Has anyone ever beat the expert level of Minesweeper? I think I've made that one of my goals of summer. Sad but true. I have mastered the two beginning levels but have never once beat the highest level. I would really like to this summer.


p.s. Buttery popcorn has probably the best and most tempting smell of any food in the world.

For (e:Jill)...a popular clothing store in Finland that I saw many times. Thought you would enjoy... :)





Hey, you Scots...WE MISS YOU!!!!!

And I am officially back in the USA. Have been for about 4 days now. My trip with the Chamber Singers was ridiculously eventful due to the fact that both our tour manager and director had no idea what they were doing. The itinerary we were given was basically BS because the group totally ran out of money and nothing was planned or thought out in advance AT ALL. People ended up having to buy basically all of their meals, when we were originally told we would be able to eat cheaply at our hostels or with host families. There was even a night when we didn't have a hotel booked until 12:30 in the morning and all 33 of us were stranded in a train station in Stockholm. So needless to say, I wasn't sad when me, Chris and my friends David and Emily departed from the group to go to Paris for the week.

We did get to sing in a big festival in Tampere, Finland, and actually did pretty well. We were the only American choir and were chosen to sing in the final concert (13 out of 50 choirs were chosen.) We didn't win a prize or money but it was still really cool, and a nice way for me to end my time with the group (that I really do love and will miss but am not sorry to leave after this tour fiasco!)

Paris was so great. We ate so much bread and cheese and drank just as much wine. The arts are thriving there, and have been for a long time. I can understand why so many famous writers, artists and musicians made their homes in Paris. I only wish I spoke French. Most people were nice about speaking English but I felt so guilty anyway. Everywhere we go, people learn English as well as their native language, because Americans seem to be too caught up with themselves to spend a great deal of time educating in language arts.

Paris still had its own troubles, such as Chris losing his passport on the very last day! He somehow made it to London without his passport but then had to make a trip to the US Embassy in order to fly home. Silly Americans. Luckily that turned out ok, and now the only other battle we have is to tackle a $400 phone bill from our hotel in London...thanks a lot AT&T phone cards...

I'm glad to be back home. It's nice to make some money after having spent so much, and I'm hoping to relieve Mike from some of his crappiness. I know I can't always provide the same entertainment as Jill or Teres, but I guess he knows that too. I think we are going to have a great time anyway. A trip to NYC is in the works (and definitely WILL HAPPEN!) and the rest of the usual summer fun. And somewhere in there I hope to go to Albany a couple times.

So that's my life lately. Glad to be back. Jill and Beast sounds like you are getting by in freakin expensive Great Britain! I'm sorry we didn't get together. I didn't even end up going to the city on the night of the 19th because we were so worn out and had an amazing hotel right by the airport (yay priceline!) Miss you lots.

TTFN tata for now.

P.S. Who thinks Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will be popular and successful and who thinks it might end up as another weird Johnny Depp movie that no one really remembers down the road?

So I am in Finland staying with a host mommy. This is the first time all tour I've stayed with a host parent and not a hostel. It is just me and her and her two little terriers that I sort of love and hate at the same time but really I love them because they remind me of my dogs.

Some highlights and opinions of my trip so far...

First of all my choir director is incompetent and irresponsible. We've had a lot of problems with money and scheduling and general organization. It's very frustrating, and I don't think I am one to get frustrated easily. We do have a tour manager who also did a half-assed job of planning and scheduling. It is a lack of money and communication that has resulted in some adventures, some of which I would not wish to repeat any time soon.

London...I love London still, but I think I loved it more last time because my mom was so in love with everything, and seeing London with Chris jsut wasn't the same. He doesn't care for big cities I guess. But we both enjoyed the sites and stuff. It is so expensive...the £ is pretty much double the $. HA I CAN TYPE BOTH OF THOSE SYMBOLS WITH THESE KEYBOARDS! Anyway London was super and I was really happy to go back. Heard some great music too.

Norway: Some beautiful scenery, such as the mountains and waterfalls. But Norway is also REALLY expensive, and not all that exciting. You can really do most everything you want in a couple days. I liked it a lot though.

Sweden: I did not like Sweden. I mean we started off on the wrong foot...getting in to Stockholm too late and not having a hostel that we had planned for and ended up sitting around the train station until 1:30 AM. But in general I thought the people were rude, the city was pretty ugly and I was just not impressed at all.

Finland: I love Helsinki! I wish we could have been there longer. I like Finland. They really have their shit together with education and taxes and health care and stuff. There are not very many people at all...like 5 million in the whole country. I'm looking foward to singing (sort of) and to hearing a bunch of choirs in this festival we are participating in.

I am pretty much ready to go home, or at least go somewhere where I don't have to be with Chamber Singers. In a way I am glad this is my last thing with the group. I am looking forward to Paris, even though I know it is kind of dirty with mean people. I am brushing on my french but I stink. Mon francais e mal. After Paris I will be really ready to be home and read English and understand what newspapers and menus say and pay in dollars and eat American food and see everyone that I really really miss. Well, almost everyone.

My computer will probably freak out and shut down in the middle of this. So it will be fast and short. While I am excited to go to Europe, I am sad to go too. I wish so much that I could be with Mike and the Viscos for the next few days. Timing doesn't seem to be the best thing lately. I know that my family will be there for you. (e:mike) I will only be gone until mid-June. You will barely notice I have left. I know this is a really hard time for you right now but even if the three of us won't be here, you do have other people here to entertain you and keep you going!! I love you and I'm going to miss you while I am overseas and therefore I will write to you a lot. I will sure to fill you in on lots of good stories for when I'm there, well, if I feel like getting through the whole thing...


Vivere lungo il Centro Commerciale di Colline Orientale! La vedrò quando ritorno!


(I hope free translation.com is correct and I didn't just write something ridiculous.) :)

Good luck and I will be thinking about you a lot!

I love when I start writing an entry and AOL decides to randomly shut down for no reason.

So anyway, I am home for the summer and pretty darn happy about it. Graduation was a nice time, nothing too emotional. I guess because it was only a half graduation for me ;) And most of the friends and the boyfriend (haha) that I've had at the school didn't even graduate with me. But some did, so that was a little sad. Anyway so more about that later. Outback is scrumptious, even though it overrode my Perkins vote. I still need some Perkins ASAP. Today I am going with Mike to buy an iPod mini. I'm so excited : ) It will be so much easier for my trip.

This summer should be interesting...everything seems to have two sides. Jill, Teres and Jen won't be here all summer, and Jesse leaves in July. And I don't know about Mo. So all of that is no fun : ( But I will get to see the people who are here a lot, and Mike and I may even make a trip to NYC just for fun. I'm going to Europe for almost a month, which will be undoubtedly great. And in that time I could be making money or hanging with people here. Chris is freakin 4 hours away again, and since we are going to Europe for so long together we probably won't see each other much. So I guess there's really nothing good about that haha.

Don't know what else to say. I am looking forward to this summer. I hope I can make a decent amount of money, do some good travelling and stuff. Ok Mike ishere. bye

I love Fredonia, obviously. But sometimes I get really sad about how disconnected I am from where I grew up and everybody who I grew up with. We're all doing different things and have grown apart in so many ways and sometimes I think, well that's just life, but sometimes it makes me really sad. And no matter what, that's how it's going to be...different. So much has changed, but we always end up where we started, and maybe that won't happen anymore. And if that's the way it is, I have to be okay with it. But I don't know if I am. I just know that right now I'm sad too.

Is there a song that has that name? No, that's Joaaaaanna. Maybe?

So here's my answer to whether or not I'm looking forward to being home this summer...I've been in a computer lab working on one worksheet for my theory class for two hours. I was asked to sing in 2 concerts this week and I got the music...this week. I have a 15 page paper to finish...and start. I have to finish a big research project that I've been planning for the whole semester, and I have a grand total of 2 paragraphs written. I recieved mail from the Commencement Committee addressed to 'Mary Jane Maloy', leading me to believe my diploma may be printed with that name...

So I think I'm ready to be finished.

And yes I will be in Buffalo this summer, yessss. I really hope I get to teach lessons for work and not have to do anything else. Cuz that would be okay money. : )

Want me to teach you to sing??????

Let me know!


MMMM CHEESE BREAD

ps everyone check out for shakespeare in the park cast lists!

Lately I feel like nothing interesting is going on in my life. That's kind of an absurd feeling because there are plenty of things in my life. But yesterday and today I felt so completely blah.

Ew my user pic looks awful on this computer, or maybe it looks awful in general. Time for a change.

My choir is supposed to go on this tour to Finland at the beginning of the summer for 19 days. As of now, we don't really know if we're going. Helloooo...a little more than a month away...the reason is because our spring tour of New York State was totally disorganized and messed up, and the same person who did that tour is supposed to do this Finland tour. But I personally would not want to spend $1000 on a plane ticket to get overseas and have nothing to do for THREE WEEKS. Sure, my trip to Great Britain two years ago was one of the best times ever, but it's because we had concerts every night and everything was planned and nice. If we have a vote on this trip, I have a feeling lots of people are going to say no. That's sad because travelling is life-changing and amazing but I don't have all that time or money to waste doing nothing.

A few of us also were planning on staying an extra week in Paris afterwards, and we have our apartment booked for the week. I still really want to go to Paris, but who knows...it kinda stinks.

The Fredonia Chamber Singers will be singing at Kenmore Middle School tomorrow at 7 pm. We are good. Honestly, it's not a boring concert, we sing fun music. So, please come. It makes me sad that it's my third year in the group and none of my friends have ever even heard us.

Wow everything is making me sad, HA! That's not good.

I am starting this crazy workout routine where every day of the week I do something different, and all of it gets the heart pumping and muscles tightening. So get ready for some sexiness this summer. By sexiness, I mean a very pale and ghostly white figure. But maybe with slightly less flab....slightly...

what a fun weekend!


p.s. does EVERYONE KNOW WHAT [size=l]TODAY[/size] IS?!?!?!


p.p.s. thanks paul for fixing my name in people's journals.


Happy Dyngus Day!