Category Archives: Random thoughts

Performing, Random thoughts

Another rainy day

Today I really miss my kindle. I have a few hours to kill between a rehearsal and teaching but I am a bit too far from home to make it worth going there.

That’s another thing you should know about freelance musicians. There is a lot of awkward downtime. I am currently sitting in panera with my violin and a book. Pretty standard. I have spent hours shopping with my violin on my shoulder but I am sore enough from the gym that I didn’t want to deal with that.

We went to Scottish Arms last night to meet with a friend who was visiting. I was the only girl in the group, which was unusual as of late. I used to hang out with a lot more boys than I do now. I guess as an engaged lady it is more appropriate to have lady friends.

I am rehearsing with an ocarina player and a pianist for an online concert next Saturday at 6 pm central. It was great fun! I will try to find the info for those of you who are interested in watching.

On my way to work this morning I drove by some of the tornado damage. Wow. It looks a lot more awful in person. I got chills. How can I be upset over a break in when some people have lost everything? Or am I still in shock? Somebody today asked me, “how are you so calm? Aren’t you angry?” Of course. Of course I am. But what will that accomplish?

Four students and then the gym to run. Four more weeks of school. Four more.

(this should have posted earlier today.  meh)

Random thoughts

Bit the bullet

2 Comments

Okay, so I downloaded Windows Live Writer on Chris’s computer.  I have been seriously depressed the past few days because I had a bunch of pictures I wanted to show you all but couldn’t.  Okay, that’s a bit overkill, but I have been feeling down, and I do love blogging.  I want to blame it on the break in but honestly I was crabby before that.  I guess moods ebb and flow, and mine is ebbing (or flowing) now.

Picture time!

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At the ballpark Saturday.  Seriously my head looks GIGANTIC!

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The boys at the ballpark—notice Chris is on his phone.  This is normal.

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Rain delay.  And my favorite view from the stadium.  As weird and random as the arch is, you always know when you are in St Louis.

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At Easter brunch.  Can you believe the dessert buffet?  And I may have been squatting a little bit in this picture.  I was wearing 4 inch red peep toe heels.

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Getting ready to go work out!  I was PUMPED.  Mike was a downer today though—he was having serious wisdom teeth issues, as in, will need them taken out stat, and evidently was in a lot of pain.  Also he had busted his chin open doing burpees over the weekend.  Basically he was rough, and really probably should have been at the dentist instead of working.  I won’t be surprised if I don’t see him again this week.  Plus, I expect certain standards of entertainment which I just didn’t get…maybe that’s why I’m bummed out.  Then again, maybe I shouldn’t base my moods on how my workouts go, or on how entertaining my trainer is?  Maybe I’m just bummed because it’s actually nice and sunny today and I can’t run because I have to go teach.

Or maybe I’m bummed because somebody broke in and stole my stuff.

Is this one of those things that changes you forever?  I think I was a different person before my car was stolen.  That was one of those things that changed me.

Well, it’s Tuesday afternoon, so let’s keep it light.  On the docket for today:  teaching for over 4 hours, followed by meeting up with a friend from out of town at the Scottish Arms.  Tomorrow is BUSY with teaching and ocarina rehearsal (will explain more later).

Enjoy the sunny day if you are having one!  I’m back blogging as normal though 🙂

Random thoughts

Easter Sunday

I miss my computer.

I miss windows live writer.  It took WAY too long to put this picture up.

Speaking of, how great IS this picture?  Fat cat wine.  My friend Sarah posted it on my facebook wall to try to cheer me up yesterday.

It sort of worked.  I did pretty well until last night when I just broke down.  I was in the middle of a book on my kindle.  BASTARDS stole my stuff.

Today is better.  It’s just stuff.  My computer files are online even.  I can rebuild.  I also think the books I had on my kindle can be moved to a new kindle.  I will find out about insurance tomorrow.

They took my ALARM CLOCK.  Seriously.  Who does that?  Why take a decade old alarm clock that doesn’t even light up anymore?

How glad am I that most of my electronics are super old and crappy?  Evidently nobody wants CD’s anymore–remember when everybody was getting their CD’s stolen from their cars?  Not anymore!

How glad am I that I had my digital camera with me (diligent attempt at blogging) instead of sitting out somewhere?

How glad am I that the thieves didn’t know that instruments are worth money?  Then again, you can’t just get rid of them…you have to know how to do that.  And these people were evidently NOT smart.

Grr.

I may download live writer to this computer, but not yet.  I also will wait to upload some pictures from my real camera, so here’s one from the phone of this morning’s Easter service.

I played mass at St. Theresa’s in Belleville. It was a nice service and we played a rousing Hallelujah Chorus, among other things.

Yesterday:  we got robbed, then we went to the Cardinals game.  They lost.  There was a one hour rain delay.  We sat near some of the most obnoxious men you have ever met.  Basically it sucked.  Oddly one of the trainers at our gym (not my trainer) was sitting right behind us.  Odd.  I guess it’s a small world.

Today:  church gig followed by a fantastic brunch!  We went to Eau at the Chase Park Plaza for a brunch buffet.  Unlimited mimosas (light on the champagne though…), shrimp and crab, eggs, delicious quinoa salad, meats, cheese, bacon, biscuits and gravy, sausage, potatoes, salad, fruits, and a ridiculous dessert table.  I ate a ton.  Now I am attempting to digest.  It was delicious though, and will last me the rest of the day, most likely.

Tonight:  relax, watch a movie.  I’m actually NOT working out today, which is unusual.  In that I haven’t taken a day off in awhile.  Probably for the best.  I’ve gotten used to feeling sore somewhere on my body at all times.  Is that normal?

Tomorrow:  part holiday (no teaching until evening).  Some phone calls to make about the “incident”.  Probably shopping.  Running.  Cleaning?  The CSI guy said I need to dust more often, that it’s too hard to get fingerprints when it’s dusty.  He was just trying to be helpful, but it made me feel terrible.

Then back to work.  It’s almost May.  Concerts are coming up!

Random thoughts

Burgled

4 Comments

Just a quick stop by. We got robbed yesterday. The thieves took my laptop, the Wii, my kindle, my alarm clock (why??) and a bottle of vodka. Luckily that seems to be all (for instance, not the cat or the instruments), but any amount is too much.

I’ll be back to regular blogging soon I’m sure, but right now I don’t have the proper tools set up. Suffice it to say I am pretty pissed off. It seems they got in through a window in the kitchen that I swear was locked, but perhaps a good shove popped them open. The cops were really helpful though. They took down a report and soon I will have my copy of that.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. I myself am off to play a service. Here’s hoping today goes better than yesterday.

Auditions, Cat, Random thoughts

Who knew people liked reading about auditions

3 Comments

Wow.  My blog traffic has tripled since I posted “orchestra auditions for non-musicians.”  (If you haven’t read it, check it out.  And SHARE with your non-musician friends and family who think you are either crazy or a failure.)

So what do I do next?  If you are still reading you might notice my topics are all over the place.  Violin, teaching, working out, eating, movies, etc.

But this is my life, this is the life of a musician!  The life of one musician, at least.  I spent many years practicing or working all the time.  And now I have the luxury of some free time, and I’ve dedicated it to MYSELF and my health.  And I discovered a passion for running…well, conceptually at least.  I think that working out and music have a lot in common as far as discipline, scheduling, and delayed results.

I don’t want to just write about music, or about orchestral life, or about “how to win an audition”.  (Honestly, that last one I don’t really know…I have only one a few auditions, and definitely lost more than I’ve won.  Perhaps I can write “how to lose an audition” instead?)  I used to think I would write a book about the life of a freelance musician…maybe I’ll do something like that on my blog in the near future.  Perhaps an improved “Mozart in the Jungle”….

Or maybe all of my {potential} new readers are frightened away by my randomness and great love of my cat?

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Can you believe that is a cat?  And yes, that is part of my purple music stand.  You know what, it’s cool.  I like my blog the way it is.  My parents read it, and Chris reads on occasion, and some of my friends read it occasionally too.  And you are all AWESOME!

But I will do some more posts related to day to day life of musicians so you can share them with your family Smile  I’ll also do posts about my cat, running in the park, my students, and post stalk-y pictures of my trainer.  I know you’ll be pleased.

Auditions, Random thoughts

Musicians in a box

3 Comments

I’m glad so many people liked yesterday’s post on Orchestra Auditions.  I wanted to write something about them because so many of our friends and family are confused about what it is that we do.  Now, the audition post doesn’t really cover that, so I’ll have to write another post later about the day to day life of a performing musician (even though my blog covers MY life, I’m technically not a performing musician at this time, so it would be quite a bit different).

When I was growing up I felt isolated from my peers.  I was an avid reader, I wore thick glasses, and I was a bit of a “know-it-all.”  I also played the violin and piano.  All of these things made me stick out, and when you stick out in school, generally people don’t like you.  I didn’t mind, because I didn’t like them either.  As I grew older I knew I would be leaving my hometown for college and wasn’t planning to look back.  (I also grew taller, got contacts, and became ridiculously-good-looking.) I was very serious about the violin and spent my summers and weekends with other like-minded teenagers, with whom I got along (generally) very well.  I became convinced that non-musicians were just incompatible with musicians.

I went off to college and surrounded myself for the next six years (bachelor’s and master’s degree: musicians are generally VERY well-educated) with musicians.  Other than family and a few select friends from home, everybody I knew was a musician.  We all shared the same problems, we all understood our successes.  It was a very homogenized environment, and at the time I loved it.  Yes, we had our own hierarchy—there were groups of “cool” musicians, those who considered themselves to be better at their instruments than the rest of us, but there were plenty of great people to go around.   Overall college was a fantastic time, though busy and stressful.

After I graduated, I got a job in the Charlotte Symphony.  There I made friends with members of the orchestra, but I was quite a bit younger than most of them, and they enjoyed telling me that quite often.  I felt rather alone.  Luckily I was able to make some friends outside of the symphony through a friend of my sister’s, and spent quite a bit of time hanging out with them. They were generally computer programmers who appreciated free symphony tickets so it worked out well.  This was my first real taste of “normal” folks since school, and the experience was MUCH more positive.  It helped that they had also been “nerds” growing up and had played in their school bands.

But then I returned to Cleveland…and again insulated myself with a musician only crowd.  It was easier, not having to explain our lifestyle, why we got up late (we worked late), why we only worked 20 hours a week (a common fallacy), why we had such dainty wrists (oh, is that just me?), and why sometimes we would cocoon ourselves for weeks on end practicing every spare moment and then become really depressed.

The problem with only having musicians as friends is that it gets a little boring.  Some people love to talk “shop” all the time.  Some people don’t do anything other than practice and go to work.  Some people are emotionally stinted, having spent most of their formative years practicing instead of socializing and learning how to deal with society.  And especially, when you are like me and teach more than you perform…you do get jealous…and tired…of hearing people complain about how awful the guest conductor is this week or how tough it is to have 4 1/2 hours of rehearsal.

But if you branch out from musicians, NO ONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT YOU DO.  And they do want to.  Recently Chris had an audition and I was attempting to explain it to some people.  They were most baffled by the fact that no one had been hired for the position, but their minds were pretty blown by the amount of time he had spent practicing for it (all of his time for over a month).  Few people even understand that a symphony job can be a full-time job!  (I remember the shocked looks on the faces of my extended families when I explained that).

That’s why I entitled this post:  musicians  in box.  We musicians put ourselves in a box.  And we need to take ourselves out of the box and branch out, meet more people, spread our love of music, and become better people for it.