Day 130

Last night was the symphony band/jazz band concert. This was the view from offstage right, where most of the percussionists hang out during our performances. The entrance from the dressing rooms is offstage left, so we stay on the other side away from traffic. The stage was set a tiny bit differently this time and for the first time, no part of our set up was off stage. Cool, but a little intimidating. Thankfully, once the stage lights are on and the house lights are up, you can't really see the audience at all. We were all a little shocked at intermission when they brought the house lights back up and we saw one of the fullest audiences we've had since they reopened fisher. I wish we'd stop doing Sunday afternoon concerts. No one goes and afternoon concerts feel like dress rehearsals. It's nice performing at night. It's just a different feel.

Dr. Stamp arranged a piece in honor of the birth of Dr. Worzbyt's son and we premiered it at the concert. He came into symphony band one day with the score and talked for a little bit, then explained the significance of the piece and that he arranged it for Dr. Worzbyt and his wife "in honor of the birth of their son Christian James" then handed over the score. So sweet. I teared up at that rehearsal. It wasn't exactly meaningful for me, but seeing other people show real, genuine emotions makes me emotional.

Mrs. Dr. Worzbyt was in the audience with their son, who Megan Hall and I creeped on through the whole second half. We tried to sneak down from the balcony to the floor during the final piece so we could see baby worzbyt. The antics that ensued were right out of I Love Lucy. We got downstairs and decided to wait in the hallway that used to be the outside of fisher. We walked through a door into the unlit hallway and the motion sensor lights came on. I was afraid the lights could be seen from inside the house so I frantically flipped light switches until the lights went off again. Then proceeded to walk into the line of fire of a second motion detector and did the exact same thing. We got the lights off and went to the door closest to the stage and found out it was locked. So we went to the door that led backstage. Locked. So we decided to leave and go back the way we came. Surprise! That door locked from the side we entered from. We were trapped!

Not really. We left through a door that led outside then came in the back door. We were watching the last piece from backstage near the dressing rooms surprise! Dr. Worzbyt came walking up with baby in tow! So cute. We gushed over him for as long as he sat still. It was nice seeing such a sweet person so happy. I'm sure he's spent most of this semester running on about 25 minutes of sleep per night but you'd never know it. I admire him for his perpetual good attitude and enthusiasm.

Day 129

Saw this as I was walking home from class yesterday. If you can't tell, it's a wig on a stick with someone's ugly flats. Who knows. Left overs from a crazy Halloween? Not sure. But I laughed.

Day 128

My phone is trying its best to annoy me all the way to the end. For some reason now, mere weeks before my contract is up and I can get a new phone, all my pictures have a pink hugh. God, wait, I feel dumb. Is that the right spelling? Or is that specific to the man's name? Crap, I don't know. You understand what I'm saying though.

Tonight was excerpt night. If you can see me up there (I went LAST!), I played the bell excerpt from sorcerer's apprentice and the timpani excerpt from the bartok concerto. I would have been happier playing the bartok a few more times before I had to perform it but over all I was happy with it. I've stopped hating myself for not having perfect accuracy. I can bomb in front of every because I got too nervous but knowing for myself that I learned some hard shit and, in the privacy of my lessons with dr kingan, can play them well enough to warrant a head nod and a "Yeah! Alright!" then that's good enough for me.

I feel like excerpts were a last minute realization this year. It was crammed awkwardly into a pretty busy two weeks. I wish we'd do excerpts a little closer to the beginning of the year. Give the newer people a chance to apply what they learned from the excerpt to their ensemble playing. Ah well, I don't question the king.

Phillies won last night. Series is at 3-2 now, yankees. I'm not so confident about my fair city, but I still love it. I especially love having some eastern pennsylvania allies to watch the games with.

Wengert's out on tour rocking Canada. I saw some pictures of him online today doing his thing. What an odd rush of emotions. I was so happy to see him. To know he still exists outside of a voice on my phone. But sad that I can't see this huge thing in his life happening. I wish I could stop by one of the performances and watch him. Go see his tour bus and steal some of his Coke merchandise. haha. The time difference paired with our schedules really blows. I miss him so much. But I'm so proud of him. Some clips are going up soon on the coke website. Can't wait to see him :)

Day 127

We don't need a crowded ballroom <3

I'd say we take about one good picture per year. This was one of the very first. Three years ago, today, after weeks and hours of hemming and hawing, Wengert kissed me for the first time, and so began the insane journey of the GA and the DA. In the castle. So here's a picture of us from that year. In the castle. And because he makes me so happy, I'm tempted to write "with my prince" but that's a bit much. But I do love him. And this picture is as awesome as his frosted tips ;)

Day 126

oooooo new toy :) IUP now owns v-drums.

True to form, the box is always more fun than the toy itself. Meet Craig, the pPprotector. Nate's Frankenstein. He's lonely though. He's looking for a girlfriend... is she coming?

Day 125

Today was RAINN day. Ironically, tonight it's raining. RAINN stands for Rape Abuse Incest National Network. I found out about this event from Stacie Mann. Last night was when all the volunteers got together in the oak grove to set up. We wrote a bunch of statistics and information (where to get help if you need it, etc) on sidewalks, umbrellas, ponchos, etc. This is some of the stuff I chalked. I'm standing on the rest of what I wrote. It was cool to do something outside of the music department. I got to meet stacie's fiancee for about 3 seconds (she was doing a bunch of running around) and she seems really sweet. Good for stacie.

Hopefully, no one reading needs or will ever need this information, but if you've been a victim of abuse, rainn.org is a great place to go for support, help, or guidance.

Day 124

This is from a week or two ago but deserves a spot in the "my time at IUP" history. Bean is a master of entertainment. Props to Doug for quick thinking and grabbing a xylophone. I love our studio. :)

Day 123

No picture today, just a video that I've been obsessed with all night.

Day 122

Excuse the glare on my windshield from my dashboard. I saw this frickin' building and couldn't resist. What the frick goes on there? It's behind the coney, anyone know?

Day 121

Not much has been going on out here. I'm getting wrapped up in school now that things are finally going. The freshman are coming out of their shells a little. It's cool and fun to see. I felt bad for them, a lot of us piled into the perc room to watch their first rehearsal. I tried to get a good picture of everyone but my phone wasn't having it.

I had a bad reaction to stuff I was taking for my allergies. I stopped by the newly renovated health center and was surprised at how much better they've gotten. No one told me I was pregnant with an aids pig. Regardless, all I wanted for a few days was soup and gatorade. Imagine my surprise when I found princess soup. As tempted as I was to eat princesses for dinner, I went with tomato.

And someone in Stouffer hall amused the hell out of me by writing this on their desk before my class started. Is it true, soccer girls?

Day 120

For my intensity part this year I play on an empty bottle then break it. If this vodka wasn't almost $50 a bottle I'd get two. One for practice and the dress rehearsal, one for the show. How bad ass would that be?! ps - if you're in philly this thursday, dan aykroyd will be on chestnut street signing bottles of this stuff.

Day 119

Egon's baaaaaaaaaaaack. Or, as he put it "backkk!"

Day 118

Ok, I took a bunch of picture of the trail I run on, but they're all coming out SIDEWAYS and I can't change it and it's driving me nuts. So for now, this is all I got. More to come later when I have the patience to deal with blogspot.

Pretty, eh?

Day 117

Yep.

Day 116

My favorite shot so far for the NOH8 campaign. It's a marriage equality campaign which for now is just, I believe, taking a bunch of pictures of famous supporters with duct tape over their mouths and "NOH8" written on their cheek. The one of perez hilton is freaking awful, but so is he so yeah. Anyway, I thought this was clever. Read more at http://www.noh8campaign.com/ 

Day 115

Still at Mom's house. I woke up today with no plans and instead of sitting around the house watching the nanny in my pjs, I decided to spend this very hot day down the shore. I found parking almost right next to the boardwalk which was awesome. The water is freakishly warm. Seriously, in the 80s. It was weird being there alone and not in a house with a ton of family, but still so nice to get down to the beach. I'd love to take Abby down there and see what she thinks of the ocean, but car rides aren't her thing. Eh, she wasn't a huge fan of the lake though. Who knows. Anyway, funnel cake was a must. I went down for the day on Saturday with Dave and underestimated the amount of stomach space boardwalk food takes up. No room for kohr brothers or funnel cake that day. Now, two down, one to go. Can I get another trip to the beach this summer? Doubtful, but I won't give up. 

I sent this picture to MJ. I'm not sure when she was in Ocean City, but she left quite the impression on the boardwalk. 

I'm trying to remember the story with Geoff's broken _____ glass. I *think* it was a smurf glass, so when I saw these in a boardwalk vintage shop I send the picture to Amy. Shoot, I just skyped with them tonight, I should have explained. Note to self - get the actual story from Amy. This shop was pretty cool. For a vintage store, they sure had a lot of shit from the 80s and 90s.

Ah, here she is :) I brought my camera to take a bunch of pictures of Ocean City for when I'm feeling homesick but, go figure, once I got there the battery was dead. boo. It's ok. I'll be back. I took this from the boardwalk near the surf mall and playland.

Home again home again jiggity jig. Traffic actually wasn't that bad. Shocking because I was driving home during evening rush hour. Silly me. I thought if I left soon enough I could beat it. Forty minutes into the trip I was wishing I'd just stuck around and stayed at the beach all night. I had to take the busy roads, ACE, 76, 676, etc. Living in Chi we knew the back way to the beach like we knew the layout of the house. If there is a back way to the beach from here, I haven't figured it out yet. 

I didn't get any good pictures from the trip Saturday, but it's been a pretty eventful weekend. Friday night we hung out and I saw my first glimpse of McReady rock. It wasn't the whole band but I think I got a feel for what they're about. Saturday morning Dave and I headed to Ocean City for the day, then went down to Toms River for Bush's home show that night. I was a little worried I wouldn't know anyone but a lot of alumni came out. It was so nice seeing everyone. I got so nostalgic by the end of the night that I just wanted to cry. Not in a sad way. It's bittersweet, I suppose. Remembering some of the best days of my life so far, but also knowing that now I'm just a part of a previous generation. Weird, fun, sad, emotional... you know how it goes. 

I decided, with Brittany, that all us old pit gals are going to start buying real estate. We'll each buy a house in a cul de sac and make each others kids cut our grass and shovel our snow. So far, whether they know it or not, we've recruited woody, amy, deana, maria, an basically whoever else wants to come live there. Ha. Sounds lame but the mental image that night was pretty comforting. The last time we were at tom's river was in 2002. One of the first shows I ever did was there in 2000. They've redone the stadium since then. AND - I get grown up points for NOT calling memphis and leaving mag 7 on his voice mail.

Day 114

I've been at my Mom's house for about a week. I'm trying to just chill and let this visit happen however it's going to happen. Trips home are usually so stressful. I only have so much time to run around and see so many people. I generally spend more time driving than visiting. So since I've had about a week and a half of summer break this year, I figure I'll see who I see, but mostly just relax. 

Staying with my Mom means frequently scooting off to Phoenixville to see friends. Phoenixville is, I hear, the new manayunk. And this is a random waterfall thing in phoenixville.

Dave and I laughed a lot at this. Where do the straight pedestrians go?

day 113

Where else I've been...

While on the orchestra tour, we went to the baltimore sports legends museum. I think that's what it was called. We had some down time so Marty was like "Ok, lets go walk around Baltimore for 3 hours." lol, ok?

This is Babe Ruth's house! He was born in Baltimore. They turned his whole house into a museum. I think just being in the house and going through the rooms was way cooler than the stuff they had in there. 

This is the outside of the Baltimore sports legends museum. It's right near camden yards.

We played at this church in Philly during the tour. It got so hot that day, and we couldn't fit half our equipment through the door. I was annoyed at first, but since we couldn't fit our stuff in there, half the percussionists got free time instead of playing. Bean and I just hung out in the truck, walked to dunkin donuts, saw the skyline!, and I had some time to practice which I was grateful for since my recital was the day after we got back.

Me and Mallrat had our recital! So did Egon and Screw! On the same day! haha. I thought I'd be more anxious about it. Having it in 121 and during the day took some pressure off. The big relief was having my family there. My parents, Sarah, and all their spouses (spare Robin because her back is still too messed up for the long trip) sat in the front row. I wasn't nervous at all, I was just so happy and excited to have them there. I had a blast!

The season at Johnstown ended at Wildwood. They didn't make finals but I hope they still got something from the season. It was definitely a long one. As much as I love teaching, trying to do it during a busy semester adds SO much stress. Especially with a limited staff. But I feel like they got an experience they may not have had if I'd turned down the job. Plus it was nice hanging out with Piffle more and making some new friends. Wildwood was EXACTLY what I needed! All season long we did these middle of nowhere western PA shows and piffle was constantly running into friends and people he knew. I was like "Uh, yeah hi." We walked into Kelly's the night of finals and lord, I can't remember the last time I was that happy. So many drum corps friends were there. I literally could not walk 5 feet without bumping into someone I knew. And I saw Christian freaking Gliko! Man, we talked for at least an hour straight. I cannot wait to come home to this life now. Christian and I lamented about teaching experiences and realized we need to just teach together. Andrew hung out with us for the last night. Spending time with piffle and andrew at time is amusing to say the least. Long story short, Wildwood was great.

My dogs, as always, were adorable.

Sarah and I stopped in at condom kingdom to pick up ridiculousness for Amanda's surprise bachelorette party. 

And had some cocktails with dry ice in them at her bachelorette party. We had hoped to have a huge surprise with all her friends waiting for her at the house, but it was kind of short notice and all of them were busy. Turns out, having it just be the three of us was SO much fun. Amanda got exactly what I think she needed, which was a night to relax, vent, and not worry. I mean, it's family, do what you want and say what you mean, they're sticking around. After a fun night at the tobacco factory.... tobacco club? Shoot I forget... anyway we went back to her house and slept on the living room floor in sleeping bags, just like old times :) So great.

And walmart got crabs. What an odd thing for walmart to sell...

Day 112

Where I've been.....

(This is going to go backwards chronologically because blogspot is mad at me, apparently)

Got to spend some time with these guys.

At their home!

A co-worker at eat n park found this abandoned kitten. We took care of it for the night before another friend from eat n park adopted the little guy. Never had something so toothless and hairy been so cute.

Amanda and Justin had their wedding!!!!!!!

And of course the bachelorette party :)

The King has passed :(

I found my first and unfortunately only toad of the summer at Mom's house. Not sure why he's sideways...

Amy, Geoff, Lila, and Viv came to visit. I'm amazed a two year old knows the word "ipod" and knows how to use it. Kids these days...

Jay and I watched Chris play without shoes in Astoria.
I drove. A LOT. The Cruiser officially bit the dust on my way to pick up Wengert in Harrisburg for keystone. I was 22 miles from where he was at. The car had over 175,000 on it. Thankfully, Uncle Jack was kind enough to let me have one of the cars he's been trying to sell. I am mobile!

I've been taking classes at IUP this summer. Not getting a three month break from this place is waring on me but I'm going home soon. And the every day summer class schedule is way better for me than the four month every other day schedule. I got a job. It's what you would expect for a part time college job but it pays the bills. It's a pretty good motivator. Like, "Hey, this will be you life if you don't try harder." I don't think I've ever wanted to go home so badly in my life. 

Day 111

I live with musical dorks. I found this note on my door. I laughed my ass off. And may have written one back. From George Crumb.