New Classes

Today is day two of Spring term. I think it will be nice only taking a few classes, even if they are monsterously hard and long. I'm taking Music History 301 (the first part of the music history class I was stressed about last semester). In our first class meeting, our professor made a funny but true comment. He was talking about how every music major seems to really struggle with this class and he was listing off his reasons for it. One of which was that most students' reasons for majoring in music are not really...substantial. They just love to sing or play an instrument and decide they want to do that for the rest of their lives, but they seldom desire to know how music works or the history behind it. As a result, they struggle through and sometimes hate classes like this one. Not going to lie, I was one of those shallow-minded students. While it might be interesting to learn Solfege with its accompanying hand signs, the different church modes and how they function, what a fully diminished 7th chord is, how to aurally identify a 12-tone series, or who Metastasio was, that wasn't really why I decided to major in music. Now I do see the usefulness of being a well-rounded musician who understands the inner workings of music, but not going to lie, when I entered BYU that's not what I thought I had signed up for.

Moving on...I am also taking Music 395 which is Form and Analysis. I have been intimidated by this class, but after the first day it doesn't seem so bad (so far). The third class I am taking is String Chamber. I'll be in a duet, trio, or quartet depending on who actually takes the class during Spring. Meanwhile, I am still trying to finish my online American Heritage class. I have one more quiz, a big paper, and my final exam. Two years after registering (embarrassing, I know) I am determined to finish...

I hate Burger King...

It seems like every post I've written has just been me complaining about finals and being stressed, but I have a crazy story to tell. Even though most of it is negative, I promise it has a good ending!

As of yesterday, I had two finals left. My two hardest finals that would require the most preparation and that caused the most stress. One was my 3,000 word essay for Anthropology that I had written one page for and that had to be turned in by Tuesday at 12:18, and the other was my music history written exam that I had barely started studying for that I had to take at 11:00 the next morning. Yesterday morning I took a different final and then went to work from 2:00-7:00 and we were really busy so I didn't really have time to study. Jason had left after he got off of work at 5:00 to take one of his finals, so I just went home after work to study. At 8:30 I went to pick up Jason from the testing center. Since I had tons to study and a huge paper to write I thought it would be better to just pick some dinner up somewhere to save some time. We decided to stop at Burger King on our way home.

As we parked our car at Burger King we saw this guy go up to the door and return to his car because the door was locked. Apparently only the drive through was open. We didn't really want to do drive through so we decided to walk over to the Costa Vida that was next door. We figured, why drive when we can get a little exercise and walk. After eating, we headed back to the Burger King parking lot to find that our car was GONE.

The first thought that entered my mind was that our car had been stolen. While I was greuling over that possibility, Jason knocked on the Burger King door. When the kid (he looked like he was maybe in high school) opened the door he said "honda civic, right? We had it towed. Our parking is for customers only." I could not believe the nerve of that kid! If only he knew how much stress I was already under and how much time I was going to have to spend that night and the next morning...It felt like that was the worst possible night that something like that could have happened. It just made us so mad that we went there intending on eating at Burger King, and just because they, for some reason, decided to close the lobby at 8:30 at night, we had to eat elsewhere. We've been to that Burger King many times, and I have NEVER seen that sign. So after we finally found the stupid sign, Jason called the number to get directions to the tow place. Jason told him where we were, and the tow guy told us to keep going down University and cross the street at 500 West. Then we should be able to find it from there. He also told us it would cost us $121 to get our car back if we paid in cash. Otherwise it would be more. Seeing as we didn't have that much cash on us, we had to stop at the ATM at our bank on the way (luckily it really was on the way).

Jason said the guy was really hard to understand, but we attempted to follow his directions and ended up wandering downtown Provo in vain, searching for this place. After 2 more confusing phone calls to the guy and a total of 30 minutes of walking, we decided to call Jason's mom to see if she could interpret his directions. He kept telling us about 500 W and University and he said it was near a DI drop-off place. We were really confused because the only DI we knew of was clear across town. Jason's mom didn't answer, so Jason called his brother Kyal to see if he was at home. Thankfully, Kyal was driving around Provo with his friends instead of at home in Highland (30 or more minutes away). He knew where a towing place was that seemed to fit the guy's directions, so he came and picked us up. He had three other friends in the car, so Jason and I squeezed in (I sat on his lap).

Once we arrived and saw that the door was locked and there were no cars in the parking lot, Kyal called the guy to see if he could get better directions or at least understand him better. He was able to figure out where it was so he drove us there (it wasn't far from the first one). The tow guy was actually really nice about it and felt bad that we got our car towed. He said Burger King called him and asked him to tow it, and he also thought it was ridiculous that they towed our car. If Kyal hadn't been in Provo, who knows how long it would have taken us to figure out where the tow place was, and even if we had figured it out it probably would have taken us at least an hour to walk there from where we were. Even though it was a horrible situation, the Lord was definitely helping us.

An hour after our adventure began, we were finally able to drive our car home. I was way worried about my exam and finishing my paper, but with the Lord's help I was able to get my paper finished (it was probably the worst paper I've ever written, but at least I finished) and I was able to adequately study for my exam. My exam actually went a lot better than I expected. I was so relieved when it was all over.

Now I am greatly enjoying my break from classes and the associating stress. It's so awesome actually having time to do the things I want and need to. Our house is finally looking cleaner, the dishes are no longer piled up in the sink, and I feel like I can breathe again.

Ugh...Finals

I really really hate finals. It's absolutely miserable. I feel like there just isn't enough time to adequately prepare for my tests. Luckily I only have two left, but these two will take the most time and preparation and I only have until tomorrow morning to do so! It's almost over though, and then I'll get a few days off before the next round of classes...

The end...

This week marked the end of my private lessons with Dr. Bigelow, my last masterclass with the viola studio at BYU, and my last jury. I have had such mixed feelings. Obviously I love playing solo repertoire and enhancing my viola skills, but having weekly lessons this past semester has caused a good deal of stress. Ever since I started working part time while going to school full time, I have really struggled getting in enough practicing. I just haven't had enough time in the day to get 3-4 hours in, and I have a really hard time being productive at night because I'm always so exhausted after a full day of school and work. I especially did not have much time this semester since I had to get my music education application all ready.

With all of these thoughts in my head, I was mostly relieved to be done. This morning I had my final jury. It went really well. I was nervous physically (my legs were shaking and my hands were clammy) but mentally I was calm and nostalgic. I felt like I was really able to express myself and it seemed to be well received. When I walked out into the hallway afterwards I got all teary-eyed when the realization hit that my private lessons are over.

On a lighter note, classes are OVER!! The class I am most excited to be done with is Anthropology. I like the concept of the class, but I wasn't particularly fond with my professor or my TA. We didn't have any exams in the class, which was nice, but our entire grade was based on 5 papers and a little bit of attendence. I still have to write my last paper, but I'm glad I at least don't have to go to those boring lectures anymore.

My favorite class this semester was the family history class I took with Jason. For those of you who don't already know, my dad is crazy about family history. He has done tons and tons of work over the past several years (somewhere around 30 years). Because it has been a great passion for him I have found interest in it as well, but I never knew where to get started. It's a pretty overwhelming undertaking when you don't know the first thing about family history. After a semester of taking a family history class, it is still overwhelming, but now I feel better equiped with the knowledge and resources I need to get started. The problem is I don't really know where to get started since my dad has done so much already...but I'll worry about that later.

Today and tomorrow are reading days and then finals officially start on Friday and end next Wednesday. I have 4 finals to take including my last Anthropology paper. The Tuesday after finals end, Spring term starts. I'll be taking music 395 (form and analysis), music 301 (a music history class), and I'll be in a string chamber group (either a viola duet or a quartet). In the mean time...I need to get to studying...