I don't think winter break could have ended much better than it did tonight. Hours of playing Trivial Pursuit, the resulting never-ending laughter, and a few too many Australian geography questions with almost our entire group of high school friends...it was awesome. I kind of miss when nights like these were expected every weekend. Guess I'll just have to wait till the next time we're all home...whenever that is.

This break has seemed like an eternity, but at the same time it's really flown by. The first week I basically spent sitting around at home, waiting for people to return from school. I went to SHS 4 times that week for 2 band concerts and 2 basketball games (I felt like a stalker, it was fun...). Then spent a few days working at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic downtown, it was pretty awesome. It attracts in a bunch of music educators from around the world to attend seminars and performances, and a lot of music companies/colleges have exhibits for people to check out. I was walking down Michigan Avenue the last day and I see this man standing on the sidewalk, wearing a dark coat, staring at me in the rain...good ole Mr. Tipps. We talked a good 5 minutes...talked about everything from the CSO to his daughter getting married...man, I forgot how hilarious he is.

Then I went on a 7 day cruise with my family to the Caribbean. It was pretty cool, definitely good to be in a warm climate, and the 4 ports we stopped at were really interesting, though after a week the whole cruise thing got kind of monotonous. Christmas we were in Haiti, we docked at this beach that was owned by the cruiseline, so it was basically a resort, but you could see all the local people in the forests and waters nearby...two completely different worlds. Jamaica was kind of sketch, a woman came up to my brother, ran her fingers through his hair, and asked if she could braid it. He refused. She tried to get me later. I turned around and walked briskly.

Then back here for New Years, and by morning, I'll be back in Evanston. My saxophone quartet is going to Washington D.C. this weekend for a performance for the U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Symposium. Kind of nerve-wracking, but exciting. And the following week we have my birthday off for MLK Jr. Day. Sweet.

Bring it, Winter Quarter.

Election day yesterday made me seriously consider where I lie on the politcal spectrum. And here's what I found: I don't like labels. I ended up taking probably 5 quizzes through various websites, some more reliable than others (here's the most reliable...by far). They all basically confirm what I thought: I'm a centrist (aka moderate), I tend to lean liberal, and I sometimes think issues should be handled at the state level rather than federal. Thrilling.

On a completely different topic, I've learned basic HTML code and web design this quarter in my Music Technology in the Classroom class (I made that hyperlink above all by myself). It's pretty neat, I find myself messing around with it a lot.

It's awesome outside today, perfect exploring Chicago weather (its in the 60s right now, compared to last week's 20s and yesterday's cant-see-50-feet-in-front-of-you fog). But alas, I have class in a half hour. I should probably hold off on those plans.

As much as I try to not acknowledge it, summer is coming to a close. Even though I'm still here until the 31st, its basically over once people start heading back to school. Now come a few weeks of sitting around and waiting...great! It's weird for me to compare this summer with last summer. We've all changed (and that's good), but we're still the same (and I don't mind that).

AGNC show on Friday was a really good time, kind of small crowd, but everyone really got into it. Plus some really impressive pre-show frisbee action in the parking lot. Travelled up to Madison Saturday for DCI Finals (wow, what a nerd). It was pretty awesome, definitely worth the trip/ticket price.

My right arm really hurts. It's either from bowling or rotating the N64 joystick way too much in Mario Party (damn Tug O' War). Carpal tunnel, here I come.

I'm going down to central Illinois next weekend to hang out with some NU friends who are going abroad next quarter. I'm really tempted to make a stop at U of I on the way back Sunday, since we have to pass through Champaign/Urbana anyway. But I know its a move-in day...that could be pretty insane. I'll ponder.

August, 11 2006 at Elk Grove VFW
400 E. Devon, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
Cost: $7.00

All-ska show with our buddies Tusker, also featuring Fatter than Albert, Toe Tapping Scoundrels, TJ and the Wankstahz, Samurai Deli, and The Skandal. A Girl Named Craig hits the stage at approximately 10:00 PM. This will most likely be our last summer show. Come and check us out and take advantage of our free smiles policy.

Please.

AGNC Show Sunday night!

We're headlining, playing at 9:25pm.

Durty Nellies in Palatine...here are directions from SHS.

See you there.

More Info: Show starts at 5:30pm, other bands are Real Lunch, Makai, So Not Scene, and Tears of Iris.

List five songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words or even if they're any good but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artist and the song in your blog along with your five songs. Then tag other people to see what they're listening to.


[Band, Song Title]
1. Chamillionaire - "Ridin'" (i cant deny it)
2. I Voted For Kodos - "You Never Asked Me To" (thanks Mick)
3. Journey - "Don't Stop Believing" (i grew up in the wrong decade)
4. Sufjan Stevens - "Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)"
5. Electric Light Orchestra - "Mr. Blue Sky"

I tag:
Mickey
Lauren
Andrew(s)
Everyone else

FRIDAY NIGHT: COME CHECK OUT THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT CARNIVAL! IT'S JAZZ NIGHT, SO COME HEAR OUR COMBO (ME, TYRPS, DG, C-LOS, AND GARCIA) AROUND 8PM, AND THE SHS JAZZ ENSEMBLE WILL BE PLAYING AFTER US.

Heres the info for our sax quartet recital Sunday:

3pm in the Great Room of Jones Residential College at NU (1820 Sheridan Road in Evanston)...the easiest way to get here is to take Golf Road all the way down to the lake. Probably best to park on a nearby street.

Program should last about an hour. And its free.

What better way is there to spend your Sunday afternoon?

I really don't have time to be writing on here...oh well.

Summer can't come soon enough. By the looks of it, I have a jury (tomorrow!), about 40 pages of paper writing, a few projects, a few exams, and 22 days until I'm home (June 5th?). Summer is going to rock, I can feel it. Can't wait.

My saxophone quartet is playing a recital next Sunday, May 21st @ 3pm if anyone who's home is interested. We're playing an arrangement I wrote of Procession of the Nobles that sounds pretty cool. And My Funny Valentine. And the Jeanjean quartet, a favorite of our high school quartet. And other two other jazz pieces. It would be great to see you guys, and i have no plans for the rest of the day, so we could go hang out in Evanston/Chicago afterwards.

But right now, its back to work for me. More meaningful post to come later.

I wake up this morning to my dorm phone ringing. My roommate went home for the night, so I guess its him or someone calling for him (because no one calls me on that phone). I drag myself out of bed and answer the phone.

Me: (groggily) "...Hello"

Irate Taxi Driver: (screaming) "HELLLLLO!!! YOU TAXI?!!"

Me: "...What..."

ITD: "HELLLLLLLLLO!!!!"

Me: "I dont think..."

ITD: "WHAT IS NUMBER!!!?"

Me: (silence)

ITD: "WHAT IS NUMBER!!!!!!?"

Me: (thinking he means my dorm phone) "Um, 332-"

ITD: "NO!!!!!!!!! 1054, 1077, 10...!!!"

Me: (wtf is this guy talking about?) (silence)

ITD: (waits 5-10 seconds, hangs up)

I seriously thought this guy was going to reach through the phone and kill me...or at least go through my window and kill me.

The best part of the story...it all happened at 6:53am.

-I have a class Wednesday nights 9-10:30pm...how cool is that???
-Canada geese (aka the ones that are everywhere in the Chicagoland area) were thought to be extinct in the 1950's, but then they found some...
-I can't play flute, but it is improving very slowly
-I want to travel more
-Is it possible to fail a Myers-Briggs personality test? Because i think i did
-:AOIJFS:OIAUHF:OIAHSF

I feel a need to finally update. Here I go.

This weekend, I participated in Dance Marathon, one of the largest student run philanthropies in the world where you and a partner have to raise at least $750 for a charity organization (this year was the Prediatric Aids in Chicago Prevention Initiative). Our reward: we get to dance in a single room of our university center with 600 other students for 30 hours straight (with 10 minute breaks every 3 hours and slightly longer ones for meals). So after months of fundraising and a few scares that we weren't going to have enough money, we made a little over $1000. DM here we come.

We registered at 4pm Friday afternoon, sat around for 3 hours, started dancing at 7pm, and finished at 1am Sunday morning. No sleep. I ended up taking a couple naps Friday, making it around 40 hours that i would be awake (i had never been awake for more than around 27 hours before, plus that wasnt anywhere near as physically active).

Overall, it was a great/rewarding experience. We raised $686,000, with some $404,000 going to preventing AIDS (PACPI's yearly budget is about $100,000 less than that). They fed us, they kept us entertained, I was surrounded by friends, people came to visit, Dietz broadcast a recap of the Northwestern-Minnesota basketball game on this huge projector screen (it was one of the weirdest moments of my life), it was awesome.

But damn was it exhausting. Whenever I'm in the middle of doing something and I get discouraged, I always think something like "just 2 more hours and then im done," not "just 6 more hours until im halfway done." Imagine going to 10 high school dances back to back with almost no sitting or standing still (and no slow dances), people watching to make sure you're not in the bathroom too long, and everyone wearing different clothing every 3 hours (each 3 hour block had a different theme...so people wouldnt be wearing the same thing all night/day/night). Around hour 23 (5pm Saturday night), I started to feel like everything was a hallucination because of the lack of sleep. They were playing nonstop 80's music and this strobe light was going almost the whole block, my mind was wandering constantly, people came to visit us on the dance floor and I wasn't sure if they were really there or if I was imagining them (they were real). People would ask me questions and I would have to think for 5 seconds to come up with an answer. I knew that I was still awake, but it felt like I was in a dream. A couple hours later I regained most of my sanity and the last block was just a fun time. Afterward, at least 30-40 kids from my dorm met us to congratulate us and take all of our stuff back (I seriously live in the coolest dorm ever). Then I went to bed at 1:30 and woke up at 2:15 this afternoon. The best sleep of my life. I dunno if i'd do it again, but it was definitely worth doing it once.

On another note, finals start this week and end Monday, meaning I will most likely be home by March 14th for spring break (yeah yeah yeah!). Just have to get through an audition tomorrow at 12:20 (hooray for barely practicing this weekend), 2 finals, a few recitals (attending and playing), a full day concert, a few exams, and 2 final papers (one of which I'll probably just write at home and email by next Friday). But its alright. If I could survive this past weekend, I can surely survive this next week.

Alan Greenspan officially retired as the chairman of the Fed today. Wow. He's been doing for 18 1/2 years. Thats a long time.

Small things kept going wrong today. Went shopping for some simple things throughout Evanston (i.e. stamps, reeds, groceries) and it turned into a big mess...i must have spent a good hour trying to get those stamps. I also have a lesson tomorrow and i have done very little for it, especially today. Hooray.

I think Relay for Life back in Schaumburg is June 16th (aka a week after i get out of school). Is anyone going to/want to do it this year again? I think it would be a really cool way to kick off the summer for some/start the second month of it for most.

I've been watching the OC with some friends here and we just finished the first season last weekend. Its a ridiculous show, but i cant stop watching it. Adam Brody is my curly haired hero and his mom is the most beautiful 30-something year old woman I've ever seen.

But on the positive side, the theme song has made me get back into Phantom Planet, their old stuff (before their newest album) is really good.

I better scat. Later all.

Hey, long time, no (meaningful) update.

I've gotten into this habit of reading people's journals daily but never commenting, dont take it personally.

School has been going really well, we're in week 3 of 2nd quarter and its turning out to be better than the 1st overall. I'm taking two non-music classes (econ of the world wars and lit of existentialism), which are both really intriguing and a great break. On the music side, im taking this kickass high brass class...we're learn a ton about trumpet (horn is next month) and a ton about how to teach it, its cool. I'm glad that i took a quarter of just music, because it made me realize how much i miss other stuff. I discovered I need that balance.

Ive also discovered im not an existentialist.

Im applying to be a CA (community assistant...aka RA) for next year, so I have a 4 hour group interview in two weeks, and then if im still being considered, a 1 hour individual interview later in February. I'd really like to do it, I think it would be a valuable experience unlike anything I've done before. We'll see what happens.

Musical epiphany of the day: You can only make 4 different augmented triads...so each note in the chord could potentially be the root. Confusing.

My mom found this writing utensil called a Double Click: you twist the cap one way, its a black pen...you twist it the other way, its a mechanical pencil. Its easily the most useful invention of the last 1000 years.

"Only 30 anti-nuclear protesters showed up recently to oppose a plutonium-fueled mission to Pluto. The most raucous it got was when protesters tied colorful origami birds to the fence of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station." - ChiTrib

Its hard for me to write a coherent post these days. I guess ill stick to the random stuff.

A Girl Named Craig has a show this Friday and it would be awesome to have people come out and see us...Elk Grove VFW (i know, its the best venue ever, right?). We're playing sometime after 9:30 most likely, but that can always change. Other bands include Conventry, Makai, Valiant, Endless Never, and one TBA (theres a rumor it may be Something for Sundown...Tony and Arjun's band...that would be cool).

Here are directions, click.

Later folks.

TWO DETAILS I FORGOT: SHOW STARTS AT 6PM, AND WE'RE PLAYING LAST. LATER.

Update Journal

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Name 5 of life's simple pleasures that you like most, then pick 5 people to do the same. Try to be original and creative and not to use things that someone else has already used. Tag 5 people on your friends list.

1. high speed internet access
2. simcity 2000
3. daytime television
4. weather
5. Cinnamon Toast Crunch

I TAG:
+ Andrew
+ Jess
+ KT
+ Pati
+ Steph

This doesnt count as a real post, ill make one later this week...probably...

(its says "happy belated thanksgiving")

So im back in E-town, and feel a need to procrastinate studying for my final tomorrow. This past week in Schaumburg was great, i got to see almost everyone (except Becca, Laur and you Northern kids) and had a blast in the process. I really like NU and Evanston and all, but theres nothing like Country Donuts, the whole Woodfield area, and Poplar Creek Bowl.

Here be me thanks (in no particular order):

-my family
-my friends
-my health
-the education and opportunities I had at SHS
-NU
-frolf
-my new iPod and cell phone (lets not talk about the bill...)
-im coming home in a little over a week
-a 1996 Infiniti I30
-Harry Potter and the Pier that is Navy
-cheesecake
-blasting Motion City Soundtrack throughout Hoffman Estates at midnight (it finally felt like home)
-old men swearing at each other in a parking lot (something to the affect of "those stupid-ass lights")
-torrential downpours

(did anyone actually try to unscramble the title? because theres no way it says that...10 points for whoever can make something out of those letters)

Time for my yearly rant post...

I woke up at 6am on Saturday morning for marching band and saw the Cats come out of no where to beat Iowa in the last 2 minutes of the game. Yeah, we're bowl eligible! I then came back to the basketball stadium where we keep our cases, to find my cell phone was no where to be found in my case. After searching for a couple minutes in the area, another girl says "has anyone seen my wallet???"

Someone went through the altos' cases and took my cell phone, along with two other people's wallets (our cases werent next to each others...this person had to have gone through a lot of cases). We filled out a police report, but there was little else we could do. I felt really bad for the other two, because their credit cards and out-of-state IDs were in those wallets. And one them was already relatively strapped for cash. My situation was just more of a nuisance more than anything, especially because i lost a ton of numbers. So i called cingular, deactivated my phone, and then walked over to the cingular store in Evanston. I needed to get a phone (i definately need a phone here), but i couldnt get out of my current plan, so any phone would cost me the price they advertise plus the $150 rebate they give people when they buy it with a plan. So $250 later (it cost that much to get something reliable), I had a new phone. Its better than my old one, but i definitely couldve dealt with my old one for another 5 months. Argh.

Following all that, I went to the NU all-choirs concert (pretty impressive), and then randomly went downtown around 11 with a friend. We got off the L to a few light showers...which turned into a downpour. Soaking wet, we ate dinner at 1230 across the street from the Art Institute, then eventually got back to Evanston around 2, a great randomly fun night. Check out this pic...there were flashes of lightning and somehow my new phone came up with this picture...Chicago's on fire...

Today I saw Allen Vizzutti perform with the North Shore Concert Band...awesome time. Then came back to the dorm and did some stuff...like entering in everyone's numbers into my phone. About an hour ago, i look for my iPod because i want to start writing a paper and listen to music. But i cant find it. Anywhere. I search the whole room...nothing. Then i realize...i left my iPod in my sax case after walking to rehearsal on Friday. Im 99% sure i never took it out. That effing effer...

Im not having the best of weekends.

The funniest/saddest thing is that this weekend is going to cost me more than my marching sax is even worth. Why didnt they just take that out of my hands rather than going searching through the basketball stadium for whatever they could find?? I have another sax...i unfortunately dont have cell phones and iPods randomly lying on my desk. But on the bright side, i still have all my music on iTunes...thank goodness for iPod Agent. Otherwise, I'd be pretty unbearable right now.

Really everything else here has been fine, just a rough couple of days. I made my first international purchase on the internet the other day...a CD from England, shipping only cost $3. Go figure.

Holy crap...my Onion daily calendar...from today...

I need to end this post on a good note...please comment...if you could be any animal native from Australia, what would you be? Mine would mos def be a koala...unless aborigines count.

I went home this past weekend, immediately after marching band directly to the SHS football game. The weekend was a blast, the dance was great (thanks Kristin), and I got to see people I havent seen in a long while (and for those of you who werent there...Thanksgiving is going to be crazy). I miss the bonfires, steak n shake, tennis, and random drives, but its ok, it'll be time for that stuff again before we know it.

I think Ive stopped caring about grades. Its not like I was ever that obsessed with them, but im just indifferent toward them now. Either im taking advantage of classes on another level, or im getting lazy and making excuses...you decide.

Its bedtime. Good night everyone, and remember...

Evanston is only a stone's throw away from Schaum-ton. Stop by at your convenience.