Frustrating

I did almost nothing productive all day today. AND now you are reading about absolutely nothing...a fact that coupled with my over extensive use of elipsis points may be frustrating for you readers before this blog entry ends.

I went to my church's vacation bible school this morning and helped a little bit with music and such. Seeing my niece dressed up in a robot costume was pretty funny. The costume design was actually very well done. I ate left over chinese from yesterday's lunch at the Jade Tree (an excellent little chinese restaraunt here in Mentor). I killed time in the afternoon, aka 3-5 playing games with my nieces and nephew and then after dinner I got to excersising playing basketball and walking etc...

Tomorrow Kristin arrives at 7:45, so as you might guess, chances are there will be a short draught in my blogging. A stray blog may occur, but more than likely the next blog will be on Tuesday next week.

Hope you enjoyed catching up on my "exciting" day. I tried to keep it short...

Wii Fit Thursdays strike again

Today was a pretty entertaining day overall...complete with tons of photo opportunities. A visit to a local park led to much fun eroding the side of a cliff containing mostly shale. Chinese at my favorite such restaraunt was had for lunch. Dinner was skipped because of a lack of being hungry at a reasonable dinner hour. Wii Fit Thursday was held two days early because of conflicts from two of the important members. Pictures were taken to document said event and because hilarity was the main purpose and result of this endeavor (sp?). Having a fairly secure means to my subbing license is a bonus as well. Good day...good day. Today also marked the 4th day in a row that I have practiced my trumpet for an hour or more...which is very good considering I've had a week go by without practicing earlier this summer. Playing the trumpet almost always improves my mood, I'm not sure why I go through periods of ignoring it.

I'll leave you all with the report that the three of us who played Wii Fit tonight fail at balancing, though I'm fairly certain we all have good balance...why is this, you might ask? It just may be due to laughter induced by the other two who watch from the couch. I suppose that Wii Fit is doing what it was designed for even in our form of usage...not only do we mildly excersise, but laughter is supposed to burn a lot of calories too and I'm fairly certain we all laughed for roughly an hour of our two hours of playing.

intelligence

is not found to be a useful trait at McDonald's. Two guys call off for tonight...so who would you ask to stay extra time to cover for them...people who know the positions they were working at...or people who don't? I'd guess you can figure out what the manager at good ole Mickey-D's did, now can't you? I was left to run the entire kitchen more or less...with a little help from a girl who had worked in kitchen once...ONCE!!! She was sweet and relatively smart and easy to work with, but she had no idea what she was doing...i had to hold her hand the whole time. I did get a special write up to be sent to our owner though...woo hoo...like he'll read that. It is nice to have a few extra hours though...since I had to take this coming weekend off for Rachel's wedding and Kristin's visit.

On another note...playing basketball outside shirtless with an awful farmer's tan (aka extremely white skin where a t-shirt would normally be) during the middle of the day and a high and bright sun? Terrible idea! I'm definitely past the range of valentines day heart-red and into the lobster stage of red. The bright side to this, of course, is the fact that this will probably be my last significant burn of the summer, because after a burn like this I remain tan for the duration of the summer. For those of you wondering (aka no one) I did in fact win more games than I lost...impressive (for those of you who have seen me play basketball before).

Final word: I realize that I use way to many elipsis points, but frankly I don't give a s***... ... ...

Hilarious

It's entirely possible you've already seen this, but Kristin sent me a link to this and it's really quite catchy.

Watch it!

Some cop is believing he's going crazy right now

...and it's my fault. Haha. Playground squatting causes yet another run in with the police. There's a school in my subdivision here in Mentor and it has a pretty nice playground. Well, a friend of mine...who coincidentally was also involved in the hilarity of the previous post...and I were bored and not tired at around midnight a few nights ago. We decided to go swing and play on the playground over at the school. Not suspecting a school playground in a subdivision as a place cops would frequent, we were quite surprised when a cop pulled a U-turn on the road that passes the school. We ran for it and took a walk around the strip mall that is adjacent to the school. After walking for about 10-15 minutes, we circled back around and sat on the swings some more. About half an hour later a cop, presumably the same one, pulled another U-turn and this time stopped in the middle of the road facing us so that his headlights illuminated us. We ran for it again...down the hill to the adjacent strip mall, this time choosing the alley behind the stores instead of walking through the deserted parking lot. Just as we were entering the alley we saw a spotlight shining around the playground.

This experience is one we will think back on and laugh about frequently, because we have to wonder whether the cop will actually report his visits to the playground to his fellow officers or not. Our Friendly Neighborhood Cop: "I swear I saw two young people on those swing." Other Officer: "Were they the at the same spot both times?" OFNC: "Yeah, the same exact spot." OO: "Did you see any evidence of them when you got into the parking lot and looked around the playground?" OFNC: "No, but they were there, I swear it!"

Hmmm...I guess this makes me a residential ghost.

What an entertaining week...I wonder what tonight and tomorrow will bring.

movie-full week

So...I'd say I had attended about 3 movies in the theater all year...right? Well, I matched that number this week! Ridiculous....and Ice Age comes out in only a week or two as well as I want to see the Harry Potter one and the new Night at the Museum. Why did I go to all of these movies you might ask? My friends decided it was time to hang out, and that apparently meant movies this week. Luckily, two of the three were at the second run theater and the third, my ticket was bought for me. Drag Me to Hell is worth a watch if you're in the mood for a good horror flick as is The Haunting in Connecticut (not quite as good, but a perhaps better plot.) The new Fast and the Furious movie left something to be desired, but then again so did all the Fast and the Furious movies to date. I suppose it was worth hanging out with John "I don't show up to Cedar Point because of 'bad sausage' Oyster. Drag Me to Hell was watched with two hilarious friends of mine and we were alone in the theater, so jumping due to the loudness and making fun of the stupid decisions of the protagonist was a riot. The best part of the movies this week was the spontaneity attending them.

In other news from the week, I'm heavily picking up riding my bike in the attempts to lose some Senior year eating out all the time pounds. I lost a disc into the lake due to very strong winds. Quite a bit of yard work was needed this week. More hours at work than last week, thank god. A few lengthy night walks. I discovered that my energy drink of choice, cause you know I drink them all the time :cough: is one put out by Mountain Dew...there's a surprise...a highly caffeinated beverage that actually tastes good is put out by the company which has been making those kinds of drinks for years now.

The weekend looks to be pretty good, no particular plans, but I'm liking the current temperatures and my friend's propensity to do fun things this week.

Disc Golf

I love the two courses close to my home here in Mentor. I got out and played both this past week and it's just a great time. The first time, I didn't perform particularly well and I attribute this to my lack of rounds played prior to this week, but the course was in great condition and they'd added 2 new holes by the lake. Yesterday, I went and had a picnic dinner with my family overlooking a gorgeous Lake Erie (the weather was perfect...low 70's with clear skies and a great breeze off the lake) and then played the other course. I'm finally getting my forehand throws down a little better and man, does that tack on distance. My round was easily the best I've done there because of the added distance on some of the longer holes. The breeze off the lake was a factor, but not overcome-able.

A final note for today...here's hoping the tribe can beat up on Cardinal pitching two more days.

Learning

I learned nearly as much today...in one day...as I did in several semesters at Valparaiso. That's sad. Instrument repair is not a frightening subject anymore. I spent several hours with my old Junior High band director today determining which school owned instruments were fixable, and which needed to be sent into the professionals. This is an important way to save your department money and therefore spend it on other important things, like new instruments, sheet music, stands, and such. Good things. Taking a walk through my old junior high which is now a middle school was kind of fun too. Nothing much has changed, except the students look younger...partially because of the introduction of 6th graders and lack of 9th graders, but mostly because every year I get older, and kids seem to get younger/smaller.

On an unrelated note...I may have reduced my caffeine addiction by a lot. I haven't had anything caffeinated in 2 days and am not experiencing a headache. I don't know what's wrong with me. I actually feel like I have more energy than usual as well. Who knew?

In conclusion, I leave you with the thought that I am a moderate sports fan living in a terrible state for such allegiances. The Indians are awful this year, though they won tonight. The Cavs were absolutely horrendous against Orlando. The Browns just don't stand a chance any time soon. Ohio State is on the cusp of greatness nearly every year in one sport or another without succeeding. This is ridiculous.

Auditioning

I give it very little potential, but...why not try, right?

I'm going to audition for the Cleveland Pops Orchestra. How sweet a gig would that be if I have the audition of my life to date? I've been doing some research and trying to determine what professional level ensembles are in the area and there's an opening in the trumpet section of a quality ensemble. I have to try. My project for the summer on a music related note also is to teach myself improvisation so that I can better myself as a hopeful future Jazz musician. Jazz players have more opportunities than orchestral players and can play in bars, clubs, cruise ships and much more. It's time I focus in on it and just attack the thing my playing needs the most...improv skills. Step one...getting the Smart Music program.