Hey Everyone!

  My gosh it's been a long time, or at least, that's what it feels like! Just about at two months now I think since my last entry. Wow!

  I'd desperately like to say I'm doing well, but alas for my life has taken a sudden, sharp turn that has left me standing in the middle of the road wondering how in the world I got there. One thing I can pretty much safely say though, is that 2009 has officially been the worst year of my life.  

It all started with a winter retreat in the mountains, a weekend with fifty teenagers, and a dance.

The results of these things have managed to accomplish ruining the past two months of my life since I got home from that winter retreat on January fourth this year. It's been pure hell for me.

But, even though, I've suffered a great deal mentally over some of these things, I wouldn't have changed a single thing.

  Since there's so incredibly much that has happened, and so much that has changed, I'm definitely not going to even TRY and attempt to explain any part of it. So, I'm just going to leave it at that, and try to move on in the best way I can.

So.......why don't I ramble on for a little while about one of the things that matter the most to me in life? 'Cause I know how you all just LOVE to hear about my music life. :P

  First of all, I haven't performed anywhere since City Walk back in December.....O.o I know, strange isn't it?! No jams, no concerts, no recitals.

I am, however, working on a performance I'm supposed to do the thirtieth of this month though, which has managed to keep me going. Our main theme for our Spring/Winter show has pretty much been based on Jazz, which I have to admit, I do NOT prefer listening to. But, just like Classical, it is incredibly fun to play! Probably because of the swinging. It's taking mind power to swing the music since no swinging is written, and I'm not used to it! :P Intense stuff, but I think I'm managing it alright.

Jazz isn't my specialty though, and I have no problems admitting to that. :P

Current list of our songs:

"Out of Nowhere"~Two page Jazz piece, I'm on 1st violin as usual. :P Probably getting a solo in this one.

"Take Five"~Short little jazz piece which I prefer above the others. :P No solos here, and still on 1st violin.

"Jericho"~well-known piece that I can definitely say is extremely boring to play. Still on 1st violin.

"Sing, Sing, Sing"~ our longest jazz piece (four pages!!), and definitely our most intense one to play. I am on 1st violin here, and will probably be getting another solo.

"Bees Are Boppin'"~ *sigh* Puts me to sleep. :P 1st violin.

"Russian Gypsy Song"~ definitely one of my favourites to play! I absolutely love Russian tunes. 1st violin.

"Arabian Dreams"~ Also one of our more fun pieces to play. I'm probably getting the solo here as well! 1st violin.

"Big, Bad, Boogie"~ *sigh* Another one that puts me to sleep. :P 1st violin.

"Celtic Roots"~ CAN YOU BELIEVE I'M NOT GETTING THE SOLO?!?! I lost it to someone who absolutely adores this piece, and has to work on her bowing issues. My teacher said it was the only piece that girl will actually *work* on. I will for sure get it next time, but I'm still mad. Still on 1st violin here, but not happily. :(

"Fugue In G Minor"~ I love it. Back is the absolute most fun classical music to play. 2nd violin here since no one in that section can play it.....'cept for me of course. :D

"Fugue In G Minor, The Great"~ A larger fugue than the one above. I love this one as well, gives me a chance to go up in second/third position a lot. 1st violin.

  And that's all I know of that we're playing. We probably have more though, since I managed to miss our last meeting of orchestra thanks to nosey, grounding parents. I swear, they abuse they're power of being parents.

  Can't think of much else to go on about.....That was kind of a pointless post, but hey, it let you all know that I'm still alive and haven't dropped off the face of the earth!  

I'm going to try and post more on here, I do miss blogging. It used to be the best way for me to sort through things in my head. I wonder how that managed to change. *shrugs*

Alright then. Goodbye for now!

~Lainey

 Gosh, I have been so incredibly busy lately! Apparantely, to busy to take the time and write some sort of post on here stating that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth......yet.......

  Since my last post (when was that.....? About a month ago, right?) I've been playing with the orchestra all over town! I'm not going to go into details about where we've been playing since that would take forever, but I will say this: I have never been enjoying myself more!

  I am glad to announce though that I did indeed get the "Five Ukrainians in a Bell Tower" second violin solo, and I've played it at every place we've performed. 

  For the show on Saturday, we lost two of our strongest players to certain unfortunate events, so I'm officially being switched over to first violin since I'm the only one that can play as strongly as both those players. And we need power, or else we're going to fail miserably.......I do fear for my poor second violins though, I wonder how they'll survive without me.   

  OOH! We went to Ameoba Records the other day and ran into the lead singer from the band of Foo Fighters! Well, I didn'tactually get to talk to him, I didn't even know he was there until he walked out with a stack of CDs.....Ugh. I'm not a huge Foo Fighters fan (I'm actually pretty far from that...), and I know some of you probably don't even know who they are, but a few of their songs are good, and their all over the place right now! I mean, he announced some of the nominees in the Grammy nominations show the other night! I know people who would die if I told them that I was shopping with him.....I just hope he wasn't one of the poor mortals I stood behind tapping my foot for them to move.......(hey, one-hour isn't a lot of time to shop in a place like Ameoba Records!).

  I'm NOT star-struck, but I look up to people who have made it in music. I want it so bad, that meeting people who have gotten in, is a neat thing.

  I can't type a large post right now, my sister just got on the radio (millions of people heard her, haha....), and they're going to try and play Nightwish's song "Amaranth" or me. *flashes smile* So, I'm off to go listen for it!

(And I quote: "Yeah, my sister's a huge Nightwish fan, and she's been wanting to hear it played for a long time". HA! But, wouldn't it be neat if one of the band members heard that?! I am a huge Nightwish fan, they're almost up there with Enya *gasp*, but as sad as this may sound, I would advice you all NOT to look into them. They're a bit......dark.......darker, and heavier than what I usually listen to, and probably more darker, and heaier than anything you guys would ever like.... So, yeah...take my advice......)

 You all know I have a strange style in music, I like a bit of a lot of different genres. Of course, all of them are fantasy-based, but.......

  Okay, I'm really leaving now! Talk soon!

~The fantasy-crazed violinist *wink*

Hello peoples!

My Birthday is officially over....along with it's party.

 The party was fantastic! Almost everyone we invited showed up! We played a few games, but mostly hung around and listened to music. *laughs* We got one of our friends to download a Jonas Brothers song to play and freak everyone out with.....It worked, everyone pretty much lost it when it started playing.  It was ghilarious to see the reactions on my pillow-enemy's face (you'll find out who that is soon enough.....I'm sure that Aly already knows though if she's been on FB lately.)

  Anyways it was fun, I enjoyed myself a lot, and I got a lot of really nice gifts! Two gift cards to Barnes and Noble (=45.00, *squee*), a gift card to iTunes, an American Express gift card, two movie tickets, a pathetic Disney Channel card my pillow-friend gave me (she's so cruel!), and a Celtic Woman New Journey CD (Oi, I now have three of them!)!

  My actual Birthday was rather odd, we were busy all day. I couldn't think of anything I wanted, so my dad took me on a free trip to Ameoba records! I got a bunch of new CD's.

 I ended up buying-

-Celtic Woman a Christmas Celebration DVD

-Loreena McKennitt, No Journey's End DVD

-Elemental, Loreena McKennitt

-Misty Eyed Adventures, Moya Brennan

-Blue Violet, Eileen Ivers

-Lord of the Dance (no, I didn't have it! I just kept borrowing it from the library...)

-Celtic Treasure, Hayley Westenra (YAY!!!!! I finally have it....)

-Oceanborn, Nightwish

-My Winter Storm, Tarja Turunen (I've been waiting for that one for a while now...)

-Lenka, by....eh....Lenka

-Titanic, James Horner

And from my family....

-Celtic Woman The Greatest Journey CD (just released Oct. 28!!!)

-Celtic Woman The Greatest Journey DVD (likewise for this one...)

-A Midwinter Night's Dream, Loreena McKennitt's latest Christmas-themed album (just released, October 28)

-The Official Celtic Woman songbook!!!! I've almost got "The Butterfly" down, the #1 funnest song I've ever played before!!!

-Celtic Woman A Christmas Celebration CD, didn't even ask for that one! I have the DVD, and CD now!

-And Winter Came, Enya's new Christmas album (released November 10th, ugh!!!)

-A ten dollar gift crd to Hot Topic

-A stupid girly, pretty-boy Joe Jonas pillow given to me by the pillow-enemy (aka, Christina) who thought it would be funny to give to me. Man, she really got me good this year........the card, the pillow, the obsessive tagging on FB! GEES!!! Just wait until Christmas.....she's goin' down!!!! Yes, we are having a bit of a Disney Channel war with her, I'm sure Alyosha already knew that though, if she's been on Facebook recently......*clears throat*

  Wow....*looks back* I got a lot! I feel so spoiled.......

  My sister's Birthday was on the 3rd, and I bought her the Viva La Vida songbook for piano! Speaking of which, it hasn't come in yet, and that really annoys me!

Until my next update! Tata!