Loathsome

There are few things I hate with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. One of them is pretend ass cello music. This is music that is written or transcribed by violin players. You can tell because you never use the entire bottom half of the cello. 7/8 of the music is played on the A string in ridiculous positions while that 1/8 is just touching the D sting. What about the G and C strings? They apparently don't exist to many players, which is very unfortunate for me and the cello because those are my favorite stings and THE CELLO WAS MADE TO PLAY LOWER NOTES. It is there to add a rich bottom to music which is almost never utilized in solo cello music. Instead, people are determined to show off how close cellos are to their violin counterparts by playing the highest notes possible. When music is transcribed for cello, the transcribers seem to forget the cello has a range below the cello's middle D. ARGH! The bottom two strings are what sets the cello apart and they are so rarely used! They have the richest, most beautiful tone and yet they are ignored for pinched, violin-like wannabes.

Despicable. Detestable. Disgusting.

This rant occurs now because I have begun practicing for Holly's wedding, and picking out the music has been difficult because of my lower skill level and the atrocities of the solo music as written above. Hopefully I have found a sufficient amount of music that I will be able to play well enough for the wedding. *sigh* We'll see.

Jobtastic

I suppose I am officially hired at Wal-Mart now.  I went in for the interview on Wednesday, went back on Thursday to sign paperwork and do the drug screening, and I go in for orientation on Tuesday.  They are gonna start me off at $8.90, which is pretty cool considering minimum wage is $7.25.  They must have liked me.  I wasn't expect three people to interview me at once on Wednesday, but oh well.  I got the job, so what does it matter?  Now Dad can stop bitching at me.  Although, I just know he's gonna start it up again next summer to find a real job.  I wish someone would come up to me at my graduation and hire me on the spot.

Brittany is off to Ireland next week, so we're gonna hang out on Sunday after church.  Even though she's going there to take a class, I'm still kinda jealous.  I've always been on the fence about wanting to travel, but I think if I had the chance and the resources, I'd do it.  Maybe when Alex's books sell, we can visit some fun places. 

It seems like I've been out of school for a while now, but I know it hasn't been that long.  Next semester is still a long way off.  I have to keep reminding myself that summer has only just begun.

Books and Jobs

This will be a summer of reading and working. At least, that's what I hope. I already have lots of stuff to read: Alex's stories, Dresden Files, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, etc.

The job part is the problem, though. I have the babysitting gig again, at least, but that won't start until mid-June. I'd like to be making money now, please and thank you. Elissa got me to apply to Wal-Mart even though she hates her job and will probably quit soon. That one looks the most promising considering I got to talk to one of the managers and she seemed to like Elissa and Ray enough when I mentioned them. Because Elissa was talking about quiting the electronics department, that's what I said I was looking for, but I'm open to anything. They're apparently looking for cashiers, and I would much rather cashier than work in electronics. So there's that. I just hope they call me... I've applied to some other places too, the flower/produce place by Hammer's, Fashion Bug, Subway down my Mom, and the snack bar at Ice Connection. I really hope I have better luck this time around.

Alex told me about his friend Andrea and the job she has at a company that he does not remember the name of. She got it through an internship and it sounds like a completely awesome job. Once Alex finds out the name of it, I'm gonna look it up. They work with kids and Andrea works with commercials and advertising on a station that sounds similar to PBSkids. Doing what she is doing would be so cool and so perfect. And since it's in Robinson, it wouldn't be too horribly far away. Here's to hoping... ugh. There I go again.

Summer, Begin.

My junior year of college is over already. It feels like that year flew by faster than the others, but maybe that's just because I had Alex this time around. He makes everything easier and happier.

I'm half looking forward to this summer and half not. This is my first summer with Alex, and we intend to make it a good one. While I'm excited for that, I really need to make money. I'm going to call Eric today about working at the horse barn this summer and Kim Anna already asked me about chauffeuring again this summer. I'd like to get a part-time job on top of that, but no one ever wants to hire me, so I don't have much hope for that. I'll still apply to some places anyway. What I'd really like is an internship, but I've already tried for those for this summer and I got nothing back. So I'm gonna look at BC3's list of summer classes to see if there are any good skill classes I can take.

In league with that, I'll be finished up with all of the requirements for my Comm major and Jap minor at the end of next semester, but not enough credit hours to graduate. So I'll be taking bunches of skill classes that last semester. Maybe then people will like me for jobs... Here's to hoping. Damn. There I go hoping again.

Matthew and Eve are coming up on Thursday for Mother's Day. I'm excited to see them again. Eve is gonna be such a little girl now. Alex and I are going to the Murder By Death concert on Friday, so I'm gonna bring him home to meet them before the concert.

The weather has already started being nice. I've been opening the windows in my room nearly every day since I returned home. This bodes well.

"She will not like it because they are not pants."

Friday was Alex's birthday, so I decided to throw him a surprise party. Now, with his awesome perception, I didn't think it'd be much of a surprise, but he claims to have been very surprised when I ushered in a bunch of his friends. The party went well, overall. We sat around and talked; ate ice cream, Oreos, and pretzels; Deet and Alex tried to jam; and we watched Big Fish, which is a very appropriate movie for Alex's birthday. For presents, I gave him "Guess How Much I Love You," a book of Sherlock Holmes stories, a Tom Waits shirt, a Levenger fountain pen, and some ink to go with it. He liked all of the presents... especially the Catholic school girl outfit I wore that night after everyone left... *shifty eyes*

Saturday we traveled to Alex's home where we had Alex's birthday dinner party with his family. He got a 160G iPod, so now he can carry ALL of his music around with him. Sunday he had to work the afternoon shift, so his mom and I went to church and went out to eat. I got to do homework and play with the kitties when we got back. I really wanted to clean the pile next to his bed, but he said I'm not allowed because one of my birthday presents is somewhere in there. I made his bed instead. I had dinner with his parents before he got home from work and we watched Sin City before going to bed.

This morning was fun fun. Not. I got a ride with Mr. Moore and Zachary to CCAC, but we didn't get there in time for me to catch the 67A to Oakland. I wound up taking the 77B with Nik (we met at the bus stop and he got off the bus before me) to the top of Craig and walked as quickly as possible to my art class. I made it just in time with all of my stuff. We have a test in that class on Wednesday, so she let us out a bit early and I was able to get to Japanese in time for once. I actually think I did well in Japanese today. I got a B on my oral midterm, though. :(

This week is Alex's Spring Break, and mine is next week, which is pretty lame, but I'm sure I'll get to see Alex a few times this week at least. I need to get the recommendation letters back from Dr. Gareis and I need to finish my essay so I can turn in my Ritsumeikan application. At least I have everything else.

To explain the journal title: Alex said this to me when he was half asleep. He was talking about the present hidden in the pile. So cute. <3

Alias

I have a new phone! Yay! It's certainly a good thing because my other one was starting to break... I now have the Alias 2 phone by Samsung and it's pretty snazzy. I've been making all sorts of ringtones and background pictures for it since I got it, and now I've lost track of time. This is the same phone that Liv got a few months ago, and she hasn't had any problems with it, so hopefully mine will be just as obedient. The only thing I'm kinda eh about is because it has a full keyboard, I don't have the automatic spell check anymore. I hate looking at words I've written and going "...Is that right?" I am not very good at spelling... :(

But Polar Bear still loves me! <3

がっかりした

Last week was the Blizzard of 2010. I was supposed to go the Zachary's birthday dinner party on Sunday, see a free viewing of Wolfman on Tuesday, take Alex to Video Games Live at Heinz Hall on Thursday, see The Machine with Alex and friends on Friday, and go either to the Black & White Ball on campus or to a Japanese Rave on Saturday, but none of it happened. Everything was either canceled, rescheduled, or Alex couldn't do it. *sigh* Last week was supposed to be an exciting and fun week. It turned out to be very boring and very lonely. The buses weren't running or weren't running down by Alex's house, and none of his friends wanted to drive out on the horrible roads, so there was no way for us to see each other. Meanwhile, Liv and Harold saw each other every day. Eeennnvyyyy.

If Mr. Pekor decides he wants to, we'll be going to see Wolfman tonight, but it's getting late, so that probably won't happen. Also, Alex has asked me out on a fancy date for tomorrow night. This will be an excuse to finally wear my prom dress again.

To make up for the three days of canceled classes, Pitt is making us have classes on two Saturdays, one being my birthday. Really, it's up to the professors whether or not we actually have class on those Saturdays, so I think most will try to work around that.

Lent in coming up quickly. Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday, so I really need to remember to eat on Tuesday. I always tend to forget about that...

Oh! I got my hair cut on Monday, so now it's about as short as Liv's. I like it.


I spent Friday night at Alex's house. It's getting less awkward for me to just talk to his parents or his brother, which is a very good thing. Hopefully I won't feel awkward at all about staying at their house for 8 hours while Alex works. But then, I don't want to be that much of a bother, so I probably won't do that anyway.

The deadlines for Japan applications are coming up quickly. I must get moving.