Albino in Tempe?

So weirdly enough, my skin tone since moving to Tempe has gotten surprisingly much whiter. Why? I'm always ALWAYS indoors! At least in Prescott, I still went out. Now, if I'm not in class, I'm in my dorm. I am indoors much more now than I have ever been. I bike or walk everywhere, but not long enough to get some color.

I FINALLY get to come home this Friday! It'll actually be exciting; it's my old high school's homecoming game, so I have to get myself once again all dolled up to ride on a golf cart with my lovely King John. I think it will be nice to see everyone that I haven't seen for awhile, including college friends who are coming up from UA as well.

For the life of me, I cannot seem to get a good grade on my music theory stuff- it will never be an A! Now, in high school, I would be happy with a B- however, my standards since I've arrived in college have been put much much higher. Which is good in a way. All this schoolwork also keeps me from practicing a lot everyday, kindof a bummer. I'm lucky if I practice at all a day, haha.


I also got to spend the past weekend with my parents- which was fun! It was lovely to see them. :) My dad took me to the Kiss concert Friday, and it was seriously the best concert I've ever been to. The band Kiss is well known for their showmanship and concerts (known to be the most extravagant), and it definitely was the best concert! Honestly, I don't really care about who is caring, I just love concerts. But, it is a lot better when you actually really like the band playing. We had 2nd row seats, and I caught 5 picks! The only reason why I got so many was because the girl in front of me in the front row had huge boobs, so Gene Simmons (for a while!) was aiming picks in her cleavage. Hell, she didn't care about the picks- she was just flirting with the famous long tongue man with face paint! To my advantage, I would climb over quick and retrieve the picks. It was a great concert, and I can't wait to put photos up.
We also went to the ASU vs. Oregon game.

Happy Tuesday!

xox

P.s: Thank god for FB chat (which I normally extremely dislike!) - Got to catch up with my best friend for a couple hours ;)

Eydn & I ...

The Floor's Musical Inspiration

= Brandon.

Which is good, because he has a good music taste. We are currently sitting next to each other on our laptops; him actually using his time well and me...Well this. It's actually really weird. Songs I once really, really enjoyed that were unknown to others are now known to other people on this floor. For instance, "City & Colour". Seriously, NOONE knew about this lovely man before, until Brandon (also a lover of City & Colour surprisingly!) publicized C&C to the entire floor, haha. He's a popular boy, and he populizes things pretty quick. It's a gift.

this is one of my favorites by him : Love Don't Live Here Anymore. (It's actually quite depressing hah)


Anyway, I have such a busy day ahead of me, and I already am missing my home town. It's not surprising; most kids once they leave they always say "Oh I hated it! Never coming back!" - but me ... I always treasured my time there and I am one of the few that miss it.

I'm not sure where to start with my life so far... I've been absolutely wiped out the past couple days. Even if I get 8 hours of sleep (which is SO rare), I still end up being exhausted throughout the day. I'm just so burned out that I am really, really exhausted all time. I also have a lot of homework to do, and lots and lots of practicing which I haven't been doing unfortunately. I want so badly for my violin teacher to be proud that I'm in her studio, but i don't know if she will after this week. I've had so much homework that I've pulled almost 3 all nighters (almost all night) because of the work load.


- This is actually all from last week; I just haven't had time to post it. How sad is that?
I am crazed with anticipation and excitement for tomorrow, the "Glee" 2nd season premiere. It's been on my calendar for months :)
I haven't been up to much lately; I am pretty excited for this weekend though: Family Weekend at ASU. I haven't seen my parents in almost a month - It's weird! Hopefully they'll want to go to the game with me??

I miss my old friends, even if I'm making new ones.

xox

brandon and I working diligently on our computers...

Changes in the Land

The book that I have to write a 4-5 page paper on entitled
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England by William Cronon
is a testament and proof that shows why some men or even women are so bland that result in them never getting married.




Please by any chance avoid taking History 109 at ASU for this reason and this reason only..having to read this book, and writing a paper on it.
Don't get me wrong.. the teacher is actually really cool and he makes powerpoints for our notes during lecture which are extremely helpful. However I could have so easily done without reading this book. ...and STILL reading it.

All nighter (or close to all nighter I'm expecting)..here I come.

"Where is Tiffany?"

Apparently this is a question frequently asked to my roommate and others, because I'm never around. While doing my homework in my room, my room mate and our friend down the hall was reading a Vogue mag in our room, when she randomly says,
"I have a confession/observation proposition to make to you."
Okay, what could this be?
She continues on with, "We all feel like you are never here, and we don't want you to turn into Karina (her roommate who is never there because she's always with her boyfriend). We always never know where you are, and we feel like you are always just with your boyfriend all the time." Then, my roommate chimes in with, "Yeah like 50 people asked me where you were today" (obviously an exaggeration).
I was so taken back, I didn't respond for a couple seconds - I had to muster my thoughts. Finally, I replied, "You guys do realize I am a music ed major being treated like a performance major as well - I HAVE to practice on top of my 18 hour work load. I haven't even seen Tyler all week so I'm not sure what you guys are talking about."

Something like that. Anyway, I feel like they are getting mad at me because I have a boyfriend, and that I'm not hanging out with them every free second I get. Yeah - I have hung out with my boyfriend of almost a year and a half, MY BAD! I feel like only people that are actually in relationships understand the breaking and dividing of time commitments. I have so much going on; I'm balancing practicing, studying, homework, orchestra, relationships.. It's a lot to balance. I'm almost a month into school and I'm still adjusting. Tyler never gets mad when I can't see him during the week, ever. He understands I'm in class and that I have an overload of classwork. I was so insulted that my "friends" could tell me how to manage my time, saying "We don't want you to turn out like Karina"... Ok, so Karina isn't very social and her boyfriend is her life... but that is HER. That is her choice.  Who cares if she is obsessed with the t.v. show "Friends"? It' is her choice, and I don't understand why these girls have to be so critical (or just 'girl' I suppose..) of the others on this floor. I am at the dorms when no one else is, because my schedule starts early unlike theirs. They think I'm never there, but they just aren't there when I am.

Also, I haven't really felt included for a while, either. The girls are always making plans to do things together, and it's like the kind of invite that goes, "Oh, well you can come if you want" ... I am not for after-thought invites at all. If someone isn't directly inviting me or is saying "if you want" that is not exactly an invitation to me. This might all sound old fashioned or stupid, but I just think invites like that are kindof rude. Like, they didn't even think to include me in the original plan, but when they talk about it in front of me, oh okay she can come. No, not okay. And that really hurts me. They wonder why I'm not jumping for joy to hang out with them, and that's why.

Intimidating

Today was my first studio meeting for violin (for Jiang's studio), and now I'm scared, and intimidated. Everyone there is better than me..and I know it should just be making me want to play harder and better, but to be honest - it's intimidating me and making me shy away. I mean, why bother playing? People that are my own age are much better than me. I am in this state of being both overwhelmed and intimidated at the same time. I wish I took violin more seriously these past couple years, maybe I'd be not so intimidated right now.
I practiced for almost 6 hours yesterday (not consecutively, 3 earlier in the day & almost 3 later that night), and my fingers were so, so sore after. I feel like if I wanted to be a music major, then I should be used to it. Of course now, I'm not a performance major, and before the studio meeting lesson I probably would've said, "yet" with that, but now I am just too scared. I feel way too far behind. I mean, yeah I can try as hard as I want, and I can practice for hours every day - but they and everyone else are always going to be steps ahead.
Maybe, I could look at the other side. Maybe I can think, "that just means you have to work double hard", and it's all about how much I want it, how much I want to get better. I do want to get better, and I want to be considered a good musician to these other classmates of mine. They haven't heard me play, but I am the only music ed major out of all of them, and you know they're all thinking "she's JUST music ed." Music ed majors are typically not good enough to be professional, haha. There's another side - my professor did want me in her studio even just every other week, which is awesome. So, perhaps I'll just have to work harder, and not let her down. All this lady can teach me is good higher knowledge, so I should be taking advantage of it, and "soaking it up like a sponge" as my previous violin teacher would say I do.
All I can do is practice, I guess. Just practice, practice, practice. I was hoping to double major in performance and ed, but ASU doesn't allow first years to do that. Apparently, you have to choose one or the other. That's such a hard decison: I defintely want an education degree under my belt, because I love teaching. However, I also want the technique of a performance major. I don't want to be the typical teacher that is just teaching because they teach better than they play, or weren't advanced enough. I want to be versatile; be able to say yes - I can teach, but I can also rip at the violin, haha.
I am so looking forward to this weekend - I need this break! Today I decided I am not practicing until I start AND finish the music history literature class paper that is due tomorrow. I have all weekend to practice...and do homework...
Anyway, that's about all for now - I better start working on this paper. Then practice ...no 6 hour session or anything though!

xox

just a little fun with my webcam a little while back - welcome night at ASU