Concert Pictures!

Here are some pictures from our Youth Symphony concert two weeks ago:




Mike, Jen, and me before the concert.




Mike (in the middle) performing in Chamber Players.




Jen (in the middle with the violin)



Me (fourth from the left)



The Youth Symphony performing Jupiter, by Gustav Holst.

Giving Thanks

It's been a while, I know, but I thought I'd take advantage of Thanksgiving break to let you all know what's going on in my life.

Two Sundays ago (the 13th) we had our Youth Symphony concert. It was awesome, and I can't believe that I have only one more semester, which means only one more concert. I love everything about YS, especially the rehearsals, but there's something totally different about a concert and performing in front of a crowd of people. It's just about my favorite thing in the world, because I get to share with so many different people the gift of music, which is one of the greatest gifts; a gift of beauty.

Last Sunday there was an International Mass and Festival Dinner at the Newman Center, and we were honored to have the bishop as a guest and celebrant of the Mass. Besides performing the Bach Double with Jen for the dinner program and talking with the bishop about Bach, Rome, and Vanilla Ice, I had the best baklava ever. Right after the dinner, Jen, Mike, and I ushered at the WSO concert, which is the next best thing after YS.

Yesterday I got the new Scott Stapp CD, and it is great. I highly recommend it, especially if you like Creed, or music with inner meaning and Catholic messages. Go here to listen to some of it.

Today I finished The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton, and it was excellent! Read it, read it, read it! It's amazing! There are too many good things to say about it. After that, read The Life You Save May Be Your Own, by Paul Elie. Great books...

Okay, that's about it for now, and I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Every day I am thankful for my faith, my family, my friends, school, Youth Symphony, School of Community, my health, and so much more. I am blessed more than I realize. I am also grateful for the ability to share the beauty of life with everyone around me, and for the beauty that you all show me. Thank you!

God Bless

These Days...

First order of business...I have been accepted into that most prestigious and exalted of colleges, TAC. For those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about go here. After my initial leaps of joy and flurry of emails and phone calls, the full realization of how hard I still have to work to actually go there hit me. But I welcome the work and I'm savoring every minute of my senior year.

Tonight we went to a chili dinner and square dance at our church. The chili was really hot, as in spicy, but since the weather was pretty cool, it worked. The dance was hilarious fun, and, as usual, it turned into a sort of "battle of the squares." But everyone caught on really quickly and we all looked like pros. Besides Jen, Joe, Mike, and myself, there were some cool WSU students in our group: Maggie, Amy, Brian, Brandon, and another girl whose name I can't remember. If you're familiar with square dancing you're probably wondering why there's more than eight people. Jen and I and Amy traded places, because there weren't enough people for another whole square. So the entire evening was fabulous, and we've decided that next time we'll do swing dancing....

For any of you who care about my current reading, I've decided to put Don Q on hold for a while, until I finish some scholarship essays at least. Instead I'll be reading The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton. At dinner we've been reading parts of Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. Right now we're in the middle of Kitty and Levin's wedding. It's reminding me of the story Emad told us at School of Community about his brother's wedding a few weeks ago. How they're running everywhere trying to find a shirt, while in Emad's case it was a suit for his dad. But I digress.

I hope you're all doing well!

Life is Beautiful

God Bless