do you feel better? do you feel anything.......at all?

Things have been very weird lately. Things at my job are.....shall we say, not exactly my cup of tea. I had some really frustrating music rehearsals for a show I'm playing starting July 12th, and honestly at this point, I don't even want to be playing the show anymore or involved in any of it. I'm tired of the nonsense and bullshit and the way I'm being treated by certain parties at said job, and I'm seriously looking for a new job, but holding on to this one for as long as I can. As far as the show goes, I'm riding it out the next month or so, and after the show's over, I'm not playing any more shows. I honestly wanted to quit Thursday night after rehearsals, but instead I cried into my co-worker's shoulder, and received a lot of hugs from the rest of the cast, and then I cried on the train ride home, cried to my dad, cried myself to sleep, and cried to my mom the next morning. I even told my mom I felt like quitting, but I couldn't, because I don't do that. And she said "you're right. The women of our family never quit. We just take things with a grain of salt, and we make the best of it." So that's what I'm doing....I'm going to make the best of the month, of the 14 shows and 3-day recording session. And then, if I even get invited to play another show, I will politely decline, find a better alternative, or make up an excuse so I don't have to go through the motions over and over and over again.

In other news, I recently had a falling out with a friend, and I'm sad to see our friendship crumble into nothing. I just lost an amazing friend, a super friendship, tons of awesome memories, my sneakers (I left them at her house when I slept over, and I doubt I will ever see them again), and God knows what else. But I'm done fighting, I hate fighting. I've done it before, and it doesn't end well, so whatever. I'm out.

I just don't understand it, though. It baffles me. I'm trying to figure out the secret to my friendship with another one of my best friends, since we've known each other for 18+ years now. There MUST be a secret.

I just want to stop crying. Please, for once, let something good happen. I'm getting tired of crying already.

oh those wildwood days...

This past weekend was the annual Cabs at the Beach drum corps contest in Wildwood. I freakin' love Wildwood. I've been to Wildwood with some of my family for a week of vacation during the summer before, and have been to the drum corps show several times in the past, but last year was my first time actually competing in the show.

This year I've opted to sit out marching Cabs, and I really miss it. Apparently a bunch of people miss me. I decided to go to the show this year, to support my friends and cheer on my family - the corps, and I ended up feeling a tad bit sad that I was not marching this year. I spent the weekend with my dad hanging out and spending some quality time together, while also checking out his practice and my friends' practice. Several people begged me to come back this year, telling me there's still time to march, but I already have a performance commitment, and I can't back out now because that would be impolite and unprofessional. But after seeing them for their first show this weekend, and seeing all my friends again, and hearing how much they miss me and want me to come back, I'm seriously considering marching again in the '10 season (the sudden change in drum staff has only encouraged me slightly..... :) ).

Speaking of drum staff.....Anna and I were putting together my perfect man with different defining qualities of hot Cabs members (they're all drummers, by the way.....). He'd be comprised of EB's eyes, MS' smile, DF's facial structure, and IT's nose. That's what we've got so far.....not sure about his hair situation just yet.....might have to stick with DF's hair.

I miss my jet-pack, by the way. And I really do miss playing, it's just I hate all the rehearsals and that stuff leading up to the memorable moments. I miss putting on the magic suit and performing in front of the crowd. I think I'd actually jump back in in a second if I didn't have a prior commitment. :(

Oh well.....I'm support staff/cheerleader this year.

See you at the Grand Prix! LET'S GO CABS!

it's picture perfect the way you work it, girl

My dad finally took out his old camera for me. I just wanted to look at it, but he said if I wanted to, I could use it, and I really think I'm going to. I need to get some film for it, and probably some batteries, but then I'll be open for business. It's not a digital camera, but I'll use it sometimes, for special things.



And oh man, I love the shutter sound! And then maybe one day I'll get my own digital SLR camera. :)






Viewing our tv through the wide angle lens (picture taken with my digital camera, looking through the wide angle lens)

Dad also showed me some pictures he took with that camera, and wanted to show the difference the wide angle lens made. He took out an album from when they went to Europe, and I came across this picture (that was actually made up of two pictures). It looked so familiar to me, I had to go grab my album of pictures from when I went to Europe in 2006.

Sure enough, Dad and I have the same picture. He took the picture from the window of the Neuschwanstein castle in Germany, and 21 years later, I took the same picture from probably the same window.


The top pictures are Dad's, the bottom one is mine. You can tell the difference in the colors, and how the trees are overgrown in my picture, but it's basically the same thing, the same village, the same countryside.



It fascinates me.

I need you, darlin', so come go with me...

Hey kids,

It is quite early in the morning (it is 2:30am) and I leave for my retreat weekend in exactly 12 hours. I'm leaving my house at 2:30pm because my train leaves at 2:50, and I'm meeting my friend Liz at 3:10. We're making a quick stop to the grocery store, then picking up Maria and Michelle, and we will be meeting up with our other Treblettes and "retreating" to some town on Long Island, near water and beach area, and we will sing by some windmills. I am pretty damn excited, but I'm just getting some laundry together and packing up my bag. I could potentially do this in the morning, but I know I'm going to wake up later than I want to, and therefore run late if I have to pack on top of that.

I was watching tv and perusing the web before (about 1:45am) and my mom woke up and asked me to print out some pictures from her students' 8th grade trip and another picture from their 8th grade dance. She needs to use them for some display they're doing for their graduation (which is tomorrow.....or today?). Yeah mom, lucky I was up at 1:45 in the morning to unload your pictures from your camera and print them out for you. Because you can't do it yourself by now.

So that's put me back about a half hour. Now I'm just sitting here, gathering things together to pack, listening to some music (and the rain fall on my window at random times). I've got the window fans blowing in some cool air since it's pretty hot in the house right now. I just sucked down some Cran-Wild Berry juice, so maybe that will give me another 20 minutes of energy.

I feel a little bad about going away this weekend, because as it happens, today (the 12th) is my best friend Lisa's 25th birthday, and I am missing it. I originally hoped that she would maybe be willing to go out for birthday breakfast or lunch with me, but she told me that she usually does that with her mom and her grandpa. I don't want to mess with tradition.....believe me, I'm all for tradition, actually. This weekend also holds my cousin Erich's graduation from 8th grade. He's having a party on Saturday (the day I will be kayaking, singing by windmills and any other place available, playing games, pigging out, and getting drunk with my Major Treble girls) so I'm going to miss a family event and a momentous occasion for Erich.

I mean, I'm a little upset I'll be missing it because Erich and his family will be moving next month, so I only have a few more times to see them here in NY, before I go to seeing them only at holidays and major family events. I see them rarely enough as it is, so it's a little bit sad. :(

However, last summer when I was marching drum corps, I missed a lot of family events and momentous occasions, so I'm pretty sure I can deal.

I think the Cran-Wild Berry juice is wearing off on me. I may have to throw back another gulp or two to get through packing my bag, and then seriously, I'm hitting the pillow.

Let the weekend begin!

your lips touching mine in the photobooth

I found a list of 26 things to photograph on http://www.sh1ft.org, and since I've been running out of ideas to blog about, I decided I wanted to get back into the picture-taking groove and do this as a side project.

This is the list:
- sound
- press
- turn
- label
- wheels
- silence
- new
- old
- list
- creep
- stand off
- admiration
- mess
- always
- half
- strings
- hallway
- grand
- graffiti
- juicy
- instrument
- logo
- on the horizon
- yawn
- bump
- macro

I'm not sure whether I'll start at the beginning and go straight down the list, go backwards (start at the bottom, and go up the list), or pick them at random. Thoughts on this?

I'm also determined to finish my original 100-photo blog project, which can be found under its new name and link: kristin's photo blog project. I have six more pictures to take, and my cousin has already picked out the order in which they will appear, so be on the lookout for those last six.

My brother's fiance was showing some of her artwork at this festival called Art by the Ferry, so I went to hang with the two of them today, and got to see some of her new work. This is a photo I snapped of her corner of the room, with all of her artwork in one frame.



It was awesome, a lot of fun, and it definitely got my creative juices flowing again, which is why I'm seriously going to finish this photo blog project, and start the new one. If anyone knows of any other sort of daily photo projects, please let me know. :)

goodnight, kids.

marry me today, guess I'm wishing my life away

Back when I was still in college (I think maybe Freshman year) I saw this trailer for a movie that was coming out, and I remember wanting to see it so badly because it had an acapella group in it. Them, for the longest time I couldn't remember what it was called, so I couldn't search for it. Finally last night, I just did a Yahoo! search with some of the key words, and came across this gem, which is the movie I was looking for.


The Wedding Weekend

So I ordered it and should be receiving it in the mail sometime next week. I also ordered Rachel Getting Married because I wanted to see that for so long and missed seeing it with Kelly.

I also want to get Bride Wars because I want to see that as well, but it's cheaper at a different place from the place I ordered The Wedding Weekend and Rachel Getting Married.

I find it funny how I want to see three movies that have to do with weddings. I don't know why, but I've seriously got it on the brain, and it's kind of creeping me out a little bit.

In a little while I'll be heading to SI for the Art by the Ferry festival thingamabobber because my brother's lady is showing some art there. I always enjoy her pieces, and own one of them, so I'd like to go out and support her and check out her new stuff. I went to her first ever Art Showcase and her art is gorgeous, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what she's been working on lately.

Well, off I go. Maybe another cup of coffee first.... :)

now put your hands up!

Thank you, Joe Jonas. Thank you.

'cause I can guarantee, things are sweeter in tennessee

For the past couple of years, I've wanted very much to visit Graceland Mansion, home of everything Elvis-mania. Recently, I've been looking more into it and really want to go soon.

I know my best friend had mentioned once that she wanted to go to Nashville and experience the world of Country Music, and I expressed interest in going, too. So, I think she and I should go soon! We could spend a couple days in Memphis and visit Graceland, go to some themed restaurants near Graceland, maybe the Memphis Mojo Music Bus Tour, the Sun Studio Guided Tour (the birthplace of Rock 'N' Roll!!!), and then head into the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks. Then we'd head over to Nashville (I'm still trying to figure out how exactly we would do that....)and see the sights there.

In Nashville, we could go to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, maybe see something at the Grand Ole Opry House, check out the Music Valley Wax Museum, and just see Nashville in action.

I really want to go. Kelly, you in? Let's start planning!

get me to the church on time....

I've been thinking about weddings a lot lately...I guess it's because my cousin just got married, my brother's engaged to be married and he and his fiance are throwing around ideas for the wedding and reception, a bunch of other people I know are engaged/just got engaged, and I'm watching Gilmore girls season 7 on dvd right now and Lorelai is engaged to Luke, but then breaks up with him, and then runs off and marries Christopher in Paris. Too much info? Sorry.

But seriously. I've got wedding bells on the mind lately, and I don't know why! I mean, I really, truly hope that I get married some day, because I really, truly want to. I'm dreaming about my wedding day, and how it's going to unfold, and what things I'm going to plan, and what sort of details I want at the wedding, the reception, etc., etc., etc. I actually Googled some German wedding traditions, because I'm all about my German heritage, and I love learning about that kind of stuff.

There are two German traditions (besides the ones that we've already adapted into today's society) that I think are pretty cool and I want to incorporate. They are:

1) Kidnapping of the bride - in some areas (mostly in small villages) friends (or the best man and groomsmen) kidnap the bride and the groom has to find her. Normally, he has to search in a lot of pubs and invite all people in there (or pay the whole bill). Sometimes this ritual ends badly.

Seriously, I want the men of my bridal party to "kidnap" me and then my fiance has to come find me! Some websites suggest that you make it kind of easy for the groom to find the bride because he could potentially pay a really large bar tab, and the whole bridal party would become insanely drunk. But how cool a tradition is that? I love that Germans had it in their right minds to go out and get drunk until someone found you!

The other tradition I'd like is:

2) Polterabend - this is an informal (informal dress and food) party at the evening before the wedding where plates and dishes are smashed (the broken pieces are thought to bring good luck to the bride). The bride and groom have to clean up everything.

Now, I'm not one for cleaning that much, but I think this tradition is great. And what's even more great is that my Oma was telling me that this happened at her wedding, and she basically made Opa clean it up, which then symbolized she would be the woman of the house and she would be in charge. I really wouldn't mind cleaning it up with my future husband, as long as we were happy working as a team. :)

And I also want to play some traditional German music at the reception....usually traditional German music played at the wedding reception includes polkas and waltzes. I like waltzes, but they'd be hard to dance to. People can barely dance in 4/4 time as it is, so throwing a 3/4 waltz at them would be asking too much. POLKA IT IS!



German wedding traditions were found at:
http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa030601a.htm

I know this map is leading me to treasure

It's been awhile since I've been here (I say as I dust off the blog). A bunch of things have happened I guess, since the last time I've been moved enough to jot down a few of the goings on in my life.

My show closed, the one that had a run for a good 3 months. I think that has been the longest run for a show that I've ever been involved in. It was actually kinda cool that it ran that long....we, the musicians, locked into a good groove and vibe and were playing pretty solid shows for awhile. When the run came to an end, I was both sad and overjoyed - sad that I knew the music so well now and we weren't going to be playing it anymore, but overjoyed that I would have a couple weekends back. For three months, I was waking up early to make sure I got to work on time to set up the pit, open the box office, work the box office and sell tickets, play the show, and then clean up. I'm pretty lucky to be signed up for the next show, though, which will be pretty awesome. It's going to be a very short run from the middle of July to the middle of August (this is the first time the producer's ventured into having a show during the summer). Another plus is that, because my boss will be on vacation for a good portion of that run, he won't be playing this time around! I think that kind of makes me in charge of things, because I will be the one that's played in all the shows that has had a pit section....

I thought about this the other day, but I guess I could be considered a "house musician." I'm kinda like the Anton Fig of our theatre. Except not, since I don't wear the same weird funky hat, and I don't play drumset, and I clearly don't get paid anywhere near the amount he does. But still, it's a pretty cool title to hold, I think.

Since the show has wrapped, I've missed the cast. I don't get to see them every weekend anymore. But that was rectified when Scott had a barbeque Sunday night. It was originally a cast party bbq, but it turned into a bbq for their close friends, which was fine. There were lots of people there, lots of food, tons of alcohol, music, fun times. It was great, and I got to see the cast and actually talk to them for more than two minutes. It was really nice bonding time, and Scott said there will be more bbq's to come this summer.

Things on the Book Challenge front are going slightly well. I'm not even sure where I should be at right now, but I've read 16 books, and all of them have been really interesting and books I've wanted to read. I've even fallen in love with some of the characters, story lines, and atmospheres. That's what I love about books, and I also love that when you read sequels, it's like you're visiting a neighbor or old friend again. I hope to read a little more now that it's summer time, and hopefully I will fulfill my mission of 50 books by December 31st.

Now that it's summer, I really want to take a vacation. It's a little bit hard to plan since I've committed to a couple things already this summer, and I'm pretty much working through the summer (hopefully!). I've got a couple things I've committed to in June (drum corps shows, acappella group retreat), then I have rehearsals and the show in July through mid August. I possibly could go visit my family in Austria in late August, but I think I want to go to DCAs this year (or to our summer house community Labor Day bbq), so it's pretty hard to decide right now. I also don't know if any of my family will be coming to visit for the summer...it's Christopher's turn, since my aunt and two of the four cousins were here for my cousin's wedding, and Barbara was here in September and December. I also really want to go visit them in December, right before Christmas. They say it's beautiful at that time of year, with the snow and everything. And there are Christmas markets galore and I seem to remember my cousin Thomas saying something about a manger hunt.....

Anyways, I've been saving up a little money each week since last May, a couple of days after I graduated college. I'm pretty surprised and proud that I've kept up with it and have continuously saved money each week. The perfect way to celebrate would be to SPEND IT, but even after my hard work, I don't want to take any money out, just keep putting money in! But soon, I must go on vacation! I really need it.

Okay, I'm wiped. Peace out, kiddos.