Practice for London?

I have decided that I must carry my digital camera with me at all times. I had it in my purse Wednesday and after work I quit literally stumbled across St. James' Cathedral. And on a beautiful day, no less. Now I just need to get a case for it. I mean, I have a case, but it is rather big to put in my purse all the time. I just need something to protect it from getting scratched by my keys.... knitting project, anyone?

Once is cool, twice is just ridiculous

So today I was all ready to head out to work, when I got a call saying that we had no power and that I shouldn't come in. This would be cool and all, except for the fact that this already happened less than a week ago! So now I have missed two days of work in a one week period due to the power being out. We haven't had any big wind/snow/ice storms, so I ask, "What is wrong with the stupid power company?!?" Why does the power just randomly go out? Hmmmm..... strange. All I know is that it sorta messes up my day (week) cause now I have to find time to go in and make up the hours, but I already have plans for pretty much the rest of my week. *Sigh* I might just say forget this and not even make it up. I don't know.

Anyway, like a good girl, I went shopping instead =) I bought some new jeans (oh no!!) and a purse and a new wallet. I needed the jeans, but the wallet/purse were just for the fun of it. And then I continued the fight against the fleas. We have traced them to our cat, Goldie. I'm not sure why we didn't think of this in the first place, maybe just because she has never had a problem with fleas. We sprayed all of downstairs and vacuumed and cleaned the cat. Tomorrow the attack upon the upstairs commences. Specifically my bedroom. I am sick of fleas! It wasn't as bad as a couple of months ago, but one bite is too many for me! The fleas love me and they take advantage of my sweet nature (or sweet blood) whichever it may be. But I am attempting to finish the last bit of the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, so I am gonna go take care of that. Have fun doing whatever it is that people do between Christmas and New Years!

Merry Christmas (2 mins too late)!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and most joyous Christmas. I know that I did! One of the major highlights for me was just going to church on Christmas day. I'm not sure what it is exactley, but I think there is something so special about it. I may tell more about my day later, but I am going to sleep now.

I just wanted to put up a fair warning that I got a digital camera for Christmas... and if my lack of things to do and my free time continues (which it will for at least another week), you may find yourselves reading about cool Seattle places a lot. Accompanied, of course, by cool pictures. I hope that you don't mind!

Here we come a caroling!

So last night I went caroling. It was like 10 girls and what I have begun to fondly refer to as our two "token males"... Alex and Erik. It was interesting seeing as how it has been pouring down rain here for about the last 2 to 3 days. Last night when I left my house to go to the church, it took me ten minutes to get the 6 blocks from 81st to 75th. And there were sheets of water pouring down the street. So we all got to the church and were like, we don't really want to go caroling in this. But it actually stopped raining and we decided to just go to people that live near the church so that we would have roofs and porches and a quick escape if necessary.

Highlights of the caroling experience.... I knew it was going to go well when at our first stop we sang for an empty house. Then the next couple of stops were uneventful until we decided to go find the Lakes' house. We had the address and knew about where it was, but we didn't know for sure. And so in our brilliance, instead of driving in the car to find the house, we parked the cars and started walking. Now I'm cool with exercise and all that, but it had started to pour again and I was rapidly getting drenched. We finally did find the house, but we were a little worse for the wear. Then at our last stop they shut the door in our face! We found the house and they had a big enclosed yard with the house set back from the street and a "Beware of Dog" sign on the gate. We didn't hear a dog, and despite Katrina's worries that the dog was going to come out and attack us as we went in, we decided to go for it. We walked up to what looked to be the front porch, but there was a porch and a pile of ruble where the steps should have been. Apparently they were remodeling. So we sang in the grass... a long way from the door so it took them about a song and a half to finally hear us. Then they came and peeked out the door but the wife thought that they didn't know us so she closed the door and went back inside. Pretty soon her husband comes out and looks and he was like, "It's okay, we know them!" Poor Loretta, she came out and stared at all of us and was still like... "I know you??!!?" Talk about feeling appreciated =) By that time we were very damp and decided to head home. And the dog??? Yah... it was a little Snoopy dog on their front porch. Interesting. We also sang for some totally random people because we liked the big blow up snowman in their front yard.

Anyways, I think that I should try posting to this thing earlier in the day so that I am more awake as I am doing so. Right now, all I can think about is going to bed and unfortunately, I think that it is causing my performance to suffer.

What to say, what to say?

Tonight I discovered that one of my pretty good friends from high school is engaged. Engaged, can you imagine that? I've only been out of high school 2 and a half years. Its all well and good when its somebody you don't know, but when it is one of the people that was actually close to you, you sorta stop and wonder what is going on in this world. I guess I just sort of assume that since I don't feel old enough to be getting married, other people my age would feel the same way =)

Anyways, this has served to make me rather depressed (I think that I am overusing that phrase.) Of course for the obvious reason of her being engaged and me being jealous in a sort of jealous, but not really jealous at all, yet still slightly bothered because she is my age sort of way. But also because it made me realize how out of touch with some of these people I am. I just sort of stumbled across the news that she was engaged. If these had been people that I had only known throughout high school, it would be okay, but most of my friends from David Douglas I went to school with all the way through -- from elementary to high school. I have known a lot of them since 6th grade, some since 3rd grade and even a couple since 1st. We experienced everything together... mean teachers, band competitions, hard classes, band trips to Disneyland, solo/ensemble contests, horrible AP assignments, Aalberg!!! Not to mention the trials of just growing up and making it through school. I have gone through so much of my life with them always there, but it made me sad to realize that I don't even know what is going on with them now.

I understand that people and circumstances and times change and you cannot always stay in contact, despite your best attempts. But have I even attempted? Probably not. If I was to be a big baby about it, I would blame it all on moving to Seattle and how I got torn from my friends before my senior year and they all had an extra year together and they are now all at UO and so on and so forth, yadda yadda yadda. But that probably is not a good reason, its just an excuse. Its sorta tough to realize that your life is changing and you have to figure out how to incoporate these people into that new and grown-up life. How much do you want to contact them? How much time do you want to spend seeing them? How much do you actually care about what goes on in their lives? Are they to just be one of those people that you send a Christmas card to every year with an update letter in it and call it good? I don't know. I will let you know when I figure it out. And I have the annoying feeling that this is going to become a problem for college too... I know!! Never make friends, then you will never have this problem? *Sigh* I am going to bed... I have become too cynical for my own good.

So it happened again...

...the Lord came through for me and worked stuff out when I had been idiotic and messed things up, mainly by purchasing a plane ticket before my classes were finalized =) Well, after much searching and great anguish, I found a class that fit right into my schedule, was actually interesting and most importantly... had a final while I was still going to be in the country! So now I am taking the History of Ireland which may sound boring to ya'll, but I am thrilled because I love history. I was going to minor in history until I realized that just getting my requirements for psych fulfilled and doing all the prereqs for nursing would probably take up a great deal of the time I had left in college. So I am excited that I am taking a history class again. The only bad thing about this schedule as I see it is that I have chem lab every Monday night from 6:30 to 9:20. I am not super excited about that, or about the fact that I am taking chem AGAIN, but that is another story for another time.

As if this means anything to anybody, but I recently decided to switch from a BS in psych to a BA for the stupidest reason ever: I can't take the stats class that goes with the BS this term. Unfortunately, stats is one of those pesky classes that ends up being a prereq for a lot of other classes you need to take, such as my lab classes, so I decided that I needed to go ahead and take stats ASAP in order to be able to take other stuff later. The stats class is where the BS and BA start to differ and the BS one wouldn't fit into my schedule so therefore, by default, I am now getting a BA. I know this may seem like a rash decision, but I have been told multiple times by my advisors that unless you are planning on going into clinical research, which I am not, you don't really need to get a BS. So don't ask me why I was going for it... I probably don't have a good answer.

My distinct lack of school this week has allowed me to do other things that needed to get done... such as realizing that the tabs on my car expired last month and nobody ever told me. I didn't get a letter or warning or anything. The only thing I can figure is that perhaps it went to the old owner since I purchased the car less than 2 months before the tabs expired. Anyway, if it wasn't for the fact that I had been curious about it, then I would be driving around with expired tabs. So $129.75 later I had new tabs and I am good to go for 1 year. For those of you who don't live in the beautiful state of Washington or the wonderful city of Seattle, let me explain why this was SO STINKING EXPENSIVE. We get the privilege of renewing every year and due to the monorail tax, I had to pay $76 just because. Now the monorail is a funny thing in that Seattle doesn't have any form of lightrail system (think MAX in Portland). So a couple of years ago, people decided that we needed one, which I think is cool and everything, but the way it was pitched and the people planning and the sheer amount of money it was going to cost didn't go over well with the voters and they voted it down 4 times I believe. The latest one being this last November. But due to the huge expense these people racked up doing studies and getting estimates and needing salaries and all that, I had to pay taxes on something that isn't even happening anymore. And the worst part is that the debt from just planning the stupid thing isn't expected to be paid off for 2-3 years. So even if we do come up with another idea, we will still be paying for this old idea that we threw away. Brilliant! I could have used that money to pay for my tail-light cover that I smashed when I backed into our garbage can... but again, another story for another time. Go to bed children... tomorrow is Sunday!

So it seems...

... that there are an unusually large number of people driving around Seattle with one burned out headlight. I wonder, why can't people change their headlights??? It is serving to make me rather depressed.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..... I need that rock NOW!

So as of 5 minutes ago I had a post up here that had taken me about 30 mins to type and then my computer said that it had encountered an error and shut down. Grrrr!!!! In that previous post, I had detailed how I was in the mood for some hardcore, head-banging rock. I need it even more right now just cause I am so frustrated. Perhaps if I do enough head-banging I will get so dizzy I won't remember how frustrated I was? I dunno.... Thousand Foot Krutch is cutting it for now, but I may need something new soon. Any good suggestions from the peanut gallery? I know that I may not seem like a rock girl, but I am. My music collection, while it is mostly Christian, is still comprised mainly of rock and alternative. Wait... I have a better suggestion, anybody wanna go cruising with me? We can turn the music up and roll the windows down and drive way too fast. Ahhhh.... sounds nice =) Wait... I mean, I don't drive fast (well, I didn't there for awhile while my car and I were still getting to know each other, but now we get along much better!)

But since I most likely will not be going cruising tonight but to bed instead, I shall finish rewriting the post that was already written once this evening. This is the short version. Going to London in the spring conflicted with one of my finals. I contacted the professor about the format of the final to get an idea of whether or not it was something that I could miss or not (i.e. If it was a paper, I could have written it early and left early). The stupid professor never emailed me back so I had to buy the ticket anyways. Might I add that it was non-refundable too. Finally I decided that the professor wasn't going to email me back, so I emailed him again. He responded with this "I don't give finals early, that is why I didn't respond to your email." On what planet would I take his lack of a response as a sign that he wasn't going to let me take the final early?? I took it more to mean that the email got lost or he accidentally overlooked it in his inbox or something. But long story short, he didnt respond so I bought the ticket for Thursday, the day of the final, because it was the cheaper one and they were running out of seats. If he had just had the decency to respond, I could have bought the ticket for Friday and it would have been all good. So I dropped his class, looked up his profile on the UW website and scowled at his picture. To make matters worse, he looks exactly like the defense against the dark arts teacher off of the 2nd Harry Potter movie, Lockhart. I am tempted to send a nasty email since I will never have to see him again nor take his class, but I will not because that wouldn't be very Christian-like. I have included his picture here, just for your scowling enjoyment: http://depts.washington.edu/scand/faculty/nestingen.shtml.

Anyway, I have bored you long enough with my rambles about my miserable existence. I am tense and on edge cause I have finals Monday and Tuesday and while I am pretty ready to take them, I just would like them to be over. Maybe THEN I will go on that cruising expedition to celebrate. You guys are still invited to come if you'd like....

I. Need. Coffee.

Either that or sleep. I think I have formed myself a nice little caffeine addiction over the past week and a half or so. Something about the final week of the quarter will do that to you. Either that or I am craving the chocolate that they put in my mocha and not really the coffee at all. Knowing me, the second option is a definite possibility. I know that I said I would post again.... but I didn't, because I am a horrible person. I'm still getting to it, its just that my brain doesn't want to process anymore information than it has to right now. But I'll get to it... after finals... or after this year... or after college... or after my Master's. No need to rush things.

In the hopes of being able to maintain a wakeful state tomorrow without the use of any addictive substances, I am going to sleep now. I also have an 8:30 test tomorrow morning, so a good night's sleep would probably be a plus in terms of that as well.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

It SNOWED!!! Granted, all of the snow is gone now, but it was fun while it lasted. Unfortunately, the majority of the act of snowing took place while I was at work yesterday, so I couldn't enjoy it to the extent that I would have liked. I had to appease myself by getting up and walking to the window to admire the snow every 15 mins or so. *Sigh* Sort of ironic how when I was working full time this summer I was bemoaning the fact that it was sunny outside and I could not be out basking in it. Now I have gone full circle and was bemoaning the fact that I couldn't be out in the snow. Why do we even have work anyway?

Oh yah, I remember why. So I can go to London over spring break, thats why! The plan has been in the works for some time now, but I bought my ticket, lets see, a week ago today, so now I am officially going. I am going to visit one of my friends from band who is graduating at the end of this quarter and getting a work visa to live in London. I am so very excited. I love to travel, and while Japan was totally awesome, I have yet to go to Europe, so that makes this even more exciting. But that is a ways away, so I must focus on the present.

Like how I hate my stupid computer. Actually, it isn't my computer, per se, rather it is windows. I turn on my computer tonight and it says that there are new updates for windows and so I begrudingly click "install." A century and a half later, it is still installing and everything is running super slow to the point that I can't use my computer. Finally everything finishes and I restart my computer. Apparently one of the pluses of installing these updates is that it gives you a better security center, so now it is asking me if it can block part of iTunes. What, you have something against Apple??? Wouldn't it be interesting if my computer got into a fight with itself... hmmmm...I think it would turn out fairly ugly.

Anyway, I have been procrastinating all day long and I think I should actually go to sleep so that I am feeling refreshed when I finally make myself work on homework tomorrow. Gilmore Girls is a horrible procrastination tool. I borrowed the first and second season from my aunt and cousin on DVD.... bad idea. That and knitting... but I finished my latest project, so perhaps I can hold off until my homework is more under control. As I am sitting here wrapping this up, I remembered the topic that I REALLY wanted to post about, but I will save it for tomorrow. Its philosophical and such, and I am not into the whole thinking hard thing today. And on that note... I give you this fun suprise! (scroll down to get to the commercial): http://www.bravia-advert.com/

The bottom of the barrel indeed

I am assuming that a great number of you have now heard how we managed to screw up the one and only game I truly cared about this entire season. Yah, we lost the Apple Cup. It was so infuriating too. Typical story, we had been playing okay the entire game but then, to use the phrase that I have heard used way too much this season, both from the coach and the players "We just couldn't finish it." You have that right. We were ahead with 1:20 left on the clock, but instead of guarding the ball and letting the clock run down, they let WSU score a touchdown. Like we are good enough to score again with 1:20 on the clock if it is down to the wire... yah right. The most frustrating part was that it totally looked like we were going to win, and with 1:20 I had actually started letting myself believe we would.

And then we lost. I started crying for a second there I think. Just all the emotions of watching them make the same mistakes for two whole seasons now was more than I could handle at that moment in time. And then the WSU fans and players rushed OUR field and started dancing on top of OUR W. You don't do that in Husky Stadium, I know it sounds corny, but it's almost sacred. It is one of the best known, most beautiful stadiums in college football. To have WSU do that was just wrong, not to mention that the broke about a dozen laws doing so and nobody arrested them. Grrrrrrrr........... Anyways, they stormed onto the field with all of our players still out there. I am surprised that things didn't get worse than they did. We had, oh what did the news call it, a near riot or something to that affect. One of the WSU players took their giant cheer flag and started running all over the field but was then tackled by some UW fans that couldn't stand it any longer. Lets just say the flag is worse for the wear. I was very disappointed in the lack of sportsmanship on both sides. But I thought our players (maybe not our fans) reacted pretty well to the provocation. I can just imagine being out there having nearly won a "big" game but losing instead due to stupid mistakes and the other team's fans running out and acting like they own the place. I would have been hard pressed to not do something either.

It all goes back to the legacy of Husky Stadium. Seriously, if you have never been in it, you do NOT know what you are missing, it is intense. And on Saturday I got to experience an aspect of it that I had always heard about but never been a part of. That is when the stadium has the 72,500 people in it and they are screaming at the top of their lungs. Husky Stadium is considered to be one of the loudest stadiums in North America. Talk about intimidating... or powerful, it depends on which side you are on. I would have loved to been a part of Husky football back in, oh say the late 80's, early 90's. It would have been awesome to behold, what with the all of the fans and a team that was actually worth cheering for!!!

P.S. I attempted to post a picture of Husky Stadium, but seeing as how I am not talented enough for that, I give you this instead http://www.liverdance.net/videos/MOV08622.MPG. On Saturday I decided that a good way to get out my aggression would be with a Godzilla impression.... enjoy!!

3:30 bedtime + 8:30 class = Lots 'o fun!!

So last night, or rather early this morning, I went and saw Harry Potter. It was excellent! It wasn't little kiddy and it really took the whole feel of the book and turned it into a great movie. As the books go on, the feel changes as circumstances change... so I am very glad that they are trying to capture that in the movies. It may well be my favorite movie so far, although it wasn't my favorite book. I don't know what it was... maybe it was the whole watching a movie at 1:30 in the morning thing, but I also found this movie to have a lot more humor in it. That is weird to say because I just said it was more serious, I guess what I mean is that the parts put in for comic relief actually worked really well. Anyway, I should probably stop talking about Harry Potter now, but I really want to see it again. I think that I just may have to go =)

While we were downtown going to see Harry Potter, it was extremely foggy, which meant that we couldn't even see the top of the space needle. It was like somebody had just removed the top part and left the legs. Which was awesome considering the fact that the top of the space needle is now painted crimson and grey. *Sigh* oh well... it is a terrible turn of events that I know UW won't live down for a while... the only thing that could make it so we redeemed some of our pride would be if we won the Apple Cup tomorrow. I will keep you posted! But the normally white arches of the Pacific Science Center, which is located right next to the space needle, were lit up with vibrant purple neon lights. So the space needle may not like us, but PSC does! And so does the weather... hence the fog obscuring the top of the needle =)

Anyway, thats about all the interesting news I have for now, just wanted to update you on Harry Potter. Oh my goodness... it was so much fun, I still get excited thinking about it =) The only bad part about the evening, I sat next to Wazzu fans and the guy next to me would make this horrible clicking noise with his mouth whenever something witty would happen on the screen. Whenever a part would come up that had significance to the movie but you hadn't realized it yet unless you had read the book, he would make that noise. Like when Hermonine and Krumm look at each other when he puts his name in the goblet of fire. I was like, "WOULD YOU STOP IT!!!"... but I didn't say it. Lynn said that I should have started coughing really loudly whenever he did this, but I didn't think of it at the time. It's not a bad idea.

My terrible horrible no-good very bad day...

In a nutshell... flea bites. I can sum up my bad day with those two words. At last count, the total was up to 15. This stinks... I have no clue where they are coming from. Well, I would assume from fleas, but where the fleas are coming from, I really don't know. I have washed my bedding and all my clothes about 2 times now and I vacuumed my whole room, yet they continue to strike. I think I'm gonna have to go get something so that I can bomb my room... which does not sound appealing in the slightest. Not to mention that I don't have the time to be dealing with this. The other major part of my bad day is that two of the pads fell out of my piccolo at practice tonight. So now I have to deal with the inconvenience of taking it to get it repaired, not to mention paying for it. Stupid weather..... what with the humidity in Japan and the massive downpours we have been having here, I think my pads decided they had been treated ill enough. But no more talking about the bad things.

Last weekend I went shopping! Yay... that made me very happy, in true girly fashion. I spent more money than I should have and bought things that I probably didn't need, but where is the fun in buying only things that you need? My most exciting purchase, a pair of Nine West boots for way less than they should have been. And in more exciting news.... THE FOURTH HARRY POTTER MOVIE COMES OUT FRIDAY AT MIDNIGHT!!! I can hardly wait. I bought my ticket last night for a 12:01 am showing. YES!! I am so excited about this. And then in even MORE exciting news, Apple Cup is this weekend AND we won our game last weekend. So I am holding out hope for the Apple Cup. So all in all, my life isn't too horrible, its just that when you want to cut your legs off because they itch so badly, you tend to forget the good things =)

On a final note: I bought a Luna bar for breakfast today and on the packaging it said "The Whole Nutrition Bar for Women." Which reminded me how when I was a senior, my calculus teacher used to always make fun of Luna bars, calling them "estrogen bars" and arguing that he couldn't eat them because he was a male. He was afraid they would turn him into a woman or something.... I don't know. Remembering it made me laugh though!

Crazy manic girl runs around Husky Stadium...

Don't ask where my title came from, I am not sure myself.

So I think that THE most frustrating thing about posting to my blog is that by the time I actually sit down to post, I've usually forgotten what it was that I wanted to say! But have no fear, I have not forgotten what I wanted to say tonight...

I had another uber productive day and that is probably a good thing since I have a midterm this week and two projects coming up quickly. Not to mention that I register for winter quarter on Friday and I am not sure what I am taking yet. Any suggestions? The only unfortunate thing about registering on Friday is that since it is Veteran's Day, I would normally be sleeping in... but now I will be rising at 5:45 to register and then go back to sleep. Such is the life of going to school at UW, if you don't do it early, you may not get the class.

In other news, Apple Cup is coming (The big game between UW and WSU)! And the Space Needle decided to get in on the action. So basically, whichever school raises the most money between now and the game, they will get their school colors painted on the space needle along with "Go Huskies/Cougars." I personally find this all sort of disturbing. The money is going to hurricane relief, which is okay with me, but the fact that the people down at the Space Needle are willing to get into the middle of this feud and SACRIFICE a Seattle icon to it is a little disturbing. Not to mention that UW has been behind in the money raising the last couple of days (but we were ahead today). Also, the Space Needle is in Seattle, so are the people in Pullman even going to care? I don't know, they may not even see it. *Sigh* Where do these people get these crazy ideas? I should probably mention that eventually the Space Needle will go back to white, but I am not sure how long it will stay the school colors. I don't think I could bear to drive past a crimson and gray space needle on my way to work everyday, but alas, I am a poor, Poor, POOR college kid and don't have money to donate!

One last thing... I just have to say that I have a new fascination now, thanks to Tricia. If you have never heard of Death Cab for Cutie, you should check them out. I know that I am jumping quickly between likes and dislikes right now, I'm feeling sort of manic actually... but maybe I am just doing too much Abnormal Psychology Studying. Time for me to go to bed!

Regarding Penguins:

"They are creatures of pure goodness and light." -- Shauna

I just had to include this fabulous qoute from this evening. I know it won't make much sense, but I thought it was terribly funny and I just had to share.

In other news, do you ever have one of those days where you just wish that you didn't have to do so much so that you could have more time to do more? Confusing, I know, but for example, today I was on a ROLL at home, cleaning/studying/doing laundry... you name it. But then I had to stop all of those things and go to band. *Sigh* first time in a while that I actually wanted to do work and then I didn't have enough time. Ironic. Not to mention all of the things that I wanted to do for fun and didnt get to do either...

I will post more later, but I am feeling guilty about even posting at all, what with all the aforementioned things that I have to do... hopefully tomorrow!

I have four words for you...

They Might Be Giants. Ever heard of the song, "Istanbul not Constantinople?" Yes, it is a real song. They are the driving force behind the version that most people recognize. If you like funny, sort of eclectic, but terribly witty alternative rock music, they are your guys. I am not quite sure why my blog always ends up talking about music, but I can't say that I really mind.

On another note, I have about 50 things that are more important for me to be doing than updating my blog, but I feel like doing this. I had my anthropology of linguistics midterm today. It went rather well and overall I am very pleased with myself. I am really enjoying the class and if it weren't for the fact that I already have a major and I don't think I would be employable, anthropology would be an interesting field to go into. I think I may have been bitten by the anthropology bug... they say thats what happens when you take one class. But alas, I bore you.

Actually, my life is sort of boring overall right now. I am stuck in the middle of the quarter and I can't seem to find my way out. I would kill to be able to have an evening to myself and watch a bunch of movies and just hang out. I had an awesome time this past weekend, but now I dont even feel like I had a weekend because of it. Lets see, Friday was school as usual but I stayed on campus and went out to lunch with Shauna, went to American Apparel, went to her apartment and then finally walked back to campus to catch a bus home so I could get my car and come back for rehearsal. Friday night I spent way too much time debating with my brother over what to get my mom for her birthday (we finally got her salt/pepper grinders.) Saturday I baked cookies and then went to a pumpkin patch and then since we were near Lynn's house in Redmond, she drove us there (in my car) so we could "see where Lynn came from." (This only makes sense if you actually know Lynn.) Amazingly enough, she came from a nice suburb with a nice family and nice parents. Who'd 'a thunk? Then we went to Lynn's apartment and carved pumpkins and watched Flashdance (awful movie). Then I went back to Shauna's apartment so she could get her stuff and then she came and stayed with me so she could go to church the next morning for her Religion class. And Sunday was Sunday, enough said.

*Sigh* I read back over what I already wrote and just reading it makes me cringe because it sounds so frantic. I think it is time for me to call it an early night. Goodnight guys. I will try to post again soon about interesting things, but like I said, I'm pretty boring right now =)

Separate Ways

So tonight, I just sort of felt like posting lyrics instead of writing. Hey, its my blog, I can do whatever I want, right? I hope you like it, this is one of my favorite songs from HMB. Plus the real song is great too!

Here we stand, worlds apart

Hearts broken in two, two, two

Sleepless nights, losing ground

I'm reaching for you, you, you

Feelin' that it's gone, Can change your mind

If we can't go on, to survive the tide love divides

Chorus:

*Someday love will find you

Break those chains that bind you

One night will remind you

How we touched and went our separate ways

If he ever hurts you

True love won't desert you

You know I still love you

Though we touched and went our separate ways*

Troubled times

Caught between confusion and pain, pain, pain

Distant eyes

Promises we made were in vain, vain, vain

If you must go, I wish you love

You'll never walk alone

Take care my love, miss you love

Chorus

Hex 168

So apparently we advertised for X-Box at our game today. They paid us $5,000 dollars to make this design on the field that has to do with their new marketing campaign for the 360. It was a circle with a hexagon in the middle with the roman numerals for 1, 6 and 8. I have tried asking some people what this means, and they have given me rather weak answers. Something about a "viral" campaign where they flood the market with something that will peak people's interest, such as Hex 168. So if any of my gamer friends know more about this and would like to fill me in, I would love to learn what is going on. I understand part of it may not be figured out until the 360 comes out, but any new knowledge would be useful. Like, have you even heard of this before?

Anyway, I am rather tired tonight and somewhat irritable. Today we played U$C, which equals the University of Spoiled Children. The score was a slaughter, but we did manage to beat the spread AND not continue the curse of 17. Although I am very frustrated with the Huskies because they can play good football for about 1 quarter, tops, and then it has to be bad. But when they play good, they REALLY play good ... I wish they could just continue on in that vein. Oh yah, and to make my mood worse, we also almost got our rallies cancelled due to some stupid reporter over at The Daily who did NOT get his facts straight. He was writing an article about going to football games drunk and how this was a staple of college life. (hmmm.. interesting, cause I'm in college and I never been to a game drunk, I've never drank at all!) But he mentioned the fact that this debauchery usually begins Friday nights, and he made mention of the band being at rallies. Some stupid comment about how the people in band were the drunkest ones out there, which is totally not true. But whether or not it is true, Brad blew a gasket. He yelled at us for 20 minutes, it was the MADDEST I have ever seen him. Because now lots of people are reading this and thinking the band is a bunch of drunks. Which wrecks our reputation and could possibly have dire consequences (such as putting us on probation with no more travel), just because some idiot decided to write something he knew nothing about. He was the one that reported in a campus newspaper to over 40,000 people that after the games, he is so drunk that he doesn't even know how to get home. Give me a break... it is frustrating that somebody like that could get us in trouble with half truths. But be that as it may, rallies are strictly alcohol free, which is fine with me, and they may not even continue if we don't come up with an agreement that Brad feels is adequate. Grrrr....!

But on to a lighter note before I go to sleep... my nickname is morphing again. Over the Japan trip, my TOC nickname became Victoria Butterworth (TOC being Touch of Class, our official travel attire so the band looks all professional and gives a good image and what not). When we were in the airport in San Fran, they kept calling that name over the loudspeaker, and Lynn decided that should be my nickname as well. Then in Oregon last weekend, the door on the overhead compartment on our travel busses kept hitting my arm/head/hand when I would try to take stuff in and out. Finally I got so frustrated that I hit the door and shouted, "Stupid door!" unfortunately somebody thought I said, "Stupid whore!" So know my other nickname is crack whore. Where the crack part came from I have no clue. But people think it is terribly funny to call me crack whore because, obviously, I am not. Not even close =) And then they started adding secret agent in there. So now my full nickname is something along the lines of: Victoria Butterworth, secret-agent-crack-whore, Sex Pocket. All said together, very fast. Interesting, I know, but such is the pain I must endure for hanging out with band nerds all the time. Goodnight!

My experiences as an offical globe trotter...

Yes, it is me and I am back from Japan. No bird flu, no SARS... although I did manage to catch a relatively nasty cold before I got back. Let me just say that the airplane pressure change when your ears are plugged up is NOT fun! I should be going to bed soon, but I haven't posted in a long time so I wanted to give you guys all something new to read. I will tell a little about my trip, but I may have to save some for later.

I was correct when I guessed that I wasn't going to like the 11 hour plane flight. I was in the middle of the row both times. The first time I was sitting next to some Japanese guy and this guy in the military who is stationed at Okanagwa. He was pretty cool... the Japanese guy just drank beer and didn't talk. On the way back I sat between two old couples that had both just been on a cruise that ended in Osaka. That was interesting... one of the guys didn't have an arm. He quite literally had a claw and reminded me of Captain Hook, but he was really nice. The plane ride was boring, other than turbulence. I'm not sure if it was the whole flying over the Pacific thing, but it was the most turbulence I had ever experienced, both coming and going. Going to Japan I watched Fantastic 4, The Wedding Date, About a Boy, Babe and something else I think. Coming back I watched Bewitched and Batman Begins and parts of Moulin Rouge and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. But enough about that... that paragraph sounds almost as boring as my plane flight.

When we got to Japan it was hot and TERRIBLY humid. Thankfully, the humidity broke the next afternoon when it rained, but for awhile it was miserable. We ate dinner at the airport that night... they have a very artistic looking airport and it is actually really cool. I had something called Udon, which is a kind of soup/noodle dish with fried tofu on top. It was good... but so began my adventure in looking at a picture and deciding that I wanted that, although I didn't know what it was. In Japan, they have this really cool custom of actually making fake "sample" dishes and displaying them in the windows of restaurants so that you can see what they offer. This is all well and good until you go in to order and you get a menu with no pictures. Then you have to go back outside and quickly memorize the kanji so that you can find it on the menu! When we got to our hotel, we each got our own room, which was awesome. It wasn't much bigger than the bed and the bathroom, but it wasn't squished. I have pictures of this stuff on bebo if you guys want to look.

Random things about Japan: Like I said, it was terribly humid in Japan for the first day, and this was miserable. Over the rest of the week, it was less humid, but it was hot and we had to wear our band uniforms for three full days and also MARCH in them. Talk about disgusting. I took a bottle of Febreeze with me and by the time I came home it was about 3/4 gone. I honestly have never sweated that much before in my entire life! Osaka is by far the biggest city I have ever seen in my entire life. It took us an hour to drive from the airport to out hotel, and that was without traffic. It is also a very pretty city. Things in Japan are by far a lot brighter and more engaging. Signs are everywhere and they are bright and flashy with not much empty space. I wonder if that is a factor of the small size of the island nation... if clutter is sort of built into their culture. But to drive through downtown at night is serious sensory overload. Even to go into something as basic as a drug store is an intense experience. The lights are very bright and the signs are very cheerful and colorful. Oh yah, and those little anime-style characters? Everywhere! I thought that it was just an American thing to depict the Japanese as having anime everywhere because that is one thing they are known for... but no, it is all over Japan. For instance, something serious that we would use a pretty lady to advertise, they use a little anime cat. It is hilarious, but also cute. And it is embraced in their culture... I saw ties for grown men with Hello Kitty faces on them and little elephants and little airplanes/trains/dogs/boats/giraffes. You name it, I saw it. I specifically remember one businessman I saw in an elevator who had on a nice suit and tie, but there where little elephants and palm trees all over the tie. It was hilarious! And there are so many people! Everywhere! And the streets are narrow and the buildings are TALL. For instance, my street would be a wide street compared the street our hotel was on. Oh yes, and they had Tully's, Starbucks and Seattle's Best Coffee. It was very strange to go into places like these because you are familiar with the store, but other than the name, it is not familiar at all.

Since I can't take the time to tell you everything, I will list some highlights from my trip:

Hanging out with the Golden Bears Band and Cheerleaders. They were these cute little highschoolers and they LOVED us. Everything we did they copied, so we taught them our cadences =).

Going to Karaoke in Japan and riding the subway to get there. Karaoke was in Namba, which is the part of Osaka that is a little seedier, which equals more bright lights and even narrower streets. They had like little malls where the streets were so narrow that they just sort of put a roof over it and turned the street into a walkway. It was very fun and gave you sensory overload! I have pictures of karaoke and of the place. Plus, it was amazing to see the subway at 11 pm on a Sunday night... it was absolutely packed.

Buying things from all the vending machines and convenience stores. I am in love with some types of Japanese candy now... and their waffle ice cream, oh my goodness!! It is true when they say there are vending machines everywhere. They are just stuck in little nooks and crannies along the street. They are only about four types though: Cigarettes (a LOT of men smoke), Beer, Drinks and Ice Cream.

Going to the public bath in Himi with my host family. Nothing like getting to know your host family like getting naked with them and taking a shower. The only way this could have been more public would have been if it was in the street and the guys and girls were together! You go to this place that looks a lot like the YMCA and buy a little ticket then go into guys/girls locker rooms. And then you take off all your clothes. You don't leave anything on. I didn't know if this was like camp where you could wear some stuff until you get into the shower and then take that off, but no... you take a shower in a giant place with all the other women. You don't even take your towel with you. So you get this little bucket and you sit on it in front of a little vanity thing that has a mirror and a shelf and a shower head and you take your shower. All of these little "stations" are in a shower room type setting which equals no privacy. When you are finished, then you go to a hottub sort of thing that they call the bath. You can soak there and it is rather enjoyable, other than being naked with a bunch of naked Asian women that look at you because you are the white girl =) But still, it was one of my favorite things.

Riding on the Italian EuroStar bus and then the French EuroStar bus because the tire fell off the italian one. The guys took it to get to their temple homestay in Himi and the tire fell off as they were driving and rolled across a ditch, jumped a fence and went into a field. Apparently the lugnuts weren't tight. Yah, apparently. Oh yah, and the buses had these horribly cheesy looking fake chandeliers. It was interesting, to say the least.

Being treated like a rock star at the concert in Himi. THe line to see us wrapped around the building and people got there at 4 for a 7:30 concert. Crazy. I waved at one little old lady and she started jumping up and down and waving back enthusiastically. It was amazing.

Getting to meet all sorts of new kids and people who also share a love of music.

Trying to figure out what I am doing when I can't speak the language or even read it! It was very frustrating at times because if I was in Europe, most likely I could attempt a pronunciation, but I couldn't even do that here. Yet the language amazes me and I found it to be quite fascinating, although I never got the characters down. I know like 10 Japanese words now, thats about it =)

Anyway, as you see, I could go on and on about my trip. But I need to go to bed and you are probably tired of reading about it. You can ask questions if you want, and I sure have a lot more stories than what I wrote about here. I seriously could talk for days about my trip! I had an amazingly wonderful time, and I would actually like to go back at some point in time. It was weird, by the end of the trip when we came back to Osaka from Himi, Osaka felt familiar, like I was coming home to something. It was awesome!

Japan... finally!

Okay, so it is officially time for my update on my Japan trip. But unfortunately, I deemed packing much more important than posting to my blog and I have put it off until 9:45pm. You will see why this could be a problem in a second.

So tomorrow I leave for Japan with the Husky Marching Band. There are about 100 people going altogether, out of a band that marches 240 on the field. Why are we going to Japan you may ask? Because the music programs at UW have a connection to schools over there. They have been here some and the UW wind ensemble has gone over to Japan before, but never the marching band, so this is a new and cool thing. We are marching in two parades, doing a field show, doing a homestay in a little Japanese fishing village, touring around to schools and hosting a combined concert.

Now this is why I should be in bed: we leave UW tomorrow at 4:30am, which means I am setting my alarm clock for 3:15am. Oi! But I love you guys enough to post when I said that I would. I then catch a 6:25am flight to San Fran, and then take a noon flight to Japan. The flight is going to be 11 hours and 30 minutes long. I looked today =). I don't mind flying, but I have never been on a plane that long, so I am not too sure about this. I don't even like CAR rides that are that long, and you can at least look out the window. Oh well... I will watch their little movies, or *sigh* do catch up on the homework I am missing. We will arrive in Osaka at 4:15pm on Friday. We will have a little bit of a chance to recuperate, and then we jump right into our schedule. We are there a week and come home on Thursday, October 13. And then I turn right around to leave for the UW vs. UO game in Eugene.

Apparently the people in Japan are really, really excited about us coming. I can't seem to think that we are anything that special, but they are very excited. I think part of it may be the culture, but just a guess. They have billboards up all over Osaka with a picture of the logo W and our Husky dog, Spirit. And last night Brad told us that the people in the town where we are doing our homestays had a meeting about us coming that went all night. He told us that we are going to be treated like rockstars. I will let you know if that happens or not =). So while everyone is excited about us coming, we do have a responsibility to behave and not make them hate Americans. Some funny things that I have noticed so far, they have interesting terms when it comes to translation. For instance, they call our uniforms our "performance costumes" and they call the field show a "marching exhibition." Apparently this "marching exhibition" is going to be broadcast all over Japan. Scary stuff. Oh yah, 39 of our guys are going to be staying in a Buddhist temple for their homestay. Now that is scary =).

Anyway, on to something that doesn't have a thing to do with Japan. When I bought my car about a month ago, I went and bought a new stereo and an iPod interface. I love my stereo, but unfortunately, it took me until yesterday to finally use my iPod interface. I could have kicked myself!! I should have used it much sooner. It is really nifty, all you have to do is hook up your iPod to the cable and then you can access all of the albums/songs/artists on your iPod. It spells out on the stereo screen who it is you are listening to and what song and all that jazz. I like it because now I don't have to make sure that I have the CD that I want to listen to handy as long as I have my iPod. I can also change albums way easier than if I were to have to change the actual CD. And it charges my iPod. How cool is that?!? Goodnight!

I schlept in my bed last night...

I am in a Johnny Q. sort of mood again. If you aren't sure what that is, then you should read my blog more often, or look though my old posts =). I looked tonight to see if there was a way to post the song, but unless I can link it through a web page and then put up that link, I'm not sure if you will ever hear it from my blog. Sorry, disappointing, I know.

So in other news, the drumline now knows my nickname. There is a cadence we do that lends itself perfectly to the sex pocket dance. At UCLA the piccs where doing the cadence and saying "Sex Pocket!" (I'm famous, I know!) Well, the drumline was in front of them and heard it and was like "What in the world does that mean?" So my nice friends in the piccolo section told them. Apparently the drumline was discussing my name on the way home. I shudder to think what about... probably similar to what Matthew thought when he read my blog =).

I know I am jumping from topic to topic tonight, but my brain is seriously going at about 500 miles a minute because I have SOOOO much to remember for Japan. Bear with me please? Sitting in class today, I heard the bells from Denny Hall ringing on the hour... it was wonderful. Last year Denny was getting a new roof put on so we didn't have bells the entire year. I really like UW's campus. It is so pretty and some of the architecture is amazing. A lot of the buildings are from earlier in the history of the school, so they are really neat. Nothing like being in an ultra-studious looking environment to make you want to study! Although, as you move down campus toward the hospital, the buildings house more sciences and are therefore a lot newer... due in great part to our good friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. But they are still pretty, in a new sort of way. My favorite place to study is the atrium in the electrical engineering building. And now all of the leaves are changing colors and it is absolutely beautiful on campus. Maybe I will take some pictures soon. The crisp, fresh, fall air. I love this time of year!

Jumping again, today in my anthropology class we watched a funny movie about dialects and accents. They kept highlighting different accents, but it seemed to me as if they only had about four, and they didn't interview ANYbody from the west coast. You'd think that they would just because we are said to have the least noticeable "accent." Anyway, in this movie they were going around asking people from different regions what a region specific word meant. So they went to these hillbillies and they were like, "What does the word 'schlep' mean?" And they were like, "Well, I don't know. Is it sort of like, 'I schlept in the bed last night'?" It was hilarious! (Do you guys know what schlep means? I already did, its like carrying around a bunch of stuff. "I had to schlep my backpack all over campus.") That movie made my day.

I am going to be going off to bed now, must conserve sleep when I can. I have to be at UW at 4am on Thursday (details are still forthcoming, I promise!) Funny story really quick though, when I walked out to my car after band practice tonight, there was a pair of socks sitting by my car. I didn't know where they had come from, so I picked them up and they were mine. Apparently what happened was my coat was sitting on a stack of folded laundry, so when I grabbed it and went to practice, they got stuck in my coat and then fell out in the parking lot. What is even weirder is that I got to school at 4:15, so when I walked back out to my car a 9:15, my socks had been sitting in the parking lot for 5 hours. Strange... goodnight!

T-minus 4 days

So many things are happening in my life right now, and I have 4, count 'em FOUR, days until I leave for Japan. I promise that I will post more about that trip before I leave, but for now I have lots of other things to say.

School started on Wednesday. I am only taking 12 credits because of the whole missing a week of school to go to Japan problem, so 12 credits equals two classes and marching band. The first class I am taking is Abnormal Psychology. This week we had to read a case study about a guy with something called Intermittent Explosive Disorder. I didn't even know there was such a thing. He had SERIOUS road rage and when someone cut him off, he forced the guy off the road and then started slamming the guy into his car hard enough to dent the door. Reading this made me wonder though, how many of these mental illnesses could be cured by better parenting? Hmmm? The guy grew up in a kind of violent home, so if this was all he knew, how do we know that he is really sick, or that he is just acting on the example that he saw at home growing up. The other class I am taking is Linguistic Anthropology and I am really enjoying the class so far. It looks at how we use language to actually convey what we mean and how the same words can mean different things in different cultures. Like I said, I am finding it very interesting because it is answering some of the questions that I had whenever I took foreign language classes. And then there is marching band. Of course! So that is my schedule for this quarter.

And then we almost got a new cat on Wednesday. There was a kitty wandering around the church parking lot when we got there for Bible study. It was the CUTEST cat ever. It had long fur and it was silky and fluffy with Siamese type markings. It had brown ears with a brown face, a blue eye, a cream colored body and white feet so it looked like it was wearing boots. It only had one eye, but it wasn't like it was icky, the eyelid was just closed like she was winking =). We couldn't figure out where she belonged so we took her home and she ended up sleeping with me in my bedroom. She woke me up about 3 times, walking on my head and meowing because she wanted me to pet her. By this time everybody in my family except my mom wanted to keep her if we couldn't figure out where she belonged. Even my dad. He kept coming in and checking on her, picking her up and cuddling her. It was so funny. And then we found her family. Apparently she got out when they were moving. So we don't have a new cat. And I am sad... I want a kitten now =)

Almost done, I promise. I watched the USC/ASU game today: USC won. I am very angry. ASU was ahead when I started watching. This was the 26th game in a row that USC has won. I think they need to lose a little bit so that it doesn't go to their heads. Oh wait, it already has =)

Song of the Night: Separate Ways

"Some day love will find you, break those chains that bind you. One night will remind you, how we touched and went our separate ways. If he ever hurts you, true love won't desert you. You know I still love you, though we touched and went our separate ways."

Rather than give Matthew a sense of victory by apologizing about my previous post, I think I shall just post something new. So there, Goliath ;P

I watched a great movie last night, Some Like it Hot. It's from the 1960s or so and has Marilyn Monroe in it. I don't know if anyone has seen the movie, but I would recommend it, it is a good comedy that is actually funny. So many comedies are not even funny anymore... sad. But I digress. I am posting because this movie ends with the best quote ever. Unfortunately, in order to not give away the plot of the movie, I can't explain the quote as thoroughly as I would like. But it should still stand on its own. Very last line in the movie... "I am a man." "That's okay, nobody's perfect." Ah... it was lovely, I laughed for a while over that line.

In other news, today I found out that 300 Dollars will get you 32,000 Yen. I hope they don't have one Yen notes, otherwise I honestly don't know what I will do with it all. Official count down: T-minus 9 days until Japan.

Sex Pocket

That is my "official" band nickname. It is one of those nicknames that is good because you know it is going to stick, but the name in and of itself is rather interesting. So on to the explanation! (Nicknames always have explanations, didn't you know?) A lot of the piccolo dances... err... choreography for the songs involve using a bit of sass and wacking your butt at times throughout the song. Like, big bass downbeat, that would be a good butt-wacking place. Anyway, at our pre-season picc meeting, we were discussing choreography and how when we do this butt-wacking should we be looking straight ahead or should we turn and look over our shoulder. Needless to say, we decided on the over the shoulder look because it was more sassy, i.e. sexy. So over the last couple of weeks it has sort of become a thing to say "SEX" whenever you slap your butt during the song. Don't freak out now, this is all in fun, I promise =)

On to the nickname part, I was walking to rally last week with some people and I had my cellphone in my back pocket. Unfortunately I said, "I need to move my cell phone because it is in my sex pocket." And unfortunately Lynn was there and picked up on me saying something stupid. And unfortunately everybody that was with me at that point in time has now decided to tell anyone they meet that my name is now "Sex Pocket." It is absolutely horrible, in a fun sort of way! The worst part though, and the reason that I know the name is going to stick, is that I have started answering to it. The first time it was totally on accident, but now that I have started answering to my nickname, I don't think that there is anyway I am ever going to escape it. Example, I am walking to practice and somebody says, "Hi Sex Pocket."Unfortunately I decide to say "Hi what ever their name is" and now I am stuck with the name. All the piccs know, all the clarinets know and a good deal of other random people. It is spreading, and it has only been a week. *Sigh* This is going to be a long season =)

In other news, we lost today to Notre Dame: Notre Dame 36, Washington 17. But we put up a very good fight. Notre Dame really had to work for those points, as did we. I am proud of most of our Huskies... but some of them, as my friend Becca likes to say, are still not on my Christmas card list. Something odd, and something I am sure the sports writers are going to pick up on soon, in every game that we have lost this season, we scored 17 points. That is three games now. And last week when we won, we scored 17 points in the 2nd quarter and 17 points in the 3rd quarter. What is up with 17? I think it is cursed or something...

I don't know -- no I don't but I care!

Yay for the lyrics to Johnny Q.!!! Johnny Q. has got to be about my absolute favorite stands tune for marching band, and now Shauna has made me a CD with the real song on it and I actually get to learn the lyrics. Good times. I am feeling in a very Johnny Q. sort of mood tonight: Fun and silly and I feel like making a fool of myself and busting out some "choreography." (No, I didn't just say that I wanted to dance...) I wish there was a way to upload it to my blog so everybody could hear it. If that is possible... can some one tell me how to do it?

Anyway, in other news, for the first time in the history of my playing the flute/piccolo, I have wrecked my chops. Totally and completely, no practicing for me tonight. This week we are doing a Sousa show. Anybody familiar with Sousa and piccolo parts should know exactley what I am talking about. So after an all day practice of playing Sousa over and over and over, my mouth is a little sore. And to top it all off, we are ending the show with Stars and Strips Forever. I love the song, don't get me wrong, but after playing 4 other Sousa songs in front of it, the Picc soli just dosen't come out the way that it should. But I persevered and I have the soli under my fingers for the most part. We are playing Notre Dame tomorrow. Big stuff, they never come to Seattle. And to make things more interesting, Coach Willingham (our new coach) is the ex-coach for Notre Dame. Interesting. I will let you know what happens tomorrow. I am excited, it should be a fun day all the way around.

Now, on to the promised discussion about Thr3e. I am not sure how to do this because I don't want to wreck the book for anybody else. I guess I will put a disclaimer if I am going to give something away. I really, really liked the book. I thought it was very well done and the twist toward the end really is interesting. Maybe I thought it was interesting because I am going into Psychology. I didn't really find the book scary at all. *DISCLAIMER* Yes, the idea that someone can have three distinct personalities who are trying to hurt one other is a bit unnerving, but it was an interesting discussion of good vs. evil. *YOU CAN READ AGAIN* It reminded me of a certain movie that a certain person made me watch, which, due to circumstances beyond my control, scared me senseless. (Its okay, no hard feelings =) I am not sure what to think of Ted Dekker's writings over all, though. As a Christian reading them, I can always tell what his Christian theme is, but I wonder if a non-Christian would pick up on anything or if they would just read over it as another part of the story. Okay, so I know that this is a very poor start to a discussion, but I am tried. Let me know what you guys thought of the book.

"Oh, You gotta take me home tonight. Oh, Down beside that red firelight. Oh, You gotta let it all hang out. Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go 'round!" The cd switched to the next song and I couldn't help but sing =) But I will spare you any more agony of my singing in the middle of my posts, I am going to sleep now. I do have a question though, I have recently received an interesting band nickname and I can't decide whether to write about it or not. It is a TERRIBLY good nickname as far as nicknames go, but it is also just an awful name. Let me know if you guys would be interested. GOODNIGHT!

$2.87=Cheap Gas?

I just have to say that it is rather pathetic when I consider gas that is $2.87 a gallon to be cheap. Very frustrating that I want to go cruising in my car and listen to my new stereo but I can't because I am not rich enough to pay for the gas! This is ridiculous... I definitely bought a car at the wrong point in history. Oh well....

A lot of things have actually happened that I want to post about, but I don't have time tonight. I watched The O.C. and Reunion both for the first time tonight while I knitted (knat?... was knitting?), I don't know. And now I am afraid that it is time for me to take my runny nose and congested self and go to bed. I hate being sick. I promise to post more later. I just finished reading Thr3e by Ted Dekker and I really hope that someone out there has read it because I want to talk about it a little. I know that Matthew has. But I will leave that post for a later date. I really am going to bed now.... I promise. I am rambling, yes, that means I'm tired. Goodnight!

P.S. The Huskies won on Saturday! Washington 34, Idaho 6... just wanted to share the joy =)

End of Day 2...

and I am sore. S...O...R...E... SORE. And I have a blister on my foot. How I am going to march for 12 hours tomorrow is beyond me. But I will deal with it because I LOVE MARCHING BAND!

It is so great to not be a rookie this year. I actually know what I am doing now (sort of) and I don't have to wear the same stinky white shirt all week.

In other exciting news, if I have to play Louie Louie tomorrow, I may kill myself. We have been practicing our choreography for our stands tunes (ie dances) and there is this part in Louie Louie where you just get lower and lower and lower in a squatting position. Yah, my thighs will not stand for that abuse another day. And the jumping in Johnny Q isn't far behind... I'm sure feeling my age =)

More to come later. I promise I won't only write about marching band, but it is sort of consuming my life at the moment.

Return of the Dawgs?

Yes, I have decided to create a blog, but I don't feel like boring you with all the mundane details of my life. So, without further ado, on to the more exciting things....

I almost drowned today. Really. You don't believe me? I am serious. For my readers who don't know (wait, what readers, I haven't told anybody about this yet! anyway...) I am a member of the Husky Marching Band. Go Dawgs! And today was our first official home game that we marched at. So I got up at the crack of dawn, which on a Saturday equals 7am, and was at school by 8:30. We then did our last run throughs of our field show and pregame and all of that good stuff. But picture this, dark, dense, low clouds hang over all of Seattle when I wake up. Then when I get to school and am out on the football field with NO place to go, the skies open up and we have a torrential downpour. I mean TORRENTIAL! There could have been a monsoon and I'm not sure that it would have been raining any harder. But we are in the middle of practicing our field show, and of course we are hard core band geeks so we don't fear a bit of rain. But it juts keeps coming and coming and coming. Until everything is soaked. The rain has soaked through my wool band uniform, through my long sleeve thermal shirt, through my purple shirt. I heard one guy say that there was water running down his leg on the inside of his pants because so much water had soaked through. I do not think I have ever been that drenched in my whole life, other than when I was swimming or taking a shower. So do you see how I almost drowned now? And then to make matters worse during the football game ALL of the clouds go away and there is beautiful blue sky and sun. So now we are all damp, but we are sweating because the sun is so hot. I mean, come on, after all it is only September 10, it can still be warm this time of year in Seattle.

What's that you say? What about the football game? Yah... that was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. For those of you who don't know, last year was the worst year for Husky football in about 30 years, 1 win, 9 losses. Yah, I told you it was bad. So we fired that coach and got a new coach who seems to be doing better. He at least still has energy. But about this game, it was against Cal for those of you who wanted to know. We started out great. We scored a touch down within the first 20 seconds. 20 SECONDS PEOPLE! The guy rushed 56 yards. It was incredible, I think almost every one in Husky Stadium nearly fainted. But then things sort of went down hill from there. I won't elaborate because it is too depressing. We lost, 56-17.

But the band won. The band ALWAYS wins =) We got to have a jam session on the field after the game with the Cal band and the Blue Thunder drum line. Ahhh... I love band! Preschool drills next week, which means band from 8:30am to 8:30pm. YES!!!