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Name: Alyssa
State: Oklahoma
Birthday: 1/13/1984
Gender: Female
Interests: avoiding speeding tickets, counseling, improving my musicianship...
Expertise: teaching little kids to make music, working hard, making beautiful music, random OCD's.
(I used to be an expert at avoiding speeding tickets, but then there was this one time when this motorcycle cop was really sneaky...)
Occupation: Student
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message me
Member Since:
1/15/2005
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| Its all over...So my crazy week is over. Played in several concerts and worked like a crazy person. The recital went well (I did accompany everyone and didn't miss a note!) and it was followed by a superb reception, catered by the sister of one of my students. She'd been taking a cooking class this year and planned the whole thing as a year end project (and she executed it very, very well!). It was fantastic! I also played on Sunday, ended up having two big solos... one was "Adoration" for piano and violin that we played as an offertory. I don't know how I've missed that piece, it is a beautiful work and I'm going to use it all the time now when I'm asked to play something special.
Stephen is in Peru until the 27th (our 2 year anniversary). I was pretty busy last week, but now this is my "week off" and I'm bored stiff. I've tried planting stuff, cleaning, organizing, and am hanging out with a friend tonight...but I miss him like crazy. He surprised me and left a bag of truffles under my pillow when he left, but even truffles can only go so far. ;)
I did get to see the Symphony on Saturday... a very odd performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto by a Finnish guy who won the Sibelius Competition in 1995. Nice guy (met him afterward at the champaign reception), but a very unique interpretation. I did like that he stayed "Engaged" the whole time though; not like some soloists who play their part and stand there waiting for their next entrance... you could tell he felt the whole piece was a dialogue and he was listening to what the orchestra said, then responding. I really enjoyed that- it was refreshing and intriguing. I listened in a new way. But other parts of the performance (and his technique) were quite strange. I also got to hear the 2nd Walton Symphony...which was interesting. I liked it... but it was frustrating in a few sections. It was so close to beautiful- but then the tuba (?) would play a half-step off from what I wanted to hear and it was just too dissonant, even for my ears. Also on the program was the a Part piece (there should be an umlaut over the A, but I don't know where to find one on here)... I love Part! It was very simple, but beautiful.
Alrighty...I've got to go do something useful now. See ya! | | |
| Craziest Week of My Life...So, if I ever thought finals week in college was nuts... this week I have:
Friday: Rehearsal/meeting with Bride for wedding in July 1pm
Rehearsal with the Tuscaloosa Symphony 3-9:30
Saturday: Rehearsal with Tuscaloosa Symphony 10-5
Sunday: Church gig for 2 totally different services 7:30 AM
Concert for Tuscaloosa 2pm
Monday: Full day of teaching followed by a rehearsal with the Gadsden Pops Orchestra 7-9PM
Tuesday: Full day of teaching followed by a concert with the Gadsden Pops Orchestra 7:30- ???
Wednesday: Full afternoon of teaching
Thursday: Crazy practicing to accompany my students in tomorrow's event and an afternoon of teaching
Friday: Work followed by my Studio Recital!
ARG! Being a self-employed teacher and freelance musician is awesome (except maybe when one of the huge works for the symphony is an atonal 21st century world premier, which I can't play at all because it has no finger patterns and tempo is half note =112 with 16th notes...) but gee, that's a lot of music. Oh, and yes, I'm taking the next week OFF! :)
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| Free FoodSince Stephen is still in grad school (until December) he still has a fetish for free food. So, naturally, when an opportunity for free food presents itself, he'll be there. So here is the story of our latest case of free food scavenging.
A little history: every time a new Chick-Fil-A opens they give their first 100 customers free combo meals. 52 free combo's that is, one for each week of the year. So when a Chick-Fil-A started building less than 5 minutes from our house we started preparing. We discovered that people have to spend the night before the opening... so we got our tent. We got some friends to go with us and on Wednesday we started our quest so that we could "Eat More (Free) Chicken".
The Boys were planning on heading to Chick-Fil-A around noon on Wednesday. The grand opening was 6:30 am Thursday, so they figured that was plenty of time. I didn't have to teach until around 2 and wasn't sure if I was going to try for the free food, but I told Stephen I'd run over to Target to pick up some folding chairs and check out the line. I went at 9:30 and found that I was person 51. I signed in and called Stephen. He came over at 10:15 and was 71. Our neighbor Gary rushed over after a presentation from work and was 99... at 11am.
So we hung out all day... and I have to say that Chick-Fil-A is a pretty neat business! They had all their staff there and served us all day long. I was kinda freaked out that we hadn't brought any food with us (and once you sign in you're not allowed off the property or you're disqualified), but they fed us chicken nuggets at noon, a combo at 5, chicken nuggets at 9 and ice cream at 10. It was crazy. They had a DJ and games and music in the evening. And they'd have random roll call to make sure no one had snuck off.
After a crazy night's "sleep" in pretty cold weather and an air mattress that let us down (literally), we lined up at 6am and got our packs of coupons- amid wild cheering and banging of metal bowls and spoons by the Chick-Fil-A staff.
We now have 104 free combos from Chick-Fil-A. Actually, we're giving away at least 20, but still... thats a lot of chicken.
The moral of this story? Some free food is totally worth it. :) | | |
| There isn't really anything thats new... Stephen won 1st place in Graduate Student Research Day and got some $$$. :)
I should be looking over some music for an Easter gig, but am much happier to sit here and make sure there isn't something going on in the world that I missed.
We've had the weirdest weather this past week- 2 stunning days of about 79* weather and then its been in the 20's the past two nights.... weirder than Oklahoma. We're going to camp out in the back yard as soon as it gets warm again!
Life is still wonderful- I'm subbing for the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra again at the end of the semester. Its always a blast and I'm looking forward to it!
Please keep praying for my family. | | |
| I votedAnd I hope to Goodness you did, too. | | |
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