I See You

Yesterday, I got to try some contacts for the first time in my lifetime and replace one of my glasses' glass with new ones (with more focus). The first time I wore them, it was like I got new eye balls with better vision and I don't have to worry about an object to fix every so often. I am so happy with the contacts, that I definitely really want to use future on, also have glasses to use in golf and in certain environments. Right now, I am still getting use to them in my eye, but I know I can do it.
How many of you have contact lenses right now?

A Mission to Drive

For the past couple of days, many things happened (just like for many of you). School was the first thing, or the main focus for me, music was the second, and relaxation was the third. Everything else are just minor  things, such as organizing my emails, cleaning my room, or just blogging (like right now), that would do whenever I am free (free time is during relaxation time). That is not important, the point it, something special happened two days ago; I finally got my licence plate!
What joy I had to have my own personalize plate for my own car, which will come by the end of this month (May), from all the way from Colorado. Right now, I am just waiting and driving my dad's car to school and to high school golf practice every so often. Driving by myself is something that I am getting used to everyday from driving my dad's car. Soon, I will need it when I get older in my life. Driving skills are coming to play for me, meaning that I am using what I learned from EZWAY driving class from last year (1 1/2 years possibly) and using it to develop a good driving habit, just like they want young drivers to develop.
I still have yet to improve on, but time is still with me. In mean time, here is a picture of my licence plate.

MISSION: Clean the world one run at a time

MISSION: Run mini/marathon races throughout my lifetime

MISSION: Help the people that need help

MISSION: Create my Pick'n Run business 

MISSION: Create my own automobile company that uses recycled materials 

MISSION: Play all the types of saxophones 

MISSION: Play all the instruments around the world

MISSION: Travel around the world

MISSION: Create more missions

Even Though I Didn't Run, I Did Get to Play Jazz and Dance

What I got to experience would be the last jazz gig that my Loy Norrix Jazz Band would have a gig this school year, unless we have more. The total amount of gigs that we performed was five:

• WMU Jazz Invitational- Western University (Dalton Hall)
•  Chenery Auditorium- "All City Concert"
•  Thornapple Arts Jazz Festival- Hastings, MI
• Loy Norrix Concert (at our high school)
•  KPS Jazz Night w/ Guest Artist Jeremy Siskind- The Union Cabaret & Grille  

This is our set up at the Union Cabaret & Grille today from 4-6pm

Today was a special day however, we had a special guest named Jeremy Siskind who plays the piano around the world. Such a nice guy to be with and to play music, just like he did with our band, with Kalamazoo Central Band, and with our jazz teachers. If I had a recording of the gig, you would tell how we felt playing with him.

What our band  performed is what we performed for our other gigs. For this gig, we played the following with the soloists who played: 

1. Just Squeeze Me by Duke Ellington, arranged by Jim Martin- Allegra Kistler (Trombone), Sam Ratliffe (Alto Saxophone), Michael Deaton (Trumpet), Lamya Tipton (Bass)
2. I Can't Get Started by Vernon Duke, arranged by Jim Martin- Sam Ratliffe (Alto Saxophone)
3. Doxy by Sonny Rollins, arranged by Mark Taylor - Me (Tenor Saxophone), Sam Ratliffe (Alto Saxophone)
4. Joy Spring by Clifford Brown, arranged by Jack Montrose- Jeremy Siskind (Piano)
5. Now's the Time by Charlie Parker- Me (Tenor Saxophone), Sam Ratliffe (Alto and Bari Saxophone), Allegra Kistler (Trombone), Michael Deaton (Trumpet), Madison Preston (Piano), Lamya Tipton (Bass), Noah Machin (Drums), and Jeremy Siskind (Piano)

After our time with the audience, it was KC time, which they have a bigger band than ours. They performed about the same amount of songs as we did, also with Jeremy. What enjoyment we gained from that performance. What was the real surprise was that our jazz teachers got to play with Jeremy and with a junior drummer in WMU a song that I don't know what it is called. My group were screaming crazy for their performance.

Jeremy gave a everyone a special treat in the last performance by playing a love song that he made not too long ago. What feeling I had from the song that I wonder, but I did not worry about that.

What a day it was with a start by watching runners from the Kalamazoo Marathon run by our house. All the way to a peaceful night just adding a post to my blog. Tomorrow is going to be fresh for me in school and I can't wait.  

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody out there. It is the time to reborn and fresh yourself with a new mind. A bright sunny day that is great to sit and enjoy the fresh air. Or work outside, maybe to cut down some trees to make the back yard cleaner. There are many things that you could do right now while the sun is out.
No one is stopping any of us to do something fun with friends, family, businessmen, chiefs, any people. Enjoy yourself.

Happy Easter!

The Color Run

At 10 am, the Color Run started with people excited about getting colorful and energetic. My family and I were not focusing about running/walking fast, we just took our time and enjoy the race. The race was a 5k and there are four stations where people would spray color onto you. The colors for the race were: Red, Yellow, Blue, and Purple. It was great to get the colors onto us. There were about 4,000 people that participated in the race, from young children to adults (I was glad that a lot of people took the time to run/walk in the race to enjoy the beginning spring weather). After the race, there was a dance off and colors were spreading every where onto people. Every where you look, people were in style from having shades to a colorful Afro.
It has been a while since I have last ran a race, so this race brought me back in running races again. Here is a picture after the race.

A great race it was, I am going to do it again next year. :-)

Teeth Check Up and First Time Self Drive

At 7:30 am was my dentist appointment today. It has been a while since I had a dentist appointment, since 2009 or when my family and I were in Kentucky. I got good results, good teeth, and now I got a homework to do with brushing and mouth washing my teeth, it is flossing. For me, it is hard to do with just your hand, but my dentist gave me one that has a handle that will make it easier for me to reach certain spots. Now I am hungry from not eating anything this morning, yet.

 When I drove back home, I was driving by myself. Driving by myself is something that I can do and go to places without having to worry about getting a ride from my parents or from others. I passed my drivers test and now I am waiting until my licence comes in the mail. With this new opportunity, I could now drive in my own transportation and even customize it (which I am really wanting to do). 

So yeah, nothing big for all of us (maybe to most people), since we could relate the feeling of getting our own transportation. (laugh out loud) I am glad that people support me throughout my life to reach new goals and situations that makes me a better person and to become a young man. 

Spring Coming Soon

           Snow is slowly melting away from the face of the Earth. The sun is staying up longer in the sky than before. Spring is coming very soon. Finally warmth and sunlight would reach us and I could finally play some golf and run with my dad. I am pretty much done with the cold and snow, almost people want the warmth now as much I want it too. We all want the sunlight and the warmth, but we have to wait a little bit longer.
           When spring is here, track and golf programs would be activated for the season. I am thinking about doing both sports, since I want to run and golf at the same time. I have never done track before, though it is similar to cross country, and I played a little bit of golf with my dad and I am still learning how to play golf in a pro's way. Golf is a little different from most major sports, it takes focus and a lot of practicing to get as good as most golf players. My dad is into golf ever since he was a kid, I believed that he started playing golf when he was a teenager. Play nines holes everyday and eighteen holes on the weekends. I am trying to play golf with my dad and some uncles/aunts in a tournament.
            Right now, the snow here has hardened to the point where it could be ice or good snow for a snow ball fight. Trying to removing it is not that easy to do, you will need the sun (the heat) to be able to break a huge chunk of compacted snow. I really want to be able to break and shovel this huge chunk of snow off the side of the driveway. I wonder if people are trying to handle the cold as much I am. I can't wait until spring is here. Stay tight everyone, the sun is coming soon.