The Laaaaaaaaaaaast Day.

/Museum reference

Hello everyone. I hope today was a great day for all of you. It wasn’t particularly “great” for me, but, again, it wasn’t a bad day; somewhere in between, making it an overall good day.

I woke up at around 6:45am, got dressed (wearing my awesome Tech Quidditch shirt!), and made it up to the music building by 7. The plan was for me to walk in the Barnes and Noble at the Student Union Building (the SUB is connected to the music building) and get some Starbucks (which is sold inside) to wake me up a bit, but no such luck: B&N was closed. Now, I could have gone to the main SUB food area and gotten some coffee there, but I guess I was just a bit too lazy to prepare my own cup of coffee. That being said, I went ahead and went to the classroom, and, at this point, it was ten minutes until the final exam began. The final itself wasn’t too bad; it was comprised of 20 listening excerpts from various styles of pieces: classical, rock, piano, string, etc. I feel I at least made a B, and I’m okay with that. We’ll see how it turned out, though. I’m not worried.

After the final, I decided to do what I did after my jury on Monday: go to my room and go back to sleep. So I did. I got back in bed around 8:45 or so (Andrew was still asleep as well), and slept on and off until – wait for it – 4pm or so. Yeah. 7-8 hours of sleep. Intense. I must admit, there were a couple periods of 30-45 minutes during that time in which I was awake, but I always went back to sleep right afterward. Andrew left to go study for his chemistry final tomorrow around 2 or 3 (somewhere in there). When I finally decided to stop sleeping, I did little more than get dressed (I had changed into my sleeping clothes after my final) and use the restroom until 6:30 (I didn’t even touch my computer or the TV!), at which point I put on my jacket and decided to hit up the new Chipotle in town, which ended up being really good. Now, I’m the kinda guy who’s a bit picky with what he eats, so all I got on my burrito was chicken, extra chicken, rice, and cheese, which I’m perfectly okay with. I also had some Powerade. While I was eating, Kadee McKenzie, a friend from high school who graduated two years ahead of me, walked in. Don’t quote me on this, but it may have been the first time (or second, MAYBE third) I’ve seen her since she graduated in ’08. We hugged and said hi, but other than that we didn’t talk much.

Anyway, I finished my meal and walked out only to discover that Starbucks was literally RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET, and, conveniently enough, I had a giftcard just hanging out in my wallet! Needless to say, I started my car (auto-start engine), walked into Starbucks, and ordered a Vanilla cappuccino. I might have mentioned this in a previous post, but I just recently discovered that I really enjoy coffee (when it’s properly sweetened, of course), so I’ve been experimenting around to see what I do and do not like. The vanilla cappuccino was alright, but nothing special in my opinion; too much foam, not enough drink. I probably won’t order it again. What I DID decide to do, though, was finish the cappuccino fairly quickly and then get a caramel mocha at McDonald’s (I really enjoy them). It was very good, despite the fact that I waited for five minutes to get my drink only for them to put whipped cream on it (I am NOT a whipped cream fan). The whipped cream disappeared soon enough, though, and I enjoyed the drink very much.

I returned to the room at a time that I do not remember specifically and turned on my computer for the first time, not doing anything in particular except for sipping the coffee. Eventually, “doing nothing” turned into “playing Batman: Arkham Asylum” for five hours. Such a GREAT game; I can’t wait for the sequel (Arkham City). I’ve beat it before on Normal mode, and I originally started a new game on Hard mode, but decided to just replay on Normal; games lose their amusement factor when they become too difficult. I knocked out a huge chunk of the game, only stopping because I didn’t want to be playing it all night long. That’s been my night so far. I might look over some notes for my history final exam tomorrow, but I have time to do that in the morning (well…LATER morning, I suppose…). There’s also a couple of people from my classes hanging out in the lobby that I might go chill with for a while (people – I got 11 HOURS of sleep, counting both last night and this morning/afternoon…I’ll be okay). We’ll see.

Have you ever given thought to having a pen pal? I’ve thought about it a lot recently: having someone you don’t particularly know to confide in, communicating only through writing (yes, I want a letter pen pal, not an email pen pal). I’m pretty particular about who I’d like to be a pen pal with; I’d prefer someone I’d have no chance of ever meeting because I feel that that heightens the experience. I’d prefer someone closer to my own age, and someone who I have absolutely no other contact with (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Internet in any way) besides these letters. I’d also prefer someone who speaks English fluently. Yeah, it’s pretty specific, but whatever. I just think it’d be a cool experience.

I’ve still got to pack for the break. Clothes, entertainment (I’ve got to take my Xbox back in case I get cool new games!), etc. I’ll probably also take my autographed picture of Christopher Lloyd back too…just because. I’d feel better if I didn’t leave it behind. I’ve also got to take my horn back and take a few opportunities to practice for band auditions coming up in early January. I’m aiming for the next band up at least; I was in the lowest band this semester, but I was okay with it: it gave me something to work up to. So that needs to be done. Let’s see: I also need to do dishes, straighten up my desk a little bit, etc. I’m considering taking my Gamecube back home and leaving it there…it all depends on what I get. I may take it, and, depending on what all is new, I’ll decide whether to bring it back or not.

I have to use the restroom.

I actually don’t think I have anything more to say. I hope everyone has/had a great day, and it’d be great if everyone prayed that I have a safe drive home tomorrow after my exam: six hours from here to home! Goodnight, everyone.

Chad

P.S. – Enjoy this song.

…which inspires one more paragraph. If you’re Christian, listen to this group: MercyMe. If you’re not Christian, listen to MercyMe. They’re pretty much the only Christian band I’ll just sit and listen to: all of their stuff is original (except off their Christmas album, save for this song), and they’re not repetitive like a lot of Christian music is, which is why I like them. In fact, they’re one of maybe 3 groups from today’s music that I’ll listen to; I prefer oldies. But this group is fantastic. My favorite album of theirs is Coming Up to Breathe; it’s incredible (I haven’t listened to their newest release yet). Just look them up, and I hope you’re not disappointed. Let me know what you think.

Where’d the day go?

Woke up this morning feeling like P. Did- No. I didn’t. I woke up this morning pretty tired considering how late I had stayed up without really realizing it. I didn’t have to wake up when I did since the calculus review this morning at 9 was only optional. By the time Andrew and I woke up, I had only gotten about three and a half hours of sleep (in addition to the two-and-a-half hour nap I had gotten earlier). We went to the Student Union Building (SUB), got Blue Books to give to our calculus teacher for the exam, grabbed some Starbucks at Barnes and Noble (Venti Cappuccino Vanilla Latte; yummy), and made our way to the math building. I was actually pretty okay with post of the stuff we learned this semester, so I didn’t have many questions and just followed along with what she did on the board as she went. It helped a bit, I suppose.

 

When the review session was over at 10, Andrew and I threw away our empty coffee cups and made our way back to the room. I had originally planned on sleeping another couple of hours at this point before I had my jury rehearsal with my accompanist at 2, but the coffee destroyed that plan. Instead, we just sat in the room for a while, watched a few episodes of Family Guy, and then, around 12:30 or so, we decided to walk to the Subway on University Dr. and use our gift cards (thanks, Granna!) to buy dinner. I got my usual; a foot-long Subway melt (ham, turkey, white American cheese, and bacon) on Italian Herbs and Cheese bread, with lots of black olives and Parmesan cheese (the candy of cheeses) on it as well. Good stuff. With a large pink lemonade and a bag of kettle-cooked jalapeño potato chips, it made a great meal.

 

We finished relatively quickly and made it back on campus around 1:20, where we split paths at the music building (where I was to have my accompanist rehearsal); he went back to the room. I went inside and warmed up a bit while I waited on the accompanist to show up, and, once she did, we played through all of the Strauss horn concerto I was planning on playing for my jury. I timed it from start to finish, and, unfortunately, 16 minutes and 57 seconds is far too long for a jury, so we’ll have to skip around a bit. Oh well. Hopefully, whatever I play from it will sound alright. Who knows, maybe it’ll sound better since I won’t be playing the whole thing start to finish! Gotta consider the possibilities.

 

After accompanist rehearsal,  I re-joined Andrew back in the room, where he was working on Chemistry homework and I just sat on my computer for a while (which is still functioning marvelously, I might add). Around 4:15, I decided that it was due time for a nap, so I shut down my computer, ate a Lofthouse cookie, put on my favorite radio station from home (TuneIn Radio app for iPhone, if you’re interested), and went to sleep…and didn’t officially wake up until 9:15. WHAT THE HECK. When I woke up, Andrew was gone and I only had my Christmas music to keep me company (I think it was around this point that Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” started playing). I texted Andrew the following: “HOW COULD YOU HAVE LET ME SLEEP SO LONG” (word-for-w0rd, caps lock and everything). I laid in bed for a while, messing around with Twitter and Facebook on my phone, and then, around 11:15-11:30 or so, I decided to walk to the parking garage, get in my car, and drive to McDonald’s down the street for a late dinner (since I had slept through the time when normal people eat dinner). I got my usual there as well: two McDoubles, plain and dry with a large fry, and I decided to get a Hot Caramel Mocha, with whole milk, to drink. Lemme tell you, that is some good coffee. I really enjoyed it (am I turning into a coffee addict?!).

 

Speaking of drink obsessions, I am proud to announce that I have officially been completely soda-free for nearly four months now, since mid-August. I didn’t think I could do it, but I’ve pulled it off so far. I think I’m gonna try to shoot for at least a year and see where I stand at that point. You see, there are a couple of reasons why I gave up soda. The first reason had to do with the fact that I was becoming over-dependent on it. When I woke up in the morning and was tired, I’d grab a soda. Headache? Grab a soda. Feeling sick? Grab a soda. Eating? Grab a soda. Woke up in the middle of the night? Walk to the kitchen and get a swig of soda from one of the 2-liter bottles. At Poppa and Granna’s house? Grab five sodas. You get the picture. I was too reliant on the effects of the sugar and the caffeine, or maybe even the carbonation. Who knows? My other reason was inspired by Logan Mitchell, a good friend who I mainly keep in contact with through Twitter, who gave up soda more than two years ago, losing him a lot of weight and making him look super great. Now, I’m not saying that I’m fat or that I’m super chubby or anything, but I could definitely stand to lose some weight, and, since eating habits are more difficult to change since I’m a generally picky eater and I really enjoy my food, soda seemed to be a good first step on the path to being skinnier. So far, I haven’t noticed much difference, but I don’t think I’ve gained much either, which is a plus. Maybe the change is more long-term than just four months. I’ll find out, won’t I?

 

Anyway, by the  time I got back to the room with the burgers and coffee (I had eaten the fries during the drive back, like you’re supposed to with fast food French fries), Andrew was back from doing whatever he had been doing with Chi Ro (I believe they were studying together). After eating and watching a few YouTube videos, Andrew went to bed and was asleep less than five minutes from the time he stopped talking, and I began typing this out. You know, I’ve been keeping up with this blog more than I had expected; my previous attempts at blogs were basically complete failures. Oh well. I really enjoy typing this out; it’s fun to talk about my day and put other thoughts out there for others to read. That’s why I like WordPress a lot more than I liked Tumblr (which, incidentally, I didn’t like very much): it allows feedback on my what I type via comments and the like. It’s great. I hope you all enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy typing them; at least, I assume there’s several of you who read this since I’ve gotten 144 profile views since I made this just over a week ago. In fact, if you read this, how about you let me know (if you want) via a comment on here, on Facebook, through a mention on Twitter, any way you’d like. I’m just curious. I know that my Granna  and my Memaw both read it, but they’re the only ones I know of for sure.

 

After mentioning Twitter, I’d like to stress to you all how much I enjoy it. I first made it back in April of 2009 when I first got my iPhone, just because having an iPhone with a Twitter app made it easy to tweet frequently. I started off slowly, but after getting back in contact with Logan Mitchell via Twitter and interacting with him and others, I got to where I tweeted more and more, and now I’m at nearly 6300 tweets. What’s so great about Twitter is that it’s a lot more personal than Facebook is; on FB, I have 440 friends. On Twitter, I follow 97 people and 122 people follow me, but most of those people, both sides, are not really people; I follow CNN Breaking News, a deals site, a couple of various news sites (BTTF.com [Back to the Future news] and Mugglenet [the best Harry Potter fansite]), as well as a couple of Harry Potter-related Twitter accounts that have daily trivia that I enjoy participating in and stuff like that. It’s really cool. With Twitter, I don’t have to be careful with what I say (not that I say anything that I SHOULD be careful about, I’m just making a point) so as not to offend people, and if someone annoying is clogging up my Twitter feed I can unfollow them and there’s no harm done or questioning of friendships; honestly, most people you interact with on Twitter are people you don’t know, and you make friends that way. Based on what you tweet about, people with similar interests can find you and follow your feed. A lot of you may think that Twitter is stupid and may not understand it, but if you give it a try you just might like it; it just takes some getting used to. It’s not about telling people about everything you’re doing all day long; it’s much more than that. You can keep track of news, share an article you’ve been reading, keep up with celebrities via their Twitters, and other stuff like that. It’s a great online experience. I urge you all to at least try it. My Twitter feed is linked below. Be warned: if you follow me, I’d recommend not getting my tweets forwarded to your phone; I tweet a LOT:
@Chadadada

 

I had a mini-conversation with my good friend Regan on her status on Facebook on Internet abbreviations, namely the ones relating to laughter. I had jokingly said that something she had posted had “made me rofl”. Now, I’m a well-educated person, and I am what I like to think of as a gifted writer; that’s not to toot my own horn at all (get it? I’m a horn player!), but instead just stating fact; I’ve always made good grades on papers, whether the content was good or not, simply because I’m good at wording things in a way that makes it sound like I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, the point: I use proper grammar and proper English language when I write, say, or type anything. I feel like it makes you seem stupider when you rely too much on abbreviations on the Internet. Now, I realize that on places like Twitter, where you only have 140 characters to say what you want, you do what you can to make it all fit, calling for bad grammar and spelling liberties. But Facebook? Come on, people, is it too hard to spell things out, and spell them correctly? “lol”, though a term I use often (e.g. “That video made me lol”, “I lol’d pretty hard after reading this”), is a stupid term and one that is used far too often, which is why I stick to some variation of “haha” when I think something is funny. That way, I’m not lying (who ever actually “laughs out loud” every time they post that?), and I don’t look stupid. Also, who ever is literally “rolling on the floor laughing” when they type “rofl”? I don’t understand. Learn2English, people.

 

Anyway, this blog post ended up being a lot longer than expected, though I don’t mind at all. Like I said, I really enjoy this. That’s all for tonight, though; I need to try and get to sleep (despite the excessive nap I had earlier) before my theory final at 7:30 in the morning, with band soon after. Goodnight, everyone.

 

Chad

 

P.S. – I’d like you to still cast your vote in the poll on my last post regarding whether you think “Linus and Lucy” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio is a Christmas song or not: read my argument in my last post, but decide for yourself and cast your vote. Here’s the video and the poll. Make sure you listen before you decide, and ignore the fact that the background is from A Charlie Brown Christmas – my point is that just because it was composed for the Christmas special does not make it a Christmas song, nor does the fact that people associate it with that Christmas special. It was used in all of the subsequent specials as a sort of Peanuts “theme song”, so it’s not solely Christmas. Anyway. Here you go.