randomness 2 Comments

20 Things Meme

Well, nobody’s specifically tagged me to do it, but I haven’t done it yet, and I thought it might be fun. So, here I go: the “20 Things You May Not Know About Me” Meme. I may go through some basics that my closer friends already know, just because it’s interesting “me” stuff, but I’ll try to keep it relatively new and as surprising and interesting as possible.

  1. I was born to a single mother.
  2. My biological father offered to put up the cash to have me aborted.
  3. I qualified for free lunches in elementary school.
  4. I went to three different elementary schools in three different school districts from Kindergerten through 6th grade.
  5. I lived in Florida for three years.
  6. I grew up Mormon, and am technically still a Mormon.
  7. My mother didn’t get married until I was 12 years old.
  8. I took ballet lessons for four years, and tap for one year. After we moved to Florida, my mom made me quit because it was too expensive.
  9. I was in Girl Scouts for two years. After we moved away from Florida, my mom made me quit because it was too expensive.
  10. I was in the Gifted program in elementary school, and the Advanced classes in middle and high school.
  11. I got a 4.4 GPA my first quarter of high school.
  12. I got put on Academic Suspension after my first year of college.
  13. I can play (or could once play) the piano, clarinet, saxophone, flute, trumpet (and soprano bugle), mellophone, guitar, and various odd instruments like the nose flute.
  14. I have never smoked a cigarette.
  15. I have smoked pot. Once.
  16. I voluntarily sang in school choir for seven years, starting in sixth grade. (In elementary school, no one has a choice — everyone has to be in the school musical extravaganza.)
  17. When I was in fifth grade, I wanted to be a computer programmer for NASA when I grew up.
  18. The only person I have ever had sex with is my husband.
  19. I now own five 35mm cameras, and one digital point-and-shoot
  20. My eyes are hazel-blue.

Feel free to ask for clarification on any of these, or to do the meme on your own blog. Leave me some love either way.

humor

Google Ads Amuse Me

Screenshot: Drum Corps For Sale on eBayHow utterly amusing. I’m sure there’s some witty comment that should go along with this Google Ad, but it’s escaping me right now. Something about various defunct corps — yes, the entire corps — gathering dust in some insano fan’s basement after having been purchased at a price-slasher discount on eBay.

VK 1996: Hey, man, can we come out now? Our NASA jumpsuits are starting to smell funny, and our families think we got deported.
High Bidder: Only after you play that song from Star Wars again…
VK 1996: Dude, you suck.

drumcorps

Corps Season is Almost Over

I’m leaving tomorrow evening after work to head off to the Drum Corps Associates finals in Scranton PA. Rehearsal is on Friday, with a brass ensemble performance that evening. Saturday we rehearse some more, and head out to the stadium in the early evening for our competitive debut.

Deep down, I’m nervous and excited… but I’m having one of those *meh* sort of days today, so I’m not excited about it right this moment. I’m feeling like I wish I could spend the long weekend with my husband instead. I feel like I haven’t practiced enough over the past, oh, entire summer. It feels like the end of the semester, when I know that no amount of cramming will make me pass the final exam. But I know that when I get out there, in front of whatever crowd there may be, under the lights (if they have them on yet), I’ll be excited and happy to perform and I’ll feed off the energy of my corpsmates and the audience.

*checks Google maps for drive time*

Um.

OMFG.

Since I’m not taking time off of work tomorrow for a travel day, and my ride is swinging past Toledo around 6pm, we’re not going to get to Scranton until TWO O’CLOCK AM. *facepalm*

I have made a bad decision. Shoulda just taken my last remaining half-day of personal time, I guess. Ah, well. As I recall, the guy I’m rooming with for the weekend isn’t leaving until after work, too, so he’ll probably be getting there around the same time. So, the plus side is that I won’t wake his ass up. The minus side? I’ll only get maybe four or five hours of sleep before breakfast and rehearsal.

Damn, damn, damn. What a double-edged sword this senior corps thing can be.

When I aged out of Junior corps, I would have given anything to be able to keep marching. Now that I’ve found a way, I find that I’m not entirely sold on it anymore. It would be different, maybe, if Aaron were into it too, and came with me. As it is, on drum corps weekends, I have to choose the corps or my husband.

I don’t know how much longer I can force myself to have to make that choice.

One more year, maybe.

*sigh*