I feel like a vain 16-year-old, but here are before/after picture of my hair.  It’s now sort of burgundy….or a shade of rich mahogany.  Either way, you can’t go wrong with Anchorman references.

I still feel like hell from that pulled pork sandwich (from MONDAY!!), so that’s it for tonight, but tomorrow a HUGE item is going to be crossed off the list.  It’s one of the farfetched ones, but it will be epic.  Absolutely epic.

Last night I entered the 30th Annual College Photography Contest sponsored by Photographer’s Forum and Nikon. My visual journalism professor recommended that our class enter due to 3 or 4 UNC students getting mentioned/published in last year’s contest. I really don’t think that I’m that good at photography, but why not? I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures for fun, but this course is really the first formal training, and although my 12 megapixel Olympus Stylus is great, it’s not really professional quality.

From left to right: my bari–this picture has a sort of bebop era feel to it, which I dig; the Spiderman picture was really a novelty picture I turned in. The classy family (…) living in our house before us left it, and it kicks it on an old cable outside of my room. The toned down temperature gives it sort of a marvel/ass-kicking flavor, but a that phone jack is exposed, which adds irony. Really not professional quality, but I submitted it for fun; I liked the editing, but not angle of these Absolut bottles. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have entered this photo, though. I was drunk/delirious when I did….; This is the pond in Glenmere Park. I like how you can see the clouds in the reflection of the water.

Oy…my stomach is in shambles due to me, Mike, and Evan deciding to go to open mic night at The Jager last night after the Broncos game. Pro: we got paid in food. Con: My stomach is still in shambles after a pulled pork sandwich. If I didn’t have to finish my music business exam, I’d crawl under my covers and maybe die…

Also, today marks the beginning of my pre-student teaching crisis. For the next 2 months, my hair will be sort of purple before I have to look all professional in front of the kiddos. Before/after pics to follow.

Day 1: My friend, Amanda, and I went to the Denver Nuggets first home preseason game.  I’m sad this was edited to cut off his head, but I can’t even begin to describe the schoolgirl crush I have on Birdman…

Day 2: Leaf in Washington Park.  I had to do a photo/music project for my visual journalism class and our song/theme was “Autumn Leaves.”

Day 3: Sexy bloody band-aid from getting a skin biopsy due to that pesky recurring virus I had.

Day 4: Nothing says “git ‘er dun” like some midnight coffee….

Day 5: My work started carrying those disco ball-style Absolut bottles.

Day 6: Campus, by Guggenheim Hall.  More “Autumn Leaves.”

Day 7: Chai from The Market and gelato from Gelazzi.  These are a few of my favorite things.

Day 8: First snow of the year.  Photo outside of St. Mark’s Coffeehouse.  Damn, I can’t wait to move back to Denver!

The week started out shittacular due to recital date scheduling and coming off of a pretty wicked sickness.  Monday night I came home pissed off and practically in tears because I was so frustrated.  I kept on thinking, “I f****** HATE music!  F*** this s***–I can’t wait to do nothing but journalism!”  After venting to the roommates and a good phone call with my dad, I realized–I don’t hate music–I’m just really burned out in the academic environment.  In fact, nothing brings me greater joy than music.  I tattooed a saxophone practically on my ass, for god’s sake!  I spent the greater portion of last night listening to tasty bari ballads, rather than going out to the bars.  I decided to program a relatively “easy” sonata I played my sophomore year (“Sonate” by Fernande Decruck, in case anyone’s REALLY wondering….) just because my recollection of that piece is nothing but positive.  I played that during a time where I LOVED “classical” saxophone more than anything in the world.  The passion’s still there–I just need to put my studies into perspective and realize that it’s about passion above anything.

If I have a shitty lesson, frustrating rehearsal, or receive any negative feedback, I just need to step back, breathe, and realize that that is only for 30-60 minutes out of the entire week.  There are so many more hours, minutes, and seconds during that week that I will love music and take pride in what I’m doing.  I’m ready to jump back on the wagon, work harder than ever, and play a bitchin’ recital in January.  Fuck the bullshit, it’s time to throw down!

Enough “talking about feelings” for now.  As for the list progress, I’m currently reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck, both of which I’m thoroughly enjoying.  More to come once I finish.  I’m working on “Project 365″ and with the right mosaic site (and a faster computer, which I will use at the library…), I will hopefully post the past couple weeks soon.  Planning on organizing my room tonight/tomorrow.  And as for that love for music, it’s in the process of being rekindled.  Close, but not quite.  I’m waiting for a big “ah-ha” world-rocking moment.  Off to go work for the liquor man….maybe I’ll concoct a new drink and cross it off the list!

It seems nearly impossible to find them all with all of the restaurant/breweries, but my goal is to visit all of the breweries themselves that host tasting.  I’m heading down to Denver tonight to meet up with my family for dinner, but maybe I’ll get to cross off a Denver brewery I’ve never been to, like Great Divide or Flying Dog.  Pictures and reviews will follow every visit.

Oh, and in case anybody ever wonders what the “Sextuple Crown” is, it’s pretty much a marathon of NoCo microbreweries.  It’s sort of a classy term for mini-bender.    It starts here in Greeley with our local Crabtree brewery; stops by Anheuser-Busch on the way to Fort Collins; visits New Belgium, Odells, and Fort Collins breweries; and tops it off with a pint at Coopersmith’s.  Now you know.

Today is October 7, 2009.  The finish date will be July 4, 2012.  I didn’t even plan that, but how bitchin’!

Movin’ on Up

Graduate college

Have successful observations while student teaching

Apply to/be in grad school

Take the GRE, even if it isn’t required

Work a “big kid” job

Further my journalism studies

Find a journalism internship

Become TEFL certified

Get an article published

Get a new car

Buy a badass camera

Get a new laptop

Create a website

Pay off my credit card

Make business cards

Make an outstanding post-grad resume

Here, There and Everywhere

            Teach English in another country

            Move out of Greeley

            Move to Denver

            Go to Vegas again

            Spend a day in Colorado as a tourist

            Visit all breweries in Colorado

            Ride every roller coaster at Cedar Point

            Visit 5 major U.S. cities (0/5)

            Visit a Buddhist temple

            Go to 5 museums (0/5)

            Run/exercise at Red Rocks and watch the sun rise there

            Go to “The Midwest Clinic” in Chicago annually (0/3)

            Go on an adventure with my roommates

            Visit where I used to live in Michigan

I Call Shenanigans

            Complete the “Sextuple Crown” (ask if you want to know…you’ll find out soon enough)

            Go on a typical college spring break

            Get another tattoo

             Complete This Book Will Change Your Life

            Go drunken mini-golfing

            Have a completely USELESS day

            Go streaking

            Have an entire night of debauchery with Jaymie and Amanda

            Try 5 new drinks (0/5)

            Think of one more wildly inappropriate Halloween costume

Just for Funsies

            Read 75 more books (0/75)

            See 40 movies I’ve never seen (0/40)

            Take another Italian course

            Hike a 14-er

            Go wine tasting

            Go ice skating

            Get a cruiser bike

            Try 20 new restaurants (0/20)

            Do “Project 365”

            Mail a secret to PostSecret

            Buy a game console

            Go to 10 sporting events (0/10)

            Get a perfect score in Scattergories

            Find 3 podcasts I enjoy and listen to them regularly (0/3)

            Visit McDonald’s in “foreign” countries and document kooky sandwiches

            Sing a new song at karaoke…solo!

            Enter a contest

            Get a psychic/tarot reading

            Win money from a lottery ticket (a scratch ticket will suffice…)

            Learn 15 new recipes….successfully (0/15)

            Meet Chris “Birdman” Andersen

            Finish a crossword puzzle book

            See a movie by myself

            Apply for a reality show…for shits and grins…

            Complete a 26 Things Photographic Project

Music

            Perform my senior recital

            Rekindle my love for playing music

            Discover 30 musical artists I’ve never heard of before (0/30)

            See 20 more concerts (0/20)

            Experiment with saxophone and pedals

            Play in a group unrelated to school/scholastic purposes

            Buy/learn an obscure instrument

            Conduct in a concert

            See Bjork live again

            Arrange a Bjork song

            Transcribe 5 more solos (0/5)

Me, Myself, and I

            Lose 10 lbs

            Be able to consistently wear contacts

            Do something completely out of character (I have yet to discover many things I would NOT do….)

            Figure out what age level I am best suited to teach

            Get allergy shots

            Organize my room and KEEP it that way

            Complete something from every category of “Instructables” (0/16)

            Clean out and organize my iTunes library

            Create a consistent work out plan

            Get a case for my phone

            Go one month without fast food

            Find my cute, Asian piggybank and save money in there

            Learn to burp, or figure out why I can’t

            Confront my fear of crickets

            Compile a new list after 1001 days

Do Unto Others…

            Advocate medical marijuana

            Complete 20 tasks from “We Are What We Do”

            Volunteer somewhere unrelated to school/observations

            Donate 100,000 grains of rice on freerice.com

            Find a recycling center in Greeley

            Give change to a street musician

            Become a tutor

            Donate old clothes

            Put change in an expired parking meter (because I know how much tickets BLOW!)

             Donate $5 to a charity for every task not completed

More to come….