and then they shake it, shake it, shake it like they're losing their mind! (Hairspray)

So, I've survived the wisdom teeth thing and I'm all back to busy-ness. But it's ok. You know, there's a big difference between being crazy busy with random stuff all the time, and being crazy busy with things you love. Right now it's the latter for me, so life is good.
New quarter started this week and it's going to be A.MAZ.ING!!! I have choir at 9:00 and we're doing musical theatre stuff - already I have a Hairspray song stuck in my head...... Then at 10:00 I've got history with the most amazing history teacher EVER. I had her last year, and I'm really enjoying the class so far. But I have A LOT of reading to do. At 11:00 I've got English with Jen, who taught Shakespeare in the fall. Fall doesn't seem that long ago, does it? Hmmm.....
But we're doing Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. And 1000 word blog entries once a week. And a big research paper at the end of the quarter. It's going to be a lot of work also, but again, enjoyable stuff.

In piano news, I started a new student today! We actually know each other quite well - she goes to my school and we work out almost every day after classes. She's about my mom's age, so the teaching style is going to be totally different for her. But she already knows a little bit about music, and she's VERY EAGER to learn as much as she can. I'm really excited about teaching her. :D
Rhapsody is coming along a lot better than it was. I took like three days off when I had my wisdom teeth out, and it was terrible when I started again. But all week I've been working really hard on the last several pages - the end of the song. I had hardly played this part at all up till now, so I think the main reason I've been freaking out about the song is because there was still a big chunk I didn't know at all. Now that I've got pretty much the whole song at least half-way there, I feel a lot better about it. But it still needs a ton of work and a ton of time between now and June. *sigh*

One of the worship leaders at my church called yesterday and asked me if I would consider playing keyboards this weekend for Easter services, because our other keyboardist just got a staff infection in his leg. :( So of course I told her I would, and now I've got a bunch of music to learn. But she just called me tonight to let me know that Roger is going to play acoustic piano for several songs, so that took a ton of pressure off of me. :)

Oh my gosh, guess what else?? You never will, so I'll tell you.
I went job hunting yesterday in Kent, like all afternoon. Basically I'm applying at all the Cold Stones, Baskin Robbins, Jamba Juices, Emerald City Smoothies, and Frozen Yogurt places within 30 miles of my house. But I also applied at a couple of music stores in Kent, and East Hill Music Center might actually be REALLY promising! The guy told me that he doesn't need anyone right now, but in a month and a half he's losing some people, and that if I don't hear from him then and still haven't found something, I can call him and bug him about it. :D I really hope it works out. Meanwhile, I'm still looking around. Also, my friend Alex works at a music store in Enumclaw that is owned by a woman from my church, and he's going to quit when he finds another job. I told him to let me know when he's gonna give notice, and then I'll apply out there. But I'd much rather work in Kent than Enumclaw.

Other than that, basically I'm just reading as much as I can. After a week of just straight movies, I'm a little movied-out, and I have SO MANY books to get through. Lots of reading for homework. I'm about halfway through Crazy Love (I'll write more about that when I finish it), I started another Chesterton book last week that I haven't picked up since, because Mitch gave me some fantasy books that he thinks I should read (which I've also barely started), and then yesterday, A Conspiracy of Kings came at the library!! So I'm trying desparately to squeeze out extra minutes to read that.

Speaking of which, I need to finish my homework now so I can actually get to something else tonight. :)

I have this deep, insightful post simmering in my mind. It's not quite ready yet, but it will be soon, I think. There's been a lot of half-digested thoughts in there for the past couple of months, but I think it's just about ready to come out. We'll see.

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts (a deedle-y dee)/there they are a-standing in a row...

Well ladies and gents, I'm mostly recovered from Operation Wisdom Teeth. It's been an interesting week, but I'm back to a normal diet and the only thing is that the right side of my mouth is still pretty sore when I open it very much, and I have this lovely, huge, yellowish bruise. wonderful.

but it is soooo nice to be back on regular food. and it doesn't hurt to eat, just opening my mouth very far is painful so I can't eat very quickly. and I'm already a slow eater normally..... :P

It was really sweet for a lot of people to come during the week! I started getting insanely bored on Tuesday or Wednesday, so having friends over helped a ton. and my friend Mitch spent all of yesterday and most of today here, so the past two days have flown by. yesterday we made chocolate mousse, and today I made truffles for my friend Becca's birthday. I haven't tried them yet but they look amazing. :D

Now, I face the great feat of reintegrating into my normal life. I have this bad habit of either working way too much or way too little. So I'll get insanely busy for awhile, and then as soon as I take a really truly vacation, I never want to go back to my regular routine. But I'm trying to do some useful things today, and so far so good.

One of the things I need to do is create a facebook page for the women's shelter where I stayed this summer in India. The woman who came with me just finished making a website for them, which you absolutely should visit: http://www.shelter-home.org/

The girls/women at the shelter make and embroider these amazingly beautiful scarves, and have been working at turning it into a business as a way to support the shelter for awhile. These scarves are gorgeous, each one is unique, and on average they each take 2-3 days to make (with 3-4 women working most of the day on them). With a little help from us, we're working on marketing their scarves to the US (aka the people with all the money :P). So the website has a whole bunch of their scarves, with detailed pics and everything.

I highly recommend that you buy one. Either for you, or as a gift (trust me, they make amazing gifts!). Read the About Us section to learn more about the Shelter - what they are doing for women is amazing ministry and I've seen personally the opportunity for changed lives. And I know that $25 seems like a lot of money, but $25 can do a lot for the Shelter - and they have next to nothing there....the girls just wear whatever clothes are donated, whether they really fit or not, and sometimes they have so little food that they have to water down their dal to stretch it farther. I know this all sounds really cleche, but this place means a lot to me, and when you think about what we all spend our money on regularly, $25 honestly isn't much.

Ok, there it is. I will now end the plug for the shelter and move on to other subjects. :)

Actually, I don't have much to talk about. Basically I spent all week watching movies and doing a puzzle and hanging our at home. Tomorrow I'm spending the night at Becca's house for her birthday thing, and I guess we're going to see How to Train Your Dragon. Church and worship practice on Sunday. New quarter starts on Monday. :P Another blessing from God: I got the rest of my books today and between book assistance and money from last quarter's books, I had the exact amount I needed for this quarter's books. I literally have only cents left on my gift card for the bookstore. I thought that was pretty amazing. :)

I'm going to get some dinner now. Cheeri-o people!

when the road gets dark/and you can no longer see/just let my love throw a spark/and have a little faith in me

Hello everybody!

I've had all three wisdom teeth removed. I kept them so that I wouldn't lose my wisdom.

I'm not on anything stronger than Tylenol, so I should be more or less coherent in this post. :P

Thank God for hundreds of fantastic movies, books, puzzles, and the internet! The right side of my mouth is still numb and also really really sore, and that kind of bothers me. But ice is helping. My mom is an angel.

I'm soon going to finish Chesterton's biography of Charles Dickens, which ranks as one of the best books I've ever read. It makes me almost as happy as reading a Dickens book! Both men were geniuses.

My parents just got home from walking the dog, and I'm going to start Hercules. Yay for old school Disney movies!!

"A great many dramatic situations begin with screaming."

First order of business - Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone! I'm very festive today...bright green shirt with Irish stuff on it, matching bright green and gold bangles, and green celtic earrings. I'm kind of hoping not to wear this much green again in awhile, because I don't think it's really my color, but it's fun for one day.

I want to have some kind of green food, but I can't decide what.

Next order of business - I have a dreadful cold. I feel like Bilbo after riding the barrels all the way to Dale, when all he can say is "thag you bery buch." Been sleeping a lot and taking vitamins and meds, but so far I just feel terrible. I cancelled lessons today though, which already makes me feel better inside, and after I do my chores and practice I'm planning to lay on the couch for the rest of the day and watch movies or read or something. That is, until I have to go out to Enumclaw for practice with my worship team tonight. But that will be fun and I can sleep in tomorrow.

So the good news is, I'm done with school!!!! I was really freaked out the last twelve hours or so, because last night I got on Angel to submit my art history final paper, and there was a big announcement that my psych teacher made a mistake, and our final was not Thursday morning, but Wednesday morning. So instead of going to bed at 11:00 I stayed up till 1:00 cramming, because I thought I'd have all day today to study. But it was totally God's grace to me, because I was planning to go to bed a lot earlier, and instead I stayed up, and it was just this weird little urge right before crawling into bed that I should submit my paper tonight instead of tomorrow. And if I hadn't gotten on Angel last night, I would have missed my psych test this morning. So thank God for that - and I had time to prepare for it too, even though I only got about 6 hours of sleep.

I was able to schedule a meeting with my advisor for Friday, though normally she isn't meeting any students until next week. This is a great thing because I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on Monday, so I don't know if I would be up to meeting with her next week or not. I used a combination of being really cute and really sick and really desperate and really grateful, and prayed a bit, and somehow it all worked.

I still have to return my book tomorrow though. I went to do it today and then realized I need to have a copy of my schedule with me so they know I was actually in the class. Drat it. I want to be done!!!

*stops whining*

I'm very thankful I get a couple days of actual break before spring break. I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy spring break, because it kind of depends on how the wisdom teeth thing goes. I think I'm going to stock up on soft foods tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I want to make chocolate mousse sometime next week, because that's about the most amazing soft food you'll ever find. :P

And, as I've said already and will probably say again, you are welcome to come at any point in the week and watch movies with me! All of you! I'm thinking of getting a really huge puzzle at Goodwill or something to have going all week long.

aaaaaaaannnnnnddd...............I can't think of anything else right now. Oh, you know that part of You've Got Mail where she's really really sick and just feels terrible and he brings her daisies, and she keeps saying ridiculous things? Yeah, my head is really fuzzy and I feel kind of like that right now. I wish someone would bring me daisies. :)

I should probably consider lunch at some point.

*hugs* I love you guys! You are such great listeners. :P

"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar."

ahhh.......Tillamook Mudslide ice cream is in the freezer, amazing Irish cheese that was on sale is in the fridge, Samoa girl scout cookies are in the pantry, chai tea latte is in my tummy, and my parents are in Salt Lake City. All weekend.

:D :D :D

Needless to say, it's going to be a good weekend.

Tonight I'm going to put in some great movie, get warm pruny hands doing the dishes, email Mitchell, take a really hot bath, and read G.K. Chesterton's biography of Dickens.....stay up as late as I want.

Tomorrow I'm going to sleep in as late as I want. At some point I'll do a little housework, take the dog on a really long walk (so he'll take a really long nap!), write my super-short art history final paper (500-700 words), talk the retirement home center people down the street into letting me have a recital there in May, and perhaps read a little psychology for that last test on Thursday. And practice piano for the rest of the day. And hopefully the dog won't whine and howl his head off while I'm practicing.

I just got my worship music and it's a really good set, and it's not going to be very difficult for me either which is nice.

Today I skipped my last psych quiz (he drops the lowest score and I have a 4.0 so it didn't matter) so I could get my food handler's permit renewed. I drove to Bellevue and back without getting lost even a teensy bit. Then I worked out longer than usual with my friend and it actually felt good. And Footloose was playing at the beginning of my workout, so I was really energetic. :P Then I drove my parents to the airport and dropped them off. Came back home and practiced for a bit, then drove out to my piano teacher's, where her husband was giving this class thing to some of us students on how we got the piano and how it works, and all kinds of fun trivia. And I really really really really really want to play a Boesendorfer 290 Imperial (which has 97 keys instead of the normal 88). My friend Bret says it's the greatest piano in the world. And so does everybody else....

Oh, the choir concert was on Wednesday! It went quite well - I made a mistake I thought was rather major while playing accompaniment for one of our songs and absolutely nobody noticed it at all. I am learning that great strength: covering up your weaknesses well. And I was not as nervous as I could have been, so that too is getting better, slowly but surely. The most exciting news is that I get to be in choir again next quarter! I was planning to take logic and it was going to interfere, but I switched stuff around and now I have choir at 9:00, modern world history with one of my fave teachers at 10:00, and a writing class with my other fave teacher at 11:00. It's going to be a fantastic quarter!

Of course, switching stuff around means I'll be killing myself next fall quarter with the load I'm going to have to take, but whatever. I won't be taking piano anymore next fall, and when my lessons are over I'll have so much more time! Ah.....June will be here soon you guys. AND - this quarter in choir we're doing musical theater type songs!! Like maybe a medley from Wicked, and amazingly cool stuff like that. So I'm really excited. And I can't play piano this quarter, but that means I get to sing more and I won't be as stressed about it because I won't have piano stuff to learn. It's all pretty much perfect.

I am now going to go see what kind of trouble the dog is into, and pick a good movie and start the dishes.

Believe in dreams you love so much

Let the passion of your heart make them real

And tell all the ones you love

Anything and everything you feel

P.S. To top all this wondefulness off, I got the Gladiator soundtrack and it is like ten lightyears beyond epic! AMAZING. And I'm making my friend Mitchell read Pride and Prejudice and he's actually enjoying it. And....(yes there's more) we're going to a swing dance on Sunday night and Mitchell is coming with us, which means I'll have a partner for the whole night! And he's as excited as I am - which if you know me and dancing that's pretty impressive. *sigh* In the words of Jane Bennet, why can't everyone be as happy as I am?

"The key to productivity is to rotate what you're avoiding."

Well, I am back, and I'm supremely disappointed. NO COMMENTS? seriously, you guys.....

just kidding. ;) I know you're all busy and maybe you had a busy weekend too. no worries.

a couple of new things:

1) the snow (well, so there wasn't any snow but it was cold....) retreat was fantastic. I would rave about how it's the best one I've ever been on, but since I've only been on one other, that doesn't make a ton of sense. but honestly, it was pretty incredible. Saturday was great because I had no homework to worry about, and I got to just be a kid and not worry about anything much for the whole day. we got to relax and work on our hearts and our friendships. took a walk through the epic, mountainous woods and talked to God for half an hour. we did a scavenger hunt and ended it by singing Father Abraham. I didn't really want to sing Father Abraham, so I told Alex and Craig (on guitar) that I'd do it only if they played it in B-flat (thinking that they wouldn't). Roger told them what the chords were and so before I knew it all the girls were spinning in circles and marching. I ended up having a pretty good time anyway, and will add it to my list of successes that I got a guitarist to play in a flat key. though now I'm thinking that I should have picked D-flat..... :P

did a little rock climbing (arms are sore!). played a little Wareo (playing War and eating Oreos). made a ton of inside jokes and laughed until we cried and our abs hurt like none other. played Apples to Apples. sat by the fire with a good book. drank way too much hot chocolate. journaled a little, dug deep a little, had a really, really good conversation. threw a surprise birthday party for one of our girls who turned 15. learned how to do crazy things with cups in the dining hall. played Ninja for hours........ok, I mostly just watched. got sprayed pretty heavily with purple hair color - the temporary stuff that washes out. had some intense and deeply satisfying worship. made collages about our feelings of the weekend. deepened friendships.

came home and collapsed.

2) I met a guy in my choir class, and he's turning into a good friend. and don't freak out like the rest of the world and assume that I have a crush on him, because I don't. his name is Mitchell, and he's really sweet, attentive, and actually interesting. and he has a serious girlfriend, so he's only looking for friendship as well. it's practically perfect in every way.

anyway, about two weeks ago he asked me to help him with a composition he was working on for his computer music class, and I said I would. we grabbed a practice room during my free hour and I gave him a bunch of pointers for how to make it better. after we did that, we spent the rest of the hour just talking about all kinds of random stuff - it was really cool. he gave me his email, and we've been emailing back and forth quite a lot. all this is just to say, guy friends are really nice to have.

3) our choir concert is next Wednesday, the 10th, at 7:30. I think it's free but I still need to make sure of that. today we got the risers out and we're going to practice like that from now on - it's super fun doing it this way! I was playing the piano, and we sounded really good. anyway, you guys are certainly welcome to come if you want to. and let me know when your concert is too, for those of you who are in choir!

4) in other news, my car's brakes have been fixed! My bank account has had a signifcant hole knocked in it, but much less significant than it could have been if we'd taken it to the shop. thank you God for providing!

5) and last but most definitey not least, I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled over spring break. Monday the 22nd I lose the things forever. I'm planning to spend most of that week eating Jello, popsicles, and mashed potatoes, and watching chick flicks and Disney movies. I'm letting any and everybody know that they're welcome to come join me for however long they want. if this sounds like fun, just let me know when you're gonna show up! and come on, you know it sounds like fun. I've never been on pain meds before and it'll probably be pretty darn entertaining for the first couple of days at least.

five is a good round number and I'm going to stop at that. not to mention I've got homework and stuff to do............neverending..................