Saturday, December 23, 2006

Spain tomorrow...

I slept for twelve hours last night. It felt so nice. And then I pretty much did nothing today, which was also nice. I did water my plants and pack for spain though.

So, this will probably be the last update here until I get back from Spain. I highly doubt I'll get on computer in Spain, even if I get the chance. Yes, I'll take lots of pictures. Yes, I'll come back with lots of stories. You'll just have to be patient for the next twelve days until I get back. And pray that I didn't forget anything, and that I actually survive security.

P.S: Why can't I understand you? I mean, one minute I felt like you'd always like me, and the next you're walking away. You say you want to be friends, yet half the time I feel like you're just pushing me out of your life. Even if it's over, I still want to feel like it actually meant something. I've never felt like I wasted my time, so don't start making me feel that way now. Don't make it seem like that was just something to do, and now you have better things to move on too. There were times when you actually seemed to care about being friends. There are times when you still seem to care in general. So don't suddenly make it seem like you want me to just get out of your life. If you want that, tell me so I can start getting over it now.
I know I'm exaggerating. It's little things that set me off sometimes. I honestly do look forward to seeing you when I get back, and I do miss talking to you...and not being awkward.

~Calminaiel~

"There's a difference between having a day where you're supposed to do something and not doing it, and having a day where you're actually not supposed to do anything."

Friday, December 22, 2006

Me and my stupid heart

So, I've decided that I set my heart on things way too easily. Whenever I'm in a bad mood, it's almost always because something didn't go the way I wanted it to, or the way I had hoped. I always like believing that the best will happen, and when it doesn't, I'm usually bitterly dissapointed. I've considered switching to pessimism so maybe I don't have to go through that anymore. But I like being optimistic. I don't usually get along with people who are pessimistic.

Anyways, that was just the very end of my day, when I found out that my band hoodie (my old one) is still lost, and I forgot my new scarf at school, which really sucks because I was going to bring that one to Spain with me. Oh well.

So, other then that, today was good. Lots of exchanging of gifts, which was cool. Everybody seemed to like my presents, which always makes me feel good. Keslkie got me a silk swab for my bocal! I didn't even know there were swabs for bassoon bocals! It's amazing. I love it. I also got neat body butter. I love cream / lotion. Especially if it smells good. Chloe gave me cute little bath confetti, and Kate gave me chocolate. And a card, with a picture that she painted herself. I showed it to mom, and she asked me if Kate could give her one like it, except bigger. She even said she'd pay for it. Mom likes paintings, especially really good ones. She loves Kate's. I shall have to let Kate know.

I love Gordan Jacob's Four Sketches for bassoon and piano. I'm listening to it right now, and it's very cheerful. I thought I'd just mention how much I like it.

Turkeyfest was a blast. We actually got to go for food first this time. Last year we were the last ones, and by the time we were sitting down to eat, people were already leaving. So it was a nice change to eat first and then relax and chat. I also got up and sang, along with Erika, and a bunch of people from choir, which was fun.

I'll actually get to sleep in tomorrow, which is really nice. I haven't slept in for over two weeks. I've been so tired. We had a bassoon recital at my teacher's house today. I was the second, and the last person to play. I played a movement from Vivaldi's concerto in C major first, and then me and Jackie finished the concert with the duet. So I was sitting in the back room during the whole thing, after performing my solo. I started falling asleep during performances. I woke up to hear my teacher announce that me and Jackie were next, and I just had time to jump up, grab my bassoon, music, and reed (which was practically dry; I meant to put it in water the song before we went on, but I was sleeping at the time) and rush out. So, I started playing probably a total of 60 seconds after I woke up. That was interesting. When we got back, I mentioned to the room in general that if anything like this happens again, please wake me at least one song before I have to play.

My brother also found Nintendogs, which makes me happy. So I spent some time on that before my brother asked to have his DS back.

Kate invited me to go to zoo lights with her. I feel so bad that I couldn't. I couldn't get a ride there, and I really needed to start getting ready for Spain, since I basically have tonight and tomorrow and then I leave. So, I would have loved to go with her, and I feel really bad that I couldn't. Sorry, Kate. =(

Oh, Jenny also texted me tonight to say Merry Christmas, which was nice. I feel loved with people text me. =)

As a side note, Josh is a candy cane addict. I must have given him at least 20. Which really isn't a bad thing, because apparently I don't have as many friends as I think I have, since I have so many candy canes left over from today. Oh well. Just be warned, that if you have candy canes, Josh will try to get as many as possible. Josh is funny. =)

~Calminaiel~

"Can I have another candy cane?"

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Orchestra takes forever

Had orchestra rehearsal this evening. It just kept going. So, needless to say, I'm really tired right now, but what else is new. I probably won't stick around here long, since I really need to do some last minute organizing of presents. I'm so behind in everything...basically in life itself right now. It's nuts.

Christine gave me a scarf for Christmas! I love it so much. It's fuzzy. =) She also gave me a music tie. I love Christine. I owe her two hugs.

Elliot and Kees also gave me a present today. I got a teddy bear and a little anti-stress kit from Kees, which is actually really clever. We were ranting about how much we love it. I'll mention more about it another time, I'm sure.

The band christmas party went well. People kinda left halfway through, I'm assuming they though it was over. Anyways, it still went well, and I really liked it. I got to take pictures, which is a lot of fun, even if I didn't get many good ones.

Alright, I really need to get organized for tomorrow, so I'll talk more later.

~Calminaiel~

"So, I just thought I'd mention...I don't know about the other judges...but I happen to accept bribes."

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

No New York

I'm so mad. We all are. For our school band trip this year we were supposed to go to New York. Paddock told us today that the CBE didn't approve it. And for the stupidest reasons! The main one being that one person didn't show up to a meeting that needed to be held in order for us to have this trip. So basically that's like saying the meeting didn't happen. It sucks so much. There's apparently a bunch of other little reasons. Apparently New York's not 'safe' enough...geez, a trip to New York isn't much safer then living in Calgary. Oh, and it's not 'educational', which is complete bull. We'd go to New York, get a tour of Julliard, see Broadway and the Philharmonic, and it's not educational for us music students? Yeah right. Why do we put people like that in charge anyways?

So, Ryley sent almost everybody an e-mail tonight, saying we should protest against this decision, since it's so stupid. We had angry e-mails going back and forth for a while. Then Andrea, 'thy voice of reason', came into the whole deal, and sent out another e-mail telling people not to do anything yet. Apparently she's setting up a meeting with the principal and stuff. So, I'm willing to listen to Andrea, since she has common sense, while I don't have any. That's why I hang around with people who have common sense. So, I guess we'll see how this whole thing plays out.

Now, on the more thoughtful side, it kinda hit me recently that there's more to best friends then I thought there was. I mean, I guess before I thought that best friends meant you hung out with people a lot, and told them everything and stuff. Which is true, to an extent. But it kinda hit me lately that you don't actually have to hang out with people all the time to classify them as best friends, and you don't really have to have known them for years to count them as best friends. I dunno. For some reason I always assumed best friends were the ones that you hung around with every day, and now I've realized that maybe that's not true.

I don't know why I'm putting so much thought into this. I mean, I have a lot of friends (at least I feel like I do), and it doesn't really matter which ones are best friends. Maybe it did in elementary, but now it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Still. I guess I feel like I haven't had really good friends in my past. To me, I've just started having friends who actually care about me since about grade 9. Even then, there was only one. Now there's more. I dunno. It just makes me feel good to feel that I have best friends who care about me. Like, really care about me. And it means a lot whenever I find out that maybe they consider me to be a best friend too.

It's amazing how attached you can get to somebody over just a couple of months. I always kinda thought that you needed to know somebody for years before you could really open up to them, and get really close. I've just realized that sometimes it can happen almost instantly. Some people just click. I like being with people I click with.

I've also decided that everything you do in life has risks. Everything. So it's no use wondering whether the best will happen, or whether the worse will happen, or whatever. There's no use worrying about what might happen if you do something, or if it goes wrong, or even if nothing comes of it. It's just not worth worrying about that. So really, the questions isn't what will happen if you do something, the question is whether you're willing to go for it, and find out, rather then wondering for who-knows-how-long what would have happened.

Those are my shpeals for the night. Other people might not have a clue what I'm talking about, but I'll leave you to interpret it as you will.

Hm...other facts you might be interesting in...I got another bracelet. For breast cancer. My grandma gave it to me. She's visiting from BC. Now I have 15 on my left wrist and 14 on my right. I also have to make sure I don't forget anything for the party tomorrow. And for CYO rehearsal. From 6:30 to 10:00. Let's see if I can actually get through it all. Oh, and I have to bring stuff to dress up as an elf. And I can't be late, or I'll make my uncle late for work, since he's driving me to school.

~Calminaiel~

"Well, we could either move to Finland, or Canada. We chose Canada. We thought that Finland was dark and cold and they spoke a funny language. So we moved to Canada, where it's dark and cold, and they still speak a funny language. But at least it's one that we understand."

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Procrastinating

Or however you spell that word. Yes, I'm not doing my social, my english essay, my english portfolio, or my writers workshop...also for english. So...I'll be panicking when it's all not done. Which kinda makes me depressed when I think about it, but I'm also not doing anything to change it. Looks like I'll be having a late night sometime in the near future.

Anyways, I had a fairly good day today. Unfortunatly, I left this way to late, so right now I'm not really in the mood to go over it all. But I did have a couple good talks with Randall, Andrea and Christine. So that's good.

Christine practically fell asleep on me before theory. She was so dead. I love Christine. And then I fell asleep during theory, and he woke me up by asking me what chord was on the third beat of some measure. The fastest I've ever had to figure out a chord in my life. But, whatever. No more theory until the new year!

I also got a good hours sleep (I think) during social, which was really nice. As much as I know it's bad for my social mark, it just feels so good to put my head down and sleep.

I'm just a bad student.

Anyways, I think I'll be off. I really should do english, but I really don't want to. I'll think about it tomorrow, and then start it tomorrow evening, I swear.

~Calminaiel~

"Christine...it's time for theory..."

Monday, December 18, 2006

All the moods of Monday

Geez, I had mood swings like you can not imagine today. But, whatever.

I need to learn to play saxophone. Just thought I'd mention that.

I couldn't get my low note in choir today, which made me really sad. Hopefully I get it in time for my performance. I'll work on it tomorrow...and hope that I'm having a good day. We'll see. I love playing piano in choir class, even though there's a bunch of people who can do it better then me. I still love piano. I wish I had more time to play it.

Band...was band. We didn't to anything really thrilling. We did play G major though. I like G major. Doesn't seem like anybody else does, but I do. It's a nice key. It's nice to have B naturels and F#s once in a while.

Nobody came to the Santa's Little Helpers auction today! That made me so sad, I was looking forward to it. So we moved it to Thursday, and if we need to, we're going to do it at the party, because if people still want these parties to happen, band council needs money. I guess it's kinda their loss too, since now we'll be slaves for Friday, which is a short day. So. Whatever.

Social was so dull. We wrote an essay. I didn't even know what I was talking about half the time. Not that I ever do anyways. And then math was okay...I actually got work done, for a change, but that was half because I didn't really feel like talking to anybody.

After that I got my band hoodie, which is so fuzzy, I love it! It says bassooning around. Then I went to chamber rehearsal and academy, and I love everybody in my chamber group, they always make me happy. So I guess the last part of my day was alright. That afternoon really sucked though. But, whatever. I can't believe I'm leaving for Spain in a week. But I do really need to get away. Just to not worry about anything for a while...it'll feel so nice.

~Calminaiel~

"You guys are lively...to my left, Robyn's sleeping, and to my right, Weston and Dorian are sleeping."

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Good moments

We played our gig at Heritage Park today. Me, Weston, Carina, Christine, and Emily. We had fun. I liked it. We got to watch the accordian ensemble which was there, too. I know Alistair would have liked that.

I heard Josh got his hair cut. That makes me sad. I liked Josh's hair.

Not sure what else to say. I'm really not in the mood to post right now.

Christine gave me a hug today when we dropped her off. That made me happy.

~Calminaiel~

"Ever wonder why they need 20 first violinists, but only 1 first bassoon?"

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Grease Lightning!

Aw, it was so amazing! Abe did Grease Lightning as the musical this year, and tonight was the last night they're doing it. It was so fun, I loved it. I'll be singing Grease Lightning and Beauty School Dropout all night. Oh, and maybe break into "C, C, C, C, C, C, A, A, A, A minor, F, F, F, F, F, F, G, G, G, G seven..." =) So, that amazing performance almost lets me forgive them for kicking me out of the band room one afternoon for their practice. Almost. Jason tried to counter by saying that the debate kids got kicked out of their room once for a battle of the bands meeting. But, for a debate kid, that was a pretty weak argument, seeing as they actually had someplace else to go: the bandroom. I had nowhere. I was homeless. But Grease Lightning was amazing. =)

I started a split in my reed today during Wind Ensemble. I was so sad. I know it'll still work for quite a while, but it was like the one functional reed I have. So I really need to start making more reeds, since Francesca's getting annoyed with me buying them, since I'm supposed to be making my own.

This morning was kinda dull. We had to write an essay plan in social (of which I had no clue what to say), and I didn't even finish it. After that we had a math test. Which wasn't too bad, it actually took my mind of things for a while, which was nice.

I had the scariest moment of my life today! So, at the end of lunch today the fire bell goes off. Of course, I'm in the band room, and so we all get up to leave, and I decide my bassoon will be fine, seeing as the last two times the fire bell went off while I was in the band room, it was fine. So we all leave, and stand outside for about five minutes. Meanwhile, I'm wishing I had brought my bassoon, seeing as it would make me feel a lot better. Then I hear sirens, and a fire truck is coming to the school. So I run around to the doors, and Paddock won't let me inside to get my bassoon! I was so scared, I felt like I was going to cry! The only thing that really stopped me from freaking out completely was that he didn't seem worried, and I'm sure if there really was a threat, he'd at least be trying to get the 14,000 $ timpani's out of the school. Still, when they finally let us back in I ran inside and hugged my bassoon. I'm never leaving the school for a fire drill without my bassoon again.

Turns out there was a fire on the first floor guy's bathroom. Apparently there's a reward for anybody with information about it. Go figure.

I made snowflakes for most of english class. I stopped to listen to this one project, because that group wrote lyrics to a song, and it was pretty cool. So now we have a few more snowflakes to decorate the band room! Kelskie totally masters snowflakes...I was beginning to think mine were pretty good...then I handed it over to Kelskie...and said goodbye to my snowflake-making confidence...=)

During choir I wrote a message about selling Santa's Little Helpers on the board. I'm looking forward to being auctioned off...or rather, I'm just interested to see how it goes. Depending who I go to, we'll see if I'm really looking forward to it. =) But really, I do think it'll be really fun. Apparently we have to dress up as elves for the auction. I should start looking around for elf like clothes...

After school me, Ryley, Alistair, and Andrea hung out in the band room for a while. We played piano (mostly Beatle songs, since we had a fake book), and sang along. Then Alistair got his trombone out and him and Ryley jammed for a while (with Ryley on piano). Andrea turned off the lights (don't worry, we didn't do anything =) ) and made popcorn.

And that, more or less, was my day. I had apple cider without burning my tongue, for once. I made cookies while dancing in the kitchen to Mozart (which puts you in an excellent mood, you should try it). I have to remember to tie a ribbon around a cookie for Randall. She gets a special cookie.

~Calminaiel~

"I love the message at the end of Grease...change yourself, and you'll get a boy!"

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Hot Apple Cider

I love apple cider so much. Isn't it interesting how I burn my tongue on it every single time I make it? You'd think I'd learn after a while.

We decorated the band room today! It looks so pretty, and it just makes me so happy. We put christmas lights all around it, using medical tape. =) Adam stole it from the sports med room. He didn't get in early this morning, so we used a different kind of tape, and by first period certain sections were falling off the walls. So I redid them with medical tape. We also hung stars and tin icicles from the lights. During Andrea's (and various other peoples') spare, she (/they) also hung colourful material things over the piano and the conductor's stand, and taped little minature presents to them. They also traced a christmas tree on the wall with the strings of beads that I brought, and taped little presents and more tin icicles to it. They also spread little presents almost everywhere else in the band room. Kelskie's talking about bringing in a little tree, and I have an angel. We're not sure what to do with it yet, but we'll figure something out. Oh, and we drew more pictures on the white board. We've made it very pretty for only using black, red, green, and blue. Kathleen also taped little gold stars to the white board. We found it quite amusing that somebody drew a christmas tree with a star of David on top. Nice multiculturism there.

Hm...I was going to have a shower in there, but my brother's in there. Maybe I'll take one after him. Hope there's still hot water left when I get in there.

I totally forgot that today was the day choral class was going over to the church to sing. That was really fun. The people were really nice. And they made us treats...cookies, cakes, other little sugary snacks...=). I also met the choir director of the church, who was really nice.

I actually got work done in social, which is amazing. Randall's apparently having a good influence on me...plus, I forgot my hoodie, and I can't sleep as easily without my hoodie.

I went to see my brother's performance tonight. It was amusing. The jazz band played Phat Kat. Again. They actually brought James back (grade 10 percussion at Abe) to play that song, and another latin tune they were doing. I found that funny. They also played the Hippo song, but since there was no bassoon, that was rather dissapointing. I also saw Adam's brother, and kept laughing at how similar they are.

Well, my brother's almost out of the shower, so I should probably leave for now. Only to come back to more homework...hm...not likely that any of it's going to get done, but I suppose we'll see.

~Calminaiel~

"What is your favorite colour?"
"Blue. No, wait, yello-"...

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Apologies

Yes, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. But I've kinda been crazy busy since I got back from Mexico, and after that concert season came along pretty fast. December is just delightful for musicians. Playing a concert twice a week, and when we're not playing one, we're attending one. Lovely. But it's all fun.

So, Randall wanted me to start telling Mexico stories, so I guess I'd better do that. Well, I'll start at the beginning and go for a while. Basically, we had a bunch of cancelled flights and arrived in Los Cabos an hour or two later then we intended. Which screwed up our shuttle that we had booked. So it took us at least a half hour to get on a shuttle bus to the hotel (oh, and this is after we had to go through the whole thing of finding out that our luggage was back where we had switched planes, and we had to go back and tell them...well, that whole deal). Well, I'll skip to more happier times. We got to our hotel room, and it was pretty awesome. We had our own little patio right beside the pool. We also had our own little lagoon, which was really just a pond sitting outside our back door, But it had turtles in it! If you stuck the end of your finger in the water, they'd come over and bite you. Well, they would have if I had left it in there. Then as they swam away I'd stick my hand in the water and touch their shells. They were adorable. I stuck the end of my shoelace in there one time and they came and nipped it. I tried to take pictures of them with my underwater camera, but I don't know how they'll turn out, I haven't checked them out yet. There were also flamingos to one side! They had three or four flamingos in a little grassy area beside the pond. If you squawked at them, they'd do it back. They also did it if you were making a lot of noise, or if they didn't like what was going on. I loved them. I'll save some stories for another time.

So, I made it into the NYB! I'm so excited. It's in P.E.I. I can't wait. I really want them to post the list of participants on the website, so I can see who else is in it. Not that I think I'll know anybody. Mostly I'm just curious about who the other bassoonist is. There's usually two. Andrea didn't get in, which makes me sad. I was so excited about maybe going to P.E.I with her.

What else has happened since I last posted...well, I'm no longer in a relationship. I'm not going to release any details here, but I thought I'd throw that out there.

Other then that it's pretty much been more stress, busy schedules, and not enough sleep. I've been sleeping in more social classes then usual. Literally, it's pretty much 'oh, he's talking, it's time to sleep.' But it does feel so good, just to have a nap.

I'm becoming a rebel. =) A week ago I sent my first text message while in class. Math class, actually. Then today I skipped a class. Well, only half a class. And it wasn't like math or anything. It was choir, and Waters wasn't even in because he was doing stuff for the musical, so we were just working in the library, and Waters told us yesterday that we could have the last half of class as a spare or something. The library person wouldn't let us leave, because technically we didn't have anybody to supervise us (because, you know, we're 15-18, we really need supervision). So when she wasn't looking...we just left. Me, Rae, Jenny, Chloe and Kees all went to Peters' and got shakes. Well, Chloe, Rae and Kees did. Me and Jenny didn't have money. But it was still fun.

The band's also getting ready for Christmas! Andrea's decorating the band room like you wouldn't imagine. I'm bringing in more decorations tomorrow, including a few more strings of Christmas lights, which she'll like (hopefully). I'm also going to be making paper snowflakes in my spare time. Oh, and I spend most of my time in the band room now colouring the white board to make it look pretty. We're also going to be auctioning off the band council to raise money. We have to be slaves next Tuesday. That'll be interesting.

Chloe also invited me to a trip to Radium in January after exams. I'm excited already. Geez, you can tell I'm a social outcast, because I get so excited whenever I plan to get together with a bunch of people. I need to talk to Chloe about a few things my mom's worried about, but hopefully it won't be a problem.

Well, I think that should be enough until next time. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is on T.V. (the old cartoon version) and I really want to watch. Hopefully Randall will be happy that I posted. Although she is sick, I don't know why she's on msn. And I've lost track of which band pictures I've shown, so I'll just leave a picture until I actually have an interesting one to post.

~Calminaiel~

"Orchestra's a communism."