So now that Holly, Luke & I have pretty much settled into our apartment (not 100%, though), we're able to get out and about more. I've begun making regular trips to the UWM campus to practice my horn, meet professors, & get a few logistical things taken care of. Holly and I both have taken a couple walks around the village of Shorewood, and also have driven to several different locations for things. I've concluded that I really like it here. Everyone said that the town of Shorewood is a very nice place to live...and they were right! Even south of Shorewood, where Milwaukee city limits start is nice. The UWM campus is just south of Shorewood, and it's a very nice campus, too. I already feel comfortable here, which is quicker than I felt comfortable when we moved to the Sunnyside area in Washington state. I guess I've always wanted to live in the city, or at least in the sub-urbs, my whole life. I grew up in a neighborhood near a 20,000-something population city, which was also comfortable, but just not very big feeling. Things were still far away. Now, everything we need seems so close, one thing that's great about living in the city.
So yeah, it's great here. That's what it all boils down to, and I'm sure we're going to enjoy it here for however long we live here.
So on this day, the eve of our anniversary, we didn't do a whole lot. We did take a long walk around Shorewood, mainly to check out what the grocery stores around here were like. There's one really nice little one close to us, but you can tell it's a little more of a higher-end grocery store. The citizens of Shorewood mostly are pretty well off, and don't mind paying a little more for good quality. This store, called Sendik's, didn't have pre-packaged meat in the meat department. Everything was behind a display case for you to pick your own amounts. There was also an elaborate bakery selection, complete with many extremely delicious but fattening and expensive selections.
There was also this store called Pick'N'Save that can be compared to an Albertson's back in Washington state, but is better, I think. We bought some amazing grapes there, lemme tell ya. Also, outside of Shorewood but nearby our house is another grocery store called Piggly Wiggly...no foolin'. They we're a little low-end, but had some good prices of fresh meat.
So that's basically our day. I got to the campus to practice twice. Luke's becoming even more interactive, and quite talkative. The weather's been comfortable here. I'm tired.
Take care and value music.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Settling in
Sorry to be outta touch. Things have been so busy that writing a blog entry has been close to the bottom of my priorities list. Well, it still is, but who cares?
And believe me, getting my priorities straight has not been an easy task. In the midst of all the work on the apartment Holly and I have been doing, I still have things to get ready at the college, as well as things like changing our addresses and paying bills, as well as shopping for things to go into the apartment. Pretty stressful stuff.
So Holly, Luke & I pulled into Shorewood last Thursday the 2nd, and my parents arrived later that morning with the moving truck. We got our first real-life look at our new place, and overall we're pretty happy with everything. The landlord seems like a pretty good guy, and so far we like him. We have good reason to be skeptical, though, so we'll keep an eye on him.
Before my parents showed up with the moving truck, so new friends of ours arrived that we hadn't even met before. A relative of Holly's back in Seattle attends a Salvation Army church, who are known not only for their charity work but also their British-style brass bands used for worship music. Holly and I have both been quite intrigued by this, and have wanted to participate for a while. So, Holly talked it over with this relative, who made some calls to the Milwaukee area before we arrived. We were then called by the Captain (or pastor) of a Salvation Army church in Oak Creek, WI (That's right, Oak Creek) who offered to help us move in. Great! So, right before my parents showed up with the truck, these four big, strong guys come to our door saying they're here to help. Nicest dudes ever, too. So, we had 4 extra people helping with the unloading, which was amazing, and it only took us about an hour and a half to get everything unloaded. Totally amazing. We bought them pizza (well, my parents did) and they were on their way. We attended their church last Sunday (that's right, on Sunday) and it was a nice service. They treated us quite well. Fun to play music in, too. So, I think we'll be going there for a while.
Yeah, we were at that church when that mass shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, WI happened. The Salvation Army church is less than a mile from the Sikh Temple. Pretty crazy, huh?
My parents hung around for another day. They helped us move a few things around, and we bought them dinner at Applebee's. We also checked out Lake Michigan, which is less than a mile from our house, and it's absolutely amazing. There's this beach near our house called Atwater beach where you can go swimming. Yay, free swimming! Plus the water's warm, un-salted and un-chlorinated. It's really great. And this beach is a sandy beach, too. Anyways, I took my parents to the airport in August 3rd, and they headed home. I drove them down to Chicago because the airfare was cheaper outta there compared to outta Milwaukee. The crappy thing is that Illinois freeways have tons of these stupid toll booths everywhere. It's pretty lame.
For the last week, Holly and I have been unpacking and cleaning up the house. I swear the previous tennants didn't clean the floor. Unpacking has been slow, mainly because only one of us is able to work most of the time. The other has to tend to Luke. But we've made some good progress, and are close to completion. Once we finish, I plan on doing a video tour to show everyone.
So that's that. I really need to start getting prepare for school. There's paperwork to fill out, entrance exams to study for, logistics to take care of, and audition material to prepare. Not to mention my work the concerto I'm playing in October.
Take care and value music.
And believe me, getting my priorities straight has not been an easy task. In the midst of all the work on the apartment Holly and I have been doing, I still have things to get ready at the college, as well as things like changing our addresses and paying bills, as well as shopping for things to go into the apartment. Pretty stressful stuff.
So Holly, Luke & I pulled into Shorewood last Thursday the 2nd, and my parents arrived later that morning with the moving truck. We got our first real-life look at our new place, and overall we're pretty happy with everything. The landlord seems like a pretty good guy, and so far we like him. We have good reason to be skeptical, though, so we'll keep an eye on him.
Before my parents showed up with the moving truck, so new friends of ours arrived that we hadn't even met before. A relative of Holly's back in Seattle attends a Salvation Army church, who are known not only for their charity work but also their British-style brass bands used for worship music. Holly and I have both been quite intrigued by this, and have wanted to participate for a while. So, Holly talked it over with this relative, who made some calls to the Milwaukee area before we arrived. We were then called by the Captain (or pastor) of a Salvation Army church in Oak Creek, WI (That's right, Oak Creek) who offered to help us move in. Great! So, right before my parents showed up with the truck, these four big, strong guys come to our door saying they're here to help. Nicest dudes ever, too. So, we had 4 extra people helping with the unloading, which was amazing, and it only took us about an hour and a half to get everything unloaded. Totally amazing. We bought them pizza (well, my parents did) and they were on their way. We attended their church last Sunday (that's right, on Sunday) and it was a nice service. They treated us quite well. Fun to play music in, too. So, I think we'll be going there for a while.
Yeah, we were at that church when that mass shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, WI happened. The Salvation Army church is less than a mile from the Sikh Temple. Pretty crazy, huh?
My parents hung around for another day. They helped us move a few things around, and we bought them dinner at Applebee's. We also checked out Lake Michigan, which is less than a mile from our house, and it's absolutely amazing. There's this beach near our house called Atwater beach where you can go swimming. Yay, free swimming! Plus the water's warm, un-salted and un-chlorinated. It's really great. And this beach is a sandy beach, too. Anyways, I took my parents to the airport in August 3rd, and they headed home. I drove them down to Chicago because the airfare was cheaper outta there compared to outta Milwaukee. The crappy thing is that Illinois freeways have tons of these stupid toll booths everywhere. It's pretty lame.
For the last week, Holly and I have been unpacking and cleaning up the house. I swear the previous tennants didn't clean the floor. Unpacking has been slow, mainly because only one of us is able to work most of the time. The other has to tend to Luke. But we've made some good progress, and are close to completion. Once we finish, I plan on doing a video tour to show everyone.
So that's that. I really need to start getting prepare for school. There's paperwork to fill out, entrance exams to study for, logistics to take care of, and audition material to prepare. Not to mention my work the concerto I'm playing in October.
Take care and value music.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
A hop, skip & a jump
We pulled into Madison, Wisconsin at about 6pm CST tonight for the last night of our big road trip. The cool thing is that Shorewood (our new hometown) is only an hour and a half drive from Madison, so there's not much driving left. We'll have the whole day to unload the truck and get to work unpacking everything.
Our drive today was nice. The majority of it was spent going all the way across southern Minnesota. Nothing much there except corn fields, a few trees and a town every now and then. My parents even agreed that it was quite boring. I'm guessing that Minnesota gets more interesting as you head north. Anyways, once we approached the Mississippi River, the landscape changed completely. The Mississippi River creates the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, and once you get to Wisconsin, you see a whole lot of one thing: trees. These aren't pine trees that are so abundant in WA. I'm not sure what kind of trees these are, but I bet they're the trees that have leaves that change colors in the autumn. If that's the case, Wisconsin is absolutely gorgeous in autumn! I guess we'll find out.
Tomorrow we will arrive at our new apartment at around 9am and get the keys. Then, the unloading process begins. I feel so bad for my parents for having to drive that uncomfortable 24-foot moving truck for the whole trip. I'm so thankful that they've put up with it with no serious complaints. They even paid for some of the fuel. My parents are awesome. Completely awesome. They have always done so much for us, and continue to. This kind of help is unmatched.
What a great state to be in. What a fine time we're going to have. How happy I am for finally getting to do grad school. I've got to take advantage of this. Lots of hard work and dedication, as well as enjoying the area around me. I've got to find the right balance of work and play, which I've never always been good at. It's always been too much play.
Whatever. I'll figure it out. Why worry about it, huh?
Take care and value music.
Our drive today was nice. The majority of it was spent going all the way across southern Minnesota. Nothing much there except corn fields, a few trees and a town every now and then. My parents even agreed that it was quite boring. I'm guessing that Minnesota gets more interesting as you head north. Anyways, once we approached the Mississippi River, the landscape changed completely. The Mississippi River creates the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, and once you get to Wisconsin, you see a whole lot of one thing: trees. These aren't pine trees that are so abundant in WA. I'm not sure what kind of trees these are, but I bet they're the trees that have leaves that change colors in the autumn. If that's the case, Wisconsin is absolutely gorgeous in autumn! I guess we'll find out.
Tomorrow we will arrive at our new apartment at around 9am and get the keys. Then, the unloading process begins. I feel so bad for my parents for having to drive that uncomfortable 24-foot moving truck for the whole trip. I'm so thankful that they've put up with it with no serious complaints. They even paid for some of the fuel. My parents are awesome. Completely awesome. They have always done so much for us, and continue to. This kind of help is unmatched.
What a great state to be in. What a fine time we're going to have. How happy I am for finally getting to do grad school. I've got to take advantage of this. Lots of hard work and dedication, as well as enjoying the area around me. I've got to find the right balance of work and play, which I've never always been good at. It's always been too much play.
Whatever. I'll figure it out. Why worry about it, huh?
Take care and value music.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
So this is what South Dakota's like?
It's funny...I expected Montana and Wyoming to be flat and desolate with the freeway pretty much going straight, but to my surprise South Dakota takes the gold medal. Now, I didn't travel through all of Montana or Wyoming. We did cover a pretty good chunk of Montana, and a good majority of that drive was quite beautiful. Northeastern Wyoming was also quite pretty. Western South Dakota was promising at first, but after Rapid City things became undeniably boring. I guess I'm not surprised by that. I'm just surprised that the other two states were quite different.
The day of travel was okay today. We were up at 5:30am, on the road an hour later with full tummies from continental breakfast. Luke was pretty cool for a good amount of the time, but we still stopped four times. The weather reached 104 degrees F in some parts of South Dakota. We also checked out this drug store in Wall, South Dakota known as Wall Drug, which is really just a missive tourist store, restaurant, bakery, ice cream parlor, clothing store & so much more. The cool thing was that there were tons of billboards more then 80 miles out of Wall that told motorists about all about Wall Drug. Pretty cool place.
No, we didn't stop at Mt. Rushmore. It was too far out of the way from I-90. Holly wanted to go at first, but ultimately decided to bypass it, considering the amount of driving we were actually doing.
As much fun as this road trip is, it'll be good to be done on Thursday. It sure is cool to see all this new territory.
Take care and value music.
The day of travel was okay today. We were up at 5:30am, on the road an hour later with full tummies from continental breakfast. Luke was pretty cool for a good amount of the time, but we still stopped four times. The weather reached 104 degrees F in some parts of South Dakota. We also checked out this drug store in Wall, South Dakota known as Wall Drug, which is really just a missive tourist store, restaurant, bakery, ice cream parlor, clothing store & so much more. The cool thing was that there were tons of billboards more then 80 miles out of Wall that told motorists about all about Wall Drug. Pretty cool place.
No, we didn't stop at Mt. Rushmore. It was too far out of the way from I-90. Holly wanted to go at first, but ultimately decided to bypass it, considering the amount of driving we were actually doing.
As much fun as this road trip is, it'll be good to be done on Thursday. It sure is cool to see all this new territory.
Take care and value music.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Day two of the move
I sit here at the Best Western hotel in Billings Montana with Luke on our king-sized bed while Holly showers. It is 12:37 AM MST, and we are f***ing exhausted! Our first day of the move was also long, involving us leaving Holly's parents' house in the morning, grabbing the moving truck in Richland, and loading up all of our stuff in Prosser. By 6pm, we were ready to leave Prosser, exhausted, sweaty...plus, we had to drive to Spokane! We pulled in at about 11am. We stayed at another very nice Best Western there. We were planning to leave early the next morning, but we ended up not leaving Spokane until 11am, which sucked. Luke caused us to stop 4 times along the trip, each stop lasting about an hour. So, that means we pulled into the hotel in Billings at 11:45pm. Not cool. So, Holly devised a plan at leaving at 6am later this morning. Also not cool. But, practical. This way, we'll pull into our next destination, Chamberlain, South Dakota, much earlier, and Luke will probably sleep a little better at the start of the trip because it's at a time of the day he's usually sleep. Holly and I are just going to be really tired. Well, I will be. I have to drive first while Holly gets to sit back zonked out with her mouth hanging wide open like she's in a coma. She's very skilled at that.
One of our stops was in Butte, Montana. Two words: Redneck Junction. I was quite surprised.
So, we'll see what tomorrow has in store, and hopefully I'll remember to let you know about it.
Take care and value music.
One of our stops was in Butte, Montana. Two words: Redneck Junction. I was quite surprised.
So, we'll see what tomorrow has in store, and hopefully I'll remember to let you know about it.
Take care and value music.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Last day in Washington State
Sad, but true. Today is the last day before our move begins. Well, it technically isn't our last day in Washington, since we'll be staying in Spokane our first night. But, you know what I mean.
"So, tell me about your trip!". Okay, I'll be glad to. Tomorrow we leave Holly's parents' house in the morning and head to our storage unit in Prosser to grab all of our stuff. We have to make a quick detour to Richland to grab our moving truck first. Then, we load the thing up, hopefully with the help of some local pals *hint hint* (if they even read this damn thing), as well as my parents when they arrive. Now, my parents are going to come along with us on the move and drive the moving truck for us while Holly, Luke and I drive one of our cars (the other will be towed by the moving truck). They get off work tomorrow morning, so they'll join us later. But, anyways, once the truck is loaded, we'll head to Spokane and stay our first day. The next day we'll stay in Billing, MT, the third day we'll stay in Chamberlain, SD, and our fourth day on the road will end up in Madison, WI, with a short drive to Milwaukee on August 2nd.
Now, those of you who know your U.S. geography well (or just have a map handy) will notice that these days don't have a whole lot of driving in them. The max amount of driving per day is about 575 miles, which is about 9 or 10 hours of driving. One would think that we could do more driving per day, but there's an important factor: Luke. Feeding Luke will cause us to stop for a while every 2-3 hours, thus we cannot travel as far. It's annoying to have to stop and wait, but it's gotta be done. So that means we won't drive as long each day. Plus, we have the moving truck for 7 days, and our landlord wants to be there on August 2nd, so everything worked out as such. It will be nice to not have to drive so much every day, but even nice to get there sooner. Oh well. I'm not going to complain about it. I can go with the flow pretty easily, within reason, mind you.
So on August 2nd, we will have a new home in a suburb of Milwaukee known as Shorewood. Shorewood is actually considered a "village", although when in Milwaukee one wouldn't know where Shorewood city limits begin and where Milwaukee ends. We're right on the southern border of Shorewood, and the UWM campus is on the northern edge of Milwaukee, which means the campus is only about a mile and a half from our home. That's incredibly convenient for me, because that means I don't have to drive to school. You wouldn't believe how happy I am about that, since I had to do so much driving these last two years just to get to where I needed to go. In case you didn't know, towns in eastern Washington are far from each other...not like western Washington at all. But now, the drive to anywhere in Milwaukee or Shorewood is quite short. Or, we can just walk. Sweet!
People ask if we're nervous for our big move. Definitely not! Holly and I both are extremely excited! It's like we're starting our lives anew, and all the cruddy things that our lives have consisted of in the last couple years seem to be going away...while we bring all the good things with us. Which cruddy things am I referring to? Well, long drives, as I mentioned. Also, our terrible landlord, our crummy house, earwigs, fleas, and just other non-tangible things that have been difficult. I'm definitely taking is as a fresh new start, and hope to change a few things about myself and how I live. I know that new cruddy things will arise once we get there, but hey, at least it's something different. Hopefully the hard times will be less. I'm going to make sure that they are less. Ah, it'll be nice to get a fresh new start...and to get things right.
An update on Luke, for those of you who haven't seen him in a while. He's becoming every more vocal, and he'll smile a lot more for people. He's around 12 lbs. now, and he's getting even stronger and stronger. His behavior has yielded many laughs from everyone around him. Never seems to stop amazing people.
So, since Holly and I will be away from pretty much all of our friends and family from now on, I'll do my best to do a blog entry every day, or every other day. I know you're going to want updates on Luke and Holly, and maybe even me. Those who are interested in my career should keep up with the blog I keep on my website, SeanBrownMusic.Weebly.com.
Take care and value music.
"So, tell me about your trip!". Okay, I'll be glad to. Tomorrow we leave Holly's parents' house in the morning and head to our storage unit in Prosser to grab all of our stuff. We have to make a quick detour to Richland to grab our moving truck first. Then, we load the thing up, hopefully with the help of some local pals *hint hint* (if they even read this damn thing), as well as my parents when they arrive. Now, my parents are going to come along with us on the move and drive the moving truck for us while Holly, Luke and I drive one of our cars (the other will be towed by the moving truck). They get off work tomorrow morning, so they'll join us later. But, anyways, once the truck is loaded, we'll head to Spokane and stay our first day. The next day we'll stay in Billing, MT, the third day we'll stay in Chamberlain, SD, and our fourth day on the road will end up in Madison, WI, with a short drive to Milwaukee on August 2nd.
Now, those of you who know your U.S. geography well (or just have a map handy) will notice that these days don't have a whole lot of driving in them. The max amount of driving per day is about 575 miles, which is about 9 or 10 hours of driving. One would think that we could do more driving per day, but there's an important factor: Luke. Feeding Luke will cause us to stop for a while every 2-3 hours, thus we cannot travel as far. It's annoying to have to stop and wait, but it's gotta be done. So that means we won't drive as long each day. Plus, we have the moving truck for 7 days, and our landlord wants to be there on August 2nd, so everything worked out as such. It will be nice to not have to drive so much every day, but even nice to get there sooner. Oh well. I'm not going to complain about it. I can go with the flow pretty easily, within reason, mind you.
So on August 2nd, we will have a new home in a suburb of Milwaukee known as Shorewood. Shorewood is actually considered a "village", although when in Milwaukee one wouldn't know where Shorewood city limits begin and where Milwaukee ends. We're right on the southern border of Shorewood, and the UWM campus is on the northern edge of Milwaukee, which means the campus is only about a mile and a half from our home. That's incredibly convenient for me, because that means I don't have to drive to school. You wouldn't believe how happy I am about that, since I had to do so much driving these last two years just to get to where I needed to go. In case you didn't know, towns in eastern Washington are far from each other...not like western Washington at all. But now, the drive to anywhere in Milwaukee or Shorewood is quite short. Or, we can just walk. Sweet!
People ask if we're nervous for our big move. Definitely not! Holly and I both are extremely excited! It's like we're starting our lives anew, and all the cruddy things that our lives have consisted of in the last couple years seem to be going away...while we bring all the good things with us. Which cruddy things am I referring to? Well, long drives, as I mentioned. Also, our terrible landlord, our crummy house, earwigs, fleas, and just other non-tangible things that have been difficult. I'm definitely taking is as a fresh new start, and hope to change a few things about myself and how I live. I know that new cruddy things will arise once we get there, but hey, at least it's something different. Hopefully the hard times will be less. I'm going to make sure that they are less. Ah, it'll be nice to get a fresh new start...and to get things right.
An update on Luke, for those of you who haven't seen him in a while. He's becoming every more vocal, and he'll smile a lot more for people. He's around 12 lbs. now, and he's getting even stronger and stronger. His behavior has yielded many laughs from everyone around him. Never seems to stop amazing people.
So, since Holly and I will be away from pretty much all of our friends and family from now on, I'll do my best to do a blog entry every day, or every other day. I know you're going to want updates on Luke and Holly, and maybe even me. Those who are interested in my career should keep up with the blog I keep on my website, SeanBrownMusic.Weebly.com.
Take care and value music.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Here, there, and everywhere.
It's seems like I've been here, there and everywhere in Washington state for the past couple of weeks. No, I didn't explore the whole of the state of Washington, but I was pretty much from one end to the other. I had my performance weekend in Walla Walla that I mentioned, and then a week of rehearsals and a performance at the end of the week in Chelan, which immediately followed the Walla Walla gig. I traveled from Wenatchee to Chelan every day I was there, and once that was done, I had to make a trip all the way down to Prosser before returning to my wife's parents' house in Granite Falls. Then yesterday, we headed back to my parent's house on Whidbey, where we currently are, along the way stopping to do some various clothes shopping we've needed to do. So, if you have a look at a map of Washington and follow the journey I've taken, you can see I covered a lot of ground.
It was sure fun being out and about, despite travelling pretty much by myself. The Walla Walla gig was a real kick, and the symphony put the out-of-towners up in a motel, which was quite convenient. The Chelan Bach Fest has always been a great week, and this week was no exception. Lots of fun music to play and hear, and good people to play it with. I guess the final concert, which the orchestra played at, had the largest attendance it has ever had. Great! It's good to know that more people are going to concerts. If most American's didn't hate listening to orchestral music so much (unless, of course, it's a movie or TV soundtrack), the musician's lives would be a little easier. But still, those who are appreciative of it and are willing to spend their time and money to listen are invaluable to us.
This is our last week residing in the state of Washington, and it's not going to be the most relaxing week. We've got to figure out how to get all our stuff from both of our parents' houses to the storage unit in Prosser, and ultimately to the moving truck. We used several car loads to get everything back to our parents house, and only have two carloads maximum to take back. One would suggest to make a special trip down to Prosser before the move day, but it's a pretty long drive, which we don't have the time or money to spent on. So, we're in a pickle here.
Take care and value music.
It was sure fun being out and about, despite travelling pretty much by myself. The Walla Walla gig was a real kick, and the symphony put the out-of-towners up in a motel, which was quite convenient. The Chelan Bach Fest has always been a great week, and this week was no exception. Lots of fun music to play and hear, and good people to play it with. I guess the final concert, which the orchestra played at, had the largest attendance it has ever had. Great! It's good to know that more people are going to concerts. If most American's didn't hate listening to orchestral music so much (unless, of course, it's a movie or TV soundtrack), the musician's lives would be a little easier. But still, those who are appreciative of it and are willing to spend their time and money to listen are invaluable to us.
This is our last week residing in the state of Washington, and it's not going to be the most relaxing week. We've got to figure out how to get all our stuff from both of our parents' houses to the storage unit in Prosser, and ultimately to the moving truck. We used several car loads to get everything back to our parents house, and only have two carloads maximum to take back. One would suggest to make a special trip down to Prosser before the move day, but it's a pretty long drive, which we don't have the time or money to spent on. So, we're in a pickle here.
Take care and value music.
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