Hello from St. Peter, Minnesota....

Home of Gustavus Adolphus.

I tried to get a link to the school, but they must all be under construction cause there seem to be no link that follows through. So feel free to read the bio on the REAL Gustavus Adolphus above.

For the next five days, I will be back in the WELS bubble, but thankfully, my darling baby sister will be here with me to enjoy it all. We have already played Scrabble three times today, and I won twice, Hannah once. Expect to see reaction photos soon from the winner and then the loser.

Breakfast is at 8 tomorrow. Time for sleep.

Hot and Humid, Sangria, Practicing and Planners

Another heal wave has hit Boston this week. Although the rain did come and slightly cool things off, its still hot in the apartment tonight - sleeping will not be easy.

Tonight Emily S. and I enjoyed the humid air with some sangria. $5/pitcher peach sangria from Tasca is really amazing.

I practiced today, for almost four hours. The solo Bach I'm playing for the Lutheran conference is coming.

I bought a new planner for my life today, for 2008-2009. I love new planners. They are the start of something fresh and clean.

Obviously, I am virtually alone in Boston at the moment (except for Emily - we are starved for company) with not much to do except practice and buy new planners and drink sangria, so I have nothing interesting or thought-provoking to say. I'll stop before it gets worse.

Origins

Because I had bought Heidi some ginger body stuff for her birthday in April, I am now on the mailing list for Origins, a beauty store kinda like Clinique but more independent from department stores and such. They also sell a ton of organic products. Happily, I got a postcard a month ago for a free facial and free lip balm. I went in this morning to get it - it felt WONDERFUL. The only problem is that the woman literally used seven different things on my face before even putting make up on. From the first wash till the lotion. Its nuts, the stuff women (and some men) go through to just have clear, healthy skin.

I did get a jar of exfoliation stuff, and it was expensive, even though I got $10 off. I was promised it would last a year, so I sure hope thats true. On my way home, though, I got to thinking.

In order to be as healthy as you can and buy all the right things for your face or body, or even for food, you have to buy organic products, and organic anything is EXPENSIVE. Its almost preordained that the wealthiest people, the ones who can afford to buy the right products that have no chemicals and make you as "pure" as possible, will live the longest, healthiest lives. Anything cheap is full of chemicals that will supposedly kill you early. Obviously, we all die eventually, but while anyone lives, they want to FEEL good, and not be sick, and a lot of the cheap stuff that you have to buy because its the only thing you can afford has so many of those chemicals or what not that will (supposedly) some day give you cancer or make you sick. Today was the first time I really splurged on anything to do with beauty or skincare - I buy Clinique powder, but everything else comes from CVS, and this exfoliation stuff was WAY more expensive than Clinique powder.

Maybe its all a scam; I don't know. I just hope it works.

Mid-July already....

As usual, the summer is flying by and I don't even really know what happened to it.

I spent the past two days in New Hampshire, playing a pops concert at the NH Music Festival. My sister is there playing for a month, so it was nice to spend the weekend with her and Adelaide. This was my first EVER pops concert, complete with a medly of songs from the James Bond movies and Stars and Stripes Forever. We also did a Gershwin thingy, and the conductor actually had us "tap dance" in one spot and do a "kick line" in another one. Fortunately, Heidi and I were the last stand of 2nd violins, hidden behind the piano; we could not stop giggling, and I ended up laughing so hard and trying to suppress said laughter that the tears were flowing freely. I couldn't help it, especially with the theme from Rocky being played while the conductor walks on stage, in lieu of the national anthem.

My days spent at Tanglewood were nice too, although they ended on a somber note (go to ohmytrill.blogspot.com for more information). I'm not sure what they will do now.....its quite a disaster. I'm expecting a chain reaction of canceling conductors throughout the world as the BSO tries to replace the ones for Levine's concerts.

Fortunately, I'm home for a solid week and a half before heading home for the Lutheran worship and arts conference. Right now I'm baking cookies. They smell good, and the timer just went off. Anyone who wants to try one is welcome to come by!

Back in Boston

I'm back in Boston. I'm heading to Tanglewood tomorrow to hear Molly's faculty concert with BUTI and David's (plus many, many others I know) orchestra concert with TMC.

I have been a complete and utter lazy person since returning from Seattle.

I will post pictures and write more about it at a later date. I'm really not in the mood for blogging right now - must go practice. In any case, I had a wonderful time, we played well, and I was so happy to have done it.