And joyous new year to you all.
Wow.
I have not seriously updated in some time.
I suppose that’s because right now, life is currently that sort of hectic that doesn’t have you actually doing anything, but at the same time, there’s never really a free moment to take a half-hour or so and blog. You know what I mean. If you don’t, you’re not human.
So, these past couple of days have been very musical, as I have recently regained my keyboard (and have been scouring the interspheres for all the free sheet music I can get my hands on, and if you know of any good sites, do pass them along), have been going to Douglas practice what feels like constantly, and learning to play and write things on the bass, an instrument at which it turns out I am quite good, despite the fact that the average bass is only about a foot shorter than I am myself. I’ve been feeling pretty good, and my voice is sounding better and better all the time (except for today, though that’s probably because I was just pounding out Beatles songs and screaming the words to “Oh! Darling” over and over again). I’m also pleasantly surprised at how intact my muscle memory has been at recalling songs I used to know, and how much better I read sheet music now than I ever did before, which is something I honestly can’t explain, but I’m not going to complain about.
All that, and I’ve been trying to read and write at every free moment, while maintaining my sleep schedule (getting to bed between 8PM and 12AM like an old person, but there’s a lot of leeway there, and getting up between 5 and 10AM) except for tonight, it being New Years and all that, not to mention I finally cleaned house, vacuumed with a proper vacuum cleaner for the first time ever (all we had was one of those wet-dry vacs with no handle, which was quite handy for messes, but a nuisance for general maintenance), and am trying to keep up to date on my WiiFit, which I failed at yesterday and today (meaning 12/30 and 12/31).
BUSYBUSY, and at the same time...not...really...doing...anything.
Which brings us to new years.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I don’t really make new years’ resolutions because I know I won’t keep them and I tend to make a bunch of self-improvment plans in the fall a lot anyway, so here’s a bit of reflection and some thoughts I have on the coming year instead.
This year (this February, actually) marks two and a half years I will have been with Chris. Once that marker has officially past, it will be the longest relationship I’ve ever been in. (I’m aware that I’m only 20 and that I’ve spent more than six years of my life in steady relationships and if the math seems off to you, understand that I never dated different people - I’ve only ever had three serious boyfriends, four if you count my elementary school up through first year of high school crush.) It’s an intimidating thought, but at the same time, really comforting. I’m at that point where I know I can get fat and lazy and not worry about actually doing anything because I’m kind of officially a housewife, and I’m totally okay with that, but at the same time I’m still too antsy to get like that. Going on tour will be the longest I’ve ever been away from Chris since senior year and that kind of really scares the crap out of me, but I’m not worried, really, I just fear loneliness, because I don’t really remember what it feels like (I also know I’m going to miss the crap out of my cat, and I worry that he won’t remember who I am by the time I get back, but that’s a whole other row of ducks). But I really am glad I found Chris, someone who’s cool with whatever I wanna be or do and who likes to listen to me play piano and guitar while he falls asleep in the next room even though I’m not very good at either. :)
This past year I’ve really slacked off writing. Even with NaNo, I know I wrote less in 2008 (okay, more like 2007/2008) than I ever have before, and I really wanna break that habit. Write or Die has really helped me with that, and I’m really glad to be a part of the good Dr. Wicked’s writing podcast as a result of it, but I really hope that with everything else I’ve got going on, that I don’t shy away from writing again. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I’m going to contact my old creative writing professor and tell him the whole story of why I’m not returning to Point Park and what I’m doing with my life and will he still read some stuff I’m working on even though he’s not really being paid for it anymore. +laugh+ He was a cool guy and I know he’ll be proud of me and probably say yes, I just feel weird asking someone, a teacher, who I am no longer a student of, to still be a teacher to me.
I also hope to become more musically vested than ever in 2009. I was born with talent, I know this. But once I got a fortune cookie that said “Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” I don’t want to become that cookie. I studied opera and classical voice for two and a half years, and while I know some people study it all their life, I think the two and a half years I put into it are good enough for me, especially since I’m pretty good at training my own self further, and more or less since my highest aspiration in life is to become a singer in a rock n’ roll band (and with that, I burst into song). But I learned to play the guitar, for all intensive purposes, in one solid hour when I was six years old. That one lesson from my father is all I needed to be as good as I am now, and I need to push myself to get better, so I want to do that. I also want to get faster at reading piano sheet music, and maybe finally write some music of my own. I’m supposed to currently be writing new lyrics to “Saints Go Marching In” for Douglas, but lyrics have always been something I’ve been at least good at doing. I’ve never really written music-music, except for one really awesome guitar solo and one pop-rock song I wrote in a dream one time and then remembered when I woke up (lucky. as. shit.), and this piano piece I wrote in the eighth grade that I never wrote down and now completely forget (it was really awesome too, and I’m really angry at myself for that). So in short, I want to do what I always planned on doing, I now just have a proper outlet, and proper focus for it.
School I’m still not so sure about. I do want to go to PIMS (Pittsburgh Institute for Mortuary Science), but I’m not sure when. If Douglas really takes off, I want to be able to focus as much of my energy into that as I can, at any time I need to. I’ve already resolved that unless Chris gets a pretty amazing raise in the first couple of months he’ll be working at UPMC, I would just feel too guilty living off of his money, regardless of whether or not he’ll be making enough to support us both. So I’m going to get a small job, be it the making scarves and things that I never allowed to take off because I got busy and lazy and sick all at once, or be it hanging out at the mall and stocking racks for a couple hours a week. So that’s up in the air, but I’m okay with that. Though I’ve always been really willing to learn and be educated, I always hated school. I only went to 50 days of my seventh grade year, was home-schooled in both first and eighth grade, never went to preschool (I registered for kindergarten at four and just barely turned five by the first day) and milked sick days for all they were worth (my dad was a huge slacker in his day so as long as I wasn’t sneaking off anywhere behind his back and my grades weren’t suffering, he didn’t really care as long as I didn’t skip more than like, 75% of my high school career). Plus I was in gifted classes and drama, so pretty much whenever I didn’t feel like going to class I got a pass from Mrs. Fetchen or Mrs. Yelanich and just went and hung out with them all day. Yep. Never really a big fan of school.
So. This is a really long blog, but it made me happy. I think I’m gonna go back to keyboardin’ for a while, maybe finally learn the words to Jezebel like I was supposed to all day today and didn’t because I’m a slacker, and get to bed.
Either that, or I’ll just get to bed. :D
Best wishes all, and a happy new year.
I have not seriously updated in some time.
I suppose that’s because right now, life is currently that sort of hectic that doesn’t have you actually doing anything, but at the same time, there’s never really a free moment to take a half-hour or so and blog. You know what I mean. If you don’t, you’re not human.
So, these past couple of days have been very musical, as I have recently regained my keyboard (and have been scouring the interspheres for all the free sheet music I can get my hands on, and if you know of any good sites, do pass them along), have been going to Douglas practice what feels like constantly, and learning to play and write things on the bass, an instrument at which it turns out I am quite good, despite the fact that the average bass is only about a foot shorter than I am myself. I’ve been feeling pretty good, and my voice is sounding better and better all the time (except for today, though that’s probably because I was just pounding out Beatles songs and screaming the words to “Oh! Darling” over and over again). I’m also pleasantly surprised at how intact my muscle memory has been at recalling songs I used to know, and how much better I read sheet music now than I ever did before, which is something I honestly can’t explain, but I’m not going to complain about.
All that, and I’ve been trying to read and write at every free moment, while maintaining my sleep schedule (getting to bed between 8PM and 12AM like an old person, but there’s a lot of leeway there, and getting up between 5 and 10AM) except for tonight, it being New Years and all that, not to mention I finally cleaned house, vacuumed with a proper vacuum cleaner for the first time ever (all we had was one of those wet-dry vacs with no handle, which was quite handy for messes, but a nuisance for general maintenance), and am trying to keep up to date on my WiiFit, which I failed at yesterday and today (meaning 12/30 and 12/31).
BUSYBUSY, and at the same time...not...really...doing...anything.
Which brings us to new years.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I don’t really make new years’ resolutions because I know I won’t keep them and I tend to make a bunch of self-improvment plans in the fall a lot anyway, so here’s a bit of reflection and some thoughts I have on the coming year instead.
This year (this February, actually) marks two and a half years I will have been with Chris. Once that marker has officially past, it will be the longest relationship I’ve ever been in. (I’m aware that I’m only 20 and that I’ve spent more than six years of my life in steady relationships and if the math seems off to you, understand that I never dated different people - I’ve only ever had three serious boyfriends, four if you count my elementary school up through first year of high school crush.) It’s an intimidating thought, but at the same time, really comforting. I’m at that point where I know I can get fat and lazy and not worry about actually doing anything because I’m kind of officially a housewife, and I’m totally okay with that, but at the same time I’m still too antsy to get like that. Going on tour will be the longest I’ve ever been away from Chris since senior year and that kind of really scares the crap out of me, but I’m not worried, really, I just fear loneliness, because I don’t really remember what it feels like (I also know I’m going to miss the crap out of my cat, and I worry that he won’t remember who I am by the time I get back, but that’s a whole other row of ducks). But I really am glad I found Chris, someone who’s cool with whatever I wanna be or do and who likes to listen to me play piano and guitar while he falls asleep in the next room even though I’m not very good at either. :)
This past year I’ve really slacked off writing. Even with NaNo, I know I wrote less in 2008 (okay, more like 2007/2008) than I ever have before, and I really wanna break that habit. Write or Die has really helped me with that, and I’m really glad to be a part of the good Dr. Wicked’s writing podcast as a result of it, but I really hope that with everything else I’ve got going on, that I don’t shy away from writing again. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I’m going to contact my old creative writing professor and tell him the whole story of why I’m not returning to Point Park and what I’m doing with my life and will he still read some stuff I’m working on even though he’s not really being paid for it anymore. +laugh+ He was a cool guy and I know he’ll be proud of me and probably say yes, I just feel weird asking someone, a teacher, who I am no longer a student of, to still be a teacher to me.
I also hope to become more musically vested than ever in 2009. I was born with talent, I know this. But once I got a fortune cookie that said “Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” I don’t want to become that cookie. I studied opera and classical voice for two and a half years, and while I know some people study it all their life, I think the two and a half years I put into it are good enough for me, especially since I’m pretty good at training my own self further, and more or less since my highest aspiration in life is to become a singer in a rock n’ roll band (and with that, I burst into song). But I learned to play the guitar, for all intensive purposes, in one solid hour when I was six years old. That one lesson from my father is all I needed to be as good as I am now, and I need to push myself to get better, so I want to do that. I also want to get faster at reading piano sheet music, and maybe finally write some music of my own. I’m supposed to currently be writing new lyrics to “Saints Go Marching In” for Douglas, but lyrics have always been something I’ve been at least good at doing. I’ve never really written music-music, except for one really awesome guitar solo and one pop-rock song I wrote in a dream one time and then remembered when I woke up (lucky. as. shit.), and this piano piece I wrote in the eighth grade that I never wrote down and now completely forget (it was really awesome too, and I’m really angry at myself for that). So in short, I want to do what I always planned on doing, I now just have a proper outlet, and proper focus for it.
School I’m still not so sure about. I do want to go to PIMS (Pittsburgh Institute for Mortuary Science), but I’m not sure when. If Douglas really takes off, I want to be able to focus as much of my energy into that as I can, at any time I need to. I’ve already resolved that unless Chris gets a pretty amazing raise in the first couple of months he’ll be working at UPMC, I would just feel too guilty living off of his money, regardless of whether or not he’ll be making enough to support us both. So I’m going to get a small job, be it the making scarves and things that I never allowed to take off because I got busy and lazy and sick all at once, or be it hanging out at the mall and stocking racks for a couple hours a week. So that’s up in the air, but I’m okay with that. Though I’ve always been really willing to learn and be educated, I always hated school. I only went to 50 days of my seventh grade year, was home-schooled in both first and eighth grade, never went to preschool (I registered for kindergarten at four and just barely turned five by the first day) and milked sick days for all they were worth (my dad was a huge slacker in his day so as long as I wasn’t sneaking off anywhere behind his back and my grades weren’t suffering, he didn’t really care as long as I didn’t skip more than like, 75% of my high school career). Plus I was in gifted classes and drama, so pretty much whenever I didn’t feel like going to class I got a pass from Mrs. Fetchen or Mrs. Yelanich and just went and hung out with them all day. Yep. Never really a big fan of school.
So. This is a really long blog, but it made me happy. I think I’m gonna go back to keyboardin’ for a while, maybe finally learn the words to Jezebel like I was supposed to all day today and didn’t because I’m a slacker, and get to bed.
Either that, or I’ll just get to bed. :D
Best wishes all, and a happy new year.