"You are my biggest fan"—name that movie

Thursday night of Women's Conference, Shadow Mountain record label put on a concert that featured some of my favorites: Vocal Point, Hilary Weeks, and my violin idol, Jenny Oaks Baker. I'll be honest, the concert wasn't the best thing ever; the "surprise" opening act was especially awful, plus the concert was a little over two hours long (way too long after a full day of classes). Hilary and Vocal Point were still great, and Jenny was my favorite.

The artists met the audience outside the auditorium after the show, and when I realized that we were standing right where they would be coming, I asked my mom and sister (who were super tired and ready to leave) if we could wait just five minutes to see if Jenny would come.

Emily caught a glimpse of her blue dress in the crowd and shouted, "Jenny Oaks Baker!!" I didn't have any CDs for her to sign, but I did get a picture.

I rue my bear-smile in this photo, but it was the only one I got, so I'm keeping it. I'll attribute the too-gummy smile to my dorky, unbridled excitement over meeting my favorite violinist.

Of course I said dorky fan things like "I've played some of your arrangements!!" and Mom exclaimed, "We have your albums!!" Jenny was sweet and accommodating, even though we had a hard time containing our enthusiasm.

So yeah, the concert was so worth it.

comments about a December Sunday

When I came to BYU I quickly realized that everyone could do everything that I could do, and they could do it better. And I don't say that in a self-deprecating way--that's just how things are here. I could easily go through an entire school year without many people knowing that I play the violin; whereas in our home ward, Emily and I are called upon frequently for accompaniment and solo/duets--everyone knows we play instruments.

Last minute, I was asked to participate in a musical number for our ward Christmas musical program today, and while my violin skills are often "hidden under a bushel" here at the Y, I gladly accepted, because I really do love to play. When I arrived at church--a little early to find a place to set my violin--I found myself one of six violinists performing during sacrament meeting (other pieces besides mine).

Yes, I love playing my violin--I really do. But seeing all those violin cases lined up on the front pew made me laugh and shake my head a bit. Yes, I am indeed in a BYU student ward. The bench proves it.

In other December Sunday observations, snow accumulated over the past week combined with rain from yesterday and today combined with three-inch black patent-leather sqaure-toe chunky-heeled pumps makes for the worst walk to church ever.

lovely Easter

I have so much to catch up on, so I'll just start at Easter. Maybe I'll rewind, maybe I'll fast forward. Hold on for Charlotte's blogging ride. Man, school has been eating me alive. But I'm still alive. Pretty much. Last day of class was today--ShamWow.

And my Easter . . .

was stellar.

Emily and I exchanged Easter baskets on Saturday night (followed by a Brooke date to dinner at Red Robin and "Bedtime Stories" at the dollar theater)

My basket was awesome, complete with Coke Zero, dish towels, Burt's Bees, a Borders gift card, and more.

Oh yeah, and the creepy clip art.

I gave Emily a couple cute Target plates and glasses, and among other things a super creepy miniature lawn gnome found in the dollar (which has recently been more like the $2.50) section.


Anneli asked me to play my violin in Relief Society, and I had a pretty arrangement of "Beautiful Savior" prepared. I took out my violin to practice the piece a couple more times until I had to go to church, and much to my dismay, my D-string snapped. (Please, please, don't read that wrong. Ha.) So, no musical number in RS. I'm scheduled to play next week.

The best part of the day was going over to Michelle's. We ate dinner, talked, and played Cities and Knights of Catan with Max and Lucas. Lucas is quite the competitor--he completely betrayed Emily at one point in the game. He's ruthless.

The most important part of the day, however, was the opportunities I had to reflect on the Atonement and the Savior. What I love about Easter is that we have the chance to simply rejoice; it's important--essential even--to understand how we can and need to use the Atonement, how to take advantage of its all-compensating power; however, sometimes we need to take a moment and simply offer gratitude and praise for that miraculous power. That's what Easter is--a celebration.

It was a good Easter :)

a third orchestra concert

Tuesday was my third orchestra concert I've been in at the Y. I love it!! I love playing!! I love being in a fun, non-diva orchestra where my stand partner is one of my really good friends and the conductor is a Ukrainian who resembles a hobbit. It's only one credit hour, and we meet once a week for a couple of hours. So far, I've been in the University Orchestra, which is the full orchestra (not only strings, but also brass, percussion, and winds). Full orchestras are my favorite to play in, but next semester, Erica and I will be in the string orchestra because of scheduling conflicts. I'm still excited though--I love having the opportunity to play even though I'm not majoring in violin performance.

The concert on Tuesday went really well. My orchestra played a Pomp and Circumstance march, a piece by Verdi, one of the Reformation movements by Mendelssohn, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies and the Dance of the Flowers of the Nutcracker Suite, and the Radentzky March. My favorite was most definitely the Nutcracker selections.

My very first concert (a year ago), Brooke and Alexis came--it made my night! The last concert, my roommates, the guy I was dating, and a couple other friends came. Tuesday night, though, I think I had the largest turnout of Charlotte supporters: Brooke, Anneli, Matt (Anneli's boyfriend), Katie, one of my visiting teachers, Blake, first-date Luke, and my favorite person who came, Emily.

I was SO excited that Emily could come and see my concert: she is my only family member to have seen me play in my BYU orchestral experience, and it really meant so much to me that she was there. She even gave me a big bag of holiday M&Ms that she gave me license to hoard. It's always a bummer that my family can't come and see me perform, but having Emily there made me so connected to the rest of my family. I was reminded once again of how much I LOVE having her out here.

Alas, I didn't get any pictures, but I know Emily took some, so maybe she can get those to me.

I'm glad that orchestra finished up before finals are underway, and I love playing. I love being able to play my violin simply because I love it. I love it that my parents indulged my fourth grade desire and went on to pay for my exquisite instrument and my private lessons. I love it that my family and friends have always encouraged me in my playing. I love every aspect of playing music.

a couple of weekends ago . . .

I need to do a quick update on life, because finally now my internet is working, and I have a few pictures to post, and a few bullet point updates to give.
A couple of weekends ago, I had my orchestra concert, and then I went to the Hare Krishna Festival of Colors down in Spanish Fork with Josh (the guy I went on that date with a few weeks ago) and his roommates. It was so much fun! I got covered in pink and green chalky powder, and it was a blast! Here are a few pictures from that weekend.

Erica and me after the orchestra concert. We played Brahm's "Hungarian Dance," Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony," and Tchaichovsky's "Swan Lake." It was a great concert!

This is me and Josh after the concert!


This is the brushed off, relatively clean me after the festival. I brushed off most of it--it was insane! I washed my hair three times.

funk

This week has just been really weird for me. I can't quite place my finger on it, but I've been really thrown off; I don't know if it's the time change, the fact that I forgot my glasses at home and my mom had to overnight them to me, the fact that I've spent hours and hours within the past two days reading "Great Expectations" for British Lit compelling me to take the morning off of work to read, the fact that I woke up late today, or what. But whatever it is, this week is just weird. I woke up late this morning (I'm blaming it on the time change), and then spent 3 hours reading "Great Expectations," which I still didn't finish for class. It feels like a Monday, but thank goodness it's a Tuesday. Everything just seems slightly off today.

My violin lesson was kind of funny today. I was only able to practice once since my last lesson, and so I was kind of dreading today because I knew my teacher would be able to tell; that's usually what happened. However, I played an etude where intonation was the focal point, and last week it didn't go so well, so I was worried about this week. He said it sounded so much better than last week, and told me to keep up the good work. When I played my concerto, he thanked me for practicing, and he said he could really hear a difference. Huh . . . I just went along with it. I almost said something at the beginning of the lesson about my lack of practicing, but decided that teachers don't want apologies so I wouldn't give one. Oh the power of pretending!

I'm chilling out a bit tonight. I've already done the reading and homework for tomorrow, so currently I'm watching American Idol, and I plan to either run outside or go work out at the gym, and start studying for my British Lit test that's on Thursday. I hope this week starts un-weirding itself because it's really throwing me off.

jumbled miscellany

I meant to post that last post Sunday night, but didn't. I meant to post more this week, but didn't. I mean to write more on almost all of the following bullet points, but won't.

• 4 tests this week=intellectual breakdown
• Monday: Physical Science, 87 percent, wanted to get it out of the way
• Tuesday: Living Prophets, 91 percent, easy peezy lemon squeezy
• Wednesday: Civ, don't know what I got, was worried, but actually feel pretty good about it
• Thursday: Grammar, don't know what I got, feel pretty good about it, diagrammed my heart out in the testing center
• New favorite artists: Josh Kelley, Jon McLaughlin, Kate Nash
• Wonderful spring-ish weather this week
• worked out twice so far this week, wanted to work out more--need to step up my work out game
• bought Drano today to unclog disgustingly clogged sink; will hardcore clean the bathroom tomorrow
• signed fall housing contract today
• To Jessie: My original housing plans for fall fell through, leaving me with no one to live with. My so awesome and cool friends Erica and Katie wanted me to live with them, so I said yes, but they'd already picked a place to live, which is really fine with me; I'm not too picky. I'll be living with Erica and Katie in . . . The Colony. Because I love you, I will endure your mocking.
• not-so-great violin lesson because of lack of practicing in the past 2 weeks--need to step up my game on that too
• 1 week from this very moment, I'll be back home in Denver for the weekend to see Emily's musical. Can't wait.
• Good mail from Kristi: way cute ribbon and a thank you note--a great way to end my week last week
• Good mail from Jill: cute thank you note for a CD I sent
• weekend plans: 24 marathon with Brooke tomorrow night, practice violin, group project for grammar, working out, being cool

And finally:

• This was in the Daily Universe a few days ago. We have a copy of it on our fridge.
• Chill out
  
  My name is Nathan. You have probably seen me standing outside wearing my cloak. Until recently it was my habit to stand around and sing in between classes to amuse myself. It struck me as a fairly harmless activity that, while a bit unusual, was nevertheless rather mundane. Furthermore, I had gotten only pleasant comments from the passers by.
  
  Imagine my surprise, then, when I was stopped by a policeman who had gotten a call from someone about me. He told me it was well within my rights as a BYU student to stand outside in the cold and sing in between classes. I found the incident amusing and, though I thought the whole matter a little strange, continued my singing. What I found less amusing was the police officer stopping by approximately a week later to tell me that I had to stop, that I was disturbing the peace, and that I would be issued a citation if I continued. Needless to say, I no longer sing outside at BYU.
  
  Why am I going to the trouble of writing this? Because I find the whole incident greatly troubling. First, it seems wrong for a student at BYU to be stopped from doing something D&C 25:12 calls a prayer. More than that, however, I am disturbed by the way in which my singing was handled. I am bothered by the fact that whoever had something against my singing called the police instead of heeding the advice in D&C 42:88 to talk to me by myself.
  
  I am also bothered by the fact that BYU police seem to value the appeasement of a small but vocal minority over any actual laws or rules (which, I remind the reader, I was specifically told I was not breaking). And I'm also somewhat bothered by the fact that this whole incident has worked to support the valuing of conformity over tolerance. In short, I think that some BYU students need to chill and I think that the BYU police need to grow a spine.
  
  Nathan Langford
  River Falls, Wisc.
  

just weird

So, last night after orchestra, I was packing up my stuff, getting ready to leave, and all of a sudden I hear our second chair, singing--yes singing--the music we'd just finished playing, complete with grace notes and trills. Weird. I seriously wonder if he has friends--he's so odd. He does this all the time, and I just don't get it. Our first chair wasn't there last night, and so he got to tune the orchestra, and he directed it like he was the conductor or something . . . weird.

Second order of weirdness:



And yes, that is Randy Jackson.

Hallelujah!

This isn't a very good SP, but I wanted to show my outfit, and would have felt like a dork asking my roommate to take a picture of me so I can post it on my blog. This SP is supposed to be conveying success--I don't know how well that came out. And it's blurry.

Hallelujah! Today's the last day of January! I am stoked that tomorrow is February, and in celebration of January ending, I decided to dress up, and be super productive today. I woke up early to get up to the HFAC so I could find a practice room for a bit to practice my violin (now that I'm taking lessons, I need to make time for actual practicing--my whole point of taking lessons was to get better, so I guess neglecting practicing would be a little stupid). Tonight for my dinner night, I'm making chicken with scallion lime sauce and sweet carrot rice, and I'm going to hardcore study for my grammar and physical science tests tomorrow. I'm going to write articles, and all this exciting planning productivity isn't even the best part of the day. Tonight, LOST starts up again, and so I'm going over to Diana's for a party!! Yay!!

So, there is another best part of my day that's happened since I wrote the beginning of this post. Instead of having class today, my British Lit professor met with each of us individually for 10 minutes to grade our paper. He graded it right then and there, which is new for me, and then we discussed it. I got an A-, which how well I thought I did, so I'm glad I'm on the same page with the professor! And then, my professor went on to say that he thinks I'm a really good writer, and that since I'm going into publishing, he can give me articles that other people send to him to edit, and I can get paid for it and practical experience! Plus, he said he'd like me to go over some stuff that he's writing because he said he values my editorial judgment! This is a total score in every way: it's a potential money maker, good editing experience, and it's a little ego boost (which we all need every once in a while!). He also told me how much he values what I have to say in class, and that he admires the honesty of my comments. I've always thought I talk too much in discussion classes, so at least the teacher likes what I say! This was a score of a 10 minute meeting.

See ya later January!!

disintegrating . . .

I feel like my brain is disintegrating. My motivation: -7 My desire for break: 468827. Yesterday I was actually motivated and I guess I was productive--I worked on my British Lit paper all afternoon and finished most of it, but I still had so much to do and so my progress on my paper didn't feel like much. Good grief. Last night, when I still had two short papers to write, Katelyn and I kind of lost it and started making up new noises that we thought were funny (I know--as if we're 7--I know). That's where I am right now in my finals life. Ew.

Today was my last day of my MWF classes which was nice, but I was actually really sad to leave my religion class because it was my most favorite class this semseter. I learned SO much in that class and I felt so connected with all the other students. It was bittersweet--I'm glad it's the last day for some classes, but sad because I loved that class and the people in that class so much. :(

I had my orchestra concert last night which went well I think. It was lots of fun and a couple of girls from work came to see it! Katelyn would have come but she was sick :( It was kind of weird and sad though that my family couldn't come like they came when I was in high school and stuff. It was fun to perform though and fun to dress up and fun to hear people clap for you. I don't know how amazing we were, but it was fun nonetheless.

My good friend Erica and me

So tonight since I don't have orchestra, I'm going to go to pilates at the gym with Katelyn and our friend Viktoria which should be fun. And I feel like I'm rambling with no real coherence to my writing, however I don't think I'll fix it because it's an accurate representation of my state of mind.