Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Ok, so I am really in a Christmas mood. Not for the presents or anything like that...I'm just ready for the feelings of Christmas! There's something about sitting in the living room with only the glow of the fireplace and lights on the Christmas tree that gives me a feeling I can't describe. The air is filled with the smell of spice and pine. Everything just looks....beautiful and peaceful. Rawr, I want that now! I guess it's coming soon enough, lol.

This has been a pretty good week! Yesterday I didn't have nutrition class and I won't be having my lesson tomorrow. So it's been pretty low stress. But I do have a trumpet playing test on Friday that I'm not looking all that forward to. I'm just having trouble getting higher notes out. I can't wait to be on trombone! I almost considered playing trombone when I was joining band. So it'll be fun to see what I could have ended up playing, hahaha.

I'm about to go down and practice some more for the day. The weather doesn't look so nice outside my window, so I hope it doesn't start to rain on me before I get down there!

I have watched "You've Got Mail" twice already this week! And I still want to watch it again! I love that movie, it is one of my favorites! Maybe I'll watch it again sometime this weekend!

Thursday, my awesome roomie Teenia and I are going to my sister's dorm where they're having a Halloween dance. We are going to dress up in our costumes and par-tay! 'Twill be great fun!

Well, that's really all I have to share today! Enjoy life!

Once you get past the naked factor...

My goodness, it's been awhile since I've updated. There really has been a lack of things to blog about....rather a lack of things appropriate to blog about. There's been a lot of drama in my life with a particular person that my friends and I have had to deal with. I don't feel like I should go on and on about it here because 1) it's not really appropriate or professional to do so and 2) this is a happy blog! (well, for the most part!). So for the most part, the rest of my life has been pretty groovy.

I'm hitting a spot in my clarinet playing again that's frustrating me. Although this time I don't feel like it's so bad. Rather than bore you with all the details of clarinet technique and what I'm doing, let's just say I need to be listening more to my sound. I really concentrated on listening to my sound a few weeks ago, and it came! Lately though, I've concentrated on keeping my jaw down and keeping the space open in my mouth....not the sound. So I didn't realize that I was undervoicing (which means my tongue is low making the pitch too low for my non-music peeps) until my lesson today. It's just frustrating to be at a good place and think you're finally getting somewhere, then all of a sudden you're a step back. It doesn't help that my reeds have been horrible this past two weeks, which can be blamed on many factors, but I also shouldn't have gotten to that crisis point. My goals this week are to listen and really express myself and make color happen in the music. I will get this!

We have a marching band competition this Saturday which I am looking forward to! It's really satisfying to see the students I've been working with put their all on the field and hopefully be rewarded for their hard work. Even if we don't place at awards, it's just fun to see the kids perform and enjoy themselves. I'm so glad to be a part of that and can't wait for the future when I have my own students feeling that excitement.

Speaking of the future, I had my advising appointment today and I'm taking 19 credit hours next semester! Oye. Well, I did 19 last semester so I'll make it through somehow, lol. Lots of prayer and hot tea! And some Just Dance right before bed, hahaha.

You're probably wondering what's up with my title. Well as I was walking up to the music library where I'm currently at, I randomly heard someone say this and it made me giggle on the inside. I love when little things like that can make you laugh and brighten your day. Well folks, it looks like my blogging for the day has come to an end. Enjoy life until your eyes and my blog meet again!

Sneezy

Lincoln and Chocolate

Wow, it's been awhile since I've updated this! My days have been pretty busy this past few weeks. Right now we're on fall break. For me it hasn't been much of a break since I've been on a trip to Washington, D.C. with the UNCG Teaching Fellows! I got up super early Saturday morning at 5 am to get on the bus with everyone else and begin our journey. It was really great, because the UNCG School of Education paid for this trip. We got to our hotel (the Hilton :0) Saturday afternoon, then we went to the play "Shear Madness" at the Kennedy Center that evening. It was a pretty funny play that involved audience participation. It was sort of like a murder mystery where the audience votes who committed the murder. Whom ever the audience decides is the murderer, that's how the actors play it out. So the next night the play could be different. Still, I would have rather seen the National Symphony Orchestra playing that night. Sadness. We spent the rest of the evening (and into the wee hours of the morning) walking around the city at night looking at the monuments and exploring. It was great fun! The next day was all to ourselves for self-exploration. I visited the Holocaust Museum which was very humbling. We also visited several of the Smithsonian Museums and the National Archives. We had an amazingly delicious dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and then turned in early for the night. This morning, we checked out of the hotel and then spent a couple of hours at the Arlington National Cemetery. It's always been a humbling experience for me to visit there and see all the lives that fought for my freedom that I enjoy. We had lunch at Pentagon City Mall and then started the long bus ride back to Greensboro. Overall, it was a great trip with some of the most amazing and fun people I know!

Now it's just time to relax at home and then tomorrow I'll see my pumpkin who's been away to Iowa! I've really missed him and can't wait to see him! Until the next major happening in my life....

Sneezy