I have three hours until I must, once again, make the 1000 mile journey to the HUGE state of Texas. My going there is twofold, one to drop my sister off at school whilst taking all of her belongings that she accumulated over Christmas packed in my tiny little car. BLAH. It will be a good time to spend with her, since she comes home MAYBE twice a year. The second reason I am heading down there is to participate in a reunion for the camp I worked at the past two summers. It’s usually a goodtime, but happens very quickly!

I am very excited about this trip, but not excited about how early I am up this morning. In about 5 minutes I will begin my usual morning routine, mixed with packing and sorting (most of which was done last night.) Then I will go with Rana to get her new military I.D., (For those of you I haven’t told, my dad pinned on Lt. Colonel this month!!!! So we had to get new I.D.’s that have the new rank.) THEN I have to go pick up my car from the STUPID car place. ( It’s a huge long story and involves the first time I have been openly angry with ANYONE at a business… details to follow.) Long story short, my car was SUPPOSED to be ready yesterday, and we were supposed to leave at 4:30 this morning, BUT I get to pick it up at 8:30 this morning instead. If you understood the long drive… you’d know why this four hour difference is a major bummer.

Anyway, I want to wish everyone a VERY happy New Year. Make lots of resolutions… I’m going to be doing my best to do that too!

Texas or BUST!

Wow, it is Christmas DAY! what a blessing to be home!

After two days of GLORIOUS skiing (21 runs in two days!) and able to stand today proud as ever that I, Aris Haines, successfully made it down 4, YES FOUR, black runs!!!!!!! There were some really challenging blues and dash blues and maybe one or 5 greens in there too…. but I managed BLACK! Granted 3 of them were by accident and were maneuvered VERY slooooowly.

But I am home now, and fully appreciate the skiing sport and am not as sore as I could have been, excuse me SHOULD have been after some of the landings I made! ( I actually took two jumps pretty fast and totally ate them both… HARD.

Christmas was GOOD this year. I mean it is normally GOOD, but this year it was GOOOOD. I love giving things…. that has always been the same since I was little. In my family we write little clues on the gifts before you open them… (my idea when I was 8, and it stuck!) they can be rhyming poems or just clues…. either way they make it fun. We laughed SO hard this morning at some of the clues… it was great! I got a lot of decorative stuff for my bedroom that looks very Japanese. I totally love it! I can’t wait until I can make my whole room look like that. My mom found an artificial Bonsai tree and bamboo cane plant at Ross, I swear that store has EVERYTHING. and I got a video camera! something I’ve wanted FOREVER. So now I can make a record of my senior year! YAY! And it’ll be so freakishly awesome!

Well, with that said, I’m about to get really mushy gushy. Prepare yourself. I love this time of year… and I am happy and sad all at the same time.

Another year has come and gone. ONE more year has passed. It is a time to reflect about what I’ve done, who I’ve become, and who I still want to be. (A lot of people feel that same way.. ie: new year’s resolutions.) The hard part is realizing there is still so much more I have to do! So much I want to do! Life is an adventure, and if you give God long enough He’ll amaze you with the perfect details. Sometimes the hard part is waiting…. even worse, KNOWING that you’re waiting for something. Anyway, I will make my resolutions when the time comes. For now, I am signing off a very satisfied individual who is VERY sleepy.

I wish everyone the merriest Christmas and Happy New Year’s!

I am home. Again, to re emphasize how much my mom rocks my face off… she got up on our roof BY HERSELF to put lights on the house, and had the whole Christmas tree all decorated and EVERYTHING. She even had hot cocoa and popcorn for us when we walked in the door! Wow. It was like those Walgreen commercials that talk about ‘a place called perfect, but unfortunately we don’t live in a place called perfect and that’s why there’s Walgreens’…. except tonight, I lived in a place called perfect! For about 20 minutes. And then I got tired. The kind of tired you only get after packing and stressing out for a week, and then driving two hours home. the REALLY TIRED kind of tired.

So I am going to bed. I will have more to talk about tomorrow night.

Sweet dreams…. and think about all that is good.

Ok, so the CCU Christmas Celebration Extravaganza is finally OVER, and do you know what I realized during the last 10 minutes of the last performance? How sad it was that this was my last CCU Christmas concert EVER. After 4 years things like this really get to you. You are so used to being in the music arena that you are, that you can’t see exactly how it’s going to be when you get out of school.

Fortunately, I CAN see it and it’s sad. The opportunity to play in an ensemble like I play in now, is very rare once you get out of school. Even if you can get into an orchestra or symphonic group, the relationships aren’t the same. You come , you play, and you leave. It’s all very sad.

But enough sad stuff!!! It DOES feel good to be done with my last major performance of the year. The stress of school work will be enough for the rest of the year.

I slept 11 hours last night… it felt good. I have a lot to do today. I’d better get working.

I might write more later tonight… if you’re lucky. 🙂

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote… BUT I do have a good excuse. Well, not good… but you’ll understand the necessity. It was school…. yes, it is that time of year. The teachers load on the projects and papers the week before the hardest exams EVER! And if you thought that was hard, Christmas is the hardest time of year for musicians. It’s Christmas concert after Christmas concert!!!! I have 3, (yes THREE) this weekend. one last night and two today.(sigh) Life could be worse. And really, it is only getting better. Because as I am working through the stress of these last two weeks, time is still passing. Soon enough this semester will be over!!! And I will no longer be forced to submit to those classes involving music theory, sight singing and ear training, and musical perspectives. Christmas vacation looks sweeter and sweeter every day!

Anyway, I will do my best to continue to let you know the interesting parts that unveil themselves in these next two weeks.

Stay tuned… heightened emotional events anticipated.

Going to watch Home Alone before it’s time to get ready for concerts… to help bring the Christmas mood alive.