Blog posts will be few and far between for a while, at least until I finish my summer class. Fall semester shouldn't be as crazy, because though I'll be taking two (3??) classes, they'll be spread out over the entire semester rather than only seven weeks. I only have a few weeks left, but that means that projects are due, and of course, there's still the regular reading assignments as well. Gah.

Somehow, I still managed to read a book for fun, (I think I just force myself to so that I don't go insane), Anderson Cooper's "Dispatches from the Edge". It's a memoir of some of his on-site experience, and is one of the most honest, heart-felt books I have ever read. It's books like that (others include Barack Obama's "Dreams from my Father" and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris) that inspire me to write my own personal essays. I haven't done much...but if I do start the second blog I've briefly mentioned, I think that's the tone I would like it to take. I love to read strong, personal memoirs.

Since then, I've started "Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque" by H.C. Robbins Landon. It's pretty interesting so far, and Vivaldi is one of my favorite composers, the Baroque period perhaps my favorite style of classical music. It's not as dense as I originally thought it would be, so that's nice.

Haven't had much time to work on my own writing, but I will in just a few weeks. Ideas keep popping up, though, so my little notebook is getting its pages filled!

Two Beethoven rehearsals have gone by. I cannot wait for this concert. I know it's going to be awesome. The 9th, Egmont, and Ah! Pefido. Kick-ass. Double kick-ass.

And randomly: since I started working out in college, I vowed that I would never be one of those people who gets really cranky when they can't make it to the gym. Well, it's happened. I've been sick since Saturday, and therefore haven't been to the gym since, and it's putting me in a really crappy mood at time. I've got nothing more than a cold, really, but trying to do the treadmill or elliptical when breathing isn't so easy probably isn't the best idea. (And inhaling all that recycled gym air...ick.) So since I don't actually feel sick, I've gone biking and taken my dog for some long walks just to get moving (which I desperately need after sitting in summer school meetings in the morning, and then class or rehearsal at night). I'm biking with an orchestra friend tomorrow, but I'm hoping to get back to the gym Friday morning. Let's hope so.

Time to sleep. My cousin and his girlfriend are visiting from SanFrancisco for a couple weeks, so family obligations are adding up in the coming days too. Busy busy. :-)