Miss SC Blog Archive

Pageant Recap

August 10, 2009

I have been Miss South Central for two days now and my titleholder status is finally sinking in! Hearing my name announced and having Natalie pin the crown on my head was such a whirlwind that I think I am finally ready to write about my experiences and feelings throughout the day.

First off I had to leave my house in Lino Lakes at 11:30 am on Saturday to meet with the other contestants in Waseca before our interviews. My mom had a meeting with her Sigma Alpha Iota board members so I got to perform my talent piece for them before I took off. The performance went well and I got some helpful hints for what to do on stage. Then I got my stuff together and left my house.

I hadn't even backed my van completely out of our garage when I got into my first ever accident! In an attempt to avoid hitting the cars parked behind me I ended up hitting the edge of my garage and completely breaking off my left turn signal!! I ran inside quickly to explain what happened to my mom. She was very nice about it and told me to keep the light that had broken off with me on my way to Waseca in case I got pulled over.

So with my interview outfit, shoes, violin, and left turn signal light I began my journey down south!

The interviews all went smoothly and afterward all of us contestants relaxed before the pageant while watching Drop Dead Gorgeous! Next was the worst part...waiting for the pageant to start. At 5:30 we all went to the high school to wait some more.

Finally it was time to go on stage for the most frightening part of the pageant: opening number. I am not a dancer so basically any opening number will be hard for me but I decided that I was going to go out there and just pretend that I knew what I was doing, even if I did forget all of the steps. (And I didn't forget completely, but definitely a few of them)

After opening number was the on stage question. I got so nervous listening to the eight girls in front of me give such good answers to all of their questions! After I finished I had to get into my evening gown, which was odd because usually evening gown is the last phase of competition. It was nice, though, to only have that before intermission! Next I put on my swimsuit which also felt odd because that is usually the very first part and after doing evening gown I felt like that part already should have been over! After I finished my swim suit walk I went right back to the dressing room to warm up for talent.

To be completely honest that 2:00 piece felt like forever! I wasn't sure how the audience was reacting to it so I just kept smiling and trying to do my best. Then just as I began to play my final note I heard them cheering! It felt so good to get a reaction like that! Thanks to the audience for listening to me and a special thank you to my "cheering section" for supporting for me and making a lot of noise every time I hit the stage :)

Perhaps the most nerve wracking part was after the competition was over and I was watching Sarah and Natalie give their farewell speeches. I have competed in five other local pageants and had yet to capture a title. Each time I thought I had given in my all but afterward learned that I had significant room for improvement. As I was watching those two amazing women give up their titles I was thinking to myself, "Did I give it my all? What could I have done better? Am I really the one that deserves this title?"

When I heard my name called as Miss South Central 2009 I wasn't sure at first that it was actually me. But the cheers from my cheering section half a second later confirmed that it really was me! I couldn't believe it! Natalie came over with my crown and had to tell me to squat down so she could put it on (I'm a seasoned pro but I've never won so this part was completely foreign to me!).

I took my place on the side of the stage by my first runner up, the lovely Mary Swenson, to watch as Molly Jewison was crowned as my sister queen, Miss Waseca County Sleigh and Cutter. When I joined Molly in the middle of the stage we looked at each other and both said something like "what do we do now?" lol.

As my year as Miss South Central and my journey to the Miss Minnesota stage begin I keep going back to my thoughts before the crowning moment: "Did I give it my all? What could I have done better? Am I really the one that deserves this title?" No matter how I feel about my performance that night I have been given the wonderful opportunity to prove myself to the pageant community. Throughout my year of service I will give it my all, I welcome any advice to help me do better and hopefully by doing these thing I can prove to myself that I do deserve this title and all of the wonderful opportunities that go along with it.

Your Miss South Central 2009,
Aja Majkrzak

First Appearances
August 17, 2009

Since becoming Miss South Central my life has been pretty crazy! I spent a lot of time last week replying to emails, sending emails, setting up a twitter and facebook account as Miss SC, and setting up this website. This was all in addition to participating in a hearing study at the U of M, seeing a friend off to Michigan for two years, practicing for my junior recital and practicing a marimba and violin duo!

All this work was worth it when I made my first appearance at Comforts of Home: Senior Assisted Living on Thursday. My platform is about making people’s lives better by playing and listening to music and in this situation I was performing so that the residents could listen. Before I started playing I introduced myself to my audience and explained why I was wearing a crown (and I told them that I wasn’t sure how long it would stay on while playing violin).

They seemed a little bored so it was hard to give an energetic introduction, but I gave it my all. But when I started playing I got quite the reaction! I started with the Preludio from Bach’s Partita in E major, a very fast and fun piece, and a few bars in I heard someone go “woo-hoo!” It was so satisfying to have such an enthusiastic reaction; this made it so clear to me that my platform is so important for me to promote.

I was also reassured that my platform is important because afterward Joann, the staff member who gathered the residents to see my performance, told me that she had never heard a live violin performance before! Even for those who are not elderly or disabled, the performing aspect of my platform is a new experience for people!

One of the old men came up to me after I had finished playing and told me that three Miss Minnesota’s have gone on to become Miss America. He remembered Gretchen Carlson but I had to remind him that the other two were Dorothy Benham and Bebe Shopp. Then he told me that he watches Gretchen Carlson every morning on Fox and Friends. I was surprised by his knowledge and interest in the program! It’s great that people of all ages are interested in the Miss America Organization!

I’m very excited to perform there again, I got asked to come back and play for them in September! (And in case you were wondering, yes my crown did stay on the whole time!).

When I got back home I immediately started packing to go to Crookston. At 6:00, after my cousin Sigrid, her friend Anna and my best friend Brianne arrived at my house we took off on our five hour drive up north to Crookston.

It was nice to catch up with my grandparents on Thursday night and to go garage sale-ing with Sigrid, Anna, Brianne and my mom on Friday morning.

On Friday afternoon I went to the ice cream social at the University of Minnesota Crookston campus. This was the first time I have worn my crown in public and it was a very fun experience! I met the UMC mascot, Regal the Eagle and three adorable little girls, Ariel, Allie and Grace. All three of the little girls just walked up to me, looked at my crown and smiled. It was so cute! I didn’t know what to say at first so I just asked their names and then if they wanted a picture with me. I had a lot of fun meeting those little girls!

When Friday night came around I headed off to the Miss Crookston pageant to meet with the sound guy, Chuck, for my performance that night. After we got the sound mixed I got to chat with the contestants a bit, and I learned that they have two hair stylists, Carrie and Kari, that do their hair throughout the pageant AND a Mary Kay lady, Joyce, who helps them with all of their make-up! When they heard that I have always had to do my own make-up and hair for pageants they decided to give me the royal treatment! I got my hair done by both hairstylists! (it was the fastest hair curling job ever!) and I was given fantastic make-up advice from Joyce!

After being pampered by the beauty and hair team, I headed out to the audience to watch the first half of the pageant. On my way into the auditorium I saw two girls wearing Miss America local crowns and I got really excited because I didn’t know that any other titleholders would be there! Before the pageant started I got a chance to chat with the new Miss Thief River Falls and Miss Marshall County!

Then the Miss Crookston pageant started and wow do they put on a production! Before the pageant starts they had a video montage of the past Miss Crookston’s during their on-stage questions, talent, evening gowns and their crowning moments. Then the pageant began and all of the contestants did such a great job! They were all so poised and confident during their on-stage questions and talents!

Intermission was after the talent competition I went back stage to be announced with the other titleholders. It was fun to chat with them again and get to know them a bit. After we were introduced I went to the dressing room to get ready to perform my talent piece and the contestants began their evening gown competition.

Just as I walked on to the stage I was surprised at how nervous I was to perform! I was even more nervous to perform at Miss Crookston (where I wasn’t being judged might I add!) than I was at Miss South Central. The performance went well and afterward I packed up my violin and returned to the audience to watch the crowning moment. Congratulations to Kristin Remick, Miss Crookston 2009! And good luck to Danie Wavra, Miss Crookston 2008 as she starts her freshman year of college and continues her endeavors in the Miss America pageant system.

After the pageant the sky opened up and it was raining like crazy! My mom was awesome! She went out in it to get the van and drive it to the door so that my dress wouldn’t get wet. Also I have to say thank you to my best friend Brianne; she took picture of me all day with various people and was an amazing back stage helper! You two are phenomenal.

Saturday was a much less busy day. I got to sleep in, have a later breakfast, see my mom, great aunt Jane and cousin Janné, visit my aunt and uncle on their farm, practice violin, and relax a bit before the parade at 7:00.

My grandpa owns a lawn mower shop so every year that I have gone to Crookston for Ox Cart Days I have driven a lawn mower in the parade. This year I got to drive a lawn mower AND wear my crown! It was a lot of fun! I have never been one of the queens in the parade before and it was so fun to be a non-traditional queen and not have a float or convertible, but to drive my own lawn mower. I have to admit that the driving made it a bit tricky to wave at people but I made it work (with a couple of narrowly avoided collisions!).

After the parade it was back to grandma and grandpa’s house for a late dinner and some Apples to Apples with Brianne, Sigrid and Anna. Then off to bed for an early drive home.

While I was unpacking my bags after coming home from Crookston I realized that I have gotten very good at packing and unpacking in the past few weeks. The week before Miss South Central I was in Chicago for Sigma Alpha Iota’s national convention, and then I had to pack all of my pageant stuff for two different rehearsals and pageant day, and most recently I had to pack and unpack my luggage to go to Crookston. I love traveling, especially when I feel like my packing is efficient!

Bad Hair Day
August 24, 2009

Last night I went to the Miss Lino Lakes Ambassador coronation. Two years ago this was the event that rekindled my interest in pageantry so I thought it was important for me to make an appearance and talk a bit about the Miss Minnesota Organization.

As a competitor for Miss Lino Lakes in 2007 I had a blast! We went to parades, had a car wash, went to another coronation, had a Mary Kay party...In addition to all of our fun activities the contestants and the three queens were such wonderful young women and we all had a blast together. (This is a sharp contrast of my very first pageant in 2004 where I competed with over 100 girls for an "at-large" title and we had no activities outside of the stage competition).

Needless to say my second pageant experience was way better than my first one and I did not want to wait another year before I was able to compete. So I did some research and found the Miss Minnesota site. With the added talent portion of the competition I knew that this pageant organization was the perfect fit for me. And I was right!

Anyway, even though I didn't win Miss Lino Lakes the night I competed it began my two year journey with the Miss America Organization and I hoped to spark some interest in the girls on-stage, in the sparkle section or in the audience. (You never know who is wondering how they could be the next Miss America!).

Now that I am a title-holder and I have the opportunities to promote this organization one thing above all is important: appearance. When looking back on someone I saw on stage my clearest memory is often something like "wow her dress was great," or "wow she really needed to fix her hair." It's sad, but it is the truth. I didn't want to let the Miss Minnesota Organization down at all so I decided that I was going to look good for this event!

Normally I spend about fifteen minutes to half an hour on my hair, which doesn't sound like a lot, but I've worked it down to a science :) However yesterday afternoon it took me TWO HOURS!! It began with hot rollers and a curling iron. The hot rollers did not work at all and the pieces I had curled got totally lost in the pieces that didn't curl. So I tried to go back and curl everything. Well that didn't work either so I just gave up and straightened it all. Let me tell you there is nothing more stressful than having a bad hair day when trying to look good for an event.

Moral of the story: no more hot rollers for me :)

The rest of this week was relatively relaxed for me: I didn't do any traveling (first time in a month!) and I only had one appearance. But I did have something exciting taking up my time. After being unemployed all summer I finally got a job! Thanks to the gigantic new TCF stadium at the U of M the Parking and Transportation department needed a lot of parking attendants. I had training on Friday night and I worked my first shift on Saturday. It feels good to finally have some cash flow!

Although I didn't make any platform related appearances this week I did get one project started! A few weeks ago when I was in Chicago for Sigma Alpha Iota's national convention I had the privilege of meeting Rachel Barton Pine, an astounding violinist. She played a concert for us and then she told us about all of her philanthropic projects, which were all very inspiring but one in particular stuck out to me.

Global Heartstrings is a project that sends used musical accessories to countries in Africa that cannot afford to buy new ones. An example of this is when I change the strings on my violin, because after a few months they lose the brilliance that they originally had, I would normally just throw them away. But people in underprivileged countries would be thrilled to use my old strings because, though I don't want them any more, they do still have some life in them.

This project includes materials from all instrument groups including valve oil for trumpets, euphoniums and tubas; cleaning cloths for any wind instrument; strings and rosin for violins, violas, cellos and bass; sheet music for any solo or ensemble; music stands....the list goes on and on.

Anyone can participate in this project by having a donation box and then sending it to Rachel Barton Pine's foundation through the mail. My goal is to have a donation box for every private studio instructor at the University of Minnesota School of Music. I have already contacted all of these professors and I have gotten a few replies, which was very exciting! My first platform project is already underway!

Planning

August 31, 2009

This week was relatively relaxing for me. I didn't have any appearances scheduled so I had some extra time to finish up some things I had been working on: a file cabinet my dad is helping me refinish, cleaning my room, and practicing orchestra excerpts. These orchestra excerpts are what I have to play for my orchestra audition when I start school. I hate practicing excerpts (my solo music is so much more fun!) so I have unfortunately put it off until the last minute again.

On Friday I got to meet up with Sylvia Wilson, my SAI chapter adviser, to talk about some ideas I have for my platform. Sylvia is a middle school music teacher so I thought her input would be very valuable for my platform plans. I was totally right! And not only did I get some ideas to expand on what I already had, she told me about performances that she had her students do in the past and how much they enjoy performing for different groups and events! This is my platform being validated again! Not only does the audience enjoy listening to young musicians, but it makes these young children so happy when they have the chance to prepare for a big performance!

Sylvia and I talked through a lot of ideas and I am so glad to have her helping me out. She is letting me use her middle school as a "project school" where I can give my presentations for the first time and test run a big event that I want to plan. (Stay tuned for more details!)

Yesterday, on Sunday, was my family's traditional day at the Renaissance Festival. We had a lot of fun looking at the shops where vendors sell handmade pottery, paper, candles, clothes, dishes, and even swords! The main thing that we do at the Festival is watch all of the shows that we can! The acts at the Renaissance Festival are top notch. My top two favorites are Zilch the Torysteller (he tells fairy tails in "spoonerisms" which means he switches around the first letter of words for example instead of "Romeo and Juliet" he tells "Jomeo and Ruliet." He is hilarious!) and The Danger Committee, and juggling/knife throwing/comedy act. I have been watching their show for years and it has only gotten better! If you want to know more about them, check them out on facebook and become a fan! They have pictures, performance info (they don't just perform at the Renaissance Festival), and injury updates. One last plug for their show: it is amazing and I have never been more afraid for someone's life due to a cucumber trick! Intrigued? Go check them out!

Today was my mom's birthday so she, my dad, my brother and I went to the Science Museum to see the Titanic exhibit. We had a bit of a wait before it was our time to go in so we looked around at the general exhibit. I hadn't been there in years so it was so much fun to see it again! The weather station with the tornado forming machine and the light exhibit where you can play with light prisms were definitely the highlight for me.

The Titanic exhibit was really cool too. There are bios of first, second and third class passengers as well as crew members. There was also an actor who impersonated the captain! In the display boxes there were actual artifacts from the Titanic, some of them were broken but a lot of the plates and larger dishes were intact. At the very end there was some information about recovering the artifacts; they have to be very carefully removed because the pressure and amount of salt in the water so deep in the ocean change the chemical make up of certain materials. Some of what they pull up dissolves when the intense pressure of the ocean floor is no longer holding it up, but some of the cast iron pieces that have been recovered explode as soon as they come in contact with the air!

The rest of the day was devoted to a family dinner and of course, some birthday cake. Then, like always, I had to practice. I had just finished working on my dreaded orchestra excerpts when I remembered that it was time for another blog. So what did I do? I played through the concerto that I will be performing in my junior recital instead, just to see how fast I could play it, and I was pleasantly surprised. So I played it again. 45 minutes later, after my third run through, I was exhausted and decided it was time to call it a night. I can't wait to perform that piece! And I can't wait for the Miss Minnesota audience to hear a two minute portion of it performed! It will be very exciting! Only nine months until Miss Minnesota!!

One Week Already??
September 6, 2009

Number one: I can't believe it's already September! Number two: I can't believe it's already time to write another blog since my last one was about a week ago! Before I became Miss South Central I had decided that if I were to win, I would blog weekly. I always enjoy reading the Miss Minnesota contestants' blogs and I wanted to give people who follow the program like I do a chance to know what I'm doing as often as I can. Now I will still blog weekly but I thought I should put a disclaimer out there: blogging is harder than it seems!

September usually means the start of school, but a lot of my friends have already been gone for a few weeks because their school started in August. I had some extra time off (I start on Tuesday), but it certainly didn't feel that way!

Last Monday (my mom's birthday!) was the only day of the week that I truly got to relax and hang out. If you read my last blog you already know what I did, so I will skip to Tuesday: I am a recent employee of the Parking and Transportation Services at the U of M and on Tuesday I worked by myself for the first time ever! It was a little scary because everything is so new to me, but it turned out to be a really easy day because everyone who was attending the event I was working at had already paid for parking. All I had to do was say, "park on the promenade close to the stadium" and send them on their way. One of the benefits of being a parking attendant is that most of the time I don't really have to do anything. So from 3:45 to 8:00 on Tuesday I got to watch movies on my laptop!

Wednesday was a completely different story. I worked again, a longer shift this time (1:45-9:00), so I decided to write my sponsor thank-yous and finish my book. The book I was reading was really heavy (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) so I decided to leave my laptop behind since it is also pretty heavy. Well I finished the book and my thank-you notes by 3:00. I was not excited to sit in my booth with nothing to do for 6 hours, but I made it! (This is one of those moments where you think "I'll look back on this another time when I'm bored and I'll know that I can get through it again!") The benefit to having so much time to myself on Wednesday night is that I was able to create a mental outline for a few platform presentations that I had been thinking about for awhile!

On Thursday I drove down to Waseca to meet with Christy and Jenn for the first time since becoming Miss South Central. It was nice to catch up with them and go over what they thought of my performance at the pageant and some changes I will make before Miss MN.

Two days ago on Friday I was scheduled to work at the Metrodome to raise money for my fraternity, Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI). It was interesting working at a concession stand during a football game because the customers would inevitably make small talk about the teams that were playing and different members of the Vikings team. Now I know next to nothing about football (I know about Brett Favre, but that's it!) so I just tried to fake it the whole time!

When Friday came around I realized that the beginning of school was near and that I need to start planning a recruiting event for SAI. I want to serve coffee to all the students that have 8:00 am music classes for the first week of school. I totally thought this would be pretty easy to pull off; buy bulk coffee, creamer, sugar, cups and borrow some extra coffee makers. Turns out it is not easy at all. I decided that the best method would be buying catered coffee from a coffee shop, but that is very expensive! I think I am actually more nervous about this event running smoothly than I am for my orchestra audition on Wednesday!

Yesterday was a very fun day! I went to the State Fair with my best friend Brianne. We ate a lot of unhealthy food and saw all of the beautiful livestock. We also got to see a bird show about birds of prey. It was really cool to see them up close and to learn a little bit more about them. Many of the birds of prey are endangered due to harsh chemicals used by farmers, hunting, and the depletion of natural resources. I am no expert so I couldn't begin to tell you the ways that these birds are important to us. But if you are interested and want more information visit www.lastchanceforever.org

In addition to working at my job and at the Metrodome, I have to practice my violin for six hours every day. Having to work for such long hours and drive to and from campus for my work takes up a lot of time. So when I actually was at home this week I was doing my best to ignore my desire to take a nap, or be lazy and watch TV, and practice instead. That was not easy to do when my main focus was to work on orchestra excerpts. But I put in a decent amount of work and after Wednesday, when I have my audition, I can be done with them forever! Yay!

I cannot wait for school to start up again on Tuesday! I will get to see all my friends in the School of Music, learn new things, play in a string quartet, and get started with SAI. They are going to be such a big help for me this year with my platform (and they don't even know it yet hehe!). I am so lucky to be a part of a group that is just as motivated to promote the benefits of music as I am!

Happy September!
Aja

Marching Band Classic/New School Year
September 21, 2009

It is the beginning of my third week of school and I'm already sick. So I'm taking this opportunity to write my blog! Last Saturday I had a blast hanging out in Waseca. They hosted their 22nd Annual Marching Band Classic and I was able to be a part of it. Around noon I was in the parade where I got to ride in a convertible! This was really exciting for me because I have only walked or driven lawn mowers in past parades. It was a nice change to be able to relax and just greet the parade watchers (I may have mentioned earlier that trying to wave while driving a lawn mower was a little bit scary at times!).

Before the parade got going, Ken Borgman from Sleigh and Cutter invited me to ride in his horse carriage if I got through the parade fast enough. Now you may be wondering, isn't that what Miss Waseca County Sleigh and Cutter is supposed to do? Well, she was busy running a 26.2 mile race in Walker, MN (which is five hours away from Waseca). She finished first in her age group! Congrats Molly! Anyway, she was busy running five hours away in a race that would take five hours, so I sat in the Sleigh and Cutter float for her. It was a lot of fun going through the parade twice!

After I was done with the parade my directors and I went out to lunch at this amazing Mexican restaurant in Waseca. I had actually gone there before the Miss South Central/Miss WCSC pageant two years ago when I went to watch, and I was very excited to go there again! We chatted for awhile about our plans for Miss America (we are all going!) and life in general. It was nice to be able to catch up with them.

Then it was time to head over to the field competition where the marching bands would be performing their routines for the judges. Before the show got started I was in line to be introduced as an "important person" along with the Mayor of Waseca, Roy Srp. Now since he was at the pageant I had seen his name before and was very interested because his last name has even fewer vowels than mine! So we chatted about that and found out that both of our last names are Czech (no big surprise that they come from the same country!).

We were introduced, along with the mascot and other important community members, and I went back to find Christy and Jen to find out where I was supposed to go next. Side note: a couple of skydivers were supposed to land on the field, before the introductions, to open up the show. Well they never came and Christy told me that I should have refused to introduce myself until the skydivers showed up because my directors wanted to see them lol. Oh well, next time I'll know what to do :)

During the competition I was asked to serve water to the bands as they came off the field. I can tell you from experience that marching is really hard work! First there are the heavy and very hot uniforms, then there are the movements (you HAVE to have really high steps and keep your instrument up at a specific angle) and the energy you put into playing your instrument. I know I would have appreciated water after some of my field shows! So I was glad to help out the band members and I know they really appreciated it.

After we had served water to a couple of the bands I realized that the last time I had put my crown on (which was before I was introduced to the audience) I didn't have a mirror so I had no idea what it looked like. So when there was a lull in the conversation I asked, "is my crown on straight?" Immediately both Christy and a volunteer, Deb, responded "nope." It was super funny because I didn't think my crown was THAT crooked. So I fixed it and life was good.

Now going back a couple weeks, my goal was to blog weekly and obviously last week that didn't happen. Here's why: as Vice-president of Membership for my fraternity I am in charge of recruiting new members and planning our Recruitment Week. Over the summer I optimistically planned on having Recruitment Week during the second week of school. Well that was much trickier than I thought! People get very busy very quickly so I ended up in charge of 16 liters of soda, two bags of chips, a gallon of juice, and all of our left over cookies from an event. Now imagine me trying to carry all of this on a bus, in addition to my violin! That in itself was very stressful. I was lucky to have just enough room in my violin locker to squeeze it all in.

The rest of Recruitment Week went pretty smoothly. I had gathered volunteers for different events throughout the week to help out. It is so nice to be able to break up a big job like that with all of our members. I am so lucky to have them as a resource not only for SAI related events but for a couple of projects I have planned in the future as Miss South Central.

In addition to Recruitment Week I was also putting together a string quartet to rehearse and perform with the National President of SAI! I finally contacted a violist and a cellist and gave them their music last Monday, we rehearsed Tuesday and Wednesday night and we will be performing at the kick-off meeting for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Alumnae chapter tonight! It was extremely nerve-wracking for awhile, I was being asked to provide information for the program in August when my "quartet" consisted of only me and another violinist. But it is all done now and we put in a lot of good, focused work in our rehearsals and the performance tonight will be wonderful!

One last note before I finish my blog: I have been trying ever since I began competing in pageants to convince some of my friends of the merits of the Miss America Organization and that they would not only benefit from it, but that they would also be good at it! I cannot tell you how excited I am for the month of October because two of my good friends are competing for both Miss North Metro and Miss Twin Cities/Miss Capital City!! I'm so excited to watch them compete and to cheer them on and to have the possibility of spending the year with them as local titleholders as well!

I wish everyone a stress-free week, or at the very least a very good weekend!

Until next time,
Aja

A lot of Bach and a little bit of Mahler

September 28, 2009

The weeks just keep flying by! Last week was a little insane for me, apparently every single one of my professors thought that the third week of class would be a good time to make all of our first projects/papers/assignments due. And I know I wasn't the only one feeling this pressure. I guess the professors don't meet to schedule the due dates for assignments a decent length apart (but they totally should!).

Anyway, in the past week I have had many opportunities to perform my violin, which always makes me happy. The weird thing though is that I performed the same piece three times! It is an easy one for a solo violinist to perform because it is just that, a solo violin piece (without any kind of accompaniment). This is something that is extremely easy to commit to performing because a) you don't have to schedule rehearsals with anyone else and b) you don't have to pay a pianist to rehearse and perform. What is this piece? It is none other than Bach's Partita in E major. What a wonderful piece, even after playing it quite a few times I always find little musical (and technical) things to work on!

Last week in orchestra was also a good experience. I didn't really realize until last week on Friday that our first concert is in about ten days! AH! We are playing Symphony No. 1 by Gustav Mahler and for those of you who know about Mahler, his music is not easy to learn or put together. As my conductor Mark Russell Smith says, "there are no casual notes in Mahler symphonies." Meaning, every note is valuable whether it is a random, very quiet note in the middle of someone's very loud solo, or if it is part of the loud solo. Given that my part is 20 pages long, you can see that this is quite the job to learn and put together.

Now I'll put in my shameless plug: come see the University Symphony Orchestra perform their first concert of this year in Ted Mann Concert Hall at 7:30 on October 7. It's free!! And we're pretty good ;)

So it looks like this will be a short blog, which makes sense after all of the paper writing I've done in the past week. I think I churned out somewhere around 4,000 words total, which brings up an interesting point: there is apparently some "quota" of words that people use during the day and they don't really feel like talking after they have reached this number. I never heard any exact number, mostly because I think it varies from person to person, but I did hear that men have a lower word quota per day than women do. Imagine that! And on that note,

Happy Fall!
Aja

First Appearance with Miss Waseca County Sleigh and Cutter!

October 5, 2009

When trying to get things accomplished I, of course, always have the best intentions. For example I wrote last week's blog the night of an appearance at a nursing home but somehow I completely neglected to talk about it! My plan was to write about it the next day once my thoughts became more organized and settled and I could say something interesting about it. In my mind "the next day" apparently means "a week later."

So last Tuesday I performed at Comforts of Home for the second time. It is so encouraging to see the smiles on the residents' faces when I play for them! One of the ladies really enjoyed my playing and kept telling me how good it was between every song. It was pretty cute, and it's always nice to get feedback like that. There was one man, however that didn't enjoy my completely classical music program (actually not completely classical, there were a few late baroque period pieces, but all the same it is the stereotypical "classical" music). He tried to tell me in the middle of my performance that it would be more fun if I played something that everyone knew and they could sing along to.

Now he didn't actually tell me that it would be more "fun," but every time he tried to give me this advice he would stop right before the word "fun" would have fit right in. I guess he didn't want to tell me that he wasn't already having fun lol. I didn't have anything in my repertoire prepared that has any words to it so I just told him that when I come back next time I'll play some pieces that he wants me to play. So afterward I asked him for some requests. I will definitely be more prepared to play music to please everybody's tastes next time!

When I was leaving one of the attendants who works at Comforts of Home mentioned that this particular man was a little crabby tonight and that something like this usually happens and that "you can't please everyone." Well no you can't, but I am certainly going to try! It is so important to listen to an audience's critique and try to find ways to make a better, more enjoyable performance for them the next time if you are given the opportunity.

On to this week's happenings: I have been to the mall four times since Friday! Crazy! Once to try on evening gowns for Miss MN at Glitz, once to buy appearance clothes for the Walk for Autism in Mankato that I attended on Sunday (I learned that students get a 15% discount at The Limited if you show your student ID!!!), and twice today to help one of my friends find the perfect evening gown for an upcoming pageant! We went to a few department stores and Glitz, and if this trend continues (I am most likely going again on Saturday), I am going to know Glitz like the back of my hand! But hey, no complaints here! I love that store!!

When I went on Friday to try on gowns for myself I was very thrilled to be going with Kelsey Malecha, Miss Mankato. I have admired her ever since I read her blog as Miss Midwest and I have to admit when I first met her I was a little starstruck. It is so wonderful that I can call her a friend :) Shopping for gowns with her was definitely good! Having someone with experience at Miss MN was helpful. I tend to like any gown, because they're all pretty right? Kelsey had some very insightful things to say and I cannot thank her enough for taking that little detour during our shopping trip!

On Sunday I was headed back to the south central part of Minnesota to Mankato for their Walk for Autism. This trip was more exciting for me than others because I got to have a driving companion! My best friend attended the Miss Mankato orientation which just happened to be the same day! It was nice to take that trip with her because we don't have a lot of time to talk while we're both in school.

I was also really excited for this appearance because it was the first time since that pageant that I got to see Molly again! It was nice to finally talk in person for an extended period of time, we talk on facebook chat but that's never equivelent to real face to face talking. We got to meet a lot of really cool people! Including one father who has autistic 8 year old twin boys. He told me that they really like to play the guitar and that he wants to get them more involved in music. I thought that was a great idea so I told him about my cousin who has Down's Syndrome and is also autistic; his mom (my aunt) is a professional Hardanger fiddle player (a Hardanger fiddle is a Norwegian folk instrument much like a violin, but different in some very interesting ways!), so she has some extra violins around the house and he just loves to play them! Music and developmental disabilities have such a strong connection, I was glad to be able to encourage this family to pursue musical education for their sons.

This father was also the Cub Scout troop leader for his sons, AND there are two more autistic boys in the troop. Sounds like a family that is very committed to helping out and giving their time. He was very nice to talk to and so inspirational!

After the walk it was time for me to head back to the real world where I am a student at the U of M, not Miss South Central. Sunday nights are the scheduled meeting time for my fraternity, and also usually when I finish all of my homework that I somehow managed to not do over the rest of the weekend :P Sadly this means that I never get to watch Desperate Housewives (my favorite show!) when it airs, so since I was diligent earlier today and finished all of my homework for up until Wednesday, I am going to head on over to abc.com and treat myself to a little relaxation time!

Until next time,
Aja

ps: come to the University Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday night at 7:30 in the Ted Mann Concert hall! It's free!! We are playing Symphony No. 1 by Gustav Mahler and Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms. AND we're going to sound fantastic!

First Local Pageant Appearance!

October 11, 2009

I think this may be the last time I can say that I had my "first such-and-such" appearance lol. Anyway, yesterday I attended the Miss North Metro pageant number one to cheer on my best friend who was competing in her very first MAO pageant! And number two because I love watching pageants! I was thrilled to meet so many of the other titleholders that were crowned this summer, like Miss Morris, Miss Frazee, Miss Brainerd Lakes, and Miss Midwest. I also got to catch up a little with Miss Moorhead, who I had previously met and of course Miss Waseca, my "sister queen" :)

Congratulations to the new and very first Miss North Metro Tiffany Gunderson! I can't wait to get to know you better! (For all of you that are wondering, she is a singer and her platform is about promoting self-esteem in young girls)

Not only did I get to meet some of the girls that I will be competing with in June, but I also learned a very important lesson: I should always put my crown on before I go to an appearance! In a lot of the pictures I took my crown looked like it was going to fall off (it also felt like it was going to fall off!). I was later told that I should probably put it farther back on my head. Oh well, you live and learn!

Well, I guess this is another short blog since this week was really crazy for me at school. I could tell you about all the assignments and papers I had to turn in, but I'm sure no one is really interested in that. So that is all!

Have a good week and stay warm!
Aja

Learning to Listen

October 23, 2009

I once read, in a book that I unfortunately can't recall right now so it will remain un-cited, that everyone's favorite topic to talk about is themselves. Shocking, right? This book then took it one step further and claimed that when two people meet and have a conversation for the first time whoever ends up talking about themselves more thinks that the other person is very interesting to talk to. Sound a little backwards? I hope I'm explaining this well because I think this author made a really cool observation. After I read this I thought it was a bit of nonsense, but after letting it sit in my brain for awhile I realized that when I did the most talking, usually about myself, when meeting someone for the first time I didn't necessarily find them more "interesting" but I definitely had fun and looked forward to the next conversation. On the other hand I frequently meet people where I can't get a word in edgewise and the reverse is definitely true.

I'm bringing this up for a couple of reasons, number one I think it's interesting (haha!) and number two I think that in our fast paced and technology centered society it's very important to think about how often we really are listening to others. Hopefully having people think you're interesting will give some incentive to really listen when engaged in a conversation but beyond that there are fascinating things to learn from everyone around us!

For example: I had a couple of long car rides with another violinist that I go to school with who came here from Taiwan. Not only did I learn some things about American culture, like separation of church and state and jury duty are very strange things outside of this country, but I learned that Taiwan is not actually it's own country. China likes to claim command of Taiwan. Or that Hmong birthing practices, including absolutely no pain medication, may seem completely foreign to us but everything they do has a religious kind of meaning to them, whereas our birthing practices include a lot of science that seems to make sense but can be just as foreign to the Hmong as their practices are to us (this I have to admit actually came from a book I'm reading for a class, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, but it's interesting nonetheless).

The point that I want to make is actually a little more somber than either of these other examples. While I was riding the bus earlier this week I overheard a conversation that really struck me and made me realize that racism is still a pretty big issue in our country. I sat down near a group of Black people who were talking, quite rambunctiously, about how we finally have a Black president. It is almost a year ago that Barack Obama was elected president but people are still making a big deal about the color of his skin, especially in the Black community.

This is just one conversation that I overheard and I am so glad that a few weeks prior to hearing it I had learned about race in my Medical Anthropology class. I could go into a lot of detail but the main point of my class' discussion that day is that race is not a biological factor but it is something assigned by culture. This also may seem ridiculous but there are overwhelming amounts of data that confirm there is no one trait that all Asian, Caucasian, Black, Native American, etc. people have in common that no one of any other "race" has in their genetics. I thought that was pretty powerful stuff because I had always assumed that skin color was a direct result of a specific genetic code that made someone either black or white. But in a video we watched a white male found just as many similarities in his DNA to a Norwegian as he did to a Kenyan.

Now that I have finished pouring out some completely random thoughts I have had throughout the week, I hope I have given everyone who reads this one or two things to ponder. And since I don't know any other way to tie this up I am so excited for Miss Twin Cities tomorrow! Good luck to all of the contestants!!

Aja

Events Past, Present and Future!

November 1, 2009

Perhaps the most difficult part of blogging is actually writing about everything that has happened in a given period of time! So I will start this week's with an event that happened two weeks ago...

At Sigma Alpha Iota's Province day the Alumnae Chapter in my province implemented a part of the Global Heartstrings project that I plan on doing as part of my platform. This was an easy connection since my mom is the President of the Alumnae Chapter and she knew about my plans to get a Global Heartstrings project going at my school. The girls in the chapters around my province made donation boxes to bring back to their own schools and they were all very fancy!

If I haven't already explained Global Heartstrings here is a quick explanation: violinist Rachel Barton Pine has set up a donation headquarters to send used musical items (such as old strings, reeds, valve oil, sheet music, music stands and a lot more!) to musicians in African countries who cannot afford to buy them new and are sometimes sharing these items between multiple people. For violinists, strings are very expensive and we are very picky about what kind we use and how they sound. When they stop sounding like we think they should we discard them and buy a new set. Even for a broke college student, such as myself, this is a financial possibility but the people who receive donated items through Global Heartstrings could not be happier to use my old strings that I think are unacceptable to play on. Enriching Lives through Music, my platform. Music can do wonders for one's life, but it is also a very expensive endeavor and I will try to find projects like this one that will help to alleviate the costs.

Speaking of, another organization that does just that is Music Link. They "link" students of low income families to teachers who are willing to teach them at no or a reduced cost. Last spring I signed up to be a teacher and I finally got "linked" with a family earlier this fall and we had our first lesson last week! My student is a four year old girl who could not be more excited about music. In my living room, where we had our first lesson, my parents have a piano, a big drum and a gong. My student kept running around and talking about how cool all of these instruments are! Her mom got a little bit upset because she wasn't focusing (but what else can you expect from a four year old surrounded by things that make noise?) so she told her "if you can't settle down and listen then we won't come back here anymore, and you want to come back and have more violin lessons right?" She stopped instantly and nodded. It was so precious and I was glad that the violin had made such an impression on her! I can't wait for our next lesson!

Going back in time once more, congratulations to Kathryn Knuttila, Miss Twin Cities 2010 and Kaylah Dockter, Miss Capital City 2010! I am so excited to spend Miss Minnesota week with you two and I am so proud of all that you have already accomplished! And I'm a little excited to brag about how I told Kaylah she should run in a pageant because she would be good at it! I was so right ;)

Well it is another early morning of music theory classes for me so I should get some rest! (I learned a hard lesson this week about how lack of sleep affects me!)

Happy All Saints Day, Dia de los Muertos, and don't forget to vote on Tuesday!

Aja

Miss Mankato
November 16, 2009

The past couple of weeks have been absolutely fantastic! Since the Miss Great Plains/Miss Southwest pageant was canceled last Saturday I was able to spend a weekend in Minneapolis with my friends. On Friday I went to a Minnesota Orchestra concert! I worked there last fall so you'd think that I would have heard them a lot, unfortunately that was not the case since there were plenty of little jobs for an usher to do. So it was quite the treat for me to sit in the audience and listen to them. Another extra treat was that Burt Hara, the principle clarinet, played a concerto. He is an amazing musician and it was so fun to watch him play because it is so obvious that he loves the clarinet!

Saturday and Sunday I had meetings with my Sigma Alpha Iota ladies, which could sound like a chore but it is so much fun to spend time with them! Amidst all our stories and laughter we do get some work done, including a very exciting project we are going to take on in the spring! (More on that later...like in the spring lol)

This weekend I was able to attend the Miss Mankato pageant. It was a really great show with a lot of new girls! Congratulations to Samantha Phillippi, Miss Mankato 2010!

Now I have to admit something, one of the scariest things I have to do as a local titleholder is go on-stage during the show with the other visiting queens and introduce myself and answer questions. Seems silly right? Well I tend to think about things just a little bit too hard and this is one of them. It would look pretty ridiculous if I forgot my name, title, or platform (side note: I actually did forget which year I am, so I just skipped that part!). Anyway, besides my very minor mental blunder the whole process went smoothly, well except for when Miss Moorhead lost her shoe--which my mom caught on my video camera :P--and should go smoothly in the future.

On a completely different note, it was great to see two of the girls that I competed with at Miss South Central, Jeanette Sterner and Kerri Golombecki. They both looked amazing and did a very nice job on stage...I better be seeing some more of you two in the future!

I also had a great time catching up with Miss North Metro, Miss Capital City and Miss Moorhead. AND we got to meet a Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader...one of the judges for the pageant!

I also had the chance to catch up with my good friend Kelsey, the outgoing Miss Mankato. I am sad to see her finish her pageant career but I know she has many great things ahead of her! If you know Kelsey then you know how goal driven she is and that she probably has about 15 big accomplishments to work towards right now! I can't wait to see what she does next!

Until next time,
Aja

Let the Holiday Season Begin!
November 28, 2009

To prepare for Brooke's CD release tomorrow, where I will be wearing a super-cute yellow dress, I am currently covered in fake tanning lotion. This is completely necessary because my fair skin does not look good in yellow. Well not anymore!! Anyway I figured that updating my blog would be a nice, productive thing to get done while I'm all...lotion-y.

Last weekend Molly and I got to participate in Christmas in Our City down in Waseca. One of our directors, Jennifer, was helping out with the Girl Scouts who were walking in the parade. They were all so cute! The troops all dressed up with some sort of Christmas theme. Jennifer's daughter was dressed as a tree ornament, some girls were gifts and others were adorned in other Christmas related decorations. They were so adorable! I am very excited to share a few musical activities with them when I go to visit them in January!

Molly and I were the penultimate float in a fairly short parade. I'm sure to the people watching it was an interesting sight because the float behind us, which was supposed to be carrying Santa, was empty! Santa never showed up for the parade. We had a funny moment afterward when an elf walked up to Molly and said "do you know where Santa is? I really need to find Santa!" This elf was pretty frantic sounding so Molly replied, very carefully, "umm...I don't think Santa showed up for the parade..." The poor elf walked away looking very sad and confused!

After the parade Molly, Christy and I practiced walking and got ready for a photo shoot! I can't wait to see the pictures; Christy helped me out with my hair and I have NEVER been able to get that much volume out of it!!

Once the photo shoot was finished I had to drive back to Minneapolis to make it on time for call (I was in the pit orchestra for the University Opera). Molly got to actually meet Santa and help light the Christmas tree.

I have another day full of appearances tomorrow too, I am so excited to catch up with all the other titleholders that are going to Brooke's CD release party at the Mall of America! (from 1:00-3:00 in the Best Buy rotunda!!) I have actually been waiting for this event to buy Brooke's CD, just to make it an "official" purchase haha. If you are in the area and are free any time between one and three pm tomorrow definitely check it out! All of the money Brooke raises through her CD sales is donated to the Children's Miracle Network (for more information visit http://www.childrensmiraclenetwork.org/Index.aspx)

If you are unable to purchase Brooke's CD tomorrow I highly recommend checking out her website www.musicbuildingblocks.com. Her CD is available for online purchase, the money still goes to a great cause, and Brooke can really sing! It's an all around good purchase!! And would make a great gift for the holidays!

...Which brings me back to the title of this blog. I love this time of year! Thanksgiving has always been a big deal at my parents' house and I love being there and celebrating with my whole family. When I logged on to facebook after Thanksgiving for the first time I saw that many of my friends has updated their statuses to say that they are excited to listen to Christmas music on the radio. I then remembered that Christmas really is just around the corner, and it is such a fantastic time of the year! (For many, many reasons but also because when Christmas music is on the radio, I actually have a chance at knowing the words and being able to sing along!!)

Miss Minnesota's CD Release
December 5, 2009

I have been so impressed with Brooke. The event that she put together last weekend was incredible! Not only was it multifaceted (it raised money for the Children's Miracle Network, gave Brooke and others a chance to perform, gave the Miss America Organization some great exposure for all of the people doing their holiday shopping at the Mall of America, and it gave the local titleholders a chance to get together and have another appearance), but Brooke did a fantastic job of hosting and performing.

She was able to raise $9,000 by selling her CD! It was an honor to be on the stage with Brooke and the other titleholders as she presented a check for this amount to Brandon Wittrock, an amazing young man who has benefited greatly from the Children's Miracle Network and Gillette Children's Hospital.

Prior to the main show, which included performances by Brooke, Jo Bender and Select Three, we had a chance to meet some of the families who have worked with CMN and Gillette Children's Hospital. It was so touching to see the life that these families have! I talked to one couple whose daughter was born without a right hand. Because of CMN she is able to have a prosthetic arm. Her mother told me that her daughter was so excited to come and see all of the princesses! I am always touched when little girls get excited to see us older girls all dressed up and in our crowns and sashes. Then we got to talking about music and how their younger daughter goes to a magnet school sponsored by MacPhail. They were very enthusiastastic about her taking free music lessons in the future! I, of course, very enthusiastically told them that it is the best thing they could possibly do for both of their daughters. They are two and six years old, which I think are perfect ages to being learning (and loving!) music!

I also had the opportunity to talk to Junior Miss You Can Do It, Hanna. The Miss You Can Do It pageant is for young women with physical or developmental disabilities. Unfortunately the pageant will not be returning to Minnesota next year, but Hanna invited me to a pageant that her and her family are running in March. I cannot wait to go and support them!

Miss You Can Do It, Bethany Pearson and her mother were also in attendance. Bethany told me her story; she was in a severe car crash with her sister. Neither of them should have survived, but Bethany miraculously made it. She showed me pictures of a few x-rays of her skull, one of all the places it had broken in the accident and another of all the metal that is now holding it together. She also told me about her intense physical therapy and how she was so determined to get better soon that when the doctors set a goal for her to accomplish something by the end of the week, she would do it by the end of the day. She is truly a role model for young women.

We took a picture together after Brooke's event. When Bethany took her glasses off for the picture I didn't think anything of it, but afterward she told me that she has double vision, hence the glasses. She also said that when she takes her glasses off for pictures she just has to hope that she is actually looking at the camera and not something else, because she can't tell! (She did an excellent job of finding the camera, however and really has nothing to worry about!) Then she let me try on her glasses so that I could see what it was like to have double vision. And wow, I am very thankful that I have good vision!

Between the pre-event and the official CD release performance I had some free time so I went to Glitz! with Miss Captial City, Miss Moorhead and Miss Twin Cities! It was so much fun running around the Mall of America with our crowns and sashes on, I'm sure it's not everyday that four girls in crowns are running around the mall!

Bethany and I realized that we were wearing Vikings colors! So on our way back to Brooke's event we decided we were going to take a picture with someone wearing a jersey. We were waiting for the elevator when Bethany left and went over to a man in a Vikings jersey and said, "I don't mean to sound forward but can we take a picture with you? Because we're wearing Vikings colors!" It was pretty funny! And the guy obliged and let us take a picture with him.

Well that is all for today. Next weekend I will be performing at a Victorian Tea where I think I will debut a really cool version of the Star Spangled Banner for violin! Stay tuned for a video! (if all goes well haha).

Until next time,
Aja

Victorian Tea Performance
December 22, 2009

A couple weeks ago I had a really fun opportunity to perform at a Victorian Tea put on by a group called TSE. TSE's mission is to help adults with developmental disabilities learn skills that will help them find a job that will ultimately assist them on their journey to become independent. I got to play my violin AND dress up in an authentic Victorian era costume!

Part of the event involved a play in which other people dressed up and a narrator described their costumes. Each person's costume told a story about the history of Christmas in Minnesota. It was really cool to learn about the past and how people used to celebrate the holidays! One very popular tradition was a ball that everyone attended. The narrator told a very funny story about a priest who went to one of these balls and realized, much to his horror, that when dancing with the women he could see straight down their dresses! It was so scandalous that he felt the need to preach about it the next day in his sermon.

My mom was at the tea as well partially because she was my chaperone and also to spend time with some of my family members who are involved with TSE. She was helping me get ready when she got recruited to be in the show! She had to demonstrate a story about ice skating and the different layers of petticoats that women wore to protect their modesty in case they fell while on the ice. Having both of us dressed in these beautiful Victorian gowns gave us a wonderful opportunity to take a mother-daughter Christmas photo!

Happy Holidays everyone!
Aja

Happy New Year!
January 9, 2010

I can't believe how strategic my platform ended up being for this organization. If you haven't read the rest of my website my platform is called "Enriching Lives through Music." Music has definitely made my life more enjoyable and I can think of nothing that is more fun than making music with my friends at school. My friend Jenny Klukken and I started playing a marimba and violin duo and decided to go on tour to her hometown of Osakis, MN and continue on north to visit my grandparents in Crookston, MN. I am so grateful for my friends who are so supportive of my pageant endeavors because Jenny wholeheartedly agreed that during our tour I could ask our audiences for freewill donations for the Children's Miracle Network. This is why my platform ended up being "strategic," I am able to play music for people and let them escape their every day lives for an hour while I take them on a musical journey and in return ask them to help me raise money for CMN, Miss America's national platform.

The official tour lasted four days, beginning in Osakis with a concert at Jenny's church. I was so honored to receive a standing ovation at the end of our performance! The finale of our recital was Jenny and my favorite piece that we play together so it was so rewarding to see that the crowd really enjoyed listening to us play it as well.

Afterward I had the chance to meet some native Osakis-ians and two people from the same family came up to me at different times and told me that a man in their family had gone to Gillette Children's Hospital at the age of four because of a farm accident and that he is now fifty-three years old and living a happy, healthy life. I was interested to hear how Gillette has touched people's lives so far beyond the areas that they have clinics.

Jenny's high school band director recruited us to play for his school the very next day because he thought it was very important for all of the music students in the high school and middle school to hear us perform! So the first Monday of the year Jenny and I kicked off the school year with a musical performance. We had a few extra minutes at the end to answer questions and I was surprised by how many questions people had about the marimba. When I was in high school I was fortunate to have a very strong band program with wonderful teachers, so our percussionists all had the opportunity to learn the marimba and many of them started working with four mallets during their high school career. It was eye opening for me to learn that a lot of people don't know what a marimba is. This was a theme for both Osakis and Crookston and for all of the different age groups we performed for, from young to old.

Now, I have to send out a huge thank you to my grandmother who utilized her contacts all throughout Crookston to get Jenny and I two nursing home performances, three school performances, a recital in a church, a performance at a rotary and a radio interview! All in two days! Needless to say we were kept quite busy, but somehow we still managed to find time to watch Drop Dead Gorgeous, one of my all time favorite movies!

Out of the many performances we did I have to say that the most rewarding are the nursing home visits. The residents there are very encouraging and always like to tell me that I have great things ahead of me in my career, which is the selfish reason I have for liking these appearances. The other is that I can tell how much they truly enjoy listening to the music and additionally listening to young people make music. Often times I feel that people take their elders for granted, I know I'm guilty of this as well, but they offer such a great support system that really needs to be understood and appreciated.

Perhaps the most fun I had in Crookston (besides playing violin and meeting new people and being with my family and performing with Jenny....) was the radio interview. The only other time I have been on the radio was two summers ago as a contestant for Miss Midwest. I had fun there but with such a big group of people (all of the contestants plus Miss Midwest) the radio announcer only was able to ask a question and then go around the circle of girls and let us answer it. This time, it was just Jenny, myself and the radio announcer and it was, like I said before, so much fun!! We got to have a real conversation about what we were doing in Crookston, how we hauled an instrument as large as a marimba around, and most importantly about our concert and raising money for CMN.

I have totals from all of the separate events where I was able to raise money, but for some reason I'm having a really hard time doing any kind of addition so in a ballpark range I raised between $300 and $400 for CMN in four days. Since I don't have anything scheduled for myself on Monday I will be spending my day counting up the money, getting it ready to send to CMN and writing thank you notes to all of the donors and to everyone who helped Jenny and I out during the tour. So on Monday I should have an exact total!

Completely changing subjects, today I went to Miss Minnesota's send off to Miss America and I don't want to say too much, but I will say that Brooke is an amazing representative for our state and clearly has a very strong work ethic (she sold the most ad pages AND came in second place for CMN fundraising with over $12,000 raised!!). In my opinion she has done a great job so far this year and I can't wait to see what she will do in Vegas!

*ps: Jenny and I plan on playing together more, but we need a name for our duo! We have good video footage of us performing but don't want to create a youtube account to put it online until we have a good name! Email me with any suggestions you have!

Winter Break News
January 23, 2010

This past week was actually my first week of school but I thought it would be nice to let everyone know about what I did with the rest of my break after I got back from my tour in northern Minnesota!

I was able to meet with two girl scout groups in Waseca last week and help them fulfill some requirements to get their music badges. The leader for the first group gave me a completely open ended assignment so I thought it would be cool to teach the girls about The Star Spangled Banner for a few reasons: 1. It's our national anthem and everyone should know it 2. Most adults do know it, but few know that there are three more verses and even fewer know the words to those verses and 3. because I learned a really cool version of it for unaccompanied violin and I wanted another chance to perform it!

My activity was to have the girls figure out where to place the different words and their syllables within the written music so that we could figure out how to sing the rest of the verses together. I underestimated how hard this was going to be so we only made it through the second verse! And even that had a major train wreck when we had to fit "In full glory reflected now shines in the stream" into the same melody as "Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there" (try it! the tricky part is the beginning...."In full glory reflected" and "Gave proof through the night" they just don't fit nicely in the same line!).

An interesting fact that I learned while researching this is that there was an extra fifth verse added during the civil war.

The other girl scout troop got a little taste of conducting. Since I am a music major I was required to take a conducting class last year and I thought that one of the activities we did at the beginning of class, called "Sizzle and Sing," would be fun for the fourth graders. I don't actually know why it was called "Sizzle and Sing" because all we did was sizzle, but anyway the idea of this exercise was to get us used to communicating dynamics and articulations through our body language and hand motions in front of a large group that was "sizzling" (basically we breathed through our teeth, so it kind of sounds like a snake hissing).

I think the fourth graders really enjoyed this! They each got a turn to lead the group in sizzling loud and soft and then I taught them how to conduct in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. I was surprised by how much they knew about conducting already! I got asked about batons and why some conductors use them and others don't and what shape they were supposed to hold their conducting hand in. Lucky for me I remembered these answers from my class last year and I must have answered them well because one little girl told me I should be a band teacher! I thought that was especially funny because yes, I was able to teach these girls the basics of conducting, but I honestly cannot tell you how I pulled through that class with an A, especially since I flat out told the TA that I hated being a conductor and couldn't wait for the class to be over!

Each girl scout group got the opportunity at the end of the meeting to wear my sash and crown and get their picture taken as "Miss South Central." They all LOVED that part!

Last Friday I went to Northdale Middle School to judge a solo and ensemble contest that I've been planning with my SAI adviser, Sylvia Wilson, who is the orchestra teacher there. I got a call from her on Thursday asking me to come in earlier since she thought about 30 kids had signed up and they would not all fit into the two hour time slot that I was going to be there. So I agreed and asked if it might be a good idea to bring in a second judge, just to make things go a little faster. Sylvia said, "sure why not?" So I called up my good friend Miss Capital City, Kaylah Dockter and she agreed right away on very short notice (thank you Kaylah!). And thank goodness she did!! There were 51 groups of kids that day! Even with both of us there we barely had time to write comments!

Afterward I was able to talk to Sylvia and the choir teacher, who also had students participate, and they told me how much the students enjoyed preparing for something like this and how excited they were! It was only open to seventh and eighth graders, but I guess a lot of the sixth graders also wanted to perform for a judge! I was invited back next year to do this again and I could not be more enthusiastic!! The kids were so great and it really was a wonderful first opportunity for them and I will definitely be doing this again at more schools and Northdale next year.

The winners of this solo and ensemble contest will be invited to perform at a benefit concert to be held at Northdale Middle School on Thursday, March 11 at 7:00 pm. I have some work to do with publicizing this event! My idea is to have the students perform and inspire people to donate money to go back to Northdale's music fund. This is not only a good opportunity for the students but it is good for the community to be able to see how music impacts their lives even at the early ages of 11, 12 and 13.

Another facet of this contest, one that I'm particularly excited about, is that the students who won the chance to perform in the concert will get free lessons for a few weeks prior from a University of Minnesota music student who studies the same instrument. This again, will benefit the middle school students and it will additionally benefit the students who are pursuing a music degree. I learned so much when I started teaching and it has become something that I really enjoy doing. I am thrilled to see what some of my friends at school are able to teach to these students and take out of the experience for themselves!

Right after the contest I drove down to Waseca to help out with the Sleigh and Cutter bingo fundraiser. I got to spin the wheel with all of the letters and numbers in it and call them out! It was a very fun job! I also learned that there are all these official rules about bingo, like writing down the winning number, counting how many numbers it took to win, an official order to what kind of bingo is played...who would have thought?

Lastly I'm going to put in a plug for the Miss Coon Rapids pageant. I attended the Style Show this morning and wow are these contestants amazing! They are all so accomplished, poised, beautiful, well spoken and fun people! I can't wait to see them compete in a couple weeks and to see which lucky girl will be Miss Coon Rapids 2010!

Just kidding I'm not done! Speaking of pageants, I will be going to watch the Miss America prelims in Vegas! I'm leaving on Tuesday and it could not come any sooner!! I can't wait to see how Brooke does! She has already stood out in the field of community service (she was announced as a top 10 quality of life finalist on Thursday). Good luck Brooke and I will be in Vegas cheering you on soon!!

Aja

Viva Las Vegas!
February 9, 2010

When I told my professors that I would be missing a week of school to go to Las Vegas they all asked if it would be my first visit there and when I said yes they responded with "well...I'll be interested to hear what you think when you get back!" in a teasing sort of way.

I think they didn't expect me to enjoy it because of the very specific Las Vegas culture, and honestly I was a little bit nervous about it myself. But I cannot tell you how wrong all of our assumptions were! Las Vegas during the Miss America pageant is fantastically full of kind, genuine people from across the country, and of course everything sparkly! It is a pageant girl's dream!

My mom and I hardly left Planet Hollywood (the hotel/casino/resort that hosts Miss America) because there was so much to do there! We spent plenty of time at the trade show, and I purchased most of my Miss Minnesota wardrobe thanks to Red Carpet pageant and prom. I had the opportunity to meet Sherri Hill, by far my favorite gown designer, and the fabulous people that represented Red Carpet at the trade show.

I also got to meet Miss America 2009, Katie Stam, when she signed autographs one morning. She has such a wonderful presence about her and throughout her entire year as Miss America it was my goal to meet her (I got close once, she was at the Minnesota State Fair while I was there working as a parking attendant!)

Of course the highlight of the trip were the preliminary competitions. It was so fascinating to see all of the contestants compete in all of the preliminary rounds! This was the first time that I formed any sort of "top" contestants for Miss America, and of my top two one became Miss America and the other, unfortunately, did not make the top 15. The competition at this level is so close, it truly showed me that pageantry is subjective because in the end it is up to each individual judge and what they like or dislike, not some kind of system biased towards one contestant.

More about the judges, there are videos of various interviews with the judges on the Miss America Organization facebook page. This year's panel was clearly chosen well, and I thought it was great that they all said something about meeting this year's contestants and how their perceptions of the MAO changed because of them. I think this speaks to the incredibly high caliber of this year's contestants!

Speaking of high caliber....Brooke was a phenomenal representative of Minnesota. She performed beautifully in all phases of the competition and kept high spirits through all of her successes and disappointments. There are many things that I have learned from Brooke as I've watched her throughout my quest to become Miss Minnesota. Regardless of the outcome for me in June, Brooke has, unknowingly, taught me many life lessons which truly make her a role model. I was so proud to wear my Miss Minnesota button around Las Vegas; every time I did a number of people would stop me and ask, "is that Miss Minnesota?" and when I responded "yes" they would say, "wow, what a voice!" or "she is such a talented girl!" or "she is beautiful!"

So congratulations to Brooke on a wonderful performance at Miss America and for making such a good impression on so many people!

February Happenings
March 1, 2010

I visited my last Girl Scout group in Waseca early last month. This Girl Scout group was huge so I let the girls decide if they wanted to write a song with me or on their own. Luckily this split the group in half. We had a blast writing a song about Girl Scout cookies to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot!" When everyone was done writing my group sang "I'm a Little Girl Scout" to the rest of their troop. Then a few of the other girls shared the songs that they wrote. I forgot to mention earlier that this was a group of kindergartners! Though they are just learning how to write and spell they did a fantastic job! One of the girls wrote a very touching poem about her brother who passed away. I was very impressed by the maturity these young girls exhibited.

At the end of all of my Girl Scout visits I have played a song on my violin and then let the girls try on my crown and sash. I was so flattered when the kindergartners insisted that I play one more song, and another song, and a different song...instead of wanting to see my crown! I actually ran out of songs that I could play without a pianist, so I took some requests. The encore performance of the afternoon was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," which was the first song I learned at four years old, with the girls singing along. I wish I had a video, it was hilarious! They key I played in was pretty high, so the girls just kind of sang whatever they thought was closest, and of course they did so as loudly as possible :) I don't think I have ever had to work so hard to project my sound!

That weekend I attended the Miss Coon Rapids pageant! Congratulations to Allison Lordbock, the new Miss Coon Rapids! All of the contestants looked great at the pageant and Allison will represent them well!

The weekend after Miss Coon Rapids I drove down to Waseca for the annual Sleigh and Cutter Festival! Molly and I were able to attend a dance on Friday night. We announced the winners for the medallion hunt and the Frosty contest. I had heard of medallion hunts before but in case this is a new concept for anyone, the Sleigh and Cutter committee hides a medallion somewhere in Waseca and then publishes clues in the newspaper. People can then search for it and win a prize if they are the first to discover it's location!

The Frosty concept was new to me, but very similar to a medallion hunt. Each year someone in the community is chosen to be Frosty, and like the medallion hunt, there are clues in the paper every day about who this person is. The difference is that people who think they have the right answer submit their guess to the paper. For each new clue people can give a new guess. This gives people a chance to get the right answer....or for people who figure it out early on to get their names in the raffle multiple times. All of the Frosty guesses are thrown together in a jar and after Frosty's identity was revealed on Friday night, Molly and I got to draw names from the correct guesses for cash prizes!!

The next morning Molly and I got up early to help the Sleigh and Cutter committee check people in for the parade. It was fun to talk to the people of Waseca and to get more acquainted with the Sleigh and Cutter people who so generously support the Miss Waseca and Miss South Central scholarship fund!

Last Tuesday I went to the IHOP in Coon Rapids for National Pancake day! I'm disappointed to say that I didn't get any pictures since I went by myself and was in a hurry because I rushed over from my violin lesson at the U of M and had to leave half an hour after I got there to go to another class. It was fun to talk to people at the restaurant about the Miss America Organization and how it is partnered with the Children's Miracle Network. I may have even recruited a future Miss Coon Rapids junior royalty contestant, there was a little girl who was just enthralled with my crown! When I found out she lives in Coon Rapids I told her all about the Miss Coon Rapids pageant :)

This past weekend I attended the sweeps pageant. It was so exciting to see the final contestants for Miss Minnesota crowned! Congratulations to Liz Abbas and Siri Freeh! I can't wait to get to know you better during Miss MN week!

All month long I have been busy with preparations for my project at Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids. Last month I arranged a solo and ensemble contest and with the overwhelming number of students who auditioned (over 50!) I had to narrow it down to the best students. These top performers will put on a concert at Northdale Middle School on March 11 at 7:00 pm. Please come if you can make it! This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the joy these kids get from making music. Free-will donations will also be accepted with 100% of the proceeds going to the Northdale Middle School music department.

I hope to see you all at the concert!
Aja

Northdale Middle School Concert

March 16, 2010

Last Thursday night my biggest project as Miss South Central finally came to fruition. Twenty-two music students at Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids performed pieces that they have been working on since January for an audience full of family, friends and community members. I was so impressed by the high level of professionalism and talent displayed by these 7th and 8th graders! Monday night prior to the concert we had a dress rehearsal and I remember about halfway through the program having the realization that these students are only in middle school! These kids will go on to do great things, I just know it!

If you have been reading my blogs you'll remember that the performers in the concert were chosen from a solo and ensemble contest held in January. Not only did these students get to perform in a concert, I also arranged for them to have lessons with music students at the University of Minnesota to help them prepare for this concert. It was so heart warming to see how these kids bonded with their teachers and really looked up to them. As a teacher myself, I know that the teachers also felt a lot of joy through teaching these lessons. It is always rewarding to share your own musical knowledge with others and it's even more rewarding when you get to share with such an enthusiastic, talented and all around wonderful group!

I have to send out a HUGE thank you to my wonderful director, Christy Stewart, who drove all the way from Mankato just to see the concert! I really appreciated your support and your willingness to do so much driving!

Now that all this is over I'll have to keep myself busy with something else. But don't worry! I have a few more project ideas cooking!

Until next time,
Aja

TSE Fashion Show

March 25, 2010

Last Saturday, the last day of my spring break, I got to participate in a Style Show presented by TSE. I could not have ended my break better! TSE is an organization that helps adults with developmental disabilities learn the skills necessary to find jobs. The fashion show was an extremely successful fundraiser for them and I am so glad that I was able to participate in it!

There were around 60 models in the show, a lot of them were TSE clients (when they walked in the show the emcee announced where they were working and how long they have been working there which was really neat because some of them have had jobs for 30+ years!), and others were volunteers with TSE, children of volunteers, or family members of TSE clients, which is where I fit in. My cousin Janne, a client and volunteer with TSE, was given the award for being an outstanding worker with a disability for this year! She is a person who I see as truly amazing, because she was born with a developmental disability she has had to overcome so many obstacles. But her determination and ability to conquer all of her challenges is impressive. She was the first person with a developmental disability to be hired for a clerical position by Anoka County. That's a pretty big deal! She also has an uncanny ability to remember everyone and everything! But the most important quality she has is her heart, Janne is one of the kindest people I know.

A random connection I made through this event: I met a little girl at Stacie McBride-Cox's Royal Experience a few weeks ago. She and her sisters asked for all of the titleholders' autographs and phone numbers at the end of the night. Friday night before the style show I got a text message from her saying that she was in a style show the next day and what advice I could give her. I told her that I was going to be in a style show too and that maybe it was the same one. Turns out it was! I got to spend a little more time with Caitlin and help her to further understand what it means to be beautiful on the inside, which is the main message that Stacie presents at the Royal Experience.

Now that I'm done with spring break I have to go back to the reality of school life. The main project I'm working on right now is my Junior Recital. Undergraduate students in the U of M School of Music have to present two recitals, one during junior year and another during senior year. Even though I have been preparing my repertoire since last August I have yet to schedule a date. The main issue has been finding an accompanist to play with me, but I finally have that settled! Now the problem is finding an open time in the recital hall. Spring semester tends to be filled with recitals and since we only have one recital hall and juniors, seniors, masters students and doctoral students all trying to find times for recitals, warm ups, and rehearsals the schedule gets pretty tight! But I think I have a time, pending the availability of my teacher and approval from the administrators at the School of Music. Once this is all over I can put a lot more focus into preparing for Miss Minnesota!! 30 days until workshop and 84 days until the first night of prelims!

Happy spring!

Aja

Miss Minnesota Preparations

April 2, 2010

I can't believe that in just twenty-two days I will be at the Miss Minnesota Contestant workshop!! When I was crowned Miss South Central in August, June felt so far in the future, but now it is right around the corner! If you are unfamiliar with the schedule of a Miss Minnesota contestant I'll fill you in a little bit: all of our paperwork is due on or before the workshop. So that means that our platforms and resumes (THE most important paperwork items) are due two months before Miss MN. Additionally we have press release forms, photographer forms, head shots, biographies, contact information, opening number dress order forms, local pageant information and I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I think I've made my point: all of the Miss Minnesota contestants have been spending a lot of time typing lately :)

In addition to all of the paperwork I've been perfecting, last Sunday I got a bunch of my friends at the U of M School of Music together to record the background music for my talent piece. In the past I have made recordings myself using my keyboard, but all of the instruments except piano just sound terrible when they're synthesized (not that fake pianos sound all that great either...). So I decided that I was going to have a "live" accompaniment. Over winter break I figured out how to cut my piece down to two minutes, and then I wrote out the orchestra score and all of the instrumental parts on Finale (if you've ever used Finale you'll understand what a time consuming task that was). I finally had it ready so I got some people together and we recorded. Not only will I have a great recording for Miss MN, but I got some good performance practice too! Let me explain...

I asked a friend of mine, who is getting his DMA (Doctorate of Musical Arts) in conducting, to conduct the orchestra. So a few days before the recording we met so that I could play for him and we could talk about some potential timing issues we might have with the orchestra. The room we wanted to meet in was booked so, since he is also the orchestra TA, we went to the orchestra conductor, Mark Russell Smith's office. Mark Russell Smith (affectionately known as "the Mrs.") is a man I admire greatly because of his vast knowledge and amazing musical insight. He also terrifies me for these same reasons (which is how he got his other nickname, Lord Voldemort, which is, of course, also used affectionately). Since orchestra rehearsal wasn't for another couple of hours we didn't expect Maestro Smith to be in his office anytime soon. Well, I was in the middle of playing and guess who walked in? Yup, it was Mark Russell Smith. He came in early due to computer problems at home. I had to muster up all of my nerves to still be able to play well. You'd think that after auditioning for orchestra placement in front of him for three years he wouldn't make me nervous anymore. That is absolutely not true.

The other good performance practice I got was when I played with my orchestra. I wanted the best in the school to play on my recording, and I got them! I just didn't think about how scary it would be to play in front of so many fantastic musicians! The first run through was pretty awful, neither my left hand nor my bow arm was working properly. Finally, after a couple more times through the piece, I settled down a little bit and was able to make a decent sound on my violin. After those two experiences I know that no judge at Miss Minnesota can rattle my nerves!

It will be important for me to remember these feelings as the competition nears. As a performance major I have a lot of experience playing in front of people. My nerves are hardly ever enough to hinder my playing to a great extent. Though right now I think I will not be affected by the Miss Minnesota stage there is no guarantee that nerves will not set in at the last minute. I am so glad to be just a little bit more prepared for that potential!

Workshop, Variety Show, Eastcliff, and Initiation

April 28, 2010

Last Saturday was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time!! I was so excited to go to Miss Minnesota Contestant Workshop that I could hardly sleep the night before! (And I woke up before my alarm went off at 6:00 am, and if you know me you know that's a pretty big deal!)

We started the day off right away picking our contestant order and roommates for the week!! I am contestant number 10, the last one in Group A and I will be doing on-stage question and talent on Thursday, June 17th and swim suit and evening gown on Friday, June 18th! I will spend the entire week rooming with Miss West Metro, Siri Freeh!! Miss Minnesota week is going to be a blast!

Workshop was only one exciting event I had on Saturday; the other was a church variety show where I got to perform my Miss Minnesota talent piece in front of an audience for the very first time!! Let me back up a little bit to March when I was asked to perform in this show: after the concert I put on at Northdale Middle School, one of the students' dad asked me to perform in his church's show. He told me he was absolutely blown away by the talent of the middle schoolers as well, so he invited three of them (and of course his son also) to perform at the church as well!! One of the guitarists, Jon, saw me during the church performance and told me that after playing in my concert he was asked to play in five more shows! He thanked me, which was nice to hear, but kind of funny because I have nothing to do with his success. This is a kid who practices three hours a day (while in middle school!) simply because he loves to play. His joy of music is so transparent when he performs as well; Jon really is an entertainer and has musical maturity beyond his years.

After the variety show an adorable little girl named Maddy came up to me and, like many little girls do, looked me over and then stared at the crown. I always find this extremely endearing, the kids are so shy at first, they want to talk to you, but have no idea what to say. Usually all I have to do is say "hi! I'm Aja! What's your name?" then they say "Maddy! Look! My grandma just bought me this bread...." And it's easy riding from there lol. (Maddy's grandma bought her cherry chocolate bread that was part of a fundraiser at the variety show. She wanted everyone to smell it to see how delicious it is!). Maddy sang the 50 states song...memorized!! With knowledge and talent like that she has to be a future Miss America!

On Sunday I attended a scholarship celebration put on by the Sigma Alpha Iota's Minneapolis-St. Paul Alumnae chapter. It was held at the University of Minnesota President's mansion, Eastcliff. It was such a beautiful place! I was asked to perform because last year I won the triennial string performance scholarship. So I played First Rhapsody by Bela Bartok, which I will play in my recital on Saturday. My accompanist and I were very glad to have this extra performance because this piece is hard! Playing it under the pressure of an audience full of SAI members was definitely good practice for this Saturday!

After the performance my SAI chapter adviser, and the orchestra teacher at Northdale Middle School, Sylvia Wilson, told me that she had talked to David Myers, the director of the School of Music at the U, about the project I implemented at her middle school. He wanted to know all about it! So I sent him an email with links to a few newspaper articles and four different documents about the project and who was involved. I was so excited to see that, less than a day later, he had emailed me back with some feedback and more information for me about my platform. I felt so special to get a personal email from the director of the School of Music! (I've had to email him for various reasons in the past and have only gotten responses from his assistant...so this was a pretty big deal!)

Immediately after the SAI Alumnae event I drove from St. Paul back to the U of M Minneapolis campus to get ready for my SAI chapter's initiation that night. I served the chapter for this past year as vice president, membership. My job was to recruit new members and teach them about our fraternity. I am so proud of each of the new members this year! I know they will be wonderful sisters with a lot to contribute personally, musically, and to the community.

School's Out for the Summer!

May 23, 2010

First, I have to apologize for not writing a new blog in such a long time! Confession: I absolutely abhor writing papers and toward the end of the school year professors seem to like giving out these types of assignments. yes there is a lot of merit to writing a paper, it shows off what you know and how you are able to apply it better than a test does, but I still do not like them!! (I'd take a test any day of the week over a paper!) Anyway, the point of this confession is that I needed a serious writing break....but I'm back!!

The life of Miss South Central 2009 certainly hasn't been absent of activity in the month of May! I gave my junior recital on May Day, and with 22 days to reflect I am feeling very good about it. The next weekend, Mother's Day weekend, my mom and I performed the National Anthem before three Gopher baseball games at the Metrodome. I found a really cool arrangement for unaccompanied violin, courtesy of Rachel Barton Pine, that I have been dying to perform in a stadium! The Gopher baseball interns, however, wanted something that would be easy for the fans to sing along with and I instantly thought of my mom (who is a classically trained vocalist). So I took out some of the more difficult bits that I couldn't play quite in tempo and we worked up a version where I was the accompaniment to the vocal line. I must say, it turned out quite nicely. Thanks to my mom for being so cooperative during our rehearsals and performances :)

The next weekend I met up with Sarah Chandler, a pageant friend I met two summers ago when we competed for Miss Midwest, to participate in the Minnesota AIDS Walk. Sarah's platform is AIDS Awareness and she has been doing this walk for a few years. But it was all new to me! I was so intrigued by the timeline of AIDS awareness and treatment displayed at the start of the walk (it's a very short one, with most of the activity happening in recent years). The walk was beautiful, we even passed by Eastcliff, the University of Minnesota President's mansion which I had visited a few weeks prior. I was so tired by the end! When signing up I didn't look too closely at the details...but after it was over I realized that Sarah and I had just walked a 10K! And that was just the beginning of my day! I had a meeting with an SAI member, rehearsal with an accompanist, and quartet rehearsal all packed in before I went on my daily 3 mile run with my friend Rachel. I fell asleep as soon as I got into my bed that night!!

This past Monday, May 17th, I visited my old elementary school, Golden Lake, to play violin and answer questions. I always love to perform and never fail to be amused by the questions 1st-5th graders will ask. I got everything from "what's your favorite song?" to "have you ever had to eat your strings?" (this is a more valid question than it may seem, I told the kids that my strings were made out of gut, but not cat gut like everyone thinks, violin strings have only ever been made of lamb gut).

That night I had a very successful mock interview, and I owe it all to the elementary students! You really must know how to think on your feet in order to answer their questions (or at least know how to pretend like they didn't catch you completely off guard!).

Tuesday, May 18th through Friday, May 21st I was in Oskaloosa, Iowa with a few other string players from the U of M School of Music. My friend Benjamin Davis, a violist, grew up in this small town and learned as much as he could about music while he was there, but realized there was so much more to be learned once he began studying music at the U. So he set up the first annual Oskaloosa Chamber Music Festival! Between eight string players there were five different groups that rehearsed, visited the elementary, middle, and high schools, and performed in a concert. It was a huge success! Each audience member at the concert had something special to say to each of us about how the music touched them. I even heard that one Oskaloos-ian wanted to make sure he donated enough money for gas and expenses so that we could come back next year!!

I wouldn't hesitate at all to do it again! This festival ties directly into my platform, Enriching Lives through Music. Sometimes people doubt the excitement of classical music and therefore are unable to appreciate or understand the benefits it can have on one's mental health. Through increased exposure and education more people will hear and fall in love with Schubert's and Dvorak's chamber music (and once you hear it I know you will be looking for more!!). For example check out one of my favorite Dvorak string quartets, the "American Quartet":
(this is just the 4th movement, but it's my favorite one!!)

Next week brings more exciting opportunities, including a fashion show tomorrow night for one of the Miss Minnesota State sponsors: please come if you can!

Also, if you are near Waseca this Wednesday, May 26th at 12:30 I will be at the Daily Grind coffee shop playing the violin (accompanied by the lovely Kathryn Knuttila on the piano) to raise money for the upcoming Miss Waseca County Sleigh and Cutter and Miss South Central 2010 pageant!!

This Is It!

June 13, 2010

I am at the next stage in my journey to Miss America. Each of the other 19 contestants and I have a 1 in 20 chance to become Miss Minnesota and to move on to Miss America. In an effort to increase my chances and to prepare to the best of my ability I had to give up some bad habits and pick up some good ones:

Bad habits--
Nighttime snacking: I am a night owl, and often hungry at night. This is not the best time to be eating because your metabolism is slowing down in preparation for a good night's sleep.

Watching TV online into the late-night hours: I've replaced this with reading which I can do for as little or as long as I want, without waiting for anything to buffer ;) Honestly I think I spend more time waiting for my shows to load than I do watching the show. I've been waking up more rested now that I've kicked this habit!

Drinking soda: This is a daily struggle. I love my Coke!! But there are so many bad things...really the only "pro" is that it's tasty. I haven't had soda in a few months and I have never felt better!

Good habits--
Eating a lot of fruit: These are great snacks!! They are packed full of vitamins, they're tasty, and they'll hold you over between meals!

Running: In my conditioning class last semester we ran A LOT. I'm so glad the rest of my class was as fit as they were (I was often at the end of the pack) because they pushed me to keep running (for an entire 40 minutes once!) and to take a faster pace. Now I just enjoy running and like to do it on my own.

Enjoying political discussions: Most of the time I'd rather not think about all of the bad things that are happening in our nation and around the world. But I've learned that the more you talk about these situations, the more you learn about what is being done to help AND the best part is that you get ideas about what you could do to help! This is the first pageant I'll be competing in where current events aren't a really scary monster in the corner of the interview room.

Between knocking out the bad habits and picking up the good ones I feel like I have prepared to the best of my ability. I am ready to compete for the title of Miss Minnesota 2010! While I would really like to have this job, my primary goal is to do a good job of representing the girls I competed with at Miss South Central. My directors told me that I am not just representing myself, I am representing everyone who wanted my title last August. Ladies, I hope to do you proud! I have watched six of my competitors win titles...none of them have disappointed me when I watch their performance at Miss Minnesota; two have won talent and the overall title, one was a first runner up, one was the third runner up, one was the Quality of Life winner, and one was the Spirit Award winner. As you can see these young women represented themselves quite well. I intend to do no less than my best :)

Aja

Waseca Pageants Presents!

Miss Waseca County Sleigh and Cutter & Miss South Central Scholarship Programs