Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving came and gone. Every year, I look forward to the appreciation we give on Thanksgiving, and of course, the FOOD!! But eating is not the only thing Thanksgiving is about, it is also about giving thanks. We need to be thankful for all that we are given, and think about those who are less fortunate than we are. And in this giving of thanks, we celebrate what we have by stuffing our face with food!

This year, our food was great, as usual, and very plentiful. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, broccoli salad, corn, rolls, real butter, and potato salad.The food was delicious. Like every year, I took just a little more than I could devour. We all enjoyed the food and fellowship. For desert, we also had pumpkin pie (shocker ), and espresso brownies. And we also had lots of coffee!!

Though my eyes were a scoch bigger than my stomach, I almost finished my entire meal; I just left a little bit of meat on my turkey leg. After the food was eaten, and the commotion settled, the carbs (not the tryptophan) set in. Yes, as you may or may not know, the whole tryptophan thing is a myth. You are tired after eating your Thanksgiving meal because of all of the carbs you ate in one heap. Since Rachel brought her Wii over, we sat down and played some Wii Sports while sitting down, relaxing. Uncle Ron and Taylor came over before and after the meal, so they were there to play Wii with us.

So my Thanksgiving was great. I hope yours was too! Now I’m back at school, trying to stay awake during class.

My birthday came and gone a couple weeks ago with no blog post to go with it. Well, I had some friends over, we watched Kung Fu Panda, played Wii, and just hung out. It was really fun, and we had chocolate chip cookies to eat. We also had the family over for a dinner of pork chops and mac ‘n cheese, which was fabulous, and brownies for desert. I got lots of gifts, and had a blast!

Lastly, I got I job! The D’enofrios go to our church and are part of Stages Productions. They are putting on The Gift of the Maji at various locations. There’s just some music I had to learn, practices to go to, and places to perform it at, and I get paid! Maybe I’ll actually get to buy gifts for people this year. Also, Solo and Ensemble coming up, so I have one more money-making opportunity!

Elections, Jamboree, Piano, Birthday… What Else am I Missing?

So I’m sure all of you know, the elections are over, and Barack Obama was declared president November 4th. I’m not going to go into a bunch of details, or what my thoughts are on him, just that Obama won, and that he will soon start go into office and become president of the United States. You can decide if you like him or not.

So next up is the Jamboree. The Jamboree is put on every year by our church every year, and includes tons of carnival rides and games, and a whole lot of country music ( ). Still, it’s lots of fun, and very entertaining to go to. There is the zipper, a really… flippy… ride, and the rest of your usual carnival rides. A lot of my friends are there, so it’s great to just walk around and hang out.

Three weeks ago, I started learning the Revolutionary Etude by Chopin. IT IS REALLY COOL!!!!! It is fast, loud, fun to play, and it never stops in the left hand. Here’s a recording of it-

It is a really, really cool piece.

And guess what? My birthday is in four days! I can’t wait! I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing for it; I’ll probably just have some friends over and we can play wii or something. So I am going to be 14. One more year, and I’m goin’ behind the wheel. You may want to stay off the road when that happens . Oh, and in case you missed it, my wish list is up, on a page labeled, “Wish List” by the top. Or you can just click here to see my wish list.

So I hope Obama does well, and can’t wait for cake!

All County

I made it! Yesterday, tryouts for All County were held at Osceola Middle School. After about a month of preparation, we had to learn a prepared piece, work up concert F, B♭, E♭, and A♭ scales, play the chromatic scale, and site-read. Not too hard, but when nerves kick in, it can affect your performance greatly. When I played, I did okay on the site reading and scales, and very good on the prepared piece. Today, Mr. Guess revealed the results. I made 2nd chair, and many other people from Seminole Middle also made it. I am exited to have made it, against all odds (apparently my mom has never heard me play before :-p ). So now there will be one weekend of practice, and a Monday concert. I can’t wait!

Jazz Band

We’ve been pretty busy this year in jazz band! Already, we have learned around seven charts. Unlike last year, some of our drummers are able to keep a steady pulse without slowing down or speeding up. One drummer is even able to successfully add fills to the music without dropping a beat! Other than the drummers, our jazz band was about the same talent-wise (or maybe even better) last year, but because we have more time, with it being a class and all, we are able to accomplish more this year. So far, we’ve played Jammin’ with Charlie, Buffalo Head, Spring Fever, and Spring’s Awakening, all of which are from the easy-schmeasy beginning jazz book. The actual “real” songs we’ve played are Vehicle, In the Mood, and some ballad I can’t remember the name of . You can listen to Vehicle and In the Mood below.

Vehicle

In the Mood

Mr. Guess has decided that every Monday will be a listening day. This is where students can bring in jazz music, or he can select songs to be played, and that is what we get to do for the entire period. I enjoy this very much; some of the music played is really cool! This also allows for me to bring in the type of jazz that I like, while being exposed to new artists I would never have even heard about.

So that’s the latest on the jazz band. We’re planning on taking Chameleon out again, because everybody loved it so much two years ago. I can’t wait to learn new jazz literature!

It’s been while, …

… about a month. So where have I been? I’ve been busy starting a wedding music business. It is called “I Do” Weddingz, and is for people to get either me or Matthew (or both of us) to play piano/organ at their wedding. I made a website for it at www.ido-weddingz.com , and even have made business cards! The business card is pictured below.

Front                                                                Back

The website has been taking up the majority of my time, but I am almost finally done. Hopefully when everything is completely ready, I will be able to start playing for people’s weddings, and start rakin in da cash !

So that’s where I’ve been. Check in later for more blog posts!

Another One???!!!

Tropical Storm Hanna Stormtrack

There’s yet another storm headed towards the Florida area – Tropical Storm Hanna. By the looks of it, Hanna will be coming right through Florida unless a drastic turn is made (which has been happening frequently with these storms). Right now, we really can’t tell for sure where it’s headed, but we can guess. So there are two storms on their way to the gulf. Great . And we just took the boards down when Fay missed us, so we’ll probably end up having to put them up again. Well, on the bright side, we may get a day off of school!

Tropical Storm Hanna Spaghetti Models

Say Goodbye to Fay, and Hello to Gustav!

 

Now that Fay is gone, we got a new storm – Gustav. Gustav is already a hurricane, and is headed towards the gulf right now. The picture above says it all. With winds of 75 miles per hour, this storm qualifies as a category one hurricane. Apparently there is high pressure over Florida right now, so that will keep it away as long as its there. The high pressure is dwindling though, so by the time Gustav gets here, Florida could be suitable for Gustav to come through it. That would not be good, as it is expected to be a category three by that time. But right now, meteorologists aren’t very sure of Gustav’s course. Below is a spaghetti model, and right now, and there are no models with Florida as a destination, so that is great.

  Hopefully, we will not have to worry about this one…

Also, did you notice some changes on the top of this page? I added some new pages, and took off the wish list, so be sure to check it out!

School

Summer break is finally over, as I headed off to Seminole Middle Wednesday morning, the 20th of August. I didn’t know my schedule until five minutes before I had to be at my first class. When I got the schedule, I didn’t have band, so I knew already not to get used to the teachers yet. Yesterday, my mom called the school and gave the permission to switch me from French to band. My schedule is now as follows:

Yes, band is taking up two of my periods. For the first time ever, jazz band is a class, so we play every day! Thankfully I got Mrs. Whidden this year for MEGSSS, as opposed to the strict Mrs. Branch. I like most of my teachers, though it’s going to be hard getting used to 8 periods – one more than last year. Today we played for the first time in band and jazz band. We only played some long tones and exercises in band, but in jazz band we played Jammin’ with Charlie. It went pretty well; the jazz band is much larger than last year, so we got a big sound. So far, I’m enjoying my school day for the most part. Three days down, 177 to go!

On a side note, Tropical Storm Fay is still going through Florida and we recieved some rain and wind from it. From Bay News 9, here is a picture showing us and the bands of rain coming out from Fay:

Who knows? It could still go out into the Gulf and turn around to strike us!

Soon to be Hurricane Fay

 

 Image via the National Hurricane Center

Well, if you look closely, Hurricane Fay is supposed to be going directly over Pinellas County. We are prepared. Today, we got all of the boards from our storage unit and put most of them up. We got a battery-operated fan, because last time the power went out, we were kept up all night due to not having air conditioning. We also got a radio that uses batteries and can be cranked manually. And we have enough food to last us for a little while. My Dad’s thinking about getting a generator, as we could use it for a long time to power the camper after a hurricane passes. We also can always use the propane stove from our camper. Apparently, Fay will be a Category One by the time it gets to Florida, so it should not be too bad. We’re still not sure what the plan for school is. Right now, school is still scheduled to open Tuesday, August 19th, which is just when the hurricane will be prevalent. Personally, I would rather go to school. I’m looking forward to seeing my friends again, and finding out which teachers I will have. This year, jazz band will be a class, so I’m anticipating getting to play jazz every day. What allows jazz band to be a class is the fact that there will be eight periods instead of seven this year. The teachers aren’t very happy about that, because it means another set of kids, shorter planning period, and no pay increase.

To see satellite imagery, go here.

EDIT: The hurricane is now supposed to go east of us, but no one really knows where it’s going, so we still have to be ready. School is now officially closed, so there is one more day of summer.

Summer Jazz Band

I can’t believe I forgot to post about this! Summer Jazz Band just ended a week ago, and I’m sure gonna miss it.

Summer Jazz Band is a program at SPC college where we met every Tuesday and Thursday, played jazz music, and threw a concert together. Though the flyer said “middle school through adult,” I was basically the only non-college student in the advanced jazz band . Some of my friends from school did it to, but they chose the beginning jazz band opposed to the advanced one. During the practices, the director, Dave Pate, didn’t teach anything, we simply played music.

We played a huge selection of songs, including Sweet Georgia Brown, It Don’t Mean a Thing (If You ain’t got that Swing), and Mood Indigo. But that’s only the beginning, as we played around 30 songs total! We did some big band music, and some combo music (which I preferred). The reason I liked the combo music better was because I got to solo on all of them, which is always fun . At the very end, on the last day, Dave Pate pulled out a chart just for me: Chameleon! Chameleon was one of our songs for jazz band during my sixth grade year at Seminole Middle, and I still love it now.

So it was a great experience for me, in fact, I think my site-reading’s improved because of it. I plan to do it again next year!