So, I've been busy. Band camp was the week of August 18th. Classes started on August 25th. Our first game, which was away at the Bank of America Stadium, was on August 30th. Rush started September 4th. And I had a root canal on September 5th. I have barely had time to breathe!

It's been fun though.

I am hoping beyond hopes that I'll be able to squeeze in some blogging time. Because there is always something in my head I want to blog, and then life happens. Which, in turn, makes something happen that I want to blog about again! Kevin told me to make a list of the things I want to blog about, so I don't forget. But then I just have a list, and no blog entries. And who wants to read a really really long blog post about everything that has happened to be in the last month?! No one. That stuff needs to come at you gradually.

So! To my probably not very loyal blog readers, because I am not loyal, I will try my very hardest to keep up with this blog. And I hope that one day I will be able to bug Kevin enough to change the layout. We have some great ideas, he just has no time, and then gets other lame projects! But really, none of them are lame.

I will end this post, and get on to a new one, about my root canal, because it is the most recent happening in my life, and deserves a blog post written about it.

~Taylor~

Back in July, I had a horrible tooth ache that was really bugging me. It bugged me enough that I knew I had to go see my dentist about it. I was able to get an appointment a week later, and went in to find out what was wrong.

Tooth decay. Eek! I brush my teeth, don't get me wrong, but it was on the very back molar, and sometimes you just don't get back that far often enough. The dentist numbed me up and started started cleaning my tooth. Not fun. He told me I had to get a root canal, and he would send me to his son.

I got an appointment for Friday, September 5th, 2008. I knew I wouldn't have classes then, and it seemed the best day to do it. At 8 in the morning...I'm not sure what I was thinking.

This past Friday I woke up early, and got to the Endodontist before they even opened. I saw the padlock was still in place, so I waited in my car and watched podcasts until I saw a lady go inside. I called Kevin for some words of encouragement, I was freaking out. I heard so many different things about root canals, I had NO IDEA what to expect! I wasn't even sure what I root canal was.

This picture pretty much gives you a slight clue:

They sit me in the chair, let me choose what I want to watch on TV, and numb me up. They first numb you for the numbing. Then they come at you with a long needle and slide it into your cheek and other areas around the tooth a few times. He left me for 15 minutes for the numbing to set in. He came back in and asked me a few questions and determined I was not numb enough. I got a whole other round of numbing shots! Not fun. They seemed to hurt worse as he went on. He left me for another 10 minutes. I was watching Saved By the Bell: College Years, so I wasn't too bored. :) He came back and my tongue was starting to go numb, so it was time to start the procedure. He undid everything his dad had done on my tooth preparing it for the root canal. Then I felt pain. I had been told I should not feel any pain, and I did. I got two shots, into my tooth. OUCH! That was the worst of them all.

The procedure lasted about an hour, so I got to watch a little Fresh Prince of Bel Air too. Nearing the end of the procedure, they had to take an x-ray of my tooth. That is where they stick a clamp type object in your mouth and make you bite on it, while they position the x-ray machine through a circle and then take the picture. They had to take the picture of my back molar, as in, they had to shove the clamp thing all the way in the back of my mouth, and boy did I gag. It took three tries for me to keep it in my mouth long enough to get a picture. That was almost as bad as the shots in the tooth. The gagging made my eyes water, so the assistant wiped my eyes. I figured they thought I was pathetic, but I can't help it! It's a reflex.

After he filled in my tooth and I was ready to go, he told me I couldn't eat anything hard until I got my crown. I knew I was going to get the crown at my regular dentist, so today I called them to inquire about it. I figured I could go in sometime this week, and they would put a crown on my tooth. Oh no. I go in for a crown prep on October 8th, I don't even get my crown put on until October 29th! What crap! That is two months of soft food. It's going to get old quick.

That is the tale of my tooth hell.

~Taylor~

I'm letting my brother borrow my graphing calculator, and I keep asking to have it back for my meteorology lab on Wednesdays. So I have been using my ipod touch. The calculator that came on it, if you turn the ipod touch to the side, it will turn into a scientific calculator. Well, that just confuses the hell out of me. So I turned to google. If you are not aware, you can type a math equation into the search bar, and it will give you what it equals. Pretty sweet.

I was working on a lab on wavelengths in meteorology lab yesterday and I typed in an equation similar to this: (2.984*10^6)/3200

That's it!

And this is what pops up:

Weird...I entered the letters in the little type box at the end of the page and it gave me the answer. I just don't understand how that little equation, could be considered a computer virus or spyware.

~Taylor~

I rode my bike to work.

Over the summer, Kevin and I started biking as a way to exercise and get us into shape. We were doing really well, until things started happening again, and life got in the way. Mainly, I wanted to get into bike shape so I could ride my bike to work and back, and save on gas. I came up with every excuse in the book to not actually ride my bike to work...I'd get up to late, it would be too hot later, so on and so forth.

Well finally, I decided to just go for it. The weather is gorgeous, I don't have band, so I don't have to worry about lugging a heavy trombone case around with me, so it was the perfect chance!

I've lost some of my bike fitness in the last couple months of not riding, but I made it to work in one piece! If it doesn't look like rain will be an issue tomorrow, I will probably ride then too, as I don't have band tomorrow night either. Hopefully, I can ride whenever I don't have band, that way I do save on gas, and I get good exercise.

I have not been totally without exercise though! When classes started, I decided I was going to WALK to class from my work! I think that has been good for me. Mainly I exercise to eat. I don't want to have to worry about what I eat, so that is why I have my ~30 minutes of exercise a day. Not to mention I have marching band for an hour and a half everyday.

My love handles have decreased a LOT! I hated them, and I wouldn't mind if they never came back. :)

Also, on twitter @mkixi shared an interesting article about biking in America. Check it out!!!! The Problem with Biking in America

~Taylor~

Recently I watched Groundhog Day for the first time. This weekend is one I could live over and over again! And I know it was just one day, but work with me here!

It started with Friday night. Kevin had already left for UNC, so I had talked to Brittany about having a girls night out. A bunch of crap has been happening recently, and I really just wanted go downtown and have FUN! Brittany decided she didn't want to drink, which I was cool with, so I just went over to her and Kate's apartment to watch a movie. It was probably a good thing we didn't go out drinking, because I ended up being so exhausted, I didn't even make it through the movie! Plus I liked being in a quiet area and not around a bajillion drunk idiots!

Early the next morning the Marching Virginians got into 8 buses and headed down to UNC for the game. I was nervous for this game, our team is very unpredictable this year, but mainly on the not so great side of unpredictable. Despite my doubts, I had my game day pants on Kevin got me and I was ready to go cheer on my team! (With a packed lunch, I am not a fan of the food UNC feeds us!) I even got to sit on the bus with my little sister, Liz! That never happens because of her boy toy, but since he had driven down, I got her! We slept for the most part. We had a pretty chill bus that was barely half way filled. I had decided not to ride the bone bus this time and ride with some of the sisters. Which all in all I thought was a good choice! Except for the fact that our bus driver was a crazy lunatic who shouldn't be driving! I think most of the people on the bus got motion sickness from his driving, and I feared for my life a few times!

We got down to Chapel Hill, and got out to eat. I was very glad I packed my lunch! I enjoyed a sandwich and other goodies while others choked down NC BBQ and yellow cole slaw. At least this year they didn't include the orange weird slop as one of the sides...no idea what that was suppose to be! After we ate, we got dressed and warmed up to go in. It was gorgeous weather for a football game, not too hot, not too cold! It wasn't horrible wearing our uniforms either!

The first half of the game was...not good. The score at half time was 10-3. I hate losing, I think most people hate losing, but I really hate it. It sort of sucks the life out of you. Either way, we had to march a show! So we went down to the field, got in place and then ran onto the field when the time came. WE WERE BOOED!? Yes, the UNC crowd booed us. Who boos a band?! Honestly?! We did our show and got off the field for the UNC band, then went back to our seats. I enjoyed my third quarter apple. It was the one thing going right!

Alex came and got me a little later to go meet the TBS sisters from UNC. They gave us a signed football. Very nice. They had just been installed! We didn't know each other existed either since we're apart of the Northeast District and they are apart of the Southeast District. So we chatted and took pictures, even with the UNC KKPsi brothers! Since then UNC had scored another touch down. BUT, by the time we got back to our seats after all the chit chatting, Tyrod Taylor and the offense were right up near the goal line! This is when the game turned around, and we came back with 17 unanswered points. Now that will get you so excited! It's almost better to win that way, because it was so amazing to come back like that! We were all very excited. Especially after how a lot of the UNC fans treated us. When we got back to the bus we had goody bags from the Alumni Association waiting for us! Then it was back on the bus with a stop for food in Greensboro! A bunch of us ate at Steak n' Shake which is a staple in a Marching Virginian diet! :)

(Monday Dave sent us an email with nice words from our UNC liaison):

Always a pleasure to work with you and your fine students. I must say with all the bands that I host when they come to down, yours is the one I look forward to. Your kids are so polite and respectful (of the grass!!! HA!!) and just plain easy to deal with. And they appreciate the things we try to do and say THANK YOU. Wish some other DIRECTORS from other bands could learn how to say those words. I will mention no names but I am sure you can assume. Over the years there have been some that you never wish to see again but I am always excited when VT comes to town. See you in two years.

(He also sent us a part of the Roanoke Times):

And when it was over, when the Hokies had somehow rallied for one of the most improbable wins in the Frank Beamer era, assistant coach Jim Cavanaugh skipped down the wooded path from the press box like a man half his age, high-fiving Tech fans as he passed. The Tech band lingered in the stands at Keenan Stadium, cranking out "The Hokie Pokey" and "Celebration" and the theme from "Superman," reluctant to pack their tubas till the final festive note was played.

And Beamer?

Well, Beamer danced.

The next day was the day Kevin and I were celebrating our Anniversary! He had surprised me by telling me we were going to Chateau Morrisette!!! I've always wanted to go, and it was the perfect place to celebrate our 3 year anniversary, especially after just turning 21! We got there and were seated for the very end of lunch. We ended up getting an entire dining room to ourselves! We enjoyed Angel Chardonnay along with our Brunch Buffet. It was so gorgeous and nice to be there with Kevin. After we ate we went down to the shop to look around. They were just about to have a tour, and since it was free and not very long, we jumped in and went on it! It was very interesting to learn about the history of the place and how they process the grapes to make the wine. It was also great already knowing how wine is made from my Geography of Wine class! After the tour we did their wine tasting. $5 to taste 10 wines and keep the glass! Awesome! It was very interesting to learn that I like more of the dry wines, and Kevin is more of a sweet wine guy. But we did end up buying some Blushing Dog which we both liked! :) We shall enjoy that on Saturday during the Nebraska game!

I had such a good time, it was a very successful anniversary! :) I hope I get to go back there sometime!

~Taylor~

This afternoon, I went home to put on a pair of sneakers, I ended up falling asleep...I woke up at 4:57 thinking, oh crap! I gotta get to practice! I quickly put the shoes on and raced out of the house. I get outside and I'm headed down to my car when i see a big cloud in the distance, and there was a section of rain in the middle of it. I thought it was interesting and took a picture:

It crossed my mind that it could be headed toward the MV field, but I figured I could just tell Dave there was a possibility of a downpour sometime during practice. I get to practice and it is starting to sprinkle. The cloud was a lot closer to town than it had appeared, and shortly there after it started to rain harder, then eventually it was pouring. Dave gave me crap about not telling him about this, and I simply said that I woke up, went outside and it was there. I told him it was small and it would pass shortly. I had seen the whole thing from my house, so it clearly wasn't too large. After standing out in the rain for about 10 minutes, he finally told us to go home. We are all soaked! I have three umbrella's in my car, but I didn't even think about getting them. The sun was coming out, but still it poured, and I told everyone to look for a rainbow. I knew there would have to be one! When we are almost out of the gated field area, there it was. I screamed, "RAINBOW!" I do love them! :) I was giving Sarah and Kyle a ride and I told them I had to have a picture before we left!

At the time I hadn't noticed that it was a double rainbow! If you look up the picture a little, you can see the second rainbow very slightly. Awesome! It looked like the other end of the rainbow was in Lane Stadium:

By the time we got out of the parking lot it had faded, and the rain had totally stopped over us. This was just 5:37, and practice should have started at 5:30. Still I was glad he let us go home. Our clothes were heavy with rain and it would have just been nasty staying in them to march for the next hour and a half.

Also, it was Super Hero day for Spirit week, and my little looked hilarious! :)

~Taylor~