Just for you, Megan

Okay, so an update on my life: Here goes.

This coming Sunday is my first graduate flute recital (4/20... yes, the jokes just go and go. Such as, 'gosh, I bet the flute sounds a lot better when you're high'... etc etc) . I've been so ready for months now, but it's the polishing that takes a lot of work and I go in productivity spurts. Last week I got really uber stressed out because I was dealing with working a lot, having my extended family come into town, gigs piling up, as well as very little rehearsals with my accompanist. However, everything is cleared up and while this week doesn't look any better, my outlook on it does.

I love Trader Joe's. Today I bought: two cheese platters, salami, a chocolate raspberry tart, two packages of cookies, crackers, and 7 bottles of sparkling juice for about $35. This is all for my reception after the recital, because everyone knows that's why you REALLY go to a recital.

I'm happy that my mom has taken the initiative to invite everyone she knows in San Fran to my recital, but goodness it has added a bit of stress to my life. Now I have a gaggle of superannuated ladies (you like that word? I just learned it a couple of days ago) that are going to pinch my cheeks and such. No, really they're really sweet ladies and they even did a dry run to make sure they knew how to get from the retirement home to downtown where my school is.

In other avenues of my life, I am moving out of my house at the end of May and hopefully moving into another place where I will only have to pay for utilities. It's a place that is owned by people that want to renovate and sell it, but the renovations are going slowly and they want people to occupy the place and potentially help out with cleaning and packing. I'm pretty much willing to make all kinds of sacrifices if they're saving me $700 a month.

The new Jonathan and I have had the undefined relationship for about 5 months now. We go in week-long spurts of being very flirty and spending lots of time around each other (conveniently when school is not in session. pure coincidence... hah.) only to be followed by a very confusing time of little communication and stand offishness. I swear, I find the guys that are charmers and that know how to just keep me hanging on to their every move whether they're really interested or not. I wish men and women didn't play games with each other. And I wish I could meet people outside of school, but it's really hard and dating someone that doesn't have the dedication to music that you do can sometimes be harder than dating someone that loves their instrument more than anything or anyone else.

I'm really ready for summer, in many ways. I'm a little sick of school and looking forward to a new year and also the weather is a tease here. At least in Santa Barbara I had gorgeous weather 95% of the time. Here, it was in the mid 70s for two days and then went back to low 60's the following day. Of course, the only respite I'll get is when I'm in Houston in July. I might as well just wear a swimsuit the whole time. I have so many grand plans for what I want to get done in school next year that I can't help looking forward to next fall. I know that that is a terrible way to look at things and I should savor my last few months as a first year graduate student, but I'm excited about the potential of a new start.

As this is most likely the only free time I'll have all week that is not spent eating or sleeping, consider this my long overdue update.