Spring Break 2012!!

That's the title of many an album that I've seen on Facebook with all of my friends in sunny places on the coasts, getting tan, throwing up the deuces, and what have you. Unfortunately, I'm not there. But I don't really like vacationing in warm places (I'm more of a London and New York person than Miami and LA) so I guess it's all for the best. I went on my own adventure this week, anyway.

It was college visit time for my mom and I. 5 colleges in 5 days. We figured that if we were going to be that far away from home, we might as well make our trip worth it. It was a great trip; I realized I have a lot of options out there for college. My mom and I weren't tired of each other by the end of it. 1749 miles. My butt was quite sore. Except it wasn't as sore as my dad's.

I feel so bad for my dad. He had to have surgery on Friday. For the second time in 8 months. When we were gone. His parents came down and so did his brother since we weren't there. And then he was supposed to get discharged yesterday, but the doctor never showed up. So Easter was pretty memorable for him, as was his birthday 'cuz that's when he had his other surgery.

I played my French horn at a church gig for Easter earlier today. 100 bucks coming my way. Nice.

Envy

Do you ever have those times when you find yourself glued to Facebook and think to yourself "I wish I had her/his life," while looking through someone's pictures and statuses and friends?

Sometimes I'm so envious of other people. Maybe not necessarily as extreme as wanting their life, though, because I do love my life and I'm so lucky to have been given the life I have. I'm sure we all have those times in school where we think "I wish I got his quiz score." There are times at the mall when we think "Oh, I wish I had her hair." There are times in the grocery store when we think "I wish I could eat the brownies in his cart instead of the carrots in mine."

I sometimes make lists of the pros and cons in my life.

Pros: I've been able to life a privileged life, my parents trust and respect me, I work hard and I do good work, I have many talents, I'm very unique, I have been given opportunities that most others have not been given, I have so many friends and a family who support me in all that I do and will pick me up whenever I need it, people around me hold high standards which makes me push myself to do my best, I'm happy and healthy, I'm very blessed materially, physically, mentally, and emotionally, I have great relationships with so many people in my life that I know will carry me on to a great future.
Cons: I'm a perfectionist, I'm self-depricating, I'm envious.

So I really shouldn't be envious of other people.

I have a great life.

Surprise!

My friends are the best.

Two of the things near the top of my bucket list are 1) throw a surprise party and 2) have a surprise party thrown for me. I've always thought the second one would be hard to achieve, considering that my friends may not know that I wanted a surprise party and then also persuading them into giving me a surprise party would have turned it into not a surprise at all. So I'm very glad that people just assumed I would like a surprise party!

Have I said surprise party enough?

SURPRISE PARTY!

I love surprises! And now I know I love surprise parties! Couldn't stop smiling all night. It's nice to know that so many of my friends care enough about me to put this together and keep it a secret for 2 whole months. But actually, I'm so surprised someone didn't accidentally say something to me. I wish I would have looked nicer, though. Thank you all!

On My Birthday...

This is the song I've been singing the whole day.

I'm cool, you know it.

Conflict

I don't like to fight.

I don't try to fight.

I don't need to fight.

Yet somehow I always end up fighting.

I want to stop.

But I can't.

Whole Foods Extravaganzas

I love Whole Foods.

Yeah, it may be one of the stereotypes that white people like but, in case you haven't noticed, I am white and I would probably still love going to Whole Foods even if I wasn't. Take that. It's become tradition to stop at the new Whole Foods that opened in Minnetonka down by Ridgedale every Saturday after I have MYS rehearsal (concert tomorrow at 6:30, y'all should come).

What a plethora of spectacular food items there are! I'm torn whenever we go there between getting my tried and true favorites or trying some new things that may eventually become a favorite. So many choices. So many good things. I love their Wild Mushroom Soup and their Vegetable Lasagna and Vegetable Quesadillas and the Baked Potato Soup. Those are just the main dishes. I also love their Smoked Mozzarella Pasta Salad and their Edamame Salad and the Winter Cous Cous and the Greek Tortellini Salad and the Orange Beet Salad. That's not even including the bakery items. I love their Cornmeal Muffins and their Soft Pretzel Rolls and their Pay-by-the-Pound cookies like their Dark Chocolate Almond Laceys and the Almond Cookies and the best Brown Butter Cookies ever in the world. They even a taquiera, a pizza station, and a sushi station, but raw fish creeps me out.

I had the Wild Mushroom Soup today. Now I am content.

On another note, it's Girl Scout Cookie season!

My Schedule is Bipolar

Or maybe I should rephrase that and say my schedule for next year is going to make me bipolar. My schedule is divided completely in half, with one side being "Fun Classes For Meredith" and the other being "Classes That Meredith Would Rather Not Take If She Didn't Have To." I take that back, it might be 5/8 fun and 3/8 not fun, but that all depends on if I get the English course I'm signing up for (*cough cough poetry with Cardona cough cough*).

Here's what my schedule for next year looks like:

Marching Band (gonna be a BLAST)
Honors Music Theory (buncha band kids)
AP Music Theory (even more band kids)
Music History (what do you know? band kids)
Wind Ensemble
**If you've been counting, that's a total of 8 credits = half of my year.
Range of Poetry (so hoping this works out in my schedule. hoping hoping hoping.)
Physics X (ew)
Mo Pro (double ew)
AP Calc AB (triple ew)

You may say "HOLD YOUR HORSES THERE, MEREDITH! Gurl, whatchu thankin' with all those music classes." I would respond "Well, I'm planning to major in music in college so those classes are kinda necessary to take with that career path in mind." In case you haven't guessed by now, that's that part of my schedule that I'm really excited about.

I'M A NERD.

Ha.

And I love it.