I'm going to be dull and just list crap that I did since last I posted.

Wednesday and Thursday: Nothing. Those weren't days.

Friday: Skipped school (legitimately) and went to NIU Jazz Day. Freaking unbelievably awesome. It was just sort of a festival, so we (the Oswego High School Jazz Ensemble, in which I play trombone) went and performed in the morn and then listened to other bands for the rest of the day. I was sitting in the NIU concert hall, making friendship bracelets with my good buddy Beacon, when the Warren Jazz Ensemble took the stage. They're unbelievably good, but they just keep featuring this one trumpet player. Every song is all about him. He's really, really good, though, with this mellow tone and mad improv skills, and as I look at him I realize, "Holy crap, that's the little Indian dude!"

The Little Indian Dude: I've seen this little dude three times in the past two weeks. At the University of Illinois audition, I saw him with his parents. Not to be racist or anything, but Asian/Indian parents are really overbearing, and his parents were a prime example. They never got more than three feet from him. The following Friday, I went to the jazz concert at the IMEA festival, and he was the trumpet player in the State Jazz Combo. He BLEW ME AWAY. Amazing. But he was like a different person. Onstage, he affects this cocky, bitch-ass trumpet player persona. I didn't even recognize him until I saw him with his overbearing parents later on in the exhibition hall. And then, of course, I saw him yesterday at NIU. I had to talk to him. It was fate. The Gods were willing us to be together in some capacity. So Beacon and I went up to him before the final concert on Friday, and I explained the situation to him. "Look," I said, "I keep seeing you everywhere I go, so I need to know your name." It's Zubin. As in a place where animals live, and a container. He was really frightened of us.

The NIU Jazz Ensemble was the greatest school-related performing group I've ever heard. That's all I'll say about that.

After Jazz Day, I went back to school for speech coachings and Pep Band. My mom came to my speech coaching bearing two glorious things: word that I am a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, and a birthday card postmarked from the Netherlands. That's right, the lovely and talented Bicyclemark sent me a birthday card. It made my day.

Then I had a grand time with some friends, but damned my soul to perdition for all eternity.

Saturday: Speech Regionals. We took first as a team, and I got first in Oratory and Verse. The Verse victory I attribute mostly to the fact that Bicyclemark's b-day card was stuck in the pocket of my book. Before you congratulate me too profusely, you should know that Regionals is the easiest meet in the history of everything. It was kind of a dull day, and we were there for way too long. Plus some shit went down involving the beautiful and talented Sarah (who got first in prose and will most definitely go to the toppermost of the poppermost.) But I finally got to see my beloved Andrew, and had yummy Indian food for dinner. He's always full of ultra-specific information on obscure styles of rock music. A good time.

Sunday: Brought cake and cosmo to Sarah's house, and wrote our skit for Espanol. "Que es el propio de la luna? Eso. Eso es el propio de la luna." Then had a celebratory day-before-my-birthday luncheon with the fam. Then went to Borders with my mommy. Bought:

Van Morrison - Poetic Champions Compose
Belle & Sebastian - Tigermilk
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone.

Now I'm going to EYSO.

I'm late! I'm late!

posted at 3:11 PM by Alison

|