Rule #1: stay out of the god-damn malls

I've bested piano minor, and thus the semester. The final hour and a half before my 2:00 piano test was especially nerve-racking and tense, and I was relieved to have finished it. I slogged through my two short pieces and 3 scales adequately enough, although not exceptionally well. Word got out before the test that the instructor was asking everyone for a B maj scale, so that's what I prepared in particular. After finishing, I asked the teacher not my specific grade, but only if I passed. She told me that I in fact did, and I practically jumped for joy. All I have left is the hand-me-an-A take-home music history final, due tomorrow at 3:00 pm. Essentially I'm done till January 21st... and it's about god-damn time!

After the test I stuck around to keep Tatiana company before her jury, which I bet she did fine at, despite what she seems to think. After school we went to Tim Horton's, and thence to marketplace mall to get her new glasses. As we walked into Pearle Vision, who should be tending the reception desk but my ex-girlfriend MaryAnne. Bearing her no ill will and being long-since over her, I had no trouble going right up & giving her shit. We exchanged a warm welcome & caught up a little, looks like she's doing well all in all. Tatiana and I milled around the "maul" for an hour waiting for her glasses, which consisted of eating, walking, and shopping for a purse and a couple trinkets. And can I mention how much I detest fucking malls? Especially this time of year. Aside from the mind-numbing commercialism battering you, every square inch is choked with seething throngs of the intellectually dispossessed, vacantly shoving and clawing their way to various stores like a bunch of feral hyenas bolting for a putrifying carcass. I felt my IQ plummeting and my patience waning with each foul, stupid animal that bumped shoulders with me. If I ever set foot in a mall again, it'll be fifty billion years too soon.

As we picked up the afore-mentioned new spectacles, MaryAnne gave me a sincere thumbs-up on the new girl-friend, which was cool. It's definitely better than a bunch of bull-shit jealousy for sure. She has a new boy-friend as well, some fellow Star Wars convention geek, and frankly I could give two shits about him. Although he is an Army lieutenant, which makes me wonder who in the hell we have guarding our freedoms.

Tatiana and I had to part company after this adventure, as her family shanghaied our plans for this evening. Looks like we're on for friday night before she leaves for about 5 days, bound for a church youth conference in the thriving metropolis of Parma, Ohio. I assume this convention will at least quadruple the poulation of this insignificant, jerk-weed little town. At any rate, we might also go see the RPO Pops holiday concert saturday after-noon if I can somehow get the tickets from Kirk. I can't just ask him, as Rebecca told me about it in a conversation which was also about his Christmas present, which I need to keep a secret. What a contemptable quagmire.

Alas, I now need to go chip away at the music history take-home final I mentioned. It's not exactly tough, but I shouldn't jeapordize my potential A or B in the class by shirking it.