Day Thirty Five

I drove back to IUP today. Oscar got a haircut today.

Day Thirty Four

We had thanksgiving again tonight at my Grandmom's. Good times. My Mom supervised my making her dinner rolls and they came out great. I also did this green bean recipe that my sister gave to me. I think next time I'll steam them a little before I bake them. Olivia brought her cute little self taught guitar playing boyfriend over. They were adorable together and she was the happiest I've ever seen her. After it all, Abby was very happy to have me home again. She was looking at the camera just before I took this picture, then turned at the last minute and licked my face. 

Waking up early tomorrow and heading back to western Pa to teach indoor. Ho hum.

Day Thirty Three

Today was a very log day and Thanksgiving has made me tired. Last night my meatball sandwich was number 27 :) Second time that's ever happened.

Day Thirty Two

(backdated from 11/26/2008)

I'm not in indiana :)

Day Thirty One

I left Indiana today to go home for Thanksgiving. This was the drive for the first two hours or so. The more east I drove the less snow there was. Thankfully. This picture is blurry because the melted snow kept kicking up and soaking my windshield. Probably not the best time to take a cell phone picture. The drive wasn't so bad. I get so bored and stir crazy though. Lots of quiet reflection and bad music.

Day Thirty

We had Thanksgiving-lite at our house tonight. I wanted to can the smell and send it to my Mom and my sisters. They would have been proud :) I made my mom's dinner rolls, my aunt ruth's macaroni and cheese (from scratch), and this chicken with potatoes. This was the before picture. Then doug got to it and...

Here's the after! Lightning fast ninja hands!

Day Twenty Nine

 Eli on game day

Already a master of the "give me everything I want" face

cuddling

Meet the newest member of the Wengert clan, Eli. Yes, named after Eli Manning. Although judging from how cute he is, I think he should have been named Payton...

Day Twenty Eight

It snowed again. This is about the most we've gotten all year. Still not a fan... though I do prefer this to the cold rain and wind that we had all day today. Boo hoo. (backdated from 11.21.08)

And happy birthday to my lovely sister Sarah :) She is 28. And this is my 28th post. How about that.

Day Twenty Seven

two-seven

                 

                                   rules.

Day Twenty Six

This is one of my mallets for Vespertine Formations. The piece is hard. I hope someday I get to perform it since I've put a lot of work in. 

ps- in case you couldn't tell from the fine craftsmanship, you have to make these mallets yourself.

Day Twenty Five

I have fallen very far behind! Ignore the dates. Sorry!

Since I've been gone, we had excerpt night. During the day. Weird. I played magic flute and kiji and almost had a heart attack in the middle of the two. Damn nerves. But I did alright. After excerpts, David's weird head ache had gotten worse and his face started to go numb. So after a lot of prodding by our studio (and Dr. Kingan), I took him to the emergency room. I showed off my profit like skills by guessing that he had Bell's Palsy and I was right. Poor guy. He's dealing with it pretty well but for now is rocking the harvey dent look. Hopefully it goes away soon!

Day Twenty Four

Just like the commercials! 

Today was our first legit snow. No fun. We had a move because today was also the last bands concert of the semester. I sat with Kevin Haile in the audience which was nice. I'm excited for him to go off his TB medication and for Bono to come home. I miss hanging out with those guys a lot. Wind ensemble played some weird stuff today. It made me miss Wengert a lot. And his timpani face. We got some Romeo's after the concert. It's weird, I've been mentally running through the debauchery that will take place when everyone gets back into town and by default, i've been picturing it happening above romeo's. Good times had there. It's so weird to acknowledge the sad reality that all these people have moved on. 

Well shit that's a bummer. Here's a bunny.

Day Twenty Three

Johnstown reminds me a lot of Phoenixville. Just the area. The drive, especially. Windy back roads through the woods. Except here they have mountains, too. The towns are very similar. Though I hesitate to say anything about it because they aren't the most flattering similarities. Teaching is going well. It's cool seeing Piffle again. I wish we'd had this opportunity sooner though. Teaching with andrew guz and wengert may be the most fun I'd ever have. Maybe someday :)

Day Twenty Two

Haha. Tim Adams's stool. Hahahaha. Taken by David at Heinz Hall.

Day Twenty One

Taught my first night at Johnstown last night. This pile used to be the frame to a yamaha acoustalon. To avoid it's inevitable destruction, I decided to undo the faulty duct tape job and see if I couldn't put it back together. I'd like to take a moment to thank the Bushwackers for the detailed education I gained during my years there on how to rebuild any and everything with duct tape. However, mid repair, all the slats fell off, causing what you see above. I told the kids I'd take a picture and show it to them at finals. I'll call it "Our First Day."

Day Twenty

I'm a little behind. My phone screen died at Heinz Hall on Monday. Soooooo day 20 isn't exactly ON the 20th day of this, but lets pretend.

David moved into his new place last week, but was without a bed. So we helped him get his new bed/sofa into his new apartment. I should mention that I drive a PT cruiser. And yeah, this is how we did it. All of the seats were put down, David was squashed into the back, and tiff rode, like superman (check out the top picture) on top of the box. The walmart folks probably thought we were nuts. 

On an unrelated note, Heinz Hall went really well! We rocked the Levitranny (after Dr. Stamp came back and picked out some new mallets for me). Ha, after deciding on a pair of encores he told me "This was nice, Jess, I feel like we bonded!" So yeah, everyone played really well. My Dad drove up from Delaware to see me play. Definitely cool. I wish we'd gotten more time to hang out with studio people though. As I've mentioned before, I feel like I've got this whole secret life out here, I want my family to know about it. I wanted him to meet Dr. Stamp and Dr. Kingan but everyone had a million things to do. I've got a recital in the spring, I'll show my family around then :)

Ha, and I should say, I'm glad that throughout the stress of performing at Heinz Hall, everyone managed to stay totally calm and reasonable throughout the entire process. No blowing up over unimportant small things, no uncalled for attitudes, definitely a relief!!

Not. 

But whatever, we had fun :)

Day Nineteen

This is what Cogswell hall looks like on a Saturday night. Dark. And deserted. I believe I saw two people the entire three hours I was there. I had a productive night practicing though. Tonight, however, was not. We had a logistical run through for our performance tomorrow night (at Heinz Hall!), then spent what felt like way too long practicing setting up... then packed everything up. Tomorrow we're loading the truck at 8am, then I'm scampering about Indiana trying to get everything done before my Dad gets here. He's driving all the way out from Dover (Delaware, not Jersey) to see me play. I'm pretty excited. But our house is a shitting mess... Oh well, he knows me. I've always been a slob. Hence his nickname, "Jessica Messica." Either way, I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow will be long. Unloading the truck will not be fun. But... it never is. So yeah.

Day Eighteen

Saw this at eat n park. They are having a gun raffle. To benefit the pediatric unit at the local hospital. Buy some guns, save some kids. Of course. I have no idea what the hell Gander Mountain is, but if you don't want the guns, you get a gift certificate to go there instead. Hm. Western PA.

Day Seventeen

Tiffany will kill me for this. This is what girls do in the bathrooms together, boys. Now you know. Btw, this is the ladies room in Culpeppers, the preferred bar of music majors at IUP. 

Day Sixteen

These freaks call it "pop."

Day Fifteen

I took this to show how superior I am at parking in the garage. Specifically to David LaClair. Who can't park for shit. Or drive, really.

And, on an unrelated note, thank god there's a democrat in office. Seriously. I'm enjoying the last of the dramatic facebook updates though. My favorite so far was a gay man talking about what a tragedy it is to have Obama in office. Will it be a tragedy when you're allowed to get married because of this tragic president? Whatev. I'll enjoy a quiet three and a half years of political apathy as these stupid asses go back to not giving a shit. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the lunacy that's going on in this college town.

Day Fourteen

I'm playing a gig with David. It requires two percussionists. His part, on the top right, said "For David LaClair." My part, on the top right, said, "For D. LaClair's friend/partner." We practiced it tonight and it didn't go well because stupid over here was totally fried. Boo hoo.

Day Thirteen

Thank God for walmart. How else would I tell the world that I'm fired up with christ? Or that I'm with the Jesus department? I guess they have this shit at all the walmarts but I didn't notice it until I got here. I can't read the very bottom what it says under "WITH CHRIST!" Smart money says it's good though. 

Day Twelve

Stand back - This could get messy....  says Texas. We eat at eat n park a lot these days. No seriously, that's the name of the restaurant. Mmm... western PA. Anyway, this is David. The guy who no longer needed the million pack of Trojans. He's kind of a refugee and lives with us part time.

Day Eleven

Wengert, like every other guy this halloween, was the dark knight joker. Someone should have switched it up and gone as 80s joker. Anyway, check out this creepy bastard. Rocking the stafford shirt and perc ensemble vest.

Day Ten

10/30

Got out of the dress rehearsal early enough to see the phils win the world series.  Holy Crap. But sad news when I got home. Chris had to put their dog Cody to sleep that night around 2am. I don't have any pictures from Friday, though I do have a hilarious picture/story from thursday that I may use in its place... Anyway, this one's for Cody. The coolest talking, carrot eating, ice cream loving dog I've ever known. Rest in peace :(