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Unsuckiness   
12:00pm 24/11/2009
  After all those bitter rants about how people suck, I was proven wrong today. I suck :P I dropped or left my iPod somewhere (and I'm usually so paranoid about leaving things now) today. Someone found it, turned it into the info desk, then the desk e-mailed me. I wouldn't have a clue at this point otherwise.

Helped that my name was on the back, too. >.		  
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Busy-ish week   
10:54am 12/11/2009
  Heh, this one seemed interesting so I thought I'd post my daily schedule for the week so far. I posted Saturday already so now...

Sunday (11/8)
1000 Head out for the koi
1115 Head out for Newport
1315 Start working on CERM project in NOAA lab
2015 Head out for Corvallis
2200 Hit home, sleep probably came soon after

Monday (11/9)
0900 Head out for the koi
0930 Head out for Eugene
1030 Unsuccessful shopping at VRC
1130 Lunch with Jimmy at Olive Garden
1230 Head back to Corvallis
1330 Park, walk to lab
1400 Work in lab
1530 Head out to band
1600-1730 Symphonic Band
1800 Arrive back at car to swap out bassoon and clarinet
1815 Meet Kathleen, walk to Truax, she whacks me with her umbrella because I don't have a jacket on, then makes me walk with it
1830-2100 Marching band
2110 Accompany Kathleen back to the lab
2130 Drive home

Tuesday (11/10)
1200 An awesome casserole lunch. Woo!
1420 Pick up Kathleen, head over to the Salmon Disease Lab (SDL)
1430 Take scrapings of koi (we just finished treating the G5 tank for chilodinella)
1500 Drop Kathleen off, park, head into lab
1530 Lab work
1800 Head home
1825 Matt calls asking if I was available to play for the marching band's intramural volleyball team; rush back to campus
1840 In Langton playing volleyball. Not bad :)
1900 Volleyball ends, decide that since I'm on campus anyway, may as well go practice
1930 Find a practice room in Benton
2100 Head home

Wednesday (11/11) - What was scheduled:
0700 Report in Albany for ceremony
1100 Parade
1200 Lunch
1330-1630 CERM in Newport
1600-1730 Symphonic Band (But I never make Wednesdays)
1830-2100 Marching Band

What actually happened:
0515 First alarm
0528 Get out of bed
0530 Second alarm; coffee, get ready
0640 Head out to Albany
0706 Arrive in Albany, the bus was late, listen to Kirk rant and Thomas talk
0800 Memorial Ceremony that included playing Hymn to the Fallen, No Finer Calling (and late starts on the woodwind choir because he started very quickly after he announced the piece in a less than clear voice), Amazing Grace, and the Carmen Dragon version of America the Beautiful. Boggle
0930ish Hot breakfast! Yum! Woo!
1100 Parading
1200 Lunch at Red Robin. Yum! Sat at a table with Jake, JoeFi, Johnny V., and Bethany
1315 Head out
1330 Drop in on the koi, feed them, change
1400 Head out to Newport
1515 Plunk down in class for the half an hour remaining of lecture and then a run through on making effective posters
1650 Head back to Corvallis. Holy shit, the drive back from Newport in the dark and fog is extremely scary
1815 Meet Kathleen, walk to Truax
1830-2045ish Marching band, Doc got mad
2100 Drive home

Today
1100 Still in bed typing this. I'm a little hungry. Hm...

Off to get lunch :P		  
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More music   
06:27am 11/11/2009
  "And I can see California sun in your hair"
Winding Road - Bonne Somerville

This song is off the Garden State soundtrack. I've had this soundtrack for quite a while (stolen from Keri, I'll bet), and it's taken this whole time for this song to work its way up to one that I like. That line popped in my head randomly last week, and I thought it was something I'd have to youtube since I thought I just heard it on the radio somewhere.		  
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Randomish   
11:37pm 10/11/2009
  A few times in the years of our friendship, Kathleen and I played this game, usually initiated by her hopping into me during an unstructured moment in marching band practice. We would then go on to hopping to a fairly steady rhythm with her trying predict my next movement and hop on my feet, while I try to not to get hopped on (while attempting to stay in a somewhat restrictive area). She started it yesterday, and we played a few times. I cheated the first time last night, I think it that meant win for her--not that we ever hashed out the rules to this game. She actually got me on the second time, and we both burst out with "ohhh!" For me it was like, "oh, dang, you got me," while for her it was more like, "oh look, I got you!" Then Chris and someone else mocked us by echoing with their own "ohhh!", with a "wtf?" sort of tone then laughing. I felt like smacking him. I really enjoy that game though, as simple and nameless as it is.  
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More music   
10:13pm 10/11/2009
  You know, I'll admit to liking Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. Yes, Miley Cyrus. The only thing I'm not particularly a fan of is her choice of music (as stated in the song). The music choice Nick Pitera's cover, while not exactly like my choices, is definitely more compatible. I love his version. The last dancer dropping out of the screen at 1:06 with an audible crash amuses me every time. I mean, the dancers amuse me in general, but that crash is just awesome.

Also, I'm addicted to The Fray. Look After You...love it.		  
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OSUMBC   
01:34pm 10/11/2009
  0530 First alarm
0540 Get out of bed
0545 Second alarm/shower
0600 Get in car
0610 Stop at Starbucks.  Tall caramel macchiato extra caramel.  Fun times :)
0625 Park at Kathleen's apartment
0630 Arrive at Reser (running), run into Alaina and Chia who were working with parking
0635 Get to the press box, check in with Matt for my security shift who then tells me that I could hang out in the press box until 0800 since the ticket booth wasn't open.  Torn between crying and cheering.  Sit down at the windows overlooking the field and open my laptop
0635 Sit with AJ, some flute player, and Tyler.  With visits from Todd and Dave.  Fun times :D
0800 Working security for the ticket booth.  Said "Morning" to a bunch of people, made two signs that said "Tickets" with a sharpie so people would stop asking me (and it worked!), and listened to the morning bands perform.  Relieved early by Krista.  She's awesome :)
1115 Up in the pressbox retrieving lunch and trying to figure out where Kathleen was.  Ran into Dick and watch a band or two perform.  Fun times :)
1145ish Meet up with Kathleen at her apartment and drive over to the SDL
1210ish Set up and start the formalin treatment.  Kathleen goes inside for a half an hour or so to analyze her southern blots for Dr. Jin while I (as well as Spike from a nearby tree) watch the fish and entertain myself in the rain.  Fun times :D
1345 Rest a bit in Kathleen's apartment.  Yay for using the dryer to dry clothes.  Fun times :D
1500 Head over to Truax in uniform for the afternoon warm up and performance
1530 Warm up.  Shdunking JK during Straight thuggin'.  Fun times :)
1615 Afternoon performance (pregame).  Yay for the rain stopping for our performance.  Meh on pregame, but fun times
1635ish Band picture.  Torturing Kathleen because she was surrounded by me, Matt, and Morgan.  Fun times :D
1655 Jog back to Kathleen's apartment to change.  Impromptu but enjoyable exercise.  Fun times :)
1730ish Go with Kathleen to check into her security shift.  Hang out at the top of the west stands while she guards the door to the press box.  Eventually joined by her dad, Andrew and his fiancee.  Watched many bands in the finals competition.  Fun times :)
2050 Change for the evening show
2130 Evening warmup.  More Straight Thuggin'.  Fun times :)
2220 Evening performance.  Yay for the rain stopping again.  Fun times :)
2240ish Say goodbye to Kathleen.  Go up to check in for evening clean up
2300 Depart for evening clean up.  Try to not let head explode.  Success.
2330 Finish evening clean up.  Help Doc eat a box of donuts.  Decide that half an hour was not a bad wait for greeting the football team at midnight
0000ish Standing outside Valley Football Center entertaining ourselves while waiting for the team.  Fun times :D
0030ish Team arrives.  We play. 
0055ish Make it back to the car
0110 Arrive at the apartment
0200 Sleep		  
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Koi   
11:34am 08/11/2009
  Today after days...weeks of not knowing where the siphons went, I found them and used one to siphon the poop out of one of the tanks (they needed it). The fish were either extra friendly or extra blind (both strike me as possible) because they ran into the siphon a lot more than usual. A particularly funny moment was when Notroxie firmly fish-kissed my hand (on the siphon) and then she clearly didn't expect that because she jerked back pretty hard. Ah, I adore these fish too much.  
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Musings on food   
12:11pm 19/10/2009
  Note to self: lasagna in McNary...never, ever again.

Not sure if I've ever written about it here, but the lasagna in McNary was one of my favorite meals while in the dorms. One of the guys at the pasta place even knew that I'd be ordering that whenever I came up. I don't remember if it was cheese lasagna (probably) or if it had a little meat in it. Both the sauce and cheese were present, but inoffensive (think Spaghettio sauce, if you will) and I absolutely loved it.

Today, I ordered it again in a fit of nostalgia. They've upgraded the place since I've left. It's now $4 instead of $2, and instead of the fastest thing on the menu (they had it out front and ready to just scoop), it's now one of the slowest. The meat (ground beef) makes up about 2/3 of the thing. I like meat, and this meat was pretty good. But holy cow (ahaha), I like meat in moderation. That not moderation. I feel sick now.

Of course, I'm not sure which is better. The old lasagna almost always left me hungry. I can't finish this lasagna...but I also feel a little sick. Heh. This lasagna isn't that bad. It's pretty good, actually (except the meat overload). But I miss my lasagna.		  
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More musing on music   
10:29am 14/10/2009
  Not Myself by John Mayer...it's an okay song overall in my opinion. It's not bad, not incredibly awesome either. I wouldn't find it particularly memorable or worth mentioning except (of course there's an "except") a moment around 1:36. After a couple verses, the bridge hits (at least, I think it's the bridge). The percussion and the supporting chords drop out with a fading suspended cymbal hit, leaving arpeggios on the guitar to support the vocal. Love it :)

But then again, arpeggios are awesome, aren't they? I was searching on youtube for a video of someone playing the Super Mario 64 staff roll on piano so I could learn it myself. I was sad because most people didn't play the part I was most interested in: the arpeggios under the second melody. Apparently (and thankfully), someone else had the same thought because they posted a video of their own with the arpeggios included, commenting on the lack of people that included them. It really makes a big difference, too. That section feels incredibly empty without the arpeggios. Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out what those pitches are :)

edit: I figured I'd just add on to this one rather than make a new entry. I nearly cried the first time I watched the music video for "How to Save a Life" from The Fray. It just hits a little too close to home.

edit2: The music video to Taylor Swift's song, You Belong With Me, is incredibly cute despite the overused storyline (even within her own songs).		  
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Reminisce   
01:15am 12/10/2009
  Out of odd happenstance, the show All That was revived in my memory. I had completely forgotten about it until recently, my kick on a capella music was revived and I had been youtubing groups and songs. Divine, the all female group at Oregon State, had performed a rendition of the All That opening theme. It turns out I still love that theme...it might be my favorite opening theme to a show ever. The music (by TLC) I find oddly catchy, but then I also love the visuals for some reason. It strikes me as simple and low key--the abrupt cut to Katrina dropping a paper to reveal the word "OH" along with the music seems like the absolute perfect thing they could show at that moment. The scenes of Kenan and Kel playing wall ball are powerfully nostalgic (partially the lighting, partially because I played wall ball a lot in elementary school). And then there's a nostalgic fondness for the season 1 actors (because that's when I watched the show). Watching a couple of the episodes now...I really don't find it funny. But there's still this strong sense of nostalgia because as a kid, I remembered that I loved the show very much.

I'm 22 for a moment
Dying for just another moment

edit: I also love the diversity of the cast. A mix of races, body types...not all of them were drop dead attractive, but they all had some sort of appeal to them.		  
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Briefly   
08:17am 05/10/2009
  It's amazing how two weeks ago, I saying "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" the whole week until Saturday while last week was like, BAM! we're there. "Are we--oh, we've been there already." In other words, last week was lightning fast compared to the slug that was the week before. And now we start again.

I am incredibly happy as of late. :)		  
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Shit and serenade   
11:26pm 13/09/2009
  So the serenading is actually the shorter story. My Facebook update tonight: So I went to Winco to buy gravy mix, and only gravy mix. I had just found it and was reaching for it when I made eye contact with a guy, who then started singing, "Lord have mercy, baby's got her blue jeans on".

That's way too long for Twitter. As someone that holds an account, Twitter sucks.

As for the "shit", this requires a lot of boring explanation for anyone not familiar with the tanks or the fish, and I'm not sure I can do the story justice with text anyway. I told Kathleen that I would feed the koi this weekend and she didn't have to worry about them (my attempt to give her a break). I noticed that one tank was collecting a lot of poop, so I decided to siphon it out on my last visit for the weekend.

So I leave early (4:30) so I could get most if not all of the siphoning done close to 5 so they didn't go hungry for too long. I got there at 4:45 and figured I'd be done by 5:30.

Six koi split into two tanks that are circular with a diameter of, oh, 3-4 ft. Besides the fish and a tube to bring water in, the only things in the tank are two hard plastic tubes in the center of the tank, one over the drain to regulate water level and one on the outside of it to catch poop and prevent the floating food from going down the drain. The tanks are set up as such:

[Q6][Q5][Q4]
[Q1][Q2][Q3]

where we have fish in Q1 and Q5 (which we call G5 due to someone's error in labeling the tank).

There are two suggested ways of getting rid of the poop: lifting the inner center tube for a brief moment to empty the poop through the drain or to take a long flexible tube and use it like a vacuum cleaner hose and suck the poop out. For G5, I've tried the first way, but I have yet to be successful since it hurts my hand before I pull hard enough to remove the tube.

The G5 tank has three very lively koi that freak out every time you open the top. No matter how gently you lift the top, they'll be like, "ZOMG!" and run smack into the back of the tank...or just race laps for a few minutes. If there's a lot of poop in the tank, it's very noticeable because they stir it all up when you open the tank. >.< It's like a goddamn snow globe except with poop.

The Q1 tank has three very mellow koi that don't even flinch when you open the top. They just kind of float there, like "duh...meh..." They do freak out a little when you start closing the lid, and even then, the laps are like, "oh...noez..." That tank always looks clean...only maybe 5 drops of poop visible at the most, usually only 2 or 3. These are the koi that often don't finish their food so I've wondered why there's never poop seen in there, but never thought much on it.

So I siphoned the G5 tank, no problem. Was very thorough this time since last time I did it, Kathleen unintentionally and probably unknowingly pointed out that I forgot to lift the center tube and siphon the crap stuck in there. Fed them, then moved onto the Q1 tank. I fed them, too, since siphoning their tank is always really brief and easy. Then I thought, 'I should probably get inside their tube, too.' So I lifted it up and set it to the side. Then realized that the food was going down the drain so I scrambled to swipe the food away from the center...and then I looked down and beheld this ENORMOUS mass of poop that had been collecting for the last two weeks. A lot of it was stuck together and falling over in slow motion, like the fucking like likes in Ocarina of Time. I swear, it was practically saying, "rawr, I'ma gonna eat you!"

Now the fish had freaked out when I moved the tube, like "omg!omg! Something in the tank moved!" and were stirring everything up. It was a freaking shit blizzard--you could hardly see through it. Not helpful. So now I'm nearly dancing next to the tank thinking, 'shit! shit! What do I do? That mass is WAY too big for the siphon.'

So I grabbed the center tube, hoping to empty most of the crap out before they stirred it up completely. Considering that I haven't succeeded at pulling up the G5 tube, I yanked this tube with as much sharp force as I could muster. Apparently, I didn't need nearly that much force. I nearly fell over. And then recovered in time to get a face full of water shooting out of the center of the tube. Much later, I realized that since I had completely taken the outside tube off, that was probably not a good idea to do without something to prevent the fish from getting stuck in the drain. Luckily, I managed to shove the tube back into the drain before any fish got stuck.

By now, the usually mellow koi were zipping around the tank like "OMGOMGOMG! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!" This is the fastest I have ever seen them move. The blizzard had spread out into one big snow storm, and I started siphoning everything up. It only took them a few seconds to slow down again. Then it felt like they were saying, "now why the fuck did you do that??" as they swam through a shower of their own crap for the first time since coming here.

As if to add insult to the chaos, I got splashed from outside of the tank as I started siphoning. I looked up in time to see the orange flashing where I left the G5 tank open (this is why I gave the layout above...whatever fish that was splashed me from at least four feet away). Kind of like they were laughing at me.

Anyway, by the time I was satisfied with the siphoning, fed them (replenished the lost food in the Q1 tank even though they probably won't eat it), recorded in the daily log, I was ready to leave by 6:20. I would have, but I stopped to watch a spider finish spinning her web...of course, it started raining right when she finished but the rain was brief.

Anyway, should be a fun story to recount.		  
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The rest of tour   
08:35am 03/09/2009
  I'm done now except the concert on Saturday. I don't know which duty crew I'm on...I really hope not the set up crew though. The band remembered my birthday, as well as my parents and sisters. Not sure if I should count everyone on Facebook since I doubt most of them would have remembered or even known if I didn't post it on Facebook. The one person that I wished would remember didn't. I'm not as sad about that as I thought I would be. Still sad nonetheless.

The part of the tour with Pink Martini turned out much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. The Oregon! Oregon! musical wasn't so bad, and I actually enjoy Pink Martini's set. I watched it twice, took a break from it in Medford, but I look forward to hearing it again in Portland. And then I think I'll buy their second album, which they didn't provide to us for free, since a couple of my favorite songs from their set aren't on the two albums they gave us. China Forbes' voice reminds me of Shannon's voice...I think it's awesome that their manager told Shannon that he wanted to record her.

In Bend, Phil and Jan got the brilliant idea of going out into the crowd and getting people to dance at the end of the musical. I forgot about it when the time came in Bend but heard it was pretty successful, so in Medford I made sure I was out in time to go with them. Our band was sort of shocked and amused. Really, it just reminds me of OSUMB, just more intimate with a smaller crowd.

Between Bend and Medford, I was on van duty with Joefi (Joseph Fiala, if I've never clarified), which was a lot more fun than either of my other trips on the van. We were nearing the turn off for Crater Lake when both Joefi and I have confessed to have never been. So we "took a wrong turn" and went up to Crater Lake just to drive the rim. "And we'll even let you get out and look around," Tuggy didn't say. It was my turn to torture people with my music...I tried to go for stuff they haven't heard before, and then mix in stuff they've surely heard before. Even if I don't particularly like the song, I find listening to music much more enjoyable if there's something I recognize every now and then. American Pie was a success with Tuggy, I was waiting for someone to ask about the GGB tunes since First Sergeant was in the car, and modern rock stuff like Maroon 5 and Matchbox Twenty went well with Joefi. I got asked about the Pokemon 2000 ending (I started with a lot of OCR; they thought this was video game music).

But yeah, Pink Martini are really nice people. Thomas was asked to conduct Frieschutz (however you spell it) in Medford, and I found it absolutely adorable how he was SO NERVOUS about doing it. The only band member that I got a chance to talk to was Nick, the violin player. I absolutely love his playing, too, yes, even before he spoke to me. :P I noticed it in a somewhat slow piece in Salem, he introduced himself in Bend, and then we briefly spoke again in Medford. I've also interacted with the actresses a little since we share dressing room. One of them remembered that I got frustrated with my hair in Bend and asked about it in Medford...that caught me off guard. And it seems that we see the witch around a lot.

Pink Martini hosted a party in Bend at the house of a friend of Thomas'. I was introduced to Thomas there by Phil (who got to perform on Thomas' piano. I think that's pretty cool). Since I'm not in the Oregon! Oregon! set of musicians, I never really interacted with the band beforehand (then again, it was only Thomas except two rehearsals). So even though many other people were eager to do this with Pink Martini from the 27th, it took me until after Bend to really get into it. I think I'll be actually happy to be there on Saturday, now that I've been home a little bit.

And yeah, after two weeks of build up, coming home was a little anticlimactic for me on the inside. *shrug*		  
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Tour Day...11   
10:29pm 27/08/2009
  The jazz band yesterday was nice. They closed with Hey Pachuco, and admittedly I was very impressed with Rodriguez's tenor sax solo. He really is an awesome jazz player.

Today, we bussed back to Portland from Bend. The people performing with Pink Martini rehearsed while the rest of us set up the picnic and cleaned the band hall for the governor's appearance. I swept and mopped the floors after setting up the place for rehearsal. The governor came and watched the Pink Martini performance. As Johnny V. said, it was a very interesting clash of people at the band hall today with the Army band, the governor, Pink Martini and their actors... And here's the viewpoint from the lowly grunt *takes a bow* But Jan seemed very appreciative of my work.

The catered food ended up being really, really good. No games this year though, which was sad. I was looking forward to some volleyball, although I would have settled for touch football. SPC Amen came back today. I'm sure the picnic was an awesome way to get welcomed back. People were just eager to go home though, which I understand. It was really interesting seeing everyone's kids, especially those that were born after I joined the military. But then people that I hardly see as fathers. Jake's little girl is absolutely beautiful, and Matt has a second kid I didn't know about. But his first little girl...I remember seeing her as an infant. And Kirk's kids...cute :)

I was hoping they would forget my birthday. Yesterday, they remembered that it was supposed to happen over tour and looked it up. So it's not forgotten now. Already, I have birthday breakfast planned with John Gordon. I will totally have strawberry belgian waffles. I think.		  
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Tour Day 10   
09:16am 26/08/2009
  I had a couple of dreams that literally scared me awake. And I also had a pleasant portion. At least they got me up in time for breakfast.  
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Tour Day 9   
11:25pm 25/08/2009
  Today wasn't awkward at all. *eye roll*

Mainly our lovely crowd of 20 people filling up the teeny tiny theatre that could probably seat 200. Or to finish tuning and then sitting there as the First Sergeant who had the mic wasn't around. I think I twiddled my thumbs for at least 2 minutes. Maybe more. Or our commander asking the crowd if they wanted an encore. I'm glad the lameness of that didn't strike me until Tasha commented in the dressing room or I just might have whacked my head on the stand. No, not awkward at all.

Also, I agree with whoever commented on this: I think the low turnout is negatively affecting the morale of the group. We didn't play so hot tonight. This was the first night that Far From Home didn't make my body tingle (just because I find the piece and Tasha's solo so moving). I think the clarinet squeaks, and not all of them were mine, sort of ruined it for me. But tonight was the best I had ever pulled off that crazy section in Silverado. Woo. But yeah, I did a lot more squeaking than I'd like. I was also really tired by the end despite the abbreviated concert (and I am glad they shortened it) :\ Ontario still stands as the best performance.

We have the jazz band performing tomorrow. I'm glad they're letting us nonjazz band members not wear the Class B's (the original plan up until tonight was to make us wear them for who knows what reason). Then we make the drive back to Portland on Thursday. Perform in Salem on Friday, Bend (again...why couldn't we perform in Bend Friday? That would make life easier...for us, anyway) on Saturday, Central Point on Sunday. And then we go home on Monday. And then there's still Portland the Saturday after that. Labor Day...*sigh*		  
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Tour Day 8   
12:44am 25/08/2009
  Today was our day off. I expected a relaxing and eventless day. I got up for breakfast (at 9), ate breakfast, Joe Staunchfield joined me. Hung out in the room (a little Photoshopping, a weird CI trip with Aby) then went downstairs to get myself some tea. Ran into Joe again, who asked, "do you know who Miyazaki is?" "Yes." "Do you want to see Ponyo?" "Yes. Right now?" I went up to get my purse while Joe checked the times. I came back down, asked him when the showings were and he said, "one starts in 5 minutes. And one is at 7." So we walked to the theatre, got there when the movie was starting, bought our ticket, and sat down with 3-4 previews to go.

Joe checked his texts at the end of the movie and found out that Thomas had purchased Munchkin. So we went back to the hotel and played a round of Munchkin with Thomas and Jason. Jason was playing for the first time, Joe won by divine intervention.

I went for a run at 10, then went straight to the pool where Thomas, Joe (again), Joefi, Matt, and his wife were hanging out and throwing a frisbee. Joined in. Eventually Jake came in, as well as Preston with his kids. Left at midnight, and now here I am. Really tired, but not quite wanting to go to bed yet. So I'm in the lobby with a downed cup of tea waiting for my first match in a small automated sf tourney. Wee.		  
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Tour Day 7   
08:07pm 23/08/2009
  Today is my third day in Bend, on the bus about to depart for our first concert from this hub. Friday was purely a transportation day for the marching band (the jazz band stayed in Baker City for an extra night to perform a couple gigs). I imagined the drive from Baker City to Bend would be hell in the van, but it actually wasn't that bad. It worked out so that there were two people per seat, so there was an empty space between everyone. The only complaint was that it was too hot for me for a lot of the ride, but that's because I chose to ride in the very back, where the seat doesn't have its own air vent. Everyone else had air right next to them and tended to get cold where I was comfortable.

We're staying in the Ameritel here, which, any hotel with a hot beverage bar just wins in my book. And then they provide honey for my tea? Double win. I'm currently sipping on lemon tea with one packet of Splenda and two things of honey. Bliss in a cup. It's amazing.

I went swimming on Friday night with Johnny V. and Crystal after dinner at McMenamin's. I've never looked at the McMenamin's menu thoroughly before...I've always gone straight for a mushroom burger. But with my attempt to eat healthier, I looked at the rest of the menu for a better alternative. And I found it. I ordered the higher pasta. Note to self: pasta without a lot of cheese is not very satisfying for me. A cream sauce would have made the dish absolutely wonderful for me but I should've gone with my gut when I read lemon brown butter sauce or whatever it was and not ordered it. I want to go back and try their baked macaroni. Not exactly healthy, I know, but I've been craving that stuff for a while now. Asiago is one of the cheeses listed in their baked macaroni...I associate asiago with CJ.

Saturday was the marching band performance at the air show in Madras. Could have been better, could have been worse. The black low quarters (the shiny shoes I wear with my green dress uniform) were incredibly hot...the temperature was a little too warm for comfortable, but it was bearable. Except my feet. That sucked. Also, I screwed up pretty badly a couple times. One wasn't my fault, as it was written in the music. The other...I forgot the roll off. I brought Tasha down with me...one of those automatic reflex things; she played when she heard me start. *cringe*

We got back pretty early (2pm), so I went off to dinner on my own. The hotel is next to a really nice shopping center with a Red Robin so I hit that. Absolutely lovely service until I got my soup with a fly on it. Then they were on top of me so much that it was borderline annoying. But I understood why, and I still tipped them with as much cash as I had on me (not a lot, $3). I believe that's the first ticket I've ever had comped. It felt really weird walking out without paying. I had to sit there and convince myself that I wasn't doing a dine and dash.

Tomorrow is our day off. I mean, it's not like this has felt tremendously grueling (certainly better than last year). Although I have a feeling that the last four days with Pink Martini will be really rough with a lot less free time. Happy fucking birthday to me. At least I can probably get away with not partying on that day.		  
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Tour Day 4   
12:06am 21/08/2009
  I got up for volleyball. Turns out, someone forgot to buy the volleyball last night. Also, the field with the net had a lot of mosquitos even at 9am. So I followed Johnny V. to the pool. Surprised us both by ending up swimming, especially since I didn't have a suit. I did swim with clothes on though. Also had breakfast with Johnny V. and Joefi.

Shannon M. and I were the duty drivers for the van (randomly assigned before tour). We had to leave 45 minutes before the bus because the van transports the advance party (aka the commander, his wife, the 1st sergeant, and Tuggy). It was a nice change, especially since our admin are rather nice people to be around. We mostly got to listen to them discuss what pieces we'll play tonight. Shannon chipped in her opinion often, which I found amusing. We ended up stopping at Starbucks so we could turn left with a light off 84. I had the best caramel frapp ever...caramel frapp with extra caramel. Holy moly, that was fantastic. Even better with the coupon that 1st sergeant gave me. Then we got lost. Sucks since I was supposedly the navigator, but the directions given to me were incomplete (they didn't actually stop at our destination, nor did they ever make us pass it. So...) I'm not in the cool crowd with an iphone, and wasn't particularly successful when Shannon handed me hers, so Tuggy, Mr. Alexander, and Erin sorted it out with their iphones. Lesson learned: Eastern Oregon University sucks.

Ate at a nice brewery with delicious chicken caesar salad. Plenty of time so it was relaxed.

I feel I did as well as yesterday, both personal bests. There were only 6 people in the audience to witness it (not including family accompanying us). The group's personal best is still yesterday. I guess the advertising didn't go so well here in LaGrande...that is, the ad wasn't put out until today. Heh. That was...special.

I hung out with John Gordon for a bit in the bar. Shared a plate of buffalo wings with him and had a Shirley Temple. That wasn't bad. And now I guess I go to bed.

edit: So, there's a plus to eastern Oregon. I noticed it on the van ride back. There's a lot less light pollution out here. The stars are absolutely lovely, and you can see quite a lot of them, even from a van traveling on the freeway.		  
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Tour Day 3   
11:43pm 19/08/2009
  Heh, terrible of me not to update. Last night, we performed in Pendleton. Tonight we performed in Ontario. Last night, we performed an encore piece due to the crowd's enthusiasm. Tonight, we performed the encore piece, and then the crowd demanded one more. I think tonight's concert went pretty well compared to the last two. It seemed we were out of there quicker, too. Meals today were pretty questionable since we weren't sure if we'd have time to eat dinner, but we actually had quite a bit time to take care of food. We're currently lodging in Baker City, and I found the Subway. Happy days. I'm on my second Subway sandwich (foot long roasted chicken on Italian herbs and cheese with cheddar, lettuce, spinach, tomato, onion, olives, salt, pepper, vinegar). I'm tempted to take the sweet onion sauce instead of the last three ingredients next time. I'll have to think on that. There's the option of playing volleyball tomorrow at 8:30. Sounds fun. I think I'll go.

Johnny V. spent quite a bit of time with me today. Ah, well, he ate dinner with me and sat next to me on the bus ride back from Ontario. I seem to be rousing a little bit of concern among some of the band members. I wonder if he's one of them. Perhaps I should put a little energy into dispelling that. Not really in the mood to, though.

I have an angsty song that's been on repeat on my ipod for the past couple of days. I haven't picked out an angsty song like this since high school.

I figured Jimmy would be interested in this: I watched The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on the bus today. Not a bad movie.		  
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