Gratitude 158
The girls who spent last semester in Hungary at the Kodály Institute have returned, and Kristin brought me back a Milka chocolate bar and a little bottle of pálinka. :) I am super excited. Köszönöm szépen! AND...I got to talk to my dear friend Sun Xing (who is still at the Institute) on Skype for over an hour and a half this afternoon! :)
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Semester: 8
Impossible? Seemingly. But I will surmount it. Somehow.
My last semester of undergrad is now underway. Exciting? I suppose. Unnerving? Most definitely. It came up all too quickly, and it is hard to believe I am nearly finished with my Bachelor degree.
Day 1 did not exactly begin so smashingly, as I wasn't in the best of spirits. I hid in bed this after 10am, and then I could do so no longer. I had to get up and face the day at some point. My first class was not till 1pm, but I left to run some errands around campus before that. Talked with Lynn for awhile, too, and she cheered me up a bit.
So...I had one class and choir scheduled for the day, and what happens for my first class? Of course, I don't read the fine print to see that they changed the location and showed up at the wrong room in the wrong building...4 years of scheduling, you'd think I'd know better. Needless to say, I had to go to the next building and then find the room, and my allotment of time so I would be "on time" ended up making me late. Brilliance.
I had rehearsals from 4pm till after 9pm with a short break for dinner. Spilled ziti on my sock. (I know, that one takes talent, right? haha!) And I was just tired. I didn't start my day till really 1pm, but it just seemed like it went on forever.
Didn't see Chad at all during the day but ran into him on my way back to my apartment for dinner. He had a rougher day. (Is that proper grammar, "rougher"? Or, perhaps, it is supposed to be "more rough"?) Poor guy!
Gratitude 157
The day ended splendidly, though, watching an old episode of The Big Bang Theory (I love that show!) and before that, with a small glass of wine and girl chats with my Katie and Caitie...and the occasional aside comment from Bryan. haha! :) I love those guys! They brighten my life. I have many blessings in my life and shouldn't complain because I really do have it good. Lucky. I'm just frustrated with my cards right now that seem to be glued facedown to the table in front of me.
Oh, and I passed Music 498 (turning in 16 specific and required programs that you had to collect throughout your four years) on the first day of school. Yay! First and last day for that class...although it isn't a class that ever meets...just a transcript and graduation requirement. But it's done! :)
And...Caitie lent me books 3 and 4 of Twilight! Eek! Muahaha! (Suffice it to say, I stayed up a little later than I should have reading the beginning of the third one! Oops!)
My last semester of undergrad is now underway. Exciting? I suppose. Unnerving? Most definitely. It came up all too quickly, and it is hard to believe I am nearly finished with my Bachelor degree.
Day 1 did not exactly begin so smashingly, as I wasn't in the best of spirits. I hid in bed this after 10am, and then I could do so no longer. I had to get up and face the day at some point. My first class was not till 1pm, but I left to run some errands around campus before that. Talked with Lynn for awhile, too, and she cheered me up a bit.
So...I had one class and choir scheduled for the day, and what happens for my first class? Of course, I don't read the fine print to see that they changed the location and showed up at the wrong room in the wrong building...4 years of scheduling, you'd think I'd know better. Needless to say, I had to go to the next building and then find the room, and my allotment of time so I would be "on time" ended up making me late. Brilliance.
I had rehearsals from 4pm till after 9pm with a short break for dinner. Spilled ziti on my sock. (I know, that one takes talent, right? haha!) And I was just tired. I didn't start my day till really 1pm, but it just seemed like it went on forever.
Didn't see Chad at all during the day but ran into him on my way back to my apartment for dinner. He had a rougher day. (Is that proper grammar, "rougher"? Or, perhaps, it is supposed to be "more rough"?) Poor guy!
Gratitude 157
The day ended splendidly, though, watching an old episode of The Big Bang Theory (I love that show!) and before that, with a small glass of wine and girl chats with my Katie and Caitie...and the occasional aside comment from Bryan. haha! :) I love those guys! They brighten my life. I have many blessings in my life and shouldn't complain because I really do have it good. Lucky. I'm just frustrated with my cards right now that seem to be glued facedown to the table in front of me.
Oh, and I passed Music 498 (turning in 16 specific and required programs that you had to collect throughout your four years) on the first day of school. Yay! First and last day for that class...although it isn't a class that ever meets...just a transcript and graduation requirement. But it's done! :)
And...Caitie lent me books 3 and 4 of Twilight! Eek! Muahaha! (Suffice it to say, I stayed up a little later than I should have reading the beginning of the third one! Oops!)
Friday, January 8, 2010
The weirdest class assignment I have ever received
Okay, first I have to say that I made Trader Joe's cornbread tonight, and it looks pretty cool when you pour milk into oil...it's like this blob suspended in the oil. Not sure why I found that so fascinating...little amusement the past couple of days.
Second, today I received my first class assignment for the semester...even though classes do not begin until Monday. Because my poetry class is a night class, I cannot attend it until after the opera, so my professor struck a deal with me. I have to make YouTube videos of three songs that are settings of particular English poetry. Cool, but this shall be interesting. Don't know how I'm going to do this yet, since I have never done such a thing, but I am sure I can figure it out.
So...I got to thinking today. (I know, scary...) What do you do when you are unsure of what you really want anymore? And what if Plan A falls through? Where's Plan B? What is Plan B? My creativity, my imagination...they're gone, and I seem to be numb to it all. My voice just makes sound. Pretty or not, it means nothing without the emotion, connection, and portrayal. I have become a puppet. I know the issues I need to work through but not the time or resources to devote to it in order to handle them properly. Is any of this really worth it? Perhaps, I shouldn't have watched that episode of Will and Grace this morning where Jack auditions for a Broadway show and finds out he really does suck after all. I feel like pig-nose Penelope when she says she keeps moving but goes nowhere. A dear friend once told me that the biggest sin, however, is in not using the gifts you've been given. I know, I am not myself right now, and apparently, I have the inability to hide that in any aspect of my life, despite any facade I place. Nem jó.
Also, I realized today that I have fears like Bella in Twilight: not afraid of the things she really should be, like being eaten by vampires, but by the little stupid things, like acceptance or walking without tripping over herself. That's me. Minus the vampire business, of course.
Got my hair cut this afternoon. Just a trim. Looks the same as usual, just shorter.
Gratitude 156
I love getting my hair washed at the salon. Scalp massages are the best. :)
Second, today I received my first class assignment for the semester...even though classes do not begin until Monday. Because my poetry class is a night class, I cannot attend it until after the opera, so my professor struck a deal with me. I have to make YouTube videos of three songs that are settings of particular English poetry. Cool, but this shall be interesting. Don't know how I'm going to do this yet, since I have never done such a thing, but I am sure I can figure it out.
So...I got to thinking today. (I know, scary...) What do you do when you are unsure of what you really want anymore? And what if Plan A falls through? Where's Plan B? What is Plan B? My creativity, my imagination...they're gone, and I seem to be numb to it all. My voice just makes sound. Pretty or not, it means nothing without the emotion, connection, and portrayal. I have become a puppet. I know the issues I need to work through but not the time or resources to devote to it in order to handle them properly. Is any of this really worth it? Perhaps, I shouldn't have watched that episode of Will and Grace this morning where Jack auditions for a Broadway show and finds out he really does suck after all. I feel like pig-nose Penelope when she says she keeps moving but goes nowhere. A dear friend once told me that the biggest sin, however, is in not using the gifts you've been given. I know, I am not myself right now, and apparently, I have the inability to hide that in any aspect of my life, despite any facade I place. Nem jó.
Also, I realized today that I have fears like Bella in Twilight: not afraid of the things she really should be, like being eaten by vampires, but by the little stupid things, like acceptance or walking without tripping over herself. That's me. Minus the vampire business, of course.
Got my hair cut this afternoon. Just a trim. Looks the same as usual, just shorter.
Gratitude 156
I love getting my hair washed at the salon. Scalp massages are the best. :)
Thursday, January 7, 2010
I'm going to write a novel.
I haven't figured out about what, but think about it: one top-selling book, and you're set. Then, you get a movie deal, and you're really set. Then, you write a daily blog about it and get another movie deal. Sounds good to me!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Gratitude 155
I am thankful for hi-speed internet connections. :)
Back at my apartment now. The only opening in the storm to get back safely. Grand total of snow since Saturday, according to the news, is 57 inches! At school: maybe 3 inches, give or take an inch or two. Such a change. My parents and I were at Red Robin for dinner tonight when we got into town, and we heard the employees talking about the "big snow storm," and all we could do is laugh. Possible accumulation total estimated: 3-5 inches. Oh, my! haha!
Rehearsals begin Friday. Classes, Monday. A little frustrated with life. And I can't find my other set of rope lights now that I have a cool idea of how to hang them. Argh!
Back at my apartment now. The only opening in the storm to get back safely. Grand total of snow since Saturday, according to the news, is 57 inches! At school: maybe 3 inches, give or take an inch or two. Such a change. My parents and I were at Red Robin for dinner tonight when we got into town, and we heard the employees talking about the "big snow storm," and all we could do is laugh. Possible accumulation total estimated: 3-5 inches. Oh, my! haha!
Rehearsals begin Friday. Classes, Monday. A little frustrated with life. And I can't find my other set of rope lights now that I have a cool idea of how to hang them. Argh!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Snowed In!
Just how much snow there really is:
I wasn't even touching the ground yet...I was standing on a compacted bed of ice and snow.
What can still be seen of the dog house in the backyard.
This is/was my sister's car.Becca and I took a venture out into it...a lap around the house that left us huffing and puffing from the effort to push through the endless layers of snow, a climb to the top of "snow mountain," and being toppled by snow and then more snow. And it is STILL coming down. It's been snowing for 3 days straight now.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
"It's wood-carryin' day."
...Or so my dad announces Sundays as the day he carries wood into the basement for the furnace. Every few days, he makes the statement, and as Sunday nears, it becomes every few hours.
Snowed in. It's a blizzard out there. I don't mind...I love the snow...but it shall pose an interesting challenge as to whether or not it will allow me to return to school mid-week to prepare for and then have rehearsals. Till that problem arises, we're contenting ourselves at home. Watching movies, making trouble (muahaha!), creating some mess my sisters decided to call chili...I just stirred...they kept dumping things in...never letting them help me make chili again..., building an army of mini snowmen on the front porch, and reading...my sister handed me her copy of Twilight last week, and that was the end of that. I have been completely addicted. On book two. Eek! This stuff is crazy but so good! (However, it doesn't top Harry Potter.)
New Year's celebrations were nothing super spectacular. Same events as usual pretty much. A little wine, sambuca, and much ridiculousness to bring in 2010. (5 months to figure some of my life out...)
Gratitude 154
I love how most of Christmas gifts are pretty, yet have some sort of functionality to them. Perfect. Now, I don't feel so bad about adding them to the amount of stuff I have at my apartment. ;)
Snowed in. It's a blizzard out there. I don't mind...I love the snow...but it shall pose an interesting challenge as to whether or not it will allow me to return to school mid-week to prepare for and then have rehearsals. Till that problem arises, we're contenting ourselves at home. Watching movies, making trouble (muahaha!), creating some mess my sisters decided to call chili...I just stirred...they kept dumping things in...never letting them help me make chili again..., building an army of mini snowmen on the front porch, and reading...my sister handed me her copy of Twilight last week, and that was the end of that. I have been completely addicted. On book two. Eek! This stuff is crazy but so good! (However, it doesn't top Harry Potter.)
New Year's celebrations were nothing super spectacular. Same events as usual pretty much. A little wine, sambuca, and much ridiculousness to bring in 2010. (5 months to figure some of my life out...)
Gratitude 154
I love how most of Christmas gifts are pretty, yet have some sort of functionality to them. Perfect. Now, I don't feel so bad about adding them to the amount of stuff I have at my apartment. ;)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
In the wee small hours of the morning...
...that's the time...I possibly finally fall asleep. Possibly. Oh, how lovely it is. This is perhaps the third or fourth night running now that it is clearly well past 3am, and I am still quite wide awake. Oy. So, needless to say, I've also been sleeping extremely late for me, waking when it is nearly not morning anymore. This all very strange, and I am not sure what my body is up to...but I don't like it! You're crazy, Samantha! I don't even think I have much weighing on my mind...certainly not like when I am mid-semester at school. As my sister Jessi says with her latest phrase, c'est la vie, such is life.
Of course, the crazy cunundrums my sisters and I have been getting into...watching movies, playing Scrabble, cooking hard-tack candy, watching Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, delivering endless lines of movie quotes and jokes, etc...haven't helped with the sleep patterns, but I'd say it's been worth it...mostly.
Gratitude 153
I enjoy the craziness that ensues when my sisters and I converge on my mom, jumping into our parents' bed, while our dad has fallen asleep on the couch watching some late-night nonsense, and jabbering away in a far from cohesive manner and ending in fits of giggles--much like we did late Christmas night. :)
Life was somewhat a frenzy leading up to the days before Christmas. Wednesday (Christmas Eve Eve!) held a Christmas party, caroling, and rehearsing with my friend Nick for Christmas Eve mass...it was a rather long day. Christmas Eve was pleasant with cleaning, watching White Christmas, Christmas preparations, singing at Christmas Eve mass (went really well!), family gifts, a little wine, etc. It was beautiful...the music, the snow, the lights, the cold. :) Quintessential Christmas.
At mass, near the end, all the lights are turned out and the slight illumination of the candles upon the altar remain the only glow. I sang Engelbert Humperdink's "Evening Prayer," followed by the traditional "Silent Night." That is my favorite moment of Christmas every year, watching the soft flicker of the candles while I absorb the music echoing through the vibrant acoustic of the little, old, wooden church; it's when I feel Him beside me most of all. :) Köszi, Isten.
Sadly, we awoke Christmas morning to rain, and the green grass peeping through, creating a perfectly muddy mess outside. :( Makes me grumpy when that happens, but we made the best of it. The day began and ended wonderfully...the middle was a bit muddy, like the weather outside, but c'est la vie. Nothing is perfect. I got a lovely new pashmina! Burnt orange sort of color. (Yes, another one! My mom surprised me again. How pleasant! I just love them!) A new watch since mine broke, Season Three of Gilligan's Island AND the reunion episode!...that makes the complete series!, a Tai Chi set, and iTunes cards. I'd say I made off with some pretty awesome loot. ;)
My friend Sarah quoted something a couple weeks ago from a song...My world is changing, I'm rearranging, does this mean Christmas changes, too? I responded to her with, "Yes, it does." I have noticed over the years since I've gone away to college just how life changes. However, until Sarah said this, I don't think I realized it so much before. Perhaps, it is simply because I am in this strange place in my life, approaching a huge transition...and I have no idea what that transition is going to be right now. It's different. (My latest life scheme, as my sister Becca and I were just watching Ace of Cakes is that I am just going to go work there, creating little people out of chocolate, end up in snipits of the show, singing little ditties as I work, and then someone will send me a contract to sing somewhere. haha! Yeah, right! Funny, though.)
Snow has covered everything once again. Actually, not just covered, engulfed in a marshmallow world. It is so beautiful outside! :) The wishing well in the backyard is half-buried in the fluffy white. Xander loves to look out the one window downstairs, watching the birds at the bird feeder and the snow. It's like we're in a snowglobe. :)
Well, good night...or good morning, I should say. Perhaps I will fall asleep now? Not likely. I know it's belated, but Merry Christmas, or Boldog Karácsonyt, and very soon BUEK, or Happy New Year! :)
Of course, the crazy cunundrums my sisters and I have been getting into...watching movies, playing Scrabble, cooking hard-tack candy, watching Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, delivering endless lines of movie quotes and jokes, etc...haven't helped with the sleep patterns, but I'd say it's been worth it...mostly.
Gratitude 153
I enjoy the craziness that ensues when my sisters and I converge on my mom, jumping into our parents' bed, while our dad has fallen asleep on the couch watching some late-night nonsense, and jabbering away in a far from cohesive manner and ending in fits of giggles--much like we did late Christmas night. :)
Life was somewhat a frenzy leading up to the days before Christmas. Wednesday (Christmas Eve Eve!) held a Christmas party, caroling, and rehearsing with my friend Nick for Christmas Eve mass...it was a rather long day. Christmas Eve was pleasant with cleaning, watching White Christmas, Christmas preparations, singing at Christmas Eve mass (went really well!), family gifts, a little wine, etc. It was beautiful...the music, the snow, the lights, the cold. :) Quintessential Christmas.
At mass, near the end, all the lights are turned out and the slight illumination of the candles upon the altar remain the only glow. I sang Engelbert Humperdink's "Evening Prayer," followed by the traditional "Silent Night." That is my favorite moment of Christmas every year, watching the soft flicker of the candles while I absorb the music echoing through the vibrant acoustic of the little, old, wooden church; it's when I feel Him beside me most of all. :) Köszi, Isten.
Sadly, we awoke Christmas morning to rain, and the green grass peeping through, creating a perfectly muddy mess outside. :( Makes me grumpy when that happens, but we made the best of it. The day began and ended wonderfully...the middle was a bit muddy, like the weather outside, but c'est la vie. Nothing is perfect. I got a lovely new pashmina! Burnt orange sort of color. (Yes, another one! My mom surprised me again. How pleasant! I just love them!) A new watch since mine broke, Season Three of Gilligan's Island AND the reunion episode!...that makes the complete series!, a Tai Chi set, and iTunes cards. I'd say I made off with some pretty awesome loot. ;)
My friend Sarah quoted something a couple weeks ago from a song...My world is changing, I'm rearranging, does this mean Christmas changes, too? I responded to her with, "Yes, it does." I have noticed over the years since I've gone away to college just how life changes. However, until Sarah said this, I don't think I realized it so much before. Perhaps, it is simply because I am in this strange place in my life, approaching a huge transition...and I have no idea what that transition is going to be right now. It's different. (My latest life scheme, as my sister Becca and I were just watching Ace of Cakes is that I am just going to go work there, creating little people out of chocolate, end up in snipits of the show, singing little ditties as I work, and then someone will send me a contract to sing somewhere. haha! Yeah, right! Funny, though.)
Snow has covered everything once again. Actually, not just covered, engulfed in a marshmallow world. It is so beautiful outside! :) The wishing well in the backyard is half-buried in the fluffy white. Xander loves to look out the one window downstairs, watching the birds at the bird feeder and the snow. It's like we're in a snowglobe. :)
Well, good night...or good morning, I should say. Perhaps I will fall asleep now? Not likely. I know it's belated, but Merry Christmas, or Boldog Karácsonyt, and very soon BUEK, or Happy New Year! :)
Monday, December 21, 2009
Being Home
Today marks one year since I returned to the States from my beautiful and adventurous excursions abroad. (Actually, it could technically have been yesterday...jet lag and time changes mess with your sense of time and date.) I thought it would be weird thinking of going home for the holidays and not having the exchange of culture and holiday airport rush that I experienced last year, but everything feels as if I didn't skip a beat. Cool, but it still feels like a dream...feels so long ago, yet just the other day. I was thinking about my studies with Lynn and how I feel I never took a semester away from her but that I grew as a musician so much while away that we could never have been doing the things we are without that time of study I took abroad. Look at me getting all mushy. Okay, I'm done.
(However, I would be lying if I said I didn't still have a tugging in my heart that yearns to return overseas...just have to figure out how I can swing that monetarily...I need some rich old sugar daddy who wants to pay for my travels. haha! Just kidding! I have always said I need an Aunt March, though.)
Gratitude 152
I am happy that I have always had the privilege of being home for the holidays. Lucky...despite how much my family can irritate me...then, again, it wouldn't be family if they didn't drive you crazy! haha! :)
Semester grades were posted today. All A's and one B+. Yay! (The B+ I actually thought rather generous, as it was for my last general education course, and I did not put forth as much effort as I probably should have.) I'd say I'm doing pretty well...and I very much want to graduate with honors...one more semester, but at current, I'm looking at perhaps magna cum laude. That'd be awesome. I know it doesn't really mean a whole lot in the realm of things...just a sticker on your degree diploma and a few extra words in your personal biography, but it is the knowing of the accomplishment you have achieved. Sort of like the Fulbright...not only would it be sweet to have, but the honor of the title would be something extraordinary.
Also, that thing I said about my partial insomnia skidoodling when I'm on a break...I take that back, since I didn't fall asleep till at least 2:30am last night. Fun times. Brain, turn off!
Happy first day of Winter! :)
(However, I would be lying if I said I didn't still have a tugging in my heart that yearns to return overseas...just have to figure out how I can swing that monetarily...I need some rich old sugar daddy who wants to pay for my travels. haha! Just kidding! I have always said I need an Aunt March, though.)
Gratitude 152
I am happy that I have always had the privilege of being home for the holidays. Lucky...despite how much my family can irritate me...then, again, it wouldn't be family if they didn't drive you crazy! haha! :)
Semester grades were posted today. All A's and one B+. Yay! (The B+ I actually thought rather generous, as it was for my last general education course, and I did not put forth as much effort as I probably should have.) I'd say I'm doing pretty well...and I very much want to graduate with honors...one more semester, but at current, I'm looking at perhaps magna cum laude. That'd be awesome. I know it doesn't really mean a whole lot in the realm of things...just a sticker on your degree diploma and a few extra words in your personal biography, but it is the knowing of the accomplishment you have achieved. Sort of like the Fulbright...not only would it be sweet to have, but the honor of the title would be something extraordinary.
Also, that thing I said about my partial insomnia skidoodling when I'm on a break...I take that back, since I didn't fall asleep till at least 2:30am last night. Fun times. Brain, turn off!
Happy first day of Winter! :)
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sophistication.
(I cannot remember if I already used this gratitude, so I hope I am not being repetitive.)
Gratitude 151
I am thankful for my name. Samantha. Sophisticated yet simple, charming yet elegant. I like it. Thanks, Mom and Dad. You made a good choice. :)
This morning was the annual youth group Christmas party at the little church my family attends. Oh, joy. Got called a high schooler and was constantly asked what grade I was in by kids and adults alike. No, thank you. I very nearly have a bachelor's degree! Cute pictures of Xander resulted from today's activities, though.
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