Two weeks ago, I referred to the week (quietly and to myself) as The Week in Which I Make Plans that are Completely Unlike Myself and Then Back Out At The Last Minute.  This is the week of Sucking It Up and Doing Things Even Though They Make Me Uncomfortable. (I think June will now be The Month In Which I Use Titles That Are Entirely Too Long.)

O LORD my God, I called out to you for help and you healed me.

He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

Blogging Happens More When I'm Bored

I never know whether or not to capitalize every word in a blog title. Thoughts?
Oh, right. No one reads this. Nevermind.

I just wanted to brag about scoring a free lesson (though I do feel pretty crappy about still not having a job).
And about an awesome new uke site I found.
And I wanted to mention that Carnival of Animals by Saint-Saens is AMAZING and that I think Bekah and I are going to play "Elephant" for our recital. You should Ruckus it. Go! I downloaded the album that also has Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and, of course(!) Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice. I am too much of a wuss to play that at my recital, but I can play enough of it to impress children at school concerts, and that makes me happy. Anyway, I am rather fond of the narrator on that album, though I'm not sure who he is. Johnny Morris? He's no David Attenborough, but he is quite good.

Catch Up, Mustard!

I know, I know.. I hate puns. But that one is probably my favorite. I'm not sure if you're allowed to have a favorite in something you don't like, but I hate that one a little less, ok?

anyway.

Semester? Decent. Too big to talk about, really.

Finals? So many of them were performance that actual finals week wasn't so bad. I totally choked on the "List the three minimalists we've studied in class" question in music history (this might have something to do with me not going to class for a week, but only one of those was my fault!)... so I answered "Philip Glass, Philip Glass, and Philip Glass." It's funny if you know who he is, promise.

Week at Bekah B's? Homeschoolicious. Which is odd, because, "how can you want to be a teacher if you were homeschooled?" But I like Bekah B anyway, so I'll let the intense homeschooling slide (just this once. I know, this post is all about exceptions.)

Physics of Music? oh-holy-crap. I took Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language for two years in high school, and for the longest time it made no sense at all. (it was, after all... chinese.) And then one day I decided to just accept it. "Ok, Chinese. That 'H' looking thing is a horse and those boxes are mouths and when you put them together, it means...mother. Sure Chinese. I'll take your word for that." And then this funny thing happened: it made sense. One day, I totally understand how a little man wearing a hat represented the number 6, and why the word for tea had hair in it... Made total sense. And PoM was kind of like that. Once I just accepted that there is no way any of it will ever make sense, I was pretty decent at it. Unfortunately, I didn't accept it until after my 46% on the midterm. Oops. But, overall, I got a B, which is totally good enough for me. And, we went to Darien Lake (in the rain) and I had numerous coffee dates and watched quite a few movies (that may or may not have contributed to the 46%).... so, probably not the worst class ever. The best part, however, was probably when our TA (grumble) had just finished (butchering) explaining something long and complicated on the board, and had written out a number of practice questions next to it for us. He gestured vaguely and asked "clear as Chinese?" and I could honestly say that no, Chinese is considerably clearer.

And now? I'm home, have no job, have no car, nothing to do. I don't have any new music yet, so I find myself quite unmotivated to practice. Woot?

Things That I Miss Terribly

It's like a happy list, but retrospectively.

1. Orchestra. For reals... HS orchestra. There's something completely different about the cultures of orchestra and band programs, and orchestra? Way better.
2. People at Houghton
3. Being able to walk anywhere I need to go
4. More people at Houghton
5. Menno
6. Free coffee from Diana, and sitting over at that table where Java employees sit, talking to her about life.
7. Having a practice room
8. Seriously... people at Houghton.

In other news

1. There was just a J.G. Wentworth commercial that was supposed to be like an opera.  It warmed my heart, even though I should probably have thought it was stupid and poorly-composed and I'm pretty sure it was making fun of opera.
2. There's no such thing as normal life.  There's just life.  I have trouble remembering that.

1. 
   

MHis IV

Things that have no place being on my study guide for my Music History IV Final:

1. Synesthesia
2. Le Corbusier, a famous architect (read: not musician)

Synesthetes that would make my Music History IV Final more exciting if I was studying them instead:

1. Kanye West
2. Wassily Kandinsky
3. Duke Ellington
4. Eddie Van Halen
5. John Mayer

Let's catch up.

1. The opera went from terrifying to decent to horrible to awful to fired. "Fired" is a misleading term, because I wasn't getting anything from the deal... but it's the word that sounds the best when I try to explain it. I have a number of things to say on the matter... few of them are appropriate, for an equal number of reasons.
2. Thursday at 11 = Percussion Tech concert (playing snare, timp, cymbals and guiro)
3. Friday at 7 = Spring Band concert (playing bassoon)
4. Saturday at 7 = Gospel Choir concert (singing alto) (singing! eep!)
5. Friday (4/25) = Spring Orchestra concert (bassoon/cb)
6. Saturday (4/26) = Jazz Band concert (trumpet)
7. Sunday (4/27) = gospel choir run-out concert (alto)
8. Some time that week (of Monday 4/21) = conduct Symphonic Winds for Inst Conducting final (baton) (Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy: "Lord Melbourne")
9. Some time the next week (Monday 4/28) = jury (Ferdinand David's Concertino)

And of course, almost all of those concerts want me to bake for them. What do they think I am, made of free time? And those are only my performance commitments!

I'm quite overwhelmed.

It's time for a happy list.

• Despite all of my worries that the opera would EAT MY LIFE, rehearsal actually let out close to an hour early last night. I took great advantage of the extra time; having already told Ken I couldn't come to jazz band I went home and got a head start on my study packet for InstMeth.
• Mr. Stith let me borrow his score to Lincolnshire Posy for my InstMeth study packet. It's kind of a big deal--the score was worth $30 when it was purchased nearly 20 years ago. It smells a little like dirt. There's something so fabulous about holding a real score instead of photocopies or excerpts. To a real peice of music!
• Said Lincolnshire Posy score has a "Grainger Glossary" in the back. That means I don't have to make one myself for my InstMeth study packet, which saves me quite a bit of score-scouring for tiny print.
• I got a 110% on this morning's Music History listening test! Quite reassuring, considering last time I got a 65% on music that was much easier to listen to.
• I thought I had a lesson this week, but it's totally next week. Amazing.
• It's sunny. Cold, but sunny.