I had my cat put to sleep today. Her name was Bubbles. I slept next to this cat every day for the past 18 years. I will think about her every day for as long as I live.

Wow, it's been a year since I blogged! What happenings! What stories I have! What... nah, I got nothing. It's just been the same old crap.

I'd say the biggest news is that I am doing fine now, and there is no trace of colon cancer at all. (not that I can afford checkups while being uninsured) My grandma had a stroke, but it was just a little one and most likely brought on by stress, so she's doing fine now.

Oh yeah, last summer I broke my foot literally in HALF. I was laid up for weeks waiting for that to heal. Now it's fine, but that foot doesn't give me any trouble anymore, it is the other one that hurts like it was broken! How wierd is that!

I feel as if I need to reconnect with some of the special people from my past, so if you recieved a PM or journal comment from me, if you want you can contact me on my yahoo, or by journal comment here or by priveate message. I may have not been in contact with you, but don't think for a minute that I forgot about you!

Favorite movies I watched this past year (not neccessarily new): Eragon, 300, Coneheads, Gilbert Grape, Mask, FInal Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Blade trilogy, Private Lessons.

Favorite TV shows I watched this year: South Park, Root of All Evil, How it's Made, Two and a Half Men, Scrubs, House, Rescue Me

Favorite books this year: Ringworld, The Integral Trees, To All Your Scattered Bodies Go, Crashlander, The Lost Years of Merlin, Eragon, The Alphabet of Manliness, ect.

So, I've been checking the boards with some frequency lately, and I've been reading journals. I'm working on being a better friend! Honest!

The same old crap has beeh happening, so not much is new. I DID break my foot about six months ago. It's a wonder how little you walk around when it's allowed to heal on it's own, as a result of no medical insurance...

I've been playing a lot of diablo 2 expansion online lately.

A recent thread in the boards got me to thinking. When I first heard about gay marriage, I was against it for reasons I still don't understand to this day. Then I moved on to being against it for tax reasons, then I moved on to being against it because if the "slippery slope" argument. After sitting down and thinking about it for quite awhile, I have come to the conclusion that there is no viable legal or moral reason why gays should not get married.

From now on I say, have at it!

Recital went great. Best I've ever played in front of people.

I have to enroll for classes still and get my moolah situation for college rolled out. Other than that, everything is fine. Although it is getting steadily hotter everyday.

Recital is at 3:00 today. I'm nervous!

Still need to get clothes. Thinking about a blue dress shirt with black pants.

The recital is set for May 15 or May 16. I'm working on an arrangement of Hogwarts' March for our little quartet!

So, now that we are fully in the new year, I have boring, interesting, disturbing, and exciting news to report.

(Boring News) I have once again fallen in love with Star Wars books. I've found that I can download them in the form of .lit files that can be played on Microsoft Reader. The computer reads the book and you just listen! Quite handy once you get used to the monotone computer generated man's voice. (Yes, I'm downloading them illegally, but since I've owned them before, I don't see it as being so illegal. I'm "backing up" my "lost" books, and the ones I used to have, but threw away.)

(Interesting news) As of yesterday, I applied to UMKC (University of Missouri/Kansas City) I will be studying (once again, hopefully the last time) to become a music teacher. My private lessons teacher will be Dr. Thomas Stein, Professor of Euphonium and Tuba. I don't have much hope in succeeding at it, but I'm going to audition on bass trombone for the jazz band. The reason I don't have much hope is because I haven't played a bass trombone in two years!

(Disturbing news) Also, I'm taking two classes this semester that I can't stand: Human anatomy and botany. All we've done so far is review shit from Biology! I'll try my best to pass them, but I still hate them. Along with these two classes, I'm taking a double dose of euphonium lessons. This won't be so hard, for reasons I'm about to tell you...

(Exciting news) Right now the plans are tentative, but I will possibly be sharing a recital with a quite lovely Horn player in April. I will play the euphonium, while my fellow brass player will be playing the horn. (Links added to end confusion over what a euphonium is to the brass-challenged) I've got a lovely idea for the two of us. I've found Mozart's Twelve Duets for two Horns to be well within my abilities, so I'll be pitching that idea to my teacher this friday. We possibly might add our teacher, a fellow trumpet player and a tuba player and play some brass quintet music at the recital too. I'll be playing three pieces, Rondo by Claude Smith, Pantomime by Philip Sparke, and either the Franz Danzi Bassoon Concerto or the Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov Trombone Concerto. I can't wait, and I'll be sure to keep everyone here updated on our progress towards making this a fun and challenging event. In the event that it takes place, I'll try to convince m0unds to let me put some of the pieces we play on his site so people can listen to them!

New avatar! The book in his claws says "Diseases of the Claw and Egg Sac." (No, I didn't make it!)

This is the longest journal entry I've ever posted. If you read the whole thing, I'll give you a kiss!