Bridal Shower

This past weekend I went to my first ever bridal shower.

I do have one other married friend. But they didn't go the traditional route so there was absolutely no hoopla. And one of my other friends was engaged and I was in the bridal party but it fell through. So as of yet my feeling of being quite young for my peers to be doing such things is intact.

But alas my old roommate is engaged and is having a big ol' wedding. Courtesy of the parents of course. And so out I trekked for the wedding shower.

Large gatherings where I don't know people are quite intimidating. And being as my friend (and just about the only person I knew) was the star of the show I knew I'd be pretty much on my own. Thankfully carpooling was recommended and I ended up meeting and sharing a good bit of a car ride with someone else in a similar situation. It was like instant friendship for the sake of not being alone. Good times.

Also notable is the fact that I rocked a trivia game about my friend. This seems odd to me as I'm distinctly one of the newest people from her life that was in attendance. But I guess I ask many questions and actually remember stuff. That and multiple choice questions love me.

I suppose being social isn't the worst thing that could happen to me.

Awesome Lunch

Each weekday I pack my lunch for work. Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it can be pretty questionable. This week the grocery store had some pretty good sales. Oddly enough some of them that I made use of were even un-advertised (buy one get one cheese awesomeness). And so my lunches this week are, in my humble opinion, pretty awesome. They include:

Wheat Thins
Chicken Salad
Carrot Sticks
Cheese Slices (Cheddar and Colby Jack)
Guacamole
and Yogurt with Granola

I love all of those foods but the particularly big winners are the yogurt with granola (for some reason the crunch makes it so much tastier) and especially the guacamole. My love of guacamole is a rather new thing but a good one.

Yum.

Drama in the Flute Section, part III

Present Day:

When I went to take a seat in the front row there were no other regular firsts. Just 1A, the piccolo player. She informed me that 1B was sick, 1D moved out of state, and I didn’t catch what was up with 1C but she wasn’t there. And so there were only two chairs set up for us making it quite easy to figure out where to be seated.

And so for the evening I played all 1st music. In one of the songs there were even little solos that I played. I'm pretty sure I played them well even. But my perspective on the situation is not ideal for being the most objective.

At the end of rehearsal our director listed of a bunch of music that she wanted us to practice for next week. I figured I really ought to at least take it home so I'd at least be able to practice if the miraculous occurred. But chances are I was using someone else's folder. Dun dun dun. So I told 1A as much and asked her that if others arrived before me to the next rehearsal tell them not to panic. And I'm really just trying not to step on anyone's toes.

I'm sure that the Queen is festering with anger. She really can't stand any of the other 1sts, and well ok they're playing drives me nuts sometimes too. But now that I may have been promoted ahead of her. It may be 'fair' because I've been with the band longer. But she's older and in her eyes a much better player.

All in all I really don't know if my move is permanent even. At some point 1A commented that I'm flexible, which is entirely true. I'll do whatever. And I'll do it well.

Drama in the Flute Section, part II

Background: When I started playing with the band in November of 2008 if everyone showed up (rare) I was the 8th flute player. The front row was pretty consistent. Sitting on the outside was the piccolo player who was quite good and a reasonable flute player (1A). 2 of the other firsts (1B and 1D) were just not good players. When playing with the entire group they just chug right along. But solos were painful. The one remaining (1C) wasn’t quite so bad but still not at all so much good. The three of them were frequently out of tune. Ouch.

In the second row on the end (2A) we had a moderate-ish player who was quite nice and frequently told me I was awesome. I appreciated this. 2B was frequently absent but a rather strong player. 2C was probably at the same level that I’m playing now. As 2D I sat next to her for quite a while and so struck up an ad-hoc friendship. I like her. But she was the first to go.

After a good many absences it was determined that she had too many other things going on and so 2C was out. I was sad but ended up striking up a good friendship with 2B, she was a highly amusing/fun and nice individual. But she got quite sick and was out for a long time. By the time she was back in attendance 2A was scheduled to be leaving.

Sometime in the midst of all of this a new player joined us. She had previously subbed with the group. A good player she is a strong believer that she is the queen of all flute playing. She likes to make comments about how oh she’s played this piece a million times but only on the first part. Or complain about other sections sounding poor. Or that the conductor is taking the wrong tempo.

The queen started playing sometime when I was really unsure about who was still playing/showing up. So I let her sit on the outside edge. I don’t care enough to pick battles with people like that. 2B started being able to attend more things and couldn’t stand the Queen. This amused me greatly. But then 2B decided to give it up entirely which was very sad.

After a bit of time I learned to deal with the Queen in a way that worked out well enough. I’d just roll my eyes or sometimes even make snide remarks back to her. One time I totally just shot her down randomly. But all in all I think it worked well for both of us.

And that’s where the season ended.

Drama in the Flute Section.

I’m a rambling type person. So this post became ridiculously long and I think I’ll just release it in parts:

After approximately a month break my Community Band had its first rehearsal this week. It was my intent to be a good little musician and arrive early. But as sometimes happens that plan fell through and I barely made it on time.

As I walked in I noticed that my normal seat in the 2nd row (2nd flutes) was occupied. That didn’t really bother me at all because I’m not very concerned about seating. However before I really had anytime to process anything the director waved me up to her and pointed me to the front row.

Methinks I have been promoted.

Well oiled machine.

I am turning into a yarn square crafting machine.

1. January Knitting Square:

Info: This square is actually completed but I took this partially knitted picture in actual daylight so it's a million times better than my completed pictures.
Pattern: Ridiculously easy. As previously mentioned each months square is supposed to be progressively more difficult.
Completion: Took me 2 days a good bit of the time being at a concert.

2. January Crochet Square #1:
Info: Aside from the random penguin a few months ago the last time I did any crocheting was probably around age 12. Grandma said I did it back wards then.
Pattern: I looked things up and frogged (ripped out) the beginning 4 or 5 times.
Completion: Persistance pays off. Once I figured things out I was off and running.

3.January Crochet Square #2
Info: I enjoyed learning a new craft so much I decided to go back and make the same square with multiple colors!
Pattern: Same as last time but this time I knew what I was doing!
Conclusion: I like the look of the crocheted granny squares with multiple colors. But have a hard time giving up my solid, each block one color, aproach.

4. January Crochet Square #3:
Info: I may be addicted to crocheting
Pattern: A second pattern that was posted on the group site. Technically it's for a different group.
Conclusion: I could not resist the siren song of my new craft. My memory is fuzzy but it's entirely possible I did this all in 1 day. 2 at most.

Light as a feather

I am and have always been a petite person. But I got into the habit of weighing myself every morning when my roommates had a scale in the bathroom. And also having read somewhere that people who weight themselves regularly are more likely to maintain a healthy weight, I wanted my own scale.

But I am cheap so I put it on my ginormous list of things I’d like but am not currently willing to spend money on. I also asked around the family and lo and behold when I was home around Christmas my Aunt brought me over an old bathroom scale that no one was using.

After haven eaten much delicious food at home as is appropriate I figured I might actually be up above my normal 105lbs. So when I stood on it and it showed a number sub-100 I was a bit startled. Running and stepping on my parents scale revealed that I was above 100, but not by much. So the thing was off by 3 or 4 pounds.

Since being home I have continued to use my slightly skewed scale most mornings. And well I’ve settled in around 95-96. So even if I add in the missing weight it seems entirely possible that I may be weighing in under 100 pounds. [Or its also possible that I’ve managed to find many skewed scales, one never knows.]

Now I also happen to be quite short. So my current weight is actually just about on the line of normal/underweight. And I feel perfectly fine. I’m quite capable of being physically active. I have my ballet class and am a relatively decent biker when the weather cooperates. Frequently I surprise people with my lifting capabilities. Most importantly I’m perfectly happy with the way I look.

But really now, it is just weird to have to worry about not weighing enough….sheesh.