salience

Where to start...

Hmm...

Well, this past Friday I went with a bunch of band nerds to go see Carmen down on Boston Common. Boston Common is in the heart of the city: this huge park which is right next to gardens and such. It is beautiful. It took us a bit to get down there because this was an event the entire city was psyched for! As soon as we got out of the T station, we could all hear the opera. 'Course we were late, but we hadn't missed much. What was astounding was we got to the edge of the park and we could see nothing but people. The whole park was covered in opera goers! It was amazing! We weaved our way through the crowds til we were close to the front of the stage, but off to the left. They had set up huge screens for everyone to see and speakers. It was also translated into English and the dialogue was put up on the screen. Steph had brought this huge blanket and we claimed our space and just enjoyed the opera. During intermission the emcee came on stage and said about 16, 000 people had turned out to see the production, but in total, including people who were listening on the streets, they estimated about 60, 000 people were taking in the show. How amazing is that? It was such a great experience! As Michelle said, this is one of the reasons I came to school up in Boston: to take in the culture, to be a college student and experience everything. I will never forget sitting there and singing along to the parts we played in our show with everyone else; Andrew singing his bass part and doing his 'mouth thing.' Or my band son from Seattle just learning about the phrase 'just joshin' with ya' and completely flipping out! Or Steph's roomate talking about seeing Hercules the MUSEical on a cruise she went on! What a great night!

On Saturday I was down at the Plex (our gym) at 5:30 in the morning to meet Laura (my squad leader) to get our LCEs (Load Carrying Equipment) ready to go paintballing. I was so tired and just exhausted and nervous. I had no idea what to expect. All of the MS Is and IIs had heard rumors about the IVs freezing their pellets and plotting to kill us all! Of course, it was the complete opposite! It was an hour drive to Camp Devins and we all just talked and sang along to the R&B station the whole way up there. We got into our squads and practiced field movements and then we went in. WHAT A GREAT EXPERIENCE! Our squad did really well! Only one of us, Collins, was killed. I only got shot twice, which both left me with welts the size of quarters. Afterwards we had classes about field survival and even a camo paint class! An initiation of sorts. We all had our faces painted by upper classmen and had our pictures taken. It was so crazy! We were back on campus by 2 and it was great scaring all of 'the regulars' as the cadre call them: we all had green faces and red paint all over our BDUs. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The rest of the weeked was really laid back. I was just trying to recover! :)

Things are going so well right now. I am happy. Truly happy. I just wish I could put into words how fulfilling my life has become. Things are falling into place. The life I have always wanted is happening.