Whew. What a week and a half it's been! My orchestra concert was on December 5th, and it went quite well. I would share the links for the pieces that were recorded, but they happen to name my city, and I don't think that's a safe thing to be putting on the internet. If I figure out a way to have that NOT show, I will happily post them! Overall, I would say that all the orchestras played quite well, from the Youth Strings on up through the Concert Orchestra to my senior level Youth Symphony orchestra. Although the Shostakovich Festival Overture got a little bit away from our conductor, it all worked out rather well. I'm super excited for next semester starting in January when we get to play the WHOLE of Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony! I played the fourth movement at music camp a couple of years ago (not an arrangement either) and I had so much fun because I was on piccolo-and I get to play piccolo in youth symphony as well! There's a small streak in me that unfortunately takes some pleasure at getting to torture others with super high piccolo playing! Playing the piccolo, incidently is why I have a large collection of orange ear plugs.

Then, of course, there has been the wind-up of classes. Which for me, also means marking lots of basic skills exams and rudiments assignments. I spent much of tuesday marking basic skills exams from about 1:30 to 5something. I say 5 something because I have no clue...I was all 'skilled out. It got to the point where I would mark one exam and then put my head down on the library table, close my eyes and rest for a minute or two. That was when I decided to just stop, and I would finish them later after my final Intro to Ethno class. Oh, Intro to Ethno...we had a potluck...so between the chocolate bar I bought from a singer-friend as part of their fundraiser to go to Norway/Finland in the spring and then the chocolate things that several of us had made...I was not only skilled out but chocolated out!

I'll take a minute to explain another tradition at the faculty of music, called Kris Kringle-the music student's version of Secret Santa. In our case, we draw a name, and then put crazy tasks for them to do each day on the tree right near the main entrance. I ended up with my close friend's boyfriend as my victim, and let's just say I had a lot of fun :P. Mine certainly had some fun with me...one day, I found a note telling me to rock out to the music on the stereo underneath the tree. When I looked under the tree I found a vintage article from the 1980's or 90's...a genuine Fisher Price tape player/recorder! And the tapes attached were a children's tape, and then a backstreet boys tape. Actually, it was a lot of fun. I think it was monday that I had to skip around singing "We're off to see the Wizard" and inviting people to join me. Our classes wound up on wednesday, followed by Krazy Konsert. Unfortunately, it was a little bit short this year, but involved my close friend having to do some interpretive dance to quite possible the most atonal and irritating piece written before 1000ad with a white sheet tied as a turban, the reading of 'The Composer is dead', and what has become a tradition during Krazy Konsert, a barbershop quartet singing a 'comic-relief' song. Krazy Konsert and Kris Kringle are music student's ways of maintaining sanity during the most stressful time of the year. It's an interesting thing-insanity to maintain sanity. However, it works. Both last year, and then this year, going through the diagnosis period last year and then the grieving period this year, Kris Kringle and Krazy Konsert were also good ways of helping me laugh and relax against the stress of my home life.

I am very fortunate this year to not have any exams, however I do have a final summary report paper due next friday for Intro to Ethno. I decided that I would give myself a little bit of time to rest, and so I'm planning on starting it tomorrow. In the meantime, yesterday I did quite a cleaning/organizing job...of the yarn and fabric and assorted sewing/knitting/crocheting accessories in my house. For years, the sewing closet has been an 'open at your own risk closet'. I started the day only intending to organize the yarn between what I planned to keep and what I am going to donate to a group that make mittens and scarves for charity out of pretty much any yarn, but realizing that there was yarn buried throughout the sewing closet, I ended up emptying it completely. For several hours my living room floor was completely covered in fabric. In the end, I decided to organize things the way I wanted them to be...with the vast majority of fabric downstairs in labelled boxes like my mom had already done for the fabric leftovers. There are BOXES of fabric, plus, five boxes of yarn and three drawers. Add to that the entire large chair piled high with yarn that I am intending to donate (once I get in contact with them to make sure they're still accepting yarn for this year) and I was completely blown over...it was like this house was springing leaks from yarn and fabric factories! I guess the fabric can be tied to my mom's frugality (saving the scraps-wise) and of course, her four years working in a fabric store. The yarn, well, that can be linked to possibly four generations (definitely three) of knitters/crocheters (me being the last one). I wish my mom was here to do projects with me. There are literally a couple of hundred craft magazines, which my mom and I had started going through I think during the summer of 2009...before all of our lives got turned upside down. I started continuing that today...I guess the big task in the end will be organizing everything into binders.

I'm still feeling the effects of going up and down the basement stairs about (not likely exagerating much) one hundred times...just a bit of muscle stiffness in my legs. And I must do some more planning for my Sunrise lesson tomorrow...I'm going to play around with the video and see if I can't edit out any city label showing. If it works, enjoy the Shostakovich and Brahms...and maybe even some of my Wind Ensemble playing a couple of works from the concerts this fall.