Sunday Salon: December 6, 2009.

This has been an incredibly busy week for me, thus, the lack of blogging. I have been trying to make an effort in the last few weeks to reach out to other bloggers, but sadly, I am lacking the time. With the wedding only being 20 days away (eek!), I think it is too much to ask of myself to devote the few minutes I have of free time to searching out other book bloggers and networking a bit. So, that will have to wait until the New Year.

I have spent some time this week reflecting on this past year. This has truly been the roughest year I can remember. A lot has happened to make this a very emotional year, and it isn’t even over yet! I know that 2010 will have a lot of great things in store for me, so I am excited to get there. With that being said, once we are back from our honeymoon, on the 4th, I will definitely find myself with more time on my hands to devote to blogging. For the couple of months I have been here, I have loved it. It is nice to know that I have my own place here. Sometimes it is hard, knowing that my blog is not where I want it to be yet, but I know that in a few weeks, it can be. So be prepared for insanity once the calendars change to 2010.

Anyway, back to this week. Like I said, it has been kind of crazy. I finished all my Christmas shopping, with the exception of my grandmother and Matt’s step-dad. I also have been calling our wedding vendors to set up appointments and get everything finalized. I have a few more phone calls to make in the morning. I am hoping by the end of this coming week to have everything mostly set.

RSVPs have been flying in. We are up to 181 confirmed guests for the wedding, which is excellent. We’re hoping to hit the minimum number of 225 for the room so we don’t have to go crazy money wise, but if not, we already know what we’re going to do to upgrade. There are still 90 people yet to RSVP, so keep your fingers crossed.

I also went for a practice run of my bridal hair yesterday, which turned out beautifully. We discussed a few small changes for the big day, but I am really happy with the stylist and her work.

Last night, Matt and I headed to downtown Detroit for a concert as a requirement for one of his classes. The concert was held in the historic Fort Street Church (go here for more: http://www.fortstreet.org/). It was a beautiful church, built in 1855. When it burned down, it was rebuilt in 1877. It is a gorgeous building and we got to sit in the upper ring, looking down on the main floor and the front of the church. The performance was of Handel’s “Messiah.” For anyone not music minded, “Messiah” contains what it called the “Hallelujah Chorus” (picture clouds parting and light beaming down while a choir sings, “Hallelujah!”). It was a wonderful performance, if long, and we both really enjoyed it.

Today was spent packing up some things to move over to the apartment and then moving all those things into our apartment. Officially, all of my books are now moved in, all 1200+ of them are stacked in boxes in the closet. That closet is officially stuffed to the gills with books and some other items. Remind me to take a picture to show you the madness. The only books I kept here are a stack of 15 or so to see me through until we can purchase some bookshelves. We also moved over a bunch of other items. I am amazed by how much stuff I have accumulated. I have gone through a lot, but there are still a few things left to clean out—mainly some bins in our basement FULL of stuffed animals. One goal for the week is to go through them and decide which ones I don’t want, which will be many, and donate the rest. I am hoping to find some homes and shelters in nearby Pontiac which will take them for needy children.

In reading news, I am still in the middle of Germinal. I honestly haven’t had time to read, even though I am so close to finishing it. Honestly, there was a scene which kind of tore me up a bit so I stopped reading it last night in favor of sleep. Don’t fear, however, I have a lot to say about the book, which will all be forthcoming.

Goals for this week are to finish Germinal and to start something new. I’m not sure what I’ll grab, but I know that it won’t be a play.

Happy Reading!

Honest Scrap Award.

I received this from StephTheBookworm, so I am continuing on. I have to list ten honest things about myself and then pass it along to other bloggers!

1. When I was younger, I really like reading a lot of old, historical type novels, like The Little House on the Prairie. I was obsessed with pioneer life and living in the country. It’s no wonder that of the American Girl Dolls, I owned Kirsten, the one who lived in the country. I think this helped inspire my history degree.

2. I graduated from college in April 2007 with two bachelor’s degrees. One was in English and the other in history. In addition, I earned a minor in Social Studies, as well as earning my Michigan teaching certification for grades 6-12. Unfortunately, I’m not teaching at the moment as there are virtually no teaching jobs in Michigan.

3. I love high heels. I own quite a few pairs and wore them almost every day when I was teaching. I used to tell my students it was so they could hear the authoritative clicking as I was walking around their desks, but really, I just love them. I am still in search of a cute pair of purple heels, but I’m not giving up yet.

4. I have played the trumpet since I was 11 and I absolutely love it. I’m not an incredibly awesome player, but I am pretty good. I play every Tuesday night with Matt for a community band in the area run by our old high school band teacher. With all that being said, I am pretty tone deaf and can’t carry a tune to save my life.

5. I like to own the books I read. There is something about having them right there whenever I want them that appeals to me. However, this causes problems because I currently have too many for the space I have and they get rather expensive.

6. I collect bookmarks. I like unique and original designs, but I also own a lot of commercial type ones based off of favorite book series. I probably own something like 70-80 bookmarks, and yes, I have used all of them. I like picking out a bookmark to match the book I am reading. Sound insane? Probably.

7. I have only been pulled over once in the eight years I have been driving solo. It was when I was 16 and running late to school. Even when I cried the officer still gave me the full ticket (he wasn’t a nice guy). I have had a perfectly clean record since then.

8. I love dogs and cats. Growing up, my family has had 3 yellow labs. The first dog we had, Sandy, died when I was in fifth grade and it was my first experience dealing with death. Our second lab, Shelby, was with us for ten years. She ended up getting cancer and we had to put her down when I was a senior in college. Our third lab, Sadie, is quite honestly the biggest personality of the bunch and she just turned 3. I can’t wait to have a big house so I can have labs. Matt has a cat, Hemi, who I will be living with after the wedding. She is super cute and I can’t wait to make her pose for pictures with books.

9. I love to write. I’ve entered the 3-Day Novel Contest a few times, as well as National Novel Writing Month. Of those, I’ve only finished 2 novels and honestly, they’re horrible. I’m working on a new novel now (young adult) with hopes of finishing it and reworking it. I love to write and hope I can make a future out of my work. I kind of consider my blog practice. Any writing helps!

10. I love music and probably own too much of it to really listen to it all. Some of my favorite bands/musicians include: Switchfoot, Disturbed, The Juliana Theory, In This Moment, Nightwish, Muse, Within Temptation, Josh Groban, Adele, August Burns Red, Blue October, Enya, Linkin Park, Dragonforce, Stars, Fall Out Boy, Michael Buble, HIM, Norah Jones, Straylight Run, Kelly Clarkson, Plumb, Ronnie Day, Silversun Pickups, Seether, and about 50 million others.

I’ll be tagging bloggers in comments! Or you may steal if you so wish!

Book 7 Part 1: Music, Matt, The Fellowship, and Finishing.

Every sixth grader in my school district gets to make one decision regarding their electives when they start school: choir or band.

My oldest brother, Dave, chose band and played trumpet for his three years in middle school. My brother Eric decided to do choir and quit after the one year requirement was up. But when it was my turn, I knew what I would pick.

See, I am horribly bad at singing. I cannot carry a tune to save my life and I cannot hit notes. So it was easy for me to decide that I wanted to learn an instrument. When I was tested, the teacher told my mom that I would in better playing a brass instrument, primarily a low brass instrument like a baritone or a tuba. However, mom decided that since we already had a perfectly good trumpet at home that wasn’t being used, I would play that.

Being in band and learning to play a musical instrument has had a significant impact on my life. I met my fiancé in band and a lot of my fondest memories revolve around music. Even today Matt and I both play in a community band and love it.

Matt is more of a music nut than I am and in particular he loves soundtrack music. He can watch a movie and know within moments who the composer is—John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, etc. He just knows. It is a rare gift I think. And if Matt loves anything more than soundtrack music, it’s a good movie. Well, we both love movies, but Matt is far more insane about them than I am.

Enter the perfect birthday present.

Way back in July I was goofing around on Facebook when I saw an ad. Usually I ignore such things but this one was worthy of clicking. It was advertising an event surrounding The Fellowship of the Ring film and its soundtrack. After reading more, I bought two tickets for Matt and his birthday and resolved not to tell him until we were on our way there.

You can just imagine when on Friday how I excited I was to finally tell him what we were doing.

And he was very excited as well. And even more enthusiastic after the performance.

We went and saw the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra. The performance we saw was a full score production of the soundtrack to The Fellowship of the Ring WHILE the film was playing. Basically we saw the film with live surround sound. There were cellos, violins, tubas, trumpets, and a huge choir on stage that played every note and sang every word that made up the soundtrack to the film.

In one word the performance was amazing.

For me, it combined quite a few things I love: Matt, music, movies, and of course, The Lord of the Rings.

This event was the main reason why I wanted to reread the books now, so I could be fully prepared to appreciate the story on the massive screen the spanned the stage.

It was also a great moment to revel in the fact that I finished The Fellowship of the Ring and was moving on to The Two Towers.

To be honest, I cannot put into words a good enough description to tell you how wonderful the experience was. Not only did I get to reflect on things I already know and love, I got to experience them with someone else I know and love.

It just goes to show that while sometimes stories and words can be a personal experience, they are in essence meant to be shared with the people most important to us. Only then can we really appreciate the beauty of what we have experienced.


*And yes, I am already in the middle of The Two Towers.*