The life of a Harpist

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:11:35 GMT

my turtles are surely the craziest reptiles in the state. at the moment, coyote is trying to eat the medicine block, loki is swimming into the walls, kali is peering out of the hole in the plastic log thing, and hermes is swimming in the pump stream that shoots straight up in the corner. they're such odd little creatures. and i love them so. even if some of them are slightly retarded.

i made a mint chocolate cake last night for amy, and it was amazing. now don't you wish you were here to eat it?

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:35:06 GMT

yes, i know it's been a while. since last time....

i graduated, sort of. i got to walk and wear a black dress and funny hat, but i still have to take latin 201. twice a week, at night. not so bad. dr. tiner is teaching it, so that much is cool.

i'm working full-time at the harp shop. i get covered in harp shit every day, and i am now sneezing black stuff. maybe i ought to wear a face mask.... i got to fix a harp that was biult in 1798! massively cool, but horribly filthy. it is now gorgeous, of course.

i saw my family waaaaay too much. the apartment is a haven of awesomeness. i read dozens of books, some serious and some not. i practiced harp a lot, finally playing all the songs i want to play.

i have four turtles. their names are loki, shiva, hermes, and coyote. anyone who can tell me what those four names have in common gets a prize. they're such adorable little turtles, swimming around all day. they love dried shrimp, but they're not too fond of their turtle pellets. gotta work on that.

i went to ellen's wedding, which was fabulous.

i went to twinsburg, ohio, for the creepiest convention ever. twinsdays. i took my sisters. picture a park with 5,000 twins walking around in perfect synchronization.... dresed identically. i went into a corner and hid....

i learned how to cook. really cook, not just make ramen and macaroni and cheese. in fact, i am going to be making dinner for a whole bunch of friends tonight. i made gingerbread people. mine has a harp.

oh, and i got engaged. arlie and i are going to get married in a couple of years!

that is all.

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 17:58:56 GMT

I hate Christmas

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 23:31:16 GMT

it seems everyone else at the shop has had some kind of major crisis this summer. one gilder is stuck in france again for visa problems. the other gilder has had some pretty serious stuff going on with her kids, which keeps her from work a lot. todd, the wood-worker, had two grandparents and a parent die this summer. and cheryl, the lady who paints the soundboards, was diagnosed with breast cancer and thyroid cancer at the same time. as a result, i've gotten way the hell ahead of everyone with actions. usually, i fix an action, polish it up and put it on the harp. then i put the harp together and regulate it. but.... there are no harps to be put together. they're all in pieces waiting gold or paint or new base frames or something. there are a whole bunch of actions siting on the shelf right now. the most i've ever been ahead before is two. at the moment, there are no fewer than six completely done and ready to go on harps. i'll have another finished tomorrow and another next week. i guess it's a good thing, because once school starts i won't be able to work nearly as much. that'll give everyone else time to catch up with my lightning-fast screwing abilities! apparently, i have a real talent for screwing...

spam

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 22:59:30 GMT

i've gotten several emails from Anne Hathaway in the past couple of days. she keeps asking, "sexy baby and bad erection?" i think she's coming on to me.

it's so hot here that we had to suspend a bunch of jobs in the shop. we couldn't lacquer, we couldn't size, we couldn't make gesso or bole, we couldn't even keep strings in tune to regulate. so now i am covered in red clay-stuff from the buffing wheel. it's iscky and i'm off to shower.

go me!

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 22:50:30 GMT

two major achievements within the past week:
i can play the Celtic Concerto the whole way through! everything, without stopping. that's twenty minutes of music memorized, eight movements total. and it's jigs and ballads and reels and all kinds of really cool (really hard on the harp) stuff. i rock!

and....
i now officially pass the Presidential Fitness Challenge. i can do the sit-ups, the puch-ups, the sit and reach. i can run a mile in under ten minutes. all of it. i roll!

i rock! and roll! all night long.... sweet suzie. ehehehehehehe....

my heart will go on...

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 23:09:22 GMT

i mean that quite literally. i went to the doctor and he says my heart rate is down and my blood pressure is up. both of these are good things. very good things. they did an echocardiogram, too. apparently, my intake-outake flux ratio is improved, whatever that means. now i just have to get back in shape and keep taking my medicine. i'm not gonna die! i don't need a transplant! i don't need any reparative surgery! i can pick up gabby!

i was so happy i cried when i found out.

i also saw the second Pirates of the Carribean (Caribbean?) movie today with Arlie. it's awesome. everyone should see that movie. go. i command you.

i have a blister

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 14:23:42 GMT

i played a gig for dr. kim last night. the choral union was having a fund raiser, "Choral Beach" and i got to play background music while everyone was eating dinner. the whole cafateria was decorated like a luau (i hope that's how it's spelled.... you know, a hawaiian party thing) with a ton of stuff. people kept trying to get me leid, but i wouldn't wear one. stupid plastic things are itchy. i was standing in the corner watching everyone come in and this one old guy kept staring at me and looking at me.... and then he jumped and screamed. for some odd reason, he thought i was a mannequin, until i moved. some of those people were drinking waaaaaay too much. the food was really good and i got to hang out with Tracy and Emmanuel and Mrs. Miller and all the other cool food people who are still here. the choral union sang after dinner. Dr. Kim trying to sing Beach Boys is one of the funniest things i have ever heard. it was almost as bad as him trying to sing Porgy from Porgy and Bess. they also had a hawaiian shirt contest. never again in my life do i want to see that many old men strutting around and pretending to strip; i saw far too many saggy, wrinkly, hairy, pale chests and thighs and potbellies.

i'm house-sitting for Howard and Betty now. they have directv and a really big screen. if i didn't have to write a paper, i'd be sitting in front of that thing and watching endless hours of mind-numbing frivolity. i did see something awesome on there last night, though. somebody is making a new show that basically a cross between the oc, girls gone wild..... and Jaws! it's called Spring Break SHARK ATTACK!!!! OMG!! teh shark is in de water!!1! oh noooooooooos! it's hysterical. the funniest part is, it's not a comedy! "there's blood in the water! we're going to have to stop having sex in the ocean, bobby!" "i popped your cherry in the water, susie. i guess the shark is going to eat us now.... can i get a bj first?" kekeke. that's going to be the funniest show ever.

watch this video

Wed, 24 May 2006 02:45:39 GMT

http://www.hrc.org/voteno/voteno/video.htm

pleeeeeeease go here.

Tue, 23 May 2006 18:50:33 GMT

i was talking to a guy after class today. he's a really nice guy, a retired mail-man. he reads everything. somehow or other, the subject of gay marriage came up. i was telling him of how jerry falwell and his sheep like to use the Bible as a reason against homosexuality. they like to quote the passage in Matthew 19 where Jesus says,
4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'[b]? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." but mike pointed out something interesting. later on in that same chapter, it says,
10The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."
11Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage[c]because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

..."Some are eunuchs because they were born that way"... let's see, a eunuch back then referred to a man who was sexually impotent with a woman.... isn't there another group of people who are not sexually attracted to women....? here's proof that Jesus accepted gay people and gay marriage.

yay!

harping and harpling

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 16:23:33 GMT

everybody left yesterday and the dorm is insanely quiet now. i played for a lady's wedding last night, out in the middle of NOWHERE! i swear, i was driving down dirt roads past cows and shit for half an hour, wodering where in the hell i was. but i finally found the church and played my harp and it was all pretty. it was very different from my sister's wedding. the bride's dress didn't look like it was about to eat her, the groomsmen didn't look close to dying from the heat, the aisle didn't take five hours to walk down, the father of the bride didn't get chocolate all over his fingers, the mother of the bride wasn't wearing bright-ass red toenail polish in deliberate protest of it all. it was a very nice wedding. the aisle was so short, in fact, that i barely started playing the wedding march when they were at the altar. nice! and then they finished and i left.

on the way back, i stopped at walmart and got enough frozen chicken pot pies to last me the week (they're only 40 cents each, it's great) and a memory card for amy's gamecube. and i spent the rest of the night playing animal crossing. at last, i have succumbed to the pull of the video game. *sigh* oh well. it was a good fight while it lasted. i fear i shall forever more be a vigit, a video idiot.

i hate thanksgiving

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 01:54:52 GMT

yeah, i know i haven't updated in a really long time. but that's too bad for you!

thanksgiving break sucked. it always sucks. ever since i graduated high school, something terrible always happens over thanksgiving. and it sucks. but i think this year was the worst of all.

i left here tuesday afternoon and proceeded to drive for more than six hours. i only live two hours from school. there were a lot of detours and side-stops and dropping people off and then jamie and i accidentally went to petersburg on our way to new kent. surprisingly enough, though, the drive was actually fun. daniel didn't say much, but arlie kept me calm and jamie kept me entertained and supplied with sugar. so no worries there.

wednesday morning, kevin dislocated his knee in gym class. so he was on crutches all weekend. on crutches and my responsibility.

wednesday afternoon, cheryl's dog (mr. buddy love) got his paw injured on some wire and bled so much neighbors called the cops about the blood all over the sidewalk. buddy was at our house all weekend, limping pitifully on his left paw and being annoyed by kevin's dog. poor puppy.

wednesday evening, i helped my dad cart two couches over to the school where dinner was going to be served. with 67 people expected, there was no way we could have it in our house. we set off the alarm at the school and the cops showed up. then i slipped while carrying one couch up stairs and my dad kept pushing and the thing landed on my knees. pain. lots of it.

wednesday night, tommy's house got broken into. the losers stole a bunch of shit, but left the computers, tv, dvd player, gamecube, games, etc. in the house.

thursday morning, i burnt my hand while taking something out of the microwave. second to third degree burn on my fourth finger. it still hurts.

i spent the entire day cooking and then washing dishes. but that was actually voluntary, so i didn't have to interact with my relatives.

thursday night, tommy's house got broken into again. tommy and his housemates had taken all their valuables out of the house already. this time, the assholes just messed shit up and damaged things.

at some point on friday, the kids who broke into the house started beating on tommy's car with baseball bats. tommy, being the neanderthal he is, went out and threw the kids off. then he called the cops, but the twerps are under 18, so the cops didn't do anything.

most of tommy's housemates slept at my parents' house wednesday, thursday, and friday night. and it was a good thing they did, too. friday night, their house was again broken into and really messed up. spray painted 'CHP' on walls, windows, ceilings, floors. eggs thrown all over the place and frozen solid. windows broken all over the house. all the fridges and minifridges had their door propped open to ruin anything inside, but it was so cold that everything just froze solid. a lot of the doors had holes kicked in them, so did some of the walls. trashcans and drawers were emptied and thrown all over the place. it was a mess.

we spent all of saturday cleaning up the house and moving absolutely everything out, under police escort the whole time. the kids who did it all sat outside and laughed at us. one of them started threatening tommy and john and ian with a bb gun when the cops left. that was stupid. tommy probably outweighed the kid by 100 pounds, so he just took the gun from the punk's hands and walked away. frozen egg is not fun to scrape off walls.

sunday, i left almost as soon as i woke up. jamie and arlie rode back with me and it rained the whole time. from now on, i am staying here and having thanksgiving ramen noodles in my dorm.

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 02:25:57 GMT

http://www.jcruel.com/index.asp
go there. that's all i have to say. bye.

my advisor

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 00:03:27 GMT

dr. hatcher has informed me that if i don't look stupid, i'm doing something wrong. this is not a very comforting thought...

next week is going to kill me. rehearsal every night, two dress rehearsals and three concerts. no more sleep for me!

quiz results

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 13:45:28 GMT

Kathleen

You are the strange musician. You love your harp
like a baby and are not ashamed of that. You
are also very random and a Red Commie Bastard!
You know lots of completely useless trivial
information and like words and foreign
languages. Things always seem to go wrong
around you. Or at least different. You have
the mentality of a five year old!

Crackheads in Anime (which one are you)
brought to you by Quizilla

wow! i got myself! who'd'a thunk it....

i stole this from amy

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 01:41:55 GMT

The Random Question Meme!

An array of completely random questions about my friends!

When's the last time you saw sparklycactus?: at the end of last year
Could you take lady_blackrose in a fight?: i'd just have to poke her and she'd squeak. unless she remembered her karate lessons
What hobby do you think prisoner_no3 should take up?: ventriloquism
How many licks would _fire_garden take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?: i think he'd just bite it right off
What do floydfan32086 and scryedfiend have in common?: they're both tall, bald, black men.... wait, no that's not it. they're both awesome people!
What kind of person would you set up with becca_mew?: a very tattooed biker
How would boothyisawesome survive on a desert island?: he would need orlando bloom and a bottle of coconut oil
Why shouldn't tennesseeiris and shytemptress be a couple?: well, there is the whole not-lesbian thing, not to mention gabe....
What will be ivycross's last words?: you son of a bitch! get back here!
How many siblings does subtle_scorn have?: i don't think he has any... maybe a sister?
In what ways is sillyscottsman smarter than you?: his every whim is dictated by neko

This is by heptadecagram. You can find your own completely random questions here.

Do you feel enlightened now?

irish sportscar

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 04:11:09 GMT

i am the proud new owner of an irish sportscar. also known as a minivan. it's a '97 dodge grand caravan se and i bought it today! my car, mine, all mine. big enough for me and gabby, too. i gotta get plates and tags for it at the dmv on monday, but it is mine! i am so excited about this car. no one gave it to me, no one loaned it to me, no one else can claim it. i worked my ass off for this and earned every dollar of that car myself. i want to urinate on all the tires to mark it as my territory. ok, maybe not that....

as a follow-up to that skungy harp story of the previous post: the owner got mad at me for cleaning her harp. i didn't even charge her for the labour or the polish or anything, i did it all for free, for the sake fo the harp. apparently, the harp had belonged to her teacher, who had willed it to her when she died. the woman was keeping the sweat stains as some sick kind of memorial to her dead teacher. now, i could understand saving photos, music, locks of hair, maybe even broken strings. but, come on- sentimental sweat stains on an instrument with which you earn your living?!?! to me, that's just gross and bad for business.

the woman was a twit anyway. she couldn't even replace her bass wires herself, she claimed they hurt her hands. so she sent the harp to the shop to have the wires replaced. we only charged her for the cost of the wires, about 92 bucks. not for labour, not for the cleaning and polishing her harp got, not even the cost of mailing the strings. and she complained about the price, about the missing skunginess, about the brand of strings we used (the absolute best brand, btw) and about the fact that she had to deliver her harp and pick it up herself, howard wouldn't drive to her house for her. that's the last time she gets our services. bitch.

i have a car!

skungy harps and french children

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 15:11:08 GMT

yeah, i know it's been a while. not a whole lot has happened. kevin and i went to a concert in dc about two weeks ago, but there was no chance to visit peoples. i had to show up early to help the harpist replace her feet, since she's so short. but the concert was fantastic! dotian lavalier (principle harpist with the national symphony orchestra) played with an organist and a couple other people. and she played freckles, a harp which i helped to make! i felt so proud, seeing the little boy up there on the stage with all those people looking at him and listening to him. but he wasn't a bit shy, he played right out and everyone heard him, even against the huge pipe organ. and then dotian insisted on taking me and kevin out to dinner, after which we had to drive down to richmond.

i spent last week in richmond, going to doctors and whatnot. i got to see arlie every day, which made me very very very happy. and i spent almost all of monday reading harry potter 6, which was great.

lately, all the harps we've been getting at work have been really dirty. inside and out. these people just don't take proper care of their harps and it pisses me off! i actually had a lyon and healy 23, which had huge black spots on the soundbox and the soundboard. i thought the harp had been burned or something. i used my magic potion to change that harp from black to amber. murphy's oil soap- works every time. except then most of the finish was gone, so i had to french polish it. but at least the harp is clean now!

my boss and i have decided that we're going to start charging double to work on skungy harps. because it takes longer. scraping crap out of gears and washing and waxing the wood is annoying. why can't these people clean their own harps?! what is wrong with harpists? you'd think they'd care that their instrument looks like crap....

thursday and friday night, i had to baby-sit the french kids again. the gilder who works for my boss is helane, and she's from france. so is her husband. they pretty much speak only french at home. their three kids, martane, eva, and pierre, speak french better than english. martan is 5 and he knows english fairly well, but eva hardly knows any (she's 3) and pierre hasn't learned how to talk yet. baby-sitting them was a challenge, to say the least. they kept forgetting that i don't know french and they'd just chatter away at me and i had no idea what they were saying. i spent most of my time with them completely confused and totally lost. but no one died and i got paid, so it was all good.

i'm supposed to be working on my paper right now. the paper that was due about two months ago... yeah. i'll get it done. eventually. maybe by the time i graduate.

Darth Vader is ticklish!

Sat, 23 Jul 2005 01:38:17 GMT

colin had a black box over his face this evening and was running around doing the heavy breathing thing and declaring himself to be darth vader, my father. too bad darth vader is extremely ticklish and was soon collapsed on the floor, giggling madly. there goes the empire!

i had off from work these past two days, since my boss went on a fishing trip. and my aunt had some kind of a training class she had to go to all day every day and my uncle had to go to south boston every day. so i got to stay home with the younger two (gerard and daniel have been at basketball camp, at lc no less) it's been.... exhausting, to say the least. i took them to the pool, where they ran around in the kiddie pool and i got to sit on the side and read a book. i just had to remember to look up every two or three sentences.

the two of them spent half an hour this morning combing my hair. i just sat there, half asleep, and let them do as they wished. i wound up with fifteen (count 'em- 15) hairbows on my head. and i was absolutely forbidden to remove any of them. at least until after lunch.

i don't know how my aunt does it with all four of them all the time. i'd give up after about a week and just leave them in a shoney's somewhere and hope they didn't know the way home.

condoms are great!

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 02:19:19 GMT

my cousin colin decided to wake me at 6'30 on monday morning to inform me that it was his birthday. i don't know why this news couldn't have waited until after my alarm clock went off.

my cousin elizabeth decided to wake me at 6'00 am on tuesday morning to show me her ariel doll, which i had rescued from the sink disposal the day before.

my cousin gerard decided to wake me at 5'45 this morning to tell me that he finished the batman puzzle all by himself.

WHY IN THE HELL DON'T THESE KIDS KEEP NORMAL SLEEPING HOURS?!?!

at this rate, i won't need my alarm clock for the rest of the summer. but i will need large quantitites of no-doze. if nothing else, i will be firmly cured of any maternal insticts by the time this summer is through. condoms all the way, baby!

on a much happier note, my boss gave me a raise last week. again. i've worked for him about two months and already i've gotten two raises. that's a hell of a lot better than blockbuster, where i worked for three years with no raise whatsoever. (bastards!) maybe at this rate, i'll save enough to buy a really cheap used minivan for moving harps!

who put pineapple juice in my pineapple juice?!

Sat, 09 Jul 2005 12:37:16 GMT

that's from w.c. fields. he used to put whiskey in a bottle and tell everyone it was pineapple juice and he drank it for his health. so one day, his wife replaced the whiskey with actual pineapple juice. when he went to drink it, he spit it out all over the place and yelled, "who put pineapple juice in my... er... pineapple juice?!"

i'm eating pineapple right now. as a matter of fact, pineapple is all i've eaten since tuesday. i have part of a can for breakfast, the rest for lunch and then i drink the leftover juice for dinner. and before anyone accuses me of being on some crazy anorexic fad diet, i'm not. i've been eating pineapple and only pineapple for three very good reasons:
- i like pineapple
- i'm too lazy to cook or make anything else
- i have cans of pineapple. nothing else left in my room for eating.
so i eat pineapple, for three meals a day, every day. the funny thing is, i still like it!

i'm moving out today. i've got everything out of the room already, in fact. except my pj's, bedding, shower stuff, and one last can of pineapple.

men suck

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 16:20:22 GMT

i just carried my big-ass fridge down from my second floor dorm room to my car all the way on the far side of the parking lot. by myself. and the entire lacross team was standing on the steps, stretching and not one of them offered to help me with this fridge which is almost as big as my harp. as a matter of fact, the only person who offered to help was this really elderly professor whose name i know not. the poor guy looked like he was about 90, so i told him i had it, thanks. i didn't want to be responsible for that guy breaking a hip or something. but what does it say about our society when a bunch of athletes will say hello to a girl obviously struggling to carry something and the only one with enough decency to offer is the one person around who probably couldn't help anyway.

but i'm moving in to my aunt's house tonight. i'll be rooming with a 4 year old. this should be interesting. very patchy internet over there, so the only time i'll probably be able to update is when i'm in the music lab with gabby. i'll try, though.

but i found the absolute best quote in a book last night. "I expect we will see more of the neighbours here than we did in Transylvania. They are not to be eaten." it's from Child of the Night by Scribe. (fabulous author if you ever get a chance to read her stuff.) i just thought that quote was funny.

tootles!

irony

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 04:49:00 GMT

on the drive back from richmond this evening, i passed a fire truck on the side of the road. it was on fire. there were a bunch of firemen standing around it and they didn't seem too upset, so i guess no one was hurt. i hope no one was. i just thought it really odd and ironic that a fire truck should be on fire.

i have a paper due in about eight hours. it's not done. so, of course, i am attempting to correct this situation. naturally, by "correct this situation" i mean "do nothing at all to correct this situation." i'm procrastinating. still. i don't think it'll be too hard to write, i just really don't want to do it. bah!

i miss arlie.

my baby girl is healthy!

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 01:01:07 GMT

gabby's back! she came back today from the hospital. all the major surgery is done, though there were some serious complications yesterday on the operating table. her neck was broken just as we were about to close her up. she was screaming really badly when we fixed the break, because we couldn't give her any anesthesia at that point like we had done for the rest of the works. but she's back with me now, all healthy and happy. she's been singing all afternoon, my little angel. it was so hard to cut her open and operate on her guts. i was so afraid i would do something to seriously, permanently injure her. and i came very close to crying when i heard her scream yesterday while her broken neck was being fixed. poor baby. i held her hand the whole time, but i think i was even more scared than she was. but she's back now, good as new, and that's the important thing. i've missed my little girl so much!

i made brownies for her when she got home, but she couldn't eat any. i had to eat them for her. silly little gabby. a couple people came into the kitchen while the brownies were baking, trying to cadge some, but i told them they were for my baby, who had just come home from having major surgery done. and now she's over in hebb. they were very confused by that. but they can't have gabby's brownies anyway. only i get to eat them, if gabby doesn't want them. i don't think she will tonight.

i'm so glad she's back with me!

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 02:57:13 GMT

there is a naked man hiding behind the harp and staring at me.