Tired but alive...

[songofjoy02]

We must have a very slow connection right now...I don't even need to be writing in this journal, especially as it will be taking time that I need to devote to other things. It doesn't sound so very overwhelming, but it SEEMS overwhelming...and that's all that really seems to matter right now. I went to bed after three this morning and got up at six. I'm very grateful for Blue Bunny's limited edition chocolate ice cream with brownies and chocolate candy in it. If you haven't tried it, it's wonderful...and it helped me stay awake for several hours of homework last night. I am thinking that I had better sleep tonight, though, because extreme sleep deprivation can be dangerous. I don't think I've reached that point, though.

Two encouraging things happened today...and you can guess that they related to tests. Unfortunately, I'm too tired to talk about it now. But it's not so important to tell what it was as that it was. My hard work is not in vain; I'm not as much of a dunce as I thought. I have one more beginning-of-the-semester test, which is in one week. If I can get an A on that test, well...then I won't feel like a failure. Somehow, I think that school is becoming too important to me.

Hey, I have a question for you music people out there.

I'm supposed to do a presentation on Franz Liszt in my Music Appreciation class on Monday morning and the teacher wants us to be "original" in our presentations. Her examples were of a guy dressing up in an Elvis costume, a military man dressing in his uniform and delivering his speech as a briefing, and of a guy using objects to illustrate various aspects of a composer's life. I'm lost in trying to figure out how to present Liszt. I'm not about to dress up like a guy or to pretend to play like him. I LIKE playing the piano, but I'm...well...if good piano players were like children compared to Liszt, I'm out of the running altogether in a comparison...because I don't even approach mediocre--which is okay for what I do. But anyway...I need some ideas on what to do for originality. I'm reading four books about him (actually, I've read one, started two, and haven't even opened the cover of the fourth); I must have six references total, no more than two of which can be internet sources. Since I already have four out of six, I guess that I'll get the rest on-line even though I think that the sources I have really are comprehensive enough. Anyway...ideas???