Ramblings...

Well, I’ve been pretty busy lately, which is the real reason that I haven’t posted for a while. :)

Things at work are going well and staying very busy. I remember when I first started this job and it just seemed like the days dragged by and now it seems like the days go by so quickly! The big project that the Maintenance Department has been involved in lately is the building of the second bunkhouse up at PV. There is a team of builders from Georgia who have been volunteering their work last week and this week. It’s amazing how fast the building has gone up now! Here’s a few pictures of their progress.

At home, I’ve mostly been practicing the piano for my recital during every possible moment. This picture was taken at my Junior recital in February 2005. My Senior recital is November 17, so it’s really important that I get everything memorized so I have time to get the notes solidified in my mind and the music sounding more polished. Just since Thursday, I’ve put in 26 hours on it. I know that sounds a little obsessive, but I’m just such a SLOW memorizer when it comes to music! Once I get it all memorized, I can relax a little bit and just enjoy the musical part of it. I think that the finished product will be about an hour long. I’m a little nervous about attempting to play that long and actually keeping it interesting for the people who come to listen. Haha! The pieces I am playing are Bach’s Italian Concerto, Mozart’s Sonata in A, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2, Gershwin’s Rialto Ripples, and an arrangement of “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” by Victor Labenske. I’m still not sure what order I’m going to play them in. The traditional way to do it would be to play them in the order I just listed them (by period, earliest to latest). But I just don’t really like the idea of starting off the recital with a piece by Bach. (I’m not a big fan of Baroque music, and I’m afraid it would just kill the whole performance – Haha!) Any ideas on this?

In other news, Jordan is deep into grad classes now and becoming quite proficient in the Hebrew language. :) We also got a surround sound system which Jordan miraculously found time to install last week and we absolutely love it! I suppose that a surround sound system would be classified as a ‘luxury item,’ but now that we have one, I can’t imagine how we ever managed without it! Haha! :)

We are having revival services on campus this week with Steve Pettit, which means that as of Thursday Jordan and I will have known each other for exactly 4 years! Some of you will remember Jeremy Rice. He was a senior and my extension team leader my freshman year. He was also Jordan's roommate (it was Jordan's sophomore year). After the Revival Service Thursday night, I was walking out of the gym, and Jeremy called me over to show me pictures he had taken while visiting his girlfriend the previous weekend. Jordan 'happened' to be standing there (there's more to that story, but Jordan is better at telling it than I am), and Jeremy introduced us. The rest is history! ;)

We’ve been having some fairly chilly weather the last couple of weeks, so the leaves are starting to turn in earnest. I think that means that pretty soon we girls will have to commit mutiny on the way home from church and make Jordan pull over so we can take some pictures! :) Other signs of fall include the many produce stands on the side of the road with their big signs reading: “MICHIGAN PEACHES.” Who needs Georgia peaches when we have these exclusive fruits right here in Michigan? :) It just cracks me up that they use “Michigan” as their ‘selling’ point. Is that because they actually imported them all of 5 miles over the border into Wisconsin? Heehee!! I’m making fun, but the peaches up here really are good, and we have definitely enjoyed our share of them. :)

I'll leave you with a pic I found of a Jordan and I from April 2005. Have we changed much? ;)

Hopefully my recital will be memorized soon and I can be more regular with my blogging. :)