New iBook!!

I have a new iBook!!! It's so beautiful! So clean, so new, so not even charged so I can't play with it yet....

A large furniture store in the area had a big Memorial Day Sale: 2 years interest free financing. This is the same place I got my first (and previously only) iBook a couple years ago. Back then it was 18 months no interest. This time around, even better!

So why did I get a new iBook? That's not important...because I didn't really *need* one. But I do love the slot loading disc drive. And the fact that the top doesn't jiggle when I open it (kind of like a wagging tail until it settles down to work). And that the cd tray (of which there isn't one this time around) doesn't feel squishy when you push (gently) on it. And it's kind of slow. Not painfully so, it is only a couple years old. But lately it's started freezing momentarily when you try to switch programs. Or when just iTunes is running. The song will stop for a moment, then pick up again. Not exactly emergency material, but annoying all the same.

So why is the new one better? It just hasn't had two years of love...no gentle bumps against walls & furniture while being carried through the house, no being picked up by the screen part, no having feet resting on it while it sits on the coffee table...it hasn't yet been part of a family. Oh, and it's a G4 instead of a G3 with more RAM, memory, combo drive, and and Airport Extreme card. So very cool.

So what happens to my old iBook? Never fear, it will continue to be loved. Russell is going to adopt it and use it for musical things (i.e. Garage Band, recording, etc). It won't be put out to pasture, it'll just lead a more sedentary life. There is enough love in my heart for two iBooks.

Trouble in Paradise

Russell and I haven't been getting along so well lately. I got very used to --and enjoyed-- the life I had with my friends at school. I've really missed the fun and excitement that comes from being surrounded by lots of people. In my attempts at keeping that going through the summer have resulted in trouble between us. He feels like he just fits in where he can when I'm not talking to or hanging out with other people.

I'd forgotten along the way that I made him a very serious promise...vows, even. And I haven't been doing a very good job of that cherish part. I still love him, still honor him...I need him. I just assumed he'd always be there. My friends will graduate, move away, we'll lose touch. But Russell is my husband. I took his being around for granted. Sometimes I feel like he just wants me when it's convenient for him, and I hate that feeling. And I turned around and made him feel that way.

I don't feel very good right now.

So he went to his parents' house for the day. I was supposed to go with him, but some friends had planned to surprise me with a visit. These were the friends I'd backed out on before...I didn't feel like I could do it again. But Russell...in my cancelling on his family, I hurt him a great deal. And I feel horrible about it. And I'm afraid I've made a mistake that can't be fixed with a hug, a kiss, and an apology. That terrifies me.

I feel terrible for choosing my friends over Russell. He is a good man. And I have treated him badly.

I feel like scum.

He'll be home soon. I'm watching the clock...waiting...hoping that things won't be as bad as I'm afraid they will be.

Visiting friends...

We'll have visiting friends here later this afternoon. A couple of Russell's friends from before I came along, Kim & Andrew, are driving over from KC to spend the afternoon/evening, maybe just evening here. We're only sure that we're going to eat supper. Walk along Mass and shop, maybe. Have girl time with Kim, maybe. We'll just have to see.

My social calendar is much more full than I had anticipated. Last week I was in DC and flying back from DC on Sunday & Monday. Tuesday my mother came to visit, Wednesday I went over to visit her & my sister. Thursday I went to Emporia to see friends, and Friday Russell took off so we could play. Today Kim & Andrew are visiting, tomorrow or Monday we'll drive down to see Russell's parents... For next week, I only have a lunch date with my family on Wednesday. And a TBA trip to Emporia for lunch & friendly fun.

For now, though, I need some lunch. :)

Pretty car.

Russell & I are watching "Meet the Fockers" and eating ice cream. I watched it the other day with Justin...but it's good enough to see again! And, having seen it, if I fall asleep (because it's about 12:30), I won't really be missing anything.

We had a fun shopping-for-Russell day today. He got some shorts (which he hated spending the money for but realized I was right, he needed them). We also visited Radioshack.

I did have a fun time this morning...we got my car windows tinted. We dropped Russell's truck off at home, then I drove us to lunch. Then I drove us to Radioshack. Then I drove us to Target... I had the best time driving my wonderful pretty car. At first I loved it because it was my *awesome* grown up car (I need all the help I can get). Now I love it because it's my awesome grown up car that isn't too serious...tinted windows aren't serious, they're fun. Youthful. And limo-like. hehe

Bach was a bad, bad man.

Besides being a dirty man with way too many children, Bach is a bad person for writing such hard stuff. Well, it wouldn't matter if he wrote hard stuff if he hadn't also been a recognized genius. Because now we all have to study his genius. And his genius makes me tired.

So here's to Bach, affecting musicans centuries after his death.

I made it.

Well, I'm back from my trip to DC with my mother-in-law. I survived. I took a 3 hour nap when I got home, but I survived. As with all mothers-in-law, she's better in small doses. But we did have a wonderful time. The cousin's wedding shower was really, really, surprisingly fun. We laughed so hard my head started to hurt. Then I rode in a car with two other cousins, both boys, one 8 and the other 12. They had legos. And they argued in their little boy voices. Loudly. Over legos. Lego cars, to be exact. As in, who built the best lego car. So when asked, in my headachy daze, which was the better car, I told them that they were both very nice cars. Boys being boys, that wasn't good enough. So finally, having had as much as I could stand, I said that neither were good working designs and that I wouldn't want to drive either of them.

Being 8 and 12 year old boys, it didn't phase them. So off they went (figuratively) to drive their cars around the, well, car.

The rest of my week should be more exciting in much less painful ways. Tomorrow my mother is coming to spend the day with me. We will do lunch. Wednesday, I'm doing lunch with my mother and sister in KC. Then I'm meeting a friend over there for an afternoon of window (and perhaps more!) shopping. Thursday I'm going down to Emporia to have, what else, lunch with friends. Friday Russell is taking off to spend the day with me. I have an appointment to get my car windows tinted that morning, so he'll get to be my driver for the morning. I'll tell him closer to time. Don't need him worrying about getting up early on his day off and coming up with some reason he can't drive me around! Oh yes, I'm thinking about him there. Absolutely. Mmmhmmm. :)

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to DC I go...

I'm flying to DC tomorrow with Russell's mother. His cousin is getting married this summer and we're going to her shower. We'll fly out tomorrow morning, the shower is Sunday, and we'll fly back home on Monday. It should go pretty quickly I think. I'm taking my iPod (loaded some new music on it just moments ago) and a book or 3. I don't fly without my crossword puzzle book. I was going to take my flute, but decided to save it the wear and tear. I'm playing at the wedding and was going to give the bride a little preview (since I took the song she wanted and arranged it for string quartet & flute rather than vocalist and piano). Hopefully it'll sound as good with real instruments as it does with the computer generated sounds. hehe

I have lots to look forward to when I get home, too. On Tuesday, my mom is coming over for a girly day. :) I haven't told her yet that we're getting a Chicos, her favorite store. I have a feeling I'll see a lot more of her in the future. :)

On Wednesday, I'm driving over to her town to do lunch with her and my sister. That should be...interesting. My sister, Sarah, is an odd duck. Okay, so she's just not like me. She's bookish, quiet, shy, sensible....

I'm also going to visit a friend from school who'll happen to be in KC on that day too. Yay!

On Thursday, I'm going to drive down to Emporia to visit with my school buddies who don't find themselves up here very often. That'll be nice. I really miss the social aspect of school. I'm a social little thing...can't handle this solitude! :)

And speaking of me being a little thing, I have lost 30 pounds all total now! Yay! I went to Old Navy and bought a pair of size 12 jeans...they're comfy. They're not tight. In another few pounds they'll be loose! Wow....I haven't weighed this much (little?) since the last 90s. I still have another 15-20 pounds to go to reach my "doctor recommended" weight, but I feel so much better now than I did 20 pounds ago....I'd be happy hanging out in my 12s for a while. :)

Rainforest Cafe

Russell & I went to the Rainforest Cafe in KC for supper last night...this is a particularly cute picture of Russell. :)

When going to KC, the original idea was to get a Coach purse, but once we were there I just didn't see The Perfect Purse. And I'm not going to spend close to $300 on anything less than a perfect purse. So we looked at a few close-to-perfect purses, ate supper, and went home.

Supper was a very good time. We talked, laughed...really had fun. We haven't felt that light together in a long time. It reminded me that we used to be like that every day...gave me something to hold onto during heavier times.

It's not the real Amy.

I'm heading down to Emporia today. Justin asked if I want to go to see Star Wars III with him at midnight tonight. Am I really going to be one of *those* people??

Looks like I am.

So to protect my girly-ness, I'm going down early to watch his dance recital (doesn't get much farther from Star Wars than a dance recital). After that I'll let him buy me dinner. tee hee

After that we'll probably have a few hours to kill. So we'll probably end up watching the Family Guy DVD in a lounge in the music building. After that, we'll see STAR WARS III!!!!

I'll get home closer to morning than bedtime, but that's good every once in a while. :)

Play time for Amy!

My friend Justin came up today. A mom from the dance studio he teaches at (they're friends) had to bring her daughter up for an MRI, so Justin rode along. He and I hung out for a while...Best Buy and a small section of Mass St. We just didn't have time for more.

While at Best Buy, Justin picked up the new Dave Matthews Band cd. I ran across (As in, "Golly gosh, is this where you can find iPod accessories? Who knew?!?") a *great* *new* *necessary* *thing* for my iPod mini...an FM transmitting telescoping charger. I know, absolutely amazing. Raised my heartbeat too. Take some deep breaths.

After that bit of amazingness, we headed down to Mass St. I need to go back there myself soon...like, tomorrow. There's a store that has my next pair of shoes. And another store that just might have my new shirt.

Again, amazing. It's been an amazing day. Oh yeah.

I'm glowing.

Well, the band played Commencement this morning. We sat with our backs to the sun, except during those 2 hours of name reading when my right side was towards the sun. So the back of my neck is veeeery red, and the right side of my face (and only the right side) is...um...hot to the touch.

Most of the time I'm too cold to have much color in my cheeks. Now my feet are still -5 degrees, but my face is on a vacation in the tropics. :)

I got my hair cut after I got home...I'm thinking it's about time to dye my hair again. It's not as coppery anymore. But it's still cute, of course....while in our 2 hour "break" this morning, the clarinet teacher looked at me and asked if red is my natural color. I told her no, I'm more of a boring brown girl. hehe She said that the red suits me, and looks natural. Yay! I'm a red hair type of girl!

Russell still isn't sure he likes it (after over a month of cute red-ness)...he's resistant to change. But he knows I like it so he encourages me. And he says I need a Coach purse. Is there a more perfect man out there?

Summer Things to Do:

If I don't make a list of things to do, my summer will be...umm...totally without purpose, drive, or accomplishments. Totally without. So, for the sake of my marriage, my sanity, and my sense of purpose, I will put down on virtual paper what I would like to do.

If things go terribly wrong (like I don't get around to anything), there's always the "delete entry" option. :)

With that, on to the list...

Things to Do This Summer
1. Thoroughly clean house at least once. Like, *really* thoroughly. Maintain a level of clean beyond "liveable."
2. Paint living room.
3. Get up at or before 9:30 so that I don't sleep until 1 every day.
4. Practice between 1 and 2 hours daily (or at least weekdays).
5. Exercise three days weekly for 30 minutes at a time.
6. Don't buy anything unneccesary more than once a week. Otherwise it'll be like last summer, and that wasn't pretty.
7. To expand on #6, don't buy more than one purse every month. Really. You don't need that many, silly.
8. Play piano every day. No time goal, just as long as it's fun and feels good.
9. Mow the lawn. Russell works. He doesn't want to do it. You don't want to work. Make it work for you.
10. Keep on that list that's been on your desk for 6 months (the one that includes getting windows tinted).

Well, that wasn't so hard. Of course, all of those are pretty doable... :)

Freedom at last! (Almost)

My last day of real classes was yesterday. Today I went back down to school to play a (non-paying) gig. It was me & 2 other flutists. None of us knew what we were getting into. As it turns out, it was a garden party.

A garden party, complete with a nice elderly lady wearing gloves. Red ones. Oh yeah.

The first 2 hours were pretty fun. The last hour, well, not so pretty. All 3 of us were sightreading. The music was easy enough to allow that, and we were pretty good at covering the less than musical moments, but after a couple hours of sightreading your brain starts to turn to mush. (Wait...the brain is already a gooey blob...)

So after a less than successful attempt at a piece more suited for an early high school ensemble, we switched to more middle school level material. That went much better, though still not perfect.

Let's just say, we were glad the one guy from the music faculty that was there had already left.

It was fun, tiring, and good experience. And the wasp that hung around didn't bother anyone. Good times.

I lived!!!!

Today was my day to conduct the band. I did it. I conducted the band, and I lived!! I got up on the podium (which I found out vibrates when the low brass get to doing their thing), I waved my arms around for a while (with purpose, of course), and worked little note and timing things out with the flutes and clarinets, and got down from the podium.

I did it! And--this is amazing--I had fun! :D

I don't like Malcolm Arnold.

Okay, I don't actually have anything against Malcolm Arnold (20th century British composer) or his music, I'm just a little tired of him and his genius right now. My 10-ish page paper on him is due tomorrow at 5. I started it yesterday and did the score analysis and the write up on the movements today. So I'm just kind of tired of him.

But it's *awesome* that one of my 2 papers is done. Done. Done! DONE!! Only one more to go. It's due Wednesday...so by 5 on Wednesday, I will probably be not-so-fond of Gustav Mahler.

And that is the life of this music student. :)

Today's good news: I'm going to go on a road trip. Sooner than later. I need to get away for a while. Not too long, I don't like being away from Russell for a long time. So a little road trip might be just the thing.