car trouble

OK..........yeah.

My car broke down. On the road. While I was driving it. Yep.

It had been running fine...or so I had thought. Then it started making funny noises. Then it just died on me last night. Couldn't get a hold of a tow truck, got a cab home. Called the tow truck this morning. Dad came back up. (He came up for my concert and then left to drive home and got stuck by the storms all night so he wasn't far away. My car broke down driving home from dinner.) Took it to a highly recommended auto place. Took a look at it, could be serious, may not be. I hope I don't have to get a new car, that would really be unfortunate, don't you agree?

So, waiting on the verdict. Apparently the water level was at zero and "smelled hot"....which means that I didn't notice my water temp gauge moving into the hot zone. Stupid me. But I had been driving so little while I was here (just a mile or so here and there) that I never stopped to just look at it. Which is still stupid becuase it is something you're supposed to check every time you turn your car on. woops. So yeah, I feel awful, and hope I didn't just ruin my engine. Life lesson here folks :l
I still have 3 days before I have to leave, so hopefully what can be done will be done by then. Cross your fingers!

Other than all that, I'm great! Concert went great last night. My duet with the flute was as close to flawless as you can get in a performance. And I got to stand and be recognized, so that was cool. Dad came out and really enjoyed the concert too. Anyway, I'm going to go watch a movie, maybe play on my computer...just be lazy today since my hard part is over in the festival. I just got back from the Colonial cafe where I had a stack of peanut butter chip pancakes....yum. Bet you're jelous huh?
:o)

Hot Spring Happenings

Ok, so tonight is the concert where I play Bizet's l'arlsienne suite 2 and Shulman's cello concerto. It is a pretty big concert. The Shulman is pretty modern, but I love it, and kind of has some middle eastern vibes to it. The Bizet is awsome. Everyone knows the 4th movement too....unfortunately the only movement I don't play on. But I do have an exposed duet with the flute in the third movement. So. Excited!!

Ok, so other than that, nothin much. Except yesterday my car decided to not start while at a movie rental place. Called a tow truck and everything....and then it started an hour later. So cancelled the tow truck, which was good. It has been fine since, other than this occasional click-clack sound the engine is making. I'm worried that my car has lost it's will to live. It just got out of the shop for bad coils and spark plugs. But we are thinking that it might have been vapor locked, whatever that means. But it made me miss the African drum piece on the chamber concert and the Brauhms so booooo!!!

Gotta go eat dinner before the concert. Love to all!!

..............

I am exhausted.

Day 7...I think...

Today was busy. Got up early, took a shower. Went to the farmer's market at 8:00. Got some blackberries...mmm...went to rehearsal at 9am. We rehearsed Mahler's 10th symphony, first movement...which is the only movement of it he finished before kicking it. It is not my favorite piece and we did a lot of sitting there because we were playing an edited version by Richard our conductor so there was a lot of checking to make sure everyone had the right notes in thier parts. That and the fact that there is not a lot of harp part in it. But, we played beautifully when we could. So all in all, good.

Then Shana (my mentor) and I practiced, then went to lunch at a fusion cuisine place. Talk about fusing cultures together...yep they mastered it but it is all soooo good. We got a fried banana cheescake thing with ice cream that was so good...I'll post a pic of it tomorrow.

Then we went back and practiced some more for the Family/children's concert that we were playing on tonight, which went really well. There are these 2 cute girls that I keep seeing at all the concerts and one is really interested in the harp. So we played a little piece on the program, along with a bunch of others, talking about different instruments and when they came about. The African drums were probably my favorite, though the saxophone quartet was awsome too...as well as the clarinet piece...it was all good. Then I went to half of the Piano Mania concert, which I just got back from. Whew that was a lot! I also might go to the Brauhouse pub to listen to the brass jam session, as well as some polka. Shana plays the accordian in the polka music jam sessions and I really am in the mood to hang out and hear it. (Which is the only reason I'm even going to the bar.)

My leg is doing much better still. It's still bandaged and wrapped up but it is not hurting much and is not enflamed anymore. I could actually walk like a normal person today. YAY!!

Tomorrow is Shulmer and Bizet. Tell you all about it later.
;o)

Day...I lost count. But it was my day off.

So today I did absolutely nothing. There were recording sessions all day so no rehearsals and my fingers hurt still so I just gave them a break today.
I went to breakfast at the Pancake Shope....it was amazing. I might have to buy some of their apple butter. They are known for their pancakes but I will go for their wheat toast with apple butter and a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice...this is literally the best orange juice you will ever taste. Yep.

Then I took a walk down historic district, cause it was nice out...a little chilly, but compared to heat it was nice. I then went back to the room and fell asleep reading. Then woke up, and fell asleep again. I got up at 4pm and my roommate and I went out and had ice cream for dinner....yum...and rented some movies, which we are about to watch. So that was pretty much my day off.

Day 4 in Hot Springs

Soooooo......yeah. Not much to write about right now. My leg still hurts, but it's getting better. We have our first concert tonight...pretty excited. I play on the last piece, Ravel's Daphnes and Chloe. Awsome piece, very emotional. I love emotional pieces. And it's programmatic too, which are my favorites to play.

I am not practicing today, other than rehearsal this morning. My fingers are so sore, I need to rest them for tonight or I will be unable to make myself heard. I can't even do a glissando with my right index finger right now....I'm having to use my picks instead. It makes the glisses sound louder anyway. So wish me luck, hope I don't mess up -_;

Anyway, I just read some amazing news that makes my day so much happier!!! My best friend is going to have another baby!! I am so excited for her and can't wait to talk to her...it's been awhile and I feel really bad. But yay!!!!

Here is an impromptu pic I took with my camera while sitting at a stoplight in the middle of downtown historic district of the town of Hot Springs.

Hot Springs Music Festival: Day 2

Nothing exciting really happened today. I'm peeved that I can't run. And rehearsal was not so fun. My fingers have blisters on them from playing so many glissandos and he kept wanting me to play louder, as if I don't know that I have to. AHH!! I'm trying to save my fingers for the concert OK?! Besides that, Richard Rosenburg is one of the better conductors I have played under. He has a keen ear, knows the music really well, and is easy to follow. That's a lot more than a lot of conductors out there. Even more annoying is when conductors cue you for harmonics and they don't sound. That's embarrassing.

So, I don't think I posted about this. 4 days ago I cut the backside of my leg right along the inside of my knee. Pretty bad. Apparently it was hilarious, according to Mom and sister Kimberly. We have about 3 acres. My mom was mowing the field with the bushhog attached to the tractor (google it). There was a big branch that got wedged up where the bushhog connects to the tractor. I was trying to pull it out. I overbalanced and starting flailing becuase I was falling over backwards...and most of the branch was behind me, with part of it pressed up against my leg. All I could think of was "someone please help me becuase if I fall backwards this piece of tree branch is going to go right though my knee." And "oh snap." It was one of those moments. Mom and Kim were standing right there but just watched as I fell. Their excuse was that they were stuck in the mindset of "oh my gosh she's going to fall flat on her back!" and never got to the part where maybe they should help me. So they just stood and ogled.

Well, I managed to fall in such a way that the branch just scraped my leg instead of going through it. Go me.

Here is what it looks like today:

Apparently it looks really bad. I didn't think it was all that bad and ppl are asking if I had surgery or got in a bike accident or something. And it looks a lot worse in real life...this is just a pic off my camera. It wouldn't be that bad but it is taking a long time to heal becuase it is in an area where the skin is bending all the time. There is bruising too. So I walk with a limp becuase I'm trying not to bend it. It's really not as bad as all that though. Just makes me furious that I can't run yet.

Aren't you glad I'm sharing this with you??

Hot Springs AR: Day 1

I'm not sure if I can post pics right now. I would like to, but this dinky little computer I'm on is so outdated that half the other dinky computers in this tiny lab are not working. Don't get me wrong!! I'm totally grateful to have internet at all right now, even if the hours are limited and the security only lets me get on a handful of sights. I was actually surprised it let me onto blogspot.

Right now I'm in Hot Springs, AR. The little town of Hot Springs, right in the center of Hot Springs Natl Park. It's pretty amazing here. I came here (and last year) to participate in the Hot Springs Music Festival. Apparently my resume and recording were impressive enough to make it in as an apprentice last year. As an apprentice, I come and play my brains out in rehearsals and concerts for two weeks on full scholorship. In other words, they pay for me to come and play my brains out and all I have to do is bring my harp, clothes, and money for food. The harp mentor, Shana, told me that if I wanted to come back, she would take my application first. So here I am, out in the hot woods of the south. I surprised a lot of ppl with my new haircut too, including my roommate from last year who I thought was going to have a heart attack when she saw me...

So today was my first day. I got in yesterday evening. Funny story. The key for room they gave me and had me signed up for had a guy already in it. So I just walk in, thinking it's my roomie from last year (we requested each other but we didn't get each other in the end) and there is a guy sitting on the bed. I ask if this is his room and he says "yep." We discuss briefly what room it is and if we had a coed room on purpose, we agree "no," and I go back downstairs, slightly embarrassed and greatly relieved that I didn't walk in to find something less innocent than a guy sitting on the bed...yeah...
So then they looked, sure enough I was signed up for that room, and they issued me another key, and said it was a single. Well, it wasn't. But that's ok becuase my new roomie is really nice and, most importantly, a girl.

So I was going to get up at 7am with the intention of running...only to be woken up by one of the girls in the room adjacent that we share a shower with at 6:15 in the morning. I try to go back to sleep, but it's no good. I lay there for a while, and finally get up at 6:30 when our neighbor is done with the shower. And then I remembered it was Sunday. So I got up earlier than I intended, and didn't go running. Usually in these situations you would sleep in. That's life in an old, zero sound insulated dorm building for ya. At least I got to do my hair all nice :)

So I met with my mentor (I'm the only harp apprentice) at 9am and we went over the music we had to know for rehearsal this afternoon at 2pm. Mind you I had only gotten the music the night before, so I was sightreading. But, I am an excellent sight reader, so we got through the rehearsal pretty well considering. I only missed a few cues.

So here I am. Typing becuase I have nothing else to do and I can't practice anymore today. I haven't really practiced as much as I should lately so I already have blisters on my fingers from playing so many glisses...though if I were in practice shape today's 5 hours of playing would have been blister free. There is a cabaret concert tonight at the Arlington Hotel, so I'm going to go eat before I go. I will try to post some pics later.

P90X

Whew....I am just wiped!! My mom and I finally ordered P90X. For those who don't know what that is it is a hard core 90 day program desiged to get you in excellent shape. The best part, it's designed more for ppl who are already athletes!! (although anyone can do it I might add). You can customize the workouts to fit your athletic ability and your personal goals too. My goals right now is not to necessarily lose weight (you know I'm already small) but to get toned and reduce my overall % body fat. I may be small and I may have muscles but a lot of them are weak and flabby because I don't really use them anymore since I stopped swimming after highschool. So I'm really excited about it, becuase come 90 days (or even over the next month) I'm going to be in a lot better shape. I took "before pics" and I can't wait to take the "after pics."

So I started yesterday (Monday). I did a chest and back workout....which was basically a lot of pullups and pushups...in fact I did sets of about 6 different kinds of pushups. Youch. And if anyone says it's not what it seems, that you don't work that hard or sweat....um I beg to differ. I was sweating buckets!! Well not buckets but there was a lot of sweat. And my arms hurt. I also did 15 minutes of abs. My mom really liked a lot of those and wants to incorporate some of them into our dryland workouts for our groups this summer (we coach swimteam).

Today I did plyometrics, which is basically a lot of jumping around/coordination moves involving a lot of squats and jumping exercises...using those big muscles in your legs gets your heartrate up too...so now my legs are beat. Tomorrow is gonna hurt, but I'm excited.

I know I'm being silly, but I'm a very athletic person and I do care about how I look...mostly I want to be stronger and more confident in myself and I'm tired of not working out enough, a bad habit I got into at college. And I want to be in shape when I eventually have a family and kids so I have better habits and hopefully not gain a lot of weight. So wish me luck!!

Woot!!

Ok people, it's official!! I just accepted the offer of admission to Northern Illinois university!! Go Huskies!! Well ok, their football team sucks but most of you probably already knew that. But hey, I cheer for BSU now anyway (and BYU too). So yeah, it is locked in now, well it will be in 2 days anyway. Off to Chicago, the windy city (also known as the Horridly Frigid Freeze Your Socks Off city). Ok, so NIU is not really in Chicago it's in DeKalb, but it's only an hour away from actual chicago...and there is actually a singles ward not too far away too. so yay!! And the best part...I am 2 hours away from my BFF and her family, and only 5 hours away from my friends and Mrs. Richter in Muncie...so I'll be able to visit everyone!! ROAD TRIP!!

I just thought that was exciting. Yay.