The oddest quartet

For the past week, I have had a huge project due in my Music Theory class. We were to write a four-part harmony and then transpose the parts to different instruments (including an E-flat saxophone). I began my first draft and when I heard the melody I wrote, I realized it sounded like the kind of song you would hear when there's a creepy ghost in a movie or something. I decided to revise it.

I wrote the first draft a week ago and didn't have time to revise it until this morning. :) Seeing as how it was due at 12:00, starting it this morning wasn't the best idea, but it worked. I finished the whole piece 10 minutes before class started. I walked into class and our "string quartet + 1" was there. We were going to have 2 violinists, a cellist, and a saxophonist. The problem was that one of the violinists did not show up for class. The class began brainstorming about how we would hear the second part. One girl said she could sing it. Another suggested playing it on the piano. But, my favorite was when my good friend from my elementary music ed class piped in, "I can play it on the recorder!" I laughed. I've never heard a quartet made up of violin, recorder, cello and saxophone. And I must say it is one of the most unique sounds I have ever heard. When everyone began tuning, they had to tune to the recorder. Can you imagine having a symphony tune to a recorder? It was very amusing.

The composition went well. I conducted the quartet and felt good about the performance. Mostly, it just feels good to have that composition out of the way.

Baleeted, delteated, del taco?

Today I have a 10-page paper due. I finished 6 pages of it last night and this morning I woke up at 6:00 to finish the paper before my class began. When I finished the 10th page, I pushed a link in Microsoft Word that ended up doing something very strange to my paper. It wasn't what I wanted so I clicked the red X at the top right-hand corner. Did I want to save the changes? The computer asked me. Of course not, I decided. So I clicked no. Away went my paper. Away went 3 more hours of typing. Hmm... I thought. I don't think this is what is supposed to happen right now.

I went immediately to the nice young men at the help desk and told them what happened. They looked at each other with a knowing glance. The glance wasn't a very optimistic glance. I had a twinge of concern enter my heart. One of the young men came over to my computer and after a going through a series of search engines, he looked at me and shook his head. I'm sorry I couldn't help, he said. Me too... me too. Too bad I'm not more like Homestarrunner. Who when receiving an email he did not like, tried to delete it. It would not disappear. Sometimes I wish I were a cartoon... :)

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail50.html

Steak Dinners

I have two roommates who recently got engaged. This is very exciting and both of their fiance's are perfect for them! I just wanted to write a quick congratulations to both of them!!!

Conference Weekend

What an incredible weekend I had!! I performed in General Conference Saturday afternoon. I even got shown on the TV once! It was definitely an unforgettable experience. It was great for my family because they had someone to watch for in every conference session. My brother, Josh, is in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (MOTAB) and they performed in 3 of the 5 sessions. I performed in 1 of the 5 and Caitie's friend performed in the Priesthood session. I've always wondered what it was like for the MOTAB to have 20,000 people singing at them from the congregation. I must say, that was my favorite part. The congregational hymn was absolutely amazing. Yay for singing in choirs. I love it!

Caitlin and Emilie's

Here is the long-awaited story. I'm actually just postponing my homework by writing this, but whatever works, right? Here goes.

Last week Women's Chorus had a concert. I felt it my duty to go around my ward and invite several people that I thought would appreciate it. My sister was kind enough to accompany me on the outing. We walked up some stairs and knocked on a door that we thought was 97... in actuality it was 99. I got nervous after we knocked and suggested we run-as we did not know the occupants of the apartment. Caitie, being the more sensible of the two, told me to come back and not be nervous. The door opened and some very kind young men invited us in to chat and sit on their couch. They asked us our names. "I'm Caitlin and this is Emilie." My sister answered. "What ward are you in?" They queeried. "149th". "Are you the Caitlin and Emilie from the 149th ward?" "Umm I suppose so. I don't think anyone else in our ward is named that." "It can't be you! You guys are famous in our ward. Wait... do you have a bulldog?"

As you can imagine this was starting to become a little disconcerting to Caitlin and myself as we had no idea what these boys were talking about. What have we done that could possibly make us famous in a ward we've never even visited before? The conversation continued, "Yes. we have a bulldog." "Was it ever stolen?" "Yes!!! What is going on here? Please tell us before we go mad." "We can't tell you." At this point the boys were blushing and laughing at the same time. "Yes... you MUST tell us." We replied. They told us to relate the story of our bulldog being stolen from our point of view. We told them what happened:

Over the summer, we had a bulldog on the hood of our truck. It was a hood ornament and we named him Stu-boy. One morning I woke up and went out to the truck. To my dismay, the bulldog was gone and in its' place was a ransome note for strawberry cheesecake or else the bulldog would suffer humiliation. I was saddened by this note. I was quite attached to Stu-boy. Caitie and I kept trying to figure out who it was that stole the bulldog. Finally, we figured it out and after delivering the cheesecake, we had our dear Stu-boy returned to his rightful place on our truck.

The boys started laughing again at this point saying the story they heard is a little bit different. This is what they relayed.

Either Caitie or I had a relationship with one of the boys involved in the dognapping. When the boy tried to kiss one of us, we denied him and he got upset. So upset, that he stole the dog off the truck with a ransome note telling us to kiss him. When we refused, he made little whitie-tities (white underwear-for those who may not know) for the dog and wrote on them "Caitlin and Emilie, 149th ward". The boy also put whitie-tities on and was dancing in his bedroom with the dog and both sets of underwear when his buddies from this other ward walked in and asked him what in the world he was doing. He sat down, embarrassed.

At this point, Caitie and I burst out in laughter. That's a very outragous story, I said. They boys continued laughing and blushing and said that was not all. They had made up a song to the story and also no longer referred to whitie-tities as whitie-tities. They were now called Caitlin and Emilie's. They said it was around several guys' apartments. They would go to a basketball game and say things like, "Dude, your Caitlin and Emilie's are showing", or, "Hey... ya got your Caitlin and Emilie's on?" The boys then performed a song and dance they had made up about Caitlin and Emilie's.

I really think it was one of the most modnar experiences I have had. I'm kind of nervous that the part about the underwear could be true. And because of that, I refuse to ask the guys who stole the dog if it is. There are some bits of information I would just rather not know. If you know what I mean...

Much to do

I have a very funny story to tell you all, but alas, I have been up since 4 am and it is almost 9 pm and I still have a big paper to write that is due tomorrow as well as a test to study for. I will tell all though. It is too amusing to miss. :)

RM - a hopeless epidemic

I was talking to a friend of mine last night online. He told me that he figured out something about his approach in dating that left him without the desired results. He told me that he has been approaching dating much like a missionary approaches a new investigator. "If you spend a lot of time and put a lot of effort into them, it brings results." He then told me he has discovered this is just not true. He needs to change his approach, he said. I agreed with him.

The whole conversation struck me as funny because another newly Returned Missionary friend of mine told me his approach to dating and how it has changed since he got back from his mission. He said that when he got home from his mission, he had the next five years of his life planned out. "I realized that my Junior year, I wouldn't have a lot of time to date, so I'll just get that out of the way this year. I was planning on being married by July or August and then focusing on school. The first girl I started dating right after the mission, I decided she was the one. We didn't have a lot in common, but I knew she was it. I've dated two other girls since then." He went on... "My new goal is married by December." I just laughed to myself. "Your approach has changed huh?"

The friend from the first story I told asked me why I didn't say anything about the RM disease earlier. "Then," he said, "I wouldn't have had to learn the hard way." It's true. I should have told him the secret remedy. The thing about that though is, I don't know it yet either... :)

A sad phone conversation

I was walking in the library the other day and heard this snippet of conversation from a guy talking on his cell phone, "You are the hardest girl to get a hold of! The phone number you gave me didn't work and then your email address didn't work! I had to look you up on stalker net."

I walked away and sighed. Poor boy. Poor, poor boy.

Some Help?

So... Once upon a time there was a girl named Emilie. She could not figure out how to put links onto her blog. She tried to follow the directions that the blog site gave to her, but somehow it didn't work. If anyone has any idea how to help this poor girl, please let her know! :) Thanks so much! (She was afraid to ask for help by herself) ;)

Recording... I'm famous! Well... ok, not really

Last night the phone rang in my apartment around 11:00 pm. "Hello, is Sister Gardner there?" The voice on the other end of the line asked. As there are two Sister Gardners in the apartment, Julie replied, "Yes, let me get one for you." "It's for one of the Gardner sisters." She came into my room to say. I ran to the kitchen, "Hello? This is Sister one." "Emilie, I need a girl to sing the harmony for the song I wrote. Could you come sing right now?" Ted asked. "Sure!" I replied. I raced to his apartment (well, I raced after we put the bed back together). I learned the song as quickly as I could and we recorded the song. It's a great song. And I decided I like recording. You'll have to hear it sometime. :)

My sister's bed

Well, ladies and gentleman, it is official. My bed is not the only bed that falls off the cinder blocks. Last night, Audrey, Cassidy and Caitie were on Caitie's bed giggling away when all of a sudden there was a huge crash and the giggling exploded into screams and laughter. I love this apartment.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! That's basically all I have to say. Life is good. The end.

pics!

Christian with his older sister, Camryn. Aren't they wonderful??

More pics to come. The computer stopped working! :)

New Nephew!

I have a new nephew! His name is Christian David. He's pretty much adorable. As soon as it works, I'll put pictures up. Yay for new babies!

Learn Chinese in Five Minutes

I know many of you have seen this before, but I read it again and it still makes me laugh. Enjoy!

LEARN CHINESE IN 5 MINUTES ... (READ THEM OUT LOUD)
1) That's not right............................Sum Ting Wong
2) Are you harboring a fugitive?...............Hu Yu Hai Ding?
3) See me ASAP.................................Kum Hia Nao
4) Stupid Man..................................Dum Gai
5) Small Horse.................................Tai Ni Po Ni
6) Did you go to the beach?....................Wai Yu So Tan?
7) I bumped into a coffee table................Ai Bang Mai Ni
8) I think you need a face lift................Chin Tu Fat
9) It's very dark in here......................Wai So Dim?
10) I thought you were on a diet...............Wai Yu Mun Ching?
11) This is a tow away zone....................No Pah King
12)Our meeting is scheduled for next week......Wai Yu Kum Nao?
13)Staying out of sight........................Lei Ying Lo
14)He's cleaning his automobile................Wa Shing Ka
15)Your body odor is offensive.................Yu Stin Ki Pu

Weather

Wasn't the weather crazy today? I walked outside of the RB and it was snowing when the sun was shining so bright! It was a beautiful day. Good times... Good times.

A Blast from my Past

It seems for me that when one random person or event creeps up in my life, a whole bunch of random things from my past happen right after that. It is usually so unexpected that it knocks me right off balance. This happened last night. I received a letter from my very first boyfriend, my first love, my first kiss-all of whom happen to be the same person. He has been on a missions for 22 1/2 months now. I haven't seen him in 3 years. He wrote to tell me he had been thinking about me. He wants to tell me something when he gets back. He asked me to write to him. And at the end, he informed me that his family had just moved to Utah.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this. Crazy how things just pop up sometimes, eh? All I know is that I think too much.

hurting

I've discovered I care about people a lot. :) Not such a new discovery, but I've realized something about how I care about people that is a new discernment. It was spurred on by Audrey. There was a movie that several people were going to watch. As I wanted to be a part of the group, I thought I would watch it with them. The day before we watched the movie, Audrey took me aside and told me she thought there would be scenes that would disturb me a lot and suggested I not watch the movie. I appreciated her concern for me and decided not to watch it. The parts she thought would disturb me were very emotional scenes. She told me, "Emilie, you take on other people's emotions without knowing why or what they are feeling."

After she told me that, I have watched myself and have been sensitive to how I feel when other people are around me. When I am talking to a friend that is hurting, I feel their hurt. I don't understand it... I can just feel their pain. I sometimes cry not because of something they said about how they're hurting, but because I can see the hurt in his/her face and I feel it. I've also discovered that I can be strong enough for the person for as long as they are hurting. But when they are ok, I break down. That's when I really allow myself to feel my own pain for the person. It's no longer their hurting.. it's my hurting. I realize how weak I am. I realize how little I actually help. All I do is feel for them. I can't take care of their problems for them-no matter how much I'd like to.

I remember when I was Mia Maid and Laurel President, these feelings were very acute. I felt so much for my girls. There were many nights of tears and prayers for these girls who could become incredible women, but didn't see their potential. I could feel how Heavenly Father felt for them. It was one of the most amazing experiences I've had.

It's easy to forget how Heavenly Father feels for His children individually. When we are so caught up in the mundane tasks of life that seem so overwhelming. When it seems like we're just going from test to test, trying to keep our heads above water, it's so easy to forget. It's easy to be caught up in pride. I am so weak. I have so much to learn. And I constantly need my Heavenly Father to take me in His arms to remind me that He loves me and that I'm His daughter. But, I'm stubborn and I think I'll be all right without that. He has so many other children who hurt more than me that He could be taking care of. But the atonement is all encompassing. It's not like Heavenly Father only has time for one child at a time. He is ready and waiting for each of His children all the time. I need to remember that. I am blessed. Truly blessed.

Hurting Gums

My gums are in pain. What a strange thing to say. At the beginning of last semester, my upper lip swelled up so much that it was bigger than my bottom lip. It looked rather awkward. It also hurt a lot! I went to the dentist and found out that the root canal I had received when I was 8 had become infected. It required immediate attention. I had another root canal a week later and also had 4 new teeth put into place. I have not had trouble with it since.

Well... that is... until yesterday. Yesterday, my gums began hurting again. I thought nothing of it. I figured I just brushed rather rigorously that morning or something. However, this morning when I woke up and it hurt much worse, I realized the rigorous brushing was not the problem. It's a constant tooth ache on my front tooth. I can't blow my nose because it hurts clear up there. I think my new root canal is infected. Blah. I'm not a big fan of dentists.

:)

It is an exquisite day outside. I want to fly a kite. Anyone want to go with me??