Grace, Notes, and Grace Notes

My brother tells me I am a noob at blogging.  He'd also probably tell me that by notating that comment on a blog, I'm even more of a noob.  Or maybe he'd spell it differently.  But that's ok, because he smells funny since he just came from basketball practice.  Ha :)  I feel like it's also ok because he's reading over my shoulder and laughing, so there's no reason it shouldn't be written.  

I forgot that Vermont is so much colder than Massachusetts this time of year.  It took me a few days to remember that -16 degrees Fahrenheit is NOT in fact the coldest it gets, and by the time the temperature gets that cold it doesn't really mean anything besides the fact that the inside of your nose freezes every time you breathe.  Probably by the time Christmas break is over, 20 degrees will feel practically balmy.  In the mean time, there are several things during the summer that I always forget about cold weather.  1)  Don't put on chapstick when about to walk outside.  Your lips freeze, and there's nothing you can do about it.  2)  You need to leave about half an hour early for everything because there is potential for your car to be buried in 50,000 inches of snow.  If it's not snowed in, it's probably just frozen and you still need about half an hour for it to warm up.  3)  Woodstoves are the best invention EVER, right up there with down comforters.  4)  Wearing ballet flats is not a good idea, because the snow gets inside and then it melts all around your feet, and then your feet are both cold and wet.  Function, therefore, must prevail over fashion.  5)  Sometimes it doesn't feel cold, but then when you're out there for more than 5 minutes, your ears feel like they might fall off.  6)  Studded snow tires might make you feel invincible, but they are in fact fallible like everything else.  Sometimes ice is slippery.  7)  Ice skating is fun, cheap, and you can only go during part of the year.  Ergo, it's worth it.  I think those are all the things I've rediscovered about cold weather this year.  I'll probably have to make the same discoveries next year.  

In other news, I clearly should have attempted to practice oboe, but I'm currently out of awesome music, so that is clearly impossible.  I will have to order more.  I need something that is not particularly Romantic, because I play far too much of that on a regular basis.  So I either need to find something incredibly Baroque or incredibly 20th Century, neither of which are particularly desirable.  It is possible that there's something completely awesome out there that I haven't yet stumbled upon, and it is true that I haven't looked very hard, so perhaps I will just have to make a better attempt at finding good music.  In the meantime, I'm trying to sight-read my way through the hymnal on piano, which should help keep my knowledge of music theory intact.  

Well, that's pretty much everything interesting that occurred today.  A random recommendation: www.mylifeisaverage.com is great, and provides an excellent procrastination tool.