Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Almost a year has passed since my last entry -- Oops!! To be honest, I completely forgot that I had a blog.

How do you continue a blog that you haven't updated in a year? Well, I suppose I must touch base with my younger self to see what kind of place I was in then. On my last couple entries, it seemed that school was the highlight of my life. What can I say about school now that I'm nearly finished my first year?

English? Dropped it. Anthro? Dropped it. Astro? Dropped it. Social Work? Dropped it. I know, right? Talk about picking up the wrong courses.

English made me feel like I was back in third grade. We were learning what verbs were. I think I've known what verbs are for the past fifteen years. Anthro was worse. "You have two days to read these 100 long boring pages!" Believe me. I read them ... only to find out that our next lesson had absolutely nothing to do with anything I read. Yeah. Not cool. Astro was interesting, but was beyond me. I was not following much. It was basically a physics class. We were learning where stars were placed in the galaxy and that was it. I gave it a chance, at least. Social work was also boring, the desks were uncomfortable, and since it was also a second year course, so my comprehension was far below others'.

Psychology, philosophy, and opera were the only courses I originally signed up for and ended up staying in. However, I stopped going to my psych classes in February. I'm not going to blame my horrible grade on anyone except myself. The teacher was great, I just couldn't cram that much into my head. Also, psych was WAY too science based. Of course, I knew I would be dealing with a good amount of science, but there was nothing artsy about this course at all. All we really learned was what part of the brain controlled which functions -- mostly motor functions. Sorry. Didn't know that we needed to learn about motor functions. Philosophy was great. I attended most classes without difficulty, the teacher was great and I ended with a modest 68%.

Opera Studio. Where to start? It was early. It killed me to wake up and walk to PACI. It was uphill, okay? We were due to learn Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury. Auditions scared me. I was sick and my audition song had a high A in it. I must have done alright though because I got the lead. Well, I shared the lead. The class was so small that the roles were double-cast. Everyone had a character and a chorus part. I was so excited about being the judge. I learned my shit well! But after Christmas, it seemed that not many others were as serious about their parts, and it was canceled. Seriously. Instead, the show would consist of solos, duets and trios. We were to pick songs we wanted to sing and then submit them to Kim or Dean. Well this sucked for me. The others, who were all music majors had so much to choose from, but I had never owned any sort of songbook. Instead, I e-mailed Kim and asked if she could just choose something for me and I'd learn it. She said she would, but she didn't. I couldn't get any help from Dean because he was going through a midlife crisis. I went from being the lead in the opera to a sad little girl who didn't have anything to sing in the class. Oh sorry. We still sang a couple chorus songs that I was able to sing in. I felt useless though. I wasn't needed any longer. I just kind of ... existed. I could write forever on the injustice I felt, but it would take all day. Moving on ...

Even though I dropped many classes, I also picked some up. I tried women's studies. That was the most boring thing I've ever done. After two classes, I knew I wasn't returning. I have the video to prove my boredom. I picked up religion, a web-based course. It felt weird at first, being in a class I didn't have to attend, but I soon fell in love with it. This is the only course I have yet to finish. The first exam, though I hadn't studied or done most of the readings, I received 70% on. It was open book. If I couldn't handle that, then I deserved to fail. The first essay, completed in only a few hours, I got 69%. I had no sources. I didn't even know what I was talking about. I was more prepared for my second essay. I wrote it in two days. I didn't do any of the readings, nor did I look at the textbook. I got 100%!!!! Yeah, baby!

The last course I picked up was vocal ensemble. I really have nothing bad to say about it. It may have been quite annoying only singing one song since January, and I may have lost my liking for Beethoven's 9th symphony, but I'll get over it. I do have a lot of nice things to say. Being in the music building was nice for me. It felt like home.

With low marks in my major, and great marks in music, by February, it became quite clear what was going to happen. I started the process to switch my program. It was hell. I couldn't just fill out a form like most major changes, no. I had to reapply to university and go through all that crap again. Lucky, I'm finished doing it now. The only thing I have left to do is pass my audition and in September, I will be a music student.

Another big change is that I have moved out. I now live with Marie in a nice loft-like apartment. Yeah it's downtown and can be noisy. Sometimes I may go to bed exhausted and have to wake up early in the morning, only to find that Jacks is jumping and thumping, but earplugs come in handy! It also sucks that I don't have easy access to the car. However, being on my own has been good, even if we have parties here every other week.

Lastly, just going to mention this. Life has been going well for too long now, the downfall is coming. I just found out that my dad has been looking for an apartment. I don't know any more details of this just yet. Whatever is happening doesn't sound good though.