"surreal world"

And once again I must touch on a running theme in my blogs and my life. That "Hey, wha happened?" feeling that I seem to have about my environment around me. Sometimes I feel like I get through weird experiences and adjustments by putting this "filter" up so I don't freak out at stuff.

I've been at home, with all the modern conveniences of home. Mom drags me to the mall to go shopping a lot, she likes that. I've been organizing all my crap, washing clothes, washing my car (it was suuuuuper dirty from this summer, inside and out), and trying to get things set up for the upcoming school year.

Mom and I have been getting along surprisingly well. I sort of freaked out when I found out she wanted me to visit relatives for a week and then be home for a week, but we haven't had any arguments yet. She bought me dark purple curtains for my bedroom to block out the sunlight, and a "sleep mate", a little machine that makes a "wooshing" noise and filters the air. It's supposed to block out a lot of outside noises. I wonder if it'll block out construction noise, drunk people at the biergarten next door, and my neighbor's domestic disputes. That would be way cool.

I decided to entirely forego my plans to go to Berlin next spring. By the time I would do all the extra German tutoring to pass the proficiency test, and would scrape together the money to go, I realized there would be little time to actually practice my horn this year. And the whole point of the the trip was to get better at trombone, so the process defeats the purpose.

Instead I'll stay in the states this year, I'm planning to record an audition CD for Sisters in Jazz when I get back to school, and audition for Disneyland (again), and pull some strings to get connected with a cruise ship band. And practice a lot, as always.

Oh! And I have a new resolution for this school year: I'm going to stay organized! Ok guys, please don't fall on the floor. I'm getting a hanging file box for all my papers, instead of letting them pile up on my desk. And I'm going to keep bills and receipts, and balance my checkbook so I don't overdraw my account ever again. And I'm going to get one of those big planners with the hours of the day for every day, so I can plan my day out instead of sleeping till noon and wasting lots of time.

One thing that has changed. I really enjoyed sobering up this summer, I cleared my head and generally feel better, so I probably won't be going out and getting shitfaced all the time like before. It's a goal of mine to not go to class drunk/hungover all the time this year. But you guys know how well I do with peer pressure......

Anyway, I was going to move back Sunday, August 4th, but now it's been moved back to Saturday, August 3rd. I do look forward to returning, but life will be so different.