friends & acquaintances

friends
I have some really great friends. Last night I spent the evening enjoying wine, homemade bruschetta bread, and Trivial Pursuit-the DVD Pop Culture Edition with a few of them. They're the kind of people that you laugh your ass off with, about absolutely nothing, just about every time you're together. And if your car breaks down at 2:30 a.m. you can call them for a ride. I wanted to take a moment to remember how great all of them are.

acquaintances
A couple days ago I ran into a client from work whom I haven't seen in awhile. Once or twice I've though "I haven't seen Mark lately" but dismissed it to coincidence. So when I did see him, his hair, usually almost shoulder length, was trimmed. He still looked kind of in disarray, the way a busy attorney usually does. He informed me that he had brain surgery a few months ago - this is his first week back to work and court. It's weird to have people that are sort of in your life, but not really, and then to find out something serious like that has happened. In a way it's like hearing about celebrity deaths because you have this repoire or sense of knowing them... only if you don't ever hear from or see acquaintances again, you never really know what happened to them. Mark is one of those people that has a general "good karma" feeling about him & I've always liked him, so I was happy to see him doing well. The whole situation weirded me out though.

2004 retrospective

Thanks to blogging, let's see what I accomplished and/or talked about this past year.

January 2004:

Played bass

Found this website: Baby Names - cool because you can search by nationality, name, etc. Good lord, no I don't want any of my own

Pondered looking for a new job

Visited L.A. & loved California even more than I thought I would

February 2004:

Turned 27

Played bass

Applied to Teach for America & was accepted to interview

Expressed lots of frustration with America's 2 party political system

Evacuated work due to a bomb threat - although it was in the building next to us, not our particular building

Went to DeCatuar, Illinois, which was not the most exciting place ever

March 2004:

Played bass

Celebrated the 2nd best holiday ever: St. Patrick's Day (also my sister's birthday)

Considered applying to the Recording Workshop

Saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - which kicked ass and everyone should go see it immediately

Had a really nice kid stop to help me with my stalled car

April 2004:

Played bass

Received my rejection letter from Teach for America

Went to Novi, Michigan for lame work training - stayed in a nice residence hotel where my room was almost as big as my apartment and lost $10 at a casino in Detroit

May 2004:

Played bass

Talked about abortion, gay marriage, and other Big Issues

Finished my tattoo design (for the tattoo I still don't have)

June 2004:

Played bass

Saw lots of shows, especially Chuck's Junk

ComFested

Went to a former prof's 40 year birthday party, which kicked ass

July 2004:

Played bass

Made arrangements to start bass lessons with friend and local rocker Joe

Parents visited

Fraternity Convention in Madison, WI

Saw more shows, including Carbon Leaf

Car broke down

Talked about politics a lot - I do live in a swing state it was all anyone talked about

August 2004:

Played bass

Talked more about politics

Got pissed about women's reproductive rights

September 2004:

Played bass

Had random items disappear from my grocery bags from the time I left the store to the time I arrived at home

October 2004:

Played bass

Agreed to play in the Christmas production

Discovered The League of Pissed Off Voters

November 2004:

Played bass

Posted this awesome quote from my friend Heather Rodgers:
Morality, faith, and family values are just red herrings for oppression, discrimination, misogyny, homophobia, racism, and elitism.

Got this new blog (for various reasons)

Started looking for another job... again

Helped a good friend get through the death of her father.. which is of course an ongoing process

Attended a CFEA conference in Oxford, OH

December 2004:

Played bass

Played in Christmas production

Met a potential band mate

Had a great holiday with family & friends

---

It's almost time for another new year, and I'll say the same thing I said last year:
Live it like it's your last

tsunami

I feel like I should say something about the Tsunami Disaster. But I really don't have anything insightful or meaningful to say. Every new bit of information I hear continues to shock me. It has put the local power outage problem into perspective.

In lieu of any actual observations on my part, here's a list of organizations that are providing aid to the several countries affected by the disaster along with contact information if you're interested in helping them out.

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC Crisis Fund)
1-888-588-2372
http://www.afsc.org

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
1-888-392-0392
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

U.S. Red Cross
1-800-435-7669
http://www.redcross.org

International Red Cross
http://www.ifrc.org

Mercy Corps
1-800-292-3355
http://www.mercycorps.org

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of the above organizations. This is just information.

food

In America Holidays=Food, therefore food has been a big topic of discussion amongst my coworkers, friends and family lately.

It started with the annual Cookie Exchange at work. Everyone who wishes to participate signs The List. Then everyone on The List makes 1 dozen cookies for each person on The List. So if 10 people sign up, each person is responsible for 9 dozen cookies. (No, I didn't sign The List. The exchange day was last Monday and I played 4 gigs that weekend. Excellent excuse. And coworkers felt bad and brought me cookies anyway.)

People signed The List. Then they said, "I don't know how to make cookies." Don't know how? The recipe is right there on the bag! Or just buy the kind you slice and bake for 15 minutes! Or just buy some! One person made cake - 10 cakes!! - because she said her cookies don't come out well. Someone else informed me he didn't know how to make cookies because he "grew up in the Bronx". (He did make cookies and they turned okay). I cannot believe anyone doesn't know how to make cookies.

Christmas dinner time at my aunt's house. Big, yummy dinner. Yay! I had pineapple casserole. This is apparently pineapple, shredded cheese, crackers, some flour and sugar, etc. Sounds gross, eh? Surprisingly delicious. But the real reason Christmas dinner is wonderful is suet pudding (*not the secret family recipe*). A tradition on my father's side of the family for years. If you're not familiar with it, it's a sort of bread pudding with a sweet sauce. Made from ground suet. Yes, suet... animal fat. Usually beef fat. It doesn't look much better than it sounds. It is one of the most fabulous desserts ever. The young cousins always have fun teasing their even younger cousins about it. But almost all of us devour the stuff.

Then a random discussion about cravings. My mom tells us everything she craved with each of her kids. With my brother she craved popcorn and ice cubes. Ice cubes. What the hell? That's not a food. I asked if she craved water... no - only ice cubes. Weird.

Those are my holiday food highlights.

Man of the Year

Perspective

Does TIME ever do Woman of The Year?

it is too damn cold

That is all.

language arts

Remember a few years back when "Ebonics" was one of the it subjects? People talked about making it an official language, other people freaked out about it, everyone made fun of it?

After hitting Next Blog a few dozen times I think it's only a matter of time before pEOple stArt tAlkin bOUt mAkin tYpIng lYk thIs Its Own lAngUAgE cUz It's lYk sOOOOOOooo c00l <--- only it needs more "** ! ~ xx00-" stuff in it to really be accurate.

I wonder what we'll call this new language? I should have asked MooCow this week.

xmas fun

This day just gets better & better. Tonight Carlos comes wandering in with a giant box and says "Merry Christmas".

I got my big present from him early because, well, it's big and heavy and who wants to lug it to my mom's house only to transport it back 2 days later?

It's exactly what I wanted. (Besides the big pile of money to pay off those pesky student loans). A new combo amp! It's got a 15" speaker and is 120 watts. Plenty of power to play with a band.

It's giving me a weird humming noise. Tomorrow while I'm out getting last minute Christmas stuff I'm going to stop in my local music shop and ask them if it's something they can check out or if they can recommend a place that works on it. I don't even mind that it might need some tweaking. (It was shipped over a couple of states and has sat in his room for several months - how I didn't notice it is beyond me).

It's such an awesome gift! My boyfriend kicks ass.

awesome vacation

This is the first time in at least a year that I've taken any vacation days to do absolutely nothing. And it is awesome.

I did get up early to take the boyfriend to work - so at 4:45 am we were literally chipping 2" of snowy-ice stuff off my car. We had to use a screwdriver to chisel enough ice away from the doors so we could actually get into the car. Usually I'd be really annoyed by this - being awake that early, mucking around in snow, in super cold weather. But Carlos was making me laugh and we were both amazed at how everything was completely covered in ice.

Then I came home and put my PJs back on and slept until about noon. And then I got up and had breakfast and I still have my PJs on. This rules.

basses

In my last post I wrote about my absolutely wonderful tuba. This post is about my bass- which I adore- and reasons for wanting other ones.

My bass really is great, especially for a first bass. I bought it from some random guy on the web (who has turned into a really rad friend) and was lucky to get the quality I got for the money I spent. It's got a killer low end, a fast neck, and I can coax a few different tones out of it. I can slap & pop if I want, or just make it growl.

But there are so many other basses out there with other features that are enticing. And they produce such different sounds. It seems that most bass players have a main bass and a back up bass, and maybe a few others depending on their income. Different strings, different pickups, different woods... there's so much to choose from!

I already know that in my next bass I want a maple fretboard, probably 5 strings, but I'm not sure if I'd prefer jazz or precision style... or maybe a Stingray... It's not like I need another bass. It would just be fun. At least I want a bass that's quite different from the one I have now & would give me quite different results. I have met people with 2 or 3 basses that are almost the same.

Maybe I'll find a perfect bass one day and not want any others. With all of the variety that's not likely, though.

the best xmas gift ever

I was 16. It was Christmas Eve day. I was sitting in our living room, reading or something. Hearing a car, I looked up and saw the bright cherry red Porsche pulling in to our drive way. (No, that wasn't the gift). It was Joe's car, and Joe taught my tuba lessons.

"Oh, I wonder what he's doing here?" my mom asked casually.

One of us answered the door, and he was standing there with tuba case in hand. About this time my brain went into overdrive. I couldn't believe it - my mom got me a tuba for Christmas! (If you weren't aware, even the least expensive tubas are costly, about a couple thousand dollars). While I wanted one, it wasn't like it ever even crossed my mind to seriously ask for one.

I don't remember saying anything I was in such shock. Joe came in and we headed to the living room, mom and sister gathered around looking thoroughly pleased with themselves, with good reason.

I expected to open the case and find a slightly dented, used tuba. Normal people can't afford to just go buy a tuba. And I would have been ecstatic with that. When I lifted the lid there was the shiniest new tuba I've ever seen, surrounded by royal blue padding. It was brand new. And it was gorgeous.

At the time I thought this was The Best Christmas Gift Ever for several reasons, not the least of which is the sacrifice my mom and sister went through limiting their own Christmas to afford it. I played in tons of ensembles, and planned on majoring in music in college, and it was just an awesome, overwhelming gift.

It's been everywhere, European tour, NE American tours, auditions, competitions, etc. Eventually it got it's first dent and then a second. And there are some dull spots around the bell and on the valves.

It's still The Best Christmas Gift Ever for those reasons, but also because it's just such an awesome horn. My teacher knew my playing well, and knew what I liked to play, and consulted a lot with my mom on what to get me. Initiatlly she was looking for a used tuba she could afford, but Joe went way out of his way to track down an affordable new horn. (It has some barely noticeable coloration spots on the bell which dropped the retail price quite a bit). It's a BBb. Most pros' primary instruments are C tubas, but I love playing in small brass ensembles (playing with 400 tubas not withstanding) and it blends so well with them. It has a beautiful tone, just a little dark, but I can make it bright. That horn can sing. It can cut through an orchestra if I want it to, or it can sound more like the trombones I'm sitting next to. It's got a great response and is just so versatile. While I'd enjoy having other horns, I'll never need another tuba. It's that great.

musical menagerie

The other day I had some time to kill, so I stopped into a music store to try out some larger combo amps for my bass. In the bass section there was a couple looking rather aprehensively at the salesperson who was demoing a bass for them. It turned out they were xmas shopping for their daughter - lucky daughter, because they got her a pretty blue Fender Jazz bass and a nice 60 watt combo amp that will get her through all kinds of high school bands. After they left I took over the jazz bass that they had been listening to and started playing around, but that's not really the point.

The point is that it got me thinking about a couple different things:
The Best Xmas Gift Ever, which then got me thinking about how with my tuba, I have the best instrument I could ever want and it doesn't occur to me to go try other ones. With bass, there seems to be a few different instruments I'd like to have for various reasons and I love trying out different ones.

So the next couple of posts will be dedicated to those two things.

the sims have a blog!

Somehow between playing 4 gigs, going to see my friends' show and attending a party this weekend I managed to find some downtown to just, well, screw around. So I'm listening to The Best of 311 (1993-2003) - an early Christmas gift from Carlos and doing not much else. And look what I stumbled upon:

The Blogs

I love people that have an abundance of free time who do things like this for my entertainment.

food & decor

Today we were eating at our regular China Buffet - our city has Chinese buffets everywhere, like the McDonald's of Asian food - but there is one we generally eat at. If you time it just right (about 20 minutes before the dinner rush) the food is hot and fresh and it's not too crowded. It's also really cheap.

The food there is the usual stuff one finds at a Chinese buffet: rice, sweet & sour chicken, fried rice, beef & vegetables, the banana/strawberry mix that is mandatory at every Chinese buffet, etc. They also have added "American" food over the past several months. It started simply enough with frozen pizza remniscent of elementary school pizza and (really bad) chicken nuggets. Now they've added chicken tacos and pigs in a blanket.

The decor at this buffet has altered over the past year or so as well. The basic look is mauve booths and tables with gaudy, giant chandeliar light things hanging from the ceiling. There are also those huge paintings with the tiny flashing lights in them, the kind that people sometimes sell from their van on the side of the road. The decorations from last year's Chinese New Year haven't all come down, so there's some Christmas garland along the ceilings and a few little pictures. Which go nicely with the Christmas tree they've added to the entrance. And of course there are a few photo calendars of the university sports teams - my favorite being the womens' lacrosse photo calendar that is now about 4 years old.

For awhile they had put up photographs of either a very famous Asian model/actress or someone who worked there, I could never tell for sure. A few trips ago, these photos were taken down, to be replaced with black light posters. I think they may be fuzzy faux-velvet black light posters, but we never sit close enough to tell for sure. These things are hideous, with their black background and bright neon orange/green/yellow colors. The four posters are of (from left to right)

1. A Chinese style dragon (Ok - see that kind of makes sense. They have sort of a dragon theme going on there with the menus and things.)

2. A European style dragon (Well, maybe it was a 4 pack of dragon posters?)

3. A cobra ready to strike (What the hell - who wants a giant, scary. glowing snake glaring at them while they try to eat their veggie delight with all of the tofu picked out? And what does that have to do with dragons?)
4. A castle scene, where a European style dragon is preparing to strike

I haven't quite been able to figure out why the black light posters were put up over the past few months. Today while I was staring at them, pondering which one of the employees picked them out and wondering if maybe they all get high after close and giggle at them under a secret black light, I noticed a new addition to the decor. Right in between the dragon and cobra - a clock. A wooden clock shaped like a boat anchor. Where all of the numbers would be are various shapes of anchors. It's something that your dad would put up in his den because he loved boats, even though he never went sailing in his life. There it is, right between dragon #2 and the cobra.

tuba xmas

Tuba Christmas.

What could be more exciting, more beautiful, and more Christmas-y than a few hundred tuba & euphonium players coming together to perform Christmas carols?

It started when I was quite young, going to see my uncles and then my brother perform. By 6th grade I, too, was a tuba player. (Several years later my cousin would join our elite family group of tuba players). By far, one of the most amazing musical experiences I witnessed as a child was Tuba Christmas. And it's never quite Christmas at our house until we've been to see or play.

It started in NYC and now I don't think there's a city in America without one - or at least there shouldn't be. A lot of smaller towns host them, too. (I know, I've played in a couple). I usually play in the Akron one, which is typically the second-largest after NYC (in large part due to Tucker Jolly, professor of tuba @ University of Akron).

Imagine 400+ tubas - just the sight of it! Now imagine 400+ tubas, but about 1/2 are decorated - garland and tinsel, Christmas lights gleaming off of the shiny - or sometimes dull- silver and gold and brass. Christmas scenes across the bells. And there's every size and shape imaginable.

You would expect a few hundred tubas playing together to sound muddy and dull, boomy and - well - boring. I assure you it's anything from boring. It's loud and sometimes boomy and majestic.... the way the instruments blend together is astonishing. The tuba players, used to being the foundation of any band, play their melodies out whenever they get the chance, but pull back when they're supposed to. And hearing 400 tubas playing pianissimo (very quietly) is like a beautiful, quiet rumble of thunder.

Tuba Christmas is an audience-participation event, too. The tubas will play through a carol once, everyone listening in amazement at the beauty of the tubas. Then they play again, with the audience singing along. So now, the roaring of the tubas is accompanied by voices of all shapes and sizes. Except for when they play The Holly and the Ivy because no one except my mom knows the words to that carol. And I suspect she learned them immediately following her first Tuba Christmas experience, knowing she would now be singing it every year.

I hate to miss Tuba Christmas, which I am this year due to a paying gig (an excellent problem to have). But I have my Tuba Chrismtas tape, which I will listen to as I finish wrapping everyone's Christmas presents this year, to make sure I'm in the holiday spirit.

So what are you waiting for? Go find the Tuba Christmas in your city and experience the most amazing Christmas show there is.

phone songs

Last night my boyfriend and one of our good friends got into a discussion about how to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on the phone. An actual, serious discussion. I'm not even sure how it started, but it went something like this:

Carlos: It's 3-2-1-...
Charlotte: I know! 3-2-1-2-3-3-..
Carlos: 5
Charlotte: No, I don't play it with 5, I play it with 3
Carlos: No, it's 5
Charlotte: Holly can play Jingle Bells, too!
Carlos: I can play that! It's 3-3-3-....

Crazy friends...

women who rock

Last night was opening night for the Christmas show. It went okay... not bad, not great.

Before the show I was talking to Karen, who's playing bass. She mentioned something about how when she started playing music, she was the lone girl, always playing with the boys. This was sometime in the 70's. So lots of rock. She said something really cool:

When she started playing her family didn't have a record player, she only heard the music that was on the radio. So she just assumed that men and women were both playing. It wasn't until a few years later when her family got a record player and she started buying albums that she realized the rockers were all men. She was like "where are all the women?"

I thought it was very cool that she related to the music and just figured that women must be involved. Yea for women who rock.

dream weaver

I had one of those dreams last night where someone from your past just appears for no real reason. One of my high school friends-slash-ex-boyfriends*. As is the nature of dreams, he was there as if this were normal. Since he's someone I don't see or speak to anymore and rarely think about, I'm not sure why my subconscious brain shoved him forward. I also remember approximately 1 dream every couple of months, so for all I know he's in every single one of them and I just don't remember.

*I should explain about the friend-slash-ex... I went to a small school in a rural area. I spent most of my time with the band geeks & smart kids. I was one of the dumbest smart kids, just smart enough to make it into the AP classes, although I wisely chose to only take the easy ones like history & english. All of us were quite eager to get out of the little towns we came from and on to college and life. So while we all dated people, only a couple of us ended up in serious-for-high-school relationships. No way we were chancing getting knocked up and stuck in [insert town here]. The reason I don't speak to my high school exes any longer isn't because of some big dramatic fight, it's simply because we lost touch. We stayed friends for a few years after breaking up, before the emails started to wane and then ended, and we weren't all home from college at the holidays to get together anymore.*

Every once in awhile these people appear in my rather uneventful dreams and then I spent 2 days wondering what happened to them.

"another application don't use it"

At work I had to erase a hard drive on an old computer before it could be returned. I got the following error message (yes, I had to save it just so I could post it here):



That is spectacular grammar.

revenge of the church ladies

Rehersal starts at 6:00 PM. By 6:05 I've unpacked my stuff & found a stand light & gotten as comfortable as possible squished into the few spare feet at the foot of the stage along with the 3 other people in my row. Most of the orchestra is already in place. It looks like most of the drama team & choir members are present but they are just milling around chatting loudly.

At around 6:30 a church lady gets on a mic & begins barking instructions to the choir. They are loading into the stage area & are instructed at leat 5 times not to take water with them. Since their stage area is completely covered in (electric) Christmas lights this seems a bit obvious. I think at least 2 people still brought their water bottles with them.

This year each choir member has been given their own radio. When they dial into the local station they hear the piano & just a little of the choir themselves. This is supposed to help them follow along to the music we've all been learning for 2+ months. (Some of the music we've even played in past years). Immediately - I mean within 1 minute of being instructed to turn the radios on immediately - there are shouts of "I can't hear anything!" - "I can hear everything!" - "I don't think we need these!" - "Yes! Let's get rid of them!" - "These don't work!"... etc.

There is a 7 minute discussion on why they do in fact need the radios & how to use them. During this time, various choir members are talking non stop. Which pretty much continues throughout rehersal. These are some chatty church ladies & men. It reminded me of visiting a preschool to do music stuff... the church folks all seem to have about the same attention span as those 4 & 5 year olds.

It just went downhill from there. I hate rehersals the last week before a big show. They are always long, drawn out chaos.

And after running over nearly 30 minutes, we get more lectures. Primarily on not bringing water on stage. Or tissues or other flamable items. Since apparently not everyone understood this rule. The director informed us all that one of the first years they did the production there was a "small" fire on stage. Great. I'm going to catch on fire while a pasty white kid introduces a latin song to be sung by some Southern (and white) Baptists.

karma chameleon

Saturday afternoon I was at a jewelry show at a friend's house. While we were there chatting and browsing jewelry and eating one of the girls started talking about her & a friend wanting to start a band. She's a singer and the friend a drummer. The basic idea is that it's going to be a girl cover band - Madonna, No Doubt, whatever.

They need a bass player for the project. If she gives me a call and we end up getting together it sounds like it will be very fun and very cool.

late night

Sometimes I think I'm a little obsessive compulsive. How else do you explain the fact that I stayed up until almost 2 am because I simply had to figure out how to use iframes... right now. But I did it! (a sample of my work).

meatballs

I didn't get to play around with recording tonight. I didn't even get to play any music today. Chances are I won't have much time for music tomorrow, either. Stupid job. Although maybe by this weekend I'll have some genius ideas on a better recording setup and maybe even some groovy bass lines.

I did get all of the supplies I need to make barbeque meatballs for tomorrow night. I've never made them before, but they sound really good. I think they'll be similiar to Brian's meatballs, which I used to have on Halloween before he moved away to Florida. I'm not actually planning on following the recipe exactly, but I'm sure they'll be delicious.