Happy Thanksgiving to all those who are dear, whether they be near or far!

I am so thankful for all of you!

Thank God for Thanksgiving Break

And that is quite literally how I feel.

This semester might be the longest and most stressful that I have ever had, but it has also been one of the most successful. In any case, I have never been so happy and thankful for tomorrow and Friday - all that is written in my schedule is "thanksgiving break." Hallelujah.

Right now I am sitting on my couch, the tv is on, I have finished a homemade dinner, I am in pjs, and I plan on staying here for the next few hours. I finished one of my three papers due by the end of the semester this afternoon - I am QUITE ahead of schedule, considering I didn't start any of the five due last year first semester until a few days before the semester was over.

Unfortunately, I really don't have any exciting news other than that. My life is a whirlwind, and while I complain - I'm enjoying it, too.

Taken last Sunday while babysitting the little dearies. I had him in a Bjorn on me the entire time - such a nice little warm, cozy bundle!

The picture is a little blurry because I couldn't use my flash - didn't want to wake him up! And he has a blue handkerchief thingy on his head is to block the sun from the window in the kitchen.

Pictures

Click on the album "The Family Meets Finnis" for pictures from a visit by Mom, Dad, and Hannah to Boston to see Heidi and Whit and Adelaide and meet Finnis for the first time!

Unfortunately (and for this I apologize) there are none of Heidi and only one of Whit. Next time, I'll do better.

Time for bed.

Its late, I'm bored, not really wanting to go to bed yet, but REALLY REALLY should.

Oh well.

Its been another really long, really busy week. I had Cantata Singers this week - its a Britten focused season this time around (last season was Weill, this season is Britten) and in the program tonight was also Faure Requiem. Now, it is usually just a violin solo part, but for many personal, academic, and historical reasons which I will not draw out for you at the moment, the decision was made to play it with 8 violins instead of just 1. Initially, this sounds like a terrific disaster (if you know the violin part to Faure Requiem, you know that its only about 30 bars total and 28 of those bars include notes that never go into the staff and are always in nose bleed territory).  Actually, it wasn't all bad, but it was hard to sit there so long without trying to draw attention to yourself. Reminds me of those WLC Christmas concert days, although tonight was about three times as long for sitting still. Ugh.

Hard to believe the 2nd week of November is already upon us. Tomorrow night Molly and I are having a fall potluck party, which was planned quite late so it may end up being under 10 people eating a lot of baked spaghetti, salad, and pumpkin pie, but who cares. Its my first Saturday night at home since before school started. I'm going to love it.

I'm still struggling with tears every time we play or rehearse certain sections of Daphnis. I really really really REALLY don't want to actually weep openly and have people start asking me whats wrong, and then have to say "Oh, I am just living in the past during this section of the piece." That sounds plain silly, so I make myself stay as calm as I can. 

We're also doing John Adams' Fearful Symmetries for this concert, and I LOVE IT. It was written shortly after Nixon in China, so a lot of it has the same quality of sound (electric keyboards with certain programs written just for the piece, etc). I loved Nixon in China when we studied it in music history, so just imagine the blast I'm having with it now. Oh lord.

In all honesty this might be my favorite program I've done at BU yet - I get pretty weepy during the last part of Daphnis BUT the first two parts I've never done, so its nice to now have played the whole ballet. What I love though about this program is the instruments: there is an alto flute in Daphnis (bravo, alto flute) and there are FOUR saxophones in the Adams, and we all know how I feel about saxophone in an orchestral setting.*

And now, a happy picture:

*I love it. See post from January 17th, 2007.

I think because I originally started the previous post on Monday, Oct 27th, but did not actually complete or publish it till Friday, October 31st (and then put in obvious changes for it to apply to Friday instead of Monday) is why the previous date says Monday, Oct 27th. I should have deleted the whole thing and then started over. Oh well. I apologize for the confusion.