Pictures!

If none of you mind, I'm going to post some pictures from the last several months of life. I finally got these off my camera, so I think I'll spend the next few entries writing about some things that happened during the past semester. :-) So, without further ado, (drum roll, please) I bring you:

THE CONCERTO-ARIA CONCERT!!


In February, the UVSC Symphony performed a concert featuring six soloists performing concertos, arias, or original compositions. I was lucky enough to be one of those six, and I sang "Mi Chiamono Mimi" from La Boheme It's a opera. Ha ha. (That's for you, Mel and Stephen.)

It was really fun, despite the fact that I got sick the day of the performance. Ha ha. I think I just might possible be a hypochondriac. Oh well. It went well and was a good experience. Plus, I got to wear my blue dress again! (This is a dress I wore for the Presidential Scholarship Ball way back in October.)




The lighting isn't great on these, but you get to see the back of my dress, which is my favorite part. :-)


This is me with Dave Fulmer, the conductor of the symphony. He was one of my favorite professors at UVSC.


Heres a video of the performance. The sound quality isn't great, due to the fact that the video was taken on my little digital camera, but at least you can get an idea. :-)

Thoughts after a 3-month haitus...

I have been putting off the whole blogging thing for a while because I wanted to put pictures on here. Well, I haven't been able to find my camera cord, so the picture thing just isn't happening. *Sigh* Oh well. I might as well just go back to my boring words.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am officially graduated from college! Woohoo!! And, big surprise, I don't feel any more accomplished than I did before. Also, after sitting through the commencement exercises at UVSC, I have decided that human beings like the sound of their own voices too much. I think we all need to spend a little more time listening and less time spewing forth our own thoughts in monotone voices. :-)

Ah well. You know what I just realized, I'm not really in the mood to write. Ha ha. I'll come back when my brain is actually active enough to recount the last few months of my life and translate them into words.

MIKA!!

So, way back in December, we bought tickets to the Mika concert for Beka's Christmas present. We decided to turn it into a Bachelorette party as well. (Nick got to come along, too. We told him he could be the stripper. JUST KIDDING, MOM! Ha ha ha...ha...ha.... Ahem.) We got all dressed up in some bright clothes and headed off. The evening started with some yummy food at The Cheesecake Factory...



And then we decided to show up a little late so we wouldn't have to wait in the cold so long. The doors were supposed to open at 6:00, and the concert was suppose to start at 7:00. Well, we showed up at 6:30, only to find a line that stretched out for a few blocks. What the...? Turns out, the whole Mika crew ran into some troubles in the canyon. Their equipment got stuck, and they were about an hour late showing up. To top it off, because of the equipment issue, the show was changed to acoustic only. :-( So, that meant we had been waiting two and a half hours in the literally freezing cold (without coats, mind you) for only half a show, basically. I was not happy. (I dare any of you to try and stand outside in those conditions for that amount of time. Not fun.)


We wanted to leave then, because we didn't think the show would be good at all. But, we stayed so we could get a ten dollar refund.

I'm so glad we did!! IT WAS AMAZING!! My love for Mika has increased ten-fold. I took some videos that aren't very good, but oh well. If you want to watch them go to my facebook profile.

If they were amazing just winging an acoustic show, I want to see how good their real shows are....

A Quick Look at the News

My boxing gloves came today. Yay!! Just in time--my knuckles are getting a little bruised from the punching bag. I've been beating the bag up a lot lately, mainly to keep myself from punching certain irritating people in my apartment complex. :-) I really need to learn patience and kindness.... Nah. These people just need to stop being annoying!! That's what I get for living in BYU housing, I suppose.

Has everyone heard the news about Heath Ledger? I'm actually quite depressed about it. He was only 28! I guess I don't handle death very well, particularly when young people die unexpectedly. It throws off my groove. :-)

Well, there's your sad and depressing news story for the day. Maybe I should counter it with a happy news story.... The polar bear cub in a German zoo opened its eyes today! Yay!!! There. That's happiness.

I hope you all enjoy yourself today. I'm going to teach some more piano lessons. Hopefully I won't make any of the children cry today. :-)

Quote of the Day: Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body. --Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894)

Movies for the Week: I Am Legend-- Am I the only one who didn't like this? It was not enjoyable to me, though Will Smith did a great job. It was mainly just depressing.
Jane Eyre-- This is the new-ish Masterpiece Theatre version. If you are in a sappy mood and have 4 hours to spare, this movie is great.

BRRRRRR!

It is so cold outside. I would cry about it, but my tears would only freeze on my face and make the situation that much more unbearable. January and February have to be the most miserable months ever for Utah, as far as weather is concerned. I must find a happy place.... (A dream bubble appears above Jules' head. Inside the bubble is a beautiful beach in Hawaii. She can almost feel the sand underneath her feet...until a blast of cold air pops the bubble and ruins everything. BLAST.) Oh well. Back to the lovely reality of school, work, and the miserable cold.

Ha ha. I'm such a whiner. Things really aren't that bad. I'm a couple of weeks into my last semester (YAY!), and so far nothing too hairy has come up. Of course, I'm not really expecting anything too strenuous to happen. I'm taking classes like fencing and kickboxing, after all. By the way, the more I kickbox, the more I absolutely love it. I can pretend to be tough in that class. Ha ha. Maybe now I can count all of those hours of watching Alias as "research." ;-)

I do have a dilemma about school, though. I've spent four years working on a music degree, all with the intent of going off somewhere to teach. Now that my four years are almost up, I've come to the conclusion that I don't want to choose teaching as a career. BLAST. I'm not quite sure what to do now. I'd love to go on and get a Master's degree, but I don't know what I'm doing. Truth be told, I would love to go into composition, but I feel so stupid around all these brilliant musical prodigies who have been winning composition contests since they were six years old. WHAT IS A MUSIC MAJOR FIT FOR IN THIS WORLD?! *Jules has a panic attack, takes a puff on her inhaler, and calms down. Unfortunately, now everyone in the school writing lab is wondering what sort of psychological disease she's dealing with. Jules decides it's probably best to leave now.*

I hope you're all doing well. If you happen to have any advice for a girl in the middle of a quarter-life crisis, please let me know. Hugs and kisses to you all. MWAH!

Catch up time!

So, I am a horrible blogger. Acceptance is the first step toward fixing the problem. And, knowing me, it will probably be the only step I take. :-) Just kidding. I hope you are all doing well. I'm mostly blogging for my sister Mel, but everyone else is invited to this blog party as well. :-)

It has been a crazy couple of months, for sure. To be honest, everything since the middle of October has just blended together for me. A couple of choice things stand out to me, though....

We finally got to see Mel, Stephen, and Kyle! They came to visit and it was such a blast to see them and get to meet the cute nephew. He's adorable! You should take a look at my sister's blog if you have any doubts (she's a much more dedicated blogger than I am). I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them because I was studying for a beast of a test and preparing a speech for the UVSC Presidential Scholarship Ball.

I was chosen to speak at the scholarship ball, basically to thank all of the people for spending their money so I can go to school. :-) The Ball was so much fun!! It was a black tie event, so it was fun to have an excuse to get all dressed up. Matt came with me, and we really enjoyed eating the seven course meal and the hors d'oeuvres.... Yum. Plus, we got to sit on the table with all of the people in charge, and it was nice to know exactly what was going on. And, just so you all know, my speech went well. I was a little nervous about tripping and falling on my face, but I made that long trip from my table to the podium without any mishaps. I don't really have any pictures of it, (unfortunately)but I'll take some pictures of my dress when I have access to a camera.

And, on a not-so-pleasant note, the day of the ball was also the same day that my neighbor (and old bishop) Scott Thomas was killed in a car accident. Is it just me, or does it seem like there have been far too many deaths lately? And, come to mention it, there have been far too many car accidents, as well. I'm just throwing it out there. So, I hope all of you drive safely, because funerals make me sad.

Well, let's bring this blog up to the present: Thanksgiving was fun, I'm working on homework, I just saw Enchanted and loved it, and we're enjoying having Grama Sue here to visit. I hope all is well with you! XOXOXOX

Across the Universe

I finally got to see Across the Universe last night. I have mixed feelings about it--part of me loved it, and the other part of me was mildly disturbed. In any case, it's a beautiful and unique film. I loved the music, and how they found a way to incorporate so many Beatle's songs into the story. And visually it was very innovative. I just had a couple of issues:

1. Some of the scenes were excessively long and/or made little to no sense. Examples: The "I Am the Walrus" scene and the Eddie Izzard scene. Granted, many of the Beatles' songs were trippy, but these scenes felt a little conjured to me. "We want to do something really artistic here and we really like this song, so we're going to put in a pointless scene."

2. Random nudity. I get uncomfortable seeing boobs on screen, particularly in a PG-13 movie. I know they justify it because it's art and all that jazz, but is it really necessary? I dont think so. That must just be me, though. :-)

Those are just some of the things that bothered me. However, I did love lots of things about it: "Strawberry Fields Forever" was so cool, and the scene in the bowling alley was awesome as well, just to name a couple.

All in all, I'm glad I saw this. I won't buy it or anything, but it's worth seeing.