Say you see through the folly but you do it for the fame

Don't you hate how foggy you feel when you first wake up in the mornings? It's like you haven't gained full control of all your muscles and everything you do is sloppy and exaggerated. The first thing I do on school mornings is shower, so usually this involves banging my head on both sides of the shower because I'm so tired. Yes, I do fall asleep in the shower. And my thoughts are extremely messy, so if I have a good idea in the first five minutes of my awake-ness it's likely to just go away.

Why am I talking about foggy things? Well, it's because of my cold. Fun indeed. I haven't been "sick" sick in over a year, meaning a fever and needing to stay home from school. However, every year around this time I just have a stuffy nose and head like nobody's business. This morning it took 4 cough drops and a glass of tea just to get my voice working. And worst of all, my head feels about seven times heavier on one side than the other. So I've got that foggy wake-up feeling all day long. I sort of feel like on some type of drugs, but ones that just sort of weigh you down. Maybe like the women in African countries who carry baskets on their heads? Except this is IN my head, and every time I yawn or blow my nose my ears pop like I'm on an airplane or something. Overall, it's just frustrating.

Do I have anything non-complaining to talk about? Well, in Maddi's Media News I've tried two totally unrelated applications on my computer, skype and sibelius. I think I'm going to like skype. It's certainly not as popular as facebook, but the chat doesn't randomly delete on you and video chats are always fun. However, I feel the need to point out the awkwardness of video chatting that doesn't happen with phone calls. There are certain pauses in a conversation that are totally normal on the phone but when you're looking at the image of someone just seem, well, uncomfortable. If you were hanging out with them, the conversation would be more physical, and if you were on the phone, more verbal. To me, video chat is this awkward in-between stage. Sibelius is something totally different. For those people who aren't familiar with music notation software, it's this thing that lets you place notes on a staff and create your own music. I'm trying to arrange things, but since I've never arranged OR used sibelius, it's proving pretty difficult. I'm like "rest." and it's like, "RESTRESTREST QUARTER NOTE." Um, no sibelius. That's clearly not what I just entered. At least I'm getting better with my piano-playing. I'm practicing some things regularly, and I can feel my hands getting stronger, and my knowledge of the bass clef improving. God, I hate the bass clef. Still, the piano is a skill it's useful to have, and maybe I'll really launch into arranging soon. If I have time...right.

Los Conciertos.

And what may I be doing tonight? Well until about an hour ago, I thought nothing. But I have been plucked out of the blue and told that I'll be heading to the Vampire Weekend concert. Why, what's Vampire Weekend? It's not a movie marathon of the "Twilight series during Saturday and Sunday." It's not a vacation with blood-sucking things. It's a sort-of alternative band that does the very cool thing of incorporating a whole bushel of instruments into their songs. Seriously, you could hear like 20 different instruments in one single song. That's more than I can say about a large majority of music today. They look kinda like this

So it made me think about all the other concerts I've been to in my lifetime. There aren't that many, sadly.

Bernadette Peters - This was the first concert I ever went to, and I was about 8 years old. I'm an avid fan of Into The Woods, and Bernadette is my favorite. It probably helps that she's a fellow short redhead. I went with my grandparents and she sang some stuff I was familiar with. Some songs gave me chills, because her voice is so amazing. I've been listening to the Into The Woods soundtrack since I was about three years old, I kid you not. And the best part was, I got to meet her after the show. Well not meet per say, but as she was leaving the stage door she said hi to me and I got an autograph. What a moment. I still remember being surprised at how short she was and how cool it seemed.

Regina Spektor - She's really one of my favorites that I listen to on a regular basis. Marion and I were in one of the back rows, and the theatre was really slanted but it seemed like we were watching it from above. It was really unique and I knew EVERY song she played except two. We were right near the spotlight too, which cast an eerie blue glow on everything. It was sort of an out-of-body experience, and unbelievable.

Taylor Swift - Now this was cool. Unlike the two before, this was gigantic, at Gillette stadium in fact. We were lucky enough to be in the 12th row and it was a really "Big concert" experience. There were flashing lights and a big digital screen stage and Taylor had about 8 costume changes. She was brilliant, even if all her songs are kind of similar. She really through a lot of energy into the performance and it was the last stop on her tour, which was cool. I was there with a bunch of friends and all of our happiness was pretty infectious. And I got a T-shirt. It's a pretty cool T-shirt.

Vampire Weekend - Well, we'll see. =]