anible's coming to my recital.
*dances*
2003-10-29
la vita est bella # ramblinated by gemma : 22:53 : :2003-10-28
*crash, round two*
real crash, this time. i pulled into the road from a parallel park and hit a purple minivan. tore the front bumper off my car and scratched up the van pretty nicely. (the police officer, kindly, did not ticket me.) thanks to the (relatively) high damage estimate and low book value on the car, the insurance company considers it a total.
*sob*
*sob*
so i'm car-less.
i don't think i can say how sad that makes me. not dissolve-into-tears-every-five-minutes sad, but heavy and slow, lethargic, unmotivated. my dad said to me (as car-owning parents must say to their car-less children), "you know, gemma, it's just a car." it's not, of course. i'm not a real person anymore--i've joined the masses of "could you give me a ride to the store?" and "could i borrow your car?"
i know that's melodramatic. but that's what it feels like.
to quote professor higgins: damn, damn, damn, damn.
# ramblinated by gemma : 06:06 : :
*sob*
*sob*
so i'm car-less.
i don't think i can say how sad that makes me. not dissolve-into-tears-every-five-minutes sad, but heavy and slow, lethargic, unmotivated. my dad said to me (as car-owning parents must say to their car-less children), "you know, gemma, it's just a car." it's not, of course. i'm not a real person anymore--i've joined the masses of "could you give me a ride to the store?" and "could i borrow your car?"
i know that's melodramatic. but that's what it feels like.
to quote professor higgins: damn, damn, damn, damn.
2003-10-21
rewind (or, following the crowd)
10 years ago
fall 1993. i was 10. fifth grade, second year of homeschooling. had started violin the previous winter. mom was a den mother, and large numbers of small boys invaded the house every tuesday. best friends were at church--tina, stacey, crystal, i don't remember who else.
7 years ago
fall 1996. i was 13. eighth grade, easiest ever. skated through my schoolwork and finished in february, started ninth grade the following month. got my braces off. first year in an orchestra--we played the magic flute and don giovanni overtures and a beethoven symphony, among other things. had a crush on hiro, two years older than me, fellow violinist in said orchestra. saw star wars for the first time, became a star wars freak.
5 years ago
fall 1998. i was 15. sophomore year in highschool. moved to the city after ten years in wide open spaces, switched churches at the same time. no close friends, no crushes. wrote lots of angry poetry about my parents, particularly my father. assistant principal second violin in the orchestra. was actively maintaining a comprehensive star wars website. had decided to become an astrophysicist and go to the moon. played lots of star wars computer games.
[edit 10/26: i had to have been in the first violins by tenth grade, because i was concertmaster the following year. so either i moved from the back of the seconds to the assistant principal seat between eighth and ninth grade, or i actually started in seventh grade...though i could have sworn i was only in it five years, which would put it at eighth grade...i can't remember. you get the idea.]
3 years ago
fall 2000. i was 17. senior year in highschool. favorite courses were ap physics, ap calculus, and constitutional law. second year as concertmaster in the orchestra. had just returned from a summer at tanglewood and decided to go to music school. applied to three. no close friends. one crush. played lots of outdoor, wide-range laser tag at night wearing full camo.
2 years ago
fall 2001. freshman year at college as a violin performance major. concertmaster in college orchestra for handel's messiah. new litestep user. had been dating anible since previous summer, all of which he spent in canada. saw him for three hours on september 2. lots of fun with a very large circle of very smart friends. spent following spring in london. broke a tree on a freshman ice-breaking activity.
1 year ago
fall 2002. sophomore year. played the same solo repertoire as freshman year, thanks to a semester off in london. still dating anible. took biblical interpretation. built a snow man on top of the music ed room with dan. built the mother of all snow forts with anible over christmas break.
yesterday
woke up outside, freezing cold in the woods. saw anible off. violin lesson. terrible string sectional on copland's appalachian spring--spent half an hour arguing about bowings. slept through chapel.
tomorrow
class at 8 and 10. three hours of piano practice before a lesson at 15:30/16. working helpdesk 14-15:30. latin and theory homework in the evening and during chapel. ryan's senior recital (tenor).
# ramblinated by gemma : 22:22 : :
procrastinationing
fall 1993. i was 10. fifth grade, second year of homeschooling. had started violin the previous winter. mom was a den mother, and large numbers of small boys invaded the house every tuesday. best friends were at church--tina, stacey, crystal, i don't remember who else.
7 years ago
fall 1996. i was 13. eighth grade, easiest ever. skated through my schoolwork and finished in february, started ninth grade the following month. got my braces off. first year in an orchestra--we played the magic flute and don giovanni overtures and a beethoven symphony, among other things. had a crush on hiro, two years older than me, fellow violinist in said orchestra. saw star wars for the first time, became a star wars freak.
5 years ago
fall 1998. i was 15. sophomore year in highschool. moved to the city after ten years in wide open spaces, switched churches at the same time. no close friends, no crushes. wrote lots of angry poetry about my parents, particularly my father. assistant principal second violin in the orchestra. was actively maintaining a comprehensive star wars website. had decided to become an astrophysicist and go to the moon. played lots of star wars computer games.
[edit 10/26: i had to have been in the first violins by tenth grade, because i was concertmaster the following year. so either i moved from the back of the seconds to the assistant principal seat between eighth and ninth grade, or i actually started in seventh grade...though i could have sworn i was only in it five years, which would put it at eighth grade...i can't remember. you get the idea.]
3 years ago
fall 2000. i was 17. senior year in highschool. favorite courses were ap physics, ap calculus, and constitutional law. second year as concertmaster in the orchestra. had just returned from a summer at tanglewood and decided to go to music school. applied to three. no close friends. one crush. played lots of outdoor, wide-range laser tag at night wearing full camo.
2 years ago
fall 2001. freshman year at college as a violin performance major. concertmaster in college orchestra for handel's messiah. new litestep user. had been dating anible since previous summer, all of which he spent in canada. saw him for three hours on september 2. lots of fun with a very large circle of very smart friends. spent following spring in london. broke a tree on a freshman ice-breaking activity.
1 year ago
fall 2002. sophomore year. played the same solo repertoire as freshman year, thanks to a semester off in london. still dating anible. took biblical interpretation. built a snow man on top of the music ed room with dan. built the mother of all snow forts with anible over christmas break.
yesterday
woke up outside, freezing cold in the woods. saw anible off. violin lesson. terrible string sectional on copland's appalachian spring--spent half an hour arguing about bowings. slept through chapel.
tomorrow
class at 8 and 10. three hours of piano practice before a lesson at 15:30/16. working helpdesk 14-15:30. latin and theory homework in the evening and during chapel. ryan's senior recital (tenor).
t minus 20 days and counting. i still have four (ok, three) (ok, two and a half) pages to memorize. i think maybe i need to not cut it quite so close next time, what? it's going well, anyway. my sound seems to be back, allowing for the ancient strings. ordered new ones yesterday, also contacted a guy about getting my bridge replaced--$135 total damage. (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA) because i have that kind of cash just lying around waiting to be spent, don't you? only did three hours this evening; stopped after my wrist started twingeing and wouldn't let up. three weeks before my recital is not the time for new injuries. blah.
found out today that josh the trumpet lives twenty minutes away from the place i got stuck in (only for a little bit) over break. he was enjoying himself in his nice, cozy house while i was freezing my but off at a full-serve gas station, trying to contact a friend of a friend of a friend. crack me up, man, freakin' small world this is.
aigh, must not procrastinate, must theorize. friday approaches.
(is it too early to start counting the days until christmas?)
# ramblinated by gemma : 21:08 : :
found out today that josh the trumpet lives twenty minutes away from the place i got stuck in (only for a little bit) over break. he was enjoying himself in his nice, cozy house while i was freezing my but off at a full-serve gas station, trying to contact a friend of a friend of a friend. crack me up, man, freakin' small world this is.
aigh, must not procrastinate, must theorize. friday approaches.
(is it too early to start counting the days until christmas?)
2003-10-12
aigh
last week was surreal. did you find that? any interaction with anything was just...tilted.
slept out last night, after the concert. and after post-concert decompression at janette's place. i walked up to the lean-to's all by my own lonesome at around midnight, by moonlight through the dark forest. (i was so proud of myself. *grin grin*) sat with carrie and jon and tricia around a marvelous fire piled with sycamore branches. roasted marshmallows. got mooned. hehe, that was actually pretty funny--there was a group of what i'm guessing were little freshman boys running around in the dark, throwing things and trying to scare us. (keep in mind, carrie and jon are married and jon is a good bit past graduation...) we ignored them until they ran up and mooned us (except one, who was having difficulty getting his pants down), when we started taunting them. nice light entertainment for a saturday evening.
# ramblinated by gemma : 23:27 : :
slept out last night, after the concert. and after post-concert decompression at janette's place. i walked up to the lean-to's all by my own lonesome at around midnight, by moonlight through the dark forest. (i was so proud of myself. *grin grin*) sat with carrie and jon and tricia around a marvelous fire piled with sycamore branches. roasted marshmallows. got mooned. hehe, that was actually pretty funny--there was a group of what i'm guessing were little freshman boys running around in the dark, throwing things and trying to scare us. (keep in mind, carrie and jon are married and jon is a good bit past graduation...) we ignored them until they ran up and mooned us (except one, who was having difficulty getting his pants down), when we started taunting them. nice light entertainment for a saturday evening.
2003-10-03
first frost
last night.
my instrument sounds horrendous. (doesn't help that i also sound horrendous.) i've got to put new strings on it, i'm going insane.
# ramblinated by gemma : 17:47 : :
my instrument sounds horrendous. (doesn't help that i also sound horrendous.) i've got to put new strings on it, i'm going insane.
2003-10-02
first snow!
what a great day for weather--it was like being back in belfast. sunny for the most part, and rainy/snowy for the most part. *grin grin* i love it, i just love it.
# ramblinated by gemma : 16:21 : :
2003-10-01
envelope stuffer extraordinaire
i played in studio on monday. second movement of the mendelssohn. went tolerably well--i wasn't satisfied, as usual. my intonation wasn't what it was in the practice room, and i was having ensemble issues with my (fabulous) accompanist. didn't help that i heard devin warming up before i started. all that to say, i was not in the greatest of moods following studio.
previously, dan had somehow managed to con me into helping the music ed club stuff envelopes (with flyers for the upcoming wind ensemble concert). 3000 total. so i went and did that at 7:30, stayed until around 11.
i haven't had that much fun in a while, man.
it was with a bunch of people i don't usually hang with--carl (the former undergrad and current grad student), jolene, blaine. random people. we had the best time. when we were about half-way through the stack, the conductor stopped us so we'd have time to sort everything by zip code. (!!!) apparently, they don't have to pay as much postage if the envelopes arrive already sorted. so we did that for a few hours--got some reinforcements, too, stragglers from the music ed club that met in the same room. at one point, i think we must have had about 15 college students running around a 30-ft-square space throwing envelopes into boxes and shouting random numbers. "one!" "nine!" "three!" "six!" "eight!" "that was my foot!" "five!" you get the idea. so much fun.
# ramblinated by gemma : 14:11 : :
previously, dan had somehow managed to con me into helping the music ed club stuff envelopes (with flyers for the upcoming wind ensemble concert). 3000 total. so i went and did that at 7:30, stayed until around 11.
i haven't had that much fun in a while, man.
it was with a bunch of people i don't usually hang with--carl (the former undergrad and current grad student), jolene, blaine. random people. we had the best time. when we were about half-way through the stack, the conductor stopped us so we'd have time to sort everything by zip code. (!!!) apparently, they don't have to pay as much postage if the envelopes arrive already sorted. so we did that for a few hours--got some reinforcements, too, stragglers from the music ed club that met in the same room. at one point, i think we must have had about 15 college students running around a 30-ft-square space throwing envelopes into boxes and shouting random numbers. "one!" "nine!" "three!" "six!" "eight!" "that was my foot!" "five!" you get the idea. so much fun.