The violin question

I have been talking about learning how to play the violin for a few years now. I can't really stop obsessing over it, and a few weeks ago when I asked the nice lady at Hobson about it, that all got even worse. She said yes, the hobson did have a violin for people to play. I've been excited and nervous ever since. I ordered books on-line and I've been listening diligently to the suzuki book 1 CD. I must admit I've been a little scared to actually take the next step - to actually pick up the violin would be opening myself up to failure, while talk doesn't let you down. I went to the hobson today though, and guess what I found out? They do have a violin, but it's broken. It only has two strings and I got the impression from the employee I talked to that it's condition was old news, and would last indefinitely. I mentioned that I'd never put new strings on a violin before, but asked if it would be OK for me to give it a try if I brought some in, and he said sure. So it seems like my options are :

wait for the violin to be fixed

buy strings and attempt to fix it myself (scary)

give up for now/buy my own violin.

Not sure what I'm gonna do. But I didn't want to waste the trip up there, so I spent two hours playing the suzuki songs on the piano. Might as well work on my sight-reading, right?

A day in the life

The other day was pretty crazy, so crazy that I think I will share it with you. No, not everyday is this crazy, but yes, DLI is hardcore.

0500 : wake up, roll over and try to go back to sleep

0515 : realize that room-mate is already in shower. Jump out of bed and dress hurriedly.

0600 : clean room, check over HW one last time to make sure everything is filled in.

0630 : Muster on the grinder. Endure uniform inspection and try to memorize the passdown. Today is the command run, muster for the run is at 1600. People with 7th hour should bring their PT gear to class and change there. Curses. I have 7th hour.

0700 : go back to room, shove PT gear and shoes into back pack.

0715 : grab an undersized bacon biscuit from the kiosk. Snag an apple pastry and some milk to put in the coffee.

0745 : After making coffee, eating breakfast at the desk in the class room, and taking attendance, turn in everyones homework.

0755-1545 : Class. Ten minute breaks at the end of every hour plus a 1 hour lunch break from 12-1300. Eat lunch in classroom in order to read kindle during break.

1545 : pack up and change into PT gear in the head. Muster on grinder.

1620 : Forward march! the 2 mile 'ish' run goes up the hill, around the hill, past the PFC, past 833, back down the hill and ends up where we started. We take up a whole lane, and it's amusing to jog past all the cars that have been stopped so that we can all pass. We are one huge mass of mustard yellow and navy blue, singing chants that we know only half the words to at the top of our lungs and keeping - for the most part - in step.

At this point I lose track of time. All I know is pain and exhaustion. Left over sub is in my fridge. Eat. Read. Rest.

1730 : Deck clean up.

Then it's homework, more reading, and bed. Room-mate goes to bed at 2100 and I follow an hour later.

Love

I may be having an affair with coffee. When it was just coffee with lunch during the week I could pretend it was just a fling; something to keep me awake during the second half of class. But now that I'm having coffee with breakfast on the weekends.... I have to admit that it might be something more. But oh is it worth it. Irish Latte how I love you.

Also in good news, the red box finally had my movie! I am number four, so with any luck I'll get to see that today. Yay!

I already finished my homework and I'm thinking about doing Monday's homework in advance just for kicks. Laundry is almost done and I started watching Gray's Anatomy...I'm not sure why I put off watching this show because it's totally epic ^^:;

Long weekend

Hey blog! I just suffered probably the most god-forsaken four-day-weekend in my life, and I was *sooooo* happy to go back to class today! I love my teachers and Arabic is pretty cool. - Although it IS annoying that I can always think of how to say things in Japanese, but have no idea how to say them in Arabic. I live in fear that I might one day blurt out a Japanese word without realizing it during class @_@

Things have been busy here. For kicks I thought I'd post a picture of my school books :

There are a lot of them huh?

Hmm. What's new? Bought a new battery for my laptop, so now I'm mobile again. Moved to a new room where the wireless connection sucks, so I have to go sit out in the lounge if I want to stream a video without it pausing every five minutes. Watched Eli Stone which was a heartwarming show that regrettably ended after just two seasons. Also watched the first season of Sarah Connor.... But it was too depressing to continue, knowing what a uber cliffhanger the show was canceled on. Siiiigh.

Read an amazingly gothic teen novel titled bliss and am now (finally after ages of it being on my list) reading The lightning thief. It's adorable. I'm having trouble getting into the most recent scifi book that I downloaded, which is always a huge disappointment. I'm thinking I'll re-read enders game and sulk.

Have a test tomorrow which I'm (weirdly) psyched about.

Cheers!

HW blurb

Hey blog!

Don't think that just because I haven't written, that nothings been going on. Oh no! Life here, while it has settled into a predictable rhythm, still lacks in the 'boredom' department. Everyday someone says or does something incredible. This past weekend kind of sucked due to me being tired/annoyed with some people. And it was cloudy. I think if the sun could have just come out it would have made anything OK, but the cloud factor lent itself much too easily to pouting, so that's what I did.

On top of which my room-mate moved out to a better room. Kinda don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand, she was cool so her leaving = sad. On the other and I'm extremely antisocial so OMGOMGOMG I GET THE ROOM TO MYSELF!!!! MAHAWHAHWHAWH. And then of course there's the almost mandatory jealousy over her now completely superior housing situation. Sigh. I love my crazy life.

I started class on Friday, super excited about that! The classroom is like this uber long walk away, so my huge accomplishment today was figuring out how to work the shuttle bus system. No more walking = Yay! Proof that despite it's best efforts the Navy has yet to cure me of being inherently lazy XD

The only downside about figuring out the bus was that I then felt guiltily compelled to ride it up to the galley and eat the 'free' food, rather than pay for the uber yummy food near the classroom. Siiigh. I might buy food tomorrow. I dream about guacamole and salivate.

Hmm. What else interesting? I finished watching buffy again..... Can anyone recommend some really awesome shows for me to watch? (especially if they are on netflix...) I definitely study best with some kind of visual/audio stimulation, and as much as I love all the shows on my 'top five' list, I've now seen each of them a minimum of 2 times....

What am I currently watching? Re-watching Battlestar Galatica (epic) and Kyle XY.

Also currently working my way through Medium (about to start season three. ) Even though I've never actually seen all of the episodes, they are formulaic enough that nothing that happens is ever really a surprise.

Also reading loads on my kindle. Read "Green Rider" Per a recommendation, It's a book I've read before and I re-read it with the idea that I would continue with the series...but now I'm not so sure I'll bother. There are plenty of more artfully written books out there.

The book I'm reading now is The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham.

I haven't gotten a real fix on the book yet, it falls somewhere between Brent Week's Night Angel Trilogy and the more subtle Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss

If that doesn't mean anything to you I'll just say, it's a really good book so far!

And I'm super excited because I have two more potentially awesome books already downloaded on my kindle and ready to go when I finish this one ^^;;

Smoke Pit

I have been spending an incredible amount of time at the smoke pit this week. It's only a short distance away from my building (pretty much just on the other side of the parking lot. ) And it's obviously a prime place for people to hang out - especially if there is extra time after chow before the next muster time. (If we're lucky and eat fast, we can get as much as 45 minutes to an hour of 'free time' before we have to muster. Then again, sometimes we barely even have time to eat. )

So, anyway. I've never really understood why people smoke. Obviously once you get started it's hard to stop, but what the hell is so appealing about smoking that makes you decided to start in the first place? I can't really answer that question in words, but I feel as if I understand now. What once to me looked like a bunch of people sitting/standing around doing nothing, I can now totally relate to. Really, smoking is not that much different than knitting, (although I'm guessing knitting is probably less deadly.) both are habits that are addictive, attractive to bored and ADD prone personalities, and extremely relaxing. Even though I don't smoke, sitting at the smoke pit and chatting with the people there has definitely been a relaxing and enjoyable experience.

I do get restless, however, and today - because I desperately needed something to do with my hands - I pulled out my deck of cards and started shuffling them. It's a nervous habit that I used to do at AACC; I'd shuffle cards while waiting for class to start, or while sitting in the parking lot waiting to be driven home somewhere. I haven't really needed it recently with all my knitting stuff, but I pulled the cards out today without even thinking about it. As if I'd never stopped doing it. My smoke-pit buddy, Lyon, immediately recognized the entertainment opportunity and promptly taught me how to do the bridge thingy with the cards. I've never been able to do that before but it took me all of ten minutes to learn. Yay!

You'll probably be surprised to learn that it's 6PM on a Saturday and not only am I JUST NOW getting ready to start my first episode on netflix, but that I also haven't been in my room ALL DAY. Instead, I've been wandering around town with the guys - mostly near the fisherman's warf/Cannery row area climbing around on the rocky 'beach' there.

Shopping

Hello!

Today was a good day - Work was light, and I ended up being on watch with some awesome people (always makes the day go faster.)

A friend mentioned the idea of going to the farmers market after duty-hours, so once I got off watch I took a shower and put on my red dress.

One of the purchase I made on Sunday's shopping spree. I would have blogged about it, but I'm still roiling in guilt over my complete lack of self control when it comes to shopping >.<

The farmers market is every Tuseday, and I've been wanting to go. There are SO MANY good food venders - I only bought the kettle corn, because who can resist kettle corn? But lots of the other venders looked or tasted good. I'll have to go back, especially to the ravioli vender! Those sauces were amazing ^^;;

There was a T-shirt vender selling this epic T-shirt. I bought it even though the smallest size they had was a medium. It's like a tent on me, but whatever, it's still the awesomest thing ever.

I also fell totally in love with this necklace. I had to buy it. I knew the moment I saw it that I desperately needed it. Then I talked to the Lady selling it. She's nice. I instantly liked her, she told me what kind of stone it was made out of and where it was from. She even had a huge chunk of the rock in it's raw form. She mentioned something about the process involved in cutting the stones down to size, and that's when I found out that she shapes, polishes, and makes the pendents herself. I have a very large weak spot for artist, but I resisted. I'm not the type of person who spends that kind of money on Jewelry. I couldn't stay away, however, and on my 2nd visit I commented on how lovely the polish was. How do you do that? I wondered out loud. Let me tell you, she said. And then she whipped out a little photo album with pictures of her workshop and all of her equipment. My heart skipped a beat. I knew I would die if I didn't have this necklace. But I was strong. I walked away. I went and looked at all of the other stalls. But in the back of my mind there was a little green stone watching me with soulful eyes, I and I knew I was doomed.