Merry Christmas to all!

My flight has been delayed from 6 am to 8:40 am, so I am sitting in the Boston airport right now, with my coffee, trying to kill time. I had brought a movie but accidently forgot to put my headphones in my laptop bag - they are currently in my already checked luggage - oh well.

Have been loving vacation so far. Even though I still worked a lot the past few days - taught, did Emmanuel, had a gig Saturday afternoon - I have enjoyed the past four days already to the fullest extent. I love this time RIGHT before Christmas - I have no school obligations, and the guilt for not practicing doesn't settle in till after Christmas. Till then, just blissfulness......

Oh, except I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning. For the first time in two years. Ouch. Wish me luck.

Two Events

I've had a 14 hour day every day this entire week, and even though its only 10:30 pm, I'm going to bed in a few minutes. However, I'd like to share two things from my week that I think the blog readership will enjoy.

1. I have been teaching for Brookline Public Schools this semester in their after school, private lesson Extension Program for violin/viola. I have great students who are eager and try hard. One however, although he is cute as a button, is a little more of a challenge for me (doesn't help that his fingernails are very long and quite grimy - especially when I take his instrument from him to tune it), but he is earnest and dedicated. Yesterday afternoon, while he was playing another round of Banana Boat Song, something caught my eye - a small, brown spider was winding his way down, clearly attached at the elbow of this student. Not wanting to freak out the poor boy, I let him finish, went up and swiped subtly underneath his arm in the attempt to detach the spider from said child, then lightly squished the spider on the floor. A spider was apparently living on this kid.

2. I played the first part of Handel's Messiah tonight for a BU Choral Society concert. It was second on the program - the first piece was Britten's Ceremony of Carols, with a harpist, Michael, who is a friend of mine. During intermission, the orchestra went up to get ready to play, and I saw Michael's harp sitting quietly near the wall, clearly out of the way and not bothering anybody, in its blue Lyon and Healy padding. I started warming up, and suddenly (like how the Angel of the Lord came suddenly, although my news is not good tidings of great joy for anybody, least of all Michael), I see four BU Choral Society singers (these are non-music majors) trying to move the harp into the back hallway - and the harp is on the dolly backwards. And they are obviously struggling with this harp - its starting to tip a little. I rush over and tell them they have it on the dolly backwards. The response: "Oh." Sheepishly, they start to turn it around, struggling again. I demand to know where Michael is. They don't know. I advise that they leave it there or find Michael to move it himself. Apparently they were ordered to move it, and to do it quick. I say fine, and proceed to supervise, all the while thinking of Mary Keener and my vast experience in the days when I helped her move her harp.

Life is incredibly busy right now - busier than ever before - and I don't know how I'm going to accomplish everything in the next two weeks, but somehow, it will be done. I look forward to the future days when December, which is suppose to be a month of Christmas joy and holiday spirit, is filled with more of the professional kind of stress (ie just playing concerts and finishing up a semester of teaching) instead of the mad rush of presentations, papers, and juries. After this December 16th, only one more December in school to go, in 2010. I cannot wait.

Haiku to Procrastination

Practicing is good.
Procrastination is bad.
I need to practice.

A List

1. In a true, serious effort to make myself less busy this year, I am busier than ever.

2. Molly gave me the most beautiful scarf from London (from her trip to Oxford and Paris) and I love it. MK and I bonded while she was gone - I can't believe its been almost a year since she came to live with us.

3. The weather this fall in Boston has been so weird. We've already had a day of snow (didn't stick, but still), and that was in the middle of October. The past few days were almost seventy, and tomorrow's high is 49.

4. This week I'm playing Haydn's Creation at Emmanuel (for the second time in a month). This piece astounds me every time I have been in a rehearsal for it. Every part is beautiful - even the standard "pastoral" 6/8 F major aria (which often can be taxing and a bit tedious in other works) is stunning, and I'm not usually stunned by them. I think Haydn is making a general comeback in the classical music world, and its about time.

5. Hannah's been in Phoenix with Holly and Tony for her vacation from PA rotations. While having lunch with Heidi last weekend, I was happy to think that while all four of us couldn't have lunch together, at least all of us was having lunch with a sister.

6. I've started teaching private violin/viola lessons twice a week for the Brookline Public Schools. Don't worry - the viola students aren't working on Walton or Bartok - just beginning method books. I promise to refer them to professionals when they overreach my alto clef reading abilities.

7. I can't wait for Christmas break.

8. Happy 2nd Birthday Emily Keener!

9. I'm such a terrible friend when it comes to keeping in touch.

10. With that, I'm going to bed.

Recent Happy Pictures

At Capitol Hill - with a raised eyebrow.

Molly and I finally rearranged and cleaned the living room - we're especially proud of the bookshelf.

Holly visited us all in Boston - we had such fun!

Things are so incredibly busy right now, and I know I need to call several people (Mary, David, Kim, Paul, Hannah) that I haven't talked to in so long....argh....I promise soon! Thinking of you all!

Hello from Yonkers, NY.

I'm here for the final installation of the Manchester tour, which always ends with something in NYC. We played at Trinity Church yesterday, at Wall Street, and afterwards a very nice, wealthy lady had a reception for us around 42nd St. on the EAST side. Boy, it was ritzy. She has THE most spectacular communal backyard garden, and on the other end of this communal garden is Steven Sondheim's house. Yes. Thats right. Yesterday I saw into the backyard of Steven Sondheim, as well as the back of his house.

Send in the clowns. Oh wait, they're here.

Ok, ok. Its finally time for another blog post.

I'm in lovely Vermont for the Manchester Music Festival's annual fall tour (although its not quite fall yet - this year its really really early, for whatever reason - usually they are in October). This is my seventh, and it is, as always, beautiful, peaceful, and lovely. I seriously want to have a home up here someday, maybe retirement? Eh. Too far away to think about. Anyway, the best part about this year is that I don't have to return to Boston in the middle of it for an orchestra concert. Hooray!

School is now in full swing, and while the first few days were incredibly depressing, I've pretty much gotten over it and am now in a mindset of work work work. I think I won't go to the orchestra and chamber music meetings next year. No point.

Will post again soon. Right now I've blanked on anything else to say.

How about another lovely picture?



Hannah and Finnis at Holly and Tony's wedding reception.

First Day of School

(sigh)

:-(

A Grieving Post

I am currently in deep, deep mourning for the fact that summer is over. O-V-E-R. My first day of classes is next Wednesday, my orchestra audition is Thursday, and the first orchestra "meeting" (this will be my fourth at BU) is Friday.

What really amazes me is that this is my fourth year at BU, and by the end of this year, I will have been here just as long as I was at Eastman. However, for whatever reason, it doesn't seem that long yet. Probably because time is going faster with each passing year.

And while I'm on that subject, what the heck happened to summer 2009? I feel like the months of June, July, and August never happened, and I keep waiting to wake up and realize its actually only June 1st.

(sigh)

I spent the past six days in Sidney, ME, coaching violin sectionals and chamber music groups for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra's season starter camp. It was a lot of fun, I met some great people, great kids, and I now have been given the following photocopies to add to my music shelf (all rep listed is first AND second violin parts):

ALL of Don Giovanni - the ENTIRE opera
ALL of Bartok Concerto for Orchestra
ALL of Beethoven 5 (I now own all Beethoven symphonies except 2 and 8)
Swan Lake Suite
ALL of Peter and the Wolf
the fourth mvt of Mahler 5

I reorganized all my orchestra music about two weeks ago, so when I got all this music in the mail I was REALLY excited - I didn't own any of it except parts of the fifth mvt for the Bartok. I don't know if its normal to be so excited about getting a huge envelope of music that I won't be performing any of anytime soon, but to me it was like a gift.

Here's a fun picture I truly enjoy:

Happy Birthday.......

......to my little sister, Hannah dearie! She is getting through another 12-hour shift in her ER rotation today. Ugh.

Here is a lovely picture of the birthday girl.....

I had all these great plans to go to BU and do this elaborate, long post about my trip home for the wedding and CCE's grand tour, but its been two weeks since I've been back in Boston and I have yet to accomplish that. Sorry - it will happen, it'll just be old news.

As much as I am loving the lazier days, the relaxing, and the massive amounts of sleeping, I'm starting to go a little bit stir crazy. Fortunately, the next week is going to be a bit more active. My parents are arriving today from home (they drove) to see the Boston Braun/Hill people, and will be here till Wednesday morning, so that is lovely. In addition, I'm going with them down to Washington DC on Wednesday - my dad got a grant to do some research at the Library of Congress, and as fortune would have it, Hannah Ruth is meeting us down there as well! What a lovely last minute surprise. Although the rotation that makes this possible for Hannah is her ER rotation - yuck - she works 12-hour shifts three days a week, and has the entire next Thursday - Tuesday free - I am so happy to see her and my parents again this summer. We will be touring some sights, and I also hope to help my dad with some of his research, since I one day hope to be a Dr. Braun as well.

My other plan this summer is to do a total complete re-haul of my room. I haven't moved the boxes underneath my bed since I moved in, so its time. Its way overdue, in fact.

Ah, summer..............

A Brief Summary

Although it has been many weeks now since my last post, many many things have happened, which I will be more than happy to share. However, I would like to include pictures and video (!!) in the full layout post, and my sad sad internet here at home is simply not capable of such things. So I will be making a trip to the BU with my laptop in order to give a full version of the past several weeks. A sister's wedding and a trip with dear dear friends deserves a long post with lots of multimedia inserts, in my opinion.

Many of you have probably already seen some of the pictures from the wedding from Hannah's blog.

As a preview, here is one of my favorite pictures from my camera.

I'm sorry for the lack of posts. I'm in Milwaukee helping Holly and my family with last minute prep for her wedding this Friday to Anthony Schmidt, June 26th.

The next post I put up they will be married and I will have pictures!

Game Night, June 2009

I am not sure many of you know, but Molly and I host a game night once a month. Or, at least we tried to, and did during the fall 2008 semester, but this past spring semester was so crazy for us it was more like twice a semester. In any case, our dear friends Jesse Barrett and Bob Mollicone have graduated and are leaving Boston for good very soon, so we had a final official game night in their honor tonight. I put my camera on a timer and we took this picture. Now that I see it, I wish we had done this after every game night. However, I am grateful for this one. Even though they are leaving, it won't be our last game night - but we will miss them terribly.

As Emily, a fellow BU masters and now DMA violin student says, "People will come, and leave, and come back again, and leave again, and we'll STILL be here." 

We are still here, and can't wait for those dear ones to come back again.

Bridesmaid Dresses: A Post of Gratitude

I have played for two weddings in the past two days. They were both incredibly extravagant, beautiful, wealthy weddings. However, something that was incredibly disappointing in both of them were the bridesmaid dresses.

I'm not skilled enough with words to describe them accurately - yesterday's were light green and short, with the top to the waist kind of billowing out before falling straight to the knee. Today's were of a very shiny, clingy material that no one looks good in, silver, and had an empire waist. None of the girls (three yesterday, seven today) were the proper body type for these types of dresses. However, the dresses were such that I don't know if anyone would really look good in them. And all girls had the same dress.

I'm not sure if many of you know about the bridesmaid dresses that the six bridesmaids of Holly and Tony's wedding are wearing (maid of honor Angie, Heidi, me, Hannah, Veronica, and Tony's sister Heidi). I will tell you now. They are all apple (dark red) colored, and we each were to choose a style that we wanted. We six bridesmaids are all very different body types. So it was with much gratitude to Holly that we were able to choose dresses that looked appropriate and flattering to each of us. I think we all choose well.

I have been very lucky. By this time in two weeks, I will have acted as a bridesmaid three times. (I know I know, always a bridesmaid, never a bride. I've heard it before, trust me.) They are all beautiful, tasteful dresses I will wear again and again (see the ones for Mary and Holly in upcoming recitals for my DMA - for Heidi's I wore my dress so repeatedly in high school - three different dances and a Prism weekend - that it is now retired).

I would like to take the time to personally thank Heidi, Mary, and Holly for excellent taste, judgement and kindness to their bridesmaids. 

Unfortunately, the bridesmaids for the past two weddings I've played for are not so lucky.

Martino

About his Seven Pious Pieces (choral work written in a serial style) he writes :

"A traditional tonal analysis of any of these songs can be made by anyone who is ingenious in the application of secondary-dominant labels and/or who is a fanatic."

Since I'm not ingenious in the application of secondary-dominant labels, I must be a fanatic. 

Good to know.

My Twenty Cents/Happy Anniversary!

One of things that makes me incredibly sad is that across the street from CFA is a Starbucks. This particular Starbucks no doubt does incredibly well, considering all that happens at the CFA building, and the amount of people that simply walk across the street to get their coffee. Its ALWAYS crowded. The reason I am sad is because if it was a small, privately owned coffee shop, it would do very well, but instead its a Starbucks.

There is a reason for all of this, I assure you.

I have been very good on the not-buying-coffee-but-making-it-at-home front lately. Incredibly good, actually - even last week, for my three days of jury duty where I had to get up around 7 (6 on Tuesday), I always made coffee and brought it with me in the cute, non-spill travel mug Molly gave me for my birthday (which I love). Anyway, today, after step class, I was dragging and had a lesson to teach yet, so I decided to get a coffee at the Starbucks across the street. I don't necessarily love their coffee, but its better than some, so I was looking forward to the little treat.

Now, when I DO get coffee from Starbucks, I usually get the smallest size they sell - called a short. I don't need a whole tall (aka small) coffee, and the short size, which is really like a kids size, is much more what I prefer. It is also 20 cents cheaper than a tall. Twenty measly cents is not a lot to some people, especially to Starbucks as a whole, but its enough to me to take a stand. 

So today, I asked for a short coffee. The guy working gave me a short coffee. Then asked for $1.73. I KNOW that a short size costs $1.53. I told him this. He told me that it has never been $1.53. I said that couldn't be possible, that I have certainly paid twenty cents less for a short before. The other guy working said, "Dude, you're wrong. She's right. You messed up." First guy looked at me, and said, "Its only twenty cents." I simply replied, "To me, thats a lot." He gave me a look of disgust, but handed me back the correct change. 

Come on. Like Starbucks NEEDS my twenty extra cents. I need twenty extra cents from them. I was so mad. What a jerk. Wonder who else he's ripped off lately. 

Its really really just too bad its a Starbucks across the street. It would be nice to promise that I will boycott that particular store, but I know I would break that promise by the time school starts again. Its the nearest coffee shop for about three blocks to the building I walk in every single day during the school year. 

Anyway.

Happy 3 year anniversary to Mary and Daniel! I was reminiscing often today. Can't believe its been 3 years......

Little dearies.

In honor of my darling baby nephew's nine-month birthday today, here is a picture of him and me from about three weeks ago when I was watching him for an afternoon. I haven't posted a picture of him since Christmas, although Hannah did post one from her spring break visit. Isn't he adorable? Such a happy little boy!

And this one is from a couple days later, when I had them both together. Adelaide is a wonderful big sister, and Finnis adores her - no one can make him laugh like she can.

I should be doing millions of other things than posting cute pictures of the wonderful children in my life, but whatever. They're much more interesting and important. Click on them to make them bigger - they seem a little small but I'm not sure how to solve that issue.

A List

1. School is done.

Yes, thats right, another year is over, and my twenty-first will begin in September 2009. Surviving this year was quite a test, but I did it. Hopefully years twenty-one and twenty-two will be better. 

2. Summer has begun.

I have two words for that:

Thank God.

3. I did my civic duty this week.

I was called for Tuesday morning and was put on a jury that afternoon for a lawsuit against the Administrative Courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A woman slipped on a courthouse stairway in downtown Boston in January of 2005, and was suing for negligence to clean the steps properly, claiming they were covered with snow and salt. We found them not negligent (if anyone wants to know why give me a call - its too much to put here). It took Wednesday and Thursday to come to a decision, and I must say, I enjoyed it and it was very educational and actually interesting. I will also say that after watching lots of Boston Legal over the past couple years, Boston's actual courthouses are not nearly as beautiful and majestic like they are portrayed on television, Boston lawyers are not nearly as sexy as Brad or Denise, and the Boston judge was not nearly as funny as Clark Brown. In addition, no one was a hoot with a capital H, thats not what they were. However, I still did not mind it and was even a little bit proud to do my civic duty. And also am quite happy that I will not be called upon again to do it for the next three years.

4. Holly and Tony's wedding is in three weeks.

I'll be leaving with Heidi and Finnis on June 19th for Milwaukee. I cannot wait!

5. Hannah's had some bat trouble.

Go to her blog to read about it, posted on June 3rd.

 

6. My first DMA recital happened.

Only four more to go! It went well, despite the fact that I had an incredibly bad cold and Klaudia had the flu. Thanks to Heidi's advice on drugs to fight coughing fits during performances, I didn't cough even once. The rest of the week was really bad on the sleeping front - for whatever reason I couldn't get more than three hours for a few nights in a row - but fortunately that ended.

7. Summer plans are taking shape.

The CCE Tour 2009 is up and running - got music in the mail from Fimby today - and both she and Gave have been busy making plans and we have concerts planned in Arkansas and Oregon - including the stint where Fim and I sub with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Heidi was a member before she came to Boston for college, and I have vivid memories of the ASO's concerts as a child, so this will be quite a nostalgic trip for me. I haven't been to Little Rock in 17 years.

I'm done with the list for now. I'll start trying to update better.

Stay tuned - now that the trial in which I was a jury member is over, I have the free time to let the rest of the world and dear friends know that I haven't died or disappeared forever. Post to be written later today. For now, I have so much laundry that I must walk to the corner laundromat and do that. Molly left this morning for Indy to see her sister Aubrey graduate from high school, so its just me, the MK, and fishies Couperin and Quantz for a few days!

I am a terrible friend. In the process of having a terrible cold and playing my recital on Sunday night, I completely and utterly forgot David Gerstein's birthday on May 24th. Thanks to Mary's blog, I have now been sufficiently reminded.

Happy Birthday, David! 

ps - nobody but me remembered your 22nd bday, remember? i hope that saves me this time. I'm so sorry!

Everyone should go see the new Star Trek movie. Right now.

I promise more posts are coming.....I'm not feeling very inspired lately.

Hannah

Congrats to Baby H (as David calls her), new owner of a Bachelors Degree!

I'm so proud of you!

Another year is over.

It was long. It was hard. Many things good, a couple bad, but overall, I'm ok.

I feel stuck, though.

I need a new chapter in life. I've been stuck in the same one since college started.

Its good that there are only a couple more years of school even POSSIBLE for me, or I'd be stuck this way till I was forty. Oh, lord.

I guess the new chapter will be here soon enough. Well, not soon enough, since its not now. 

May 1st

Happy Birthday Mary Keener!

Too much to do. Am tired. And stressed. And sad. Just want to sleep for the next few weeks, if thats ok.

Lucia di Lammermoor

This week is opera week at BU, and I'm actually having a blast. Its always hard for the orchestra, because while there are two casts that switch off every other night, there is only ONE orchestra, and we're playing EVERY night (dress reh last night/tonight and then performances for the next four nights). I am already starting to get some left arm pain, especially today. However, as much as I should be really annoyed (and worried about my arm), I'm just having too much fun. Great music, good friends are playing too, and for the Fri/Sun cast, my very own freshman RA from the dear ol' ESL, Jim Barbato, is the lead tenor (Edgardo). He sounds wonderful!  I was hoping Tanya would be coming to see him this weekend, and I would get to see her too, but it sounds like she has big recitals up in Rochester this same time, and won't be able to come down. Too bad.

To see an example of what fun this opera is, go here.

And, as luck would have it, the MET production of Lucia is on PBS right now. Awesome.

(Happy birthday Heidi!)

(I'm going to start being better at blogging, I really am......)

April is in full swing, and with it comes that time of year when school becomes suddenly thrust into the number one priority. Unfortunately, I do so many things BESIDES school that as much as I try to practice for lessons and keep up with theory homework, a lot of other things get in the way (although I'd much rather do those other things). 

Here are things I must do in the next three weeks:

1) I have to finish a whole theory portfolio by May 1st. This includes: five analysis papers, 8 chorale tunes that must be harmonized in four voices and analyzed (all in the style of JS Bach, of course), my presentation work, and the handouts and bibliographies given for all the OTHER presentations. Dr. Cornell's idea is that this portfolio gives each student the adequate study materials for the Theory Exam for DMA's. A great plan, but of course, this means I have to DO it. Oh lord. 

2) Taxes. I have started them online, and am building two hours into my schedule for the next few days until they are done. This is the first time I am doing them on my own (although I'm sure a phone call or two to my dad will be happening). Having one job would make taxes for me very easy, but unfortunately, I have 1099s from every gig I did over the past year that paid enough to be taxed. Its great to be a freelance musician in this city, but it takes a lot of organizing once tax time comes, since I file as as self-employed owner of my own business. HB Inc. 

3) My DMA Chamber Music Recital is May 24th (in honor of Gavid Derstein's 25th bday, of course). We have started rehearsing as much as we can fit in, since we're playing Beethoven 131 and Bartok 6. Even though the recital date is over a month away yet, we must play a recital permission before May 1st. Yikes. Fortunately, this also counts as a solo jury - thank God. 

4) St. John and St. Matthew Passions were the past two weeks. St. John (at Marsh Chapel) went well, and I'm glad to have finally played it, but St. Matthew (at Emmanuel) was absolutely incredible and I've missed rehearsing it this week. It just never gets old or boring. Never. What fantastic music.

Some other activities I am doing lately:

1) A violist friend of mine is putting on a "just for fun" recital, and the piece I am involved in is Caplet's Conte Fantastique for harp and string quartet. Its based off of the Edgar Allen Poe story "The Masque of Red Death." Its a very picturesque piece - very French. Its been fun to play with a harpist again - the harp used today in rehearsal is exactly like Mary's. I haven't had a chance in these rehearsals yet to see if my harp rendition of Long Long Ago is still in shape. Maybe Saturday I'll give it a try.

2) Opera. Lots and lots of opera. Next week, I will be playing BU's production of Lucia di Lammermoor on Monday afternoon, dress rehearsals Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and performances (two different casts) Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 

3) Not getting enough sleep. 

4) Eating a random times.

5) Waiting for spring to come. Today was beautiful weather. Tomorrow evening it will rain. Saturday will be 45 degrees. (sigh) I can't wait for summer.

Also, Molly and I (and MK) signed another renewal lease last week, even though the rent went up slightly. Sept 1st starts my fourth year in this apartment. We talked about it for awhile, and decided we are still happy with our location, still enjoy being roommates, and love the fact that heat is still included in rent so we can crank it up as much as we want to in the winter. Its strange to think that a year from now, May 2010, I will have been here exactly as long as I was at Eastman. Huh.

Here is April tomorrow already, and I am very late for an updated post.

And I don't have time for one right now either. All I can say is that I played St. John's Passion last week, am doing St. Matt's this week, parents are in town this weekend, did a theory presentation (that I started, did, and finished in 12 hours prior to the actual presentation) last week, and am trying to just keep on going. One day at a time.

Warmer weather is coming, and it feels great!

I am currently cozy in a king size bed in a Comfort Inn in Brunswick, ME.

I'm up here playing for a choir concert (ENTIRE Messiah) and they are putting those who drove up from Boston up in a hotel for the night.  I have NEVER had such treatment for a gig. A whole hotel room by myself! I got Thai food and have been watching cable. Soon it will be bed time - but I'm certainly enjoying my night.

Spring break has officially started since today, and I am grateful for the week away from BU, although I still have a lot to do with practicing and theory homework. Cantata Singers starts Monday for the week, but the biggest excitement is that Hannah Ruth is coming to Boston on Monday! We are so excited for her to be here!

Things keep plugging along. This year has been hard, but its astounding to think its already March. My quartet at school tentatively set a date for our recital in late May - Beethoven 131 and Bartok 6. I will start opera for the next orchestra rotation, which is a little scary, since it takes up SO much time - but I am looking forward to it. Its Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor  - anything is better than Claudia Legare.....remember that???

A WHOLE SNOW DAY!!!!!!

Thats right, people - today is the first day EVER to be a complete, full day snow day for me during my higher education years.

I've enjoyed the day so far by baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, catching up on emails and homework, listening to music, and petting a sleeping cat. 

Soon I shall practice in the warmth and coziness of my living room while watching the snow outside.

What a wonderful day!

Yucky February

Hannah is right....I'm slacking on the blog postings lately....

I've had a really long, rough, busy February. February is never an easy month, especially as I now am officially in my mid-twenties. Another birthday, another year older, still in school, blah blah blah. This February though was officially rough.

Here are some things that happened that made Feb 2009 a stressful month:

1. Orchestra. We performed the 2nd Elgar Symphony on Feb 10th. Leading up to it, I thought we would NEVER pull this concert off. I was concertmaster, and it was completely exhausting, yet beautiful music, but after every rehearsal I would be in some pain and would barely be able to concentrate on anything else for the rest of the evening. The concert ended up going well enough, but it was a long road to that and a pretty tiring one, at that.

2. Theory class. This class I am taking, officially called "Theory Pro-Seminar", is tough. The first three weeks entitled writing out and analyzing about ten Bach chorales per assignment. And they weren't short chorales, either. The first one took me 9 hours to do, and it just got harder from there. I spent the first weekend of February working on them every waking minute that I wasn't in rehearsal - on the train, on the bus, during a pops choir concert that Molly played for (I sat in the back where there was some light). Its easier now, but its going to get hard again real soon, and I'm terrified.

3. Freelancing. I played with Firebird (a new music group here in Boston) this month over a rehearsal/concert period of about three weeks. We had a ton of rehearsals, I played a LOT, and there were four concerts total within that time period, one of which was in Amherst, MA, about two hours west of Boston. I really enjoy playing with them, and it was a lot of fun, especially the two concerts we did of rock music at a bbq restuarant, but it took a lot out of me, and my bow, which lost a lot of hair due to the style of music we were playing.

4. Illness. I had some kind of flu for three days, during which time I played a full day of collaborative piano rehearsals, a choir concert, and had Firebird rehearsals. I had a fever and developed a bad cough, which is taking forever to go away. I did cancel some things, like quartet rehearsal, and Molly and I postponed our birthday party, but had to keep going for everything else. It was awful.

5. More illness. Four days after I was feeling better from whatever I had before, I had a chicken salad sandwich and began pucking 6 hours later. I was sick every hour for about twelve hours through the night, finally slept for two hours, and then had to get up and head to Amherst for the Firebird concert. I have never had food poisoning so bad - it was really terrible.

6. Recitals. As of last weekend, I no longer play for student recitals. I had two this month, and they both were stressful and very time consuming. Actually, maybe the second one wasn't so time consuming, because everyone was sick and rehearsals and coachings kept getting cancled, but it was still a lot of work. I asked to get paid, and I was, but even that may not be enough to be worth my time to do them. I don't need the experience anymore - so unless you are such a good friend I consider you a blood relative, I won't play.

Fortunately, this past week has been much nicer. I'm finally getting my energy back enough to go to step aerobics in the morning, I had time to practice, and I got to go to Davids Bridal with Heidi and Finnis yesterday morning so Heidi could buy her bridesmaid dress for Holly and Tony's wedding. Its beautiful on her - she looked stunning. And, of course, it gave me the opportunity to add to my list of Davids Bridal locations I have visited: Syracuse, Rochester, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Boston.

I'm not the only one who has had a hard month, either. So here's to March, warmer weather, and good health!

I'm going to be a quarter-of-a-century old in less than 45 min.

(sigh)

I am too busy to blog, and now too sick to do anything for the rest of the day.

Thats it. Back to tea and kleenex I go.

Killer

MK killed a mouse in our apartment last night. Good girl! I slept through the whole thing, but apparently Molly heard some scuffling and went out and there it was. It probably came under the front door, like they did in C house. Anyway, its nice to know we have a good mouser living with us. Here is a shot of the proud huntress, in a much more calm moment:

A Few Things I Have Found Funny Lately

1. Today was the youth orchestra chamber concert. The Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra has all rehearsals and what not at the CFA building, and today's little concert was in Room 167, a classroom. Behind all the performers, on a blackboard, was a sentence clearly written: "Shostakovich is my lover."

2. All the local Boston news broadcasts lately have been starting their sports section with the announcer saying, "Well, even though the Pats aren't in the super bowl this year...." - implying that they always are. The past few years, sure, it has seemed like they are always in the super bowl. It just makes me laugh to myself and enjoy the calm of a city without a team in the super bowl. Love it. BOOOOOOO Patriots.

3. I finally saw my Dec jury comment sheets and got A's from every prof except one.

Long Johns

It has been a much colder, snowier winter this year in Boston than either of my previous two here. With that has come my very first purchase of long johns.

I have lived in the north for now 16 winters, and yet this is the first one that includes my purchase of long johns. Heidi wears them religiously, and for some reason, I haven't been smart enough to start sooner. In any case, this might be the coldest winter for me ever, since I spend way more time outdoors waiting for trains and buses and such, instead of just walking down all of a block of Gibbs St. Or getting in a car and driving four blocks to Wisco.

I'd like to publicly thank Heidi for sending me a link to Lands End to make my purchase. And I'd like to thank Lands End for having their long johns on sale from $40 to $20.

This has changed my life.

I just turned on the tv and saw that a plane crashed into the Hudson River leaving from LaGuardia. Craziness.....everyone is safe, only minor injuries, thank goodness, but good lord, with today being one of the coldest days this winter almost everywhere (Mom had school canceled because of -40 degree weather), what a day to crash into water.

I have Cantata Singers this week - another great concert. The dress rehearsal was today, and now I am home to do lots of odds and ends. The low tonight is 0 degrees. I am staying in for good.

My fourteenth semester of higher education started yesterday. Thats all I have to say about that.

I'm going back to my hot chocolate with Kahlua. Yummmmm

Back in Boston

After a wonderful, lovely trip to Milwaukee for two weeks of family, games, food, and fun, I am back in Boston. Usually I am more than ready to come back to school after a brief stint at home, but for whatever reason, I really wasn't tired of being home yet when it was time to leave. Yet here I am, in cold, slushy Boston, with a week yet of break before the work returns next week, and I am very happy to be home.

I'm more than a little nervous about this upcoming semester because of the Theory Pro-Seminar class I am taking. Its a required class for doctoral students, and should be taken before the theory exam is attempted, so I'll probably try and study some this summer as well and then hit the test at the end of September. Only a third of the students who take this theory exam on the first attempt actually pass it - its assumed you will take the exam at least twice before passing. Scary. Anyway, its been a long time since the days of Paul Miller and rigorous Eastman theory classes, so this could be a daunting task.

I've been assigned to lead the next BU orchestra concert, and we're doing an entire concert of British music, which I suspect is our conductor's favorite pastime. Holst, Britten, and Elgar. Elgar Symphony No. 2, to be exact. I've listened to some of it and it actually sounds like Strauss to me - big sweeping lines in the strings with lots of volume and pomp. Ha.

I got an excellent blue fleece, non-static hat from Heidi for Christmas this year, so my huge white knit one will take a hiatus while I wear the pretty blue one. My head is so big, its hard to find hats that fit, but Heidi did it! Also received are some fantastic arm warmers that Molly knitted for me. They are absolutely incredible. I will now be putting both lovely presents on as I attempt the slush and gloom outdoors to go practice.