I really did try to be productive tonight... goal was to go to school and practice for 2 hours, then mark for a few hours.
I got to the school and was convinced to go to recital.. I'm glad I did, it was great and wonderful, But i wasn't even able to do any marking during the recital. A mixture of her singing being distracting in the best of ways, and not enough light.
Anyway, the recital took the best of 2 hours, and then I tried to practice - alas, I had forgotten my metronome... I didn't realize how dependant I've become on it.. Anyway, I used the opportunity to work on Liszt in the areas that shouldn't be metronomical, and the slow areas that I can alredy play at tempo.
I borrowed one from someone else, but it wasn't digital, so the shifts in tempo were awkward... and she had to leave before I had made produictive use of it anyway. Therefore, only 9 beats of speeding up on one page in all the Beethoven.
Add to this that I have more marking to do tomorrow for thursday, which interferes with my need to practice lots for my lesson on thursday, adn I think I have an assignment to prepare for in Pedagogy.
oh well, tomorrow I am showing my choral piece to both my regular teacher who hasn't actually seen the final product... or anything really close. Also, I'm showing it to the choir director of the choir I sing in, to get feedback from him about the piece, as well as to see if he'll let our choir sing it. It will be a decision as to a) whether the difficulties of the piece are managable for a chior that sings only an hour and a half a week and 2) whether the piece has enough artistic merit to be worthwhile. (don't you just love how positive I am about my own composition?!?)

Oh ya, and I had wanted to have that wedding song written to hand out to the choristers on thursday... uh oh... not goign to happen with all the other shit I need to get done.
I'll work a bit on that tonight, but I should sleep relatively soon... gah!
I actually almost believed that once Grad school stuff was done, I'd have some life back,m adn be slightly more relaxed... BOO!

Today I'm handing in the CV and transcript that will complete my U of M application...but more importantly, it will mean that I am officially done with Grad Applications!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW! I am so happy.
I will still send out a few emails to check that things were received, but now I'm in the last stage o grad applications... the waiting.
For now, I am patient... let's hope that lasts.
Marking is taking up time already, so I hope I didn't take on more than I should have with the recital prep and all that.
Nevertheless, practicing is going well, the Liszt isn't as far off as I had thought. Also, the Bach is coming along quite nicely. I might actually have a recital ready sometime before the actual recital date!

I officially started being a TA/Marker today. I marked my first assignment... it took a few to get me back into the swing of Theory 1. Now, I remember the rules and how they apply, and they actually make more sense to me now that I have a different perspective. It does take up a fair bit of time, but it pays well, so it's worth it.
Come to think of it, I have a fair bit of random things that I'm doing for money this term... also taking up lots of time...
TA for Twentieth Century
TA for Theory 1
Accompanist for Dance Festival Musical Theatre for RWB (60 hours ish between now and April)
I assume I'll also have a little bit of accompanying for Music Festival. Definately nowhere near last year... obviously. Both because a) one of my teachers stopped teaching, therefore her students most likely won't be calling me. Also, 2) I'm not planning on trying to solicit as much accompanying work this year.
I do, however need to start promoting myself for the summer... I have some obligations that already take me into the summer, so rather than have exotic plans for far off work like last year, I'm only going to aim to work in the city, but to get as much work as possible.
Closer to the time, I'll either get a part time job for when I am not working music stuff, or if I have enough money coming in, I will spend all the rest of my time composing.
Tonight I'm off to a concert of my Piano teacher and then practicing!

Happiness!

UBC application - officially done!
I got it bound and mailed rather quickly!

All that remains in this unfortunate grad school application portion on my life is the U of M application. I need to do up a CV and statement of goals, which I already have somewhat written. I also have the extra copy of the choral piece bound, so if my teacher is back in town, I will show him all four pieces and he can tell me which ones I should include or exclude.

Tonight, I am going to practice, and I don't even need to worry about getting home with enough time to compose without falling asleep!
At the same time, I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night, so I might have to take a nap before... or I will be excessively tired tonight...
Ya, I'm thinking the napping might be a good idea, yes, definately, I love napping.

Yes, cell phone was indeed in the back of the car.

In other news, I came home and finished my piece last night and finished printing it. I'm so releived and excited to send it away now!

Ooooh, look who finished his choral piece!!!!
It was me... before going out,.,,
but i didn't write my program notes or print out the piece... so guess who is now writing program noteas and printing out the piece with a slight, and waning wine buzz.
It was an absolutely delightful evening with 6 bottles of wine and a bottle of port for about 6-8 people! also, so many kinds of cheese!!!
anyway, I can't lose focus, I need to get this done quickly, as I have to work at FUCKING (AM TOMMORROW!!!!!
yuck!

Ahhh, where's my cell phone...
I'm pretty sure it fell out of my jacket which I threw in the back of the car, but my parents are out with the car... and the phone is on silent I think.
ANyway, I really hope it's there.
If anyone is at the school or planning on going there.. could you check out room 310 for me, I had a rehearsal, thats the only other possible place.. unless the library, but ya, I doubt it.
so ya, we had a half hour rehearsal for an ensemble piece, I really like the piece, very minimalist. It's super fast and involves a lot of energy and endurance. It's also good to be in an ensemble again, it takes a special kind of skill to make music in an organized way with other musicians.
back to this piece. all the other paperwork is done, so it's just this piece on the to-do list!

That's awesome, not only did it fix it for that one.. but all my other posts have their times adjusted too! yay!
now, back to work Mikey

I just switched my time zone setting to central standard... so i think this should be properly timed!!! yay!

Firday is off to a promissing start.
I accompanied a singing exam today at 9am. That was unfortunate timing, but all went well.
AND it gave me an early start.... which I ended up trading in for a short nap later in the morning.
I have a rehearsal at the university at 2:30, then I come home to finish my piece/portfolio. If I could get the piece done before Have to leave, I could bind it at the school, but I don't want to rush unnecessarily.
Things are really coming together now. I'm working on some finer details., and the lats 2 cadences are set and I'm happy with them. Basically the most important thing to do yet, is decide and finish the intro section and cadence. If I get that done, then the piece is in acceptable shape to send in.... but I still have more I want to add in, to have more layers in the piece.
I am going to a student composers wine and cheese tonight... kinda nerdy, but it will be delightful.
Also, it gives me a reasonable, but specific deadline to work with. If I'm drinking wine tonight, I don't want to wait til afterwards to finish up my piece...that could be unfortunate. Also, finishing the piece before I go out for the evening will mean that I can really enjoy my evening, and the rest of the weekend!
yippee!

ANGER

syllabication makes me angry.
do you know the wierd al song, "everything you know is wrong"?
thats how I feel
syllabication is the way we divide words up into syl-la-bles.
In my piece... the text was wridden with su-gar, coo-kies, mo-mma and many mnay many other words..... ALL OF THEM WERE WRONG
i wear about 90% wrongness factor here
the correct versions are
sug-ar, coo-ies, mom-ma, !!!!
I meant to get a lot done tonight, but I just spent the last hour and a half fixing all of those texts... and I couldnt just copy and paste, no no... I had to select and retype them all... the equivalent of renaming a file in windows..

Anyway, this issue was brought up during my composition lesson today. I really wish I had known how to do this properly int he first place, it would have saved me hours!
anyway, now I know,ma nd I'm well versed in the the rules of syllabication... generally LOOK IN THE FUCKING DICTIONARY.... every single word is syllabified there for us.... gahg!


comp lesson/look over my piece was good. I got some good ideas of things I can do long term with the piece, and some with what I can do in the next day. He thought the piece was quite good, he just suggests a little more subtlely... great.. cause thats the kind of thing I can fix up in a night...
but ya, there were good details he pointed out that I can work on, that will help make it appear to be more subtle (sub-tle, for those wondering).
I have no class tomorrow, so tomorrow is offical get the UBC application ready to mail day! I have a statement of goals to write, but that will be a lot of cut and paste work from the other things I've written this year about similar topics. I think that's about it for what I still need to do besides this piece... so ya,I have to finish putting the fin-ish-ing touch-es on this piece. I basically have all day to do that... I will be sending the application in the mail saturday during my lunch break. I will use the binding machine at the ballet to get it nicely in one piece, and then all is done for UBC. I still have to hand in the U of M one.. that requires writing a CV and a statement of goals or whatnot...
I would feel a lot more comfortable if I could mail the UBC one tomorrow,but I'm being realistic... although saturday is the absolute latest... way to go Mr. Pro-cras-ti-na-tion.
but ya, back to the work at hand.

yuck,
why on earth is it so gosh-dang early this morning?!?
The bus does not a happy Michael make.

My jaw is sore.
I had been doing so well with not building up tension.. but I guess there are limits.

Practicing tonight went SO well. I cannot even really describe it. I guess the plan is to play the second and fourth movements of Beethoven as well as just the echo... these are the biggest improvements. The Beethoven is finally at the point where they are fast enough to judge the style and musical elements... It's so sad that the final movement is still only at 2/3rds tempo, and it's super fast!

Now, I have to get to work on the composition...
Lofty goal of the night is to fix and be happy with the three major cadences in the piece; each of which involve the text:Chocolate chip cookie
It's frustrating that I have a fairly specific concept of what sound I want.. but I'm lacking the ability to find what that sound is... it doesn't really make sense...

Ok,
So today, I had planned on going to school for the first time this week.. I went there and I even practiced for an hour and a bit.. but then I didn't go to class.. I was convinced to go to a performance that a friend was doing.
It was delightful... and the excessive number of old folks reminded me of working at the Westhaven store. Fond memories!
It was good though, and I ended up getting a ride home, and getting home even before the class I ended up skipping would have finished. Practicing-good, supporting a friend-good... we'll ignore the class part...

Just before 5pm (mail collection time), I sent my application to Western... I went over all of the required things for the application and I made certain that they were all contained.. then I sent it!!!!
YAY!
I'm going to send an email, because they didn't ask for a statement of goals or intents or anything like that, and most places do... If they do want one, I still have time, if not... even better!
Since the U of M one, i can hand in in person, I have lots more time.. it's due in exactly one week, less an hour or two.
UBC is the big one now.. I NEED to have it in the mail on saturday... I have a lesson on the choral piece with my last year's composition teacher (Cause this year's is out of town) tomorrow afternoon. I can still get a lot more done tonight for that, but I also have to practice because...
PIANO LESSON TOMORROW!
they just never stop!
I do feel optimistic about it though. I have come a fair way in the Beethoven, and I have a practice progress sheet to show him... even if it is depressing how far away from tempo I still am.
ANyway, off to practice tonight!

well, it's not even 1 am, and I'm ready for bed.
How did I do on productivity tonight?
in term sof the opening- got it slightly more notated... I picked a melodic line for the second half of the poem... now it's just picking the harmony notes.
I fixed some note choices in the first half. I'm officially happy with the mode/tonality of the piece as a whole! yay!
I didn't fix the cadence.. but I realized that it happens thrice in the piece... so when I have one of those chosen.. I will relate the three
I integrated a lot more events into the baking section, there's a lot of layers going on in there, so I'm not sure to what extent I want a lot of melodic activity happening in the soprano... but ya, a little bit once I have those cadences worked out and the exact melodic material finalized...
The ending.. in terms of a transition, I'm happy with the abrupt ending and shift back into the opening texture. rather than add things to make it smoother, I redecided that I will encorporate that melodic material near the end of the baking section - as a result, the shift won't be so dramatic.
The text is finalized.. I worked the original text around a little at the ending so that it ties the piece together in a similar style to the opening!
Stunning end... you bet.. the final cadence is super fun.. I ask for an excessively high note from the sopranos... but it's in brackets.. the actual note they they will probably sing is only slightly ridiculously high...

I'll never understand why the times on these posts are always 2 hours behind...
current time is actually 11:33.. not whatever the post time says....
geez

yippee,
diet coke number 3 since I wrote that first post... probably less than an hour./.. maybe only half an hour...
anyway, I will be up late, if anyone is readig this on tuesday night, give my cell phone a call, a distraction would be nice...
whoooooooooooooosh!

I think I'm having writer's block, but I'm forcing myself to write down whatever comes out, no matter how crappy.....
does that still count?
Actually, i don't think it's crappy. I'm delusionally excited to hear how this piece turns out!
I'm also excited that I only have to print out and bind one copy of this piece and then send it away. I will however do two, so I have a copy to show to the choir teacher.
anyway, back to work!

Also, who the fuck writes a song about baking chocolate chip cookies?!?
I'm sitting back and reading the text, and realizing that I'm a freakin' lunatic!

I think I'm not going to hold anything back.. once I've hopped on the crazy train, there's not jumping off.. unless I want to break the majority of the bones in my body

also, I hadn't drank anything but water and tea the last almost week now... and then I had hot chocolate, and then I rediscovered diet coke a half an hour ago... and I like it...oh my gosh.. I have so much diet coke drinking to catch up on...
maybe it will help me to finish this crack-baby of a song...

ok did anyone see the audition show for American Idol... I saw a few minutes of it and they were in the Twin Cities, and one girl actually was telling the camera people that she was a crack-baby!! I coulnd't believe it.. just because your momma was a crack-whore, doesn't mean we should listen to you sing.... My momma drank scotch every day when she was pregnant... does that mean that I should be a highland dancer?!?!? NO!!!!
(note to readers... my mother didn't acutally drink during pregnancy... fetal alcohol syndrome is nothing to joke about.... crack babies are)

ARGHGHHHH!!!!
Why isn't this choral piece fucking done already!?!
Lofty goal of the evening is to just finish it in one big swoop tonight. The list of things to do:
-finish writing out the opening intro section
-Work out the transition from the intro into the main ingredients section
-fix up the note choices in the opening section
-fix the cadence between the mixing and baking sections
-Integrate the melodic aspects and the soprano line into the baking section...
-perfect the transition from the baking section back into the opening texture...
-oh ya.. I need text to bring the piece to a stunning close...

BOOOOO!!!!!!!!

WOW!
YAY!
I woke up this morning, and there were boxes all over the living room!
The Christmas shit is finally coming down!!
I guess my incessant bitching as of late has finally convinced them!
Regardless of what inspired this change, I am happy to see it going away.

I'm excited to be awake and ready to be productive today!
It actually seemed early when I got up at 10:30 today, oh well.

I'm sorta feeling better, the sinus congestion is tolerable/going away, however the cold has gone down into my chest... uh oh. This is ususally how it goes, then I'll get bronchitis...
Anyway, let's keep our fingers crossed.. but as long as it's not a sinus thing, I can be relatively comfortable in my head, which is where it matters most for me.

I made a chart finally yesterday of performance tempos and current tempos... it was kinda really depressing.. I'm averaging about 65% progress... and I'm supposed to be at 100 by the end of this month... oopsie. Anyway, at least now, I have a visual that will help me to prioritize my practice time!

also,
why are there still chirstmas lights on my house, and decorations all over the place, and a fricking christmas tree still decorated in my living room?!?!
Serieusement, quoi le fuck!?
At the latest, decorations of the christmas season should be taken down quickly following Ukrainian Christmas, but we're not fricking Ukrainian!
As our choir would sing...
"do breem vay cheer, take down the fucking tree"
[ I was trying to think of those lyrics.. but all that was coming to me for a good minute was "Christmas eh neun chuk bok eul"]
Anyway, I did go out for a while tonight, enough to start getting some good ideas flowing, but the Perkins I went to closed at 11... BITCHES!
Anyway, I have the tonality and stuff like that completely finished for the complete baking section of the piece. Now, I just need to choose tones and note motives for the first half and then slap on an ending.
All in all, it's been a fairly productive day. Tomorrow, I don't think I'll be going to comp seminar, as I have no other classes. I will use my time at home to both work on this piece and do some more practicing.
Hmm, we'll see what time I'm up tomorrow and how I feel though... I could go for seeing the recital tomorrow... two of my piano compatriots are playing. The benefits would be getting a needed recital credit, as well as then being able to use an hour of my practice room time and then going to comp seminar.... but as usual, the problem is that I have to leave comp seminar early anyway to go to work downtown....
Unless I wake up on my own tomorrow ridiculously early, I'll stick with the previously mentioned plan of attack.
Enough break from working for now, I should take some insulin and then get back to working out this composition shit,WOOT!

Progress Update!

I did it!
I finished learning the last 25 bars of the Beethoven after supper!
And the slowest section of the Beethoven is only half tempo!

What it means: I can play every single note of my recital now!
Now, I just need to play them faster and better!

So, I forgot that today was Sunday.
Not a big deal, except for the fact that binding places are closed after... well, now. I didn't get around to doing it this afternoon. However, I've been practicing and I have the second movement of Beethoven in quite decent shape. It's about three-quarters tempo, but I can play it at tempo without completely falling apart. This means that things are quite reasonably withing grasp.
I'm currently finishing those last little bits of the final movement that are unlearned. That is a definate goal that has to be accomplished today. Other than that, with piano, it's all about repetition and pushing the numbers up.
I've also successfully ignored my choral piece so far all day. I'm feeling a bit better so I think it might be for the best if I got myself out of the house this evening and worked on it somewhere else. I do have the formal decisions made, and now I just need to make those choices on tonal issues as well as decide on how the hell to end it! gah! I can also take some of the paperwork with me for the other grad applications.

hmm, not as much done last night as I wanted, but ya enough to be respectable.
I'm fearing that, once again, this is going to be a weekend of not practicing until sunday afternoon...
Tonight, as I said, is going to be portfolios and composition, but we'll see how productive I am with those.
I bought some cold and sinus meds this afternoon after work, I'm feeling them start to kick in.... if only I had taken them during the day...
OH! lordy! this was a bad bad day. I really just wanted to crawl into a ball and die. Add to my health misery, during the last 2 classes, the teacher was quite miserable to the children. They deserved it, but it really didn't make me feel excited to stick out the rest of the day. Anyway, now that I have the drugs in my system, I can get the work done I need and feel better!
I got the binding done for some of the pieces. They look good, AND it was free!(saved me about 10 bucks by doing it myself!) but it did take me at least 15-20 minutes...
That meant I had a shortened lunch today, but that was fine, I still had time to eat and check my blogs. I've really been getting into diabetic blogs lately, I'm not sure if it's going to be a permanant thing, but it's helping me stick to my improved control efforts.
Also, looking at the records I've kept over this last week, they're pretty reassuring as well!
Now, it's dinner time, and then printing and portfolioing and then composing and maybe even practicing!!! HIGH HOPES!

Why is my printer a bastard... if he were nice, he would at least finish printing the scores for my portfolio before running out of ink.
I was all organized and I started to print out the ensemble piece scores this evening. I got through the first few pages, but ya, a lot of them will have that tacky lightening of the text thing that happens when your printer is running out of ink...why can't it just give out at one point, rather than starting out fine and then turning to faded grey on each of the last 12 pages I printed?!?
Anyway, no fear, tomorrow I will get a new cartridge. Tomorrow after work, I will put the new cartridge in and finish printing. On Sunday, I will do many things including:
Practicing
Take the ensemble scores to be bound at Staples or something
Finish all the remaining paperwork for the Western, and U of M applications.

The result of this productivity will be wonderful! I will be able to mail the Western application on Monday, or Sunday if possible and the U of M one will just need me to physically take it to the school office. I will have a few short days more to finish everything for the UBC one, including this bastard choral piece.

Update, I got a fair bit done on the piece tonight. It's coming together structurally, now I need to make a final decision as to how I want to end the piece. It's already on page 12, so in short... an abrupt ending! Oh ya, and a decision on tonality or what modality I want to use... that would be nice too...

Ugh, I wish I wasn't tired. It's been a short day, and I didn't wake up terribly early.. I feel guilty already thinking that it's getting close to bedtime and it's only midnight. At the same time, a full day at the ballet can feel like the longest thing ever when I'm not feeling 100%. If I were tired to boot, things just wouldn't work, and I surely wouldn't be productive when I got home afterwards.

grumble grumble grumble

I hate being sick. FUCK
my nose burns from kleenex overuse.SHIT
I'm stuffed up more than a redneck hooker at the family fun fair.
COngestion makes Michael AnGRY!
At least my parents are going to a hockey game tonight, I will have the house to myself and I hope to finish my choral piece... which I had intended on doing earlier...
Tomorrow, I'm going to do my own binding for the pieces I have printed out already. That will save me a bit of money, but the Ensemble piece for the remaining 3 portfolios.. thats still gonna cost me about 25 bucks. Then theres the Xpress post forUBC and Western... another 10 bucks each.
I think once all is said and done, I'm gonna add up all the costs and see how much grad applications actually cost me. I'm afraid to think of it at the moment. So I won't.
It hurts my head to think.
Tonight is going to hurt when I have to finish composing... it will hurt my head.
Ouch!

mmm, good day.
Piano Lesson- good, teacher was very pleasant and matter of fact. He wasn't pressing the idea that I should be more prepared now... good thing, cause it would be hell if both of us were stressing over that... Nevertheless, the moral is that there is room for much improvement on the Bach.

Classes were classes, meh.
Choir- entire tenor section was sick, bass section sounded as if they had tonsilitis, pneumonia, and Ghonnasyphylherpoles AT THE SAME TIME! No offence to those who may be reading this...
in other words, I am officially sick.. but battling it. I was in no condition to have patience for choral experience today.

Accompanying was good. The classes were a little unorganized with student meetings and whatnot, so the hour classes were closer to 45 minute classes.. oh well. I got a really good compliment. The substitute teacher for the modern class: she had subbed once earlier in the year when I was still sorting out what and how to play for modern class. Anyway, her comment to me was "when did you get so good at playing for modern?" Apparently, she noticed quite an improvement. She was also in the company classes I played for last week.
I'm excited for the regular teacher to come backa nd see if she notices a difference. She hasn't been there to teach the modern class in over a month.

I LOVE MY DANCER!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRREAT first rehearsal! It was the usual, exciting, inspiring and cathardic experience that comes with great improv. Her comment was that she started out purposefully restrained as she didn't know what to expect from me.. or whatnot, but then as we got involved in the improv,she just let herself go and left it at that. We did an opening free improvand then some structured exercises to address the ideas/strengths/weaknesses/general things that we wanted to further explore. It was great, we were throwing compliments back and forth at one another. I adore her movement style, and her initial reaction after the first improv was something like I was a beautiful player.
Needless, I feel super confident with my choice of dancer and ya, ahhh. Happiness.

I'm taking a practice break, perhaps maybe even calling it quits for the evening. I jumped back in on practicing Liszt after quite a bit of a hiatus, problem is that my muscles were not prepared... now my right shoulder is not happy with me. I'm icing it and making sure to relax it, but ya, silly arm!
It's seems silly to stop, because my parents went out so I could have the evening to practice, with the house to myself, but I shan't do something that would be more damaging than good. Anyway, it was a fairly good day for Liszt, I reacquainted myself with some bits, and I figured out one little bar that I was just about to give up on. There's a long way to go on that bastard piece yet... quite yet...
My justification is that it is the last piece of my recital.. so I have more time to prepare it than the other pieces.... yes that's it... we'll see how David feels about that.Hahaha.
Composition lesson went well, he was happy with what I had done, and he agrees that I need some different colour/not choices. The main focus is the rhythm, BUT I need to figure out what 'sound' I'm going for. right now, it's far to diatonic/unadventurous. Not that I'm doing it solely for the sake of adventure, rather sicne it's too diatonic, everything blends together too easily; I want that blend to be achieved by the rhythmic design of the piece, not as a direct result of the chordal/harmonic language. Anyway, at the moment, I just want to get the formal structure all in place, after thats done, I can change the notes and all that stuff after the fact. I'm getting to the point that I just need something that I can send off with my portfolio, regardless of how satisfied I am with it. I want to have reached that stage by the beginning of next week, as in Monday. I want to have it mailed by thursday or Friday at the absolute latest... OMG
a)I'm almost finished!!! exciement
b)It's almost time, this deadline is approaching like a bat outta hell!!! Fear.
Yep, only one more week!!!Fear and Excitement.

Also, I think I might vaguely be getting sick ish. I haven't been able to stay hydrated for a few days, and I can pre-feel the signs of illness... to combat, I took a lot of Vitamin C caplets...!

so, as evident in my last post... i've been a little stressed lately.
I have been doing better than other years, that's for sure.
anyway, i think the reason that I appear less stressed is that I've been bottling it or whatnot.. now, I'm aware that the stress is still there, so I can maybe deal with it better. Anyway, the double major thingy has been driving me a little bonkers... I really want to do really well at both composition and piano, but I've not been able to give either the proper attention. I'm not just saying that because I don't have twice the time available... rather, I know what I could do to balance the workload, and I haven't been doing it.
Moral is that I know myself well enough, and i know that once these applications are out of the way, I will be much more relaxed even though the rectial will be much more pressing as of February. I am quite fond of the concept of Recital vs. everything else... but currently, Recital vs Composition vs. everything else... wellthe thing to ignore isn't so obvious...so I end up in a rut.

On a positive note, tomorrow is my composition lesson. I took a fresh look at part of the piece tonight, and I made a lot of progress... enough to say that a whole section of the piece is ready, save a few alterations that I know I will end up making. Now, I'm working on getting that section notated on the computer, then at least I will have something quite definate to take to my lesson tomorrow. Oh ya, something I forgot to think about... my comp teacher is going to France next weekend, and he won't be back until after my submission will be due.... and I sure as hell don't have a complete piece to show him... BUT we will have a lot of the concepts and design issues to talk about tomorrow, so we can address those. After that point, I can take the finished or near-finished piece to one of the other composition teachers at the school

So yes, I'll leave you now, so that I can get some more work done tonight.
Goodnight.

I can't remember if I gave closure to my stress-ramblings up there, but yes, I am feeling much better at this time. I had a completely psychopathic conversation with myself on the way to accompany this evening, and we.. I mean I got some things sorted out.

I now hate my tuesdays!
Now that my parents are retired, they are at the house all the time. It feels like a weekend all the time, but in the bad way.
Tuesday was always my day to have the house to myself and I could be super productive without any distraction from outside sources. I absolutely cannot wait until I move out.
The thing I hate the most in the world is a radio playing talk radio when noone is in the room.
For years, my dad would leave CJOB on in the kitchen after he'd leave for work,and I'd angrily turn it off when I woke up. Now he leaves it on while he wanders around the house or out fo the house... GAHGHAGHAVJHAGHIYBDSKJLNAM!!!!!! Mumbly fuck!
It's SO FUCKING OBNOXIOUS!!!!!!!!
I also dislike when the tv is on and noone is watching it, but this i'm not so fucking passionate about.
It's background noise, it's fucking fucky. I hate it. I have to put up with it in public, but in a home, I think there should be some reprise from that neverending squaking shit talking motherfucking cunt ass shit fuck noise going on. Now I even drive with the radio off.
ANyway, I need to go all the way downtown to accompany one singer for half an hour. What a waste of gas, but I need the money, and the girl needs someone to accompany her, so I'll suck it up.

So the appointments today went well enough...
Nurse Educator -
Bad start, she didn't lecture me, she just disapproved of a bunch of stuff right off the hop:
-I didn't keep a log book- this is a big no-no, as there's no way to see patters in my control... blah blah blah...
- next, she didn't even respond to the joke I had prepared.
[They always ask about injection sites, and which you are using. my response was that I usually take them in my arm, sometimes my stomach, and if it's not socialy awkward, I like to take it in the bum!]
NOTHING!!! How do you not laugh, or at least smirk when someone makes a comment like that... anyway, I'll try it again in May when I have my next doctor's appointment.
-She hardcore disapproved of both my use of syringes (implying that everything can and should be done with the pen technologies) as well as my use of normal length needles. She explained that even morbidly obese people can use short needles without having any effect on how the insulin is absorbed. She proceeded to look at me like a retarded donkey when I wasn't immediately convinced.
On the positive, I learned that needles shouldn't hurt and some new techniques on giving injections more painlessly. Apparently, I've been shooting into blood vessels which slows downt he absorption and causes bleeding and bruises.

Dietician - This was the one where I was expecting to get the lecture, but nope. She was super nice and friendly and completely non-judgemental. Basically all she had to say was to eat homemade food more often and to be more active. Rather than lecturing me about these, she gave me a multitude of excuses for why they're difficult... anyway, that was not so effective on her part, but I will try to make said improvements nevertheless.

All in all, the moral of the day is that I need to start keeping a logbook of sugars and carbs. Done, I started today, and I will continue forever.

The educator and I also talked a bit about using an insulin pump. Keeping in mind that it's not a financial possibility at this point, she was optimistic that I can probably do better using the MDI(multiple daily injections) approach than most, so I should stick with it and just refine some things. Done, Look at me, I'm refining!

I have an appointment with a dietician and Diabetes Nurse Educator. Before the appt. I was supposed to keep track of :
-everything I eat
-the carb count of everything I eat
-blood sugars relating to those
I really couldn't have worse days to show them. For example... last night I was out until 3 am at the Opera Workshop party, it was great, but the problem was that my Lantus shot ran out at midnight ish, so my sugars shot up, I was taking fast acting insulin to compensate, but it wasn't good. When I got home, I took my shot and more fast actuing to compensate for the elevated sugars.
I calculated right,m because when I woke up, I had a very good number, normally I'm smart and take insulin once I wake up because if not, the sugars go up, but I felt my sugar waslow enough, so I went back to bed til 3 pm... then they were high again, i took insulin to compensate, btu no good... they stayed high all afternoon, and until dinner, at dinner I took another dose to compensate as well as my dose for dinner. Anyway, i checked 2 hours after dinner and my sugars were at ideal range.. but theres still another few hours of insulin kicking around inside me, so I've been eating candies and hotchocolate here and there to keep my sugars from going low... and I need to do that until about midnight when the insulin will finally run out!
GAH BASTARDS!

Anyway, there will be lots for them to lecture me about tomorrow. The good thing is I've learned a lot about stuff recently,. so I have lots of questions for thema bout carb counting and dose timing and all that jazz.

I'll post about how it goes tomorrow. Anyway, I won't be able to make it for my one class tomorrow, and no class tuesday, so no school until wenesday. On the good side fo that, I can get lots of practiicng and writing done.
I managed to practice about 4 or even 5, ya closer to 5 hours this afternoon/evening. The fugue is all good now, could be faster, but at least it's good to be played. Other movements are getting much better. The second Passepied, the tricky little one is ready to go too.. which is nice, the first passepied is still buggering about, but I havea few more days. So, I know it will be a go; I can play the entire Bach for my lesson on thursday. I need to also force myself to finish learning the Beethoven and speed up the Liszt a lot. If I am to stay "on schedule" I have only a week after this lesson to have my whole recital up to tempo....
anyway, it's a theory....

It's a good thing I had practiced for at least an hour yesterday morning/afternoon...
The plan last night was to go to the GroudSwell concert and then drop a composition friend off at her house on my way to practicing at the school. Unfortunately, it was 10:30 before we even left the concert... It was a very entertaining and enjoyable concert, but let's just say the scheduling/timing was not a tightly run ship.
Anyway, long story short: I got to the school and there were no cars in the parking lot that I recognized(there were all of 2 cars there) and no-one answered the F of M lounge phone, and I didn't feel like going to the security office in the cold, so I just went home and got a little bit of composition done.
Now, I'm at the point where I'm starting to input the sketch into my notation software. This involves decisions as to which voice is going to sing the motives that are unassigned in the score. I'm off to a good start, and I have a feeling that it will go quicker than I feared it would. The main thing is that I need to do that work as soon as I can possibly do it, so I can get to the finessing of the piece and not be in a rush.
I am officially reminding myself that I need to shift to the schedule of practicing during the daytime and composing during the evening/night. This way will save me gas money and transport time that would be necessary to practice late in the evening. Composing is quiet enough that I can do it as late as I want without bothering other people.
I fared quite well on practice room sign-ups. I got the prime time, and a few days I managed to use my 2 hours on either side of the recital time, meaning that if there is no recital, I have the room to myself for 3 solid hours! (but that's just 2 days a week) Other days, I made sure to find appropriate times, but ya, the good thing is that I know I have a room to practice in if I go to the school at those times. ie. I actually have a reason and motivation to go to school!
Tomorrow is Sunday, and my plan is to make best use of my home for practicing during the day. Everything in Bach needs to become much faster. The other day, I made good progress on the first movement's fugue, as long as that is presentable, I will be able to run the whole thing for David at my lesson. Then we will be able to get a vague idea of the time the piece will take, guesstimating for the non-up-to-tempo performance...

Tonight is the annual Opera Workshop performance, I'm very excited to see my friends performing together for the last time, well, at least the last time I will see them perform together. Also, is the annual afterparty chez Davey! He's had them I think 3 out of the 4 years, maybe even all 4, but they are always well put together and they serve as a great benchmark for looking back at my time in university. I don't even think I'm planning to drink, but we'll see later on. I'm not going to be driving, so there's nothing really holding me back. I have to figure out a way home, once again, we'll have to wait to see later on...

Piano lesson - Not great, not bad. Like I knew, things didn't sound good, but he thinks I have a good sense of how the Bach pieces should go, but they were too slow to really tell. My goal is to have the entire suite at a suitable tempo next week so I can play them and they'll sound like something... that will at least take up half an hour of my lesson, probably more if they aren't up to tempo.
The Beethoven, I played the one page and he said it was to slow to even make any comment on it, but reminded me to be consistent in the staccatos.

Composition lesson went well. He was happy with the detail of my 'sketch'of the piece.... he said I have everything there except for the piece itself.
He laughed openly at my terrible poetry...which is very funny because it is so horrible.. that is the point. The poetry/rhyme is to introduce the chocolate chip cookie song:

On a cool summer's afternoon,
Dad's outside a rakin',
When mommma ties her apron on,
you know that she'll be bakin'.

She searches through a pile
of her fav'rite recipe bookies,
And then she finds the perfect one;
For chocolate chip cookies.

-Michael Park


I know, I should really get awards for my stellar poetic nature! haha I'm especially proud of how I rhymed cookies with book-ies!
Anyway, I'm starting now to notate the piece on the computer... that means I'm going to have to make some very finikky and precise decisions about how I want the piece to be.

I also started printing out the stuff I'm going to need to get bound for my portfolios , and started to get things in line for the remaining applications I have:Western and U of M. I also have to get the portfolios ready for those two and for UBC.
Like I saidin the last post, this is going to be a hellish month with the paperwork as well as learning piano music and getting things up to tempo.

Tomorrow is the last day of my playing for the modern dance classes. Apparently it's a fairly big deal that I was called to accompany these morning classes, I guess they don't ask just anyone. I wonder who has been putting in the good word for me... Nevertheless, I'm greatful to have gotten this opportunity, and I'm also very happy to have made a good first impression.

Anyway, I should get to sleep soon.

First off, whenever I try and type my name fast it comes out
-Michae; Oark
Damn typing... also when I sign my signature, I leave out the r in Park... sometimes I add it in, sometimes I just leave it... I wonder if this says something about underlying psychological defects that I have, hmm, oh well!

Next on the list:
I had tried to learn 270 bars or something... eek, well, I tried:
In the morning, I stayed on schedule, when I got to the school, I locked myself in a practice room and I worked on Bach. Success, I learned the remaining 90 measures of the French Overture!! Now, it's just a matter of adding metronome markings as we go! There is something so rewarding about knowing that I am capable of playing every measure of that piece, even if some measures are significantly slower than they should be.

Beethoven, well, I knocked quite a few bars off, but in the end, I failed. On the bright side, one whole page of the fugue is learned. Bad news, even though learned, it's drudgingly slow.

I honestly don't know how my lesson will go tomorrow, I don't think it would be beneficial to play through the entirety of things... I would prefer to use it as a guided practice session, but that's kind of a lot of ask of my teacher.
My teacher's reaction is what i can't predict, either he'll be very happy with the progress and bold step I took in learning the rest of these parts, or he'll see it as too little too late. I also see both sides of the coin.
At this point, I am glad, I feel that I'm on a good road to my recital prep.

What frightens me is that I just realized that I have three applications due at about the same time, when I thought some of them were due in Feb, it turns out they are due Feb 1'st and the other is on Jan 31'st.. ARGH!
I haven't even filled out the applications for Western or U of M.... I need to do that FAST!
I also need to print out three copies of this bastard portfolio, and then theres a CV i have to do, and also more letters of intent or whatnot... gah.
This is goingto be the month from hell, nevertheless, Reading week will not be far behind that, and I will NEEEED it. oooh, wedding in Vegas! yay!

Officially Home

I spent very little time at home today because of excessive running around, but I'm moved back in now. I must admit it is very nice to be able to use the internet and my mouse together at the same time again!!!
Practice tonight was very very productive, only Bach. I learned new things - the first halves of the passepied II and the Echo. I also pushed some tempo notches up in some key places, AND I finally got around to revisiting the Ouverture.. the massive 10 minute movement that has a giant fugue... Unfortunately, it won't be ready for thursday unless I ignore other things.
It's not good - I know that this is going to be a bad lesson: not enough done, and other things are slipping.
I had really wanted to have the Liszt ready for this lesson, but things arent so hbappy there... I learned 3 more pages which I hadn't previously touched, but that hardly makes up for the months since I worked on some of the other pages. At this moment, it just seems like I have too large a mountain to climb before thursday. The problem is that if I focus on doing things that will make my lesson go better, I'm not benefitting myself on the whole.
In the Bach alone, there are still 90 bars that I need to learn at the slowest tempo possible.... THEN I can start pushing it up...
The Liszt is getting there thanks to the other night's harcore work with learning those 3 pages, but parts I was supposed to work my ass off on long ago, eeep.I need to work my ass off on them now.... funny how things don't change with time...
The Beethoven- well the firts movement is still shitty due to leaving it alone... the middle two are good, but the march needs a lot more speed, BUT atleast I can achieve that from the state i'm currently in.. just needs the time and repetition.
The final movement, however... 170 measures to learn yet.. nevermind getting them up to tempo.

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day, a day of efficiency... who thinks I can learn 260 bars in a day...... any takers!??

Heres the plan, I work til 11am tomorrow, then I'll bus to the school and practice straight through until class at 2:30. I'll see how much I've accomplished by then, and then decide if I deserve to come home...I might stay and practice all evening, with a dinner break perhaps... but only if I've been good. I'll set myself a goal... no supper until I've at least learned the remainder of the Bach. no, wait, no class until I've learned the Bach, after that, no supper until I've learned at least 80 bars of the fugue.. maybe 104, might as well learn the whole fugue... then that leaves the fed Michael only 67 more bars of the piece.
I TOTALLY think this is feasible, don't you?

YEEE HAW!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts on a month nearing its end

Today is my last night condo-sitting for Binky.
I took a fair chunk of my stuff to my house yestereve just to lighten the load for tomorrow.
I enjoyed living on my own for this month, but I realized that I'm not as much a loner as I thought I was (or wanted to be). I found it more difficult to be productive in Jade's appartment by myself. For some reason it's easier at the school, even if I know there's noone else there. And for all intents and purposes, practice rooms are isolated, so I don't really have an excuse, but ya, that's just the way things are.

In other news, I played for the professional company this morning and I don't think it could reasonably have gone better. After the first exercise, the teacher pointed out how lucky they were to have me there because I outlined the phrases so clearly. She gave out a few compliments to me during the class, and I ended up feeling like I was back in that awkward stage of growing up:
-the stage where you long so much to feel validated, so when you actually are, you overcompensate by pretending not to care-
I wasn't so bad as to ignore the comments, but I definately had to surpress that smile from ear to ear that I wanted to give out.
The class was also beautiful even just in the exercises themselves. These were all professional dancers who had spent the years in training building the movements and technique.
Anyway, the class was refreshing and an entirely positive experience.

So, I got a bit done on the composition last night, and I now have a lesson booked for thursday. It's later than I wanted to leave it, but I really can't be so picky.
I will be working every morning this week except for my lesson day on thursday. The contemporary dance company in town called and asked me to play for company classes this week. I am excited because this is a great opportunity. For as long as I've worked for the Ballet, people always have thought that I played for the actual ballerinas, and then they would mask the dissappointment when I told them I only played for children and students. For once, I will be playing for professional dancers. The work itself will not be any different, but the context will be. In a way, it's more intimidating... much more actually... and add to the situation that this will be the first time that the artistic director will actually be hearing me play, it's like an audition.
Anyway, I'm not going to think too much about it. Tonight Im going to practice at the school, I need to at least touch the Liszt, as I haven't in such a long time...hmm, maybe I should cancel my lesson and work thursday... but that would just be avoiding the situation.
I will also do some practice improv in the modern style tonight. I'll force myself to do different phrase structures... thats one of the hard things for me.. to play with phrases other than 8's.
So ya, enough talk, off I go!

I'll be sure to post about how tomorrow goes...
oh ya, and I'm only living at Binky's for 2 more days... I'm moving back home on tuesday. I'm going to miss my new cat friend.

So, I went to the casino with my sister and parents last night. Heather and I played the blackjacktable to practice up for Vegas! I did well and won a bunch of blackjacks right when I sat down. 3 in the first 8 hands! I went to the casino with nothing and left with 45 bucks... mind you my mother and sister both gave me 20 bucks to gamble with.. the moral is: it pays to be a poor student!
The funny thing was that there was the same cranky man at my table as was there when I went last time with Chris and Jason in the summer. He's still as cranky as ever, and he was lecturing me nonstop about the mistakes I was making by not playing according to standard technique or whatnot. Bastards.. there was also a lady making comments about how I was stupid.
They almost succeeded at ruining my fun, but of course they wouldn't actually be able to do that.... Anyway, I played for longer than anyone else in my family and I only actually put 20$ on the table, from there I was just playing off of winnings and that original money.
I'm gonna go back to the casino probably once more before I go to Vegas so that I can brush up on my (apparent lack of)skills.
Today was back to ballet day. Long days always feel longer after a holiday.
I think I'm going to practice piano tonight for a bit, after 6 or whatever hours of playing today, I don't think I will be able to physically practice for a long time, but I should aim to get a bunch accomplished.

Also, I can't get a comp lesson until thursday. It's a little distressing considering how little time I have to finish this piece, but I guess it gives me more time to get as much done as I can on my own. In theory, the more I have done on my own, the more I will get out of a lesson...

tought first day back

haha, not really, but I like complaining.
The bad part was the 9am lesson. In order to make it more tolerable, Chris and I went for back to school breakfast at 7:30 at the pancake house! yippee!
it was delicious, BUT pancakes fill me up soooo much and make me feel overfull the whole day, especially when I had them also for lunch...
Lesson went pretty well. David was understanding about the lack of practice time because of the building being locked. He was happy with the work I had done on the Bach and the Beethoven, and he mentioned that he wants my entire recital learned at tempo with the book by the end of the month... at least that gives me something to aim for.
There is still a lot of the Bach that I have yet to learn.. never mind get to tempo. Anyway, I have soo much time to devote to practicing now.. no more class on monday and wednesday, I have to change my composition lesson day to not-monday, that way I don't have class at all that day... but I do need to go to recitals, so maybe it would be best to keep it that way for now...give me some motivation to actually come to school.
My actual class today bored me to tears. The course, though, will have a fair bit of work this term... eep. Oh well, I can managae with only one course that requires homework.
Cantata was cancelled today and next week, always a good way to start off the year.
It was good to be back. I'm excited to get back into the swing of things soon enough!

Mmm, New Year's Day Dinner = yummy
also good is coming to St James while my parents were out and about today to practice. I also practiced for another hour and a half after dinner. I did o.k. with being efficient and productive with my time. I won't lie and say that I was good, but I revisited the Beethoven movements that I had been ignoring. They're not in great condition, but they're also not in terrible shape.

Now, I'm just waiting for my laundry to dry.
I'm listening to the slow movment of Beethoven's Archduke Trio. On David's advice, I've been listening to a fair bit of Beethoven's music ca op.100 to try and understand the slow movement of the sonata I'm playing. It's very slow and short and it's actually challenging my musicality.
Go here to read quite a good write up on the sonata itself. If you don't want to go, here's a short excerpt that I think describes the challenges ahead of me:
"The work’s wonderfully romantic opening movement has attracted many a would-be student but, time and again, the ensuing difficulties, both technical and musical, have deterred all but the most stout-hearted. To this day, it is regarded as one of the least accessible of Beethoven’s piano sonatas."
I am really enjoying learning the piece because of the challenges. Usually, my only challenges lie in the technical elements of pieces that I'm learning. Its wonderful to actually have to do something to understand/portray the musical and expressive elements of a piece.
Anyway, I won't blab on too much.
Tomorrow is my last day of not doing much. On wednesday the school is opened again and I will have to do lots of practicing that day as well as I have to take my scores to be bound for the UAlberta application.
Oh, when I get home tonight, I will have to do some serious work on the choral piece. I did have one day where I made a lot of progress, but that was not enough. I need more more more!

Happy New Year!

Overall it was a delightful evening. Hats off to David for hosting a very nice evening.
Food was good and the company was good!
Arrival was less than perfect... Finding the house on the end of the street, I needed to turn around to be parked the right way... I got stuck in the middle of the intersection. A few people tried to help me, but I said I was having fun, so they shouldn't worry. I ended up deciding that the only option was to park accross the street from his house... which made sense except for the fact that it was a fairly lofty snowbank. I backed up to get a running start, and plunged myself nicely into the snowbank - thinking it was logical that if I could get in easily, I should also be able to get out easily.
FastForward 7 hoursish to departure time, and we disprove that naieve little theory.
Hats off also to Chris for pushing me out and having patience. I had fun getting out of the snowbank, but I wasn't the one out pushing in the snow... THANK YOU SUNSHINE!
Touques off to Mother Nature for being pleasant temperature lately, although she went a little overboard with the snow.
It was funny earlier today to see the end of what must have been a rushed/frustrating attempt to budge someone's car. He has half in an intersection causing some fuss. There were a few people trying to push, unsuccesfully. In the end, there was a truck behind and he used his bumper to push the car into the intersection and into motion. Unfortunately it didn't look/sound like a damage free assistance, but people do what they have to do. It seems that fender-benders are commonplace in Winnipeg in the winter. It's silly that bumpers are made so finniky these days. Yes, they're safer in the smaller amount of cases where more is at risk (high speed collisions) but the majority of their use is in protecting from minor bumps and scrapes to the body of the car... it's frustrating when pulling a little to far forward or backwards can result in you having to replace a whole bumper at ca.1000$ish. I guess you can't put a price on the value of a life that can be saved... BUT you can put a large profit margin on the amount that autobody places yank in over the winter slippy-slidy season!
Anyway, it's a new year and it should be a good one.
Yuck to the fact that I only have three more days before school starts up again.. pretty much in full motion right away. I seem to recall my teacher saying that a recital should be prepared 2 months before the recital date... well that would be in just over three weeks from now.. so that's not looking too promising, but maybe if I set that as my goal, that little failure won't be so dissapointing, and it will prepare me better for a much more reasonable goal of one month before...
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Last Day of the Year

Tonight is a night of celebration.
Another year gone by.
In the new month, everyone in the provice of Manitoba will be heading to their local autopac retailer to renew their driver's license. It seems kind of ridiculous to have EVERYONE renew at the same time, seems like it would be a nightmare for the people doing the paperwork, but I guess that's their perogative. I think it's silly. I prefer to think that they think of me every year on my birthday and send me a birthday card in the form of a license renewal form.

I hope Binky's car will move today. When I parked it last night, it was not happy with the snow and it's a pretty pitiful car in the snow, so I gave up on parking properley. I should really move the car soon. I have to go to the pharmacy and get stuff for a potluck salad.

Looking back on this year, what do I see?
It's been a year of monumental changes in my plans for life and direction and whatnot. Sure, it could be a year of transition. Now I feel that I am firmly footed on the road to becoming a composer, whereas the year before, I was still under delusions of being a pianist by profession. Not to say that was wrong, as I will still most likely make my money at a piano...
In terms of physical things, I see all the changes happeneing around me, parents retiring, sister getting married, friends moving away... It's excitign and inspiring to play some part in those people's changes.

Mumbly Mumbly, Im gonna stop talking so I can do the things I need to do today.

Well, I'm lucky that things worked out as well as they did for this month. I have discovered and made use of the 3 specific places where I can sit in order to make use of the wireless network available from Jade's appartment. They fact that they are not the most comfortable of places encourages me to use the internet less often; which is a good thing!
If I wasn't able to get wireless here, I would be stuck with dialup for the entire time. The university is in lockdown for all of this break from before xmas until the 3rd or 4th of January. I can't even get into the music building to practice piano. Luckily, I've been hampster sitting for Chris, and he has a piano that I've used a few times to practice. Unfortunately this is not enough. I can't practice for long periods of time on his piano, and I haven't gotten done anywhere near the amount of productivity in practicing that I had intended on doing over the break. Argh! It's an odd feeling to have; to want to be productive, but not really have the tools necessary to be productive.
I called the security office to find out just how locked the music building is... She said that they haven't let anyone in the building over the break. Only key holders are able to get in. I don't know if it's been like this other years, as I've always practiced at home on xmas break.
Anyway, it's frustrating to not have unlimited access to a piano. BUT, I've been able to make good use of the time I've had. I have the exposition of the Beethoven final movement learned as well as other random parts of the movement. I have also learned a few more movements of the Bach-French Overture. Unfortunately, I've been ignoring the Liszt, and all the other movements I had learned early on... well those are not in such great shape... Once I have better access to practice space, I'll be able to get things underhand again... unfortunately, my lesson is on the first day back to classes, only a day after the school reopens. Nevertheless, I still have a bit of time before then, so I'll make sure I have enough stuff ready for a good first lesson back!
I tried to grocery shop today... I only needed a few things, but I ended up spending far more than I should have... oh well, it was my PCPoints money! And I still have 15$ worth! In the end, I have lots of deliciousness to show for my grocery experience... I really don't think I would have strayed from my original budget had it been actual money I was spending, but it's still a valuable learning lesson. Seeing how my finances probably won't be good next year, I need to start learning those lessons soon.

I ended up going to my house to print out the recipe for chocolate chip cookies using my new flash card. Everything worked out for the best!
I spent most of the day working on the composition and I actually got a fair bit done. I had been trying to write out the structure of the piece on regular paper, but I wasn't able to imagine how it woul dbe in musical time. What I changed was that I started to write it out on manuscript paper. It's helped put things in perspective. It also forced me to make some decisions about specifics that I hadn't needed to specify when it was just in my head or on the regular paper.
It also points out some of the other questions that I will have to answer as I continue. I'm excited as it's starting to come together. I've been running some of the things through the choral synthesizer in my head, and they sound pretty cool.
Nevertheless, I haven't actually progressed further in the structure of the piece, but it's coming along, and I think now I will beable to be more productive when I sit down to work at it in the future... let's hope that I'm over that pesky writer's block thingy...

In other news, I just finished watching Rain Man in french. I have to say it is one of the finest movies ever made. Incredibly touching and fine acting! Funny and serious all at the same time, WUNDERBAR!!!!!!

I actually went out into the Boxing Day Blitz and bought myself a FlashDrive. It holds 2 gigglebytes and can plug into any USB device... or so I thought...
The computer needs to be relatively new to be used as a plug and play type device... as in Binky's ghetto Windows 98 desktop won't recognize it... and I can't connect my laptop to her printer... argh. Oh well, I have the file I want printed and I can now carry it around my pocket cause this thingy is so small. Like, the size of a key. I'll print it when I am next around a non-stone-aged computer... pachaw.

I fed a hampster today, his name is Leroy.
I have permission from both the owner of the hampster as well as the cat to put the hampster in his ball so that the cat can chase him around because it would be funny...
I'm wrestling with whether or not it is morally wrong: I have concluded that it would be wrong to do it for solely my enjoyment... BUT if I could share that joy with someone else, it would be less wrong. If anyone out there can make videos on their phone or camera so that I can put it on my computer, let me know and we can have a fun time!

In other news, my gum surgery areas have healed very nicely; the second side nicer than the first. Nevertheless, there are still bastard stitches in the left side, making brushing and flossing a little uncomfortable... I have to wait til the 9th of Jan to see the surgeon for followup.. if they haven't dissolved/fallen out on their own by then, he will not have a happy camper on his hands.... most likely, I will be on his chair... HAHAHA!

Today on TVtropolis, it was the Married with Children Marathon! I can not express how much happiness this has brought me. Also, my mother bought me the first season of Arrested Development today. Likewise, happy.

BAH, still, little/minimal productivity has been achieved on the choral piece. I don't know what the problem is. I will continue to try. I hate stagnancy and procrastination... yet they come so naturally to me!
I think that is all for the moment.

Merry Christmas!

The weather is just beautiful out!
I stayed up til 4:45 am last night knitting thongs for fun friend Fi. And also one for her friend Erin who also made a special request yesterday. They turned out pretty damned good. I get better each time I make them... I now consider myself the world's best thong knitter.
Anyway, Tonight is dinner with momma and poppa.
Last night was the annual Christmas Eve get-together at Grandpa and Aunt Jean's. It was rather enjoyable to see the young generation running around and getting all the attention. I thought out loud that that used to be myself and Heather as the two youngest of the family.. then I realized that, while I was the youngest up until 5 years ago, it was over 19 years ago that Heather and I were that age... and then I felt old. But a good kind of old, mature and priveliged to have reversed roles.
Yes, I think after dinner we might be going to see a movie... it's always amazed me that the theatres remain open on xmas day.. so I like going to take advantage of that.
Happy Holidays to everyone!

Christmas is different this year. Not in a bad or good way, just different.
I remember years ago, my sister was wanting to move to England and I had been planning on going away for music school... i guess that would have been about 4 years ago.. My mom was very upset at the idea that it was going to be our last Christmas together.... well, since then we've been able to have another 3 together, and one this year, if you count it being a week and a day early...
Anyway, I guess you can never predict how things are going to change, you just have to wait and then embrace those changes as they come about.

Today I spent the afternoon with my (soon to be) Brother in law. He was on his way to Montreal, with a 6 hour layover in Winnipeg. We went out for lunch, found him some earphones for the flight and just hung out for a bit. He's such a good guy, a welcomed addition to our family.

Frustrating - I have some kind of mental block that is preventing me from being productive on this choral piece... I'm having issues even opening the book I have the ideas written in...
On another front, piano practicing has been making good progress... I have made a good chunk of development on the last movement of the Beethoven, and I have a complete pair of dances from the Bach - the Gavottes! with that and the openning... only about 8 more movements to go....
So ya, the choral piece... once I've written this post, I'm going to forcibly opent he book and try and do soem work.... but ya, I'm not sure if I'm having doubts about the piece or the idea behind it or if I'm just ;azy, or if it's writer's block.... Regardless of the cause of my stagnancy, I know I don't have the luxury of sitting back and watchign the rest of this month fly by - then I would be in another rush to get this piece done by the next due date... argh!
Im looking forward to my self-imposed non-conceptual music writing experience which will be the rest of this year. I definately need to focus more on the strictly musical elements of composition. Just pure music, simply aural exploration. With these 2 most recent pieces, I've spent considerable amounts of time thinking about structure and concept of the piece before I've even thought about the application or use of notes, rhythm, phrasing....
I think I'm going to do a piece for full orchestra as a piece of absolute music. Not to say that it is going to be dry, technical music; there will still be concepts to be explored, but the scope of those concepts will not venture into the extra-musical.

Bah, now it's time to write a piece for choir... of sorts...

Go Here to watch a Wierd Al video.
I used to be obsessed with him when I was growing up.
Now he has written a song called "I love my pancreas" in Beach Boys Style, ish.
It's a little random and not his finest work, but nevertheless, it is something with which I identify.

I've sort of been inserting diabetes info for a while now... apparently the UN has recognized Diabetes as as big a threat to world health as epidemics like AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis.
It's scary, but the good thing is that with this little bit of international recognition, more focus will go towards prevention and proper diabetes education in developing countries! (Yay, world!)

current mood: not angry, not sad; utterly dissapointed and bummed out

Nobody likes waking up to bad news; if you let it, it can ruin your day.
Today my dad called me and then the mail arrived so he asked if he should open and read a letter from U of M Grad studies. I said yes.

It turns out I didn't even make it past the first round for the SSHRC(17,500$ scholarship for grad studies). I'm not too surprised, while I was going through the process, the lady said she wouldn't accept it more than a few days late because she had far more applications than normal, and they always have more applications than they can put forward. As a result, mine was not one of the applications they decided to send forward to the National committee.
What the scholarship would have meant was that I would have the financial freedom to go to any university that would accept me, regardless of other scholarships.
Now it means that I will have to a) make a lot of money this summer and save it well and b) make my decision of a school to attend based a lot more on money. In the end, I might actually have to take out a loan in order to attend grad school.
Actually, I have been lucky to be finacially afloat nearing the end of my undergrad program, thanks to living at my parents and working hard during the summers.
I don't think this change will make any difference in my choice, but I'm disspointed that I won't be getting that free ride.
I now continue with the application process to the remaining schools and wait.
I'm waiting for 2 things:
1) that they think I'm even good enough to accept me into the program and
2) (doubtful) that I'm so awesome that they want to throw lots of money at me...
I'll stay realistic, this is Canada...even if they want to give me money, it will only be enough to cover tuition... I'll have to come up with my own money for living and whatnot.... geez it's almost like I'm going to have to enter the real world and be accountable for myself.... yuck!


Anyway, I'm still excited about grad school. I just wish that this was either good news, or that they waited til after the holidays to inform me.... It sucks that they make you wait for the good news, but they tell you the bad right away!

I practiced tonight... I have a feeling that the music building is actually going ot be off limits for the holiday.... so I might not get to practice much this next while.... uh oh...
David was there teaching some of his private students - I caught him before he left. I brought up the topic of needing a piece for my second half jury... while it's not a pressing concern at the moment, I need to have one picked so I won't be in a total panic when my recital is finishing up and I realize I have a whole 10 minutes of music to learn in a short while...
He suggested some things to look up and whatnot but before I left he gave me a score and a recording which he just happened to have in the office. I'm so happy he did.. I think this is the piece I want to play... it's three movements, but the first 2 comes out to exactly the amount of time I need -about 10 minutes.
The piece is minimalist-ish, but not as repetitive as a lot of minimalist music out there....I'm not even sure I would classify it as minimalism... but it has a very static quality to it even amongst a lot of notes. Repetitive hand positions mean that it is not going to be a killer to learn, which is always a plus. Most importantly, it is gorgeous and just a tad heartwrenching (in a good way). A lot of the motives are things that I have used in some of my compositions as well as improvisation. That's not a big deal or motivation in itself, BUT it means that it will lie comfortably in my hands, and it will be musically comfortable in my head as well.
The moral of the story is that I think I've fallen in love already!

In other news, the condo is cold... it had been really hot/warm every time I came home, so I turned the heat down a teensybit, but I couldn't tell a difference, so I put it down quite a bit. It was perfect earlier this evening, but now that it's later in the evening and night time is usually colder, I am feeling a bit chilly.

I have lots of bananas, and they're all ripe.. I have a feeling they will be overripe before I get them eaten... I might have to take them to mom for baking purposes... ooh that couldbe good for Christmas day!!! Maybe Oscar wants to make a trip to St James on Xmas day... that would save me having to drive back and forth an extra time...
anyway, back to the bananas, it was kinda awkward.. I was leaving a message for Chris and I saw a banana sitting in front of me on the piano tonight and my thought process was actually:
'I have lots of those bananas at Binky's... they're getting ripe'... 'Chris lives close'...maybe he would like to help eat bananas... I should make the offer'..
So, on his voice mail I rambled about having lots of bananas, so if he had a craving for banana, he should call me..... but I started to laugh at how phallic the invitation could seem.

And, I'll point out how ridiculous I am by wasting that much of my blog space on bananas...
I bought small to medium sized bananas.. why?! I had the chance to get big bananas... actually they didn't have big banans at the store, and all of the bananananananas were fairly ripe anyway.... I should have just bought fewer bananas...
oh well.
Open invitation to all who enjoy bananas.... come here and I shall share.

All seems to be going well right now.
I did super well on my jury and I'm starting to make progress on the choral piece-ish.
I took my grandfather and great aunt for lunch today, it was nice to spend some time with them.
I got offered and accepted a TA-ing position for the second part of the 20'th Century Music course. That is wonderful A) it means a little extra money in the pocket and
2) I can now write that I will have some acdemic teaching/marking experience ... something that would have been better if I had it for grad school applications, but oh well.

Something I have been looking into lately is real-time or Continuous Glucose Monitoring. They have systems out that can test your blood for you over 200 hundred times a day and give you an amazing view of how your sugars react throughout the day. The problem is that this technology is extremely expensive. At present I am looking into seeing if I can get a trial use of the machine or something like that...
Gah, it's so frustrating for there to be technology available that I can't use, even though I know that it could greatly benefit my control.....
BUT, I bite my tongue... I have been doing a fair bit of reading lately on the state of diabetes globally. In developing countries, life expectancy with diabetes can be as little as 1 year, because the insulin and testing supplies are not even available in the most primative forms. This fills me with guilt for being in a have position in life, but in the positive, the most logical way of thinking of it is that, it is my duty and responsability to take the best care of mysef possible simply because great resources are available to me.
I need to head to my house tonight so that I can have a blank cheque ready to give to the school for this TA position. Who knows what trouble I will get into in St James...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Yay!
So, my sister won't be here for actual xmas, so we celebrated today.
We had brunch and stockings in the morning, then Heather and I went out so she could finish her xmas shopping... conveniently, I used this opportunity to both start and finish my shopping.
We were back by 6pm for dinner, and then we opened presents, which we weren't planning on actually doing today, but it seemed to make sense... that way we didn't have to really wrap everything... ok, I didn't wrap all my presents...
It was very nice. Theres still some stuff between my parents and me that we'll take care of on xmas day, but it was nice to celebrate some stuff together as a family today. I'm wearing one of the new sweaters I got today, very nice...
Anyway, Heather leaves tomorrow morning, so I'm going to hang out with her and Fi tonight. Tomorrow, I'll see if my Jury marks are ready, and I should also find out for sure if they are on break yet... other than that, I realized that the month is half over already... even more!! so I need to practice lots and get a healthy start on this choral piece due in January...
So ya, enough for tonight, later!

Happy last Ballet Saturday of 2006!

YAY!
I'm sitting at the twist, trying to eat my veggie burger with only half a mouth, in a fair bit of discomfort... I had the good sense to actually bring some Advil with me this week, so the tenderness is not bothering me as much as last week. Anyway, in theory that should be the last time I have to get that damned gum graft procedure done, and I'm glad to say that.
Hopefully, in about a weeks time, I will be feeling AOK.
I actually practiced last night at the school for a few hours. I learned a few very small snippets more of the French Overture, which is great! There are parts of that and the fourth movement of the Beethoven sonata that I haven't even touched yet, so it's my goal to have those learned at a minimal speed by the end of the break. From there, it will be just a matter of speeding them up and making sure I have the right character. I just don't like the idea of going to a lesson in second term and still not having learned my recital rep, even if it is only to some slower-than-slow tempo.
I'll be honest, there's a lot of stuff I still have to get to that minimal tempo stage of the game. David wants me to have a written out plan of attack from my first lesson in Jan up to having the recital prepared in early March. But, I need a starting point to work from.... and thats the point I mentioned earlier. I have to be able to play through the pieces at some tempo with some semblance of knowing what I am doing.
The first three Beethoven movements are acceptable and need tidying and speeding up over the break, and the Liszt, well there's some areas that need more work than others... of course. It's not yet at the point where I could play through it and make it seem like a musical entity.
In January, my dancer and I are starting with rehearsals. I had wanted to start sooner, but scheduling didn't allow for it. Now, we have found a time that will work and we are going to take advantage of that and we are both very excited to work together.
So in a heartbeat, my recital is faint at the moment, but it will hopefully get stronger with every beat.
Soon, my parents will both have retired, my mom is joining my dad in retirement as of Jan 14th or something. I am excited for them, and curious as to what kind of things they will be doing to keep busy. I assume it will be more of what they normally do on the weekends... but I don't think they can afford to do that much shopping and/or driving.
This is such a year of change for my family: Retirement times 2, my sister's wedding and I soon will be graduating and moving out and onwards with my life. Very exciting.
I am very excited that Heather and my friend, Fiona, has finally decided that she is for sure coming to Vegas for the wedding. It will be a wonderful time for partying. A couple of Heather's friends and a few of Gareth's buddies are going to be there, as well as my cousin who is about my age. This means that it's going to be a very young and hip wedding and good for partying and celebrating.
Heather said that on the night of her wedding (afetr the ceremony) all are invited to join them in a 4am blackjack toury! Late night and blackjack = MICHAEL HAPPY!
I am totally going to make millions of dollars in Vegas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, apparently my perceptions of my jury were not solely my own.
I just spoke withe my piano teacher, who had emailed me to congratulate me on an excellent jury. He said the other people on the panel were also impressed.
Yay me!

Dad's retirement was delightful. The food was good and the company was excellent.
It was great to hear so many people speak so highly of my father. As a family, we are all so proud of his many accomplishments. He holds the longest consecutive term on the exceutive of his union - 20-someodd years. And he also had a 29 year streak without taking a sick-day.
I got to see my great aunt Kay last night. She is 94 years old and was still walking on her own. When I told her I couldn't remember the last time I had seen her, she told me when it was, and what we did... It is always delightfully surprising to see her and how she still has all her wits about her. It was amazing to see her mingling with people and still able to recall details about everyone she talked with. Her secret... well not so much a secret, but she has a drink every night before bed.
My Grandfather won one of the silent auction prizes, of course.... as my mom says about people with good luck, which was appropriate at the race track where the dinner was held, he must have horse shoes up his butt!
The silent auction tickets were sold and all the profit went to Winnipeg Harvest, raising over $500 for my dad's favourite charity!

Anyway, it's almost time for me to take Binky's car to the autopac claim centre! then who knows what kind of fun I might have....

Wow, I was pissy last night.
It turned out my sister had gone home and passed out, thus pissing off more than just me.
This morning I got a phone call from the other friend who I had complained about last night. While I was initially pissy due to the morning thing, the sincerity of his apology was nice and I tried to convey to him that I was just in a very pissy mood the night before. I hope that came across clearly, but if not.. I really shouldn't have been such an ass on my blog.
I think I'm going to give up figuring out why I get pissy like that. I had gone out for a nice dinner with family that hadn't seen recently and it was a nice time.
Anyway, Jury went well. In fact I think it was some of the best playing I've ever done. I didn't say goodbye to the prof who is leaving, as it didn't seem appropriate within the context of the jury, although I did nearly wear a plastic tiara into the hall... She will be back to hear some of her student's recitals later this year. So hopefully I will see her then.
Lunch today with Aunt and Mom and Sister, it was nice. Tonight - Retirement Party!!!!!!

Looking at my list of recent calls on my cell phone, I realize that the overwhelming majority of incoming calls are from either work, my parents, or wrong numbers. A friend of mine did call tonight, but oh ya, they were looking to get ahold of my sister, not me.
This is not new news, nor it is surprising, I am well aware that I rarely get calls of a social nature.
Anyway, at what point are you supposed to stop calling people? With a couple friends lately,I've been making the attempt to get in touch, and it seems like I'm just wasting energy. I'm left with the feeling that I am putting to much effort into chasing after friends who probably don't actually want anything to do with me. The bad part is that I know I'm not ready to stop trying. It's quite possible that if I didn't make any more effort, I could make it this whole month without any contact outside of my parents.
I saw a tv show the other day and there was this character who was all excited for his second date with this chick and he's talking to everyone about it and then when he can't get ahold of the girl, he ends up going over to her place and having the landlord open her appartment because he's worried that somethings wrong.... when they open the door, she's there and replies to his concern with "I just thought you could take a hint".
how much longer am I going to be the pathetic guy who doesn't actually realize that noone wants to be his friend.

In conclusion, I was ditched thrice in one night - well, I had plans with one friend, who I can't get ahold of, and then both my sister and the other friend who was looking for her were supposed to call me when they had made plans.


Anyway, on to better topics, I have a half-jury tomorrow and I'm pretty prepared for it. It will go fine, and more than anything, I'm excited because after it's done I will be able to start working on other repertoire again. This probably wont be such a good sounding thing as of tomorrow evening, because it's been a month since I've touched any of the other stuff, and longer since I've worked on some of it... .so it will be pretty shit-tacular, waiting for me to relearn it!!
Why did I say tomorrow night... I won't touch piano tomorrow after my jury, it's my dad's retirement tomorrow night, so that will be my evening... unless I go practice after dropping off my grand-dad and great aunt.
Hmmm, what else, oh, tonight was dinner with my family, including my sister and aunt from BC. They both flew in today for Dad's retirement. We went to one of our regular restaurants that we go to. It was nice, and entertaining as my sister had been drinking since 3 in the afternoon.. she was tanked!
I just realized that one of profs on my Jury tomorrow is not going to be back next term because she's going on sabatical, therefore I will probably not see her again before I leave... possibly ever. Not that we are particularly close, but I like to have closure with profs and whatnot... I will have to remember to say goodbye tomorrow.
but for now.. goodbye tonight!

Enjoying my new life

My cat friend, Oliver, and I are getting along well enough. I'm worried, he hasn't shat this afternoon. Normally, I'm not one to worry about my friend's bowel situations, but Oscar has a predisposition to shitting on beds and other areas when things are out of the normal. When Jade brought him to her Dad's in Saskatchewan for our road trip this summer, he made a sport of doing his business on his bed (only twice, but there was definate malicious intent). Anyway, I'm making sure he's kept out of the bedroom as 1) she has a beautiful bed and b) I'd say that Oscar being left in his home with some random guy is out of the normal for this kitty.
Aside from that, he is a very handsome cat and his antics keep me entertained from time to time.

I had a short lesson / run through of my Haydn today. The results are that the Sonata hasn't gone to complete shit since my lesson 2 weeks ago. He had some suggestions and he was happy to say that it was in good condition. I'll fix up some of the things, and it will be stellar on thursday. Distracting - the a and b keys (bottom of the bass clef) were sticking today, and it was driving me crazy. I think I held it together rather well, considering the severity of the sticking, but it definately screwed me up quite a bit. I know realize that it must have been the reason that the guy in the lesson before me had been sitting at the other piano...
Thursday is going to be a long yest wonderful day. I have Jury at noon, and then I will be completely done with Haydn!! That evening is my dad's retirement.
Bittersweet - I can drink on these antibiotics BUT I'm a DD, driving my grandfather and great aunt. Nevertheless, I will enjoy the evening and be sober to support my father on this momentous occasion.
Also, not drinking is wonderful on the pocketbook!
So, to correct something I had previously said... I do have wireless internet here.... although it is not technically jade's nor mine... I can only get it at the very edge of the bedroom here, so not the most convenient.. but beggar's can't be choosers. I can also hook up my computer or use Jade's for dial-up if I don't feel like struggling to find the sweet spot for this connection.
Anyway, now it's time to watch tv and knit!

moving day

for those who may not know, I'm housesitting for the next month, so I will be in south St.Vital til Jan 8'th.
Today I'm driving my firend to the airport and then taking over her life for a month.
due to dial-up internet, I will have limited resources, but I guaruntee that I will make the most of it with blogging and update you on christmas holiday adventures.
At this moment, I'm running around the house trying to find all the things that I know that I'm going to forget here, but at least it's only half an hour away, so i can easily come back for anythign I left behind. Diabetic supplies are all packed and as soon as I'm done this, the computer will be put away
anyway, enough rambling..
toodles for now!

And they're off!!!

I just bound my scores for Auskultu Bonvolu and then took it and the other pieces and the audio cd and the coverpage and the Assistantship application and put them all in an expresspost envelope and sent it!!! it cost me 11$, but I think it was worth it, it will arrive at McGill before the deadline!!!
Now, I officially shift my focus to the Haydn for my half jury. It's been too long since I actually practiced it... I've played through it every couple of days to make sure it's still there.... and it's gone a bit downhill, BUT thats what the days between now and thursday are for. My mental and structural memory are secure, but my fingers sometime want to go to the wrong place ; easily fixed by repeating it properly... AKA PRACTICING!!!
All day tomorrow will be that! monday is going to be a little silly because I have to drive Binky o the airport so I can move into her place while she is in Germany for the month.. but then on, I'm super close to the university so I won't have a problem finding time to practice!

ooops, I published that a little ealry, anyway, I went to a social for dfun times tonight!
I danced a bit an d drank a bit and had a wonderful time!

we requested my theme song ; Private Dancer, by Tina Turner....
but then it was skipping so they stopped it, then I was anrgy, but then I wasn't so much angry anymore because I drank and then ate some coldcuts and bread and mustard (all combined into some kind of "sandwich form")

The moral of the story is that as the evening developed, I drank more and therefore danced more and had more good time. There were no strippers for me to dance with this time, so I had respectable dancing fun!unlike other socials at the same location...

FI and I predrank tonight and I knit whilst we did that.

Also, I got a bandaid for my cheek (it's winny the poo) so I have pooh on my face. My mouth is tender, so ouchy, but ya, the good thing is that liquor + this antibiotic = not a bad time! yaya!

i'm excited for monday, I move to my December home - housesitting for Binky, although it means less interent access, it will be fun, .. time with kitty.

OK, update on progress, I finished printing out my ensemble piece tonight, binding tomorrow and posting it in the mail tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's going to be complete as of tomorrow afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't even explain the excitment I have for this to be in the mail!

holy schmoley, it's been too long since I had been drunk, and tonights the night to recitfy that litte porblem!

What an upsy-downy day!

I had my gum surgery today! Well, part of it... I had the worst area taken care of today and next week I will have the 2'nd worse area. The best part was that we found out the other day that the procedure was covered 90% by my dad's Blue Cross, if only we had more time... oh well. In other words, the finances of this are AOK!
The freezing itself was a little painful on the inside of the gum, but oh well. It was an awesome sound to hear him slicing open my gum... although it took much longer than I thought... The sewing up of sutures took the longest of anything. The freezing was wearing off while he was suturing up the actual graft, and I began feeling sore while I was still there.
So, he gave me T3's which I won't need to use as the bad pain and soreness is already faded. I also got an Rx for antibiotic... but it doesn't say anything about avoiding alcohol while on them... so yay! ALthough I will stay away from excess.
I TOTALLY handed in my orchestration final assignment this morning, well before the due time (almost an hour before...) that means, I'm officially done all academics for the term!!!
AND considering that Piano Ped is barely an academic course, I'm done academics for my undergrad!!! I thought about it and the only classes I have next term are Ped and Cantata on Thursdays. I have Comp seminar on Mon and Wed, but I don't get a mark for that..... Fridays I have New Music Ensemble, but that's totally not academic. It'll be great, I'll actually have the time to learn my piano music and even do some composing at the same time!
Last night I started to print out the scores for the ensemble piece, but I ran out of paper...so I bought some on my way home today and this afternoon I will finish them...
Speaking of... I HAVE A TITLE!!!!!!!!!!

"Aŭskultu, Bonvolu"

It is Esperanto for "Listen, Please". I was going to call it "Ecoutez, s'il vous plaît", but now looking back, the french is too polite, in a way. s'il vous plaît means 'if it pleases you' which lacks the directness of the Esperanto version. Both of the words in the esperanto one are in the commanding declension, which gets the idea across better! Also, Tiffy pointed out that the idea of the international language of peace matches better with individual lines which are reinterpreted by instuments who are not natural speakers of that type of line.... Amazing how adding a title to something can add a layer of depth... eh!?
All is well at the moment!
I also remembered to call and book off the evening of my dad's retirement from contemp, so I can actually attend (a minor oversight in the grand scheme of things).

ANd now to be productive!

So, I'm pretty sure I have the best piano student in the world!
Not because she practices every day for hours and then remembers everything that I tell her in lessons.... rather, she bought me liquor! Bailey's and Kahlua and Wine!! Oh what a wonderful day!

In other news, today was the last day of classes! yay! Only assignments to do now.. but I don't have to be bothered to actually go to the school for daily events! yippee!

I took my ensemble piece and the performance notes to the head of the composition department today. He looked at my piece and helped me do some editing to make the instructions clear as a bell(I hope). It was super duper! great suggestions and ya! Just some rewordings to do and then I can print it out and it will be ready!

Phew!