What a year. Facebook likes to remind you of everything major you posted in the last year. Mine included graduation, my senior recital, my concerto with wind symphony, as well as a few things that I would consider more minor (my pie that I baked for Thanksgiving, really?).
It's been a good 2013, but I'm glad it's 2014. I'm ready to move forward from undergrad and get ready for grad school. I know I have time still, but practicing six days a week is still my goal for the year, and I've been putting money aside from every paycheck for application fees. I got blindsided by those the last time I applied, but no one's catching me by surprise this time! It also managed to be a major limiting factor to which schools I applied for. At about $100 per application, I had to pick my schools carefully, and I didn't do nearly enough research last time. I'm going to work towards affording more applications, as well as keep putting aside money for things like flights to the East Coast.
Meanwhile, loans go into repayment next week. The grace period has been nice, but now it's time to settle down and really plan finances carefully. So far I've been successful in building up a nice buffer. It's been amazing to see my account consistently having money in it. At this point last year, I was pretty far in the red.
I've started spinning again, and I finally figured out the trick I was missing on plying my singles (taking all my skinny yarns and making them all plush like the ones you see at the store basically). A downside of being self-taught, you miss out on obvious things. Apparently while you spin your singles clockwise, to ply multiple singles, you have to spin the wheel counterclockwise. And all this was realized after owning my spinning wheel for six months, and only recently looking up "how to ply on a spinning wheel" on youtube.
I still have my hands full of knitting Chris' sweater, but it's made some real progress up until recently. I had to pause for a couple days while I knit some quick Christmas presents, but my goal is to get it done by the end of the month.
In the meantime, ensembles start up again tonight, and I can't explain how excited I am to start playing with others again. It's going to be a great couple of concerts ahead of me.
Bring it on, 2014. I'm excited to see what you bring.
