I got to sleep in an extra hour today. Offices didn't open until 10:00. I only have one class today: Music History. We're going to watch a video. Other than a few hours of work, that's all I have today. Along with my roommate, most of my studio is in Washington D.C. right now. The Tuba/Euphonium Conference is being held there this weekend. It kind of weird having the room all to myself. It's nice in some aspects, but I kind of miss him. I have a bad feeling I'm going to be really bored this weekend. I need to practice my tubas and viola this weekend anyways. I can't wait 'till I get paid. Only one more week! Its been so long since I've had money. The hardest thing will be to remember not to spend it all. I filled out my camp application yesterday although I'm technically not registered with the BSA anymore. I need to remedy that, but its hard to do when I'm all the way over in Kentucky. Once I can get a stamp, I'll send it out. Now I just need to find time for a interview. Maybe I can convince Steve to let me have one over the phone...

We have had our first ice storm of the year. It sleeted almost all day yesterday and we got a few inches of ice. Classes didn't start until 10:20 today which was really nice. I got to sleep in two extra hours. Saturday was awesome. Me and some friends decided to go to Lexington. We went to BW3 which is a sports/buffalo wing restaurant. Yum. Then we went to the bowling alley. All the lanes were full, so after a couple games of air hockey, we decided that we wanted to play laser tag. Of course we get lost on the outside of Lexington for like forty minutes. After we got downtown though, we found it quite easily. Seven bucks for twenty minutes. It was awesome. We got destroyed by the regulars there, but we still had a good time. On the way back to Morehead, we stopped at a Super-Walmart and hung out there for another half-hour. I'm really glad we got that two hour delay this morning because I have so many classes today. I'll finish them at nine tonight. A couple of my brothers invited me to start a game of dungeons and dragons with them tonight, which is awesome. Its been such a long time since I've played that and I'm pretty excited about it. We had our first piano test last week and I'm actually ahead in the class now. Unfortunately, strings isn't working out for me too much. I suck at the viola, there's a reason why I play the tuba.

A lot has been happening the last few days. I spent most of the weekend with my little. That was really fun. He has this board game called Talisman that I'm now addicted to. Last night was wonderful. After our Phi Mu Alpha meeting, one of the brothers proposed to his girlfriend. So this is what happened: A couple of the brothers had "kidnapped" her, put a hood over her head, and drove her around in a van. The rest of us then moved to the steps of West Mignon, the dorm where they met, He was all dressed up and had a dozen red roses. When she got there, we started singing "A Serenade to a Girl" and he took off her hood. When we all went down on our knees, he proposed. It was wonderful. I was so happy for them. Today was pretty much a regular day. After I had dinner, me and some friends came back to my room with me. We got on the elevator and instead of going up, it started going down. It went down about three feet down and stopped. There was nine of us on a 2000 lb. elevator and we were stuck. We pushed the 911 button they couldn't hear us. The people in the lobby could hear us though and they called public safety for us. One of the girls in the elevator was starting to freak out. I actually thought it was pretty cool. We were stuck in the elevator about 7 minutes. When they got the door open, we just climbed out. Not a big deal. Now I can say that I've been stuck in an elevator. Oh yeah, I'm playing viola in class strings. For those who don't know what a viola is, its kind of like a large violin. That's about it for today. Yeah...

Hey everybody. The audition went well, although neither of us are section leader. Because of this, we have decided to take turns sitting in first chair. I wasn't too surprised at the outcome. The second day of classes was easy. Our teacher never showed up for class strings so we'll have our first day today. We only stayed in Piano class for about 5 to 10 minutes. My lessons are on Thursdays but we don't have them the first week of the semester. Yesterday we had our induction for Phi Mu Alpha! I'm so excited about this pledge semester. I got a little! His name is Logan. He's a really cool guy and its fun hanging out with him. He gets along with the rest of my family tree too. The whole chapter went to Smokey Valley last night and it was excellent. They serve burgers the size of your head. Artery-clogging goodness. I finally got to sleep at 2:30 in the morning. We have a three day weekend which is also very excellent. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day for Monday!

The first day of classes is done. I have so many classes on Mondays. At eight o'clock I have Advanced Brass. I think this is going to be a really easy class. I need to learn how to play four instruments in the course of this semester. The first is the euphonium, which will be ridiculously easy seen as I'm a tuba player. The next instrument I have to learn is the trombone, which is almost exactly like the euphonium except that it uses a slide instead of valves. The French Horn is going to be the hardest instrument to learn because of its tiny mouthpiece and the fact that it is in the key of F instead of C or B flat. A whole bunch of new fingerings. The last instrument is the trumpet, which will also be pretty easy. I used to play the trumpet. The next class I have is Human Growth and Development, which is the last class I need for the TEP. Its a two hour class on Mondays and one hour on Wednesdays. The only thing that is going to be bad about the class is the long Mondays. Then I have Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble. This used to be a night class on Wednesdays, so its a little weird to have it during the day. I have Music History after that. This will be the class that required the most study time and book reading. After that, I have an hour and a half of rehearsal for Concert Band. We didn't have rehearsal yesterday because everybody needed to audition for it. Me and my roommate are the only two tubas that tried out for Concert Band so we both know that we're going to get in. I had a really good audition and I nailed my major scales for her. I'll find out what I got in an hour. Between seven and nine, I have University Chorus; which is the non-audition choir. I'm not a very good singer. I'm going to be singing baritone this semester. Of course, after all that, I have my Phi Mu Alpha meeting which always lasts a good portion of time. Now that is a long day. These are only half of my classes, so you people with only three or four classes need to stop complaining. I'm only getting fifteen credits this semester. Even though I have all of these classes, this semester already seems easier than usual simply for the fact that I'm done with Music Reading and Music Theory. I have considerably less classes today. Just Strings, Piano IV, Performance Class, and Concert Band. I'm glad because I have a paper due tomorrow that I need to start. It won't be very hard. I guess I'll update how my audition went and how the rest of my classes go later on.

Ah... Family Guy. Now that I have all of the Family Guy Episodes on DVD, I've been watching a whole lot of it. Right now we're watching "To Live and Die in Dixie". Definitely one of my favorite episodes. It makes fun of the Deep South. How hilarious is that?! A raccoon just jumped out of Lois's blouse and attacked Peter. I practiced yesterday and my chops ran out after about 45 minutes. It was terrible. But it was a really good practice session. I didn't practice today though because I'm a slacker. I need to practice tomorrow because on Monday I have my Concert Band audition. I didn't get into Symphony Band and that's pretty much what I expected. Tharp got it. That means that my roommate and me are going to be in Concert Band. That only thing that we need to find out is which one of us will get first chair. It will be close. It doesn't really matter because we play the same parts but it will be nice to be first chair of an audition band. What I have going on over Francis is that I'm a better sight-reader and am a rhythm master. He's still a pretty good player though. It's going to be close. I'll tell you how it went on Tuesday. Good news! Since I'm poor and can't afford all of my books, my mom said that I could use the credit card to pay for them. Boo Yah! I get paid in like four weeks. Can't wait.

The main reason I'm blogging tonight is because I'm bored. I've already done one of those online surveys and am watching the Two Towers right now. My friends have been playing euchre and I've been on my computer. Ah, my friend is giving me a back massage and it feels soooo good. I'm having trouble typing. Ohhhh... she stopped. Anyways, I added a guestbook to my site on Christmas and the only person who has signed it so far is my roommate. That means you're all a bunch of slackers! Sign my guestbook! Please?

Yesterday was among one of my crappier days of travel in my lifetime. I wake up at 2:30 in the morning and we leave to the airport at 3:00. We get at the airport at 4:15 and I stand in line for Northwest Airlines. They're late and when they finally do get there, they tell me that Continental is handling my flight and I need to stand in their line. When I finally get through the line, I run into more trouble. My name is still on the TSA list and they need to run a background check on me. I finally got my ticket at about 6:00. My flight was supposed to leave at 6:15. I actually got through security rather quickly and made it to my terminal a little bit before 6:15. Unfortunately, our plane is coming from Alaska and is delayed many hours. We don't leave until 8:30. We land in Houston at about 2:30 which is far past the time when my next flight left at 1:10. So I catch the next flight which isn't until 7:30. I finally land in Lexington at 10:30. I was originally supposed to arrive at 4:20. We eat on the way home and get back in Morehead a little after midnight. After unpacking and catching up on old times with my roommate, I didn't get to sleep until after 2:30. I wake up at 7:15, because I have work at eight. I get to work and it turns out that my aunt didn't fill out my paperwork for me to work. They were really busy earlier in the week and she needed to get someone else to work. I don't blame my aunt, I'm just going to miss the money that I would of earned. Anyways, I'm just about broke once again. I was only able to afford one of my books. It cost me $75 used; and that was just one of the books for that class. The rest of my books are for music classes and I should be able to share my friend's books until my next paycheck in four weeks. I hate being broke. Maybe I can convince my parents to buy a couple of my books for me... Anyways, believe it or not, I'm actually having fun with my friends back here. I missed them and there's a lot of catching up. Classes start up again on Monday...

The end of my winter break is coming soon. My plane leaves early Wednesday morning. I just finished packing and tomorrow will be my last day with my friends and family. I've already said goodbye to Rena yesterday. I spent a couple of days at her new apartment. It was really fun. It wasn't so bad this time though; to say goodbye to her. We're going to get me a plane ticket back home for spring break. That's less than eleven weeks away! That's a lot shorter than like eighteen weeks. All in all, I'm excited to go back and see my friends and brothers again. The new pledge semester is starting in a little over a week and I finally get to reveal myself to my little. Anyways, the main purpose of this blog is so everybody knows that I'm still alive, albeit not much has been happening these last few weeks. Enjoy these last few days of winter break we have.