Welcome to Me.

I suppose it's about time to get this thing up and running, isn't it?

Before I start anything, though, I have to let you know this; I can't make any promises as far as how often I will be posting, or the content of each individual post. This blog will just be run like a really low-key lottery, in which you may never win, or know what you're winning! I'll do what I can to promise no less than one post per... year.

Sound good? Good.

Okay. Now. Me. Who am I? What do I do? And so on and so forth.

Let me start by saying that this first blog comes to you from my living room in Northeast Minneapolis. My name is Jake, and I'm a freshman at the University of Minnesota.

That's a good start, right?

I was born and raised in Northfield, Minnesota, a town of about 20,000 people. Many of those people are students, as Northfield is home to St. Olaf and Carleton College.

Because of St. Olaf's music program, it seems the whole town is somewhat musically talented, most likely due to the diffusion of music through the town, or something of the sort. I've got about four years of self-taught, minimalistic guitar under my belt, and I have been a choir-boy for ages.

CHOIR.
It just so happens that singing is a big part of my life, be it on my walk to the bus stop, around campus, while working, or in a formal group. I joined choir in 6th grade, and remained in it through my senior year of high school (I had to quit this year because of a scheduling issue, but I plan to audition again for Basses Wild next year at the U). I was a bass by 7th grade. Henceforth, I love to sing low. Well, that, and I just sound god-awful while singing high.
I always sound like a total prick when saying this, but I'm so glad I got to be in Northfield High School's concert choir, because we were fantastic, mistaken by listeners for St. Olaf's choir a few times even! If you want to get a little taste of them (us), check out our recording of Earth Song, by Frank Ticheli on youtube from our performance at Boe Chapel at St. Olaf. That was my junior year, and it was fantastic.

~Side note: When I say I joined choir in 6th grade, I have to let you know that I joined because my best friend was in choir, and informed me that the girl I had a 6th-grade crush on was also in choir. Man, I was motivated.


WORK.
I said that I quit choir this year because of a scheduling issue. That issue was my job. I work at the MSP international airport every single weekend. On Fridays and Saturdays, I work from 5:15pm to 10:15pm, and on Sundays I work from 5:15pm to 11:15pm.
What do I do there? Basically, I haul a whole bunch of soda and juice and pretzels/peanuts/cookies up to the airplanes after they land and before they take off. I bring you your food. It's a fantastic job. Even though the hours take up most of my weekend-college-fun time, they're by no means unreasonable. The work itself is really quite easy. It requires some heavy lifting, and a bit of rushing and stress, but overall, it's just fine. On top of that, the people that I work with are great. Every night, the break room has stories and conversation and awesome people everywhere.
Oh, and did I mention that I fly for FREE? Yeah, nice perk, right? Unfortunately I haven't been able to take too much advantage of it yet because of school. I've only gone to Chicago and Portland so far, but come winter break, I swear I will be in the air more than on the ground.

But that's enough about me, tell me about yourself.