Monday, August 25, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
I love watching old home videos... they are so funny! (this is one reason why being the oldest is the best - you remember the most out of the rest of the kids in your family from the old videos)
I could write a whole bunch about the videos I watched tonight, but I don't think I could do them justice. You just have to sit down and watch your own. And if you don't have any old home videos, old journals count. I love the spelling mistakes, bad handwriting, and the funny little things that were SO important way back then... And if you don't have an old journal, pretty much anything that you've done that you haven't looked at for a really long time - like an old calendar with appointments and stuff on it, an old essay, or anything you can think of! It's really fun. You should try it. Or, ask someone who knew you when you were little to tell you about yourself. (ok, now I feel like I'm writing a section in a "What to do when you're bored" book). But really, it is a lot of fun.
Sunday, August 24, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
So, at the end of winter semester, Sam and I decided to throw a gallon of water off of the stadium. We threw some paper airplanes off first, and they were fun - a few went really far, like across the street! Then we had a waterbottle that we threw down as an appetizer. It didn't break open when I threw it down, but it did when Sam tried to throw it back up to me. The gallon jug was very satisfying to drop and watch explode. I reccommend it to anyone who lives near something tall and climbable.
Sunday, August 24, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
I sure do love old friends. Especially when you get an old group of friends together. It's great to see how much everyone has grown, including yourself. I also love talking about things you used to do and "remember that one time???" (although doing this in front of others who weren't there for "that one time" isn't the funnest thing for them).
I have several friends on missions right now, and it's coming up on when they are all going to start coming home. I can't wait! I miss them all so much, especially when I see their younger siblings who are just like them. It makes me happy to know that even though they are scattered throughout the world, they are safe and where they are supposed to be!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
There's a great music store at Camelback and Central called Central music. It's not super big, but it has a great selection of music. I think it's been there for a really long time too. The owner's name is Roy and is a friend of my piano teacher, Karen Maison, who lives in Cave Creek. All throughout high school and several years before that, my mom would drive 45 minutes to take me out there each Thursday after school for a half hour lesson, then 45 minutes back again. Anyway, I went to Central music today because I needed to buy a book of Beethoven Sonatas, and I thought I should probably buy the music for a Rachmaninoff cello sonata that I have been obsessed with lately. (I've been thinking about my senior recital in April a lot recently, and I'll probably be doing a movement of the cello sonata and a complete Beethoven sonata. I like no. 23, the "Appassionata" sonata.)
So, I walked into the store, and finally found the Beethoven sonatas in the rows and rows of hand-organized music, most of them separated by little manilla folders written on by hand. (By Roy, I'm sure.) There were 4 choices of the same music - the urtext (unedited) edition, plus three others with different editors. I didn't know what the difference was, but I was sure Roy did. So, I took the different editions up to him and asked him, "I know this may be subjective, but what is the difference between these?" He then proceeded to give me a 10 minute explanation about all the different editors, the validity of their fingerings and articulation differences, and even the value of the urtext edition when one already knows a piece. I could tell he liked the one edited by Artur Schnabel, published by Alfred. I agreed with him - he said that Artur Schnabel has always been the expert on Beethoven and upon opening the book, I found that there were many footnotes and markings explaining parts of the music. I thought this extra editing was really valuable, so picked that one to buy.
Anyway, it was great to talk to someone who knows everything! I couldn't believe all the random facts and stuff he was just pulling out of his head. I really admire people who know all there is to know about something - it takes a lot of work!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
You know how sometimes you see something someone else has, and instantly you know you have to find something just like it? Ok, maybe that only happens to me, but there was one time when I noticed the eye-catching red shoes of a girl walking past me. I loved the way they looked! I instantly knew that I needed to look for some shoes like that. So, ever since then, I have been searching for them at department stores. I scoured the shoe racks, high and low... (but I really was only interested in the high heels). And they had to be a certain color - not bright red, not brick red, but a nice burgundy color - not too purply. Sometimes I would find a shoe matching this description, but alas, my supernatural feet decided to pull an Anastasia and Drisella trick... they didn't have my size. :/
One day, I found some heels that I thought I liked... actually I couldn't decide whether I liked them or not. I almost bought them because I so badly wanted to finally end this chase for the shoe that by then I thought didn't exist! However, if it were not for the advice of my friend and her significant other that happened to notice me contemplating my decision, I might have made a big mistake that day. Luckily, I decided to follow their counsel and leave the purchase of these less than perfect shoes to someone else, because the next day I found a treasure: DSW. Anyone who has ever been to this shoe store knows that it is the best. I had never been there but had
decided one day after work to seek it out. Inside this cave of wonders were the shoes I had been looking for... the shoes of my dreams! The look was what I wanted, the color was what I wanted, and the best part - they even had my size! Now I was finally able to end my search in happiness. If you're lucky, you may even see me wearing them sometime.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
In my spanish class last semester, my teacher was talking about different ways to memorize vocabulary words. He was explaining how to use a story or mneumonic device to help you remember certain vocabulary, and gave an example. The word he used was verdugo, which means executioner. Here is the story he told to help remember it: There's a guy who's about to be executed, and somehow he gets away when the executioner wasn't looking. So, when the executioner turns back around and finds him missing, he says, "Ver-du-go?"
I thought that I wouldn't ever have a use for that word... that it would be something to just file away in the "Random Facts" folder in my brain. But today at work, as I was scanning and filing papers into the computer, I came across a guy whose name was Frank Verdugo Garcia. Poor guy.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
So, recently it has come to my attention that everyone uses the same few words... like awesome, sweet, great, good, cool, nice, amazing, and well, that's about it. Why can't we use more words like rad or radical, righteous, rufus (name that movie!), stellar, swingin', rockin', tubular, swell, grand, wicked, ill... etc. So your job today is to use one of these "cool" words... or think of a new one and post it below.
I hope you have a bodacious time doing it. :)
Monday, August 18, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
My phone is engaged. Well that’s just what someone said when they saw the little flower sparkly phone charm I have on the antenna.
Monday, August 18, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
Everyone in America knows these to be the most coveted, delicious lunchbox treat. However, there is a little-known fact about them I am about to reveal. I bought a box of 12 of them. They were the big kind, about 1 ½ of a regular sized one… “YUM!!” I thought. But here’s the catch: I looked at the number of calories they have, (big mistake) and there’s not 100, not 200, not 300, but 370 calories per cream pie. So now I feel guilty every time I eat this precious delicacy.
Monday, August 18, 2008 -
Posted by Mandy Leach -
This morning (May 22nd, 2007), I woke up at 7am, showered, got dressed in a short sleeved shirt and sandals, and was going to leave my apartment just in time to get to class on Daphne (my cute little blue bike). I gathered my books, and opened the door. My nice day ended there.
Little did I know, while I was sleeping, the weather decided that Rexburg didn’t get enough winter this year, so it was snowing.
So, I had to go back inside, change my shoes, get a sweater, and walk to class because Daphne would be too wet to ride today. I walked first to Great Harvest, catching a few little flakes on my tongue, and bought a Raspberry White Chocolate scone for breakfast. And I got a free piece of lemon poppyseed bread, still warm from the oven. Then I walked to my ear training class, which starts at 8am. By the time I got to the door of the Snow building, the whole front of my sweatshirt was covered with a layer of snow. It was wet, and not very fun. The wind, which I also don’t like, was blowing exactly the opposite direction of the way I was walking most of the time. There weren’t very many people in either of my two classes today, probably because it was snowing. When I got to class, the kid sitting next to me told me he was proud of me for walking in the snow today – he said he wouldn’t have come this morning if he didn’t have a car. I think that would be a lame reason to miss class.
