A few things

I rode my bike* on Saturday!
Sunday was Easter*!
Monday I slept* a lot!
Tuesday I had a great time with a friend* at Jamba Juice!
Wednesday I saw my grades*!

*****

bike: it was so I could find a place to get my haircut. Turned into an adventure, especially since I didn't know of any specific places, I just got on and took off. Felt pretty good. Also went to a concert on Temple Square and had a boba drink afterward, though not on my bike.

Easter: what a wonderful day to remember the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He suffered for each and every one of us, for our sins, and he died so that he could overcome physical death also for each one of us. Unfathomable, really, but it is certain that He loves me and He loves you, and the least we can do is accept His gift by following His teachings.

sleep: something I enjoy WAY too much. But then I do stay up playing the piano super late at night, too. Hmmmm. Oh, and I also had a short interview on Monday to find out how much I get to PLAY this summer and get paid for it! I love my job!

friend: I think this friend wishes to be unnamed, but it was sure great to see her and we had a wonderful almost two hours just talking. I provided this friend with marshmallow peeps and fully expect her to get all the microwave entertainment she can out of them.

grades: turned out pretty good for skipping those two classes so many times... one B, one A-, and the rest A's! Yup, they love me. And, I have begun my duties as president of our student chapter of MTNA. I'm working on not killing myself with stuff to do in the next year . . .

Short Descriptions of My Afternoon:

"Smash it with a hammer!"
Power drill in one hand, power drill in the other hand, *evil giggling*
Played with a pickaxe!
"Look what I'm ready to do"! (proceeds to remove coat)
Caleb: "you stand here so the fence can fall on YOU this time"
Sledgehammers are big :-)
(sing-song voice) "Oh Caleb! Look what I got!" (holds up a large mass of weeds)
I found more duct tape buried in the dirt, who knows what it was supposed to be holding together.
Boy, am I gonna be sore tomorrow!

Almost over

The semester is almost over!! What am I going to do with my life?

Piano Lessons/Masterclass: Had my juries today. I was pretty awesome by writing my 2 papers in 20 minutes each. I signed up for the last spot because I had to work 9:30-11:30, and it would have been exactly perfect except they wanted me to go 10 minutes early! I had gone through my scales and was about to run through the fugue part of my piece when they came and got me. So I had to play with no warm-up. It was all right, I think it would have been better if I had had my 10 minutes!

Accompanying II: Finished this last week by playing in convocation and writing 3 papers in under an hour and a half to turn in the same day. I am awesome. This class, however, wasn't. Time to return the books I borrowed.

Theory IV: Final quiz last Friday. Full points just for showing up. Ha!

Counterpoint: Final quiz last Tuesday. I feel pretty good after hearing my professor tell people how impressed he was with how much I knew on the subject. I still should try and turn in some more assignments, though.

Music Technology: Sure it was quite a bit of work through the semester, but I don't think it was as bad as everyone always made it out to be. I had my exit interview today and scraped an A, even after missing the deadline for the final assignment (I can't figure out how I was supposed to know when it was). And now I get to mail back the book I rented!

Keyboard Literature II: Final exam (including listening test) tomorrow afternoon. It is not cumulative. I should study for this...

Wind Ensemble: I need to turn in my music, and then we play in commencement on Friday morning at 7:30. Ugh. That was an annoying class--not because I don't like being in the ensemble, but because I had nothing to do! He says next year I'll have lots of fun parts. That's what he told me this year. At least on the commencement concert I get to actually play stuff!

Is anyone a lawyer?

If you are a lawyer and you are reading this, please help me!

Is there no way to enter the U.S. without waiting forever for a visa?
Is there any way to get a visa in less than 5 months?
Will writing to my senator make any difference?
Is it true that it is harder to get a K-3 spouse visa than a K-1 fiance visa?
If I marry someone out of the country, how hard is it really for him to come into the country?
What is the USCIS really doing with my petition?
Is there any way to know how much longer I have to wait?
Why don't I get any real answers even if I DO talk to a real person on the phone?
Is it harder for me to get through this process because I'm the girl?
Why is it so dang hard to enter the country legally?
Whatever happened to "All men are created equal" anyway?

I'm sure you can imagine I have many more questions along the same lines. You can't blame me. If you know any of the answers, please share! I'll feel so much better knowing that there ARE, in fact, answers!

Things to say (flow of thought)

So apparently Friday is NOT the last day of class, but Monday IS. Weird. And I only have one final exam! Besides juries. And it's not cumulative! How did I get so lucky?

I rode the FrontRunner to Salt Lake and went to the temple today. A good day. Other than the freeze warning they put out for tonight!

My mother put the Christmas tree back up. She's been threatening to for a long time now, because it's still been snowing. Well now she really has had it and put the thing up. I helped. She bought a bunch of Easter decorations and put them on it. See where I get my randomness from?

I'm doing Science in the Parks again this summer, and it's going to be awesome! It always is :-). I love my school, I love my job, I love a lot of stuff.

Not some things, like the immigration process. Since it's getting closer to our original goal date to be married, everyone is constantly asking me
"when are you getting married"
"when is the wedding"
"when is your wedding"
"when are you getting married"
"are you still engaged"
"are you married yet"
"when are you getting married"
"when do we get to meet him"
"when's the wedding"
"did you get married"
and things like that. It's nice to know people care and are interested, but I care too and if you are related to me, or go to church with me, you will KNOW when I know, and there's a good chance that if you aren't in either of those two groups, you will also KNOW in a timely manner one way or another. Like when I flew to the Philippines and came back with a ring, most people knew pretty quick. I can only imagine that next time when I fly to the Philippines and come back with a man, most people are going to know probably even faster.

And NO, I DON'T KNOW WHEN THAT WILL BE. It's the United States Government we're talking about. Since when do they do things the way we want them done? At least it's nice to know they didn't shut down so they can keep staring at the piles of paperwork I sent them and try and do background checks on me. They've been doing a lot of weird stuff lately. If they would read the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, and the Statue of Liberty's thing every once in a while they might realize how they are in violation of those very fundamental things to this nation! In fact, there's probably some law that could get me in a lot of trouble for those last five sentences. Which is incredibly ironic.

I won't rant about the government anymore right now, let's get to something happier! I went to institute tonight where we studied the Passover. WOW. I shouldn't put the details in the same blog post as a rant about the government. But it was GOOD. It's always good, Sister Poulsen is an amazing teacher and of course the Spirit is so real and strong when you're studying the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

There was an interesting thing last night--on the news, they reported someone found an image of Christ in a flower, and my brother and I were like, "dang, people will find that in anything!" But you know what? I realize that there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it states in Alma 30:44 that "...all things denote there is a God." ALL things. So if you think you see Jesus in your potato chip, tree stump, flower, or grilled cheese sandwich, I say more power to you (Just don't worship those things).

The "S" word

I listen to KSL every morning and most evenings. That means I get a LOT of weather forecasts. In the past few days I have heard that there would be rain, rain, and rain this weekend, not ONCE did I hear the "S" word used. Why, then, when I looked out the window at Weber this morning, was it doing significantly more than just raining?! And in the afternoon, I had to brush off the car 4 times in a 5 hour period?! NOW they tell me that it will s#&@ tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday. Boooo. It is APRIL. Sure, I understand why they had to use the "S" word for last Sunday, it was conference weekend, and it's almost expected that the weather will turn out strange for that. But now it's supposed to be nice. Last April, the same thing happened. I thought it was some sick April Fool's joke that the world played on me, that the s#&@ was there when I came home from the tropics and decided to tease me that whole month. Sure. But why this year too?! If it would s#&@ in December, we would accept it. I would accept it, that's supposed to happen in December. An excellent question: why, then, does it not s#&@ like this in December? As the phrase goes, April SHOWERS bring May flowers. It can't be, "April s#&@ brings May flowers" that just doesn't work at all. What would April s#&@ bring anyway? I don't even want to think about that...

List

Yesterday: Student recital
Today: Bach Concert
Tomorrow: Student recital (am), teach music, Student recital (pm)
Friday: who knows?
Saturday: do taxes, throw things off roof, attend senior recital
Sunday: concerto night
Monday: teach music
Tuesday: student recital (am), jury recital (pm)
Wednesday: play background music @ event
Thursday: piano lesson, celebrate passover
Friday: LAST DAY OF CLASS! attend junior recitals
Saturday: work
Sunday: theoretical day of rest
Monday: band rehearsal
Tuesday: write music papers
Wednesday: work, piano jury
Thursday: planetarium boy scouts
Friday: play @ commencement
THEN IT'S OVER!!!! kind of.....

Milwaukee/Chicago

My trip was amazing. Friday I took planes to Chicago and then Amtrak to Milwaukee, and left early enough that the snow didn't do anything to me. Others that left that day were pretty severely affected by the snow (delayed, cancelled, rerouted, etc.). In Chicago I also rode the L train and ate a cheddar chili cheese dog, Mmm!

Saturday I learned a lot at the MTNA conference and we even explored a mall a little bit. I had a giant piece of cheesy Wisconsin pizza with stuffed crust. There was a collegiate reception and a great concert that night.

Sunday Dr. V's duo team competed in the morning (half the reason I went at all) and they did great. Especially since one of them had been sick the night before! Yay for prayers and blessings! They didn't actually place but just making it to the national finals is pretty impressive! I feel like I'm related somehow since we study with the same teacher :-). Amy and I checked out of our hotel and moved to another one down the street (funny what college students will do to save money). We got lots of free stuff at the exhibits too. There was an excellent open house/reception at the Hal Leonard company where we had virgin cocktails, pasta, bratwurst, ice cream, and lots of Wisconsin cheese!

Monday I was privileged to watch part of the collegiate solo piano competition. Wow. I also got lots more free stuff. There was a banquet that evening, one I paid $90 to go to . . . hey, it was the other half of the reason I went on this trip. It was super great! Besides the yummy yummy food, cocktails (virgin of course again), and live accordion player, it was where Dr. Yang became an MTNA Fellow. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my school? I could dedicate a whole other blog post to the many other reasons why as well. One of my favorite parts of the night was when they made us take some of the extra cupcakes back to our hotel. Imagine 2 beautiful girls in beautiful dresses walking down the street in the dark in downtown Milwaukee, holding cupcakes :-) Makes me giggle every time!

Tuesday I got up early and took Amtrak back to Chicago. While walking from the Amtrak station to the subway, I guess I fit in so well that someone asked me for directions somewhere. That made me super happy too, especially since I actually could tell him what he wanted to know! It was a street I had just passed. I met my friend Heather and we had a wonderful day downtown going up the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), riding the L train, having the most divine Cajun food for lunch, and playing at Millennium Park. We went to play a concert with the WSU Wind Ensemble at the Chicago Symphony Center in the evening. I could tell other stories but I might wait until I get more pictures from Heather. Anyway, I'm glad that the two of us were able to have a great time and I stayed with her and her cousin that night.

Wednesday we got to take the subway at rush hour :P That was fun. Really, it was! I enjoy public transit. The L train to Midway wasn't as crowded. I got there, no problem, and had no problems getting home except that I had a headache all day and my flight in Denver was delayed one hour. But, hey, for a whole big trip like that I think I got off pretty good! I LOVE to travel :-)