Strange things happen in the KMU practice hall.

I really want to go to an orchestra festival this summer. I'm applying to every one that I am eligable for that I know about, because I just want to play some good music. I don't care where.

So far, this is my list:

Eastern Music Festival
Pacific Music Festival (here's to dreamin')
Brevard
Rome Festival
Las Vegas Orchestra Festival
Masterworks
Texas Music Festival

So here's what YOU do:
If you hear about an orchestra festival/summer camp that I would be eligable for, tell me about it. I might just apply, and I might just go, and it is because YOU told me about it. That's something to be proud of.


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UNRELATED
Want to hear my favorite flute concerto that I just purchased (YYAAAAAAYYY!!!)? Log onto Naxos and search "Rodrigo" and "flute." Click on the first option that pops up, and then listen to Fansasia para un gentilhombre. MAAAN. SO SWEET. (Even though it was originally a guitar concerto..) I am adding playing this with an orchestra to my life's to-do list.

It seems that January is the month of bad choices for me. I have made several choices this month that just didn't turn out the way I thought they would. I thought that I was bettering my condition, but in the end, I am worse off than before.

I can't really come down on myself too hard, though--nobody knows the future, and I didn't know that these wouldn't turn out to be good choices.

I keep clinging to my God. These bad choices draw me closer and closer to Him. When there is nothing I can do about a situation, there is still someone to turn to.
I really can't describe what God does for me. In times of trouble, times when I am tempted, times when I feel utterly alone, He is there, and He understands and cares. Throughout all my problems and worries, He speaks to me. "Fear not," He says. What comfort my God brings me, this world will never know.

I'd just like to add that this past flute fair was the SIXTH straight flute fair I have been to, and it's the first year that I haven't been in an FFA-sponsored event. And my former teacher CREATED the VERY FIRST first Florida flute fair. Therefore, we should be given trophies.

Man, I am getting old. Six flute fairs.

Well, I dropped conducting. Hopefully, that will prevent any more mental breakdowns.

Day by day I learn that nobody is going to be there to protect you from the rain. Sometimes you are going to have to walk in the rain, and it doesn't seem fair, it doesn't seem right, it seems like there should be someone to say, it's okay, we can move class back a few minutes until the rain subsides. But that's not how it works, and one of these days you will have to choose between getting wet and getting to class on time. And your teacher will not take rain as an excuse. Your teacher won't even care why you are late, and he certainly doesn't want to hear sob stories. He has problems enough of his own.

okay, flute fair time.

Mission: accomplished!!

My mission:
Go to wal-mart, shop, and be back in less than an hour.

Mission accepted.
Mission results to be posted.

End transmission.

Sie sind dumm.

This semster is really, really trying to eat me alive.

Also, playing Zelda makes all my worries go away. I get lost in the game. It's soothing.

My bike got stolen last night.

Something has been bothering me.

I have two particular friends here at FSU who are extremely smart people. They are both a lot smarter than I am, but I have something that they don't. I have the ability to enjoy things.
They look at the world and analyze it, make theories about it, have deep conversations about it. They try to figure everything out; and I, well, I look at the world and enjoy it. After a while, being around them can drive you crazy: they can't read a book without dicussing the underlying themes, they can't listen to a piece without discerning its formal structure, they can't watch a movie without writing a review about it afterward. Apparently, nobody ever taught them that some things are not meant to be analyzed. That sometimes, you just have to sit back and enjoy life and have a little fun.

I am pretty much the opposite of these two people (I'm really good at not thinking), so maybe this analysis nature stands out more to me. Whenever I talk to them, I inevidably end up saying (or thinking to myself), don't worry about it, it's not a big deal, it doesn't really matter that much. Just enjoy life, don't worry so much.
I really don't know if they understand.

Maybe I've got it all wrong; maybe I'm the one who should be changing and analyzing the world a little more. But somehow, that doesn't sound right, because I am happy and they, generally, are not.

Man, if you want to hear some crazy good music, listen to the Riverdance soundtrack. Now there's one CD that I don't think I will ever stop listening to. It's so musically interesting, and so aesthetically pleasing! For an irish music fan like me, this is the ultimate.

There's one piece in 11/8, another in 16/8, another that switches from simple to compound meter every two bars, and a whole bunch of songs whose meters I just can't figure out because they change so much. And there's one song made almost entirely out of river names. So cool.

On average, I get up five hours later on the weekend than I do during the week.

As I rode my bike home from the practice rooms at 10:00 last Thursday night, a line had already formed outside the club near my apartment. I thought of all the homework and studying I still had to do before the next day. I have 4 hours of class on Fridays, beginning at 8:00 in the morning. I wondered at the contrast my life has with those people waiting to get into the club.
You see, most FSU students don't have class on Friday. If they do have class on Friday, they see it as optional. A free Friday is just one more day added to the weekend. One more day to drink and party!

One of the major arguments in Mozart in the Jungle is that a musician's life is an extremely hard life. One filled with endless practice, hours of boring scales and long tones, and meaningless repetative music. But you know what? I don't despise that life. Practicing scales is helping the world a heck of a lot more that watching t.v, which is probably what I would be doing if music was not a part of my life.

I may gripe about how busy I am every once in a while, but deep down I know that a full plate is always a blessing. We were not meant to live idle lives, and when I do happen to waste a large amount of time, I feel really bad afterwards, not only because I didn't get anything done personally, but also because I feel like I just sinned.

I think I would go crazy if I didn't always have something to do that I deem "useful."

It may seem like we should envy those who skip class on Friday to go to the club Thursday night. How much free time they have! But I do not envy them, not even a little bit.

For even when we were with you we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their own work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not do not weary in doing what is right.
2 Thessalonians 3:10-3:13

(ps I'm not judging the club people, they might work really hard during the week for all I know, I'm just making an example. So step off.)


Okay so that post didn't come out like it sounded in my head.

Freedom
Beauty
Truth
and Wuve.

The greatest thing
you'll ever learn
Is just to love
and be loved in return.
-Moulin Rouge

Oh flute choir, why must you take up two hours of one of my busiest days?

I am not satisfied with the way I have been working. Ich bin faul. Tomorrow is another day. I'll turn over a new leaf. A working leaf.

Ich bin Deutsch.

Which means I should be good at this language.
Haha.