Saturday, January 17, 2015

Ghost of Christmas Past

So, like my previous post, this one was written a few weeks ago, and I'm only now getting around to publishing it. Enjoy! 
(Also, sorry that there's a white background to the text....I guess that happens when I write my post elsewhere and paste it in here...)


Merry Christmas!

I feel like I've been busy every day this month! Lots of great things have happened too.
First of all, this month has zoomed by! Thanksgiving was only a few weeks ago and Christmas is in four days! I've tried to have the Christmas spirit but its been tricky in some ways. I have been busy with work, and my evenings off I've been trying to do fun Christmas stuff but plans keep changing. I STILL haven't been to Temple Square to see the lights, but I've still done some great things. On December 11th I was able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert! It was grand. Santino Fontana and the Sesame Street Muppets were there! The music was very nice and fun. I saw my auntie in the choir and everything. It was a fun night. When the concert was over there were a million people outside so my friend and I decided to come back another night to see the lights. Well we've tried twice and it didn't work out. We're going this evening so hopefully third time's the charm!
Last week, on Tuesday, Sheena and I were going to go to Salt Lake but she texted me saying she had a surprise I would love. I was kinda nervous; surprises are sometimes scary. Anyway she told me not to worry. I went to her house having no idea what was in store, but when I got there, she showed me tickets to an advance screening of The Hobbit! It was such a wonderful surprise! We also got free popcorn and soda. They even had our ultimate favorite, cherry coke!
The movie was fun and I had a great time. The scene in Dol Guldur was so cool! I love Middle-Earth!
At work, it was decided that locals could sign up to perform music in the library for Christmas. It's been really fun to hear people sing, play their instruments, and collaborate to bring the Christmas spirit.
I even signed up! I thought beforehand that they wanted like five minutes per person but I found out they wanted like 45 minutes to an hour! I decided I could probably do that so I put together a bunch of stuff and practiced like crazy for the few days I had to prepare. So when the evening came to perform, I sat at the piano in the library and was so nervous that my leg shook for like 20 minutes!
After a while though,things started to not be scary and I enjoyed playing the music. It was enjoyable enough (and not too terrible sounding) that I did it 2 more times - on different days - at the request of my co-workers. The second and third time I wasn't nervous at all; I just sat down with my music books and played with a light and airy mood.
It's funny how quickly nerves can vanish. I was so nervous the first time, and the other two were NBD. It was great!


Okay, so that was the end of that post. Now that I'm basically up to speed here, my next post will be current and hopefully soon-ish.

Ttyl!

Friday, January 16, 2015

A Little Overdue...

Ahem....
So I wrote this post last Thanksgiving with the intent of publishing it right away. Obviously that didn't happen, so I'm publishing it now! It's a little dated, but late is better than never right? Anyway, here it is:



I've had a lot of good things happen lately, and there were several times when I thought about blogging, but you know.....
Anyway, here I am!
So, as you may know if you read my previous posts, I moved for a new job and left my poor provincial town. Now I live in a bigger town closer to the shiny city.
So far, things are pretty good. My best friend lives about 20 minutes away and we get together a couple times a week.
A couple weeks ago another friend of mine hosted an open-mic night at her house, so I went and had SO MUCH FUN! Seriously, it was one of my favorite things lately. There were a lot of people there at first, but toward the end there were only about 10 of us and it was really casual. We were just lounging in the living room listening to each other play and sing music. And - get this - I made new friends! It was great. I hope there's another open mic night again soon. I promise though that I'll be more prepared for the next one. We'll see.
Thanksgiving also happened! I went home for it and my friend Emily carpooled with me. It was fun traveling together because she is nice and loves and knows music way, WAY better than I or anyone else I know, so I happily gleaned all that I could. We also had good conversation, which was really nice.
Thanksgiving was great. I got to spend 5 days at home with my family and my super cute niece (who will be getting a super awesome gift from me for Christmas- stay tuned!) and my cousins and grandparents.
The weekend after thanksgiving was great too. My friend Jesslyn had a going-away party because she would be leaving for an LDS mission. I got to see a lot of friends at the get together, including my old roommate Brad. It was nice to all spend time together. Then on Sunday Jesslyn gave here farewell talk in church and she was so enthusiastic and passionate about her mission. It was inspiring. I was reminded of my mission and how I was excited and nervous too. I also saw Jesslyn almost grow up before my eyes. She's only 19 but as I watched her talk I started to see her, not as the kid I've always known her as, but as an adult who is grown up and setting off to do hard things. It's hard to explain, but it's like when you are looking at someone you know, but for whatever reason, you suddenly notice something about their face you didn't realize before. Like, you're seeing them anew, *really* seeing them. I don't know, it's weird.
Anyway, the whole holiday was super.
I finally started playing Halo. Halo is fun! I'm so very bad at it. I set it on easy because I've never really played it, but I still had lots of fun. People who brag about playing on "legendary" mode can go pat themselves on the back and be smug and whatever. I like easy mode and playing casually because it's fun!
This post is long enough. I've got more to write about but I'll save that stuff for my next post, which will be soon!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Coming Soon!

I am not doing so hot at keeping this blog updated. I don't think it's that big of a deal since it's basically only here for my amusement at this point, but if anyone is reading this, there are posts on the way! I have a couple posts saved on my iPod that I just need to upload and stuff. They will be "old-news" by the time I post them, but that's what I get for being a lazy blogger. See you again soon!