The Simple Things in Life

So as I sit here this morning I find myself remembering the very simple things that used to make me happy before. Specifically watching a ritual TV program with my parents and sister after homework was done every night. This one mediocre task brought me more joy than any number of parties I’ve attended on the weekends so far here at Millikin. If that doesn’t say something about values, then I don’t know what does. So I guess this little memory has helped me to be conscious of the simpler things that make me happy. I hope that I don’t lose any of those.

On a side-note I’ve really rededicated myself to my classes which definitely needed to happen. I will hopefully be finishing out the semester strong. Vespers is fast approaching as well as finals and everything else, but I’m really excited for winter break. Somehow I almost feel more homesick right now than I did freshman year. Weird I know, but I can’t wait to spend longer than a weekend at home.

Anyway, hopefully I’ll start being more consistent with these posts, but for now I suppose this is the best I can do.

“A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge”

-Thomas Carlyle

Second Chances Never Come Too Late

So as we can all tell by the fact that it’s literally been almost a year since I’ve posted, I haven’t been keeping up the promise I made myself all that time ago about running this blog right. Hopefully with this post I’ll start it up for real this time.

It’s funny, because I was reading all of the old posts I had on here and thinking about how much I’ve matured since then. For example, my first impression of the “dousche bag” football players in my dorm last year wasn’t all together correct. I made some great friends that turned out to be far from dousche bags. In fact I miss Mills quite a bit since I moved into West Apartments this year. It’s awesome here too though, because I’m with all my brothers all the time. For those who don’t know, the West Apartments are the housing for Delta Sig on campus, so I get to hang with them all the time. I love being a part of this organization mostly because of the great guys I got to meet and will be friends with for life. It’s a good thing indeed.

College life has been giving me some difficulties lately. I’ve found myself highly unfocused this year whether due to the type of classes I’m taking, or just my own laziness I can’t say, but I really need to turn things around. It’s not that I’m not motivated to become a teacher, but when certain classes seem useless to me I tend to shut down. It’s an extremely bad habit that got me into a lot of trouble in high school and I can’t afford to let it affect me that way in college.

I have a job singing at a church in Springfield. We have one rehearsal on Wednesday night and then church on Sunday morning so I get paid 45 dollars for around 4 hours of work a week. Essentially it provides me with enough to pay dues for Delta Sig and have a small amount left over to spend on food or whatever. I suppose it gets the job done.

Somehow I wound up in a pretty awesome band this semester. We’re called Straight to Sunset, and we’re actually recording our first album in the Millikin Studio starting tonight. Good things should come from that I hope, even though somehow I wound up playing bass in it haha.

So I suppose that’s a semi-update of things that have been going on but I’ll try to keep things rolling this time.

“Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute” -Josh Billings

 

It’s been a while

Well like always, I fell out of keeping up with this blog as the few of you who read this may have noticed. I was never good about updating everyday, and after a while it seems I just forget about it all together.

College is good, I changed my major from Commercial Music to Music Ed. starting this semester. My first semester went well, I got all A’s and a B, not including recital attendance which I failed because of my poor time management skills. Oh well, pretty good for the first time around no?

So what else has been going on in my life? Well basically the same thing as always. There was a girl, I’m really attached to her, and yet I can’t be with her. Story of my life yes? Indeed… but I don’t think I’ll ever just “get over” this one. She’s definitely something special. I mean, well basically words just wouldn’t do it justice. If you could take the word perfect and make it into a person, that pretty much sums up what she’s like. Cheesy, but accurate indeed. Not sure what’s going to happen with it, but if I ever get a chance I am gonna make it count.

Other than all that, life has been pretty quiet. I’ll see if this ever gets updated again =P

-Dave

Updates

Well unfortunately I figured this was going to happen again. I’m not very apt at keeping up a blog it seems so bare with me concerning the sparaticness of the posts. It’s been about 2 weeks since I got to Millikin, and I can definitely say I love it. College is a great experience, and I have made a bunch of new friends that are really cool. I do find it slightly odd that I’m not more homesick. I had a dream last night that I was actually very homesick, yet when I woke up this morning I really felt like everything was fine and I didn’t miss it much anymore. Bizzare no?

I’m loving having all these music classes. Granted, right now most of it is just review of things I learned in Music Theory class in high school, but it’s great to be doing something that I’m interested in every day. I love learning about the music business, and being in choir thats at a college level. Even voice lessons are nice, no matter how weird it is to say that.

So basically college is great, but I do miss everyone at home. My next break is in October, so I’ll be coming home the 16th-19th. I hope I can see most of you then.

-Dave

College, Take 1

So college is supposed to be all about discovering things about yourself right? Well apparently I am a very impatient person. After all, this is only my third day here, and I feel dissapointed with myself that I haven’t really made any new friends yet. It just bothers me that somehow other people have gone out and just randomly made new friends when I would definitely try, but haven’t really gotten the chance. I mean maybe I’m just not outgoing enough (I can’t believe I’m saying that) but I can’t just walk up to a person and say “hey, do you wanna hang out later?” I don’t know, I feel like thats just kinda unwanted.

So I don’t know how this is going to work. Maybe once classes actually start up things will change? I’ll keep you all posted…well anyone who reads this that is.

-Dave

Joseph Recap

I just realized I haven’t been on here in so long that I didn’t update how the summer show went. It was REALLY good. Everyone did a wonderful job and the brothers especially kicked ass with our harmonies and everything. Basically, if you didn’t see it, you really missed out. Dan Shaw was spectacular as Joseph, and we got a standing ovation every night. So think about that next time you’re debating whether or not to come to a show.

-Dave

The Campus Life For Me

Well I was really looking forward to this, being on my own, no parents with rules, and the fact that I would be making my own decisions. Little did I know that something I’ve hated all my life would come back once again to ruin my plans. First of all I’d just like to say upfront that I’m not stereotyping all football players into this category, but me and Dan got stuck in the athletic dorm, and our hallway is full of the most shit-faced football meat heads you’ve ever met. Basically it’s going to be a long year with these assholes living in our hall, and I’m really not looking forward to all the crap I’m gonna have to deal with.

Other than that though, college life seems pretty alright. Stayed up till 1 at our friend Megan’s dorm just talking about stuff which was really cool. Not to mention no one calling and asking when you’re going to be home and everything. I mean I knew this was how it was gonna be but, it’s still bizarre to actually feel it.

Basically if I can survive the dousche bags down the hall, this should turn out to be a pretty good first year. I miss all my friends though, and I can’t wait to see you all on breaks.

-Dave

The Lips, The Teeth, The Tip of the Tounge.

So if you don’t know, I had my wisdom teeth out two days ago. Basically, it sucks. I mean the procedure didn’t hurt or anything, but this whole not being able to eat solid food after thing, really isn’t my style. I also didn’t like not remembering being knocked out, or waking back up again. It’s like there’s a blank spot in my mind from when I got the needle stuck in my arm, to when I woke up coherent in the car on the way home. Basically the whole thing is just a big hassle.

So I feel very restless. I’m pretty sure it’s just my mind letting me know it’s time to go out on my own, off to college. Still, I’m getting very sick of this same old routine. I need to do something different. I’m not sure what.

-Dave

A New Age

Well, as I write this post I am sitting in Kyle’s family room while he, Dj, and I all sit on our new laptops that we got for school. It’s bizarre what technology does to people no? One of these days I bet people won’t even have to communicate at all anymore. Everything will be run by AI and it’ll be exactly like the Terminator. I sincerely hope not though, that would suck.

So the show is going well actually. I’m surprised to find myself saying this, but rehearsal was actually good today. We did a lot of choreography, and even if some of the show might be a little “iffy,” I know that the brothers will be awesome. Speaking of which, we’re going to have a new one. Brandon doesn’t have enough time to do the show, so I asked Josh Lyberg to fill in for him. He’s gonna get back to me once he checks the dates, but if he can do it that will be awesome.

The benefit concert is this saturday. Yikes. Today we had Ember Days practice, and I’m not too worried about that anymore, it’s Dinner 4 Four that concerns me. We haven’t practiced all our stuff together yet, and I’m having Kyle play Djembae on stuff and he needs to learn it. I hope everything will go well though, and you should still come see the show anyway. July 19th from 7 to 11 pm.

-Dave

Long Runnings and Short Comings

So this week is going to be one of the longest weeks ever. I have so much to do and so little time to do it in. Shall I recap for the sake of you, the reader? Indeed I will.

Saturday is the benefit concert at my church to benefit the organization To Write Love on Her Arms. 4 bands are playing in it, including my band Dinner 4 Four, and also the church band that I’m a part of called Ember Days. Now usually I would only have to schedule practices and make decisions for Dinner 4 Four, but since my dad is going to be out of town soon, I am also in charge of deciding what Ember Days is going to play, and scheduling practices for them as well. So that gives me 4 days (including today) before the concert.

So an intelligent person would say, practice everyday of that 4 days before the concert is supposed to happen right? Well not only do I have to be practicing with the bands, but we still have Joseph rehearsals for 3 of those days. Also, the Joseph rehearsals have been extended to 3 hours each day so we can work on choreography as well as music. So this takes 3 hours out of each day that I can no longer prepare for the benefit.

So to top it all off, and end the recap, this week I have to schedule as many band practices as possible for two bands, be at Joseph rehearsals each day, work around the house because I was too late finding a job, and in the back of my mind will always be my oral surgery scheduled for 2 days after the concert. Getting my wisdom teeth pulled is just a lovely topping to the already hectic sunday that I will be attempting to consume over the next few days. (I rather like that metaphor actually). So I will keep you updated as much as possible but don’t expect many more blogs as lengthy as this one for a while.

-Dave