well well well, I'm back for a short while!

Just for 2 days and a bit: enough time to catch up on emails, buy some stuff I need, and see the people that I don't get to see when I'm out in the middle of nowhere. Speaking of.....
I am really enjoying my work. When I am not playing piano on weekends, my job duties are incredibly varied. I am doing some retail work with which I am very familiar and comfortable. I have also entered the food service industry as both a bartender, waiter, and extremely short order cook which is new work for me, but I'm learning quickly and am comfortable enough with the work. On the other hand, I've been doing a little bit of manual labour, reminiscent of last summer; and I've even worked as an exterminator.
The work certainly is varied enough to keep me interested. I quite enjoy being a do-it-all kinda guy; a jack of all trades (master of none).
The people out there are wonderful, a great group of coworkers who make work enjoyable. Not just the coworkers, but my bosses (the owners of the lodge) have been wonderful, and they've made me feel at home and very welcomed. It sounds corny, but it's like I'm part of a family there, which is a nice thing when I'm away from friends and family in the city.
Aside from the people and the work, it's gorgeous out there! Everynight I'm treated to a beautiful sunset over the lake. My cabin is within a boot's throw of the lake, and knowing how I throw, that sure is close. Speaking of the lake... I went swimming, it's cold... very cold! But it was great and refreshing and wonderful. Soon enough it will be warmer in the lake, and I will be able to go swimming daily if I want.

While I'm up there, I have no internet access, but you can get ahold of me by my phone or voicemail or text messages. The good news is that I will be coming into the city every 2 weeks. We're going to be doing a 10days on, 4 days off schedule, which should be nice. It will probably always be mon-thursday ish.
Anyway, I have lots to do over the next few days, so bye for now, but I hope to update before I leave again.. if not, see you around June 12'th ish.

goodbye world!

Goodbye,
Im now heading out the door, fully packed and ready to go!
have a great summer!
i love you all, except for some, butI sohuldn't tell yout hat I hate you, momma always said "if you dont have anything nice to say, shut the fuck up!"

it's almost go time!

last minute packing... I tried to get my paycheque this morning, but there was noone in the office... so I don't know if I'll have time to go there again...eep it's out of the way!, but I need the money.. especially if I need a deposit on the appt. or something like that... I don't have many socks, where have they gone?!? I think I might need to buy some on the way out, really! where are they!?! gah.... and theres nothing I like better than fresh new socks... mmmm so cozy! oooh there's excitement in the air. I actually read the newspaper today, I went for tea in the morning before trying to get my cheque, and I read through the Free Press. gah, I didn't like it.
One article was about how our Maestro was ineffective. He made it clear that he wrote it from a non-musician's point of view, and I can understand that. he said he couldn't teel the difference betweent he orchestra under different conductors, and that he never really changed the style of concert as he said was necessary, BUT, having a good conductor inspired the players in the orchestra... which seemed to be the problem when they... say... were on strike when he first came here... so he did fix that up... but now what's going to happen ... oh welllllll

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Wowzers,
time has just flown by this last little while... and tonight...
I'm glad my mom started helping me pack.. I totally lost focus, but ya, stuff still got done.... all thats left is the clothes, which I'll do tomorrow morning.
I need to get my paycheck from the contemp dancers before I leave... tomorrow is payday... so I'm hoping it will be ready in the morning... or that they won't hate me for wanting it first thing... because I need the money. Im going to wake up early to drive my mom to work, that way I will be awake and functional and actually be prepared to leave in the afternoon.
Alas, I should be off to bed, tomorrow is going to be a long day!

I bought a brita water filter and a whistling kettle!
I also bought veggies, so I won't get scurvey right away when I move away!
Gah, finding boxes was a bit of a hassle.... neither of the LC's had them, so I got a few from JackAss, and I still haven't really started packing... oh well. My mom's being very helpful!

Last day in the city

Tomorrow is moving day, which means that today is packing day.
I think I'm having to put everything I should have been doing over the last few days into today.... but packing is always best at last-minute... although I've only ever done it last minute, so that's good enough.
I need to find boxes to put things in. I need to wash lots of clothes today, then there's also the task of digging through the piles of clothes in my room to find my wardrobe for the summer. Shit, I really have no idea what to take, should I take a CD Player or not, and if not, should I bring cds incase theres a cd player up there? Should I bring my keyboard, will there be room in Deena's car, do I care to have it? How many towels do I need to bring?...if I use them after a shower, they're still clean then, so I don't really need to 'wash' them persay....
I'm still wondering.. he said there were pots and pans and stuff like that, so I'm wondering exactly how furnished the appartment is. I'm hoping there will be an iron.
Anyway, it's not too important to worry about these things now, my parents are coming for the Mother's day brunch, and they will be able to bring me whatever I realize I need once I get there, because we all know I'm going to forget something important.

I have a new friend!

For those of you worried about me being lonely and without companionship this summer.... Worry not!!
I bought a new friend today. He's fairly short, but he loves to smile and he will be a great companion. Fiona didn't get along with him today, but I think she's just jealous of my new friendship. I won't tell you much more because I'm going to make Deena wait until we get there before she can meet my new friend. One hint... he loves carrots!
Today was random errands and stuff. I bought new sandals and new shoes. I handed in the CD for the ballet dance and returned a library book to the Millenium Branch downtown. I think with those things done, I am stringless in the city; there's nothing left in the city that I have to worry before I run away for the summer. Everything else I have to do is to make sure I can survive out there.
I ordered what should be enough drugs for the summer, and the food will last for a while. Now it's just a matter of knowing what to take, and make sure I'll have everything I'll need without packing overkill. Anyway, bye for now.

Time is running out!

Today I sent out an email to a bunch of people to let them know where I'm going, so they don't get confused when they can't find me all summer. That pretty much puts me in official preparation mode. All the time I spend is either packing/cleaning or somehow preparing for my departure. It seems everyone I talk to, I'm explaining whats up for the summer, or spending quality time with them before I'm off.
Last night was a good night. We had the final concert of the year with the choir that I sing in. The concert went well, all things considered. Many people were under the weather, or for somereason not in good shape for singing. The concert was poorly attended, but I think the people that were there enjoyed the show. We performed Bach's Peasant Cantata as the closer of this all Baroque concert. People got a chuckle or two out of it due to one of our soloists who did a splendid job of bringing about the jolity and humour of the text... albeit not in an academically fitting Bach style.
After the concert, Deena and I dropped her car off at her place then I changed at my house and we went to Kyle's for his party.
At Kyles, there were the usual bunch of people. It's always fun to see people there. I wasn't drinking cause of Antibiotics and driving, that way Deena could.. and she certainly did! tee hee She is a very cute drunk, what with the rambling and random talking and commentary.
Another highlight of the party was the 'meeting' Jon and I had. We've been talking about a collaboration of sorts for a while. We both want it to happen, so we were trying to think of different ideas, but neither of us is particularly political, or has a major theme that we want to address in an artistic piece... so that's getting in the way. I think it might involve puppets!! or maybe some kind of artistic porn...
I'm going to do the music and Jon will do the visual aspects of the project. We're thinking a video.. but who knows. I'm going to email him now, i think.
The low point of the party was at the beginning.
THERE WAS NO FUCKING SPINACH DIP!!!!!!!! All the dumbass cunts whowere there ate it all!!!! FUCKIFUCKFICIKKCIFIKCIUCKMIFUCK! I told him I wasn't going to be there til later and to wait to put it out... but no!!!!
ARGHS!
And I couldn't even drink my sorrows away due to the soberness of my evening. FUCK!
ANyway, that was the evening. I will be bitter about the Spinach Dip for a long time.

Academically successful year.

Wow,
I'm impressed with myself and partially surprised, but mostly proud.
This is the first year in my university carreer that I haven't recieved a mark in the B area. This is because, I am a straight-A student this year. Not only that, but I recieved two A plusses! Only two of my marks haven't been posted: major practical and chamber music, both of which are going to be A's.
I am very happy!
Today was super busy, but now I'm officially done with Ballet for the year. The senior level class that I play for on sat. mornings.... I'vr been playing for them for over 2 years now... and some of them are moving away and not coming back next year.. or not returning for some reason or another. At the end of the class today, I told them I was leaving for the summer, and they decided to maul me with a group hug. Poignant moment. More than anything, I was actually aware of my role as an educator today. I don't think you really notice that you're teaching people until they are on they way out, and you can look back upon what they have taken from you. This is not even necesarily what they can tell you they've learned:
(Story time)..........
When I started playing for this group of dancers, it was fairly unintimidating because they really didn't care what i played. They never really noticed if I made mistakes or stylistically wrong music choices; the musicality(or lack thereof) they showed was unwavering. Musical jokes that i love (such as hinting bluntly at well-known themes) passed by them completely unnoticed, If they didn't understand the accents in terms of the ballet movements, there was nothign that my music could do to help them.
Today, and this year, it has become a different story. Choices of music and style that I make actually do make a difference in their movements. A girl had been humming/singing "Somehwere over the rainbow", and when I slipped it into their developpé exercise, their was a quiet uproar of giggles.
....................(end story)
It was an incredibly rewarding day at the ballet. For the other class, I still have to rerecord the piano version of "You are my sunshine", as the counting wasn't quite what it should have been. Other than that, the teacher said she really liked what I did with the song, so I should just fix up the one section and it would be great.
AFter ballet, there was a dress rehearsal, which went fine, but it was tense because we might not be able to use the organ for the concert..... eek!
When I came home, I left again quickly to pick up my bound books of music.... finally all finished, so I'm happy enough. I tried shopping for sandals... but frick! 60$ for sandals?!? I think not!
I went to Cara's kickboxing fight tonight. It was great! unfortunately, her opponent didn't show up in town, so she did an exhibition against someone she knew. She was dissapointed, but I still think she was awesome.
Anyway, I'm so very very tired, I'm going to bed far earlier than normal, and I'm gonna love it!
I have SOOO much to get organised and done before I leave, and nowhere near enough time.

So this book slicing up and reorganizing task has proved more complicated and stupid and frustrating than I had planned... actually I knew it would be this way.
I took out of each book, the songs that I want to use. Now I am combining those 5 alphabetically... just a few letters at a time. Sounds simple, but remember that none of the songs are individual...and they rarely lack to a connection to another song - on the flip side of the page. Sometimes I am using the song, sometimes not. The big problem comes when I have a solid chunk of songs being used from one book spanning letters f-h, and then another chunk spanning e-i: so my alphabet goes A B C D E F G H I F G H J K L M.... and so on...
this problem occurs all over the place... so the alphabet is only going to be loosely represented here.. meaning that I will have some major troubles trying to actually find any specific song in my vast collection. Nevertheless, I will find a way, and yes, it will be fun.
Even just getting the book cut apart was a bit of a hassle. One of the places said they only bind the books from start to finish, so they wouldn't just cut it for me..... I was expecting that this had something to do with copyright laws, but no... apparently they just didn't want to help me out. Another place had a 24 hour wait on all jobs... even though it would have taken 2 minutes and I would have left them alone after that... but oh well, they didn't mind losing my business. The store I had called before said they did it.. so all was good, but I went to a differnet location which didnt have the cutter required... so I had to go to the location I called to get it done.
All in all, I will finish this organizing very soon and then take it to be spiral bound into two books this afternoon, and then I can worry about the other stuff I have to do before leaving.
For example:
I need to go to Value Village or elsewhere to buy more semi-respectable clothes so I look somewhat classy as the pianist.
Shit, I just remembered I need to record the music for one of the ballet classes for their end of year performance.
I need to figure out exactly what to bring, and start packing/ or at least getting organized.
I need to photocopy all the classical music I need to learn for next year so I dont have to lug the originals out there.
Eek, I know theres still lots more, but I can't think of it... I'm making a list. this weekend is so busy, I have things going basically constantly:
Tonight, going to an opera and then Nachos at Papa Georges.
Tomorrow, Work in morning, dress rehearsal in afternoon, then Cara's fight in evening.
Sunday, Concert in the evening, then Kyle's party at night.
I have to find time to record that piece SOON, cause ya, that's a necessity and I really should have had it done for tomorrow, but that's not going to happen, so oh well. Maybe I'll do a rough copy to double check the counts, and then record a better version later. ya, thats a plan.
Anyway, now realizing all the crap I need to do, I'm off to get doing it!

So, I heard back from the guy from the summer job today.
I asked him the main questions which were my concerns:
Practice time - I can use the piano in the restaurant 5 days a week between restaurant closing at 8pm and the lounge/hotel closing up at midnight. In theory, this will work out.
Room and board - I would live in a bachelor type appartment with a kitchenette, 200$/month.. so it's cheap. I have to pay for food... 35% off the restaurant food (at cost), but that's still costly, so I will try and live off groceries as much as I can. I really don't crave variety in my eating, so I think I'll do well with living off cheerios and peanut butter.
Wage - they offered me a starting wage of 12$/hr with a guaruntee of 40 hours a week. With R&B considered, its the same as a 8-9$/hr job in the city.
Random other considerations - if I don't have a car out there, I won't be spending lots of money on gas as I have been lately. I will become one with nature out there in the wilderness.

I'm going to treat this as a summer of cleansing. Over the years I have become lazy, overweight and less active mentally and physically by my own volition. I am going to exercise regularly and eat better. With the beautiful scenery and the lake, I'm sure I will have opportunity to go for walks and swim often. I am going to bring lots of books to read, varied books. I'm going to use books as my entertainment. I won't have tv or the computer, so lots of reading.... maybe I can encorporate the reading and the walking...

Investment / Frivolous spending ?

If you know me, you have probably at some point been subjected to my love of School House Rock. Today my love was taken to a new level. Let me tell you the tale.
I went to the music store to make an investment today... I needed more lounge music... and there was a noticeable hole in my "Best of the (insert decade here)" series... I had the 50's-70's.... so today I bought the 80's and 90's. So much more music.. and I'm actually more familiar with most of this stuff! I also found a discount rack and clearance bin... so I bought some other random stuff... mostly individual songs that I might be able to encorporate into my lounge act.... such as Britney's "I'm a slave 4 U" and so on and so forth... theres a reason they were on clearance....
BUT the highlight of my day was when what did I find in the discount PVM racks..... but the sheet music for selections from School House Rock.... thats right... I can go to "conjunction junction' anytime I want now... and I can consult "Lolly lolly lolly get your adverbs here" too! Actually conjunction junction is scored in the DVD for a really awesome sounding quartet of voices... I'm thinking next year at a noon-hour recital....
All in all, I spend close to 100$ on music today. If this job works out well, I can justify that to myself as an investment... if not... I'll cry myself to sleep tonight.... again.
So heres the thing.. I now have 5 books in the decades series... and I am only going to use about half the songs in each(at best). That could make for a large pile of music beside the piano....
At the same time... the binding of the books is done with glue... so they don't lie flat on the piano... meaning it's damned near impossible to play from them....................
::::::: Festival accompanying... David.... book closing.... argh..... eeep!!!:::::::::::::
My original thought was that I should have them rebound... simple enough... they just slice off the glue and then stick a coil binding spiral in it. BUT this is my plan-
I will get them to cut the glue bound bit off.. then I will take out just the songs I want... organise them alphabetically into 2 or 3 books that I can use rather than 5! Once they are organised, I can take them back to be bound together in neat books that will suit my needs quite nicely.
At the same time, it's going to be a fair chunk of effort on my part... right now, I'm figuring out which pieces I want to use from each book.... I'm discriminating based on whether I know the piece or not as well as whether or not it would be appropriate for background music.
Fun Fun Fun!

so, we realized today, right after the first afternoon class of musical theatre that today was my last day playing for those classes...
Next week, I miss my afternoon classes because of the dress rehearsal for a choir concert... and then the next weekend... I will be moving away!
It's all happening so quickly. I found a substitute for next week, but I'm still waiting on the final word to make sure that I actually am taking that job.... with that, I also have to find subs for the remaining classes of the year for all my ballet classes. The afternoon shouldn't be a porblem,. Im sure hte lady doing it next week can do it for the rest of May too...but the morning classes... eep, that could be hard... we'll just have to see what might happen.
I need to make a list of the stuff that I need to get done before I leave... but I need to talk to the boss guy to find out details.
I need to know what kind of stuff I need to bring.... if it's a hotel/lodge... I might not need to bring my own towels and that sort of thing. I don't know what the food scenario is.. is there going to be a place to cook there... a place to buy food? I need to find out about computer/internet access... not just to post on my blog.. but I also do banking on here AND I am going to have to do my Registration online too... and if I'm stuck out there til Sept long, then I will need to make sure that it's available.
Lot's of things coming in the time before I leave though.. so it won't be a bland time....

So, I was a little anxious about today. Today was the day I was supposed to call the factory back and find out if they would be hiring summer students. I was expecting that they were just taking their time, and I would have to spend today calling people trying to make sure I CAN acquire work doing music in the summer so I'd have things to do after working at the factory for a month.
No worries though.... turns out that the factory won't be hiring summer students at all this year. They aren't planning a heavy workload, and they won't need extra people even with people taking summer vacations. In other words... I don't have an option... while I had hoped to have an alternative option to moving away for the summer, I don't.
Now I just await the specifics from the Lounge Piano job and hope that it is worthwhile... cause even if it isn't.. I might have to take it anyway, cause there's even less worthwhile, in terms of making money, here in Winnipeg.
I shouldn't be so negative, this job will be fun and involve music... I just didn't want to have to work the entire summer. I wan't some time off to make room for random fun... eeek... anyway, I will have to make sure to get in all sorts of random fun related trouble between now and when I leave.
Every summer I can remember since high school.. I've done something wild and crazy on the spur of the moment, or I made it as spontaneous as possible..... New York, Chicago, last years random bus trip... I'm a little frightened to be tied down to a workplace... especially involving every weekend....
Oh well... new experience... new opportunities for fun!

So yes, I'm offically finished, and it feels great!
I have to decide on who I want to study with next year for Composition. My current prof told me I should put some thought into who I want to study under... he wanted me to feel free to chose from any of the three options. I had been planning on just continuing with him, mostly because I don't know what to look for in a composition teacher. Today I'm going to talk with one of the other profs and see what I think.
I had a meeting yesterday with a a musician who has a prominent position in the Dance world. I had booked the meeting a month ago, as part of my plan to get to know more about my options for working as a musician in dance. He outlined what I would need to do if I wanted to be a rehearsal pianist for a ballet company, the list was something like this:
Tchaikowsky: learn all the major ballets, learn prokofieff'z Romeo and Julliet, find another pianist to work on Petrushka and Right of Spring with, have a handful of piano concertos which you'll be able to play at the drop of a hat, any ballet that you know the name of... you should learn... and your sightreading skills should be equal to your normal playing skills.
Keep in mind that Swan Lake alone is about 200 pages in the reduced piano score.
He told me that it would be at least a 2-3 year venture to get prepared for that, but when I did... it would be impressive to go to any company and say that you could provide them with those services.
I voiced to him that it wasn't that appealing to me. It's not that I don't want to put in that hard work... but we were able to distinguish that, while he loved being an interpreter, I desire to be a creator. He was a little frustrated at the vaguety with which I speak... mostly because I wasn't specific with what I want to do..
He tried to get me to narrow down what I desire: I want to collaborate with modern dancers in a creative manner.
his response was that it sounds like I'm interested in composition.
Why is it that we often need to hear someone else say something about us before we realise it for ourselves?!?
I think, I've realised that i want to be a composer. Being a pianist will always give me the sense of direct collaboration with dancers.. and a practical hand at music always, but I don't think I'd ever be satisfied with interpreting music. Even in a ballet class, I will choose to inprovise music over playing off a sheet, anytime.
For the longest time, I've felt that improvising is somethign that anyone can do, and it shouldn't be a special skill that i have, wondering why other people don't do it. I think now that I originally (when I was a little tyke) would improvise because I had a creative spark and needed to explore that. There is no doubt that it has been improvising which has led me to look into composition, so maybe I do have an inherent compositional disposition.
ANyway, the big reason why I was hesitant about the program at Simon Fraser is that I wasn't sure if I was ready to basically stop being a pianist(ie stop taking lessons as a focus), but I think that I will be.
The ballet, yesterday, lent me a giant book with all the contact info of every school, company, choreographer, musician and composer in Cda, Usa, Internationally.. who put an advertisement in this book... it's huge! I'm going to go through it and find some contatacts and start asking questions.
theres enough rambling for one day.... off we go

maybe writing my Advanced Analysis paper and my Piano rep paper so close together and at the last minute wasn't such a great idea.... my piano rep paper was basically a detailed harmonic analysis... with intermittent comments about pianistic style... Nevertheless, it came easily enough to me. I actually really enjoy doing analysis.
The moral of the story is that I just finished and printed my piano rep paper off... meaning that I simply have to take it to the school and then hand it in and then play my jury, and then I'M FINISHED!!!!
I practiced last night, and feel prepared enough for my jury.... although I'm still congested and not in prime condition, but you know what... I will play well, just in spite of that!
anyway, i still need to shower and find some clothes for my jury today, then bus to the school.... I also need to fill in my rep log... fun!

2 down, 2 to go!

I just got back from the school where I handed in both my Analysis Paper and my Viola composition. I feel fairly relieved, but I still have work to do.
Tomorrow, I need to have my Piano repertoire paper done, and I have my jury at noon. This means I have to have my paper finished and printed tonight.. as I don't have a car tomorrow with which to do my running around.
I'm still not really feeling any better, and my nose burns from being overblown.
I'm looking forward very much to tomorrow, when everything university-related for me is done!
Anyway, just one more night of staying at home and getting work done, then its....
I really want to say "Party time" but thats a lie.. tomorrow night, and during hte day I'm sleeping !!!!!!

Holy moly, do I ever feel like absolute crap. I'm absolutely miserable. I want to die.
I could have been happy to sleep all day today, but I had my usual long-ass day at the ballet. It was long, and we had a family photo taken in the middle. So actually, the day went well, but I haven't been enjoying it. I have the devil/angel shoulder thing happening, where I really want to just go to sleep, BUT I NEED to have the analysis paper done for Monday, and the Piano Rep one should be done then too, but I think I can push the limit on that one a little more.
It's so hard to concentrate with the congestion and pounding in my head, but I'm gonna force some productivity out of me tonight, and then go to bed nice and early.
-ouch

WHat a day:
I was supposed to have an interview 2 hours out of the city, but when I called to double check in the morning, the guy was running behind and wasn't gonna be able to make it out there himself, so we had the interview at my house.
This morning, I was feeling icky from a cold/allergies, whatever, so I took cough medicine... it tasted terrible.. but not normal terrible.. my stomach gurgled... and gurgled then I looked at the expiry date --Feb 2004-- eek! by this time my stomach had made it's mind up... BLURGHSGHKGIYUSKHD
Pukey!! luckily all I had in my system was the litre of water I had drank before that.
Once it was out of my system, it was fine.. im just congested and blaghy anyway.
Back to the interview--
He had me play some different kinds of music, and he was impressed by everything.
Basically I have the job. He guarunteed me full time hours (plus), and he doesn't seem to be picky about what I do when Im not playing the piano. The only thing that he cares about is that Im there for every weekend -especially long ones- until Sept long. This is understandable, as resorts have their busy times at those times.
This musical work would be a delightful mix. For Weekend brunches, he wants relaxed upscale music- my specialty! Theres also evenings.. he said he wants some more upbeat music for the lounge/tavern....
This sounds like a super fun job opportunity... and I should be more excited...
I'm just not excited about not really having a summer with friends and whatnot. I would be moving away from the middle of May until the beginning of school. Theres also concerns like making sure I have access to a computer so I can make bill payments and register for school and whatnot.
Im pretty sure I've decided to do it, but I'm waiting to hear back from him about wage specifics and some more details, because let's face it, I'm there primarily to make money.
So yes, I will be moving away for the summer, BUT it's only an hour and ahalf away... so EVERYONE has to come up there and visit me... just think, you can come drink in the lounge/tavern while I play beautiful or fun music... and then in the morning, you can soothe your hangover over brunch with tender piano music gently carressing your aching ears!
OK! it's decided, I'm excited now.
Other things about today:
I finished my Viola composition. I made the changes and details requested by Sarah and by my prof, so it's good to go! now I just need to get it bound and we're set!
On that topic, yesterday I had great lessons in both composition and piano. my comp teacher said I have a flare for composing, and David told me I'm in 'good shape' for my jury.
Still to get done this wekeend are my two papers. The one for Analysis is the primary concern, as it's due date is more solid AND it is a more academically demanding paper. This one has me a little worried, but no, it will be good. I've devised, what I think to be, an exciting form to the paper which is creative enough to spice up the fact that it is a musical-analysis paper.
here we go!

Am I wrong, or did the term "stoked" not go out of fashion quite a while ago...?
twice in the last few days, I've heard/read people I know using the term..
I've always clumped that word in with surfer talk... like 'tubular' and 'cowabunga'....
tee hee hee, now I'm having flashbacks of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Anyway, maybe it's just the fact that I don't use a lot of slang, and when I do, it's in a mocking fashion.....
However, there was a guy I met through one of my friends who actually did use ALL sorts of out-of-date talk. He used the word 'rad' like it was going out of style... only, IT DID GO OUT OF STYLE -in the early-mid 90's! Anyway, this guy was too much to handle, and I feel he was the wayward influence of one of my afforementioned friends.
NOW-back to the real-world.
Last night I was totally PMSing (def: Pissy Michael Syndrome). I think I'm better now, but oy was I ever pissy and flustered and grumpy. Nevertheless, I got a few things done on my list of goals:
I finished(ish*) my viola composition! The other composition has been printed and bound. Today I hand in the bound copy to Fitzell and I am officially done with that one! yay, thats a good feeling!
*this is my first draught, today I have my lesson with Fitzell, and he will give me suggestions and tell me the things I have to fix, then I will fix them, print it, get it bound, and be done with it!
I practiced a bit last night. During the day I had worked on increasing speed in the Scarlatti. I did make it to the tempo that David told me to play it at, but it feels a tad out of control. I know this will go away with playing it over and over again, but I would have liked it to be more secure for my lesson today. The Rachmaninoff--eep, I just don't know. I went over the tricky bits to make sure they were secure in the fingers, so thats fine. I practiced the loud parts a little understated, and with lots of direction so that they build in intensity to the climax-I'm just feeling a bit uninspired by the piece lately; mostly because of the way I played it at CMC. Oh well, today I play for David and he'll give me the magic list of things to do before my Jury, and all will be well(i choose to not mention the work I'm going to have to put in because I have so much other work to put in elsewhere, but all WILL be fine!)