Louisville

Hello blog world!
I'm officially in Louisville! I'm very glad that I can say that with an exclamation mark at the end because these past few days have been laced with huge fits of anxiety that have left me sick and tired! HOWEVER, God is good and faithful and He has pulled me through!

I live in a very cute apartment *one I will have pictures of as soon as Hannah and I get it all decorated, etc*. My kitty is here!!!!! Though, she's still sick. Her sneezing has calmed down a bit, but she is still weezing a bit, AND her left eye just started watering excessively and producing a lot of goo...She has an appointment for her next round of shots next Saturday and hopefully they can do something for her. :(
She's still eating like she should be and still bouncing around a lot, so I know she's alright, but I want her to feel 100% better!

Music placement exams are FINALLY over and I'm registered for classes! I tested out of Piano I, Musicianship I, undergrad conducting, and Music History from 1750-present! I have to take 3 semesters of theory, 1 semester of music history, and orchestration (as far as undergrad classes go).

This semester I'm taking:
Biblical Theology of Worship
Personal Spiritual Disciplines
Intro to Music Ministry
Piano Level II
Vocal Literature: French Melodie
Voice Lessons
Recital Lab
and I'm in the Seminary Choir - the audition only choir!

It looks like a lot, but it's 13 hours, which is equal to about 18 undergrad...I took like 2239247293847 in undergrad. PLUS the recital lab is one of those "attend random recitals, etc."

Anyway! It's going really well!
I am excited to be here with Bryan and to goof off with him!!!! It's been a lot of fun! :D



Right now, I'm about to finish putting my room together!! WOOHOO!

O!
I have a job interview for Bob Evans *sigh* haha on Saturday! My attitude about that place is terrible! I've been working for them since I was 17 *I'm 23 now* and all I can think about is how much I don't want to work for them...never mind the fact that I have been able to work 1 or 2 days a week since I've been in college to pay my bills! Now I have the chance to do that again...no new training *with the exception of the new computer system* but I already know how everything works! I should be thankful!!!
I need to re-evaluate how I look at this job!




infinite xs and os

Hodge Podge post!

This post will be quite A.D.D. because I have a lot to cover.

First things first:
Those pesky videos.
WELL I have them all on DVDS...but I have no DVD burner. So much for getting them out to people before I move *ON SUNDAY!*

Kitties!
On Saturday, Momma and I went to the Humane Society and got two kitties!!! One for me and one for Hannah, my roommate because they are way cheaper here than in Louisville. Aria is my kitty, she's a 3 month old calico and SUPER cuddly. Miley was Hannah's kitty...and yes I did say was. She was a teeny 2 month old white kitty. After the first day we had her she started sneezing a little bit, but we just figured because she just got her first round of shots the day we picked her up, that it was because of that...WELL I left on Monday morning for Tennessee and she was fine...Momma called me on Wednesday night and said that she died! :( She was bouncing around all day like normal, then she started to slow down some, then by the end of the day she was dead. :( We have NO idea what happened...we only had her for 4 days. :(
Aria is ok. She was sneezing some, so my brudder (who is home from Idaho!!!!) took her to the vet the day after Miley died, and they said she had an upper respitory infection, so she's on antibiotics now. She seems to be ok!

Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg!
I just got back yesterday from Tennessee with a great friend of mine, Amanda! We were down there for 3 nights. Neither one of us realized HOW BUSY that place is!! We stayed on the strip in Pigeon Forge and it was busy all the time. We had fun though! The first day consisted of window outlet shopping and a Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre called American Idle! It was a blast. I got to be one of the contestants (Annita Mann) where I sang parts of "Redneck Woman", "It's Rainin' Men", and "Fancy" and I won a little trophy and a free ride up the Ober Gatlinburg ski lift (which we never made it to.) We went white water rafting on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun, but the water levels are really low, so it wasn't a very hard trip at all. I think I'm ready for some bigger white water! Bethany and Jennifer drove down from Cleveland, and they got lost in Knoxville detour construction so they didn't even get to us until around 9 that night. We had a lot of fun just hanging around the hotel that night. Wednesday morning they left, and Manda and I went to Dollywood! It was fun, but kind of a pain in the butt becuase the park is laid out REALLY weird. We didn't stay the whole day because we were EXHAUSTED, but it was still a good time. Next time though, I think we'll go to the water park instead. That night we ran into downtown Gatlinburg...we had NO idea it was so super busy and packed with shopping, or we would have planned to be there longer. Oh well! We left yesterday afternoon after a little bit more outlet shopping. It was a really good trip.

Softball!
Last night, I made it home around 530, and left around 550 to head to Man to play a softball game...we only had 8 girls so we had to forfeit, but we still scrimaged anyway and lost, but oh well! I almost didn't go, but I'm glad I did because we don't have a game tonight, so last night was my last game with them. :( I've had a blast playing this year. Those girls are a lot of fun.

Friends!
Today and tomorrow are my last days here so in between packing fun, I'll be trying to spend time with my friends here. Mainly Bekah and Tabi, but there may be a few other stops here and there.

The end!

Keynote videos

Hey gang!
I just want to say that I'm FINALLY getting all the keynote video footage *all 7 little tapes from my camera* organized completely and put on DVDs! woohoo!!! For those of you who have NO idea what Keynote is, it's the music ministry branch of Campus Crusade for Christ. I was fortunate enough to get to go on a summer project in 2006 with them and I had a blast and grew a TON because of it.
Your band rehearses for 4 weeks, then tours for 3. There were 5 groups, most did secular songs and did a gospel presentation in the middle of their concerts.
Swerve was a pop/rock group
Mangofish was a rock group
Young Isaac was an alternative rock group
Infinite Impact was a gospel group from a different project that merged with our project!
And Proof of Purchase *my band* was the worship group.
There ya go!


I have TONS of video footage of our dress rehearsals before we all left for tour, random goofy stuff along the way, and all kinds of things that I have been working on organizing for quite some time now. My problem is that I had to put the things onto VHS tapes from the little camera tapes, THEN record the VHS to DVD...WELL our DVD recorder is REALLY hard to figure out, but I FINALLY did it *while wasting 2 (so far) disks* and I have 1 DVD finished, and 1 is currently in the process! :D

YAY!






I am in the home stretch here and I can't wait to move!
:D

My "weekend"

The work weekend is in quotes because it was really Monday and Tuesday, but those days are my weekend.

I went to the good old Mo to spend a few days with a GREAT friend of mine, Amanda. We had a ridiculously great time, and I WILL be posting pictures (and perhaps videos!?) to show you how silly we are. We watched movies (One Missed Call, Dan in Real Life, and The Dark Knight), ate TONS of junk food, and eventually took glamour shots! HAHA oh yes, I mean the kind you took at middle school slumber parties. It was hilarious. We even had a huge box fan to blow our hair! THEN, if the pictures weren't enough, we decided to make a movie using my digital camera...the concept of this cinematic genuis is that the mad hatter *or my gold glitter top hat from tap at age 4* was trying to clean up the image of pop stars...so Jocelyn *Amanda* was the first victim (THIS time around, mwahaha) and Bianca *me, an MTV VJ for the BBC* ...did I mention we were British in this film?...His idea of cleaning us up was turning us into opera singers...just like he did with Bianca's parents - Yoko and John...oh yes, he turned them into Renee Flemming and Placido Domingo *famous soprano and tenor* and he was going to turn us into the dueling sopranos...
There you have it. A work of ART was created! haha

Needless to say, we had a BLAST! So much, in fact, that I'm pretty sure I'm taking my real video camera to Gatlinburg when we go with Tabi, so we can make a movie should we decide to do so!

<3
k bye!

LOU IS COMING TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I get to play softball tonight, and I THINK my old friend Clif is coming to watch the game too! woohoo!
I only have 3 days of work left!

Rant

So...I'm pretty livid right now. Why can't the people I work with show up for work? Every single shift I work *4 days a week* at least one person calls off.
Tonight, I had a softball game at 7...I needed to be out the door by 6, 630 at the VERY latest to still make it the 30 minutes to the game. My manager said he would have no problem getting me out, we just had to wait for either person A or person B to show up first so that they could still have 6 servers on the floor...
WELL the carry out person didn't show up, so he had to take one of the servers and put her on carry out, which gave us 6 on the floor including me.
Since person A and B were going to be there at 5/530, he told me I'd be able to leave, so I called a girl on the team and my parents, to tell them that I'd be able to go...
WELL
who didn't show up?
NEITHER OF THEM!
Person A came to pick up her check dressed in street clothes, and then called off...
person B, who was on a leave of absence, was supposed to be back for her first day today ALSO didn't show up...
so guess who got stuck there?
me.
I mean, I wouldn't have been so angry if I wouldn't have already thought I was going to make it to the game. I told the girls the night before that unless something changed, I wasn't going to make it, so I would have been ok with not even thinking I could go in the first place. It wasn't my managers fault, nor anyone elses that I work with, so I tried my very best not to take out my mood on everyone else, though I had to stop for a second because my anger put me on the verge of tears on several occasions.
All I had to do was make one phone call earlier today letting them know I wasn't coming to work, but I've NEVER called off and I told my boss that I wouldn't do that to him because he was nice enough to let me have Fridays off. Everyone I talked to said, "you should have called in," but I really couldn't. I tried to get my shift covered, but every single person who said "yeah, I can do that," or, "let me see," fell through, but not until Thursday, when it was pretty much too late to do anything about it...so there I was, at work.

My first commitment is to work, so I'm going to show up when I'm supposed to. Softball, though I love it WAY more, doesn't take precedence over work.

But I am SO mad that others don't think the same way. I mean, I know why they don't but it still is NOT FUN AT ALL!!!!!!!!!

UGH!

Ok. I'm done!
Time to make use of the time I have instead of sitting around sulking about something that God worked out for my good (whether I see it or not).

Picture post!

Can you imagine the FUN we will have!?



Zelah!



Zoe is NOT modest.



That's all for today!
SOFTBALL THIS WEEKEND! Momma and Daddy took me down to the ballfield on Monday and we worked on hitting. My mom was always AWESOME in that department and by the end of the 30 minutes we were down there, I was busting the crap out of the ball and it didn't even feel like work! YAYAY! Now, hopefully I can remember what I did for the game TOMORROW!!!!
I'm heading to spend some QT with Amanda on Monday and Tuesday. We're going to do goofy, relaxing, stupid things like...taking glamour shots hahaha I can't wait! She can REALLY use the break. From someone who has had MANY a voice major related mental breakdown...she needs some FUN!
We're getting new carpet Monday in lil' brudder's room, so I can't leave till the carpet guy finishes which will be "sometime after 8" so we all know how THAT goes.
NEXT Friday, LOU IS COMING TO VISIT ME!!!!!!!!! We're softballing and then I THINK maybe hitting up some karaoke! I'm sure there's nothing better than karaoke in the Legion with 2 of the best people in the world *Lou and Bekah* in softball cleats! YaY! I'll let you know how it goes!


Countdown to Louisville:
24 DAYS!!!!!!!!

Random update

See, I knew once I got all my thoughts sorted out, it wouldn't be hard to figure out what to do about auditions. I'm not going to do them. It would pretty much be a waste of time to go stand around in line all day when I really don't want to be an American Idol anyway! There are PLENTY of other reasons, but I'll spare the details.

I have been at home by myself since Friday since my parents are in Idaho visiting Lil' Brudder. *He's there working as a carpenter for the Idaho Shakespeare Festival this summer. He likes it a lot. My parents when out to see "Into the Woods", my mom's new favorite musical, thanks to me.* It's been interesting being by myself. My cats love me now that I'm the only one here to give them attention! haha However, Zelah *my kitty...she's all black half Persian, half Himalayan* has woken me up every night since my parents have been gone to give her luvinz. I'm not a big fan of sleep being interrupted by my squeaking cat, but at least she likes me now! haha Zoe *my momma's cat...she's a Heinz 57 variety* is crazy. This cat has to be where I am, especially if I'm in the kitchen. She'll rub her head on my toes until I pet her a sufficient amount. I love them though! :D I've been very lazy this weekend until today. Well...I have been working and playing ball, so I guess I haven't been THAT lazy, but still. Today, they are coming back *they actually just called saying they were in the car on the way back from the airport and will be here in about an hour!* I decided to surprise them by cleaning everything up. I've been doing that this summer, but they have been BIG cleaning projects, so I decided to just clean the kitchen, etc. It looks pretty nice. I can't do anything about the boxes of my junk sitting in the dining room though until I move away on the 10th. The people are coming to put carpet in my brother's room (aka mom's new sewing room) sometime next week, so we need to begin the process of yanking everything out of the room and things need to be picked up for that. We actually just finished putting the room altogether, so it kind of sucks that we have to drag it all back out. Oh well, such is life! The next step is to get my mom to clean out her closet so we only have to make one trip to the Salvation Army instead of 2394823942387. I just finished up her laundry and everything is hanging nicely in the closet. Too bad I can't be that dedicated to my own room. Eh, I'll get around to it before Lou comes next weekend!

I am playing softball for a women's slow pitch league. You have to be 21 to play and the girls average age 35. My team isn't bad. We're not amazing, but it's still fun. My team would be better if the other 3 teams in the league didn't have 3 or 4 girls that could knock the ball out of the park...you can't play defense against a grand slam, followed by a homerun with 2 on base. Needless to say, we've been KILLED our first 2 games last weekend because of such things. I'm playing 3rd base, and to be honest...I'm really comfortable there. I'd rather be at short stop or 2nd just because there's more to do at those spots, but 3rd is a really hot spot in this league. These ladies CRUSH the ball, so even if it's on the ground, it comes REALLY hard. I was kind of nervous at first, but then I realized that this year will be my 16th year playing, so I think I can handle myself. It's a blast! AND one of my greatest friends, Bekah, is playing too!!! We car pool to the games in Man *about 40 minutes away* and belt show tunes the entire way! *She's also my Musical Mondays partner.* Speaking of which...I need to figure out if we're doing that today...


I had a bunch more stuff written about how I'm going to Gatlinburg with 2 of my best friends, but then the internet stopped working and this part of my post was lost...so I'm done.

:D
BYE!