The big day! (day three)

Saturday=competition day. I have pictures this time but they are all out of order so I'm going to tell about my day and then you can look at the pictures. We met bright and early in the square to play some tunes with a couple other bands for the entertainment of the general public. Then it was off to the fairgrounds for the actual competition. Mass bands (which is where all the bands play all together and there are about 150 of us marching down a field.) was at noon and the games were officially started. after that, we had a lunch break and the band ordered pizza. I was so hungry, I ate three gigantic slices! I felt like a pig but it was sooo good! Then I took mother to look at some of the vendors selling their celtic wares. I've been saying i wanted a skindig (dagger that slides into your sock) for a while and she always says how dumb that sounds. but once she saw all the other pipers wearing them and saw them for sale, she wanted to buy me one, haha! I didn't see one I really liked there so i'm going to wait on that one. Then it was time for the march medley! we warmed up and tuned for about an hour and then marched onto the field and played. Its quite exciting to compete- everything you have been practicing and working for all year comes together in that short but very long five minutes and you can see the judges walking around the circle out of the corner of your eye. after that there was another bit of a break and then it was time for quick march medley. I wasn't going to play in this one but DeAnne had me play her pipes for warm up so keep hers in tune while she worked on everybody else's. One big problem with this. DeAnne is short. which means her pipes are small. Well her blow pipe is, anyway. I had to scrunch my head down to reach it and it kept popping out of my mouth and every time it did, i bit my lip. ouch! so then I watched them march off and play. after that, there was some time to relax, wander around, and then back to the pipes for another mass bands and then finding out what the scores were. We placed third in both medleys. which isn't bad but it isn't great either. my band consistently places third in every competition. But the important thing is that we get better than the last time we played and we have a bucket load of fun doing it. And we did :) so thats alright. Once we got back to the hotel, we got in the hot tub, showered, and went into town for some shopping and eating. Jackson hole has some great shops, but everything is stupid overpriced! So we had fun looking but didn't buy anything. There's this one antique shop that had crazy expensive things. They had this bowl of rings just sitting out on the counter and one of them was a $2300 ring! yeah, just sitting out where you could pick it up and put it on. crazy. Well we finally made it to a resteraunt around 8:30 and the wait to be seated was over a half hour. but it looked like a really good place so we waited. Its called The Merry Piglets. It a mexican place and they have murals of pigs on all the walls. ha, kinda funny. it was fun though. ok, enough narrating. look at pictures now.
this place had a bunch of cool artistic sculptures. Mom really like bears and mooses. I'm not sure why but if anything has a moose on it, mom likes it. And bears. So she made me get a picture with this artisticly shaped bear.

Outside the cool restaurant we went to. the food was delicious! and i made another discovery. turns out chipotle sauce is spicy. I didn't know that before. I do now.

This picture was actually taken at the end of the day just before we headed back to the hotel.






mass bands!



warming up for competition.


this was in the morning, warming up for our little performance in the park. I think my mom took a lot of pictures of this because I was standing next to a large metal moose. or maybe it was an elk. whatever.



playing at the park

Friday (or day two)

Ok, no pictures for this one either. Friday was relatively uneventful. Mom and I, packed up Elektra and headed off for Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The drive there was nothing really special until we got into Star Valley- the home town of one of my very best friends, Ashley Watkins! I called her as soon as I got there but she works in Jackson so she was waiting for us there. Also, we stopped at the cheese factory and bought some cheese and fudge. This is where we made a DISCOVERY! It turns out huckleberry fudge and cheese go fantastically together! no joke. I'm not even kidding. Its delicious. It tones down the sickly sweet of the fudge so you can actually taste the flavor better. Love it! Ok, on to Jackson. After checking in at our Hotel which was super easy to find, thank goodness, we met up with Ashley for dinner and then it was time for band practice. It went well except for one great big disapointment- DeAnne (the pipe major) asked me to sit out for the timed medley. Dangit! oh well, at least I still got to play in the march medley. After that, mom and I wandered around Jackson a bit but pretty much everything in Jackson closes at about nine. Lame, yeah? Ok, here's the depressing serious business. This is at the end of my stupid long post so only my serious loyal readers will get to see it. Remember the confusing crazy obnoxious guy mentioned before? I don't know if I said before, his name is Matt. Well I've been feeling for a long time its time to end things for good. Well officially, anyway. I think they were ended (on my part, anyway) we just hadn't said anything. Well I asked to him to call me that night and we had a talk. So now, it is, without a shadow of a doubt, finished. It kind of sucks, even now, I'm feeling a melancholy loss even though I would never in a million years go back. I feel good about it but I do still care about the guy, dangit. why does that have to happen?? So i'm sad, relieved, concerned, and still have a little lingering frustration about it. Still not quite back to my old carefree self but I'm sure I'll get there in time.

Day one

Ok, here it goes. I'm going to break up my weekend my days so it won't be so overwhelming to write. Or to read, for that matter. And since the first part of my adventures has no pictures, I will write about it now :) how does that sound? good.
So In case some of you didn't know, I happen to play the bagpipes and I am in a bagpipe band called The Utah Pipe Band- and every year we compete all over the place. One of the places we compete is Jackson Hole! Usually I just mooch a ride off somebody in the band but this is the first year I have had a car and I thought- hey. I have a car, that means I could drive!- but I didn't want to make the five hour drive up to Jackson all on my lonesome to I got a member of the band, Carlos (who is a recent high school graduate who thinks i'm the wierdest person on earth) to come with my but two days before he bailed. So I gave in and decided to mooch a ride and go with Ellie and Claudia which I was not looking forward to. Let me tell you something about Ellie and Claudia. They are two older women who play tenor drum together and they never. stop. talking. They are both very sweet nice ladies but if complaing were a sport, they could get gold medals! I think they just do it because it gives them something to talk about. Also, they were leaving super really early in the morning and I am a firm believer in sleeping in. SO. At the last minute, I magically somehow got my mom to come with me! that is right. The night before my trip, mother decided she would tag along so that we could take my car and sleep in a little bit. Problem solved! and that is that. for now.

lame sauce internet

So. I was going to post an epic post about my epic weekend BUT. Blogger is having issues and will not upload any of my pictures. So that will have to wait. Just know that it is coming!

After Much Deliberation

So after the weeks of endless conflicting emotions, frustration, and craziness I have given a previous mentioned boy "the boot" so to speak. I'm not even sure if thats the right term but basically I told him we are done. Of course I have told him that before and we got right back but this time I mean it! For really reals. And since I have now blogged about it, it is final. there.

Rant.

So for the past several weeks not much has been going on in the way of interesting events that I have taken pictures of. In fact, my camera has remained in the same spot on top of the piano for at least a month or two. But quite a lot has been going on emotionally and mentally. The poor people who live with me are forced to hear about it just about every day because I am a big whiner pants. After the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that boys are not good for ones emotional and mental health and wellbeing. They are infuriating, frustrating and most of all- confusing. What kind of guy holds your hand and then tells you he doesn't want to be in a relationship then doesn't talk to you for a week and then decides he does want to be in a relationship but he can't see you that night because he's going out with another girl????? And then he says I love you but only in text even after I asked him not to. This is just a very small glimpse of the confusion of the past few weeks. I realized I haven't blogged in a while and I know this is not much of a post but its what has been going on lately. Thank you for reading.

Okay, this new blog background is very cool except that is says Happy thanksgiving on the side. So just ignor that part, please. Its really not a thanksgiving background- its just trying to trick you!