I have like a month & 1/2 of school left, which is just crazy. This whole year has flown by so fast. This kid added me on facebook who's coming to school here next year. How bazaar is that; I'm not going to be a college freshman anymore. During the summer I'm really hoping that maybe I could gig around Cincinnati. I feel like ohio is an untapped resource. Compared to here in ny, Cincinnati has like no jazziness at all. So if I really get in there, maybe I could meet/play w/ some of the good people. Okay, so that might not happen this summer, but hopefully I could break in a little bit.
It was a beautiful day last Friday (not now b/c its raining; god damn april showers that bring may flowers) so Rel & I went to tompkins square park in the east village and had a picnic. We always walk by it at night and talk about how we have to go again during the day. & we actually did. Rel refused to hop a fence - how lame, but we had ate on some nice benches and talked for a few hours. When we were walking home, we saw the CUTEST place: Sympathy For The Kettle so we had to go in. Its this place with over 150 kinds of teas & its just so cute I can't get over it. The cups and saucers don't match and kind of antique-y. I hate to say it again, but this place is god damn cute. I want to have like...my baby shower there b/c...get this...they throw tea parties. I was going to repeat myself, but I don't think I need to.
Next week my parents are coming and staying for 5 days & I'm really excited for that. They're staying at The Bowery Hotel. Apparently, its new and the NYT just did a story on it last weekend, so my mother is an expert on it. Its in a great location in the east village, and besides the fact that it is right next door to "a homeless shelter and a meth clinic, it should be extremely nice and a little adventurous." I really want to show my parents my area so they can understand why I love it so much. I feel like I have a million stories for every street, and I want to be like "this is where I get my muffin, and this is where we play scrabble, and this is that little tea place I told you about." Before, I was glad that they were coming, but now I'm actually very very excited. I don't care, I love my mommy. It should be a lot of fun, and hopefully my mom & I will spend some money in soho together :)
Last weekend, Alex & I hung out with some people from our dorm. It was so much fun because we usually just kinda keep to ourselves and stubbornly just have fun with each other, but it turns out, other people in the dorm actually pretty cool. I must say, I'm kind of relieved that we found some other people that meet our standards, (I kid about that part) because Alex & I have gone almost the whole year and have only found each other. Not like there's anything wrong with that...oh well I can't really explain well...I suppose you get the picture.
I find this hilarious: The latest search at Google had nothing to do with the Internet or lucrative ads. It had to do with a three-foot python that was loose in its New York offices.

"It is the city that doesn't sleep!"

So I got a chance to listen to everyone sing & let me tell you, there are some awesome awesome awesome people here. Out of the 17 singers here, there are 2 or 3 that are just incredible & I don't understand why they are wasting their time going to school when they could be gigging & making a lot of mooolah b/c they are so just fucking amazing. Then there are like 2 or 3 that are just... i don't know, they just were... and then you have the rest of us who are all in the middle & for the most part we are pretty inexperienced, so you kinda can't tell where we are. Oh, and FYI, I totally totally fucked up my singing, so thats fun. & I never want to talk about it ever ever ever again
There are about 6 or 7 people in our class of like 70 who aren't fresh out of high school. 3 of them are singers, & 2 of them are like...in their late 40s or 50s. Its strange b/c for some reason I expected them to be crazy good, but when they were performing with combos, these 18 year old kids were totally showing them up. At the same time though, its awesome that they are going back to school to pursue music. Whatever, I don't really need to worry about it.
Today Arielle (my jazz vocalist friend) & I decided to get ice cream b/c we are 18 year old girls & thats what we do, and I got really great ice cream in the best ice cream cone in the world. Obviously, very delicious. Then we went back to her dorm, Marlton, & watched project runway in the lounge w/ 892346892346 other people. Everyone was so into it b/c for a lot of people, fashion design is their major life and it happens at our school, so we have to be stoked for it. Everyone loved Vincent w/ his pants off and Andela's fucking rosettes. & when Angela got kicked off there was mad applause in the room. oh and whenever they do the shots of the Parsons building or the commercial for New School comes on, everyone does a little "whooo!" or cheer or whatever. Might sound lame, but it was just fun.
After that I hung out at 6A till like 4 doing, i don't even know what. Probably laughing at Alex b/c he is the funniest person alive. He's a design and managment major from Puerto Rico, is hungry all of the time, and sings with hand motions to his boyfriend over ichat. We were starving at about 3.30 & Alex kept saying "This is the city that doesn't sleep! We can find some food. I know it." As we were trying to use google & find some 24 food place that delivers, Jason was just so hungry that he left to find something. He came back w/ 5 things of Ramen. & Alex left with a friend to find something also, & came back with pizza at like 430. Just because I live in the city that doesn't sleep does mean that I don't sleep either. So I walked back to my room way tired & then slept till 11.30. I love not having classes.

What? Tests? School?

You would think that it would be a total buzz kill to think about how I'm going to have to do work and study and such, but it honestly get me really excited.
Today we had orientation for the jazz school. Which meant we had to sit around in the morning while different people came up & lectured to us how to not fuck up & how this was going to be great & they were proud of us for being there. Honestly it was pretty cool b/c I was in a room w/ people who were as stoked to be here as I was. Then in the afternoon, we took these tests & I suuuuuucked. The first one was a rhythm notation thing & I kept on second guessing myself aka I didn't do well. Then we had a listening test, and yea, I kinda did the same thing again, the second guessing thing. Actually, I kinda didn't do well.
Anyway, there was a written test next, and I did...ehh, alright. haha, not great by any counts, but I was surprised at how much I could do.
I know that it doesn't matter, but I wish that I could move to another level of something. It would be so nice for that year of bull shit theory to come in handy & even sweeter for me to get ahead for the proficiency thing. I'm not going to, but I figure I won't be alone in the basic class, so its all good.
Tomorrow we have more ear training tests & a piano test & then we have to sing for each other. eh. I wish I was looking forward to that.
I found another girl to hang out with :)
She's a jazz vocalist & seems mad cool. We walked around the village & got pizza & talked about things that we've both been feeling (like about people & studying jazz in nyc & just about roommates & not getting into our top choice, but realizing that this is better). Then we came back to 13th street down & hung out w/ the guys on the 6th floor.
I kinda feel like I'm at summer camp tho.

"Oh, please have some pity, I'm all alone in this big city"

The first few days of college are seriously the weirdest days of my life.
I went from knowing what everyone was like in the 2nd grade to knowing no one.
A lot of the girls in my dorm are like best friends with their roomate and/or bond over going to parsons/shopping/impersonating nicole richie.
& then there's me, finding the most random people.
There's this kid who's on the 5th floor, from Jersy, always seems kinda stoned or something, & is into punk, but hes a really nice and open guy, so I find him & hang out with him. Today we were walking around (in the rain! it was pouring & i had on flip flops and shorts... egh). Anyway, we met up w/ some guys he knew like deep in the east village. We went to this tiny place that was crowded & of course felt very new york. I felt like I was w/ such hipster. One of the guys rolled his own cigarettes. Two or three were in bands. Another one is tall w/ shaggy hair & doesn't talk. Another one lives in Brooklyn & is doing photography at parsons (he took out his camera randomly, took a snap shot, and put it away without saying a word). & there I am with my red curly hair and a pink raincoat. I honestly thought to myself, what the hell am I doing here? A week ago, I was watching Degrassi in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of the guys kinda looked like a punk, had gages in his ears, and...other...punk looking things, but when he was talking to our like 50 year old waitress, he was so polite and seemed very genuine. & I totally loved that because I felt it was...idk so new school. Like even though he says fuck ever sentence, and talked about how he was trashed out of his mind last night, he still says "oh, thank you very much, ma'am."
Then there's this other kid in my dorm who I've been hanging out with. I don't know if he's just weird parsons student or a mysterious artist. Whatever, he's chill so its all good.
Yesterday, I was walking down my hallway to get to the elevator, to do god knows what, and I heard jazz music. Naturally, I followed. (okay, i might not know much about jazz music now, but I'm going to damn it.) So I found josh, jason, and christian. Josh & Jason lived in the quad at the end of the hallway. Josh is craaazy. Crazy in a good way, at least for right now. He talks fast & is really hilarious. He reminds me of a way more hyper & not as amazing version of steven, just b/c i guess he seems cool with everything and is really open and friendly. He plays jazz sax. Jason seems cool. Wayyyyy more calm compared to josh, but still nice. He's a jazz vocalist. & Christian is a piano player from lonGisland. His accent is thick as Heidi Klum's accent (& her skull). they're all pretty cool, easy to talk to & on my floor.
For the amount of girls in my dorm, I think its kinda weird that I'm not really hanging out with any. & while thats fine, I hope I meet some girls that are as chill & fun as these guys. I will, I mean I'm in New York there are about 732804762834762346 people here & there must be someone like me. Who's awesome. & dresses well. & likes to by her friends presents.

Living here

If you would have asked me 6 years ago, if I thought I would be packing up my life & living in new york city, I would have said shut up and probably some random trivial fact about Nsync or about my long term very very serious boyfriend.
Anyway, I basically did pack up my life & move here. Its unreal to think "what am I going to need in the next 5 months to live." Which is dumb, b/c if I find out I don't need anything, I'll so be able to find it in the city. By the end of the packing, I wasn't even referring back to the list of stuff that I needed, I was just throwing shit into a box thinking "yes, oh god, I definitely need my Kerry/Edwards 2004 and my "I love to sing" buttons. After the drive from hell, we got into the city & down my perfect street & wow, it was just amazing. I was listening to bach's prelude and fugue (I wish I could say it was on shuffle, but it wasn't...I don't know why I was listening to it) & it got to an awesome part in the song. It was just like a movie.
So I moved in. & it was amfuckingazing. just b/c any kind of move out of ohio is a fantastic one.
My roomate, Tiffany, seems really nice. We'll be good roomates; I'm not sure if we're the kind of people who are good to hang out with, but for rooming, we'll be great. she likes the color pink, i like the color pink, she likes movies, i like movies, she likes to be online, i like to be online.
When I went out to lunch with my family, I loved walking down the street w/ my mom to a little cafe. It felt so city like.
I love new yorkers. i love new york. ah!

CONGRATULATIONS!

When I didn't get into Berklee, I honestly thought my whole life was over. I kept thinking, what the hell have I been doing for the past year or so? I was preparing for my college auditions, and becoming a musican, you know, straying away from that singer who doesn't know the music sterotype. When I didn't get into Berklee New England (which I was okay with), I realized that my only option was Roosevelt/CCPA. It would be an okay school for a year. A good environment. I could get good references so I could re-apply for '07.
Yesterday when my mom told me I got something from New School, I figured it was another brochure for some awesome performances they were doing, and then she handed me the envelope. As I held the, well, large envelope in my hand, I still didn't think that I could have gotten into New School. I really believed that this was my hardest school to get into and there was no chance. Haha, I really believed that I didn't get in even when I was holding this huge thing in the mail from New School.
So, I got in. And my mom and I laughed. We were in hysterics because of how shocking it was, and the giddiness/happiness of the situation did have an effect.
I can't really describe how great the feeling was, knowing that I didn't have to settle for mediocre and all the work I've done was worth it.

I sent in the acceptance info/check today in the mail. I'm going to the New School University for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City to study Jazz Vocals. My god, that makes me sound way more cooler than I actually am.