Sicilienne et Allegro Giocoso for Bassoon and Piano (1930) by Gabriel Grovlez

INSET 09.11.2020

This Is The Moment

It seems that whenever I actually have things going on in my life i never blog, but how when i sit around all day and do nothing i'll faithfully blog. My life has always been that way though, always a little delayed but with good intentions. Who knows where that will get me... Let me give you an overview of what my life has been like since the last time I posted.

Well last weekend was Goodview days so the whole town of Winona was a little out of control with a bunch of people celebrating the suburb of Goodview. I don't live in Goodview but since technically it isn't its own town i fealy like it concerned me. My parents decided to go on a random vacation, but since i had the parade I ended up staying with my grandparents in Goodview. By friday I had already had to endure a week of marching band practice where we do completely nothing so I was just ready for the week to be done and over.

Saturday my friends and I ventured to the petting zoo which was okay, went on a horse drawn carriage ride and then went to Mickey Dee's where we got some food. After we were all fed Walker, Kyle and I went over to Meghan's while she was working at HyVee and hung out. Which was really great because I never really get to see Walker due to life. Around seven I headed over to a birthday bonfire/campout in MN city - which was really fun. We all just hung out, talked, ate some awesome food, found and then burned and intact door and then ended the night by fitting ten of us into a tent.

After being attacked with a pillow, I decided it was time to wake up from my slumber in the wild. We all looked like complete trash but we all had a great night. After cleaning up our camp out mess we all headed out to get ready for the parade which was later that day. Overall we did not do that bad in the parade - we sound great we just kinda look like one big pile. The fireworks at nine thirty really ended the weekend on a good note.

The beginning of my week consisted of taking photos, set building for Willy Wonka, marching band, and babysitting. Here are some photos from this week so far.

This morning I woke up around nine to babysit my little brother while my mom was running errands. Then went to marching band, set building and then a birthday party where we all just sat around ate great cake and talked. "I'ts all about believing. And if we believe in something. Then that's real. Isn't it?"

"If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that get's you, not the lack of sleep"
Dale Carnegie

Thats 70 's Show Season 1

Magic Dust And Pasta

I know I havent been updating regularily and I am sorry if anyone is actually out there... I have been taking a lot of photos. So here is a smattering of shots from the last few days. I will fill you in on whats been going on in the near future.

"The Smallest act of kindness is worth more than than the grandest intention."

Photoshoot With A Different Madeline

After marching band yesterday I shot some photos of my freind madeline. It was a little too bright so some of the best shots had weird lighting too them, but otherwise it was a great day to get some photos. Madeline has always wanted to try out modeling, so we had alot of fun just experimenting around. Here are some of the best shots from the day.

Wait A Bit

I had a in depth discussion today about college. Let me remind you im just going to be a sophomore, by the end of summer I will have already visited two colleges out of town, spent way too many hours on college websites and overall be thinking way too much about college. What if I can't help it that everything I do from day to day is only to get one step closer to hopefully being accepted into The University Of Michigan, Julliard or The University of Ithiaca? What is so wrong with my life, that I always have to being looking forward to something far down the road? What about the moment, am I missing out on imporetant things? I hope not, I would hate to look back on right now and not be able to remeber anything special or unique.

When Mr. Haug the symphonic band director told me he needed to speak to me after marching band, my mind and heart just went crazy. Could this be the one moment I have been waiting and looking forward to for so long - when he invites em to join the top band at our High School? Sadly it wasn't that day, just yet. Last year Our symphonic band auditioned to be a part of a music convention, out of fifty bands four made it and we were one of them! Which is such a great honor for the little town of Winona. Mr. Haug has asked me to play piano for the convention! Which is so cool and I am so happy to do it, but for some reason in the back of mind all I think about was the fact that I thought today was gonna be the day when he asked me to be in symphonic band.

After a kinda pointless marching band practice where we just sat there, I talked to my drama director about some small details about the musical, then went home, walked over to Acoustic where there was a preformance from this famous women from New York, finished some more letters about our drama program with Alli, met up with some more friends, went out for ice cream and ended up siting in the grass discussing life.

What will tomorow bring?

Extreme

Sometimes I wish things went just a little bit smoother in my life, just a few constants in my life of variables would be nice. One day I will sleep to noon, eat junk food and never step out of my house until I go take out the trash around midnight. The next day my alarm will go off at 8 which will wake me up for a meeting at Mugby, followed by a movie with a freind, then a hour long bike ride and photo taking to end my night. Its like can we please find a medium between so lame that you could be a hermit and way too busy.

My day wasnt bad, but it really wasn't that great either. I ended up ignoring my alarm clock but turning on the food channel to try to stir me from my sleep coma. Even rachel Ray's 30 minute meals couldnt wake me so I ended up sleeping until 10:15. I was in no hurry to do anything so I just sat around until three. I walked over to teh cast party for Once Upon A Mattress which was really lame. I thought it would be nice to see some people... obviously not. Paul was being lame so we barely talked - so I ended up sitting taking with the directors about theatre. So I guess it wasn't that lame.

The peak of my day was when I went hiking and took some great photos. We have so many paths just hiddin around winona so I have decided that i am going to adventure them all before summer is over. Trail #1 was really fun. A bit extreme but i'm alive. It ended up leading to the Garvin Height's look out which was cool. Here are some of teh shots I got.






Tomorow I have marching band. Ughh, hopefully trail #2, finishing the letters for drama club, and then a concert at Acoustic!

Photo Shoot With Madeleine Ivy Bryant

So it was super hot yesterday but I insisted that she wear these two beautiful dresses even though we were gonna be outside in the hot sun! She had recently purchased a really pretty black dress and I just fell in love with it! Very simple, classy, great silhouette and all under fifty dollars. We headed over to the St. Mary's campus which has some really beautiful scenery and architecture so I thought it would be just perfect! Here are some of the shots we got out there -

After we were done at St. Marys we drove over to the public library, where we took some more photos. The dress that she wore, was worn to her freshman homecoming and her senior prom so I thought it would be fitting under her circumstances. Our library looks really smal from the outside, but i am always surprised on how much actual room there is inside. I feel like I could get lost in all the rows, levels and books. Here are some of the shots from the library -

"At first, I only laughed at myself. Then I noticed that life itself is amusing. I've been in a generally good mood ever since."

The Music Of The Night

Fridays always end up being great days for me, even if they are jam packed and usually a little to structered for my taste - I had a brilliant day. Afyter helping out with Habitat for Humanity yesterday I was just exhausted, so when my alarm clock went off at 9 in the morning I was not really looking forward to my day. My usual routine took place after I woke up - put on some shorts, go upstairs, toast an english muffin and then smother it in peanut butter, grap a beefstick out of the fridge, grab a glass of water, eat, hop in the shower, do my hair, put some clothes on, brush my teeth and end up running out the door due to my constant lack of time. I noticed when walking to Acoustic that I have a very bad feel for the weather. Of course my luck I ended up wearing jeans, soem vans, and a flannel button down over an under shirt on one of the hottest days this week. It was so freakin hot, it probably didn't help that I was walking when I could have biked and that I was over dressed but geez la weez!

So the meeting was all about the high school's drama season. We have met three times so far over the summer and I really enjoy it. It is nice to sit and chat over something that I truely love with friends. We have a lot of great ideas and plans under our belt we just need to actually do some of them. When I was writing up an agenda for the meeting a few nights ago - I went through all the programs of the musicals from the middle and high school and compiled a list of all the people that were at one time involved in our theatre program. So I am going to send all of them a personal note in the mail, asking them to at least come to our lock in and consider taking part in a really fun year of acting. I hope I get a good response because it took me forever to get all the names and address. The meeting ended up lasting three hours filled with brainstorming, vegitarian soup, coffee, scripts, multi colored agendas and theatre talk.

With it already being mid August all of the college bound students are heading out, starting the next part on there life. A freind of mine is leaving tomorow so I had to make sure to see her once before she left so I asked her if she would be intrested in modeling for some photos. She happily agreed so we had our own little photo shoot this afternoon, which was really fun. Tomorow she is leaving for Brenau to an all women's college to persue her pasion for dance. So many people look down upon or don't ever consider the performing arts as a profession. So I am glad that i am freinds with someone that understands the need to become someone through that type of outlet. I know she will do great things and I wish her the best.

Just a few minutes ago I went to go take out the trash. Every night around the same time I put my ipod on shuffle bag up the trash and bring it out back. But, my ipod is PMS'ing currently so unlike usual I just went out and took the trash to the garbage cans without any music and I just listened to the night. Now, you would think at this time of night that it would be silent but i was completly surprised and a little annoyed of how loud the night was. I have never really took the time to litsen to the sounds of the day. During actual daylight it is hard because of all the people and cars but it was nice to be able to listen to what my life sounds like when its just me and the night.

I took some really great photos today but my blog is being moody, so i'll put them up later. I am hoping that my saturday isn't too lame.

ReCap

Well I am not sure if i got my wish regarding volunteering today. No I wasn't building a house or digging under ground escape route, but we did end up carrying things for three and a half hours. We are down in the WSU campus lifing/delivering the bedloft pieces to all the floors rooms. Since we were the first shift in the day we got stuck up on floors like 12 & 13 and boy was it hot! May I quick ask why a bed lof should have 8 different heavy, awkward, metal peices. It was like they were trying to make everything a little bit more complicated. When we got down to floor 6, our shift was over and we got to relax in the grass outside. Well at least I now know that I will never do manual labor for my future job. Overall it was a good experiance, helping out was nice.

I didn't really end up doing much with the rest of my day. I was going to go hiking up in the bluffs, but when it started sprinkling I decided just to take a nap. When I was little I moved around a lot. Me and my mom lived in Florida for a while, moved up to Ohio to be closer to some relatives and then relocated again up to the cities in Minnesota. When I lived in Ohio, I spent a lot of time with my aunt. She used to watch after me when my mom was working and one of my favorite parts of the day was nap time. Some kids hated nap time, but I liked it. Having a little rest mid day makes sense to me. Now according to my younger self you don;y just go take a nap. There are two different types of naps: the cat and dog naps. I am really not sure how to classify these two very different types of naps but i guess you sould simply say that a cat nat was short and a dog nap was long. Looking back on this concept of cat and dog naps really makes no sense - from my personal experiance cats sleep much more than dogs do. lets just say when I was young after waking up from my cat nap Iwould wake up then tease my aunt about her doggy nap.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. I have a meeting about the high school's drama program and then a photoshoot. I'll let you know how it goes.

Rasberries Under The Sun.

Today was really nice. I did have to wake up really early for a stupid student council meeting but I survived. All we have really been doing in student council is planning homecoming, which seems just really far away right now and pointless to worry about at this moment. The theme of "circus" is really stupid. I can't think of anything else that would be cool but do we really even need a theme. No one at the dance cares what the theme is, we don't end ever really decorate that well. So the idea of a theme is just pointless.

After the meeting that included fattning Mountain Dew and donnuts. A freind and I wondered around our vacated high school, drifted outside and the ended up in the grass under a tree. It was a beautiful day - a little hot but under the shade but with the breeze it was nice. We just sat and talked. Catching up was really nice. It may sound bad but thats one good thing that comes from not seeing a person in a while, then you have so much to talk about. She made really excited about the upcoming year. Were both changing a lot though, I can tell that this year is going to be completly different.

Tomorow I am volunteering at Habitat For Humanity. I hope that we aren't going to be like lifting stuff the whole time. I am crossing my fingers for something I would have fun with like painting or something. I guess I shouldn't be picky since that defeats the whole purpose of community service.

I love rasberries. Whenever we get them at my house I feel bad because I eat like all of them during the first day. But they are so good!

On Stage: Once Upon A Mattress

In mid June when I heard that Rock Solid's summer musical would be Once Upon A Mattress, I really didn't have a clue what to think. I had never previously seen the show or really taken time to listen to it's soundtrack. But I was aware of the plot due to the fact that I knew the original children's fable The Princess And The Pea. The story takes place inside a kingdom where there is a mute king, overbearing queen and a prince searching for a true princess. Each princess must pass a test before she can sue for the prince's hand in marrige.

Rock Solid is a youth center located in downtown Winona, with the goal to get kids off the street and give them something to do. The building is full of free arcade games, game stations, couches, inflateables, and a small skate park. The youth center is religion based and overall is a great idea/concept. But truthfully the building is just a place for bad kids to be around worse kids with no supervision. So even though i am not usually asociated with the place, during the summer they put on a musical which for the past five years i've been apart in. These shows are a major fundraiser for a usually non profit organization. In past years Rock Solid has put on such shows as:
Alice In Wonderland - Mad Hatter
Sound Of Music - Kurt In The Von Trapp Family
Oliver! - Charley Bates
and many more...

Not the biggest production of my drama year but it is something to keep me busy during July and the begining of August. There was two days of auditions, either saturday or sunday. Of both days there was a total of two guys including me. It is really sad to see the declining involvement of guys in theatre. So we had to rehold auditions that next week. Once the cast list was posted I couldn't wait for practices to begin. The measley four weeks that we had just rushed by! All four nights of the show went really well, nothing major went wrong. Saturday night we had a really stiff crowd but what can you do!

Right now I am glad its over but just like every other show... in a few days time I will want to go do teh show just one more time. Sunday is the cast party and I am excited to have a little reuinion.

Letting Go

My life is good. I like what i'm doing, there is a few things that I would love to change but don't we all? Tonight was the last preformance of Once Upon A Mattress, to tell you the truth I am glad its done. My character was great and everything but this show just wasn't doing it for me. But I am positive that I am going to miss one thing or I guess a person. This man is one of the main reasons why I love theatre right now. I love him not only as a friend but as a fellow actor. He has guided me many times towards an idea for a character or just given me support when I was struggling with a role. It's really sad to think that he is leaving Winona this fall, to head up to the cities but I know its the right thing for him. Whether the next step in our friendship is making trips back and forth, or just facebooking - I know we will always be great friends.

My life is changing completly right now, but I know that in the end I just need to let go.

Rearranging Life

I have been really lame lately, sorry. I think the sadest part is that stuff has been actually happening in my life and still i don't write! But let me fill you in on whats been happening. For the past several months I have been searching for a job. Job hunting is a lot harder then I ever thought it would be, I guess my age and the economy doesn't really help my situation.

Opening night for Once Upon A Mattress has finnally arrived! I am super excited, nervous and worried all at the same time. I am just hoping that it all turns out okay because I don't know about the rest of the cast but i have been working super hard on character development and my part in general. As practices moved along I began to see the hurdle of acting on stage with another person that isn't acting at all. Its really hard to react to someone that isn't acting themselves.

I still love my new camera, here are some of my most recent shots -

I am trying to rearrange my life right now, before school starts and i get carried away with other things. I'll let you know when my life is clutter free.