A Week of Extremes

I missed Sunday's update... but oh well. This'll do. :)

This past week I felt somewhat bipolar. Maybe not in the precise definition of the condition, but just that one day I felt somewhat depressed and sad about certain things, and then the next day I was exuberantly happy. It was kind of weird. Since, though, I've mostly stayed with "exuberantly happy." Wednesday in general was a very stressful day. I wanted to get my CS 124 lab done so I wouldn't have to worry about finishing it on Thursday (since it was due on Thursday) and I had to perform the first movement of the Mozart Concerto in Master Classes that night only rehearsing with my pianist for the first time an hour before we performed (not to mention I was basically just learning the second half of it), and I had a couple other things that were due that day as well. I just wanted it to be over. I didn't seem to have much done with my lab by 8 o' clock that night, and after performing in Master Classes, I felt like I didn't do very well at all. Right after performing I was rather proud of myself for just making it through since I had only really rehearsed it once and was hoping to just get the notes and rhythms right with a couple other things. And I did just that! The 3 or 4 hours before I had spent at work listening to various recordings of people playing the first movement on youtube so I could just get it in my head. It probably would've helped to have the music in front of me, but I had that thing stuck in my head like nobody's business. I was feeling pretty good. Then came the comments. They weren't terrible, it was just nobody said anything good about it. It was all, "This should've been more exaggerated, the style needed to be more this and that..." Someone mentioned that I needed to just get a recording to know how certain things go. I knew there was one spot that many people played a certain way, but I just chose not to. I guess that made her think I didn't know how it was supposed to go. I did play one half note as one beat because I had gotten in the habit of doing that in my practicing just out of stupidity. Maybe that's what she was thinking of. After sitting down I just felt like I had completely insulted a standard in Oboe literature. Like I should've just nailed it and failed. All I wanted was one good thing said, and nobody said anything. If anything, it was like people were eager to tell me everything I did wrong. 

So, needless to say, I felt pretty down. I think in retrospect it's just that it is one of those pieces that everybody knows and so the whole time I was playing they had a certain recording in their head and all they could think of was how what I was doing didn't match what they had going in their mind. I'm not a terrible Oboist, I know that. It was fine. I'm just learning it, and it's a freakin' beast. It'll be alright. :)

I got home and was just thinking about how I really needed to finish my lab, and I just wasn't getting it. It's frustrating because with Computer Science stuff I normally get it. I've had so much experience with it, and I freakin' teach it to people every day. I feel like I should catch on quickly. But in CS 124, we are dealing with stuff that's completely knew. Gates, latches, MDR, Program Counter, etc. So much information to absorb. I've found that usually with this type of stuff, I feel slower than normal right at first. Like I just don't get it as fast as most people are getting it. Then, one moment, it just makes sense. It's like an exponential growth of knowledge as things click here and there. I'm finally hitting that point where things are making sense. But, Wednesday night, I was still at the beginning slow stage trying to figure things out. All I had to do was making a program that took single digit numbers until you pressed "=" and it would output the sum. Sounds simple. In Java I could code that up in about 2 minutes. But in this class, I had to do it in assembly. I was actually excited to learn how to program in assembly. It's like the base level of programming. You have to tell the computer how to do everything. Right at first, it's just giberish. It makes no sense. Well, needless to say, Wednesday night I finally got it to work! Things made sense! I went to bed happy.

Thursday morning came and life was grand! Except for the fact that I had an incoming Calculus test I didn't feel ready for, I loved it! I was at work and I was just giddy. I taught a help session for CS 142 and I think I was just a little too excited for the students to teach loops and conditional statements. It was so weird. I felt odd being so happy after feeling so depressed the day before.

Oh! I also had a Dictation Pace test on Thursday--I got a B+ or A- again! (I'm not completely sure, but right around there.) I keep feeling like I'm getting lucky. I might just be able to pull off a B+ in that class. That'd be so grand. It'd make up for whatever grade I'm going to get in Calc 2. Ugh, that class is the death of me. It just takes so long to do everything. I'm planning on taking the second midterm tomorrow night. It's going to be torture again, I just know it. I'm hoping to pass this one, but we'll see. I attempted to study today, and it took me two hours to do the first 3 problems on the review. Well, we looked at some other things. Oh boy. It'll be fun, I just know it.

Let's not forget that this was a three-day weekend! We had today off! I know it's somewhat rare to get President's Day off in college, but this will sadly be the last day we get off until the end of the semester. Which, in terms of working is good. In fact, I'm not too torn up about it because we get out so early. Oh wow... we are already in the middle of February. It's actually kind of worrisome that we are already so far into the semester when I feel like so many of my classes shouldn't be close to finishing. Like I haven't done enough to really sustain my grade where I want it to be. *cough* Calculus! *cough*

Oh boy, I'm typing quite a bit. Today there was a kind of Music 276 party again. It was fun as always! We watched "Much Ado About Nothing" and had pizza and cookies, as well as played Mad Gab. What a fun game. It was somewhat frustrating to hear everyone complain about Keanu Reeve's "terrible" acting everytime he'd come on screen since I was somewhat obsessed with him back in the day. I didn't say anything. I wouldn't say that the first thing I thought of when they suggested watching that movie was that it had Keanu Reeves' in it. In fact, when they first showed his face, someone said, "Oh, I forgot he was in this movie!" Then people went on to say how he was Neo, was a horrible actor, and his best movie was Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. They'd say that he probably didn't have any idea what he was saying and was just repeating lines he had memorized with certain feelings associated with it. If there's one thing I know, it's that Keanu Reeves is not dumb. He's actually very smart. I'm not gonna say he's the best actor I know, but I know that he's not as terrible as people make him out to be. Maybe I should've said something. It obviously kind of bothered me. Oh well! :)

Alright, I think I'll stop here and head off to bed. I've got to get up early tomorrow to do my sight singing homework. What a joy!

A Weekend in St. George

This past weekend was the UMEA Conference. (Utah Music Education Association) It was fun! It did require me to miss work and classes on Friday, but that turned out just fine that I did. We didn't have a quiz in Calculus, and we didn't have homework due in my CS 124 class. It worked out quite nicely, actually. I also got someone to not only cover my work shifts, but to switch some times with me so I wouldn't lose the money I'd make at work on Friday. It did require me to skip Calculus to work... but that's okay. :) There was so much free food! I stayed at someone's house and their mom was so nice! I got up Friday morning and she had all this food set out for us to eat. Then we went back for lunch--same thing. Food everywhere. She offered dinner too, but we already had a free dinner at Chuck-A-Rama that night. It was pretty much insane. The conference itself was pretty fun. There were these different workshops you could go to about different things. I went to this one about sound recording and editing... oh man, it looked so cool. He had this midi-keyboard that he was using that was exactly like mine except small. Aww, man I really want to get some of that stuff. It'd be really expensive, though. It'd be so much fun, though. Oh boy. I also went to this one about how to avoid burnout as a teacher, which was really boring, actually. I was falling asleep... but I did manage to write down some good quotes he said. Then there was this Ukelele class, which was fun and a couple other things. Some good stuff. It was kind of weird. This was mostly for actual teachers, and the Collegiate members could come if they wanted. This is what the teachers go to! It's like I was a real teacher. It's like I'm growing up. Weird! Graduating seems so far away, but in reality I'm not really that far away from being in a classroom of my own. That is such a scary and exciting thought. Here we go!

So, funny story. I bought my book for CS 124 online at amazon.com on January 7th, and still haven't gotten it. So, I e-mailed the guy that I bought it from asking for a refund or something since I paid for nothing. No response after a couple of days, so I filed a thing on amazon.com for amazon to give me a refund. Then, I left for St. George. When I got back, I checked my e-mail and the guy I bought it from had e-mailed me back. He apologized profusely and felt really bad about it. He just didn't see that someone had bought the book until just then. I kind of felt bad that I made him feel so bad. I mean, I know it was really inconvenient to me and everything, he just felt really bad about the whole thing. He gave me a refund and everything. But this is the funny part. I got another e-mail from him that said this:

"I just checked your address and realize that you live just 2 blocks from my house.  If you want I can still give you that book.  Let me know what you would like to do.  Again I apologize for this horrible event.  If you would like to talk give me a call at -------. I am from chicago but going to school at BYU.  Sorry again."

WOW! LOL... that is absolutely hilarious to me. This whole time I've been wanting this book, and it's been 2 blocks away from me. I could've just walked and gotten it from him. So. Funny. It's totally fine, though. I'm just going to take the refund money and not have a book. I've survived so far and it's been fine. The online notes and wikipedia are working just fine. I'd rather just have the money back.

I think that's all I have right now. I should try to go to bed tonight so I won't be tired tomorrow. Until next week! :)

The Long Weekend

I didn't quite update yesterday, but I'll post today to make up for it. :) 

Today was Martin Luther King's birthday... or what we decided to make it. Either way, I didn't have school today! Yay! I love being at college without having school. Then I just party, party, party and have a wonderful time. Well, I don't always party, but this weekend was definitely fun. Ashley and I rented some movies and watched them while eating some yummy food. We also went on some frigidly cold walks. I finally got to see "Eagle Eye" and "Wall-E." Both were really good! Eagle Eye didn't turn out to be quite what I expected, but I still really liked it. Wall-E was very interesting, and it was freakin' adorable. Pixar knows what their doing.

Just now I finished doing a "Biggest Loser" workout with Charlene (one of my roommates) and her friend Theresa. Oh boy, it was fun. :) I can already tell my legs are going to be so sore tomorrow. But within a week I'm gonna have this chizzled six-pack, baby. :P That would actually be kind of creepy. It'll be fun. I like to be in shape. It's a little hard to run out here, too. The air is so thin and it's so freakin' cold all the time! We also don't really like to pay that much extra for heating, so it's always really cold in the apartment as well. Right now, my right hand is so cold... and my feet. Maybe I should put on my slippers. 

In the spirit of making lists, I'm going to copy Rachel's little questionaire thing and answer the questions myself. What fun!

Name: Sarah
Eye Color: Brown
Shoe size: 8-9
Height: 5'5"
What brands are you wearing right now? That's a somewhat odd question... I'm still wearing the clothes I worked out in: Champion athletic shorts and a BYU t-shirt.
Favorite Number: 2307 :P
Favorite drink: Probably water... nothing quenches thirst better!
Favorite Month: December--Christmas/Holiday time!
Favorite Breakfast: Cereal--I'll go with Oatmeal Squares. Oh, or french toast! That's delicious stuff.
***********Have You Ever*****************
Love/Liked someone so much it made you cry? I think for what this question is going at, no. I've never loved/liked another non-relative boy so much that it made me cry.
Been in a police car: I don't think so.
Came close to dying: Just the other day I was crossing the street and a car almost made a right turn into me. That was rather exciting. Fifth quarter sometimes worried me as well. :P
Been in a hot tub: Yes! Oh... that sounds so nice right now.
Fallen asleep in school: I did just on Friday!
Broken someone's heart: Maybe. Though, it was more like middle school/elementary school drama. Hardly counts.
Cried when someone died: Yes.
Fell off your chair: Yes! In fact, I have a video of me doing that.
Saved e-mails: Oh yes.
Ever been cheated on?: I'd probably need a real boyfriend to be cheated on.
***********What is-****************
Your room like: My room here is mostly clean. Right now I really need to do my laundry, so my basket is getting somewhat full. I also happen to have bananas hanging on my lamp. It's good decoration.
Last thing you ate? A bowl of Kroger brand corn flakes. Yum!
--------------------------Ever Had- ---------------------------
Chicken pox: I did when I was two or so. Don't remember it at all.
Sore throat: I'm not sure who hasn't.
Stitches: Sure haven't!
-------------------------Do You--------------------------------
Believe in love at first sight? I really don't think it'd be love. It'd be infatuation/attraction.
Like picnics? Depends on the weather--but usually yes!
Like school? For the most part--I love it! Especially here at college where I get to study things I'm actually interested in and be around people also interested in the same thing I am around the same age.
-----------------------Questions-------------------------------
Who was the last person you danced with? David! We were playing this game in Music 276--such good times.
Who makes you smile? Tons of people. Family, friends, the Oboe studio, Music 276 people... (not to say the Oboe studio or Music 276 aren't my friends. :P)
-------------------------Who---------------------------
Did you last yell at? Yell? Umm... I don't normally yell out of anger. The last time I remember doing that was this past summer, actually.
Do you wear contact lenses or glasses? Yes--usually contacts. (I'm not sure why this is under "who")
Do you like yourself? For the most part!
--------------------Final Questions--------------------------
Favorite song? That is impossible to answer. Depends on the genre, and my mood. Just now the song that popped into my head was, "Fight the Sky" by Gavin Mikhail.
What did you do today? I got up, ate breakfast, played Brawl with Ashley, talked with my roommates, took a nice long nap, ate lunch/dinner, worked out with roommate, and now posting on my blog!
----------------------RANDOM--------------------------------
Hate someone in your family? Hate? That is such a strong word. I dislike people at times, but I don't hate anyone.
Good singer? Sometimes I like to think I am. :P
Diamond or pearl? I'd probably go with diamond, but pearls are nice too.
Are you oldest? Absolutely not. I'm the youngest in my family, and usually out of my friends, too. The only time I was the oldest was when I played soccer way back in the day.
Indoors or outdoors? Lately, indoors! It's just so cold outside.
--------------------------Today did you-----------------------
Talk to someone you like? Umm, that's kind of weird. Yes, I did. I talked to my sister and my roommates. Though, if you're asking about a boy I "like", no. No I did not.
Get sick? Certainly not.
Sing? I did sing a little bit. Just heard a song I really liked and started singing along with it.
Talked to an ex: Ex-boyfriend? I guess that depends on your definition of boyfriend, but even then I didn't.
Miss someone: Yes.
Tell someone you loved them? I did! I got to talk to my nephew Mark and Kathy got him to tell me that he loves me and I told him that I loved him back. Aww... he's so freakin' adorable!
--------------------------Last person who---------------------
You talked to on the phone? That would be my sister Kathy!
Drove in the car with you? Charlene and Megan
Went to the movies with you? Charlene, Quinta, and Theresa! We went to the 12:15 showing of Ghost Town. 'twas fun!
---------------------------HAVE YOU---------------------------
Been to Mexico: Yup! Was kind of scary at times.
Been to Canada: I don't think I have.
Been to Africa: Nope.
----------------------Random--------------------------
Do you have a crush on someone: I think I do, unfortunately.
What books are you reading right now? Umm... Doctrine and Covenants, my Calculus book... no...not any real books. :P
Best feeling in the world: Performing for someone and having them react positively to it. (Even better when it's something I've written :))
Future kids names? I think it's a bit too soon for that. ;)
Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? I do! Aww, Freddy.
What's under your bed? Nothing that I know of. There's not really much room for anything.
Who do you really hate? Hate is such a strong word!
Do you have a job: I certainly do! I'm a TA for CS 142. I love it.
Ever liked someone you didn't have a chance with? Certain celebrities... perhaps. :P
Are you lonely right now: Depends on your definition of lonely.

Well, that was fun. :) Maybe I should start on some of that homework I've put off the entire weekend.

My new nephew!!

So, I got home last Wednesday! w00t for that! I've survived finals (and did pretty well) and survived my first entire year at BYU. Go me! So far from being home I've had the privilege of painting our entire living room. Both coats. That pretty much consumed yesterday and today. It was tiring, holy cravitz, but it was nice to get done. My parents are kind of redoing a bunch of stuff in the house. Replacing lots of carpet with tile, and apparently they are going to replace the carpet that's left with some new carpet. We need it, too. It's old and kind of falling apart in some places.

Oh, and before I get to the incredible cuteness that is my new nephew Alex, I've got to mention the fact that I'm going to a Josiah Leming concert tomorrow night. He just happens to be coming to Dallas! Holy cravitz! Yay! Despite my whining about him in my last entry, he still rocks my socks off. The ticket was a whole 10 dollars... I can deal. :) I'll post pictures and videos for sure after tomorrow night.

But, for now we get to see little Alex! He was born today at 5:38 PM and weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces, and was 20 inches long.

Holy cuteness! His little face... you can definitely see both his mom and his dad in him. My camera was running out of batteries, but I was still able to get a little video of him. He's just sleeping... but, holy cravitz. He's so adorable.

One More Week!

So now that it is the end of Wednesday life is pretty good. :) My jury is now over, and it seemed to go pretty well. I didn't really mess up anything. A couple little things, but they're forgivable. :p So now I just have to do my other finals, which are significantly less worrisome. I've basically taken it easy the rest of today, though. Tomorrow I'll try to actually study and finish some finals and whatnot. I'll try to be done with my finals by Monday. Yay! :)

So a week from today right now I'll be back home with my family. I'm so excited! I was planning on driving back with Ashley, but suddenly her brother changed his mind and is not going to stay Spring term. That means I'm no longer required to driver back with her because her brother will be there. That means it's cheaper (with my Dad's flying benefits), faster, and easier for me. I'll be home on Wednesday rather than Sunday. Wow. I'm unbelievably excited to be back home for the summer. It's so close! SO close...

Okay, so right now it's about 11:38 PM and I have no idea what time I'm planning on going to bed. Though, I do know that I'll be sleeping in tomorrow... yay for sleeping in! I love getting sleep. Though, it's nicer when I have cool dreams. Last night I had dreams about Computer Science. Not really exciting at all. I guess that's what happens when I help people with their programs for CS 142 for about 9 hours in one day. Yeah, I stayed until a little after midnight Tuesday night helping people since it was the last day to pass off labs and such. It was good times. That'll somewhat make up for the hours I'll miss on Thursday since it's a reading day and I normally work for 5 hours on Thursday. Yay for getting money! :)

Alright, well I guess this is it for now. I can't think of anything else significant to say... so until next time! :)

I can feel it now

There's just under two weeks of classes left now. The end really is coming. Two weeks from yesterday is the last day of classes, two weeks from today is my jury, and then after that I just have my finals... and then sweet freedom! I'm really looking forward to this summer. I'll have my own computer in my own room with my own internet. Well, it's my parents internet... but it's not blocked or anything! I'll finally go to myspace, youtube, and any other streaming video site at my own free will! This should be the last year to worry about it, too, because I'm definitely not planning on living on campus for the rest of my college career. Yay!

Some other good news is that I finished my AVL tree lab for cs 235. It was rumored to be the hardest lab of the semester, and I finished it early! So, I got a 102 on it. :) Yay! Though, it did pretty much consume my entire weekend. (Mostly Saturday) There's just one more project, and 2 more homeworks. Though, the homeworks always turn out to be really easy. It's actually really funny. There was a homework due last Friday, and I turned it in Monday morning before the TAs got there. Oh yeah, and on their website they have in bold that there's NO LATE HOMEWORK ACCEPTED! Yeah... I turned in homework due on Friday on Monday morning... full credit. Well, actually I missed two points on it because apparently I thought that 7 was greater than 9. Whatever.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to maintain my GPA this semester, but at least my Dictation grade is significantly better! I have about a B in the class so far. Yay! I had barely a C- last semester. That is really good news. Though, I'm basically guaranteed to not get an A in Music Civ 202. I can hopefully pull of an A-. Book of Mormon, surprisingly, I'm really hoping for another A-, but it's probably going to be a B+. Burn. I thought religion classes were supposed to be easy. Oh well. At least I'm learning a lot from it. :)

Oh, and it's official. I'm going to Fan Fair (or CMA fest... whatever) this summer! My mom and I bought tickets and booked a hotel yesterday and the day before. If I didn't go now, it would be a drastic waste of money. It's looking like it will cost me about 700 dollars. It seems like a lot of money... well, it is a lot of money, but I was expecting to pay about 1000 dollars, if not more. So, I'm pretty excited. It should be so much fun. :) YAY! This summer is going to rock.

And since I'm sucking at life at posting in this blog, I'll go ahead and post another video. Yay for videos!



I just turned on the camera, and apparently the room spun around me. It was all rather thrilling.

I'm kind of odd

So, after finishing a fantastic 3-day weekend, a new one begins with a Tuesday that's pretending to be a Monday. Last semester I would have been thrilled to skip a Tuesday, but this semester Tuesdays and Thursdays rock, so it kind of sucks that I get a Monday and Wednesday back to back. Oh well, it'll be okay.

So, tonight I was in a kind of odd mood. What do I do when I'm in odd moods? I make weird videos. Tonight I felt like dancing. Ashley suggested dancing to a freakin' awesome song, and I agreed. She started the song and I just went. Enjoy! Hahahahaha!

Suddenly today became awesome

So, I woke up this morning at about 7:00, like always, and Ashley needed to print something real quick from my computer. So, she got on my computer and just checked her e-mail out of habit and saw that she had gotten an e-mail from our Music Civ professor -- we had no class today! Apparently he got sick, and couldn't make it. *snap* Too bad. And, I got an e-mail yesterday from my Music Theory professor, and apparently he was sick too! So, I had no 8:00 or 9:00 class today. The only class I had was CS 235 at 3:00, and I worked from 12 to 6 with my 3:00 class in between. So, it was good times. Ashley and I got up and ate breakfast since we were already up, and then came back and took a two-hour nap during the time that I would normally be at class. Mwahaha! It was awesome! I love naps... they're so refreshing.

So, I went to work and then came back. I practiced for 2 hours (which went by unusually fast) and now here I am. Posting on my blog at 1:24 AM. I'm still not doing so well with the sleeping thing. Though, Ashley and I are planning on staying up for 72 hours next weekend on Kokiri Kids, so I guess this no sleeping thing is kind of in preparation for that. I figure I'll already be used to getting not very much sleep, so my body will be more accustomed to little sleep. Granted, it'll still be hard and suck when I'm sooo tired and just want to go to sleep. But, it'll be fun to look back on, and it'll be an awesome record to be able to tell people. Right now my record is something like 42 or 43 hours of no sleep. That was hard, especially since I was doing it by myself. I would have stayed up longer, but there was something else I had to go to the next day that I figured I should be awake for. Oh, and I was really freakin' tired. But, this should be fun since I'll have Ashley with my to keep me awake. We'll keep each other awake. We were considering making another blog just devoted to that. We'll have like hourly updates or something, and possibly post videos of how insane we'll be from lack of sleep. It should be fun. Yay!

The creepy caller didn't call again, either. I almost miss him/her. Why did they stop calling? Why were they calling in the first place? I just want answers...

So, to close this amazingly awesome blog entry, I'll post another video from last night's insanity.



I meant to just rock forward slowly, but I ended up falling instead.