What a crazy week

This week was the strangest week ever. I had an inappropriate phone call this week at 4:30am and I felt very threatened by it, so i called the police and filed a report. so he is not bothering me any more or another girl that is living on the same floor as i do.

other than that i had a wonderful week. I got a lot of practice in on my cello which resulted in an excellent cello lesson. so that made me happy. I mostly stayed low key this week, so i did not do very much.

I am at work right now. I love how there is no one up at 4am except me. so what i do to fill my time is exercises. I just got done working out and now i am watching a movie.

today's movie: Sky High

What a great movie. It makes me want to be a super hero. :) it would be cool.

well i got some homework and note taking to do before i go practice with my quartet later this morning.

have a great day

~Manda Panda

what a week

my current mood: content but sleepy

umm... some one has created a starwars musical. If you get a chance listen to "hans your man" so funny and random. I love it.

http://www.chuckwagner.com/starwars.html

well this morning's movie is : STARWARS: Episode III

Yup starwars fan. this is Manda's movie pic today. what a great movie. It ties the gap between old and new. The music for all the starwars movies are so awesome. It would be so cool playing in an orchestra doing blockbuster movie music. oh man that would be the coolest thing ever.

(this is an orchestra rehearsal of starwars)

Oh man just to hear that never forgettable opening theme song is so amazing. I can also hear the influences that the composer Orff has on John Williams for the Starwars music. if you listen or play Carmina Burana and then some of the music of starwars you know what i am talking about. last semester we played Carmina burana and all i could think of when i heard it was that sounds like starwars music.

well this week has been a crazy one. I have been with out a computer for 3 days now. I am using the one at work. It is such a pain in the butt. i have had 2 computer people look at it and they do not know what is wrong. I might have to re-load windows on it. what a pain. *sigh*

the orchestra concert on Wed. was very good. all i have heard is positive comments about it. that is a very good thing. 2 things that was bad was the stupid ticket situation and my roommate lost her car keys. she did not find them.

Thursday:

not a good day for the most part.

I got talked to rudely by the grad TA in my ed 350 class. Here is what the situation is. I get a ride from another music ed student and she is not very happy to give me rides because it is out of the way. i have no other transportation to get to CLP JR. high by 7:30am. i would bike or ride the bus if they had a bus that goes to La Porte or if it was not so far away.

In this class we get to go into the Jr. high schools here in Pouder valley school districts to do service learning. the teachers place us at either CLP or Lincoln. we observe and do some student service learning for 2 hrs and then meet up with the class at the schools to talk about what we observed and what not. well I have to meet up with the graduate TA during the group meeting. I have 4 other music kids in that class and to accommodate us the main teacher for that class told us that we can rotate from the 2 Jr. high schools and 1 high school. this plan is not well thought out. Yesterday the girl that gives me rides told me that she is going to go to the high school so i said well i can go to Lincoln so that i can just ride the bus that runs right in front of the school. this is the plan. I went to see if that was OK with the TA and she was just very rude to me. I explained that my ride was going to the high school and that i wanted to go to Lincoln so that i can have a ride to the schools because i did not have a car. and then she cut me off before i could tell her that i was going to see if the other music kids at Lincoln can exchange with me that day. she shot me down quick fast and in a hurry. basically she said "NO. you can not go to Lincoln because you do not have a car and i need you here for our class meeting. so you will just have to be here all semester." I asked her what was the point of the rotation that the main teacher set up? and she said she did not know. walked away because i was really mad at her by the rudeness she showed me. she later said that she was going to talk to the main teacher about it but for now that i needed to stay and the girl that i get rides from cannot go to the high school because she did not want to overwhelm the music director there. this does not make sence because the music director there is happy to have us at his school and this is a planned thing.

people's actions are stupid sometimes.

I was just bummed that my computer is not working as well yesterday. I had 2 people who are good with computers look at it yesterday and they had no clue what was up with my computer. *shrug* cello class was not fun either because my cello teacher was picking on me a bit because i am not as good of a sight reader as the other 2 people in the class that day. I have actually improved on that greatly and i think that my small ensemble skills are improved as well. but my cello lesson was good and my quartet rehearsal was good as well. I am excited for the ACME string quartet. (that is the quartet I am in now) we play so well together. I think that we have a shot at playing at the chamber group show case concert this year. that would be really cool.

Bad behaviors: well this week i noticed that i have 2 bad behaviors that i have observed in guys that i do not care for.

1. when guys hock Luggies (especially when they are walking behind you) just that sound is so gross

2. I witnessed a guy yesterday while i was eating, talking to 2 girls. while he was talking to these girls he stuck his hand down the front of his pants. now if i was those girls i would be appalled and would steer clear of that dude. EWWWWWW!!!

funny guy behavior:

My roommate was telling me about this guy who also plays french horn who asked her if she wanted to play orchestra excerpts this weekend with him. now that is an odd way to ask a girl out, well it seems like he is asking her out. she accepted his invitation just to see. if he did not mean it that way then she gets to play orchestra excerpts which is good experience for her. :)

today:

I am excited because i get to go home again. I love going home and spending time with my family. it brings me back from my stressful college life and lets me be at peace with my self. I feel a since of normalcy that i miss here at school. I also miss my kitties. so that is good that i get to see them.

well i am at work now. dealing with the gross smell of empty microwave popcorn bag left by the person that worked before me. then i am going to get ready, eat breakfast and try to fix my computer. then i have quartet at 10. i will not forget to go this week. ;) and then i have class at 1pm a study meeting at 2 and class at 3 then off to home i go. :) then i come back on Sunday. i think i am going to go to church in the morning so that i can get back mid afternoon so i can do some homework.

well i am going to end my blog here

~Manda Panda

morning

hello friends who read my blog~

well not much has happened since my last blog yesterday. I did not remember to write that i ran 2 miles yesterday. that was so great. this morning at work i watched the Incredible. i love that movie. it is so cool. I also did and finished my homework and i think i am going to get ahead in my homework so that i will not have to worry about it this weekend and i can have fun. I am still undecided if i should go home this weekend or not. i guess i have to see what is going on at home. oh stink. i have to miss steel band tonight all due to my concert. :( sad day.

I love www.accuradio.com they have the best music. it is very fun to listen to early in the morning. check it out if you have time.

today's goals:
1. enjoy life
2. do well in school
3. practice well on my cello
4. play well at my concert tonight
5. get some rest

early

6:31am-you know i think that i am making getting up early an art form. man, even on my day off from work i have to get up early. Today i get to go to a middle school that is across town. I have to be their at 7:00am. it is crazy and i am mondo tired from last night. i had orchestra dress rehearsal till 10:00pm. by the time i got ready for bed and stretched out and talked with my friends on messenger, it was 11:30. i got to stop going to bed so late.

9:00pm the Jr. High school was cool. I enjoyed observing the students and getting to sing with them in choir. it was fun. I was bummed that the girl that is giving me rides to the school is not very happy with this whole experience. i am glad that she is honest with me. i feel bad for asking her to give me rides to the Jr. high. she does not seem too happy to come and pick me up. i would ride my bike if it was closer and in ft. Collins. i would even ride the bus, but no buses go up to la port. *sigh*
orchestra sounded good and ready for the concert tomorrow. i hope that it goes well. i must stay awake through bolero. i keep on dozing off and losing my place. opps...
my computer is not working. i can not log on to the Internet. the tech people have not called me back. so annoying. you are probably wondering how i am typing on my blog. well i am on the computer at my job. it is actually the next day and i am at work.;)~Manda panda

Yea~weekend time

Happy Day! :) it is almost the weekend. I am looking forward to going home and seeing my family and my cats. Also to get a good home made meal is awesome. I think other than studying, visiting my family, doing the oh so important laundry, i am going to finish my quilt i am making. I am excited. i have only one more row to make and then i am done making my first quilt my my self. :)



This morning I am at work. it is currently 4:36am and Harry Potter was just chosen to be apart of the Tri-Wizard tournament. ya i am watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire right now. I love this movie. out of all the harry potter books my fave are books 4-6. that is when things start cooking in the Harry Potter plot. Anyways, I am not really doing much right now.

School update:
I have my first Humans and other Animals test on Monday. i am nervous about it because it is the first time i have taken a biology class since 9th grade in high school and it is a lot of information to remember. I also have a Dress Rehearsal for orchestra on Monday which i think is going to be a doosy. Our Beethoven piece is sounding a lot better from what we started with. I can now play the really hard cello part in the 3rd movement some what decent sounding. the orchestra is going to need to work a little more for it to sound amazing though. I think this concert on wed. is going to be a mix-bag. i do not think that the pieces fit together. my conductor like to have themes to our concerts, but this time it is just all over the place. Oh well it is good music never the less.

personal update:
Nothing has changed really. i am not so lonely anymore. my friends have helped me to come out of my blue mood. still single...

random note:wow! i have see about 9 people walking around here in the lobby. at 4:50am that is a rare sight. I wonder what is going on. usually i see about 0-2 people between 4 and 6. i think that is strange.

I really want to go back to sleep. i was having such a good night rest. *yawn* this week i have been so sleep deprived that i have felt like a zombie and have been finding it hard to stay awake in class. even in orchestra while playing, i get the urge to go to sleep. It makes if difficult to learn. you know how people say that you need about 8-10hrs of sleep a night. well my norm is about 4-6 hrs a night. and my days are so pack with activities it is no wonder that i am falling asleep all the time.
(yea Harry completed the first task)
well i should start to find pictures on the net for my project that is due today at 12:00. but no worries i am almost done. ;)

soreness

yup just how i suspected, orchestra killed my arms. they felt like noodles after, so i decided to go for a run after orchestra. ya well i ran 2 miles. while i was running i was zoning out and entered my own little world. it was a rush that i get when i run long distance. even if your body is telling you that you hurt, you just keep running because you want to stay in that place of calmness and knowing that every thing is going to be all right. i think it is gods way to comfort me through my hard times of being lonely. you never know when he will touch you.

this early morning, i feel more at peace with my self and sleepy. I am going to take a nap after i take a shower, once i get off of work. i can do this because i have nothing until 11am. well it is now 5am. i think i am going to do some hw so that i won't have to bother with it later.~Manda Panda

lonely

It is amazing how lonely a person can get. I am so use to having lots of people and animals around when i am at home. then i come back up here to school and i feel like i am cut off and left out of the loop from my family. ya i call here and there and talk on messenger, but it is not quite the same. I have a very awesome roommate up here but she is extremely busy, as most music people are, and i find that i am here in my room alone more often than not. I do hang out with my friends but i feel like I am back in high school all over again. Alone, putting up a smile so that people won't suspect that i am not happy being by my self. i need to get out of this self pity mode. it does not suite me very much.
it is funny the majority of my friends that are my close friends are guys except for a few girls.
right now i really want a hug. i hate being alone. *sigh*

well my day is going good other than being lonely. I had to go to CLP Junior high. it is a cute school. very small compared to my middle school. I have orchestra in a while. we are just playing Beethoven's 8th today. Oh joy. i am not sure if my arm will last. i am in a serous need of a massage on my shoulder. it is so tight and it is making my arm and hand hurt. it is from playing a lot and sleeping on it wrong. well i have to go get my cello. i will write in the morning. ~Manda Panda

What a good weekend!

Yea!! Go Rams! CSU won yesterday 14-10 against CU in the Rocky mountain show down. so awesome!
this weekend other than that has been kind of a blah weekend other than the football game. i just have been doing hw, practicing and hanging out with my friends. I do not have much to report. i watched the Bronco game but they were sucking so my roommate and i put of a movie that had bad acting and excellent dancing.

I am currently watching my roommate play sonic and Knuckles on my Sega. it is so fun having my Sega. Very interesting game. i have never played that one before. i only got to play sonic 1 and 2. it is kind of making me dizzy. yesterday i was getting educated on what world of war craft. it is a computer game. it is very interesting. it has good music and graphics on it. i think if i played it that i would die like right away. but i am no good a video games. just watch me play my Sega. i am all about old school. I had to laugh at the oggars on the world of war craft game because they look like big sumo wrestlers with Kiss make-up on. you know the band Kiss~that is who i mean. ya it was quite an experience and i thank my friend for exposing it to me.

today i went to the catholic church up here in Fo. Co. it was interesting how the dynamics are at different catholic churches. at my normal church i really enjoy going to life night (which is church geared to teens). they have awesome skits and music and it is just such a fun time to pray and enjoy god's presence. the church up here is kind of blah. the music is not really enjoyable, the mass is very traditional and i can see why people are turned off by going to mass. Oh not to mention that it seems like i am one of a few young people that go to that church. I rather go to my normal church. i have to laugh at the organ player at the fo co church. she does not keep a constant tempo and it just drags the songs so much. the reason i think this is funny because little things like that drive me crazy because i get drilled all week for stuff like that during school.

well i am going to go practice and order some music for my cello. :) i get to play Haydn's cello concerto in C major. it is a really cool but difficult piece. i am looking forward to learning it. I am nervous about my concert next week. it is coming up so soon and i do not feel ready for it. but hopefully things will change this week. ~ love you all and way to go Rams!
~Manda Panda

End to the week

Happy day!
the week is finally over. i am so happy for this. i have gotten so little sleep, that i am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I believe that fall is in the air. it is only going to be in the low 70's today. it has not rained yet but i heard that down by my house that it did rain.

I am proud to report that i am almost to my weight loss goal. I can fit into my pants that i wore at my smallest weight in my teen/early adult life. i am excited about this. i have been running and exercising all this summer to get back down to a healthy weight. It is finally paying off. :)

nothing too exciting happened this week. orchestra yesterday was fine. we are just preparing for our concert in a couple of weeks. it sure is coming up quick and we have some hard parts in our music. but with lots of practice, i am able to get them hard spots a little bit better.

Big football game this weekend. Cu vs CSU. i love to give my sister a hard time about it because we are rival schools. it is awesome. :) i love my sister. :) well i am going to find something else to do here at work. ;) ~Manda panda

my week

Well if you look at the time 4:57am you might guess that i am crazy and i am at work right now you would be correct. today i am watching Phantom of the Opera, writing e-mails to face book about how stupid the new format is. honestly it is like face book is stocking you. i do not like it and i am not alone.

news form the outside world of college:

i am sadden about the loss of Steve the crocodile hunter who was killed on Monday by a Sting Ray no less. what a bazaar way to die. It almost unreal. At least he was doing something that he was so passionate about and loved. my heart goes out to his family.

news back at school:
i have not written in awhile.
Monday:
I got to practice on the cello steel pans. that was so much fun. i am excited on the pieces that we are playing. that night on my hall floor, we had a rock painting party to make door stops. I did not paint a rock that night but i was hearing the commotion. when i went out to see what was going on, the girls got the washable pain and was painting people's faces with it. i decided to join in the fun. i had blue paint on my face, it looked like i had a mustache and beard. and then i had music notes on my face as well. it was so funny. after all the girls got their faces painted we went to all the boys floor and some of the girls floor. we opened the doors and started the slow clap thing then got faster. we walked to the middle of the hall and then shouted "Break your self". on 2 of 3 girl floors we sang happy birthday to random people. it was so funny just to see people's confused faces poking out of their rooms just to see why we have all the crazy girls running around in their hall with face paint on. only in college you can do stuff like that.

Tues.:
back in the grind of things. i had one class for 3hrs in the morning, ED 350. we did this ice breaker thing where we played rush sham (rock paper scissors) but you start off as an egg and you have to play other eggs, if you win you get to evolve to a chicken, if you win you get to be Godzilla, if you win then you get to be a SUPER STAR! then if you win you get to stand in a line and sing stop in the name of love. If you are the loser of each rock paper scissors game you have to go down a level. I never realized how bad at rock paper scissors i am. it was just so funny to see everyone walking around as an egg, chicken, Godzilla and Super Star other people.
later that day i had orchestra. we played Beethoven 8th symphony part of the 1st movement, all of the crazy hard 3rd movement and part of the 4th movement. then we played the boring Ravel Bolero. this piece sounds good but it is boring to play. my hand died from having to pizzicato/ strum on my cello for an hour. after orchestra i had to ice my hand. i guess it is the start of the musician's ouch syndrome. that is the time when everything hurts in your body because of playing an instrument. last night was fun. i got to play on my SEGA with my roommate and my other friend who was giving us video game history/facts. it was funny trying to figure out what he was trying to tell us. It was boy code.

i think that men and women have a different code for words and different things. And we spend all our lives trying to figure out what the other is saying. Girls use emotions and other code words just to see if people pick up on what they are saying. guys...well i have not quite figured this one out. i know that the speak the language of gaming which i think only few girls understand. i know i have trouble following. I am just as happy playing video games with out a care in the world for like an hour and then i can happily turn it off. i think total game i have sat down and beaten are only 2 games. Aladdin and sonic the hedgehog. that is about it.

on the lines of talking language patterns, i think the human brain is remarkable in how many languages we can learn with out knowing that we are learning them. for example, i know how to speak English, good common English and slang English, Spanish, some Latin. but if you think about it we have to switch to different speech patterns when we speak to others about different subjects. music has it's own language through different terminology, music notes, and music theory stuff. but all subjects have this type of different languages. sewing, knitting, drawing, building things, working on cars or what ever. we also change how we talk around children or people younger than you. as humans we seem to adapt to our environment to accommodate to what people know and what is easy to explain. it is just mind boggling to me. i like it.

well i should do some home work so that i can get good grades.~Manda panda

Grandma's tortilla

My Grandma makes the best tortillas ever! i love how they are hot off the grill and they are so yummy, especially with cream cheese. I got to eat some for breakfast this morning. *grin* well

i have not done a whole lot this weekend. i had my MRI yesterday. that was kinda fun actually. i got to listen to big band music for a half of an hour while you dimly hear all this other strange noises. some of the lower tones created this vibration in the tube thing that they put you in and it kind of felt like a mini massage. it was nice. so nice that i fell asleep but towards the end of the test my muscles in my leg spasmed and made me jerk so... i they had to re-do the last test. it was kinda of fun. now i get to Wait to hear from my Dr. about how awesome my brain looks. ;) I also bought a new movie and saw a new movie. Take the Lead is awesome! it makes me want to ballroom dance even more! and the other, forgive me on my bad spelling of it if it is wrong, Aquila and the bee. it is about the little girl who goes to the spelling bee. it is a really good movie. well i am going to go sew my quilt. will blog tomorrow. :)~MANDA PANDA

update

well i have not written in a few days. i have been busy with home work and work and playing instruments. on wed. i actually did not fall asleep at work, i even got to play in steel band. it is an awesome class. only this week we had a faulty fire alarm go off during class. it was entertaining having to pack up all the pan drums and remove them from the building while the piercing sound of the fire alarm buzzed. nothing happened and i was happy because all the time i was curiously waiting all i was thinking about was my other cello that was sitting in the cello room.
i am excited to play one of the pieces in steel band. we are playing Bach little fugue in g. i got to play this in orchestra when i was in high school. now i get to play it on a different cello. :)

Yesterday was long. i had one of my 3hr classes, which i had not finished with the home work until early yesterday morning. i got to play my cello 4 1/2 hrs yesterday. i have to admit that that wore me out. i started rehearsing with my quartet (ACME string quartet) yesterday. we are playing a Mendelssohn string quartet. i have previously played it but i think that they are fun pieces to play.
THE ORCHESTRA REPORT:
I was dozing off to dream land while playing Ravel's Bolero. no joke. I really think that the cello section has gone down hill in the communication aspect. not to bad mouth the section but i try asking questions about our part to the people in front of me and shrug it off. it is not until later in the rehearsal that they figure out that they are playing that part wrong and then they ask the principal player about it. or when the Principal player tells them new bowing or what not they are not passing that information back to the rest of the section. i sometimes feel excluded from the section because i am at the back of the section. it is starting to get on my nerves. i hope that things are not going to be like last year with all the drama. what happened to the cool cello section? well i think that this next concert is going to be really good. i think that we are sounding awesome. ya we still need to work out some stuff but it is sounding good. OH our concert go moved up a day because the flayers that got distributed has the incorrect date and since it is now distributed we have to go with the program. oh well. it is going to be Sept 20Th at the uca at 7:30pm. if you are interested and do not know how to get there just let me know.

Today:
well today i have only 3 hrs of sleep because one of my friends decided to visit and before we knew it was 11:40pm and i had to be at work at 3:55am. i am not going to go for my run today. i do not think that i can last all day with out a nap. so i am going to take a nap instead. :)
i have 2 classes today starting at 1pm. :) then i get to go home for the weekend. i wish i was going to to CSU football game opener tomorrow but i can't due to a MRI. oh joy. but it is a 3 day weekend but for one of my classes i have to take a test and a quiz. how fun. i will also be catching up on my endless pile of reading. i think this semester is the first semester i have gotten reading in all my classes for the first time. yes i consider reading music as reading. i am such a slow reader that it is hard for me to stay up to the bar on the reading.

I am currently watching Shall we Dance. i love this movie. of course i am a sucker for ballroom dancing, Christmas music and other good music. this reminds me-i am going to go buy the movie-take the lead- this movie is so awesome!! well i am going to read my book so i know what the heck is going on.~Manda panda :)