sad state

Samson, Alabama: 10
Oakland, California: 4
Santa Clara, California: 5
Carthage, North Carolina: 8
Binghampton, New York: 13
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 3
Graham, Washington: 5

it's beyond words. just look it up and you'll know what i mean.

crazy...

as time goes by

it's crazy realizing how fast time passes. i still remember things as if they happened yesterday but i realize it's been years, a decade even. we just get caught up in cycles of being busy and don't stop to take a breather, even a small one. some times it takes some drastic event to make us stop and look at everything we've zipped past as we rushed forward with our lives. i'm definitely learning to take those much needed time outs, even though sometimes i don't want to. it's really difficult to force yourself to stop entirely, stop the vibration of the zillions of cells that just want to keep charging. then, pick up and carry on.

RENT!

So after almost a decade of waiting, I finally got to see Rent and let me tell you, those orchestra tickets were worth every penny and then some. It was incredible. I mean, to hear that music live and see Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp live onstage was uninmaginably awesome. Half the time I had chills running down my back because the music was amazing. The other half, I was pinching myself to make sure it wasn't some dream. And then there was some audience participation in "Over the Moon" which was just great. (That's the song where Maureen asks the audience to moo with her. So we all moo-ed.) The whole storyline (albeit a modern retelling of La Boheme) is so much more than just about a bunch of gay people living with AIDS. It's about community, friendship, coping with life, coping with loss, finding stability, finding love, finding your dream but not selling out. There are so many songs, little interludes and such, that really touch on these points. Anyway, go see the show. It's awesome.

you can't stop the beat!

i feel like i'm going at a million miles a second. so many ideas, aspirations, desires. so many things that i'm doing and trying out. also addicted to hairspray for some reason right now. so here's a upbeat little number that's on repeat on my ipod.

nerd!

okay, i admit it, i'm a huge nerd, geek, dork, whatever. i can usually pretend i'm normal but then there's that random moment when i let something slip which reveals my nerdiness. it can be a huge turn off, especially when you're trying to impress people, especially if those people are your potential future supervisors! but it's then always nice to find out that the person is just as nerdy as you are, which is a huge relief. ok that's my rant of the day. nothing else new, except for my food poisoning/stomach flu issue. i need to get out of the house!!

Opera!

I've forgotten how much I love going to the opera. The last time I went was four years ago to see Baz Lurhman's La Boheme. And let me tell you, it was awesome! I mean, Baz Lurhman production, Puccini, LA BOHEME!! Anywho, The Marriage of Figaro was really good today. I guess I got sick of listening and playing Mozart that I never got to appreciate his larger and longer works. So I'm glad I went. The UCLA Opera is pretty impressive, some major talent. I realized that I tend to stop focusing on the staging after a while. I just focus on the music. And there's something about Mozart's music that just facilitates philosophical inquests in ones mind. I found myself thinking about so many things, some trivial, some profound. I like that about classical music, it makes you think. Or it helps you think. No wonder I did so well in high school: so much Mozart! Haha. Maybe I'll go listen to some symphonies and boost my IQ.