A Little Rambling

My truest passion is choral music. I love singing. I love piano. I love teaching both of those. I enjoy singing in a praise band. I love working with little kids, and reading, and cooking, and a whole host of other things. But I have no passion [for any earthly thing] that compares to singing in a choir. A GOOD choir. I have been in choir of some sort for as long as I can remember, starting in little kids' church choirs at Bethany. In 6th grade, I joined the Phoenix Children's Chorus, which built the foundation for this passion. In high school, I practically lived in the choir room. At 16, I left PCC and joined the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, and enjoyed being in a professional-level volunteer chorus, singing with the Symphony, under the best director I've known, Bob Moody. At ASU, I was in the women's chorus, which, while not on par with either PCC or TPSC, was still enjoyable. Then came Southwestern. Not being a student there anymore, I can say this out loud - ...

Yesterday, Taryn and I saw a movie no one seems to have heard of. I'm not even sure how I heard of it, but I know I saw a preview at some point, and it piqued my interest. It's an indi film called "Get Low." To save the trouble of me explaining the premise, watch the trailer below. Then read on... I don't know how to do this without giving away at least some of the plotline, but since I'm going to encourage you all to go see it, I'll do my best. This is a movie about forgiveness, pure and simple. It's wrapped up in quirky characters and beautiful music and an interesting story, but the heart of it all is forgiveness. Everyone in the town vilifies Duvall's character, the recluse Felix Bush, and everyone has heard a story of some awful thing he's done. At one point in the movie, Felix talks about how he doesn't ever want to be forgiven [for those things], and wants to bear the weight of his sins and stare at them everyday. How often d...

I kind of feel like I am doing school backwards, in several respects. I started at an enormous state university, moved to a small private college, and am now doing a semester of community college. I have a hefty amount of my major requirements fulfilled, and now, as a senior, am taking gen eds. On a minor scale [accidental music pun], at SWC I took Acts-Rev before Gospels and Prophets before Gen-Song. So today was my first day of community college. I had high hopes. At ASU, my classes ranged in size from 21 to 600 people, but the professors still managed to be professional and good and I stayed involved in my classes, even if I almost never opened a book. Southwestern raised the bar in professors, but not necessarily in academics. PVCC has dropped the ball entirely. And it's been one day. Okay, so that's not fair. My public speaking teacher seems delightful. My biology professor will probably drive me crazy before the end of the week, but the class itself should be fi...

Every now and then in life, you need a moment to be still. No talking, no tv, no music, no book, no laptop, no cell phone. Just you, and God. My favorite way to be still is to enjoy rain. Sometimes it's dancing in it, sometimes it's walking in it, sometimes it's sitting on the balcony listening to it, sometimes it's curled up in bed hearing it pound against the window pane. At the Festaburg, I sat on the balcony and stared at the trees through the rain, enjoying my tea in the absolute silence. Tonight, I sat on my balcony here, listening to the rain on the tin parking covers, and enjoying my steaming mug of chamomile tea. The rain is over now, but I'm still out here enjoying the dripping from the roofs and trees, the smell of renewal and wet earth. Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." It is times like these that, no matter how busy my mind has been, I can calm it ...

So, today was my last day working at Jamba Juice , and I have once more become a "normal" person with only one "real" job. I am thrilled beyond saying. The last couple semesters have been kind of insane. Last fall, I had 22 credit hours at school and was working two "real" jobs (teaching and nannying), as well as all those little odd jobs - babysitting, housesitting, tutoring, modeling, donating plasma (not a job, I know) - that start to add up. Besides that, I was doing the school musical, and dating, and living on my own, and paying my way through school. Unfortunately, school proved to be a bit more expensive than I could handle, so I ended up taking last semester (mostly) off to work instead. So now, I only had two credits at school (voice lessons and my junior recital), but I had three "real" jobs, plus the odd ones. At first, it was not overwhelming. I had a lot of close friendships, and a boyfriend, to help share the stress and mak...

So, I've decided that I really feel like blogging again. However, it feels weird to use Across the Atlantic , since it's all for Germany, and I am reluctantly stuck in Arizona again. Thus, a new (& domestic) blog is born. Here's to a lot more rambling! Or, in the interest of promoting my own title, and preserving your interest, only a little rambling.