musicskool's Xanga

Its all over...

Mon, 19 May 2008 18:51:46 GMT

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...

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:59:18 GMT

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! :)

Free Food

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:44:32 GMT

Since 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. :)

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:17:34 GMT

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 voted

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:20:38 GMT

And I hope to Goodness you did, too.

Its been forever...

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:16:08 GMT

I'm now a year older than the last time I posted. :) Stephen is heading to Peru for ***3 WEEKS*** soon so we had a beautiful day just spending time together. I got lots of sweet calls from my family and was treated to a great dinner by our friends.

Its interesting to look over the past year and see what's changed/happened:
My mom is divorcing my dad
Two of my close friends are having their 1st babies
I have 30+ students instead of 5 (the first year I was here)
I'm in the musicians union and have played several big union jobs
We have awesome neighbors that have become our friends
We just started attending an incredible new Church
I just found out about flylady.com, signed up, and am totally addicted to everything flylady!
Stephen and I are still totally in love

Its been a busy, (emotional-with my beloved family) wonderful year and I've learned so much... I can't wait to see what this one holds!

Almost Over...

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:43:26 GMT

Today after 5:30 I am finished for the semester! I have 3 more lessons tonight and then... sweet freedom!

I had the craziest week of my life last week- 3 rehearsals, 2 gigs, and a recital for my kids- in addition to the normal 20 lessons and 2 jobs... The kids did great. It was the first recital for all of them except 2 and several did better than they have in rehearsal. I'll post a pic later...

Stephen and I are hosting a Christmas Party for the MD/PhD's in his class tonight. I've made just about all the food (a few last minute things to pop into the oven) and the house looks great. We always have fun and are looking forward to it. We tried to get the family recipe for Super Spiked Eggnog but were unsuccessful on 3 tries. :( We'll miss it.

We're heading to Oklahoma on Friday...hope to see some of you then!

What a month...

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:19:09 GMT

I typed up a huge post and it got deleted.

Suffice it to say that Thanksgiving was great... I have 26 students line up for next year... Life is wonderful and we miss our families and look forward to seeing them soon!

Smiles :)

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:28:43 GMT

In answer to the last few questions posted here...

I haven't gone to Peru with Stephen yet- but we're planning a trip in January. He's supposed to go for a month, so I might take off a week during the middle and hang out with him. There are several reasons I haven't gone down yet- 1) The one thousand dollar plane ticket 2) No AC in Peru and it is HOT 3) I have always had gigs during his trips. But we're going to try to go together in January and make a trip out of it. I speak NO spanish though and even though Stephen's vocab is limited to probably 100 words, he somehow always comes back speaking Spanish (one night right after he got back from his first trip, he woke up in the middle of the night and was asking me questions in Spanish...pretty funny as I was just yelling at him to wake up).

Rose, we're not sure we're going home for Christmas... but you're welcome to visit us if we stay here! Tickets aren't that much (for one person) and we'd love to have you! Maybe you can get a couple of the siblings to come and you can come down together. It would be so much fun! We got a new bedroom set for the guest room and quite nice. We also have lots of super comfy inflatable mattresses. ;)

I have to go practice- I have a union gig, a wedding, and a church service this weekend... and I have to practice!

Cheerio!

Same old update

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:56:02 GMT

I haven't updated in forever because its pretty much the same old stuff... Teaching, being busy, etc.

I am planing a recital around Christmas- for my students. Should be a blast!

I've been playing weddings like they're going out of style- have three weekends (Sat. and Sun) booked solid. It is lots of fun though. Stephen asked me the other night if I enjoy what I'm doing. Heck, Yes! I love teaching all my little students and playing on the side. Its exactly what I always wanted to do. Well, once I figured how much I enjoyed teaching...

Stephen and I planted a few mums and pansies in pots on our patio... and the next day it dropped down to the 50*'s so its much too cold to go out and enjoy them. They still look pretty though.

Stephen went to Peru for the second time and loved it.

Opps- students here... Later.