Thanksgiving Weekend (among other things)

Yes, it was Thanksgiving weekend. The last post was lame, sorry, hopefully this will make up for it. Quick recap, Thanksgiving dinner was quite good, though obviously nothing like being home. But I had a good symphonic wind rehearsal as well, which was very nice. Man this is a cool piece we're playing. Crazy stuff, but cool. Friday night we hit up Pitcher & Piano, which is like this really classy bar housed in a decommissioned church. It was a good time. We were going to walk back, but it started to downpour, so we ended up taking taxis back. Anyways, on Saturday we hit up the Forest game. As usual, we had problems getting to the game on time. Being one that likes to get to events quite early, I was having some problems with that. Theoretically, had we gone directly to the game, we would have been on time. But we decided to stop in to the traditional Forest pregame hangout: Hooters. Yeah I know, weird. It was my first trip to said restaurant, and I sort of found it disappointing that it wasn't as risque and dangerous as popular belief makes it out to be. Basic premise, attractive, large breasted women bring out beer and chicken wings. Once you accept that, the novelty sort of wears off. Anyways, after getting to the game 15 minutes late, we saw a great match. Unfortunately we missed the first goal, but since the opposing team scored it, who cares. Forest played really crappily the first half, but then scored three times in probably 10 minutes in the second half to win. Pretty intense. Millwall, the opposing team has quite the reputation for hooliganism. Unfortunately, there were no riots this time, but there was a pretty intense police escort to the train station. No joke, probably around 200 policemen escorted the Millwall fans to the station, blocking traffic, cutting off roads, pretty much surrounding the pack. It was ridiculous. Anyways, that night, we all went out to The Lion (the local pub) to catch an Irish folk group play, as well as chill out. I don't have a picture of the pub, but it has a great atmosphere. Think pub meets indie coffee shop, and you sort of get the idea. Plus, they have this rotating schedule of different cask ales, so there's always something new. It's like those places in the States that have different microbrews. Anyways, we had fun. I finally confronted Brandon about the infamous cheese incident from the caf last year.

Sunday, I went to baseball practice on the turf for the first time all year. I would characterize it as a good practice, but I clearly have no strength to either throw the ball far, or very accurately. Most of the day was spent writing a paper for Paideia about the arts in Britain. I wrote some crap about the tension between the visual arts and music. At night, I went to an Evensong service downtown. Evensong is a traditional afternoon service of the Church of England, really heavily reliant on the choir. It was a good time, just to get out on my own and do something quiet. Came back, woodshedded the Larsson concertino 3rd movement for about an hour, then watched Rent with the group. If no one's seen either the play or movie, or heard the music, I'd highly recommend it. It's making me a better person, no doubt. On a sidenote, I find myself using that phrase a lot lately, "making me a better person." I found the story to be quite moving, and I like the idea of a Bohemian lifestyle, completely dependent on the arts and just sort of doing whatever. I don't think I'll ever have the balls to do it, but I think it'd really be fun to live in New York for a year or so, trying to get a gig on trombone or whatever, living "la vie boheme." I suppose Minneapolis would work too. But don't worry parentals, I'm sure I'll do something more responsible.

Monday, I bought a coat. Well, technically, my mom bought it, as it's a Christmas present. It's a black wool double breasted waist length coat from the Gap. I don't know, it's a Euro thing. I like it. It's going with me on Christmas break. Baseball practice that night went really well. I felt like I was on my game. Lynn, our resident Chicagoan/hard-ass coach said I looked really good (in terms of fielding), so I took that as a compliment. Although, I'm left with a sore right arm, and a sore right lower middle finger. I played catch with this guy who threw ridiculously hard. Anyways, right now, I'm consumed with a paper for my history class about the Age of Discovery. And eagerly awaiting arrival of my package from home, which most importantly contains my razor. It's been over 3 weeks for the beard, and I'm ready for it to be gone. It's not that it really looks bad or anything, but it's time for it to go. Anyways, that's it for now.