Especially after how stressful and unpleasant the last week BEFORE break was...I think being in classes for that length of time, with no breaks, can have its undesirable effects on anyone. Not only did I notice my friends becoming more and more stressed and in need of a break from eachother, but I saw it in myself as well. The terrible nature of that week made it perfectly clear to me that spring break is necessary, so we don't all kill eachother!

Having said that, I feel like when we all get back, things will have changed, and we'll all be refreshed. I reeeeeeally look forward to seeing all my college friends again...Stacia, Abbey, Scott, Isaak, all of you...it'll be one hell of a happy reunion :)

I HAVE A CAR AGAIN. My dad got a new van - it's red and ugly and perfect for him. By some miracle, he and mom decided that as long as I pay the monthly insurance on it, dad's old 93 Accord is MINE. Fuckyahhhhhhh!

It's not the prettiest car, by any means. There's a large crack in the windshield, and some rust on the back, BUT, everything works. And since mom has never driven it, it's stayed clean on the inside! One thing I'm glad to have inherited from my dad is his cleanliness. Also, patience - it came in handy for both of us when he taught me to drive a stick shift a few years ago. I love driving stick...it makes me feel so BAD A$$!

P.S: personalized plates = DELIN. What what.

Check this out...and afterwards, please don't bitch slap me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0

WOW. Did YOU immediately think "what the holy hell is this"? Did YOU want to punch her every time she said "FRIIIIIDAY"? BARF OUT...*~*

If you watched the whole thing, A+. It takes some serious balls to sit through something that ghastly. I mean, what is she, like 13? You don't go out and do that crap when you're 13...you can't even drive. Also:

~0:28, where do I find a sign like that, that just says "Bus Stop"?

~1:10, watch the friend on the left, in the pink. Huhuhuh...awkward x10.

~2:04, wtf? Are these lyrics translated from Mandarin? Or, granted, she is still in middle school, in which case her grammar skills are understandably inadequate. Still..please STFU.

~2:29, who even is this??? Not exactly a good way to start a successful rap career, pal!

~2:49, Mad: "Clearly traffic lights in the background." Eileen: "PLEASE, get hit by a bus!!!"

Sorry...it's just that if that's the future of the music industry, I think I'll go sit in the corner and mourn the loss of creativity. I mean...cripes.

HEALTH UPDATE:

I think I've eaten more in the past 4 days than I had for the 2 weeks prior to coming home. Not that I don't eat at school, because I do. However, since I've been home I've probably been eating twice what I would normally eat in a day at school. Good thing I'm going on a run tomorrow, and starting my ab workout again for the first time in 4 days...After spring break, when I get back to UNI, shit's gonna get real. Real INTENSE!!!

Oh, and one more thing before I leave for the night...Katie Hawks, if you're reading this, I still miss you terribly! Facebook is my main way of keeping in touch with all my lovely UNI friends, and you don't have one...but I know you read my blog sometimes. So here you go :)

*Internet hug*!!!

Bye now :]]

Give Me A Plastic Chicken

So. The title of this post is a reference to my latest addiction, the Facebook game Dog Show Friends. I can't seem to stop playing it...thank you, Stacia. I now understand why Lucy was so addicted to Farmville for so long - it's impossible to quit!! It gives me some strange sense of satifsaction, which I neither understand nor question.

In the game, you need certain items to continue training your puppy, and one of the levels requires a plastic chicken for whatever reason. I needed like 8 of them, too! RIDIC'LUS.

Anywho.

So this past weekend was the MVC Men's Basketball tournament in St. Louis, which I went to for pep band, and it was kind of awesome. Despite the last person who subbed for me having lost half the tunes in my folder, which put me off immensely for a while, I had a ton of fun with Caryn, Gretchen, Stash, Megan the GA, and lots of others. Here's some cool/not-so-cool stuff that happened!

Good:

~They showed the saxes and clarinets on the TV camera a lot

~What what, in the butt!

~Late night heart-to-heart with Stash and Caryn <3

~Jon Mallak attempting to eat a burger aptly named the Tower of Doom, which combined 12 one-pound beef patties, a pound of fries, and a bunch of other crap. Yum.

~Crepes

~The views from our room and Megan's room - GORGEOUS!!

~The Arch, which we never actually went up in but got to see lit up at night :)

~All the awesome architecture downtown...why can't we have buildings like that in IA???

Poop:

~It rained pretty much the whole time. Euuuwhhh.

~We lost the first game...eh. Whatevs.

~Might not have gotten to do everything we wanted to do, but hey.

~Drunk people EVERYWHERE in the hotel!!

So yeah. That was fun!

This week is midterms week, which sucks. Everyone's so stressed out, causing them to either be bipolar or outwardly PO'ed 24/7. I'm an internal wreck, so I'm just trying to stay as positive as I can..we won't get into any of my problems here, you probably don't want to hear them. Some of my friends have really been worried about Theory/AT/SS, and I don't know what to say to them without sounding stuck up, other than "You can do this, it's not as bad as you think it is! I believe in you!" or "Try not to worry about it so much..the more you worry about it, the less you'll be able to concentrate."

I don't think I've ever mentioned it on here, purely because I don't really talk about it, but I have what's called Aural Recall, aka. Perfect Pitch. I can identify any pitch, tell how sharp or flat it is, and sing any pitch, without a reference. I can hear tones in percussive sounds, like the ticking of a clock or a pen tapping on a desk. When notes are out of tune, it causes me physical pain. It's especially useful for AT and Sightsinging...at the same time, however, I don't like to talk about it because I don't want anyone to make a huge deal out of it. I can't relate to my friends' problems in those classes, and I can't help anyone with ear training because I don't know how to explain it. Sometimes I feel like I'm judged for it, disliked for it..but there really isn't anything I can do, other than not talk about it. If I've ever caused anyone grief because of it, I'm sorry...the last thing I want is to be a bitch.

HEALTH UPDATE:

I haven't been to the gym since Wednesday, because of the whole pep band trip, and because it was closed yesterday when I woke up. I've really been misbehaving on this whole diet/exercise thing for the past 5 days or so...time to get my ass in gear.

I'm a bit upset with myself for how out-of-control my language has been lately. Overuse of "fuck", "shit", "tits", "balls", etc. I remember resolving to cut that out, but it hasn't really happened as much as I'd like it to. Maybe it's just from stress, but it just feels like everyone's extra pissed off lately, and I've realized my profanity isn't really helping it right now. So that's gonna change.

Totally random, but I feel like I should share my thoughts on a movie I watched this weekend.

Film: The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

Plot: As the hobbits Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee make their way to Mordor to destroy the Ring of Power and keep it from Sauron, they run into this UGLY person named Gollum. Well he's not a person but still. He says he can take them to Mordor, and that's all they really need to hear. They make their way through a nasty swamp of dead people, and finally reach the gate. Meanwhile, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are chasing the group of Orcs that kidnapped Pippin and Merry. Gandalf comes back to life as Gandalf the White, and shit gets real!!! Then a tree man shows up, and a bunch of battles occur at Rohan, where the king's son dies. Eowyn falls in love with Aragorn, who's already got it bad for Arwen, that one elf from Rivendell who's crazy enough to pledge her life to him and become mortal...stoop.

Favorite part:

First watch this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYiCPmwOV4A

Then watch this.

http://www.whatistaters.ytmnd.com/

Ahahahahahahah.

LEGEND UPDATE:

We've been talking a bit more, hanging out more, stuff like that...I've decided just to stay friends with him. I've just got that vibe like it isn't gonna happen, yk?

GAH I just wish everyone would calm themselves and see the light at the end of this demanding, malicious tunnel..I realize everyone goes through periods of being whacked-out, that it's a natural part of life, but I hate watching it happen to people I care about.

I think I'm seeing a theme with my life here...

Unconditional love is one of the most beautiful things...When you like being around someone just..because. When that person makes you happy by simply spending time with you. When you want nothing more for that person than to see them as happy as they make you. When you wouldn't dream of hurting them. When no matter what they may say or do to you out of frustration or anger, all you want to do is help alleviate their pain, so they can be at peace. When even after they've tried the deepest depths of your patience, you don't have the heart to give up on them.

At the same time, unconditional love can be one of the most painful, bittersweet things. When not returned, it may not make you love them any less, but it can take its toll on your heart.

Fin

Bittersweet Symphony

I miss home.

I miss my little sister. I miss my puppies. I miss my bed, which I can't sleep in when I go home because that's where our exchange student sleeps. I miss having a permanent place my family can call our own. I miss waking up on Sunday morning to the smell of waffles coming from the kitchen. I miss hearing mom and dad pester eachother in their funny way. I miss all the stupid shit Lucy and I say and do together. I miss curling up on our big couch with Scout by my feet.

I miss having a good sound on the clarinet. I miss knowing what I'm talking about in jazz theory. I miss being good at the sax instead of halfway decent.

I miss not being overweight. I miss having control over my emotions.

Why is everything so hard right now?

Sometimes I wish things were the way they used to be...