The Life and Times of Martha

It's been a long day, but it has also been a great day in a wonderful weekend.  I just got back from a family reunion in Omaha, Nebraska. Since we live so far away from our relatives, we don't get to see them as much as we would like. It was great being able to catch up with my cousins.

Today, however, has been soooooo long. I wasn't able to fall asleep last night. I finally fell asleep around 4:30 in the morning and woke up somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 this morning. I have been on my feel since then. I went shopping with a few of my cousins all afternoon. We finally started on our way home about 5:15 this evening. Everything on the road was going smoothly. Then, about 30 min. from home, we ran into an awful storm. The wind was blowing so hard, which in turn made the rain worse than it already was. We had to pull over a few times to let the storm pass. However, we finally made it home! I am completely wiped out, but, nonetheless, it was a great weekend!

Wow! It's been a LONG time since I've written on here. Maybe since I don't have a job this summer (I wasn't hired back at a pool I've been working at for the past 7 summers) I should get better at posting on here! I vow to post on here at least once a week until Higher Things at the end of June; that is my goal.

Blessed Pentecost to all of you. I don't have much to say today, so I will leave with the wonderful words to 501 from the Lutheran Service Book, with the music composed by the outstanding composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Come Down, O Love Divine; Seek Thou this soul of mine,

And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing;

O Comforter, draw near; Within my heart appear.

And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.

May the Lord be with you this week and continue to bless you!

Well, spring break is almost gone. I'm definitely not ready to head back to school tomorrow. Thinking of school makes me realize just how much I have going on in the next three weeks. I'm totally not ready or prepared for it. This week is opera week, meaning every night I will be in the music builiding until at least 9 or 10 at night. Then in what little time I have left in the evening before I go to bed, I have to somehow type a 10 page research paper. It's a rough draft, which is good because any homework that I will be doing in what little time I have will be worth absolute crap.

Also that week, I have to analyze a song with my group in my form and analysis class. Yeah, that's not going to happen. He couldn't have picked a worse time for me to work on that project. My group was supposed to work on it before break, when I was gone for my Grandma's funeral, but I doubt that happened. If I know the people in that group (and I do because it includes my boyfriend) I know for a fact that they put no thought into it.

After this week, I have the Gold Medal concert, which won't be too terrible. However, the following week, I have my prelim for my recital. I'm already nervous about that. I have almost all of my music memorized, so if I practice in what little time I have to practice during the day, then I think I will be fine.

It will be miracle if I make it through this week....

Everything has been so hectic lately. I'm so happy that spring break is almost here. However, no that it's almost here, I realize just how fast my semester is going. It also makes me realize that I don't have much time left for things this semester. My recital is at the end of April, however, within two weeks of me coming back from break, I have to have my prelim for my recital. That's right, I have to have 14 songs memorized by then and I don't know how that's going to go over. I don't feel prepared or ready at all. So, I'm going to be spending all of spring break memorizing music. Yuck!

Over break, I also have to get two dresses: one for the Gold Medal concert and one for my recital. I have no idea what colors I want, so I know that the day I go dress shopping is going to be a looooong day.

So, other than that, there's nothing else going on in my life. However, what is going on right now is more than enough. I have no idea how I'm going to get through it all, but I know that it will all work out.

I'm heading into my fourth week of classes and it's already been a long semester. I'm getting so bad about making sure I post on my blog, but I have my semester to blame. There is sooooo much going on. I've been doing a lot of practicing lately. I have my recital this semester, so I've been digging out all of the music that I've learned over the past few years and trying to relearn it. I have a pretty memory, so that makes the memorization process easier.

One of my new classes has made this a long semester as well. This class is my arranging class. I think the professor I have is making this class harder than it really should be. I don't have a compostitional brain, so when it comes to arranging piano accompaniments and what not, I have no idea where to start. What makes it even worse is that the professor really doesn't teach us and tell us the right way to arrange things. His idea of teaching us piano accompaniments was putting songs on an overhead projector and basically saying, "Your arrangements should look like this." It really sucks that the absolute best I can do on the assignments that I will turn in is probably going to merit a C or possibly even a D in the class because the way the teacher grades is that subjective. Whatever, I mean, C's and D's get degrees, right?

Oh well, we'll see what happens. It's time for bed. I pray that the Lord will help me get throught this hectic semester!