[Insert Taz sounding Rant here]

So, if you couldn't guess from the title, I'm about ready to strangle people and have resorted to jumping up and down making Tasmanian Devil rants. What can I say? I grew up watching Looney Tunes. :)

I'll spare my readers the boredom of reading about why the people who have pissed me of have pissed me off, but suffice it to say this: PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN TO READ THEIR JOB DESCRIPTIONS!!!! Yes, someone has taken over my job, while making it look like they aren't. If this has ever happened to you, then you know that it is HIGHLY annoying and makes you want to blast the person apart with a blunderbust. Or something equally explosive.

To top it off, no one has bothered to speak up (except myself of course) to point out that the person is wrong, furthering my evidence that humanity is becoming mindless lemmings who desperately need to walk off their cliff and soon. This is annoying because other then two people that I personally know, I have no allies in this. Three people, sadly, are not the Spartan Army.

In other news, I actually got a semi-decent job now. At Macy's. Should prove to be fun. At least I'll be working with semi-intelligent adults now, instead of the high school gossip-girl crew from my previous job. My mother and I, well more so my mother, have started looking for a place for me to live and have found a possible house. Ironically, it's a house that I've admired for some time now but never knew was for sale. Funny what you can find on the internet, isn't it? Granted, it IS a mere ten minute walk through the woods, across a crick and up a hill to my mother's house. Still, for a first place, I'll take it.... provided I can save up the money..... lots of money...

ANYWAY, I need to get back to plotting Christmas presents for everyone. So till next time, Tootles!

Little Things That Make Me Smile

Considering that I haven't blogged in a while, I figured I would actually sit down and type something since I have a few spare minutes.

Two weeks ago (gosh it's been that long?) my boyfriend came out to visit for the weekend. It was a wonderful weekend, even if we did have to go feed the animals ;-) Since he came in during the week, he was able to join us at fencing practice and it was just like old times. Managed to get a few fights in against him, though (sadly) he won... most of the time. As usual. :-P

 We only had a few days together, and boy did they fly by. There never seems to be quite enough time, but we make it work. Surprise visits like yesterday make the long distance all worth while. Considering his job interview was on this half of the state, we managed to have a few hours together before he once again had to go back to the Kingdom of the East. Hopefully next week the company will tell him he can come home to AEthelmearc :-p which would be awesome for SO many reasons; some selfish and most practical.

There is so much more to talk about, but sadly I have reached the end of my free time for the day. Now it's off to work and band, then back to the job hunt and homework...not sure which one is more tedious. Till next time: Tootles!

So as I'm sitting here trying to concentrate on work (that REALLY needs done), I find myself unable to focus. Solution: BLOGGING!... and Sims, but that's a bonus. Reason for being unable to focus: well, there are multiple. The main one would be that someone very dear to me is visiting in less then 24 hours (no, I don't have an exact countdown going yet). This day seriously can't go fast enough. The other reason is a little harder to explain, so therefore I'm not going to, mainly because I feel like I have ADD at the-oh look a butterfly!

As for what I SHOULD be doing: there are many things. Those blasted papers haven't written themselves yet, so I need to finish that project soon. Also, I should be working on something for my sponsor in Northern Cross, though that has gotten bumped down on the list due to the papers. And then there's that music comp test I should be studying for. :P That one will actually be finished soon, since that is what I was doing prior to starting this blog.

In other news....well, surprisingly there hasn't been much other news to report, ergo no new blogs up till this point. Football team lost last weekend due to shitty playing and bad calls (or rather, lack of calls) from the refs. Seriously, wtf? But I won't bore you with that, considering at least three of you have already listened to that rant and/or were at the game with me when it happened.

Well, honestly I can feel my focus slipping (again) and feel like I should go do something productive...or rather try to. So till next time- tootles y'all!

Adventures of a Band Kid Part 1

This weekend was very busy. Saturday I had a football game to play at (well, halftime anyway), which was fun. My family also came to visit, along with some family friends. Not sure what was better: getting to see my folks, or eating the cheeseburger they brought with them from home. We won the game by a long shot, 40-13, and the band had a blast in the stands. Nothing beats being able to scream, rant, rave, and still have a ton of fun. Ok, that was a poor way to phrase that, but oh well. I managed to talk two of my friends into coming to the game and also managed to get them to admit that they had fun. That was a small prize unto itself. At any rate, that was my Saturday.

Sunday was a LONG day which started at the "glorious" hour of 4:30 in the morning. Not exactly my favorite time of day, but when the Director says wake up, you wake up... or at least wake up enough to get onto the bus and then fall back asleep. Which is precisely what I did. And proceeded to sleep until around lunch time in a cramped bus seat. Not exactly the most relaxing or fun thing to do, but it works. The entire reason for getting on said bus was because there was a marching band festival this weekend in Allentown PA. Our band performed and did awesome, as usual. But there was an added bonus this year. A very good friend of mine came to watch us perform. He also happened to ask me a particular question that I had been hoping he would ask. :)

Needless to say, it was a very awesome weekend, even if I was exhausted by the time we got back last night. Now it's back to school and papers. Research is coming along...well, not GREAT, but it's getting there. I'm so close to being able to type one of the papers it's driving me insane. I just want to type it and get it over with. Sadly, it doesn't work like that. Oh well, back to the books...or daydreams =p

Time Marches On

Title says it all (and it's also a really good country song that I may or may not be listening to). Time marches on, it's true, but dammit, it needs to hurry the F up!!!! Sunday is Allentown, aka a really big band festival. Everyone from U. Mass to IUP (boo) will be there and should be a ton of fun, especially cause I get to see someone that I miss a lot. I think I've mentioned that before, but oh well. I'm impatient. I've recently discovered that, while my long term patience is (normally) astounding, my short term patience is sadly lacking. Allentown is a blip on my long term patience radar, since I'm normally excited for it anyway. That and after Allentown band practices get shorter and shorter and we start canceling them more and more....

I'm not lazy or fed up or anything...no not at all...

In other news....well, there's really no other news. I'm really only typing this because I'm bored and on lunch break. I'm officially petitioning to join the noble household of the Northern Cross in...January I believe is the date. The head of the Queen's Guard has offered to be my sponsor, which surprised me to be honest. I didn't know that Rodrigo even knew who I was apart from knowing I wanted to petition. Two of my friends and fellow Silva Vulcani members are also petitioning, so I know that Northern Cross is bouncing off the walls that three "young ones" are seriously interested. I know that when the Countess Elena was bouncing of the walls when she found out the Luca and I wanted to join as well as Ragna. Apparently, she had said that she wanted more fencers to join and VOILA!

And now it's time to go to class and I'm finding that I don't want to move.... damn senioritis... I really don't want to go listen to my professor harp about the Native Americans for another class... Not that I have anything against them; it just gets annoying when after four weeks of school you're STILL on the Spanish explorers and the stuff they did. I want to learn about Revolutions!!! Get to the good stuff!!!! Mesa Verde is great, wonderful and interesting, yes, but I want WAR!!! =p

On that note: Tootles!

Long Live the King, Queen and AEthelmearc!

So yesterday was the Coronation of the new King and Queen of AEthelmearc (which, for those of you who may be reading this who don't know, is the SCA kingdom that I'm in. Just google it.) and I happened to be there. Much to the annoyance of certain band people, but I'm going to ignore that fact. The new King is Isenwulf and the lovely Queen is Rosalinda, who are two REALLY awesome people with a great sense of humor. As a slightly girly side note: the Queen's dress was AWESOME!!!!!!! Epic pretties abound!

Anyway, the crew I went with was my, well I guess not "home" group, but I call them that cause I'm most of the year anyway! Silva Vulcani is our name. After dealing with traffic and all the fun that goes along with a road trip, we arrived up in Grove City to the location of the event. Took us a little while to figure out what was going on for the day, but it was fun. I'm officially part of the Queen's guard now as a result of the day, which is pretty cool. Actually, out of the eight of us that went, seven of us signed up for Queen's guard. Pretty sweet!  

There was a fencing tourney during the day, which I've discovered is a rare thing at Coronations. Further proving our new Royals are awesome: they apparently requested that there be fighting during the day for the populace to enjoy. I believe there was also heavy weapons fighting and a thrown weapons tourney as well. At any rate, I didn't fight in any of these for two reasons: one, I had a fever the evening before and was feeling off and two: I was one of many Royal baby-sitters for the day. Their Majesties have the most ADORABLE little boy who I absolutely fell for at Pennsic War 40 this past August. He apparently never forgot me because according to his mother, upon seeing a picture of me on facebook he promptly screamed "My girl!" and asked his mom when he could see me again. Perhaps I should point out the boy is 3. =p

So I spent most of my day entertaining said little one with coloring books, Matchbox Cars, and running the length of the parking lot about 5 times over. Let me point out that running in a dress: not an easy task when chasing a young one. And then we found bubbles. Oh was that an adventure unto itself. 

There were two courts during the day; the first one was when the new Royals were crowned and everyone in a big group like the Laurels swore fealty to them. After this court, we were given lunch (which wasn't that great, but you learn not to be too picky) and then the fighting started until second court. However, during that in between time, the Royals would sit in State and people would bring them gifts or swear personal fealties to them. I decided, being as I really like Rosalinda and Isenwulf, that I was going to do so. Had a mini stupid moment, but they just laughed and helped me stumble through it. 

One of our new members won the most chivalric during the fencing tourney, which was slightly odd and cool at the same time. Poor kid about had a heart attack when they called his name in court! Other then that, not much happened in court. A friend of ours, and I can't remember how to spell her name, was asked to join the Pelicans...or was it Laurels? Either one, it was still awesome. The King also had his "Brute Squad" (yes, that was their name) go and find a young lady to give her an award, just to entertain us all. Also, one of the lady's in the kitchen came running out at one point, chasing a teen dressed as a cockroach screaming "No roaches in the kitchen! Get out you fiend!" It was hysterical. I'm hoping that all courts for the next six months are as entertaining =P

Also, during the day I made another slightly spontaneous decision. I say "slightly" because it was about something I had been concidering for quite some time, but decided that it would be best to just follow my gut and go with it. I decided to petition to join a household; aka Northern Cross. They were the group that let Silva Vulcani camp with them at Pennsic War 40 and they are a really nice group of people. Isenwulf and Rosalinda are actually part of the household, and there are some other people that I know that are apart of the group, a few of which were Royals at one point. I will formally petition at War Practice in May, though I have no idea how I'll go about it. I still have many questions to ask. =P

After the event we went for our usual dinner together with friends. Those who went to Ice Dragon this past year will remember the King's that we stopped at. Well, that's where we were. Conversation varied, but mainly about how the US education system is shit and how we'll be living Fahrenheit 451 soon. And then there was the long drive home, in which we got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, because people in PA don't know how to drive.

Other then that, life is pretty dull. I have officially one week to memorize my music for marching band, since Allentown is officially a week away as of today. This is good and bad: good because I get to see someone that I miss very much and bad because, well I have no idea how I'm going to learn my music before then! :P

Till next time: Long live the King! Long Live the Queen! Long live AEthelmearc!

Patience is a virtue

Or so they tell me. I do know that my patience happens to be running thin on a few different things; mostly my papers, but there are a few things. Mainly the kinds of people that think they know everything, but in reality they know nothing. Or at least not as much as they think they do. For example; I don't care how much "training" you have, if you have never seen the fields, and have never shot in combat, you do NOT "correct" a Royal!!!! Especially the Royal that just HAPPENS to becoming your QUEEN in a matter of 48 hours!!!

And yes, this DID happen. About five or six times in a single evening....

And then there are the people who just don't get the hint. There was another fencer at practice last night; he kept coming over and hovering when he SHOULD have been trying to find someone to fence. So, I pointed out, numerous times, that he should be and FINALLY it sunk in. Annoyed the hell out of me.

And then there are the people in the classes who drive me up the wall with the stupid shit that comes out of their mouths. I'm not even going to go into that just for the sole fact that I'm starting to sound like a whiney little [insert bad name of your choice here] and in reality I try not to be one. So I'll go on a different track.

Tomorrow is Coronation and I find myself kind of excited. I will be guarding the Queen at this event and will be helping to watch her son during the day as well, which I must admit I'm looking forward to. The boy is an absolute angel and while he can be a little hyper, he's a four year old boy. :P I expect him to be.  As for the proceedings themselves....I honestly have no idea what to expect. I've been to one coronation before, but I have to admit I didn't REALLY pay attention...ok, I didn't pay attention at all. I was thinking about being late for a band performance, but...yeah. So I really don't know what to expect. I was talking with her Highness last night, so I kind of know what's going on. Still, not quite sure what to expect.

Having nothing more to complain about, I will end this here and let you return to whatever you were doing before you started reading this. Ta!

Remember Remember...

Remember, Remember,

The 11th of September

Terror hit our hearts

I know of no Patriot member

Who will let the 11th of September

Ever be forgot

Ok, so I rewrote the words. By now, thanks to a film, many of you are familiar with the Remember Remember the 5th of November rhyme. But the question is, do you remember where you were 10 years ago to the day? I certainly do. 10 years ago I was sitting in Mrs. Carland's English class, cursing my vocab book when the math teacher came in and took over for her while she left for the teacher lounge. We later found out that, while the high school (including the 7th graders) were allowed to watch the news, the teachers were under strict orders NOT to let 6th grade and down see ANYTHING about what was happening. All day long the teachers went in and out, most of them crying. Classes were giant study halls. Recess was longer that day, and our teachers kept looking at the sky nervously and then looking towards the power plant that was only a ten minute drive away. 

I remember getting off the bus and my mother was waiting for me. She hadn't done that since I was in first grade. She asked me, in a careful neutral voice if I knew what had happened. I told her no; even the bus driver (who was my uncle) had kept the radio off and hadn't answered my questions on the way home. My mother nodded and sent me inside, staying at the bus stop for my sister. I remember walking in the door, seeing my step-father watching the TV. And I remember turning, almost in slow motion, toward the TV just in time to watch the news replay the first plane crashing into the Twin Towers. I remember watching each crash in turn, and learning years later that my biological father had actually been at the school, saw they weren't sending us home and then left me there, instead of taking me home. Boy was that a fun day when mom found THAT out! :P

I wonder if, forty years down the road, if people will still remember 9/11 as vividly as we do now. As a history major, I have learned that people forget so much about their past that they become ignorant to their future. As a student of my great-grandmother, I learned the importance of remembering the past and making sure that future generations know of the past. I can still hear her telling me stories of the morning after the Titanic sank, and the news boys calling out the headlines. I can hear my grandmother telling me of the Pearl Harbor attack and holding my Uncle, still a baby, in her arms while listening to the radio. I wonder, years from now after I'm dead and gone, will my grandchildren remember me telling them about 9/11. Or will it be erased from the history books like so many things are. 

OK, enough flashback :P I've bored you enough already. Other then the remembering and the wondering, life has moved on in these 10 years since. 10 years ago I was studying vocab on 9/11; now I'm working on my Music Comp. homework and still hating every second of it. I guess not much has changed in that respect: still hate homework. :P Seriously, has anyone out there ever spent twelve years only knowing how to read Treble clef, then tried to learn bass clef, alto and tenor clef all at once? And UNDERSTOOD it?! Seriously, I give bass players more credit now: wtf guys?! What's the secret to understanding this stuff?! Well, I suppose I should probably be trying to figure it out instead of being on here asking imaginary bass players what the heck is up with their scale. 

Till next time: God Bless America

Well, its been a few days and not really much has change since my last post. The only real difference is that my...well I guess he was a boyfriend and I are no longer together. SO.....yeah. Anyway, my research has come a long way: I actually have some what of a better idea of what I'm going to be writing about, but that damn thesis statement is still eluding me. I still have two other papers to work on, so I'm hoping to wrap up research for this big one so I can start on the other two. Hopefully I don't start typing one and half way start blabbing about one of the others. As entertaining as that would be, I doubt it would get me a good grade.

Speaking of good grades, my one professor suggested something to me that I'm still unsure of. Now, get your brains out of the gutters. My one history professor suggested to me that instead of doing the in class presentation of my findings and how I went about writing and researching my paper that I display it at some thing that is held in our student center. Apparently it's this big shing-ding for senior undergrads to show off their senior papers. Not quite sure of all the details yet, but she told me to keep bugging her about it and she would get the details for me.

Given the choice of standing by a table with a powerpoint and answering random questions that are asked or standing in front of a classroom of snobs who never talk to me or notice me for that matter? I'm taking the first option.

Today I have our second home football game and our first band festival of the year. This however is the first game my parents have been able to make it to. So it should prove fairly interesting. Speaking of that game..I should probably be getting ready for it instead of sitting here typing this out and being lazy...

No One Mourns the Wicked

So, thanks to the annoying itunes library in my head, I've had the SAME song from the musical WICKED stuck in my head for the past *counts on fingers* four days. Why? I haven't a clue. What song is it you ask? Well, it couldn't be an awesome song like Defying Gravity or No Good Deed. No, it HAD to be Thank Goodness. The song that I usually reserve for when I'm thinking too much or trying to make a choice.

My sub-conscious hates me, can you tell?

So many things are flying around my head at the moment it's not even funny. Granted most of those thoughts are about my annoying papers or things I probably shouldn't be worrying about in the first place. But then there are those thoughts that plague me at night and keep me up for HOURS. What's that question, you ask? It's quite a simple question actually: Did I make the right choice?

Such a simple question, yet so hard to answer. As of this moment, and I can't believe I'm admitting this: I was wrong. I made the wrong choice. I took the road most traveled and I'm hating every second of it. Yes, it has its nice moments, but its BORING. I'm not happy. Which is probably why that song has been stuck in my head for the past four days, since that song (for those of you who aren't WICKED fans) is entirely about being happy.

The second question: What do I do? That's the one that keeps me up at night. And if I manage to figure out what to do between now and Allentown, I'll be amazed. Seriously, I'll be freaking amazed. For safety reasons, I'm not going to mention what this problem is, though my one reader will know anyway since he knows me better then most (and kinda knows about what goes on in my head). BUT on the off chance that SOMEONE out there is reading this and I don't know who it is, I'm keeping details to myself.

This is one of those times I wish I had the Tardis to go back in time, slap myself and tell myself to be smart. For someone who likes the song "Listen to Your Heart" (no, not the one from Pocahontas), I didn't listen to the words much on this one. I just hope he forgives me and maybe will let me set things right.

Research is the Bane of My Existence...

The title says it all. Research for my senior thesis has taken over my life and I'm hating every second of it. Yes, I am learning new things and my paper IS on a topic I enjoy; but that doesn't mean I wanted to spend one of two free weekends I have holed up in my room reading a book as thick as my arm. Not my definition of fun. In case anyone is wondering: my thesis is on non-combatant groups during the Civil War in America, primarily the Harmony Society and the Kentucky Shakers.

I bet that sounds like buckets of fun to you. Oh trust me: it's about as fun as sitting on an electric fence during a storm.

Sadly, the research doesn't leave much time for anything else...I think I said that already but oh well. What little time is left in the day, I'm stuck in classes and band rehearsal. Which sucks. Marching band is taking up my weekends except for two of them the entire fall semester. And as previously stated I've spent the first of those two doing damn research.

I'm only slightly bitter about that, I promise.

At any rate, I suppose that the sooner I finish said research, the sooner I can type the paper. And the sooner I can do that, the sooner I can finish the OTHER two papers I have to do. I have a feeling that my laptop will be accompanying me on many band trips this semester....

New Beginning?

Not really quite sure why I'm starting this blog, since I doubt that anyone will ever find it and/or read it. However, on the off chance someone will, I might as well. This blog really is just to save what little sanity I have left anyway. Just some ramblings of a young girl in the SCA. Gotta love it right?