At least tomorrow's Wednesday

Because I'm getting sick of long days at school. Seven weeks seems a lot longer on the post-side of spring break than on the pre-side of it. I'm also ready for those seven weeks to be over.

Feeling artistic

As today was rather dull, cold, and rainy, I decided to get Mike's MIDI keyboard and hook it up to GarageBand. I got fairly well into two projects: a cover of "Sally's Song" from Nightmare Before Christmas:



And "Falling Slowly" from Once:



No vocals yet, but I'm about halfway through everything else on "Falling Slowly". "Sally's Song" is going to be a lot more difficult, since it's a lot of arranging. Luckily, I have the sheet music.

Back from vacation

Tomorrow Mike and I go back to school, and I should probably be looking at my science notes and getting my lunch money. However, Aubrey is on, so that'll have to wait.

Out of FL and into AL

After eight or nine hours of driving, we made it to Alabama. We did actually consider spending an extra night in DeLand, but decided that a 14 hour drive would just be too hard.

Tomorrow we're driving back to Kentucky and getting back into the swing of things before school Monday. Spring Break went too quickly!

End of Florida Adventures

Though they technically end tomorrow afternoon.

Tonight I managed to upload about 40 songs to my iPod that I had bought forever ago but was never able to download because of Internet problems. They're all there, though, and now I need to sync them. I also need to charge my cell phone and put away my bassoon, now that I think of it.

T'was fun!

My favorite college picture

For those of you who know Avenue Q, you know that Princeton was looking to find his purpose after college. Look what I found at Rollins:

This blog will end tomorrow

...but not really. Happy April 1st.

To commence the see-all-the-best-picture-winning-movies-extravaganza and Mike, Mom, and I are planning on doing this year, we all watched Slumdog Millionaire. I liked it better in theatres, mostly because you could read the subtitles in the beginning for when they're all speaking Hindi. "Jai Ho" is still the most epic Bollywood dance, and I think that we should all learn it and dance that rather than "Soulja Boy".

On the way to Orlando

Today's college trip is Rollins in Orlando, and it sounds like we're having lunch at Blackbean Deli beforehand. Might be afterward, but it'll be 11 or so once we're in Orlando, and I didn't eat much for breakfast. Knowing that we spent all day at FSU, it'd be nice if it wasn't afterward. Lunch might be at 8 PM then.

Back from Karen Kastle

The high school shot down the idea of letting me shadow Karen at school tomorrow, and so today was the final day. We slept in until about nine and delayed really getting ready until about ten thirty or so. To sink into the day, we watched an episode of NCIS---Karen tried to turn me onto it, but it's not my thing.

We also failed at Guitar Hero. I played drums and could not believe that I was that pathetic after being in band. It looked like I had no internal sense of rhythm.

I still have to upload the latest Karen and Alicebelle Show, which I still have to put in its final format. T'was fun seeing you, Karen!

Karen Kastle: Day II

Today went just swimmingly! It started at about ten thirty or so, as Karen is a late sleeper and I myself am always happy to spend an extra hour lying in bed, wondering what to do next with my book/fanfiction/rough draft. We did manage to pull ourselves out of the vacuum that is sleep, and roughly an hour later we were ready to start the day's activites: shopping for Karen's trip to Disney.

I did wind up buying a couple things for myself, though. At Ross's I bought this amazing sleeveless white hoodie with various blue-and-pink splotches on it. It was a complete score---I saw one just like it at Kohl's (our second stop) for about $40. I managed to get mine for about $7. Score!

Much in the idea of getting a new swimsuit that really fits (Read: without WHALES on it) I looked around the selection at Kohl's and decided to try on a tankini and a bikini that were both the same style, the bikini just for laughs.

Oddly enough, I liked it a lot better than the tankini. The tankini "fit" in the way that it wasn't choking me or just hanging on my shoulders, but just stood there draped like a ghost costume. It had no form, and, to be blunt, was rather frumpy. Not quite as ugly as the infamous Whale Suit, but still not my cup of tea.

The bikini was actually amazing. It felt comfortable, much to my surprise. I thought it would be like swimming in my underwear or something like that. Actually, it really fit, and looked really good. Even though I had a nagging thought that I should check in with Mom (Who bought the Whale Suit back in October) I put it in my shopping cart and paid for it. If I come across a pool in the near future, I am so jumping into it to finalize the purchase.

Upon arriving home, Karen and I spent most of the afternoon editing the second installment of the Karen and Alicebelle Show, which we filmed TWICE last night after stupid iMovie deleted the original film before putting it into an event. We widdled down 34 minutes of footage into about nine minutes (Actually twelve and then we widdled some more) and I'll be posting that the next time I get Internet that might support a large video upload (I'm on Mimi's computer right now---with permission, of course.)

Tomorrow, Karen doesn't have school, so we're going to be alone in the house. We have plans of Guitar Hero, and Karen wants me to show her some of the makeup that I use, as we weren't able to get to that today. If all goes well, I'll be going to school with her tomorrow. If not, we're going to pull a Wicked and have our One Short Day in the "Emerald City" (DeLand) and pack as much best friendliness into a day as humanly possible.

Any pictures that we take will be coming with the video---once I have faster Internet on my computer!

Arrival at Karen Kastle

We are expecting several days of fun and mischief in our once-every-blue-moon-get-together! :-D

Movie marathon

Today started a good two hours later than yesterday, as we didn't have a college tour to go on (Our feet still hurt). The drive from Tallahassee to DeLand was a lot better than expected, especially since we were running away from bad weather. We got to DeLand at about 1:30---much better than 3, which we had originally intended.

I watched most of Phantom in the car today, after not seeing it for about two years. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't react to it the way I thought I would. By the final scene I was trying not to laugh, I have to admit. For one I was also half-listening to Little Shop of Horrors while Madame Giry lead Raoul to the catacombs. Then I noticed when he fell into the Watery Pit of Doom, it reminded me of King Aurthur in Holy Grail. Just gallop gallop gallop WHOOPS!

Oh, and the facial expressions and some of his Captain-Obvious lines cracked me up. The finale used to be my favorite scene and if Emmy wasn't singing a reprise of "Angel of Music" I think I would have broken the silence.

In DeLand we had dinner at Bellini's as the usual Welcome-To-Florida dinner. Much to everyone's suggestion, I watched Red Eye, which was claimed to be a sort of Wait Until Dark. I think I like Wait Until Dark better, but Red Eye was pretty amazing. It was oddly connected to my misadventure in Chicago, right down to the fact that Jackson Rippner kind of looked like the person I sat next to on the way from Chicago to Louisville. I never want to fly again, I think.

But now the final movie for the night is Drop Dead Gorgeous, which is lightning the mood a fair bit. I think it might be one of the funniest movies I've seen in awhile---aside from Phantom, that is.

DISCLAIMER: I still love the show Phantom and the movie is great too.

Spring Break: Day 3

I think I want to start renting this hotel room and just live in Tallahassee. I've never met so many freakishly nice people in one place, and I absolutely loved FSU. Mike took a lot of pictures, and I took a few that I have yet to upload and go through. I'll probably edit them in the car tomorrow so as to have something else to blog: tomorrow will be mostly "Drove 5 hours. Got to DeLand. Bellini's is good."

Spring Break: Day 2

Greetings from Tallahassee! The university is beastly (touring tomorrow) and the people at the front desk are awfully friendly. They gave us a choice of 2nd or 3rd floor, and when stated that there was no real opinion, decided to give us 3rd so we wouldn't be disturbed by "noisy people above". And the waitress at Outback returned the credit card that Mom accidentally forgot. I have a feeling my social studies teacher would approve of Tallahassee for said reasons.

Spring Break: Day 1

After a somewhat-better day at school, we finished packing up our various belongings and hit the road at about 4:40. Closer to 8 eastern time (7 central time) we got to the hotel after a lovely drive of sunflower seeds and Avenue Q.

Getting ready for Florida

I just finished my clothes and putting together my bundle of DVD's. I need to finish my book at school tomorrow, and in the morning I'll sync my I-pod. After school I'll throw together the bassoon, my makeup, and my bag-o-surprises, and then we'll hopefully be on the road.

I can't wait to see you all, Florida peeps! And uber-excited to make Episode II of the infamous Karen & Alicebelle show. I'm looking at you, Karen! ;-)

About a blog

This is my 500th post! I remember being so excited when I reached my first hundred, and since then I haven't payed much attention. A couple days back, though, I noticed the post count at a ridiculous 496 and it struck me: apparently, I'm persistent. At least persistent in the way that I can blog for over a year straight without having a midlife crisis before I'm out of middle school.

In other news, my video Schwimmen! has been selected to compete at the state level of Foreign Language Festival in the German category! Mike snagged 1st in the regions competition and I got 2nd, which I thought booted me out of State...until my German teacher told me while she checked my homework (Kapitel Sieben vocabulary cards).

What I actually did last night

- Watch Tarzan on YouTube

Possibly one of the greatest animated movies ever---with music by "Rockstar Phil Collins", as they would say on Disney Channel back when it came out ten years ago (Was it really that long ago? I remember getting it on VHS in my parent's room back in Hawaii.)

I'm going to make it very clear, like I did to Aubrey, that despite how much I obsess about how amazing Kerchak was, I most certainly do NOT have a crush on an animated gorilla. And I'm like, being serious. My friends and I would know all about animated crushes, and I do not have one. Right now, at least.

Bad news? I stayed up until three watching it, as I found the first part on YouTube at about one and only planned on watching the first sequence. Don't ask why I didn't just search "Two Worlds".

Plans for tonight

Things of note that have already occurred:

- Played piano for about an hour, figuring out a lot more of Sun & Moon
- Watched Kramer vs. Kramer with Mom

Things I'll be doing until bed:

- Reading the synopsis of Carmen
- Catching up on AOL news
- HOPEFULLY writing a chapter or so in my fanfiction

Oh, and today will be my final winter post. Tomorrow will legally start "spring"!

A night on the town

Typically, it doesn't involve orthodontist appointments, picking up dog food from the vet, getting your order wrong at Panera (but only slightly wrong) and going to Youth Orchestra.

Rehearsal tonight went by oddly quickly, and most of the pieces seem to be pulling together really well. About five minutes before the actual rehearsal began, a few of my friends and I decided to have a mini-rehearsal, where we played random bits of songs we liked and did one of our favorites that we rarely get to go over---the medley for "Pirates of the Caribbean" (To include the songs "Singapore", "Hoist the Colours", and "Drink Up Me Hearties"). It was only the second time of me playing it with a group, but it went a lot better than it did the first time! I do admit to playing "Singapore" in band when there's nothing better to be done.

Tomorrow is the Recruit the 6th Graders concert with the high school. I represent the one-chair bassoon section to convince people to play the bassoon (even though I doubt they will, and either way I'd want to be able to keep the middle school bassoon next year). For my instrument demo, I'm playing a section from the Davy Jones theme. The music we're playing is stuff that I actually had to work a little bit on, which is a welcome change from the Christmas concert, where we had no percussion and thus had...limited choices, one might say.