Blankets, blankets, blankets!

I mailed five blankets off to the BernatCares headquarters today after finishing sewing the Spring Squares blanket yesterday. Here's a picture of the finished blanket :)

I was pleasantly pleased when the shipping costs were not $50. Much less than that actually :) I also had a very successful shopping trip today, getting some capris and shorts for summer-I haven't gone shopping for shorts probably since 2008, and I didn't own a single pair of capris. Fortunately, there were some very nice sales on. I guess it must be my mennonite high school/junior high experience that has made me such a lover of good sales. Or perhaps it's just being a woman. Either way, without even really knowing about most of them, I picked the right day to shop. 

Now, cutting the grass was another story! Turns out that having a sump-pump drain onto the back lawn makes a certain area of grass grow like crazy...this was my first time cutting the back lawn this year, and I use a push-mower (much better work out and environmentally sound). Well, I think I might have to finish it tomorrow! The area around the sump-pump was about a foot tall. Okay, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration but not that much. Perhaps I might be able to finish it tonight before it gets dark out, but coming in to rest was probably a good idea for my wrists. My wrists are very important to my flute playing!

The only thing of concern that has been happening these days is that while everyone else has gotten their orchestra acceptance letters, I haven't yet, and my conductor hasn't been very forthcoming in information. He is away right now but responded to my email by saying that "I will phone you when I get back and we can discuss the coming season". Now, my thoughts on this is that the orchestra board is thinking that because flute is such a high demand position and this would be my fifth (and final) season at 21 years of age that they should give my spot to another, younger player. I would sort of understand this, but would also be very hurt because I love orchestra so much and in my mind I've been preparing myself for this coming season being my final season. However, my brain starts spinning things out in different ways and getting worried that my orchestra conductor has decided that I'm not good enough because I almost completely fluffed the piccolo solo in the third movement of Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony at the concert (never mind that my flute teacher says it's just about the hardest piccolo solo in orchestral repertoire) etc etc. Waiting to find out is hard, I just hope that I can still be part of the orchestra, especially because the Wind Ensemble auditions are going to be a lot harder this year. Not material-wise, but in that there are going to be 13 or 14 flutes at the faculty next year, and right now, there's only 3 orchestra seats and 4 Wind Ensemble seats. That potentially means that 7 flutes could end up in 'purgatory'-otherwise known as the Concert Band, in which only a handful of Faculty of Music students play for credit. I had to do it for my first two years of university and I DESPERATELY do not want that again. For one thing, I can't next year anyways, with the rest of my schedule the way it is, I'm going to be teaching my Moonbeams One class at almost the exact same time as Concert Band rehearsal on tuesdays. And, really, it's so unchallenging. The music that the Concert Band plays is typically about what I played in my high school Concert Band. Plus, the Concert Band never does anything fun. All they do is their four concerts a year, no in-school concerts, no playing at the New Music Festival, no going on tours, no retreats, no conducting workshops, NOTHING. These two ensembles mean SO much to me. Which is why after I finish cutting the lawn, I will be practicing for my Wind Ensemble audition. The material just came out a few days ago, so it's time to practice, practice, practice and hope that I do my best-and that my best is good enough. There are going to be A LOT of good flutes at the faculty come fall.