Happy Christmas! :)

My first cover in months. I'll hopefully be posting better ones soon!
Hope you like it.
Merry Christmas.

Showtime!

Last night was my percussion ensemble concert and it was awesome! I hadn't performed since April and was so excited to get back on the stage but also a teensy bit nervous. You'd think after 10 years of performing It would be no sweat but let me tell you I still get butterflies! woah wait, 10 years? that's half my life. Crazy!!

Anyway, I played bells, marimba, chimes, african drums and a log drum....yes you read it right haha, with real rubber tree sap mallets. We had special guests perform with us and it was a blast. There was tons of rhythms going on at once that I had to really focus on my part to avoid getting screwed up but after a minute I got into the groove and just felt the music, letting it come naturally, as always.

I was really stoked for this show because I had a lot of people coming to see me! My mom and dad went (it was their anniversary last night, Happy 26th!), my two sisters, cousin Carla and Ruben, and the bffs Ashley and Yunchin. That's about the most people I've had come to one of my shows in a long time!

All of the songs were great, we played mexican cumbias and ballads, contemporary marimba music, pretty classical tunes, ragtimes, guatemalan, ecuadorian, taiko drum and african songs, it was a long show. They were all kick ass, but extensive! My feet hurt from standing and then after the show we all had to haul everything back to the band room, on foot. I carried two african drums on my shoulders, two cymbal stands in each arm, the windchimes in my left hand and some shakers in my right. ouch! Luckily a guy offered to help me out so I didn't end up dropping anything which is good. After about the 3rd trip, I wheeled the music stands back and then bailed because I still had to do assignments for my music business final the next day! and it was already 10:30!

I typed what I could and passed out. I don't even remember falling asleep. Seriously. I woke up in my concert clothes and the laptop died and was on my pillow. I rubbed my eyes and continued working. Robot status. I worked until I ran out of time, got dressed in 5 and was out the door. I managed to finish by the way, and am pretty positive I aced this test! let's hope!

That was my night and morning in a nutshell. some nutshell. Must be a huge nutshell cause I wrote a lot lol. How many times did I just say nutshell? nutshell.

Battling A Heavy Heart.

12.25.97-12.3.09
Rest In Peace, Precious.

Mama Loves You.

Forever & Always.
<3

Food, Fun...and fugly sweaters?

Friday night was the opening night of my hometown's annual "Glendale Glitters" event downtown. I was real excited to go because I'd been craving cinnamon roasted almonds for MONTHS and I only find them at Glendale Glitters! you can imagine I was pretty stoked.

I went with my sisters, mom, and bff Ash. First of all, PARKING WAS INSANEE! I live 5 minutes from the park and people were stationing their vehicles in my neighborhood. That's always a bad sign since it means all the close parking spots have been taken. We debated whether to just walk there, Carla and Ruben were going to. We ended up taking a chance and drove. Cars everywhere!! we found an open spot at some tire shop, who by the way was charging to park there :0 we didn't know that til after we walked passed the owner! oh well, he didn't even see us park anyway. For all he knows, we could've come from down the street lol!

We walked for about 2 blocks and finally reached the park. It looked awesome, the christmas lights on all the trees had been lit, and the smell of sweet kettle corn in the air blended into the sounds of various live bands coming from every corner.

I hadn't seen so many people in one place for a long time I was kinda shocked at the turnout! We were all excited to get into the hubub and experience a taste of christmas lol. Found our aunts gathered around a bench waiting for us and soon reunited with Carla and Ruben. As soon as we were all together the area around us got louder haha. Guilty!

Maria, Vicky, Ashley, Carla, Ruben, and I immediately were on a mission to locate the almond stand. We ran off in a huddle and tried to stay as close to one another as possible for fear of getting lost in the crowd! Luckily the distance was short and I got my almonds! success. Of course, no park event is complete without a chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick. You guessed it, we made our way to the cheesecake booth where I got a delicious little slice of heaven dipped in chocolate and rolled in nuts! We all shared, but since ashley and vicky prefer theirs nutless, they shared a plain one...frikkin sukkas. hahah.

We ate in a little grassy area behind the booth away from everyone and enjoyed. Soon as we were ready to move on, we made our way back into the busy walkway where I then ran into an Insurance Co. tent and nearly hit myself in the face. It was so hilarious and the dude under the tent looked over haha ash was like "awkwarrrdd". Oh well it's an insurance company, you'd think they'd be covered right?.......get it?....covered...tent...insurance?...i'm a nerd.

Anywayyy, If you think the eating stopped there, you're so wrong! Carla and Ruben HAD to have their kettle corn of course so once again, there we went, weaving through the crazy crowd/sea of strollers! like seriously, I've never seen so many strollers with kids in them in my life. It was like a convention. Anyway, midway through our trek towards the kettle corn stand we ran into a 7Up booth that was handing out samples of cherry 7UP. Pit stop! It was so funny to us cause the park isn't even that big but we had to make a stop for a drink to regain some energy. But who doesn't like a free drink? :) We said cheers and continued toward the coooorn.

At last we made it and got in line...which was semi-long but not too bad. It actually didn't seem long at all since we spent the time talking, joking, noticing people, and busting moves to a Buddy Holly tribute band that was playing in the ampitheatre a few feet away. Popcorn bags in hand, we headed back to base lol. Our uncle was the only one there when we got back and he was sitting on the bench talking with these two old ladies who Ashley and I dubbed as our granny selves. No kidding! they were sooo us 50 years down the road. We even took pictures when they left and assumed their exact positions for before and after shots....yea...we took a picture of them when they weren't looking :O

As soon as my mom and aunts came back from watching "Buddy Holly" Carla ran off to go buy Island Noodles (super delish you don't even know) and Maria went for an Indian Fry Bread. Both returned but only one was the victor. Turns out, Island Noodles ran out of noodles. what a bummer. Again we shared the fry bread, well they did, I had like a corner lol. It's okay it's my own fault I was too into trying to decipher the distant music. go figure.

AFTER the fry bread, carla went for a polish sasauge hot dog with potato shavings and fried zucchini. WHAT A BIGGIE!!....I was later sent for a second order. D: I only had a bite lol..again, the music. Finally Carla and Ruben finished up so they joined Ashley and I to go find a band while Maria and Vicky finished their potatoes lol. Woo hoo! the band, Peppermint James was playing and sounded pretty groovy. Ash and I got into some side convo over other bands and pretty much that's how it always goes with us lol. I think we were comparing or something haha. Maria and Vicky caught up with us, heard a few songs and as soon as the band took a break we decided to walk off some of the food.

A block and a streetlight later we went into the Astrology store where we quickly browsed and looked at trinkets then made our way back into the street. Soon we were with the whole fam again at the bench and got ready to go. By the way, before we left Ash and I saw some gnarly ugly christmas sweaters! they were legit. My tias departed and Carla and Ruben were going to walk back to our house so we said we'd meet them there and give Ruben a Dr. Pepper since he was craving one from earlier lol.

Welllll...we were on our way toward the car but got sidetracked and walked into Pink House, a cute little vintage inspired fashion store. We were there for quite a while, like probably 25 minutes before realizing Carla and Ruben were probably already at the house waiting. Whoops! turns out that little store is a little oubliette! I did buy a black beanie with little poofies hanging on either sidefor 8 bucks though! Anyway, we hurried to the car where the 5 of us found the tire shop owner still sitting there. We pretended like we were walking to the corner but cut off short and quietly got in the car and got away! haha that guy totally got suckered..which i feel a little bad about but too bad so sad. you snooze you lose! When we got home Ruben's car wasn't there so we were like daaang our bad! You guys, if you're reading this we're super sorry! lol you'll get over it. ^.^ Ruben, I owe you a soda.

All in all it was a blast. Most fun one in a long time! by the way, I later realized that the little recorder I use to record my songs with was in my purse, on, and recording the whole night. HAHAHA. I pretty much have the entire night documented on audio files. pretty hilarious. Definitely a keeper. <3

Thanks for reading! I can now rest the frozen sticks I call fingers now. :)

T-Day Win!

This past weekend was awesome! It was Thanksgiving break and my family and I went to my Tia Lupe's house for Thanksgiving lunch. I say lunch cause she has the get together at 1pm 0.o fyi, in my family, there's never a normal holiday.

For starters, we eat outisde in the backyard and have all the food set-up on three conjoined tables, buffet style. There are about 2 turkeys out, and one more in the oven for the entire family to chop up and take home at the end of the day LOL, 3 different types of stuffing, a ham, 3 pots of mashed potatoes that 3 different aunts made, beans, rice, basically food that could feed a small village in Africa. Getting a mental picture yet? it's a lot. Also, we don't have the normal "cutting of the bird" in our family, nor a official grace. You arrive and there are already people eating, and you pretty much serve yourself lol. I'm making it sound difficult but when you're as used to it as I am, it's systematical ahaha.

Everything is delish though! I had one plate and was already getting stuffed. Kind of a bummer cause I knew I at least wanted seconds!

My sisters, cousin Carla and her beau Ruben, and I, (aka "the kids" of the family) had a good time seeing each other again and laughed a lot for either no reason (most likely the case lol) or at Ruben's efforts to meet the whole family/amazement toward all the food everyone brought haha. Watching Carla trying to fist-fight a bumble bee for her pumpkin pie was also priceless. She was virtually swinging at nothing lol! but apparently no one gets in the way of Carla and dessert.

Thanksgiving was great and it was nice seeing the whole family together. The weather was also great and everyone was pretty much ready to pass out afterwards! heavy eyes..heavy everything. :p

I hope you all had a great holiday. :)

-Angela