PACKERS IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!

YEAH BABY!!!

Christmas #1

Because of my family, we usually have 3-4 Christmases every year. Usually it's my mom's dad, my mom's mom, my dad's side, and our own. This year we combine our own with my mom's dad. Won't go into detail as to why that is just now.

OK we did my dad's side of the family yesterday, and I GOT THE ATHF DVD!!!!! AND A STEAK N SHAKE GIFT CARD!!!! AKJGLKDJGLKDGLKJSD!!!!

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Oh I forgot to mention if anyone from GB reads this regularly please call me or IM me if you have cable and I can come over and tape a show for like 15 minutes around 10pm Sunday night....

List #1

Over the next few days I've decided to make a series of lists. Here is my first:

Favorite TV sitcoms! (by year order)

1. I Love Lucy. A classic. Still funny 50 years later. Especially the home movies episode :)
2. Dick Van Dyke. Mary Tyler Moore introduced wearing pants to women.
3. The Brady Bunch. That was like the "Full House" of a generation ago.
4. Family Ties. Introduced the world to Michael J. Fox, and how even kids can be conservatives which is cool (although he was somewhat of a yuppie)
5. The Cosby Show. The best sitcom ever (although I Love Lucy comes close.) Randomness and seriousness... GREAT combination not matched yet.
6. Full House. OK I know cheesy city but I grew up with this show and so it was funny.
7. Salute Your Shorts. THE BEST KID'S SHOW EVER.
8. Friends. Of course.
9. Will & Grace. Hilarious.

Home!

I'm home now. But I am once again mad that I am not in UChoir because I heard from Ari that Preble is singing with Millikin in Appleton and Mrs. McAllister was like "Is that Spencer's choir??!??!" and Ari was like "No" and everyone was bumming.... Not that I'm not happy that I'm in Chamber but it's moments like these that make me upset.

Juries and other things.

Juries went better than I expected. I got a B-, so that was kind of surprising since one of my friends who did awesome got a C. And Hadi gave me the highest grade an individual teacher has ever given me on a jury so that was kind of cool.

I saw Nunsense II with Garrett today. It was just like Nunsense I. It was alright. I didn't enjoy it as much as Garrett does, mainly because I am not Catholic, but some points were funny (the funniest part was when she was doing impressions and she lifts up the sash over the habit (and it's white underneath) on one side, so she says "Michael Jackson: Before, and After) when she turns her head.

Now the other things. I haven't even been christmas shopping yet, and I'm broke, so I am going to be working my butt off to buy Christmas presents, and hopefully make enough money working and for Christmas to pay off my credit card bill (which is kind of high, not like outragiously high but high enough, and I've used it twice since convincing my parents I wouldn't use it again....) and still have enough spending money for tour since I don't recall if lunches and dinners were included, plus I'm spending a day in Indy so I'm going to be needing money then.

COUNTDOWN
39 hours
2 finals
1 paper
2 rehearsals
1 performance

SURVIVOR ENDS TOMORROW... I can't wait to see next season, they are bringing back people!!!

OOOO I FORGOT COUNTDOWN

Yes my preciousssssss

4 days
3 finals
0 juries!
1 paper (part of a final)
1 time to cheer for the Bears (ever)

So yeah Juries went fairly well today; I sang kind of week but hell I was freaking nervous! BUT I DID WOHIN MEMORIZED COMPLETELY!! And I nailed the birds (which I was happy it was on there since I love that song). So it went pretty well. I also wasn't sick which half the people in there were. But it was funny it was in a line in the front row: me, cory, tony, jacob, and clayton. And we like always had mini-conversations in between songs, or like comforted each other since like every other person was sick; complimented, and laughed at the occasional sexual innuendo (Tony's song "you must meet my wife" the line about coming to life or something......) Jacob of course had that goofy grin on his face anytime he hears a sexual innuendo in an art song or any piece or music for that matter. Our minds were in the gutter.

So yeah I am kind of upset since my orchestration was unable to print out. It's all done; I emailed Dr. Shaw but he didn't respond so I'll just see him at the final tomorrow (if there is one I was thinking this was the final but I think we are going to use the final time to discuss) so that's cool because that way I can finally print it out and show people. I did the entire like 88 measures of that song..... it took me forever but I got it done. And I'm happy.

Dead Day = unproductive

Except I finally finished my orchestration. But I didn't work on juries as much as I wanted to. I have to memorize Wohin. One of the things that helped Terry (my voice teacher) was to write down the words. Well here goes.

NOTE THE GERMAN IS SPELLED TOTALLY WRONG.
Ich hört ein bachlein rauchen
Woll aus dem felsen quell
Hin ab zum tale rauschen
so frish unt wunderhell
ich veiss nicht wie mier vurde
Ich den mir ratt mir gab
ich musse auch hin unter mit meinem vanderstab
ich musse auch hi i in unter mit meinem vanderstab
Hin unter unt immer veiter
unt immer bache nacht
unt immer fricher rauseh
unt immer heller der bach
unt immer frisher rausche
unt immer heller der bach
ich veis nicht vie mir wurde
Oh bachlein sprich wohin
wohin sprich wohin
Du hast mit deinem rauche
mir ganz berausht und zin
du hast mit deinem rauch
mir ganz berausht und zin
Was sag ______________ (the line I ALWAYS forget)
Das kann kein rauch un zein
Es zingen voll die nixen
Tief unten ihren rein
es zingen voll die nixen
tief unten ihren rein
Las zingen gesell las raushen
Unt immer frolich nacht
Es gen ya mulen rader
Geden bache nacht


I know some are wrong but I remember more than I thought I did.

Millie 1990-2003

I get a note that says that Millie is really sick so they are putting her to sleep today at 3:30. At least she won't be suffering anymore...

It's OVER!!

Wow. Yeah I'm so glad this Vespers is over. It's so weird we worked our butts off and it was so hard and we all hated it going into it but now reflecting back on it I have to agree with everyone that this Vespers was pretty awesome. Minus the fact that a lot of us (excluding me thank the Lord) were sick and some couldn't even sing. But we got through it. I'm going to be so sad next year when it's my last vespers.

I just got some really sad news from my mom. My dog is really sick and we are going to have to put her to sleep over the holidays. I don't want to think about it but she is an old dog; we've had her since she was 1 and a half and that was like back in June 1992. So she was born December 1990. She's 13. which is really old for a dog; that'd be like 91 in dog years. So anyways, she was ok while I was home but I guess she has gotten worse; she puked all over our living room while my parents came to visit and my mom is afraid we are going to have to get new carpeting. I don't want to think about it; I'm going to be really sad because Millie was a part of our lives for so long. I remember when we got her... how excited we were... I'm really sad right now not anticipating the emptiness that's going to be in my life... I don't think I'm prepared for such a loss... no one really close to me has died; the only real relatives that have died while I've been alive were two great-grandmas that I didn't really get extremely close to, my great-grandma's sister when I was 4 so I'm the youngest person who remembers her and that's just barely, and a couple other elderly people that I don't know how I'm related to but I didn't really know that well. I'm really not looking forward to that day but I guess it's inevitable.

A GREAT quiz.

It got me though!!! I only got a 70. But the thing is there are songs that I had never even heard of (I.e. guns and roses, ac/dc, etc. I hate those bands.) Plus the context is REALLY hard to take it out of. So try it!

2 down, 2 to go.

Woah. Yeah Vespers Vespers Vespers. What more can I say? There were things good about both of them, and screwy things about both of them.

The fam came to the first performance. It kind of sucked because I only got to see them for about 10 minutes before and after the show, because they had to get back so Aunt Barb and Uncle Jim could go to a party. So no Steak 'n' Shake this year. Wah. But we nailed the Gloria (Forbes' baby) and There is No Rose (silence until after the song was over, then coughcoughcough which is ALWAYS a good thing.) We kind of screwed up on I Saw Three Ships but that was because Tim played the pitch before the clapping was over and not everyone heard it. Noel kind of screwed up too but that was just wrong cues and stuff. All and all a good run.

The second performance went pretty well too. Nice historical fact that this year is the first year we have a Saturday evening performance. It was pretty apparent, there were more empty seats then there usually are. But hey there were some on the Saturday afternoon performance too. Last two years all 3 sold out and there were no empty seats. So we sold more than last year but not sell out. I Saw Three Ships went better. Noel went better. It was kind of funny because there was this kid babbling in the front row and I was trying so hard not to laugh it was hilarious. I think the evening's performance was better but there were some iffy things with other songs that we didn't sing. The Symphony of Carols DID go better, I felt, the evening. Gloria was kind of the same with both. The only problem is no one is watching Dr. Holmes when he brings the rest of the choirs in so everyone is singing at different tempos. But the rest of the song is good. Magnificat went better this afternoon because I didn't trip on the stairs. Wait was that going up? That was going up. But I think it went better this afternoon anyway. I don't know why.

OK so on to non-Vespers stuff. What do you think of the shoutbox? I think it's interesting. It's just a test, but let's see what happens. Also, this is what Mitch, who is a Bears fan like I am a Packers fan, hardcore (it SUCKS not being able to watch the whole game tomorrow because of Vespers) wrote on my dry erase board:

"The Packers will be forced to wear dresses, then poop out their helmet which will be shoved down their throats without ketchup."

And that's how I shall end tonite.

Vespers is taking over my life.

Seriously. All I dreamt about last night was Vespers. One dream consisted of Dr. Holmes dividing the choirs in half, and he gave one half "Dixit Maria" and the other half "Praise to the Lord." I was so happy I got Praise to the Lord I was like I FINALLY get to sing this. Then I opened the music up and it was hard as hell with like umpteen ledger lines.

The other dream I remember was a little longer. It was really late, like midnight, and we were still at rehearsal but we were still active. Me, Stephen Needham, and Eric Glawe stepped out for a sec, and when we went back in Chamber had moved and we had no idea where to. So we were running everywhere trying to find them; we ran across the stage while another group was singing. Then we found them, they were in the loges but the loges looked more like a balcony or an arena or something. Then there were people in animal costumes playing Christmas carols on instruments. I remember Jon Pessin (a percussionist in real life) was playing cello passionately on stage and Tim Weber was next to me but his animal head was off, and he was playing french horn, and Sarah Staudt was like not wanting to wear her bunny costume. And our group played Mannheim Steamroller's version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" which is weird in itself because WE ARE A CHOIR...

Well back to life, back to reality.

IT IS SNOWING AND STAYING ON THE GROUND!!!

Vespers is KILLING me

I have been so exhausted lately. I'm supposed to have a mandatory meeting with MVOP at 6 tonite, but I'm not going. I'm considering not being in MVOP next semester. I'm really thinking about it, and I love it, but it's just takes a lot of time up upon which I can be doing more important stuff. Plus it's not really good for my voice.

Anyways, the real reason I'm not going, and another reason I'm skipping my comp class (the first being we are just working on our compositions anyways) is that CHAMBER IS GOING TO BENNIGANS!!! I have never been to Bennigan's before, and I didn't realize Decatur had one. Green Bay doesn't even have one. So I'd rather go to that, naturally.

My voice is sore right now. I'm resting it, I'm going to try not to talk much and drink lots of water and stuff because I have a voice lesson tomorrow and I'm thinking he's going to make me sing. Plus, Vespers is in THREE DAYS. I want my voice better by the time that comes around. MAN I wish I hadn't lost my brita water bottle. That would make my life a whole lot easier right now.