Spring Break Finale

Back in Florida after a few restful days in Virginia! I got to see my family - including my niece and nephew - and friends and sleep a lot and see my doctor and fun stuff like that. It wasn't even that cold until Thursday, when I flew out. It was hovering beneath freezing yesterday. But the other days were really beautiful. I found out that I'm not nearly as good at chess as I thought I was. I got to do homemaking stuff like cooking several times and mending a couple tears in my boyfriend's clothes. It was nice.

Last Wednesday (the 5th), my choir director from back home was in Florida so he took me out to dinner. Super nice! It was really great to see him and I got to show him my new bike and the school. His wife sent down with him a pack of 90 EmergenC packets for me, so I've been working on drinking them. He even got to meet Josh briefly. There's something especially fun about someone coming to see me down here that is different than going home to see people. Although both are great of course.

I got really sick that night and couldn't go to class Thursday. That was really stressful because I missed a midterm, a chapel performance, a band party, and a friend's recital. But I couldn't get out of bed and slept the whole day. But Josh cleaned up my bathroom for me until it sparkled and a professor brought me soup and bread and gatorade which I thought was super nice. I felt much, much better the next day, thanks to the rest, prayers and kind services. :)

On Friday night, Josh took me to see "The Wind Rises" which was amazing. I loved it. We laughed and we cried. The animation, music, story - everything was amazing. I really want to see it again, it was so good. It was about the Japanese aviation engineer who designed the bombers that they used to bomb Pearl Harbor. We hear so much about America (obviously, being Americans) that it is really interesting to get a different perspective on that time and try to understand more of what was going on outside of the west.

I found out some really sad news right as I was leaving Virginia last night... George Donaldson, one of the original five members of Celtic Thunder, died of a heart attack Wednesday night. This was really, really sad for me on a personal level because of how much that group has meant to me, especially when I was a teenager. Their songs were very meaningful for me, and I always thought of George Donaldson as being the "father figure" in the group. It was really shocking to hear of his sudden death and my heart goes out to his 13-year-old daughter, Sarah, and his wife, Carolyn. :-/ My grandfather died of a heart attack when I was 16 and George singing "The Old Man" was something very special to me at the time. I will always fondly remember the time I got to see them in concert with Colleen on my 17th birthday.

Before Monday, I have to write at least half of a 15-page paper, finish memorizing a Chopin nocturne, get a Scarlatti sonata "in my hands," and perform in a concert on Saturday. I also have a lot of reading to do. I kind of want to wash my sheets and get unpacked too. I feel like my break went by so quickly, but that's okay. I'm really looking forward to summer.  I'm just a whirlwind of thoughts and memories and plans and ideas and stress... lots to think about.