Something has to change

On Mondays and Fridays, with my current schedule, I will not get an opportunity to eat after breakfast (at like 7:40) until after Pride rehearsal (at 6:00). I have an hour break at 9:30 (at which point I would not be hungry), and a half hour break at 12:30, but would I be able to get from class to the union, order food, eat it, and get to rehearsal in a half hour? I don't think so.
Something has got to change.
I'll figure something out.

I met an extremely attractive sophomore today... dang. I need to hang out with my roommate more often.

The senior boy I thought was flirting with me has a girlfriend. But his band's show was still really good, and I enjoyed myself.

I wonder if I'm imagining Z liking me... I hope not. He's cute, too.

I love college so much. SO much.

Actually

If I hadn't broken my wrist, I may not have met K, because I wouldn't have had to go to the fine arts library to find left hand music.
Hooray for blessings in disguise.

Oklahoma

The other day, I was sitting outside my new favorite spot on campus, and I saw a man riding a bike down the street without the use of handlebars. It was about 11 at night, and there were no cars to be seen, and it was a curious sight to see him sitting on top of his bike, appearing lazy from the waist up, yet working steadily from the waist down to maintain his laid-back posture. I was fascinated by this contradiction of postures in a single person... until I saw that the reason he was doing so was so that he could smoke a cigarette while riding a bicycle. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose? I mean, bikes are supposed to be good for you and for the earth... so polluting the air with cigarette smoke and strangling your lungs while doing so seems to be a bit odd.
It made me think he was less cool.
Finding out that people smoke makes me feel sad. Especially when that person is someone you care deeply for (not talking about the cyclist anymore... you know who you are. You'd better have been serious when you said you were stopping.)

Yesterday, I was in the practice building working on the Scriabin Prelude and Nocturne for left hand, and when I was done I went back to the front of Catlett Music Center to meet J, my ride back to the dorms (I had to run through the rain and the thunder to get there... and then I thought I was locked out. I got in, though). As I was standing in the Gothic Hall, watching the lightning through the stained glass, an organist was playing Durufle's Prelude and Fugue on the name ALAIN, and it served as a spectacular soundtrack to the storm outside (it wasn't a very flashy storm, the lightning seemed dimmer than any I'd seen before, and only very low rumbles could be heard from the thunder). The thunder lent itself to the piece very well... Spectacular.

so much

I have at least one reader who I have never met before.
This makes me happy.

I've officially moved into my dorm, and my roommate has, too. Classes start Monday and I couldn't be more excited.

I am an official member of the 2009 Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band, and I love it so much. Like, it's absolutely insane what people can accomplish when they actually care about what they're doing. We've learned half of the pre-game show, and I'm really excited about the whole thing. I've been meeting so many cool new people, and I'm really glad I did it.
By the way... SUCH an improvement over high school marching band. Like, Pride is to high school band as the mona lisa is to a stick figure drawn on badly crumpled notebook paper that's been trampled in the mud for a few weeks.

I have to keep my wrist brace on for like 5 more weeks, so typing is slightly difficult right now. I was up to like 80-90 words a minute before, and now I'm ridiculously lower than that.

When I walk into the music building, I often hear someone practicing on the organ in the gothic hall, and it gives me such a welcoming feeling. Maybe I should learn to play, like people keep telling me.

I had an extremely unhealthy sandwich the other day... Imagine a meatball marinara sub, but with fries on top of it. The marinara soaks into the fries and makes it so unbelievably delicious.

Today, my parents compared the souped up pedometer in the Nike plus shoes (which, by the way, are the official shoes of the Pride of Oklahoma. They're wonderfully comfortable. Like everything we have is Nike. It's unbelievably awesome) to the technological equivalent of Big Brother. I like technology, and the rate at which it is advancing, despite my parents concerns.

I met a guy named K, and he's rather attractive. He may or may not be interested, I'm not sure. He might just be friendly. I bought his band's album off of iTunes, but I have yet to listen to it. I'm getting there, though. It's in the J's, and I just got to the I's on my list.

Why does my best friend never listen to my advice? It's good advice.

Okay...

So I'm here in Oklahoma. I've been through oe day of Pride pre-camp, and I must say that I like it so far.
But afterwards, I went up to my dorm room to collapse (I have never appreciated air conditioning so much in my life). I couldn't figure out anything to do... very few people are here this early (although I did run into N randomly. Unexpected, but cool) and I'm sitting in my room bored out of my mind.

There are currently four people living on my wing. Me; the guy in the room next door, J; the guy down the hall who I haven't met yet; and the guy across from him, D.
I'll write more later. I'm going to go find something to do.

creative solutions to breaking your right wrist two days before you go off to college to major in piano performance

As I mentioned yesterday, I fell and hurt my hand. Upon x-ray examination today, we found out that I have a non-displaced distal-radial fracture in my right side, more commonly known as a broken wrist. I have a wrist brace which I need to wear for the next for to six weeks.
However, this is not the end of the world. I can still hold my flute, although playing is a more difficult than it was before. I don't know if I'll be able to move it to and from attention for marching band, but I probably will be able to.
Piano will be more difficult. However, Paul Wittgenstein was a concert pianist who had his right hand blown off during World War I. He then commissioned several piano pieces for left hand, including the Ravel concerto below.
Here are several ideas I had for possible left-handed repertoire for my first semester.

Bach Chaconne, transcribed by Brahms for left hand




Ravel Concerto for Left Hand (maybe? It's extremely difficult, and I don't know if I would get the chance to perform it.)



Scriabin Prelude and Nocturne for Left Hand


I'm going to make this work. This is possible. I'm sure my teachers will have ideas too.
I leave tomorrow!

You don't really realize how much you use your primary hand for until you have limited mobility in said hand.
Today, after my going-away dinner with family, I saw the neighbor kids on their ripstiks, so I got mine out (first to show my sister what they were) and decided to go ride with them.
Like five minutes after that, I fell going down a hill. I have scrapes, which I can deal with, but I also have a possibly-sprained, possibly-jammed wrist.
I no longer have the ability to rotate my hands as much as I could before.
I'm going to college to be a piano major on Sunday. Classes start a week and a day after that.

Why do I make poor decisions?

Locks

My dad got me a computer lock for my laptop for when I go off to college.
I messed it up, and now we don't know what the combination is.
It's a 4-digit combination lock. There are 1000 possibilities.

Today, I heard the entire life story of C from Chi Omega at UNC-Charlotte. She was K's cashier at Victoria's Secret (I don't see WHY I couldn't go to FYE with F instead of stay with K as she picked out a bra and panties... I had absolutely no input on the subject whatever) and she decided to tell her friend at the register the story of how the boy she's in love with messaged her on facebook. Not her boyfriend, but the boy she's in love with. Anyway, they were both voted to have the best hair of their respective genders on campus, and so they're going to have fabulous-hair babies. He's blonde, and he's in a fraternity that I forget the name of, and she was REALLY excited about this message, and the fact that he asked for her number, and that he texted her.

It was quite entertaining.

My blog is officially one year old.

*sigh*

Although familiarity brings a great level of comfort, it also brings great awkwardness at times.
Although I will grow to miss such familiarity, at the moment I weary of some of its less-appealing aspects... like the awkwardness that a social event can take on when two of the people present are having relationship issues that are less-than-secret.

I need sleep.

On Hell

Hell is McDonalds. With its overcrowdedness, long lines, less-than appealing food, and waiting THIRTY MINUTES for an iced mocha (while the masses of humanity pressed in on me with their greasy quarter-pounders with cheese and lukewarm apple turnovers) that ended up tasting like shit once I actually got it.
Oh, and they were out of napkins. We had to use industrial-size, poor-quality toilet paper.
Let me tell you exactly how well that cleans up a dropped cup of iced coffee, courtesy of my father.

I saw my little brother today for what is probably the last time before I go off to college.
I can't help but think that I've been to hard on him. I mean, God knows that he behaves SO inappropriately such a great deal of the time, so it's not like I'm not justified... but still.

As I saw him climb into that gray minivan, I couldn't help but watch through the blinds, seeing the woman who I have hated for so long... and yet I can't anymore. I look out, and I see her with him, and she clearly loves him. She wants what's best for him, she's just so misguided about it that she's bungling up so much. I can't help but feel sorry for her. As she stood there in her windbreaker and jeans, flipping her hair behind her... she's pathetic. She wants so badly to be significant. I just... can't say exactly what I feel about her, but it's not hate. I can't hate her when I see her.

I want a Steve.

AH it stopped. Make it go! It can't stop like that! NOOOOOOOO.

*ahem* I've kind of gotten into this webcomic that my friend J introduced me to.
Check it out.
http://www.khaoskomix.com/home.html

Hmm.

I keep coming back to her poetry. I really want to take it and set it to music, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do it justice, considering my complete lack of experience.

I really hope it works out that I get to see her before I leave.

Banana Boats

Sometimes I say bad words. I'm sorry you have to find this out in such a way, but shit (gasp) happens.
I went on a banana boat ride today with my little brother, and I fell off twice. Despite this, it was actually pretty fun. But the second time I fell off, I was clinging to the handle while leaning sideways, trying to grip the thing with my knees, evidently cursing as I tried to pull myself back up.
I wasn't even really aware of it until after I fell off, as I was climbing back on, when my little brother asked me why I was saying bad words.
Of course, he told his mother... and Dad. Who just told me that I need to clean up my language, and that it's nothing to be proud of.

College will be here in nine days. College will be here in nine days. College will be here in nine days.

We ate at Abuelo's tonight! Turns out the one in Oklahoma isn't the only one that's out there.
I had the most amazing stuffed chicken medallions ever. And, of course, Tres Leches Cake.

I've actually made an effort to be in the sun this week. This is not my usual behavior. However, after seeing lots of people with blotchy skin, and hearing about N's melanoma patient... I'm a little bit paranoid. I've been very careful with sunscreen. I do have this nice little tan, though.
I don't really understand why everybody seems to think that being pale is a bad thing. I mean, I can understand not wanting to look like you've spent your entire life inside without ever having seen the sun, but I don't understand society's fascination with bronze skin. I mean, it's interesting, bu it's not necessarily more attractive than the skin complexion of, say, someone who lives in the arctic circle.

I'm reading a book called The Worldly Philosophers. OU sent it to me, and it's about the lives and ideas of the major philosophers from Adam Smith on. But here's the weird part... It's actually really interesting. I mean, I would have never thought that a book about economics would be so fascinating. I must say, though, that it isn't the typical beach read.

Dumb

I've been very impressed with my noise-canceling headphones. They don't completely cancel the sound, but I didn't really expect them to. They muffled the extra noises very well. Well, imagine my surprise when I found the battery compartment today. I opened it, finding it to be completely empty.

That's right, I hadn't even turned on the noise canceling headphones. The only reason the sound was muffled was because the foam around them muffled it.

Yes, I am dumb. This may be as bad as the time I went around a full day with my underwear on backwards without ever noticing it. I'm going to go to sleep now, because I'm getting up at 8:30 tomorrow to go running with my sister.