deepgreen18

I am finding it interesting that life now has events I wish to blog about. Perhaps it is me, rather than the events, that has changed.

The Sunday gig was a mess, a challenge, and a victory. It certainly wasn't easy. We were dealing with a new PA system and didn't have all the correct parts at first (thank goodness for eager-to-please boyfriends/roadies). I went slightly amnesiatic and forgot to bring an amp...or extra strings. Turns out I needed both. Well, the amp was superceded by me plugging directly into the PA, and Micah saved the day by fitting me with a guitar string. I'm not sure whether this is a first in all of history, but it felt like one. All I know is that a 26 gauge guitar string is fairly close in size to a violin G string. Who knew? The whole band went to a local grill afterwards and had some pretty darn good burgers.

The afghan is 2 hours of work away from the finish line. I've done the first row of the border. It's about 620 stitches around. I believe that is the longest row I've ever done. I'm currently doing my crocheting at my violin teacher's house. I'm house-sitting, another first for me. Her cats are really fun to play with. They have very distinctive personalities, but share a lot of traits, as well. Cat nature is very strong.

I've signed up for the GRE. It is two weeks from now. In preperation, I will be going through a test prep book on the math part. The practice test I took last year gave me high marks on verbal, but I was rather bad at the math. I'm surprising myself by sticking to this college search thing; last time I was very lackadaisical.

Finally, I have a new interest to report. I've always considered myself an eclectic book reader. However, my actual mode of operation is that I'll try anything once, but I usually stick with sci-fi/fantasy, dabbling occasionally in romance, westerns, mysteries, etc. There's a new genre to add to my list: non-fiction art mysteries. I think I just like knowing that it's real (can't get unrealistic when it's historical fact) and that the mystery has been solved already, so I won't be left in suspense. Also, most writers of this genre work hard to make it comprehensible and interesting. If nothing else, I like good writing. I'm currently reading The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. Book thieves, unofficial detectives, and oodles of book references! I'm so there.

Well, I must be off. Lunch awaits. In case I don't post again soon: Happy Thanksgiving.

Greeny

I leave for four days and the world changes. Honestly, it's just my life, but that is my world (egocentrism, ahoy!).
To update:

I have a car, here are pics:





The best part of having your own car? Total ownership, I don't have to share! I almost felt selfish when I realized this, but I'm getting used to the feeling again. My favorite feature in the car (besides wonderful handling, plenty of room, and great A/C)? The heads up display:


I just think it's cool, and it reminds me of a friendly Cylon, which is entirely geeky, but completely justified.

My band has a gig! It's on August 22nd, 8pm, at a nice place, called the Riverwalk. I can't wait.

I'm also getting back into teaching. All of my students have been contacted, and most are set up to take lessons for the fall. I'm nervous, but also quite happy with it.

My dad and I went to see Wicked on Sunday. It was an excellent musical. The singing was wonderful, the effects were impressive, the dancing evocative, and the story engaging. Totally worth the ticket price.

Finally, the knitting...take a guess at what's been going on with that and you'll probably be right.

And I'm off!
Greeny

There was some excitement this weekend. If, by excitement, you think non-regular happenings. I actually went home on Friday because orchestra was canceled, and it seemed like a good idea. Julie then came over and we watched Roswell and WALL-E. Kind of ironic, that, we would do the same thing at my house that we would at the apartment. I fell asleep on the couch watching the movie. It was 1am. Waking up with the movie still going but no-one else around was fun. 
On Saturday night, I did Dad's accounts and dreaded going to the Dragon's Lair. My band was scheduled to play. But I overcame my dislike of the place and had some fun. It was also our drummer's birthday, so there were mini cupcakes and pizza.
Sunday we tried a different church, I liked it. We thought the service would start at eleven, so we get there in plenty of time to discover that it's actually starting at eleven-thirty. Since we had forty-five minutes, we went to Braums for breakfast. Surprisingly good food. Also, I finished most of Dad's accounts. Yay! There was also band practice, which went way better than our gig, and I got to be in charge of the song order (this made me very happy, I'm a control addict).
Today is just starting, I've tutored my student, and now I'm avoiding practicing. Yep, I need to go now. 

This is a shout out to my friend Autumn: Hello! How's your day been?

Greene

At least five years ago, my older sister said something like "I have a life, you should get one, too." She didn't say it in a mean way, just matter-of-factly. Like a social life was something that you could just make. At that time, I hadn't the slightest clue about how to get a life, or why it mattered. Why was hanging out with people that could be annoying desirable? What was the point?

Then, I went to college. I experienced loneliness, true alienation from just about everyone. I hadn't had that before, not with my ever-present family. I also learned how to be sociable. These are strange hand-in-hand, but life is odd. I learned how to fake feeling good so as not to drive people away. I desired a close relationship, a "best friend". Oddly enough, gaining that took awhile. I am proud to call my roommate my best friend. We've lived together for almost three and a half years, now. I still desire other close relationships. But only this year have I understood why a social life, and not necessarily close relationship, is so...good.

It's fun. It's also exhilarating, scary, boring, and many, many other things. Primarily, it's an experience that gives us memories. We may never do that certain activity again, we may never be able to do that again. But we did it once, and it was fun, or it was excruciating, or we made it great. Experiences, memories, are links to other people. At its best, a social life connects you with others. At its worst, it does the opposite. I've had my fair share of the latter, I think. Now is the time for the former.

I was so scared about tonight. Serious doubts. Like "Should I really do this?" doubts. But I knew that my fears had no basis, and there was nothing but a bad reception to be scared of. So I dressed up, put my horns on (Literally. I was a 'Devil in Prada', or my personal favorite: 'The devil you don't know'), glued on my fake eyelashes, and went. It started scary, then it got boring, and then...it got exciting, exhilarating, "giving you chills" good. We played, and did it really well. I'm glad I went.

Now I have to pack for my trip to Illinois in the morning.

Thanks for reading, you've been great.
Greeny