January 30, 2006

Happy anniversary to us!! YAY! Today is our 2 year anniversary. Two years ago today, Dave and I went to Portabello's restaurant in Rochester, NY. The food was okay and the ambiance sucked. We livened it up though...with some laughs and a glass or three of wine. Speaking of Rochester cuisine, I can't wait to go to Veneto's. It is seriously the best pizza place ON the planet..HELLO. It's sooo good. On alternate days (when I'm not eating at Veneto's), I'm eating at Dinosaur BBQ. And maybe I'll squeeze in some Chinese by school(best crab rangoons ever), some Atomic Eggplant,(organic vegetarian), some Thai(just kidding), and Jines for a good ol' fashion american breakfast....where we don't have to be afraid of raw eggs. Oh, I can't wait. And all of my meals in california will consist of either In N' Out or Mexican. Sounds like a plan..good thing I'm working out these days.

We've had a blast celebrating our anniversary here. Neither of us remember what we did last year, so it couldn't have been that amazing..but we also don't remember our first kiss! Isn't that weird? I think it's really weird. I hope it's not a bad omen or anything. So to celebrate we went into Bangkok for some killer Indian food. Oh my gosh..it was sooooo good. The owner has a cooking show on TV here and she also offers cooking classes in her home. Anyway, it was awesome. Then this morning, Dave wanted to make me breakfast in bed (bacon, and choclate chip pancakes) but our sturdy electricity went out for 12 hours starting with a loud blast at 5am. After dinner, I surprised him with a trip to the messuese(sp?). We had oil massages with peppermint. Ok..logic should have told me that peppermint oil would make me chilly..I mean, it makes my mouth chilly, but I didn't put two and two together and I was really cold. I hate being cold when I'm having a massage. But it was a really relaxing..oh and the best part of our day. We bought smores ingredients (inspired by our friend megan dill's website-thanks Megan) and made SMORES. I haven't had those in years...I ate 4 of the suckers..hhaha..go yoga!

Dave wants me to inform everyone that his jazz band concert is on the 8th and he's really excited..and he wants me to write that he bought magic candles(so we thought) to put in my panckaes this morning (2 of them) and then they weren't magic at all..how sad!!

January 28, 2006

Happy Chinese New Year!!! We woke up to festive firecrackers at 6:30am this morning. HILARE. Good thing we had to be up early for an audition day.

Cheddar is trying to eat my ibook charger cord right now. NO! It's Saturday and it's beautiful today...reminds me of Mexico. The air is dry and the sun is warm...ahhh. I never want to leave (not entirely true). Dave and I have decided to move into the sweet house that we looked at last weekend. We talked with the owners and they said that they want us to live there because our wedding will make the house happy. I love Thai superstitions. They are even buying a large Thai style dinner table for the house so that we can bring our wedding guests to the house for a reception. I guess that will make the house very happy! I can't wait to garden...it's easy here..orchids grow wild and nothing ever dies. Sweet.

I'm reading this book about a girl's experience in Thailand. She came in 1987 as a high school exchange student. It's called "Dream of a Thousand Lives" by Karen Connelly. I can't explain how I feel about the book b/c her words are my words. The experiences she had are what I'm living. It's amazing. One sentence that really got me.." I'm in Bangkok and I miss Thailand." It's soooo true. You can walk into the nicest 5 star hotel you have ever seen, eat the best lemongrass creme brulee you have ever had AND for the cheapest price. But that's not Thailand. Not to me. When I come back to the 2 L-shaped streets that make up the town we live in..then I'm in Thailand. Anyway, it's a great book and way more articulate than my blog. So check it out!!

Obviously I'm getting into Thai-related materials. I'm also reading a book about Buddhism and next is an ethnography about women in the Thai work force. COOL! We're going to take pictures of the new house today..YAHOO!

January 21, 2006

Pizza night! We are ordering pizza from a brand new pizza store near us called The Pizza Company. I can't wait. We ordered a cheese pizza and are going to sautee onions, and garlic and slice olives to through on top. Ahh..can't wait.

This week was so relaxing. We went in for a thai massage and are back into a yoga routine. sweet. We also scored on finding clothes here. There are of course all the big name stores that you'd find in malls, but most of them are designer. As far as clothes we can afford or that we like, we have not found that much. Dave and I have both been looking for jeans for a few months now. I got so frusterated last week when we went to look because absolutely NOTHING would fit me. It's soooo frusterating. Anyway, we went to a mall yesterday and just meandered into Guess, not thinking we'd actually find anything and BOOM...jeans that fit our big western butts!! haha. I found really cute ankle length, folded cuff jeans AND a floor length jean skirt and Dave found some sexy jeans too! YAY!

Today was really fun! We found a neighborhood really close to us that we never even knew exsisted. Apparently all the foreigners at Mahidol live there! It was like being home, a nice neighborhood and lots of white people. A friend of ours lives there and so we thought we'd see if anything was for rent. Well, in luck we were, there was one house...2 story, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, like new and no one has lived in it, and fully furnished. So we met the owner and his family and negotiated a price that is about what we are paying here and now we just have to decide if we want to move or not. The house backs up to a clean canal (hard to find in Thailand) and is a 3 minute walk from the super sweet neighborhood pool. Oh my gosh, we'd have a washing machine, an ivy covered back porch area for picnicing and a garden!

Anyway, it's been an exciting weekend so far. Tomorrow, I'm having an extra horn choir rehearsal and then going out to Mexican food with a few friends. Should be sweet. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

January 16, 2006

It's Monday morning. My student text messaged me that she wasn't coming to her lesson, which means I have a free day! I want to be productive..I have good intentions of being productive. We'll see what happens today.

My mega recital was on Thursday and ever since I've been down. I mean, not sad down..just off. It's been nice. Everything went well at my recital, although I was tired by the end. Lame. I listened to the recording last night and the Brahms Songs arr. Verne Reynolds came out excellent. Also, the Mozart sounds almost good enough for a marketable CD, but not quite. My next project is to make a CD I can sell here. There is so little available in Thailand because of importation taxes. Also, if I do masterclasses/recitals at other venues I can sell a CD there too. This is all part of my plan to rule the world with the French horn. HA!

The morning of my recital was hilarious..of course not at the time. I bought bottles of corona for my colleagues that played in my recital. They were sitting quietly in a plastic bag on our tv stand when Cheddar decided to sniff them out. As soon as Dave and I saw his head through the hand holder we approached him to take him off but instead, he jumped. He took all 4 bottles and himself down to the ground. The bottles broke and poured beer all over the floor and it took Cheddar a few seconds of freakin' out before he got free. The poor guy cut up his paw pads pretty bad so we had to take him in to get some antibiotics. He's fine now. His wounds are healing. I'm sure licking off the beer helped take the pain away. HAHA!

We're working on summer plans right now (Summer being March and April). Dave will be back at Eastman to finish up classes and I'll be around. I can't wait to be in the U.S. again. It's been since July and I'm dying for a taste of home.

January 11, 2006

Hey peeps!

It's Whacky Wednesday today. Nothing really whacky has happened except the "pre-college new year party." Just imagine a bunch of high school music students celebrating with loud Thai rock and screaming girls...and all audible to the whole music school. Needless to say, my woodwind quintet rehearsal was a bit rough. Man, I sound like a dork!

Well, our wedding is official! I'm ecstatic!! We signed our contract with Rayavadee resort (www.rayavadee.com) on Monday. How fun is that!! I can't wait to get hitched to Dave. He rocks!!

What else...lalalala. Umm..I don't know. Work is great, my first full recital as a faculty member is tomorrow. I'm really excited and a bit underprepared...but mostly excited. I have never performed most of the standard horn pieces b/c they are standard and no one wants to hear them anymore. But here..no one has heard them so I'm playing a very standard repetoire recital. It's not ideal for me musically, but I'm taking it for the team..hahah. Seriously though, my students will benefit...sweet.

Today, Dave and I are going to the grocery store. Never in my life do I want to live 40 minutes away from a grocery store. We were scraping last night..I mean, scraaaping. I made instant mash potatoe and frozen veggie tacos!! GROSS. Our appetizers included mini carrots and soy beans. mmmmm. Delicious huh. It actually turned out to be super yummmy in a college student sort of way. Dessert was the best part..Williams-Sonoma peppermint bark from Christmas. Oh MAN that stuff is good!

Well, now that I've filled you in on things..I gotta teach a lesson. See ya

January 2, 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We finallllly got internet in our apartment. Can you believe we haven't had it for 7 months?? I know I know..so primitive..just joshin'. Dave and I are enjoying vacation. We didnt move off the couches on Christmas day, and we watched the Indiana Jones trilogy! We made some yummy munchy food and ate and vegged all day. It was awesome. For New Year's we went to a small party and drank some fantastic California wine. I miss that stuff...our friends made mexican gyoza too, which ruled my world.

Sounds like 2006 is the year of weddings. We're finding out more and more friends that are getting hitched..soo weird. I found a wedding dress but it's being sent here in a few weeks so I'm not sure if it'll fit but it's from j.crew and soo gorgeous! Finally. I didn't think I'd ever find one. I'd talk more about the wedding contract but I don't want to jinx anything. It's not signed yet..that's all I'll say.

Sorry this blog sucks. I don't have much to say. I'm running out of thoughts..noooooo!