So... What's Up With You?

The following quote kind of sums up my week.

In a good way.

"Once there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everybody died.

The End."

- Patrick Star

Icarus

Icarus

And as I walk underneath the silver stars

Unaware of the bustling street cars

Breathing, again, the peach flavored sky

I remember the time that I could fly

It was a calm night, such as this

And it started out as nothing more than a wish

But slowly I fell out of myself

As the waves lapped upon the ocean shelf

Then faster; there was something amiss

But my mind was too cluttered to realize the bliss

Was it the wind that I first realized

That I felt with my hand when I opened my eyes?

Or was it the sound of the billowing sea

Loudly strumming its crests, waiting for me?

Ah, yes. There was definitely something calling my name

But the clouds all around me just sounded the same

When I first looked down from my gathering height

The silhouetted city stared back, to my fright

But no matter how hard I tried to find peace with my lies

The city kept glaring with its glossy black eyes

I never felt safe with the sight at my back

I couldn’t hide from the memories I needed so much to lack

I couldn’t run, no matter how hard I tried

But the worst of all was that I wasn’t able to hide

The ocean beneath me seemed to mock my attempts

As it lazily flowed to the city, to my contempt

It was then that I discovered my marvelous escape:

I stopped, to clear my mind of the thick, troublesome drape

I stopped with the worries, stopped with the pain

Stopped all the heartbreak pouring down on me like rain

I stopped with the stress that tore at my mind

I stopped it all, and left it all behind

And then! Oh how wonderful it was to see

My problems all plummet, dropping very quickly

And I could fly! I was free!

I never again felt like I was chained to a tree

And the places I found! The things I heard!

The things I tasted, and saw, and explored!

It was relieving to my heart

To at last have a chance for a new start

And as I walked underneath the silver stars

Not thinking of the busy street cars

Breathing, again, the peach flavored sky

I remember the time that I could fly

Oh, I remember the time that I could fly

~Trevor Howell

The Worth of Music

So I haven't written on my blog for a long time. I know, and you know, so let's just forget the past and move on.

...But I don't really feel like writing. So you listen. Listen to what I've made, and I hope you like it. :) A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a song without words has infinite possibilities.


In Flight (Cover) - Seagull Orchestra by Tikah





Rainstorm by Tikah


I'll write an actual post some time in the future. But now is not that time. Have a wonderful day/night. :)

Christmas Eve

Have I ever told you what my favorite part about Christmas is? It's the feeling of peace and the Christmas music. Those are my favorite parts about Christmas. And the feeling of peace I can feel the most on Christmas Eve, more than any other day. I think because on the days leading up to Christmas is all preparation, no time to just relax and soak in the warm feeling. Christmas day is too chaotic (at least at my house). So that leaves Christmas Eve. My favorite day in December.

I love getting together with the family, playing games and laughing together. I love spending Christmas Eve night at Grandma's, while she always reads us a new story. And our musical chime choir. And our puppet show of Luke 2. And just being there. It really is the greatest tradition.

So I'll try to keep this post short, since I know you all lead busy lives. Go, and be golden. And if you haven't before, maybe try to have a wonderful Christmas Eve with your family, it really is the greatest. :)

Raynaud & Dermatographia

Hello friends, friends of friends, and those who randomly stubble upon my blog.

Welcome.

Today's post is brought to you by a lifelong syndrome/disease I've been living with, and didn't even know it! Allow me to elaborate. For as long as I can remember, my hands have had this weird little thing where when I get cold, my fingers turn white. And not just turn white, but get numb and move really slow (which is kind of difficult to live with when you want to play the piano). I just shrugged it off as something that happens to everybody when their hands get cold. I mean, isn't that normal for you to loose feeling when you're freezing? Of course it is! But the catch that I didn't understand when I was yay tall (referring to smaller than I am now, not an actual measurement of height), was that I wasn't freezing. I was rarely even cold enough to be shivering when my fingers turned white! But being young and ignorant, I didn't care about it and moved on with life.

The second disorder I have is called Dermatographic Urticaria (meaning "skin writing"). What does that mean? Well, basically just what it says! I can write on my skin! Ok, well anybody can write on their skin with a pen or something. Let me be a little more specific. When I scratch myself, my skin 1) feels better after the scratching (which I hope is normal with all of you...), and 2) turns red. I can see all of you right now trying this out on yourself. Wait for it... Wait for it... WOAH! Your skin turns red too?! Great! Now let me continue. My skin stays red after I scratch it. Depending on how intensely I itch it or rub it, the time it stays red varies from a minute and a half to about three minutes. I bet your skin has probably returned to normal by now. If not, wait a couple more seconds.

. . .

Still red? Woo! We can be the 5% of the population with Dermatographia, together! So you may be wondering how I found out about these disorders. I'll tell you.

For the white finger syndrome, like I said, I didn't even realize it wasn't normal until my dad pointed it out one day. I had just come in from mowing the lawn in the early summer when the sun was shining bright and I was feelin' nice and warm! Then my dad said, "Woah, Trevor. What happened to your fingers?" That's when I looked down and realized I couldn't feel my fingers because they were white again. "Oh," I replied. "My fingers just get white at random times." My dad told me he thought that was odd, and gave me one of those looks. You know, with the raised eyebrow. I just shrugged, and continued on to my room. After thinking about it, I remember that my grip on the lawnmower was fairly tight, and the air was a little more crisp than it usually was (although it didn't seem like I was gripping the handle any tighter than I usually did). But another thing I realized that morning was that my little syndrome definitely wasn't normal.

How I found out about my Dermatographia was at school one day. It was in Jr. High and I was standing in the lunch line, when one of my friends who was standing behind me said, "Woah, Trevor, what happened to your neck?" My initial response was, Oh crap! What happened to my neck?! Then I decided to be rational and ask what he meant. "Well, you've got all these red lines across your neck! It looks like you were mauled." That's when I remembered that I had scratched myself a little while before on my neck. Then my little wheels got turning. Wait a minute, if the back of my neck is red... Then I scratched myself on my arm. HARD. After about 10 seconds, red lines started to appear. Huh! I didn't even realize that when I scratch myself, my skin turns red. Then I just assumed everybody's skin did that, until everybody started pointing it out. "Hey Trevor, you've got red lines across your neck!" "Hey Trevor, what happened to your cheek?" "Trevor. Trevor. Trevor. You're red all over!" So it wasn't normal.

Figures.

It was only earlier this year when I learned that these disorders I have actually have a name. There's Raynaud's Phenomenon (or Disease, called both ways), which is when my fingers turn white. And then there's Dermatographic Urticaria, which is my red skin... thing. (Although, if you visit the Wikipedia page that the Dermatographia links to, I'm not quite as extreme as the pictures show.)

Now the question that you've all formed in your minds sometime during this post: Are you going to die?


Answer:
Yes, I am. But not from these strange little syndromes.

Thank you for your time, and have a wonderful day. You've all just learned something to share with your moms.

(Meaning the syndromes, not that you're quirky friend who blogs about disorders has them.)

Christmas Poem

Christmas

Here we are again

Trimming the tree

Putting the lights

Where all can see

Here we are again

Singing along

To the radio stations

That play our favorite Christmas songs

Here we are again

Laughing with all

Smiling, and talking

And making a scene

Because here we are again

With all that Christmas brings

Here we are again

Angels in snow

Coats way to big

For anyone to know

Here we are again

The snowballs fly

Gracefully in the air

Until they smack into somebody's thigh

Here we are again

Laughing with all

Smiling, and talking

And making a scene

Because here we are again

With all that Christmas brings

Here we are again

Remembering Christ

Nativity scene

Read all through the night

Here we are again

With family and friends

Drawing closer together

With greetings to send

Here we are again

And as most like to know

That Christmastime is not all the time

Spent in the snow

Because here we are again

With Christ in our hearts

And the joy that we feel

Gets us ready to start

The feeling of Christmastime

- Trevor Howell

Life

So.

It's been a while. I know because... Because... Um. Well, I know that it's been a while. And you know that it's been a while, so let's just leave it at that. As many of you know, I've been quite heavily involved with a little somethin' somethin' called MDT (Musical Dance Theater). Yep, it has pretty much taken over my life in the month of November.

Let's talk about that.

When I first saw the rehearsal schedule for "Big" in the month of November, I just about died on the spot. And without even experiencing anything! But I lived through the moment, and life continued on. Fast forward a couple of days to November, and there we go. November 1st. The first of many 2:30 - 6:00 p.m. rehearsals yet to come. My thoughts for these rehearsals after school consisted of the following: "Yeah. My life is over." Or, "There goes my life." Or maybe even, "I shoulda known." I was sure that I was going to die, even though I, by some miracle, survived the initial shock of seeing the rehearsal schedule for November.

So November went on. Some days slow, some days quicker. But eventually we got to dress rehearsals. Our first dress rehearsal was on Saturday the 12.

8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Big Bad Tech Day. That's what the directors like to call it, and I can now see why. It was crazy. We ran through the show twice, once with Kalin, once with Ryan. After we finally finished, I was ready to go home and crash, but of course my homework load came to haunt me.

The Monday following Big Bad Tech Day, we had our next dress rehearsal, 5:00 - 10:30. The next day was the same. Then Wednesday our call time was 7:30 a.m. because we were doing an in-school matinee for other schools who came on a field trip to see us. Then our very first performance was that night!

. . .

I'll just say it didn't go too well. After chatting about it the next day, and what we were doing, and why so many things messed up Wednesday night, our Thursday night show improved by 110%. Then Friday it improved at least another 100%. Then today, Saturday, we kept that same energy up. And our show is AWESOME! To say the least.

But why am I telling you all of this? What are you supposed to get out of this post? Let me tell you.

When I first looked at the November rehearsal schedule, I almost died. When I went to the actual rehearsals, I mentally died. When I got home at 6:00 every night, I felt like my life outside of MDT died as well. But looking back on this whole experience, I realize that this is life. Life is busy, that's just what it is! Out in the real word, you're not going to have a whole lot of free time. Out in the real world, you'll be working your butt off every day. And out in the real world, you're going to be exhausted.

What an experience this has been! It's amazing, really. To look how far this show came from being nothing, to being a whole heap of messed up jumbles a week before opening night, to opening night, to a day after opening night! All because of hard work and realizing that sometimes, things take up time. But work is good, and working for a goal in mind is even better. And when you have the opportunity to show somebody else your work of art is a very gratifying experience.

I'm so blessed to be able to be in MDT, as much as I thought it was taking over my life. I've learned a very valuable life lesson, and that is that good things take work. And usually, it takes up a lot of work. But it's almost always going to be worth it. I'm so grateful for the people that helped me learn this, maybe inadvertently, maybe not. But I'm so grateful nonetheless.

Everybody come see "Big the Musical" before we close on Tuesday night, and see the work that we've put the effort into for you!