pixiemab

Which study abroad program should I go on?

so one deep tan and two ruined pairs of tennis shoes later, i'm back from tour.

i cried twice all summer. once at moveins after an especially grueling day in the glassbowl. then once in europe when i was stripped of my seat partner AND my seat for the 7-hour busride to england. i went from the 2nd seat to the BACK seat and had to sit with 4 people i didn't know. stupid limerick. worst day of tour HANDS DOWN. sprunger and i were pissed. but after we got the housing site in england the next morning, mike delgado cheered me up by telling me funny stories about dan podjun from when they marched together at kiwanis.

and EUROPE! breathtaking. we'd march a parade over there and people would open their windows and stick their heads out to hear us. so many standing ovations and encores. and who could forget marching that one show in france at midnight with NO STADIUM LIGHTS? there were 2 spotlights and we pretty much couldn't see any yardlines at all. i'm sure some of the forms looked like shit but the europeans loved us anyway.

finals = amazing. afterwards was absolutely heartwrenching though. like it finally occurred to me that the next day i would not be with the same 134 people i had seen every day for the last 3 months. no more too long busrides, no more runthroughs, no more getting yelled at by LC for my bad direction changes during the 4's and 4's. no more pestering chris on the bus or sleeping with the pod. no more reminding kayla that she is my long lost 3rd sister.

waking up at the housing site the morning after finals was horrible. rod walked in and said, "well, i'm not bo and i'm not bekah...but it's time to get up."

best things about being home:
+ double ply toilet paper.
+ the shower is hot. and it has pressure. and there aren't 40 other girls waiting to use it at all times.
+ driving my car.
+ big ten football season!!!

i'm going to stop trying to describe tour and leave you with some photos that might do the job for me. more to come later.

( we shed what was left of our summer skin. )

well, i have wrapped up all of my eBay auctions, purchased all of my textbooks for next fall, refilled my back medication, and i guess i am ready to go. tomorrow i still have to file my study abroad application and send a cover letter to danielle. i leave for move-ins in a little less than 12 hours. nervous and excited and all that jazz. my summer address is as follows:

GLASSMEN
P.O. Box 352080
Toledo, OH 43635

my full name must be in the lower left corner or i won't receive it! send me something while i'm away so i feel loved. :)



TOUR SCHEDULE
Sun. Jun 11 Oakshade, OH - GLASSMEN Family Day
Fri. Jun 16 Oswego, IL - Festival of Brass
Sat. Jun 17 Toledo, OH - All-Star Review
Sun. Jun 18 Lisle, IL - DCI Father's Day Kickoff
Tue. Jun 20 Depart for Europe
Fri. Jun 23 Paris, France
Sat. Jun 24 Saint Quentin, France
Sun. Jun 25 Saint Quentin, France
Sun. Jun 25 Calais, France
Mon. Jun 26 Saint Quentin, France
Wed. Jun 28 Brugges, Belgium
Fri. Jun 30 Dordrecht, Netherlands

Sat. Jul 1 Meerhout, Belgium
Sun. Jul 2 Peterborough, England
Tue. Jul 4 Return to USA
Fri. Jul 7 Elizabeth, PA - Music on the Mon
Sat. Jul 8 Indianapolis, IN - DCI Central Divison Championships
Mon. Jul 10 Fairfield, OH - Cincinnati Summer Music Games
Tue. Jul 11 Delaware, OH - FJM and OMEA Clinics (ENTERTRAINMENT Series)
Wed. Jul 12 Dublin, OH - Emerald City Summer Music Games
Fri. Jul 14 Decatur, IN - Waves of Thunder
Sat. Jul 15 Kalamazoo, MI - DCI Kalamazoo (moved to Battle Creek)
Sun. Jul 16 Music Under the Stars Concert - Toledo Zoo
Mon. Jul 17 Louisville, KY - DCI in Louisville
Wed. Jul 19 Broken Arrow, OK - Drums of Summer
Thu. Jul 20 Dallas, TX - North Texas Festival of Drums and Bugles
Sat. Jul 22 San Antonio, TX - DCI Southwestern Championships
Mon. Jul 24 Baton Rouge, LA - Red Stick Thunder Pageant of Champions
Wed. Jul 26 Russellville, AL - Battle of the Brass
Sat. Jul 29 Atlanta, GA - DCI Southeastern Championship
Mon. Jul 31 Salem, VA - The SUMMER MUSIC GAMES of Southwest Virginia

Tue. Aug 1 Warrenton, VA - Drum Corps in Fauquier
Wed. Aug 2 Lawrence, MA - East Coast Classic
Fri. Aug 4 Allentown, PA - DCI Eastern Classic
Sun. Aug 6 Columbus, OH - Artistry in Motion

Aug 10-12 Madison, WI - DCI World Championships


p.s. jordan is great and i like love him very much. he has made my two weeks at home enjoyable, despite the fact that i had to open at mcdonald's nearly every day. last week we drove to ann arbor just so i could have bubble tea at bubble island (east lansing's bubble island is WAY better, just for the record). if you want to come to a show this summer, get in touch with him (pronounced) because i know he is going to quite a few GLASSMEN events and i'm sure he would love your company. :)

001. glassmen rehearsal camp this weekend was good. the ballad drill is really sweet. and i can actually play and march it. fuck yeah. saturday was a reallllllllly long day, but i made it through it. move-ins are getting closer & closer (may 19th!). i am really apprehensive as well as excited. i've been buying a ton of stuff (p.s. drum corps is EXPENSIVE AS HELL, in case you were wondering).

002. i am probably studying abroad in cairo, egypt for spring semester 2007! i'll be taking arabic and a bunch of journalism courses. SWEET.

003. i am going to be compiling/writing a style guide for TIC either as an independent study or for my PW internship next fall. i am meeting with danielle tomorrow to discuss this as well as my study abroad plans.

004. jordan heard back from MSU. they want to see his spring semester transcripts. eeeee. i hope that he receives his final decision before i leave for the summer. how fun would it be to have him around next year? and less gas money for both of us.

005. i took my cell phone into the verizon store on friday. it has been dropping calls like crazy and not getting good reception at MSU or at my house. i find out that the chip inside my phone is corroded. "you must have gotten it wet at some point," they tell me. bullshit. so i am eight months past my warranty and four months until i am scheduled to get a new phone. UGH.

Which WRA course should I take in the fall?

So this is how this goes:

- Comment on this entry and get a letter.
- Write 10 words beginning with that letter, including an explanation of what the word means to you and why.


citylightsblur gave me the letter "P", which is not going to be easy. Here goes.

1. Plum. character from francesca lia block's book Nymph. everyone who sleeps with Plum meets the love of their life shortly thereafter and leaves Plum to be with their soulmate. i used to feel like that sometimes.

2. Packet. what jordan should be receiving in the mail later this week!!! =D

3. Patty. chelsea's nickname for cathy (short for "fatty patty"). for the longest time i thought that cathy disliked me but now i'm pretty sure that's not the case.

4. Phantom Regiment. ummmm, i've had drum corps on the brain lately, and phantom regiment starts with a P, so yeah. and of course because ashley is marching with them this summer (and cathy too)! yeah!

5. Peanut butter M&M's. the best kind of M&M's.

6. Photoshop CS2. gotta love this program, even if mine has been running super slow since i added almost 3,000 fonts to my system.

7. PHP. hypertext preprocessor. the bane of my existence in WRA 410. i don't really understand it, nor do i care to. PHP is a better way to manage website content because it enables you to change one element by editing one file instead of many. sounds like a good idea in theory, but the PHP codes are hard for me to work with.

8. Pink. my second favorite color. if you ran into me on any given day you'd probably think it was my favorite, considering my backpack, iPod skin, sparkly plugs, and many of my clothes are pink.

9. Paid account. my paid livejournal account runs out right before i leave for the summer. how convenient is that. also, i need to change this blasted layout.

10. Powerbook. the top of line of apple notebook computers. i would love to own one but alas, i cannot afford it.

001. i am feeling much better than in my last entry. :)

002. ashley and i took down a lot of the stuff in our dorm room. no more vibrant posters or pretty tropical decorations. the walls are white white white; the room looks desolate. it's very sad, but i am not going to miss living in shaw. except maybe for the fact that it is a 5-minute walk from bessey. it's about damn time we got away from the STUPID CATTY "COLLEGE" GIRLS on our floor. vanhoosen, here we come!

003. jordan is coming up for the weekend! he got a new job and doesn't have to work saturdays anymore. movies and bubble tea to be had.

004. ashley is at camp for phantom regiment and i am really rooting for her (you should be, too).

005. i must call mcdonald's and ask to be put on the schedule from may 8-18 (though i wish i didn't have to...).

006. i am almost finished with my final project for ENG226. still left to do: WRA 360 digital portfolio & powerpoint, WRA 410 tdx website, WRA 370 editing portfolio & editing project II.

008. at least i'll be able to relax during finals week, since i will have absolutely nothing to do except go to work.

007. only four weeks until move-ins. holy shit.

sometimes i wish i was content with what i already know.


chelsea will be happy to know that the humping bunnies trumpet mute has been posted on eBay courtesy of moi.

st. patrick's day on friday.

i now go home two days a week for physical therapy in fenton. hopefully my back will be 100% better for tour this summer. if not, i will be pissed. and probably march anyway. missing the majority of one rehearsal camp killed me enough. :(

i've been feeling so out of touch with everyone. i've had a couple things happen recently that made me question other aspects of life. ggrrrrr.

monte carlo this past weekend turned out better than expected. talked to sam and matt, who i hadn't seen in what felt like foreverrrrr. mike dragged them down to toledo to volunteer since we were really short help on sunday. SO MANY POOR PEOPLE. anyway. we rolled back into east lansing around 3:30am on monday. i worked for a couple hours monday afternoon, then jordan came up. we ate dinner at pita pit and then i absolutely crashed. i slept for like 18 hours. it was nice. then yesterday we lounged around, watched the girl next door, fixed my computer speakers, and made a meijer run. jordan had to leave early this morning for class and now i am sad. :(

work is lame. i need to be practicing trumpet, working on my 410 wireframe, and playing the sims 2.

i started putting together items to take home so i am not stuck dealing with moving everything out at the end of the school year.

i am not looking forward to sleeping in my dorm alone tonight. the room is pretty creepy when you are there by yourself.

mom told me i should take kc to camp this weekend. hahaha. my mother must not be as opposed to drum corps as she claims. ;)

speaking of drum corps, cathy is on dci.org's main page today, hahaha.

( oh, and i stole this from daza. )

get the moonlight outta your hair.


so my spring break is going to be pretty lame i've decided. i guess yeah, it's all in what i make of it, but it's just not looking too good as of right now. the shaw cafeteria isn't open during break so that's going to be quite the inconvenience. wtf, it's in the center of campus?! i swear it was open during last spring break. good grief. guess i'm going to phillips or yakeley to eat.

tomorrow morning i have an appointment with an honors college advisor to figure out what the hell is up with my gen ed requirements and if i have actually fulfilled them or not.

tomorrow afternoon through monday morning i will be in toledo for the glassmen monte carlo. monday afternoon i work @ turfgrass (which has been MUCH better since i got promoted, for the record). jordan will be up on monday/tuesday and i am excited for that, but he can't stay long because of course he has school.

next weekend i have a glassmen rehearsal camp and i NEED to practice. i have just been SO busy the past couple weeks. but i guess that's what it takes to continue four-pointing all my classes this semester. ;) the good news is i've continued working out so at least drill won't kill me. i was gonna try to go into olin before next weekend because my back has been acting up SUPER bad lately...but my new insurance policy isn't in effect yet. OMG SO MUCH STRESS. you know, i'm just waiting for them to like x-ray my back and shit and tell me i'm fucked and shouldn't march SMB, much less glassmen. HOW PISSED WOULD I BE. extremely. we'll leave it at that.


give into love or live in fear.


i'm also upset that i probably can't take italian next year. i'm not going to have enough money to march drum corps this summer and then not work while taking 17 credits in the fall. shit. why are my parents always right?

tyler helped me download some custom filters for photoshop, so that's pretty sweet. i'm in love with my new glass and shadowlab filters.


what do you do when you look in the mirror and staring at you is why he's not here?


yeah, so ashley was saying how lucky i am not to have any midterms this week. well, i don't have any finals either, but let me tell you: MY FINAL PROJECTS ARE GOING TO BE A BITCH. four of them. FOUR! i'd rather have one or two multiple choice or short answer beasts to contend with than have these four huge projects weighing on my shoulders. the editing final for 370 is going to be the most difficult i think. followed by 410, then 360, then eng226.

I NEED TO GET CRACKING ON MY WIREFRAME FOR 410. SO MUCH WORK AGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.



and this is why i don't update livejournal anymore.

but tell me just what has it ever meant?

i've been super busy with school and work and glassmen and the boyfriend and such. i'm doing really well this semester. i am redesigning the TDX website for my 410 final project and probably making my own professional online portfolio for my 360 final. lots of work, i'm not gonna lie. i am only taking 13 credits but it feels like 20. what the hell. i ended up with a ton of work intensive classes. i turned in my first 12-page paper for creative writing yesterday. it will be workshopped in class on thursday. woot. one down, one more to go. SO. MUCH. WORK.

i'm a little stressed, if you couldn't tell.

haven't seen daza or matt michalski in awhile ... that makes me sad. :(

was listening to my iPod on random last night and realized i have a lot of CRAP on there. hrmph.

nuzzle like a bunny!