I haven’t posted in a long time, I realize that. Maybe this will spurn me to update more, given I’m on holiday.

Well. I got this book for my birthday from Akash and I finished it really fast. Well. I took a couple of days break from it and read almost the entire book (220/291 pages) yesterday. It was that good. You have the typical story of immigrant parents who have their child, named Gogol after the author, and he struggles through life trying to decide what sort of person he will be. Cliché, right? Not at all. The book was heart-warming, but sometimes I didn’t feel sympathy for Gogol. Lahiri makes it so that although you understand the struggle he is going through, it is still unacceptable in one way or another. Lahiri gives you a good description of Bengali culture, but still makes the book accessible. It is not assuming, nor is it too simply written. Her writing style is perfect. I would recommend this book to you if you want a tale about immigrants and feeling out of place. Although I’m not indian, there were certain spots where I was like… “Yes. That is something all immigrants and their children have to go through.” Overall. It was amazing.  *****/*****

Well. It’s musical time! Which means my life pretty much goes to shreds and I have no time or motivation to do anything. That’s problematic when I’m supposed to be producing good music for viola and lessons and being kind to my students, etc. The pit is shaping up. Well. The winds are… the strings have some major work to do, namely the violins. I can just sit back, until someone needs a bunch of music photocopying. Which isn’t a big deal until someone wants me to copy a whole book. Then I just sort of die. It’s not fun using up my option standing in front of the photocopy machine turning pages. School has sort of been overwhelming yet boring at the same time. My classes aren’t the most interesting just due to the fact that I made stupid choices this year. Why do I need to be trilingual? Goodness. But yeah. Math is interesting. I’m not doing my best, but I’m kind of overwhelmed with the musical. Too much to focus on math too. We have 5 rehearsals this week. Plus I have a big concert on Tuesday. And another rehearsal and lesson on Monday. I’m going to die, pretty much. It’s nice this morning. I can RELAX. Until I have to teach, but that’s not for a while. I’ve had some strange encounters lately, but nothing I need to talk about. I desperately want to go to Prom, but that’s not really in my control so I’m not even going to hope. It’s not going to happen. *sigh* Oh. Crazy for You is the musical we’re doing. Our wind section’s parts are to die for. Anyway. That’s about it for here. I really should write here more.

m.

It seems like forever since I wrote an entry. It is February after all. Happy Month of Love! Well. I don’t think it’s so lovely. But some due, and in turn I will wish you love birds all the best this month. I on the otherhand, am hopeless and will someday find someone? No sé. Everything seems quite hopeless. Anyways. I have been practicing lately, for once. Not as much as I had planned, but more than last year. It is taking some getting used to, I must say. You know? Forcing myself to do it. But sometimes I just walk over to the stand and play. That feels good. But, I will get in the habit soon. I AM improving. So, I know it’s working. I just have to get in the habit. In other news… I am reading “Musicophilia.” It is really excellent insight on all sorts of musical conditions having to do with the brain. I recommend it greatly. Yeah. In general, I am trying to relax about stuff and I what I WANT to do, as opposed to what everyone else wants me to do. That is really hard sometimes, and I’ve had a lot going on lately, but it’s slightly working? Yeah. Also, I might be getting a new instrument over the summer, hopefully. See, I had some money for summer activities but I think I want it to go towards a new viola. My instrument isn’t doing enough for me. Anyways. Not much else here. Just life going on…. I will update if something exciting happens.

Marijke

Yeah. Lately I’ve been trying to consider the future a lot more seriously. I suddenly came to the realization that in less than a year I will have all my college apps done and I SHOULD be ready to audition. How scary is that? So, I’ve been doing my best to keep up a regular practice schedule, which I must say hasn’t been that hard. Needless to say, I haven’t really had much else to do so I guess I’ll see what happens once classes start again. But, practicing has felt fulfilling. Maybe I would get through stuff faster if I actually played it outside of practice room number 7. I’m sure I will. Yeah. That is my biggest goal for this year. If I achieve nothing else, that’s ok. I will be content in knowing that I made a huge change. I NEVER practice. To break that habit will be amazing. I really hope I can. Also, I’d like to grow out my hair. But that REALLY isn’t important in the grand scheme of things. I will cut it off someday. It just would look nice. Anyways. I just thought I’d rant about that. I feel motivated. Let’s see how many days I can keep this up!!

I swore not to do this, but after much thought I decided I should at least think about what needs to happen in 2009… so here goes:

1. Read more.
2. Do all my work on my desk, with laptop turned off to avoid distractions.
3. Ask this one person out.
4. Not rush on the college apps.
5. Give myself time to practice for auditions
6. Get myself more educated in classical music. Something I can always be doing.
7. Be prompt in responding to emails and phone calls.
8. Think about what I’m saying before I say it.
9. Practice more.
10. Succeed.

So, I hope you all have a really excellent New Year. I’ll see you in 2009!! Time to go party the night away.

marijke

So I’ve been trying new browsers lately since I keep encountering weird compatibility issues and/or slowness and/or annoyingness with add-ons. So, I think I finally found my match. I tried flock a while ago, with no luck but they put out flock 2.0 and I’m trying it and it’s quite nice. I’m using the blog editor to write this post and all the world stuff is awesome. Also, I can use all the firefox add-ons but they won’t fuck it up like firefox did. It was frustrating me. It is awesome. I know last time I wrote an article about a browser I stopped using it. Don’t get me wrong, Firefox can be awesome and Chrome has potential… but flock has the best of all the worlds. I loved Opera, but no add-ons that were convenient and I had compatibility issues with some school stuff. Who wants to load another browser just to check grades? Not me. Anyways. Just a short post, but I thought that you should try it out. Also, the feed reader is nice. And it checks email for me. Lots of nice stuff. Go try. ;D

In mourning. For those turkeys who lost their lives recently. Also, in mourning for those who lost their lives in the shootings in Mumbai. It is certainly worrying. I hope all this turmoil ends soon. It was certainly worrying while Akash was there. I am so glad he’s home safe and sound. Yeah. This thanksgiving has been one of the more eventful. We were headed to my dad’s, but my family came in a day late on the plane due to a heart attack on the plane. (Not one of my family thankfully.) So, they were finally here. Yesterday was sort of a chill out day, but it was still relatively crazy. We drove down, which required me to be sociable with those I was driving since we only had 2 drivers and 2 cars. Quite crazy, it will be good to drive away by myself tomorrow. Loud music, hot coffee. Mmmmm yes. So yeah…. we had our big dinner this evening. I didn’t even eat that much, but I was still full to bursting. And I feel a bit sick. Yeah, heavy food doesn’t go down so well with me. I’m more of a salad and buns kind of girl. Although avocados could be perceived as heavy. :/ Eh. You get what I mean. I spent my day reading, texting, and practicing. I’m playing the Meditation and Processional by Bloch. I enjoy the Meditation, but the Processional isn’t so great after you hear the 1st piece. Oh well. I can’t like everything I play. Kreutzer and octave scales have been killing my hand. It seriously needs to stretch out or I’ll be dying by the end of my career. I’m trying not to play it too much though or I will get a stress injury like before. That is not fun. Looking at music school has been interesting. I keep going back and forth in what I want to do. Performance…teaching…performance…teaching. AH!! I don’t know what to do… I feel like I’m living someone else’s dream. I will see. Performance sounds so appealing. I really want to do conducting. But you can’t do a whole degree as an undergrad. So, maybe as my masters? I don’t know!!! So difficult to know. *dies*

History class with fumo is SO boringggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg. *dies*

I never seem to get around to reading the books on my list because they always end up not interesting me. So, I don’t know. I’m going to try to make one, but I’m not guaranteeing that I will stick with it. We shall see. We shall see.

• Georgina: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
• La Casa en Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• Without You by Anthony Rapp
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Let’s just see if I can get through those in the month of November (Yeah right). It’s been so crazy with everything, but I’m about to gain back my Sunday evenings. I guess I shall see…? It has taken me forever to get through 100 pages of Georgina even if it is a fantastic novel. :/ I guess I shall see what happens… maybe I’ll get those done by the New Year. Then I can set some resolutions.

Holy crap, it’s nearly 2009.

Wow.

Happy Election Day everyone! I know. The title is a little random. I’ll explain later. I am very excited to track the election today. I can’t wait to see Obama win. Hopefully. It’s not over till it’s over. Yesterday, many people’s reactions towards Obama annoyed me. “Oh. He’s a communist.” “Oh. He faked his birth certificate.” OH SHUT UP. Excuse me, but no. Just no. I don’t care what dumb controversy you heard, this is a state official. Don’t you think that they would have done beyond numerous background checks. You can’t just fake a birth certificate. It’s a legal document. But regardless, if you can. GO VOTE. I don’t care. Look up the issues that are most important to you, think of who would be a better leader, a good face to the nation, and then go out and vote! I think it’s probably the single most important thing you can do as an american citizen. Can you tell I’m excited?

Anyways. Other news. Ok. The Mammoths running around thing. Scientists have decided that they are going to be able to clone dead animals. Like extinct species. I mean that’s REALLY what I wanted. Linky Yeah. seriously. I don’t want a mammoth running around my neighborhood. Or even in a zoo. Really. That is crazy. Hm. Not much else here. I’ll try to update more. It’s just been a little crazy. Stuff is beginning to calm down though. GO VOTE.

Marijke