You may have noticed that I am not posting as much lately. The things that have been running through my mind these days are too personal, too negative, or too boring to share with the world.

The general reaction about my blog this year has not been kind. I can see that my writing has taken a turn for the worse.  Maybe I'm losing my touch.

I am going to take a break from writing for a little bit. Maybe sometime in the future I will pick it back up in full swing. In the meantime, I'll only post if I really feel the need.

I didn't really have the best day yesterday.
My flute is in desperate need of repair.
I'm graduating my master's program with a 4.0 GPA.
Two weeks till Florida.
I need chocolate. Or a drink. Or a chocolate drink.

I have a master's degree.






What the heck.

Graduation day... GO!

I heard a flute concerto on the radio the other day. Not only did I know which concerto it was (Karl Stamitz GM), but I was able to identify who was playing. I've never heard the recording before, but James Galway has the most identifiable flute sound that I know.

Flute nerd.

13 sneezes two days ago. 17 yesterday. It's 10:51 and I'm up to two already. Sick of this (pun intended).

School ended two days ago. I graduate with my master's degree in less than a week!

It seems like time is just flying now. It's that time of the year when everybody's life starts to change. I've seen some high schoolers out at restaurants for prom lately. That really brings me back. It's really hard to believe that it's been 6 years since high school graduation. It feels like just yesterday that I was walking across the rain-soaked stage myself. So much has changed since then. I mean... I live in Arizona now. I can't say that I would have predicted that six years ago.

I suppose my goal has always been the same. For as long as probably any of you readers can remember, I've been wanting to play flute for a living. Still playing flute, still full steam ahead. Nothing has changed there.

At the same time, it's really difficult for me to forget my past.  I cannot wait to be back in Florida again. As great as it is here, I just miss home. I miss it. It's sad when it happens to be raining on a t.v. show that I'm watching, and that makes me miss home.

Even if I'm going to be working the whole time I'm there, even if things have changed slightly every time I return, it'll be good to be back again. It always is.

First 100 degree day of the year on Wednesday. Derp.

Summertime is coming...

Listening to Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. I used to think this was a boring piece for music. How or why I thought that is beyond me. Wow, what fire!

Just watched Obama's speech on the death of Osama Bin Laden.  I have never felt more proud to be American.

Sometimes I just have to stop and wonder at how good God is... and how not good I am.

I go through phases in my music-listening sometimes. I have 6 stations on my radio settings. One of them is a classical station (because there is only one classical station), and the other 5 are popular music stations, varying from hard rock to classic rock to modern pop (Taylor Swift, Train, Katy Perry, etc. etc.). Sometimes I start to think that classical music is extremely boring to listen to, and I have to listen to the other 5 stations for entertainment value. More often, though, I just cannot stand listening to anything but the classical station. The popular songs strike me as unrefined, synthetic, generic, too simple. Not all the time, mind you. Like I said, I go through phases.

I think I just finished a very long phase of only classical music. Bob Marley Friday opened my eyes to the sweetness of popular music once again. Gotta love this guy, and gotta love Fridays. Hopefully I can maintain a good balance now.

I'm getting reeeeeeeally lazy. What's senioritis called when it's at the end of your master's degree?

Some news. I'm switching apartments next year and I am going to live alone for the first time in my life! I am going to be in Florida for the majority of the summer--yay! I am one assignment away from finishing my master's degree!!! Zounds!

This group I have been subbing with is doing a fundraiser, and the "winner" of the fundraiser (the one who raises the most money) gets to pick a piece that the group plays next year. Despite knowing that I will never be the winner, I started thinking about what I would pick for the group. The first thing that came to mind was the Rodrigo guitar concerto (Concierto de Aranjuez). I love this piece so much; it was the topic of my first music research paper. As this piece crossed my mind, my brain said to me, "A guitar concerto??"

The second piece that popped into my head was a very fun little piece called "Huapango" by Mexican composer Jose Pablo Moncayo. I don't suppose that many people know about this work; it's not by a well-known composer. However, it is one of my favorites, and I can't help but smile every time I hear it. Possibly because I played it at Interlochen, at a very happy time in my life. Still, my brain said to me, "Huapango? Really? Out of all the rep in history, you pick this little piece by a composer who isn't even that famous??" Yes, I suppose I do.

To be fair, the third piece that popped into my head was Appalachian Spring. I've never played it and it is the most famous piece by my favorite composer, Aaron Copland. There's a staple in the orchestral repertoire.

I'm back from Tuscon! I'm not even that sore, just tired. I slept almost 11 hours last night! Anyway, happy belated Easter and a good day to all!

Uomo Donna with a good team and a cross-gender 2-pt huck rule. YES! And spending Easter with people I like a lot. YES! This weekend=win.

SO MANY BUNNIES
I want to go here.

Also. This documentary is awesome. Watch it. Life by the BBC (narrated by David Attenborough).

So my presentation on WALL-E just happens to land on ASU's "Earth Week." How coincidental!

Also... I feel like I am organizing about a million things right now. Usually I'm only organizing about a thousand things.