Christmas Time!

I just want to mention a couple of my favorite things about Christmas Time.

First of all, the happiness. I love how the Spirit helps to make people so happy! I love seeing people walking around with a smile on their face because they've tried a little harder to keep their thoughts focused on the Savior and on helping others. I wish people would always stay so focused so that happiness could always be so thick in the air.

I love the lights. Christmas lights are so wonderful and beautiful. They help to remind me of the Savior, and that He is a light for us; that looking toward Him will help us to be happy and help us to see through the darkness.

The music. Songs about Jesus Christ that are sounded all across the nation, gladdening hearts everywhere and bringing the spirit into many lives. Music that can soften the heart and turn people to look selflessly outward.

People. People everywhere, with thoughts on their minds of giving instead of getting. People who are focused on others are so beautiful to see, to talk to, to watch, to hear. It is so wonderful to see people with a smile on their lips as they walk with a close friend or family member, eager to see their face when they unveil the wonderful surprise they have for them. People laughing, skipping, running, smiling, singing, holding hands, handing off presents, presenting surprises, surprising each other with acts of kindness. Adventuring. People who get that it doesn't matter where you go, what you do, what you gift, what you get, as long as you are focused on other people and the savior. People who would sing even if the Grinch took all their presents and fancy decorations because they can feel the Savior's love and they have each other.

Laughter. Hearing people laugh, seeing people smile. It just shows that people are happy, and it makes others happy as well! Laughing is literally a way to share your happiness!!

Food. Food is good. And candy. And Chocolate. Oh, and pie; we mustn't forget pie.

The cold. I'm not sure why, but around Christmas Time, I love the fact that it's cold outside! The chill in the air is so refreshing! And it helps people to be grateful for their warm cozy houses and their delicious hot chocolate. It gives one another reason to be close to loved ones. It helps one remember the humble circumstances of Christ's birth.

The stories. Stories are so beautiful. I love to hear touching tales of the lives of people; a time where somebody made another's Christmas though selfless service and charity. I love to hear reminders of the true meaning of Christmas. I love to get to know people better through tales of their lives.

The love. To see a general shift from people being grumpy to people being grateful. For people expressing their love for the Savior, for each other, for Christmas, for friends, for family, for food. I love hearing that people love stuff!!! It's far too easy to dislike something; and around Christmas Time, we realize that liking that very same thing leads to much happiness! It's too easy to say, "This song is dumb. It's cheesy, and it has nothing to do with what Christmas is really about." But it's far for enjoyable to let it make you smile, and to dance about to it, and say it's cute, and then remember what Christmas is about anyway!! Why would you let yourself be unhappy in such a time of love? People love things for a reason, and if you can figure out how to love the things they love, you come to love them more as well. That's what Christmas is about. Learning to love as Jesus loved.

Folks, I love Christmas.

Trail of the Angels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=ABOxTtxJxNw&feature=endscreen

Can you feel that?

Dirait-on

"Abandon entouré d'abandon, tendresse touchant aux tendresses... 
C'est ton intérieur qui sans cesse se caresse, dirait-on; 
se caresse en soi-même, par son propre reflet éclairé. 
Ainsi tu inventes le thème du Narcisse exaucé."

Timpview Choir, you make me cry. 
Music is so beautiful; thank you for sharing of your sweet spirit.
Thank you for giving that to me.

Dirait-on tel amour mon coeur,
Pour la musique est tel amour.
(Yes, I did write that just for you.)

Just a Week

            So let me guess. You’re here to read about my life. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Quite a lot of crazy shenanigans have been happenin’ lately, so I am going to share some of my experiences over the past few days with you. For your convenience, I am going to provide with both the short version and the long version, and you may choose which you would like to read.

June:

            I’m not working the next show at the Scera, so I don’t have to work every evening this month. Instead I’d like to try out some freelance bagpiping or something and see how I fare. I’m going to single’s ward now, and I don’t really know anybody in that ward, but my stake is awesome. Institute is also really fun, so you should all come. I’ve been doing a lot of cool stuff like running and swimming and such, and going to seven peaks and overall just adventuring Provo because there are still things I don’t know about it. Also I’m getting good at chess. Challenge me, if you dare.

Lately:

Short Version:

            Last Saturday I got to go boating with Kate and it was super awesome but it made me really sore, and it was great. After that I went to the quadruple birthday party thing, but I didn’t really do much there because I was so wiped out from boating. On Monday I played some Frisbee which further exhausted me. I love Frisbee. On Tuesday I got to go to see DCI! Yay! I love DCI; it’s rather exciting. But anyway, I didn’t get back from that until about midnight, and at that point I went down to my family’s parade spot to guard it and protect my cousins from all the crazies gallivanting around the town. And holy cow, I’ve never seen so many completely insane people. Why in the world would hundreds of people yell and scream and party into 3 in the morning?! That was complete insanity. So basically I got to sleep at 4:30. The next morning I woke up at 5:30 to get ready to run the Freedom Run! This was my first time running a 5K off of 1 hour of sleep, but I still managed to improve my time by more than 2 minutes. Which is not half bad. Anyway, after that I went to the parade and yelled cheery things at the Timpview band when they played. That night I watched the fireworks for stadium of fire out on my Grandparents’ lawn (which has a picture perfect view, by the way.) Also my car got stranded a block away from my house due to stadium traffic. The next morning I woke up and got to go to Lagoon with the Timpview Band (they needed another chaperone) so all day I was partying there and just having a grand old time. Friday/Saturday I went camping with my family and got to see some epic dinosaur bones and schwim in a reservoir. Basically I could sleep for a week right now, and I’ve had the best week ever.

Long Version

            Alright, here I go. Lots of writing. Yay! So the boating last Saturday was a total party, and you should look at the pictures on Facebook because they’re probably much more exciting than whatever I may be writing here. Basically it was Kate’s parents, Kate, Cami, Riley, John W, and myself all having a total party out on Utah lake. We didn’t do any wakeboarding or anything (except for Riley who somehow managed to wrangle himself onto someone else’s boat) but we did do a lot of tubing. At first we had two tubes, but then we switched them out for a bigger one that you could stand up on and was super intense, which at one point we fit all us kids onto and had tube battles of craziness. The water was warm and wonderful (except for some weird cold patches) and the sun was magnificent. Story! Riley and I were on the big tube (Cami and Kate and John were floating off in the water somewhere) and Kate’s Dad was trying to throw us licorice, but it generally ended up sinking to the bottom of the lake. A few tries in he threw one and I jumped after it and managed to catch it before it sank to the bottom. I got it back on the tube then yelled back “Thirty second rule!” Sometimes I’m funny. And no, I didn’t actually eat it. Nasty water. But anyway, I want to go boating much more often now.

            Last Saturday evening there was a quadruple birthday party for four of my fantastic friends, and it was super great because so many people were there! Many of whom I missed very much due to not seeing them previously in the summer. I was very tired, so I did not participate in the volleyball shenanigans and such, but I did play some people at chess (and I didn’t do great at that, either.) There was also good food there; particularly watermelon. I feel like I like watermelon a lot more than most people do. But hey, I’m fine with that. Also there should be more parties of that variety.

            Monday night Frisbee was wonderful. I need to play more often. I discovered that it’s really hard to judge how far one of the light-up Frisbees is going to go because you can only see the one dot and not the angle or anything, so I’m going to have to practice night-time play.

            On Tuesday night I went to see DCI (for those of you who don’t know, this is Drum Corpse International, and it’s basically professional marching bands.) For some reason I had a staff ticket, so I was sitting in the nice seats next to Mr. Hearld, but I wanted to see the shows from higher up, so at intermission I went and sat up next to the band. There was a band there called the Crusaders that I absolutely loved. I can’t believe I haven’t heard of them before, because they were pretty darn good. I also really liked Phantom Regiment this year, and I was sad that the Cadets weren’t there because last year they were so good! I think the shows were a little less exciting than last year, but they were still amazing. Most of them just had weird or lame music like SCV. DCI made me excited to visit Timpview during Fall Band. It’s going to be odd not performing with them.

            After DCI, at around 12:30 AM I believe, I went down to our parade spot, which was next to Seven Eleven. At Seven Eleven there were hundreds of hoodlums crazily partying, surrounded by police officers watching for trouble. There were also crazies cruising the streets on bikes or scooters or in cars or even atop segways, and nutters just walking around looking for some “fun.” I was completely astonished by the level of unwise activities going on as late as 4 in the morning. I really had no idea that south Provo got that insane on the night before the fourth. Where did all those people come from, and why weren’t they at home in their beds asleep?! Anyway, I had to stay up to guard all my cousins from some of those sketchy people, and plus it was too loud and bright to conceivably sleep anyway (except somehow my cousin Ashley slept through everything. I’m still impressed by that.) That last thing I heard before I slept for maybe an hour was “let’s go get breakfast now” from a passing stranger.

            After my little nap I went home and changed into my little freedom run shirt and drank some juice or something, and then I went to the starting line of the race. I felt kind of sick from not sleeping, but I’ve felt worse and still run, so I was not deterred. The actual race was really fun, and the course was exciting because I saw so many friendly familiar faces along the parade route! I kept trying to talk to the people running with me, but none of them would say anything back, and I’m pretty sure they all thought I was a weirdo. My final time was 26 minutes and 42 seconds, which I guess is okay. I might run another one on the 14^th and try to break 25 minutes. Afterward they gave us powerade and ice cream sandwiches and stuff, so obviously I couldn’t have been happier.

            When I was done eating ice cream sandwiches (which I didn’t know was possible until that day [being done, I mean.]) I went to watch the actual parade. It was really fun to see my Timpview band march by and get to see what it actually looks like, but I missed marching in it. Overall the parade was more boring than I thought it would be. I wished I could have seen the bands for longer and everything else for not as long. Actually there was some other awesome stuff, like some girls doing acrobatics on horses (not quite as cool as horseback archery, but great all the same), and I couldn’t argue with pretty girls on floats smiling and waving at me, but I wasn’t much interested in politicians in old cars driving by or sirens blaring in my face. I also got to beat some second cousins at chess, though, so it was good.

            That night I got to chill with my cousins some more and watch the awesome stadium fireworks, which I would say were the best fireworks that I’ve ever seen. Basically I just love my family. They’re great. And my grandpa is a fantastic cook and root beer brewer. After that I was going to help kidnap Dani for her birthday, but the traffic was so horrendous that I could hardly get two blocks home. Every time there’s a game or something like this cars park all along both sides of the street all over my neighborhood so that only one car can fit between them, and then cars try to go both ways through and it’s a nightmare.

            Chaperoning the band Lagoon day on the fifth of July was just plain amazing. I’m so happy that I got to see so many of my little band friends again! Most of the day I hung out with Derek and Nate and Allison and Daniel, and we probably had the most fun out of anyone there. We considerably cheered up all the poor people who have to run all of those theme park game things by talking to them, and we nearly made Nate throw up from spinning in the spinny cup on the merry-go-round. We did that last year too, and almost made Nick sick. Oh, good times. Anyway, some of the rides at Lagoon are starting to seem slightly boring and slow, as opposed to when I was scared to death of them when I was small. I really want to try the catapult thing, but it’s really expensive. Bleh. Oh well. I still have fantastically fun days every time I go. I very much like intense rides and spinning stuff. And I cannot get enough of that awesome funnel cake! Also, Nate, you still owe me $10. Actually 12 because of the other 2 I lent you to get in.

            On Friday I went camping with my family, and Robert and I had to sleep in a tent because there’s not room for all of us to sleep in the RV. After we got in the tent it started to pour, and the rainfly started leaking. Also the tent smelled weird from some scout campout. Robert and I were laughing for like half an hour because it was so awful. Luckily the rain stopped and we managed to be mostly dry by morning.

            The next morning we got to go swimming in the reservoir (I forgot which one, but it was somewhere near Duchesne, I think.) The water was very cold, but it was still fun, because there were really cool rocks in it and even some ammonite fossils (nothing like the ones we found in Myrup’s field Ecology class though.) After that we went to two different dinosaur museums, and I got to see more real fossils than I ever have before. Really, it was stunningly awesome. I felt like a legit paleontologist, only I didn’t have to do the boring stuff like coat bones in plaster. Anyway, I had a ridiculously awesome week. I love adventuring. J

People Sometimes Have the Same Thoughts

Sometimes something good comes from a catastrophe. 

If you need a friend, 

Don't look to a stranger.

You know in the end, 

I'll always be there.

And when you're in doubt,

And when you're in danger,

Take a look all around, 

And I will be there.

I'm sorry but I'm just thinking of the right words to say;

I know that they don't sound the way I planned them to be,

But if you wait around a while, I'll make you fall for me,

I promise you, I promise you I will.

When your day is through,

And so is your temper,

You know what to do, 

I'm gonna always be there.

Sometimes if I shout, 

It's not what's intended.

These words just come out,

With no gripe to bear. 

I'm sorry but I'm just thinking of the right words to say,

I know that they don't sound the way I planned them to be,

And if I have to walk the world to make you fall for me,

I promise you, I promise you I will. 

Heart beats fast

Colors and promises

How to be brave

How can I love

When I'm afraid to fall

But watching you stand alone

All of my doubt

Suddenly goes away

Somehow

I have died every day

Waiting for you

Darling don't be afraid

I have loved you 

For a thousand years

I'll love you for

A thousand more

All along I believed

I would find you

Time has brought

You heart to me

I have loved you

For a thousand years

I'll love you for

A thousand more.

And sometimes something wonderful comes from something wonderful

You, doin' that thing you do,

Breaking my heart into a million pieces

Like you always do.

And you, don't mean to be cruel,

You never even knew about the heartache

I've been going through.

Well I try and try to forget you, girl, 

But it's just so hard to do

Every time you do that thing you do. 

I know all the games you play,

And I'm gonna find a way to let you know

That you'll be mind someday.

'Cause we could be happy, can't you see?

If you'd only let me be the one to hold you

And keep you here with me

'Cause I try and try to forget you, girl,

But it's just so hard to do

Every time you do that thing you do

I don't ask a lot girl, 

But I know one thing's for sure.

It's the love I haven't got, girl,

And I just can't take it anymore

'Cause it hurts me so just to see you go

Around with someone new,

And if I know you you're doing that thing,

Every day just doing that thing,

I can't take you doing that thing you do. 

And sometimes your life has absolutely nothing to do with any of the songs stuck in your head. 

But sometimes it does. 

Music Without Sound

Things like this. Standing on a cute little bridge in the sunlight, blowing dandelion seeds out over the river as you relax and enjoy the pure beauty that surrounds you. This to me is just as much music as music is. 

Other things, like a smile, a laugh, a dragonfly, a drop of sunlight, a bright night sky, a kind word or a butterfly, a Warbler's tune, a duckling's flight, a quail's waddle or flash of light, a scone, strawberries bathed in cream, a tiny flower, a quiet stream, hiking a hill, climbing a tree, all can make a symphony. 

Sometimes I wax poetic. But the point is, anything from a pun to a tadpole can be music if only you care enough to listen for it. It would be tragic to be so focused on other things that you miss the music that surrounds you. 

It's 11:27 and I've got a lot to do, so I'll make this blog post short just for you.

Two plates of brownies, Two liters of soda, a pizza, an answer to senior ball, music, friends, happiness, and getting paid to do it.

You wonder why I like my job?

So Many Things Happen

Wendy and Cami's senior recital was the best thing ever. If I had piano skills even half as refined as Wendy's, I would do nothing other than play the piano. I love watching amazing musicians play music. It just makes me happy. I especially liked the bit during the senior recital when Christian burst in dripping with sweat, played Stubernic, then sprinted back to his soccer game. That was a very interesting performance of Stubernic indeed. I shall not forget it easily.

Also the A Capella concert was absolutely magnificent. I love choir concerts so much, because they're basically music parties with all of my very favorite people there. People are so nice.

There's a lot more to say about this day, like my being at school for 15 hours, but I really need to sleep now. If I can go to school tomorrow even though I don't need to, I will have proven that senioritis can be conquered.

So... It Has Come To This

The End.

For truly. I just performed in my very last Percussion concert ever. With Timpview, anyway.
And it was fun, because I somehow managed to weasel my way into playing in nearly every song!

First I played in Bien Sobroso, which was a party, and then I played a happy little solo (I wasn't aware that I was supposed to play a solo until today, so I hadn't practiced it in quite a while, and didn't really do very well, but that's okay. I had fun.) After that I played in Slavonic Dance, which I got the music for 2 days ago, and I still managed to play pretty well. I'm proud of myself. Then I played in the Bells, and then Why Not, which I've had the music for for four forevers, so they were easy, but still really fun. Then everybody got to play in Mo Java, which basically means we had a grand old time.

Oh, life is grand when all you have to do is wander around and hit stuff.

Phone Pictures

 Sometimes I walk up to the temple at night. It's always pretty fantastic. 

 You know it's spring when there's green grass poking through the snow. 

 Shoes! 

 Bald Soprano. What a beautiful, beautiful play. I still quote it constantly. 

 Same color!

 A Nutella Oreo. It actually tasted pretty terrible. I wouldn't recommend it. Ever. It was like chocolate paste on cardboard. 

 Fish sticks and custard, on the other hand, really tasted pretty good. 

 My lovely little yarn snowman named Andrew. Too bad Kat ruthlessly unraveled him while he was still young. 

 Ummm...

 Gee, I wonder who wrote what.... Not. 

 I felt honored that there was a statue of me.

 A dragon for Kristen. 

 Despite the blurryness, I still think this picture is cute. Mostly because Kat's in it.

 I think these are my favorite people ever. 

 :)

 Boss it. 

 They're in a fight. 

 Sometimes I beat Joseph at checkers. Like always. 

 Bald Soprano Shoes!

 Flowers. I like flowers. Flowers are manly. I bet you could shoot roses out of a bow and arrow. 

 I love it when it rains ice. 

 This is that one time that I beat Riley at Blokus. 

 Run. Run for your life. 

 At Jacob Jespersen's Farewell. There were so many people there! I wish I knew half that many people! Jacob is a good guy. We'll all miss him, but he'll be a top-notch missionary. 

 My greatest chalking endeavor. I think it's pretty good, if I do say so myself. 

 This is Rebecca. She gave me a private concert, because I could not attend her senior recital. How is she so perfect? The world may never know, but will always be happy because of her. 

 Yes, I made this for Riley's birthday. Brownie chess cake = awesome. 

 That was a good ballroom concert. I liked it. 

 Our shoes are on a date. 

So are we. 

 I found Pinocchio. 

 Once upon a time I started walking, and I just kept walking until I found a little trail, and off that trail I found a path, with lead to a smaller deer trail, which I followed until I found deer, and then I climbed some stuff, and then it was getting dark so I scrambled back down the mountain. It was a good day. 

 Bushes with flowers growing out of the top are cooler than a polar bear on a windy day. 

 It's hard to see it in the picture, but the chalk board has an arrow pointing to Ree, and a label that says "Ree Lu." It's cool. 

 Fancy Hair. 

 Joseph in the ceiling? 

 We're cute in our dance co shirts. 

 So what's new?

 I love this Maren!

 It's not that way it's over here! 

 Oh, small children. 

Yes, I got a picture with Rick Riordan. Yes, I am the only one who got a picture with Rick Riordan. Yes, sometimes it is beneficial to be on tech. 

If Ever There Was a Time for Tears

That was very likely the last time that I will ever perform on the Timpview Stage. I'm leaving. Graduating. Hundreds of my brothers and sisters will I never see again. This was so beautiful, too. Everything was so perfect, and so happy, and so sad. I am of course looking forward to meeting new people and everything, and I know that I really will see these people again someday, but it's very emotional for me nonetheless. I just wish I could do something more for each of these people. Something that they will never forget, and will change their beautiful unique lives for the better forever. I wish that I could really show everyone how much I love them, but no matter what I do is not enough.

I can't give them a real gift by just setting up lights for their shows. It's not even enough to pour my soul into the music we play, so that our musical gift is the best it can possibly be. But what can I do? I'm so very small. Just a tiny dot in a world that billions and billions of people have lived and will live on. Most of them I will never be able to see, or help, but I want to! What can I do? I want to know.

Sometimes I think that what I've done is special, or that I do a lot for other people, but I don't. I feel terrible when I look back at how many people I could've helped, but I was too caught up in my tiny little world of my own to notice. I was too selfish, or too "busy" to help one of my eternal siblings in a time of need. And here I am again, being "tired" when there's so much work to be done--that needs to be done and needs me to do it.

My thought train sort of ran away from me there. Basically, I will very much miss the Timpview Band when I have to leave, and all of the people in it. And all of the other people that I've ever met. I even miss the people who I haven't met yet and it's driving me insane! I know that there are so many people out there who I know and love, but I don't know how I'm going to find them!

I'm so very excited to serve a mission. I want to find my brothers and sisters, and make sure that we can get back to the celestial kingdom together. 

A Good Day

Wake up at 6 to work all day? Usually, that wouldn't sound so fun, but in this case, I didn't really have to work so much as babysit the auditorium, which included having a music party, playing the piano, and chilling with friends, and getting paid to do it. Yes, I'd say state drama was a wonderful success. Not to mention the fact that our 1 act play got first place, straight superiors, and Parker and Miriam won the respective best actor and best actress awards, and they certainly deserved them! I also awarded myself the laziest techie award.

After state, I went to Kat's house for a few minutes just to chill, and then I went to the Woodruff's house where I beat Aaron Davis at chess, even with the handicap of me starting missing my castles and my knights. And then we had a wonderful party at Pizza Pie Cafe, which is always great. Always. Finally, we went to Steph Tidwell's house and just chilled for another 45 minutes or so. It was a good day. A good good day.

Things I Really Like Right Now

Scholarships
Letters
Chalk
Frisbee
Phone Calls
Music
People (Rye, Jesp, Kat, Kate, Miriam, Maren, Karli, Cami, Tayla, Zoe, Wendy, Miranda, Shelby, Woodruffs!) Of course that's not all, though. I like many many more people than that. Just particularly those people right now.

Symphonic Tour Number the Last

The itinerary:


Monday, April 2 

7:30am  Everyone please help load the trailer (chairs, stands, percussion, heavy metal)

8:05am  GO TO CLASS!!!
Yeah, right........

12:20pm  Load buses

12:40pm  Meeting in bandroom (have your  itinerary on you and be ready to name everyone in SB)

12:50pm  Leave Timpview, sack lunch from home

2:30pm  Arrive Wellington; rest stop at park (snacks?)

3:00pm  Leave Wellington

5:00pm  Arrive Moab; dinner ($)

5:45pm  Arrive Grand CountyHigh School; section rehearsals

7:00pm  Full rehearsal

8:30pm  Meeting (snacks?)

9:30pm  Leave Moab

10:30pm  Arrive in Monticello; Check in at Inn at the Canyons 435.487.2458

11:30pm  Lights Out    

Tuesday, March 29 

7:00am  UP!

7:45am  Leave the motel; walk to the temple
It was soooo windy and freezing cold, so a very nice man let us into the church next to the temple and we ate in there.

8:00am  Arrive Monticello Temple; Breakfast (P)

8:30am  Leave the Temple, walk to MHS

8:45am  Meet the equipment truck at Monticello HS

9:00am  Clinic with Mr. Erickson

10:30am  Combined rehearsal with Monticello HS

11:15am  Leave Monticello; sack lunch (P)

11:45noon Arrive Blanding; Tour Edge of the Cedars State Park
Fun stuff

1:00pm  Leave Blanding

2:00pm  Arrive Goosenecks State Park
Wonderful place.

2:15pm  Leave Goosenecks

3:00pm  Arrive Montezuma Creek; rehearsal at Whitehorse HS

4:00pm  Combined rehearsal with Whitehorse Band
They were so very cool. I miss them.

5:30pm  Dinner (P) with Whitehorse students 

7:00pm  Leave Montezuma Creek

8:30pm  Arrive Monticello; attend "Wassermusik" recital
We went swimming.

10:30pm  In rooms

11:30pm  Lights Out

Wednesday, March 30

6:30am  Augen aufmachen!

7:15am  Leave Monticello

7:45am  Breakfast at Wilson Arch (P)
We didn't eat there, but it was a wonderful arch.

8:30am  Arrive Hole in the Rock House

9:00am  Leave Hole in the Rock

10:15pm  Arrive Green River; rest stop

10:45pm  Leave Green River

11:45noon Arrive Price; Lunch ($)

12:30pm  Leave Price

1:45pm  Arrive Maple Mountain HS; change into black

2:30pm  Symphonic Band warm up

3:00pm  Symphonic Band performance; Concert Band listens
I think we did well. :)

3:30pm  Both bands listen to Provo

4:00pm  Concert Band warm up; Symphonic Band listens to Orem

4:30pm  Concert Band performance; Symphonic Band listens

5:00pm  both bands load buses; both bands leave Maple Mountain HS

6:00pm  both bands arrive Timpview HS














I am going to miss band a ridiculous amount. This tour was so fun! And basically it just made me amazingly happy to be with my awesome and wonderful band friends. Especially Asher, Nate, Kate, Cami, Wendy, Mary, Allison, Macy, Ree, Nick, Christian, Kent, Bao, Etc... 


And playing frisbee with Joseph and Josh and people was awesome. And me and Ree chilling whilst the band rehearsed Elsa's, exactly like last year (we even talked about the same exact things.) And I enjoyed the bus rides, where we listened to Mr. Tippetts tell us stories for hours, and I told riddles to Cami and Nate and laughed to myself as they figured them out. And the good weather (well, mostly good weather) and just the wonderful happiness that band brings. 


And of course game night was glorious. Playing Indian Attack was absolutely classic. Oh band, how I shall miss thee. What a wonderful thing. 


There's really nothing like band tour at all. Nothing out in the whole wide world. 


I love adventuring, and I love people. 

This Is Glorious

Stars Assembly

On Friday I got to see the stars assembly, which I think was much more marvelous than it ever has been in years past.

There were actually some pretty good songs that were sung, particularly Ali and Alex singing "I see the Light" from Tangled, as well as Riley, Kate, and Jake's improv singing. There was also some great dancing; Megan and Nathan did a cool Ballroom dance, and some Asian girls did an awesome super Asian dance, which was actually my favorite part of the assembly. Here it is:

Also there was some type of weird moonwalk dancing that was really cool, done by Christian Campbell and Sam Teng and some other guy. The start is boring, but skip ahead like 30 seconds and it's really cool:

 The thing I was most disappointed about in the assembly was that Christian and Kent and Wendy didn't get to play Stubernic because the people wouldn't give them enough time! Lame!

Also, the second assembly got cut off short due to lack of time, so half of the groups didn't even get to perform again, and half the school didn't get to see some of the awesomest stuff. Over all, though, I actually enjoyed it.

Some More Musics

Here's to Concert Percussion:

Anyway, the point is that I played at BYU today with the Symponic Band. It was actually pretty awesome, although my music is just a little bit on the boring side. But hey, that's life, right? Anyway, I love the symphonic band; we sound amazing. That's basically all.

76 Trombones and 1 Bass Drum Player

Today started out fairly normal. Alright, at the rate this is going, this is going to be a bad post.
Let me start again.

Arghh, and avast, ye mateys! I done spotted land close to yonder shore thus beetafil' spring mornin', as me ship sailed to the cereal filled land of Journalism. After that adventure, I started walking to seminary, when I was interrupted by me favorite band student teacher Mr. Tippets. So, he says to me, he says "Sonny, I have a job for ye to do.  And I says back to him, "Any task can I complete." So basically, he tells me that I need to play in a concert at BYU tonight and sight read the music for it. WHAT?!?!?!? So, obviously, that kinda scared me, but I continued on me way anyway. And then I did EHS during 8th period in the journalism lab, and was happily joined by Riley and Kat.

Later that day...

I went to Timpanogas to spielen some music for region solo and ensemble, and we were way ahead of schedule, so the judge had me play right when I got there even though I was fifteen minutes earlier than my original time, so I didn't have time to warm up or anything. And, SURPRISE! My music was terrible. As I played it my ears cried and my spirit fled from my body. At School solo/ensemble I did pretty good, so I assumed that I'd do good at region too. Now I'm not even sure that I played the same song. It was hideous. After my tragic solo moment I somehow regained my composure and managed to perform decently in my ensembles, but that was definitely the end of my marimba solo life. The results are obvious, I got a 1- on my solo so I didn't make it to state, and the two ensembles both got 1's so I can still go to state.

Even later that day...

I rushed home from me solo-sailin', an' I wen' upon the high seas where I found me a de jong concert hall. This went much better than solo/ensemble. I thoroughly enjoyed sight reading the Bass drum part to 76 Trombones for 76 Trombones, arranged by Dan Barrett, who's an awesome Jazz Trombonist, in the concert, and I actually did fairly decently. (It was really easy music, but that's not the point. The point is that I got to play music in the de jong with BYU with Steve Call, and Dan Barrett conducting, and super awesome music majors all around me and it was SO COOL!!!! Basically it was the bestest most amazing thing ever. I felt special.) There's a video of it that will supposedly end up on youtube and that I will hunt for until I find so that I can post it on here.

Words cannot describe. Well, they can, but I'm too lazy to put that much effort into doing that right now, mostly because it's very lates at night.

Okay, No More Urgh.

The play is over. Completely. Except for the hour or two it will take to rectify all of the tech mess that I dumped onto the PSS cart because I did not want to deal with it. I will now be able to sleep, and I won't have the two-and-a-half hours during the play in which I must keep coming up with depressing things to contemplate. I may also be the only person in history to have utterly convinced myself that the bendy light on the light board was a soup faucet. Maybe Brower will stop telling me that I should've tried out for the play, now that it's over.
One day, I will get money for what I've done, and then I can buy a celebratory milkshake.

I am definitely happy right now.

But before I put "A Winter's Tale" to rest in my mind forever, I would like to make note of a couple things.

Lauren + Miriam + Kat = Very beautiful in their dresses.

Riley + Jake = Not okay looking in their dresses.

Debussy is my friend now.

Parker Christensen is very good at explaining how Riley gets eaten by a bear.

Playing Pirates of the Carribean music before the show on closing night is exciting.

This is one play that I did not memorize while teching it.

I made many of my own happy additions to the script. I think it's much more interesting my way.

For all of you who think I played computer games during the whole play every day just because I had my laptop back there, you're wrong. I only did that a tiny bit. I wrote my Journalism article. And I played Chess like once.

It's not actually that scary to sit on a swivel chair on an eight foot hollow box after you get used to it.

It's really fun to talk about the future as if it's already happened. Such as, "By the time I go to bed, I will have finished this blog post." Admit it, that's much more exciting than "I will finish this blog post before I go to bed."

Kat's parents are fantastic. They bought me a Jamba Juice before the show twice. You really cannot get nicer than that.

It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Shakespeare dudes! You'all the best!

Carol of Joy

Tonight I went to the choir concert at Timpview. When the a cappella sang Carol of Joy, I died. It was one of the most amazing, beautiful, and inspiring things that I have ever heard in my entire life. I love every single person in choir to death. Thank you all for that incredible experience. I could sit there and listen to that forever and ever. It may have just taken the place of Hymn to the Fallen as my favorite song. Music is perfect. 

Unrelated to this topic is that I went to do add contacts with Riley today, and it was actually fun! Why didn't I think of doing them with someone earlier? We even got free chocolate at Rocky Mountain Chocolate; best truffle I've ever had in my life.