Too Much Stuff

I don't think a more perfect blog title exists for this entry: over the last two days I (along with some eversowonderful friends) moved a LOT of stuff. Here are some highlights in bullet form seeing as I'm kind of too worn out to put effort into making sentences:

• 7:30am wake-up to finish packing stuff... bed time was 2am...
  
• 100 screws in awkward positions needed unscrewing. I think this is where the fingerprints on my hands went (from holding onto screws to catch before the fell)
• 8 trips in the PT Cruiser with Osbert (see blog on the side) with SO much stuff [pictures to follow sometime in the near future]. Osbert was SO excellent about helping and kept me in good spirits by doing such wonderful things as:
• Singing the Circle Communion song at least 20 times
• Helping me learn the Gloria in Latin... complete with non-French diction for most of it; oh my!
• Suggesting such awesome things like "No no, don't put that in [big box about to be loaded into an empty car first]. Start with this one, it's small [places 10x2x3 box in the middle of the empty car]". This particular comment is still making me laugh out loud 24 hours & many recollections later.
• Reminding me that I have too much stuff about 20 times. I MUST get rid of at least 1/3 of all this before I move again in one month's time.
• Introducing me to another one of Poulenc's awesome works: Stabat Mater
• Keeping up with my swift pace of moving & taking charge when needed :)
• A 21-machete salute to Osbert! You rocked! Thank you so much for being awesome! [inside joke... do a little Facebook stalking if you want to figure it out]
• The resume [for the Mus Ed job] I thought I needed for tomorrow, I don't need until the 24th. Yay. Seeing as I don't have a computer hooked up right now, this is very good news.
• I still have the car I rented for moving until tomorrow at noon so I can get groceries :)
  

I'm sure I will recall other interesting stories to share in due time. However, I'm strongly desiring a shiny clean bathtub for showering purposes so I'm off to clean.

Wow.

So many wow moments in the last few days I don't know where to start...

• The Firebird solo went fantastic at the Hamilton concert on Sunday. Considering we had car trouble on the way there, the reed I intended to use was just disgusting, everything pulled together quite nicely. I also had a few good chances to see people in their crazy mode of being -- the one where their public "fake" self is set aside for moments of honest reflection. It was great. :)
• The Stratford rehearsal went fairly well. I always enjoy playing with this group -- they really are a talented bunch of people. I hope some of you could make it out to the last concert this Friday. It'd be really nice.
• Today was marked by frenziness as I saw another good friend off, started packing everything to move tomorrow, and writing my final exam. I think I will come away from this apartment with twice as much stuff as I initially moved in. For all intents and purposes that isn't too bad considering I've moved nearly everything out of my parents house and I've acquired most of the communal stuff that my roomies & I bought together.
  
  I'm feeling quite reflective at this point. I have changed so much since I first moved in here two years ago. Two years ago I barely had this business degree started and now I'm nearly finished. Two years ago I started the journey of how to cook and now I'm on the road to having a fairly good handle on things. Two years ago I could have seen myself getting married in the near future and now I give little thought that this is about to happen anytime soon. Two years ago I was just jumping into a wholehearted effort at the Christian lifestyle and now I've gone full circle from a higher-profile Christian leader back to relearning the basics of the faith. Two years ago I was so hesitant to share myself with anyone other than very close friends and now I am a blogger. Two years ago I loved Paul Anka and today, well I'm listening to Paul Anka, and loving every single minute of it -- some things never change.

Goodbye, old friend,
This is the end of the man (girl) I used to be,
'Cause there's been a strange and welcome change in me.

Busy Busy Busy

I worked 43.5 hours this week for the faculty and 8.0 for my job up the hill. Ewwwwwwwww.

Tonight when I was practicing I did a bit of reed work but in doing so managed to only assure one performable reed for tomorrow (I literally snapped one in half whilst trying to fix it... major bummer). Tomorrow should be interesting as the acoustics in the RBG are SO dry i.e. I have to work 100000x harder than normal to produce an appropriate sound. After the Hamilton concert I have to head straight to Stratford for an equally stressing rehearsal. Despite the stress though, I am in one of those phases when I love my bassoon. Yay bassoon :)

I must go hand-wash some laundry so I have something to wear tomorrow. Yippee! :)

Starfield

I'm pretty sure my friend's band was opening for this concert :S

More than 40 Injured at Christian Rock Concert

In other exciting news, I finally figured out how to do a link! Haha it was so easy! Sorry it took me so long...

Goodbye 201

Today I did some more preparing to depart from 201. 1st stop was having some goodbye soap making fun times with my roomies. You can visit http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49793&l=b7f27&id=
505860268 to see a photo album documenting our efforts.

There is still so much to do in the next few days :S Ahhhh

Back to Skool Back to Skool

Soc & Math it is. I figure 1 essay course & 1 more practical course makes a nice balance. Yay for a 5 day summer break! :S

Decision Time

Ok I *must* decide sometime, preferably before Monday, if I want to go for the BMOS business degree (8 more courses... roughly $6800) or a BA in Music Administrative Studies degree (4 more courses... roughly $5000). GAH! I hate making these sorts of decisions.

If I choose the actual business degree (BMOS), I must enroll in online summer school by May 1, but the sooner the better because some classes fill up fast. My options for classes would be 1.5 of the following:

0.5 -- Math 1228a/b Methods of Finite Mathematics (Permutations and combinations; probability theory)

1.0 -- Soc 1021E Introduction to Sociology (An examination of the major theoretical perspectives in the field of Sociology, methods of empirical investigation of social phenomena, socialization, group structure, principles of social organization, community structure, population and social change)

0.5 -- MOS 4410a/b Strategic Management for MOS (Identification and analysis of problems and strengths in the organizational environment, using models from the social sciences. Strategies designed to deal with organizational challenges will be explored)

0.5 -- Psych 2035a/b Psychological Aspects of Lifeskills (Examines ways in which recent research findings in psychology may be applied in the individual's life. Emphasis on psychology as an empirical science and on avenues of self-understanding and personal growth. Topics include: personality, stress and coping, person perception, interpersonal communications, friendship and love, sexuality, vocational development)

OR (I can't take both Psych classes)

0.5 -- Psych 2030a/b Human Adjustment (This course will survey various categories of maladjusted behaviour and consider different explanatory models and treatment strategies for the control of such behaviour. Theories of human adjustment and maladjustment will be reviewed)

I think right now I'm leaning towards taking the Strategic Mgmt course and the Soc course. We'll see how I feel in a few hours.

Hello & Goodnight

Weeeeeeee! I am done with auditions. I am over for dinner at the boys' house so just a short post to say that I didn't die of exhaustion today :)

From Prince Mark's computa: "Hello & goodnight!"

2 more days to go

In 48 hours I will be sitting down to a completed set of somewhere between 500-800 auditions. There have been many times over the past few years that I've wondered if life would be "easier" or "better" in the working world, instead of school, but after a few days like the ones I've had, my vote lies with the latter. I have been so tired when I get home from work these past few days. Ugh.

In other exciting news, I'm sure a few of you reading this would be glad to know that I had a chat with Andrew ("Congo Andrew") today; he is at the same missionary retreat place in Maputo that he was at on the way to Lachinga. He sounded (however one can "sound" via instant messaging) really happy and in an overall fantastic mood. I'm sure he will post up on his blog sometime soon when the Internet connection holds out for a little bit longer.

Anyhow, getting more than 5 hours of sleep is ideal but not practical if I don't head off to bed now.

P.S. To the anonymous poster about the opera babblings: I will get back to you, I just want to give myself the time to watch the videos again to refresh where my ideas came from. When I get some free time (probably Friday?) I'll be sure to respond.

Weee getting close to 4000!

After participating in 8 hours of auditions today, I am SO knackered that I'm afraid today will lack a post of any significance.

On a fun note, I discovered today that if it is necessary to avoid small talk post-recitals, just leave before the final piece. Why did it take my 4 years to figure this out?

Random Operatic Babblings

So I was reading this article on the NY Times web-site (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/arts/music/20gure.html?ref=arts) that talked about upcoming tenors. After checking out some of these guys on Youtube I'm quite surprised at their choices...

The first video that comes up for Juan Diego Florez has quite a bit of room in terms of voice development... check it out for yourself if you're needing some procrastination filling (in his defense, this recording is almost 2 years old, but still...)




Perhaps this goes to show why it's a good idea for artists to post themselves on Youtube... The May 2007 version of La donna e mobile (from Rigoletto... guaranteed everyone would recognize this) was considerably better.



I'm always a fan of people singing along :-P

Ok, I'm going to go find some dinner and then head of to rehearsal. Yay.

So much for sleeping

LOL. I made a to-do list instead. It is kind of epically long so I shall share it with you. I figure going into detail about what certain things are is really just a waste of time, so just ask if you're realllllly curious as to what something is:

- E-mail Deb about lunches
- Finish DMA edits
- Order Grad diploma frame
- Order grad photos (Does anybody want them? I am thinking of just not getting any...)
- Get receipt stuff ready for Hamilton
- Fight with landlords to get the rent receipt so I can...
- Finish taxes
- Pay bills
- E-mail Andrew (not Congo Andrew... another one) re sermon
- Fill out change of address forms
- Write Compassion child
- Fill out OSAP/ Internship forms
- Make appt. with internship lady
- Make appt. with MOS programme about transferring
- Choose summer courses
- Get May bus pass
- E-mail USC pres re internship coverage
- Sign up for IDRS membership; register for conference
- Check for on sale flights to Edmonton/ Utah
- Call people I haven't talked to in a while
- P-A-C-K for moving!
- Find out what to do with my barbeque -- AJ do you have use for a barbeque?
- Laundry
- Look into summer lessons with teachers... Chris Millard perhaps?

Told you it was epically long! No doubt I will thing of about 1000000 more things to put on it over the next few minutes too!

Going to bed: Take 2.

Another Day, Another Dollar

6am was surrrrrre a fun time to see this morning :S ... After finally rolling out of bed at 6:40, I did make it to Stratford with plenty of time to spare. The rehearsal went well and I am feeling fairly confident that I can pull off the massive amounts of double-tounging required by Saint-Saens for his Third Symphony (yes the one with the organ). Apparently this music was used in Babe the movie? Here is a fairly sad excuse of a version, but nevertheless...



Again my sincerest apologies to the organists in the crowd... Pay special attention to the 38 second mark of this next movement (which is actually the first) -- you can FEEL the blood pressure of the winds rising (basically for every back and forth movement that you see the strings doing at the very beginning, the winds have to tongue... a very tiring exercise):



This is what I get paid to do folks. As challenging as the Saint-Saens is, I have to say I am most looking forward to the Poulenc Gloria -- one of my most favourite pieces on planet Earth! Ever! It is too bad that this piece has not known to very many people at all though -- Youtube has extremely limited selections for examples. Guess you'll have to come and see it to feel the goosebumps you get from good music! The example that follows is a fairly good snipit although the balance isn't uber-fantastic and there are no visuals. Anyhoo, a movement of the Poulenc Gloria:



Aside from the morning rehearsal nothing terribly eventful happened today although I did catch myself saying a few times that I'm a bassoon major at the faculty of music. I suppose this technically isn't true anymore; whatever am I going to tell people now? This has been my identity for four years! I did learn that saying that I work for the university elicits the idea that I am a cafeteria lady or something... I shall have to come up with something to describe my new vocation...

Well, I am going to go read for a bit and then head for bed. I wish I could share what I'm doing tomorrow morning church-wise but truth be told, I have little desire to make a point of gathering with anyone. Hrmph...

Time for bed I suppose.

The end is in sight

Well there's only one exam left to go and that is not until a week from Monday. The exam went fairly well aaaaaaaaaaand I had a fairly successful reed making session this evening (SO needed :D ). Anyhoo, I'm afraid life isn't terribly interesting right now -- funny thing when you spend way more time in front of a textbook than talking to people. Well tomorrow I have a rehearsal in Stratford at NINE AM so I really should be getting off to bed. Ciao.

T - 1 !

Well after close to 10 hours of reading this afternoon and evening, I'm feeling fairly well-prepared for my marketing exam tomorrow night. I've enjoyed studying for this one a bit more than previous exams because I can relate a lot of the skills to different tasks I will be doing come August 1. That being said though, I cannot wait to get all these final two exams out of the way!

I'm afraid I haven't anything else of much interest to post this evening... Things are definitely starting to die down now with people leaving town or preparing to leave town. I'm still hoping at least a few people will want to come out on Saturday evening to go to a jazz club for a sort of year-end party. We shall see...

It's a Small World Afterall

Probably almost every musicians least favourite song, but it does have a sense of truth to it: today I was Facebook creeping some pictures of a friend singing in Alberta and found out that a co-op highschool student that covered my grade 7 class is also singing with him! In a group of 10! Craziness!

Small world moment #2 of the day: having my hair cut by someone that grew up in Brockville and played soccer with my big sista for a while. It is very rare to come across people from Brockvegas (I think it's only happened twice in the last four years here). Craziness again I say!

In less exciting news, I was able to give all the clothes to Goodwill today, pick up some boxes from the music building that I've been stowing away, buy some groceries, and drove to Hamilton and back quite safely. Eric, a first year bassoonist who's subbing in, and I had a good chat about faith-related things. He's quite knowledgeable in the Lutheran views of things; something I know little about. You know me, I loooooooove talking about these sorts of things :)

Anyhoo, it's been a terribly long day and tomorrow MUST be filled with an immense amount of studying. Nighty night!

Tuesday Musings

Somedays, you just don't want to go to bed. The older I get, the more rare these days are, but still, tonight I do not want to go to bed. I think part of it may have to do with the amount of sugar ravaging its way through my body... this afternoon I had a long chat in the sun which made me tired so when I came home I had a can of 7Up with dinner (it has been sitting in my cupboard for quite a while now). I started studying, pop in hand, when Erin & Ryan came back and made, no joke, six dozen + chocolate chip cookies... the quantity is partially my fault because I suggested that they double the recipe since we/I like to eat a lot of snacks when I'm "studying." It looks like I got a little bit more than I bargained for; we're going to be eating cookies for the next 3 weeks solid! I'm sure some of them will have to make their way to a mouth nearest you perhaps -- just ask. :-P

Around 11(pm) I decided it'd be a good idea to finish collecting clothing to go to Goodwill. Erin and I already had 3 bags between the two of us, but with a little more hunting & debating & story-telling, we brought that up to 4 garbage bags. I like giving clothes away; it's always so cathartic. There are a lot of things I haven't looked at or thought of in a while and so many of them have fun stories that go with them (i.e. A high school musical t-shirt for a musical I was never in because I got mono... but I still like the shirt, even though I have only worn it maybe twice in four years... btw I kept it :) ).

Tomorrow I get a car for the day courtesy of S.H. The person I normally get a ride to Hamilton with can't go and seeing as you can't rent a car for less than 24hrs, I'm planning on getting a lot accomplished: take stuff to goodwill, take items to the dry cleaner, go on a book collection hunt (for books I've lent to people), grocery shopping, & box hunting (for moving). Should be an exciting day!

Anyhoo, I think I will go and read a bit... Hopefully that will make me sleepy.

One of those days

Ever have one of those days when at the end of it you feel like you didn't really talk much to anyone even if you did? I've had a few days like this recently, today being one of them. I think it is largely to do with keeping busy studying for exams and the impending round of goodbyes that comes with summertime. It's a difficult time of year.

Must Be Exam Season

This morning I was up early (ahhhhhhh so much stress!) so I decided to make some muffins. This afternoon while I was working on campus Erin baked some bread. This evening while I was blogging up a storm for class (check out the Art Music News link available through looking at my profile) & Erin was out, Lucy-Ana made like 3 dozen + brownies! Baking sooooooooooo seems like the thing to do when you should be studying :)

This morning, because I was up epically early, I went running. I got all dressed up but when I got outside it was raining. After considering not going, I opted for replacing my glasses with contacts and sporting my grade 9 rain jacket. Turns out running in the rain is a lot of fun! Seeing as it was only 10ish degrees out, if you stopped to walk you'd get cold -- an excellent motivator for me to keep running! As I was coming back towards home I crossed paths with another girl about my age who proceeded to give me a high five and said something like, "You're doing awesome! Keep it up!" That was so awesome :) I love Londoners :)

In other exciting good news, I spoke with my boss at my up the hill job (I sell Western clothes at one of the stores) and got the ok to continue working there for as long as I can, i.e. definitely until my summer program in July and/or my work term at the music faculty starts. While I was looking forward to taking some time off from having to be on campus (I have been in this little 2-kilometre bubble nearly every day for four years now, with the exception of the summer of 2004 & a few weeks here and there) the financial blessing that comes with this job will help out with paying for my summer camp and possible July vacation out west.

Well I have one more blog to write for the Art Music News site before Monday, so I might as well go and finish now before I go to bed -- tomorrow will be filled with finishing the DMA proposal (due Monday), studying Marketing (not touched today... which is not good seeing as my exam is on Friday), and having a rehearsal in Stratford (apparently I should be really worried about Saint-Saens 3rd Symphony...).

Tata for now!

Because Procrastination is the Way of the Future

After concluding that love is evil (don't worry, I say this in jest) and trying to work all evening, some funnies were in order. Check out this video:

Formal

I'm sure part of my being bummed out is just because I'm over tired, but I'm really sad that I didn't get to go to my graduating formal last night. The rehearsal in Hamilton was a near utter waste of time because the conductor was sick and not coherent enough to rehearse. Seeing all the fun pictures on Facebook this morning was just sad. I've tried organizing a fancy dress up and go out to dinner thing later on this month for other people who were in the same boat (night classes, etc), but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest. Hrmph. Woe is me.

14 hours later

I think after 14 near-continuous hours of essay writing, I will indeed never leave a 15-20 page paper to the day before it is due. That being said, I'm still getting to bed at a reasonable hour and my procrastination allowed for a clean bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and laundry to boot.

Here is a picture of the monstrosity that is my pile o' books for research. My favourite book, for its title is "Begins With Oboe" (A history of the TSO). The most interesting book was probably "The Evolution of the Symphony Orchestra" because it is a transcript from some conference attended by really bright people like Henri Dutilleux, Pierre Boulez, Isaac Stern, and representatives from all the major worldwide orchestras. I might actually read through it in my spare time.
I also discovered two new interesting blogs in my research: Richard Florida's and http://www.thinkfetti.com/

I'm actually quite proud of my paper. Perhaps when I get some feedback on it, I'll make some changes and post it up on here for you to read when you can't sleep...

Despite the amount of Pepsi-induced caffeine abounding through my blood right now, I'm going to try and sleep for a bit. Ciao.

New House!

Here are some pics from the new place!

I will be moving in June 1.

Living Area...


Better lit & from another angle...


Kitchen

A messy bedroom.

Bathroom, complete with TWO sinks :D

Utility closet... note the laundry facilities! YAHOO!

Kitchen area again.

A discouraging day, but...

Yesterday started out fairly well; I made it to school for 8am as planned despite having been at a group meeting until 11ish the night before (unplanned). I filled in for our secretary, as per normal when I work in the office, and had muchos fun answering telephones & sorting mail. I think I finally have the knowhow to fix about 95% of all the problems the photocopier gets itself into. It is so exciting to find that pesky piece of jammed paper in 15sec when a few months ago it would have taken me 15min (no joke). Needless to say, I am becoming the resident expert in Xerox repairs.

Despite having my creative contribution towards a group presentation fall apart this weekend, my group managed to put on quite a good presentation to my Organizational Behaviour Class -- my last one for quite some time! :)

At night-time I participated in my first ever electronic music concert. How does electric bassoon work you ask? The way it worked this time is that I was recorded (in one of those padded rooms they stick select people into sometime :P ) and then when I played live, the music on the tape was played back. It was a really neat experience but there was some anxiety on the stage thanks to some counting/rhythm issues. I learned that I either need to find a better way of encouraging people to practice or just need to be ok with people that like to take different tempi than the rest of the group. Needless to say, the actual concert was somewhat frustrating; I know it could have sounded so much better. Anyhoo, here's a fun video that showcases the electric bassoon that I'm more familiar with:



Neat eh?

Anyhoo to add to the yuckiness, I have to finish my 20-page paper today, sign a lease (i.e. spend big $$), and figure out if I want to sign up for a summer course (turns out they won't be needing me at WindFest afterall, so I've got a lot more time in the summer to figure out what to do with). I was chatting with the dean at a concert I went to before the electronic music concert and he was really trying to persuade me to finish a Management & Organizational Studies degree, instead of graduating with the Music Administrative Studies degree I'm planning on graduating with now. Pros to doing that are that I don't have to take any more accounting (I wasn't terrible at it , but it was a lot of work), I should be more employable in the non-music field of administration. Cons are that I'd have to take TWO calculus courses (and let's just say the first one I took two years ago was near-disastrous), and because I currently have 8.0 courses left required for a BMOS degree, and normally you take 5.0 during the school year, I'm looking at taking 3.0 courses over the course of the summer/internship year... Just when I thought I was about to be able to take a break from school, it looks like I might have to stick at it. UGH.

In encouraging news, check out Andrew's blog.

Also, who is visiting from Guelph and Burlington on a regular basis? I don't mind visitors, I'm just curious.

Also I have so little groceries right now and no laundry. It looks like I better start this 15-degree day by enjoying some of the outdoors, because it doesn't look like I'll be getting out anytime soon. Ciao!

WOAH!

Woooooooooooah! I am a 1/3 done my paper and it still isn't due for four more days! Woooooooooooah! I feel like I in highschool all over again (back when I did my work ahead of time on a more regular basis).

Also, it is really nice here! 11 degrees! Today is the first day I haven't worn my winter jacket :D

P.S. I added a new photo on the right-hand side.

Oh Princeton

Apparently no one at the Princeton University Press caught this error:

"Whose Gustav Mahler?" Nice...

Notes to self...

• BUY A GRAPEFRUIT SPOON. I have recently started eating grapefruits, yet do not have a grapefruit spoon. Probably needless to say, but my fruit looks totally emasculated by the time I'm done with it aaaand has so much in it left to give!
• Never park in the Elgin parking lot during flood season. Thankfully I don't have a car and this won't be a problem anytime soon but man did some people ever have an unpleasant thing to wake up to yesterday! The river banks overflowed leaving many cars flooded. I talked to one guy who went swimming in the parking lot around 1:30am because the water was thigh deep-- sounds like fun eh!?
• 20 pages doth a long paper make... Expect to hear a lot of griping about this until I hand it in on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure this is the longest essay I've ever had to write solo btw. AND it's not even for a designated essay courses. Hoorah.
• Tomorrow was probably a very bad day to volunteer to work... not only am I missing a masterclass with James Sommerville (horn... I know I don't play the horn, but still, I hear so much about him from McKay (they record together)) and the Rajaton concert. Now some of you might say, "Well just go to Rajaton's Saturday concert," but unfortunately I have a concert with the Stratford C.O. then.

I've also been having one of those days where a certain person keeps coming back to my mind. This is a weird circumstance, and one that I don't encounter very often. One example: I was sitting on the bus to come home and someone came onto the bus with this person's name on their sweatshirt, and it's not even a common name! Weird.

Well I think that's enough poor English writing for me tonight... haha... :)

And the procrastination continues

I finally have a few hours free during the week, and what am I doing? Why surfing the internet and trying to ignore my hungry tummy! Oh the fun :D

Procrastination at its finest!

So I am presenting tomorrow on the future of the Canadian Orchestra, and I have so little to say... The end of scholarly life is so close, I have little initiative to plow through to the finish; sliding in seems like a much more enjoyable option. Anyhoo, if anyone is reading this and has a fine and dandy journal article on the topic, feel free to forward it to me by 8:30am...

Tomorrow doesn't hold anything too out of the ordinary (classes, Symphony Hamilton), but Thursday should be fun. I am helping a colleague of mine in an electronic music concert. I'm not sure how it will all work together in the end, but it involves me playing the bassoon... should be fun.

Well that is all. Feel free to come to a sweet Stratford concert this Saturday (details available on the right).