Well, it's been awhile.  It would take pages and pages to really write about all of the wonderful and new things in life.  That will have to be for another day. 

As for this past weekend, I went to ACL and it was amazing.  I would venture to say it was one of the best times of my life.  I absolutely loved every second and it was just what I needed.

It's already been quite a semester.  It's hard but I'm really enjoying it... all of it. :)

Humanity is free and yet bound to a mechanistic universe, and it is art which can reveal inner unity and by-pass the rational tensions.  Perhaps for this reason music became the greatest art:  it overpowers us emotionally, and yet it cannot be analyzed easily.  Its content as such is beyond what we can verbalize.

i just got a DVD compilation of live performances of some of the most amazing pianists from about every genre you could imagine. the concerto i'm currently working on happens to be one of the performances... i cannot even wait to hear it. : )

"Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain."

the world spins madly on

Currently Listening Moon Over the Freeway By The Ditty Bops see related

Summer is halfway over... very strange.  I'm not sure what to think about it. 
Candles, bug zappers, repellent.... none of these work.  I don't know what my deal is... but the mosquitos just love me.

I finished 'The Awakening' by Kate Chopin and I absolutely loved it...

"Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life."

"Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual.  She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life."

"She could only realize that she herself - her present self - was in some way different from the other self.  That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet suspect."

Tonight we were without electricity for probably about an hour and a half.  I decided to practice.  Playing the piano in the dark and just letting my fingers find their place was very calming.  Chopin, Beethoven, and I had a nice time.

i've got a wrinkle to show for everyday
give 'em back to me again, i'll spend them the same

thank you huey lewis & the news and chicago. ----- these people are what we call 'musicians.' they belong on stage.

Go confidently in the direction of your dream.  Live the life you've imagined.
-Thoreau

Currently Listening Say I Am You By The Weepies, The Weepies see related

I’ve never been a reader and I’ve never enjoyed it… but, conveniently, life put a few people around me this past year who just really love books (you know who you are).  It’s such a beautiful interest and people who read tend to be beautifully interesting.  I decided this summer that I was going to read, not to be beautifully interesting, but because I wanted to.  I have now completed 2 books and if you know me at all… that’s a big deal.  I read ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ (for my human development class I’m taking) and ‘The Age of Innocence’ (which was a requirement for CIV last semester… but I didn’t read it).  Both were really wonderful.  I laughed and I cried and I underlined a lot.  Reading is like getting to be a part of a story that sometimes can be quite a bit more eventful than your own life.  I loved how ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ examined the truly important things in life and how ‘The Age of Innocence’ used beautiful language in telling a story of passion and independence.  If you hate reading, as I once claimed, you might want to try it again.  I am now onto another book and so far it’s proven to be pretty wonderful. 

My human development class has actually turned out to be extremely interesting.  The other day we watched a video on childbirth and as many times as I’ve gone over/watched that process in other classes, it was different this time.  It was absolutely amazing.  While everyone else was tapping their feet and ready to get out of class, I was trying not to be the weird girl crying during the childbirth video.  It was one of the most spiritual experiences I’ve ever had.  What an unbelievable and intelligent process in which we get to take part.

So far my summer has consisted of class, working, reading, music, and a lot of great conversations.  I can't complain.

Everyone is somewhere

And nowhere is near