Wicked The Musical

i'm going to see this....TWICE! :D hahahaha

once with liz and then again with jo (if things work out. jo? when are you free to go? lemme know.)

this morning, liz and i purchased our tickets. we're going on october 8, 2006. @ 2pm.

FIFTH ROW CENTRE.

i'm so freakin' excited.

another thing off my to-do list

so today was my first day volunteering at Mount Sinai - i'm shadowing the speech pathologists there. it's TOTALLY different from what i'm doing at york central (where i'm a volunteer in the aphasia day program.) everything is so fast-paced in this hospital environment and although at times it can be really intimidating and confusing, i'm really enjoying it so far. the learning curve is definitely steep, but i'm up for the challenge.

highlights of my day: seeing a swallowing x-ray being taken and watching the speech path do a bedside swallowing assessment. (oh and another thing i found out when i came home - but it's totally unrelated to my volunteering.) ;)

it was so cool. some people aren't really interested in this area of speech and language pathology (basically it's swallowing assessments and more "medical") and would rather do more speech therapy-like work (like in a clinical setting), but for me this kinda of work seems so interesting. in fact, this is the first time that i've come across something that i really wouldn't mind doing as a career in the future (haha, this coming from someone who is getting a BMusTh and a BA in Psychology.) :P ultimately though, i suppose i'll have to wait and see where He leads me...

i am Canadian.

i would have posted sooner, but i just got home now pretty much. :P

since a lot of people went to ottawa for the canada day festivities there, i spent the day with liz and some of her friends (who, i must add, are really nice!) instead.

a snapshot of our day:
- parked at harbourfront
- walked to nathan phillips square to listen to the Rob McConnell Tentet (part of the TD Toronto Downtown Film Festival
- ate hotdogs for lunch
- went to eaton's centre to use the bathroom. also bought a moolatte from DQ. (it sucked. i was very disappointed.)
- TTCed back to harbourfront
- bought tickets to a boat ride
- missed the boat
- exchanged tickets
- went on later boatride
- stayed at harbourfront after boatride
- got free chocolate milk :D
- listened to kabalash (part of the Canada day festivities at harbourfront)
- drove to ontario place
- froze our butts off
- waited a ridiculous amount of time for pizza
- almost got milk spilled on me (there are some rude rude people out there...:P)
- more freezing of the butts until my sister's friend brought out her sleeping bag
- sat on concrete for a long while waiting for the festival of lights to happen
- saw some AMAZING fireworks (unionville festival just doesn't compare...)
- rushed to the parking lot
- came home

it was quite the fun day today. i have pictures, but i'll have to post them another time when i'm not so tired.

oh yah, and to my fellow Canadians out there: Happy Canada Day! :D

memorable words from one musician to other musicians...

i still remember when liz convocated from berklee college of music back in 2002 like it was yesterday. it was a sea (ermm...a small sea in comparison to other universities on account of it being berklee - not everyone can make it in!) of people wearing black graduation gowns with colourful tassles hanging from their caps and the hoods you wear once you've actually graduated. anyway, the year she graduated was also the year that they berklee gave david foster and shirley horn honorary doctorate degrees. i remember when david foster went to give his speech to the graduating class of 2002 he said something that really struck a chord with me. (haha. gotta love the cheese.)

his words of wisdom: don't be a "music snob".

i think that ever since i heard him say that, i've consciously tried to be more open with regards to listening to music in general...i don't want to miss out due to arrogance or stupidity. (i do, however, have my limits: the songs that make my head spin are songs that i just cannot listen to. i've tried many times...i just can't do it.) it's easier to be a snob than to not be one, but really, ultimately it's the music snobs who lose out more than anyone else.

sometimes it's crazy to think of all the music i have yet to be exposed to out there...one step at a time right? ;)

unfortunately my little pretties, we need to wait.

i stand corrected. i checked the dates and ticket times for wicked, and it's coming to toronto again in october/november alright.

october/november of 2006. :(

suddenly, the wicked witch doesn't seem so "wicked" anymore...

after listening to my sister's soundtrack of the broadway musical, Wicked, (it's coming to toronto in october/november! :D) and reading a little bit about the plotline in the CD insert, i discovered that the musical was actually written and composed after gregory maguire's book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

a spin-off of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (which was adapted for the classic film musical "The Wizard of Oz"), the book is pretty much a biography of the wicked witch of the west. from what i could tell from the lyrics in the musical, the whole story is pretty sad. poor elphaba (the wicked witch of the west). :( i was teary eyed from listening to one song on the CD at one point. (okay i admit, i actually cried. :P i'm turning into such a sap. i haven't even seen the musical.) how embassaring. haha.

i really want to to read this book now.

i went as far as looking up its availability at the library but there are a ridiculous amount of holds on this book now...*waaaaah*.

should i wait? or just buy it? hmm, maybe i'll do the next best thing: anyone up for a trip to chapters? ;)

oops, excuse me!

today i had my final exam for the phonetics course i was taking at UT. since i had my exam i basically studied all day, which would have been okay except my allergies (when did i start getting allergies?!) were pretty bad today and i kept sneezing every 2 minutes...

fortunately i was able catch the majority of my sneezes before they happened so i didn't get myself into too much trouble (i.e. making sure there was no food in my mouth before sneezing, making sure i wasn't holding anything that would spill when i sneezed...etc.)

unfortunately i wasn't able to catch every one of my sneezes. the result: my super demented "m". hehehe. i was writing "egressive glottalic airstream" when all of a sudden my sneeze came out of nowhere. oops. heehee. i couldn't help but laugh outloud.

i just added in the tissue mountain because i thought it was funny. a little gross, but funny. :P
______________________

on a completely different note...

my sister is 25! :O heehee. (please excuse the blurry picture, i guess i was a little too excited. haha. :P)

her birthday was technically "yesterday" (June 27) even though it's still "today" to me, because i haven't gone to sleep yet. :P since she has moved back home (she's the "great and totally worthy cause" i was talking about earlier with regards to my cleaning of the house) some of her friends took advantage of that fact and threw her a surprise birthday partay. :) plans got a little sticky with the whole meeting her in the park thing as the mosquitoes were vicious (so i heard), but nevertheless when liz got home she was super surprised, and really that's all that counts. this year there were no tears (heehee, remember?), just laughter and good times all around.

happy (belated) birthday liz! :D

procrastinator me.

the past 24 hours have been crazy; i've been cleaning like a mad person on crack. (haha okay so i exaggerate.) i know i really should have done this earlier instead of waiting until the very last minute...but really what's the fun in that? :P

i generally don't enjoy cleaning, but this time i don't mind as much. why? because it's for a great and totally worthy cause...

more on this later. ;)

www.fredflare.com = most random products ever.

from green bug luggage tags to librarian pins, this website has got it all.

look what i came across...iPOD hoodies!!

hahahha i think they're funny. hhehehehe

i'm not sure how these really stack up to iSkins (or other protection products) in terms of actually being able to protect your iPOD (mm...lemme see, flannel vs. silicon...) but they're really cute! :P

look what else i found on the site! a plush pb+j sandwich!!

so random...haha.

a good mistake?

so i purchased my tsoundcheck tickets today and instead of giving them only $20 for the two tickets, i mistakenly donated an extra $20 to the toronto symphony orchestra. ooooooops. i didn't catch my mistake until i received an e-mail from the tsoundcheck people thanking me for my donation. i'm sure my facial expression must have been an interesting one. hahaha. ah well, at least i'll get a tax receipt, the board of directors will match my donation, and i get an invite for me and friend to watch an open rehearsal during the 2005/2006 season.

oh yah. and i made a donation to the toronto symphony orchestra... ;)

to be completely honest with everyone, i was a little upset with myself for making that mistake, but at least it was for a good cause...geez, i could slap myself right now. i was upset at myself for accidentally making a donation for a good cause. man, i really need to be more giving. donating definitely shouldn't be viewed as a mistake. ooooops. as for my "mistake", i guess it could have been worse; i could have mistakenly donated $200 instead of $20, which i suppose would have been great for the TSO but not so great for myself - i just don't have that kind of money...i'm a student! :P

on a more serious note, i'm actually really looking forward to this concert. we (my mom and i) are going down to roy thompson hall to see the thursday night show featuring music by debussy and ravel, my two favourite french composers. i'm pretty excited...it'll be a good concert for sure. :)