happy, happy, merry, merry

"On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
two turtle doves,
and a partridge in a pear tree."
The twleve days of Christmas - what a great invention for procastinators like me! :)
But seriously, Merry Christmas to all my friends around the world.

a sappy true story

i usually post on blogger and myspace cause my friend in China can't read blogger there... huh?? anyway, in response to my last post about Switchfoot, she wrote...
"So the violin is a him not a her! hmmm interesting. Now I am wondering the gender of other instruments? Are all violins hims? or just yours?"

so in response to that...
i don't know about other violins never mind other instruments, but my violin is a he because it's name is Vio III (yes, that's "Vio the third") and that sounds more male than female, right? back in the day when i was in elementary school i found myself calling my first violin "Vio" so i decided that was its name. my family is notorious for naming inanimate objects. all of our cars have had colorful names and my mom calls her flute "her first baby", so that's where i'm coming from. anyway, since i was too lazy to come up with new names for the two violins that followed, they have been named after their "forefather." :) and last year, late one night after a long day (or maybe it was early in the morning after a long night; either way it is imperative that i blame my goofiness on a serious lack of sleep), i decided to name my violin bow cause it's also important, and it deserves a name, too, right? i decided on "Lino", because "vio" plus "lino" is "violino", which is Italian for "violin." and, yes, "Lino" is female, because, well, a bow just has to be.
yes, this is all very sappy. so embarrassing. can hardly believe i'm posting this for the world to see... but that's what blogs are for, right?
:)

the silence is broken ...

...with apologies to cuchillo

So I go outside to eat a late lunch, since it's a gorgeous sunny day and the leaves are all dressed up in their special colors. On the way out from the Morrisson Center I grab a copy of Thrive, the free weekly 'zine that the Idaho Statesman puts out. I glance through to find some decent articles then just happen to catch a glimpse of an ad with the word "Switchfoot" as I am flipping through. I go back and find the page, read "This Saturday!", and my brain cries, "Nooo! How did this happen. They come to Boise and I can't see them!! Any Saturday but this one, not this one!"
See, I have to work this Saturday because there is some Marching Band ...thing in the afternoon/evening. And after that I'm in a performance of Orff's Carmina Burana, which should be really cool, actually, and I am looking forward to it. I will be playing "in the pit" for Ballet Idaho's presentation of this masterpiece, and two choirs are involved as well. Great music and lots of fun to play... But Switchfoot, why did it have to be this weekend?
When I was in Slovakia this summer and found out that the band had been in Pocatello the week before our trip started in May, I said that if they had come to Boise that week "I would have given up my first child!" Well, I guess my violin is almost like my first child and, no I can't give him up for even Switchfoot, so, alas, I will miss their concert this weekend. Sigh.

And that's what brought me to break my blog silence today.

oh, i know you!

As promised, I've been too busy for blogger, for mySpace, even for much email, but this week I got back some pics of my week in Boston, and I wanna show 'em off. So here are a few. Enjoy.


I was so excited to make it to the beach once this summer. A lovely sunday afternoon/evening at Horseneck Beach with the ladies. The water was just warm enough, the waves were perfect and the sky was clear and sunny. Quite lovely.



Mid-week I had a chance to hang out with my friend Vanessa and her little family. It was great to meet baby Joshua in person for the first time.


The big event of the week was my sis' wedding on Saturday August 5th. Here we are behind the church during the reception. More pictures of the wedding will be up on flickr... eventually. :)

oh dear

It's August and my blog is so, like, outdated! I've been a little busy and so blogging has taken a backseat. So no for some quick updates:
1) My sis got married in Boston, last Saturday Aug 5. It was beautiful. I played the "Romanze" from Mozart's Eine Kleine Nacht Musik for her aisle-walking. My dad, now 10 weeks post hip injury, was able to walk her down the aisle but had to use a walker. This was quite an accomplishment considering what he has been through these last few months. Anyway, the wedding was a great end to a great week in Boston with friends and family.
2) I finally got to enjoy a sunny float down the Boise River this Sunday. I flew into Boise from Boston around noon and then headed to the park. The Pursuit had an outreach of sorts, inviting folks to float the River and then hosting a BBQ in the park where folks get out to of the river. All passers-by were invited to free chicken and chips and Coke and such. I met some cool folks, including a guy who just got back from 11 months in China. And we think we have pollution!
3) I filled up my gas tank for the first time on Tuesday. Hope I won't have to do that again for awhile. I'm trying to ride my bike alot still. Anyway, I felt real proud of myself after I filled the tank by myself and didn't forget any important steps or cause any explosions!
My life is about to get ridiculously busy, so this post could be the last one for a month or so. I still love you all. I just need to make time to eat and sleep and all, ya know? So, 'til next time.... peace.

so i guess i'm a grown up now

keys to my "brand new-to-me" 1991 Saturn SL2

summer fun

For six of the seven weeks between my Poland/Slovakia trip and my week in Boston (just two weeks til then!), I'm working full time in the Marching band office. I've had some fun, too, and wanted to share with you folks some "firsts" I've had this summer.
FYI: Since I'm trying to save money after developing 204 pictures from the missions trip, I don't have pics of my own for any of these events, but check out the websites that I've linked and get the full multi-sensory experience! (hee-hee)

Floating the Boise River
It's a Boise institution, this river, and floating it on a tube (or raft or whatever else will float) is the thing to do on hot afternoons, especially this past July 4th weekend since the "powers that be" finally opened the river to the public just before the holiday. So, on Sunday July 2, after a hot, sunny morning, I was excited to join some friends for my first river float. By the time we got on the water, it was cloudy, but the air was still warm. Then we saw it: lightning, and lots of it. Beautiful and only a little frightening. Later when folks asked how the trip went, I said...

the lightning was cool.
the thunder was cool.
the rain was just cold.

So it was quite an adventure. But I guess I'm a glutton for punishment since I headed out to float the river again on the 4th with another group of folks. Mind you, the forecast said nothing about clouds or rain, but by the time we had rented our tubes and were on the water, the sky was again covered with clouds. This time we missed the rain by about 5 minutes. Every day I ride home from work along the river and watch folks basking in the sun on their tubes and rafts and laugh to myself because it hasn't rained in Boise since those two days, nearly two weeks ago! :)

A fellow Boisean and flickr geek took pics of some other folks on the river Sunday July 2 in the middle of the rain storm. Check out his photoset here.

National Fiddlers Contest and Festival Weiser, ID
A big deal for this cute little town in rural Idaho, close to Idaho/Oregon boarder, the fest has been held every year the third full week of June since 1953. It draws something like 350 contestants from 35 states. I just went out there on the last night of competition for the Grand National final rounds. It's a family thing, with kids as young as 5 and as old as 80 competing in 7 age divisions, in addition to the Grand National division. Lots of fiddlers! In another part of town, an open-air stage showcased local bluegrass musicians and other oldtimey stuff. We saw a bunch of kids from a local clogging school perform. Cute. While oldtime fiddling is not my favorite of the fiddle styles - I'm a Celtic girl all the way :) - the event was definitely a cultural experience, deep in the heart of rural America.
For pics and to hear some tunes (Real Audio), check out this site set up by Idaho Public Television.

DCI (Drum Corps International)
So what is DCI?
Before this summer, I had no idea. But this past week I was initiated into all things marching band-ish with the goings on in my office: "Cavalcade", a camp for high school marching band kids and their directors; and "Thunder in Boise", my first drum and bugle corps show. It has been "the off season" (non-football/marching season) ever since I first started working in the office in February, so it has been pretty quiet most of the time. Not so last week! The phone was ringing off the hook with parents calling about last minute stuff for their kids in camp, and the office was full of directors schmoozing, and I took so many ticket orders over the phone for the DCI show I think I could still recite the schpeel in my sleep. The day of the show was long. On the other hand, even though I worked 10 hours, my boss and supervisor worked something like 14 hours each. Anyway, I enjoyed the show more than I expected to. There is something cool about all the uniforms and choreography and dance and flags. The kids who do these shows range in age from 14 to 22 and they tour all summer long, with rehearsals every day and adjudicated shows two to four times a week. I suppose you could say they are "uber" band geeks and many of them are quite talented. At these shows you discover a whole 'nother world, and folks get quite passionate about the groups, evidenced by the corps' paraphanelia for sale at each show. Also, don't ever confuse a marching band with a drum and bugle corps, at least not to those in the know, or you will receive a lecture on the differences between the two. :) To get the lowdown - you know you want to know - and even see one of those multi-sensory experiences I mentioned, go to the About DCI site. Warning: the video is a promo for DCI and kinda sappy!

So that's some of the things I've been up to. I heard rumors a few weeks back about some friends going to a rodeo, and there's always a chance for more River floating, so more firsts may be coming soon. And I'll let you know if I ever make it down the river without rain!

Big Sky Expeditions 2006

"Big Sky Expeditions" is the name of the Chi Alpha group that has been doing this trip to Central Europe for the past 4 years. This years' team - mine! - went first to Krakow, Poland and then to two different towns in Slovakia: Banovce and Banska Bystrica. Here are a few pictures from the trip. To see more Slovakia pictures, you can go to my flickr.com photostream. Eventually I'll have all my Poland pictures there, too. Enjoy.







Our first morning in Krakow, we found out that the city was greatly anticipating the arrival of Pope Benedictus XVI the following weekend. These posters, the first outward signs of Krakow's preparation, were found all around the city and reflected the hope that this new pope will "walk in the footsteps" of their beloved John Paul II.












Here is the picture I mentioned in my first post from Krakow.






We spent most of our time in Krakow working with University students. Our first Saturday in Europe we did the tourist thing with some of the Polish students as our guides. I took this picture of my group - three Poles and four Americans - in the Ryneck in front of the Medieval Linen Building.












the Pope, the Polcja, and a lot of cameras









After leaving the hustle and bustle of Krokow, we settled in lovely little Banovce, Slovakia. Our three days there were packed with activity, including minstry among the local Roma kids.














My friend la falda with "her kids". She's spending her whole summer there. So cool.

We finished our trip with five days in Banska Bystrica, a small city in central Slovakia. The team picture above was taken there in the city square, which I was told is the most beautiful in Slovakia. Our time there was spent doing some outreach and some work projects. The latter included cleaning out some rooms that a local church is renting. After removing a dumpster-load of trash that was under years - decades? - of dust, the team painted the room that will eventually be the new sanctuary.





My last picture in Slovakia. We left Banksa Bystrica, Slovakia at 3:00 in the morning on June 5 to catch a flight out of Vienna at 8:00.



Back in the States the next day, I finished up my last roll of film with some shots of Montana on the eight hour ride home from Bozeman.

Boston dreaming on a sunny Boise day

so i am looking at flights to Boston for my sister's wedding and suddenly i'm imagining flying into Logan and seeing my friends and my family and the ocean and going to RoL Church the next day. i'm getting all itchy with anticipation just thinking about it and it's 5 weeks away. i guess i'm just gonna have to visit boston.com to tide me over for the day.

i'm so excited to be going home.

Mission Trip Story

For all you folks who keep asking to hear more, here's a taste. Because I don't know how to say it better than this, here is what Curt and Sara Hobbs, the missionaries we worked with in Krakow, Poland, wrote on their blog. Some brief background info: the Hobbs hail from Wyoming, where they were campus ministers with Chi Alpha before going to Poland about 4 years ago.


Bucking Broncs + Jesus!
May 28, 2006

This past week we finished up our time with the Chi Alpha team from the Big Sky Region. God showed His amazing love and the way He draws people to Himself. Maria was one such person He drew to us. She is a lady in her mid-late 30's like us. She had left Poland and traveled, checked out Buddhism, and New Age stuff. She has mixed it all together with the Catholicism of her childhood. But she saw our group praying and worshipping in the Blonia (field/meadow/park) near the student hotel. She said she saw "white light" around us and joined in. She showed up the next day even though the rain kept us from doing "devotions" in the Blonia.

Then several days later I was waiting to pick up the kids from school and I saw SOMETHING straight out of the Cowboy State! Across the street I see an automobile that had a WYOMING bucking bronco sticker on it So being the rude, loud and brash American that I am not, I went up to the car and knocked on the window to a surprised woman. I tried to assure her I was not going to hurt her or rob her.

I asked her where she got that wonderful bucking bronco WYOMING sticker and during the conversation, Maria came up. She was as surprised to see me talking to her friend as I was to find out that someone in Krakow has even been to Wyoming and liked it so much that they'd buy such a sticker.

So that was an exciting confirmation for her that God is indeed working and drawing her to Himself. They joined the group for our last outing with pizza and waiting to see a glimpse of the Pope. Please pray that we can connect her with some Poles in the next couple weeks before we go [on furlough] so that God can continue to work on her.




Waiting for the pope after eating pizza, Maria and her friend chat with members of the Big Sky team.

quiet weekend

so i'm back, in Boise and just about adjusted to the time zone, the new apartment, and my new roommie who likes to keep our suite at about 65 degrees fahrenheit year-round. these days i am really enjoying tall glasses of 2% milk and Boise sunshine and sleeping in my own bed. but i miss my "team" and Europe and the red-tiled roofs and green rolling hills. i think that the hardest thing to get used to now is how quiet it is. for three weeks, i was hardly ever alone. i was part of a family of 22 and most meals and bus rides were accompanied by chatter and laughter. we were almost always loud enough to broadcast "We are Americans!" to all the folks around. more often than not, this was quite embarrassing, but now i miss that, too.
okay, enough melancholy. i have a full summer ahead of me and the trip to Poland and Slovakia got it off to a wonderful start. up next, working at BSU's week-long chamber music camp for junior high and high school kids. and soon my 7 rolls of Poland/Slovakia pictures will come and i can have a blast remembering and sharing the memories with folks. so i'm off to enjoy the quiet of my own, somewhat chilly, room. :)

hello from Krakow

sorry it's taken so long to post. here is the e-mail i sent out last Friday...

On 5/19/06, Sylvia wrote:

i'm here! i have only a few minutes in this internet cafe. wish i could send you the picture i just took, looking out to Ryneck, the market square, in the center in Old Town. full of people, old and young. they are shopping, chatting, eating, flirting, biking, etc. it feels good to be in a city again! Beautiful, old, buildings; so much history; good food; crazy language; kind people. check my blog for pics later.
do widzenia.
-sylvia.

good day

at first, it was quite hard for me to open up and talk with Polish folk. most of those my age and younger speak English, so the language barrier is not as big a problem as the fact that they are introverts and so am i. anyway, Saturday my team broke intsmall groups and we spent the afternoon touring the city with a handful of Poilsh university students and so i got more comfortable. what did we do? well, we ate "pancakes", more like crepes, for lunch and then toured the main Krakow attraction, the Wawol castle, which dates from the 13th century. beautiful. before meeting up with the rest of the big group for supper we behaved like the locals and strolled along the Wisla, the river that runs through the center of Krakow. unlike the locals, we taught our Polish guides how to play cribbage. :)
while it is still not easy for me to walk up to people and chat, today i was able to overcome some fear and talked with a lovely young lady, Ange, at our first outreach at her university apartment complex, what they call a "student hostel". my teammate Crystal had been talking with her and a few of her friends for awhile before i joined them. after i asked them where i could find a "toalety" - public bathrooms are scarce in Krakow - she lead Crystal and i up to her dorm room. over the tea and small sandwiches she offered us - gotta love European hospitality! :) - we continued our conversation through broken English, French, German, Polish and gestures. Ange is in the midst of studying for exams - ten of them! - and said yes when i asked if we could pray for her about these. Crystal told me that she and Ange had talked earlier about the Pope (big dude here!) and Jesus, and that Ange said that the old pope was in her heart while the new one is in her head. And Jesus? he is in here heart. hmmm.... there was a sweet presence in the room when we prayed and after we finished she placed her hand on her heart and smiled at us. i did too. i felt like we had found a sister...
more to share, but gotta run. paying to use the internet so need to keep it short. hope ya'll are well. blessings from the other side of the world. and thanks to all of you who helped me get here. :)

You know it's gonna be a fun week when...

...the power goes off campus-wide on the first morning of finals.

I arrived at the Morrisson Center around 9:20 to meet up with my accompanist. I noticed that the computer lab was dark and thought "that's odd", and as I walked in further I smelled something funny. Then I went to get my violin out of my locker and found the instrument locker room pitch black, and I was like, "Oh dear". So glad that I had my bike light in my backpack. "Always be prepared" means I'm usually carrying more than enough junk to keep me outfitted for the first year after a major disaster, but it has its advantages at times. After I got out my violin and music, I chatted with the department secretary who told me that she had heard about a professor giving a test orally, and maybe "he sang the musical examples"? I headed up stairs to warm up and find my accompanist in her usual practice room. Instead, I found the conducting class crowded in the hallway, using the electricity from the room to power a boombox CD player so that they could do their final exam. I sought out another practice space and was about to get warmed up when the power died in there, too. Groans of exasperation came from other rooms where students were getting ready for their performance juries (kind of like finals for private lessons). I finally found my accompanist and we rehearsed to the "mood lighting" from the small amount of sunshine that made it into her husband's office. After a good little rehearsal - my jury isn't 'til Wednesday and I think it is gonna go well. :) - I left the office and found a bassist reharsing in the hall with his accompanist. They had pushed a piano out from a window-less classroom to utilize the emergency hall lights that were still on. Probably the best scene of all was of the aforementioned conducting class. Now without power from the practice rooms, they had migrated out-of-doors. When I rode past the group on my way to work, Mary was conducting her final to band music blaring from someone's car with the rest of the class and the prof seated on the sidewalk watching her. Hey, that works!

I love it when people are forced to improvise. While it can bring out the worst in some people, it brings put the best in most and makes for this fun, quirky atmosphere. I love the smiles passed between folks who usually walk past one another without so much as an acknowledgment, and the laughs, the sense of comraderie. Makes for a good ending to a good semester, don't you think?

flight

wow. today is the last day of classes, the end of the semester, the end of my first year at Boise State. where did the time go? just flew away i guess. yesterday i performed some solo Bach in String Area Class. i played a movement of the E major Partita from memory, which was a little nerve-wracking, but it turned out all right. in Area Class, as in Studio Class, the profs and the students in the audience give feedback after each person's performance. one guy said he liked the dynamics in my performance, that my fortes were loud and strong, and my pianos were soft but they didn't disappear. that made me so happy to hear, especially since in the past i have had a tendency to get weak whenever i try to play softly. somebody else said i filled up the room, and since i was playing in a 200-seat recital hall, that's a pretty sweet compliment. i had a couple little memeroy lapses and, in those spots my tone got funky and i made up a few notes in order to just keep going, but overall it was a good performance.
wow. i remember at the beginning of the semester looking at the performance calendar for the violins and seeing my name at the bottom on the last Area Class and wondering how it would be; it seemed so far away, and now it's gone.
now on to another project, another bunch of stuff to finish before the i am done for the school year: performance juries and a 10-page paper and accompanying presentation and a pedagogy final. then there's getting ready for the trip to Poland/Slovakia and moving and a little recital with my students the day before I leave Boise for three weeks. after a road trip up to Bozeman, MT, i meet up with my team on Monday the 15th and then head out of the country.
wow. i'm really going. i can't wait to fly...

long quote

It's been a long while since I posted, and even longer since setting up a decent quote. Please accept my apologies, or at least this excuse: I'm quite busy now, with the end of the semester just a few weeks away. I have lots of projects and a paper and performances to play and others to watch... And then it is a beautiful spring out there, and I want to enjoy that, too. Also, in the past month I have begun to make friends here, and suddenly I have other stuff to do besides homework on weekend evenings! So, yes, been busy. But, fear not, faithful readers, the posting may falter, but it will not fail! :)

That said, I wanted to share with ya'll a quote from a sermon a few weeks ago by Paul, the pastor of my church here in Boise. We were looking at Acts 2:14-21 and the quote there from Joel, concerning the end times, when Paul said, "There's indication in the Bible that there's going to be more disasters... People look at last year and go, 'Man, what a year: the tsunami and hurricanes. Now, tornados and all these different things - Windows on a Mac...'"

snowshoeing - the real pics

just in case you haven't tripped on over to my photostream at flickr.com lately, here are a few of my favorite pictures of that snowshoeing trip, these from my real camera. enjoy!

proof...

...that Google is letting success go to its head, - er maybe heart.

"When you thnk about it, dating is just another search problem.And we’ve thought about it. A lot. Google Romance™ is our solution."

oh dear.

randomness

so it's that time again, time to write, and i am glad to do so but a warning: this post will be less focused than most, just a bunch of little things to say.

first, i finally broke down and joined MySpace. ahh, sigh. i am almost ashamed to say that i am really enjoying it... mostly beacuse i have friends - oh, yes i do have friends! oh dear. i mean, two of these friends make music and they have some of their stuff on MySpace so it is superfun to hear it, 'specially cause one of these guys is back in Boston, and hearing his so-called "jambient" brings back happy memories of dancing with friends. and then there is the fun of finding music by other folks via friends' friends. all this to say, if you are on MySpace, check out my little space here .

next.
i feel i little embareased about the pig thing. i posted the present "quote" on my sidebar on a day that i was buzzing with sugar, caffiene and seriuos sleep deprivation. not sure which day that was cause the past few weeks have been a blur of such days! yes, i'm so glad it's finally spring break. i took a three hour nap today. sweet. anyway, that's my excuse. when i have a better quote - and i'm looking hard now! - i'll post it ASAP.

finally, i had another intriguing "home" moment. i was watching the weather channel a few nights ago, you know the "Local on the 8's", and they were showing the satellite view of the Northwest and i had this thought, that, yeah this - Boise, this corner of the Northwest - feels like home. it was a sweet, fleeting contentment. Thanks God.

"follow this bike to..."

my bike's rear fender is now a rolling endorsement for my church. not that i've actually ridden it there, but, theoretically, i could. it's just that i'd end up all sweaty and gross after the six miles from my house. might make the "meet and greet" time over donuts a little awkward.
not sure how long the sticker will last on the plastic. looks cool for now though.

snowshoeing

yesterday i went snowshoeing for the first time. i remember being a little kid and first hearing how Native Americans had used snowshoes and thinking, "wow, walking on top of snow! i wish i could do that". so i guess the trip was a little dream come true. we - me and some folks from the Pursuit - went up to Morse Creek past Idaho City and hiked up the side of a mountain. we stayed on the trail where the snow was pretty packed down, so next time i wanna work even harder and practice "walking on water".
as i have probably mentioned before, living here in a desert valley i really miss the snow. so it was great to see lots and lots and lots of it. beautiful. Heather and i both took lots of pics, her with her fancy, schmancy digital SLR and me with my trusty film SLR. i shot a whole roll on my camera - kind of a splurge for me - and mailed the film in this morning. i can't wait to see how they turned out. til then, here are the two pics i took with my phone.


Heather and i say "cheeze"

kudos

just a quick thanks to Kate for helping me get the "Just for Kicks" section up and running on the sidebar. she is finishing up a long stint of involvement with the Marching Band, first as a student marcher, then a GA and most recently part-time staff, before heading off to bigger and better things. check out her blogs. she's seriously addicted to writing!
anyway, Kate did the template thing quickly this morning at work. no, I'm not reading Curious George. and I actually like alot of the music on her office computer. it's an eclectic mix, to be sure, but keeps me humming as I file band pieces with titles like "Ferocious Fanfares" and "Born to Boogie".
so tommorow I will update "...Kicks". I gotta find a cool quote. hmmm. maybe it will be quote of the month.

still under construction

okay, so now my brain hurts. i can't yet figure out how to finish what i started but eventually i want to have a little section where i periodically update silly quotes and list books and music i've discovered recently. til then...

another quote i came across the other day, this time on a bumper sticker:
MONEY TALKS
mine says goodbye

and a cool book, especially for you Russia aficionados:
The Fire Escape is Locked for Your Safety: On the Road in the Former Soviet Union, Molly J. Baier

happy weekend!

under construction

howdy faithful readers.
just an fyi:
for the next hour i'm going to be experimenting with my template, so things might look wierd for a bit.

victim

ah, the music stand. when it works well, we pay it no respect, just grab it by the neck and drag it around. then when it isn't functioning correctly, we groan and abandon it. worse, it is an easy target for fits of rage that come upon the frustrated musician practicing challenging pieces. looks like someone lost it one day in the practice room and this stand was the closest object at hand.
what a pity.


:)

Quote du Jour

Heard on The Effect this morning:

"Two things we know for sure.
One, there is a God.
Two, you are not Him."

:)

sunny days

"Today is a beautiful day to be a college student", I find myself thinking as I walk across campus, passing crowds of other college kids doing the same. The sky is blue with just a few puffy clouds, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and there is a gentle spring-like breeze. And while I am working on just a measly nap (less than six hours of sleep since yesterday), I have finally sent off my applicaiton for Big Sky Expeditions' summer missions trip to Eastern Europe. Ahh, it feels good to get something done. Now where's that cheap caffeine in the form of 25 cent can of Shasta Cola...

Gatherings - Part I

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, and my blog isn't going to die out, either. Guess I have been experiencing a posting dry spell. Anyway, I'm back, and here is the second installment in "what I did over my winter vacation". I'll try to finish it before June. :)


Decmeber 25th is Happy Christmas and Merry Birthday for my dad. In the evening, after finishing the traditional Christmas stuff, we do Dad's B-day and, inevitably, there is a "surprise cake". Here he is with his 61st.


My sister Therese and her fiance Chris, aka, "Chrese and Tris, I mean Chris and Therese."




It was great to see Nate and Tina and the new addition, Anastasia, as they visited friends and family across the US during their summer break from work and school in New Zealand.


My favorite "expecting" couple, at a cafe in Central Square, Cambridge.


For a family outing, we drove to Fitchburg and then to... some other Massachusetts town where we ate supper at this buffet. Favorite part: singing Christmas carols all the way as we drove through the dark, pointing out impressive Christmas light displays every now and then.

Par-tays

Here is the first round of pictures from my three weeks in Boston over the break between semesters. The time was full of gatherings so I decided to theme these blog posts around those meetings. Enjoy!

For Holly's b-day she wanted to eat out and do Karaoke so Alice directed us to Cathay Pacifica. After stuffing ourselves with Chinese food, we headed to Pacifica's lounge where Alice, Holly and the latter's "little" brother took turns serenading us.





New Years Eve, Adam and Jack were co-hosting a party at the Reel Bar in Allston with another DJ dude. At first unable to decide whether or not to trek out, the five of us ladies in the Yuill Circle house finally started off to the party at 11:20 pm and made it to the bar just in time for the count-down. Then we danced another hour to the smooth sounds Jack was spinning.




Jack and the Ladies

Finally, a few days before I flew back to Boise, the White ladies invited folks to join them at Matt Murphy's pub for a goodbye dinner before their move up to Anchorage, Alaska. Lot's a laughs, some hugs and pictures, and promises to visit someday. Good times.


Brenna and Cait

more pics of this shindig

quick post

howdy folks. just found it humorous that Boise State's library now has a blog on blogger.com. someone even left a comment on the first post. :)

Hallelujah, Hallelujah...

Choirs are singing!
Angels are dancing!
Bells are ringing!
Organs are resounding!
(big gulp of air)
I got a Graduate Assistantship!

I will be working in the office of BSU's Marching Band greeting folks at the front desk as they visit the office and answering phones and organizing the music library, etc. It's not the most glamorous job in the world but I'll get all my tuition and fees paid for as well as receiving a stipend. One thing that I'm looking forward to is helping the office move into their new digs in the newest building on campus - a multi-million dollar monstrosity that will be the indoor practice space for the football team as well as holding offices for athletics and cheerleading and Marching Band. It opens at the end of this month and so a lot of my job will be helping with that transition.
So that's the big news of the new semester. Since I'll be working 20+ hours for my GA and also teaching a couple hours a week, as well as being a full-time grad student - yeah, I think that's it - I am hoping to get a room in a Suite on campus. I don't feel like I'll have any time to commute, especially since I am still car-less.
I start this new adventure next Wednesday. Check back here for more episodes of this particular drama. :) And thanks, gentle reader, for taking the time to share this good news with me!

Boise again

so i'm back. i had another funny home moment on thursday, in the middle of my day o' travel "out West". i got my awesome parents to drive me two hours from Boston so that i could fly out from Providence, Rhode Island - much cheaper than flying form Boston's Logan. (Thanks again.) i spent the 3 hours from Providence to Atlanta reading a book i picked up at Salvation Army. i tend to "get lost" in fiction, whether it's a book or a show on TV or a movie. it's like i live in that place/time/experience for a little. so after i "deplaned" the jet from Providence and started walking thorugh the Atlanta airport, i tried to orient myself: "Where am i going? oh yeah, i'm going home" and the image in my mind was Logan airport. then i had to smile to myself and remember that "home" this time was Boise...
but it's good. i'm looking forward to classes starting again and i love looking out and seeing mountains. i already miss having friends nearby, but i've got this stubborn hope that i can and will make real friends here. one promising thing: i think i've found a church. it's called the Pursuit and meets in a movie theater cause, although it has about twice the number of folks as River of Life, my church in Boston, the Pursuit is only two years old. i've gone twice now and so far the folks at this church seem real cool and so i feel very hopeful.
what else... other than trying to get back into practicing and working at Interlibrary Loan - very excting! - i am not terribly busy. which is fine. oh yeah, i am also catching up on past episodes of "Lost". yes, i too am a "Lost" addict, thanks to my roommate. i fell into it at the beginning of the season last fall and now i suffer from withdrawal if i miss an episode. to make matters worse - better? - Chica got the first season of the show on DVD for Christmas so i've spent a few hours nearly every night since getting back to Boise in front of her big TV catching up with the show. well, i am still on vacation, kinda...
well, gotta run. til next time.