I'm still here! It's been such a LONG time! This past year has been really hectic. Being at college took up so much time. I always had something on my mind and had hardly any free time. I took 18 hours this past semester, but I'm good now.
A lot has happened. I don't think I can document them to their full extent and chronologically, but I'll do them in separate entries. I'll start with the small things first.
This past February, my friend Jerry died. He was everyone's best friend. We got along together so well, and he was the life of the party. One Monday evening, he, Cyndi, Tiffany, and I played cards together. I had a splitting headache that night, but he was nice enough to give me some Advil. Another day, he, Michael, and I got donuts together. I was glad to have known him. He was very open, and he was super awesome. He had all these different swords, including the one we made for iron cosplay (it's a contest where we come up with an idea for something, and dress up a person using newspaper, duct tape, and garbage bags). Tiffany told me on that Sunday afternoon at lunch that he was dead. He had died that Friday from his diabetes. Jerry had told me about it before, but I didn't want to interfere since I felt it was a touchy subject. The next evening at cosplay club, we held a memorial service where we all formed a circle, held hands, and held candles, and then shared our memories with him. On Saturday, we all went to his funeral. Will and I came together, and when we saw his body, we said our goodbyes. Cyndi was crying because he was her first boyfriend. We all comforted each other, and Will held me close saying, "I'll put all of your grief onto mine". That was so sweet. Rosie couldn't come until later because she couldn't handle it well. We all went to see where he was being buried, and then our whole group went to Shogun's in Conroe. We ate a late lunch there. Everyone was going back to Huntsville, but Will and I returned there later because I slept over at his house.
On a lighter note, I finished my finals early. I came back home Tuesday. My last two were on Monday, but I wanted to have time to clean my dorm room since I needed to move out. So far, I am doing well. I finished some as early as mid-April, so some of the stress was reduced. My hardest class had to be my Composition II, my English class. I didn't that that well on several papers, and so, I had to redo them. I don't know what I got yet, but I hope I get an A. Even though it's a B, I got mostly A's in my classes. Among my favorites were my history class. On the Thursday before I left, I took the final for that class. I did really well in that one, since I love history. I was the last one to finish because some of the questions were really technical. Dr. Littlejohn gives us curves anyway since some of them were too hard. Anyway, he wanted to know if I will take from him again in the fall, and I still didn't know since it's still early in the summer. He frowned at first since I said "summer school". Wow, I'm gracious that he valued me so highly. Also, Dr. Smith is retiring this year as our conductor. I am very glad to have known her. She was such a nice lady. She and I had a rough start because of my adjustment to being in a college situation, but as time went by, we got to understand each other. Actually, that happened with a couple of people, and now, we get along well. She was always smiling and always had a kind word to say. She was very motherly, and we all did well at every concert. At our last concert, she gave such a speech. She was very appreciative. I'm going to miss her as a conductor; it's not going to be the same. However, she'll be doing the conducting class, so that's something to look foward to.
There is MUCH more that will come. This should be enough for now.
I had the chamber recital Tuesday. We played the Mendelssohn. My group and I were all thinking the "Tokyo Roses" since that was what Dr. Smith had in mind the night before. We were all excited about doing well. We were second on the program. It was based on ability level, and I personally felt somewhat slighted. I'm not THAT bad. Anyway, there were times whereI messed up. In some parts, I played the wrong notes. In others, I used different fingerings than what I am used to, but they somehow worked out. I was a little nervous, but I was really bent on getting some of the runs. It turned out I did. I NAILED those runs that I couldn't do when we practiced. I finally got them. I had like the biggest smile on my face, especially near the end where I had the most trouble. The notes were mostly clean, and Dr. Burrell was really glad when she saw that I worked really hard on it. I got disappointed for the small stuff (mentioned above), but Allyson told me not to sweat it too much. Leslie was also thinking the same about her mistakes. I slowly came to realize Allyson was right. I owe her. My boyfriend came to seeme, and he was impressed. I was glad he truly supports me.
Yesterday evening was the Halloween/Josh's birthdayparty at Rosie's apartment (he couldn't get off work, so we celebrated it then). When my boyfriend picked me up, he gave me chocolate coins since I was a pirate (what a sweetheart!). My boyfriend and I brought pasta together (it was pot luck; everyone brought something). We both pitched in for all of the ingredients, and we made it together. It turned out that he ran out of butter, so I ran to HEB (it was walking distance; lucky duck). And, it took FOREVER for the water to boil while on high. It took longer than we expected because we had to make a lot for a lot of people (of course, as expected, it went FAST). We called Rosie we were running late, and by the time we arrived, we didn't miss much. We ate, and then we played a game. It was REALLY stupid. Each person went outside individually while blindfolded, and we were told to touchthree people's facesto see what was different. I touched each person's mouth, nose, and eyes. On the last one, Rosie said, "and here's his eye", and it was gooey. I laughed. SO lame. It was Jello. Anyway, we played Red Rover after a while. Everyone wanted my friend Ashley, who was on the other side. Then Cindi was called, then Jerry, and Cherelle. I was called over too, but I broke through Ashley and Cindy. In trying to do so, I fell onto the cement (we were in the parking lot outside her place) on my side. I was okay, but I expected if anything was to show up, it would be a big black and blue bruise. Then, after a while,Ashleywas called again and she tried to break throughCindi and Eric. Eric was tugging at her arm at the wrist, so it hurt for her a lot that she cried. My boyfriend and I went back inside. Not much later, Sabrina came back with scars on her knees. What's with people getting injured? Jeez. Well, the two of us went back outside and played hide-and-seek. After one game, it got boring, so we were deciding what to do. Nothing was happening, so we went back inside. Soon, everyone came back in and we listened to ghost stories. Some of them were actually true, so it was rather creepy. My boyfriend and I left early because we didn't want to get nightmares (we left whenJosh wasabout to tell a really scary one that was true). We hung out at his placeuntil around 1:45.Anyway, the whole partywas good fun.
