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! :)