My summary of the closing ceremonies: Canada thinking up every Canadian stereotype possible, making several gigantic versions of each of them, and prancing them around the stadium until it can't fit any more stuff, all while playing cheesy generic music.

So I have to wonder--is this Canada presenting itself to the world as they view themselves, or as they think the world views them?

Music is so powerfully linked to memory.

My team won the tournament! There were 6 teams and we blazed our way through three games to take the title. Our team name: "The Most Funnest Team of Ever," dedicated to the extremely high English language standards at ASU.

I've been to 7 ultimate tournaments, all of them Sat-Sun club tournaments. I've never been to a hat tournament! Today will be my first. I'm so excited!

I had a dream about my blog the other day.

Someone took over my blog. Some guy that I didn't know somehow found my blog and liked it a lot, liked it so much that he decided that he was going to hack in and make it his own. Well, not really his own--he wanted to have a joint blog. I didn't even know this guy, and he changed the layout of the page, the title of the blog, and then started posting in it. "It's much better this way," he told me.
I was outraged--this is my personal blog! I am happy with the way I have been running things for the past 8 years. Sure, it's not perfect, there are changes I probably could make to improve the quality of my blog. But this blog is a part of me now. It has carved a place out in my life, a comfortable place. The last thing I want is someone coming in, changing things, telling me how to run my own stinkin' blog! It's MINE, not yours!

And yet, maybe I did need someone to come in and make changes. Maybe the people who need change the most are the ones who have no idea that they need it. It's possible...

3BK killed tonight. 6-15. What a team, I'll tell ya, what a team.

I played pretty well tonight. Scored once, got two D's, had some good cuts and good contribution to the game. I had a failed layout which hurt like heck. Oh, my leg is going to be bruised tomorrow. It's bad. These Arizona fields are hard as a rock and unforgiving, even at their best.

I'm beginning to realize what my role is within the game of ultimate. I'm a deep cutter. That's great, because I LOVE running deep, and I LOVE beating my defender! If only I was a little taller...

I mixed up my recital halls today and accidentally saw a Joe Alessi recital and masterclass.

I LOVE watching figure skating. These women put their heart and souls into these performances. It's such a personal and artful sport. Each individual has her own style. And you can see the excitement in their faces when they know they have done well; you can see the surge of energy when they've got the crowd on their side. And there's good music to boot--I just watched a performance to music from Riverdance!

(FYI: If I had stayed in Buffalo instead of moving to Florida at 7 years old, I would have started figure skating. And I would have been AWESOME.)

Can't wait to see how it all plays out! Go Team USA!

Missing Florida a lot today.

Dear Blogger,
I realized today that no matter how I may feel sometimes, I really am a good flute student. I do my work as best as I can; I practice as much as I can (even when I really don't feel like it), I listen to recordings, study scores, go to recitals and concerts. I immerse myself in my field of study, doing all the things that a good flute student should do. I have no right to feel like a failure of a student. And I need to remember that.

I'm going to be writing down flute books FOREVER. FOR EV ER.

Also, my room always smells like sweaty old cleats.

The end.

Time! STOP IT!

Window is fixed! And the sun is shining brightly on this 74-degree Arizona day. Woohoo!!!

Sigh to Chicago and Turabian. I miss the old days with MLA style citation. It was so easy.

I passed someone casually whistling Beethoven 9 in the halls of the music school the other day. It's really the little things...

Glass company said they'd be here between 8 and 10 this morning. 20 bucks says they don't come between 8 and 10. It's pretty much a rule that if a company says they will come at a certain time, they will NOT come at that time. Sigh. Maybe someday we will live in a world where people say that they will do something and then actually do it.

Four fruit roll-ups are 200 calories. Yes ma'am.

Here's another good one: Classy Penguin by the Books. I promise this will make you smile.

The weather has been beautiful--BEAUTIFUL!--lately. My love for Tempe has not waned. I'm happy, I'm happy. :)

Watch this video, there's something very simple and sweet about it:

Time to Send Someone Away

(Here's the original version of the song, if you were wondering.)

My car got broken into in the three hours I was at league, 6-9 PM. The passenger window is completely decimated and there is glass all over the passenger seat. Nothing is missing from what I can tell (probably because I don't keep anything valuable in my car), but I know they looked because my inside console was up. My car is sad right now :( But at least it's nothing worse than a smashed window.

It's kind of crazy that this didn't happen in the middle of the night, and it happened in a public place--I mean, my car was just feet away from the fields, and it was still LIGHT out for most of the time. Pretty risky. Aside from being wrong, this particular crime is totally not worth the risk in my opinion.

(and why would you pick MY car?)

Another long day. Sometimes being a grad music student is really easy, and you have a lot of time; other days you're running from one activity (rehearsals, lessons, recitals, practice, class, etc.) to the next for 14 hours a day. Long tiring days.

Mardi Gras today. Things would be a lot different right now if I ended up at Louisiana State! Did you know that they get three days off the week of Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday?