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Hello my dear readers.

I should be doing homework or laundry or something, but here I am writing on the blog. Mom informed me yesterday that she anxiously waits for new posts - so this one's for you mom.

For all you readers out there who are wondering, we did get the car fixed. The guy from our ward was taking a long time to get back to us, and we didn't know how long it would take him to fix it once he actually had the car. So we just took it to the shop in town that was recommended to us by Grease Monkey and Les Schwab. Chad called them Wednesday, his day off, they told him what the problem probably was, he took it in, and got it back a few hours later. Yay! As I told mom - when the car first started having problems, I put on my internet sleuthing hat and found some forums that said it was probably our brake booster. Then we talked to Les Schwab and they said we were probably right. Then we talked to the guy from our ward who came over and looked at it and said he thought it was the master cylinder. Then we talked to my automotive teacher who said it could be a disconnected hose or the ABS. Let me just say, that my internet sleuthing skills were right all along. I was pretty proud.
Anyways, so we got it fixed, it cost us a few hundred bucks out of our "emergency fund" but that's what it's for! And we have a working car again! I am SO happy about that. Today is laundry day and I'm glad we don't have to 1) risk our lives trying to drive to the laundromat or 2) do our laundry in the sink.

Well, as I said, school started. Somehow I got really busy.
Here are my classes:

Music Literature 3: I learn about and study the music literature of the 20th century - everything from Copland to Stravinsky.

Teaching Strategies: I learn about philosophies, leadership techniques and teaching strategies specific to the music classroom.

Motivation Management: I learn discipline and teaching strategies for the general classroom. Mostly geared toward elementary education teachers, but it's interesting.

Reading in the Content: A silly class where I learn about how to teach reading. Required for all education majors. As music students, we wonder how this really applies to us. We understand that we will have to teach music terms, but how often are we going to have to sit down and teach reading? We think there should be a separate class for how to teach reading music since music is it's own language.

Piano Pedagogy: I learn the ins and outs of teaching piano lessons. Could be a handy skill when I'm stuck at home with kids.

Wind Ensemble: Same ol' same ol'. First chair for my last semester.

Clarinet Lessons: Preparing for my senior recital!!! December 5th.

Marching Percussion: This class replaces the BYU-I Marching Band program. Instead we have a drumline and color guard. I'm playing in the front line, meaning I stand on the sidelines (don't march) and play mallet percussion/auxilary percussion. (Bass drum, wood block, suspended cymbals, etc)

And finally Automotive 100: I learn how to clean and maintain my car. So far it's been pretty fun. Did you know that you should always look for tire pressure information on the placard in your glove box, not on the sidewall of the tire? See how much I'm learnd-ing?!

I'm also "mentoring" for the basic theory/ear training class which is making me work 8 hours a week for which I get paid. I'm doing it for the teaching experience, not the money, so I might trade some of my hours to someone else so I'm not crazy this semester.

In other news - Yesterday I got asked to play for the Chairman's Honor Recital - a concert in the Barrus (the big concert hall) on October 6th. I'm excited. The Sinfonietta will play a piece (or two?) and then student soloists will fill out the program. Not really sure what the point of the recital is - they said they used to do it, but haven't in a long time, and they're trying to bring it back.

Also - Last night we went to a show by Jason Hewlett. We were tired when we got home, and were in bed by about 11:00. We were woken up around 1:00 by a group of about 4 guys hanging out on the sidewalk across the street. (In front of the new "Craze" fun center - right below where we used to live.) We were woken up by their yelling obscenities at passing cars and people, throwing beer bottles, climbing up the side of the building and just generally being stupid. The police came around 1:30 but by then they had gone upstairs across the street. Not realizing that they live up there, I was concerned about that, and glad that we no longer lived over there. So the police came and left without talking to anyone because they had gotten off the street. However, 3 of the guys came back down about 2o minutes later and again began drinking and yelling on the sidewalk. (We live in Rexburg!! What the heck?!) The police came again and talked to them for a good 10-15 minutes on the sidewalk. Apparently one of the kids gave two fake birthdays, because the cop couldn't find him in the system. (We could hear this all from our window.) Anyways, then they followed them upstairs to their apartment, and talked up there for a while. The cops finally left around 2:30 and we fell back to sleep. We don't really know what happened, but we're guessing someone was underage. Perhaps that kid who lied about his birthday... twice?!

They were also having an 80s dance party at the beauty college right next to our building. The beauty college went out of business a few weeks ago, and apparently someone rented it for the night and told all their friends. Because of the minigolf/laser tag place, we also regularly have teenagers hanging out on the sidewalk across from our apartment, yelling and genearlly being obnoxious, though last night was especially so. On Thursday night (around 9:00) we also got to listen to a band that they decided to bring in in order to drum up business. It was ridiculously loud, and the singer just screamed for about an hour. You can imagine what kind of people that attracted. We had to close all of our storm windows and inside windows to even attempt to drown them out. Even with the door across the street closed, we could hear everything perfectly. We had heard the Craze was going to look for bands, but we were surprised by their choice, especially considering that there are apartments directly above the "stage". Did I mention that I am SO GLAD that I don't live across the street anymore?!!!

We liked when our little downtown block was ignored and quiet. With the Craze across the street and a makeshift dance hall on the next block, we were overrun with obnoxious people last night. It was so weird! And we didn't like it. We're hoping we'll get back to normal. But that would mean that the Craze would have to go out of business. And since none of my money is invested in it, I wouldn't be sad to see it go. The occasional round of mediocre black light mini-golf and ski-ball is not worth the sort of crowds it's drawing. And the manager of the fun center is the same manager of the apartments, and he's kind of a push-over, so people can get away with pretty much whatever they want as long as they're paying. His apartment is in the back of the building, so I guess he doesn't care.

That's the story from Rexburg for now. I'm planning a Halloween Party for a group of our friends, because last time we got together we were talking about how we never have anything to do on Halloween anymore. I'm so excited! It won't be as good as Mom's parties, but none of these people have ever been to one of Mom's parties, so they won't know the difference. :o)