* tiny but powerful *

This is the third New Year's Eve in a row that I am blogging, but I doubt I will publish this post before 2004 actually arrives. I must confess that I have been cheating -- over the past week, I've already written bits and pieces about Tmony things, which I will be finishing and appending here. I wanted to post it all together in one entry.

But let us begin first with a brief discourse on more recent times. Wow...I can't believe that sentence just came out naturally from my head. *shudder* I've been spending a lot of time on the leftover writing assignments for my music history class, and I think it is taking a toll on me. I'm still not done with the final paper yet but I really hope to be soon. I haaate writing. For me, it is like pulling teeth. Maybe worse.

I've been spending most of this winter break just hanging out at home: reading/working, relaxing, and watching movies with my mom and brother. We had a quiet Christmas with just the three of us, and it was very nice. On Christmas afternoon, I went down to visit my little cousins Amanda and Ashley, and it was fun to spend some time with them -- they're growing up so fast! Other than that, the only times I've really left the house were to go to Stanford on Sunday evening for some errands and then dinner with Kari, Jeremy, and Mike; and yesterday, spending the day hanging out with Jenny -- we went out to brunch, went dress-shopping for Viennese (which was fruitless, as dress-shopping usually is), and went to see Mona Lisa Smile in the theaters. Girly days are fun once in awhile.

The past few days have felt a little odd because many of my friends are gone at Urbana 2003 (a tri-annual Christian conference, held in Illinois). Usually on New Year's Eve, Bryan is also online and we get to chat both before and after our respect midnight countdowns. But alas, not this year. I think the conference ends tomorrow, so I look forward to hearing all about it. Tonight I decided not to go to the New Year's Eve Waltz Ball (put on by the Friday Night Waltz people) because of the aforementioned music paper and also because I barely know anyone who will be there, which makes a dance event much less fun.

Now, what we've all been waiting for... my reflections on How Cool Testimony Is!

:: [ Testimony Christmas Show -- Dec. 6, 2003 ] ::
Okay, so to be fair, I really have to begin by saying that Christmas Show would not have been possible without all the Cool People Who Support Testimony. I tried to make a running list of things I was thankful for from that day (and the previous night's dress rehearsal), but I never completed it because there was just so much! Here's what I managed to come up with, anyway:

- SO MANY Tmony alumni came to our dress rehearsal (bearing food, feedback, and moral support)
- ending dress rehearsal at 1:30am (that sounds late, but it's earliest any single dress rehearsal has ever ended)
- somehow managing to finish my Music 23 final composition, even through my sleepless delirium and having to miss Opening rehearsal the next morning
- Steve printing my composition for me
- Lisa and Scott being willing to sightread my composition at the last minute
- completely breaking down outside Braun Rehearsal Hall...because crying it all out helped me face the rest of the day
- knowing that God cares about my tears and my exhaustion
- Lisa and Rob helping me iron the Tmony scarves
- Justin coming to help set up lights when we realized at the last minute no one knew how
- Minna coming to help set up and pass out programs
- Cyrus working so hard to help us move, set up, and clean up all the sound equipment
- Dana's dad running the soundboard for us
- Dana's mom videotaping and sound-recording for us
- ...SO many other people came to help us with so many things...too many to list here!
- starting about 5 minutes before the show, an AMAZING sense of peace came over me
- I was NOT NERVOUS giving my testimony -- that has NEVER happened before, ever!! (that was sooo God)
- the music went well! the skits were funny! the audience was packed!
- SO MANY TMONY ALUMNI...seriously!!
- so many of my friends from different places (classes, dance, Crusade, FCS) came to support me! again, too many to list!
- people brought me flowers! (roses and irises...so pretty!)
- two complete strangers came up to thank me for sharing my testimony
- URPAID4 (12:37:12 AM): Great job tonight! The group sounds stronger than ever! :D The backs are solid!
- mysockisBURNING (1:14:07 AM): :-) way to be, Tina
- StanfordGirl82 (1:16:14 AM): *awesome* awesome AWESOME show!!
- getting emails from people thanking me for sharing my testimony (which I've put online here)

So yes...Christmas Show totally rocked. I am so proud of this year's group, and so thankful that God gave me the privilege to lead Testimony again this year. I'm learning and growing so much through my second year of directorship. Plus, I'm in much better shape (personally) to be a leader, and I think it shows. One thing I love about this year's group is that they have SO MUCH ENERGY! I guess that makes sense given that 10 out of our 12 new members are freshmen. It's so much fun, and they're really hard-working and eager to learn. God is truly pouring down his blessings on Testimony!

(Here are a few links to some Christmas Show pictures, courtesy of Dana, David, and Brian (Lee).)

:: [ Testimony Winter Tour -- Dec. 12-20, 2003 ] ::
I don't even know where to start! Tour was just *awesome* all around. Jeff, Rob, and Ssonia did a great job as Tour Committee this year, being our native Washingtonians and Canadian. It was so exciting to travel up to the Northwest and be the first Testimony group to go international (after the past two years of staying in California). But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning...

{Blog in progress. Yes, unfinished *again*, just like last year. Check back later? This might be wishful thinking on my part...}

Happy Birthday, Wendy!

On the phone...
Tina: "You know what, Eric?"
Eric: "No. What, Tina?"
Tina: "Is this the fourth Christmas I'm talking to you?"
Eric: "(pause) Yes, it is."
Tina: "That's a long time."
Eric: "(chuckle) For our short, young adult lives. But yes, it is."
Tina: "Heehee."
Eric: "I'm glad it's a long time."
Tina: "Me too."

:)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given...
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
- Isaiah 9:6

We celebrate Jesus today -- His love, His hope, and most of all, His Good News. Christmas should also be Thanksgiving, don't you think? :) May the Lord bless you all, today and always!

From tonight's Core meeting::

Codigo2000 (11:57:51 PM): "the age of the elves is drawing to a close. the time of men has come"
jenono8 (11:57:56 PM): AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Codigo2000 (11:57:59 PM): not meaning that tina is an elf
jenono8 (11:58:03 PM): AHAHAHAHAHAH
TPiglette (11:58:04 PM): HEYYYY
jenono8 (11:58:10 PM): AHAHAHAH
Codigo2000 (11:58:10 PM): NOT meaning that!
Codigo2000 (11:58:16 PM): NOT! it's a quote!
Codigo2000 (11:58:32 PM): some people are just too sensitive! =P

Hello, all! Yes, I am back safely from Testimony tour, which was awesome and of which I have many stories. We left Bellingham at 5:45am Saturday morning, and I pulled into my driveway at 11:40pm. I then proceeded to sleep for 12 hours, which is more than I've slept in a great long while. But I think I'm still recovering from the frantic pace of the past few *months*, so I haven't had any motivation to blog at all. Maybe sometime later this week. Past experience suggests that I *might* get around to writing about Christmas Show and winter tour and everything...sometime roughly around New Year's Eve. ;) For now, I've just been sleeping a lot, playing the guitar, and gearing myself up for some leftover work I was given an extension on for my Music History class. Lisa stayed an extra day with me until her flight out of the Oakland airport last night. Today I just sort of bummed around, until going out to dinner with my extended family. It was fun to see my relatives and get thrown into Chinese mode for awhile. Anyway, that's all for now. I didn't even really feel like posting this, but I felt like I should. The two weeks left of vacation feels too short. But alas. Hope you're all enjoying winter break too. :)

I'm typing from the Kimball computer cluster, because my computer went home yesterday, when I drove back to switch cars. I now have the family minivan, and I am meeting the rest of Testimony at Escondido turnaround in 15 minutes. We're leaving for winter tour! We're driving 3 cars up to Bellingham, WA for the first half of the week, and then going up to Vancouver (Canada!) for the second half. I'm excited. :) We're making the 16+ hour drive in one day, so I'd really appreciate your prayers for alertness, safe driving conditions, and good traffic. (We'll be making the same drive back down (though with less people) on Sat. Dec. 20th, so pray for safety then, too!) I'll be back in a week. Good luck on finals (if you still have them) and enjoy the beginning of break! God bless. :)

I have wonderful friends. You've helped me get through a really hard week. I have a million things I could put on my Thankful List, but for now, here are some (easily quotable) highlights I want to be sure to remember::

-----
JuKa828 (2:00:34 AM): can i cheer you up?
JuKa828 (2:01:36 AM): squish...you're really cool
JuKa828 (2:25:31 AM): i'm glad you're my friend.
TPiglette (2:25:41 AM): I'm glad you're my friend, too :-)
JuKa828 (2:25:53 AM): gluck with work
JuKa828 (2:25:57 AM): squish it

ChiquitaAT (11:40:12 PM): your testimony was vulnerable and meaningful and honest, and those are things I really appreciate. Also, I think the group has improved a lot musically under your direction. God has blessed you and us through you

TPiglette (3:16:19 PM): I lubba you
TPiglette (3:16:31 PM): :-)
CE Chien (3:16:36 PM): me too :-)

JuKa828 (11:33:29 PM): i just read your two tmonys
JuKa828 (11:33:31 PM): i love you tinar
TPiglette (11:33:36 PM): you read them again? :-P
JuKa828 (11:33:45 PM): yes, again
JuKa828 (11:33:50 PM): they were good to read.

David's email: "Hear this from someone else too: I can see God using you here at Stanford. It is exactly where you need to be right now."

Nabterayl (12:02:48 AM): Yeah, I bet it does. But you do belong here, beloved Tina. And I don't care to think where I would be if you weren't here.

blue pure blue (1:24:10 AM): just wanted to tell you that i'm praying for you

Codigo2000 (1:53:40 AM): and (there's no way to keep this from sounding cheezy) i for one am very glad that you're here. god knows what he's up to.

StanfordGirl82 (7:53:56 AM): as I love Tina, I have come up with a special prayer just for her: God, please lend us Your strength when we are weak. Thank you that you are sovereign over our lives and that we belong to You.

DiscoGoat (12:05:24 PM): <hug>
-----

All of that reminds me... "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." - James 1:17

Mmm.

I really like Eric's writing. What an amazing friend I have.

"I wish for us to be close always. That is not love perhaps. But it is real." - Marthe Pryde to Aidan Pryde

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes..., so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." - Ephesians 6:10-18.

Sigh.

One more to go.

I still don't have time to write much (my marathon of 3-exams-within-27-hours will begin tomorrow morning at 8:30am), but I wanted to make a quick post since I seem to be getting a lot of hits from the link on Brian's webpage. My insider's review of Christmas Show will have to wait, but in the meantime, you can see here for the testimony I shared with the audience that night. Also, for reference (if you're curious), this is the testimony I gave at an off-campus show back in March (two weeks before I left for Spain). The more recent one wasn't intended as a sequel to the first, but they turn out to be interesting snapshots of 'Before' and 'After'. Each also provides background that clarifies the other's story, since they elaborate on different eras of my personal history.

Good luck on finals, everyone!

Finals Week. Back to the grindstone. But here's a tidbit of amusement...

jenono8 (4:56:40 PM): whoa.. your brother uses the letter D for his smileys: ;D
TPiglette (4:56:57 PM): yeah...
TPiglette (4:57:07 PM): see, he's weird :-P
jenono8 (4:57:13 PM): all brothers are weird
TPiglette (4:57:35 PM): true

sumptim wong (4:58:07 PM): HAHAHA hey!!
sumptim wong (4:58:19 PM): im just trying to help you guys out, and all you do is make fun of my smileys?!!
TPiglette (4:58:23 PM): hahahahaha
TPiglette (4:58:25 PM): um
TPiglette (4:58:25 PM): no
TPiglette (4:58:33 PM): just kidding
TPiglette (4:58:37 PM): I apologize profusely

God is SOOO GOOD. :-D

Details to come. But for now I am going to SLEEP! The insane marathon week is finally over!!

Testimony Christmas Show!
TONIGHT, 9pm @ Manzanita Dining Hall
FREE admission, FREE food!

The ear-training final was sooo ridiculous. The modal dictation was HARD, and the pc-set matching-rearrangements-by-ear was REALLY hard. SIGH.

It's not over yet, either. The prepared portion of the exam (including a crazy rhythm that has a 5-against-3 followed by 3-against-2) is tomorrow, right before our composition performances. Which means I have roughly half an hour to eat lunch after Opening rehearsal. This is not going to be fun at all...

At least the Music 40 in-class performance (with Minna) went relatively well. Ironically, our singing piece went better than our violin piece. Go figure. It was cool to hear everyone else's Medieval/Renaissance pieces, too (including one with bagpipes!).

Today's blessings::
- finally figuring out set theory
- Jrisingsun (12:33:19 PM): hey tina =) i'm writing my social dance reflection on you
- managing to finish both my music theory homework and the ChemE pset
- Kari bringing me lunch since I was too busy to go down to the dining hall
- how easy the Piano Proficiency Exam was (yay!)
- hot showers
- squeezing in a dinner meeting with Core
- chatting with fellow ChemE's before the review session started
- a great Tmony rehearsal :-D
- Kari, Steve, Michelle, and Chi-En all stopped by to give feedback and moral support
- I love praying with Tmony
- we finished rehearsal late...but after we prayed, no one got up in a rush to leave
- David made me mix-CD's of music he thinks I'll like (we'll find out...)
- nalanigirl222 (10:47:25 PM): hey tina, hope you're doing well! i'm so excited to hear tmony sing! when and where is the dress rehearsal tomorrow night? see this is me excited to see the show --> :-D oh! and my mom is coming into town to visit me...she'll come too! :-)
- only 48 hours left of this marathon...

Even though I am uber-stressed about the amount of work I need to complete for tomorrow, I'm amazed at how easily I was able to come up with this list::
- having lunch with Adam
- afternoon nap (even though that meant less work got done)
- my violin teacher: "I love it when you smile!"
- he was pleased with my learning curve, even within the span of one lesson
- finding out that I'm going to get an A in violin lessons (easy 3 units! woohoo!)
- potstickers at dinner
- getting permission to rehearse in Manzanita for *two* nights before the show
- not having SD2 tomorrow, which means my Piano Proficiency Exam can be later in the day
- the Piano Proficiency examiner is allowing me to play a piece I had previously learned during my piano-lesson-days (in high school), instead of making me learn something new out of the prescribed Schumann / Bartok collections
- stopping by the dinner/hangout at my music history prof's house
- his kids are sooo adorable!
- having real conversations with my fellow music students
- yummy tiramisu
- singing to the car radio with Minna
- Minna makes me a laugh...a LOT
- a fairly smooth Opening rehearsal, considering we haven't met for a week and a half
- Mike was very patient with my off-balance spins tonight (sigh)
- the existence of caffeine

I had a dilemma during class this morning. We were filling out those class evaluation forms for Music 40, and I got to the part where they ask you to specify your "Area of Study." The options were: Science, Social Science, Humanities, Engineering, Education, and Other. Um...ACK! What do I mark? Do I have to put down "Humanities" now?? I am so not a Humanities person.

I decided to bubble in both Humanities and Engineering. :-P (I suppose I could have been "Other." But I hate marking down "Other." Besides, I think the combination of Humanities and Engineering is sufficiently amusing and confusing. I'm probably messing up the University statistics.)

- waking up in time for class
- still being good at rhythmic dictation even though I've missed a lot of ear-training classes recently
- having Minna as my performance partner
- laughing at the language/word-spelling in our Renaissance piece ("O thou that art so cruell, My daintie lovely jewel..."; "I should for greife and anguish dye recureles..." -- what the heck is "recureles"??)
- still being able to have lunch with Chi-En, even though I was running late
- getting to dance with a lot of the students in today's last class of Social Dance II
- me: "[after spewing lots of logistical announcements] Any questions?" - Tony: "Yeah. How are you?"
- 2/3 of Tmony eating at Stern after tonight's rehearsal
- a whole evening to get work done
- Emily still calls me "bean"

My Dead Week::
(Let's start at the very beginning...a very good place to start...)

Monday:
- classes, 9:00-11:30am
- Tmony choreography rehearsal, 8:00-9:00pm
- Tmony skit rehearsal, 9:00-11:00pm
- (had to miss Crusade women's night) :(
Tuesday:
- classes, 9:00-9:50am + 1:00-3:30pm
- ChemE150A final project presentation, 3:45-4:00pm
- Tmony rehearsal, 4:30-6:30pm
- (had to miss the Crusade Senior Banquet) :(
Wednesday:
- classes, 9:00-11:00am
- meetings with my Music23 and Music40 professors (for catchup/review)
- violin lesson, 5:00-6:00pm
- (have to miss the Crusade All-Movement Meeting) :(
- Opening rehearsal, 9:55-10:55pm
Thursday:
- music theory hw due
- ChemE problem set due
- classes, 9:00-9:50am + 2:15-3:30pm
- Piano Proficiency Exam, 1:30-1:45pm
- ChemE review session, 7:30-9:00pm
- Tmony rehearsal, 9:00-11:00pm
Friday:
- Music23 ear-training final, 9:00-9:50am
- Music40 in-class performances, 10:00-11:30am
- Tmony dress rehearsal, 7:30pm-(till late)
- (have to miss the Crusade Christmas party) :(
Saturday:
- Opening rehearsal, 10:00am-12noon
- Music23 final composition performances, 1:00-4:00pm
- Testimony Christmas Show + related activities, 5:00pm-midnight
Sunday:
*collapse*
*work*
*study*

And somewhere in there I need to prepare my testimony for Saturday's show...

Fortunately, my finals don't start until next Wednesday. Unfortunately, that means I will have 3 finals in very short succession: Wed. morning, Wed. night, and Thurs. morning. My Wed. night final (ChemE150) has an alternate time offered Monday afternoon, but I definitely won't be ready to take that exam on Monday. So I'll just have to brace myself for an onslaught of marathon-final-taking.

Please pray for me: for efficiency, endurance, focus, and dependence on God. Thanks, everyone. :)

Awwww. :)

Dchsu (1:26:28 AM): be good tina
Dchsu (1:26:30 AM): 20 or not
Dchsu (1:26:32 AM): music major or not
Dchsu (1:26:36 AM): ur still my little sister

Interesting, eh?

Dchsu (1:11:49 AM): are u gonna be graduating this year?
TPiglette (1:11:53 AM): nope
TPiglette (1:11:56 AM): I'm taking a fifth year
TPiglette (1:12:01 AM): because...I just switched majors =P
Dchsu (1:12:13 AM): haha oh really?
Dchsu (1:12:16 AM): to what?
TPiglette (1:12:22 AM): Music :-P
Dchsu (1:12:32 AM): ??????
Dchsu (1:12:37 AM): haha whoa
Dchsu (1:12:47 AM): tina wong?
Dchsu (1:12:51 AM): music?
Dchsu (1:12:55 AM): i mean i can see it, just never thought u'd do it
TPiglette (1:13:05 AM): yeah...big decision. it's partly why I took time off last Spring to figure things out
TPiglette (1:13:06 AM): hahahaha
TPiglette (1:13:17 AM): I'm still finishing the ChemE minor
TPiglette (1:13:19 AM): but...yeah
Dchsu (1:13:34 AM): lol
Dchsu (1:13:34 AM): music, with a chemE minor
Dchsu (1:13:38 AM): how...fitting?

Just from today, I am thankful for::
- shocking a lot of people with my haircut (heehee...it's fun to see double-takes)
- getting my Music 23 midterm back (finally) and finding out I did really well (despite some dumb mistakes)
- my Music 40 professor is so understanding
- an expedient Kinko's trip
- having people to say hi to while putting up show flyers around Manzanita
- Jeff's email of encouragement
- finding time to have dinner with Eric
- preparing for tomorrow's 150A project presentation didn't take too long
- someone letting us into Keck so we could pick up our graded report
- having a car on campus
- Jenny and Karina's awesome choreography
- watching the boys learn hip-hop! (heehee!)
- learning the choreography just for the heck of it
- Tmony skits are so much fuuun!
- we got through all 3 skits in our allotted 2 hours tonight
- Bonnie responded to my prayer request email
- David & Mindi responded to my prayer request email
- the girls who were at Crusade women's night at Bonnie's house prayed for me
- I am blessed with so many prayer warriors...wow.