Holidays Ushering In

Have you noticed that my house seems to be home to an astounding array of decorative birds? They're everywhere I turn.
Thanksgiving holiday runs for a week at SotA so, I've been home all week. But then it's been snowing too, so my younger siblings got to stay home as well. It's been nice. I've been drinking lots of tea and getting work done and catching up, a little bit, on my reading. Again, now I have left from a mighty pile of homework is music theory. How does that always seem to happen?

Thanksgiving was lovely. It was just my immediate family and we ate and they played board games (I don't play most board games on principle, something that drives my Dad and my brother nuts) and then later a scary video game downstairs (Also, not my idea). Everyone was happy and full and tired and it was just a good day.

Earlier in the week Demi and I took the train into the city (which was freezing) and spent the day poking in and out of shops, trying go quickly from store to store in order to stay warm. It was lovely if surprisingly tiring day. We laughed at some ridiculously overweight pigeons.

Today my sister and my Mum and I walked down to a park in search of some very specific pine cones. We looked through two parks to no avail. Dismayed, and cold and tired we decided to walk into town and find some tea, and then, just as we turned the corner, we saw the tree and the pine cones we needed. We shoved twenty in a plastic bag and went to go get some celebratory tea anyway.

We went to this little tea shop down town and I just about died. Seriously. You could order scones and a pot of tea, which had a tea cozy (!) and then there was this little gift store where you could buy the same tea and tea cups and pots and any kind of tea paraphernalia you could possibly want. It was just perfect. I want to go there for my birthday, which strangely is in just eleven days. I don't when that happened. But I'm excited anyway. Anyway, it was a beautiful place. I'm going to take my friends there soon.

I'm a little frightened by the encroaching finals week. I've been doing all the work that I can to ensure that it isn't as awful as it was last year. We'll see though. There's only so much I can do. It'll be a race until the end, probably as usual.

Earth Treasures

It's been awhile, hasn't it? In my defense, I've been super busy. I had Concert Preparation Assessments at Youth Symphony this last weekend (ie. personal hell), which pretty much forced me to become a recluse for the week. In retrospect I probably seemed a little funny. Holed up in my room, nastily shooing anyone who interrupted me. I apologize. I get a little worked up. And I had two important essays due and a book to read and a prelude to write. And Halloween. Oh God Halloween.

Just scary stuff. But it's over now.



I went to see Sufjan Stevens on the thirtieth. I cannot impress upon you how much I loved it. It was so perfect. He was playing a lot from his new album the Age of Adz (Which is the only thing I have listened to for the last week. Nothing else.) I've gotten to the point where I can't even distinguish my own feelings from that of the music. He inspires that level of empathy. There are songs that still continually bring me to tears. Seriously. It is just so beautiful.

The songs are about heartbreak, at least to me. And I think he's been hurt really badly. I hope he gets better.

I'm writing a piece in Music Theory that I actually enjoy, that actually makes me happy.I haven't really had that happen. It's a prelude as I mentioned before, which is basically a big long chord progression with the same rhythmic patterns over and over again. I added some seventh chords and quite a few diminished chords in there as well. Should make things interesting. I have to turn it in on Tuesday.

It's getting really cold. And the leaves are really starting to turn, delighting me. Although I love Halloween, I'm excited to get to the more relaxed holidays. I'm already starting to find items from Christmas. Abbie is particularly easy to buy for.

I really wish I could take songwriting two next semester. I can't, my schedule is just too full. But it would be nice. I like songwriting. But I'm not very good at either piano or guitar so that makes things difficult. It's weird to play a bunch of chords on the cello. Maybe that could be my winter project? Learning to play piano or guitar a little?