Mom ended up buying those boxes of cereal for me. She's so sweet! The tape recorder idea... I still like it. But I have a tape recorder here at home. I'm going to practice speaking into that until I am used to playing with it. It's not digital, so... sadly... I can't actually use what I make or anything...

I need to start working on creating a music and voice studio for myself. This would include:
***a real piano
***a keyboard piano that I can connect to a computer
***a program that I can write music with-- probably something simple (I should research it) since I won't be needing Finale or Sibelius or anything like that (if you don't know what those are, they are the most state of the art software I know about that compose music, but there are so many features that you barely have to be creative at all. :) I think it's too useful and I'm not professional enough to need to pay 300-500 dollars for something like that haha!)
***a digital tape recorder that is good with music and voice, or if not both, then two recorders for those specific purposes
***a notebook for writing down chords and melodies and pieces
***develop my own version of composing shorthand!
***maybe also look into getting video-creating software stuff, or fiddling with whatever it is I have now

this is all speculation. I'm not actually going to do any of this now, except maybe some of the things. Right now, I need to just work on piano practice, especially sightreading, and my theory studies. If I do those things I will be more prepared than I would be by doing anything else.