aw- I miss Maine.

You know you're from New England if...



-your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May.

-someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there.

-you use the word "wicked"

-you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time.

-you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number.

-you know that the things you need to start a campfire are matches, newspaper, tinder, sticks, fuel logs, and spent motor oil.

-you find a snowmobile as a reasonable means of transportation for 4 months out of the year.

-you consider 65 degree ocean water "warm."

-all of the potholes just add excitement to your driving experience.

-if your car is parked outside because your snowmobiles get parked in the garage.

-chocolate sprinkles will forever be known as "Jimmies."

-"Vacation" means going anywhere south of New York City for the weekend.

-you've been to Cape Cod.

-you can go from one side of your hometown to the other in less than 15 minutes and see at least 15 losers you graduated with doing the exact same thing they were doing the last time you saw them.

-you keep an ice scraper in your car year 'round.

-you've been to Six Flags New England.

-if you know that its not really "Six Flags New England"... but "Riverside".

*you know what a whoopie pie is.

-you measure distance in hours.

-you know what "Shaw's" is.

-everyone in town over 50 goes to Florida between October and April.

-you know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

-you think Vermont has the best skiing in the World.

-you have switched from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

-you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching.

-you know what a bubbler is and you drink soda and pop someone in the face.

-you stay on the same road long enough, the name will change atleast 3 times.

-you go to camp every year.

-you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked.

-you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them.

-you refer to 6 inches of snow as a "dusting."

-you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

-the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80, and everybody is passing you.

-you could own a small town in Montana for the price of your house.

-there are 25 Dunkin' Donuts within 20 minutes of your house.

-driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

-you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

-you have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

-you find 10 degrees "a little chilly."

-you've ever gone candlepin bowling.

-you think 3 straight days of 90 degree weather is a heatwave.

-the transportation system is known as the "T," subway is just a fast food place.

-your town or a neighboring one has a rotary/circle/roundabout.

-someone says "Patriot" and you immediately think of the football Team.

-a Crown Victoria = undercover cop.

-you keep tire chains in your car at all times.

-your first motorized vehicle with four wheels was an ATV.

-you have ever put studded tires on your street racer.

-Sox-Yankees games are a life and death matter.

-there is a town green in the middle of your town.

-you refuse anything but real maple syrup.

-you regularly drive on roads that are as narrow and windy as a deer trail.

-you have ever missed school due to "Mud."

-you can choose exactly where your Senator sits on a political party map... Democrats on the Left, Republicans on the right... and that one little white dot in the middle is where our Senator sits.

-you ever have been asked in a school hallway if you have Duct Tape on you.

-you think if somebody's nice to you, they either want something or they are from out of town and probably lost.

-you get pissed off when people assume New York is part of New England.

-you actually understand these jokes

-you've skipped a day of school to go to the Big E, or... you've taken a field trip to the Big E

-the first day after winter that's it sunny outside, you roll down all the windows of your car and pretend its summer, and even though its still 30 degrees, you refuse to roll up your windows.

I'm having a bad week to put it lightly. First, I was mugged by a guy on monday who among other persuasive charms also had a 5 inch blade to help convince me to donate my cash and mobile to him. That's a bit of a mind fuck, especially considering it happened right outside my flat. Makes me a bit apprehensive about walking home late at night which I am frequently required to do because of rehearsals or work. I resent that this man has messed with my life and the way I live it- he has taken some of my innocence and reacquainted me with how violent and shitty the world can be and trust me, I knew that before.
Well the world has decided that that isn't enough to deal with in one week, nope its not. I found out this evening that my great-grandmother, who I loved very deeply passed away yesterday. She was 90 and we expected to lose her sometime, but you are never prepared for death and for losing someone you love. All I want right now is to be about 5 years old and able to crawl into my mother's lap and have her stroke my hair and to feel safe. Or barring not being able to go back in time, to be held by someone I love to make me feel safe- but that apparently comes with its own set of disappointments which I won't go into here. I do wonder about that old saying of bad things come in threes, so what's next for me? I'm not loving the world right now.

Canto Serioso

So yeah I moved my blog to this address (from www.americangingerinthebigsmoke.blogspot.com ) Very exciting huh? HA. It was just too long before.

So hmm its been awhile and life has been story worthy as usual, but I rarely think my everyday life would be interesting to anyone, well but me and my boyfriend, he's required by law to be interested or at least by sexual contract... SO here's the quickie blow by blow (teheh) version. I went home for Christmas and had a wonderful time with the family and the boyfriend and the best friend who came to visit too. I was completely and utterly surrounded by people who love me. So, it was hard to come back to London with the rain and the regular work schedule. I find myself feeling wholey antisocial. But, it rather coincides with this new eagerness to not suck in my studies, which have amazingly taken off very well.

I've been given principal (1st) seating in everything I've been assigned to this term. Even a concert with Sir Colin Davis conducting! gee wiz! So really life is going well. It's waay past time my horn playing starting falling into place. I notice about myself and others that we do things completely in our own time. Now, some people NEVER get it done and I was very worried I was one of those. But come to think I've had that worry my whole life. About developing, about socializing even about reading. When in second grade I remained banished to those horrible books with cardboard pages still, while the rest of the class leaped forward with books that had Chapters! I was so horribly embarrassed I didn't even read the cardboard books because I didn't want my peers to see me. It seems I do the same thing with practice. I'm so embarrassed about my level of playing and feeling it should be higher compared to my peers that I don't practice, in fear they'll hear me and hear how bad I am. But not practicing doesn't exactly make me any better! Well, I just turned a corner and took that invisible next step and everyone seems to be impressed with my playing just now. Interesting. I don't remember doing anything different. But I guess I stood back and watched and absorbed long enough so now I can walk out and not make as many mistakes as those I saw before me. I just do things at my own pace and I need to accept that. It's nice not being at the back of the pack anymore and I hope it follows my reading curve which saw me at the back of class and then one of the most accomplished and voracious readers of my class all in one year. Fingers crossed.

Canto Serioso is a piece composed in 1913 by Danish composer, Carl Nielson for horn and piano. "The canto is a principal form of division in a long poem, especially the epic. The word comes from the Latin cantus, meaning "song"." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canto