Saturday, February 27, 2010

Classes and Concerts

I need to stop titling my posts with written incoherent sounds. Such as ugh, blah, meh...etc. Lately it seems like that's all I can come up with, and I really should get out of that habit.

So, update. I still don't have an accompanist, because I still don't know the date of my jury. Thanks, music office. Although I think I should call the guy Nicole has, he sounds not bad...and by that, I mostly mean she says he's pretty good, and nice, and he should be free for juries.

I also dropped Greek. I was a little behind, and I wasn't putting time into it, because I didn't have extra time to put into it, and when music life gets stressful, that's the first thing I leave out of life. Oh well, I've always said if I need to take a semester or two to finish up some options, I'll be okay with that. I'd rather that than spend the next two and a half years ready to explode because I have no time for anything.

As a quick side note, I have homework I really need to get done, but every time I have time to do it, I'd rather spend it doing other things. Such as blogging.

The Tchaik 5, CYO/CPO concert was tonight. It went really well. Very breathtaking symphony, especially by the time it gets to the end. I also hear, very clearly, Shostakovitch's Festive Overture at the end. Anyways, it went quite well, and it was a lot of fun. The audience enjoyed themselves. Or at least I assume, by the way they all stood up at the end.

Now, here's a great story.

Afterward, me and Ken headed back up to the lobby, since I wasn't sure if my parents had left, leaving Ken my only ride anywhere, or if I was going home, or doing something with Ken...I didn't know anything, basically. And Ken was going to meet his grandma, who was apparently going home that night.

So I talk with his family for a bit, and then my parents come up to me, proving that they didn't leave. I talk with my parents, and talk to Heather a little about a work issue. Then, for some reason unknown to me, I figured my parents and Ken's family should be introduced.

We do that, and some silly jokes are tossed around on Dad's part, and Ken's family chuckled, whether because they found him amusing or insane, I really don't know.

Our families are both ready to go their separate ways, but me and Ken still aren't entirely sure about what we're doing. So we stand there, sort of ready to drift away from each other, while I'm tentatively suggesting I just go home with my parents, while thinking that I'd really rather hang out with him for the night, because it would be nice to hang out on a night when neither of us have to get up in the morning, but I know he wants to go home and just spend time with his family, but I'm silly and don't really like to accept that I'm not going to get what I want until forced to.

When he suggested that he could drive me home, that was the forcing point of acceptance, and I said that was ridiculous when my parents were right here and they were going home.

After that ridiculously long moment of awkward not-wanting-to-say-what-we're-really-thinking-out-loud, we almost go our separate ways, until we both sort of realize we should say a nice goodbye and not a horrendously awkward one. So he comes over and hugs me, and we kiss while my parents are standing on either side of us, and his family's watching through the doors.

To be honest, I wasn't all that embarrassed about the witnessing families. Well, maybe my dad, cause he was standing about a foot and a half away from us. But his brother giving us a long 'awe' didn't bother me that much. It was more the residue of that awkward moment that refused to completely go away.

I hate being awkward. That had to be the longest most awkward moment I have allowed to endure in a long time. Usually I'm pretty good about either avoiding awkwardness entirely, or just laughing it off, and thus finding it no longer as awkward. But this was insane.

So, I'm left sitting at home, with nothing much to do, knowing that I'm going to see Ken tomorrow, but also knowing that it probably won't be nearly as early in the day as I want it to be, and basically trying to think of ways to waste time until that moment comes tomorrow. Oh, all the while thinking about how I want to be hanging out with him at this very moment.

Sounds like I'm in for a fun night.

~Calminaiel~

"I am free to come for family lunch tomorrow, but it'll cost you extra."

Monday, February 15, 2010

Vancouver 2010

Okay.

First of all, these past few weeks have been stupidly busy with midterms and such, so I haven't stayed in great contact with my accompanist, which apparently shows that I'm not committed, so she didn't put aside time to practice my piece, and she's entirely booked up for March and most of April anyways, so now I'm left feeling like an idiot, and lacking an accompanist.

Just had to get that out of the way, and now that it is, I shall move on.

Speaking of being busy, and yet not getting anything done, that's pretty much the position I'm still in. But this time, it's cause the Olympics are very distracting. Especially since Ken showed me the Vancouver 2010 website, that has live updates of scores and ranks, so I can keep track of those things as I watch the events. Very helpful.

Anyways, something that comes up with the Olympics that comes up every time they happen, is the insane hype about medals. Yes, medals are wonderful, and yes, they give us a huge reason to be proud of our country, and yes, our athletes should always strive for the podium.

But please tell me...should we be dissing, and putting down our country and our athletes simply because they don't make it to the podium?

It seems there are always those people who will put down our athletes, say they weren't trying hard enough, saying they're making stupid mistakes, just because they don't make it into the top three. And I've already seen Facebook statuses stating "Canada sucks" when we didn't do particularly well in an event.

It's the later statement that really gets to me. Honestly, if you need Canada to have medals in order to be proud of it, I really don't want anything to do with you.

As for the athletes, I'm always proud of our athletes, and that they're at the Olympics in the first place. It takes a lot of hard work to get there, and they don't just randomly pick people to compete in the Olympics.

I think the Olympics is an amazing event. What other event brings together the entire world to compete, watch, cheer, and experience together? I'm always amazed when I think of how many countries are involved, and how many people from all those countries are either coming to Vancouver to see the games, or even watching them from home. That's a lot of people, from a lot of different places.

I'm incredibly proud of Canada, and all our athletes who make it to the Olympics. Sure, sometimes some of them do make stupid mistakes that cost them a rank. Don't we all regularly make stupid mistakes? Haven't we all caved under pressure every now and then, in some form or another? I'm not about to bad mouth our athletes because they're human.

And I'm proud of the other countries and athletes that come out to compete with us. I was proud of the Chinese figure skaters who won China's first gold medal in figure skating. I loved the shot on TV of the Japanese family in the crowd watching speed skating, waving a Japan flag and cheering on their athletes, just like the Canadian family was doing in the rows behind them.

It all makes me think that maybe the Olympics have become, or maybe always were, about so much more than just winning medals. Maybe it's about showing each other that despite the fact that we come from different places, that we look different, and talk different, wear different clothing, and eat different foods...despite all this...

We all want to do our best and show everyone else what we have to offer. We want to cheer, laugh, and celebrate. We all wear our colors proudly to any event. We all just like to have a little fun.

Maybe this is about showing each other that we're all very much the same.

~Calminaiel~

"Death spiral? Shouldn't there be spikes, and fire? And they should throw a starved tiger on the ice!"

Friday, February 05, 2010

Just Sayin'

Apparently I'm okay with eating ice cream and crying for an undefined period of time, because it is now the next day and I have done absolutely nothing that I meant to do.

I know, I'm pro.

~Calminaiel~

"That's oddly logical."

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Blah Time

It's that really sucky time where midterms are coming up, and I'm running out of time to get anything done. Which results in really unpleasant mood swings. I apologize to all who may be affected by this. I don't enjoy it. But it should only last for a week, maybe two. At least, hopefully no longer than that. I don't think I could do wild mood swings for longer than that.

Anyways, tonight I actually have to get stuff done, or I will officially be so behind that I may just decide to give up, which will result in an even more wild mood swing, as at that point I will be forced to re-evaluate my whole life (not that I haven't done a little bit of that before) and I may also be tempted to do nothing but eat ice cream and cry, which is not good for both my physique (which isn't great to begin with) and my hydration levels (crying all the time takes a lot out of you).

I'll give you a moment to realize how long that sentence really is, and possibly to figure out some grammatical problems that I'm sure are in there.

Done? Wonderful.

So you see why tonight is the night in which I really have to get at least some stuff done. I'm not asking to get completely caught up, but hopefully I'll at least be able to finish all the stuff I was supposed to finish last Monday.

However, my productivity levels do seem to go up slightly once the rest of my family is in bed. Quite inconvenient in term of getting enough sleep at night, but that's how it is. I just keep telling myself that I've survived similar situations before, so I can do it again.

But this time, I have ice cream in the freezer, which should keep the optimism relatively high.

I may have said this before, but I am constantly being amazed at the extent to which I can procrastinate.

Oh well. Time for more peanut butter, some ice cream, waiting until Dad goes to bed, and then getting stuff done.

~Calminaiel~

"So, Matt was riding ass down a hill."