I'll Be What You Want Me To Be

So I haven't written in this blog for quite a while. Since February, about. And in a little change of pace, I'm going to save the "this is what I've been doing in my life" rambly post for a little later (hopefully not too much later, I do have a dismal memory and I might keep forgetting memories of Winter Semester at BYU...), and I'm going to make a post a little reminiscent of what my friend Beth Root is doing over at her wonderful blog. Hopefully I can write something half as good and inspiring as she does. Well, here goes...

Today (Sunday, the 18th), I played the organ in Sacrament meeting for the fifth time. That's right, I got home from college...and got called as the ward organist. My first Sunday back, my Bishop called out to me in the chapel after Sacrament meeting and had a little talk with me. I noticed that Sister Fitzhugh, a wonderful lady in our ward who has years of experience with the organ (and I believe piano as well), and used to be the stake music coordinator, was with him. I didn't have much time to process that before he asked me if I knew how to play the organ...and after I answered that I didn't, he told me that Sister Hart, the then-current organist, was moving, and that he'd like me to take lessons with Sister Fitzhugh...and then call me as the ward organist. I was kind of surprised (OK, understatement, I was pretty dang surprised...). I expected to be called as a Primary teacher, or a member of the Activities Committee, or some similar calling that's usually given to college students home for the summer. Don't get me wrong, it was a bit exciting (I mean, there's only a few music-y callings in every ward, and here was the Bishop offering me one of them), but I kept thinking at first, "Me? Playing the organ? In front of the whole ward?" and stuff like that.

It got kind of worse when I had my first lesson with Sister Fitzhugh...it went pretty well, but I was definitely not playing up to Sacrament meeting level my first time. I didn't quite feel discouraged, but I wondered how I could ever be good enough to play for the whole ward every week. I also kind of wondered if I'd be able to handle this calling. But every time I had doubts creep up like that...first, I took time to breathe, and then I remembered my previous calling. At BYU, I got called as the Priesthood chorister and music coordinator. You may think, "Oh, Brandon loves music. Being a chorister is an awesome choice for him!" Well, that's not very accurate...you see, when Bishop Whitchurch extended that calling to me, I was kind of worried. I've never been that great at leading music...I always couldn't keep the rhythm too well, and in previous instances I had to conduct like Seminary Conference and the occasional Priesthood meeting in my home ward, it usually ended in disaster/me looking like a malfunctioning robot. :) I told the Bishop that I accepted my calling, but just like my initial thoughts with the organ, I thought I wouldn't be good enough, and even had thoughts that I'd rather be the ward pianist or something. I didn't really feel comfortable with it at all. Well, obviously I still went along with it...and the next Sunday, I was set apart after Elder's Quorum in my calling (after a not-TOO-terrible first time leading the music in Priesthood). And that's where my doubts all went away. (Some of them returned briefly every so often, but they never stayed long, and that's not the point. :) ) Having Priesthood leaders laying their hands on my head, and being set apart by God to perform a calling in His Church...it was just an amazing feeling, and I just knew afterwards that however uncomfortable I might be with my new calling, it would be alright, and I would be able to handle it and do my best.

Well, I actually didn't get set apart as the organist until last week, so I can't say the same exact experience happened with this calling. But I remembered the experiences I had as a reluctant chorister (I grew to love the calling...and I got to pick the hymns, which if any of you know me is something I love to do, moo hu ha ha ha :D), and that, along with remembering just who I was called by (our Heavenly Father) has helped me feel better about playing the organ every week. I definitely haven't been perfect (there's wrong notes all the time, and then last week I overslept, barely got to church by nine, and nearly missed playing the opening hymn...oh, did I mention the stake president and a billion people were there because it was someone's farewell? :) ), but I've been able to get through every single hymn (even the National Anthem, which I was worried about), I've (hopefully) been able to bring the Spirit, and I feel confident that I've given my best every week. I still have room to improve (and I still have yet to use those dastardly foot pedals), but I know I can do it with my Heavenly Father's help. :)

And before I go/end this post, I'd like to switch gears briefly and bear my testimony of the Priesthood. I had the opportunity to be ordained as an Elder last week, and it was a wonderful experience. My dad was able to ordain me, and in my opinion, if you didn't feel the Spirit in that room as he did so, you're crazy. :) I have a testimony of the power of the Priesthood, that it guides our church, and that it has been ordained upon the earth by our Father in Heaven. It is the greatest privilege for me to able to hold it, and I will always strive to stay worthy of it. Always. :)

I've Been A Long Time Gone...Part 2: New Soul

A cheesy song reference? (Sorry, I couldn't come up with anything adequate that was related to BYU, mountains, Utah, or school. :D) A "part 2" that's basically a hapless attempt at organization? A bunch of rambling words that make you wonder when crazy Brandon will stop typing nonsense? All this and more should tell you one thing...it's time for another blog post! :)

• When we last left our heroes (AKA when I finished the last blog post about myself, you can decide whether or not I can be classified as a hero...if I am one, though, I want to be "SUP...................er Grover!" :D) ANYways...I had just gone on our epic semi-family road trip to Spokane and back. (By the way, the trip back was nice and fairly quiet. I can't remember if my dad got stopped by the police on the way back or the way there...lol, that's a long story I won't go into here... :D) It was early August--and well, if you remember my previous posts, I had online classes to finish. The less said about that whole thing, the better. Same with the days running up to BYU...let's just skip to August 31st, shall we?
• So now we find me at BYU. (Don't ask how. The story is incredibly awkward.) (And is that even proper grammar? If it isn't, feel free to shame me. :D)  This is going to be a very brief recap...dang it, this is what happens when I procrastinate, I have to find an engaging and efficient way to talk about a whole dang semester of college (and it's my first semester, too)...you know what, I'll just give the Reader's Digest version, and then anything else you blog readers would like to know, post a comment. :D
• I've made lots of cool friends. (BYU + you = a social life. It's like impossible not to find something fun to do at least every so often here, and if you try even a little bit, you'll find LOTS of fun stuff to do. With people. Sometimes people you don't know. :) ) My classes last semester were nice--EXCEPT FOR PHYSICAL SCIENCE. As for grades...another thing I'm not at liberty to discuss. Except for that I got an A in Jazz Voices and Men's Chorus, and a B+ in voice lessons and Book of Mormon (the second half, I took the first in Institute). That's all I'll say. (As for classes, I also took Old Testament, History Since 1877, Intro to International Relations--a class & professor I highly recommend, Dr. Hudson is a brilliant woman and a terrific teacher.) Men's Chorus, which I am also in this semester, is an absolute BLAST. Sister Hall is truly amazing...she's SO MUCH fun, and she really knows how to make all 186 of us crazy college guys sound good. And she's Welsh! Epic win. :) It would have been worth it to come to BYU just for being able to sing in a choir directed by her alone. And Jazz Voices is a great experience. There's a few less people in it than Men's Chorus...as in, 170 less :D ...but it's still terrific, and I love singing in a jazz choir. In other words...BYU's music and choral programs rock. Forever. :D
• Speaking of music...and jazz...and BYU...and the music program (OK, I'll stop this mishegas :D)...I've changed my major. As most of you know, I was originally planning to do Jazz Studies--but I sent off an email to the director of the Jazz Studies program, Dr. Ammons, about a month ago, and he broke me the news I had kind of been expecting/told about already, that the vocal emphasis for Jazz Studies here at BYU doesn't currently exist. The old vocal jazz professor, Kelly Eisenhour, left two years ago, and since BYU instituted a hiring freeze, they haven't been able to replace her. Add to that the fact that they're restructuring the entire major...and yeah, it's not really an option for me right now, unfortunately. Good news? I switched to Media Music, which I can basically turn into Jazz Studies, with a few differences...the Media Music major is primarily designed for those wanting to go into contemporary music, mostly songwriting, producing, etc. But it's also very flexible in terms of what classes you can fulfill the requirements with...and there's a lot of jazz classes available. (At least, more than I thought there would be.) So while I'm bummed about no Jazz Studies for now, Media Music is a great second option. I'm currently waiting to hear about whether I made it in or not (I auditioned for the second time just two weeks or so ago), and I hope I do. (I also continued my tradition of forgetting/flubbing words in college auditions--last year, I had to start "It Don't Mean A Thing" over because I couldn't remember the starting verse for the life of me, and this year, I sang the wrong words in "I Get A Kick Out of You" twice, and plumb forgot them for a few seconds at one point--but it still went very well. :) )

And as for this semester...I'll leave that little puppy for Part III. For now...I need to actually be responsible or something. :D Cheese out! :)

I've Been A Long Time Gone...Part I: My Last Summer

I actually met my goal of updating my blog today! This makes me very happy. But now...where the heck do I begin? :) It's only been...um...6 months since I updated. So not that much to talk about, right? OK, not fooling anyone there. Let's skip all the pleasantries (hey, guess the song references in the title and win a cookie! :D) and just get to the actual blog post...which I will most likely split into multiple pieces, so you won't be overloaded...and so you can read them at different times. Like this one now, the next one tomorrow, and so on. Or this one today, the next one in January 2017, and the third one sometime next century. Whatever floats your boat. :)

• I was originally going to make a whole mammoth post about my vacation (last summer...wow, it's been a while since I've blogged...), but now I'll just combine it into a bullet, devoid of pictures (which you can find rather easily on Facebook, if you want to see them). Let's see...we (meaning me, my dad, grandma, and Nate and Livi) went on an ultra-fun road trip through California and Oregon, to Spokane to visit my great-grandma and other family. We stopped in Sacramento the first night (that hotel was nice, and dinner was even better...oh, the joys of seafood :) ), which I found out later is where my roommate is from. (Small world...) Then we drove like crazy to the northern border of Oregon...it was a LONG car ride, folks...stopped by my aunt's house in Vancouver (Washington, if only it was Canada... :D), then drove about an hour (including a significant amount of time across the HUGE Astoria Bridge, partly covered by clouds, at NIGHT...the high part was scary, but then it sloped down and before we knew it, we were basically on the ocean, which was cool) to Long Beach (Washington, again...that state really needs to get creative with its names... :) ), where we...get this...got to stay in a lodge! It was kind of old (more like a hotel room), and Internet/cell phone access was basically nonexistent, but it's the freaking BEACH...it was wonderful. :) (Thanks to my Aunt Katie and Uncle Dan for letting us stay there.) We could just walk out onto the patio, and go down the path, and there was the ocean. Yep. I love the ocean. :)
• New bullet! But same subject. (I didn't want to make a bullet that would take the whole page...I'm not THAT disorganized... :D) Anything else about the lovely 2 days we spent in Long Beach? We buried my dad and grandma. And the weather was beautiful. So after that...we drove to Seattle and spent two AWESOME hours there (Pike Place Market...amazing. I wanted to stay longer--and we found a cheese shop across the street! Their "signature" cheese was kind of sharp, but good...and Ivar's is the most delicious seafood stand I have ever eaten from. EVER.), before we had to fight the horrendous traffic to get back on the highway sometime that decade...then we drove some more (about 6 hours this time...which was, no joke, the shortest drive we ever had on that trip...) to Spokane. It was nice being back--we went there about 5 years ago or so (dang, I had this figured out! I'm pretty sure it was 2005...), but this time we got to visit a lot of places close to our hearts (my grandma's old house, my dad's high school, etc.), and even better, we got to spend a lot of time with my Grandma Nana (that's what we call my great-grandma, she's 91), Grandpa Dick (great-uncle? or grand-uncle? help me out here...he's my grandma's brother), and "Auntie Sandra" (she's my great-aunt...or grand-aunt, dang it, she's my grandma's sister...and in our family, most of us kids call all our aunts "Auntie," even me still :D). Yay for family! My Grandma Nana is really sweet, and I hope I get the chance to see her again sometime soon.
• STILL the same subject. Maybe I will just make this a vacation post, who knows...we spent a few days in Spokane...we got to go to a family fun center, and we played minigolf (let it be known, minigolfing with 4 children under 10 and 3 under 7 is a pill and a half :D), bumper boats, and other sundry activities of fun and togetherness. :) We also visited with the Lynds and Turners, two excellent families who we are good friends with. (Cali Lynd, now Cali Walters, just got married...we came a week too early to be at her wedding, darn it...) And after about...3? 4? days in Spokane, we drove back...this time, we stopped at Tillamook in Oregon. Holy cow, that place was my dream...cheese and cows together. I almost died of excessive joy and happiness. :D We got lots of cheese samples, I got pictures with cows both inanimate and living (I even got to pet one! That's almost fulfilling my cow-hugging dream...), and we had ice cream at the end to top it all off. (Plus I got a shirt!) Of course, there was a catch...the road was so twisty out of Tillamook that my cheese samples, cheese curds, slices of cheese we had bought (oh, you bet we stocked up on Tillamook cheese :D) and ice cream ended up on the side of the highway (in fact, like 10 feet from someone's driveway, poor them... :D). I hate my motion sickness. Hate it, hate it, hate it. And so did the dairy products in my stomach that never even got a chance. :)

OK, I have indeed decided to cut this post short and start a new one posthaste. (Love that word! :) ) I'll keep you all POSTED...haha, that was a typically lame pun, as always...and for now, cheese out! :D

I WILL Update! (Tomorrow?)

I think people stopped reading this thing because they realized it wasn't going anywhere...and every time I look at it, I think, "I need to update my blog...I will..." and then weeks later, I go, "oh great, I didn't update it...I will update it soon!" and...yeah, you get the point. (The same goes for my DWTS/American Idol blog too. I still have a draft of a post from last week that's unfinished on there...) So guess what? Since I have a glorious 5-hour break from classes (as usual) tomorrow (it's Tuesday, but we have our Monday classes instead, because of NO SCHOOL TODAY! It was so nice...), I am making a goal to post like there's no tomorrow. It will probably be bloated, rambling, and full of bullets and crazy events that have happened--after all, I have a vacation and 4 1/2 months of my freshman year of college to tell you all about--but it will be a post, something I have not properly done in nearly half a year. So get ready for blogging from Brandon! Again! And not about one of two excellent reality shows that he really needs to stay caught up! Stay tuned. And cheese out. :)

I Have A New Blog!

This will probably be my shortest post ever...and I'm not lying this time :)...I have a new blog! It will not replace this one by any means, it's a supplement, you could say, to my blogging activities. It will be exclusively consisting of recaps/news/info/etc. about "Dancing With The Stars" and "American Idol" ("Idol" starts in January, "DWTS" is on right now). If you love either of these shows, or even if you've HEARD of either of these shows, boogie on over to http://dwts-idol-blog.blogspot.com and read like the wind, Bullseye! I hope you enjoy it, and be sure to spread the word, I should like it to be all well-known and such. :D And I will get a regular about-my-life post up soon. Cheese out! :)

I Wrote In My Blog, And I Liked It!

(I did, however, plan it, and it was my intention. Sorry, Katy Perry... :D)

Well, I have been a rather unsatisfactory blogger. It's been almost two months since I last posted...and I still have a long (and continually growing) list of stuff to regale you folks about. (Thankfully I actually put that list at the end of my post last time, so I can actually remember it.) Never mind that I have to add my crazy eight-day vacation to that list...which means catching up will take even longer. Oh well. OK...since we've got so little to write, and so much time...OK, scratch that, reverse it (love that quote...even if the movie is a bit awkward... :) )...let's vamoose into Blog-land!

• When we last left our...hero? (OK, it's just me... :D), I had just gone to two AMAZING concerts...which, since I am a poor pre-college student struggling to pay the bills...no, really...I will not likely be able to attend in such frequency in the near-future. (Stupid money!) But there was another concert to come...a concert so exciting, so breathtaking, it changed the world as we know it...well, not really, but let's just go with that. :) My last choir concert was on May 12th (aagh, how can I still remember this???), and it was a wonderful way to help end the year. All the choirs were excellent, Rhonda and Leighton were delightful in their duties as co-presidents, Chamber and A Cappella-ness went well ("Hoya! Hoya, Hoya!" :D), and I got an award!!! It was just a fun night, and I couldn't have had a better last concert (well...maybe we could have sung a jazz song or two in Chamber...). Go Mrs. Jones! And everyone in the Choral Union! You rock! :D
• What be next? Baccalaureate! It was on the Sunday before graduation (more on that...ahem, event...in a second), and it was a beautiful experience. The speakers were terrific...I'll be darned if I can remember all the student ones by name, but they were awesome--and Mrs. Andelora, holy crap, she was inspiring, funny, and random all at the same time! Whoever picked her to be the faculty speaker deserves a cookie. :) And we Chamber seniors sang "Lean On Me," and we had oodles of fun. And the other musical numbers were quite terrific...Katie, Tyler, Cedar, Pasiaka, great jobs! Especially Katie, since you're likely the only one I just mentioned who reads my blog... :D ...and your arrangement was amazing! I actually like that song now! :) So Baccalaureate was great...and I took lots of pictures with my fellow senior peoples. I would put some of them on here...but seeing as 99 percent of you who read this are on Facebook (sorry, Kailei! You should really get one soon, you know...), I'll just leave you to look at them on there, if you haven't already. :)
• And then came the last day of high school, that Wednesday...so swift, and so crazy! It felt so weird...but it was wonderful. I mean, we got to end it with Mr. Baser...how more awesome could it get? :) It essentially consisted of three classes (last 2 days at Mesa High are half days) where we quite honestly did nothing but gad about and be merry...A Cappella was just yearbook signing and socializing-ness, English (with Mr. Olson!!!) was taking our "final" (I think...it was hilariously easy, by the way...like we would get an actual final after taking stupid AP tests... :D) and talking about randomness, and Government was a party. Not a bad way to end one's high school career, no? :) Afterwards, I went to Senor Root's to find out my final grade...a B, since I was lazy with my periodico assignments and whatnot, but got a good grade on the final...and chat with him, Shannon, and TJ, and I visited Miss LeBaron and Miss Bertolet too. So now I am done with high school! Or am I???? (For once, that second part is actually true...see next bullet for the somewhat obnoxious explanation that you totally saw coming. :o)
• Graduation stuff was the next day...but not exactly. You remember the whole I-needed-a-PE-credit-and-we-were-furiously-lobbying-the-school-and/or-district-so-I-could-walk thing? Well, about that...that process kind of disintegrated. It was a combination of many things...I wasn't able to hurriedly find a way to earn the credit, the district ultimately said it was the school's decision, and Mr. Souder (a little oddly, but expectedly) refused to give me a waiver thing so I could walk in graduation. So here I am still finishing my classes...in the late beginning of August. And that meant that I was standing on the field...without a cap and gown. (Although I did get to wear them for Baccalaureate. Yay!) Once again, it rained...though thankfully this year, the aforementioned principal Mr. Souder was cool enough to carry on (:D) with the ceremonies anyway. The good news...we got to sing "The Irish Blessing" as Chamber, and I saw the student speakers and the start of Mr. Souder's (truncated) remarks. The bad news...once again, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was cancelled, and when Mrs. Jones let us go early, I decided to leave so I wouldn't catch pneumonia or a cold or something. :) So I didn't get to see the names of my friends called...but that's OK, it was an interesting experience, and a big lesson to me that I should stay on top of things. A lesson that I seem to be continually...and painfully...learning--possibly more on that later.
• Let me peruse my list again...wow, I'm getting there! Let me breeze through a few things I don't need to type endlessly about...my online classes (Bowling and Nutrition...they are SEPARATE classes, that would be weird if they were combined, though... :D) are annoying, I have procrastinated a bit and thus have to get my rear in gear at the moment...but they are doable. (Well, sort of...I'm kind of pushing it with Nutrition.) Moving on...getting ready for BYU is kind of not doing so well right now...it's a little thing called money...but hopefully, everything will work out. Yay for prayer! :) What else can I quickly-ish mention? "Dancing With The Stars"...AKA one of my favorite reality shows EVER...ended quite wonderfully. Shawn Johnson (the awesome 17-year-old gold medal-winning gymnast, who is kind of a celebrity crush of mine at the moment... :D) won!!! She was a terrific dancer, and having the celebrity I WANTED to win (sorry, but Gilles was nice, but not as good, and Melissa was slightly less amazing than Shawn...I still love you, Melissa! :D) for a change was quite an improvement. And if you have not watched Shawn's freestyle yet...do it now!!! It was one of the best dances I have ever seen...EVER!!! As for "American Idol"--the show I just started watching this season and which I now love, despite its many shortcomings--the finale was both good and bad. The bad involved Allison Iraheta, also known as one of the most AMAZING 17-year-olds ever...she's younger than me and she has a voice that makes the stars dance, and then rock out in joy!...getting FOURTH freaking place behind the two contestants who must not be named (cough cough Danny and Adam cough cough...), one of whom (the first one) committed the musical sin that I like to call "Nightmare On" (known in some circles as "Dream On," that Aerosmith song I actually like)...but no matter. Kris won!!! I was a little to late to the "Kris is cool" party, mostly because I was a huge fan of Allison and Megan (sorry, but Megan is quite the bees' knees in my opinion...), not to mention bummed that Alexis Grace got ELEVENTH place (hey, that rhymes!)...I never even voted for her, she left too early!...but I realized Kris can actually sing, and most of the time, the songs he picked were very good. Here's to Allison...and Kris...and Megan...and Alexis...having great careers! Oh my goodness, I can't wait for Allison's CD in the fall!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Well, now that I've confused all of you who don't watch either of those shows...let me finish up my list (minus vacation) really quick...I'm almost done! I shall try to be (ha!) concise...solo at Ward Talent Show? Went well. I sang "Like A Star," by the very lovely and talented British songstress Corinne Bailey Rae (check her out now, she's excellent), and my sister's friend played piano for me. I felt good about it. Unfortunately, the video situation is still a bit boogery...the video my little brother took has the sound cutting out a bit because he was trying to straighten the camera, and the one my Young Men's leader took inexplicably is two keys higher. (I sound like I'm on helium...ironically, that was what we did at the Ward Talent Show last year for Priests' Quorum... :D) I'll get a video of some sort up soon, though. (On Facebook...again, sorry, Kailei!) And my sister sang a KICKING version of "Ordinary Day" (which was accompanied by yours truly)...sadly, the video for that does not exist. Don't worry, she'll sing other awesome stuff, and you can see her beautiful voice in action!!! Random subject change...I also went on splits with the missionaries. Twice. Quite an interesting experience...we didn't get to do too much teaching, but we visited a few people. Oh, and got stopped by the police. :D (Aaron Favreau was driving, and his dad's car's license plate was not properly illuminated...it went fine, though...the officer was LDS and noticed the missionaries, and told us where he served and just gave Aaron a very friendly warning. :) )
• And the last bullet in this mammothly long blog post belongs to...my insanely fun trip to Michigan for my second (and last) Future Problem Solving International Conference. This year, we stayed in much nicer dorms...the room wasn't creepy, and we had BATHROOMS (albeit shared with the next dorm over, but that's OK, we knew them)!!! (Unfortunately, we also had the most annoying bunk beds ever...the steps up sucked, and they were very high.) Also this time around, I was much more social and outgoing...well, mostly...I met a terrific pianist from Georgia, Min-ji! She accompanied me at the Variety Show when I sang "Gravity"...there was a LOT of people...but I sang my best and it went very well. (Again, the video situation is a little iffy. I'll get it up soon, but the sound on my dad's camera was somewhat awkward...the cinematography, though? Excellent. :D) Go Min-ji! This year, I also actually went to the choir rehearsals, and so I got to sing in the choir...with people from New Zealand, Australia, England, and Kentucky! (At least, I think there was someone from Kentucky. Not sure... :D) I have videos for those, too, that I will put up someday...we sang "Celebration" (yep, it's the one you're thinking of...it was a blast!), and two other songs. And I also met someone from Ohio, her name is Jessica. (I just can't stay away from the ladies...OK, I'm SO kidding... :D) We went to Noodles and Co. again...I love that restaurant, too bad it's not in AZ...or most of the West...and had lots of fun. And walking. And...Michigan-ness? Oh, by the way, we went to a random museum (the Public Museum was its name) that had NO discernable theme or rhyme/reason at all, but was very informative in the Michigan department, and the inexplicable but cool things of interest department also. Pictures are on my Facebook. Perhaps I will post a few here at my leisure in the future. :) As for the winning any awards at all thing...Arizona (our team, the awesome 5th grader who did Individual Problem Solving, and the other two Arizona teams there) went bust, but we all had lots of fun, so it totally worked out for the best. :) Random fun quote: "Truthfully, it is broke."-Random Australian girl overheard as we were walking back from Closing Ceremonies. :D

I think that's about it for now. I caught up...sort of!!! I hope none of you died of exhaustion while reading this or something...that would be quite grotesque and sad...and I will post about my vacation in a timely manner. (Then again, my definition of a "timely manner" kind of sucks. :D) For now, all I have to say is...Cheese out! :)

It's Been A Long, Long Time Coming...

Recognize the song reference? (By the way, none of you even bothered to guess the last post's one. It's "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face," from "My Fair Lady." Way for all of you to miss out on a cookie and/or hug. :D) Anyways, that's not my purpose in blogging here tonight...it's to actually update this thing after 2 1/2 months of languishing in the land of non-blogging-ness.

Why have I taken so long to update, when I always bother other people about updating their blogs? I'm a hypocrite, I guess. Life must have gotten in the way, and the past week or so where I've really, really been wanting to update my blog, I haven't gotten around to it. Well, now I finally am, and while I will likely have to split this recounting-of-two-and-a-half-months-of-my-slightly-psychotic-and-quite-random-life (and accompanying rambling, of course) into multiple posts and it will almost certainly be out of order, even with bullet points, I'll try to do this in a calm and orderly fashion. Spontaneous shriek! OK, well now that I blew the calm thing, let's do this somewhat orderly...maybe?

• We shall go back in time...to April. There are probably a host of little but great things I could have blogged about, but since I waited too long to do so, I will probably have to stick to the big things that I, you know, actually remember. What happened in April...well, All-State, of course. It happened the 23rd through the 25th (I'm so out of it or something right now I had to look up the bloomin' date), and it was a certifiable blast. The music (which I somehow memorized--there could be no other explanation but Heavenly Father's help) was beyond amazing--especially "Take Me To The Water," which is most likely the most fun song I have ever sung in Choir. (Even more fun...OK, not more fun than our jazz songs, but it definitely gives them a run for their money. It is a little jazzy, after all.) And the director...has there EVER been a bad All-State director? He was Mr. Rogers (yes, that's his name), the person who directed All-State Jazz (not the one I was in) last year, and he was terrific--fun, really into the music, and just a joy to have be in charge of us and our wild and exciting music-making-ness. That weekend was an experience I will never forget, and the concert was an emotional and musical 'high' for sure. Oh, and I actually loved the U of A campus...if I had seen it before I applied for colleges, I think it would have actually been my second choice instead of NAU. I just liked it better, and their School of Music offers Jazz Studies to boot. And to think I thought Tucson would be a bland, dumpy town... :)
• Prom! Methinks that comes next, and I'm sure I just obliterated most of the things that happened in early April, but oh well, that's what I get for being procrastinatory, I guess. It was the first Saturday in May...and for my first and only Prom, it was wonderful! I went with Katie Turner...I asked her the Monday before. Sorry for my shamelessness, but it's a long story as to why I asked her so late (mostly because I put it off...sorry, Katie! I need to work on that...), but anyways, I used an alarm clock...we put it on a plate with the numbers from two little number-puzzle things (you know, the ones with 1 to 15, where you have to put them in order) spread around on it for decoration, and it had a note that said (if I can remember right): "I know the clock is ticking until Saturday, but it's TIME for me ask you something...Will you go to Prom with me?" It said on the back of the note to look at the clock instructions, and hidden in them was my name. Despite the fact I basically gave her a week to prepare (aagh, I'm a horrible person! :( ), she said yes, and we had a terrific time at dinner--Marc Johnson's grandparents' house was the place and the food was very yummy--and the dance. (We didn't go to the day activity, since she had to go to school...it was on Senior Ditch Day, of course...and since it was swimming at the lake and I hate swimming and/or lakes, I passed on it since she wasn't going anyway.) Random conversation, hapless attempts at dancing, and viewing the interesting exhibits (the dance was at the Tempe Historical Society museum) occurred, to great glee by all. :) My group was great, I had a great time, and Katie was an amazing date! Definitely quite a fun night.
• OK, rewind, I just remembered two things! Well, actually half rewind, half move forward. Anyways...I went to two amazing concerts both before and after Prom, one on April...30th? I think that's right, and one on May 4th. (I'm being specific with the dates here so you can kind of get a sense of where these events occurred, and so this isn't a jumble of madness. Not that it already isn't... :D) The first one was by an EXCELLENT jazz songstress, the talented Tierney Sutton (and her killer band, of course). It was a mind-boggling concert. Because it was in a small studio theater (thus, all the tickets cost the same and the Tempe Center for the Arts website lets you actually pick your physical seats, like most airlines, methinks) and I bought my ticket fairly early, I was lucky enough to get a FRONT-ROW SEAT. That + the intimateness of the studio theater (by the way, the Tempe Center for the Arts is a beautiful facility thing. It's new, shiny, and I loved it) + Tierney Sutton being a witty and warm live performer + her AMAZING voice and AMAZING band = pure musical transcendence. It was quite simply, wow. My other concert was for Vienna Teng, a singer/songwriter who plays piano and sings. That sounds kind of simple, and it doesn't really describe her accurately...but anyways, I thought it might not be as great as Tierney Sutton's was, but I was most certainly proven wrong...I basically was smiling and (mentally) dancing in joy and/or awe the whole time. If you haven't heard of her, check her out NOW, and once you presumably fall in love with her music, you HAVE to see her live. It's even better than she is on record. Her personality in concert is very friendly, and she was very witty (sorry for using that word again...but she was... :) ) and her band...I should very much like to hug them very many times. They all played like elevendy billion instruments each, and they worked so well together it was astounding. And on top of that, the opening act, a singer-cellist (yes, you read that right) called Ben Sollee, rocked the house--he plays his cello like a guitar, almost, and has a soulful, awesome voice. He even joined Vienna and the band on a few songs...including the encore-ness, where they played a Simon & Garfunkel song called "Keep The Customer Satisfied"...it was a toe-tapper, and if they ever record it, I will dance in joy. What was amazing is Ben Sollee, the awesome cello singer guy, had never played it with them before--and he blended in with them perfectly. They sang harmony and everything, and it was a perfect way to end a pretty much perfect concert. Crap, I'm rambling too much about this! (It's good music-ness, what do you expect? :D) Well, before I end this bullet, there is a story involved...after the concert, Vienna and the band were signing things and taking pictures, and naturally I got in line. Well, I had borrowed my mom's friend's camera because mine is currently MIA (why can't my siblings take care of other people's things? WHY?!?!?), and the battery was low, I knew--so low, in fact (this part I didn't know), that once I got to Vienna and her peeps, it ran out of battery and stopped working. So there I was, sitting next to a talented somewhat-major recording artist, while she was trying to get my camera to work. It was hilarious, embarrassing, awesome, and weird all at the same time. Finally, a really nice guy standing nearby stepped in, and he offered to take the picture with his cell-phone camera (he had a Blackberry or something, so it was a GOOD cell-phone camera...unlike mine...) and send it to me. Thank goodness...though I had to email him and everything afterwards, because my stupid cell didn't have a signal there and I never got the picture message with, you know, the picture in it. It was a random experience...and if you want to see the picture, look on my Facebook, since I don't think it's on this computer and it's getting really late. :)

Well, I need to stop for now, because it's after 1 in the morning, I'm sure your attention span (however long or short it is) is running thin, and I've rambled enough for now. Let me try to list the things I still need to blog about, so I can remember: last choir concert, Baccalaureate, last day of high school, Graduation (which I didn't get to walk in), BYU-ness, online classes starting, Dancing With The Stars & American Idol highs and lows, FPS IC in Michigan, my solo at the Ward Talent Show, splits with missionaries, and other things I think of. Whew! I have a ways to go, do I not? Well, I hope you enjoyed this chipping away at me rambling about my life. (And by the way, the song quote...yay, I kept you in suspense...was from "A Change Is Gonna Come," a soul classic that you might have heard around. If you actually guessed it, tell me and I'll give you something! Why? Because I can. :D) Well, anyways, all I have left to say is...cheese out! :)