"You're so much more than you're currently demonstrating."

That's the title of the playlist Tricia found for me to listen to while I wrote this. Nice.
Cheggout her blog. She does cool stuff just like I do. http://lastminutecreations.wordpress.com/

A month is a long time to be away from school. It's long enough to forget the pace at which you are required to move, to produce results, to achieve. It's also long enough to forget the feeling of your brain starting to get all bunched up in your skull because it's throbbing from the rapid intake of information. I've heard boxers get all bunched up in jeans. My brain doesn't like it, so I feel for all you boxer-wearers.

I'm going to make a list of why this is bound to be the best semester yet.

-In my ice skating class there are girls doing jumps and triple spins. But the teacher is so laid back that I am allowed to just zoom around the ice skating rink. I'm working on my left crossover, I'll keep you posted.

-Jazz improv is taught by a great teacher who's a total hoot.
Here's a quote to give you a taste: "Don't play right now. You play it, I'll transcribe it."

-I'm playing trombone with the jazz band. This is an ensemble that I've dreamed of being in since I arrived at UVM. They took me completely out of desperation, but he said he loved my enthusiasm, and now, well...I'm in it...I'm playing swung eighth notes...I have rarely been happier.

-I'm taking trombone lessons with a teacher who supports me, is generally excited about trombone, seems to like me, and enjoys teaching. It's weird. Definitely not something I've gotten used to over the past two and half years. I mean...what?

-I'm going to learn how to conduct. A conductor unifies musical interpretations...and also has to be coordinated, musical, beautiful, and in charge all at once. Needless to say, I've got my hands full.
Full of a baton with a handle made from wood called "Santos-Zebra"...so I have high hopes.

-I'm in a hand drumming class playing the Djembe and Conga. It's 2 hours of playing with interjections of philosophy lessons. We have to journal. I am psyched.

-And perhaps most importantly, we have made recent discoveries about our landlord. On Wednesday morning I came out of music history to find her sitting in the lobby of the music building. She looked just as confused to see me as I was to see her. (Which...is wrong.) She told me that she's taking private lessons in composition. Apparently she composes all the time.
Well, after a little research we found out that it's not only music that she composes, but children's books.
Cheggit out.
http://www.amazon.com/Martha-R.-Lang/e/B004E9LT3U

So, like I said...Best Semester Ever.
Join me in the celebration.
xoxo Gossip Girl.
Oh wait, no.


PS: if anyone reading this has a blog please send me the link, I want to follow other people but I don't know how to find y'all.

A Year Resolves, and We Resolve

As I considered my resolutions for the new year I came up with three wildly important things:

Move Yo' Body
I learned about this program from two of my housemates Sheilagh and Molly.
http://www.c25k.com/
The Couch to 5k Program is a build up to being able to run really fast for a thousand miles.
I am not exaggerating.
Yes I am.
As the weeks progress you increase the amount of time you run and decrease the amount of time you power walk. (Though I read somewhere that you actually burn more calories power-walking, hmmm.)
I am resolving to be active as frequently as my schedule allows.
I am a much happier person when I am using my body, and this past semester took a toll on me emotionally largely due to the fact that I had no time to do anything good for my body, my barreh, if you will.
SO BAM- Couch to 5k AND ALSO I'm taking a figure skating class twice a week.
Can't wait, call me Kristine Yamaguchi. Or don't, because I won't respond.

I Play Flute and Stuff
Secondly, I resolve to find a way to love flute again.
For some of you reading this, you may have just winced and thought, "Doesn't she go to school for flute?"
Yeah well, surprise. Sometimes all it takes is one human with really poor people skills to turn you off of an instrument-but I'm going to work through it.
So...if anyone has any inspiration for me on that front, please share, because I haven't really come up with a plan yet.
(And sending me Youtube videos of 7 year olds playing all the pieces I'm playing will NOT help. In case that's confusing to any of you.)

Future Teacher of America (and hopefully some otha' places...)
And thirdly...tertiarily, (go with it,)
I'm going to set one poem to music every month.
I'm terrified of composing and always have been.
(Lack of exposure in my impressionable years-let this be a lesson to all future teachers of elementary students.)
So, I'm setting up a low-stakes, no pressure environment to compose one piece a month using a poem.
And I don't care how god-awful it sounds.
(That is a lie, welcome to my life of extreme self-editing.)

I blog about this because each of these resolutions has come to me either from learning a lesson about myself from myself, or watching others go through similar experiences, or just understanding that there are certain things I must do to remain sane.
And as my mother and I have come to agree on more and more as of late, we really appreciate people who are sane. And we're not necessarily talking chemical-imbalance, so please no one take offense.

ON THAT ALARMINGLY OFF TOPIC NOTE:
LET'S GO 2012, YA YA!