Once Upon A Random Tuesday Morning

I daresay that as a writer (blogger, in this case), there is no greater feeling than knowing that people actually care enough about you and your ideas to take the time to read what you're writing. I become aware that people have read what I've written in various and sundry ways--someone will post a comment, ask me more about one of my humorous tales, or call me up to tell me they enjoyed my latest entry. I am thrilled by any of these occurrences. However, this morning I learned that someone had read what I wrote in one of the sweetest and most thoughtful ways possible.

About a month ago ("The Soundtrack of My Life") I wrote about how I was becoming a little bored and my life could use some spicing up. I mentioned that this could possibly be achieved by a major recording artist calling me up and telling me she wants to record my songs, or maybe a bouquet of flowers could arrive on my doorstep. I concluded that these kinds of things only happen on random Tuesday mornings when you're not looking for them, and I should just forget about excitement and get back to work. Anyway, now it is time to fast forward to this random Tuesday morning.

This Tuesday morning began as any other-I worked out, showered, made a couple of phone calls, and "looked forward" to beginning preparations for my Schubert presentation tomorrow. Just as I was about to sit down for my date with the King of Lieder himself, the doorbell rang. I peeked out just in time to see the FedEx man jogging back to his truck. I went outside to retrieve the package, thinking that my dad had probably called Triple A to order more maps of Alaska or something. To my surprise, I instead found a box containing a gorgeous bouquet of coral-colored roses, addressed to me!!! I have never in my life had flowers delivered to me, so you can imagine that this was quite a thrill. I'm pretty sure I haven't stopped smiling the whole day. :-) I am so touched that a friend from most of the way across the country would care enough to make my fictional ponderances come true, right down to the "random Tuesday morning." So to my loyal blog reader and friend, I hope you know that you truly made the day/week of this crazy stressed-out girl up in MN. Thank you for being so incredibly thoughtful!

TIHL #8 How To Make Decisions

This week has been declared "Minnesota Music Therapy Week" by our governor. We, the Music Therapy Student Association, have been doing our best to publicize this historic event. I'm not quite sure who decided that buying "Thank You" plants for our music therapy professors was included in the MTSA Vice-Presidential duties, but it appears that this is so. Clearly they were not aware that I am the Vice-President.

I am a terrible decision maker. It's not that I make bad decisions, it's just that I generally take until the 12th of Never to make them. I always feel the need to consider every option over and over again. You can imagine that being sent off with only the MTSA budget and the instructions to "buy a plant" caused me a mild version of distress. (I also was instructed to buy two thank-you cards, but my adventures in Hallmark are a whole different story.)

First, there was some debate as to whether said plants were going to be grocery store quality or flower shop quality. I eventually settled on going to the Bachman's area inside of Byerly's. (I may be a terrible decision maker, but I am a great compromiser.) After perusing the selection of violets, azaleas, daisies, calla lilies, and a host of other polysyllabic flowers whose names I couldn't even pronounce, let alone remember, I finally had it narrowed down to two. I debated and debated. I compared prices. I walked back and forth between the two plants until I was bleary-eyed. I used my "phone-a-friend" life line to ask for advice. She told me to go with my instincts.

Nearly a full 40 minutes later, I strode toward the cashier with the confidence of someone who had just selected the ideal thank-you plant. As I set my soon-to-be purchases on the counter, the cashier looked down with a somewhat dubious expression and said "My, those plants certainly are interesting." "They're new," I volunteered. "Do you think they're too weird?" "Well, they're very interesting. I hope whoever you give them to will enjoy them." It's lucky that I have such a good sense of humor, or I probably would have cried, or maybe taken out the cashier. Instead, I laughed half of the way home. I can hardly wait to give my professors their Red Mangroves.

TIHL #7 How to Attract Normal Men

I have been thinking about statistics alot lately. Don't ask me why, but subjects such as normal curves, one way ANOVAs, and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficients just keep popping up in my consciousness. I am mostly kidding, of course. I have been thinking about statistics lately, but only in the sense that I feel I have a very small statistical likelihood of ever meeting the right person. Allow me to explain my very scientifically-based position.

It all starts off well enough. Three kinds of men are attracted to me, and I am attracted to three kinds of men. The men who are attracted to me and seek me out can mostly be grouped into the following three categories: 1) Geriatrics/Socially-awkward 50-year-olds, 2) Adolescents, and 3) Guys who are at least 4 times nerdier than I am. (Which is saying quite a bit, since I'm not exactly swimming in coolness myself....) Since I would tend to object to most of these sorts of relationships on moral, legal and "shudder factor" grounds, that pretty much leaves me to do all the work in terms of finding someone. This is ok, because when it comes to love, I have always been one to go after what I want. (Ok, it hasn't gone at all well for me to this point...but statistically, it should if I just keep trying...)

The first type of man I am attracted to is the slightly introverted,deep-thinking, super-intelligent philosopher. I've always been fascinated by people with unique ideas and large vocabularies. This type of man seems brilliant, unreachable, mysterious. I like that. The problem with these type of men is that this brilliance is often accompanied by a certain degree of "over-seriousness." I love to have philosophical conversations. Sometimes. And sometimes I want to talk about American Idol, the ridiculous hat I saw someone wearing on the bus, the relative merits of an all-pink wardrobe, or chocolate milk. Sometimes I want to stop thinking and just be hands-down goofy. Sometimes I want to talk about things that don't matter. This was the cause of my first and only real break-up. There's got to be a balance somewhere.

The second type of man I am attracted to is "the musician." (Bonus points for percussionists) These guys are driven, passionate, and usually very quirky. They understand my passion, my hobby, my future career. They'll go with me to see the orchestra play, belt out some song playing on the car radio, and dazzle me with their own performances. They'll reminisce about being a band nerd in high school. Yes, these guys usually know where I'm coming from. Occasionally, they tend to be 1) Too cocky 2) Too self-focused or 3) Only interested in girls who are as super-talented as they are. However, the biggest problem I've found with these guys so far is that they just don't seem to be interested in me.

The third kind of man I'm attracted to is not really a type, although if I had to make up a type, I guess I'd call it the "Christian Camp Counselor." These guys are solid in their faith, they've thought about what they believe and why, and they are actively trying to live the life that God has planned for them. They don't have to believe exactly the same things that I do, so long as we're close to being on the same page. Unfortunately, there are possibly two or three guys in my age range at church, and I refuse to change churches just so I can meet people.

I think that what I really need is an intellectual, musical, Christian goofball. Throw in a few bonus characteristics such as 1)Doesn't mind that I fear/detest animals and hope I never have one in my house, 2) Able to be mostly calm/rational since I tend be a little alarmist sometimes, and 3)completely random and off-the-wall at least 11% of the time, and we've got it made! Statistically, I would say there aren't many out there, but in my overly-romantic mind, I'm still optimistic I'll find one. And with my luck, he'll be 76. :-)

A Week of Firsts

I know, I know, it has been way too long since I have attempted to entertain my loyal online readers. I have started a number of semi-interesting ponderences, however nothing is quite ready to be viewed by the general public. So what, you may ask, have I been up to in the meantime? I have to say it has been a week of firsts, some more exciting than others. So here is my list, in no particular order:

1) I accidentally drove my car over a median for the first time. I tell you, it's the hesitation that will do you in!

2) I played my first successful rock groove on a drum set, complete with a small and lame fill. :-)

3) I spent tonight trying to reenact music videos with my sister as we played the ABBA Gold! DVD special. We did our best to copy their exact choreography. I've certainly never done that before...

4) I saw the "fuel empty" light on my car for the first time. Until I saw this, I erroneously thought my fuel tank contained 10 gallons instead of the 11 that it actually holds. Good to know.

5) I both went running and wore sandals for the first time of the season. Yay for summer!

Yes, it's been an exciting week. Next week is State-wide Music Therapy Week and should prove to be even more interesting. Be sure to give hugs and flowers to all your favorite music therapists!

TIHL #6 How to Win Things

I consider myself to be pretty good at games, or at least the ones that require mental power rather than physical coordination. (Don't even try to talk to me about when I played basketball and soccer, it wasn't pretty.)This weekend, however, I managed to lose 1 game of Cranium, 1 game of Nertz, 3 games of 500, 1 game of Scrabble, 3 games of Blockus, and a Kareoke Revolution battle versus my sister. In fact, despite the fact that I spent the entirety of my weekend leisure time playing games, I did not win a single thing. I'm pretty sure that I didn't even beat the 65-year old choir lady in the recessional race around the altar at church. Oh well, this doesn't even bother me since I am not at all competitive. It's not like any of my friends have ever nicknamed me "The Game Nazi" or anything....

The Soundtrack of my Life

If you've ever talked to me for longer than 10 or 15 minutes, it is probably not news to you that I have a soundtrack to my life. Thank goodness that this is (according an article I read in the Reader's Digest a couple days ago) completely normal. Said article also stated that if you have a song running through your head for awhile, maybe you should pay attention to the message it is trying to reveal. I opted to use this strategy with a song I have been singing for the past week or so, but as hard as I tried, I just could not discern any deeper meaning out of "Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal..." (Other than the fact that one might just hear this song a bit too often when one works with older people).

For the past couple days though, I have been stuck on the song "What's New Buenos Aires?" from the musical Evita. The specific line that I can't get out of my head is the one that goes "Bad is good for me, I'm bored! So clean and so ignored, I've only been predictable, respectable....". I wouldn't say that this line describes my current state of mind exactly, but I can definitely identify. I've always been a little bit predictable, in fact to the extent that I predictably do unpredictable things just so no one can accuse me of being predictable. This mindset leads me to such foolish acts as getting myself kicked out of 3 daycares and a Montessori school at age 3, (yeah, I started early), dancing on the countertops of Florida souvenir shops, and streaking the Gustavus arboretum (which I never did, in case anyone asks :-)). I think it's good for me to do things that are just slightly out of character in order to keep life interesting.

My life hasn't been exactly uninteresting lately, but I do think I'm ready for a healthy dose of spice. It wouldn't have to be anything drastic, maybe just an anonymous bouquet of daisies on my doorstep, a call from a famous singer who wants to sing my songs, or a visit from those Publisher's Clearinghouse guys. Ok, maybe those are all a little bit drastic, how about just encountering an intriguing stranger who will remedy the fact that my life is completely devoid of romantic prospects? A little excitement now and then never hurt anyone...

The problem with all of these scenarios is that I can't really do anything about any of them. All of these things are of the sort that only happen randomly on a Tuesday morning in October when all you're thinking about is getting your toast out of the toaster before it burns to a crisp. Since October is still a ways off, I might as well just keep on truckin'. Afterall, I have 3 jillion papers to write, presentations to do, and Schubert to analyze. In the meantime, if something exciting does has happen to show up, I'm certainly not looking....