So this week was another busy one, with everything seeming to happen faster than it should. Oh well, no fixing time. Tap is coming along well, I’ve got one piece done– not that it doesn’t still need a lot of work, but at least I have the steps– and the first step of the next piece as well as the ever popular time steps that still need some cleaning up. (Darn summer for messing up my timing). Overall though it’s going well and I hope to do well on the exam in the spring.

Band has been going okay. The piece that we got on Tuesday was pretty messy this week. It’s called Chant Rituals, and it’s a really cool sounding piece, although I retain my right to be skeptical of whether it’ll be ready to perform by November. Regardless, I have bigger fish to fry at the moment as my flute is temporarily out of service given it well, broke on Thursday. However, it should hopefully be repaired by Thursday– I’m going to have a LOT of practicing to do when I get it back. It’s frustrating that it broke, given that my flute isn’t old by any stretch of the imagination, but things happen so I’ll just have to be patient.  

No guitar this past week as a result of my teacher being away, but I still got in some decent practice, especially with the chording exercise. It’s a tricky one but I like it. It has the main chords for whichever major chord the one line is but then the final chord in the line transitions to the next major for the following line. It’s kinda neat really.

I, regrettably, didn’t get around to water the garden this week due to appointments and such messing up my usual schedule– however the plants in the green house are still coming along nicely, and should be ready to plant soon enough once we nail down the pattern and get a proposal in to Ms.Willis.

Halloween for Hunger is plugging along, I have the general area figured out and now it’s just a matter of logistics to figure out how wide of an area the route can be. The current estimation is about 30 people so if they were in groups of 4 or 5 that’s 6 or 7 groups of people so probably 6 or 7 roads. Which would be great.

The best news today though, Carrots finally got a home!! (I felt bad because Carrots’ was at the Humane Society for about 6 months, as was Fleur-de-lis, who also found a home) The only rodent around today was Robyn, who was having an awesome time rolling around inside her ball. For such a tiny critter, Robyn sure wheels fast down the hallway. It’s also strange the people you run into at the Humane Society– I actually ended up running into, figuratively of course, a friend of an acquaintance of mine who was on their first day today. Small world, eh?

Improv club is going to be happening on Tuesdays, so that should be quite the adventure– I’m not usually the outgoing type, but stranger things have happened. I’m hoping it’ll be good for me though, getting out of my comfort zone.  Anyways, that’s it for this week– Like I said, busy week.

So tap this week was good, I’ve got all the steps for the first piece of the exam this year. Although I’ll have to keep working at timing and memorizing them obviously. Plus my time-steps still need to be more even, especially the ones with the single wings. My wings in general tend to need some work though.

Band is going well enough, there’s the possibility of a November concert with Stonepark and Holland College which would be interesting as the range of playing would be pretty wide. We still only have the one piece we’re working on so far, and it’s coming, but Mr.Parsons intends to give us new music next practice on Tuesday.

The garden is looking better too now that the hose has been returned and Mallory and I had a chance to water it on Wednesday. Not to mention the plants in the greenhouse which are looking good. The geraniums look good and hopefully we’ll get to actually start planting some more stuff in the garden some day here soon.

Volunteering at the Humane Society today was a learning experience for me because they had me working with some cats who have diarrhea and vomiting problems– which that description alone depicts how happy the cats are. But I got to help out with them some which as good. There were a few more temperamental ones who were inclined to hiss and bat at any hand that approached them, but otherwise the cats were all good if a little on the smelly side.

Given that October starts in a few days the group of us intending to head up Halloween for Hunger as a food drive will definitely need to get that ball rolling, as well as the class striving towards potentially building a replacement shed for the one that was destroyed over the summer out in Canoe Cove area. Suffice to say there’s lots going on.

So tap started back which is awesome because it’s really fun to do and Heather already has me working on the first piece for my exam which will be in April–it’s a ways off yet but the time goes quick for sure. It’s good to be back at tap too especially where I get to learn new steps and alike.

Guitar starts back tomorrow night which should be good, I got in a fair bit of practice over the summer mostly on Sarah McLachlan pieces, but still it was good to do. Plus the more chords and such I learn the more songs I can play, not to mention finger picking is trickier to find music for so it’ll be nice to have some new stuff to work on.

Band is going well enough for only having had 3 practices thus far. So far we only have Abracadabra to work on, but Mr.Parsons intends to have more music for us on Tuesday, and depending on what it is it may work well with our band, although it’s tricky because of the ratios of flutes to the brass section.

The animals at the humane society are doing well, and it’s definitely good for learning stuff about the different animals they have. Robyn the gerbil is quite nice too, and Carrots and Fleurs-de-lis are both still there to keep everybody company. It’s not often that animals are still there for so long, there’s a large ratio of exchange so even though a lot of animals come in through a week a lot go to new homes too. It’s really great when an animal finds a good home too

So, being in September and subsequently back in school, most of my CAS activities are back on. Gardening in the lobby garden got started again on Friday where we’ve figured out the gist of what we hopefully will manage to accomplish during this school year. I think we can do it provided we don’t try to push it too much. And I’m pretty excited to see where we end up because with the people involved anything could–and probably will–happen.

Band started back this past Thursday as well, and it’s good to be back. There are 21 flutes!!! It’s kind of ridiculous proportionally to the rest of the band, but I think it could work in our favour if Mr.Parsons picks the right music for the band, such as music with a decent potion of higher instrument sound required as opposed to attempting a brass heavy piece. It’ll be a new challenge though trying to even out the sound in the band though because the ratios are so skewed as a result of the large flute section.

Tap starts back Tuesday, and I’m really looking forward to it. I had a great time tapping off with Alan at Shad and I can’t wait to see what kind of stuff Heather’s got for me to repeatedly mess up until it looks semi decent and eventually comes together. Plus I’ll have another exam in late April which will be something to prepare for.

I’ve been volunteering at the Humane Society too and unfortunately Carrots and Fleur-de-Lis the rabbits are still there (they really do need a home) but I enjoy their company so that’s fine. I’m learning lots about what rodents and rabbits like for sure, and it’s a new experience for me working more with animals than humans, it’s kinda nice actually. Dealing with animals instead of always the variety that talk back.  

So, today was my first day back at the Humane Society since Shad. Which was nice, since I’d been away. Ironically, in a sad sort of way, Carrots the rabbit is still there over a month later. (The rabbit could use a home!)

Unfortunately, my previous supervisor for this is moving to Toronto, so I don’t know where that will end up. Although the animals were certainly in good humour today. Even Clapton the kitten, who has a bit of a cold going– I was sneezed on many a time– but he’s still a very affectionate kitten. I also had the experience of a kitten falling asleep on my back when I bent over and it decided to make my back a bed. Needless to say this limited movement for a bit.

Gizmo the dog was also in good spirits– for an older dog he’s got personality. And Roxi the dog is a sweetheart. She just loves company of any kind. All in all, a good day volunteering.

Well, Shad ended for this year yesterday. It was an amazing month for sure, I met 73 amazing people, grew in ways I didn’t expect, tried stuff I never imagined I would, went places I’d never been before and saw things I won’t ever see again. The lectures were fascinating, the workshops were unbelievably awesome, recreation was more fun than any of us could have hoped for, and we worked our butts off on the design project.

I don’t know if there are words available that could do justice to explaining the experiences that are Shad Valley. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done for sure, and I’d recommend it to anyone.

In the following days I’ll post more specifically about some of the amazing stuff we did and the wonderful people I met, which during the program itself there was no time to post about, but for now I’ll leave it at it being an amazing experience.

Well I’ve been at U of Carleton doing Shad a little over a week now, and it’s been awesome. The people are great and the activities are amazing too. I wasn’t sure what to expect when flooding made me change campuses from U of Calgary to Carleton, but so far it’s been awesome. We’ve even done a lip dub that may or may not be eventually somewhat available for viewing. Today we’re going into the actual city of Ottawa which will be a nice change from being on the campus all day everyday except when we went camping. And camping, from what I can tell was more fun for me than most other people. Oh well, their loss.    

SO originally for Shad I was going to be going to the University of Calgary, however, due to flooding in Calgary at the moment they decided to scrap Calgary in that they are sending all of the U of Calgary Shads to other campuses. So now I will be going to Carleton University in Ottawa. Which, while I’m still a little bummed that it’s not Calgary cause I was pretty psyched, I’m really thankful and happy that they’ve arranged to have us go to other campuses though! Plus Carleton looks to be doing some interesting stuff, and now I can cross being in the nation’s capital on Canada Day off my bucket list!