Thanks giving (a few days early)

The past few days have been good, relaxing, and relatively stress-free, so I'm in a good mood.

Therefore, I propose a list of things that I'm thankful for since recently I've been moaning and groaning about the fact that I have no money, talent, time, etc.

I'm thankful for:

• still having my car around. It has been really nice still driving to the grocery store and being able to be a good samaritan in general when people need a ride.

• having a beautiful place to call home. Despite all the drama, I really do have a great room that is worth every penny I pay for it.

• new friends to lean on and laugh with and old friends that are there to listen, anytime.

• having my mom in the city off and on. It's so nice to have someone that loves you unconditionally nearby.

• our neighbor that sporadically brings us cases of wine, for free.

• two perfect jobs that are relatively fun and stress-free (compared to waitressing) and that are extremely flexible. I need to remember to not take that for granted.

• having other relatives nearby to visit for holidays. There's something about being with family on important days that just gives you the same feeling as a really hot bath. Comfortable, relaxing, pampering, sometimes a little too heated, and if you stay too long you get wrinkly.

• being at my dream school. In the day-to-day activities, that's the easiest one to forget, but I'm constantly reminded how short my time is in this program, which makes me more appreciative.

• supportive parents that haven't ever given up on me and that back me up and buy me flannel sheets when my room is frigid like the North Pole.

• having the independence to start all over in a new city, new state, and new school without a second thought.

• the love for music that is as natural to me as breathing. When I think I lack in talent, I'm just comparing myself to others, which is never a good idea.

I'm sure the list could go on and on, but these are the biggies. I'll leave with a few photos, since they always spruce up my blog page anyway.

My roommate made carrot cake with cream cheese icing and I got to lick one of the beaters. Mmmmm

My roommate, Erica, on the Golden Gate Bridge. She's my heterosexual life mate, which is just a fancy way of saying that we completely understand each other. I'm grateful for her too.

I biked around 15 miles today. I was pretty darn proud of myself.

One of my friends from work is an avid biker and my roommate happens to have a pretty sweet road bike, so I borrowed the bike and got my butt kicked on a long ride today. Surprisingly, the only part of me that feels it at all is my butt. I'm not really even that tired.
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I've been having a hard time picking out pieces that I want to play on my recital this spring. I always end up choosing really difficult pieces because they're so interesting to listen to and I would much rather please my audience than my fingers. I think I have a good lineup, but I really need to start practicing for it now. My recital is April 20th. That's right: only in California, would this really be a problem since I'll have probably 1/2 of the people at my recital show up stoned. (4/20 is national blazing day, in case you're out of the loop ;) )

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I hung out with some girls this weekend that I haven't really gotten a chance to see outside of school and it was a really interesting study in people's perceptions of you vs. how you see yourself. I suppose my personality has changed from living in California and making new sets of friends because my roommate often remarks how direct I am and how uber confident I seem. Those two qualities are probably some of the last things I think about myself. I tend to see myself as passive aggressive, but lately I've been trying to live honestly. If you're honest with someone (even yourself), things tend to work themselves out a lot quicker. So I guess that's where the directness comes in. The confidence is a shock to me because I've had to work soooo hard on having confidence in my music-making abilities, so perhaps I just channel all confidence into other areas of my life.

I can tell you right now that when I saw the chef walk into WS yesterday and turned 5 shades of red and stammered that he had left his bag and my business card in the store a few weeks ago, I was not exactly the most confident-seeming person in the world.

I have, however, been trying to put myself out there more in the dating world. I'm going on a date later this week with a guy that's a lot younger than me, but he seems pretty interesting. On the bus the other day I started up a conversation with a guy because we kept eyeing each other. Of course, I started the conversation about 2 minutes before I got off, but it's progress. And then I slipped this business card in the chef's bag. That was probably the gutsiest move I've pulled in a while.

Mark November 8th as officially Amy Hell Day.

I've complained to enough people about it to make me feel somewhat better and I'm sure my complaining isn't helping anything, but I've been up since the crack of dawn (literally) and won't get home until 16 hours later. That's one long day.

We had official holiday decorating in Williams Sonoma and so I had to wake up at 4 am to get to work at 6 am to hang live garlands. Then I proceeded to school for a rehearsal at 7 pm and after then I have to go home to finish a paper and do other homework. I deserve a very very large nap and drink after tomorrow's duties.

Looks like I'm not the only one with a busy schedule though, so I shouldn't really complain.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend - I have a potential dinner out with a friend from work, a bike ride on Sunday morning, and brunch with another friend from work Sunday afternoon. Practicing? What's that?


I just have to keep pushing for a week and a half and then Thanksgiving is upon us!! Not only do I get to go to southern Cali, but I get to make a day trip to Santa Barbara and see all my friends!

I still have pine sap on my hands and smell like Christmas trees.

It's Christmas!

Okay, it's really not, but it certainly is in retail world. The sad part is that I've gotten so used to this 'putting up Christmas before November even gets here' that I don't even find it unusual and have really gotten into the fall spirit. (I can't say I actually have thought about buying presents yet).

These past couple weeks have just been the weeks where a lot has happened, but nothing that I've felt really needed to be blogged about. That or I was just too dang tired to write.

I have officially decided that I hate Halloween, though. Fall, I love and will celebrate all the time. Halloween SUCKS. We need to just take it off our calendars. I have never ever had a Halloween I liked since I was probably 10 and now that I don't even want the candy and I have no creativity for costumes, there's really no point for it to exist. So it goes without saying that I really didn't celebrate this year.

It's really scary to me that November is already here, which means that my semester is almost over, which means that I'm a quarter of the way through my master's degree and I feel like I just got started. Time here is extremely precious and I have so much that I want to learn! Ah, becoming an adult. It means actually craving intellectual settings and higher education. Who woulda thunk. The only real difference at my conservatory is that I sometimes put a half-hearted effort into my papers and still recieve an A-plus. I almost wish I had to work harder for that 4.0.

I'm truly enjoying being single for the moment. It means I get to flirt with whomever, whenever I want and have fun the whole time. I almost got sucked into a major crush, but when it started taking over my thoughts and practice time, I nipped it in the bud. No boy is going to get in the way of my degree or my career. So there! (he also happened to not return my feelings, an important aside to the story)

I had a good fall break, taking a hike nearby in Muir Woods, going for a bike ride, watching TV, and relaxing. However, I'm going to desperately need some time away from this city in a few weeks for Thanksgiving. I'm going down to Santa Monica for the long weekend, and I thoroughly expect to be treated like the favorite (and only) niece that needs to be pampered, wined and dined.



I will leave you with a fun Williams-Sonoma anecdote:

We have walkies at work, with earpieces so no one else in the store can hear our conversations. On Thursday, my friend Nick announced to all the associates on said walkie that a man had just walked into our store with a bottle of wine, proceeded to the floor with wineopeners, used a $100 wineopener on display to open the bottle of wine, recorked it, and walked out. No joke. I'm not sure what my reaction would have been had I actually see this happen, but I most likely would have been speechless. Who does that???? Really?? Oh, the customers we get...