Procrastinating is Phun!

I should be reading my Calculus and taking a quiz saying that I read my Calculus, but I feel like procrastinating it a bit longer. Since I've written a blog the past two Sundays, I'll make it a goal to try and write a blog at least once a week--on Sunday. So here I am! Writing another blog. Good times indeed.

I took my first Dictation pace test last Thursday--not exactly sure how it went. This teacher, who is another grad student, grades them on his own. I guess to ensure that we don't cheat. But now I don't know what I got on it until Tuesday. A little nerve-wracking since I'm positive I messed up the last harmonic dictation part. I... had some weird stuff there. At least I'm pretty certain on the bass... and he grades nicely on the analysis. Even if the analysis is wrong, if we analyzed what we wrote as the chord correctly, we get points. I didn't do so well on the mock exam... I'm positive I did better on this one. Whatever. Passing the four semesters of dictation is my goal. I was able to pull off a B last semester--which was awesome. Having a B again would be cool. B+ to an A awesome--but highly unlikely. I guess we'll see!

I always have Calculus homework to do. Luckily, I mostly enjoy what I'm doing so it's not that big of a deal. It's just every night when I'm thinking of what I need to do for the next day, there's always Calculus on the list. I either have to read the chapter and take a quiz about it, or do written homework. There are also quizzes due on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but I luckily work on all three of those days and I usually just finish the quizzes then. I should try to get out of that habit though. There are going to be days that I'll be actually working the whole time and I won't have time to finish the quizzes. Not to mention the material is going to be getting harder and the quizzes will take longer. Calculus 2 should just be a load of fun. :) It is nice having a math class. I like math. In fact, I think I decided I wanted to minor in Math. Yup, a double major in Music Education and Computer Science with a Math minor. Three of the classes I have to take for the minor are already required for the Computer Science major, and one class can replace a class that's required for the Computer Science major. So really it's just a matter of taking 2 or 3 more classes. Not a big deal. I might as well, right? :) Somewhere down the road if I really wanted, I could probably get a job teaching Math. I hear those people are in short supply. That'd be fun.

I'm slowly getting better and better at the Viola. I got another oboist who also played Violin/Viola in high school to show me how to bow correctly. Now I actually play the instrument better! Now I just need to try and train my fingers to find the spots on the Viola for the notes so I can be in tune. Supposedly lots of string players are out of tune, even some string performance majors. At least that's what some people tell me. I'm not going to be one of them. :P I can try at least. I figure this is the time to try and get my fingers in the right places and train my ear to be in tune. I'm probably dreaming. Oh well!

My lesson last week went fine. Besides the fact that she asked me to play my E scale stuff. Which that just happened to be the one scale that I hoped she wouldn't pick. Literally, every other scale I worked on until it was back to where it was last semester. But 30-45 minutes later when I finally got to E, my mouth was getting pretty tired. I just ran through it until I played it right once. I didn't really get my fingers to remember sufficiently. It kind of came out with my fingers got confused up high. But, it's all good. I did practice it again so my fingers remember now. She'll probably pick another scale tomorrow--or forget. That'd be nice. :P I can play my freakin' scales. I practiced them to death my first semester. Literally, I played them an hour a day. For the first 20 or 30 minutes each hour that I practiced I would run through all my scales. I remember once spending an entire hour on just scales. It was rather boring and monotonous. Thus why I kind of am losing the will to practice them as much. I should try and be better about practicing. I scheduled practice rooms--but lots of them are in the evenings. Which means after I've already gone home and eaten and settled back in, I have to walk back to the HFAC and practice for an hour. It's not that big of a deal--it's just a matter of getting myself up and doing it. I need to get in the habit... habit... I just have so many classes this semester. Well, not really classes, just lots of classes that take up a lot of time. Then if there's anytime before 6, I'm working or practicing or something. I'm not like really stressed out, just have a lot to take my time. In fact, I'd say I'm pretty happy right now. I enjoy my classes for the most part, and I know how everything goes. Regardless, I'll be happy when this school year is over. :P I'll be done with the silly music core! (Music Theory, Sight Singing, and Dictation) I really like Music Theory, but I could definitely do without Sight Singing and Dictation. Oh... I just remembered. I have Sight Singing homework to do tonight. Blech... that'll be fun.

What else? Oh, I finally did my wash. Good for me. It costs so freakin' much here! I wonder if the prices went up at Helaman Halls, too. It cost $1.25 per wash, and $1.00 to dry each wash. I had three loads--it cost me a freakin' $6.75 to do my laundry! Insanity. Especially when you're used to umm... free. Oh well. I'll just remember to have more naked days. Anything to save money. Ooorr... I could just never do my wash. Be smelly! Totally worth the money.

I hope you all know I'm kidding.

I suppose I should end this post and do my homework. Fun!

A New Week!

A new week is about to start. I have a private lesson tomorrow, and I'm not sure what to think. I always get nervous about them, and it always turns out just fine. I did practice what she wanted me to, and I have a fairly good reed. It just takes a bit to break in... so if I just warm up on it before the lesson or something, it should be okay. Right? I don't know. We'll see! :)

Calculus is turning out to be fun! I missed having a math class, and it's really not too hard of stuff. We just started limits, and it's making perfect sense. A nice review of what I once knew. I just need to make sure I have all this trig stuff down that I never truly had down in the first place. Let's hope I can pull off an A! That'd be awesome. Then there's just Calc 2 to worry about... but I'll worry about that next semester. Double majors are fun! :P

I taught my first help session for CS 142 last Friday as well. It was fun! I hope I didn't confuse people too much and that I actually helped. I'm pretty sure I did. They were all so quiet and attentive! Listening to every word I said and writing stuff down I said/wrote. It was crazy! I know when I actually get a teaching job (wow... that's so cool to think about :)) it definitely won't be that easy to have them listening. The help session is a special group of people. They aren't coming because they have to, they are coming to listen to get some help on the lab. So of course they are going to listen attentively and be quiet. It's nice.

Speaking of teaching, we've been going to schools and observing and I've officially learned the D major scale on Viola! They just taught us how to use the bow. Man, it's so many things to think about at once. Though, I don't think it'll be hard to get the hang of it. Just at first there's how to hold the bow, how to move my arm, where exactly to put my fingers/be in tune, what note is what fingering, and the freakin' clef! That took me by surprise. We first walked in and joined them and they were reading through this song. I look at the music... "What is an E# doing in here??" Oh! It's the freaking alto clef! Surprise! Okay, so a C is really a D... it's different. That's for sure. But it's oh so fun! :) If I could just get GOOD at it, that'd be even better. But I have a feeling it'd take a while to get good at it. I could just get proficient at it by the end of the semester. At least I have String Workshop to look forward to so they'll go over in more detail how to play a string. It seems like fun. You can eat while you play! Insanity! And there's to stinkin' reed to worry about!

Yesterday (Saturday) BYU had a football against UCLA. Which, I'm pretty sure is the team that we barely beat last year at the Las Vegas bowl. Yesterday, we smeared them 59-0. At the half we were ahead 42-0!! Insane! They just were fumbling and throwing interceptions everywhere! We just couldn't be stopped. It would have been more, but I heard we were playing all of our second and third string players during the last two quarters or so. Had to give our offense a break since they were playing basically the entire first half. We played the freaking "Cougar Cub" song that we always play during a first down so many times! That and the fight song for each touchdown and field goal. It was exciting. We have such a good football team this year. Yay!

Oh yeah, last Wednesday I had Master Classes and I performed my song for everyone. It went pretty well! Everyone seemed to like the song and Jesse played the piano part very well for not having it for very long. It had the tendency to go too slow (as opposed to too fast like in Sacrement meeting), but it was still good. Geralyn seemed to like it too and had some suggestions for me. But that's all they were, suggestions. She was encouraging me to keep adding to it and write some more pieces to perform in class. Yikes! We'll see how far that goes. :) Either way, I'm glad it's over and went well. Yay!

Well, I should try to finish up my Sight Singing homework before I head off to bed. Though before I do, I'll go ahead and post another video of a little snippet of something I wrote a week or so ago. On a whim I named it "Mixed Feelings." Just because of the switch from major to minor. Like I couldn't decide what it was supposed to mean. I don't know. Go ahead and listen or something. :P

P.S. I love getting comments. :) If you read this blog, please comment and let me know! It makes me feel like I'm not writing to a wall/myself.

So... school

I've finished my first week of my sophomore year in college. Yup, sure have. I did my audition on Tuesday, which went just fine. I ended up making Wind Symphony playing English Horn! I'm so excited. I know that Wind Symphony is also going on tour to Japan after next semester... but I don't know I get to go on that. But, you know what, it's all good. It'd cost like 600 or 700 dollars to go (for a foreign trip... holy cheapness) and it would cut into the Spring term that I want to stay for. I'm just excited to be in a band that meets on Tuesday and Thursdays because it works out much better for my schedule. Oh, and being able to be in the same ensemble as Natasha... again! I can't believe it! We'll have a blast. :)

My Music Education class seems like it's going to be pretty fun. We get to go to middle schools and observe the teachers and take notes and such. Oh, and we get to learn two instruments: one string and one wind. We've basically split into two groups for the two middle schools, and one starts with the orchestra and the other with the band. I'm in the orchestra group first and I just found out that I'll be learning the Viola! So, that'll be fun. It doesn't seem like it'll be too terrible. Just takes up a lot of time since it's every morning for two hours, and for when we go to the middle schools we have to be there by 7:20 or so. But, it's fun. Great fun.

Calculus so far isn't bad. Just a review of trig and algebra, really. We'll be getting into the good stuff soon, which should be a review of the Calculus class I took in high school. So far I have an A in the class. The whole two online quizzes that I took that you can answer until you get it right. Yeah... we'll see how long that A will last. :P I shouldn't be too hard on myself yet. I could pull it off if I work hard enough.

So my song that I wrote this summer for sacrement meeting... I brought it up to my Oboe professor during my audition as a way to not talk about the fact that I didn't really practice that much this summer. She asked if I would play it at Master Classes this Wednesday. In front of all of the other oboe players and herself. So, I am. I just finished adding in all the dynamic markings I should have added in the first place, and I re-wrote a couple other parts. There were some parts that could sound basically the same (if not better) and be easier for the piano, so I changed them. And the end. I changed the end a bit. I'm probably going to end up showing the music to my professor tomorrow in my lesson. Nervous? Yes. She only has a doctorate in music and has analyzed a bunch of music written by real composers. We'll see what she thinks. I don't think she'll be too hard. It'll be interesting to see what she has to say. I'll guess I'll just wait and see!

So right now I'm in my room writing this blog while Ashley is off with her brothers and such visiting their grandparents and having dinner with them. My roommates and some of their friends are over talking and having a great time in the living room type-room. This is fairly typical. I tend to just kind of be in my room doing whatever on the computer or working on homework while they are out socializing. Interesting. I swear I'm not that anti-social. Every once in a while I semi-awkwardly walk out and just say hi or try to be part of the conversation somewhat. I just don't really know them very much. I guess if I just interjected myself into the group I would get to know them. Whatever. I like having the time to myself. My introverted self likes having that alone time to not have to talk to people.

Speaking of being social, Anthony and Curtis have come over every day for the past couple of days to play games and just hang out. It's been great fun! Too bad it prevents me from getting things done such as homework, practicing, or sleeping. But it's still a lot of fun. 

I have little songs for each of my two nephews and now my neice! I'll go ahead and make little videos of them and let you all listen to them! Awww... they are all so freakin' cute. :)

Back at School

It's that time of year again -- school starting. Classes start on Tuesday and the week of marching band is now over. It was literally taking up all of my time. 8-12 morning marching rehearsal, then 1:30-5 more marching rehearsal, then 7-10 inside music rehearsal. Rinse and repeat. That was the schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday, anyway. Thursday we had a performance and they served us lunch and dinner (yay for free food!). Friday morning we had off so the freshman could go to part of orientation. (I'm so not a freshman anymore! Wow!) Then Saturday we had a game with a nice morning rehearsal before we had to meet at 2. We smeared the other team (North Iowa University) 41-17, I believe. So, that was fun. The shows seemed to be fine as well.

The only problem: I also play the oboe. In fact, that's the instrument that I have to play one on one with a professor every week for an hour and have an ensemble in. Have I played it at all this week or much over the summer? Not really. I did play it some over the summer, and I wrote a song that I played in church. I figure that writing a song kind of makes up for the lack of practicing. I also performed a couple pieces at our family reunion. So tonight I'm meeting with another fellow oboist, Jessie, to make reeds and hopefully practice some. Oh yeah... I have an audition on Tuesday for which ensemble I'll be in this year. Though, it's not as intimidating as it sounds. She already has in mind who she wants where, it's mostly just a check to make sure we suddenly didn't suck or get some bad habit. So, I'm thinking if I just pick two contrasting songs (like I'm supposed to) and play through them, it'll be okay. She had me play the first line or so of each piece last year. Not much at all. We'll just see how it goes.

Oh, and I need to sign up for practice rooms. I don't have the luxury of having practice rooms in the basement of my dorm rooms. I actually have to go to the HFAC and use a practice room like most other music majors. And they are almost always full. Let's just hope I can sign up for them. But at least if I only practice at the HFAC it means I can leave my oboe there in a locker I'll rent out and not have to carry it around back and forth like I did last year. That would be absolutely wonderful.

I've met my other two roommates and they seem really nice and fun people! One of them brought a bunch of stuff I forgot to buy and didn't expect to have. For instance, she has a blender, a bunch of pots and pans, a silverware holder thing, oven mitts, pillows for the couch, paper towels, and (this is my favorite)... an ice cream maker! Yeah! Who would have thought I'd have an ice cream maker in my apartment my sophomore year in college? It's pretty awesome. I'm thinking we'll be having some parties. :P

I am now officially in the cell phone world, as well. I've got a go phone! It charges me a dollar a day for each day I use it and 10 cents a minute for each minute I call someone who isn't with AT&T. I can also text, but it's 15 cents a text either sent or received. If I really wanted, I could use the internet as well, but for the 30 seconds I used it last Sunday, it cost something like 61 cents. So... I'll try to avoid that. :P

Right now my room is a total wreck. You want to see how it looked yesterday at the peek of messiness?


It does look slightly better now. It's just a matter of lifting my bed up on cinder blocks so I can put stuff underneath it and moving those boxes and suitcases to the convenient basement they have here. That's what's taking up the most room right now.

Oh, guess what? Yesterday was my 19th birthday! Good times. :) A person in the horn section in marching band made me a cake and they all sang to me at the end of the morning rehearsal on Saturday. Aww, it was so sweet! Not only that, but when I got home from the football game my roommates had made me a cake with candles and they all sang to me! They even had some trick candles! Ha! Just like home! :) I definitely felt loved. I also got many many comments on facebook wishing me a happy birthday as well. Pretty awesome.

I'll try to get back into the habit of updating this thing during school. It's nice to have a place to record my thoughts and happenings of my life for all to see. :)

Insanity Must Be Hereditary

So, my family is basically redesigning the entire house. We've repainted pretty much every wall we could and are going to get new carpet next week for the upstairs. When I was gone at BYU this last semester, they already took out the carpet in the living room and dining room and put in tile instead. Pretty crazy. So we are basically taking everything out of the rooms upstairs and either throwing it away or putting it downstairs so we can get the new carpet next week. It's tons of fun, I've got to say. Though, we do have a ton of junk, so we really needed to go through it and just throw it away or give it away. My room was already taken over by Mark and Flor, so my stuff was already in boxes and various piles. It's just a matter of going through it and deciding what to do with it. So far we've thrown away quite a bit, and I know we'll throw away even more as go finish going through everything when we move it all back upstairs. Hopefully the house will be much more clutter-free with no random boxes of stuff in the way. I'm looking forward to it, but also sad to think that the look of the house that I grew up in is slowly fading away. Though, if I really think about it, it's been like that for a while. That's what happens... things get old and need to be replaced. So, I'll get over it.

BUT, that isn't really the point of this post. My dad was painting the ceiling white to cover up the water damage we had there, and he had some extra white paint. He didn't want it to go to waste, so what did he do?
Why, he painted his face! It would be a waste otherwise, right? He asked if I wanted my face painted... well... it would be a waste if I didn't. So...

He just painted my face white... no way! Yes way.

So, especially after watching the Dark Knight and with all the hype surrounding it... there's only one thing that would come to mind when your face is painted white like that.
My mom found some old lipstick and mascara and this is what happened. I've got to say my dad looks like a much creepier joker than me. He smeared the lipstick better to make it look like he had the scars, and having the shirt with paint all over it helped too. :P Here's some more pictures just for you!

This is my Dad during the day... with his glasses no one can tell he's the Joker! Bwhahaha! Yeah... I thought it was pretty funny. Though, he did go on and continue painting and cleaning things up for the next couple of hours and ate lunch with the paint and make-up on. Kind of odd, but hilarious.

And why have an update without having some more of cute little Alex!
Awww!! He's so freakin' adorable. That picture was taken right after I took this video. I came downstairs and he was just giggling and smiling while his mom, Flora, was trying to feed him. He was too cute to not take a video of. Unfortunately, when he got sight of the camera, he got interested in that and stopped smiling, but you can still see his cuteness. :P

My New Toy!

As I said in the last update, someone stole the camera that I won at work this past Christmas. Sad day, indeed. So yesterday my mom was at Costco and said that she found a camera for $130 that was originally $160. She gave me the make of it, and I saw its specs and how it looked at Kodak.com to see if I liked it and if it was worth it. First of all, at Kodak.com it was priced at $180. My other camera was 5.1 megapixels with 3x optical zoom and no digital zoom. This camera was 8.1 megapixels with 3x optical zoom and 5x digital zoom. It also has a zillion settings for different lighting situations and has a much bigger LCD screen on the back and many more little features. So... I went with it. :P My mom bought it and I'll pay her back. So now I have a new toy!! It takes videos just like my last camera, but they are higher quality. It can take panoramic pictures, which I have absolutely no experience with, but it looks really cool. Oh boy, it's awesome. Totally worth the $130. It also came with a nifty camera case thing and a 1GB SD card. It's not just silver like my last one, either. It's this icy blue color and silver. Basically it just rocks my socks off. Look forward to some more silly videos and pictures this next year. I'll try to not get this camera stolen. :P

So... I can update

I haven't been so good at the updating lately. Oh well. Here's a little filler on how my summer's been going lately.

I've mostly just been working at the theater and watching little Alex. I practice the piano on occasion, and haven't really been practicing oboe. Oh well, I will when school comes closer (probably in August) so I can look like I haven't been slacking off all summer. I did go to Fan Fair in Nashville! Sure, I'll post some pictures from that. :) I recently became one of the moderators at Billy Gilman Fans, and because of that I was special enough to help run his booth there.


There's me in the booth with Andrew -- one of the admins at Billy Gilman Fans. People were constantly asking him if he was Billy when Billy wasn't there. LOL... it was funny to me.

But, besides Billy I was also able to see a bunch of other big artists perform at LP Field! Some of the highlights included:

Faith Hill! :)

Keith Urban! He was a surprise appearance. I had heard of him, but didn't really know much about him. He did a great job and really got the crowd pumped up.

Rascal Flatts!! They weren't listed to appear, and I really wanted them to, but I had conceded to just try to make it to one of their concerts eventually... and then they just popped on stage with "Me and My Gang" as a surprise! I was so happy! They did, "Me and My Gang," "Every Day," "Bob That Head," a part of "I Melt," "Take Me There"... and I think that might have been it. Oh my goodness it made my summer to see them. So awesome...

Taylor Swift! I was really excited to see her perform, and despite what some people say about her live performances, she sounded great. She did "Picture to Burn," "Should've Said No" (with an awesome drum thing she did...), and "Our Song." (I'm pretty sure... maybe one other) It was funny before she sang "Should've Said No" she introduced it with, "You know, I try to be a nice person. I really do. But if you break my heart, I'm just gonna have to write a song about you!" Or maybe that was to "Picture to Burn." Hmm... I remember her saying, "This next song is about choices..." So, I guess I don't really remember. :p But, of course... it was awesome! :)

Sugarland came on to the stage in these balls. They rolled back through the crowd and then back to the stage. It was weird. LOL... but they did pretty well. I wasn't too familiar with them, but I know I had heard at least one of their songs.

And Carrie Underwood! She did "Last Name," "Wasted," "Jesus Take the Wheel," and of course "Before He Cheats." I'm pretty sure she sang at least one other song, maybe two... but I don't remember. :P She was awesome. :) (Maybe I should try to find another adjective other than awesome)

Of course, from running Billy's booth I was able to meet him for the first time.

Little does he know he was pretty much the only music that I listened to throughout middle school and the beginning of high school. I got his CD (Dare to Dream first) and then my sister got me the Dixie Chicks first CD (Wide Open Spaces) and it was pretty much just Dixie Chicks and Billy Gilman. I was the typical 11 and 12 year old that was crazy about him. I thought I was going to marry him one day. Don't worry, I've definitely grown out of that phase, but I still like him as an artist. (and still have all of the lyrics to all of his songs memorized...) I'm especially excited that he's started to write his own music and seems to be getting close to getting signed to a major label again. His new songs really sound great. The one that seems to be the most "controversial" is the song called "Damn." I know! Billy Gilman saying the word "damn!" It's atrocious! *cough* It's actually a really rockin' song. I really like it. ;) Some other songs he sang include "It's My Life," "I've Changed," and "This Time." I'm pretty sure there was at least one other song he sang that he said was literally just a couple days old, but I don't remember the name of it. All of them are awesome. Much better than the popish sounding stuff he did at first.

Anyway, at the booth when he was there to sign, I was the person to take pictures of people. They would come through the line, give their camera to Andrew, who would then give it to me, and then when they had gotten Billy to sign whatever for them, I would take the picture for them. Andrew purposely gave me this job so that he would definitely notice me... since he had to look at me for the 3 or 4 hours that he was there signing. It worked. :P He was making fun of me for being the "sloppy camera woman." (Just from maybe two or three times that I was distracted and wasn't ready right when they needed me to be to take the picture.) Once he actually said, "Sarah! You know I'm joking, right?" "Yeah." He actually knew my name! I didn't know that he did. So, that's like... unbelievably awesome actually. The 12-year-old inside of me is kind of spazzing out at the thought of it. What really struck me about him is how incredibly nice and outgoing he was! He always seemed to have all this energy and made an effort to be as nice as possible to every person that came to the booth. It's not something that can really come across in interviews or performances. He's a genuinely nice guy. He made an effort for everyone to thank us (the BGF staff) for putting together the booth and getting everything together. And he had a firm handshake. I was very proud of him for that.

Oh yeah, and at Fan Fair someone stole my camera. Good thing my mom was the one taking most of the pictures. The exhibition hall (where the booths were) had already closed and people were just leaving (there weren't many people left), and my mom had just handed me my camera. I put it on the table, and then the next thing I knew it wasn't there. We looked everywhere and couldn't find it. We contacted security about it... nothing. So I guess one of the few people left decided to get a free camera. Granted, I got it for free... but now I'm cameraless again. I really just liked the video option on it. Hopefully I'll win another free camera sometime in the future... *cough*

Okay... enough about that. What else happened?

Well, my grandfather turned 90 years old. We kind of had a family reunion type thing in Utah a weekend or two ago for it. My entire family was able to make it! Kathy and Craig with little Mark, Lisa and Byron with little Kayla, Mark and Flora with little Alex, Paul and Brittany, and then me and my parents! And of course many other cousins, Aunts and Uncles, and some other people that I don't really know very well. :P It was so much fun to see little Mark again! I hadn't seen him in a while, and he's gotten so big! He'll turn 2 in August and he's just learning to talk and do things independently. He knows what his sippy cup is and calls it "cupa." (cup-uh) So adorable! Kathy thinks it's because she would say, "Do you want a cup of juice?" Or something to that effect, and he interpreted that to be "cupa." He knows his eyes, nose, juice, cup, door, water, avocado (that's cute to hear), banana, "what's that?", "yay!", flower, shoes, and some other words. Of course, most of these words are kind of various versions of the word. Like banana is "nana," and water is more like "waer." It's so adorable to see him say "yay!" He does that a lot. Like in the car I was with him in the back, and Kathy and Craig were in the front. They put on some karaoke song and sang a duet, and at the end he would always say, "Yay!!" They said they knew they had done badly if after they finished he just looked at them and didn't say anything. LOL

I could probably go on forever about all the cute things he did, but I'll stop. :P This Saturday I'm going up to Kathy and Craig's house for the fourth of the July and I'll get to see him again! I spent a lot of time with him before, I'm hoping to just hear him call out my name to know that he really knows who I am. His cool Aunt Sarah. :) Awww!!

Okay, this entry has been ridiculously long enough. It kind of makes up for the lack of updates...