I cannot wait to go to New York. This may bring readers to the question "Why is she going to new york ANYWAYS?"

I am here to answer your burning life question.

I am guessing that my audience consists of my friends and acquaintances, which brings me to guess that you already know about my piano life, but probably not in as much detail that you know why I'm heading to the Big Apple.

This year, I participated in a competition that is held nationwide, hosted by MTNA -- Music Teachers' National Association. In November, I competed at the state level as a solo pianist in the Senior division (Ages 14-18) and was chosen to represent Washington state at Northwest Regionals, at which the winners from the Northwest states competed.

I won at Regionals, which makes me the representative of the Northwest division at Nationals held in New York, where I'll be competing with 6 other people.

I've never been out of the west coast, so my family and I decided that it'll be a VACATION!!

When I'm done doing my piano stuff, which I guess will take about 3 days, my brother and I are planning to do everything ever tourists could manage to do in New York.

Apparently, we have a long lost cousin (just kidding, just a cousin) in Boston, so we'll be road-tripping to Boston also, and staying at her house to save hotel costs. My golly, hotels are expensive. As well as other things. Pretty much, everything is expensive.

Speaking of expensive, I cannot stop hoping for the day that I will win at this competition and consequently treat myself to some EXPENSIVE New York Steak (which WILL be documented in painstaking detail).

I'm going to go practice so I can do so in the near future.