This will be fast, I have class with Sheveloff in 7 minutes.

School has officially settled in and become crazy once again. My chamber music group is doing Grieg Quartet for the Grieg festival here at BU on Nov. 8th - its a big honor that we were asked, and I'm VERY excited.

I leave for Manchester Tour (my FIFTH!!!!) on Sunday afternoon. I have to race back to Boston on Tuesday afternoon for the orchestra concert that night, then leave at 6 am on Wednesday morning to get BACK to Vermont early enough for 10 am rehearsal. Thankfully, Tatiana, who is the other violinist in my quartet now and who was at Manchester with me in 2004, is also doing the tour and has to come back for the BU concert. And she has a car. Thank heavens, otherwise I'd have to rent one and THAT would be expensive.

It is TOO hot here.

My craziness on the first weekend of December (see previous post) has subsided, not exactly the way I wanted to, but alas, I cannot do everything. I had to get out of a big quartet gig because of Molly's recital and the dress rehearsal for the orchestra concert in Symphony Hall, but its good that I did, because two days later I got asked to sit concertmaster for that concert. I will be poorer, but I guess I AM a student. Sometimes it still really stinks to be a student.

However, I do love being a student with Peter! I've had two lessons EVERY week and am progressing well. Brahms is coming along. I love it.

I must go now and listen to Schubert lieder.

Today was another one of those blow up days, where it seems like nothing else could go wrong, and then does. I hate these kind of days.

December 1st-2nd is looking to be like the weekend from hell. Somehow, EVERYTHING has been scheduled that weekend. AND ITS ONLY SEPTEMBER! How did this happen???? I now have to figure out a way to make everyone happy, which is impossible. Good grief.

Its cold suddenly, in Boston. It was even cold in southern Indiana this past weekend. The wedding went so well - all my grandmother's four children and their spouses, plus 10 out of 12 grandkids, plus 2 out of 3 great-grandbabies were there - she was supremely happy, strutting like a mother hen with us all following her to a pew in church Sunday morning. I hadn't been to that part of Indiana since I was 16 - crazy how fast the past 7 years have gone. Of course, the best part was seeing my parents and Holly and Hannah. Christmas cannot come fast enough.

Interesting Day

First, I got up at 7 (a rarity) and successfully made it out the door around 8:15. As Molly and I walked to the train stop, we heard one coming, so started to run. About halfway there, I tripped, and fell BADLY on my left knee. Everything went in slow motion as I was falling, and a bit of my life did flash before my eyes, PLUS my violin was strapped to my back and this is my NEWLY ADJUSTED violin which I'm sure is now all messed up again.

I digress. My palms were a little sore, but not bad. My knee however, is a bloody mess, AND the knee in my jeans now has a hole. (sigh) Now both of my jeans has holes. I need new jeans. My ego was badly bruised, as there were a ton of people around. It was incredibly embarrasing. Incredibly. I got to school and cleaned myself up. I was very woe-is-me all morning It hurts when I bend it.

Then, I practiced, which went well. Brahms concerto is coming along. Had a nice lesson at 11, with Peter, who has now scheduled THREE lessons for next week. Good lord. I was information overload as it is today with just an hour with him. Its going to be three next week? I should actually be happy, and stop complaining - at Eastman I never got enough lessons (second semester senior year I think I had 9, and they were never really a full hour) - now I'm getting more than what is the maximum.

Then, the stupid scheduling office people were once again NOT in the schedule office. Ah, for the good ol' days of reserving rooms online. Give me that any day. This having to go to school and talk to someone about it business is crap. I waited for a half hour for them to return, meanwhile scheduling stuff with my new quartet. We are going to do Grieg quartet for a Grieg festival in Nov here at BU (its a Grieg year - who knew??). Fun fun fun.

The schedule guy came back, and I reserved a room for studio on Monday night.

Then, I needed to go to Cambridge to pick up music for my Cantata Singers gig next weekend. When I did B minor mass with them last spring, Hoose brought me the music. No such luck this time. I got on a 66 bus, and began the trip. About halfway there, we stopped in traffic for a good 5 min when the firetrucks and ambulances came. Started moving again after another 10 min, and sure enough, on the right, are paramedics doing cpr on a guy covered in blood. I could see the whole thing. It looks like he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, stopped suddenly and flew into his windshield, because there were no other cars in the accident and the windshield was broken on the driver's side.

Suddenly, my knee didn't seem so bad, and I felt like a jerk because I'd complained about it already to about three different people. Its just a scraped knee.

Soon enough, I got to Cambridge, picked up the music, and came home.

Since then, I have been doing laundry (the f*%&^ing dryers aren't working again - everything is wet and cold), packing, and moving my newly painted dresser into my room! It looks really amazing - hopefully i'll figure out my camera with my computer soon so all can see. I love it! And it is the PERFECT size for where my bookshelf used to be. The curtains for my room went up last night, and they are also very nice.

Can you tell I don't have italics? I have to resort to capital letters.

Tomorrow night I'm going to Indiana for my cousin Josh's wedding. I haven't been to the area where my dad's family lives since before junior year of high school. I have to run directly from orchestra to the airport, land in Indianapolis at 11ish, my parents will pick me up, we'll go get Hannah at Butler, go BACK to the airport to pick up Holly coming in from Phoenix at 12:30 am, and then drive the 3-4 hours to the southern part of the state. Its going to be fun, but exhausting. Oh, and then we have rehearsal for the wedding at 8 am.

This is a very long, and I realize, very boring post. I will close for now.

First Day Back to Orchestra

Ugh. Dvorak 6. Double ugh

However, this weekend was very successful. Molly and I now have curtains hung in the living room, her room, a rug, and I finished putting primer on my dresser. I was frustrated at the hardward store yesterday, however - I picked out the color to paint my dresser, called Asperations, a bluish green color, and was told the paint guy was sick and to come back tomorrow. Forget it. Not going back to Cambridge for paint. Too many other things to do. So I will go to the one near Harvard and Comm Ave and get it there. Good grief. I did pick out curtains for my room, too, after a whole year without. They will go up this week.

Yesterday we also went to the Greek fest in Sommerville, which was so fun! There was a TON of amazing food, music, and dancing! I loved it.

My chamber music situation is driving me nuts - Peter still hasn't figured out who to put me with. Grrrr. I want to get it all figured out and settled ASAP. CCE members are welcome to come help me out! :-)

Things and Stuff

While talking on the phone last night with Kimberly (for almost two hours!), she asked me if I have a new roommate. I suddenly realized that many of you may not know that I have a new person living with me. Her name is Molly Wood, and she is a 2nd year Masters collaborative piano degree. She moved in Sunday with a flurry of activity, and we started to scrub this place down like you've never seen before. Hopefully we'll be done by the end of this weekend, and at the end every room with be cleaned and reorganized, including my room. I have a new dresser (found it at the back door trash dump - its old, and needs paint, but its good wood - cedar - and the drawers are dovetailed - I am quite excited) that will go in the place of my bookshelf, which is now in the living room. Fun fun fun!

At my lesson yesterday, while I was playing along, there was a knock on the door and who should it be but Ari Striesfeld (http://www.jackquartet.com/index.html)!!! I had forgotten that he is now in my studio. He graduated from Northwestern for his masters, and he and his girlfriend (who is going to Longy) have moved to Boston for DMAs. It was SO good to see him, and recall past CCE days at Soundfest. Happy times.

My first official class is today at 1 pm with Joel Sheveloff. Its a History of Song class. Obviously, its not very specific to my type of instrument, however Sheveloff is suppose to be this great prof that everybody is constantly talking about and I needed the credit so low and behold, i'm taking it. I figure violinists are always trying to sound like a voice anyway - maybe this will be more helpful to me than I originally thought.

Next on my call list - Paul and Mary!

First lesson in four months tomorrow.

First day of school (for me) - Wednesday.

(sigh)

Here we go again.