Pictures from my Lesson with Egbert Schoenmaker

Christmas at Our House

Christmas is for Family

We're just getting back from a trip to Virginia to see my mom's family. Family is what makes the holidays special to me. Now we've seen all 5 of my mom's siblings in the last week and 5 of my 15 cousins.

First stop was Washington D.C. where my Aunt Sharon works a block away from the White House.My cousin Erin is home from Togo, Africa for 3 weeks in between her 2 years of service with the Peace Corps. We went to see the National Christmas tree in the freezing cold and found the smaller tree for the state of North Carolina. The White House looks awfully pretty at night with the Christmas tree out front. We also walked around the Kennedy Center but couldn't get into anything since nothing was going on that night. We saw my Uncle Ronnie while there and had my grandmother's chocolate cake. He made enough cakes for us to take to all the other aunts and uncles along the way.

We ended the trip in Waynesboro, VA where I lived from age 0-4 and the only place on earth that feels like home to me. My grandmother lived there along with my Uncle Kit's family my whole childhood so it's where we came to for most vacations and big family events. It's the only place that's never changed in my life. My uncle has Parkinson's and just had a surgery where they stick 4 electrodes in the brain that give off small shocks which help with muscle control. My uncle has a remote that he can use to turn the electrodes up or down or off. He turned it all the way off for us and you could see the tremors of Parkinson's take back over. Then when he turned it on his face contorted like he had eaten a lemon and his body got tense and then he was back to himself. As long as I can remember his face has looked like a mask, almost in a daze and he's had bad tremors. Now he smiles and laughs and can make facial expressions, and he can walk at normal speed. My cousin Lindsey, who's never known him when he wasn't sick, doesn't really even know who this dad is. It's hard to describe how amazing the transformation is, all from shocking the brain. I'm sure it will be even more amazing when my uncle gets to heaven.

So here's some pictures from the trip:


Stephanie, cousin Lindsey, and me

Although this picture doesn't do it justice, this is how I remember my childhood:
Outside in the beautiful mountains playing with my cousins.
(That is my sister and Lindsey sliding on the ice wearing trashbags by the way.)


Me and my cousin's dog Laddie (I want one of these one day!)


My favorite picture of Grandma, the person that ties us all together, just as I remember her...

Thank God I'm not an only child!

My sister got home today after being at Pisgah for the weekend. It's so nice to have her home. I've realized this weekend how nice she is to have around and how thankful I am that I have a sister... How do single children do it?


So here's some things sisters are good for:

Sharing the pressure of entertaining Mom and Dad
Sticking up for you and taking your side
Liking the same things
Remembering which movie a line comes from
Making standing in lines interesting
Keeping the other side of the bed warm
Disliking the same things
Taking a break away from the parents
Being from the same generation
Liking the same stores
Giving fashion opinions
Comic relief (mine is especially good at this one)
Liking the same food
Being embarrassed about the same things
Knowing things about Mom and Dad that nobody else does
Making long trips more interesting
Breaking up the monotony
Understanding your world

Weekend at the Palace

I never knew North Carolina had it's own little colonial palace but this weekend I found out there is such a thing at New Bern. Apparently, New Bern was the colonial capitol of NC during the revolutionary era compete with a palace built by Governor Tryon, the first governor of the NC colony. George Washington even stayed in the town once and danced at the palace. Unfortunately, the original palace burned down so the one people visit today is a reconstruction. They have interpreters dressed up in period garb; some act like they are from the time period and talk in the manner of the 1770's. Saturday night was the big Christmas Candle lighting; the whole grounds lit with only candles, an African American jamboree, a ball inside the palace with dance demonstrations, an acrobat from Italy, a puppet show, cider and ginger snaps, and a nice fireworks display at the end.

My family always loves to visit historical places so we are suckers for this kind of trip. Besides visiting the "palace" and grounds you can visit several period homes within the block. There are also several homes from the Civil War time period. They don't build houses like those anymore. Such beautiful high ceilings, wanes coating, and elaborate woodwork. Terrible to heat though I'm sure. I think I would love to live in one some day if I could afford it... All this history has made me break out another revolutionary biography (John Adams by David McCullough) and want to take another trip to Williamsburg... Maybe next Christmas...

The Party Back at My Place

And after the graduation we came back to my apartment for refreshments...

And a little card playing...

Carrie loved it, as you can see.

So all in all, I think it was a pretty good evening. I'm all graduated, except that I don't have the diploma as yet but I'm sure with Southern's mail reputation, I should receive it sometime within the next 10 years, provided they mail it to the correct address.

Graduation Photos

Here are some pictures of my graduation, I'll add more later...
Before...

And after...

Here's everybody that came: Mr. Schomburg, Aunt Joann, Uncle Jimmy, Cousin Jimmy, the Heilmans, my family and Carrie.

2 Ceremonies to Go

Well, I'm done with my tests. Should I feel a sense of accomplishment? I don't. Just feels like another winter day. Got to plan this and that. Who's coming when, where we're going when. Big accomplishments are supposed to make one feel good aren't they? What if you don't really care. I suppose this will end a lot of things in my life. My life will no longer be measured in school years. My school bill will not be the biggest bill in my mailbox. Now school will be a choice, not an obligation.

Another event on my adulthood trajectory: I got my medical insurance card the other day. I am covered by myself and now will pay every month for the off chance that I will actually need medical assistance. January 1 my list of hands in my bank pocket goes up drastically. So what's to look forward to? As far as I'm concerned, it might be nice to just be 5 again.

On to the festivities... I might already be celebrating if anybody else was around to celebrate with. Unfortunately, I'm the only one who is completely done.

Last day of undergraduate classes

My name is Jaclyn Ford. I have an addiction to school. I've decided. Today as I stood in front of the chalkboard writing notes on the board, I realized that today was my last day of undergrad classes. And not only that, it is probably the last time in my life I'll get to take a music class. For all it's frustration and hard work, Music Theory has been one of the most amazing classes I have ever taken. I have a completely new appreciation for music on a totally different level, a deeper understanding of music's intricate subtle genius. We take it for granted every day. Writing good music takes real effort and talent, whether it's a movie score, a popular tune, or a hymn.

How would my life be different if I had become a music major? I'll never know. In some ways I'm very satisfied. I think that I can be much happier going to work as a nurse for years and years then I would be finding something to do with a music degree. However, I feel very sad hanging up the music part of my life. I feel like this semester has opened up a whole new world to me, there's a part of myself that has totally come out of the closet and learned to fly. I'm worried that if I don't keep the doors open and keep growing I'll lose it. I am hungry for more but I don't know if I would really want to keep going all the way to Theory 4. Thankfully I'll still get to keep my finger in with organ lessons.

When I was thinking about doing this semester, Carrie said something to me that I'll never forget. It was something like... "Taking time out to do something special you want to do is really scary at first but you will look back and be really glad you did it." How right she was...

On the Road to Adulthood... wait... am I already there?

Several things have happened (or are going to happen) this month that make me feel slightly old, more adult, and perhaps a bit independent. Last week I got the title for my car. It took me 11 months to pay it off but now I am the proud owner of a 1998 Nissan Maxima which has 17,000 more miles on it then when I purchased it and has required about $1,000 of repairs, not counting maintenance. I don't know how people can feel happy about getting their title if they take the whole 3 years to pay it off. By the time you own the car you've half killed it. Kinda depressing. I suppose now that I own a car my net worth has at least doubled, at least the credit card company thinks so, they've doubled the limit on my credit card.

I also got a couple refund checks from my car which has topped off my savings account at $1,000, my goal for the year. I dreamed of having that much money at one time for years, so now I do. And what am I going to do with it? Let it sit in the bank where it belongs. That's what savings accounts are for aren't they? Some of that money came from graduation money from my AS degree, some from the sale of my little blue car, some from cleaning houses, some from working. It's an accumulation of some of the most precious things to me and a lot of hard work and big decisions.

Last weekend we girls celebrated Christmas. It was wonderful to have Lindsey down and Tara and Carrie with me. We are going to be together so seldom now. It hit me today that Tara is really leaving. It's worse than Lindsey leaving, she's leaving the country for an entire year and when she comes back she'll probably stay on the west coast. For all practical purposes I think that is another country. ;-) We are all growing up and taking different paths. We knew it would happen one day but it's still shocking when it happens. Maybe I'm just delaying it by staying in my nice little Collegedale haven. But anyway, back to Christmas. I got a set of Corelle dishes from the girls, ones I asked for. It struck me when I opened them that they will probably be the ones I have for the next 20-30 years. They are the ones my kids will look at and think of home like I do about my mom's dishes. How sobering.

And finally, next week I graduate... again... Not as exciting as the last time but I guess a four-year degree is more of the benchmark of entering adulthood. I don't know how this BSN will change my life, but I'm certainly glad it's over with. As far as I'm concerned it really has been a lot of BS...

Music Muse

After about 9 months of playing one 4 page organ piece I can finally play all the notes. Yes, I said NOTES, it is still far from performance material. Seems like I will never get anywhere with it! Sometimes I remind myself how nice it is to NOT have lessons and just do what you want. But then I remember that you really don't perfect things that way and I realize how much I have learned this year and how far I've come. Today my lesson taught me that I needed to connect things more and work on feeling the direction of the phrasing, not just mechanically playing the notes. Funny how you know that's what you are doing but you don't know how to fix it. I know how I would fix it on a piano, but an organ is entirely different. So basically I've overshot my goal: when I first started playing organ I was playing everything too mushy; now its too detached and mechanical. You can't win. Perhaps I'll be able to play this organ piece by 2010.

Last week we had an organist here from Germany. He was a jolly curly-haired sort of fellow who made me think a little of Beethoven. He thought everything was so neat here in America "where you have everything!" from my driver's license down to our custom organ shoes. He took a picture with his digital camera every 10.2 seconds, literally. Last year when we had these master classes with European organists, I'd sit still and try not to be noticed but since I have been here longer than most of these freshman who now play our organ, I am a bit more confident about trying things. There is something to be said for being in a room with people who all share a desire to learn about something you find important from a person who is really good at that something.

No matter how much I am tired of this piece, I think this is something I will really miss when I leave Southern. There isn't another organ like this in the whole country. Anybody want to buy me a tracker organ for my living room?

Random Pictures from my life

We're getting ready to brave the post-Thankgsiving traffic to get back to Southern but while I'm at home and have access to pictures... I thought I'd put a few on my page.



My roommate, Carrie, and I at one of our favorite summer activities... boating.

My sister, Stephanie, and I on a Sabbath afternoon hike.

My soon-to-be graduated self.

So there's a few random pictures for your enjoyment...

By the Stream

Here's me on a trip to Asheville a few weekends ago. Sitting out in nature by water is so calming and peaceful...

Succumbing to the Peer Pressure

In the relaxation of Thanksgiving while looking at all of my friends' blogs, I've decided I might as well try making one myself as something to do, even if I never do anything with it later on.

I got home late Wed. night after a long few days; working two especially busy 12 hour shifts and then having a very full day of classes, including a master organ class with an organist from Germany and my own personal lesson. By the time we got in the car I was so wired from running around that I wasn't sleepy. However, Knoxville traffic came right when the activity started to wear off. Carrie took over driving when I got sleepy and then my sister drove after we dropped Carrie off. Its been awhile since I got to sit in the passenger seat.

Since we've been home my mom has been working so Stephanie and I have been doing a lot of the cooking and entertaining my dad. Today is our real Thanksgiving since Mom is off work. Everybody is in the kitchen right now, which is probably where I should be. Dad taking 5000 pictures, Mom cooking and making random comments about everything, Stephanie probably just sitting and listening, helping here and there. But I feel more like quietly typing about my life as a homeless college student who comes to this house way over in Raleigh, NC for random holidays to get what some people might call "rest."

With graduation less than a month away its strange to think that I could pick myself up and decide I wanted to move to Nevada and start my life there. Being a nurse would make that possible but desirable? I guess its just nice to know that you CAN do that even if you don't.

So many things about the next year of my life are up in the air. Where will I be a year from now? Who will I be with? Its a little scary to think about but I'm becoming far more comfortable with the thought of uncertainty and even a little intrigued by it. A life without surprises would be totally boring, wouldn't it?