The Beginning of the Beginning

This post is going to be a sort of reflection (although I should have used the picture I took yesterday...keyword: reflection). Currently I am sitting on my boyfriends futon in a somewhat empty room. We still have a lot of packing to do, and even more cleaning ahead of us. It's only 10pm and yet it feels like 2am. Tomorrow is September 1st, or what should be nationally known as Moving Day. Everyone across the United States, but most notably in Boston, will be beginning their September 1st leases, just in time for school to start. We get three days to spend unpacking (and in our case, practicing orchestral excerpts for our seating auditions), and then bam! Classes begin. 

I have already moved all my things from Somerville to Boston, and I have already helped my parents move all of our other belongings from Barrington to South Kingstown. Tomorrow I am moving my and my boyfriends things from Fenway to Allston. It's a small move in that we will only be moving about 15 minutes away, however, we still need to bring the truck back to RI tomorrow and take the commuter rail back. 

One year ago I was already comfortably moved in to my apartment in Somerville. I was good friends (and became better friends) with my three other roommates. I would come home from work to find Steve giving me a thumbs up, light streaming from his open bedroom door, simultaneously watching Friends or Doctor Phil, and playing Star Craft. Sometimes Kerry (his now girlfriend) would be in there, or sometimes she would be in her room practicing or hanging out with Bradley (her rabbit). Chris was never home, but when he was it was always pleasant (cue Indiana Jones music). It was sad when they all moved out though, and all three rooms were empty and I was the only one there, knowing how much fun the four of us had just hanging out. 

I was also becoming closer with my coworkers. They are all fantastic people (mostly), funny, entertaining, supportive...especially since we all have to do the same (sometimes thankless) job of being a server. Each and every one of us has dreams and ambitions, and even though I am seriously cutting down my hours there, and possibly leaving, I know that I'll secretly be facebook stalking them every once in a while, keeping one eye on them, and hopefully seeing them live out their ambitions, and seeing them happy. I learned a lot of things on my year off, like how to get student loan companies off my back (for three months at a time), how to do my taxes, how to fill out a FAFSA, and how to make friends with people who are non-musicians...something that even a few months before working there I couldn't (or wouldn't) do. Something about being a pretentious classical musician. However, working through this year, and being a "real adult person" really knocked me down from that pedestal, and gave me a serious reality check. 

That brings me to where I am today. I've also had to face some really difficult realities about myself, and I'm still working on that part. What do I want to learn this year? I want to learn how to really love myself. I want to be able to live life to the fullest and do GOOD things, to grow my own knowledge and understanding of the world, and to help others and be a good person. One year ago today I was growing closer and closer to the love of my life (speaking of good people). Adam and I started our relationship being best friends and grew from there. We've had ups and downs, and ups and downs, more than any roller-coaster I've ever been on, but the ride has been extraordinary. He has shown me so many things, and taught me how to do so many things, and has not only been a wonderful boyfriend, but also a mentor, and also a best friend, and also a beautiful person. There's no other person on this earth like him, and I love him with all my heart. In fact, here he is driving our moving truck: 

And here he is again, getting ready to bring the truck to Boston, by the way, he was a BEAST at driving that thing. 

This is the majority of my belongings, all fitting into the back of our enormous truck. 

Providence is beautiful. I realized I don't have a whole lot of pictures from here, since...well...I live here. Sooo...I took a lot of pictures today and will probably upload them to Facebook and Instagram at some point. 

We had some time to kill before picking up the truck, so we indulged in a little Panera Bread, and I indulged in a little photo editing Instragram:

Providence is really beautiful. I should really spend more time exploring. Maybe that will be one of my challenges...hmmm....

Tomorrow I will be writing part 2 of the moving extravaganza, hopefully after I've showered in my new apartment shower, because even though it will be cooler tomorrow, there will be even more loading, unloading, and cleaning ahead of me. As well as a drive to Rhode Island. 

And as we say at work...

Ticket 1 of 2

Boston Blue Sky

It's the calm before the storm. Tomorrow and Saturday, the streets will be crowded with Uhauls and trucks and cars full of furniture, clothing, and who knows what else. It is the great moving weekend of Boston. I am currently writing on my futon, who made the journey from Somerville to Fenway not more than a month ago. All my clothing and belongings are still in bags, boxes, and suitcases, ready to be loaded into the truck when it arrives tomorrow from Providence, driven by Adam, with me in the passenger seat :) 

Tomorrow will be our last night in Fenway, and we will begin Saturday moving in our new home in Allston. I'm so excited. Have you ever seen a bluer sky? 

Early Morning Writing

Kind of. It's 11:34 AM, and I usually do all my writing before I go to bed, so this post won't have a whole lot of writing. I finally figured out how to post videos, so here is the video that inspired my blog. 

Instagram has given me a way to edit and enhance photos in a really easy way. For those of you who know me, I'm not very tech savvy. I can barely use the scheduling App for work, and I'm okay at cell phone games such as Scramble (with Friends) and Bike Race, but only okay. Not yet at the expert level. So when it comes to editing photos, I'm usually pretty bad and I'm not sure what to do. Instagram lets me do that with easy buttons. What more could a girl ask for? Actually, a really, really great boyfriend. And here we are: (courtesy of Instagram)

My Favorite Picture, taken on Mother's Day in Narragansett 

This picture isn't enhanced, but it IS a Watermelon Beer on tap at Boston Beer Works!

This picture is only enhanced a little bit, mostly to bring out the colors and the lighting. I had my 21st birthday here at Jillian's, but often stop in on the less busy nights where we are guaranteed a pool table. 

Well, I've done enough blogging for one day. Now I'm going to set out in Boston to find some food, and hopefully a new idea on how to spend September. Then do a little practicing. Oh, and then go to work :/

The First of Many Posts About Music

Yesterday I had the honor of playing with the United States Air Force Band of Liberty. It was so much fun, and was truly a great experience. I got to spend some time with great musicians and people alike, and it was so much fun playing marches and band music.

The concert was outside, and sound check was at 5:30, and whilst I was warming up in a field (which reminded me of being at Tanglewood when I was in BUTI) I got a small opportunity to snap some pictures:

A nice sunset through the trees

My baby. 

The venue

This might seem like an advertisement for Altieri, but I liked the contrast between textures here...grass, cloth, wood, and metal.

And last but not least, a great shot of the setting sun through the trees with a nice looking sky.

We got lucky with the weather, but just in case we had to go inside, we were right across the street from the Manchester Community College. It's actually a really nice campus with new buildings, surrounded by grassy lawns and some woods. I got to explore a little bit while foraging for snacks and looking for a respectable restroom. Then I sat outside in the shade, wishing I had brought a book, and had a lovely conversation with the love of my life. 

Speaking of books...I've started yet another series. I've already completed Stag Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series (as well as the movie in English, and the complete movie series in Swedish), the Hunger Games (and saw the movie along with every person between the ages of 13 and 25 in the world), and Fifty Shades of Gray (which they are supposedly making a movie for, but how they are going to do that without making it X rated, I have no idea). I've started, along with many others, A Song of Ice and Fire...starting with the first book, A Game of Thrones. I've got to admit that fantasy books don't really do it for me, but after reading the first couple chapters, I'm really enjoying it. It's written kind of like As I Lay Dying in that both Faulkner and Martin entitle their chapters with the character's name of the view point it's written from. Does that last sentence even make any sense? 

Back to the band.

It's funny. No matter if it's orchestra, high school band, professional orchestra, professional band, volunteer orchestra or band, festival orchestra or band, all musicians are the same. From high school to professional, there is always some amount of fooling around and joking during rehearsals. There are also many stereotypes for people who play certain instruments. I'll save that for another blog post, but essentially people's personalities tend to match their instruments. People with big egos? Trumpet. Mellow? Low brass. Divas? Flute. Weirdos? Clarinet. Mellow and down to earth, perhaps a little less weird than clarinetist? Saxophone. 

The sad thing is, with all the financial crap going on in the United States, as well as other places, bands and orchestras are shutting down. The Band of Liberty is currently doing their last summer concert series, as they are shutting down within the year. The same has been true, and will be true for more and more military bands, as well as orchestras. Every year, thousands of students graduate from conservatories hoping to win a job, in a job market that keeps getting more and more competitive and impossible.

More on this subject tomorrow. 

I don't want to end on a sad note, however. There's success to be found if you go viral:

The Server Brigade

You'll find us on the subway late at night between the hours of 10pm and 3am. We blend into the background, wearing all black and looking utterly exhausted, usually around the time you are going out or coming home from a night out. You wear stilettos and tiny dresses, while we are dressed in baggy black clothes, smelling of seafood (or the fryer in the kitchen). 

You might even be one of us, exchanging knowing glances across the subway car. Everyone is surrounded by friends, laughing and excited for the night, while we are returning home, our only companions are our ipods and headphones. We are at the end of our ropes, completely drained from giving even the rudest of all customers every ounce of politeness and false sincerity that we have. This is what it feels like at the end of a long day at work. But I digress...

I need to stop eating large meals before I get to work. I eat so that I don't get hungry serving mouth watering baked stuffed lobsters, filets, and shellfish. Sometimes I go a little overboard and eat way too much, resulting in a food coma right before a busy dinner shift. I need to be at the top of my game, but sometimes I just want to take a nap. Today, however, I had a rather nice (and very filling) lunch at Noodle Street, it's not a street, it's a restaurant. I recently made a rule not to eat anything at a restaurant that I could also make at home, and even though I know I could probably find a way to make this at home, it was still really good, and just what I needed. 

Here we have some lo mein, mixed with veggies, with crispy chicken and a sweet thai sauce on the side. 

Adam had some really delicious looking wings, with some rice and a cute little salad on the side. And some fried wonton-pot-sticker-pork-type-things. But we ate those too fast for me to take a picture of. 

Still, I got to work and felt a little sluggish. Not the I-just-drank-a-giant-beer-before-my-shift sluggish, but an I-ate-way-too-much-that-I-have-not-only-a-food-baby-but-I'm-in-a-food-coma-as-well sluggish. Luckily it was pretty slow, and I had a chance to digest a bit before running around retrieving drinks and refills on Shirley Temples. Well, I have one more double and then I have my first real, professional gig! 

Day Off Ramblings

Good evening fellow bloggers...or I guess, good morning. Yet again I'm posting well past 1 in the morning, but thankfully I didn't have to work yet another double today. No, this was my day off! Even though I didn't have to work, I still had to "work". I have a rather big gig coming up...my first real professional gig actually...besides a local orchestra that I sometimes play with. So today I practiced my butt off. My chops couldn't handle a full practice session, so I broke it up and kind of just practiced all day. Then I went in search of concert pants. In the entire city of Boston, I couldn't find any black pants that fit, so I'm just going to go with a black skirt that I already own instead. And no, I'm not going to wear my work pants (I got them in the little boys section of the Burlington Coat Factory). Adam luckily was let out of a very slow lunch, and we were able to make a run to Shaw's and made tuna sandwiches!   

We took tuna chunk (light!), chopped up some onion and pickle, added a little salt and pepper, and made this awesome creation:

(leftovers were stored in a Tupperware container that I was able to munch on later!)

By beverage of choice this afternoon (I say afternoon because my beverage of choice this evening was a pitcher of 'gansett...alcohol enthusiast!) was a lemon tea made by Peace Tea, which looks a lot like the Arizona tea that I always get. There's something about a $.99 tea in a can that's really appealing to me. I've been avoiding the Arizona products because of the high fructose corn syrup (peace tea doesn't have any)...but after a little research, Peace tea has sucralose, which is just an artificial sweetener, and it's non caloric...so it's still bad. I should just make my own iced loose leaf tea, sweetened with honey. But at least the can is really cool:

...and of course, no lunch is complete without Pirate Booty. Although, there was still about half a bag left when Adam went to work. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that by the time he got home, there was no Booty to be had...I just can't be trusted with a bag of Booty. 

It was pretty rainy for most of the day, but the sun did come out on my way home (on the way back from my unsuccessful pant finding mission). This photo is taken on Boylston, and the bridge you can see is Mass Ave, overlooking the Mass pike. 

And this one is taken almost at Berklee, still on Boylston, but I thought the clouds and light placement made it look really nice. 

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On the Subject of YOLO

By the time I'm done writing this, it will be past 1 in the morning. Even though I've always been a bit of a night owl, (and never a morning person), it feels as though I'm running on empty, because of another stressful and exhausting day in the restaurant biz. Doubles aren't fun, but there are things (and people) that make it better. Let me give you a few examples:

1.) It's a slow lunch, and you don't expect to make more than $20. Then that ONE person comes in, and orders a glass of champagne, a shrimp cocktail, a lobster, 2 glasses of the most expensive wine ($15/glass), coffee, and dessert. It still wasn't a miraculous lunch, but it was worth it to a point. 

2.) Whilst picking up my second $15 glass of wine to deliver to the table, the bartender surprised me with a small taste of it...for work and educational matters of course. And I wonder why I then go to a restaurant and spend $40 on myself? Working at a nice restaurant has given me expensive taste, and on a waitressing budget, that just isn't fair. 

3.) Oh right, we're highlighting the good things about work. Coworkers. We stick together. We have each other's backs, we bitch about bad tippers and obnoxious people, but we help each other out in every way possible. Even in the lull between the peak hours, we talk about our lives. Yes, personal information gets spread around the restaurant faster than anything you can imagine, but all the crap aside, coworkers are there when you need them. (And if any of you are reading, thank you!)

4.) One more, and this is the best one. The love of my life just happens to work with me, and we worked the dinner shift together. Work is so much more...enjoyable...when he's there with me. Even if we're on opposite sides of the restaurant he comes over, or I find a reason to go to his section, or we just happen to be in the kitchen at the same time...(is this getting cheesy?). Fact is, I love being where he is, whether it's at home, at work, or anywhere in between. 

This is a HUGE "in between"...when he took me to see my first opera at the Met. 

I just want to finish up on one topic that I find interesting, and that is the subject of "YOLO". For those of you reading this who don't know, it stands for You Only Live Once. Now, there are funny memes  regarding zombies and such, but I found an article and a picture the other day that I would like to share. People have been using YOLO as an excuse to do stupid things. In fact, go to the article I read for more about that by clicking here. And if you didn't go to the article, this quote sums it up:

“YOLO” means being able to look back on your life when you’re 90 and think, “Wow, I really did everything I possibly could with my life.”

And this is what this blog is about. It's about living life to the fullest and trying new things, being well-rounded and educated, and loving every minute of being alive. 

(I couldn't resist)