adventure of a lifetime

On Saturday, February 24, 2007, two young men set out on an expedition in search of ... some amazing guitar music. And that is exactly what they found.

Michael and I took the T-Bird out to Trinity Seminary on Saturday to see my instructor and one of his former students, who now teaches guitar at University level, put on guitar concert. It was a grand time; Norm (my instructor) is an amazing guitarist. He talked about being in Spain at Pepe Romero's house (Romero is one of the most famous classical guitarists alive), and being invited to visit Joaquin Rodrigo, probably the best composer of the 20th century, at least as far as the guitar is concerned. The music that they played ranged from Bach to Rodrigo to Castelnuevo-Tedesco, and on, and it was all spectacular.

Michael had the privilege of holding Norm's guitar for him while he made a trip in between pieces to the restroom (he is getting to the age when he has to do that quite often). I made sure to nudge Michael and let him know that he was holding a $6,000 guitar. He seemed to hold it a little more cautiously after that. I only know that it is worth that because Norm told me that when he let me play it last semester. ;-)

They played a Sonata at the end that was a Canon, and it was incredible. One would play a melody, then the other would play it, or a variation of it, back while the other moved on to the next phrase. You would just have to hear it.

The roads were starting to get nasty on the way out (it's about a 45 minute drive north of here), and on the way back, I am amazed that we made it in one piece; well, two pieces, actually. It was quite treacherous, but due to my impressive driving-in-blizzard-like-though-more-like-heavy-ice-flake-conditions skills, we barreled down the highway unscathed. Well, we might not have been barreling (I don't think we got above 25 mph), but at least we didn't get stuck! If we had known what it would be like, we probably wouldn't have gone ... wait a minute, yes we would have! It's guitar, for crying out loud! It would have been better if it wasn't so nasty out, though. My hands have, however, regained their normal shape and color. No more white knuckles.

By the way, Stephanie and I are on Facebook now (we have succumbed to social pressure), so look us up if you're on there. That is all, and don't worry, we'll keep sending you our weather as soon as we're done with it! Have fun, until next time.

Jesse

My district leader came in today to go over a few things, and while I haven't officially been promoted yet, I am well on my way! I needed to get my request rate up to an average of 15 per week (basically, having people who liked how I cut their hair come back and request me), and I was averaging 6-point something a week in January when she came in and now I am averaging almost 10 a week! She was really impressed with how much that number had gone up! She is also having me attend a meeting for Assistant Salon Leaders (ASLs) next Tuesday at her house and wants me to go on some retreat later next month for new salon leaders and assistant salon leaders, so...pretty much as soon as I get my request rate up to an average of 15 per week, I am promoted! One of my concerns was that she would move me to another salon, but she told me today that for now, I am going to stay where I am because her plans kinda fell through...I am just hoping that after my promotion, I can motivate the other girls to work hard and get the numbers up for the salon as a whole and she'll let me just stay there...thank you all so much for your prayers, and please continue to pray!

Sorry it has been so long since we last posted...I was waiting for Jesse to write something about his friends coming to town, but I guess he's been too busy with school and work, so I will!

The weekend after Andy and Laura came, we had the privelege of hosting four of our guy friends at our house! Wahli, Eric, Jono, and Steve all came for the weekend! They got in on Saturday at some point (I was working) and pretty much left right away and were gone all day, literally ALL OVER town! When they finally got home close to 10:00, I asked them where all they had gone, and they were like "where DIDN'T we go is the question!" Needless to say, they were all worn out and just hung out and watched some crazy kung fu movie...I went to bed about halfway through! They went to church with us the next morning and they decided that pizza sounded good for lunch, so we took them downtown to Giordano's and then to Ghirardelli for dessert. We hung out in town for a little longer and then came back to our apartment, where they packed up and left. I had a meeting at work that evening, and while that didn't sound like much fun, the prospect of being around some more estrogen sounded heavenly...don't get me wrong, these are all awesome guys, but I was to the point where if I had heard one more joke about farting or pooping, I would have about gone crazy! I guess Jesse would have felt the same way if I would have had four of my girl friends up to visit, so...I know they all had fun, and that's what counts!

We had a Super Bowl party at our house last Sunday, it was so much fun! GO COLTS!!! We had two other couples over (Craig and Danielle, Michael and Leeanne) and we all just hung out and watched the game and ate lots of food! We enjoyed most of the commercials, but I have to say that we laughed hardest at the one with Kevin Federline...It was so funny to watch the news here after the game was over because they were at all these Bears parties and everyone's just like "there's always next year!" and "we'll win next year!"...

This past Monday, our company held a regional awards banquet out in the suburbs. It was a fancy dinner (everyone was wearing fancy dresses and had their hair all done up) along with the presenting of some awards for the best salons in the area. Danielle and I were just excited to get all dressed up! It was a really fun evening, there were over 1,200 people at the event, all employees of Hair Cuttery in the Chicagoland area, so the energy in the place was awesome! My DL still hasn't come for a follow-up, so I will definitely post when she does!

Kurtis and Aimee will be in town next weekend and my grandparents possibly the next, so our weekends have been pretty full lately! We're having fun having people at our house, though, so we aren't complaining at all! Have a great weekend, everyone!