Author: Benford

Letter from Camp

Dear “Mom” & “Dad”,

Camp has been so much fun! I’m seeing old friends, meeting a lot of great new people and everyone is working so hard to do their best. I can’t believe it’s already Thursday, we’ve had so much fun this week. We have our concert tomorrow afternoon and I think that it’s going to be alright. I can’t wait for you to hear us play! I almost don’t want the concert to be tomorrow because there’s so much more we could do and so much more fun to be had.

For being at camp and in the dorms, the food has been great. Of course, I haven’t had to eat in Commons cafeteria if I didn’t want to. After the first breakfast there, I decided that it would be better that I ate on my own terms! The band camp has lunch brought in from places all around San Marcos and I eat dinner in the places I miss. Oh, thank goodness Alvin Ords is a successful place. It can never close down!

The weather has been great, too. Today’s a bit humid but it’s summer in Texas, isn’t it? I’ve not taken any opportunity to work out this week. I don’t have access to the rec center and running is still really not an option (especially with these hills here) yet so I’ve got a lot to catch up on when I get home.

I miss you all and can’t wait to see you again.

Love you, mean it!
~C

Dormin’ it.

This week, I’ll be dormin’ it at San Marcos Hall on the Texas State University campus for the Middle School Band Camp. I’m the Jazz Ensemble Conductor!!! I’m really exciting to work with these kids – they seem really excited to be here and playing their horns for the week. It’s going to be pretty refreshing, I’m sure. Anywho, I finally got “the internet” working in the dorm room so I’ll be able to update here and again during the week. It’s not easy getting on the world wide web on this campus!

One thing I do have to say before I log off for the night – this room sure is drab and I’m glad I don’t have to live here all year. How many shades of green can you put into ONE ROOM??? And I thought the mono-chromaticness of my house was bad. I’ll be sure to post a pic of all this green.

So, stick around for more updates from Ol’ San Marcos. Love ya, mean it!
~C

Pasta Salad

I don’t actually measure anything when I make this pasta salad. I pretty much cook the pasta and cut the veggies so they’re proportionate to the amount of pasta. Here are the ingredients:

Curly, colored pasta Garden Rotini
Carrots
Cucumber
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Kosher Dill Pickles
Ham
Turkey
Zesty Italian Dressing

After I cook and drain the pasta, I dump the pasta in an ice bath to stop it from cooking any further. This also lets me combine all the ingredients as soon as I’m done with the pasta. As the pasta is cooking, I cut all the veggies and the ham & turkey in bite sized pieces. Once the pasta is chilled and everything is cut to size, I alternate layers of veggies to pasta in a bowl to help when I need to mix it. When it’s all layered, I pour the Italian dressing over and carefully mix it all together. Let sit at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes before chilling. Serve cool.

I’ll post a picture later since I made it today. 😀

—————————UPDATE—————————–
Here are the pictures: