Life has just been so busy lately. School is in full swing, the spare time I have has been sucked up by other things, I'm dealing with a ton of things to do, people, and stress... there's no wonder time seems to be slipping away from me. This post will mostly be a life update, simply because I have not written in such a long while. *CAUTION: I feel like this will be an especially long post... so, I guess don't read it if you're short on time (;
Let me start with my amazing past weekend.
Friday, September 20 -- Saturday September 21
A couple months ago, towards the end of summer, my choral teacher told us about this Choral Fest we might do at James Madison University. Well, let me say we ended up doing it. And it was AMAZING. All of the people going were going to miss a day of school (Friday). I had absolutely no problem with this. The only annoying thing was that we had to be up, packed, ready and at our school at 5am to catch the bus that would take us down to the university. Luckily, we didn't have a plain old regular bus, but rather, a white one with slightly comfier seats and racks above our heads to put stuff. It was not a coach bus, though.
I ended up waking up around 4:00 so I could shower, finish packing and throw my stuff together (fancy schmancy choir dress, music, clothes) and let my hair dry (kinda lost my hairdryer... sadface..). And by 4:45 my dad and I were off, to the deserted school complex where we waited for people to arrive and looked expectantly for the bus. It finally came, and we boarded with all of our luggage-ness and headed over to another high school to pick up another group of kids who were going. It was so early, but in some ways I had never felt more awake. Perhaps it was the excitement of the thing. Anyways. I shared seats with my good friend Elisa (: She's amazing and we felt eachother's pain trying to sleep sitting up. I had the window seat, so I would try to lean against the window... but with the bus vibrating so, it was hard to actually get sleep. I think I just listened to music and escaped into this really zen feeling of relaxation, and didn't really sleep at all. It was a long bus ride, (four hours? three hours? somethingish?) and we got to a SHEETZ rest stop close to JMU where we stopped for breakfast. After that, we rode a little longer and then FINALLY....
We approached our destination.
The very beautiful James Madison University. My cousin went there, and she raved about it. I was going to visit it soon with my family anyways, so I thought getting a view of it from a choral perspective would be a nice addition to my college-search-agenda, if you know what I mean.
Choral Fest was officially starting, and it was all exciting. The program consisted of:
- "Matrix Sessions" which were basically little stations throughout the campus. There were workshops and master classes as well as college student to high school student Q&A sessions, which were very helpful.
- There were also lots of various vocal performances by the college people as well
- Long rehearsals in preparation for a performance on Saturday afternoon
- A guest conductor to conduct said rehearsals and performance
- Dining experiences around campus (for lunch and dinner)
- The final performance
- Some smidgens of a tour around campus
It was amazing. Rehearsal was so fun and disciplined... The college kids don't talk AT ALL during rehearsal, and it's so productive. I wish my class at school could have half the discipline they have. The sound was amazing-- picture the top choirs from approximately 6 high schools all on one stage, with a bunch of advanced college singers sprinkled throughout. The sound was immense and earthshaking-- and the mature sound of the basses, tenors and baritones was fantastic. I don't think I can ever go back to the way it sounds in class...
Our director was also phenomenal--she (I believe) was from Brazil, and she was basically an expert in the Spanish/Brazillian/Portugese language. We sang several pieces from South America, and she made every single one of them polished and true to their original zing. It was amazing.
Great choir, great director, and GREAT STAGE! We rehearsed and performed at the Forbes Center. It was so amazing.
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| This is what it looks like somewhat empty... it's so grand and sound resonates like no one's business! |
The college kids (mostly Juniors and Seniors) were uber professional-- they ran the whole thing. The performances and Matrix Sessions were so helpful and fantasmical. My favourite session we witnessed was the acappella workshop-- We got to hear performances from student acappella groups--
Note-oriety and Exit 245 (you can check them out here and here!) Another highlight of the sessions was the master class. There, a college student performed a classical piece and got critiqued by one of the expert teachers there. Then a high school student, who also had a piece prepared, sang and got critiqued as well. The high school girl who sang was really good-- I know I'd be somewhat put off by having to follow a college student's Mozart piece with another performance. She sang really well, though. She sang "How Could I Ever Know" or something like that, from "The Secret Garden". I had never heard that song until then, and now I'm obsessed with it. It's so beautiful. And the girl's performance of it almost made me cry. Check it out here, and fall in love!
We ate at a couple dining halls, for the college dining experience... there were so many options and it was crazy. It all tasted marvelous as well!
Friday came to an end and we headed over to a Best Western where we spent the night. I roomed with Elisa and 2 other girls. The hotel/motel/inn/whateveritwas turned out to be kinda sketchy... I guess that's what you get when you try to save some money... We laughed about how the coffee maker in the room was bolted to the table so people couldn't steal it XD We didn't really have any trouble going to sleep-- the day was exhausting and I doubt I could have stayed up even if I wanted to.
The next day was fun, rehearsal, sessions, food... and finally the performance at 4pm. The performance went well, all of the songs were energetic, and we ended with a spiritual... we sang the chorus like, 25 times and everyone was clapping to the rhythm and it was so adrenaline-evoking. After the performance, we changed out of our snazzy black dresses and into clothes only to run out to our bus that was waiting to take us home... in the pouring rain. I think it rained all day, that day.
We ended up getting home around like 9pm, and it was pouring then, so we had to run our stuff to our respective cars without it getting too wet.
It was such a fantabulous experience-- It was two days chock full of learning and singing with top-notch singers, two days of exposure to a variety of styles of music, and two days filled with a great look at the musical side of a great and friendly school. I am SO glad I went.
Sunday, September 22
Getting home late Saturday, I took the opportunity to sleep late on Sunday. Well, only so late. We got up and went to church... and then I hung out with J for a little bit. We (being me, him and Baby D) played with chalk in the driveway... That ended up with our faces being covered in chalk and one very messy driveway. XD I believe I stayed up very late that night... doing hw and talking to J... Yeah. Bad idea. Remind me not to do that again. Staying up 'til 2am on a school night is NOT (I repeat) NOT recommended.
Monday, September 23
Started out rough due to basically no sleep the previous night. That was not really a good day for me. I'd rather skip over it...
And I guess that brings me to today and my "in other news" stuff. So today was fun... ish. I like my B days. They have better classes (sorta) and I get to see J at lunch. I got a lot of HW done today, and I'm starting to get back in the swing of things. I had some work to catch up on because I was out Friday. But I think I'm all set (:
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In more important news, my grandfather is out of the hospital. *Thanks God above*. The doctors used to have him on like, 10 medications simultaneously... no wonder his body was acting up. So he's throttling things back and taking it easy... I just hope he'll be okay for a while, and hopefully for the rest of his life. I guess it's just been a little stressful lately. Combine all that with Dad's job situation... I don't recall if I told y'all... but he didn't end up taking the Penn State job. The pay was just too low. Instead, he's still scavenging around here for jobs, and his current contract ends this Thursday. He's had a couple interviews, but they're not turning out to be what he originally thought they would be... so....
All we can do at this point is just cross our fingers, pray, and wait.
Meanwhile, school and life rages on... I was amazed by how close homecoming is... and compared to the rest of my life problems, homecoming doesn't even matter... But I guess it's just something happy to look forward to. I know I have a date, so that's fun (: He hasn't officially "asked" me yet, but I don't care (:
He's intent on finding a special way to ask me, and a while ago I think I would have wanted that more than anything. But right now, it's simpler than that. You don't need a bouquet of flowers and a formal proposal-ish thing in the hallway just to go to homecoming. I'd take him and he'd take me just the way I am.
I still have to go shopping for a dress, though. Kinda late, I know... the official dance is October 5th (my mom's birthday.. I feel badly about that... perhaps I can rant about that later...even though she's totally fine with it.
So yeah. There's my life up to now. I guess I just gotta keep trudging through.
The weekend can't come soon enough.
xoxo
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